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Denver Art Museum workers vote to form a union, a first for an art museum in Colorado

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Denver Art Museum workers vote to form a union, a first for an art museum in Colorado


Workers at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) voted to form a union on Thursday (7 March), making the institution the first unionised art museum in the state of Colorado as more cultural workers across the country organise in a trend that has accelerated since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some 67% of workers at the DAM voted to unionise under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-Cultural Workers United Council 18 (AFSCME Council 18), which is made up of workers in New Mexio and Colorado. The employees, who named themselves Denver Art Museum Workers United (DAMWU), said in a statement that they won the election by a 120 to 59 vote, despite an “intense anti-union campaign” on the part of the museum’s upper management. AFSCME filed more than 12 unfair labour practice charges against the museum on behalf of unit members as a result, the union said.

“Our wall-to-wall union recognises the importance of all of us in making the museum a place where art connects, inspires and empowers,” Kit Bernal, a curatorial assistant at the museum and union member, said in a statement. “I am so honoured to get to work with all of my incredible colleagues across the bargaining unit and the museum to build a better present and future for the DAM.”

Next, the union will bargain with museum management for its first contract, a process that has taken more than a year at several other institutions where workers recently unionised. The DAMWU said in an announcement that the unit plans to address issues like staffing, career advancement, disciplinary processes and fair wages.

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“The museum supports employees’ right to unionise and is grateful for all those who voted and exercised their rights in this process,” a museum spokesperson said in a statement. “The museum is committed to bargaining in good faith with the union toward a collective bargaining agreement.”

The employees at the DAM first announced their intentions to unionise in January. In a statement, Trudy Lovato, a gallery host at the museum and co-chair of the union organising committee, said many of her colleagues suffered from food insecurity and general economic anxiety.

“These folks have multiple jobs, roommates, have to worry about getting to work, parking (there’s no employee parking), not to mention the body-stress that comes with many positions, in many departments at our workplace,” Lovato said.

Museum workers across the US have increasingly elected to unionise since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when falling visitor numbers resulted in layoffs and cutbacks. Workers at institutions including the Dia Art Foundation, the Hispanic Society Museum and Library and the Jewish Museum in New York, the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus, and many others have undertaken (and in many cases completed) the process of forming a union.



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Denver, CO

Denver Barkey scores first career goal as Flyers take down Oilers

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Denver Barkey scores first career goal as Flyers take down Oilers


January 3 – Denver Barkey’s first NHL tally highlighted a three-goal first period for the Philadelphia Flyers, who beat the host Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Saturday.

Travis Sanheim and Bobby Brink also scored in the first, while Nick Seeler and Owen Tippett each posted a goal with an assist and Sean Couturier added two helpers for the Flyers, who finished a 3-2-0 road trip. Dan Vladar made 22 saves for Philadelphia, which allowed 13 Edmonton shots on goal in the first period, but just 11 the rest of the way.

Connor McDavid extended his point streak to 15 games with his 25th goal of the season and Evan Bouchard also scored for the Oilers, who have dropped two straight and three of four.

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Philadelphia made its mark early in the first period. Tippett passed the puck into the slot for a streaking Barkey, who beat Oilers’ Calvin Pickard (24 saves) for his milestone goal just 7:16 into the contest.

Barkey’s marker essentially set the tempo, as the visitors made it 2-0 with 9:29 left in the first when Sanheim beat Pickard from the right circle.

Philadelphia then extended its lead a little over four minutes later when an Edmonton turnover led to the puck deflecting into the net off the heel of Brink’s skate off a shot from Cam York.

Vladar, meanwhile, was solid by stopping 12 shots in the first period. However, he couldn’t prevent McDavid from scoring on a breakaway, which came off a Sanheim turnover in the neutral zone, with 3:52 remaining before the first intermission.

The Oilers made it 3-2 on the power play with 10:06 remaining in the second period. With an assist from McDavid, Bouchard unloaded a successful slap shot from the left point to give Edmonton at least one goal on the man advantage in nine of the last 10 games.

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Philadelphia found some breathing room with 10:51 remaining in regulation off Seeler’s wrister for his first goal of the season. Tippett added an empty-netter as the Flyers scored at least five goals for the third time in their last six.

McDavid, meanwhile, has 14 goals with 22 assists in the last 15 games.

–Field Level Media

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A franchise quarterback is vital to winning division titles

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A franchise quarterback is vital to winning division titles


You might respond to this headline with ‘and water is wet’ and I wouldn’t blame you, but I was looking over the Denver Broncos history and how often they have won a division title. In their 65 years, the Broncos have brought home 16 AFC West division titles. That’s not very many, but given their first winning season was almost 20 years into it then it doesn’t look so bad.

The other thing I noticed is that only those teams who had a franchise quarterback type player under center did they repeat often as division winners. 11 of those 16 titles were won while John Elway or Peyton Manning were quarterbacking the franchise. Craig Morton won two backed by the vaunted Orange Crush defense of the 70s, but the rest were one-off division winners like Jake Plummer and Tim Tebow. Now that latter list includes Bo Nix.

The craziest stat that I found researching this topic was that all but one Broncos team that did not win the division were one-and-done in the playoffs. The lone team that wasn’t was that 1997 Super Bowl winning squad. Every single other team that finished second or third in the division and made the playoffs did not win a game once they got there. That doesn’t have much to do with the franchise quarterback topic here, but I found this little tidbit too interesting to not share.

As for the division winners, there were plenty of one-and-done seasons there too, but all of their playoff wins sans-1997 are also there.

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The question I meant to get to sooner before going off on that side quest regarding the playoff outcomes was whether or not Bo Nix joins Elway and Manning or ends up with the Plummer and Morton’s of history of pretty good but not all-time great. A few playoff wins over the next month would certainly move the needle some before adding more division titles down the road.



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Denver police report increase in street racing arrests and citations in 2025

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Denver police report increase in street racing arrests and citations in 2025


DENVER — Street racing continues to pose threats to Colorado drivers, so Denver7 looked into the trends we saw throughout 2025.

Denver Police report 80 citations and arrests as of December 17 for 2025. That’s 20 more than last year, according to Doug Schepman, director of communications for the Denver Police Department (DPD).

There is one strip of road in Denver we asked Schepman about specifically, after hearing from business owners that it’s particularly troublesome.

We’re talking about the 2000 block of S. Santa Fe Drive in Denver.

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Michael Gray, owner of Discount Fishing Tackle, said it’s a weekly occurrence to watch or hear cars and motorcycles zip past.

“Recently, we’ve seen the kids on the motorcycles coming by with the front wheel in the air, going just as dangerous as can be, and especially dangerous because so many other people are going so fast on this road,” Gray said.

He said he’s noticed that as more turnoffs are removed and the spacing between traffic lights gets longer, more drivers tend to use it as their personal raceway.

“It doesn’t affect us really too much, but you don’t like to have something as dangerous as that going on all the time,” he said.

Schepman said patrol districts are aware that street racing occurs along this stretch of South Santa Fe Drive, and that officers are directed to patrol the area during periods when reports are more prevalent.

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He adds that the community plays a critical part in helping investigators curb this problem.

The Colorado State Patrol said it has received more than 1,700 reports from the community this year.

You can continue to report street racing here.

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Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Allie Jennerjahn

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Denver7’s Allie Jennerjahn covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on crime, corruption and ways to protect your family. If you’d like to get in touch with Allie, fill out the form below to send her an email.





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