💼 Helping Denver's newcomers find work

💼 Denver Rolls Out Newcomer Employment Program

Denver City Council has approved a contract with local labor organization Centro de los Trabajadores to oversee the city’s new workforce development program for asylum-seekers. The program, called WorkReady Denver, is part of Mayor Mike Johnston’s new approach to welcoming newcomers and will help people arriving in Denver from outside of the country attain work authorization and find their place in the local workforce. [Axios Denver]

• Solving the newcomer crisis: Mayor Mike Johnston is so confident in his improved approach to aiding new arrivals, that he built a playbook for other cities to reference. We asked him about it. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

👋 Denver Makes the Switch to In-Person Jail Visits

This week, the Denver County Jail will begin allowing in-person visits with inmates for the first time in nearly 20 years. Back in 2005, Denver made the switch to video visitations only — like most jails in the country at the time — to stop people from bringing in contraband. Denver is now the only county in Colorado that has made the switch back to in-person visits. (Most prisons, on the other hand, never stopped in-person visits.) [Westword]

📈 Is Violent Crime on the Rise?

A new report claims Colorado is the “third most dangerous state in the country,” but a deeper look at the data tells a more complicated story. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

Crime Stat Hysteria and Illegal Hot Dogs in LoDo

The Auraria Campus anti-war protest encampment was taken down over the weekend, but it’s still unclear why organizers dismantled it. Plus, Colorado crime stats paint an interesting picture of safety in the state, too many hot dog vendors are hawking their wares without a permit, and more big stories of the week.