Chris Watts has admitted to killing his wife, Shanann Watts. Shanann Watts was pregnant with a baby. A baby boy that they had planned to call Niko. When she was murdered, so was Baby Niko. Colorado currently does not have a law that would charge Chris Watts in the murder of Unborn Baby Boy Niko. Please join our fight to have this changed and this monster charged with a 4th count of capital murder. Chris Watts has been formally charged with murder against Shannan Watts & their two born daughters, Bella & Celeste. Please sign and share this petition! #JusticeForShanann #JusticeForCelesteBellaNiko #NikosLaw I am aware that even with the growing support it may not be possible that this will affect the charges against Chris Watts but it is my hope that if it doesn’t, it does soon go in to affect & that not just Colorado but every state adopt this law for any (God forbid) case like this in the future. I think it should be called Niko’s Law. 

The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado are some of the most unexpected and glorious natural features in the West. Protected within a 150,000 acre national park, the sand dunes roll and swerve in fantastic changing patterns and are visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. Now this incredible park is under attack. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to auction off the mineral rights of thousands of acres of land just outside the park to the oil and gas industry. Please sign our petition to protect this natural wonder from destruction. Oil and gas developments can contaminate our water and air, destroy native plants, and harm or displace wildlife -- all of which are crucial to this fragile ecosystem. In addition, the park’s tourist industry is dependent on a healthy and protected ecosystem. The BLM has argued that the mountain ranges around the park will protect it from pollutants and have dismissed concerns about water contamination by saying the rain water flows to basins outside the park. But this is not a good enough answer. You can’t hide environmental dangers behind a mountain range. No matter how small or insignificant such developments seem, they still exact a price on the environment. Let's stop putting profit before the planet. Sign this petition to demand the Huerfano County Parcels 8080-8090 NOT be approved for auction!

Forty percent of all the food produced annually in the United States will be wasted. Of that, a quarter is discarded by grocery stores when the food is not immediately sold. In 2008, that quarter amounted to forty-three billion pounds. When an apple’s skin has lost its luster and is no longer as shiny, instead of being thrown out, it could be shipped out to food banks. Ours is a world where people starve, where many metric tons of perfectly good food in developed countries like the United States go straight to the trash. Yet, even with all this abundance, 1 in 8 Americans are facing food insecurity. That number even translates to Colorado where 1 in 8 Coloradans do not know when their next meal will be. We must mandate that food retailers partner with food banks and homeless shelters in order to reduce the amount of edible food being wasted. Instead of disposing of food approaching its sell-by dates or produce that has sat for a couple of days, it must be supplied to food banks or other charitable donation centers. To do this, a law must be introduced in the Colorado legislature. There are already several relevant precedents which we can look upon for guidance. The 1976 Tax Reform Act, among other things, “entitled” corporations to tax deductions, provided that they make a “contribution [...] of appreciated property” to a charity or other foundation. This means that retailers have little to lose financially in donating undesired food, as the government would, perhaps upon filing a claim, grant those tax deductions to the retailers that use this measure to their benefit. That Act has been out in the public sphere, without much mention or recognition, for forty years. Meanwhile, France has already passed a law mandating that supermarkets donate unsold food (food still retaining good quality but which is approaching its best-before date). With this law in place, more meals will be dished out each year to the needy and the poor. If we want to help stop food waste, we need to start the trend ourselves. Colorado is in a position to lead this change.  Let us all petition our lawmakers to create a food reclamation act and put the issue on the map for other states looking to do the same thing.  

The nation has heard about Capone, the "wolf" dog. The same shelter that had unnecessarily kept Capone captive is holding another dog prisoner. On January 4th, 2017 Bandit was confronted by a screaming FedEx man, wearing a black hat and hoodie, when he went out the front door. Bandit ended up biting the FedEx man. Even though this resulted in only a minor bite and a few stitches, the FedEx man insisted that Bandit be destroyed. Bandit was taken from his family, in which his owner, who speaks little english, did not have a translator or an attorney at the time.  Ms Piccone of The Piccone Law Firm now represents the family. Ms Piccone attempted to get a canine aggression specialist to do a behavioral evaluation.  Aurora Animal Care would not allow Bandit to be taken out of his cage. This interference resulted in an incomplete evaluation. Even so, the city still insists that Bandit is an aggressive animal. Aurora Animal Care has lost creditability due to many recent public cases, and therefore cannot be trusted as the sole evaluator.  A rescue in Colorado Springs has offered to take Bandit, and offer any behavior modification that may be warranted. However, Aurora refuses to surrender him to the no kill rescue. Bandit has been at the Aurora Animal Shelter in Aurora, CO for over 2 months now awaiting his execution. It's time to get him out!   He has a rescue that is willing to take him.  Please Help!

As citizens of Colorado who love this state for its natural beauty, climate, wildlife, and much more, we urge you, Governor Hickenlooper, to investigate Colorado Parks and Wildlife for their recent reprehensible actions against wildlife. We encourage you to demand that they approach wildlife with a more humane outlook and come up with better alternatives than just killing them. Here are a few examples, just from the Front Range, of why we're upset: CPW killed a mother bear and her 2 babies in Apex Park in Golden in September 2017. The mother bear was trying to protect her cubs from the dogs that were brought by the hikers into the wilderness. The hikers reported that the bear was 'aggressive', but no one was injured and the hikers and dogs walked away without incident, which suggests that the bear was not truly being aggressive. Even if the mother was being aggressive, there was absolutely no reason to kill those 2 cubs. CPW states they are investigating the incident, but Jennifer Churchill has stated that nothing has come of it.  As historically seems to happen in this organization, where they protect each other, we are doubtful that there will be any positive outcome or true change from the "investigation" and the officer will still keep his job despite his horrendous actions. CPW then killed a bear in September less than 2 weeks later in North Boulder because it was 'attacking a goat'.  Rather than offer viable options, such as telling the owners of the goats to secure their animals in a proper shelter with electric fencing such that the bear couldn't get to the goats, they killed the bear. Jennifer Churchill stated that the bear would just want to go after more livestock after this, which has not been shown to be true. Bears are opportunists, so they will go after livestock if readily available, but if access to that livestock is blocked, they will move on. They will not then only go seek out livestock.  The current directive by CPW that requires the killing of wildlife after a single depredatory event on livestock is clearly an economic one. It puts a dollar sign on the heads of animals. CPW killed another bear in Colorado Springs in August while attempting to sedate it as it climbed higher and higher in a tree. CPW made no attempt to protect the bear from falling and the bear, therefore, fell to its death. This was a decision that shows clear incompetence by that CPW officer. CPW consistently discourages or refuses to relocate prairie dog colonies.  They did everything they could to encourage extermination of the recent colonies on the landfill in Longmont and the Great Western Flex colony. They have made the permitting process for relocating prairie dogs in the state close to impossible and very hard for advocates to get approved. The application to kill prairie dogs by donating them to the ferrets takes a mere few minutes to fill out, while a relocation permit takes up to 3 days. After submitting a permit for relocation, CPW can take up to a month to approve or deny them, and so much red tape has been created for these permits, that most are denied and the prairie dogs are killed. With the recent colonies, they gave the incorrect information to the people who needed to apply for permits for relocation simply because they did not want to deal with the work of the permitting process necessary to relocate. CPW also kills thousands of prairie dogs each year on our state parks, where visitors actually enjoy seeing this wildlife.  CPW is hoping to kill a large number of mountain lions and bears to increase mule deer populations, whose numbers are still in the hundreds of thousands, as part of a 'study'. Many studies have already shown that killing predators is not successful at increasing number of prey. There has been a large public outcry against this, but again, there has been no response from CPW. There is suspicion that CPW wants to increase mule deer populations simply so they can sell more hunting licenses.  CPW killed many animals that were being properly cared for at Squirrel Creek Animal Rescue in Lakewood in 2016. These rehabilitators were doing amazing work and saving a lot of lives, but CPW got upset that some paperwork wasn't filled out to their liking, so they went in, shut the place down, and killed most of the animals that were being successfully rehabilitated. There have been reports of CPW doing this to other rehabbers as well, rehabbers who have good hearts and are actually saving wildlife. CPW rarely responds to any phone calls, email messages, or social media messages for any public concern. Frankly, they seem to be on a trigger-happy, 'nobody can touch us' type of tirade with their haphazard decisions that result in so many unnecessary deaths. As you will see in reading the comments below, citizens have seen the downhill change in this organization over the years.  Jennifer Churchill gives the same reasoning for every bear that is killed--that they're getting too accustomed to humans and that they're potentially dangerous. Humans have decimated most of our bears' habitat, so yes, bears do have to live around and become accustomed to seeing people, like it or not.  We, however, have to learn to peacefully coexist with bears, and accept that, yes, we will see them in towns and they can look scary, they might dump over some garbage cans, they might go after a pet if they're incredibly hungry, but it is up to the humans to protect their valuables as much as they can, to respect the bears' property as much as we expect them to respect ours, and if humans make a mistake, to not punish the bears. The current officers and commissioners at CPW don't seem to have any true care or concern for our state's wildlife. They were founded by a group of hunters/ranchers who have a conflict of interest because they only value livestock and hunting.  They, therefore, want to take the easy road out whenever an incident arises--that is to kill the animal. We would like to see new faces on the board of CPW, faces that represent the current mindset of Colorado--those who love nature and its wildlife.  We want to see CPW managed by people who can show humanity and understanding toward these creatures who are just trying to eat and survive, people who can think outside of the box to come up with alternatives to killing. We would like to see a change in the directive that requires wildlife be automatically killed after a single depredatory event. We would like to see more mandates that small farms have electric fencing around their property, or other such protective measures, such that depredatory events are less likely. We would like to see less destruction of their habitat. We want to know that our state is at the forefront of handling wildlife with compassion.  We want to become proud of CPW such that they no longer have the reputation of "Colorado Parks and Death".  We value our wildlife and we want to see them thrive.  Thank you, Governor, for taking these lost lives seriously. 

Colorado State Senators and House Representatives:  Protect the Public from Permanent Injury due to “Dry Needling” by Inadequately Trained Physical Therapists in Colorado Do you know what “dry-needling” is?   It is acupuncture.   The American Medical Association (AMA) confirms it.  But, physical therapists in Colorado are using the term “dry needling” to practice acupuncture without having to meet state-required education and training standards for it.  Do you know that Colorado has the highest percentage of serious dry-needling injuries caused by physical therapists in the United States?  At least 34 serious “dry needling” injuries caused by non-acupuncturists have occurred in the United States in recent years.  The number jumped exponentially from 1 injury between the years of 2005-2009 to at least 21 injuries during 2010-2014.  At least 6 documented injuries, up to 20% have occurred in Colorado. What kinds of injuries?  Collapsed lungs (requiring surgery and hospitalization), permanent bowel dysfunction (such as incessant diarrhea), permanent partial paralysis, permanent loss of limb function, permanent nerve damage, and more. A physical therapist, with no training whatsoever in the insertion of acupuncture needles, can walk into weekend course on Friday and start inserting acupuncture needles up to half-a-foot long (6 inches) into patients on Monday morning.  There are NO national education standards, training standards, certification exams, accredited programs or schools for dry needling.  None.  That is why we are seeing these injuries.  Here are few examples of recent serious dry needling injuries: ●     In Colorado in November 2013, 17-year-old professional freeskier Torin Yater-Wallace suffered a penetrating right lung injury caused by a physical therapist performing dry needling. The injury resulted in a traumatic pneumothorax (a collapsed lung). He was treated for the traumatic pneumothorax at the emergency department of the St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco, Colorado, and was admitted to that hospital on the same day. The traumatic pneumothorax required medical and surgical intervention. He was hospitalized for five days. Colorado resident 17-yr-old Torin Yater-Wallace hospitalized after dry needling by an inadequately trained physical therapist ●     In Boulder, Colorado on April 30, 2015, a woman’s left lung was punctured by a physical therapist.  After experiencing pain and vomiting, she went to the emergency room at Good Samaritan hospital.  Multiple tests were conducted and imaging scans showed a collapsed left lung.  She required surgery and three days of hospitalization, plus four days of bed rest.  She lost five days of work and had to cancel a trip to Hawaii among other birthday plans.  Her physical therapist denied any responsibility for the event. ●     In Colorado in June 2015, 41-year-old clinical social worker Lisa Kerscher suffered a penetrating lung injury caused by a physical therapist performing dry needling. The lung injury resulted in a collapsed lung. She was treated at the emergency department of the Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. ●     In February 2016 in Ohio, 47-year-old Anong Pipatjarasgit suffered a penetrating thoracic spinal cord injury caused by a physical therapist performing dry needling. The injury resulted in a traumatic spinal epidural hematoma (an accumulation of blood in the spinal epidural space). She was treated for the spinal hematoma at the emergency department of the ProMedica Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, and was admitted to that hospital on the same day, requiring medical and surgical intervention.  After recovering from emergency surgical decompression and evacuation of the hematoma, she underwent extensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. She now has permanent severe neurologic problems, including paraparesis (partial paralysis of the lower limbs), sensory deficits, bowel dysfunction, and persistent severe back pain. ●     In Colorado, Duane Fenton, PA-C at Western Orthopaedics in Denver had to surgically remove an acupuncture needle from a patient’s shoulder after a physical therapist broke the needle off in the patient’s bone. ●     In January 2018, a case study documented permanent radial nerve injury to a 27-year-old female receptionist by a physiotherapist practicing dry needling in Ireland.  Despite intensive rehabilitation, she remains permanently unable to flex or lift her left wrist.  Are we really going to do nothing and wait for this to happen to one of our own Colorado citizens, a working mother who will no longer be able to lift her toddler? 27-yr-old woman with permanent nerve damage due to dry needling by an inadequately trained physiotherapist (physical therapist) With proper education and training, these injuries are preventable.  Because of the inherent risks of acupuncture needles, acupuncturists in Colorado are required to have over 1,905 hours of training, including a minimum of 705 hours of acupuncture-specific education (during which acupuncturists learn needle insertion angle, needle length, indications, and warnings for each of thousands of points), and a minimum of 660 hours of clinical needling observation and supervised needling internship.  (These numbers are in addition to the medical courses acupuncturists share with other doctorate-level medical colleagues, such as anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry.)  The mere 23 hours of training the Physical Therapy Board requires before physical therapists start inserting acupuncture needles into the public is a significant risk to public safety. Again, the above-listed hours are the minimum standards and should be upheld as such.  Most acupuncturists actually have nearly double the aforementioned amount of education.  Many graduate with 3500-4500 hours of doctoral-level training and hold doctorate degrees.  All of that education and training is relevant to the safe and effective practice of acupuncture. Education and training standards exist for public safety. Do electrician license requirements unfairly limit plumbers from doing electrical wiring in an innocent person’s home?  Of course not. Plumbers who want to do electrical wiring simply need to get their electrical license.  Professional medical standards protect the public.  This issue is about holding medical professionals to their pledge to:  “Do no harm.”  This issue is about putting innocent people before quick profits.  This issue is about making sure health professionals are adequately trained in how to use specialized tools and perform acupuncture before they permanently damage unsuspecting Colorado citizens. Dry needling IS acupuncture.  It is an acupuncture needle inserted into an acupuncture point.  We want the Colorado legislature to remove amendment L.001, the “Dry Needling Amendment” from HB18-1155, the Physical Therapy Practice Act renewal bill.  This would remove all “dry needling” language from the Bill.  It would not change the current practice of Physical Therapy in Colorado.  There is one final very important consideration:  Amendment L.001 and the other amendments that add "dry needling" language attempt to circumvent the civil right to appeal. There is currently a judicial appeal regarding the insufficient training required for physical therapists practicing acupuncture (i.e., dry needling) in Colorado. This last minute attempt to add "dry needling" to scope of practice is an attempt to circumvent the judicial process. Removing Amendment L.001 and all other amendments with "dry needling" language from HB18-1155 honors the right to civil appeal before the courts and will let the courts decide this issue. With this petition, we ask our Colorado State House Representatives and Senators to please remove Amendment L.001 and all other amendments with "dry needling" language from HB18-1155 in the interest of public safety, and out of respect for the civil right to appeal before the courts.

  There are many cases of animal testing, abuse, and cruel acts, so we are making this petition to raise awareness about animal testing in Colorado. We are students at Castle Rock Middle School, and we are against animal testing in many ways. One reason why animal testing should be illegal is that there are other accurate ways to test. “Cell cultures, human tissue, and computer models can be used to test on instead of animals,” according to peta.org Another thing is animals can have very different reactions to products than humans! Many products have been tested on animals, but most of the time, they don’t give the same reaction to humans than they do animals. Testing on animals without their consent is considered abuse. If abusing humans is illegal, then why isn’t animal abuse illegal? One last reason is that many labs give their animals small cages and bad habitats. Sometimes animals will die or get extremely injured from their bad habitats! We are going to bring this petition to John Hickenlooper, the governor of Colorado. Any signature will help!  

        .......URGENT ACTION NEEDED....... Urgently needing 1000 signatures to help stop the deportation and save the life of an Iraqi Jewish Christian from being deported anyday from the United States back to Iraq.    Recently an agreement was made by Donald Trumps administration with Iraq for all illegal Iraqis living in America with criminal records to be deported back to Iraq. When I.C.E. detained over 100 of them they detained a man named Khalid Wahab who has lived in the United States for 36 years. Kal is a Jew by blood and Christian by faith and has faithfully reported to I.C.E., but since having felonies from when he was previously on drugs over 15 years ago, he could not get citizenship. Kal has not been in any trouble since the days he was on drugs. Kal is married, and has a daughter who was born and raised here in the US along with a grandchild. He faithfully serves the homeless community in Denver, along with his wife, while both caring for two elderly women who are disabled. He is an asset and blessing to our community.  If he is sent back to Iraq, his name has already been circulated on a list by radicals to be executed for betraying the Muslim religion which his family was forced into many years ago or they would have executed them as Jews. Their last name before having to change it was Ben Yosef. They have already taken him to Arizona and he is set to be deported any day. He has no family in Iraq, only death awaiting him.   We are not a country to send someone who is a blessing to our community back to be executed by radicals. It's not who we are as a nation.  I am asking for full support in signing this petition to get the attention of our President, Vice President and government officials. Kal is on the list to be executed upon arrival in Iraq, he has medical issues and he has nowhere safe to stay upon returning to Iraq. This is urgent and we need to get the support from our government to save Kal’s life.  

Stop HB 16-1320 I do not agree with HB 16-1320 and ask for it to be stopped.  Specifically, this strips the protections created in the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act (6-1-724), grants excessive authority to the director of the division of professions and occupations under the Department of Regulatory Activities, and incorrectly categorizes one occupation under another. HB 16-1320 attempts to strip the consumer protections and guarantees created in the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act and provided in (6-1-724). These rights include the right of the public to access unlicensed alternative health care and the right of practitioners of unlicensed alternative health care to practice.   Removal of 12-35.5-110 (e) eliminates the protections provided in section (6-1-724). This would subject all unlicensed practitioners to regulation under Massage. The effect of this is to outlaw all alternative health care modalities unless they are individually state approved, effectively creating a license requirement for previously protected and unregulated professions.  Please kill this bill! Here is a small sample of the hundreds of modalities that would be affected, Subtle Energy modalities such as: Acupressure, Barbara Brennan Healing Science, Bio-photon Therapy, Bodytalk, Craniosacral Therapy, Eden Energy Medicine, EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Energetic Healing (EH), Jin Shin Jyutsu, Healing Touch, Kinesiology, Matrix Energetics, Pranic Healing, Reconnective Healing, Reiki, Shamanic Healing, Therapeutic Touch, Touch For Health; Verbal Modalities such as: Guided Imagery, Health Coaching, Life Coaching, Quantum Healing, NLP, Spiritual Counseling, Reflexology; Movement modalities such as: Feldenkrais Method, Qigong, T’ai Chi; Modalities involving Subtle Energy of the Senses: Aromatherapy, Sound Healing, Therapeutic Musicians; Assessment modalities: Biofeedback, Iridology. Further problems with HB 16-1320 The purpose of the bill is stated as reducing loopholes used in human trafficking and sex trade, but  in fact it only duplicates violations already listed in the Colorado Revised Statutes Title 18 - Criminal Code, including: Section 18-3-503 - Human trafficking for involuntary servitude - human trafficking of a minor for involuntary servitude; Section 18-3-504 - Human trafficking for sexual servitude - human trafficking of a minor for sexual servitude; Section 18-7-204 Keeping a place of prostitution; and Section 18-7-302 Indecent exposure. These modalities and others like them are currently protected by the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act. Use of the term "Massage" is already legally restricted and protected under Title 12 Professions and Occupations, Health Care Article 35.5 Massage Therapists C.R.S. 12-35.5-118 All of the protections this bill allegedly offers already exist in the current law, with the exceptions of the ability to deny a license to a massage therapists that has engaged in human trafficking, and the minimum age requirement to receive a massage license. As long as the provisions that safeguard the excluded practices are removed, this bill is unacceptable, and goes beyond what it was proposed for.   This bill was initially presented as preserving the exceptions for unlicensed alternative health care under the guise of strengthening enforcement against human trafficking, and was then revised to specifically remove exactly the exemptions it was promoted as preserving. In reality it is a veiled attempt to assert regulatory control over unlicensed alternative health care modalities that compete with massage and that are specifically protected by the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act (6-1-724). Please Kill this Bill and preserve the rights of citizens to choose the methods of healthcare appropriate to them that were granted in the Colorado Natural Health Consumer Protection Act.      

Seven years ago my father, a renowned climatologist, got on stage and had an open discussion with 52 ordinary people in Australia who did not believe that climate change was happening. He was not intimidated as he had been working for most of his life to convince people that human-caused climate change was real. A few weeks later my father passed away. In the years since his death, I had hoped that the debate around climate change would have evolved, but it seems to have have gotten worse: President Trump recently made the disastrous decision to withdraw our nation from the Paris Climate Accord. Because of this reckless decision, the governors of several states and territories including California, New York, Massachusetts, Hawai’i, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington have formed a Climate Alliance together, committing to hold to the terms of the Paris Agreement regardless of the federal government's position.  Now I’m calling on Governor Hickenlooper to follow suit and bring Colorado into the United States Climate Alliance, effective immediately. The governor has already expressed his disapproval of the President's reckless decision, and that he agrees with the clear majority of Coloradans who support America's participation in the Paris Agreement. I grew up in this beautiful state, and like most Coloradans know that our environment is a huge part of what makes our home special. And like most of us, I also know that because of climate change, the stakes have never been higher for Colorado, the United States, and humanity as a whole. Before my father died in 2010, he spent his life fighting fiercely to stop climate change in its path. He made the future of our planet his life’s work, and it’s time for us to carry on his legacy and do our bit to help prevent the impending global catastrophe that is looming over us all. Please sign my petition and demand that Governor Hickenlooper be bold and join the Climate Alliance to show the entire world that our great state of Colorado refuses to be dragged onto the wrong side of history. Together we can make a difference, and help to ensure that future generations of Coloradans will have the same opportunities as us to enjoy the unique and gorgeous environmental setting that makes our home such a wonderful place!