Email Author Melanie Asmar

Awards

• 2012 - GLAAD Media Awards, published May 5, 2011

  "Coming Out in America"

• 2012 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards, published March 17, 2011

  "Say What?"

• 2011 - Education Reporting Awards/National Education Writers Association, published June 10, 2010

  "Teacher's Fret"

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2009 Stories by Melanie Asmar

• Five ways to (tree)cycle your tannenbaum

  published Dec 30, 2009

  Christmas is over. Fold up the stockings, chug the rest of the egg nog and start planning for how you're going to dispose of that tannenbaum. You could take the easy way out. Starting Monday, Denver... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  The Denver Public Library is not the Wild West, despite what the New York Times says

  published Dec 29, 2009

  Wouldn't it be great if you could just negotiate-away your overdue library finesr If you could stroll into the Denver Public Library, offer them $1 and have your borrower status upgraded from "terrib... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Top 10 Colorado sex acts of the decade

  published Dec 28, 2009

  Everybody loves a good, home-grown sex scandal. Especially scandals that involve Evangelical Christians, bestiality, horny moms and naughty schoolteachers. (Not all at once, sadly.) Colorado has pla... More >>

• Carmelo Anthony and son (not) mauled by lion at the Denver Zoo

  published Dec 23, 2009

  Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony took his two-year-old son, Kiyan, to get up-close-and-personal with some wild beasts at the Denver Zoo last month, prompting his fiance, former MTV VJ La La Vasquez... More >>

• Denver Public Library to crack down on scofflaws in 2010

  published Dec 23, 2009

  Attention literary scofflaws, Anne of Green Gables hoarders and people-who-lose-shit-in-the-backseats-of-their cars! The Denver Public Library is out to teach you a lesson in 2010, and the lesson goes... More >>

• How does Denver's high school graduation rate stack up compared to other cities'r

  published Dec 18, 2009

  Denver Public Schools' high school graduation rate is rising -- but so far, it's only risen to a mediocre 52.7 percent. That was the news yesterday from Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who announced the... More >>

• $1.5 million federal grant to help adults with disabilities in Colorado find jobs

  published Dec 17, 2009

  The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (known affectionately as "hick-puff") didn't win any popularity contests this past summer when it unveiled changes in the way Medicaid paym... More >>

• Meet Denver's hottest construction worker (sign)

  published Dec 15, 2009

  Say hello to the hunkiest construction-safety sign ever. It's the kind of sign that makes you proud to be an American, and it's hanging on the fence that surrounds the dirt hole at 12th Avenue and Bro... More >>

• CU gets high and mighty with a pot-smoking RA

  published December 17, 2009

  On the evening of August 12, Jeremy Hartman was in his dorm room at the University of Colorado assembling collages for four bulletin boards he... More >>

• The best thing on Arby's menur Chris "Birdman" Andersen cartoon glasses

  published Dec 14, 2009

  There's something awesome at Arby's. And it's not the Arby-Q sandwich, believe it or not. It's a set of three collectible Chris "Birdman" Andersen cartoon glasses, which sell for $2.49 each if you d... More >>

• Chris "Birdman" Andersen wants to know if you've been naughty or nice

  published Dec 11, 2009

  For two-and-a-half glorious hours on Sunday, the Nuggets' Birdman will become Cherry Creek North's Santaman. From 3 to 5:30 p.m., Chris "Birdman" Andersen will (in our imaginations) cover up his mil... More >>

• Will Parks and Rec get an earful about their plan to privatize La Alma rec center tonightr

  published Dec 10, 2009

  Tonight's Denver Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting at 6 p.m. at La Alma Recreation Center, 1325 West 11th Avenue, has nothing to do with La Alma itself, at least according to the agenda. N... More >>

• How can child abuse best be prevented in Colorador Officials disagree...

  published Dec 09, 2009

  The debate over how to serve the state's neediest citizens, including abused children, has come to a head in the weeks since a governor-appointed committee recommended that the state should take over ... More >>

• Outgoing UFCW Local 7 boss gets a watch Ford truck upon his upcoming retirement

  published Dec 08, 2009

  Parting gifts sure can be nice. Ernest Duran Jr., the outgoing president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union (whose recent messy election was the subject of this week's feature, "... More >>

• Denver Parks and Rec fees to increase in 2010, so take the plunge right away

  published Dec 08, 2009

  If you're thinking of renewing your city rec center pass, now is the time. Now, I say! Come January 1, the cost of belonging to one of the city's (soon-to-be) 25 rec centers will be among the many De... More >>

• UFCW's Crisanta Duran to run for a House seat

  published Dec 07, 2009

  Crisanta Duran recently lost one election -- a bid for secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7. But she's got her eye on another office. The 29-year-old currently works ... More >>

• Is the DPS school board's Andrea Merida an embarrassment or a heror

  published Dec 04, 2009

  Plenty of folks, including members of the Denver Post editorial board, have been pretty disapproving of new Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida in the days since she had herself secretly... More >>

• Warring iPhone app fartlords settle their differences out of court with new, anti-fart app

  published Dec 03, 2009

  It's over -- and with nary a lawyer uttering this phrase: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you Exhibit A, 'The Butt Socket!'" The feud between the creators of two different iPhone fart apps... More >>

• Denver Zoo gets ready for "green weenies" by breaking ground on an exhibit of elephantine proportions

  published Dec 02, 2009

  The elephants are coming! The big, giant, hulking male elephants are coming. To Denver, that is. The Denver Zoo broke ground today on Asian Tropics -- a ten-acre, $50 million partially publicly funde... More >>

• One Denver nonprofit's World AIDS Day message: Clean needles save lives

  published Dec 01, 2009

  Anyone who Googled anything today knows that it's World AIDS Day. And anyone who drove by the intersection of Colfax and Broadway this afternoon knows select folks in Denver think clean needles are p... More >>

• Last night's DPS board meeting was full of fireworks, spectators and big decisions

  published Dec 01, 2009

  Last night's Denver Public Schools board meeting had its fair share of hateration. And plenty of people turned out to witness it. By 4:25 p.m., signs on the boardroom door at the DPS administration ... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Can a mild-mannered bakery clerk solve the grocery workers' labor strife?

  published December 3, 2009

  From the other side of the counter, the top of Kim Cordova's head is barely visible above stacks of bright-red boxes of holiday cookies that... More >>

• The top four toys that could kill you -- or lower your sperm count

  published Nov 30, 2009

  It's Cyber Monday, a date that sounds as if it should be associated with discounted internet porn and not Christmas shopping -- but so be it. And just in time for the holiday shopping season, the hap... More >>

• Grocery workers to begin voting on stores' "last, best and final" contract offer

  published Nov 27, 2009

  The 17,000 grocery workers of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 union could begin receiving ballots to vote on Safeway and King Soopers' "last, best and final" contract offer as soon as ... More >>

• Denver takes the day off today. Lucky.

  published Nov 27, 2009

  Don't even think about getting a marriage license in Denver today. Or having your cat's balls cut off. Or getting a permit to zone something. (Does that even make senser) Or paying your late fee at t... More >>