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?"

• 2012 - Clarion Awards/Association of Women in Communications, published May 26, 2011

  "Passing on Education"

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

  "Teacher's Fret"

More

2009 Stories by Melanie Asmar

• Knock, knock. Who's therer Interrupting chicken...

  published Nov 19, 2009

  Say, you know what makes a boring city council meeting less boringr Furries. Just ask the Durango City Council, which was visited by a human-sized hen Tuesday night during a debate about a chicken o... More >>

• Barrelman story lost in translation

  published Nov 19, 2009

  Floridians just don't get us Coloradans. Take this comment posted to a 9News story about the Arvada Senior High School mascot -- Barrelman -- that aired yesterday on First Coast News in Jacksonville... More >>

• Stricter funeral home regulations a victory for dead people -- and the people who love them

  published Nov 17, 2009

  A funeral director allegedly tells a family that the county coroner recommended him to bury their twelve-year-old child -- when the law prohibits such recommendations. A mortuary embalms a body withou... More >>

• Do Denver Public Schools' turnaround plans deserve an Ar

  published Nov 16, 2009

  Denver Public Schools officials have suggested a series of plans to "turn around" the city's six lowest-performing schools. But before they approve the changes, they want to hear from the public. The... More >>

• Who is the city laying off to balance its budgetr

  published Nov 13, 2009

  Today marks the last day of work for 176 city employees who were laid off in order to help close a $160 million gap in Denver's budget. (Read this Denver Post story by reporter Christopher Osher for m... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  The Real World + Hooters = Classy

  published Nov 13, 2009

  MTV is looking for overweight home-schoolers who have been affected by natural disasters for the next season of The Real World -- and it's coming to find them in Denver, which hosted its own cast of ... More >>

• Hello, parking meterr I'm at The Container Store

  published Nov 12, 2009

  It's officially The Future. Denver announced today that its Public Works Department is piloting a program in which shoppers at Cherry Creek North can call parking meters from their cell phones and de... More >>

• While grocery workers fret, their union bosses are busy fighting

  published Nov 11, 2009

  Kim Cordova and Cindy Lucero, the president-elect and secretary-treasurer-elect of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, stood in front of the union's empty headquarters in Wheat Ridge this... More >>

• State health officials fighting swine flu with sarcasm

  published Nov 11, 2009

  The number of swine flu cases reported in Colorado last week fell for the third week in a row, as can be seen on this handy-dandy chart courtesy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Enviro... More >>

• Live blog: Bill Ritter's budget meets the Joint Budget Committee

  published Nov 10, 2009

  Editor's note: Westword is live blogging Governor Bill Ritter's presentation to the state's Joint Budget Committee about his proposed 2010-11 budget. The state is facing a $1.02 billion shortfall. The... More >>

• Colorado's new Medicaid funding plan will leave disabled adults on the outside

  published August 20, 2009

  Sean Wenlock stands at the end of a seafoam-green diving board, his toes curled over the edge like upside-down question marks. He's still. He... More >>

• Mile L'Chaim: How Denver's small Orthodox community plans to get a lot bigger

  published August 13, 2009

  For Orthodox Jews, anyplace outside New York City is known as "out of town." And anyplace not touching the Atlantic Ocean — like say, a... More >>

• A disturbing MySpace tribute to Angie Zapata's killer

  published Aug 05, 2009

  Allen Andrade, the 32-year-old convicted in April of murdering transgender Greeley teen Angie Zapata, has a MySpace page. A disturbing one that alternates Christian imagery, hate-speak and pleas not t... More >>

• Strippers (temporarilyr) take over the airwaves

  published Jul 31, 2009

  I'm in love with a stripper (radio station). Cue the medieval flute-sounding music. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, allow T-Pain to school you.) I was driving in my car this afternoon, an... More >>

• Denver ranks 13th among best cities for singles

  published Jul 29, 2009

  Forbes.com -- America's go-to source for tax law updates, breaking commodities news and sexiness -- has named Denver the 13th best city for singles. "With a brunt of popular sports teams -- Broncos... More >>

• Do Bennet and Udall heart the NRAr

  published Jul 24, 2009

  When Michael Bennet was just a baby/his mama told him, son/always be a good boy/don't ever play with guns. But that (weird, re-imagined-by-me Johnny Cash lyric) didn't stop him from voting for them. ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  In light of the recent medical marijuana victory, read about weed

  published Jul 22, 2009

  Gotten enough marijuana (news) this weekr Nor Then you've come to the right place. As reported in the Latest Word's extensive, twelve-hour live blog of Monday's packed Colorado Board of Health medic... More >>

• New downtown farmers' market rises from the asphalt

  published Jul 21, 2009

  There's a new farmers' market in the heart of downtown Denver. Three months ago, the spot at 15th and California streets that's now home to Tiri's Garden and the Tiri's Garden Farmers' Market was an... More >>

• Live blog: The Colorado Health Department's medical marijuana hearing

  published Jul 20, 2009

  The Latest Word is at a Colorado Board of Health's hearing, where the board will consider new medical marijuana regulations that some believe will jeopardize the newly booming industry, as Joel Warner... More >>

• That's some expensive poop: Hike in fines for animal-related violations on the horizon

  published Jul 14, 2009

  Your dog's poop could cost you a lot more come September -- if you don't pick it up, that is. The Denver City Council last night passed a bill that allows the city's Department of Environmental Hea... More >>

• New DU study: Living in sin "just sort of happens"

  published Jul 10, 2009

  A new federally funded study by researchers at the University of Denver (to read it, click here) found that most unmarried couples who live together aren't trying to test their relationship before t... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Big feet, big trunks: Ten of the country's most eligible elephant bachelors

  published Jul 08, 2009

  "Caution: A Herd of Bull Elephants is Coming to the Denver Zoo," this week's cover story, looks at the Denver Zoo's plan to build Asian Tropics, a new exhibit that will be capable of housing up to e... More >>

• Caution: A herd of bull elephants is coming to the Denver Zoo

  published July 9, 2009

  Raw testosterone leaks from slits on either side of their broad faces, running in rivulets down the wrinkled folds of their gray skin like... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Denver's resident love doctor is in... the buff

  published Jul 07, 2009

  Amy Rubin fancies herself a love doctor. Never mind that the Denver resident -- who runs the website FindingYourHeartsDesire.com, a combination inspirational advice/astrology/shopping site that feat... More >>

• Bloody buffalo hunt diorama to stay in Colorado History Museum collection

  published Jul 02, 2009

  Spilled entrails. Dogs guarding picked-over bones. Men dangling raw flesh above their mouths like bunches of grapes. Children tossing an eyeball back and forth. Sound like the apocalypser A canniba... More >>