BP plc

Pauly Shore on Stephen Baldwin, Timothy McVeigh and The Weasel

Yes, yes, we all know him as The Weasel, the speech-impaired, blank-eyed wonderboy who confused parents and enthused Gen X-ers in films like Encino Man, Son in Law and Bio-Dome. But Pauly Shore's revival as a standup comedian is more than just a '90s novelty act: Descended from Mitzi Shore, owner of ... More >>

Aurora Victim Relief Fund: Victims turn in 52 claims for part of $5 million fund

Governor John Hickenlooper's office has received 52 claim forms from victims of the Aurora theater shooting, three of which are duplicates, says spokesman Eric Brown. Yesterday was the deadline for victims to turn in forms to claim a portion of the approximately $5 million that was donated to the A ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting fund plan: No money to mentally injured, non-hospitalized victims

The families of the twelve people who died in the Aurora theater shooting and the victims who were brain injured or paralyzed will split 70 percent of the $5 million left in the Aurora Victim Relief Fund, while those who suffered less severe physical injuries will share the remaining 30 percent, acc ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting: Rich Audsley, donation adviser, reflects on funds for past massacres

Last month, ex-United Way official Rich Audsley got involved in the committee responsible for disbursing millions of donated dollars to the families of those who were killed or injured in the Aurora theater shooting. He was brought on as a special adviser because of his expertise in an area he never ... More >>

Aurora theater shooting: Ken Feinberg named special master of victims fund

In a very brief press conference at the State Capitol announced less than an hour before it began, Governor John Hickenlooper introduced Ken Feinberg as the new "special master" for the Aurora Victim Relief Fund -- almost a full month after victims' families first came together to express their frus ... More >>

In the world's toughest bike race, Justin Simoni rode from disaster to triumph

Also see: Video: Justin Simoni on what it takes to ride the 2,745-mile Tour Divide

Big Oil making big profits on declining production

​It's official: 2011 was a record-busting year in the oil industry, with the five largest companies -- BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell -- reporting all-time-high profits of $137 billion. That's a 75 percent jump from the year before, even though the giants produc ... More >>

Drilled, Baby, Drilled: The strange battle to keep Big Oil from cheating

Tom Strickland exits Interior, chased by big bucks

Tom Strickland.​The news that "lobbyist lawyer" Tom Strickland, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's chief of staff for a hectic two years, is now taking a job with British Petroleum's law firm in its battles with his former boss over the Deepwater Horizon mess made a big splash in the Denver Post ... More >>

Ken Salazar's salary at center of David Vitter ethics complaint, CREW tells Keith Olbermann

Ken Salazar.​During last night's sophomore edition of Countdown on Current TV, Keith Olbermann featured an extended segment about Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filing an ethics complaint against Louisiana Senator David Vitter. But the man in the middle of the cont ... More >>

4/20: A day that will really live in infamy

Deepwater Horizon.​Does any other day carry as heavy a load as April 20? The day's fate was sealed in 1889, when Adolf Hitler was born in a small village in Austria. In the early '70s, April 20 also became an underground stoner holiday, now so aboveground that it's celebrated across the countr ... More >>

Ken Salazar's "wild lands" push riles the Club 20 crowd

Ken Salazar​It's been less than two months since Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was in Denver unveiling his "Wild Lands" program, a sharp poke in the eye to Bush-era wilderness policy, and the reception since has been passionate -- and divided. Among environmentalists, the reviews amou ... More >>

Gas-drilling oversight bill killed by the House: What's the fracking point?

Gas well pads.​A bill that sought to increase the reporting process for water-quality complaints related to oil and gas drilling in Colorado died quietly at the statehouse yesterday, with Republican lawmakers insisting that the industry's use of hydraulic fracturing fluids, or "fracking," pose ... More >>

BP oil-spill report identifies a failure of management -- and regulators

​A chronic whine from oil and gas interests has to do with the glacial, foot-dragging pace of government. But a presidential commission report on the British Petroleum offshore well explosion that killed eleven people blasts the now-extinct Minerals Management Service for moving too quickly to ... More >>

Social studies: Education officials debate adding it to state tests, as Americans get dumber

Recognize this fella?​ Do you know from which country the U.S. of A. declared its independence in 1776? If so, consider yourself among the 74 percent of Americans who do. If not, consider yourself dumber than a first grader, which is when everyone learns about George Washington and how he comm ... More >>

Ken Salazar: Democrats holding Senate might've been easier if he hadn't taken Obama's job offer

Ken Salazar.​Tired of the endless Ken Buck/Michael Bennet attack ads that have made it unsafe to turn on your television for the past month? Blame Barack Obama, who pulled Ken Salazar from his spot in the U.S. Senate and put him in the cabinet as the Secretary of the Interior. How's that worki ... More >>

Jeff Puckett's helicopter gets Denver closer to God

John Elway for Senate? Pollsters tested that two years ago

John Elway.​The playbook in which John Elway makes a run for Colorado governor may not be mythical. That's according to one person who commented on yesterday's "John Elways for Governor?" post. The claim: a polling firm actually asked about that possibility a few weeks ago.

Jolt gets some justice from Gangland...not that he can talk about it

John Salazar: Land swap aids big donor

John Salazar.​While Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been enduring a summer of media broiling over everything from the BP oil spill to federal wild-horse roundups, his brother John has been coolly and quietly toodling toward re-election and a fourth term in Congress. But now, the Oth ... More >>

Three important Biennial art exhibits bring the Western world to Denver

Wild horse "truce" stampeded by latest roundup

Photo by Elyse Gardner​A few weeks ago, after an unusual public workshop in downtown Denver that allowed wild-horse advocates to air their concerns about alleged government mismanagement of dwindling herds, activists were feeling so encouraged that they called off a planned protest of the even ... More >>

The solution for cleaning up the Gulf is out of this world

Hip-hop hearsay: Xperiment joins Humble Beast, new track from SP Double, F.O.E. and Whygee's Dispensary Music, DJEarAttent's new mixtape and more

Xperiment​ Colorado hip-hop is serious right now, and there's a bunch of cats making moves. Hot on the heels of his runner-up finish to back-to-back winner Boonie Mayfield in the recent Red Bull Big Tune battle, Xperiment is the latest addition to the Humble Beast roster. Based in Portland, O ... More >>

Tonight: Drink beer to help the Gulf Coast Spill Relief Fund

A Flickr photo. ​So that oil spill in the Gulf -- bummer, right? And it's still spewing, and apparently doesn't intent to stop anytime soon. We might be landlocked here in this state, but that doesn't mean no one here cares about the BP disaster; to prove it, Bull & Bush Pub & Brewery, 4700 Ch ... More >>

British Petroleum fined by feds in Colorado case -- three years later

Tony Hayward.​Under fire for its lax supervision of British Petroleum and other offshore drillers, the embattled federal agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service has fined BP $5.2 million for filing "false, inaccurate, or misleading" reports about its energy production in Color ... More >>

Xcel milks bill to bilk customers, fill coffers

aflcio / flickr​ The best of today's Denver blogs Is Xcel using green sentiment to justify hiking its rates for "dirty" power? Face the State makes the case that the legislature is writing the power utility a "giant blank check." 5280 congratulates Colorado schools for getting 29 schools on ... More >>

Gary Faulkner displays Colorado's can-do spirit

​And here we thought Ryan Snodgrass and Justin Lariscy, the rafting guides who rescued a thirteen-year-old girl from Clear Creek and got arrested as thanks, were take-charge guys. Now comes news of Gary Faulkner, the Greeley man who made it his mission to kill Osama Bin Laden -- and was pack ... More >>

Ken Salazar getting tough with BP: Too little too late?

New MMS head Michael Bromwich.​The naming of a former prosecutor to head the scandal-plagued Minerals Management Service, coupled with President Barack Obama's lackluster but occasionally pugnacious speech about making British Petroleum "pay" for the oil-slick disaster in the Gulf, suggests th ... More >>

ET, phone home: UFO initiative moves to Denver's November ballot

Jeff Peckman​Jeff Peckman, the creator of a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver, has promised that the measure would not cost the city anything -- and by moving the proposal from the August ballot to the November election, the Denver Elections Division ... More >>

Westword Music Knowcase: We sucked. Big time.

​ After all our hype, all our shit-talking and all of our preparation (okay, preparation consisted solely of previously mentioned hype and shit talking, we admit it), we came, we played and we got our ever-loving asses kicked at our own music Knowcase. Yeah, we came in a desultory sixth place. Si ... More >>

Ken Salazar finds oil spilling from Gulf into Colorado

​The Deepwater Horizon disaster keeps spilling into my inbox, more than 1,300 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, where there's "oil for miles and miles," Attorney General Eric Holder lamented yesterday in New Orleans. Denver is more than 1,300 miles from the Big Easy, but the disaster has spilled ... More >>

Ken Salazar still in hot seat -- but with lots of company

"Bring me the head of Tony Heyward." ​Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is still getting roundly pummeled in the press over the Obama administration's response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster. But there's increasing evidence that the administration is trying to shift the falte ... More >>

Ken Salazar under fire: Can he survive the spill?

All systems go, but which way? Out the door?​It was fairly predictable that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar would emerge as the whipping-boy of conservative pundits over the Deepwater Horizon spill. What better symbol of the alleged impotence of the Obama administration than a cowboy-ha ... More >>

BP spill flow much worse than we estimated, says United States Geological Survey director

Marcia McNutt calls the spill a "significant environmental disaster." ​It's official: Even with the corrective measures British Petroleum is undertaking to try to contain the oil leak flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the massive spill has been flowing at a rate two to four times greater than o ... More >>

Ken Salazar fumes, hair booms nixed: Gulf spill update

Department of the InteriorSituation hairy: The Deepwater Horizon rig, before it sank. ​As oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster begins to stain shorelines along the Gulf Coast, beauticians across the nation are learning that one of the more feel-good (and dubious) solutions proposed in recen ... More >>

Letters: Racists should make a run for the border

Ken Salazar: Lessons on the Gulf spill from Denver's own "toxic horror"

Photo by Alan PrendergastWhite-tailed deer cross a road at the Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.​Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been spending a lot of time on the Gulf Coast lately, dealing with the noxious plumes (environmental and political) spewing from the Deepwater Horiz ... More >>

Ken Salazar is spinning the Deepwater Horizon debacle

Ken Salazar's role in BP disaster: More spin than reform?

Department of the InteriorThe explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig still hasn't been explained.​The finger-pointing over the massive oil slick threatening the Gulf Coast is spreading almost as fast as the spill itself. While critics on the right chortle over Department of the Interior c ... More >>

Did the spontaneity-free climate-change rally in Greeley have a Mr. Burns touch?

As we pointed out yesterday, a climate-change rally in Greeley on Wednesday didn't exactly qualify as a grassroots uprising, given the participation of EnergyCitizens.org, an affiliate of the American Petroleum Institute, which opposes legislation to cap greenhouse gases recently passed by the U.S. ... More >>

Consider the Malternatives

Zima tries to avoid going down the drain.

They've Got Their Mojo Rising

The Latin-flavored Voodoo Glow Skulls speak the language of ska.

See You in Court

There's plenty of fuel for lawsuits against gas companies.

Paying the Price

Major gas companies are driving away independent operators, all in the name of greed.

Pay at the Pump

The gas is cheap -- and according to dozens of Bradley Petroleum employees, so is the owner.

This State for Sale: A Special Report

The state's oil and gas industry proves that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Worse Than a Pledge Drive

A southeast Denver neighborhood howls about a public-TV station's profit-making development proposal.

Fueling Controversy

Does Texaco discriminate against blacks? Ask Roy Phillips, Denver's black Texaco owner.

HOW GREEN IS MY PRESIDENT

IN A STRANGE SUPERFUND TWIST, POLLUTERS SAY CLINTON'S CLEANUP PLAN IS "PRO-BUSINESS."