Subject: Melanie Asmar

• Speechifying at the Rocky Mountain News candelight rally

  In the January 23 blog "Details About Next Week's Candlelight Rally for the Rocky Mountain News," reporter John Ensslin, one of the event's organizers, said, "There'll be no speechifying. It'll be just a silent, dignified, elegant way to express our concern, affection and support for the paper." Judging by the video above, which is posted on IWantMyRocky.com, a website created to generate support for the paper, which was put up for sale last month by its owner, E.W. Scripps, things didn't qui

  January 30, 2009

• More from yesterday's State Capitol Obama protest: Michelle Malkin with "Swastika Guy"

  The photos captured by Melanie Asmar for "Colorado Conservatives' Porkiest Anti-Stimulus Protest Ever," a blog about a State Capitol rally yesterday, were plenty weird -- but as a commenter to that post pointed out, they were nowhere as jaw-slackening as the image above, captured by ProgressNow Colorado and initially published on this page of the Daily Kos. The so-called "Swastika Guy" seen posing with beaming Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin also popped up in Channel 31's coverage of the

  February 18, 2009

• Letters from the week of April 16

  April 16, 2009

• Live blog: The Angie Zapata trial, April 16

  Angie Zapata. Editor's note: Melanie Asmar is live blogging the Greeley trial of Allen Andrade, the man charged with murdering Angie Zapata, a transgender teen. Look for updates here. 4:50 p.m.: Court is recessed for the day. Judge Kopcow is telling the jury not to discuss the case with their family or friends, or read any media tonight: not newspapers, not blogs, not "Tweeter." Barring a snowstorm, the trial will resume at 8:45 a.m. tomorrow, he says. 4:44 p.m.: Thornton Police Officer Joe T

  April 16, 2009

• Live blog: The Angie Zapata trial, April 17

  Angie Zapata. Editor's note: Melanie Asmar is live blogging the Greeley trial of Allen Andrade, the man charged with murdering Angie Zapata, a transgender teen. Look for updates here -- and click this link to catch up on Asmar's coverage of the proceedings on day one, April 16. To catch up with the day's proceedings, read from the bottom up. 4:10 p.m.: Murguia is done testifying. Court is recessed for the day. It will resume Monday. 3:55 p.m.: On cross-examination, defense attorney Kundelius

  April 17, 2009

• Live blog: The Angie Zapata trial, April 20

  Angie Zapata. Editor's note: Melanie Asmar is live blogging the Greeley trial of Allen Andrade, the man charged with murdering Angie Zapata, a transgender teen. Look for updates here -- and click these links to catch up on Asmar's coverage of the proceedings on day one, April 16, and day two, April 17, as well as a summary of the evidence so far. To catch up with the day's proceedings, read from the bottom up. 5 p.m.: Court is recessed for today. It will resume at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. Mendoza w

  April 20, 2009

• Letters from the week of April 30, 2009

  April 30, 2009

• Jared Polis is having a tough year on TV

  May 28, 2009

• From the week of June 11, 2009

  June 11, 2009

• Reggie Rivers takes on Highlands Ranch, Lifetime movie-style

  From ReggieRivers.com Former Bronco-turned-television-host-and-author Reggie Rivers' gig as Channel 4's weekend sports anchor ends today. But he's not too worried. "I'm kind of excited. Fortuitously, I'm getting laid off at the exact moment I'm putting out this book," he says, referring to The Colony: A Political Tale, which he wrote as his thesis for a DU master's degree in global studies; it's scheduled to be published in August. "Every book I've written so far, I've had a job when the book

  June 11, 2009

• Not-So-New Urbanism: Lowry

  Photo by Melanie Asmar The Congress for the New Urbanism is holding its annual conference in Denver June 10-14, complete with bus tours of our most well-known new urbanist enclaves. But how do you judge walkable, neighborhood-based developments? Is it by the diversity (or lack thereof) of their residents, the number of parks nearby, their stumbling distance to a local watering hole? Over the next few days, we'll explore and judge -- oh yes, judge -- six of these developments and find out for su

  June 11, 2009

• Mention a billboard, get a free dinner at the Broker

  Photo by Melanie Asmar Want some free king crab legs? How about a gratis rack of lamb? From now until at least the end of the summer, the Broker Restaurant, at 821 17th Street, is offering a free dinner to anyone who mentions its new billboard at Broadway and 18th, advertising -- what else? -- a free dinner. There's a catch, though: You have to buy at least one full-price entree in order to get a second one of equal or lesser value for free.

  June 18, 2009

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

  Photo by Melanie AsmarAre those kids playing catch with an eyeball? Grody. 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 apocalypse? A cannibal's birthday party? No, it's the best diorama ever -- and lucky for Denver, it's sticking around.

  July 2, 2009

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

  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 reported last week ("Will Monday be judgment day for Colorado's medical marijuana industry?"). We'll update throughout the day with observations, musings, and maybe some tips on where you can get the good stuff. 9:15 a.m.: The hearing is in conference room 250 of the Tivoli Student Union on the Au

  July 20, 2009

• Score one for medical marijuana: Health board rejects restrictions

  After 12-plus hours of testimony, the state health board on Monday rejected a key restriction on medical marijuana dispensaries -- a rule that would have limited them to five patients each. You have to imagine this was the most attention ever heaped on the health board, which played host to hundreds of whooping supporters of the state's booming medical-pot industry. See photos and read a blow-by-blow rundown of the hearing in yesterday's live blog, penned by Melanie Asmar and Jared Jacang Maher

  July 21, 2009

• New downtown farmers' market rises from the asphalt

  Photo by Melanie AsmarThe tent of plenty. 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 empty asphalt lot, a plot of well-positioned real estate that seemed destined to remain vacant for the foreseeable future because of the struggling economy. But Christie Isenberg, head of the Concerts for Kids charity and a new convert to urban homesteadin

  July 21, 2009

• The Pole stunt: Better than classic Chinese hits

  An image from the Pole's faux bathroom web cam.​ Indie 101.5 has spent most of 2009 at death's door. In January, music director John Wilbur, aka Whip, went public with his fight to save the low-rated but highly enjoyable station's format. Then, in May, he went on the air to ask advertisers to save his baby by purchasing spots. Clearly, not enough of them did. Last week, word came down that the Indie 101.5 approach would be migrating to the web on a new site, Indie303.com. At this point, h

  August 3, 2009

• From the week of August 27, 2009

  August 27, 2009

• From the week of August 27, 2009

  August 27, 2009

• Denver Blogs: Call it a comeback

  ​ The blogosphere is our sanctuary. The Denver housing market is rebounding like Jessica Simpson. (That is, if you consider Colt Brennan a solid rebound). (5280) This is sort of meta, but: Melanie Asmar hits the radio to talk about last week's cover story on Medicaid cuts. Go, girl! (Colorado Pols) The Birdman really likes his nickname, according to the new flock of ink birds on his leg. (Denver Stiffs)

  August 27, 2009

• Jared Polis' fondness for polar bears and afterbirth

  Jared Polis and a polar pal.​Jared Polis: He's everywhere these days. When he's not sucking down a cold one with Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, beer-bong style, the Boulder Democrat is pointing the camera at himself as part of Freshman Year, a CNN series in which he and Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz chronicle their first terms in the U.S. House. Polis' earlier episodes received failing grades from Melanie Asmar, but his latest offering (accessible by clicking here) is a mod

  August 28, 2009

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

  Melanie AsmarKim Cordova and Cindy Lucero in front of the UFCW headquarters.​ 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 afternoon and, with an audience of a reporter and a single news camera, called the current president a thief. "The current leadership is trying to steal the union election," said Cordova, a former Safeway worker who

  November 11, 2009