Melanie Asmar

Reader: America is home to a cult of murderers

Reader: How many abortion-rights proponents are anti-death penalty and pro-gun control?

Our Melanie Asmar reported about a Supreme Court challenge to the Colorado law that forbids displaying aborted fetus photos near churches where children might see them. As you might expect from this topic, debate is divided. Here's a reader who sees contradictions in the views of many pro-choice typ ... More >>

Photos: Denver diorama finds new home in History Colorado Center lobby

Lovers of the Denver diorama, rejoice! On Friday and Saturday, visitors to the History Colorado Center can watch the Lilliputian tribute to circa-1860 Denver being reassembled in the museum's lobby. The much-loved exhibit, which was crafted in the 1930s by federal work programs workers, was cut apar ... More >>

Reader: Cheap rent can come with a price -- like bad smells

Reader: Immigration report about costs of law ignores costs of not enforcing it

Last week, Melanie Asmar shared an immigration report estimating the cost of Colorado's "show me your papers" law at $13 million. But the price tag on porous borders and a flood of illegal immigrants depleting American resources is much higher, maintains one particularly passionate commenter. Here's ... More >>

Reader: Union Station re-purposing is great, but don't lose what's great about it

Melanie Asmar's post about the transformation of Union Station from a sleepy train stop to a multi-modal hub featured photos of construction and renderings about what the place will look like when it's finished. But one reader hopes some things are preserved.

Photos: Union Station is transforming from sleepy train stop to multi-modal hub

It's been thirty years since Denver's 16th Street Mall opened for business, and this week's cover story "It's a Mall World After All!," takes a look at the attraction's past, present and future. That future includes new life for Denver Union Station, the 131-year-old train station at the west end of ... More >>

Holly Square Shopping Center: From arson to basketball courts, playgrounds

In May 2008, Crips gang members burned down the Holly Square Shopping Center in northeast Park Hill. More than four years later, the scorched earth is experiencing a rebirth. On Saturday, The Prodigal Son Initiative, a youth organization headquartered across the street, is leading a clean-up effort ... More >>

James Holmes: Inside the courtroom with shock-haired Aurora theater shooting suspect

Update:James Holmes, the 24-year-old suspect in the Aurora theater shooting, walked slowly into a packed, wood-paneled courtroom this morning to be advised of his rights. He wore a maroon jumpsuit, but the most shocking thing about his appearance was his hair, which was a bushy tumble of neon orang ... More >>

Reader: It's a welcome change to see investigative journalism alive and well

Photos: Celena Hollis murder prompts thank-you for northeast Denver Police

Less than a day after Denver Police Officer Celena Hollis was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight at City Park, more than 150 people -- activists, preachers, mothers and teenagers -- gathered at the District 2 police headquarters in northeast Denver to thank the officers who worked alon ... More >>

Photos: Lakewood Gulch ribbon-cutting celebrates Sun Valley, Baby Matthew

In our recent epic tome about the rehabilitation of the South Platte River, we told you about improvements to Lakewood Gulch. The trickling tributary in Sun Valley was for years walled in by concrete in an attempt to corral its flow -- a dangerous situation that proved deadly in 2007 when a two-year ... More >>

Hot ticket: See the new Denver Crime Lab before it opens

We're a forensics-obsessed society, if what we watch on the boob tube is any indication. And who doesn't get lost in a well-written police procedural after reading the first paragraph? What a crime leaves under its own dirty fingernails fascinates us, and the thrill of step-by-step discovery, with a ... More >>

Photos: Lakewood Gulch art prank celebrates day drinking, off-leash dogs

Peter Miles Bergman is drawn to the unsanctioned. In 2004, the founder of art-prank society The Institute of Sociometry made his backyard into a faux parking lot to showcase how ridiculous it was that homeowners near the Broncos stadium couldn't sell parking or even to give it away. This year, Bergm ... More >>

Photos: Denver Zoo's $50M Toyota Elephant Passage opens today

This is it, zoo fans. This is what you've been waiting for and dreaming of since you approved that $62.5 million zoo-improvement bond in 1999. Big, hulking male elephants -- up to eight of 'em -- living in City Park. Big, hulking male elephants and their big, hulking...trunks. Today is the day tha ... More >>

Photos: Tour Denver's new $28 million crime lab

Denver's new crime lab smells like fresh paint and virgin plastic. Some of the office furniture is still wrapped in it, or stacked in boxes. But all of the major stuff -- the lab benches, the fingerprint examination tables, the walk-in freezer and the test-firing range -- is in place, waiting for t ... More >>

Reader: Former youth corrections officer says the system is messed up

Civil unions: Catholics, conservatives rally to celebrate bill's defeat

At noon, a day after Republican lawmakers defeated a bill to legalize civil unions in a special legislative session, conservatives rallied on the steps of the Capitol building. The event had been planned days in advance, but due to the demise of civil unions, the tone was celebratory. House Speaker ... More >>

Reader: History Colorado is dumb, dumb, dumb not to display dioramas

Colorado's archives include eighteen dioramas that were displayed at the old history museum -- but are nowhere to be seen at the new History Colorado Center. Is that dumb?

History Colorado Center to bring back Denver diorama: What about bloody buffalo hunt?

The most common question state historian Bill Convery hears about the new History Colorado Center is, "Where is the Denver diorama going to be?" That huge diorama depicts the Mile High City in 1860, complete with the old Rocky Mountain News building, an Arapaho Indian camp and, Convery says, "fantas ... More >>

Reader: Harsher punishment for johns would solve most prostitution problems

In a post yesterday, Melanie Asmar broke down a new study of prostitution in Denver, which documented harsher punishment toward women and a proclivity for treating men who patronize this service with much greater deference. One reader thinks the situation would improve of this dynamic was reversed.

Miller moths cause fiery car crash in Colorado Springs

Colorado is under attack! By Miller moths! This earlier-than-usual invasion has inspired plenty of grumbling, as well as Melanie Asmar's list earlier this week of the top five alternative uses for the irritating little buggers. Note that Asmar didn't include anything about moths causing car crashes ... More >>

Photos: Mascots celebrate Colorado tourism at Discover Colorado Rally

What does it look like when a bunch of mascots converge on the Capitol steps? Kinda goofy. That's what happened at today's Discover Colorado Rally, a yearly meetup that could be summed up in two words: "Yay, tourism!" Grown-ups dressed as sharks and bears listened as officials rattled off statistics ... More >>

Denver Zoo's poop-and-trash-powered rickshaw on display at 1700 Broadway

We first told you about the Denver Zoo's plan to turn a shitload of shit into electricity and heat back in 2009. The key is a scientific process called gasification. Basically, it works like this: Poop and trash and other waste goes in, science happens, and then voila! The end product is a useful c ... More >>

Reader: Colorado Virtual Academy report shouldn't be used to restrict school choice

Melanie Asmar's post about reported low wages and overwhelming workload at Colorado Virtual Academy inspired a number of readers to share positive comments about online education in general. Here's one example from a reader who sees such institutions as giving parents more educational options.

Reader: Why was there no mention of 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain?

Video: Teenage refugees from Burma perform a traditional dance for the New Year

This week's cover story, "A World Away," tells the story of Drucie Bathin, a 46-year-old refugee from Burma who has made it her life's work to help other, newer refugees. She has a soft spot for the teenagers. To help them connect to their heritage, and stay out of trouble, she plays chauffeur and c ... More >>

2011 Denver #WebAwards winners announced!

Photos: 2011 Denver #WebAwards party

Parking meters are free tomorrow (thanks, Veterans Day!), but not overnight

​ Tomorrow is a city holiday, which means legions of city employees won't have to show up to work (with the exception of police and fire folks, Denver Health doctors, airport workers and the animals at the Denver Zoo; what's a giraffe have to do to get a day off around here?). There's a bonus ... More >>

Bill Vidal helps break ground on park, community garden at East 13th Ave., Xenia St.

Nasrin and Vidal.​ This morning, Denver Mayor Bill Vidal stood next to soon-to-be seventh-grader Nasrin Mahamud in a dusty patch of vacant lot next to Nasrin's apartment building in East Colfax. Before a crowd of well-wishers in suit pants and name tags, the two drove ceremonial shovels into t ... More >>

How the Internet is revolutionizing education (INFOGRAPHIC)

​The Internet has dramatically changed how we learn. In some ways, the change has been worse than others, considering that students are sometimes Googling their way to a diploma; see Melanie Asmar's story, "Passing on Education". But on the plus side, access to knowledge is now in students' ha ... More >>

Letters: "Politicians have made this nightmare, not the teachers."

After nearly thirty years, Juanita's in Boulder goes dark

Melanie Asmar​For the past 28 years, Juanita's has been a Pearl Street mainstay, holding onto its sliver of storefront space that led to a well-worn front dining room and back lounge, even as other establishments turned over for newer, trendier concepts on either side of it. But on March 1, t ... More >>

Hipsters versus cowboys: When fashion worlds collide

Hipster or cowboy? You decide.​When Westword staff writer Melanie Asmar called out the announcer and rodeo clown at the National Western Stock Show Rodeo yesterday for using Brokeback Mountain references to make gay jokes (personally, I'm more offended they haven't updated their material since ... More >>

Reader: Keep your kids out of the kitchen!

​In his most recent In the Weeds, Kyle Garratt listed the "Five Things Kids Should Not Do in Restaurants" -- a topic that you'd think would be far more controversial than hot tea or lousy tippers. For a very lively discussion of this issue, read the comments following Melanie Asmar's Highlan ... More >>

Readers disagree about whether the word "illegal" should be used in immigration coverage

​Our post yesterday about Colorado signing on to the Secure Communities program sparked a debate among commenters after reporter Melanie Asmar used the term "illegal immigrants." Should the word "illegal" be used in that way? Or is it unnecessarily pejorative? Here are two strong views:

Five things kids should not do in restaurants

​Welcome to In the Weeds. Kyle will be right with you -- most likely to complain about something. Usually he is pleasant, but this is his place to blow off some steam. Don't take it personally; he just needs to vent because he's been doing this for about thirteen years. Enjoy your meal. By it ... More >>

God's eye photos of Denver from Prayer One, Jeff Puckett's holy helicopter

​This week's feature story by Melanie Asmar, "A Wing and a Prayer: Jeff Puckett's Helicopter Gets Denver Closer to God," profiles Jeff Puckett, who leads an all-volunteer helicopter ministry that takes community members and pastors high above Denver. It's a great photo spot, as you can see bel ... More >>

Letters: Bromwell Elementary's principal gets a flunking grade from critics

Letters: Anyone who'd date Bill Sullivan is a dope...or a dupe

From the week of August 27, 2009

From the week of August 27, 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 ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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, i ... More >>

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 fre ... More >>

From the week of 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 res ... More >>

Jared Polis is having a tough year on TV

Colorado connections make these reality TV shows more fun to watch.

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 Co ... More >>