Among the juicy details emerging in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death last week was the fact that a bunch of marijuana plants were found growing next to his Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. The discovery has launched an Internet’s worth of bad puns and stupid jokes: “Osama bin Smokin,'”…
We’ve all seen those molded green plastic soldiers; they’re a staple of every kid’s childhood and, thanks to the Toy Story series, heroes of the big screen. But we’ve never seen plastic soldiers like this — begging for money, assaulting women, placing a rifle under their chin. It’s the arresting…
Molly Midyette has the odds stacked against her. She’s serving a sixteen-year prison sentence over the 2006 death of her twelve-week-old son Jason Jay Midyette, a punishment she says she doesn’t deserve because ex-husband Alex Midyette and his powerful family allegedly sabotaged her defense to help Alex. But in her…
Hot damn, winter is over. It’s not the grass shoots sprouting up on lawns, the smell of barbecue in the air, or even the yellow tickets we’re finding on our windshields because street sweeping has started up again and we all forgot to move our cars. It’s the fact that…
On January 15, 2009, Alexander Landau was a nineteen-year-old Community College of Denver student who was pulled over for an illegal left turn and beaten bloody by three Denver cops. Now, thanks to a $795,000 settlement announced Monday, he’s received one of the largest-ever payouts for police brutality in the…
Colorado boasts a thriving medical marijuana industry as well as a vibrant tech scene. It’s little wonder, then, that, courtesy of forward-thinking companies such as MJ Freeway and idWeeds, we’re now starting to see inklings of a homegrown marijuana tech industry sprouting up along the Front Range. Is this the…
Update: Denver City Council approved settling Landau’s lawsuit for $795,000 during their meeting tonight. In a statement, Mayor Guillermo (Bill) Vidal noted, “This settlement sends our clear message to Mr. Landau and the community that we take these types of allegations seriously, and that we are committed to a process…
As we reported yesterday, downtown Denver will finally get a full-service grocery store thanks to a new development at 20th Street and Chestnut Place. But other than hints that it will be a “national brand,” there’s no word yet as to which grocery store we’re gonna get. Here are ten…
Urban grocery shoppers rejoice! In two years, Denver will finally boast a full-service grocery store in the heart of downtown. The mixed-use project, first reported by the DenverInfill blog, will be located at 20th Street and Chestnut Place, two blocks from Union Station, and will be helmed by the Nichols…
As we’ve reported in the past, a recent investment report coming out of Colorado pegged the size of the medical marijuana market at $1.7 billion, just under the amount generated annually by Viagra sales. That’s enough moolah to catch the attention of the pharmaceutical companies, which appear to be quietly…
As recently noted in Westword, plans are heating up to build a permanent Rocky Flats Cold War Museum in a onetime Arvada post office. It won’t be the first Rocky Flats museum, however. That distinction belongs to an operation that used to exist on the grounds of the nuclear weapons…
This week’s cover story, “Word,” recounts the creation of The Anthology of Rap, the scholarly catalogue of rap lyrics co-edited by CU-Boulder professor Adam Bradley. The story details the challenge of figuring what, exactly, all those rappers are saying. A few of the quarter-of-a-million words included in the book were…
This week’s cover story, “Word,” tells the extraordinary tale behind The Anthology of Rap, released last year to high praise and a bit of heated debate. The Westword story focuses on Anthology co-editor and CU-Boulder professor Adam Bradley, a hip-hop academic whose own narrative is as compelling as anything in…
The Anthology of Rap caused a stir nationwide last year. The first scholarly compendium of rap lyrics drew praises from Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Chuck D, but also courted controversy over alleged mistakes. But coverage missed the back story of anthology co-editor and CU-Boulder professor Adam Bradley — a…
Get your marijuana-infused celebrating done on 4/20 tomorrow, since two days later, on Earth Day, there apparently won’t be much to light up about. According to new research, indoor marijuana cultivation — i.e., the kind that accounts for the vast majority of medical marijuana sold in Colorado — accounts for…
I met this girl when I was ten years old And what I loved most, she had so much soul She was old school when I was just a shorty Never knew throughout my life she would be there for me. The smooth beats of Common’s “I used to Love…
Last August, I detailed the strange story of Peter McGraw, a CU-Boulder professor dead set on explaining what makes things funny. Since then, the odd tale has continued: A piece I penned for Wired magazine describes McGraw’s continued efforts to crack the humor code, a scholarly odyssey that involves fart…
Imagine my surprise the other night when, in the midst of enjoying an episode of Friday Night Lights on Hulu (Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!), a commercial popped on featuring Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. And not just any John Suthers — an animated John Suthers straight out of…
As we reported yesterday, Manager of Safety Charley Garcia has sacked Denver cops Ricky Nixon and Kevin Devine over allegedly billy-clubbing women to the ground and macing one of them in a July 2009 incident at the Denver Diner. Now it’s been confirmed that one of the cops, Ricky Nixon,…
The High Times Medical Cannabis Cup came into town on April 2 and 3, and left many attendees in what seemed like a permanent high. Westword pot critic William Breathes gushed that it was “one of the most amazing cannabis events in Colorado short of passing Amendment 20 nearly twelve…
Frasca Food and Wine scored “Best Front of the House” in this year’s Best of Denver, and with good reason. The employees are like epicurean Navy SEALs, making sure every guest’s needs are met instantly and unobtrusively. But what if that guest is just recently out of diapers? Does Frasca’s…
In “Bedtime Story,” Molly Midyette, sentenced to sixteen years for the death of her infant son Jason in one of the most sensational Boulder cases in years, speaks out for the first time about what she says really happened to her son. It’s an explosive and tragic tale — one…
