Sue Weinroth describes it best: “This goat story got legs and ran,” says the mom, shaking her head. Last summer, she watched her two children, nineteen-year-old Maggie and fourteen-year-old Ben, lose their titles, reputations and hobbies when they were banned from the Colorado State Fair on allegations that they drugged…
Tomorrow, Occupy Denver turns six months old — and sometimes it feels as though protest years are like dog years. In the first in two posts marking the date, we look back through our notebooks to track the relationship between police and protesters, which has gone from overwhelmingly supportive (on…
Chess comes with almost as many stereotypes (the nerd, the genius, the poorly adjusted savant) and cliches (the pawn, checkmate, knights and chivalry) as it does pieces. But director Rod Lansberry isn’t interested in any of them. Tomorrow, he and the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities will launch…
Yesterday, state Republicans killed a bill that sought to make it a felony-level crime to intentionally mislead citizens about voting information during an election. Known as the Fairness in Voting bill, it came under political fire during its tenure in the legislation over accusations that it was an unnecessary effort…
In an attempt to improve the public’s trust in the police and the department’s disciplinary review system, Manager of Safety Alex Martinez announced the creation of a new position within his office. Former district and country judge Jess Vigil will join the police review process as the deputy manager of…
In Denver, sign twirlers live a relatively free life, at least when it comes to the city’s regulations of the profession. As long as they stay off streets and medians and aren’t actually panhandlers, they are obeying the law. But as we explored in our cover story, “Spin City!,” other…
In the nearly six years since Shannon Galpin founded Mountain2Mountain, the Colorado-based nonprofit has created several projects in Afghanistan: Volunteers taught street art, worked with women’s prisons, partnered on a school for the deaf. But in 2012, Combat Apathy, its new educational program, will expand the organization to a a…
Update below: For the first time in months, Civic Center Park is empty. Around 5 a.m., police officers visited the park to close it down, requesting that all protesters who had slept there overnight gather their belongings and vacate the area immediately as they watched. In the hours following, city…
They’re always there, on sidewalks and street corners, in front of strip malls, at fast food joints. You see them all the time, whether you want to or not. But as we detailed in this week’s feature, “Spin City!,” Denver’s hundreds of sign twirlers face government regulations, patented tricks and…
This week’s cover story, “Spin City!,” lets you in on the daily work lives of some of Denver’s hundreds of sign twirlers. While some might be surprised to know that the rules go beyond picking up a sign and occasionally moving it, the reality is that the job comes with…
Update: 3:47 p.m.: At this morning’s court date, the bond rates for all five of those arrested near Civic Center Park last night increased, as did the crimes they are associated with. At the moment, all five are currently under investigation for second-degree assault and aggravated robbery. Caryn Sodaro, James…
Yesterday, as robotic voices called for the next in line and more than one man ogled a Michael Crichton paperback, Governor John Hickenlooper visited the Pierce Street DMV to announce a statewide plan to shorten the times many of those present will face on their next visit. Called the “Wait…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. When Eleanor Dewey dropped out of Aurora’s Grandview High School her sophomore year, the decision was an easy one. As a young trans woman who felt no connection to her coursework, her peers and…
In this week’s cover story, “Spin City!,” we took a look at the little-known realities of Denver’s most obvious pedestrians: sign twirlers. Also known as sign spinners — but never sign holders or sign fliers — these human billboards come with a wide gap in expectations. At the Denver franchise…
Update below: When Occupy Denver members mark the group’s six-month anniversary next week, they’ll focus on accomplishments. One example: Protesters recently interrupted and shut down a live Fox 31 broadcast with complaints of subpar previous coverage. From there, as you’ll see in the video below, the F-bombs fly, with reporter…
Last night, police arrested three Occupy Denver/Thunderdome protesters on the corner of 14th and Broadway after an attempt to film one officer ended in threats of violence and the protesters being pepper-sprayed in the face. Corey Donahue and Patrick Marsden, both Thunderdome cooks, are currently in jail on suspicion of…
Last week, one Occupy Denver protester self-identified as having scabies. The skin infection, created by mites inside the skin, is spread through close contact, leaving city officials concerned about health in Civic Center Park and protesters worried about repeated visits from police and Public Works employees. Yesterday, approximately fifteen police…
This is not going to be good. A yellow school bus is plowing down Colorado Boulevard, spraying snow in its wake, its windows revealing the tiny, messy faces of children. The combination of slush and students is enough to strike fear in the heart of any sign spinner, but Justin…
As of this morning, the Girl Scouts of the USA, that bastion of female youth and empowerment, is now roughly twice as old as Hawaii. Founded on March 12, 1912 by original Girl Scout Juliette Gordon Low, the organization celebrates its 100th anniversary. In the Denver headquarters of the Girl…
The issue of foreclosures is one the Colorado Progressive Coalition has remained involved with for two and a half years — though many of its members can put that number to shame. So as House Bill 1156 nears the chamber’s economic and business development committee hearing tomorrow, CPC, Moveon.org, Metro…
If there’s any winner in the Women of the World Poetry Slam, it’s Denver, first figuratively and now literally. The international championship, in its fifth year and Denver’s first as the host city, kicked off Thursday and held its second preliminary round on Friday before ending with two X chromosomes…
Some things about Colorado just don’t change. But while the state has been the country’s leanest, meanest anti-obesity machinefor years, it’s struggled with, lived under and remain concerned about the brown cloud even longer. But this morning, Governor John Hickenlooper shared news that the State Implementation Plan for Regional Haze…
