America’s first (known) hemp harvest in more than fifty years began this month in southeastern Colorado. This past spring, following last year’s passage of Amendment 64, which legalized small amounts of marijuana for adults and paved the way for industrial hemp production, farmer Ryan Loflin planted 55 acres of marijuana’s…
Accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes was in court today for a brief hearing. Among the most interesting tidbits of news was that prosecutors have 4,000 potential witnesses lined up for Holmes’s February trial. To prepare their cross-examination, defense attorneys have asked prosecutors for a “good faith” list of which…
In December 2010, then-sixteen-year-old Karina Vargas was shot while standing outside Aurora Central High School, where she was a student. The bullet, which was intended for someone else, hit her in the lower back, paralyzing her from the waist down. The shooter, reputed gang member Luis Guzman-Rincon, was convicted and…
Legal marijuana is big business — or at least that’s what investors are banking on. On Tuesday, 22 cannabis entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to more than sixty investors gathered at the Denver Athletic Club in the second Mile High confab hosted by the California-based ArcView Group, which connects investors…
Our recent cover story, “Design Flaw,” contains some startlingly lopsided statistics: As of July, there were a whopping 7,148 apartments planned or under construction in Denver, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership, while the number of condos being built was a meager 145 units. There are several theories as to…
Jared Polis, Boulder Democrat and pro-hemp congressman, co-hosted a congressional briefing and press conference in Washington, D.C. today to discuss the future of industrial hemp farming and whether further clarification regarding its legality is needed in light of the Obama administration’s recent announcement that it will not sue to stop…
The sanity examination of accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes is complete. According to a notice filed with the court on September 6 but made public this week, the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo has submitted a 128-page report with the court; copies have also been given to prosecutors…
This week’s cover story, “Design Flaw,” delves into the drop-off in metro Denver condo development, a phenomenon some blame on construction defect lawsuits. The latest estimates show there are 15,000 apartment units under construction in the seven-county metro area, but just 371 condo units. Which has led those close to…
As noted in this week’s cover story, “Design Flaw,” there were 7,148 apartments planned or under construction in Denver as of July, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership, and just 145 for-sale units. Why the lopsidedness? Some blame the recession, while others point to lawsuits filed against condo builders alleging…
Lawyers for accused Aurora theater shooter James Holmes think the state’s death penalty laws are unconstitutional — and they’ve filed a flurry of motions (some of which are on view below) asking that the judge in the case declare them so. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Holmes, who…
In Denver, condominiums are an endangered species. Their habitat — the empty lots and abandoned widget factories that serve as fertile ground for urban infill projects — has been overrun with for-rent apartments, a breed of housing that looks similar to condos but attracts a different sort of inhabitant to…
Outspoken Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida will not run for re-election. In a blog post on her website (the full text of which is below), she explains why: “I cannot, in good conscience, serve on a board whose only function now is to give tests.” Merida was the…
Among the biggest hits of the just-wrapped Colorado Innovation Network Summit was a ten-year-old boy from East L.A. Caine Monroy is the star of the short film Caine’s Arcade (watch it below), which tells of how he built an arcade out of cardboard boxes in his dad’s used auto parts…
A hearing today in the Aurora theater shooting case may have set a record for the shortest court proceeding ever. It took less than sixty seconds this morning for a judge to order New York-based Fox News journalist Jana Winter to return to Colorado on September 30 for a continuation…
The saga of the Gaylord hotel in Aurora continues — this time with good news for the folks behind the proposed 1,500-room hotel and convention center. In a letter on view below, the state attorney general’s office has denied a request by a group of Colorado hotels that the Colorado…
Surrounded by friends and advocates at a sunny park in Aurora today, immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra celebrated a victory: She was released yesterday from the immigration detention center where she’d been held since July 24. But her fight to remain in the U.S. isn’t over. Federal authorities have given Vizguerra a…
Earlier this year, we told you that the state’s entire film-incentives budget was earmarked for a Hallmark Channel show called When Calls the Heart. But things have changed since then. According to film commissioner Donald Zuckerman, the producers of the show convinced Hallmark to buy more episodes — and when…
This week’s cover story, “Fantasy Island,” explains that to pave the way for the riverwalk officials in Glendale hope to build along Cherry Creek, the city has made a series of civic improvements over the years. In turn, city boosters say those improvements have led to more private development, including…
The city of Glendale was one of four applicants whose tourism projects were not chosen last year to receive state sales-tax rebates under the Regional Tourism Act. But as explained in this week’s cover story, “Fantasy Island,” Glendale don’t give a shit; the city known for its iconic strip club…
Erin Jackson, the thirty-year-old Aurora teacher arrested for a hit-and-run that occurred outside East High School in late February and seriously injured a student, has pleaded guilty to attempting to leave the scene of an accident causing serious bodily injury — a lesser charge than the one she originally faced…
The current Westword cover story, “Fantasy Island,” tells of Glendale’s quest to build a riverwalk along Cherry Creek full of restaurants, theaters and bars serving booze in to-go cups. To make this dream project a reality, Glendale officials have made a series of smaller civic improvements — which, in turn,…
Shotgun Willie’s, the iconic Glendale joint at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Virginia Avenue, is endeavoring to build a better strip club. As explained in this week’s cover story, “Fantasy Island,” the intersection where Shotgun Willie’s sits is being widened to help with traffic flow to the nearby SuperTarget…
