Update: Rollergirls’ spokeswoman PJ “Dangerous Leigh A’Zon” Shields called us back, after arriving in Denver from Chicago late Monday night with The Hydra trophy in tow. See her comments below the original item. The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls are officially the best…
Do you know from which country the U.S. of A. declared its independence in 1776? If so, consider yourself among the 74 percent of Americans who do. If not, consider yourself dumber than a first grader, which is when everyone learns about George Washington and how he commanded the Continental…
Photos of Angie, a documentary about the life and death of transgender Greeley teen Angie Zapata, is one step closer to being finished. Alan Dominguez of Loco Lane Films has now added a score performed by Denver School of the Arts grad Mackenzie Gault of the Flobots. Check out the…
Scientists in Morrison recently announced the discovery of teeny-tiny brontosaurus footprints. The most amazing thing about them? They appear to show that the baby brontos were running on their hind legs. From Matt Mossbrucker, footprint discoverer and Morrison Natural History Museum director: “In the end, we might have a baby…
The Republican-heavy state Board of Education is going after a $3.2 million abstinence-only education grant that Governor Bill Ritter’s administration passed up in favor of a $3.9 million grant that pays for sex ed that teaches kids about birth control, too. So… if Colorado wins the grant, will school districts…
Ken Buck ran afoul of the GLBT community when he likened being gay to alcoholism on Meet the Press, prompting activists to demand a retraction. So is Buck prejudiced? He didn’t appear to be in April 2009 when, as Weld County DA, his office successfully prosecuted a case that advocates…
What are the tell-tale signs of gentrification in Denver? Higher home prices? Brightly painted condos? Whole Foods? How about fancy baby strollers and yoga studios? Or, most tell-tale of all, people pushing fancy baby strollers from the yoga studio to Whole Foods in order to purchase coarse sea salt, almond…
Last week, we posted five “It Gets Better Project” videos with Colorado connections, in which regular folks and local celebrities assured gay teens suffering from bullying that the harassment will one day stop — and that life after high school gets better. Now, Alf, a local jock from KTCL/93.3 FM,…
Nadine Montoya has been sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 32 years for murdering a 49-year-old Aurora woman in a hit-and-run at a Denver Burger King last May. Montoya, 27, was convicted last month. A jury found her guilty of crushing Lilian Verdonkschot with her Cadillac DeVille after…
The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls are on top. Going into next month’s national WFTDA Championships, Denver’s oldest roller derby league is currently ranked No. 1 in the country by the Derby News Network, a website dedicated to all things derby — and the only organization to publish national rankings. According to…
Last month, syndicated columnist Dan Savage — whose advice column, Savage Love, is published in Westword — started the It Gets Better Project in response to recent gay teen suicides. Savage called upon LGBT adults to make YouTube videos reassuring LGBT youth who are being bullied that it gets better…
Last night was the season finale of La La’s Full Court Wedding, the VH1 reality show that followed La La Vazquez as she planned her wedding to Nugget-for-now Carmelo Anthony. Not to ruin the ending, but they wind up getting hitched. The episode was sweet, if not a little boring…
Here’s to you, Hagrid. The Denver Zoo is hatching dragons! In the past week, four Komodo dragons have hatched at the zoo. And the keepers are expecting even more: Four eggs remain in the incubator. Even though Komodo dragons are lizards, and lizards aren’t that cute, these dragons are pretty…
In 2008, Governor Bill Ritter formed a committee to study Colorado’s child-welfare system. (The year before, Chandler Grafner and twelve other children involved with the system died at the hands of their caregivers.) The committee came up with more than thirty suggestions, one of which was a statewide child protection…
University of Colorado-Denver PhD student Christopher Sibona recently used science — science! — to figure out why people “unfriend” each other on Facebook. One big reason? Frequent, unimportant posts — which got us here at Westword thinking about the all-time worst Facebook status updates…
Colorado’s fledgling rollerboys, Colorado Roller Derby’s Rollin’ Bones, will play the big girls in a bout Saturday against the Denver Roller Dolls’ Green Barrettes at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield. It will be the first full roller derby bout for Colorado’s only men’s team — and it’s sure to be…
Some babies are cuter than others. It’s harsh, but true. But ugly babies deserve love, too! With that in mind, we bring you the Denver Zoo’s newest babies: four caiman lizard-lings born in September and October…
There Aaron Klug was, minding his own business at a Dungeons & Dragons event Tuesday, when the pesky cops showed up. Did he slay them with his Flaming Battle Axe or bludgeon them with his skull-topped Staff of Power? Did he pelt them to death with polyhedral dice? No, he…
Hunter S. Thompson could have been a Canadian. Sort of. In 1958, the then-struggling New York City reporter applied for a job at the Vancouver Sun newspaper in British Columbia. According to an entertaining story by Canadian Postmedia News, he was inspired by a Time magazine profile of the paper’s…
Louis Hampers, the Children’s Hospital ER doctor charged with writing 654 phony prescriptions to feed what his lawyers say was a raging pill addiction, posted a $2.5 million cash bond this morning. He will be released from jail sometime today. Hampers has been in custody since he was arrested on…
A third attempt to initiate a recall of controversial Denver Public Schools boardmember Andrea Merida has been given the go-ahead. The three southwest Denver voters who asked for the recall now have sixty days to collect 4,342 signatures from voters in that district. If they succeed, the recall will go…
There are many jobs in this world. Some are so bizarre, you probably don’t know they exist; others seem so great, you can’t believe people get paid to do them. To highlight some of these jobs, we’ve started a new series about people actually working in the field. This week,…
