New DU study: Living in sin “just sort of happens”

A new federally funded study by researchers at the University of Denver (to read it, click here) found that most unmarried couples who live together aren’t trying to test their relationship before tying the knot, as was previously thought according to this USA Today story. No, the study found, most…

Caution: A herd of bull elephants is coming to the Denver Zoo

Raw testosterone leaks from slits on either side of their broad faces, running in rivulets down the wrinkled folds of their gray skin like liquid sideburns. The smell is acrid; one elephant researcher even described it as “evil.” It’s a stench that, when mixed with the potent urine constantly dribbling…

Denver’s resident love doctor is in… the buff

Amy Rubin fancies herself a love doctor. Never mind that the Denver resident — who runs the website FindingYourHeartsDesire.com, a combination inspirational advice/astrology/shopping site that features a section called “Pleasure Palace” — isn’t actually an M.D. No, she’s just a single girl who spends her time trying to convince other…

This weekend, just say no to porn

If there were an award for the catchiest first paragraph in a press release e-mailed to Westword this week, the one from Laguna Beach-based New Life Ministries would win it, no contest. “As the pastor stepped up to the podium to preach his Sunday morning sermon, he opened what he…

How would you slash $70 million from the city budget?

Go ahead. Pretend you’re Mayor John Hickenlooper. It’s your job to cut $70 million from the 2010 city budget proposal and you’ve got a list of chopping-block contenders in front of you. Do you cut back on watering the grass in city parks? Charge more for rec-center memberships? Reduce the…

Colorado cops teaching Mexican investigators the open-court ropes

This week, Colorado’s finest will teach a group of 22 Mexican investigators and prosecutors the ins and outs of bringing bad guys to justice using an open-court judicial system, as Mexico continues to move away from a paper-based trial system and toward one similar to ours. And for fifteen glorious…

Mention a billboard, get a free dinner at the Broker

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?…

Free beer still flowing for Coors employees

I know you’ve been worried. Or worried-ish. But rest assured that, unlike their peers up at Molson Coors in Canada, the approximately 2,800 employees at MillerCoors in Golden will continue to get their 864 free beers a year … for now. Last week, I read that Molson Coors — the…

Anti-gay incidents in Colorado rose slightly in 2008, report says

Colorado saw a slight increase in the number of bias-motivated incidents against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in 2008, according to a report released today by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. The report measures the number of incidents reported to the affiliated Colorado Anti-Violence Program. That number rose…

New Einstein Bros. Bagels opens in Lowry

According to a quick count of the locations on the official Einstein Bros. Bagels website, Denver just got its twelfth Einstein Bros. Bagels shop, in Lowry’s Town Center at Second Avenue and Quebec. Although this is a national chain — with more than 430 stores either owned or franchised by…

Obama says he “loves” Jared Polis’s reality show. Really, prez?

President Obama and I disagree… about the awesomeness of CNN’s YouTube-y reality show Freshman Year, starring Colorado’s own freshman congressman, Jared Polis of Boulder. According to Polis, Obama “loves” his show. Me, not so much. (Although I do sorta love to hate it.) If you’re not familiar with Freshman Year,…

Not-So-New Urbanism: Lowry

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 residents, the number of parks nearby,…

Reggie Rivers takes on Highlands Ranch, Lifetime movie-style

Former Bronco-turned-television-host-and-author Reggie Rivers’ gig as Channel 4’s weekend sports anchor ends today. But he’s not too worried. “I’m kind of excited. Fortuitously, I’m getting laid off at the exact moment I’m putting out this book,” he says, referring to The Colony: A Political Tale, which he wrote as his…

Is that gourd goodness in your pocket? Or…

Step 1: Place mind in gutter. Step 2: Look at the cover of today’s “Grow” section in the Denver Post. Step 3: Giggle. Step 4: Wonder why there’s a third round object at the base of the tallest gourd. Overcompensation?…

Denver’s underground needle exchange launches a website

USED, Denver’s underground syringe exchange program (and the subject of the Westword feature “Why Doesn’t Colorado Get the Point of Needle Exchange Programs?”), has gone digital with a new website: www.used303.org. The website features information on how to exchange needles, links to resources for I.V. drug users, and statistics on…

Video: Five people arrested during yesterday’s Prop 8 protest

Soulforce in Colorado, a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to ending oppression against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people, has posted a YouTube video of yesterday’s protest of the California Supreme Court ruling upholding Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. (For more about the protest, check out our blog previewing the event.)…