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…

“Caution: A Herd of Bull Elephants is Coming to the Denver Zoo,” this week’s cover story, looks at the Denver Zoo’s plan to build Asian Tropics, a new exhibit that will be capable of housing up to eight male elephants. The plan is (literally) a big deal, because so few…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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?…

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…

Denver pizza entrepreneur Mark Huebner isn’t the only Coloradan scoring points for engaging in a “Verbal Fight/Physical Fight” on television these days. Crested Butte’s Heidi Montag — along with her fluffy-haired weenie of a husband, Spencer Pratt — is a contestant on the lamely named NBC reality show I’m a…

Those who followed last month’s trial of the man who murdered eighteen-year-old Angie Zapata know a lot about what her life was like on July 14, 15 and 16 of last year. They know how two of her sisters found her on July 17, lying on the carpeted living-room floor…

On April 22, Allen Andrade, an unemployed 32-year-old who had spent time in prison for a string of non-violent crimes, was convicted of first-degree murder for beating to death eighteen-year-old Angie Zapata of Greeley. A striking beauty, Angie was born a boy named Justin David Zapata but had been living…

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.)…