Update below: The two-month period during which Colorado farmers could register to grow hemp for the 2014 growing season closed on May 1. As of 4:30 p.m. that day, state records show that 42 people or businesses were approved to grow hemp and another 53 had applied but were not…
Update: Of three bills aimed at addressing the dearth of condo construction in the metro area, only one still survives. That bill, Senate Bill 220, would push homeowners and builders toward arbitration rather than litigation in cases where the homeowners’ units suffer from construction defects. State Senator Jessie Ulibarri introduced…
Dixie Elixirs, a Denver-based marijuana edibles company, recently announced that it has settled a dispute with a California company with which it previously partnered to produce Dixie Botanicals, a line of hemp oil products that includes tinctures and balms. Under the terms of the settlement, the California company, Medical Marijuana…
Lawyers for Aurora theater shooting gunman James Holmes have until May 5 to ask the Colorado Supreme Court to review a decision by Judge Carlos Samour to have Holmes undergo a second sanity evaluation. Samour ordered the second evaluation after prosecutors alleged that the first one, done last summer, contained…
Things are changing at North High School: Test scores are up. More kids are taking AP classes. And there’s a renewed focus on extracurricular activities, such as sports and music. That’s according to the folks behind a new pro-North campaign called “I Am a Viking” — a reference to North’s…
The Colorado company that invented the formula for MED-a-Mints, a popular cannabis-infused mint candy, has announced that it will sue Denver-based edibles manufacturer Dixie Elixirs for trademark violations. Inventor Gary Gabrel claims that Dixie Elixirs violated the contract between them when it changed the MED-a-Mints packaging, making its own name…
Last week, we introduced you to the teachers behind a lawsuit against Denver Public Schools. The teachers claim that DPS is using a provision of the state’s landmark 2010 teacher-effectiveness law to get rid of good teachers — which they say isn’t the law’s intention. Furthermore, the teacher-plaintiffs claim that…
For this week’s cover story, “Wrong Answer,” we spoke with five of the teachers behind a lawsuit against Denver Public Schools. Their complaint? That DPS is unfairly using a provision of the state’s landmark 2010 teacher-effectiveness law to get rid of good teachers like themselves. And those five teachers aren’t…
Sixteen-year-old Nicole Castaneda had one request of the supporters who gathered in front of the Denver immigration court before her hearing: to sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” because, as an advocate explained, Nicole wanted them to “imagine a world where kids could just be kids, without fear of deportation.” Nicole was…
Secretary of State Scott Gessler overstepped his bounds when he issued an emergency rule on election night in November 2013 declaring that votes cast for ineligible candidates are invalid and shouldn’t be counted, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled this week. In a legal challenge brought by eight voters in the…
At 55, Cynthia Masters wasn’t ready to stop being a teacher. The energetic single mom had come to the profession late in life but had quickly grown to love it. She was drawn to working in high-needs schools with high-needs kids, and her job as a special-education teacher at Centennial…
This week’s feature, “Wrong Answer,” tells the stories of five Denver teachers who’ve sued the school district for essentially getting rid of them even though they’ve never gotten a bad review. How? By following a procedure laid out in a provision in the state’s landmark 2010 teacher-effectiveness law — a…
Should the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes be held in Arapahoe County, where the crime occurred? No, say Holmes’s attorneys. In a motion made public this week (and on view below), they request a change of venue, arguing that the citizens of Arapahoe County have a “unique and…
In the immediate wake of a tragedy, donations often pour in. That was certainly the case with the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, after which people from all over the country donated millions of dollars for the victims. But that money has since been disbursed — and not every victim benefited…
Update: Jaime Leon Rivas, a nineteen-year-old undocumented immigrant who we wrote about last week (see below), has been released from detention, where he was awaiting deportation. On April 2, a week after his friends and family held a vigil outside the GEO immigrant detention center in Aurora on the occasion…
Thirteen producers have registered to legally grow hemp in Colorado in the month since registration began, according to the state Department of Agriculture. However, those thirteen producers hold a total of twenty registrations, as several of them are registered to grow in more than one location or for more than…
Though Mayor Michael Hancock has come under fire for some of his Denver Department of Parks and Recreation initiatives, including the now-canceled City Loop project in City Park, the mayor’s office is celebrating an important parks-and-rec-related victory this week: More than 42,000 school-age children have enrolled in the MY Denver…
This is why the Internet was invented: To post effing adorable photos of baby kitt-ehs or, in this case, two tiny clouded leopard cubs born at the Denver Zoo earlier this month. The unnamed cubs — one male and one female — were born to mom Lisu and dad Taji…
Jaime Leon Rivas turned nineteen years old yesterday. But he didn’t spend his birthday with his girlfriend, his friends or his family. No, the Summit County resident spent it inside the GEO immigrant detention center in Aurora, where his girlfriend says he’s the youngest person in the custody of federal…
Three entrepreneurs who made their bones in Colorado’s marijuana industry are starting a new venture focusing on weed’s sober stepsister, hemp. It’s called Hemp Box and the idea is that subscribers will pay to receive one box per month filled with samples of hemp body-care and food products (as well…
Back in January, we shared photos and video of a Denver Zoo anteater named Rio getting an ultrasound. (It involved a jar of bugs, natch.) Two months later, on March 7, Rio gave birth to a baby that zookeepers named Cayenne. (They believe Cayenne is a girl.) But as is…
In a motion that quotes liberally from Twitter, defense attorneys for Aurora theater shooting gunman James Holmes asked the court this week to order Colorado Judicial Branch public information officer Rob McCallum to comply with a gag order in the case. Their main complaint? That McCallum uses Twitter to disseminate…
