The Facebook campaign to resurrect Boulder’s Mall Crawl

Today, former Westword fellow Melanie Asmar, now writing for the Colorado Daily, brings us a story whose time has come — an attempt to bring back the Boulder Mall Crawl, a Halloween bash on the city’s Pearl Street Mall that proudly celebrated revelry and goofiness until being shut down in…

Boulder teaches union talks tough to members, softer to the media

In “Strike Door Opens in Boulder Teacher Dispute,” Melissa Tingley, head of the Boulder Valley Education Association union, tells Denver Post reporter Jeremy Meyer that the filing of a formal notice to strike was mainly procedural. “It’s to keep all our options open,” she said. “There is obviously not a…

Josh Penry’s latest fundraising pitch

Gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry sure must be proud of the comically over-edited video included in our blog about his campaign yesterday — and he’s equally fond of a poll showing him 17 points ahead of challenger Scott McInnis, even though Sean Duffy, McInnis’ spokesman, dismisses it as an unscientific poll…

Urine trouble for Denver CARES

In my opinion, nothing adds pungency to a news story like urine — and an outrageous tale brought to us by Channel 4 investigator Brian Maass is positively drenched in it. The story revolves around a 23-year-old who allegedly spent fifteen hours last October locked in a five-feet-by-six-feet room at…

Basebrawl: Rockies’ bats silence Giants fans

We’ve heard a whole lotta nothing from the Giants-loving trash-talkers at our sister paper, the SF Weekly, over the past couple of days. I expected an outburst yesterday, after the G-men bested lowly Arizona Monday to gain half a game on the idle Rockies. Probably one filled with more misinformation,…

Ref who cost Nuggets a game could be back — as a scab

With a possible referees’ strike looming over the 2009-2010 NBA season, the league is assembling a roster of potential replacement officials willing to cross picket lines in order to take whistle between teeth in prime time again. Among those listed is Michael Henderson, whose union went to extraordinary measures to…

Chauncey Billups and Elway’s magic number 7

Channel 9’s Drew Soicher devoted much of Tuesday night’s late sportscast to a conversation with John Elway about whether or not he was bothered by Nuggets star Chauncey Billups’ decision to ditch the number 7, which he wore last year to honor Big John, in favor of his original digit,…

More brickbats for Zazi attorney

Yesterday, I noted that Arthur Folsom, the attorney representing terror suspect Najibullah Zazi, had earned some uncomfortable spotlight time due to questions about his ability to properly represent the defendant in such a high-profile case. And the criticism is only getting worse. The Denver Post’s Mike Littwin, who’d earlier been…

Centennial’s Dr. Michael Kurtz on the swine flu

Colorado may not be ground zero for the swine flu, but close enough. Note the enormous number of folks stricken by the malady in Fort Collins, including my brother-in-law (who was hospitalized for two days last week) and his two kids (their symptoms were less severe, fortunately). So it makes…

The Westword.com blog shortcut, September 22 edition

Shake it up. Today in Cafe Society: • Behind the Bar: Nate Windham from The Office@Blondies. • Ten hard-to-find beers you should try from Colorado. • Great American Beer Festival Q&A: Laughing Dog. • From Charlie the Tuna to Frito Bandito, the ten worst food mascots ever. • Top Chef…

Ex-Rocky Mountain News business writer David Milstead headed north

After the demise of the Rocky Mountain News, business staffer David Milstead got involved with two high-profile attempts to create a for-profit online news organization that would help fill the journalistic gap: INDenver Times and the Rocky Mountain Independent. Unfortunately, INDenver Times fell well short of a subscription goal needed…

Five Cool Things: September 22, 2009

Once a week, Susan Froyd muses on five things about Denver worth celebrating. Don’t let them slip through the cracks. The artists and kids who collaborate year in and year out at PlatteForum get a huge outspilling of warmth from this local-arts observer: They’re living proof of the cultivating power…

Twitter Tuesday: All-tech edition

Back again with more great Twits to follow for your burgeoning Twitter feed. As always, follow us at @denverwestword, @cafewestword, @westword_music and @casciato. @MileHighSocialMediaClub: If you’re reading this, you must be fairly interested in social media, right? Or at least very, very bored and possibly cripplingly lonely. Either way, the…

Who really wrote Colorado’s medical-marijuana law?

Colorado’s flourishing medical marijuana industry, with nearly a hundred pot dispensaries statewide servicing thousands and thousands of marijuana patients, got its start in 2000, when state voters legalized medical marijuana by passing Amendment 20. But who was the ganja genius who came up with the amendment? Most people in the…

Glenn Beck-target Yosi Sergant’s DNC bash

The latest sport among the right-wing loonocracy involves targeting minor members of the Obama administration and hammering away at them relentlessly until they’re given the boot. Among the latest folks to get such treatment: National Endowment for the Arts communication director Yosi Sergant, who was reassigned after Fox News’ Glenn…

Meet two Colorado cons released early in budget-cutting move

Among the more controversial ways Colorado is saving money during the current budget catastrophe involves the early release of prisoners — something state Attorney General John Suthers hates, as he made clear during a recent appearance on KHOW. Today, the first eight cons are slated to go free — a…

Scott McInnis is so still the frontrunner!

Don’t accuse Scott McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy of letting his guy get battered without mounting a rapid defense. Shortly after the publication of a blog about an informal, unscientific survey showing Josh Penry ahead of McInnis in the Republican race for governor, Duffy rang up to dismiss the poll as…

The Douglas Bruce-Costco battle limps on

Is there a more high-maintenance public figure in Colorado than Douglas Bruce? Doubt it. Yesterday, Bruce went to court over a trespassing charge leveled against him in August, when he was collecting signatures for a ballot measure outside a Costco store. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the judge tossed…

JaMarcus another reason not to overrate Broncos D

All the hosannas about the Broncos’ improved defense are mondo premature due to the fact that the D gave up what should have been the winning score during crunch time at Cincinnati during week one and dominated an utterly inept Cleveland Browns squad on Sunday. And the next opponent? The…