Our daily hunting expedition for local bloggage. The League of Conservation Voters doesn’t like drilling, but it does like drilling John Salazar. (Colorado Independent) Bennet v. Romanoff gets the Rachel Maddow treatment. By the way, Rachel Maddow: Hot or not? Please advise. (Colorado Pols) Hey, older city employees! See that…
One of the great things about the Denver/Boulder area (especially the Boulder bit of that) is how many do-gooders we have here. Seriously, everywhere you look, there’s someone trying to make the world a better place, from those Greenpeace panhandlers (sorry, fundraisers) perched on every corner downtown to the abundance…
After risking her neck going undercover in South Korean and Thai brothels and subsequently charting the spread of sex slavery throughout the world, filmmaker Libby Spears knows a thing or two about human trafficking. But none of that prepared her for the revelation she ultimately uncovered — namely, that such…
At this point, there have been so many rallies about healthcare that they tend to garner relatively little media attention unless they devolve into histrionic scream fests along the lines of one that greeted Congressman Ed Perlmutter a few weeks back. Witness last night’s series of pro-reform get-togethers at locations…
The city of Denver needs your R.F.P., A.S.A.P.! Requests for proposals are due tomorrow, September 4, 2009, for the restaurant concession in the McNichols building renovation plans at Civic Center… My proposal is called the Yum Yum Tree, in honor of the city’s first food-court-style restaurant. It will be a…
This week, Westword took an end-of-the-summer road trip down colorful Colorado Boulevard, from Weld County to Highlands Ranch, with many stops in between. This essay is a part of that project. In a city with few highways, Colorado Boulevard serves as a major thoroughfare, connecting everything to everything, as well…
View Larger Map Deaths identified as suspicious by law-enforcement officials don’t always prove to be so after further investigation. But I’m going to edge out onto a limb and say this description will prove to be accurate as applied to an investigation centered on the intersection of 8th Avenue and…
The Legion of Christ made the wrong kind of headlines when it was revealed that the Catholic organization’s founder, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who died in 2008, had fathered children — which means he broke his vow of celibacy unless immaculate conception was involved. This, combined with accusations that Degollado…
The Denver Post headline “Uranium Mining May Get Buried,” about residents in Nunn, a town near Greeley, who oppose building a uranium mine nearby, hit close to home. I grew up in Grand Junction, and the repercussions of the supposedly safe uranium industry that once dominated the area’s economy sounded…
When reports surfaced that Governor Bill Ritter was considering diverting $1.3 million earmarked for extra drunk-driving patrols to help close the budget gap, I started a mental stopwatch to time how long it would be before he’d have to eat shit regarding this misbegotten plan. And lo and behold, after…
Fit-throwing, currently suspended Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall — our most recent Shmuck of the Week — is back in the news again, although not over accusations of slapping anyone around, surprisingly enough. Reports surfaced that the New York Jets want to see Marshall in green and white, if not quite…
Another month, another high-profile reference to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Yesterday marked the start of a trial in London focusing on Matthew Swift, 18, and Ross McKnight, 16, who are accused of planning to blow up their school. This scheme would have triggered memories of Columbine under any…
The Colorado Springs Gazette’s parent company may have declared bankruptcy this week, but the paper’s still reporting the big news in its community, including details about layoffs at Springs-based Focus on the Family; 75 jobs, or about 8 percent of the total workforce, are being slashed. Although this development isn’t…
As noted in our blog about a Douglas County school allowing parents to opt out of letting their kids watch President Barack Obama’s speech to children on Tuesday, we pointed out that other Commanders-in-Chief have directly addressed younglings — among them President George W. Bush, who asked America’s kids to…
Our item yesterday about a Douglas County school allowing parents to opt out of letting their kids watch a Tuesday speech to the nation’s schoolchildren by President Barack Obama has been followed by plenty of mainstream coverage on the topic, including a front-page story in today’s Denver Post and an…
The Writer Square pedestrian shopping center downtown may be subtle, quiet and low-key, but the passions the location inspires are anything but. Denver’s Planning Board learned that fact firsthand last night when it considered a controversial new sign plan for the property — a proposal board members decided to vote…
Lots of stories about urban wildlife lately — but I was still caught off-guard while driving to Westword’s Broadway offices this morning, when I was forced to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting a fox running across the intersection at 8th and Speer. She was headed in the opposite…
“2008 DNC Dream Daze,” Kenny Be, August 27 Unconventional Action Kenny Be is a genius. His two-page cartoon on Denver one year after the Democratic National Convention was brilliant! I just want to know one thing: What swingers’ club wound up with those pillars? Jill Hanifer Denver “Death in the…
Mayor John Hickenlooper looks okay as a girl (maybe he could use a little more mascara, if you know what we mean), but Governor Bill Ritter? He brings pure heat. How do we know? Because we took some liberties with the September cover of Denver Magazine, which features the lovely…
Colfax may be America’s longest main street, but Colorado Boulevard has it beat by miles. It’s a highway through the heart of the country, missing beats here and there where development detoured the straight lines envisioned by the pioneers who staked out the West — pioneers like Casper Hartman, who…
Better late than never. Today in Backbeat Online: • Q&A with Regan “Busdriver” Farquhar. • Flier of the Week: Dressy Bessy at the Gothic, September 5. • Win stuff in our random midweek contest! • Dulcinea’s to re-open as Pete’s Monkey Bar. • Single File rock (girls jeans) at the…
Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals across the country, on view later in this post, informing them that President Barack Obama would be delivering a speech to the nation’s schoolchildren on Tuesday, September 8. Duncan wrote, “The President will challenge students to work hard,…
