The Link Between Cops’ F-Bombs and Police Brutality

A prominent Denver civil-rights law firm has announced that it is preparing a lawsuit on behalf of Greg Heard, a homeless man who says he was trying to surrender to a Denver police officer when he was tased in an episode caught on a body-camera video . A former SWAT team leader believes Heard’s tasing represented “a textbook use of force,” but Michael Berry, a retired police officer who currently trains law enforcers, strongly disagrees. He breaks down the clip, on view below, and notes that the officer’s use of unprovoked profanity before pulling his taser’s trigger helps explain how incidents like this one can result in excessive force against a suspect and injury or worse to police.

Community Rallies to Save Central City’s Belvidere Theatre

Two years after it was acquired for back taxes by Gilpin County, the historic Belvidere Theatre in Central City is entering the second phase of its restoration. The structure, built in 1875 at the south end of Main Street in Central City’s National Historic Landmark District, was listed in 2016…

Artists and Entrepreneurs Cash In on the Vape Industry

A mutually beneficial relationship between vape companies and artists is changing the industry. And it got its start in Colorado, where 7th Floor Vapes was one of the first herbal vaporizer manufacturers to impress eye-catching works of art on its devices, making vaporization not just a habit, but an experience.

Rachel Dewey Killed Skiing in Colorado, Death Won’t Count Toward Total

Rachel Dewey, a 48-year-old middle-school teacher, part-time professor and mother of three teenage boys, was killed skiing on Pikes Peak’s Little Italy couloir on Sunday, March 19. However, her death will not add to the number of skiing casualties in Colorado during the 2016-2017 season, which has already surpassed last year’s total.

Is Pot the New Beer? Five Takeaways From Two Studies

About one in four Americans is buying marijuana instead of beer, according to new research from Cannabiz Consumer Group (C2G), released earlier this month. C2G’s study focused on the behaviors of 40,000 participants, looked at more than 55 million marijuana-sales transactions, and analyzed point-of-sale data. “Consumers use cannabis to satisfy various…

JonBenét Ramsey Murder Claim Suit: Burke’s Lawyer Rips CBS’s Call to Dismiss

CBS has formally asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of Burke Ramsey over a 2016 docuseries in which a team of analysts concluded that he’d murdered his sister, JonBenét Ramsey, in their Boulder home on Christmas Day 1996. In response, Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood summarily rejects the arguments made by CBS and Dr. Werner Spitz, a participant in the docuseries being sued separately for comments he made last September during a WWJ-AM/CBS Detroit interview publicizing the program.

Nine Stories About the Opioid Epidemic and Potential Solutions

An opioid epidemic is sweeping across the country and ravaging Denver’s drug addicts. It’s motivation enough for the Harm Reduction Action Center to push for a safe injection site in Denver, and has staff at the Denver Library, whose Central branch has seen six overdoses this year, training on how…

How Will a Proposed Tiny-Home Village for the Homeless Be Governed?

When Sandra Hermans was selected as one of the residents for a proposed tiny-home village at 38th and Walnut streets in RiNo, she was thrilled. The 27-year-old has been homeless since January, when she had to leave a friend’s place where she’d been staying. Suddenly, Hermans found herself having to…

How Much Denver’s Poor and Rich Will Lose or Gain Under New Health Care Plan

This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that 24 million people would lose their insurance by 2026 under a new House health-care plan intended to replace Obamacare. That number will likely include many poor people and seniors in Denver, whose tax credits will be significantly smaller according to figures collected by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

New Research Links Marijuana Use to Strokes, Heart Failure

On March 18, a report on a research study linking marijuana use to strokes and heart failure will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session. According to the outcomes presented in the data, cannabis users have slightly higher risk for heart problems — and the research shows that there are even cannabis receptors in heart cells.