As of January 1, when recreational marijuana sales officially began, the City of Denver had licensed eighteen shops. The numbers have grown steadily since then. By our January 21 update, fifteen more shops had gotten the city’s blessing, and in the couple of weeks since then, another four have won…
A new study on the health risks of fracking has found an increased risk of birth defects — including a startling 30 percent hike in the risk of congenital heart defects — among families living near oil and gas wells in rural Colorado. The report has been embraced by environmental…
In 2011, a listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe grown at Colorado’s Jensen Farms caused 33 deaths and 147 hospitalizations. Now, the better part of three years later, Jensen Farm operators Eric and Ryan Jensen have been sentenced to five years’ probation and six-months home detention following the sort of prosecution…
As soon as smart asses realized this year’s Super Bowl would feature teams from the two states that have legalized recreational marijuana sales, the jokes started flying, with participants including The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, the nation’s meme makers and entrepreneurs hoping to generate a little cash along…
Joe Hodas is used to living the high life: The longtime PR guy spent five years as spokesman for Frontier Airlines in the mid-2000s, went on to a VP role with Smashburger, and then became an executive vice president with Vladimir Jones, a high-powered ad and PR firm, representing clients…
The national debate over fracking may be unfolding in the halls of Congress, but the battle over where oil and gas drilling takes place is being waged at the grassroots level — which is why the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org has announced plans to funnel money, training and “strategic support”…
It was a single act of vandalism that was the last straw for Fistell’s Electronics. “We had an RCA sign on the building and it was stolen last year — my dad just gave up,” says Howard Fistell, whose family has owned Fistell’s Electronics since 1936 in some incarnation or…
When it comes to getting top dollar for the taxpayer from energy and mineral resources on public lands, the federal government’s approach is a lot like that of the morbidly obese relative you see scarfing down a third helping of pumpkin pie at Christmas. Every year there’s a promise to…
Earlier today, we shared a guide to marijuana licensing hearings from Smart Colorado, an anti-pot group that apparently wants to slow down the process as much as possible. But what about entrepreneurs eager to take part in this new industry? What do they do? Denver’s answers to these questions can…
Colorado Springs not only won the Regional Tourism Act jackpot this week, but it won more money than the state was recommending. Whereas the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade suggested giving the city about $53 million in tax rebates over thirty years, the state Economic Development Commission…
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is all about opposing forces operating under extreme pressure. Energy companies pump a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into tight shale formations in an effort to extract oil and gas. Cities respond by passing fracking bans designed to extract the energy companies. The fracking industry…
Today, a Fort Collins family is getting the type of holiday present that only an exterminator can give (sorry, Santa): a bed bug-free home. As part of a national charitable event called Taking the Bite Out of the Holidays, the Loveland-based EnviroPest company — tagline: Colorado’s cure for creepy crawly…
Back in the drill-baby-drill heyday of the George W. Bush administration, the Department of the Interior was plagued by nasty oil royalty scandals and cockeyed public lands policies that brazenly favored energy interests over environmental concerns. But now that the Bushies are long gone, is the situation at Obama’s Interior…
Condo construction in metro Denver has been hampered in recent years for several reasons, many of which are dissipating as the economy bounces back. But the one factor that continues to spook builders is the fear of being sued for construction defects. Such lawsuits can be so costly that many…
This week’s cover story, “The Secret Garden,” examines the efforts of gardening and local-foods activists to develop a healthy living park on the site of a former elementary school in Alamosa — a campaign thwarted a few months ago when the school board decided to sell the land to an…
Earlier this year, we stumbled upon Denver Now, a book showcasing businesses in the city circa 1982. The results, complete with wonderfully dated photos, are a Waybac Machine on paper, which is why we’ve featured it in two posts: one in March, with volume two following in June. Now, we…
Earlier this week, we told you about how legendary Glendale strip club Shotgun Willie’s was auctioning off some of its unwanted items in the wake of its move to a brand new building right next door to the old one. The items up for bid included light-up dance stages complete…
Flanked by environmental leaders and energy industry executives, Governor John Hickenlooper has unveiled tough new regulations for reducing methane emissions and other pollution from oil and gas drilling across the state. Leaning hard on words like “partnership” and “shared interest,” the governor stressed that the new rules would insure that…
Want to own a piece of Shotgun Willie’s? The legendary Glendale strip club recently shut its doors forever — and moved into a brand new building next door. The original building, which Shotgun Willie’s called home starting in 1982, will eventually be demolished to make way for much-needed road improvements…
Last night, Glendale’s legendary strip club — Shotgun Willie’s — closed forever. And right next door, in a $4 million building that was just a steel-beamed skeleton when we wrote about it back in August, a new-and-improved Shotgun Willie’s opened for business. In the hours before the new strip club…
Despite being outspent by oil and gas interests by more than 30-1 — and facing the threat of more litigation by Colorado’s gas-friendly governor — fracktivists are celebrating the passage of ballot measures prohibiting new drilling in Boulder, Lafayette and Fort Collins. The moratorium vote on oil and gas production…
What are the best places in Colorado to find a job? The folks at the Nerd Wallet website have just released a list that attempts to answer that question, and surprisingly enough, several cities that almost always wind up on such rosters — including Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs –…
