More than two years past its original deadline, the National Science Foundation has finally awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin to handle the U.S. government’s vast operations in Antarctica. The thirteen-year, $1.9 billion contract begins April 1 and its headquarters will continue to be based in Centennial…
Environmental leaders who ardently supported Barack Obama in 2008 haven’t had much to celebrate in the past three years, as key pieces of legislation dealing with climate change and controls on the energy industry have been scuttled, diluted or delayed — by a bad economy, an increasingly intransigent Congress, and…
The Occupy Denver encampment is not the only city feature to be called an eyesore in recent weeks. Plans to add more, bigger and brighter corporate signage to the Sports Authority Field (previously known as Invesco) are already under attack by neighbors who worry about light pollution from the stadium…
In a telephone conference with journalists this morning, officials of the Canadian energy giant Encana sharply disputed an EPA draft report that linked the company’s gas drilling operations in Wyoming to contamination of residents’ drinking water, calling the report badly flawed and demanding an independent review of the study’s findings…
Thanks to the increasing push for more oil and gas drilling, communities once considered out of the fray are being drawn into the controversies over hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — even folks in the stunning North Fork Valley, an area better known for its organic farms, ranches operated by the…
A New York City undercover investigation of online gun sales in fourteen states has found that a majority of the 125 unlicensed sellers contacted were eager to sell firearms to buyers they knew couldn’t pass a background check, a violation of federal law. Colorado sellers fared somewhat better than those…
Yesterday, amid an unusually genial gathering of environmental and energy leaders, Governor John Hickenlooper unveiled new state rules requiring detailed disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) methods of drilling for oil and gas — a major step toward transparency in the controversial drilling practice and a…
Neighbors can be scary, shrill, suffocating things. They listen to country radio, smoke on your shared patio, leave passive-aggressive notes about how you parked your Yaris, and borrow eggs almost as often as they “borrow” your copy of the New York Times. But no matter how often you interact with,…
No question about it, the ascension of Tim Tebow has established a unique style of football in Denver. The Broncos have managed to distill all the heart-pounding excitement and nail-biting competitiveness of NFL action and compress it into the final couple of minutes (and sometimes the final couple of seconds)…
Adam Norrell likes the words “snazzy” and “sparky.” He says them more than you’d expect from a 34-year-old software nerd from Castle Rock, especially when he’s describing his new online dating site, the snazzily named Vlirty. Norrell came up with the idea for Vlirty, which allows users to video chat,…
The release of an EPA report detailing suspected groundwater contamination from gas drilling operations in Wyoming comes just as Colorado is weighing tougher restrictions and wider disclosures about the hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” process — and may serve as Exhibit A for environmental groups opposing the practice. All of which…
On Wednesday evening, a handful of CU-Boulder students will be trying to improve the planet — by handing out condoms. But not just any condoms: Sir Richard’s Condoms, from a Boulder company that’s bringing the one-for-one charity model associated with TOMS Shoes to love gloves…
Although Kristen Parker, the surgical tech who infected dozens of Rose Medical Center patients with the hepatitis C virus in 2008 and 2009, is now serving a thirty-year prison sentence, the fallout from her crimes continues to keep a scrum of attorneys busy. In recent court filings in a patient…
For some of us, the day after Thanksgiving is for quiet family time and home-cooked leftovers. For all too many, though, it’s a grisly rush to the Black Friday sales at the mall and a lot of scarfing of fast food. Which makes this an excellent time to check out…
In 1987, Chris Gibbons was charged with revitalizing a Littleton economy that just saw it’s largest employer, construction aggregate supplier Martin Marietta, lay off about 7,000 employees amid a recession. And despite long odds, his Economic Gardening program was such a success that even Harvard has noticed…
As reported in this space on Friday, a new study from Common Cause tracks how oil and gas interests spent $747 million on lobbying and campaign donations since 2001 to win congressional support for “fracking,” hydraulic fracturing drilling methods that involve using toxic chemicals. Which may be why the House…
As the oil and gas industry has turned increasingly to hydraulic fracturing to extract reserves, fears about groundwater contamination from the toxic chemicals used in “fracking” have intensified. And that’s prompted a $747 million spending spree by major industry players in an effort to allay those fears and influence key…
It’s only been two years since Republic Airways Holdings bested Southwest in the Frontier Airlines sweepstakes — but the Republic-Frontier pairing is already headed for Splitsville. This week, Republic CEO Bryan Bedford said the firm is looking at selling Frontier, prompting speculation that Southwest or JetBlue may become bidders. But…
It’s distressing to learn that the good folks of Bent County are shelling out thousands of dollars a month to lobbyists in an effort to “repurpose” the decrepit, soon-to-be-shuttered state prison at Fort Lyon. After all, we suggested five amazingly practical new uses for the old place months ago, and…
Yesterday, after three years, more than 80,000 public comments, and countless hours reviewing ponderous economic and environmental issues — in other words, pretty speedy for government work — Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar unveiled the Obama administration’s slimmed-down plan touting “solar energy zones” spanning seventeen sites in six western…
Update, below: Wells Fargo will be the target of several actions this week by the Colorado Progressive Coalition, including plans to “move in” to a branch on Thursday with lamps, pillows and coffee pots to protest the bank’s high number of foreclosures. Dubbed the Mile High Showdown, the actions are…
A few years back, reporting on a convention of prison officials and vendors who supplied them with everything from stab-proof vests to suicide-proof toilets, I noted that America’s spending on the corrections industry had reached $40 billion a year. According to two new documentaries worth checking out, that figure has…
