Today, Mayor Michael Hancock unveiled a new economic development strategy — the NASCAR-y sounding “JumpStart 2012: Revving Up Denver’s Economic Engine.” It includes a host of specific initiatives in seven broad areas, including a plan to develop a $20 million “pot of money,” in Hancock’s words, to loan funds to…
Should bakers and cake-makers be able to sell delicious wares made in home kitchens at farmer’s markets and roadside stands? That’s the question lawmakers will debate today when they take up House Bill 12-1027, the so-called “cottage food bill.” Sponsored by Republican Representative Laura Bradford, the measure would allow counties…
This week’s cover story, “Drilled, Baby, Drilled,” reports on the efforts of a group of federal auditors to hold energy companies accountable for underpaid royalties on oil and gas leases. On the eve of its publication, the U.S. Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) announced a $25 million settlement with…
The good news about Denver International Airport’s ambitious South Terminal Redevelopment Program (STRP) is that it’s only eight months behind schedule and a projected few million bucks over its half-billion-dollar budget at this point, despite the loss of its “signature” architect, Santiago Calatrava, over artistic (i.e., financial) differences. And the…
An increase in the number of home foreclosures has led to another housing-related phenomenon: the rise of the accidental landlord. These are the folks who buy foreclosed properties and instead of moving in, rent them out to tenants as a way to make money. But sometimes, says Nancy Burke of…
Famous for its ski bums, Aspen also has a modest contingent of real bums — although the homeless shelter downtown isn’t exactly as celebrated as the haunts of the 1 percenters. But that may soon change. Fresh on the heels of the uproar over the new sociology study The Slums…
After weeks of rumors that the local LGBT publication was on the block, Out Front Colorado officials announced yesterday that the mag has been sold to Transformation Communication Group. What exactly comes with this news, we’re not sure yet, but in recent months the main concern has been financial security…
Few people can endure the scrutiny involved in a lengthy New Yorker profile with their mystique intact. But the magazine hardly makes a dent in the armor encasing Phil Anschutz, despite the wealth of information about the “secretive mogul” amassed in Connie Bruck’s “The Man Who Owns L.A.,” in the…
It took nine years of fighting for money the government insisted it wasn’t owed. It probably cost him his job, too. But last week, former federal auditor Bobby Maxwell and the Justice Department finally reached a $26 million settlement with Anadarko Petroleum over underpaid royalties on oil leases in the…
Last night, after a long lecture about neighborhood crime and a short drive for membership, the Sloan’s Lake Citizen’s Group confronted its single largest neighbor: the Broncos’ stadium. After the deadline to increase signage at Sports Authority Field at Mile High was delayed last week, stadium district officials are bringing…
Tim Tebow lit up Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Sunday, but plans to upgrade the corporate signage at the stadium are still causing a few sparks. As the deadline for public comment passed on Monday, the idea wasn’t scoring any points with neighbors, which is why a final…
Colorado currently hosts the number two space economy in the country, but the possibility of adding a spaceport on the Front Range could raise our rank while raising the industry’s stakes. Whether you plan to see the moon in your lifetime or not, the issue is a hot topic for…
With only five days left to voice public concerns over plans for extra football stadium signage, opponents of Sports Authority Field at Mile High’s new corporate branding are getting creative. Most recently, this includes comparing the proposed new signs to other large emblems across the cityscape. When it comes to…
Last week marked the end of the Metropolitan Football Stadium tax, the ten cents residents have paid on every $100 since 1990. With the sales tax’s end comes the news that Sports Authority Stadium at Mile High is officially paid off. But it hasn’t reached the end zone quite yet:…
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,…
