Hentzell Park: Did Denver officials ignore law in land swap?

A lawsuit filed by a citizens’ group, seeking to put the brakes on a plan by Denver city officials to swap an open space area in the Cherry Creek corridor for an office building, contends that Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration has violated a provision of the city charter that prohibits…

Photos: Colorado River battle against a serious enemy — invasive tamarisk

The Colorado River is under attack…from millions of invasive tamarisk bushes. Wildlife and native greens have been choked out and recreational activities have dwindled as the banks of the river are barraged by the black-trunked salt cedars. But people aren’t letting these obtrusive bushes take over the river without a…

Photos: Monsanto protest at Colorado State Capitol

Monsanto was one of the first companies to genetically modify a plant cell, leading the way to genetically modified foods — and it created “Roundup Ready” seeds that are essentially immune to the popular weed killer. Such achievements, as well as the firm’s past association with chemicals such as DDT…

Fracking documentaries square off in Boulder tonight

Filmmakers Josh Fox and Phelim McAleer are having quite an argument, but mostly on film and not in the same room. Both men will be in Boulder tonight at the same time to present documentaries that claim to expose the truth about using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in natural gas…

Auraria campus expansion: See plans for new athletic fields and more

This week’s cover story, “Ghosts of Auraria,” delves into the half-buried history of the campus, which is moving rapidly forward with hefty development plans that include three new flagship student-services buildings, a hotel, and a leap across Colfax to build new athletic fields on a contaminated industrial site. The changes…

Pinon Canyon expansion battle: Will troop reductions help or hurt?

As the Pentagon contemplates different ways to achieve reductions in force in the ramp-down from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, business leaders in Colorado Springs are pushing for a plan that would actually bring more troops to Fort Carson — while ranchers battling expansion of a maneuver site in southeastern…

Cycling: Should Denver consider a yield-stop law?

Earlier this month, news broke that Aspen is considering a yield-stop cycling law — meaning that bicyclists would be legally allowed to yield at a stop sign as opposed to completely halting. At least two other mountain communities — Breckenridge and Dillon — have similar yield-stop laws. But would such…

Rocky Mountain National Park’s sheepish new logo is a ram job

Here at the Wild-Urban Interface Desk, we’re puzzling over the new logo just unveiled by Rocky Mountain National Park in celebration of its centennial, chosen two years early from close to a hundred entries. As you can see, it’s a highly retro design, strong on pine cones and columbines and…

Hentzell Park: Mayor Hancock forges ahead with open space land swap

Despite an emphatic recommendation against the move by her advisory board, Denver Parks and Recreation manager Lauri Dannemiller has okayed Mayor Michael Hancock’s plan to swap open space in the Cherry Creek corridor for an office building downtown. The decision sets up a showdown between the administration and some Hampden…

Ongoing drought news great for beetles, bad for us

It’s now official: In some areas of Colorado, 2012 was the driest year since 2000. A late dump of snow in December has failed to take portions of the Western Slope and the southern part of the state out of the “extreme drought” category. And if the weather doesn’t take…