Opinion & Commentary

In the days after the Denver Department of Public Works turned down a request by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to place a 250-pound statue of a bloodied and bandaged chicken — “McCruelty,” PETA dubbed it — on the 16th Street Mall, saying that it would violate the…

While checking out the Biennial of the Americas website today, I spotted a new feature: host restaurants in the “what’s hot” corner. Click the link, and you find 25 local restaurants — ranging from 8 Rivers to Black Pearl to Vesta Dipping Grill — that are either hyping the Biennial-appropriate…

Money can’t buy you everything — although it can certainly smooth the way for a while. The Hasan family fortune provided the base for the Hasam Family Foundation, which paid $300,000 to Scott McInnis for his “Musings on Water.” And it also helped fuel the political ambitions of son Ali…

“Not a peep,” said spokeswoman Ann Williams when I asked last week if the Denver Department of Public Works had heard anything from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals after the city declared that displaying PETA’s “McCruelty,” a 250-pound statue of a bloodied and bandaged chicken, would violate…

The White Nose Syndrome sounds like a relic of the Studio 54 era. But the fungus, which has been killing bats in caves in the eastern United States, has spread far enough west that as early as today, the U.S. Forest Service Region 2 office in Golden will announce that…

“It’s a great day to be in Lone Tree!,” promises that small suburb’s web site. But yesterday wasn’t such a great day for Lone Tree officials, who discovered in this Denver Post story that John Andrews had named the guiding manifesto for this weekend’s Western Conservative summit the “Lone Tree…

Denver International Airport has thirty pieces of art in its permanent collection, not including “Mountain Mirage,” which will soon disappear entirely, and Anubis, the Tut-touting statue at DIA until late this month. Too bad it won’t be around longer: I like having the God of the Underworld greeting visitors at…

Welcome to Denver,” chirps Mayor John Hickenlooper as the train pulls into the terminal at Denver International Airport. “The Mile High City.” But the fun doesn’t stop at 5,280 feet — because the sky’s the limit for stories about DIA. The airport has already inspired a planeload of conspiracy theories…

Aliens could be one of the hottest issues on the November ballot. Not illegal ones from south of the border, but those sneaky bastards from up in the sky. Would-be voters have only a few days left to register for the August 10 primary. But even if they decide to…

Last year, it was potato salad. This year, the Denver Public Library is making book on salsa, asking readers to submit their best recipes; the top six will battle it out for $600 in prizes during Salsa Wars. Organizer Chris Loffelmacher promises that this Fresh City Life program, held in…

City boosters are calling this Denver’s blockbuster summer, but we were still surprised to see publicity bust out across the border, with a sign for the Denver Art Museum’s show featuring King Tut — he of the missing penis — an hour outside of Casper on Highway 220. So near,…

The Minturn Saloon has been named “best Colorado ski bar” by Outside magazine in the July issue — and the venerable watering hole, which is just starting its 35th year and occupies a building in Minturn that dates back to 1901, deserves the honor. “On any winter day,” Outside writes,…

Channel 12, once an upstart public television station, has turned a respectable thirty, with a respectable new brand, Colorado Public Television, replacing the old KBDI. But tonight’s installment of Colorado Inside Out, the weekly current events show, will feature a completely disresputable look back at 1935. On my part, at…

There are a lot of weird religious stories coming out of Colorado Springs — the city that two decades ago set out to recruit religious-organization headquarters as an economic development move. But this could be the weirdest. Looks like it’s time to change that sign on the stretch of I-25…

A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves and yet transcends even home and family. He must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death, for this is written into the fabric of his being. Listen carefully now: you…

Colorado gets an A in “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future,” a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to “F as in Fat,” 38 states have adult obesity rates above 25 percent — when in 1991, no state…

Truth is definitely stranger than fiction, with the 19th Annual Colorado Book Awards announcement in Aspen last Friday just offering more proof. For starters, the main speaker was John Hickenlooper, the former geologist turned brewpub-owner turned Denver mayor who’s now running for governor. No author could concoct that character!…

Jane Norton isn’t the only one gunning for Ken Buck. Colorado’s rogue Republican candidate for Michael Bennet’s U.S. Senate seat became the subject of some national target practice yesterday, in a Politico piece headlined “Primary Words Haunt Ken Buck.” Words like “Social Security,” which Buck once called a “horrible policy.”…

Jane Norton has taken the kid gloves off, and delivers a major smack to Ken Buck, the Weld County District Attorney who’s challenging her for the Republican Senate nomination, in a new radio commercial that’s airing on KHOW this morning. There’s even an ominous link to the Clinton administration. Whack!…

Early on April 26, the Denver Police Department got a report of a fight at CityPub, the watering hole at 3575 South Yosemite Street that’s a sibling to CityGrille. In the bar, the officers found 41-year-old Steven Minturn unconcious. He was taken to Swedish Medical Center, where he was declared…