Wake-Up Call: JonBenét Ramsey and 1990s nostalgia

As the awful economic news keeps pouring out (Agile Group, anyone?), you can understand the urge to look back at the good old days. Even the bad crimes of the good old days. And so yesterday, the new Boulder District Attorney and the old Boulder Police Chief held a joint…

Wake-Up Call: Everyone’s seeing their shadows

Punxsutawney Phil saw his own shadow this morning, thereby forecasting six more weeks of winter — and that’s appropriate. There are shadows lurking everywhere, threatening whatever bright spots try to break out of the gloom. Tom Daschle — who was hailed as the person who might be able to untangle…

A chicken-fried burrito at Elway’s? Be still, my arteries

When Elway’s opened in Cherry Creek, it immediately set itself apart from other steakhouses by adding an unusual element: fun. Not cut-your-tie off steakhouse fun, but fun in the way food was presented, putting Elway’s a cut above the other upscale meat-and-potatoes joints around town. (New sibling Elway’s Downtown is…

Wake-Up Call: Calling all Colorado crackpots

From the penthouse to the doghouse — or is that the big house? Yesterday, a new Pew poll ranked Denver number one as the big city where people would most like to live. Apparently it’s already tops among crooks who can’t think straight — much less shoot straight. Yesterday, Tharin…

Wake-Up Call: We’re number one… for now

These days, we’ll take good news where we can get it. And this morning, we got it from the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center, which just released the results of a poll conducted this fall, asking American adults for their favorite big city, the place they’d like to call home…

There auto be a law against Mexicans warming up their cars

Dear Mexican: I am a naturalized (legal) hispano in the U.S., and I just realized what the “illegal” craze is about. What immigrant-bashing citizens are trying to protect here are people like…me. Consider what this concerned woman said to John McCain during a public meeting in New Hampshire last year…

Wake-Up Call: horsing around

When I check my e-mail every morning, just as I was once greeted by long-lost Nigerian cousins in need of cash, I now find countless would-be friends. But none of these entreaties has been as appealing as the invitation Monday to join “DIA’s Heinous Blue Mustang Has Got to Go,”…

Wake-Up Call: Fasten your seatbelts

The total number of job losses across the country announced yesterday range from 65,000 (according to the New York Times) to over 71,000 (CNN). But no matter how you add things up, the outlook looks gloomy. Better polish your rose-colored glasses for Colorado’s dual announcements coming today: Governor Bill Ritter…

Wake-Up Call: An end to musical chairs

Ken Salazar has been sworn in as Secretary of the Interior. Michael Bennet is now a U.S. senator. Tom Boasberg is taking over as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, promising to “accelerate reform.” That leaves just one more chair to fill — the U.S. Attorney’s seat vacated by Republican Troy…

Pizzeria Mundo is closed, with a rent bill on the door

Since we haven’t been able to make contact with Pizzeria Mundo, a noble attempt to offer international pizzas that’s faced numerous challenges since it opened, yesterday I made my way to the front door of the restaurant at 1312 17th Street  (shown here in happier times).This mission wasn’t easy: The…

Wake-Up Call: The sky’s the limit for Jeff Peckman

When John Hickenlooper was a favorite to take Ken Salazar’s Senate slot, local politicos slobbered over the idea of a winner-take-all race for the Denver mayor’s seat in May. But Michael Bennet’s appointment to the Senate ended that game of musical chairs, and now the last outstanding issue that might…

The Mexican’s got a beef with thick steaks

Dear Mexican: Mi hermano y yo tenemos un dispute. We all know that Mexicans love their bistec sliced muy thin, but why? My brother is adamant that the diet of free-range vacas mexicanas results in tough meat, necessitating a thin slice for easy mastication. I think the reason is purely…

Wake-Up Call: Meanwhile, back at the ranch

After all the Washington, D.C., pomp and circumstances (one major circumstance being that, Barack Obama’s astonishing rise aside, most of those in power are indeed insiders), it’s refreshing to consider Colorado’s citizen legislature, which has a hundred part-time lawmakers who work until early May, then return to their real lives…

Wake-Up Call: Barack to the future

In so many ways, the Democratic National Convention of last August seems like a dream, a dream that packed the streets and businesses of Denver, and sent images of this city around the world. Looking out the window now, I can barely make out the silhouette of Invesco Field at…

Catch the inauguration at Cora Faye’s Cafe

The coffee’s already on at Cora Faye’s, the soul-food restaurant that Jason Sheehan raved about back in July 2007. The TV’s on, too, making this restaurant at 2861 Colorado Boulevard one of the best spots in the city for watching the inauguration of Barack Obama.Channel 31 host Shaul Turner is…

Wake-Up Call: Naming names for U.S. attorney

Right before he headed into his lovefest/confirmation hearing for the Secretary of the Interior post, still-Senator Ken Salazar and new Senator Mark Udall sent President-elect Barack Obama the names of three candidates for U.S. attorney, since that post generally goes with the winning party, and Republican Troy Eid has tendered…

Wake-Up Call: Pressing engagements at the Stock Show

“Want to be smarter? Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post and read them for a half-hour each morning.” We were on our annual rounds of the Hall of Education at the Stock Show, and stopping by the Denver Newspaper Agency booth to see what shwag the DNA…

What is the fascination with Cesar Chavez?

Dear Mexican: What is it with Cesar Chavez? Recently in Dallas, we’ve gone through three attempts to name streets after Mr. Chavez. In one instance, the plan was to remove the name of two brothers who were city founders from a street named after them and rename the street Cesar…

Bistro Vendome’s mussel deal is no shell game

Restaurants are outdoing themselves offering bargains this month, trying to bolster what’s always a blah month. But it’s going to be tough to beat the deal that Bistro Vendome, the charming French restaurant tucked into the back of Larimer Square, is offering in January: moules & frites for $9. Usually…