Heat is on for drivers under the influence — whether of alcohol or pot

Before the ball drops tonight, the cops could get a drop on you: Once again, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol have teamed up with 76 law-enforcement agencies throughout Colorado to increase DUI enforcement through Thursday, January 2. During last year’s New Year’s Eve enforcement period,…

What’s in store for Colorado on January 1?

The calls and e-mails keep coming, sometimes several an hour. And they all want to know the same thing: On January 1, where will they be able to buy pot? Good question. The state just released its first list of 136 completed applications for recreational marijuana stores on Monday, but…

The Mexican rolls out his annual holiday gift guide

Dear Readers: Behold your favorite Mexican’s annual Christmas gift guide, where I give shout-outs to some of my favorite books that deserve your money this holiday season! And for once, I won’t recommend my books — ¡Ask a Mexican!, Orange County: A Personal History, and Taco USA: How Mexican Food…

These social problems are economic, not cultural

Dear Mexican: You mocked and didn’t answer the legitimate questions raised in a letter to you a couple of weeks ago, about the guy who didn’t see a rosy future for a Mexican-led America. The writer correctly referred to serious problems in the Hispanic community such as poor academic performance…

Replace your java with atole and Mexican hot chocolate!

Dear Mexican: I find myself at odds with my peers because I don’t like coffee or coffee drinks. I need to find a substitute beverage that will be tasty yet somehow hip. I’ve heard that Mexicans have magical chocolate drinks called atole, champurrado and chocolate, but I don’t know what…

Manny Salzman and his bridge light up LoDo

In 1980, Manny Salzman and his wife, Joanne, moved to LoDo from Hilltop before lower downtown had even been nicknamed LoDo, much less turned into a hot entertainment/residential area. They took over a four-story warehouse on Wynkoop Street, turning the 3,500 top-floor space into their home and even installing a…

The U.S. should allow more Mexicans in legally

Dear Mexican: My father and mother were able to come to the United States because once the “yellow scare” was over, no one seemed to mind that Chinese were coming here by the boatload. Since my parents were given visas and green cards pretty easily, my father was able to…

Update: Evie Hudak will resign Colorado Senate seat

State senator Evie Hudak will resign, as Fox 31’s Eli Stokels first reported this morning. In the process, she will save her district the cost of a recall election, save Colorado Democrats from losing their Senate majority, and save Coloradans a week more of the rancorous actitivites that have bedeviled…

How do things work in the romance Reconquista?

Dear Mexican: Long time reader, first-time writer about this noble Aztlán. I watched the Brown Pride marches of the early 1970s and heard the shouts of La Raza and how it was going to be different now that the “Chicano” had arrived. The Mexicans were going to change things for…

What just passed Denver as the number one cool city for millennials?

We’re now number two! It was big, big news in November 2011 when the Denver metro area suddenly topped the list of the country’s “cool cities.”That was according to William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, who studied the numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and…