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Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword‘s news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

michaelrobertscolo@gmail.com

Joseph Seeds: How I Survived a Nearly Deadly Mistake on Capitol Peak 14er

By Michael Roberts

Last week, as we’ve reported, Denver’s Joseph Seeds Jr. was rescued from Capitol Peak, a fourteener in the Elk Mountains range near Aspen, where five people have died in 2017 to date. In this post, Seeds, an extremely thoughtful and experienced hiker who’s reached the summit of four-dozen fourteeners to date, shares his survival story, detailing his preparations, the trek to the summit and a brief lapse of concentration during his descent that could easily have led to his death. He also offers tips that, quite simply, are capable of saving lives.

Top 20 Tweets About Broncos Breaking Crybaby Philip Rivers’s Heart Again

By Michael Roberts

During the nightcap of Monday Night Football’s debut for the 2017-2018 NFL regular season, your Denver Broncos found a new and exciting way to rip Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers’s heart out of his chest. And Broncos fans on Twitter took delight in his misery, hate-tweeting at Rivers before, during and after Denver’s nail-biting 24-21 victory.

Best and Worst Colorado Community Colleges, According to New Study

By Michael Roberts

Over the years, Colorado colleges in general, and public colleges in particular, have performed weakly in national rankings. Unfortunately, the same scenario has played out in a new study of the best community colleges in the state. Nine Colorado institutions were analyzed among 728 nationwide, with only one school from here landing in the top half of the rankings and the lowest-rated facility finishing only fifteen slots away from dead last. And the latter’s location is mighty close to home.

Eric Bolling Jr. 2nd Celebrity Son to Die of Overdose in Colorado in 41 Days

By Michael Roberts

In Colorado, worries have been rising about the number of opioid-related fatalities here. Now, the deaths of two celebrity offspring in the state have put these local concerns on the national agenda. Eric Bolling Jr., the nineteen-year-old son of recently ousted Fox News anchor Eric Bolling, died on September 8 of an apparent overdose at CU Boulder, where he was a student. His death took place just 41 days after the July 29 passing of Max Barry, 22-year-old son of Nashville mayor Megan Barry, in Littleton.

Supermarkets Won’t Build in Montbello: How Residents Are Fighting Back

By Michael Roberts

In September 2016, we told you about attempts to convince a national grocery chain to build in Montbello, a diverse Denver neighborhood that qualifies as a food desert because it doesn’t have a single full-service supermarket. A year later, every major retailer approached by the community has declined to launch such an effort, even though Montbello was named America’s fastest growing “suburb” in a survey released earlier this year.

Trump Team Backs Baker Who Refused to Make Wedding Cake for Gay Couple

By Michael Roberts

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would consider whether Denver’s Masterpiece Cakeshop discriminated against a gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, by refusing to make them a wedding cake just over a year after the case was rejected by the Colorado Supreme Court. Now, the administration of President Donald Trump, as represented by the Department of Justice, has weighed in, filing an amicus brief that sides with baker Jack Phillips, who says the denial was based on his religious beliefs.

SMH! Here’s How Much Priciest House and Condo in Denver Cost Last Month

By Michael Roberts

According to the latest Denver Metro Real Estate Trend Market Report, accessible below, the average price of a home in the area came in at $434,478 for the month of August 2017. That represents a 2.75 percent decline from the previous month but was more than 8 percent higher than the same time last year. And speaking of higher, the prices for the most expensive home and condo sold in metro Denver last month were absolutely eye-popping.

Congressional Medical Pot Biz Threat: From “Nothingburger” to “Alarming”

By Michael Roberts

Last night, September 6, the U.S. House of Representatives’ rules committee blocked floor consideration of an amendment that would have prevented the Department of Justice, headed by pot-hating Attorney General Jeff Sessions, from interfering with state-legal medical marijuana. When something similar happened this past June, the Marijuana Majority’s Tom Angell, a major national voice for progressive cannabis policies, branded the development a “gigantic nothingburger” despite claims to the contrary by Smart Approaches to Marijuana, an anti-legalization group headed by recent Westword profile subject Kevin Sabet. But to Angell, the latest development is reason for much more concern.

How Joseph Seeds Nearly Became Sixth to Die on Capitol Peak This Year

By Michael Roberts

Yesterday, September 6, Joseph Seeds Jr. was rescued by helicopter from Capitol Peak, a fourteener in the Elk Mountains range, where five climbers died over a 43 day period between July 15 and August 26. He avoided becoming the sixth casualty on what has been described as Colorado’s most dangerous fourteener thanks to terrific work by extremely busy rescue crews located in the area in and around Aspen and his tremendous experience when it comes to scaling the biggest peaks in the state.

Threesome on Video Leads to School of Mines Sexual-Conduct Lawsuit

By Michael Roberts

Shortly after a former first-year student sued the University of Denver over what his complaint describes as “false allegations of non-consensual sexual contact” with a fellow DU freshman that led to his expulsion, the law firm representing him has filed a similar suit against the Colorado School of Mines. The Mines student in question says he was never given a chance to properly defend himself against inaccurate claims that he’d taken advantage of a drunk female student during a threesome and captured and distributed a video of the encounter.

Why Shawn Geerdes Got 144 Years for Pot Murder/Arson

By Michael Roberts

Shawn Geerdes has been ordered to spend 144 years in prison for murder and arson in the death of Jason Dosa, his partner in a cannabis business. The length of the sentence speaks to the brutality of the crime, Geerdes’s hefty previous criminal history and the determination of the 18th Judicial District DA’s office, headed by 2018 gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler, who maintained in a recent Westword op-ed that at least eleven marijuana-related homicides have taken place in his jurisdiction since limited legalization of recreational pot in January 2014.

Marco Dorado, Lauded in Senate by Michael Bennet, on Trump and DACA

By Michael Roberts

President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, prompted the walkout of more than a thousand Denver students on September 5. Among the demonstrators making their feelings heard was Marco Dorado, whose story we shared in a March post headlined “Meet Marco Dorado, Exhibit A in What’s Wrong With Trump’s Immigration Policies.” But yesterday, someone else told Dorado’s tale: Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, who used him as an example of why eliminating DACA is cruel and counterproductive during a speech delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

What You Think You Know About Sex Offenders Is Wrong, Attorney Says

By Michael Roberts

As our Alan Prendergast reported, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch has ruled that Colorado’s sex-offender registry violates the due-process rights of three plaintiffs, thereby amounting to cruel and unusual punishment. Boulder attorney Alison Ruttenberg, who filed the case in 2013, sees the opinion as the potential death knell for a law-enforcement tool that, in her view, perpetuates factually dubious notions that fall apart when examined in an evenhanded way.

Tenth Fourteener Death of 2017: Remembering Dr. Jamie Rupp

By Michael Roberts

Dr. Jamie Rupp, a Colorado native who’d relocated to Wyoming, has been identified as the man who died Sunday, September 3, on Challenger Point, a fourteener in Custer County, south of Cañon City. He is at least the tenth person to perish climbing a fourteener in Colorado in 2017, including an astonishing five casualties on Capitol Peak, in the Elk Mountains, over a span of just 43 days.

Top Ten Tweets Ripping “Traitor A$$hole” Brock Osweiler’s Return to Broncos

By Michael Roberts

Because of an injury to second-string bust-in-the-making quarterback Paxton Lynch, your Denver Broncos have signed Brock Osweiler to the team. Yes, the very same Brock Osweiler who left the squad last year in favor of the Houston Texans, mostly because he was upset that the team didn’t dump future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning in favor of him during the march to victory in Super Bowl 50. And fans haven’t forgotten, blasting him on Twitter much as they did when he signed a $72 million deal to split — and when the Broncos bested him and the Texans last October.

My I-70 Labor Day Weekend Clusterf*ck Diary

By Michael Roberts

As we noted in this space last year, the Interstate 70 express toll lane near Idaho Springs has actually reduced mountain driving hell. But that doesn’t mean the traffic situation from Denver into and out of the mountain corridor is anywhere near acceptable, especially on summer holidays like the just concluded Labor Day weekend, as my loved ones and I learned through bitter personal experience.

The One Metro-Denver Place Where Rent Is Actually Going Down

By Michael Roberts

As we’ve reported, rent prices in metro Denver are finally starting to moderate, but they’re still up by a considerable amount over this time last year. The trend continues in the latest Denver rent report for September, which shows that prices are higher than they were twelve months earlier in all nine area communities analyzed. But the numbers are leveling off on a month-to-month basis, where only one of the nine experienced a rent increase of more than 1 percent since August, and costs actually fell in another metro town.

Why Mile High Stadium Could Keep Sports Authority Name for Years

By Michael Roberts

For more than a year, the Denver Broncos have been desperately trying to line up a new naming sponsor for Mile High Stadium following the bankruptcy and subsequent collapse of Sports Authority, the athletic-gear retailer that previously held the rights. Now the team says it’s likely the Sports Authority Field at Mile High moniker will still be on the facility when the 2017-2018 season kicks off September 11 against the Los Angeles Charges, and a branding authority says it could stick around for a lot longer than that.

Joshua Witt’s Self-Stabbing, Neo-Nazis and Risks of Social Media

By Michael Roberts

As demonstrated by a racially charged protest gone fatally wrong in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month, white supremacists have no shame. But if they did, they’d probably be humiliated by even the slightest association with Colorado’s own Joshua Witt, who claimed to have been stabbed because of his resemblance to a neo-Nazi, only to later admit that the wound was self-inflicted.

The Fan’s Alfred Williams Gets Real About D-Mac, the Broncos and More

By Michael Roberts

Alfred Williams, who teams with recent Westword interview subject Darren “D-Mac” McKee weekday afternoons on 104.3 The Fan’s The Drive with Big Al & D-Mac, isn’t just one of the metro area’s most popular radio hosts. He’s also a local sports legend thanks to a stint anchoring the defensive line for the University of Colorado Boulder, which earned him a national championship and membership into the College Football Hall of Fame, and a three-year run with the Denver Broncos that included not one but two Super Bowl victories. And in the following interview, he tells his story to date in the sort of straight-forward, no-bull manner that’s long been his trademark.