Wednesday, August 2, will mark the grand opening of youbaby Skin Spa, a new business in Lafayette whose specialties include tattoo removal. In advance of the big event, co-owners and sisters Susan Melching and Nina Smith spoke with us about the ten most common reasons people in Colorado (and plenty of other places, in all likelihood) decide to have their tattoos removed.
Darius Ratcliff has been found guilty of first-degree assault against the peace officer who shot him on July 31, 2016, the day before his twentieth birthday. Exactly a year later, on this July 31, he’ll be back in court for a hearing related to a separate murder charge. And that prosecution will be followed by four more related to multiple counts of attempted murder and burglary, as well as a failed escape attempt.
In the days following our July 25 report that Eric Ashby, 31, had gone missing after a late June accident on the Arkansas River while searching for a $2 million treasure allegedly hidden by New Mexico author Forrest Fenn, the story has gone national, with outlets such as Good Morning America telling the tale. And the interest in what may be the third death related to the treasure hunt has accelerated after thus-far-unidentified human remains were found along the Arkansas River, where Ashby disappeared.
On Sunday, July 30, my wife Deb and I missed by approximately five minutes being involved in a horrific traffic accident on Interstate 70 near the 40 East exit that killed two people and injured six. As such, we were in the first wave of travelers stuck in a mammoth traffic jam resulting from eastbound I-70’s closure, which lasted just over seven hours. The incident took place at what may be the worst possible place for such an incident in the Denver area, and at the worst possible time, when thousands of people were returning to the city from a summer weekend in the mountains.
Steffan Tubbs, longtime host of KOA’s Colorado Morning News, was reportedly arrested early Sunday, July 30, on suspicion of domestic violence, disturbance via phone. While local law enforcement hasn’t released an official report about the arrest at this writing, the charge typically involves a threat delivered either by voice or text message.
Even with more than 13,000 new apartment units expected to be available in metro Denver by the end of 2017, rent prices remain high in the city and suburbs, with a two-bedroom in the priciest current neighborhood going for nearly $3,000 per month. But that’s a bargain compared to the most expensive condos available in Denver right now. Indeed, the rent for one of them actually hits the five-figure mark.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has affirmed the conviction of Harold Henthorn, who authorities say killed his second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn, by pushing her off Deer Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2012. In so doing, the jurists unanimously rejected Henthorn’s argument that the original court biased the jury against him by allowing testimony about the suspicious death of Henthorn’s first wife, Lynn, and a serious accident suffered by Toni the year before her death.
A settlement has been reached in the case of Grant Neal, a CSU Pueblo student and football player who was suspended for what a witness believed was a non-consensual sexual encounter with a female athletic trainer. But as part of the pact, neither the university nor Neal’s legal representatives will say how the matter was resolved or if any money changed hands.
This morning, July 27, AM 760, an iHeartMedia station that experienced a major shakeup just over three months ago with the departure of former wide receiver turned broadcaster Ed McCaffrey, as described in our previous coverage, on view below, has undergone a format flip. The outlet’s mix of syndicated programming and local sports coverage has been revamped as Orange & Blue Radio, whose sole focus will be the Denver Broncos.
Pit bulls are banned in eight Colorado cities, with the policy having resulted in thousands of dogs from the breed getting euthanized in Denver alone over the years. But far from being outlawed, a dog named Kara is actually enforcing the law as the only official narcotics-detection pit bull for a state law-enforcement agency, the all-volunteer Colorado Mounted Rangers.
Convicted meth dealer Raymond Cordova has pleaded guilty to desecrating a human body in the tragic case of Kelly Mae Myers, an eighteen-year-old Grand Junction resident. Authorities now believe Myers, who went missing in late 2014, died of an overdose while in the company of Cordova, who cut up her body and stuffed it into a suitcase that was found several months later.
Rocker and gun lover Ted Nugent has waded into the 2018 race for Colorado governor, Facebook-posting an endorsement of 18th Judicial District DA George Brauchler, who’s best known nationally for having prosecuted the Aurora theater shooting case. As the Nuge sang on the 1977 hard-rock classic album Cat Scratch Fever, “Wang dang sweet poontang!”
It’s just over a month before the 2017 edition of Denver Go Topless Day, which is scheduled for August 26. But in the run-up to that event, Fort Collins continues to fight a temporary restraining order issued earlier this year against the enforcement of a public-indecency ordinance that includes the words “the breast or breasts of a female,” despite a statement from the ruling judge that he would likely rule against the community on constitutional grounds. This stance exasperates co-plaintiff Brit Hoagland, who continues to follow the case even after leaving FoCo, as well as regular criticism by residents and officials opposed to topless equality.
Thirteen people associated with Hoppz’ Cropz stores in Colorado Springs, including co-owners Joseph Hooper, also known as “Joey Hops,” and Dara Wheatley, nicknamed “Boss Lady,” have been indicted on charges that they illegally distributed nearly 200 pounds of marijuana in a variation on the sort of “free” pot giveaway schemes that date back to the days before and just after the launch of legal recreational cannabis sales.
Kent Thiry, the CEO of Denver-based kidney dialysis giant DaVita, who was recently satirized in brutal fashion on an episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, has opted out of running for Colorado governor in 2018. But while this development removes one well-heeled potential guv hopeful from the equation, the amount of money expected to be spent by current competitors and those still flirting with candidacy will likely be record-setting.
Prosecutor George Brauchler, who’s running for Colorado governor in 2018, is using Shawn Geerdes’s conviction for murdering Jason Dosa nearly three years ago as an opportunity to criticize legal pot even though the marijuana grow in which the two partnered was illegal.
Although rent prices in Denver have been sky high in recent years due in part to a severe shortage of available units, that situation may be changing. A new report estimates that more than 13,000 new apartments will open up in Denver over the course of 2017, with the majority of them situated in some of the city’s hottest and most rapidly growing areas.
Eric Ashby, 31, remains missing after his raft reportedly flipped on a challenging part of the Arkansas River on June 28. A friend who’s leading online efforts to raise awareness about the situation believes Ashby died searching for what’s described as a $2 million treasure hidden by New Mexico author Forrest Fenn. If he’s right, Ashby is the third person from Colorado to perish while looking for this prize in just over a year and a half, and the second in two months.
The fifteen-year-old boy who was pulled from Cherry Creek Reservoir on July 22, as recounted in our previous coverage, on view below, has died. The teen has been identified as Trent Nims, and while the final cause of death hasn’t been determined, drowning is suspected. He is at least the fourteenth person to die at a Colorado water attraction in 2017. Continue for our earlier report.
Amadou & Mariam, who headline at the Boulder Theater on July 29, may be the planet’s unlikeliest dance music icons: He’s 62, she’s 58, and they’ve spent decades as both musical and romantic partners following their 1975 meeting at the Institute for the Young Blind in their native Mali, Africa. But if you can listen to Bofou Safou, a remix-heavy EP released in advance of La Confusion, an album due on September 22, without moving, it’s probably because you’re distracted by the priest giving you last rites.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that a company acted improperly when it fired medical marijuana patient Cristina Barbuto after she tested positive for pot. The Colorado Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion in an analogous 2015 case, determining that DISH had the right to dismiss paralyzed MMJ patient Brandon Coats following his own positive test for cannabis. And while the Barbuto finding won’t directly impact the Colorado case, Coats’s lawyer sees a trend toward granting more patient protections here and in other medical marijuana states.
For years, the tragic 2012 murder of Dylan Redwine shared one major element in common with the JonBenét Ramsey case. In both slayings, a parent or parents were under suspicion, yet law enforcers never brought criminal charges. But that changed on Saturday, July 22, when Mark Redwine, Dylan’s father, was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, on suspicion of killing his son. And a grand jury indictment released in the wake of the bust and accessible below reveals why in greater detail than has been previously shared with the public.
