In April, the proponents of Amendment 64, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, made a big splash by erecting a billboard near Mile High Stadium featuring a soccer-mom-esque woman saying, “For many reasons, I prefer marijuana over alcohol. Does that make me a bad person?” Today, the campaign has unveiled…
One of the stranger marijuana stories of last year involved a federal raid on Cherry Top Farms dispensary — one not prompted by an investigation into the center, but due to the targeting of Nathan Do, a man associated with a different MMC, who agents were following. Nathan, along with…
The murder of Denver Police officer Celena Hollis, and the arrest of Rollin Oliver, who self-identifies as a gang member, has sparked an ongoing conversation among our readers, some of whom blame the police for the environment that spawned this violent act. In contrast, here’s the opinion of someone who…
Last July, we told you about the prosecution of medical marijuana patient Bob Crouse, a longtime Colorado Springs restaurateur who faced cultivation and distribution charges for going beyond the state’s plant limit despite having a doctor recommendation to exceed it due to his treatment regimen for leukemia. His trial is…
This was not how Bike To Work Day was supposed to go. Sitting in on part of a Denver City Council retreat yesterday, Westword learned that ex-councilman Doug Linkhart, who ran for mayor last year, was hit by a pickup truck while cycling to a Bike To Work Day event…
As we reported earlier today, crews fighting the Flagstaff fire near Boulder held their own against the blaze, preventing it from getting out of control on the scale of the High Park fire outside Fort Collins or Colorado Springs’ incredibly destructive Waldo Canyon fire. Our Brandon Marshall was in Boulder…
If a hard freeze in April hadn’t annihilated northern Michigan’s tart-cherry crop, a little boy in Beijing might have been pouring Herkner’s Original Cherry Topping over his mung-bean ice cream right now. But the fickle weather forced Lynda Herkner, 74, and her sisters to delay plans to export their siren-red…
Last November, Fort Collins voters elected to shut down all medical marijuana dispensaries within city limits, with the MMCs closing by midnight on Valentine’s Day. Now, a group of pro-dispensary supporters is hoping voters will bring the industry back to the northern Colorado town…
In the past week, Denver has welcomed the creation of almost 200 units of low-income housing for families and former members of the city’s homeless community. Today, seven days after Bluff Lake Apartments launched 92 units, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless marked the grand opening of the $17 million…
This week’s cover story, “The Beetle and the Damage Done,” reports on the mounting toll of the worst bark-beetle epidemic in recorded history in Colorado and the various causes blamed for the infestation, from past fire suppression policies to climate change. Are the millions of dead trees claimed by the…
A new group called Fight Back Colorado has a message for the lawmakers who voted to kill a bill to legalize civil unions: Watch out. The group launched an effort today to defeat those legislators in November’s election — though they haven’t yet named names…
Since Denver cop Celena Hollis was shot and killed over the weekend, there has been a lot of speculation concerning the possible gang-affiliation of the suspect — but according to Mayor Michael Hancock, reporters are asking the wrong questions. In this case, the gang question, Hancock told Westword today, is…
Denver blogs posts are fire-resistant. Purple Row’s Jeff Aberle on the “reassignment” of Colorado Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca, and the possibility that his head won’t be the last to roll due to the team’s current, disastrous season. Colorado Peak Politics says the Larimer County GOP is a force to…
No, it’s not a surprise that Joe Sakic has been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Seldom has a player in any major sport been more deserving from the standpoint of talent, skill and the way he played the game. Man, could the Avalanche use him now — and…
Crews working the High Park, Waldo Canyon and Flagstaff fires already have more than enough on their plate trying to bring the blazes under control. But according to this screen capture we found on Facebook, one station — or the closed-captioning software it uses — is reporting that they’re also…
While some of us were at home lighting up last night, firefighters across the state were working to extinguish some of the most frightening blazes in the state’s history. To help support firefighters on the front lines near Fort Collins, Colorado Springs and Boulder, several medical marijuana businesses have come…
Update: The Denver District Attorney’s Office has formally charged Jamie Valdiviezo-Perez, 39, and a juvenile (presumably his son) in the murder of a man whose body was found in a South Quieto Way alley. As sketched out by the arrest affidavit on view below, police were led to the alleged…
Sam Levin’s post about Denver officials considering a ban or fee on plastic grocery store bags got commenters typing. Here’s a response from a reader who expects that such a policy would generate a backlash on a number of fronts…
The unbearably hot weather is not all bad. This was the recurring joke of a press conference under the blazing sun just off toll road E-470, where officials announced the launch of a twenty-year solar energy project that, by some measures, is the largest of its kind in the country…
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been hellishly hot around here lately — which naturally got us thinking about the best places to cool off in the Denver area and beyond. Fortunately, our Best of Denver archive features more than twenty years’ worth of great ideas about pretty much everything…
With a nod to emerging brain science that contends adolescents are fundamentally different from adults — and a stern rebuke to the one-size-fits-all approach to prosecuting underaged defendants in adult courts — the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that a mandatory sentence of life without parole for crimes committed…
Editor’s note: This election cycle, Westword is exploring the public records of television stations for information on how candidates are spending money on ads in Denver. Joe Coors, your average local candidate for Congress who is not a beer, appears to be trying to secure support from an unusual voting…
