The death of Alonzo Ashley at the Denver Zoo this summer continues to spark conversation about the reasonable use of force, and whether contact-tasing and the manner in which he was restrained caused the tragedy. Here’s an angry and passionate post from our item sharing the account of Ashley’s girlfriend…
Nick Beram did everything he could to disguise himself while robbing five area banks while armed with a stun gun. During the crimes, he wore sunglasses, a dark-hooded jacket and a white surgical or dust mask. But he didn’t bother to disguise his truck — and that’s why he’s been…
Colorado’s own Aron Ralston may have thought he’d received the ultimate tribute when the movie 127 Hours was made about his famous arm-amputating ordeal. But that’s nothing compared to being satirized on The Simpsons’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween spectacular, which aired last night…
Brandon Smith set out to steal an iPad shortly after the device’s release, and he did. That’s a relatively minor crime — so how did he wind up being sentenced to 25 years behind bars? By pretty much shredding the finger of the iPad purchaser, and then, after the act…
Okay, so you knew this week’s Broncos-Lions game wouldn’t turn into a homegrown version of the Miami miracle. But did you thinks it would be as bad as the 45-10 debacle that took place yesterday? If so, you’re either a hellbound heathen or an astute observer of the NFL. But…
Today’s arraignment for last night’s Occupy Denver arrests continued a vein of strict bond rates applied across the board. Lawyers received little time to speak to those arrested, and though all pleaded not guilty, all misdemeanor charges were met with a bond rate of $550. Part-time magistrate John Hoffman allowed…
Update, 11:01 p.m. October 29: Twenty people were arrested during what has been Occupy Denver’s most violent day in weeks. All evidence of the Thunderdome and the front desk has been removed, and officers offered protesters the chance to claim their belongings one at a time as the area was…
Tony Song isn’t big on specifics. He moved to Denver “a few months ago,” he sleeps “wherever I can lay my head,” and he joined the city’s occupation “three or four days in, probably.” He doesn’t make plans. He’s not sure why he picked Denver, but he does “like traveling…
Yesterday, after three years, more than 80,000 public comments, and countless hours reviewing ponderous economic and environmental issues — in other words, pretty speedy for government work — Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar unveiled the Obama administration’s slimmed-down plan touting “solar energy zones” spanning seventeen sites in six western…
President Barack Obama announced last Friday that the vast majority of U.S. troops — about 39,000 of them — would be out of Iraq by December 31. But not everyone is happy about the imminent end of the ten-year-involvement, including Emad Hussain, a former member of the Iraqi Olympics Committee,…
Denver blog posts play hurt. Denver Stiffs’ Andrew Feinstein thinks J.R. Smith, Wilson Chandler and Kenyon Martin will rue the day they locked in to play basketball in China until March if the NBA lockout ends soon. Free Colorado’s Ari Armstrong on the student-loan bailout. BigMedia.org’s Jason Salzman says the…
Let’s recap: By this point, It has been firmly established that Mayor Michael Hancock, the Denver Police Department, Governor John Hickenlooper and the Colorado State Patrol have no intention of allowing Occupy Denver to use tents. Such encampments have been referred to as a “shantytown” by police, even though tents…
The decision by Denver DA Mitch Morrissey not to charge anyone in the case of Alonzo Ashley, who died at the Denver Zoo after an incident involving police, has already stirred controversy. But the ACLU of Colorado also believes it raises doubts about police training regarding Tasers and the positioning…
One of this weekend’s biggest downtown events — Saturday’s Denver Gorilla Run — features a route that crosses past the 16th Street Mall but doesn’t take place on it. That’s no doubt a relief to the RTD. Last Saturday’s events — including the Zombie Crawl and separate marches involving Occupy…
Plenty of comments affixed to our blog posts are intelligent and thoughtful. Many of them are angry and passionate. Some are rude, obscene and/or offensive. But only a handful are jaw-slackeningly bizarre. Here’s an example of the latter — a paragraph just posted on a two-year-old item about Brian Rohrbough’s…
Update: We’ve now received a response from Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch regarding persistent reports from multiple medical marijuana industry sources that Dan Hartman will depart as director of the state’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division at day’s end. Couch’s prepared statement doesn’t contradict our previous reporting, but neither does…
Moms teach their little girls all kinds of valuable lessons, and Cassandra Ghirardi is no exception. Problem is, Ghirardi’s tutorials allegedly involved identity theft, which, while profitable, carries the strong possibility of jail time for her and Alexandra Wilde, her daughter…
There are still plenty of people who doubt Tim Tebow’s QB skills — but no one should downgrade his ability to pimp, albeit in a vigorously wholesome way. Shortly after the launch of a website devoted to Tebowing — striking Timmy’s trademark prayerful pose of thanks — the man himself…
In the wild, predators don’t typically go out of their way to challenge the strongest opponents. Rather, they seek out the weakest members of the herd. Jeffrey Knouse has earned an extended stay at the Cross Bar Hotel for demonstrating this same sensibility on an 81-year-old man simply trying to…
Occupy Denver and the Colorado Progressive Coalition combined forces for a civil disobedience tour de force today, with events taking on both Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce, and Wells Fargo. The only problem: The police got there first. Both times…
This dispensary has closed. Though the logo for the Medijuana Center — a Colorado license plate likeness with TMC branded on it — hasn’t changed in the year-plus I’ve been passing by it on my way home from the Westword offices, the management apparently has…
In the classic 1967 drama The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s character is offered one word, just one word of advice from an avuncular businessman: plastics. “There’s a great future in plastics,” the man whispers. But that future is pretty much past in the Roaring Fork Valley — which, town by town,…
