Colorado artist Daniel Salazar wants to solve a mystery, one with roots that go back more than 400 years, in the New Mexican village of Acoma. And Salazar — a filmmaker and photographer who has worked with El Centro Su Teatro and Denver Public Schools — also wants to make…
Ask a Mexican, Gustavo Arellano, October 13 Illegal Procedures Why do people consider the word “illegal” offensive when relating to immigration? “Illegal” is used when someone’s breaking the law. It’s not a dirty word. Driving illegally, illegal possession of a weapon, illegal possession of drugs, illegally entering private property, illegal…
Question: Do you like paying less than retail for medical cannabis and cannabis-related merchandise? Yes? Well, hawdilly! You’re just the person Westword is hoping will sign up for our new Groupon-esque Toke Daily Deal e-mails. If you said “no,” then la-tee-da. It must be nice to be in the 1…
A judge sentenced 25-year-old Robert Walters to life in prison without parole today for the murder of his former girlfriend, Brittney Brashers. Though the sentence was mandatory, Judge Anne Mansfield also called it “fitting” after listening to heart rending statements from Brashers’s sister and brother. “Please be patient,” her sister…
Criminals aren’t terribly skilled at performing a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on their disastrous ventures, which they usually end up describing as “bad choices, Your Honor.” That’s all the more reason judges, lawmakers, prison officials and others in the justice system ought to think more like economists, according to a…
Update, below: Wells Fargo will be the target of several actions this week by the Colorado Progressive Coalition, including plans to “move in” to a branch on Thursday with lamps, pillows and coffee pots to protest the bank’s high number of foreclosures. Dubbed the Mile High Showdown, the actions are…
In the beginning, Chad Duffy was a cynic. He still is, especially during the particularly hectic moments of his morning shift at the Thunderdome. But the 23-year-old politely promoting hand sanitizer used to be much worse. Only five months after Duffy moved to Denver from Orlando, a 180-degree turn finds…
We’ve got Denver blog posts aplenty. BigMedia.org’s Jason Salzman on KENN radio yakker Sean Jeremy Osborn’s pitch for exterminating Iranians. Denver Egotist: Look at the cool message in Barnhart Communications’ window. Denver Stiffs’ The Word offers an update to the Big Ugly…
Update, 1 p.m. October 24: We now know the names of the four Occupy Denver participants arrested in a Denver Police Department raid on a squat over the weekend, and two of them were recently featured in this space: Amelia Nicol, who saw murder charges against her dropped earlier this…
Mayor Michael Hancock and several Denver City Council members are talking up a potential overnight camping ban in public places, including the 16th Street Mall. Given the brouhaha over camping by Occupy Denver, which has been joined by numerous homeless protesters, is this notion a preemptive strike against a possible…
This weekend’s weather encouraged anyone and everyone to recreate with a vengeance — and Westword’s Show and Tell, Backbeat Online and Cafe Society blogs, plus our eye-popping slideshow page, captured it in words and pictures. Look below to check out highlights of the Victorian Fetish Ball, Trentemøller live, Russell’s Smoke…
Kelsey Whipple’s Friday post about Occupy Denver’s suspension of its first member — a woman named Molly — inspired one reader to write an open letter to the organization as a whole. It’s tough stuff. Check it out below…
U.S. News & World Report has released its annual list of the best colleges in the country — but finding Colorado institutions will take a while if you start from the top. None appear in the top fifty, and of the three that appear in the top 100, Colorado School…
Update below: In July, Alonzo Ashley died at the Denver Zoo after being tased by police. The coroner’s office subsequently ruled the death a homicide, but the Denver District Attorney’s Office isn’t charging anyone with a crime in relation to it; see the decision statement below. This turn has left…
This morning on ESPN Radio, NFL analyst John Clayton said both Tebow lovers and Tebow haters got what they wanted from the Broncos’ hilarious 18-15 win versus the Dolphins yesterday. But frankly, Tebow lovers got more — including a mighty strong argument that God not only exists, but He has…
Update, 11:20 p.m. October 22: The close of tonight’s Occupy Denver concert was a completely different scene from only one week ago. Although it ended with police presence, the number of cops left is the same 10 to 15 who stayed from last night until about 5 a.m. to monitor…
Concerns about public education and the need to improve communication between city officials and citizens about everything from parking to park usage were hot topics this morning at Mayor Michael Hancock’s first community forum. Comments such as “City personnel need to be more available” drew applause from the more than…
Editor’s note: The following, written by Ray Stern of the Phoenix New Times, a Westword sister paper, provides a beyond-Colorado look at recent federal actions regarding MMJ. The new federal crackdown on medical marijuana announced on October 7 by four California U.S. Attorneys sent chills through the industry. It was…
Update, 4:28 p.m. October 21: The Denver Police Department has released the cost incurred by the DPD and the Sheriff’s Department to monitor Occupy Denver, particularly over last weekend’s demonstrations: approximately $365,000. The number also includes the costs of other city agencies that provided assistance to the two…
After nearly four months, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (finally) updated its medical marijuana stats page yesterday. And although the latest information is from August, it does hint at a slight decline over the last two months in the number of people holding a red card…
The first time Mike heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement, he was in the hospital. Due in large part to a slow heart rate — only about twenty beats per minute — he had recently undergone surgery to insert a pacemaker. Two months after his surgery and three weeks…
This week’s cover story, “The Victim Lobby,” delves into the growing power of the victim rights movement and the sometimes clashing agendas of groups within that movement. But there’s one issue crime victim advocates strongly agree about: The pile-up of unsolved homicides over the past few decades is alarming –…
