News

For residents of southwest Denver who oppose the plan by Xcel Energy to replace electrical lines with taller towers, the issue is as much about the marring of Ruby Hill Park’s scenic view as what they perceive as a double standard in policy. Neighborhood groups want the new lines buried…

Click here to enlarge image. To see all of Kenny Be’s cartoons, click…

For years, shows on KUNC, a public-radio station originally affiliated with the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, have reached some folks in Denver’s northern suburbs and nearby parts of the city itself — but the farther south a listener was located, the iffier the reception could be. Fortunately, though,…

Five-year-old Eliot wants to make a birthday card for his father, Tony. He pulls two sheets of paper from a notepad and selects a freshly sharpened blue crayon from the box. “This is a picture of me running Tony over,” he says. “I want to draw a picture of me…

What you are about to read may so shock and appall you that your eyes will flutter into the back of your skull and you will collapse in a heap on the floor, like that time you accidentally saw your grandmother struggling out of the shower like a giant prune…

The Colorado Department of Revenue promises to introduce some long-awaited changes to the state’s rules for obtaining an ID on August 1 — and they won’t come a moment too soon. On Tuesday, an Off Limits operative visited the Division of Motor Vehicles’ office on West Mississippi — the one…

It was barely ten minutes into the mediation session before the first cooperative agreement was reached: I was to be kicked out of the meeting. The consensus was that participants would not feel comfortable with media in the room — and by media, they meant me, the guy in the…

“Another Round,” Letters, July 12 Laying It on the Line James Ayling, you rock! Thank you for writing your letter and putting into print exactly my thoughts — both on those other letter writers and on Steve “Douchebag” Horner. Steve Horner is lower than moronic; he’s useless. He’s also a…

Fort Collins Weekly publisher Joel Dyer knew that a recently announced partnership with the daily Greeley Tribune would necessitate some major changes, beginning with his paper’s name. Because the Weekly will be published twice a week as of early August, the old moniker no longer fit. He eventually settled on…

My mother was the Grand Inquisitor of hospital bills. She would question the inflated price of every pill dispensed, every package of unused gauze. She had excellent health insurance and rarely had to pay out of her own pocket for such things, but she understood how the padding built into…

There have been plenty of ugly developments in the newspaper industry of late: buyouts, layoffs, Rupert Murdoch’s likely purchase of the Wall Street Journal, and so on. But few have been as flat-out tragic as word that the Weekly World News, a tabloid that made news by making up the…

The departure of Rocky Mountain News editorial employees who took the tabloid’s most recent buyout offer hasn’t stopped the march of workers toward the exit. Scribes are splitting on a regular basis, with the two most recent being Darrell Proctor, who’s held assorted editing and Web-oriented positions during more than…

The Brown Palace comes close to what I’ve occasionally imagined heaven might look like: big and wide open, with a huge stained-glass skylight capping some distant ceiling, a well-connected concierge standing by, several restaurants to choose from and a nearby bar that not only stocks a fine collection of bottled…

Denver PR firm GroundFloor Media was chosen by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Office of Emergency Preparedness to develop and maintain a statewide media campaign geared towards educating residents of the C to the mother fucking O about influenza and disasters and all kinds of scary illmatic…

“Fair and equal treatment is the bedrock principal of this country,” Darold Killmer told an ever-filling federal courtroom downtown yesterday afternoon. “All of us have the right to not be falsely branded as a terrorist, criminal or thief.” Who exactly violated that right for Qusair Mohamedbhai, Killmer’s client, and the…

The June 14 edition of the Message focused upon Frances Koncilja, a local attorney and public-radio booster who resigned from her position on the board of Colorado Public Radio due to her concern over several controversial initiatives being pushed by supporters of CPR head Max Wycisk. Proposals included a major…

Colorado Confidential, the muckraking website that’s in the midst of celebrating its first anniversary (see this More Messages blog for details), is clearly looking to grow. Moreover, it’s doing so by hooking up with journalists recently cast off by an organization that’s contracting: the Denver Post. Press releases reveal that…

Closed captioning may be a boon for people with hearing issues, as well as for folks who are trying to watch TV in noisy kitchens, workshops and so on — but the process by which the spoken word is translated into text is far from an exact science. As evidence,…

Why Wal-Mart Rules the Earth: Retail price of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: $34.99. Price at independent bookstore giant Tattered Cover: $29.99. Price at Borders outlet store in Castle Rock: $20.99 Price at online giant Amazon.com: $17.99 (plus shipping). Price at Wal-Mart in Castle Rock (as of Sunday): $17.77…

Two good Sunday Denver Posts in a row? Such a streak shouldn’t be unusual. In all likelihood, the broadsheet has more editorial resources than any other news operation in the state of Colorado. Yet Sunday after Sunday, page one of its main edition feels adequate at best, featuring decent stories…

Editor’s note: As Global Warning aficionados know, Tony Perez-Giese has been sending dispatches about his adventures from far-flung locales across the planet. This process isn’t quite as difficult as during the days of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s mojo wire, but it’s far from foolproof — which explains why we’re only…