Lakewood baker Jack Phillips is appealing a May 2014 ruling that he cannot discriminate against same-sex couples seeking wedding cakes. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that Phillips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop, had violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination law when he declined to make a cake for same-sex couple Charlie Craig and…
Dear Mexican: Why do cholos like the song “I’m Your Puppet,” by James & Bobby Purify? Is it this song, or is it all oldies they like? Aspiring Puppeteer Dear Gabacho: It ain’t just cholos who are down with oldies. Mexican-Americans of all social classes have kept that music genre…
On March 29, the Denver Zoo lost one of its five lions when Baby, a seventeen-year-old female who mothered three cubs from two litters, was euthanized. “Baby had been battling several, chronic age-related health issues over the last few years,” zoo veterinarian Betsy Stringer said in a statement. “When she began…
Brad Evans, founder of the Denver Cruisers, decided not to run for mayor of Denver — a quixotic mission he’d explored last fall — but he’s definitely got a campaign under way. Last week he founded Denver Fugly, a Facebook page dedicated to documenting some of the aesthetic disasters in…
Dear Mexican: Why are we put down by our own people for being educated and articulate (I’ve been called gabacho, and I’m as brown as the next guy) while the Anglos accept us for being smart? I work in Santa Ana as a high-school teacher and am considered very good…
On the afternoon of Friday, March 20, more than one hundred marchers set off from the First Unitarian Society of Denver, bound for the federal immigration court downtown. Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who has taken sanctuary in the church to avoid deportation, stood on the stone steps to…
Dear Mexican: Why do wabs, regardless of age and body size, always have one hand rubbing their bellies under their shirts? Is this something that is inherent in all wabs? I’m a pocho, and I’ve never seen other pochos do it. Pocho With Albóndigas Grandes Dear Pocho: What’s with the…
With a million-dollar war chest, the deadline past for any new candidates and a lack of strong opposition, Michael B. Hancock is a shoo-in for re-election as Denver’s mayor on May 5. Over the past four years he’s presided over a roaring economy, the rollout of recreational marijuana sales, and…
Dear Mexican: So there I was, sitting in Spanish class, like the good half-frog/half-wop (i.e., “frop”) that I am, when I observe the Spanish teacher write the word esposas up on the board. Imagine my shock/horror when the teacher told us that esposas has two meanings: “wives” and “handcuffs”! Please tell…
Today at the State Capitol, Colorado faith leaders, as well as local business owners and community leaders, will appear at a press conference in opposition to two pieces of legislation they see as religious right-to-discriminate bills. We previewed one of them — House Bill 15-1161 — last month in a…
Dear Mexican: Recently, I visited a viejecita in an assisted-living home and wondered how I would fare in such a place. Fortunately, I like to eat cottage cheese, but I would like some salsa with it, or better yet, an occasional jalapeño en escabeche. Are there places for those of…
Last November, when we introduced you to Gordon Klingenschmitt, the exorcism-doing, gay-slammer who’d just been elected as a state representative, he was already a darling of the progressive media types. From their perspective, he was the walking, talking embodiment of ultra-conservatism’s worst tendencies — and one with the potential of…
In recent years, Colorado has been something of a purple state — a blend of Republican red and Democratic blue. But there are certainly some notable Republican strongholds that stand out on a national level. A recent study by UCLA professor Chris Tausanovitch and MIT prof Christopher Warshaw includes their ranking…
In a recent profile of Shahid King Bolsen, the New York Times branded the Boulder native as “the unlikely apostle for a distinctive blend of anti-globalization sloganeering and Islamist politics that is fueling a new wave of violence against businesses across the country.” Since the piece’s publication, Bolsen has repeatedly rejected…
Dear Mexican: As I’ve been doing a lot more business in the city of Santa Ana (one of the most Mexican cities in the U.S.), I’ve realized that a shitload of Mexicans are the Fox News-type conservative, yacking out the same kind of shit you hear at a Glenn Beck…
In 2014, ten undocumented immigrants entered sanctuary in churches around the country in order to avoid being deported. Arturo Armando Hernandez Garcia was one of them. As explained in this week’s cover story, “Sacred Ground,” Arturo has been living at the First Unitarian Society of Denver church for four months,…
The results of the last election resulted in shared power at the Colorado General Assembly. Democrats remain the majority party in the House, but Republicans gained control of the Senate. Will good ideas from one chamber face ignominious defeat in the other one? A new proposal making progress in the…
Arturo Armando Hernandez Garcia balances on an orange workman’s ladder in the front hallway of the cavernous First Unitarian Society of Denver church. The fit 42-year-old wears work boots, jeans and a T-shirt that says “Chinos Construction” on it, a souvenir from a friend’s business. He dips a paintbrush into…
Each session of the Colorado legislature spawns controversial bills — like, for instance, Representative Timothy Dore’s call for grants to Colorado counties to offset the impact of legal pot whether sales are allowed there or not. But this year has also spawned a slew of legislation that appears to target…
Governor John Hickenlooper has long been a cycling proponent. Now, he’s calling for the construction of a bike trail that would allow riders to cross the state from Wyoming to New Mexico — and a new bill backed by a Republican state senator may offer a way to make it…
Our January 15 cover story, “Tell No One,” delved into an evolving sexual harassment quagmire at an Aurora outpatient clinic operated by the Department of Veteran Affairs; several female health care workers who complained of inappropriate conduct by a male nurse say they’ve suffered retaliation from administrators, including punitive job…
Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who has been in sanctuary at the First Unitarian Society of Denver Church for three months, has suffered another setback in his case. Attorneys for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have declined to join Garcia’s motion to re-open the case. If ICE had agreed…
