It should be all hearts and flowers when Governor John Hickenlooper signs the civil unions bill at History Colorado this afternoon. But we’re betting that this historic moment will also have a history-making amount of security, given the vehement response to Hickenlooper’s signing of three gun measures yesterday — just…
When all the smoke clears over the gun debate, Colorado will still have other tough issues to tackle. What’s the future of this state? That’s what TBD Colorado wants to determine. Last year, the non-partisan nonprofit — “No state dollars are being spent on TBD Colorado,” its website promises –…
Joe Garcia, Colorado’s coolest lieutenant governor, won’t be going to Washington, D.C. — not now, at least, and not as the head of the Department of Labor. Yesterday, the White House announced that Tom Perez, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, will take that post. Like Garcia, Perez…
Want evidence of just how colorful Colorado has become? Stop by the Colorado Senate this morning, where two big bills will be considered. One, calling for new sex education standards, shows how very blue the Colorado Legislature is these days, The second, HB 13-1061, which would set standards for “responsible…
The late Dale Tooley — longtime Denver District Attorney, one-time mayoral candidate and full-time Irishman — is remembered every year in Denver, when a downtown street is officially, if temporarily, changed to Tooley Street for St. Patrick’s Day. For years, the street sign at Wazee and 17th streets was the…
The University of Denver Pioneers have always had that fighting spirit — but lately, much of the fight has focused on the school’s long-defunct mascot, a bearded, coonskin-cap-wearing cartoon character named Denver Boone, which was designed by a Walt Disney artist and served as the school’s official mascot for thirty…
History Colorado’s Denver A to Z is designed to stir up interest in this city’s story, but the interactive displays linked to letters of the alphabet is a real snooze — and a historically inaccurate nap, at that. Zombies? Would it have been so tough to cook up a heartier…
History Colorado bills Denver A to Z as a “lighthearted and interactive exhibit” from Adrenaline to Zombies. Zzzzz. “Near and Dear” mountains for “N”? It’s hard to come up with a smart alphabet-shtick variation; I try and fail in this week’s column. And I already have a correction: “A” should…
The state of Colorado today? Snowy. The state of this state in the future? That’s TBD. And today, you can help determine it at a public meeting of TBD Colorado, the non-profit project created last year to jump-start conversations about the biggest issues facing the state. More than 1,200 Coloradans…
In August 2010, then-Governor Bill Ritter joined Lance Armstrong to kick off a glamorous new event in Colorado: a bike race originally dubbed the Quiznos Pro Challenge. But as the race revved up for a second round (now under the name USA Pro Challenge), Armstrong took a back-seat role –…
Raj Chohan is a pro. While working — hard — as a reporter at CBS4, he was also attending law school. When he became a full-time lawyer, it was definitely a loss to journalism — but at least viewers got to watch him every Friday, as the host of Colorado…
This is Founder’s Day at the University of Denver, with the founder in question being then-territorial governor John Evans. In fact, “the university’s highest award” is the Evans Award, which will be handed out to a Board of Trustees member tonight. Before he moved to Colorado, Evans had founded Northwestern…
Think firefighters want Senate Bill 25, which would allow collective bargaining, to go through the Colorado Legislature? According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters group was the single-biggest donor to current legislators in 2011-12, pouring out $140,325…
Before John Evans moved west in 1862 to become the first territorial governor of Colorado and found the school that grew into the University of Denver (as well as inspire the naming of streets, towns and a mountain), he was among nine founders of Northwestern University north of Chicago, in…
As the Colorado Senate begins debating gun bills, the Capitol should be filled with enough opinions today to blow the dome right off. But you can shoot your mouth off on the future of this state without even leaving your couch or kitchen table: Starting today, TBD Colorado is bringing…
Cabinet members Ken Salazar and Ray LaHood were at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal last week, announcing a deal that adds 1,200 acres to the Rocky Flats wildlife refuge and stretches the Rocky Mountain Greenway. But some weren’t celebrating the announcement…
Governor John Hickenlooper is just back from the National Governor’s Conference in Washington, where he did not talk about drinking fracking fluid, as he had during Senate testimony two weeks ago. Hick’s quip about his sip of frack fluid made headlines, but there are at least six Colorado drinks we’d…
JetBlue brought me to Denver last night only a few hours late. But even though we landed at Denver International Airport, with its all-weather runways, I felt transported back to another airport — the old Stapleton International Airport — and thirty years back in time, to the Blizzard of 1982…
Denver is full of aesthetic adventurers and artists who are changing the cultural landscape. They’re among Denver’s greatest assets, the reason this city attracted more of the desirable 25-to-34-year-old demo than any other area in recent years. They’re Colorado’s creative capital…
The story of the Sand Creek Massacre is a difficult one to tell — but also a critical one to tell, and tell right. That’s why the Northern Cheyenne are so disappointed with Collision, the History Colorado exhibit, that they have asked it be taken down. That’s why two lectures…
At 2 p.m. today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Governor John Hickenlooper to make a “major announcement” about the Rocky Mountain Greenway, and also celebrate the recent expansion that added 1,200 acres of wildlife habitate to Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge…
With all its fancy production — a soundtrack with barking dogs, gunfire, screams; misty quotes appearing and disappearing, mysterious red, white and blue lights illuminating artifacts — the single-most stunning item in Collsion: The Sand Creek Massacre, 1860s-Today at History Colorado is a single-page letter from Captain Silas Soule…
