Opinion & Commentary

I learned the power of search-engine optimization early, when a column I wrote in 1996 about the Bill Clinton strategist who’d just resigned after news broke that he’d sucked the toes of a prostitute included the phrase “toe-sucking Dick Morris” — with the two words in the middle a particular…

.Last night, I was sitting at a picnic bench in the Sculpture Park at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, looking past the crowds at Westword’s Dish event to Sports Authority Field at Mile High, the site of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on the last…

When accepting the presidential nomination at the 2012 DNC in Charlotte tonight, Barack Obama will speak at the Time Warner Convention Center, a quick switch from the Bank of America stadium. The official reason for the move is weather, although conspiracy theorists have their own ideas, including too many empty…

As the Democratic National Convention gets under way in Charlotte today, it’s impossible not to recall Denver’s time in the spotlight as the host of the 2008 DNC — and contemplate its role as a key swing state in this campaign. Dick Wadhams was the chair of the Colorado Republican…

In celebrity-shy Colorado, a president’s son definitely qualifies. While the first President George Bush was in the White House, George Walker’s little brother Neil lived in Denver, where he got embroiled in an S&L scandal known as Silverado. But Neil’s fame — and infamy — here is nothing compared to…

There were many great moments for Denver during the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which four years ago filled this city with hope and lots of spare change. But for many of us, none was as deeply satisfying as finally plopping our collective asses into the plastic seats of what was…

Exactly four years after Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver, he returned to Colorado, telling a crowd of students and other fans at Colorado State University that this state’s vote is key in his re-election — and that whoever wins Colorado will win the presidency…

The sun is just beginning to glint off the silver sides of Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium, where exactly four years ago today (back when it was known as Invesco Field at Mile High), Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. And both…

A year ago, it seemed like the Colorado Symphony Orchestra might be silenced altogether. The CSO — which had emerged from the ashes of the Denver Symphony Orchestra two decades ago — faced a $1.2 million cash shortfall at the end of June 2011 despite record sales that season, and…

At this time last year, tents were already lined up outside the Sports Authority store at 10th and Broadway in anticipation of Sniagrab, the annual sale getting underway the Saturday prior to Labor Day. But that was before Occupy Denver popped up four blocks north on Broadway, and before the…

John Elway has plenty of fans. But two of them could soon rival Number 7 on the Colorado celebrity scale. When they met with the local press to discuss The Book of Mormon , creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said that if there was anyone they wanted to see…

And the countdown begins. In May, the Department of Public Works began installing parking meter sensors at 497 of the 5,900 Smart Meters currently in operation in Denver. Preliminary sensor testing started on June 1 as part of a ninety-day pilot program to determine just how smart those Smart Meters…

Denver City Council had an action-packed agenda last night, giving final approval on a ban for any outdoor advertising for medical marijuana dispensaries, voting any police-brutality pay-out, and giving the go-ahead to put a measure to de-Bruce Denver on this November’s ballot — exactly twenty years after Colorado voters passed…

Mayor Michael Hancock held his second “Cabinet in the Community” town-hall meeting Saturday morning at the transformed Rude Recreation Center in west Denver — a physical manifestation of his campaign promise to “reconnect people to their government.” Even if there were more government representatives than there were community people at…

Rocky Ford farmers and growers have spent much of the last year doing damage control, after their melons were wrongly fingered as the cause of a listeria outbreak that actually originated a hundred miles away, at Jensen Farms, and ultimately killed over thirty people. But while doing damage control, they…

I’ve seen a lot of Western history auctioned off over the last year. I watched as billionaire William Koch bid $2 million to buy an original photo of Billy the Kid, and traveled up to Buford, population one, to see that tiny Wyoming town get sold — for $900,000 –…

In the latest installment of a long-running saga, yesterday Governor John Hickenlooper reappointed five of the ten public trustees who resigned last month — at his request. And he appointed three new trustees in three counties, including one who really puts the “public” in public trustee: sometime bartender Paul Weissmann…

At one point, it seemed that Lance Tyler Hering had found a happy ending to his incredible story. Rather than return to Iraq as a Marine, Hering cooked up an elaborate scheme in which he would disappear in an Eldorado Canyon climbing accident. An expensive search did not locate his…