It’s been less than two months since Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was in Denver unveiling his “Wild Lands” program, a sharp poke in the eye to Bush-era wilderness policy, and the reception since has been passionate — and divided. Among environmentalists, the reviews amount to an enthusiastic thumbs…
It’s been a good week for mustang lovers. Not only did the Bureau of Land Management, in the wake of lawsuits, back off a plan to round up the entire West Douglas herd of wild horses in northwest Colorado, but the U.S. House of Representatives voted to cut $2 million…
Among the painful budget cuts proposed by Governor John Hickenlooper on Tuesday, one long-overdue move should earn points from prison reformers as well as bean counters — shutting down the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, a geriatric hoosegow on the eastern plains that was supposed to be a bargain and turned…
Laradon Hall, a nonprofit in north Denver that operates an alternative school and other programs for people with developmental disabilities, has done a lot of good works over the past sixty years. But lately the place has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, including questionable expenditures of…
There aren’t a lot of wild horses left in Colorado, but a small herd of mustangs fifty miles north of Grand Junction just got a reprieve. Besieged by legal challenges of its plan to relocate “excess” horses from public lands to private holding facilities and pastures, the Bureau of Land…
This week, the Colorado Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Tom Clements as Department of Corrections executive director. It’s not one of the most glamorous posts in Governor John Hickenlooper’s cabinet, certainly, but it’s one of the most crucial if the state is going to climb out of its fiscal…
Yesterday, Kim Day, Denver International Airport’s aviation director, did her best to convince city council members that her team is being sensible in its approach to more than a billion dollars in construction projects at the world’s tenth-busiest airport. But the leaner budget Day presented raises the kind of questions…
If you love Cirque de Soleil, can’t wait for Denver’s first Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival, coming in May — and, oh yeah, happen to like dogs — then the upcoming pooch-oriented aerial show Don’t Kill Bill: A Dog Lover’s Night Out might be just the ticket. Organizer Kyla Duffy describes…
A bill that sought to increase the reporting process for water-quality complaints related to oil and gas drilling in Colorado died quietly at the statehouse yesterday, with Republican lawmakers insisting that the industry’s use of hydraulic fracturing fluids, or “fracking,” poses no threat to groundwater. But the measure also drew…
Last month’s “not guilty” verdict in the murder trial of inmate Alejandro Perez put an end to six years of costly missteps and setbacks for Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers and her team of prosecutors, who’d set out to get the death penalty in a murky prison homicide. But…
This week’s cover story, “The Devil’s Playground,” presents Scott Howard’s account of enduring rape and extortion by a notorious white supremacist gang in Colorado’s prisons — and then battling the indifference and even alleged cover-ups by the staffers he went to for help. But can he prove it?…
This week’s cover story, “The Devil’s Playground,” recounts the ordeal of Scott Howard, a Colorado inmate extorted and sexually assaulted by the 211 Crew prison gang. But it’s also about Howard’s history of obtaining bogus tax refunds while behind bars, a talent the gang was eager to exploit. Rape is…
Last week’s acquittal of Alejandro Perez in the murder of another inmate at the Limon Correctional Facility provides fresh ammo for critics of Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers, whose determination to seek the death penalty for a prison gang homicide has resulted in a six-year debacle of prosecutorial missteps…
In January 2010, Scott Howard, a 39-year-old federal prisoner, made his way briskly into a hearing room in the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building in Washington, D.C. He was neatly dressed in blazer, slacks and tie, and quite nervous about what he was about to do. He was determined to…
The Coney Island Boardwalk diner, a weinie-shaped culinary adventure that began operations on West Colfax in the 1960s and later moved to Aspen Park and then Bailey, could soon be on the move again. The building (but not the land) is listed online for sale at $499,000 — and relocation…
It’s inspiring, really, the way state lawmakers pull together when a matter of great social consequence is at stake. Such seems to be the case with the rapid move through committee this week of House Bill 1058, sponsored by Denver Democrat Dan Pabon, which would prevent poor folks from using…
In a crowded field of folks vying to be Denver’s next mayor, Eric Jon Zinn has one particular candidate in his sights that he’s hoping to beat: Mayor McCheese. The 17th Street tax attorney wants Denverites to forsake the junk food, get on the bike or into the gym and…
Big Air ski-jumping in Civic Center Park not enough spectacle for you? A call for fans and practitioners of high-flying acrobatics — on trapeze, hoops, fabric and other riggings — is now underway for Denver’s first Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival, May 12-15, at the Oriental Theater. Billed as the first…
After the uproar over three tax-cutting initiatives on last year’s ballot, at least two bills introduced in the 2011 legislative session are designed to head off similarly furtive petition strategies in the future — and keep anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce from repeating the performance that frustrated a cadre of judges,…
A New York team has won a unique international competition to design a special bridge for wildlife crossing I-70 west of Vail Pass, the first structure of its kind ever proposed for the United States. The winners, HNTB with Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates, will take home a prize of…
Cloaked in secrecy, juvenile court matters are so rarely covered in Colorado that it’s been instructive watching the Denver Post fumble a bit in its reporting on Jacob Christenson, the eleven-year-old in Parker charged with second-degree arson over a fire that caused $195,000 in damages to a neighbor’s townhome…
We’ve taken admiring notice before of the local knitting fiends, such as the Ladies Fancywork Society, who are brightening up our cityscape with tags of public art and that burst of wildflowers along the tedious fencing of the Union Station project. Now the mayhem has extended to sculptor George Carlson’s…
