Meet our video star of the week: Ignacio Rael, convicted of beating his ex-girlfriend to death in 2008. Rael didn’t want to attend his own sentencing, so Montezuma County Judge Douglas Walker ordered him forcibly brought to court, leading to a video of sheriff’s officers zapping him with a Taser,…
In June, I wrote about Darrell Havens, the paralyzed car thief whose medical parole was canceled after Arvada police chief Don Wick complained. A month later, the situation appears no closer to a resolution…
There are a couple of ways to read the news that U.S. Senate hopeful Andrew Romanoff sold his Denver home to help fuel his grassroots, take-no-PAC-money campaign. At first glance, unloading his house in one of the worst real-estate markets in history, for almost twice what he paid for it…
Despite a federal judge’s decision halting a roundup last year, the Bureau of Land Management is once again seeking to “zero out” a small herd of wild horses in Western Colorado, triggering fresh protests. The West Douglas Herd, located south of Rangely, is comprised of approximately 100 horses distinct from…
News that an “iconic” light-rail bridge spanning Pena Boulevard at Denver International Airport could cost upwards of $60 million, more than double earlier estimates, should come as no surprise to true connoisseurs of the bridge world. We’re not talking basic overpass here. We’re talking Calatrava — as in Santiago Calatrava,…
A few days ago we told you that members of the Hasan family, grantors of a $300,000 fellowship for “water musings” by (or allegedly by) Scott McInnis, are also the largest reported donors to three tax-cutting initiatives on the November ballot. But their $10,000 is a pretty modest gesture compared…
Who wants to be a coroner? More people than you think, now that CSI and its ilk have made death investigation seem like a hip and even lively career choice. In Colorado practically anyone can apply for the job, which has made for some intriguing races this year. Especially in…
Members of the Hasan family, the wealthy backers of Colorado GOP causes, whose award of a $300,000 fellowship to Scott McInnis erupted last week in a plagiarism scandal, are also the largest single donors to three tax-cutting initiatives on the November ballot. The measures — Amendments 60 and 61 and…
A few months back, Joel Warner reported on the shutdown of Denver’s compost collection pilot program due to the budget crunch, followed by its resurrection as a fee-based program. How’s that working out? Like the compost process itself, slooowly…
Last week, we noted that a fragile truce between the Bureau of Land Management and activists protesting the agency’s roundups of wild horses was on the verge of blowing up, with lawsuits pending over a proposed “gather” in the midsummer heat of northern Nevada. Now that the roundup is underway…
By any objective standard, the 150 error-ridden pages of “Musings on Water” churned out by Scott McInnis aren’t worth the $300,000 the Hasan Family Foundation paid for them. Now we know, thanks to this morning’s front-page story in the Denver Post, that they’re not even the gubernatorial candidate’s own work…
Update, 4:30 pm: As Mike McKee predicts below, the Inspector General’s report on the lease sales is now posted on the Department of the Interior’s website. For the report summary, go here. Utah County Commissioner Mike McKee wants Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to release an internal report that…
A few weeks ago, after an unusual public workshop in downtown Denver that allowed wild-horse advocates to air their concerns about alleged government mismanagement of dwindling herds, activists were feeling so encouraged that they called off a planned protest of the event. Everybody decided to hold their horses, according to…
This week’s cover story, “Signed, Sealed, Rejected,” explores the costs, intrigues and legal hurdles involved in getting citizen initiatives on the ballot in Colorado — and the massive campaign underway to defeat three controversial antitax measures this fall. That effort just got more massive, according to a campaign finance report…
In Paul Grant’s experience, few things are as costly as free speech. It must be paid for again and again. Thirty years ago, Grant moved to Colorado from Louisiana, determined to shake things up. He was an engineer and a Libertarian activist, barely out of his twenties, when he decided…
Dan Maes has found novel ways of fueling his dark-horse campaign for governor — so novel that he now faces what could be the heftiest campaign-finance fine against a candidate in state history. According to news reports, Maes could be socked $27,000 in penalties for failing to properly report campaign…
Almost three months after CenturyTel announced a $22 billion deal to take over Qwest Communications, some of the most important questions about the historic merger remain unanswered — like what happens to all those old phone books, weird equipment, archival collections and other cool bits of telephonic history hidden on…
Tax crusader Douglas Bruce headed into a Colorado Springs grand jury room earlier this week defiant and expansive, determined not to be “bullied” or silenced and half expecting to go to jail for taking a stand — by not taking the stand. He emerged with a grant of immunity and…
At 9:30 a.m. this morning, in a ceremony on the State Capitol steps, Governor Bill Ritter will welcome Colorado’s seventh poet laureate. And no, he’s not an ancient dandy in an ascot with an Auden-like pallor and a thirst for sherry. This is Colorado, bub. Ritter couldn’t have done better…
Under fire for its lax supervision of British Petroleum and other offshore drillers, the embattled federal agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service has fined BP $5.2 million for filing “false, inaccurate, or misleading” reports about its energy production in Colorado three years ago. Grrr. That’ll show ’em…
GOP Senate hopeful Jane Norton surely expected to outrage Dems with her video attacking “liberals in Washington” for being soft on terror. But when the founder of Muslims For Bush denounces your tactics as stupid race-baiting, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate. “Nothing has hurt the GOP more than Republican candidates…
Nothing moves swiftly in the upper echelons of government decision-making — especially when the decisions have to do with a tiny rodent that can stall development projects. Today marks the public-comment deadline on the proposal for critical habitat designation of the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse. But don’t expect the battle…
