Thanks to Denver’s red-hot housing market, Mile High City home values are currently higher than they were at their pre-recession peak, although perhaps not by as much as some frustrated home buyers might have expected. But while Colorado as a whole has experienced a similar boom, there are plenty of places in the state where homes are worth considerably less than they were a decade and a half ago.
As we’ve reported, organizers of the Denver 420 Rally have been prohibited from applying for a Denver event permit for three years as a result of complaints about security and cleanup issues at this year’s edition, and their priority status with the city was rescinded. Attorney Rob Corry, representing lead planner Miguel Lopez and his team, formally appealed that decision at a marathon session on September 19, and while the hearing officer has up to thirty days to issue a ruling, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation has already sent Lopez an application for the 2018 event. He sees this development as a positive sign even though a line inserted into the document reads, “Due to the pending appeal, DPR reserves the right to cancel any dates or reservations.”
The number of deaths in Colorado related to heroin and other opioids have skyrocketed of late, with the recent fatal overdoses of celebrity sons Eric Bolling Jr. and Max Barry in the Denver-Boulder area underscoring the magnitude of the situation. Against this backdrop, author David Sheff and his son Nic Sheff, the respective author and subject of Beautiful Boy, a best-selling book about Nic’s addiction to methamphetamines, will co-headline a fundraising event for Arapahoe House, one of the state’s largest drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation centers, on Wednesday, September 27; get the details below. In advance of the appearance, David spoke with Westword about his personal experiences and the challenge of making progress on such a vexing issue.
Reports that Colorado Springs-based Phil Long Dealerships sacked Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller by canceling his endorsement agreement with the firm because he took a knee during the National Anthem along with more than thirty teammates prior to a September 24 game against the Buffalo Bills were amended when sources came forward to say the pact had actually expired months ago; see our previous coverage below. But the story is more complicated than that. Turns out the Long folks did ask two local TV stations to stop airing ads starring Miller following his demonstration.
Days after the end of a public-comment period about proposed changes in how sexual-misconduct accusations are handled on college campuses, the Department of Education, headed by the controversial Betsy DeVos, has announced that it is retracting two Obama-era documents that provided guidance in this area. A University of Colorado Denver expert in the field tells us this development won’t immediately alter how schools deal with such matters, but it suggests that the future could bring policy changes that will be sweeping and potentially problematic.
Friday, September 22, was a rough day for Denver Public Schools. First, a number of East High School students joined assorted parents at a protest prompted by the de facto ouster of principal Andy Mendelsberg and assistant principal/athletic director Lisa Porter in regard to their handling of videos showing cheer team members being forced into splits. Then, that evening, claims about a Confederate flag at a football game between the Weld Central High School Rebels and the Manual High School Thunderbolts resulted in charges of racism and alleged in-game injuries to three Manual players that may have been related to bad blood stirred by the controversy.
Your Denver Broncos laid an egg large enough to contain a T-Rex in a 26-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, September 24. But on Twitter, much of the conversation about the squad’s first road defeat of the season, following home wins over the Los Angeles Chargers and Dallas Cowboys, revolved around a jaw-dropping unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against superstar Von Miller during the fourth quarter of the contest, when the outcome had still not been determined. See our picks for the twenty most memorable tweets here.
David Flores doesn’t mind if stories linger online about his 2010 arrest for bank robbery. He was definitely guilty of committing the crime, as he readily admits. But what pisses him off is that those articles portray him as an idiot who was literally caught red handed after trying to use stolen currency stained, along with his fingers, by a dye pack that exploded as he made his getaway. He insists that the truth is a lot more complicated, and a lot less dumb.
OyZhana Williams is suing three members of the Aurora Police Department over a 2015 incident during which she was roughed up and had her head stomped in the parking lot of a hospital where her boyfriend was being treated for a gunshot wound, apparently because a cop lauded for heroism during the aftermath of the Aurora theater shooting didn’t like the way she dropped her keys. The violent exchange was captured on a video that’s on view below.
Denver continues to grow at a crazy pace, with transplants aplenty causing the city’s population to swell. Now, a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data reveals the ten cities that have contributed the most new Denverites in recent years. And while many of them are major metropolises from across the country, the top of the roster is dominated by communities in Colorado.
Today, The Green Solution is one of Colorado’s largest marijuana dispensary chains, and it’s expanded into four other states so far, with big plans for future growth. But co-founder and CEO Kyle Speidell, who recently spoke to us about the launch of Blazin’ Hit Radio, the ambitious new online home of former KS 107.5 favorites Larry and Kathie J, who are hosting a welcome-back party for listeners on Friday, September 22 (details below), notes that TGS is, at its heart, a family affair. Indeed, he and his three brothers have helped develop the operation over the past seven years into what seems poised to become a signature cannabis business from coast to coast.
Given the horrific damage wreaked upon Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico by recent hurricanes, those of us who reside in Colorado may think we’re relatively safe from Mother Nature at her most extreme compared to most places in the country. But a new study suggests that we’re living in a dream world. The figures show that five counties in Colorado, mostly along the urban corridor, are at very high risk of housing damage from natural hazards, with Denver listed as the sixth most imperiled major city in the country by this standard.
Colorado has the ninth highest suicide rate in the United States, with approximately twenty out of every 100,000 people in the state ending their own lives annually. Yet somehow, it’s always a shock when someone we know takes this drastic step. Or in my case yesterday, shortly after the end of National Suicide Prevention Week, someone I barely knew: a young man who made my life, and the lives of many others in my neighborhood, better simply because of his presence.
Montrose County, on Colorado’s Western Slope, has pulled its sex offender list offline, reportedly because of a recent court ruling in which U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch found that such registries constituted cruel and unusual punishment in the case of three plaintiffs. The action was taken despite the fact that the ruling is specific to the complainants in question, rather than everyone on the roster, and Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman has announced her intention to appeal.
At this writing, human remains found in Fremont County have yet to be officially identified as Eric Ashby, who vanished June 28 while searching for a $2 million treasure allegedly hidden by author Forrest Fenn. But his presumed death has inspired separate efforts to create “Eric’s Law,” a proposal intended to address individuals who don’t try to offer assistance to those in life-threatening situations, including four people who allegedly stood idly by as Ashby went under the surface of the Arkansas River for the last time.
Just shy of 4:30 a.m. today, September 20, the Denver Police Department tweeted about a shooting near the intersection of 31st and Marion Street. The condition of the victim, who was transported to a local hospital after reportedly being found in a car, isn’t known at this time. But the incident is one more indication that gentrification in the RiNo, Cole and Whittier neighborhoods hasn’t stopped the violence that has afflicted the area in the recent past.
On Sunday, September 17, as we’ve reported, the local animal activist group Denver Baby Animal Save posted a video about what it characterizes as a rescue of three chickens from Long Shadow Farm in Berthoud. Larry and Kristin Ramey, the co-owners of the farm, call it something else: theft that involved a demonstration they believe was staged as a diversion, “terrible” music, undercover operatives, lies and taking advantage of an eight-year-old.
Controversial Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has called for sweeping changes in how sexual assault accusations are handled on college campuses. Now, against the backdrop of numerous lawsuits filed against universities in Colorado on behalf of men accused in such cases, who maintain that the process treats them unfairly, a group of officials, including many affiliated with colleges in the state, have combined forces to argue in favor a more thoughtful approach to the issue.
Organizers of the Denver 420 Rally have been prohibited from applying for a Denver event permit for three years as a result of complaints about security and cleanup issues at this year’s edition, and their priority status with the city was rescinded. Attorney Rob Corry, representing lead planner Miguel Lopez and his team, will formally appeal the decision at a hearing scheduled at 9 a.m. today, Tuesday, September 19, and he says the city’s pre-hearing statement, accessible below, includes a new and suspect tactic to justify actions that he sees as totally unreasonable.
Penny Chenery, who owned Secretariat, a horse that won the Triple Crown in 1973, died Saturday in Boulder at age 95. She’s being remembered as an ambassador for the sport, which she helped promote long after her most famous thoroughbred retired from the track, notably by way of the 2010’s Secretariat, a Disney film in which she was portrayed by Diane Lane and made a cameo appearance.
As we noted in our post about the top tweets tweaking Cowboys fans after Denver dismantled Dallas 42-17, the stands at Mile High Stadium definitely weren’t pure orange during the game yesterday, September 17. Cowboys boosters in the thousands turned out to witness their heroes get their ten-gallon hats handed to them by an inspired Broncos defense that rendered star running back Ezekiel Elliott impotent and a Trevor Siemian-led offense whose efficiency and effectiveness definitely raised expectations for the still-young season. The photos shared here, mostly captured by Lora Roberts, my daughter, provide a Snap-story-like look at the thrilling scene.
Yesterday, September 17, Denver Baby Animal Save posted a Facebook video detailing what the activist group characterizes as the rescue of three chickens from a local business identified elsewhere online as Long Shadow Farm in Berthoud. The clip, on view below, has resulted in an explosion of responses on social media, prompting a debate about whether this action constituted a bold gesture on behalf of respect for all living creatures or criminal behavior.
