Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — pumping massive amounts of water mixed with toxic chemicals into tight formations to extract oil and gas — remains a sore subject among environmentalists, neighbors of drilling rigs and some lawmakers, even as energy industry boosters insist it’s safe…
Back in 2009, we reported about the impending opening of a Tesla Motors outlet in Boulder, just in time for local shoppers to get a reported $42,000 tax credit for buying one of the sleek electric cars. Thank you, America! But less than two years later, the outlet — which…
There are two revolving doors in every prison system. One is for the inmates, many of whom fail on parole and keep coming back. The other is reserved for top administrators who, even amid scandal, move easily from high-powered positions of public trust to high-paid jobs in the private prison…
The Scarlet Ranch swingers club has revealed its new location, and it’s a meaty one: the former Northwoods Inn steakhouse in Littleton, as first reported on our Cafe Society blog. The launch is tonight and the grand opening party — nicknamed The Hunt for Ranch IV — is tomorrow. It’s…
A delegation from Bent County and Governor John Hickenlooper’s office went to Washington this week in an effort to interest the federal government in “repurposing” the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, a remote and troubled state prison on the eastern plains that’s scheduled to close next year as part of the…
At the very least, the recent ragtag assembly of Colorado tourist-attraction mascots at the Discover Colorado Rally proved that the snuggly symbols of the state’s travel industry are out of touch with reality. To appeal to today’s cash-strapped consumer, Colorado needs truthier travel mascots…..
Update: Two weeks ago, we told you that the Scarlet Ranch swingers club is moving from 424 Broadway in Denver to a secret location. And while owner Kendall Seifert is still mum about where it’s heading, he has released some details. An e-mail to members revealed that the new facility…
A year after being chastised for being too hasty in opening up offshore oil leases for exploration, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was fielding questions from former colleagues in the Senate about why the administration isn’t issuing more drilling permits to boost domestic production. But Salazar defended the administration’s…
The Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue recently announced that Shell Oil and related companies have agreed to pay the goverment $2.2 million to resolve claims that the companies underpaid royalties from natural gas wells on federal and Indian tribal lands. Barely mentioned, though, is how this…
Yesterday, Campaign for a Healthy Denver launched what it’s calling the 2011 Denver Paid Sick Days Initiative, which would mandate paid sick days for all non-governmental workers in Denver, be they full-time or part-time employees. But given the state of the economy, isn’t this a terrible time to introduce such…
As we reported yesterday, downtown Denver will finally get a full-service grocery store thanks to a new development at 20th Street and Chestnut Place. But other than hints that it will be a “national brand,” there’s no word yet as to which grocery store we’re gonna get. Here are ten…
Dramatic statements don’t come cheap, but what Denver needs may be less drama. After spending upwards of $40 million in the past few years imagining — make that “visioning” — a great makeover, DIA manager Kim Day has decided the city really can’t afford the “signature” designer bridge proposed by…
Urban grocery shoppers rejoice! In two years, Denver will finally boast a full-service grocery store in the heart of downtown. The mixed-use project, first reported by the DenverInfill blog, will be located at 20th Street and Chestnut Place, two blocks from Union Station, and will be helmed by the Nichols…
This past weekend, my twin daughters had planned to visit our neighborhood mall, Southwest Plaza, to shop for prom shoes. But after being locked down at Chatfield High School on April 20, the twelfth anniversary of the shootings at nearby Columbine High School, due to a bombing attempt, allegedly by…
IKEA has made a global reputation for furniture that’s well-designed and easy to assemble — and apparently its stores are like that, too. Last May, the company predicted that IKEA’s Centennial branch would open in the fall of 2011 — but now, the date’s been set for July 27. Get…
Internet years are like dog years, which makes fifteen-year-old MapQuest more like 105. But this old dog can learn directions home if you believe Arianna Huffington, now a player in the old-money empire of AOL, which owns the company headquartered in LoDo. She talked about an absurd range of topics…
There are, no doubt, saner ways to film the Cordillera Blanca of Peru than paragliding a few feet above jagged glaciers, vertiginous cliffs and freezing lakes, camera and breathing and life itself neatly suspended — but that wouldn’t be the path chosen by Sweetgrass Productions, a backcountry film crew bred…
What makes someone “the most socially influential college student?” Off The Quad, a Boulder-based digital provider of daily tips about hot goings-on, has come up with a (nerdy) algorithm to figure it out that takes into account how often said college student posts stuff on Facebook and how many different…
Say goodbye to Denver Magazine. The publication that convinced Fox31 anchors to turn into skankers on its cover a couple of years back is no more, with rival 5280 acquiring intellectual property like internet domain names and its Facebook page. Here’s 5280 founder, editor and publisher Daniel Brogan on the…
As illustrated above, the most fitting outfit for Centennial Mayor Cathy Cook to deliver her State of Our City speech today would be a tastefully designed IKEA crown. Hopefully, the speech will celebrate the City of Centennial’s tenth birthday — and recent success in attracting new business — with the…
The Denver Auto Show currently running at the Colorado Convention Center is an exhibition of dreams. The real Denver Auto show is staged on neighborhood driveways reveals that Denverites like big trucks. The 2005 Volvo Condo semi truck shown above is just one of many examples that prove Denver drivers…
We’ve made lotsa sport of Niwot-based Crocs, from a 2005 feature that included savage reviews by fashionistas to reports of what Alan Prendergast described as the “brightly hued, comfy-ugly clown shoes” being escalator unfriendly. So our first thought after hearing the company is donating 100,000 pairs to earthquake and tsunami…
