For over a decade, I’ve enjoyed sharing my neighborhood on the edge of LoHi with the students of the Contemporary Learning Academy, a DPS high school for kids whose needs and/or schedules just don’t fit with the system’s more traditional high schools. When DPS first bought the building overlooking I-25,…
Dear Mexican: I have questions about the TSA, my most hated useless government agency. I heard that the TSA does illegal ICE dragnets at airports to catch illegal aliens. I get pulled aside for “special screening” every single time I fly, and it is infuriating. Does getting targeted by the…
As the sun rose this morning — reflecting off the blue-and-orange-hued Elitch Gardens Ferris wheel and the still-glowing Sports Authority Field at Mile High Stadium — the real show was just over downtown……
Editor’s note: Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day — a federal holiday. The Westword office is closed, but we’ll be posting occasional updates on westword.com today. The country’s largest parade in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. — the Marade — will kick off this morning by the MLK…
Dear Mexican: I work in one of those progressive companies. Most of the gabacho bosses are actually pretty cool…at least when your back isn’t turned. There are a few a-holes, pero there will always be a few; they’ve got gigs lined up in talk radio. Sabes que — what drives…
Dear Mexican: How do we humanize the illegals in this country? My reasons for asking this question are many, but mainly a very personal one. I’ve been in this country illegally for sixteen years. For sixteen years, I’ve lived my life like anyone else: going to school and working. Eventually…
Despite obvious interest across the country, Colorado’s big tourism boosters are still shying away from any reference to recreational marijuana: On Colorado.com, the Colorado Tourism Office’s otherwise expansive site, and Coloradoski.com, Colorado Ski Country USA’s site, searching for “marijuana” nets you exactly…nothing. But some tourism businesses see the possibilities: “We’re…
Dear Mexican: One of my pet peeves is Latinos who pronounce their last names with Anglo accents. For example, Rod-driguez instead of Roh-driguez. Would love it if you address this. Personally, I believe we Latinos should educate Anglos on correct pronunciation. Gomez the Groper Dear Wab: Before you start correcting…
Update below: The DenverDepartment of Excise and Licenses just updated its list of stores now fully licensed to sell recreational marijuana on January 1 — although there’s no guarantee that all eighteen will be open tomorrow. Although the lion’s share of the retail applicants are in Denver, 25 more municipalities…
Before the ball drops tonight, the cops could get a drop on you: Once again, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado State Patrol have teamed up with 76 law-enforcement agencies throughout Colorado to increase DUI enforcement through Thursday, January 2. During last year’s New Year’s Eve enforcement period,…
Do touch that dial! Because when you switch on your radio after the new year’s festivities, you’ll find some changes at Denver’s local talk stations. Peter Boyles, who moved to KNUS 710 AM after Clear Channel fired him last summer, is beating the competition at his new gig, which will…
Get out the cameras: The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses will begin handing out its first retail marijuana businesses licenses at 8 a.m. today. These are for businesses that have already received their state licenses — Colorado began sending out 348 of those on Monday to applicants in more…
After the passage of Amendment 64, the City of Denver moved slower than a procrastinating pothead in coming up with a system for handling the recreational marijuana retail stores that could be opening on January 1, 2014 — but it’s really picked up the pace lately. On December 9, it…
The calls and e-mails keep coming, sometimes several an hour. And they all want to know the same thing: On January 1, where will they be able to buy pot? Good question. The state just released its first list of 136 completed applications for recreational marijuana stores on Monday, but…
Dear Readers: Since it’s the end of the year and the Mexican is on his eighteenth tamal (made by the mujeres in his family, of course), behold some letters from angry readers (and one fan), along with my answers. Enjoy your champurrado, gracias for a great 2013, and may your…
PAINT THE TOWN READ! Latest Word is taking a long winter’s nap — until early Thursday, December 26. Until then, enjoy our continuing look back at the last year. Happy holidays!…
I have had the pleasure of writing about Ken Gordon when he was a public defender; when he was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate; when he was a candidate for Colorado Secretary of State and then as founder of cleanslatenow.org, an organization devoted…
Dear Readers: Behold your favorite Mexican’s annual Christmas gift guide, where I give shout-outs to some of my favorite books that deserve your money this holiday season! And for once, I won’t recommend my books — ¡Ask a Mexican!, Orange County: A Personal History, and Taco USA: How Mexican Food…
Dear Mexican: You mocked and didn’t answer the legitimate questions raised in a letter to you a couple of weeks ago, about the guy who didn’t see a rosy future for a Mexican-led America. The writer correctly referred to serious problems in the Hispanic community such as poor academic performance…
Five-time congressman, two-time gubernatorial candidate and one-time presidential aspirant Tom Tancredo has never smoked pot. But he doesn’t need to have used marijuana to recognize that the federal campaign against it has failed — and to support Amendment 64. A former schoolteacher and regional Department of Education head under President…
The fifteenth annual Sand Creek Massacre Healing Run was full of moving sights and sounds — from its start at the actual massacre site, which is marked by a sign advising visitors of the “sacred ground” where over 150 Cheyenne and Arapahoe were killed on November 29, 1864, to the…
Shortly after sunrise on Thanksgiving morning, we spot the eagles a few miles from the site of the Sand Creek Massacre, standing sentinel over the rolling prairie where more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho — most of them women, children or elderly men — were slaughtered by volunteer troops led…
