The story seemed too crazy to be true: A DIA shuttle driver conspiring to blow up New York’s subway system with bombs made from components found in Aurora beauty-supply stores? But after days of questioning in September 2009, 26-year-old Najibullah Zazi was indicted and shipped off to New York, where…
Long before Buford, the tiny Wyoming town with its own zip code, became an international sensation, it was a required road-trip stop. We’d discovered it one morning after taking a quick left at Cheyenne and heading west on Interstate 80, then realized we might need gas before Laramie. Buford, located…
After seeing the parade of suits speaking on behalf of Aurora’s application for the proposed 1,500-room Gaylord Entertainment complex to be part of the Regional Tourism Act program — ten speakers on April 10 supported the gargantuan project, and only one opposed it — several people who question the Gaylord…
For months the City of Golden met with Jefferson County and state authorities, trying to come up with a plan that would could increase and ease the flow of traffic in the metro area as it also protected the town. But those negotiations came to a halt at the very…
Gentle cabrones: My much-promised Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, has finally hit bookstores! Place your order with your favorite local bookstore, your finer online retailers, your craftier piratas, but place it: My libro editor has already promised to deport me from the publishing industry if we don’t sell…
Terrorism hit close to home in September 2009, when Aurora resident Najibullah Zazi, an airport shuttle driver, was indicted for being part of a conspiracy to bomb the subways of New York — with homemade bombs concocted from ingredients he’d purchased at local beauty supply stores. In February 2010, he…
Sure, there are Martians living under Denver International Airport, and the New World Order has concentration camps there. Still, all the conspiracy theories about DIA don’t hold a candelabra to the flotilla of rumors floating around the hundredth anniversary of the Titanic tragedy. And we’re not just talking about the…
It’s been a big year for John Denver, even though he’s been dead since 1997. Last April, the mop-topped troubadour who was born Henry John Deutschendorf was one of the first inductees in the Colorado Music Hall of Fame; the other, Red Rocks, wasn’t available for comment, either. Last month,…
Dear Mexican: Why do Hispanics deny that George Zimmerman is Hispanic? He did nothing wrong and has been crucified in the media. La Raza cannot bow down to the race-baiters and race traitors who call themselves African-American leaders! Brown and Down Dear Wab: This column is ¡Ask a Mexican!, not…
We’d just driven two hours through the dry, dry landscape when we spotted a fire on the side of the road just south of I-70. A small fire — but then, the Lower North Fork fire was once small. I dialed 911, whose dispatchers are still feeling the heat over…
Long before Buford — the tiny Wyoming town with its own zip code but a population of exactly one — became an international sensation, it was a road-trip must-stop for my family. We’d discovered it one morning when we’d zipped past Cheyenne and realized we might need gas before Laramie…
Colorado tourism got an injection of life with its smart new “Come to Life” campaign. And while it had looked like the Colorado Tourism Office’s budget might be headed for life-support, it just got an injection of of new/old money…
Can we talk? After years of state tourism efforts that ranged from embarrassing to abysmal — including the cringe-inducing “Let’s Talk Colorado” — the Colorado Tourism Office has finally come to life with its new “Come to Life” campaign…
Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night…not even the wet stuff that finally started falling an hour ago…keeps these public servants from their rounds. Yes, today marks the start of Denver’s street-sweeping program. The service is free, but the tickets that inevitably follow the sweepers are not…
Dear Readers: Talk about a lazy Mexican. Nearly four years after promising ustedes that I was going to write a book about the history of Mexican food in the United States, my Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America is getting released on April 10. Three hundred-plus pages of astounding…
There must be days when Ken Salazar wished he’d stayed in the U.S. Senate, rather than joining the Obama administration as Secretary of the Interior. There must be entire months like that. March, for example, when Mitt Romney called for Salazar to be fired…
Amnesty International USA is holding its 51st annual meeting in Denver this weekend, when a thousand activists will gather for a call to action to think globally and act locally. Colorado’s the perfect spot for that: Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network for the U.S. was based here for more than…
LoDo is one of Denver’s great success stories. While other historic parts of downtown were literally wiped off the map by urban “renewal” in the ’70s — which turned Victorian-era buildings into parking lots — lower downtown is full of turn-of-the-last-century warehouses, all now repurposed for this century. Now you…
Number 18, you’re not in Indiana anymore. You may be Denver’s most famous newcomer, but you’re a newcomer, nonetheless — and there are certain things that every newcomer needs to know. Over the last 28 years, the Best of Denver has celebrated what makes this city special — and in…
While Denver Broncos execs at the annual NFL meetings in Florida are collecting kudos for intercepting Peyton Manning, the new quarterback catch is being toasted in Colorado with a Peyton’s Pitcher & Pie Special (pepperoni pizza and a pitcher of Coors Light for $18, Mondays only) not from Papa John’s,…
Dear Mexican: Stop using Spanish in your column. I like reading your column, but when every other word is in Spanish, I don’t know what the hell is going on. It makes you sound like that nerdy kid who uses big words to try and sound impressive. Don’t be lazy, and…
In June 1989, the FBI led a spectacular dawn raid on Rocky Flats, then an operating nuclear weapons plant sixteen miles northwest of Denver, to collect evidence of alleged environmental crimes. A special grand jury wanted to indict eight individuals. But instead, the government cut a deal with Rockwell International,…
