Opinion & Commentary

A week after Snobama buried the Front Range in hype and hope, we’re still shoveling out — and just dug up this fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calvin Coolidge…

Mayor Michael Hancock’s choice for Denver’s new police chief, Robert White, was introduced at a hastily convened press conference at City Hall on Saturday. The announcement of Hancock’s pick for this most-watched post had been moved up several days because the news of White’s appointment had already leaked out in…

No sooner had husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane opened Marczyk Fine Foods at 770 East 17th Avenue than people started asking when they would open a second store — usually begging them to open one in their neighborhood. Nine years later, the couple (now joined by Pete’s brother,…

“Mustang,” Luis Jimenez’s killer horse at Denver International Airport, just placed third in a recent survey of the country’s most bizarre public art. But it definitely ranks first in the hearts and minds of Denver residents, who either really love or really, really hate the sculpture…

“What is that thing at the end of your block?” For the last year, that’s been a regular query from people heading to Highland — from I-25, from Speer Boulevard, from 15th Street — who inevitably catch sight of the imposing structure that now stands at the edge of the…

Michael Hancock has good timing. He was in the right place, right time when Denver voters were looking for someone, anyone but Chris Romer to be mayor, and managed to edge out James Mejia, the other leading someone. And even as Snobama was descending on the city, Mayor Hancock managed…

Mayor Michael Hancock celebrates his first hundred days in office today. Compared to the controversy that marked the last few days before the June mayoral runoff — when the web and talk shows were full of never-proven rumors that Hancock had been a client of Denver Players, a prostitution business…

Obama! Snow! A flurry of announcements started coming in yesterday, all indicating that Denver is on a collision course with a made-for-TV disaster. President Barack Obama is coming to town for two fundraisers tonight, as well as one public appearance tomorrow, inspiring a number of official and unofficial political activities…

In December 2007, Molly Midyette was convicted of child abuse that led to the death of her ten-week-old son, Jason, and sentenced to sixteen years in prison — even though she was at work and her husband, Alex, was watching the baby at the time. This week, she’ll be out…

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition moves to Fridays tonight, and makes a stop in Colorado. No, this isn’t where the crew builds a house for a family enduring hardship — that happens in Pennsylvania. Instead, while the crew is building their home, the family waits in Colorado…

President Barack Obama was in town last month, and will be back next week. But today, it’s George W. Bush’s turn to visit Denver, where he’ll be meeting this morning with Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver school superintendent Tom Boasberg to talk about Get Smart Schools, a charter school initiative…

The world will end on Friday, according to Harold Camping, the biblical clock-watcher who was born in the apocalyptic town of Boulder more than nine decades ago. Of course, Camping has been wrong before: He’d predicted that the Rapture would hit on May 21, 2011 — and if it did,…

Travel + Leisure recently released its list of America’s Favorite Cities, ranking 35 major metropolitan areas on everything from pretty people to driving habits to bars and restaurants. And there’s some good news for Denver: It’s the No. 1 city for microbrews. Which means there’s plenty of beer to cry…

Travel + Leisure just released its list of America’s Favorite Cities, ranking 35 major metropolitan areas on everything from pretty people to driving habits. There’s good news for Denver: It’s the No. 1 city for microbrews. Which means there’s plenty of beer to cry in over our pathetic showing in…

Amid the regrouping of Occupy Denver, which was booted out of Lincoln Park but is still growing as a movement, the state’s official Democratic political power brokers are in Las Vegas, at “Project New West Summit: A Roadmap for the West in 2012,” which today includes an appearance by Governor…

There have been some tense times between Aurora and Denver officials since word came down this summer that Gaylord Entertainment would like to build a hotel/resort complex in Aurora — and move the National Western Stock Show there, too…

There are dozens of great restaurant bars in the metro area, and yesterday Laura Shunk attempted to narrow that list down to Denver’s five best bars in restaurants. Barflies are questioning one particular inclusion: Cherry Creek Grill…

Gardeners along the Front Range are harvesting the fruits of their labors — and those gardeners include many local restaurateurs, who are supplying much of the produce for their own kitchens. Laura Shunk is currently profiling these chef/farmers, and her post on the Black Cat’s Eric Skokan yesterday prompted this…

County clerks began mailing ballots out yesterday. And in Denver, Pueblo, Boulder and a half-dozen other counties, that also meant mailing ballots to voters labeled “inactive” — some because they’d simply skipped one election cycle. Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler had sued Denver County to prevent that, but a…