The president was not the only Obama to make a speech yesterday. Michelle Obama was at the Library of Congress celebrating the tenth anniversary of National Mentoring Month. My father didn’t know it was Thank Your Mentor Day when he took his mentee, Byron, to his suburban Chicago Rotary meeting;…
Dear Mexican: A few years ago, I moved to Tucson. In said city, I noticed that there were little piles of stuff accumulated on the medians of the main roads. It looks like what was Dia de la Muertos paraphernalia — I’m not so gringo as to not know what’s…
On January 15, in the middle of National Mentoring Month, my 85-year-old father was looking for his mentee – a hunt that took him into the heart of Cook County, Illinois, and a jail system that makes Denver’s look like Club Med. Byron had been raised by a single mom…
Colorado has incredible beauty, a colorful governor, and smart residents (and readers) who would prefer that tourists (especially Texans) stay home and wonder “Why do you need to spend money to advertise something that is timeless?” And although it doesn’t have an ocean, it will soon have an IKEA, down…
Welcome to Colorful Colorado! On today, Colorado Tourism Day, let’s revisit some of the greatest hits — and far greater misses — of the state’s tourism efforts. Currently, the marketing theme at www.colorado.com promises that “A world of scenic wonder awaits, in a Land Called Colorado.”…
City Hall will be going to the dogs today, with pit bull protesters converging on the building at 14th and Bannock streets at 11 a.m. today — if the protesters can get around all that Big Air scaffolding. But there’s already plenty of hot air in the dog-eat-dog world of…
Illegal immigrants took over the State Capitol yesterday — figuratively speaking, at least — when Senate Bill 54 was introduced by Senator Kent Lambert. It’s essentially a copycat of Arizona’s controversial (and constitutionally challenged) law, and a major waste of time. Until Arizona passed its measure, Colorado had the toughest…
Hank Brown could have had a big office under the gold dome: Back in the anyone-but-Dan Maes days, the former U.S. senator was urged to make a last-second run for governor. But while Brown was one of the first old-guard Republicans to drop his endorsement of Maes, he didn’t jump…
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire. Parker’s Jacob Christenson has been charged with second-degree arson that caused upwards of $195,000 in damages; he’ll go on trial in Arapahoe County in February. But it will be tough to find a jury of his peers: Jacob is ten…
Dear Mexican: I’m not Mexican (or from a Spanish-speaking country), but I get mad when the gabachos in my town say that all Mexican girls do is take drugs and get pregnant, drop out of school and end up on welfare. I know a lot of Mexican women who haven’t…
The weather looks promising for this morning’s Martin Luther King Jr. Marade — a march/parade that’s the biggest in the nation. But no matter the air temperature, the atmosphere won’t be as hot as last year, when the Denver Public Schools had planned a lunch in honor of MLK the…
Beer was flowing (figuratively, at least) when John Hickenlooper offered his first address to the Colorado Legislature yesterday and told the story of a brewpub. Not the Denver-centric story of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., the iconic LoDo spot, but a venture that grew out of that project: the Phantom Brewing…
Now that John Hickenlooper has been sworn in as governor, and Bill Vidal is officially Denver’s interim mayor, the focus will soon shift to the race for the next mayor. A dozen candidates have already declared, and two high-profile names — Linda Alvarado and Walter Isenberg — are reportedly mulling…
The most moving sight in a day filled with eye-popping activities surrounding the inauguration of John Hickenlooper: the lineup of former governors — Dick Lamm, Roy Romer, Bill Owens, Bill Ritter (and on video, John Vanderhoof) — on the stage of the Fillmore Auditorium. The oddest sight? Another lineup…
Eight years ago, John Hickenlooper was barely a blip in early polling for the 2003 mayoral election. Four years ago, he won re-election in a walk. This morning, he’ll resign the office of Denver mayor — and the happiest people in town will be the dozen candidates who’ve already declared…
John Hickenlooper has not yet been inaugurated as Colorado’s next governor, and the city of which he is still mayor — for another 26 hours or so — is buried in the sort of snowstorm that shows how much Mother Nature loves mocking Denver’s politicians. Remember Bill McNichols? But already,…
Dear Mexican: I think I have a Mexican problem. In short, I have a home in sunny California on a property with an abundance of agave cactus and Century plants growing along the street. Every year for the past twenty years, five to ten cactus leaves (three to four feet…
The four friends stand on the sidewalk in their dirty sneakers, jeans and T-shirts, beneath a sign advertising their ambitious new project: the Wynkoop Brewing Company, “developed under the City and County of Denver’s Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Program.” Behind them is the circa-1899 J. S. Brown Mercantile Building, a…
John Hickenlooper had not yet resigned the office of Denver mayor before a trio of candidates angling for that spot held open houses at their campaign headquarters this past week. Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock was the first; his campaign occupies the lucky space at 1100 Bannock Street that housed…
John Hickenlooper is moving fast to build his administration. Since December 31, he’s announced more than a dozen appointments, including three yesterday alone: Barbara Kelley will remain as director of the Department of Regulatory Agencies, Larry Trujillo will continue as head of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, and James…
Next Tuesday morning, John Hickenlooper will resign his post as Denver mayor, a job he’s held almost eight years, but is giving up to become Colorado governor, and walk out of the City and County Building and across Civic Center Park towards the State Capitol — right into a fence…
And they’re off! John Hickenlooper won’t resign the office of Denver mayor until 8:30 a.m. next Tuesday (ninety minutes before he’s sworn in as governor), but the ever-increasing group of candidates who’d like to occupy that office next will be holding open houses over the next few days. First up:…
