The Lite Stuff

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez seems to have picked his running mate as he would a tie — an accessory that’s complementary, and not too loud. Something he can embrace in an unctuously innocuous manner, as he did yesterday when announcing that Janet Rowland is his choice for lieutenant governor…

Blue Horizons

Back in June, Bill Clinton’s handlers didn’t think he’d answer a question about whether his wife was running for president. (Although answer it he did — twice — and one of his lines even rated a laugh on Leno.) But in Denver yesterday, when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled the…

No Tell Hotel

What if you gave a protest and no one came? Yesterday, the Colorado Republican Party staged a protest outside the Grand Hyatt Denver on 17th Street to illustrate the “Tug of War” between Democratic factions. “The radical wing of the Democratic Party, led by the likes of Howard Dean and…

Blog Eat Blog

In cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream. And the sound echoes on…and on…and on. The fireworks started on July 4, when Deborah Frisch decided to troll the Web and toss a few firecrackers at conservatives. She came across a post that Jeff Goldstein had made on his blog, proteinwisdom.com, criticizing…

Pressing Engagements

Pressing Engagements Last Friday’s papers were all over Katie Couric’s visit. And that very morning, The Early Show broadcast live from Civic Center Park, extolling the Front Range as the Napa Valley of microbrews (the timing was a bit unfortunate, given former Senate candidate Pete Coors’s imminent date with a…

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow

The wheelchair-bound fellow rolling his way up Broadway just after 7 a.m. this morning, an icy-cold six-pack of Bud Light in his lap (3.2, of course, but your convenience-store options are limited), knew how he was going to spend another 100-degree day: drinking in Civic Center Park. Too bad The…

Wiping Rove Off the Map

With Robert Novak now fingering Karl Rove as the source of the Valerie Plame leak, the man once called “Bush’s Brain” must be itching to erase some of the recent past. And Rove knows just how easy it can be to revise history. Back when he was a young lad…

A Nobel Calling

Betty Williams owes Ivan Suvanjieff ten bucks. He keeps in close contact with Williams, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, just as he does with all the Nobel Peace Prize winners (although communications can be tricky with Aung San Suu Kyi,…

Wed Alert

By last Tuesday, a question I’d asked President Bill Clinton (see “Clinton, Finally”) had become a joke on Jay Leno. The question was this: “If Senator Clinton becomes president, what would your role be?” The answer (buried in a much longer response) was this: “I’ll do whatever she wants, and…

Clinton, Finally

Elvis was about to enter the building. Last Friday, as former president Bill Clinton charmed group after group back in Colorado — starring at two Democratic fundraisers, surprising a confab of Denver Public Schools principals, picking up a rumored quarter-of-a-million bucks to talk to a national meeting of apartment owners,…

Free for All

On June 19, 1865, word finally reached slaves living in Galveston that they were free — almost two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. They marked the date with a celebration they called Juneteenth. “As people started to leave the South with the…

Market Watch

One of Denver’s most storied streets is starting a new chapter. In a few days, the cameras will roll on The Real World: Denver, the eighteenth installment of the show that made reality TV a reality, capturing the antics of seven pretty people who work together and live together in…

All Wet

Hurricane season is about to hit, but Washington, D.C., is still flooded with backwash from Hurricane Katrina. Last week, the Center for Public Integrity released 928 pages of e-mail messages to and from former FEMA head (and current Coloradan) Michael Brown. The e-mails, which the center received seven months after…

You Go, Joe

From zero to hero. Just a couple of weeks ago, Joe Nacchio’s lawyer was in federal court, arguing that his client’s upcoming trial must be moved, because the former Qwest CEO is one of “the most reviled figures in Denver history” and could never get a fair trial here. But…

Critical Mess

Sure, this city’s great at handling 75,000 protesters. But toss it a hundred kids on bikes, and things go to hell. Late in the afternoon on the last Friday of every month, bicyclists in 400 cities around the world gather for Critical Mass, a community bike ride that’s taken off…

Ka-Ching!

Tourism boosters kick off the summer season at a rally today at the State Capitol. And what a season it should be: Come July 1, the state’s annual tourism budget will increase from $5 million to $20 million (pending final legislative approval). But at the same time those boosters tout…

Chile Today, Hot Tomorrow

You don’t find green chile in Mexico — but here in Denver, it’s the signature dish at most Mexican restaurants, a sauce/soup/stew of green chiles (always) and tomatoes (sometimes) and onions (sometimes) and pork (sometimes). Order green chile in Puerto Vallarta, or Phoenix, or Cheyenne, and you get a side…

Terrorist Likes Us, He Really Likes Us

Denver’s about to get The Real World, but four years ago we had a shot at getting a much bigger piece of a world that was — and remains — all too painfully real. “In the name of Allah,” began the 29-page, handwritten pleading filed in U.S. District Court for…

A House Divided

Some day in 2008, you’ll be able to stand on top of the 33-story Ameristar Casino in Black Hawk (right by the pool) and have a clear view of the gold fields that gave birth to Colorado’s past. The future looks cloudier. At last Thursday’s ceremony unveiling Ameristar’s big plans,…

No Whine Before Its Time

Quick! Call a lawyer! Student Jason Sharman is still several years away from achieving that status, but as the president of the University of Colorado at Denver Pre-Law Society, he’s already getting a pretty good education in the Law of Unintended Consequences. Or maybe CU really intended for events like…

Flats, Busted

After months of testimony and weeks of deliberation, the ten jurors considering the case of Merilyn Cook, et al., vs. Rockwell International Corporation and the Dow Chemical Company had finally reached a verdict. But before it was revealed, U.S. District Judge John Kane had a few words to say. “Through…

Photo Finish

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, I should simply have snapped a photo outside of Zengo on Monday night. Inside, the restaurant was turning a record number of tables — all thanks to Denver Restaurant Week, the promotion that runs through March 3 and is packing the…