Dear Mexican: Why can AeroMexico Airlines fly through any kind of weather conditions to get to and from the United States, but any kind of little ice sprinkle or heavy wind, and domestic airlines in the U.S. cancel two days’ worth of flights? For two consecutive winters, I’ve had Chicago-to-Houston-to-Leon,…
Denver’s holiday display wasn’t always such an orgy of bad taste. Back in 1935, just three years after the Denver City and County Building was completed, muralist Louise Emerson Ronnebeck created a 76-foot-long Nativity painting for its pediment — a painting that has since gone missing. What grinch stole this…
Long before the Americans with Disabilities Act was revised to protect pit bulls as service dogs, critics have been snapping at Denver’s 1989 ordinance that bans the breed. But last night, Denver City Council brushed aside both the critics and the feds in upholding the ban. And that bites!…
A campaign to change the name of Commerce City fell flat back in 2007. Will the current back-to-the-future attempt to rebrand the town’s 917-acre Prairie Gateway — home of the Commerce City Civic Center as well as Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — as Victory Crossing even the score?…
Bah humbug. On Wednesday, while I was inside the Denver Motor Vehicle office renewing my plates, my car parked outside on Welton Street was ticketed — for expired plates. Yesterday, I visited the parking referee — and here’s some free advice that will cost me $75: Do not expect mercy…
When I pulled up in front of the Denver Motor Vehicle office on Welton yesterday, the parking lot was full and the line was spilling out the front door. With what looked like a long wait ahead of me, I loaded the parking meter to the max. Good news: an…
Two weeks ago, the merger of local Rock Bottom Brewing with the Tennessee-based Gordon Biersch brewpub chain formed one of the largest craft-beer-focused companies in the country: Craftworks Restaurants & Breweries. And now, as we reported earlier today, another big deal in the works: The Wynkoop Restaurant Group, which started…
The riot of shepherds and reindeer and snowmen and candy canes and an oddly large cow, not to mention Jesus, Mary and Joseph, appears on the steps of the City & County Building every November, and protests inevitably follow. But Scrooges miss the real question: Why is Denver’s Nativity scene…
CLEAR is back in business at Denver International Airport, helping ease travelers through the trauma of those invasive security procedures for just $179 a year. And who — besides the prudy-pants traveler — benefits? How about former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, a fan of the full-body scan who’s now…
Dear Mexican: This güero downloaded the Arizona SB 1070 bill, did a search on the document for “Mexicans,” and did not come up with a single hit. What’s up with that? Since you are such an acknowledged expert at pointing out Mexican-hating here in the American Southwest (your words, not…
The Republican Study Committee of Colorado will hold a summit on illegal immigration at the Capitol today, with an agenda packed with heavyweight speakers and issues (violence, “competitive challenges for businesses”) — but no mention of the man who’s kept the discussion of illegal immigration going in this state: Tom…
Procrastinating travelers who had no time to shop for supplies on their way to grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner were in luck if they were driving Interstate 10 through southeastern Arizona. Dwayne’s Fresh Jerky, a stop just off the road at Bowie, was selling both turkey jerky and dried cranberries…
When Michelle Malkin moved to Colorado, Ken Salazar still represented this state in the U.S. Senate. But then Salazar left what would have been a safe seat (judging from Michael Bennet’s victory over Ken Buck) to become Barack Obama’s Secretary of the Interior — a much more dangerous spot, where…
It was just a week ago that former congressman and presidential/gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo and “Ask a Mexican” columnist Gustavo Arellano debated immigration in front of a packed house in Denver. And the fun’s not over yet…
For this year’s Thanksgiving travels, I will not need to carefully plan my wardrobe. I will not need to leave my sequined skirt in the closet, stash my underwire bra in my suitcase, wear a decent T-shirt under my jacket, slip into slip-on shoes, and remove every piece of metal…
Dear Mexican: I am a mutt. My father’s father was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. My mother’s father was an illegal immigrant from Ireland. My surname is Mexican and is usually mispronounced by gabachos and pendejos alike. I look more Irish than Mexican. And as my father never spoke it…
Tom Tancredo suddenly found himself with a lot of free time earlier this month. When the five-term Colorado congressman ran for president of the United States on a single platform — illegal immigration — he’d called it his last political act. But then on August 1, 2010, Tancredo became a…
Kristen Stillman, whose story Westword first told back in the September article “Kristen Stillman puts her family first: That’s why she’s letting her four kids go,” was sitting with her twin brother Will at a local Denny’s yesterday, making the kind of plans for their future that they could never…
As a mixologist, Kevin Burke knows how to pour it on. And yesterday, he was all contrition in his apology to Denver Magazine, the publication that had repeated a bunch of whoppers that Burke, a finalist for the pub’s Mixologist of the Year, had fed them for last month’s food…
Update: The immigration debate continues, two days after the November 16 face-off that pitted Tom Tancrtedo against “Ask a Mexican” columnist Gustavo Arellano. “Gustavo seems to speak out of both sides of his mouth,” one commenter suggests. “Of course Tancredo is a racist although he believes he is not,” charges…
You know you’re back in Denver when you hear that bossy voice admonish you for “delaying the departure of this train” at DIA. It belongs to 9News’ Adele Arakawa, who replaced original admonisher Reynelda Muse. Likewise, the cheery “hold on” now comes from Alan Roach rather than the late Pete…
Dear Mexican: I’m thinking of moving to Mexico. I’m a first-generation mexicano. My parents are absolutely against it, insisting that it’s violent and that I should be proud of being an American. I’m not looking to lose my American-ness; I just want to add some more mexicano to it. Is…
