Opinion & Commentary

Governor Bill Ritter will sign a slew of bills this week — the deadline for action on all legislation coming out of this past session is June 11 — but he put HB 1364 on a fast track, Vetoing the bill Friday afternoon. He did the right thing. As the…

John Hickenlooper revealed an updated campaign website yesterday that promises to keep things “positive.” We’ll see how long that lasts with both the Democrats and Republicans holding their state assemblies this weekend, just as a new Public Policy Polling survey shows that Hickenlooper has lost his early lead and is…

It’s time to expand the discussion of the bill that would continue this state’s Sex Offender Management Board beyond state senator Joyce Foster — who certainly should have revealed that the prime motivator behind her amendment of the measure was her own brother-in-law, a convicted sex offender — and Greig…

I headed up to the 2000 block of Larimer Street last night — an area dubbed “NoDo” two decades ago, not just because the map put it right above LoDo, but because of its distinct lack of funds compared to its more prosperous neighbor. And there I raised a glass…

The controversy continues to grow over last-minute changes in HB 1364. The measure extends the life of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board for five years, but removes the words “no known cure” — as originally presented, the measure included those words and charged the board to study whether they…

Concern over the legislature’s last-second changes to the bill that continues the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board is growing, with an editorial in the Denver Post on Saturday and Peter Boyles continuing to beat the drum on KHOW this morning. Yes, the program that’s the target of this last-second change,…

Even as legislators were spinning their last-second vote that will let sex offenders choose their own treatment, and also removed the words “no known cure” when describing their crimes, Senior U.S. District Judge John Kane was chastising a clearly not-cured child-porn addict. Two years ago, Kane had given Ralph Rausch,…

What’s the future for news? Is there a future for news? Those questions, and more, are all up for discussion tonight when Channel 12 presents “Whose News? How Public Media Can Save Our Lives” with journalist Frank Sesno, currently the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at…

The Gulf of Mexico is a day’s drive away, but Colorado’s still gotten slimed by the spill. As head of the Department of the Interior, which badly underestimated the environmental threat posed by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, former senator Ken Salazar has found his formerly squeaky-clean reputation marred by a…

Last night, with less than a day to go in this legislative session and plenty of work still to be done, the House reluctantly accepted the amendments the Senate had made to HB 1284 and passed the bill (by a 46 to 19 vote) that will regulate the operation of…

By statute, this session of the Colorado Legislature must end on May 12. Lawmakers have a lot of work to do before then. The two hottest measures of this legislative session — medical marijuana regulations and the education reform bill — will both hit the House today. In the case…

Oh, brother! Jim and the late Angelo Karagas bought an old saloon at 2376 15th Street more than forty years ago, transforming it into My Brother’s Bar, an institution so beloved in Denver that it needs no sign. But now, another Brothers is entering the market: Brothers Bar & Grill…

Chris Romer’s “long, strange trip” is almost over. The state senator who last fall decided to take on the task of shepherding legislation through the Statehouse that defines and regulates this state’s booming medical marijuana industry saw House Bill 1284 pass the Senate yesterday, 26-9, with a major bipartisan push…

With the ground-breaking for an IKEA store in Centennial this week, Colorado came one step closer to becoming a shopper’s mecca. But the state took a step back yesterday when HB 1279, which would have expanded alcohol sales in grocery stores, was killed — and that means that Coloradans may…

What’s in a name? For Jim Karagas, absolutely everything. For four decades, he’s been the man behind My Brother’s Bar, the watering hole at 2376 15th Street that’s such a Denver landmark it has no sign above the door and has never really needed one — until now. The history…

John Hickenlooper has been officially out of the restaurant business for more than two years — ever since the trust he’d put his business interests in when he was first elected mayor sold his remaining ownership of seven restaurants for $5.8 million back in 2007. One of those restaurants was…

The Daily Show’s “Gone to Pot” segment on Denver’s medical marijuana industry didn’t do much for this city’s rep as a mecca for smarties (we put the “duh” in Denver), but it will certainly boost the Mile High’s status as Cannabis Capital of the World. As correspondent Jason Jones says…

“What a long strange trip it has been,” state senator Chris Romer wrote early this morning, at the end of a note with his latest round of proposed changes for the bill that would drastically restructure this state’s medical marijuana industry. The Colorado Legislature has just seven more days in…

When Brad and Libby Birky opened their restaurant, SAME Cafe, at 2023 East Colfax Avenue, people didn’t give the venture much of a chance. After all, the name stood for “So All May Eat,” and signaled the couple’s willingness to serve everyone, regardless of how much money the diners had,…