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Colorado Student Granted Religious Exemption From School’s Digital Monitoring System
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Colorado Student Granted Religious Exemption From School’s Digital Monitoring System

By Hannah Metzger | Westword "The district is deeply committed to honoring parental rights." Hail Satan? A young member of the Satanic Temple was granted a religious accommodation from the Elizabeth School District, arguing that the district’s digital hall pass system conflicts with her beliefs. The parents of the Elizabeth High School student had requested that she be exempted from the system, but their request was initially denied, according to TST. That’s when the Temple’s lawyers stepped in. “This was a cut-and-dry case of a TST member’s bodily autonomy being violated by invasive digital controls,” says Eliphaz Costus, campaign director of the Temple’s Protect Children Project. Using the digital hall pass system to monitor and restric...
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Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette Named in Epstein Correspondence
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Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette Named in Epstein Correspondence

By Hannah Metzger | Westword Emails between Jeffrey Epstein and Barbro Ehnbom suggest a disturbing partnership between the convicted sex offender and the Swedish businesswoman; from Ehnbom sending Epstein a photo of a “little blond girl” who she thinks would be of his “taste,” to offering up her “brainy and sensual” project manager to be Epstein’s “wife choice this year.” Amid their correspondence, a surprising name arises time and time again: Diana DeGette. The Colorado congresswoman’s name appears in over a dozen emails between Epstein and Ehnbom sent from 2009 to 2016, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice. Though there is no evidence that DeGette ever communicated with Epstein directly, his emails ...
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Denver’s flavored tobacco ban raises questions of freedom vs control
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Denver’s flavored tobacco ban raises questions of freedom vs control

By Westword Readers | Commentary, Westword Reader: Banning Flavored Tobacco Won't Make It Disappear Late last year, Denver City Council voted to ban flavored tobacco products. Now voters will get the chance to overturn that. Late last year, Denver became the latest Colorado city to pass a ban on flavored tobacco products; it's slated to take effect on January 1, 2026. But before then, the electorate will get its say on this issue. Even before Mayor Mike Johnston signed the Denver City Council-approved proposal, a coalition of smoke and vape shop owners was putting together a campaign to overturn the ban, gathering more than 17,000 signatures to successfully put a repeal in front of voters this November. Will it pass? Readers aren't blowing smoke in their comme...
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Mile High City food scene sees turnover with August openings and closings
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Mile High City food scene sees turnover with August openings and closings

By Patricia Calhoun | Westword Noble Riot, Pandemic Donuts and Milk T Boba House all closed on the last weekend of the month. After a summer of long-anticipated openings (Bear Leek, Pig and Tiger, Fortezza in the former home of Farow in Niwot) and much-publicized closings (the Hornet, Middleman), August ended with a surprise: Noble Riot, the spinoff from the owners of Nocturne that was named one of 2021's Best Bars in America by Esquire (and won top honors for Best Fried Chicken in the Best of Denver 2023), shuttered its brick-and-mortar location in RiNo on August 30, after six years. "This was an incredibly tough decision, and one I didn't make lightly," says Troy Bowen, co-founder and owner of Noble Riot. "I am immensely proud of what we built ...
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Denver’s $950 million bond: Taxpayers deserve full accountability before another blank check
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Denver’s $950 million bond: Taxpayers deserve full accountability before another blank check

By Erik Clarke | Commentary, Westword "Denver residents want to support good projects that improve our daily life and solve real problems. Taxpayers also want to know that their money is being managed responsibly." In 2017, Denver voters approved the $937 million Elevate Denver Bond Program to improve civic infrastructure across the city. Eight years later, while some projects have made meaningful progress, many remain delayed, over budget or not yet started. Now, the city is preparing to ask voters to approve another nearly billion dollars through the proposed Vibrant Denver package. Before we’re asked to vote this November, we deserve more than summaries and categories. We deserve transparency. We deserve details. As of today, there is no public cost breakdown ...
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Colorado sees one of the nation’s largest drops in alcohol use
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Colorado sees one of the nation’s largest drops in alcohol use

By Thomas Mitchell | Westword Alcohol consumption has been on a steady decline across the country, and Colorado is near the top of that trend, according to a new analysis of data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Don't get it twisted: Substance-abuse counselors in Colorado still have a lot of work. Along with continuing to rank in the top ten for adults who drink, Colorado also outpaces national averages in daily cannabis use, and it has topped the country in cocaine use for two of the last three years. But slow motion is better than no motion. Alcohol Use on the Decline in Colorado Around 54 percent of Americans said they drank alcohol in a recent Gallup poll, the lowest reported number since the survey operation began trac...
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Denver Is Losing Everything That Gave It Character
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Denver Is Losing Everything That Gave It Character

By Westwood Readers | Commentary, Westword After almost thirty years, the Hornet has taken off from the corner of First and Broadway. For decades, the Hornet has amused patrons and passersby alike with the messages on the sign outside the restaurant at 76 Broadway. But the sign that went up last week was not so amusing: "Thanks Denver! Come & Say Bye." The Hornet flew off after last call on August 9; the building it had called home for almost thirty years was sold this spring, and the restaurant itself had been put up for sale. But instead, the owners opted to close, putting this message on social media: "While many things have changed and become more complicated over the years at 1st & Broadway, we would prefer to celebrate all of the amazing times that you shared wi...
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Colorado Sued for for Taxing Overtime Pay Exempted by Trump
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Colorado Sued for for Taxing Overtime Pay Exempted by Trump

By Michael Roberts | Westword The lawsuit challenges a recently passed Colorado law that will continue taxing overtime pay at the state level. As President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act temporarily cuts federal taxes on overtime pay, some Colorado Republicans are seeking to force the state to follow suit. The conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado filed a lawsuit on Thursday, July 24, challenging a new law that will continue taxing overtime pay at the state level, regardless of federal changes. The lawsuit was filed in Denver District Court against Governor Jared Polis and the head of Colorado’s tax agency. Other plaintiffs attached to the suit include Republican State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer and Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham. The lawsuit target...
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Xcel’s costly coal exit: Public interest group warns plan could stick consumers with the tab
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Xcel’s costly coal exit: Public interest group warns plan could stick consumers with the tab

By Catie Cheshire | Westword One consumer protection group is calling for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to shrink Xce's giant proposal. As Xcel Energy works to decommission coal plants across Colorado, one proposal is catching heat. Watchdog organization Colorado Public Interest Research Group believes Xcel’s proposal to replace the Comanche 3 coal plant in Pueblo will result in unnecessary costs to customers. The group's executive director Danny Katz, says the proposal is too big for southern Colorado as his organization calls on the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to pare back the proposal. According to Xcel’s filings with the PUC, the utility wants to replace energy production from Comanche 3’s coal units with a mix of wind, solar and natu...
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Who’s controlling the signs? Denver traffic boards hacked with anti-ICE F-bomb
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Who’s controlling the signs? Denver traffic boards hacked with anti-ICE F-bomb

By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword "I know Denver is holding firm, but this was another f-word altogether." Denver drivers noticed a surprising message yesterday on electronic message boards near Broadway and Interstate 25: "Bring the Heat F*** ICE." The Denver Department of Transportation (DOTI) first noticed "the non-project related message" at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 22, according to DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn. The day the message went up, Denver's weather had started cooling down after a hot spell, setting up the clever jab at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency responsible for arrests and deportations. The message boards belong to a contractor working with DOTI to install safer ramps between Broadway and Interstate 25, Kuhn says, ...
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