Denver News Blog

"Hey, Brian Dawkins: How about a reunion?"

​Three blogs about Denver, for people who care about Denver.

Mr. East at Bronco Talk thinks New Orleans Saints backup quarterback Kevin Kolb might be a better fit for the Broncos than the high-priced, high-profile Donovan McNabb. As a bonus, Kolb already has a Super Bowl ring -- something McNabb can't say.

Colorado Pols tallies up the winners and losers of political fundraising from the fourth quarter of 2009 -- with Scott McInnis ranked somewhere in-between. Don't call him a centrist, though. He wouldn't like that.

Is it time to reform tenure rules at Denver Public Schools? Alan Gottlieb at Education News Colorado thinks so. What grade do you give that idea?

Tom Massey's bill doesn't have John Suthers' s vote of approval.

​When Representative Tom Massey spoke to Westword on January 15 about the medical marijuana bill he was assembling, he described dispensaries as "a loophole in the law" -- the kind of language that warmed the heart of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who has long wanted to put the medical marijuana genie back into the bottle.

But last week, when Massey's bill was introduced, dispensaries (renamed "centers") were very much a part of the proposal, rousing the ire of Suthers, who sent a letter to legislators making it clear the bill was no longer to his liking. As for Sensible Colorado's Brian Vicente, a medical marijuana advocate, he wasn't wholly negative toward the proposal, but he's readying a ballot measure in case the final version falls short of his standards.

Where's that leave Massey? In his words, "we know we're on the right track if nobody's happy."

The Tebows have brought Focus on the Family a lot of love, cyber and otherwise.

​The Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad co-starring Florida QB Tim Tebow and his mom spurred complaints from pro-choice groups that inadvertently helped spread FOTF's anti-abortion message. And even though the game is over, the commercial continues to provide Focus with a publicity bonanza.

Gary Schneeberger, the organization's spokesman, notes that web traffic on the Focus site was so high yesterday that employees were asked to limit their computer use for fear of crashing the system -- and the numbers are likely to stay strong thanks to de facto PR efforts by three of media's most powerful commentators: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.

#3 of the 22 Major Arcana: Pat Waak, the High Priestess...
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Full Spectrum employees apparently laid out the welcome mat for DEA agents.

​Tension between medical-marijuana businesses and the feds ratcheted up two weeks ago when Drug Enforcement Administration agents rolled through Full Spectrum Laboratories, a Denver marijuana testing facility, seizing all pot samples they could find -- all while the lab's owners were at the Capitol testifying against a medical-marijuana bill.

Betty Aldworth, Full Spectrum's director of outreach, said they were caught off guard by the raid since they'd gone out of their way to be on the up-and-up, even formally applying for an analytical lab licensure through the DEA.

"We didn't need to do that, but we thought it was the right thing to do," she said at the time.

Turns out it wasn't the right thing to do -- since it apparently led DEA agents right to their door.

A rainbow purse leads to a plane crash? Really? (Click to enlarge.)

​When last we heard from the virulent homophobes at Westboro Baptist Church, they were no-shows at a same-sex-marriage debate at CU that they'd earlier promised to picket.

But that doesn't mean they've forgotten about Boulder. Indeed, the Kansas-based hate spewers are now declaring their intention to protest at the funerals of the three people who died in a recent plane crash.

Why? Apparently because people who live in Boulder are godless heathens who the Lord has decided to strike down with furious vengeance. Here's the text from their latest screed:

Photo by John Johnston

Tom Tancredo loves this flag -- and he wants voters to know what's behind it.

​Last week, ex-Congressman and former presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, delivering the keynote address at the First National Tea Party Convention, drew accusations of racism when he suggested that President Barack Obama was elected partly because "we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote... People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House."

Tancredo scoffs at the notion that these remarks were racially motivated. As evidence, he reveals that the person who helped spur the idea of a civics literacy test for voting was what he describes as "a black guy" driving a limo in Detroit who happened to be studying for his citizenship test.

Clearly, Toyota's bad batch of cars -- you know, the ones that accelerate beyond the driver's control and open up a series of potentially dangerous scenarios -- isn't a thing fiction. But all the recent hullabaloo and media talk of out-of-control vehicles could just be a real-life homage to one of the worst fiction stories of all time: 1986's Maximum Overdrive.

"It's hilarious -- since it didn't happen to me..."

​Channel 31/The Deuce sponsored a contest asking viewers to share their worst Valentine's Day ever, with the winner/loser to be rewarded with a trip to Hollywood to see the premiere of the new Valentine's Day movie. A pretty standard promotion, all told -- but who knew it would prompt a revelation that's more Jerry Springer episode than light romantic comedy.

You see, the grand prize went to a woman who discovered that her ex-husband had been secretly boinking her own mother.

But there was nothing he could do to prevent cameras outside the building -- and he and his wife were both greeted by a gaggle of press, including a TMZ.com cameraman who tried to prompt a response from the Two and a Half Men star by declaring, "Charlie, you're awesome!"