Denver News Blog

Dan Tang

​This morning, prominent Thornton restaurant owner Dan Tang pled guilty to one count of money laundering for his role in what investigators labeled the "Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization."

When authorities took down the drug ring in February 2008, they came away with 24,000 marijuana plants growing in 25 suburban homes, along with $3 million in cash and more than $1 million of growing equipment.

Operation Fortune Cookie was the largest indoor marijuana bust in state history -- but behind the scenes, the investigation began to fall apart soon after the arrests. A tip-off letter had alerted the drug ring about the investigation, and afterward, the DEA launched a rancorous internal investigation into the North Metro Task Force, the police agency that started the case, looking for the leak. The results of the lengthy inquiry were never released, but in the year following the bust, half of the eighteen-member task force left or were reassigned.

This video by the folks over at Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies is a great hour-by-hour delineation on how the Falcon Heene/Balloon Boy saga went from a local news oddity to international media frenzy, and then to the kind of fast-spreading cultural virus known as a "meme."

Oh yeah, it's alllll coming back to me now.

Paper or plastic?

​Still no official response from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 about this week's "last, best and final" contract proposals from King Soopers and Safeway. But several employees posting on the Facebook page linked to the union's AlwaysHereForColorado.com site don't seem to have been won over by the most unusual aspect of the offers: "bonus ratification" gift cards of between $150 and $1,000, depending on position.

"The gift card is a BRIBE! They are taking your money twice! by giving you a gift card for the store, then not giving raises and TAKING PENSION AND FUNERAL EXPENSES AWAY!," declares one poster. Another writes, "WOW... this is the most pathetic thing I have heard... 8 years of my life and I get a $400 gift card." And a third notes, "If the workers hold out, maybe they'll throw in a frozen turkey, too..."

Happy Thanksgiving.

"45365."

​Editor's note: This year's Starz Denver Film Festival, November 12-22, features more than 200 films. To help navigate this cinematic abundance of riches, we asked fest artistic director Brit Withey to highlight some worthy selections off the beaten screening-room path. Look for Brit's Picks each weekday through the extravaganza's close.

For the final weekend of this year's fest, Withey has chosen a typically eclectic trio of films to recommend. The diversity of their origins (they were made in the U.S., Denmark and Uruguay) echoes the event's theme this year -- "Destination: Anywhere."

​What writer wouldn't want to cover the Olympics? The glitz, the glamor and the high-profile nature of the gig are just about irresistible, regardless of your feelings about winter sports. I mean, I'd jump at the opportunity, and I couldn't care less about skiing, skating and curling. Well, curling's kind of cool -- something about a man with a broom on ice is just special...

But for local blogger Amber Johnson, editor of the Denver Post's Mile High Mamas, covering the Olympics is something of a lifelong dream. Johnson's a winter-sports enthusiast and former adventure-travel writer and ski publicist. Now she's one of five finalists nationwide to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on Microsoft's dime. And for her, it's a second chance to live the dream, after her first shot got caught up in traffic, as she explained on her blog:

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, BC.

​Here are some local sites you might enjoy visiting.

A thread on DenverRadio.net's Comments & Rumors board begins with questions about why no local stations have started playing wall-to-wall Christmas music yet -- and ends with news that KOSI has begun the yuletide frenzy. Somewhere Der Bingle is counting his money.

JO at Colorado Pols salutes Senator Mark Udall for introducing a bill to end "predatory practices of banks and other institutions issuing credit cards." Charge!

Colin at South Stands Denver wonders if Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is playing Patriot games by pretending that Kyle Orton's ankle injury is worse than it is. Pray that he is...

Councilman Chris Nevitt doesn't want to give dispensaries an excuse to start buying from bad guys.

​While some officials seem to see the ongoing medical-marijuana boom as a threat to all that's good and strong and true about our fair state, Denver city councilman Chris Nevitt is focusing on the practical questions that arise from the issue.

Earlier this month, Nevitt talked about regulating dispensary food products that contain marijuana, among other things. But he wants to make sure rules placed on medical-marijuana purveyors aren't so onerous that they cause precipitous price increases -- a development that might cause entrepreneurs to give their business to drug dealers rather than more legitimate sources.

"For everybody who wants to participate in the medical-marijuana industry, we don't want them to be tempted to go the illegal route," he says.

​You don't expect much from your daily-newspaper sports columnists these days. Sentences that make sense, some well-placed punctuation, maybe a bad pun or two. But while our expectations have been lowered over the years by the likes of Woody Paige and Skip Bayless and whoever else shows up in the corners of our sports pages, this effort by the Post's Mark Kiszla made Paige look downright sober.

After the Broncos' lifeless loss to the Redskins on Sunday, Kiszla somehow came to the conclusion that quarterback Kyle Orton was hiding on the bench rather than reenter the game:

At least you didn't get blown out this time, Dan.

​If moral victories mattered at this point (which they don't), CU's 31-28 loss to Oklahoma State last night would definitely qualify.

Yes, I know: OSU was without starting quarterback (and Chatfield High School alum) Zac Robinson, and the squad's been mildly overrated all season long, making its ranking as the twelfth best team in the country a bit suspect. But given its season to date, CU still shouldn't have been able to stick with the Cowboys, particularly with practically no rushing game. Somehow, though, the Buffs managed to go into halftime with a lead, and at one point actually held an eleven-point advantage before slowly succumbing to the inevitable.

After the game, QB Tyler Hansen, who suffered a bruised thumb that resulted in another unwanted Cody Hawkins sighting, acted as if Dan Hawkins career as CU coach didn't end for all intents and purposes several weeks ago: "We always get told that Coach Hawkins is solid right now. His job is pretty certain. He's going to be here," he said.

Doubt that in a huge way -- but some of the players Hawkins'll leave behind, including Hansen and receiver Markques Simas, have some significant upside. That probably won't be enough to convince a big-name coach that this mess can be cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time -- certainly not Mike Shanahan. But a coach who stresses offensive line play, overall discipline and other fundamentals could right this ship more quickly than CU's 3-8 mark implies.

That's what passes for optimism regarding CU football these days...

Blue Sky Collective artists Lori Clayton and Kathy Nutt join Jessica Noonan at Hootenanny Candies and Tea...
​
"Lori, Kathy, the bad news is that the artist collective must vacate the premises by December 1. The good news is that it still gives you two plenty of time to unload your inventory of Jerry Garcia portraits and translucent fairy wings onto your friends and family as holiday gifts!"