Michael Hancock.

A much-contested deal to trade eleven acres of open space in the Cherry Creek corridor for an office building in central Denver, pushed by Mayor Michael Hancock and approved by city council in April, has triggered not one but two citizen petition drives to nix the swap and protect the land in question -- one of the last remnants of a prairie ecosystem in the city limits.

Voters may get to decide the matter this fall, although the city's efforts to squelch the campaign may result in a battle in court first.

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Is it legal to grow hemp in Colorado? Like, right now?

That's a complicated question -- and one that the Colorado Department of Agriculture is trying to clear up in a statement issued this week: "Amendment 64 did not authorize the immediate cultivation of hemp. It instead directed the General Assembly to enact legislation governing the cultivation, processing and sale of industrial hemp. This they have now done."

So can farmers start planting? Not yet.

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It's been over six months since voters approved Amendment 64, which allows adults 21 and over in Colorado to use and possess small amounts of marijuana, and the Obama administration still hasn't weighed in on the measure.

Last week, we speculated that the delays would continue thanks to current scandals that touch upon the Justice Department, and one of the main A64 proponents won't complain if they do.

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Big photos below.

Late last year, when we first posted about the search for Kara Nichols, she was nineteen.

Today, more than eight months after she set out from her Colorado Springs home for Denver, she turns twenty. Her loved ones are marking the date even as they're emphasizing that despite the passage of time, they're not giving up on locating an aspiring model said to have been involved in drugs and prostitution. Photos, details and our original coverage below.

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A new government report on the rate of sexual victimization in America's jails and prisons lists the Denver Women's Correctional Facility as having the highest rate of sexual assault and misconduct by staff of any lockup in the nation -- four times the national average, in fact. That figure is dismaying state corrections officials, already reeling from parole snafus and the murder of prison chief Tom Clements.

It may also be more than slightly misleading.

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More photos below.

The campaign to either save Nathan Dunlap from the death penalty or execute the man convicted of four brutal murders at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993 has turned into something of a public-relations competition. As the Arapahoe District Attorney's Office continues to dole out statements from victims and associates who believe he deserves the ultimate punishment, Dunlap's advocates are working to humanize him even as they emphasize broad support for Governor John Hickenlooper to alter his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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Marijuana addiction specialist Dr. Christian Thurstone conjured images like the one seen here when, earlier this week, he shared what he sees as evidence of weed users searching for bigger and bigger highs -- and added his fear that such people may soon turn to injecting THC, the active ingredient in pot.

Dr. Bob Melamede, among the country's most vocal advocates for the medicinal benefits of cannabis, pulls no punches when asked his opinion about such a prospect. "This is nonsense," he says. "It's idiotic."

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Dr. Bang Bang. More pics below.

This week's feature, "Paging Doctor Bang Bang," tells the story of Kimmy Kimmy Bang Bang, a.k.a. Kim Wilms, a foot-and-ankle surgeon by profession and a badass blocker and jammer on the track with the Denver Roller Dolls. Wilms doubles as the roller derby league's unofficial in-house doctor, assisting skaters with the sprains and bruises that come with playing the fast-paced contact sport. Over the past two years, she's also operated on several skaters' broken ankles.

Some of the injuries were especially gruesome -- and we've collected photos of them for you, dear reader.

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Big photos below.

Want proof there was a lot of pent-up demand for civil unions? According to Denver's Office of the Clerk and Recorder, the city issued 255 civil union licenses during the first two weeks of May, as compared to 245 marriage licenses.

Granted, 114 of the civil-union licenses were issued during Denver's May 1 midnight civil-unions event. Our Kyle Huninghake was on hand to capture images of the love. Check out highlights below and click to see our complete "Denver's First Civil Unions" slide show.

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More photos below.

Yesterday, we reported about 7News' story on the rate of sex-assault prosecutions under Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, whose on-camera ripping of reporter Keli Rabon was included online; see our original coverage below.

Since then, the tensions between the DA's office and the station have only risen, with the former publishing a list of alleged inaccuracies and omissions from the report, and 7News rebutting each and including documentation to back up its claims.

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