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Anyone in the mood for a little boycotting this weekend might want to start with Wolf Motors. ProgressNow Colorado, a liberal activist group, is calling attention to the potentially offensive billboard the company has put up on its Wheat Ridge site.
The company seems to be in cahoots with local radio blowhard Peter Boyles, who has been promoting the often discredited but never silenced “tea party” and “birther” movements for months.
The often confounding, forever sublime First Amendment guarantees that Wolf, Boyles, and the rest of this curious brood are free to protest President Obama’s policies, of course. But the racially tinged caricatures of the president cross the line. It’s merely the latest and most localized evidence that certain people believe it’s okay to bring a little bigotry back now that an African-American has ascended to the highest job in the land. But it never was, nor will it ever be.
Maybe if these folks wised up and brought a little class to the debates they’d so dearly like to have, some common sense and common ground might rise above the noise.
Despite some kind of promotional relationship with that cute Esurance gal, the future of the Monolith festival is “very grim.” Those words come straight from the “Monolith team” that puts on the two-day indie-music festival at Red Rocks.
“A tough economic year and an opening day of chilling rain combined to put a serious dent in our humble operation,” the team writes in a note on Monolith’s Web site. “We have continued to pursue any and all options that would allow us to recover from this year and head into 2010 with full steam. At this point in time, we have been unable to secure any options.”
This year’s turnout seemed solid, as did the acts—which included the Mars Volta and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among many others. But the outcome “unfortunately, seemed foreseeable, especially when organizers parted ways with AEG Live, the promoter who produced the 2008 installment of the festival and who opted out this year,” writes Westword.
There’s a glimmer of hope: The festival could go on if a new promoter who appreciates Monolith’s ear for great music can be found to provide the needed cash.
As the U.S. Senate rolled out an $849 billion health-care-reform bill yesterday, you may have missed the other big policy story of the day. In an impassioned plea that fell on many deaf ears, Colorado Democrat Mark Udall argued that something needed to be done about credit card gouging. He asked his fellow senators to support a House bill meant to put the reforms of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act into place two months early.
“The last thing our families need are higher interest rates and extra fees, especially on consumers who are already playing by the rules,” Udall said (via the Fort Collins Coloradoan).
But his calls for a vote, which would have frozen credit card rates and fees until stricter regulations go into effect in February, were shot down by Republicans. Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, delivered the death blow “on behalf of several senators on this side of the aisle.”
Half of Americans report that their interest rates have been raised in the past six months while Congress has considered limits on them, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey (via Deseret News). A majority of Americans, 77 percent, think credit card companies are taking advantage of consumers with their interest charges. McClatchy Newspapers, meanwhile, tries to figure out what you can do about high credit card rates. The answer: “Not much.”
Denver is keeping up its end of the bargain when it comes to globalization. Not only can you get authentic sushi in Denver and a properly poured Guinness at a pub, you can now go to London and eat a belly-busting burrito at Chipotle.
“I think we’ll be able to source beautiful ingredients from local and sustainable sources from the time we open in the UK, and establish sustainable supply chains elsewhere as we look at other European markets,” says Chipotle Chairman/CEO Steve Ells.
Additional London sites could be added next year, as well as locations in Paris and Munich.
Chipotle seems recession-proof: For the first three quarters of this year, the company reported a 14.6 percent increase in revenue, up to $1.13 billion, notes the Nation’s Restaurant News.
The Colorado Ski Train is back, but with a new name: the Rio Grande Scenic Ski Train. It’s expected to make an inaugural run on December 27 (h/t Huffington Post).
Wayde and Donna McKelvys promoted a green dream—Mantria in Speed of Wealth—in seminars and webinars, urging people to invest in “carbon negative” housing developments in rural Tennessee while marketing biochar, a charcoal substitute made from organic waste. Investors were urged to cash out their stock or retirement funds, or even borrow against their homes, with the promise of returns of 17 percent or higher.
The McKelvys, whose lies included that biochar facilities were producing some 25 tons a day, then reaped a 12.5 percent commission for themselves without telling investors.
But now, the apparent $30 million Ponzi scheme is over, as the Securities Exchange Commission moved Monday to freeze assets in Colorado and Pennsylvania, accusing the McKelvys, who are the principals of Speed of Wealth LLC in Centennial, and Mantria executives Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr in Philadelphia of using new investment cash to pay off earlier investors, reports The Denver Post.
An SEC complaint accuses each of the defendants of violating anti-fraud and other aspects of securities law, writes the Denver Business Journal, adding that the SEC seeks injunctions, disgorgement, and financial penalties.
To the likely delight of libertarian-minded people everywhere, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has decided the state will collect sales tax on medical marijuana. Late yesterday, Suthers released a legal opinion that mandates the proliferating dispensaries must seek a retail sales license from the state in order to operate, reports The Denver Post.
Advocates at the Colorado Wellness Association believe most dispensary owners will appreciate the move “if it will help prove the legitimacy of their efforts.”
Indeed, credibility is enough of a concern in Pueblo County that a commissioner recently bailed on a dispensary tour when he learned a reporter was on the way, according to the Chieftain. Commissioner Anthony Nuñez was ostensibly visiting the dispensary to better understand the case of its owner, who’s been lobbying the commissioners there to refrain from enacting a temporary ban on dispensary licensing.
The county will vote this morning on whether to follow the city’s lead on a moratorium, an issue taken up in various municipalities across Colorado of late.
The community of Lyons is also looking at a temporary ban, notes the Longmont Times-Call, and Grand Junction voted yesterday to place a one-year moratorium on dispensaries there, writes the Daily Sentinel. Aurora has also voted in favor of a short-term ban, reports the Post, which runs down a list of towns that have considered bans of differing lengths and points out that elected officials in Fort Collins and Loveland also plan to vote on the issue tonight.
There are few people in the world who would seriously argue that junk food and soda pop are good for you. But the question, as far as Bill Ritter’s critics are concerned, is whether people ought to pay higher taxes for them. The governor isn’t alone. Several states are considering the idea, which would put sweets in the same category as sin items like liquor and cigarettes.
For Ritter, the proposed higher cost for candy and soda is a matter of eliminating a sales-tax exemption, not creating a new tax. Doing so would generate $17.9 million and help ease budget cuts to schools, writes The Denver Post.
But critics, such as Jon Caldara, president of the libertarian-minded Independence Institute, are none too pleased: “I think the governor needs to sit down and watch Willy Wonka a couple of times and stop being such a buzz kill.”
Yet, such criticisms seem to be the least of the governor’s problems. Ritter is attempting more than $1 billion in budget-balancing maneuvers, and the “candy and soda” tax is just one of more than $130 million in proposed temporary eliminations of tax exemptions, notes the Denver Business Journal. Among others, Ritter has also proposed suspending an exemption for industrial and manufacturing energy use, which could reap $48 million. Critics say the cuts will hurt Colorado’s economy.
For months, the drama involving King Soopers and Safeway workers has dragged on—at times quietly, as if there were no mention of a strike.
But the dispute has been simmering, and now international labor leader Joseph Hansen is asking both companies for “last, best, and final” offers in order to prevent a strike against Safeway, writes the Colorado Springs Gazette.
In recent months, members of the Local 7 union rejected “final” offers from King Soopers and Safeway. But the local workers need the blessing of the international union to begin a strike. So another final offer is anticipated today, reports 9News, which adds that details are unavailable.
Colorado ranks number 11 in terms of the highest foreclosure activity among U.S. states as of October, which is good news—it’s the first time since March that the state wasn’t in the top 10, according to the Northern Colorado Business Report. Foreclosures may be down, but that doesn’t mean the housing carnage is over. Even the poshest residences can fall, as is the case with the condos at the Ritz-Carlton downtown.
A redevelopment team led by Charlie Biederman oversaw the $75 million upgrade and grand opening of the luxury condos last year, but only one of the 25 units on the 15th to 19th floors of the hotel at 1881 Curtis St. sold—and that includes in the three years of pre-sales, reports The Denver Post, which notes the property’s Forza Fitness & Performance gym is also in foreclosure. Biederman declines to comment, as the lender, Goldman Sachs, takes the property in an attempt to reposition the condominiums.
Meanwhile, the general contractor and 26 subcontractors who are owed more than $2.3 million for work on the bankrupt Landmark and Meridian condo towers in Greenwood Village are fighting to be paid in court, according to INDenverTimes. And in another ritzy development scandal, Westword reports on the felony charges facing the developer of One Lincoln Place.
It seems downsizing is the trend in housing now—goodbye 4,700-square-feet of living space, private theaters, and super-size foyers, writes The Wall Street Journal.
Footnoted has discovered an “interesting new disclosure about Porsche” tucked deep within a financial filing. The German car-maker is suing Crocs, the Niwot-based shoe manufacturer, over the use of the name Cayman. Back in May, Crocs Europe B.V. received a letter from Porsche claiming that Crocs’ Cayman shoe model infringes upon their trademark for the car of the same name.
Crocs Europe was ordered to “immediately cease and desist,” and in July the company received an injunction notice, although it is hard to see how people could confuse the slow-moving rubbery Crocs sandal that sells for $29.99 for the zippy Porsche Cayman, which goes for $51,000.
Crocs plans a vigorous defense, and as Footnoted theorizes, “it’s got to be an expensive distraction for Crocs, which had to find a law firm in Germany to represent its interests.”
Chris Weiss of MotorCrave chimes in: “Porsche has helped to draw an analogy between its car and a pair of $30 foam slippers. Nice job Porsche.”
Laura Kriho, the Cannabis Therapy Institute’s outreach director, says it appears the Boulder City Council’s effort to rush an emergency ordinance to crack down on medical marijuana has spawned confusion about what the rules actually do.
“They didn’t put a lot of thought into the definitions or into the rest of the ordinance,” she tells the Daily Camera, saying it appears the ordinance could be interpreted to mean that anyone who sells pot is in business legally.
Read the language for yourself. The approved ordinance states a medical marijuana business in Boulder is “any establishment that makes available marijuana in any form to any other person in exchange for money, goods or services,” or anyone with “possession of more than six marijuana plants and two ounces of a usable form of marijuana, unless the possession is by a patient or primary caregiver” as defined by the Colorado Constitution.
So does this mean anyone in Boulder can sell pot now without fear of being busted? Not so fast, says city attorney Jerry Gordon: The “ordinance doesn’t legalize the sale of marijuana,” although he concedes a layperson might interpret it otherwise. (more…)
Remember the Mobil Travel Guide? Well, it’s now the Forbes Travel Guide, but it still delivers coveted little stars to hotels and restaurants. It’s no surprise that the The Broadmoor (right) in Colorado Springs has reaped the highest honor—five stars.
“The Broadmoor has been one of America’s favorite resorts since 1918,” Forbes writes. “This all-season paradise is close to Colorado Springs, yet feels a million miles away.”
The Broadmoor’s Penrose Room restaurant also received five stars. Aspen’s Little Nell, “a perfect location to either hit the slopes or roam the streets in search of Aspen’s latest fashions,” is the only other hotel in the state to win five stars, notes the Denver Business Journal, but three received four-star ratings: The St. Regis Resort in Aspen, the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Avon, and the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.
Colorado’s four-star restaurants are Montagna in Aspen, Mirabelle in Beaver Creek, Flagstaff House in Boulder, and Restaurant Kevin Taylor in Denver.
If you are dazed and confused by all the legal fighting over Colorado’s apparently nebulous law legalizing medical marijuana, you’re not alone. The headlines have been a blur in recent weeks. While local politicians are promising crackdowns, fearing a stoners’ free-for-all, the courts and state officials are trying to sort out myriad issues and controversies surrounding the tremendous growth of medical marijuana dispensaries of late.
Last August, the state Board of Health decided anyone who supplies marijuana to a registered user is qualified to be a “caregiver.” The rules seemed simple enough until last month, when the state Court of Appeals seemed to eclipse that rule in a criminal case, concluding that a woman was not qualified to be a caregiver because she provided the drug only and no other health services. That led the Board of Health to reconsider and temporarily accept the court’s requirements.
There’s more: Lawyers got involved, and yesterday Denver District Judge Larry Naves overturned the Board of Health’s interim decision, concluding that officials ignored the needs of patients and violated state open-meetings laws in the process (via The Associated Press).
So now, medical marijuana providers can go back to slinging pot without offering other services to patients who have a certificate and prescription.
Westword talks with Brian Vicente, one of the attorneys who represented medical marijuana patients, after the ruling: “The judge made it very clear the Board of Health needs to cease disenfranchising the public. We hope that at subsequent hearings, they will abide by Colorado law and listen to patients and providers.” Eyes are now set on a December 16 Board of Health meeting.
In some bad news for Colorado’s economy, Frontier Airlines is expected to move hundreds of jobs out of Denver and Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The impact in Denver will come in the loss of as many as 220 jobs in Frontier’s heavy-maintenance department, according to 7News. Frontier spokesman Steve Snyder confirms this, noting Coloradans should not view the move as the end of Frontier in Denver, following a recent takeover by Republic Airways Holdings.
“We’re a little over 4,000 employees that are based in Colorado, so you’re still talking a large percentage of jobs that will stay here,” Snyder says. “Denver will still remain a major hub” for the airline.
The decision, nonetheless, has left local officials voicing disappointment and explanations.
Mayor John Hickenlooper says Milwaukee had free hanger space available, something Denver just didn’t have: “We offered every incentive conceivable to Republic Airways, but we can’t pay their rent for them” (via the Denver Business Journal).
But aviation consultant Mike Boyd isn’t surprised and thinks Denver could have done more.
“Airlines have to make money, and they’re going to move jobs to where they can make money. Colorado is just not a business-friendly state, as far as that goes,” he tells 9News. “The airline made it clear, taxes on parts and other issues. Fix that, and we can keep those jobs here. The city couldn’t do it.”
Nonprofits are bracing for long lines of people seeking assistance with their energy bills this winter, according to The Associated Press.
Freedom Service Dogs, Incorporated in Englewood, which rescues shelter dogs and trains them to become companions for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, has seen donations fall by 32 percent.
No matter the nonprofit, money is tight this year, according to a 9News/USA Today report, which finds that the nation’s 400 largest charities expect donations to decline an average of nine percent this year.
“Nonprofits are not going away, and they are used to facing difficult times, and they will continue to do that. They need assistance from the public to do that, but they will always be there to fill the gap where either government or business cannot,” says Renny Fagan, CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Association. (more…)
At 10.2 percent, the national unemployment rate is at a 26-year high, The New York Times points out. At least Quark Incorporated, founded by Denver businessman, philanthropist, and political activist Tim Gill in the early 1980s, seems unaffected.
The company, which created perhaps the most popular computer software for laying out newspapers and magazines long before Adobe ended the era of paste-up design, could add as many as 500 jobs to Denver in the next three to five years, according to the Denver Business Journal.
Quark is launching Quark Promote, which could become its “most profitable line of business yet,” the company says. The new development aims to help small businesses and individuals create marketing materials, according to The Denver Post, noting the company will release more details on November 19. Earlier this year, Quark had roughly 135 employees.
Steve Jones, the brewer and founder of Horsetooth Brewing Company in Fort Collins, was just starting his business when he got a call from CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing Company. There was a conflict: CooperSmith’s has a Horsetooth Stout, leading Jones to rethink the name of his brewery. But he can’t come up with the name on his own, so he’s holding a contest, the winner of which will receive a year’s supply of free beer, writes the Coloradoan.
As of Wednesday, the company’s blog listed more than 200 suggestions, including BackCounty, FC, Blue Sky, Old Town, Noco, Devil’s Backbone, 287, Dillweed, Bucktooth, Front Tooth, Fort-Tooth, Pony Molar, Balloon Boy, Whale Rock, The Fort Brew, Ugly White Statue, and Trout Bum. The contest ends Saturday, and the winner will be announced November 16.
Meanwhile, the Colorado Brewers Guild, which represents most of the 110-or-so craft brewers in the state, has been successful in convincing more liquor stores and restaurant owners to carry their brews—a good time for the push, notes Westword, as more breweries release holiday offerings.
As the U.S. House voted for a measure yesterday that might prevent credit card companies from unjustifiably raising interest rates and fees earlier than expected, it became clear the effort arrives too late for many consumers, including Abigail Whetstone, who pays her bills on time, electronically, every month.
Yet the rates on her cards, which she uses for her Arvada business, have changed in confusing and unpredictable ways, writes 9News. Now, she’s struggling.
“I would like to think that enough people complaining and trying to do the right thing would get the companies to change, but I’m not finding much change happening.”
Nothing in the legislation passed yesterday will help people like Whetstone. But the measure will freeze interest rates and fees for nine months, and immediately impose new rules signed into law by President Barack Obama in May, which are set to take effect in February (via The Wall Street Journal). Dozens of Republicans joined with Democrats in the 331-92 vote.
U.S. Senator Mark Udall (pictured), a Colorado Democrat who has introduced legislation to enact the credit card law two months earlier, praised the House vote in a press statement: “There’s still time for the Senate to follow the House’s actions, pass this bill and send it to the president for his signature—before the holiday season starts. Consumers need relief, and I urge my colleagues to join me in this fight. This is the classic story of David vs. Goliath—and I’m happy to take on Goliath.”
Across the nation, most daily newspapers give away their news for free online. That includes papers run by the Denver-based MediaNews Group chain, which owns The Denver Post and several other print publications throughout Colorado and the nation.
But starting next year, readers will have to pull out their wallets and pony up—at least for some content at two of MediaNews’ papers: the Enterprise-Record in Chico, California, and the Daily Record in York, Pennsylvania, according to Editor & Publisher. Still, MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton has not signaled that the chain’s Web sites will become a pay-only universe.
“We don’t think putting everything behind a pay wall works, but we think putting some things behind a pay wall works,” he says, adding, “We have to condition readers that everything is not free.”
The reaction from a critic at NBC Bay Area is harsh, pointing out that newspapers have tried before to charge for online content, only to fail miserably—even the mighty New York Times, which once charged readers to view columns by the popular Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman. Sixty-six percent of participants in a poll at MediaBistro say if newspapers charge readers online, readers will “flee to other free sources” on the Internet.
Meanwhile, KBDI 12 is planning a nonprofit investigative news operation—that is, if the station can raise $400,000 to get it off the ground, reports The Associated Press. Westword media critic Michael Roberts takes a closer look at the hopeful new venture.
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Anyone in the mood for a little boycotting this weekend might want to start with Wolf Motors. ProgressNow Colorado, a liberal activist group, is calling attention to the potentially offensive billboard the company has put up on its Wheat Ridge site.
To the likely delight of libertarian-minded people everywhere, Colorado 
There are few people in the world who would seriously argue that junk food and soda pop are good for you. But the question, as far as Bill Ritter’s critics are concerned, is whether people ought to pay higher taxes for them. The governor isn’t alone. Several states are considering the idea, which would put sweets in the same category as sin items like liquor and cigarettes.
Remember the Mobil Travel Guide? 
At 10.2 percent, the national unemployment rate is at a 26-year high, 
As the U.S. House voted for a measure yesterday that might prevent credit card companies from unjustifiably raising interest rates and fees earlier than expected, it became clear the effort arrives too late for many consumers, including Abigail Whetstone, who pays her bills on time, electronically, every month.