Current Issue
July 2010 Issue
Cover Story
Laboring over reform
By Eric Peterson
In 1851, Hispanic shepherds ventured north from present-day New Mexico into the San Luis Valley and settled the town of San Luis. You could say they were the first Coloradans.
Just three years earlier, the quirky alpine valley had been Mexican soil, but the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shifted the border several hundred miles southward. The aforementioned first Coloradans were likely Mexicans before the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, but the treaty granted them citizenship.
The politics of immigration reform have wavered over the intervening years, and today amnesty is something of a dirty…
Articles
The Economist: simple solution to a complex question
By Tucker Hart AdamsI’ve just read Helen Thorpe’s new book, “Just Like Us,“ the story of four Denver teenagers whom she followed through their senior year in high school and four years at the University of Denver. All of the girls are Latina, two here legally and two undocumented, the latter through no…
Election 2010: Scott McInnis readies for fight against Hickenlooper
By Mike CoteFourth-generation Colorado native and Grand Junction resident Scott McInnis has a long history in Colorado in the state Legislature, where he served as House majority leader, and in Congress, where he represented the Western Slope in the 3rd Congressional District for 12 years. Now the longtime attorney aims for the…
State of the state: utilities
By Mike CoteWestminster-based Tri-State Generation is undergoing a shift toward renewable energy, thanks to mandates in Colorado and New Mexico.
Tri-State supplies power to 18 member electric cooperatives in Colorado, 12 in New Mexico, eight in Wyoming and six in Nebraska, serving nearly 1.5 million people.
This interview with Tri-State’s Lee…
State of the state: economy
By Mike Cote
Economists, policymakers and business leaders - and anyone who works for a living - are bracing for high unemployment rates for several years to come. And we haven’t seen the last of bank failures, debt hangovers and government revenue emergencies.
That doesn’t mean…
Who owns Colorado: nipped in the bud
By David Lewis
On the Denver side of the border with Aurora lies Kennedy Plaza, a little strip mall. This is a bad pun because the little strip mall’s anchor tenant is PT’s All Nude, a topless-bottomless place that years back was a Black-eyed Pea restaurant.
…Colorado wine: World class or just a novelty?
By Bryan Criswell
If you haven’t tasted a Colorado wine lately, you’re missing out. The state now boasts nearly 100 commercial wineries producing various styles and types of wines.
But has the state industry successfully transformed itself into one that compares favorably…
Colorado cool stuff
By Eric Peterson
ECO-DITTY
When their daughter Ande was 2, Jennie and Scott Hammers learned she was allergic to PVC plastic - meaning many traditional food containers were out. “Tupperware is no good,“ Jennie says. Looking for a solution, “We thought, ‘Why not organic cotton?‘“ Jennie…
Rundles wrap up: the stickup
By Jeff Rundles
A few years ago, mired in a drought, Denver Water called on customers to conserve water, and the populace responded with aplomb. Water usage decreased so much - in fact more than the water utility anticipated - that ultimately it had to raise…
State of the state: energy
By Allen BestFor giddy-up and go, fossil fuels can’t be beat. “Sweet perfume,“ energy analyst Randy Udall called them at a recent panel discussion hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
But replace them we must, or at least sequester their carbon, if we are to slow or even reverse…
State of the state: nonprofits
By Allie Winter
The economic crunch that has led to thousands of layoffs in Colorado has made it difficult for nonprofits to secure individual and corporate donations.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which provides such services as housing and health care to…
Cote’s Colorado: Teaming up on clean energy
By Mike CoteThere’s nothing like endless images of pelicans with their wings covered in oil to underscore the importance of alternative energy and international collaboration.
When the head of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory met with a French energy executive to discuss their research partnership in late May, Deep Horizon already had…
Dawn of the iPad
By Eric Peterson
It’s 9:45 a.m. on a Thursday, and the Apple Store at Denver’s Cherry Creek Mall is already buzzing. A diverse group is checking out all of the gadgets on display - most of all the myriad iPads.
Launched in early April, the latest…
Sports biz: CU’s Pacific heights
By Stewart SchleyAs the football coach at the University of Colorado in the 1980s, Bill McCartney invented a powerful offensive weapon: the T-bone.
The four-man backfield attack was a variation on the wishbone formation that had been sharpened to perfection by Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma Sooners, and it was ideal for the Big…
Guest column: Moving on up
I recently moved from the third floor to the ninth floor of a 10-floor condo residence. It reminded me of the sitcom “The Jeffersons.“ Mr. Jefferson, an African-American, is able to “move on up to the east side to a deluxe apartment in…
Executive edge: Vern Martinez
By Lynn Bronikowski
Tucked away in the massive Glenwood Canyon is a tiny imprint of a Mayan pyramid that was imbedded in the concrete sometime in the late 1980s. Vern Martinez put it there.
The Mayan pyramid is the logo of Martinez International. Martinez thought…
Election 2010: Dan Maes’ dark horse campaign for governor has some legs
By Mike CoteIn the weeks leading up to the Republican Assembly in May, the media already had called the gubernatorial race as a contest between former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, the GOP front-runner, and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the lone Democrat.
Someone forgot to tell Dan Maes, who edged McInnis by 16…
Top 50 minority-owned businesses
By Mike Taylor
Once it was the largest Hispanic-owned business in the U.S., and perennially the top minority-owned company in Colorado based on annual revenues.
Now Burt Automotive Network is in the final stages of divesting its retail automotive dealerships and declined to disclose its 2009…
Small biz: Are those real—or just real expensive?
By Mike TaylorWhat do you get the man who has everything? How about some six-pack abs and a chiseled chest?
When Dr. John Millard told me business at his plastic-surgery practice in Lone Tree was up 40 percent in the past 12 months, I figured maybe people were going to him to…
Tech startup: Suntrac Solar
By Eric Peterson
INITIAL LIGHT BULB: Bill Lowstuter conceived of SunTrac Solar’s flagship product - sun-tracking solar collectors - as a high school student in 1978, but the plans quickly found a long-term home “literally” in his garage.
After a successful career as a supply-chain consultant…
On management: What’s it like to work for you?
By Pat WiesnerOnce somebody asked me to help him figure out what his people thought about his management style. It caused us to come up with a list of things we thought were important. You could be running anything from one person to an entire large company. So here are some of…
Letters: Where readers stand on immigration
ColoradoBiz sought the views in the past month from both sides of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, inviting several columnists to make their case, both from a business and social standpoint, for or against the law that is slated to take effect in July. Columnists who weighed in included Jeff Campos,…
State of the state: retail
By Randi AbelsColorado is gaining a new player in the grocery market - and 500 jobs - as SmartCo Foods opens five stores this summer, hoping to attract consumers with its triple-threat concept: part conventional grocer, part warehouse club, part farmer’s market.
“We saw an opportunity in Colorado. It is the only…
