by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Feature Story Middle Left
Right On ’Que: Sizzling
Carve BBQ Opening In Glendale
New Eatery From Southern Concepts To Add Fire In Belly Of Valley’s Dining Crowd
So you’re looking for that next great eating odyssey. Food you crave that’s guaranteed to satisfy your hunger. A renegade wave of new eateries is opening in Glendale and Denver with Texas-size ambitions and creative swagger that’s turning the Valley into the next great dining destination and barbeque is just the beginning.
Carving out a laid-back local hot spot in Glendale is Southern Concepts Restaurants Group’s fast casual barbeque concept Carve Barbeque opening Nov. 5 in the 1000 S. Colorado Blvd. shopping plaza. To celebrate the opening Carve will donate 10 percent of all sales to the Denver Rescue Mission during grand opening day. In addition, the first 25 guests to arrive on grand opening day will receive free Carve for one year. It is the first barbeque eatery from the Colorado Springs-based group that owns and manages three ful
l-service restaurants in the market. “Carve is different than your traditional pit barbeque restaurant — it is barbeque without boundaries,” explains Mitchell Roth, Southern Concept’s CEO. “We will be setting ourselves apart by choosing only the finest quality, all-natural meats.”
Customers will walk down the food line in the contemporary eatery where they choose from four styles — naked, salad, sandwich or street taco — plus meat garnishments. The eatery will serve pork, chicken, brisket, ribs plus prime rib, all natural wood-smoked. The fresh sides will range from traditional options like coleslaw, to barbecue pico de gallo and charred corn salad. Craft brews and local wines will be available. Information: 303-756-3356.
Eatery Explosion
There are a multitude of new eateries open or scheduled to open as the holidays near. Newly opened in Glendale is Noodle Fresh offering Asian Street Tacos, Ramen bowls plus create-your-own noodle bowls. Information: 303-757-0145. Also now open is Telegraph Bistro & Bar in the Wash Park neighborhood at 295 S. Pennsylvania. It features a menu of seasonal New American cuisine em
phasizing fresh seafood and vegetables. Information: 720-440-9846.
The Blue Island Oyster Bar — sister restaurant to Golden’s Table Mountain Inn eatery — has opened in Cherry Creek’s 250 Columbine project. Along with oysters from the restaurant’s own New York oyster farm, you can dine on lobster rolls, caviar, crudos, burgers, fresh fish, chowders and salads. Information: 303-333-2462.
Additional restaurants yet to open include Matsuhisa Cherry Creek, scheduled to open by year’s end in the Creek’s Steele Creek Apartment building; Del Frisco’s Grille — the casual sibling to Del Frisco’s — is opening a space in the new First Bank Building in Cherry Creek boasting a rooftop patio and an upscale bar. The menu will include prime-grade steaks, pristine seafood and two-fisted sandwiches and flatbreads. Finally, SOL Mexican Cocina is also opening in the 250 Columbine project. It will focus on the coastal cuisine of the Baja coast. The menu will range from various guacamoles to seafood dishes, street tacos, and bigger entree plates.
by Mark Smiley | Nov 2, 2015 | Editorials
Robert Speth v. Happy Haynes
On November 3 there will be an off year election here in Denver for which there is little excitement except over the endless attempts to get Denver taxpayers to pay for everything from redoing the stock show grounds to paying for the college education of the political elite’s kids and those belonging to politically favored groups.
But there is one hotly contested elective office fight and that concerns three positions on the seven person Denver Public School Board. The most interesting is the at large contest between current DPS Board President Allegra “Happy” Haynes and Robert Speth, a senior strategic account manager for Sprint.
The race boils down to corporate oriented reformers versus teacher union supporters as it does in almost all DPS elections. Corporate oriented reformers presently control six of the seven positions with the sole teacher union supporter Arturo Jimenez not running for re-election.
Challenger Robert Speth appears to be a highly intelligent individual with a wife and two children in the Denver Public system at Valdez Elementary School in northwest Denver. His campaign slogan is “A Parent. Not a Politician.”
For those not in the know, his opponent, 62-year-old Happy Haynes, is a lifelong politician who has never had children, much less one in the Denver Public Schools. Some of her opponents have long claimed that she does not even really live in Denver. She is, in fact, is perhaps one of the strangest and least qualified presidents of a school board in the country.
Haynes was recently handed the high paying city job of executive director of the Denver Parks Department by longtime political ally Mayor Michael Hancock without interviewing a single other candidate and halting the national search to help locate qualified individuals for the position. Her appointment was widely condemned across almost all political spectrums with park advocates pointing out she had absolutely no background or qualifications for the post. But being unqualified for a job under the Hancock Administration is not deemed an impediment as long as you are politically connected to the mayor.
She has also refused to resign as school board president to take the Parks Department position saying that during the day she would be head of Parks and a DPS president at night. Good government types have pointed that she has endless conflicts of interest between her two jobs. As president of the DPS she previously spearheaded the partial destruction of Hentzell Park to benefit the building of a new school. Okay for DPS, but a disaster for the park. The utterly spineless Denver Ethics Board, however, blessed her having the two jobs at once. What is all the more amazing about Haynes holding two jobs at once is that Haynes is not known for being a particularly hard worker. In all her time on Denver City Council she did not have a single accomplishment. She is best remembered by her fellow councilmembers as a person who failed to return almost every telephone call from her constituents. Incumbency in Denver is such a powerful force that once you are elected it is almost impossible to be voted out even if you, like Ms. Haynes, stiff-arm the people who put you in office.
Perhaps because she never had any children herself she has shown almost no actual interest in Denver’s school kids. She has been little more than a rubber stamp for literally every proposal of controversial DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg and the corporate backers of Mayor Hancock.
Ms. Haynes’ primary attribute for her entire adult life appears to be having a politically connected mother, Jo Anne Haynes, and fortuitously being nicknamed by her mother at an early age “Happy.” Who wouldn’t want to vote for someone named Happy.
Ms. Haynes appears to recognize that her primary qualification to any job is her nickname as all of her yard signs simply say “Happy!” not dissimilar to Republican presidential candidate John Ellis Bush’s campaign signs simply saying “Jeb!”
Our primary concern with Robert Speth is that we do not agree with his strategy for improving Denver schools, including severely limiting charter schools and choice in the Denver school system. He wants teachers limited to those who are “certified” and wants teachers promoted based on seniority. By straitjacketing the choice that a parent has in Denver to a “neighborhood school” you make the Denver Public Schools even less attractive than they are now and cause more parents to abandon the public school system.
However, we are also cognizant that the majority of the school board will be pro-reform no matter the results of this election. Having no dissenting voices on the DPS School Board is not a good idea. Superintendent Boasberg has grown ever more arrogant and self important over the years and there needs to be at least one voice that will act as query to the actions of the school administrators.
We may not agree with some of the positions of Robert Speth but he is at least a very concerned and intelligent DPS parent whose decisions on the Board will directly affect his own children. Happy Haynes is a lifetime politician who has repeatedly shown her only interest is what is good for Happy Haynes. Moreover voting for Speth is also at least one clear symbolic vote against the corruption that has overtaken Denver City Hall.
— Editorial Board
by Valley Gadfly | Nov 2, 2015 | Valley Gadfly
Ahh, Thanksgiving: A time to reflect on all that is good in our lives and express gratitude for it. A holiday to celebrate life properly stuffed with relevancy and technology. With an Internet connection and a search engine, anyone can be a top turkey these days. Furthermore, on the Web we can discover and learn new things.
Great gobblin’ gadgets: The @ sign is now the season’s symbol. In 1863 when Lincoln declared the holiday, photography was the most radical technology to be had.
Here are our source code choices for shopping, dining and entertainment to help you think technology, turkey and thankfulness while feasting on bits and bytes:
3 Cinema has championed some of the most awe-inspiring technologies in visual arts. See 200 titles during the Denver Film Festival at the Sie Film Center and at the Ellie, Nov. 4-15. Information: 303-595-3464.
3 You won’t see old tintypes but there’s a photo tribute to the Who at Robert Anderson Gallery, Nov. 6-Jan. 2. Information: 303-388-1332.
3 Enjoy pageantry, music and classic flair at Opera Colorado’s Aida playing Nov. 7-15 at the Ellie, 7:30 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Information: 303-698-2334.
3 Featuring a central location and select merchandise this year’s Mile High Holiday Mart is Nov. 13-15 at DU’s Gates Field House. The Junior League event is a shopping extravaganza. Information: 303-692-0270.
3 Whether you crave holiday choices or local favorites, the entire family can feast affordably at the Monaco Inn. Information: 303-320-1104.
3 Recycle the leaves gathering outside at the Cherry Creek Transfer Station 8 a.m.-2 p.m., weekends 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Information: 720-913-1311.
3 Keep those tech toys plus watches and autos charging with batteries from newly opened Battery Giant @ 6th and Grant. Information: 303-832-1454.
3 Make plans to take in the 39th edition of Central City Opera’s L’Esprit de Noel Nov. 20-21. Considered Denver’s signature holiday event, this Year’s walking tour will feature homes in Denver’s historic Country Club neighborhood beautifully decorated by local florists and table designers. The homes are in the area first developed as a residential neighborhood in the early 1900s. The earliest homes were built on Franklin Street. The tour features some of these historic homes, which have been updated for modern family lifestyles. Information: 303-292-6500, ext. 114.
This month you are likely thinking ahead about the details of your Thanksgiving Day. Whether you are making travel plans, emailing relatives about dinner reservations, or planning your shopping list and holiday meal, using your tablet can serve as one place to consolidate all needs and preparations to keep things organized and streamlined.
There’s talk today about how technology separates us. Families gather around the table to eat together but end up giving gadgets more attention than they do each other.
However using the technology can also bring us closer together. Skype and others give us the opportunity to talk face to face with friends and loved ones, no matter where they are in the world. With a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone, people are leveraging tech devices to ease holiday stress versus using fowl language.
— Glen Richardson
The Valley Gadfly can be reached at newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com.
by Peter Boyles | Nov 2, 2015 | Blasting with Boyles
It’s been estimated that the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the American taxpayer between 4 to 6 trillion dollars and resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. The invasion of Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history. Politicians, analysts and military historians run from attempting to come up with explanations for the war. In the past in this column we have focused on the lies and deception practiced by the Bush administration, and the motives and causes manufactured by Cheney and company.
The overwhelming evidence is Iraq posed no threat to the U.S., and those who helped manufacture the rationales for the war knew it.
Now comes something even worse. As you may be aware the Bush administration suppressed a 28 page portion of the 2002 Congressional Report attempting to explain the terrorist attacks of September 11th. I waded through the report when it first came out sans the missing 28 pages. It is an 838 page report, chaired by former United States Senator Bob Graham of Florida. Graham now is the leading voice in wanting you and I to know what is in the 28 page portion and why it is classified.
On my morning show on 710 KNUS radio I have now been able to talk with former Senator Graham, as well as Republican Congressman Walter Jones of North Carolina, and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky and I’m going to quote you what Thomas Massie said to me about the suppressed pages. He was shocked when he read them, “I had to stop every couple of pages, and just sort of absorb and try to rearrange my understanding of history for the past 13 years and the years, leading up to that.” It challenges you to rethink everything.
Walter Jones is the congressman who investigative reporter James Bovard said, “is best known for coining the phrase ‘Freedom Fries’.” He did so in 2003 when France opposed George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Bovard says Jones has become one of the most outspoken opponents of intervention in Iraq after reading the suppressed pages. Jones introduced a Resolution to the House for the public to be able to read the missing 28 pages. His quote: “The American people deserve the truth, releasing these pages will enhance our national security, not harm it.”
In my second interview with former Senator Graham he indicated that the Saudis are the guilty party, but disclosing Saudi links to 9/11 would have undermined the Bush administration attempt to tie Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.
So as James Bovard asks, “Do you have the right to learn whether a foreign government helped finance the 9/11 attacks?”
One of the saddest moments in reading about these suppressed pages is the Bush administration held back the release of the entire 838 pages until the middle of 2003, after the invasion of Iraq had already begun. Now most recently in a courtroom in New York, on September 28 of this year, the Saudis were dismissed as defendants in the lawsuits brought by the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
The judge, U.S. District Court Judge Daniels, said that the lawyers for the plaintiffs failed to show sufficient evidence to overcome the Saudis’ sovereign immunity.
There is evidence locked away and suppressed. If you’re a member of the House or Senate, my understanding is you can read those by going into a secure room on Capitol Hill if you can get permission from the intelligence community. I’ve read that only 18 Congressmen have done so.
This is like a handgun, fingerprints and tests, are in a police evidenced locker and the judge dismisses a murder case by telling the families of the victim there’s not sufficient evidence, while the gun, the prints and the tests lie behind lock and key. You’ve read my columns many times about my views on President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and the way they manufactured the rationale for the war. As hard as it is for me to say — it’s worse than I imagined. Don’t take my word for this, do your own investigation and come to your own conclusions. Then contact your congressmen and senators, and finally demand the truth of what these people did.
George W. Bush invading Iraq because of 9/11 makes about as much sense as if Franklin Roosevelt had invaded Mexico because of the attack on Pearl Harbor. What would be in those 28 pages if we could read them? The truth, and it’s time to hold that entire corrupt administration responsible for what they did to this country.
More to come, Happy Thanksgiving.
— Peter
