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A strip club on the city’s south side will shut down for two weeks in January after an undercover police operation determined that dancers there were engaged in prostitution. PT’s Showclub, at 1601 W. Evans Ave., will be closed between Jan. 2 and Jan. 15 under an agreement the club reached with the City Attorney’s Office on Monday. In that agreement, the club admits there was prostitution and solicitation of prostitution at PT’s one night this year. PT’s must also ban two former dancers/prostitutes from its club, require…

The Christmas Eve fire that injured two workers at Suncor Energy’s Commerce City refinery began when a vapor cloud leaked from an unused pump valve and exploded as the facility was being shut down after extreme cold caused equipment failures, according to a federal investigation. The vapor was released from a pump that was not functional and had not been used or properly inspected in seven years, according to the report detailing the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration‘s investigation into the accident. The…

A long-vacant nightclub property in Lone Tree is now owned by that city. The municipality closed last week on the purchase of 9070 Maximus Drive, which has sat unused since restaurant and nightclub Treo closed in 2009. The city paid $3.85 million for the 14,500-square-foot building on 3.36 acres. The Lone Tree City Council approved the purchase in September, saying the move would allow the city to control redevelopment of the property, which is within the city’s established entertainment district. The property was sold…

The Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building is the workhorse of Denver’s real estate portfolio, providing space for 2,100 employees across departments from the Clerk and Recorder’s Office to city planning to parks and recreation. Now, more than 20 years after it was built at 201 W. Colfax Ave., work is underway on a $133.5 million overhaul. The renovation will touch all 12 floors of the gray, oval-shaped office tower north of Civic Center park over the next two years. And even while it’s under construction, the Webb…

Area food producers are finding new ways to get their fruits and vegetables, pasta, breads and meat to people’s tables long after farmers markets have packed away their stands for the season. Restaurants and customers who participate in CSAs, community supported agriculture, buy directly from area farmers and ranchers. Denver-area producers are also reaching more people through the online grocer Pinemelon, which promotes “local first,” and Spade & Spoon, a meal-in-a-box service that uses locally produced food. Joy…

The good news this Thanksgiving is that the price of turkey and eggs is down significantly this year. The bad news is the price of just about everything else is up. The bird flu swept through the country’s turkey farms in 2022, driving up the cost of the Thanksgiving meal centerpiece. The flu also helped boost the price of eggs. The toll on turkeys and overall inflation resulted in a record price tag of $64.05 for a holiday meal for 10 people in 2022, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. The average total for…

Four of the seven bills passed by lawmakers during an emergency session aimed at softening property tax increases and providing other forms of relief to residents were signed into law Monday evening by Gov. Jared Polis, just hours after the legislature adjourned. The measures approved since Friday, in a session called after voters rejected Proposition HH this month, will affect nearly all Coloradans who are grappling with surging property taxes and a fast-rising cost of living. The owner of a typical $500,000 home will…

United Airlines expects to have its busiest-ever holiday season this year and has made a short, Christmas rom-com movie shot at Denver International Airport to entertain the large surge of travelers. The 5:45-minute short, “Love in Plane Sight,” features a couple of cameos by Santa Claus and a budding onboard romance that starts with a meet-not-so-cute. Character Sam K. Young, rushing to catch his plane, smacks into Elle Towe and splashes her gingerbread latte all over her white sweater. Of course the two end up being on…

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spangalang Brewery was struggling. A tiny beer maker located in the former DMV office in Five Points Plaza, Spangalang had opened in 2015 and become a favorite for locals, but not the kind of regional draw that drives huge growth. So when brewery owners Darren Boyd and Taylor Rees got a major investment offer from their landlord, the Flyfisher Group, they planned to accept. Flyfisher, which owns or operates several properties and businesses in the neighborhood, would take a 40% share,…

By Seth Fiegerman, Bloomberg Google’s DeepMind has developed an artificial intelligence model that uses decades of historical weather conditions to produce accurate 10-day forecasts in less than a minute. GraphCast outperformed the gold-standard forecasting model from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on roughly 90% of metrics tested, according to a study, which was published in the journal Science on Tuesday. The model also performed well when predicting the most severe weather, the study showed.…