ColoradoBiz articles from February 2006

ColoradoBiz archives from February 2006

Conservatives bray, lawmakers govern.
February 1, 2006... WHEN I WRITE THIS FOR OUR FEBRUARY ISSUE, IT IS USUALLY mid-January, the legislature has begun, and I'm feeling guilty about not having written enough already about the challenges state lawmakers will face during their 120-day session. I write...

Original writing in decline.(Readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2006... I could not agree more with Jeff Rundles' January editorial, "Let's do less!" I continue to be astounded--not only by the "dumbing down" of (journalism)... to a "third-grade level," but the lack of evocative or original ideas. We are...

Owens a Republican in Name Only.(Readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2006... What you call "standing up for the people of Colorado" (Robert Schwab, "On Colorado" December 2005), I call the largest tax increase in Colorado history obtained by misleading the voters. When you say "Coloradans have chosen to invest...

Female inventor deserves mention.(Readers respond)(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2006... About the guest column by Tom Frey ("Patent history reveals hits and Misses," November 2005): One woman inventor not mentioned was probably the most significant in the middle of the 20th century, Hedy Lamarr. Yes, the actress. SEND LETTERS...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2006... In the January list of "Colorado's most powerful people," Denver Public Schools Superintendent Mike Bennet was misidentified as a relative of Robert Bennett, the retired CEO of Liberty Media Corp. He is not. Also, media magnate Rupert Murdoch's...

How to pick from a pack of applicants.(On Management)(Employment interviewing)
February 1, 2006... NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMEBODY MAKES SOMETHING happen. You've heard that a million times. You know just like we do how important good people are. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The characteristics we seek in salespeople are universal--be...

Only in Boulder ... naturally.(Column)
February 1, 2006... KNOWN FOR DECADES AS THE MECCA OF THE NATURAL and organic products industry, a new twist on the natural products movement is brewing in Boulder. It's no secret that Boulder has launched an impressive list of successful natural-products...

Referenda results force reassessment of CDOT projects, priorities: an interview with Tom Norton, executive director, Colorado Department of Transportation.(interview)(Interview)
February 1, 2006... Tom Norton, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, is willing to jump in the bucket of a front-end loader if it means boosting prospects for catching up with Colorado's road-building plans. Norton, though, is...

GOT JUNK? trash-hauling entrepreneurs hope Coloradans do.(Attitude at Altitude)
February 1, 2006... Let's face it, the trash-removal business doesn't exactly evoke images of a white-glove operation. Disheveled drivers in broken-down trucks, more likely. But changing that stereotype is the mantra of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? [ILLUSTRATION...

Executive edge: Pat Gruber: space-age innovator embraces Boulder.(Attitude at Altitude)(Biography)
February 1, 2006... Pat Gruber's mother recently sent him an essay he had written in 1970 as a 10-year-old growing up in St. Paul, Minn. The topic: "What I want to be when I grow up." Earth Day was rocking America's environmental consciousness, and Gruber wrote,...

PhosphoSolutions Inc. tech startup of the month.
February 1, 2006... INITIAL LIGHTBULB As a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Dr. Michael Browning found himself in need of antibodies for his research into the biology of memory in the mid-1990s. (Antibodies are used to elicit...

GUIDEBOOK ILLUMINATES FRONT RANGE ART SCENE.(ArtScape)(Chuck Whitley)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Meandering through hundreds of Colorado art galleries can be an overwhelming experience. With a copy of "ArtScape," an art community information book, you'll likely accomplish more in less time. "ArtScape" is a 132-page, pocket-sized color...

Mergers & acquisitions.(New England Security)(Goldman Sachs Group Inc)(Space Imaging)
February 1, 2006... DEALS MARK VITALITY In a small-business economy like Colorado's, merger-and-acquisition activity can serve as a barometer of economic vitality. When companies ranging from Quizno's, the Denver-based, toasted sub-sandwich empire, or Red...

Lifestyles in transit: mixed-use developments arise to accommodate mass transportation, urban renaissance.(Q1 real estate)(Cover Story)
February 1, 2006... While stumping across the metro area for passage of the FasTracks initiative in 2004, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper asked voters to envision the region transformed into a network of "villages" connected by mass transit. Each village would...

Broadband believers: committed investors are keeping Level 3 afloat, but recent deals draw a caution flag from analysts.(Broomfield-based telecom carrier's strategy)
February 1, 2006... As James Crowe walked across the conference stage of the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix on Jan. 9, his steps echoed loudly off the stage floor against a nearly silent, subdued room of telecommunications executives and analysts. Crowe is chief...

New family on the block: with Coors-Molson merger, Jabs' Furniture empire assumes top family rank.(Family-owned companies)(Illustration)
February 1, 2006... ColoradoBiz introduced its annual statewide family-owned company ranking in 2002, and for the first four years, Adolph Coors Co. and American Furniture Warehouse could reliably be penciled in for Nos. 1 and 2. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

KRG Capital: a midas touch with mid-market companies: Denver Trio tapped friends and family to launch private-equity firm that now manages $1.5 billion.(KRG Capital Partners)(Company Profile)
February 1, 2006... Equity-investment power brokers KRG Capital Partners LLC turned 10 years old last month with little fanfare and about the same way the firm has spent the last decade: quietly buying, building and selling companies throughout North America. ...

Boulder again at a Crossroads: long-suffering Mall reborn as '29th Street,' but city's residential plans still in question.(Pearl Street Mall)
February 1, 2006... Visitors strolling the downtown streets of Boulder's Pearl Street Mall or driving the tree-lined avenues of the Mapleton neighborhood may think they've discovered the idyllic community. It's clean, it's diverse and the scenery is beautiful. But...

'Brokeback': telling it straight.(film about two gay cowboys)
February 1, 2006... ONCE IN A WHILE, A MOVIE GOES BEYOND ENTERTAINMENT and impacts attitudes, the workplace, even business--for better or worse. Movies in the '40s and '50s featured stars smoking nonstop, helping cigarette sales plow forward. Animated kids'...

Why Dragonfly? DVDs.(Colorado Cool Stuff)
February 1, 2006... A couple of years ago, Beth Starkey's 4-year-old son Trip started asking her all sorts of questions. After he hit on a real stumper--"Mommy, when's the sun going to die?"--Beth took him to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to find an...

Amlavi soap.(Colorado Cool Stuff)
February 1, 2006... After a lengthy period of R&D, Amlavi--an amalgamation of amor (love), laughter, and vie (life)--sold its first soap late last year. "We're very picky," said co-founder John Ehlers, a longtime chiropractor who started the company with hair...

Modern Wallet.(Colorado Cool Stuff)
February 1, 2006... Inventor Robert Heiberger came up with the Modern Wallet in 2002 while looking for ways to make his wallet slimmer and found the perfect material in a plastic film called teflin. The printable product is not just slimmer, but also hipper and...

Spepper.(Colorado Cool Stuff)
February 1, 2006... One of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that concepts, Spepper is simply salt and pepper mixed together in the same shaker, punctured with big enough holes for both spices to fall through. James Banker kept a homemade shaker in his desk; after his...

Quiet: NBA in progress.(National Basketball Association)
February 1, 2006... YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF A MAN FROM WASHINGTON named Gordon Hempton. Check that. You may have read about Gordon Hempton. Chances are you haven't heard about Gordon Hempton because he doesn't make much noise. He avoids it. Avoids it like a sane man...

X-treme values.(Rundles Wrap-up)
February 1, 2006... I HAVE A TEENAGE SON, AND LIKE MOST PEOPLE OF HIS generation he likes to push the limits. My wife and I have noticed that in the last couple of years he has sometimes come home from snowboarding early because a friend he went with fell and...