My office is in the RiNo area of Denver. Until recently, RiNo was largely a run down area littered with warehouses and manufacturing buildings. Over the six years I've been there I've witnessed it transform. Many of the warehouses have been demolished and replaced by apartment and condo buildings. Others have been transformed into market halls and offices. And walls, lots of walls, have been beautified by spray paint artists. Crush Walls was founded 11 years ago, right around the…

Rachel Sandoval is a teacher in the Denver Public School system. I met up with her last week to create photos for a story about her in an upcoming issue of NEA Today Magazine, the publication produced by the National Education Association. Like many teachers preparing for school during Covid, she is working hard preparing for the upcoming school year. When I met with her, she was busy recording videos for her virtual students. For her in-person students, she’ll need…

If you meet Rodman Schley and ask him, "what do you do for a living," be prepared for a long answer. Rodman is a national TV host, a keynote speaker, a serial entrepreneur, real estate expert, and published author. Phew! Oh wait, I forgot to add television producer. His expertise in real estate is what caught the attention of The Appraisal Institute, which produces Valuation Magazine, a monthly publication for real estate appraisers. Rodman is based in Denver where I…

Jim Fresquez grew up in an East LA gang, worked in the animation department of Walt Disney, then trained raced horses working with the man who was part of the team that trained Seabiscuit. Today, he still trains horses and has added vigneron to his long and varied resume. He and his wife operate Rust Ridge Ranch and Vineyard in Napa Valley.  They include an B&B, which is where I stayed after doing job in San Francisco. Their vineyard is…

In the spring of last year my friend Carey emailed me from her home in Maryland. "Denise and I signed up for a half marathon in Joshua Tree in November," she wrote. "Do you want to come?" My response: "Do they have an eighth?" I was not adverse to running. I'd run track and cross country in high school, but the max distance for any one of those races was 3.1 miles. In my adulthood, I prefer to run when…