Denver, CO
What are TSA wait times at DEN? Spring break adds to challenges
TSA security delays at airports nationwide amid government shutdown
Travelers face massive TSA delays as the government shutdown leaves officers unpaid and airports strained nationwide.
Denver International Airport expects to see more than 1.3 million passengers go through security during the spring break window between March 11 and 29, a challenging amount of traffic in and of itself.
And doing that with Transportation Security Agency workers who are not getting paid because of the partial federal government shutdown seems like a recipe for massive lines.
That scenario is playing out in airports across the country already, as security workers are calling out so they can work other jobs to pay their bills.
Denver International Airport has yet to be hit as hard, but the potential remains there. March 20 and 22 are expected to be among the busiest days for screenings during the season, according to the airport.
Here is how to get real-time updates on security wait times.
How to check wait times at DEN?
To check wait times at Denver International Airport, go to flydenver.com/security. The page gives waiting times for each checkpoint, differentiating for those who will undergo a standard screening and the line for those with TSA Precheck and CLEAR.
The page also has other important information, including directions on how to sign up for an appointment to skip part of the line at the checkpoints, the latest directions on what to do with your belongings at the screening and how long average walking times are to go to gates.
How long are wait times at Denver International Airport?
As of 2 p.m. MT on March 19, times were:
- East Security, standard: 3 to 7 minutes
- East Security Precheck: 3 to 7 minutes
- West Security, Standard: 0 to 4 minutes
- West Security, Precheck: 1to 5 minutes
DEN warned wait times can change quickly and noted that the peak times when lines tend to be longest are 3 to 4:30 a.m., 8 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 5 p.m.
What can people do to support TSA security screeners?
With security screeners now missing paychecks and no end to the shutdown in site, DEN is accepting donations of gift cards for gas stations and grocery stores for the workers who continue to show up despite not being paid.
The donations can be dropped off in collection bins and secure lock boxes in the Great Hall of the Jeppesen Terminal and Final Approach, the airport’s cell phone Lot.
“TSA employees just missed their first paycheck, and as we enter a busy Spring Break travel period, we want to do what we can to ease the stress of this moment,” Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington said in a statement.
Why are TSA security screeners not getting paid?
While most of the federal government is fully funded, the Department of Homeland Security ran out of funds allocated by Congress through the typical budget process at midnight on Feb. 13. The dollars are tied up in a dispute over the tactics and practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with congressional Democrats saying they will not approve more funding for the department without reforms at ICE.
Essential employees can still be called to work during a shutdown, and most workers in Homeland Security’s alphabet soup of agencies and bureaus tasked with protecting the nation are considered essential.
Essential workers are required by law to be paid in full after a shutdown ends, but they do not typically get paid during a shutdown. Most of Homeland Security’s workers are getting paid on time through funds allocated in the Big Beautiful Bill in 2025, but TSA screeners are a notable exception.
How long will the government shutdown last??
There is no clear end in sight. Funding passed by the Republican-led House has been blocked by congressional Democrats. An end-around by Democrats, known as a discharge petition, to get the House to vote on funds for most of DHS — but not ICE — faces an uphill battle. And the Senate has a recess scheduled for March 30 through April 10.
Projections on Kalshi and Polymarket, a pair of prediction markets, have the partial government shutdown lasting through April 13.
Nate Trela covers trending news in Colorado and Utah for the USA TODAY Network.
The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals.
Country bars are back—big time. Arguably, they never went away in the first place (Denver’s Grizzly Rose has been rootin’ and tootin’ since 1989), but if you want to understand the resurgence of Western watering holes, look to Gen Z businessman Colton Patterson, 19. Daydreaming in class at Columbine High School in Littleton, he started sketching cowboy-themed art—pearl snaps, mustangs mid-gallop, pickup trucks—in his notebook, then posting on an Instagram page that now has more than a million followers.
Last month, the young entrepreneur opened an-old fashioned watering hole, Broken Bow, in Five Points. It joins a slew of other new (and newish) spots where you can wear a ten-gallon hat, drink a cheap beer (or a fancy whiskey, if that’s more your style), and cue up some Johnny Cash.
Jump Ahead:
Read More: 10 of the Best Places to Go Dancing in Denver
- Where: 5450 Lincoln St., Denver
When one mechanical bull won’t cut it, head to the Grizzly Rose, where two of ’em buck nightly. Indisputably the king of Denver honky-tonks, the 40,000-square-foot, 37-year-old wonderland just off I-25 north of Globeville often hosts big-name acts. On June 26, Rodney Atkins, who’s had six country chart-toppers, swings by. Kids are free on Sunday family nights, when the 7 p.m. line dancing class is also gratis.
Read More: Step Inside Denver’s Last Honky-Tonk
- Where: 2201 Lawrence St., Unit B, Denver (Ballpark)
Colton Patterson isn’t old enough to drink the beer he sells, but the 19-year-old parlayed social media fame (his cowboy nostalgia page has a loyal following) into a brand-new, but decidedly old-school, Western bar and dance hall in Five Points. At Broken Bow, which opened in April, you can play pool, catch a concert, and grab a burger from Dalton’s. Stop by on Thursday nights for free swing dance lessons, and catch live shows from bands like Front Range Revival.
- Where: 1930 Blake St., Denver (LoDo)
If you’ve ever wanted to twirl beneath an enormous boot-shaped disco ball (made by local mirror-ball specialist Lauren Young), Belles & Boots is your spot. The 4,000-square-foot, year-old LoDo bar and restaurant has a cheeky, feminine vibe and is warmly lit by neon artwork. The line dancing scene attracts experienced boot-scooters and first-timers alike, and the event calendar is quirky (see: a platonic speed-dating mixer).
- Where: 2430 South Havana St., Aurora
Beloved for its Ladies Night on Wednesdays (gals get two free drinks after a $10 cover), this Aurora country music venue and dancehall welcomes all comers, genre-wise. Catch performances from touring conjunto, banda, norteño, and cumbia acts; take West Coast swing lessons; or even watch a Muay Thai fight, because why not?
- Where: 1665 N. Grant St., Denver (Uptown)
In October 2024, an 1880s-era red sandstone mansion in Capitol Hill was transformed into the fourth location of the Urban Cowboy hotel chain (also in Brooklyn, Nashville, and the Catskills). The designs in its 16 rooms exude eccentric Western heiress vibes, with boldly patterned custom wallpaper and ornate tile. Honeymooners can splurge on a suite with double copper soaking tubs, but you don’t need to be celebrating anything to knock back a cold one in the Public House where Little Johnny B’s serves wood-fired pizza.
- Where: 3965 Tennyson St., Denver (Berkeley)
At this new, upscale mashup of a saloon and a custom hat shop on Berkeley’s Tennyson Street, sip your choice of 23 varieties of whiskey or bourbon while a high-quality lid is molded to precisely fit your noggin. The zero-proof cocktail options are impressive, including an Old Fashioned with walnut bitters, tea, and cherry. Starting at $225 for wool and $525 for beaver, the hats ain’t cheap, but your grandkids will inherit them.
Read More: 16 of the Best Venues for Live Music in Denver
Denver, CO
One Invitation Can Change a Life: Called By Name Campaign Inspires Future Priests For a Second Year in Denver
The Archdiocese of Denver’s vocations initiative continues to bear fruit as more men explore a possible call to the priesthood.
Lean in close, dear reader. We’ve got a secret for you. God has a plan for your life.
While this might not be a tremendous surprise to most faithful Denver Catholic readers, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget to ask God what that plan is. We might even have our own ideas of what we want to do with our lives, neglecting input from the divine.
That’s where the Archdiocese of Denver’s Called By Name campaign comes in. In 2025, the inaugural year, over 900 names were submitted during the May campaign, which coincides with Good Shepherd Sunday. Nearly 100 of those men attended an August discernment retreat, and the Archdiocese saw 27 men enter priestly formation for the 2025-2026 academic year, with about another 20 expected to enter for the 2026-2027 year.
The campaign seeks to make vocational discernment more accessible for men, especially in response to a dire need for more priestly vocations in the Archdiocese of Denver. With only 14% of the archdiocesan presbyterate hailing from Colorado, a minority ordained for the Archdiocese and 4,054 Catholics per active archdiocesan priest, Jesus’ own words that “the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few” ring true (Matthew 9:37).
For the men nominated a year ago, Called By Name presented an opportunity to go deeper in faith and to ask the Lord what his will is for their lives.
“I feel like if I don’t go to seminary, I’m going to be asking the question if I’m called to be a priest for the rest of my life. That’s why I’m going to seminary, to try and get that question answered,” said Jeremy Gillett, an incoming seminarian from Longmont. “I feel like I’ve gone to a couple of discernment retreats at the seminary, and every time it just feels like this place is home. It very much feels like a good place to be.”
Building on the inaugural year’s tremendous results, the Archdiocese of Denver sponsored Called By Name for a second year in a row, identifying 405 men that local parishioners prayerfully think could make happy, holy, healthy priests.
“The Called by Name campaign continues to pave the path for Denver’s next generation of men discerning the priesthood,” said Chris Kreslins, senior client manager at Vianney Vocations, who facilitated the campaign. “Building on the momentum of last year’s 955 nominations, the 405 men nominated in the 2026 Called by Name campaign will be invited to a year full of discernment opportunities, beginning with a special event with Archbishop Golka and Father Jason Wallace in August.”
“I’m grateful that our archdiocesan family has put forward 405 young men they’ve discerned could make good and holy priests. It’s a great blessing, and a sign that God is moving in big ways across the Archdiocese of Denver, in the faithful witness of my brother priests especially,” Denver Archbishop James Golka said. “The priesthood is a wonderful, beautiful life and vocation, and I’m so grateful that God has called me to love and serve his people in this way.”
For the 405 men nominated in the 2026 campaign — and many others — the archbishop expressed his hope that God make known his will and give them the courage to follow him.
“God has a plan for each of our lives, and it’s a beautiful plan meant to bring us joy, fulfillment and grace. When we follow Jesus, when we give the Father everything, we are the happiest and holiest we can be because we’re living through him, with him and in him,” Archbishop Golka said. “I pray that these 405 men and many others hear the voice of God calling them to the full, free and fulfilled life he has in store for them as they love and serve his people.”
The Nuggets are facing a lot of problems this offseason with roster building, but we’ve become so used to one of the biggest ones that we barely even mention it anymore: Zeke Nnaji’s contract. For years, the brutal and inexplicable 4-year, $32 million extension that Calvin Booth handed him has been weighing the team down like an anchor, and sadly, it’s not going away any time soon.
Booth thought he was being clever by getting the extension done a year early, thinking he was getting great value on a player who would be a helpful stretch-big for years. But Nnaji immediately fell off a cliff, and the contract quickly became disastrous long before it ever even went into effect.
Nuggets completely botched the Zeke Nnaji contract
He has been unplayable and out of the rotation, and thus, completely untradeable, and the pathetic reality is that nothing about that situation has changed. Unbelievably, Nnaji still has next season fully guaranteed at $7.47 million, and a player option for the same amount the following season.
That’s basically two years and $15 million for a player who doesn’t play. The Nuggets’ front office and coaching staff were never on the same page, and his value has been completely sapped. They desperately need to shed salary, and his deal is a clear albatross, and yet, to do so, they’d almost certainly have to sacrifice draft capital or a rotation player.
It’s pitiful to think they are wasting a roster spot and a salary greater than the taxpayer’s midlevel exception on a 25-year-old who can’t even sniff the court, but that’s exactly where things stand.
The fact that the Nuggets can’t even convince a young, rebuilding team to take a flier on Nnaji is a massive indictment on the organization. Denver needs to free up money badly to keep Peyton Watson and make other moves, and the Nnaji deal is a clear and obvious roadblock. They are probably going to have to salary dump a starter like Cam Johnson or Christian Braun to accomplish their offseason goals, and that’s partly due to Nnaji’s deal.
Nuggets must pay to get off Nnaji deal
That’s brutally bad asset management, but instead of dwelling on the past, the Nuggets should be forward-thinking. They are going to have to trade away a good player anyway, so perhaps instead of seeking a positive return, they should look to dump Nnaji in the deal. It may be the best (and perhaps only) way to move him, after all.
Someone like Johnson should have positive trade value and has appeal for many contending teams. As great as it would be to get back a decent player or some draft picks to refurbish the kitty, it may actually be more valuable for Denver to force that team to take Nnaji as well.
Again, this is a pathetic thought to even be having, but that’s where things stand in Denver. With ownership unwilling to splurge on the roster, and Nnaji’s contract sticking out like a sore thumb, the Nuggets may just have to bite the proverbial bullet and be done with it.
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