Just in time for Halloween, two novels dealing with eerie Colorado themes are haunting local bookstores. One is a fictionalized channeling of one of the state’s most celebrated and puzzling historical figures, while the other is a semi-comic mystery dealing with seances, Riverside Cemetery, cab driving and other scary topics. …
Used book stores come and go in this town. In recent years, more have been going than coming, thanks to keen competition from online outlets and the growing popularity of Nooks and Kindles. So it’s an occasion for celebration when two antiquarian bookshops — one an old friend, the other…
The shooting last weekend of two teens who allegedly tried to heist marijuana plants from a backyard grow in the Whittier neighborhood, which left one fifteen-year-old dead and a fourteen-year-old boy critically injured, is hardly the first bit of mayhem in Colorado over a pot grow, legal or otherwise, and…
The City of Trinidad has reached a $375,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado on behalf of two women who were arrested three years ago in a botched drug-sting investigation that involved fabricated evidence and an informant paid to make busts. The city has also quietly…
Pondering the fat Blue Book issued in advance of this year’s statewide elections, explaining the pros and cons of no less than half a dozen proposed amendments to the Colorado Constitution, it’s easy to understand why many voters might give a big thumbs-up to Amendment 71, which proposes to make…
A Denver judge has ruled that the operator of a controversial “medical detox” center is in contempt of court for continuing to refer to herself as a doctor and administer IVs containing her proprietary blend of amino-acid injections, despite an injunction prohibiting her from practicing medicine. But the sanctions imposed…
Conflicts over growth and development issues in Denver have become so pervasive that even some of the city’s most entrenched, sleepiest neighborhoods — places that 2002’s Blueprint Denver designated as “areas of stability” rather than “areas of change” — are starting to feel the heat. Even in stately, don’t-mess-with-success Park Hill,…
Two years ago, Woodrow Wilson Paige Jr. flew to New York in a state of keen anticipation. He had been summoned by the top management of MediaNews Group, the parent company of the Denver Post, to a sitdown at Thunderdome. Paige, better known to Denver sports fans and ESPN viewers…
It’s been almost twenty years since six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was murdered in her Boulder home, but it feels like yesterday. Maybe because it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the one before that, and so on, that we’ve been subjected to a blitz of cheesy re-enactments of the crime on…
An outside consultant brought in to evaluate the distance learning program at Adams State University has recommended that the program in its current form be abolished, citing a range of problems — from poor supervision and a staggering rate of incomplete grades to professors collecting substantial extra pay for teaching…
If you somehow missed the first two installments of Dr. Phil’s exclusive, three-hour, fantasmagoric interview with Burke Ramsey, twenty years after the unsolved murder of his six-year-old sister JonBenét, let me catch you up in a heartbeat. There were no big revelations here, and there are not likely to be any in…
One of the most repellent wildlife cruelty cases in state history drew to a close this week with the sentencing of a Western Slope outfitter, the last of six defendants involved in a poaching operation that provided high-priced hunts of mountain lions and bobcats — many of whom had already…
A national organization of higher-ed faculty is pressing Colorado lawmakers to investigate hiring and salary practices in the state’s community college system, claiming that the system is teeming with cash — and highly compensated administrators — while the bulk of the courses are taught by part-time professors who are paid…
The van leaves the Stout Street Health Center in downtown Denver on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Others climb aboard in Colorado Springs or Pueblo before the van heads east, into the vast, sparsely populated grasslands of the Lower Arkansas Valley. The passengers are all referrals, vetted and pre-approved, like sailors…
Two measures that would have imposed tighter restrictions on Colorado’s oil-and-gas industry have been declared ineligible for the November ballot, amid conflicting accusations of fraud and foul play. Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced this morning that, based on random sampling, neither of the initiatives collected enough valid signatures to…
A lawsuit filed this week by environmental groups claims that while the Obama administration talks a good game about cutting carbon emissions to address climate change, the U.S. Department of the Interior has been in “climate denial” in the way it continues to issue oil and gas leases on public…
A recent report from the city auditor’s office found several weaknesses in the way that Denver Parks and Recreation handles its contracts with private companies — particularly in its concession agreements on city-owned golf courses, which appear to be at odds with established city practices and offer wildly varying terms…
A federal lawsuit against Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and other city officials, filed by one of Hizzoner’s former best buds and top advisors, has been dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge John Kane — just when filings in the case were getting interesting. Ex-aide Wayne McDonald’s complaint of wrongful termination…
Prosecutor Frank Ruybalid isn’t going to lose his law license over the mishandling of several criminal cases — and that means the embattled district attorney for Las Animas and Huerfano counties will be able to finish his term at the end of this year despite stinging criticism of his office…
In 1994, Colorado enacted the toughest and most far-reaching statutes to combat domestic violence to be found anywhere in the country. While many states have since increased penalties for various forms of spousal abuse, none have modeled their laws on the Centennial State’s particular scheme, which requires arrest and prosecution…
Most people, I suppose, are more than slightly sentimental about the first house they ever owned. Unless you have money to burn, it was probably some kind of fixer-upper, or a very cozy older home in a strange zip code, or otherwise flawed. But then, the whole process is a…
Marcos Garibay wasn’t really planning on launching a multi-volume cinematic franchise, in the tradition of such dystopic sci-fi series as Hunger Games and Divergent, when he took a job as a paraprofessional at Dupont Elementary in Commerce City three years ago. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted a career…
