The state has finally burned its little black book of accused child abusers. For more than thirty years, the Colorado Department of Human Services has been keeping a list of people who may have abused or neglected a child. Not people who were convicted or even charged with committing such…

At first Randall Zimmerman wasn’t sure whether he’d just awoken from a nightmare or if he was waking up to one. What happened the night before didn’t seem real. Couldn’t possibly be real. His name and face had been flashed on every news station in Denver like he was some…

Breckenridge, Colorado. Population: 2,408. Percentage of population that is male: 62. Average age of residents: 29. Number of liquor licenses: 79. Number of churches: 5. In the Julius Caesar Lounge, a small, smoky bar tucked in back of a restaurant on Main Street, Maggee Mae sits on a bar stool…

Jean Murrell is skeptical about the changes in store at the United States Air Force Academy. She hopes they’ll be successful, but she doesn’t think they address the core problem: a culture in which upperclassmen have almost complete control over underclassmen. As a public-health officer at the academy, Murrell made…

John Dicke’s career has all but ended since the board that regulates Colorado psychologists accused him of inserting a dildo into the anus of a little boy he was treating and restraining the child while holding the dildo to his mouth as he sucked on it. But in a surprising…

Jessica Brakey feels like she’s been wronged all over again. After she was allegedly raped by an upperclassman during a field-training exercise at the United States Air Force Academy, Jessica began awakening from nightmares and fighting with roommates and boyfriends. Her behavioral problems got the attention of her commanders, and…

The teachers at Greenwood Elementary School are gathered in the library, waiting and anxious. It’s 8:20 a.m., and Principal Shurwood Reynolds has called them together in the hopes of setting them at ease. Today is a big day, a day of judgment for a laborious semester spent changing the way…

It was surreal walking into the Air Force Academy’s Arnold Hall the night of February 27. Almost four months earlier, I’d begun talking to cadets — two former, one current — about rape at the academy (“The War Within,” January 30). They told me how they’d been punished, ostracized or…

More sexual-assault victims currently and formerly enrolled at the United States Air Force Academy have come forward since Jessica Brakey, Lisa Ballas and Justine Parks spoke publicly about being either punished or pushed out after reporting being raped by fellow cadets (“The War Within,” January 30). In late December, a…

Students raised their CSAP scores, and all their teachers got was a lousy banner. Two years ago, public schools rated “unsatisfactory” on the state’s accountability reports were promised recognition and cash incentives if they showed significant improvement on the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests — the sole measure for each…

Lisa Ballas arrived at the party in good spirits. In fact, everyone there was. Their school football team just beat the University of Wyoming 24-13, steaks were grilling, the television was tuned to sports, and they were ready to celebrate. The group of about fifteen students gathered at the Aurora…

Heather Lamm has fond memories of her childhood home: playing hide-and-seek, hunting Easter eggs in the back yard and decorating for Christmas. She even considered getting married at the 18,231-square-foot, ten-bedroom, two-and-a-half-story house. But, like many children, Heather can never return to her nostalgic place because another family occupies it…

At five years old, Nugs is feeling the effects of middle age. He has arthritis in both hips and doesn’t walk like he used to. Rather than suffer, though, he gets physical therapy. He steps into a tank and waits as water fills up to his chest. The treadmill beneath…

Just before 6 p.m. on a recent, unseasonably warm Thursday, two young girls exit a nondescript office building off Colorado Boulevard and Louisiana Avenue. The girls, who can’t be more than twelve years old, are accompanied by one of their mothers; they’ve just come out of the Glendale Family Resource…

Robert Wayne Rosberg is a convicted sex offender. Some would say he shouldn’t be allowed the luxury of rejoining society. He should be locked up forever. Castrated. Even killed. But since none of those measures are possible, a judge ordered Rosberg to enter Teaching Humane Existence, a nineteen-year-old Denver treatment…

As Colorado’s Ocean Journey tries to stay afloat in a sea of red ink, bankruptcy experts keep nibbling away at the aquarium’s finances. When it decided to file for Chapter 11 in April, Ocean Journey hired the international law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae to handle the legal…

As he walks through the showroom at Titan of the Rockies, the Lakewood motorcycle dealership where he’s repair-shop foreman, Nick Nichols relays the history of Indian motorcycles. When he passes a vintage 1940s model, he lets out a low whistle: The mint-green bike is a beauty. After years of dwindling…

One by one, they arrive on their Harleys. Young to middle-aged men wearing ponytails, beards, Sturgis T-shirts, bandannas, black leather vests and matching chaps. Women in fringed leather jackets and denim. Those who don’t ride much anymore come by car, but they still dress the part. If they were pulling…

While most people are buying candy to give to kids on Halloween, Greg Zerwas is haunted by kids trying to sell him candy. Kids dropped by Zerwas’s northwest Denver duplex several times over the past two summers, peddling $7 boxes of chocolates. They didn’t look like they came from his…

For the first time in a long while, the workplace culture at the Denver Botanic Gardens is looking rosy. After more than two years of high turnover and management problems, DBG executive director Brinsley Burbidge has stepped down, and employees wasted no time in toasting his departure. Staff members heard…

They’re portraying it as a classic David and Goliath match-up: the little guys who drive people to the airport for a living versus the big corporation they once worked for. But the former SuperShuttle drivers who broke off from the shuttle giant and started their own service are proving to…

Next week is going to be big for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. After seventeen months of renovation, the museum’s new west atrium will open, with windows four stories high looking out onto City Park Lake, the downtown skyline and the breathtaking mountain vista beyond. At 6:30 p.m…