On Mother’s Day, families across the country gathered together to thank Mom for all her love and sacrifices. In Denver, flamboyant socialite Judi Wolf drove over to her mother’s house in order to take the elderly woman back to “a party” at Judi’s expansive digs in Cherry Hills. But Letty…

Abortion doctor Warren Hern is used to seeing protesters outside his Boulder clinic. He just doesn’t expect them to come from the pro-choice ranks. In April, Bill Baird, a nationally known abortion-rights activist, and Margie Wait, the Colorado state director of American Atheists, picketed Hern’s Boulder Abortion Clinic. They claimed…

Last October, two women accused former Durango mayor Jeff Morrissey of making lewd comments. His apparent inspiration: bumper stickers on the women’s cars opposing the proposed Animas-La Plata water project. One sticker boasted the acronym A-LP with a red slash through it. The other read “A-LP sucks.” Did that mean…

Anti-abortion protester Ken Scott has until April 29 to convince a U.S. District Court judge why his lawsuit against Boulder abortion doctor Warren Hern shouldn’t be dismissed. And even if Scott manages to do that, he’ll find himself battling the American Civil Liberties Union, which has taken Hern’s side in…

It was muggy and gray and the skies threatened rain the afternoon Dana Garner was murdered. Her eight-year-old son, Ben, was home from school ill, and she’d hurried to see him. Peering through the windshield, the wipers going just fast enough to remove the drizzle that had been hanging in…

A “tribal knife” being advertised in a Sunday newspaper supplement distributed around the country as the artwork of U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell is about as genuine as its faux-turquoise pommel. Campbell, who acknowledges creating the basic design of “The Cheyenne Buffalo Knife” several years ago for the Franklin Mint,…

The plainclothes cops, their shoulder holsters bulging beneath suit coats, confer quietly with a knot of uniformed state troopers outside the old Supreme Court chambers. Here on the second floor of the State Capitol, the air is as heavy as the moment before a summer thunderstorm. Mike Newell, Denver detective-turned-security-consultant,…

In an effort reminiscent of the 1950s national crusade to wipe out polio, beginning next fall, Colorado children entering elementary and middle school will be required to receive vaccinations against the hepatitis B virus, the leading cause of liver cancer. The idea is to protect the children from themselves in…

Emily Herrera listened carefully to the first few notes of the aria emanating from the audition hall. The “Caro Nome” aria, she thought. From Rigoletto. The singer’s voice pierced the quiet like a dagger. She’s good, Emily thought. But she’s a coloratura soprano. Emily, a lyric soprano, relaxed. She listened…

The two old men sit at a card table surrounded by space heaters that buzz and glow in their struggle against the cold. The table has been pulled over to a corner near the front window to take advantage of the muted winter sunlight. A small black-and-white television tuned to…

The sun was beginning its descent behind the mountains when Vinh Ngoc Le stepped out into the backyard of his Aurora home. He inhaled the crisp, clean air, then let it go like a prayer. Le sat down in a patch of grass, took out a pad of paper and…

Former Durango mayor Jeff Morrissey is accused of striking a low blow in the fight for a controversial southern Colorado water project that he supports. As a result, he faces two counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly making lewd comments to two women who oppose the Animas-La Plata water project…

It’s been eighteen months since Bobby Hornbuckle sat in the same muted yellow light that now filters through the windows of Ziggie’s Saloon, talking about his battle with hepatitis and the lifestyle that had given him the disease. Heroin. Needles. Cocaine. Playing and living the blues. “If you want to…

Psychology professor Arthur C. Jones stepped onto the stage of a University of Denver auditorium as some 200 students and teachers grew silent in anticipation. But instead of a lecture on Jungian philosophy or Freud’s interpretation of dreams, Jones opened his mouth and began to sing. Sometimes I feel like…

Three men pause on a path that winds through Fort Logan National Cemetery. On the fresh-mowed lawn before them, row after row of uniform headstones rise like bone-white exclamation points, marching up and over the hill. All three men have friends and former comrades-in-arms buried on these grounds. Someday two…

Colorado’s governor and lieutenant governor have waded into the fight over the proposed Animas-La Plata water project in southwestern Colorado. And some of those opposed to the project see the move as a step toward a pared-down version of the oft-delayed government endeavor. After Governor Roy Romer sat down with…

United States Senator Benjamin “Ben” Nighthorse Campbell is working the crowd at the Colorado State Fair when a man approaches with his hand outstretched. “Ben, I wanted to thank you–you really saved our butts this time,” he says, pumping the senator’s hand. The man is Ray Kogovsek, former U.S. representative…

One Saturday last month, Sharon Storlie answered a knock at her apartment door. It was a young salesman, about thirteen years old, hawking the Boulder Daily Camera. No, thanks, Storlie told him. But that wasn’t enough. “Are you sure you don’t want to buy the paper?” he whined. Yes. “But…

It was a hot July morning, and the Reverend Robert Woolfolk mopped at the sweat that beaded on his dark brown face with a white handkerchief. With his other hand, he grasped the thick rope that hung from the ceiling just inside the oak doors of the church and pulled…

Jim Lucero opens the small white booklet to a crude map with black boxes representing buildings, most of which no longer stand. Facing north, he points first to a gray stone structure across Iliff Avenue and then to its corresponding mark on the map. “That was the Dora Reynolds school,”…

Howard Cobb drove trucks for nearly thirty years without an accident. His wife, Marion, worked as a bookkeeper, raised their three kids and kept the home fires burning. Three years ago he landed his best-paying job ever, making on-time deliveries crisscrossing the country for Mountain City Meat Co. Inc. of…

Tammy Montabon had high hopes of getting off welfare and finding a job to support herself and her son when she enrolled at Barnes Business College in January 1994. Those hopes faltered when the school declared bankruptcy in August 1995, five weeks into the eleven-week semester. But Montabon picked herself…