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Best Addition to the Rocky Mountain News

The Stump

We'll admit it: At first the Rocky Mountain News's new design hurt our eyes, and we couldn't imagine how the paper would continue to fill its "channels" -- those left-hand columns earmarked for chatty tidbits, quotes and "by the numbers" trivia. But the News adjusted some type, we adjusted our expectations -- and the channels just kept getting better and better. The most successful of all: The Stump, with notes, odd news and observations from the campaign trail.

Best Correction in the Denver Post

Two days after the new leaders of the Colorado General Assembly were sworn in this session, a correction appeared in the Denver Post: "Because of a reporter's error, Diane Carman's column on the Denver and the West cover Thursday incorrectly stated that Colorado House Speaker Lola Spradley's mother was among the family members at the Capitol on Wednesday to witness her swearing in. Spradley's mother is deceased." Easy mistake, though: In her speech, Spradley had referred to her mother, who passed away three decades earlier, looking "down from above." Guess Carman thought she wound up in the cheap seats.

Best Correction in the Rocky Mountain News

In January, the Rocky Mountain News ran this correction on page two: "The cover photo of today's Spotlight section shows a snowshoer rather than a cross-country skier." Bet they know the difference now.

Best Dry Humor

Denver Water

The bad news about Colorado's drought was still trickling out last summer when Denver Water decided to alert the public -- gently -- to a potentially dire situation. The agency's $75,000 "It's a Drought. Do Something" campaign -- designed by Sukle Advertising and Design in Lakewood-- debuted in the heat of July, with people standing on street corners wearing old-fashioned sandwich boards and T-shirts, urging people to "Brush every other tooth," "Instead of a dishwasher, get a dog" and "Shower in groups." The campaign spilled over into bars, too, where special coasters told consumers to "Save Water. Drink Beer." The popular and populist approach was a hit, but Sukle took one, too; Even though the campaign won eight awards in Denver Advertising Federation show, Denver Water awarded its 2003 conservation contract to O'Brien Advertising.

Best Dry Humor

Denver Water

The bad news about Colorado's drought was still trickling out last summer when Denver Water decided to alert the public -- gently -- to a potentially dire situation. The agency's $75,000 "It's a Drought. Do Something" campaign -- designed by Sukle Advertising and Design in Lakewood-- debuted in the heat of July, with people standing on street corners wearing old-fashioned sandwich boards and T-shirts, urging people to "Brush every other tooth," "Instead of a dishwasher, get a dog" and "Shower in groups." The campaign spilled over into bars, too, where special coasters told consumers to "Save Water. Drink Beer." The popular and populist approach was a hit, but Sukle took one, too; Even though the campaign won eight awards in Denver Advertising Federation show, Denver Water awarded its 2003 conservation contract to O'Brien Advertising.

Best Environmentally Correct Drought Relief

Colorado Waste Tire Program

On the one hand, big nasty piles of illegally dumped tires, just waiting to spontaneously combust. On the other, thousands of pre-teen soccer players and their parents, banned from parched playing fields. Can one be used to remedy the other? Yes! And the state wants to help play matchmaker. The Poudre School District required artificial turf-maker Sprinturf to use rubber recycled from discarded tires as in-fill when a field at Rocky Mountain High School was resurfaced last summer; the Colorado Waste Tire Program covered about 10 percent of the cost, or $52,000, as thanks for removing thousands of used tires from the Colorado landscape, and the rest will pay for itself in seven years through reduced maintenance costs. The field never needs watering, and the high school has been flooded with requests to use it by other area teams whose parched fields have been placed off limts for spring practices.

Best Environmentally Correct Drought Relief

Colorado Waste Tire Program

On the one hand, big nasty piles of illegally dumped tires, just waiting to spontaneously combust. On the other, thousands of pre-teen soccer players and their parents, banned from parched playing fields. Can one be used to remedy the other? Yes! And the state wants to help play matchmaker. The Poudre School District required artificial turf-maker Sprinturf to use rubber recycled from discarded tires as in-fill when a field at Rocky Mountain High School was resurfaced last summer; the Colorado Waste Tire Program covered about 10 percent of the cost, or $52,000, as thanks for removing thousands of used tires from the Colorado landscape, and the rest will pay for itself in seven years through reduced maintenance costs. The field never needs watering, and the high school has been flooded with requests to use it by other area teams whose parched fields have been placed off limts for spring practices.

Best Dinosaur Detective

Ken Carpenter
Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Ken Carpenter, curator of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, was rooting through a cabinet drawer at Yale University's Peabody Museum when he came across a fossilized tooth. And not just any tooth: The three-and-a-half-inch-long specimen, first found in Golden in 1874, then stashed at the Peabody, turned out to be a 67-million-year-old tooth from a Tyrannosaurex rex -- giving the Yale museum a nice display piece, and giving Colorado bragging rights for having made the earliest T. rex find.

Best Dinosaur Detective

Ken Carpenter
Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Ken Carpenter, curator of paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, was rooting through a cabinet drawer at Yale University's Peabody Museum when he came across a fossilized tooth. And not just any tooth: The three-and-a-half-inch-long specimen, first found in Golden in 1874, then stashed at the Peabody, turned out to be a 67-million-year-old tooth from a Tyrannosaurex rex -- giving the Yale museum a nice display piece, and giving Colorado bragging rights for having made the earliest T. rex find.

Best Know-It-Alls

SmartyPants

Denver Public Library reference librarians are on call 24/7 to answer your questions over the Internet. You can chat online with a SmartyPants reference librarian or e-mail your question through the DPL's Web site. You'll soon get an answer, along with an e-mail tracing the steps the librarian took to find it. And even if the question can't be readily answered, your helpful researcher will point you in the right direction.

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