The Death of Innocence

An accident. A terrible accident. That was the first story told about how Kyran Gaston-Voss got hurt. The baby fell. The baby hit his head. It was an accident. That’s the way it always starts, of course. The baby fell, the baby tripped, the baby leaped out of my arms…

Ten Ways They Got It Wrong

In pursuing a murder case against Krystal Voss for the death of her son, Kyran, the prosecutor and police in Alamosa may have disregarded critical evidence and developed a theory of the crime that is medically impossible. Among the most glaring problems: 1. The autopsy report. Voss admitted shaking her…

The High Cost of Free Speech

Jack McCroskey is a man of many opinions — some pungent, some pure acid. Take, for example, these barbed appraisals from his recently self-published book, Light Rail and Heavy Politics, a score-settling history of the Regional Transportation District’s fumbling efforts to bring 35 miles of not-so-rapid transit to Denver: RTD…

Pop Quiz

1. The Tamarisk Coalition is best described as what? A. A group of Scottish ex-pats who trace their loyalty to Lord Howard Tamarisk, a Highland exile who built an underground castle here. B. Folks who have banded together to battle a water-sucking weed. C. A gaggle of women who travel…

Follow That Story

Cadets call it the Zoo. And recently their pet name for the United States Air Force Academy has become remarkably apropos, as more and more of our future military leaders are found to be acting like animals. In the early hours of July 20, Colorado Springs police were alerted to…

Off Limits

Ever since sexual-assault accusations against Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant came to light, the woman who made the allegation has been the talk of Eagle County, where she lives, and the media has been there to listen. Well over thirty locals claiming varying degrees of firsthand knowledge about the…

The Message

At 10:20 on a Wednesday morning, the Denver Post’s Woody Paige strides into his paper’s newsroom wearing a cream-colored suit, a pricey tie and a hairstyle that would look more at home on American Idol host Ryan Seacrest than it does on a 57-year-old sports columnist. No scribbler in his…

Heroes to Zeroes

Hold on. This is not the time to ship Kobe Bryant off to the Big House. Not yet. Why, the armies of high-priced lawyers have barely begun to sprinkle ’round their business cards. The energy-drink bottlers and the $200-a-pair sneaker people and the weavers of jockstraps have not yet cleared…

Letters to the Editor

Horsing Around Left in the dust: Regarding Bill Gallo’s “End Run,” in the July 24 issue: Is this the best dirt you can dig up? The local management has done everything it can to chase horseplayers — the comment from Arapahoe Park manager Bruce Seymore about people thinking “takeout” is…

End Run

If you go to the racetrack long enough, you learn in the end about the persistence of desire and the spectacle of ruin. That teeming array of lovely, mortal flesh in full gallop out there — recall Funnycide straining to hold off Empire Maker in the final strides at Churchill…

Miller Time

Rich and Brock begin their Saturday mission with a 7:30 a.m. wake and bake. “We need a little Colorado kind bud to get into the proper spirit of things,” Brock says, lowering his Bic over a packed bowl of green. “You need to have your mind focused when you embark…

Pop Quiz

1. Hot times are here again. Down in Mesa Verde, where wildfires burned, each twenty-member crew was equipped with what? A. Anti-fire fetishes created by local Utes. B. An archeologist. C. New Kevlar-coated mittens. D. All the Gatorade they could consume. 2. What happened to the Anasazi who lived in…

Follow That Story

Robert Wayne Rosberg, you’ve really done it this time. What were you thinking when you parked outside that high school? You know that as a convicted sex offender, you’re not allowed around children. Yeah, yeah, you were 250 yards away, and those teenage boys looked like ants from that distance…

Off Limits

Considering that visiting New Yorkers are often amazed to see cows running wild on the Colorado range (in NYC, the bovines are confined to the Bronx Zoo), we could almost understand Hillary Clinton’s gaffe in her new book, Living History. But since New York’s junior senator spent eighteen years in…

The Message

For several years spanning the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, Colorado was arguably the country’s leading producer of long-running, attention-grabbing news stories. Between the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, the Oklahoma City bombing trial and the assault on Columbine High School, national newscasts could often…

Winners Never Finish

It began, as so many historically significant ideas have, with a vision as grand as it was unique, a lot of sweat and hard work and, perhaps, plenty of hallucinogenic drugs. “Seventeen years ago,” recalls Byron Swezy nostalgically. “Dropping acid and riding mountain bikes. It started as a drug-induced mountain-bike…

Letters to the Editor

The Unfair Force Dishonor roll: I read Julie Jargon’s “Honor Rolled,” in the July 17 issue, with interest, as I have many such stories over the past twenty years. Each case is unique, but a common thread runs through many of the stories. My son’s case was very different from…

Honor Rolled

For more than forty years, cadets at the United States Air Force Academy have been pledging to live honorably and to abide by a simple code: “We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.” It is their most sacred tradition, a bond to those…

Take These Wings

Andrea Prasse is reviled at the Air Force Academy. Not only was she branded a liar, but she dared to go public about it. So when the superintendent offered to let her return in February, nine months after she was found guilty of breaking the honor code, cadets blasted her…

Beer Bash

After last call at the Church, where techno legend Carl Cox had just rocked a sweaty, stylish crowd, laughing throngs of Fourth of July weekend revelers buzzed past both ends of the alley running behind the club. Deep in the shadows, hidden behind a fort of blue recycling bins, Bear…

A Dog-Eat-Dog World

Denver’s once-friendly doggie daycare industry has gone to the dogs. Since Deb Steinberg opened the area’s first facility, Doggy Day Camp, in what’s now Centennial back in 1991, the industry has been breeding like crazy. Today there are thirteen doggie daycares in Denver alone. “This is the perfect example of…

Pop Quiz

1. Messy assault accusations aside, Kobe Bryant can’t be faulted for his taste in accommodations after checking into the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera. The Segovia Suite, which can cost $725 per night, features which of the following, according to the Spa’s Web site? A. A butler and a French…