Looking back, Sharon Kratze says, she should have asked more questions. When she decided to run for the board of the Cedar Pointe Condominium Association, she thought she was simply campaigning for “constructive change” in the way her community was managed and maintained. Nobody told her that she was also…
By Alan Prendergast
When the Tea Party first burst on the scene in Glendale five years ago — in response to Mayor Joe Rice’s effort to impose new restrictions on strip clubs — the group was hailed in some quarters as a libertarian, grass-roots (yet well-financed) movement to keep government in its place…
Kathleen Gomendi is preparing for the last supper. For the past ten years, she’s run Grant Avenue Street Reach, which hosts an every-Monday spaghetti meal for the city’s homeless and impoverished. Held in the basement of the First Baptist Church of Denver, right across from the State Capitol at the…
Cable-fortune heir Kim Magness lived and died very publicly. But the show must go on — posthumously — since a Denver judge ruled that the trial involving him, his brother, Gary, and the Mardi Gras Casino will go forward this fall despite his death. The brothers — two of Colorado’s…
1. Conifer native Trey Parker met future South Park partner Matt Stone: A. Attending Evergreen High’s homecoming dance. Both were wearing green dresses. B. Working as a roadie for Big Head Todd and the Monsters. C. Avoiding assignments at the University of Colorado at Boulder. D. During a stint as…
While the rest of the city celebrated seventy years of post-Prohibition carousing on Monday — the Pub at Rockies Brewing sold over a hundred 33-cent pints in honor of that great day in 1933 when alcohol again flowed freely — the Denver-based Prohibition Party was silent on April 7. Rather…
A report about the contract status of Channel 9 anchor Jim Benemann didn’t wind up in Rocky Mountain News gossip specialist Penny Parker’s February 27 column by accident. Negotiations had obviously hit a bump the size of Mt. Evans, and one party or another saw an advantage in letting the…
Bobby DeGeorge saw his first Opening Day in 1954, at the age of nine, when his father took him and his brother to New York’s fabled Polo Grounds to watch the Giants play Pittsburgh. DeGeorge doesn’t remember who won. He doesn’t remember what his hero, Willie Mays, just back from…
This Is Sick! Taking the owe out of Owens: Regarding Stuart Steers’s “In Sickness and in Wealth,” in the April 3 issue: The Owens administration’s approach to the loss of Medicaid benefits makes it the poster child of the Bush administration’s approach nationally — eliminate all entitlement programs by starving…
The Oborsh family doesn’t fit the Medicaid-recipient stereotype. The family lives on a comfortable suburban street not far from the Southwest Plaza mall. Their home is nestled next to a creekside park; large pine trees and a wooden fence give it a bucolic air. Inside, Paula Oborsh watches over her…
Jeanne Robb has no problem taking crap if it gets her elected. Early one morning, the District 10 Denver City Council candidate patrols Cheesman Park with her plastic bag and gloves. Yes, Robb has a dog, but she’s not picking up after Lily; the mixed mutt isn’t even at Cheesman…
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…
1. With the off-season departure of broadcaster Wayne Hagin, the Colorado Rockies lost the only man: A. Who could sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in Latin. B. Credited with successfully suggesting both a mascot (Dino) and a mascot name (“Dinger”) in Major League Baseball. C. Known to have…
When asked in November 2000 to comment about the entertainment bi-weekly Go-Go, John Reidy, the man behind the landmark Denver zine known as The Hooligan, said, “If Go-Go is around for seven years, I’ll eat a turd.” The bet turned out to be a safe one: The publication shut its…
Traditionally, media companies with news organizations have shied away from taking sides on specific issues in order to project an aura of objectivity. Yet for several radio stations owned by Clear Channel, maintaining such an appearance may not be a terribly high priority. During the past several weeks, Clear Channel…
This past winter, Wendy Hawthorne stopped by the city of Denver’s parks and recreation department, as she does every year. “I’d like to rent a baseball field,” she said. “How old are the boys?” the man asked her. “It’s for women,” she replied. “Then you need a softball field,” he…
How the Best Was Won Snow job: I always look forward to your annual Best of Denver issue, but the “Denver, Why I Love Her” essays made this year’s really special. I love Denver because it can snow three feet one day, and that snow will be gone three days…
About twelve minutes past one on Sunday, February 10, 2002, Mike Morrisey found himself frozen suddenly and solidly into place. His left hand was extended up above his head, where he’d been trying to push snow away. His right hand remained down. He was sitting, seemingly on a chair, with…
Amid the sprawl that is Douglas County — the fastest-growing county in the nation in 2001 — lives the Douglas County pocket gopher. The four- to five-ounce brown vegetarian is rarely seen outside of its burrow, and when the rodent does venture out, it’s rarely farther than a body length…
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…
When Anthony Rodriguez Jr. skated, he held his head up high. It wasn’t an act of arrogance or a moment of showmanship; it was because the skinny, soft-spoken eighteen-year-old found happiness on his skateboard. “He said skating was the only time he felt free. He didn’t have to think about…
1. Denver mayoral front-walker Ari Zavaras can cite this achievement in collage, er, college: A. He was named “Brother Beer Bong” of his Greek fraternity. B. He spent a year as the Wise Owl mascot. C. As chairman of the school’s safety brigade, he was named a “Junior G-Man” by…
