Most broadcast execs shy away from criticizing the local TV newscasts that help butter their bread. But Cindy Velasquez, Channel 7’s general manager, isn’t most broadcast execs. “Look what local TV stations have become,” she says. “They’ve become very nice, very cautious — and I think that’s why so many…
So there she was, standing in the vast ballroom at the Las Vegas Riviera at the North American Eight Ball Championships last May, and Conifer resident Christine Honeman knew she was toast. She knew it with such certainty that she couldn’t even look at the table. The shots that were…
“Access Denied,” by Michael Roberts, February 10, 2000 I howled with laughter upon reading Michael Roberts’s “Access Denied,” in the February 10 issue. This one time, I applaud Westword for revealing to the public the kind of idiot Jann Scott is. I urge all people everywhere to reject nihilistic types…
On nights when the Idalia Wolves challenge the Liberty Knights in basketball, farmers and ranchers get in their pickups and head to town. They pull into the Idalia School parking lot, where they leave their keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. They file into the school’s new gym,…
Aspen Burkett holds the national girl’s high school record for the 50-yard dash — 5.84 seconds — but the last six months of her life have been sluggish. In July the 23-year-old came down with mononucleosis, which laid her up for three months and took her out of fall training…
When officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons set out to build a supermax penitentiary capable of holding the most dangerous inmates in the federal system, they didn’t mess around. Opened in 1994 at a cost of $60 million, the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum outside of Florence, Colorado, better known…
The tiny of town of Erie rests at the end of a long stretch of farmland west of I-25. Signs of expansion in this old coal-mining town are everywhere: Bulldozers grade fields in preparation for new homes; for-sale signs dot vacant pieces of land; and a steady stream of customers…
The right write stuffSaturday’s services for veteran journalist and sometime politico Sherry Keene-Osborn, who died last week at age 54, brought out numerous writers who’d gotten their start when she edited the Rocky Mountain Business Journal (now the Denver Business Journal) back in the ’70s. But during three decades of…
One of my favorite unreal images of love is the newlywed husband and wife relaxing amid half-unpacked boxes — obviously taking a break from moving into their very first cheap apartment, even though it has hardwood floors and a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Both are wearing beautifully…
Denver police chief Tom Sanchez was nowhere to be seen in footage of the February 8 news conference where Mayor Wellington Webb officially handed him his hat and showed him the door — but he’d gotten plenty of television face time just a couple of days earlier. Not that he…
The Apes of WrathRegarding Juliet Wittman’s “Origin of the Specious,” in the February 10 issue: The misguided A Natural History of Rape is similar to the books published years ago that attempted to use “biology” to explain racial differences. The racists then championing their theories behind the guise of “scientific…
Feminists say men rape to assert dominance over women. But a new book co-authored by a University of Colorado instructor suggests that while the immediate motivation for rape may be anything from the need to impress other males to rage over a breakup, the deep-seated and essential spur is man’s…
The air’s not dead at Boulder’s Community Access TV, but it sure isn’t feeling very good. In January, Ron Secrist, Boulder’s city manager, put a new CATV contract for the year 2000 on hold until after a review panel appointed by the city council investigates charges that the organization is…
Nurses at two of Denver’s biggest hospitals, Saint Joseph Hospital and Denver Health Medical Center, are following the lead of nurses at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood by trying to organize to fight what they say are unfair and unsafe working conditions. Nurses at two other metro hospitals are also…
When Nick Mystrom points out the various features of the duplex he’s building on South Pennsylvania Avenue, his pride is obvious — and why not? The project is the first this 28-year-old has done by himself: He bought the land, sketched out the preliminary design on which an architect based…
The shootings at Columbine High School last year caused untold repercussions, almost all of them bad: lost lives, broken hearts, families ripped apart. But for the folks at the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post, there may be a silver lining — a Pulitzer Prize. Few staffers at either…
Beelzebub arrived in a white pickup. He pulled to the curb in front of the Kelleys’ home in Cherry Creek, his truck facing oncoming traffic, and proceeded to leer at Vicki, who stood in jeans and a T-shirt cleaning her own truck. Vicki is blond, pretty. When men glance her…
Exclusive partyFrank Sullivan is a staunch party man. At a fundraiser last year, the District 8 precinct captain and longtime Democratic foot soldier refused to let Jan Tyler, a Republican candidate for the Denver Election Commission, even speak. (He says he told her, “Hell, no. This a Democratic Party, and…
No question: Kids are different today, diluted versions of earlier specimens. At the Northglenn Judo Club, which meets Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Northglenn Community Center behind the Holiday Inn off 104th Street, the old-time instructors have had to adapt in a way that Bobby Knight should have and…
The Fur’s Flying Kudos to Eric Dexheimer for his February 3 “Trap Sheet,” an informative and unbiased report on trapping. Wildlife management is difficult enough for trained professional biologists. Our politically correct society has been duped into assuming that wildlife issues should be voted upon by the general populace. This…
The three-story Victorian house in the Humboldt Street Historic District looks like something out of a fairy tale: Balconies jut out from its upper floors, a turret flanks one side of the century-old red-brick mansion, and the surrounding grounds are fortified by a wrought-iron gate. For a short time in…
On a crisp morning early last February, Paul Jensen, a 44-year-old man without even so much as a traffic ticket dulling his reputation walked out of his ranch house near the central mountain town of Salida and prepared to break the law. Consistent with his shoot-straight, live-by-the-rules character, Jensen had…
