Sam Riddle is Colorado’s man of the hour. The $250 hour. Next Monday, members of the Legislative Audit Committee (who, as lawmakers, collect considerably less for their labors than Riddle does for consulting) will dissect the state auditor’s report on Riddle’s deal, a personal-services contract with Secretary of State Victoria…
Ron Domenick, dealer of model trains and antique china, gulps the dregs of his morning coffee and slams a meaty fist on the counter. “You want to know what’s really going on?” he asks. “Come on, I’ll show you. No bullshit.” Domenick, a burly guy with a beard, ponytail and…
When Cartoons Are Outlawed … Regarding the July 1 Off Limits: M. Wartella’s “Sell Your Soul to Evil” cartoon clearly expresses satire and was not meant to be taken seriously–it was in part to amuse, and also to make us think. The other responses reinforce the age-old observation that people…
Swap Shop Hey, Dan: On our way home from dinner with friends, my wife and I enjoy talking about who among our friends we could imagine having sex with. These conversations get especially interesting when the woman I could imagine having sex with is married to the man my wife…
The Reverend Joel Miller stood solemnly before his congregation. The normally jubilant Miller had moved to Colorado only a few months earlier and was already known for injecting his sermons with lively anecdotes–but this Sunday, the usual spark was missing. The congregation could tell something was wrong, and later, Miller…
Tom McCroskey’s teammates call him The Retriever. During a late spring match–May is still considered early season for competitive tennis in Colorado–McCroskey, who plays for the Denver Tennis Club, is ahead in the score. But that is far from the worst of it. McCroskey is so frustrating to play against…
All Joel Levitt wants is a few answers. But when the questions have to do with religion and money, straight answers don’t come cheaply. Levitt’s inquiry into the financial and moral dealings of his church has cost him nearly two years of rummaging through court records and check ledgers, growing…
Missing in action: During Off Limits’ annual Best of Denver hiatus, the usual suspects were up to their worst. The biggest news that wasn’t fit to print: this photo of Denver Post columnist Chuck Green, scheduled to run alongside tales of his macho motorcycle alternative to Ride the Rockies. But…
This past March, Denver Voice reporter Harold Chapman went undercover. The newspaper by and for Denver’s homeless community sent him to a house at 535 Colorado Boulevard that’s rented by a California-based homeless shelter called United States Mission. Like its branches in other cities, the mission is not located near…
When a major bargain becomes available, it doesn’t take long for the sharpies to gather like vultures around carrion. Case in point: Now that disgruntled stockholders of the Ascent Entertainment Group have rejected a piddling $400 million offer for the Colorado Avalanche, the Denver Nuggets and the Can, their brand-new…
Russell Berry is here, leaning back in a rocker with his cup of coffee and can of chew, so it must be morning in Hillside. Time to get mail. Six days a week, as regular as the sunrise, Berry putters from his 400-acre cattle ranch two miles away to this…
Best Wishes I couldn’t believe that Westword readers actually chose Taco Bell for Best Taco and smelly old McDonald’s for Best French Fries. I’m sure there were similar insults in other categories, but I don’t want to know. That is last-resort food! It’s cheap, convenient and disgusting. Maybe I can…
Jammed with a collection of rides that promise to make the traditional terrors of the old-fashioned roller coaster seem positively quaint, Six Flags Elitch Gardens, like many amusement parks these days, is on the cutting edge of engineering technology. Since it was moved downtown and bought out by Premier Parks…
While Donald got out after only three months, Anne Schweikert was involved in the International Church of Christ for almost seven years. More than twelve years after she left the church, she’s still deeply bothered by what she experienced. Schweikert, who became a member after she graduated from college in…
Every night before Donald goes to sleep, he says a prayer for his family. He asks God to protect his parents, his six siblings and his grandparents. And he tries to block out all the things he was told would happen to his family, all the images of hell with…
A steaming Blackjack pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni will not be delivered to the Pink Palace, aka cell block 22C, inside Denver County Jail. The cell block’s basketball team had been the heavy favorite to win the jail’s tenth annual basketball tournament, but after team captain Mark Skipper was transferred…
Jasper Carlton tends to follow every one of his rapid-fire questions with an equally quick answer. “How many acres of grassland ecosystem do you think this country has saved since we began?” he asks without taking a breath. “Zero. “The trend of the Clinton administration is to split up the…
Wednesday, May 6, 1998 4:45 p.m. It’s hot outside when Stan Israel arrives at his Lakewood apartment. He takes off his shoes, sits down, turns on the TV and unwinds. He calls his girlfriend, Patricia, and they make a dinner date. She loves to cook, so later on he’ll drive…
Rebecca Rivera is a diminutive blue-eyed lady with fine features, teased blond hair and a sweet, almost naive voice that makes her sound younger than she is. So the guys at John Elway Ford West must have been salivating when Rivera called on April 2 to ask about the pickup…
Beef it up: The most recent anti-meat campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has hit stumbling blocks–or, perhaps more appropriately, cattle guards–in several beef-producing Western states, where outdoor-advertising companies have refused to rent billboards to PETA for its “Eating meat can cause impotence” messages (pictured here). “I…
For 28 years, Carol Porter lived with the knowledge that her father was dead. He had walked out one day in 1964–when Carol was two years old–and simply disappeared. Although Porter’s mother rarely spoke of him after that, in 1971 she told her daughter that he had been declared dead…
The Boob Tube Hey, Dan: For the last eight years, I’ve been taping myself naked and jacking off solo with a camcorder. Nothing too far out–I just thought it would be fun. Here’s the problem: I’m 21 now and don’t know what to do with these old vids of myself…
