An auction earlier this month of the Gilman Property, 6,000 acres of land adjacent to the Vail ski resort that a judge once called “some of the most valuable real estate in the state, if not the world,” came off as scheduled–but not as expected. Despite the advance hoopla, only…
Drips ahoy: The secretaries got hosed during a recent salary review at the Denver Water Board. But the lawyers got along swimmingly. The controversy started when an in-house survey determined that secretaries, security guards, dispatchers and other “support” staff were making 1.9 percent more than local market rates. That same…
A vast right-wing conspiracy couldn’t get the job done. For that matter, neither could the left-handers. This summer’s hero hit five dozen dingers off 57 pitchers. And in the end, the Chicago Cubs’ Steve Trachsel–who gave up a league-high 32 long balls in 1997–yielded Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire’s historic 62nd…
Plugging Away Chris LaMorte’s September 10 “The Mom Squad” teaches us how, through the magic of one dead little girl and the power of the Internet, people without actual lives of their own can fill the long days and nights by exchanging cyberjabber over America’s telephone system. And unlike its…
“I’m always on the record,” Governor Roy Romer confessed as he sat down with a Washington Post reporter for a 45-minute heart-to-heart last month. The interview was just one in a possibly never-ending series of sincere chats during which Romer, the three-term Colorado governor who took a second job as…
For years you have had the same fleeting thought as you drove by: Jeez, that place looks old. I’ll bet it hasn’t changed since 1944–or 1896, or the Seventies, or Prohibition. And as it turns out, looks are rarely deceiving. Because one day, when you finally stop and open the…
With the new fall television season almost here, how does this premise grab you: A group of women, ordinary gals–housewives, soccer moms, office workers–decide to spice up their humdrum lives by entering the glamorous and exciting world of undercover private investigation. Been done before, you say? Wasn’t Charlie’s Angels about…
Every good entrepreneur knows that a successful business venture requires a mix of personalities that work well together. The eccentric but brilliant software designer can be teamed with an experienced manager, then money is raised, contracts are signed, sales flourish. The right combination of talent can work marketplace magic. Then…
Mrs. Brady’s URLs http://joshua-7.com/mrsbrady/ The online source for all things JonBenet. This site, run by the infamous Mrs. Brady, offers a daily dose of everything remotely related to the Ramsey case, culled from news sources across the country. WebbSleuths http://www.smiley-face.com/webbsleuths/ Decidedly pro-Ramsey in its outlook, this forum boasts an impressively…
Further proof that gardening can be hazardous to your health–or at least leave you digitally impaired–can be found in a nasty little weed that, along with its cousins, is threatening to take over the American West. Like many of its fellow noxious weeds, Russian knapweed is particularly adept at killing…
Acting flighty: Okay, so Denver city officials who’ve spent the last four years on their hands and knees begging an airline–any airline–to launch an overseas nonstop from Denver have earned the right to crow about British Airways’ new London service. Those spiffy new 777s look nifty out on the tarmac,…
In a nasty squabble that reflects Colorado’s status as a state in limbo as far as professional boxing is concerned, Denver’s biggest promoter, Andy Lee, has been suspended. It’s not as if Lee had been accused of fixing fights or bamboozling boxers out of their paydays; he was suspended for…
After sitting in hot traffic for an hour and coughing up $40 for a parking spot, some were looking for good omens Saturday night. Maybe this filled the bill–for CU fans, anyway. Following months of big-game hype and just five minutes before the kickoff, Cam the Ram, Colorado State’s galloping,…
Fast and Furious Regarding Tony Perez-Giese’s “Pulling a Fast One,” in the September 3 issue: George Orwell, here we come! It’s not enough that local and state governments in many cities around the country feel the need to put cameras in public areas to “protect” us. Now they want to…
If she’d followed her heart instead of her mother’s orders, Antonia Figueroa del Sol could have been famous. As it happened, though, she married Ernie from the old neighborhood, moved to Denver and wound up packaging chicken thighs, T-bones and hamburger meat at King Soopers. Now and then, whenever a…
When Bill and Jack Swets decided to plant a maze in their cornfield an hour and a half north of Denver, they thought their biggest problem would be finding a way out once they stepped in to enjoy it. Designed by a Utah agro-artist, it’s a complex work of wonder,…
The way he tells it, Robert Francis Sylvester became an instrument of God one day in the spring of 1988. He was sitting in a jail cell in Arapahoe County at the time, serving a sentence for check fraud and reading a brochure about a place in Vermont called Dismas…
Denver’s decision late last month to inaugurate a potentially controversial photo-radar system comes just as four other Colorado municipalities are suing the state for cracking down on how they have used photo radar. An estimated 200,000 motorists in Denver may be more than a little interested in the topic, as…
He-e-e-r-r-re’s Johnny: It turns out that voters in state House District 1 will have failed statehouse candidate Johnny “Gonzo” Gonce to kick around some more. That’s because Johnny just won’t go away–and he especially won’t shut up. Despite having gone down in flames in last month’s primary to GOP rival…
Even though the journalism profession suffers from a low public opinion, there are advantages to the business. Reporters, for instance, enjoy more legal rights than the average person: Thanks to so-called shield laws, they generally are not required to reveal their sources of information–even in the course of a lawsuit…
For three-year-old Rachael Septon of Denver, the classic childhood food peanut butter can be a deadly substance. Rachael has a potentially fatal allergy to peanuts. If she ingests them in any form, she breaks out in hives, her eyes swell shut and she has trouble swallowing and breathing. Rachael’s parents…
Alley Oops Two homeless men who were charged with felony criminal mischief after they threw a beer bottle at Denver Post photographer Brian Brainerd’s truck (they also kicked the vehicle) were released from Denver County Jail last month after a Denver jury found them not guilty. The two men, Jose…
