This is a story about Jeff O’Leary trying to write a paper about the Crocker Rocker conspiracy. He’s probably working on it right now. His Metro State class, Advanced Creative Writing, is–or ought to be–a place where hackneyed phrases like “This is a story about…” are not tolerated. But such…
The Killer Inside Us Congratulations are due to Westword and Alan Prendergast for “The Killer and Mrs. Johnson,” in the March 19 issue. Although I do not believe Jacob Ind should be released from prison, I think his story should remind us of what monsters are created when parents do…
“Today, there is a secret plan to deprive the American people of the man they want for their president. It consists of mass-media manipulation, lies, distortions, half-truths, cheap tricks and Soviet-style news blackouts and censorships. The media have insulted the American people’s intelligence by thinking they can decide the presidential…
Standing outside Denver’s Forney Transportation Museum, in a yard filled with antique locomotives, cabooses and passenger cars, owner Jack Forney beams at a small nineteenth-century locomotive painted in splashes of forest green. The coal-powered locomotive would look more at home today in an amusement park than in a busy railyard,…
On the morning of December 17, 1992, a rangy freshman named Jacob Ind was pulled out of his first-hour class at Woodland Park High School by counselor David Greathouse. Concerned about Ind’s emotional stability, Greathouse had arranged for the fifteen-year-old to meet with a mental-health specialist from a Colorado Springs…
It was no surprise last month when a bill giving state regulators the power to fine phone companies that provide shoddy service breezed through the Colorado House. After all, the measure is backed by consumer groups and, in a rare twist, most of the phone companies who stand to be…
Spring ranting: Some of the volunteers who run the gift shop at the Denver Botanic Gardens are feeling pretty damn contrary about the way their garden’s been growing lately. Members of Associates of the Denver Botanic Gardens are steamed about the DBG’s decision to seize control of the gift shop…
The Urban Spectrum, Denver’s black newspaper, is no stranger to writing articles about racism and discrimination. But it now finds itself in new territory: A white male has sued the paper for failing to hire him as an editor. Jim Emery filed suit last May in U.S. District Court, claiming…
While the furniture-smashers of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team were returning to vain millionairehood in the NHL, and Latrell Sprewell was explaining to his adoring public that the really important lesson in the strangling of P.J. Carlesimo is the one that coaches should learn from it, and Chicago Bear…
Nike Town In Stuart Steers’s story about the Nike Corporation wanting to place itself upon the pedestal of the South Table (“If the Shoe Fits,” March 12), he mentioned that Coors spokesman Jon Goldman had said, “I don’t see these folks offering to have their homes leveled and converted to…
Attorney Hal Haddon is no fan of grand juries; the courts are full of filings that attest to his irritation at their general nosiness. On Monday, though, Haddon and the other lawyers representing John and Patsy Ramsey, “innocent parents of a murdered child,” sent a joint letter to Boulder County…
Squirrels were dying. Lucky didn’t know what was killing them off, but there they were, collecting in his Park Hill neighborhood like fallen leaves. Never one to let anything go to waste, Lucky tossed the tiny carcasses into the back of his pickup. They’d make a good meal for the…
Carole Jensen has two words of advice for neighborhoods trying to get disruptive bars to settle down: Be patient. “It’s a long, involved endeavor,” she says. “I think these things always get resolved eventually. But it’s a slow process, so unbelievably slow. It has been interesting, however. Not to mention…
The orders are coming in fast–so fast that Lupe Nunez has to do a little sideways skip as she keeps piling on the beans and rice. She passes each plate to her brother, Porfidio Marin, who adds the meat and then hands the finished dish to the waitress, who doesn’t…
Hiking up the steep slopes of South Table Mountain is like stepping back in time. Prairie grasses shimmer in the sun and the wind whistles across the broad mesa, which rises 1,300 feet from the Colorado prairie west of Golden. Goldenrod, sage, yucca and prickly pear cactus stud the open…
If U.S. Representative Joel Hefley gets the $9 million in federal money he wants, someday Powers Boulevard in Colorado Springs will feed directly into Interstate 25. If you drive north from there, then east on I-80 and keep going for a thousand miles or so, eventually you’ll find yourself in…
Sometimes she describes her single-bedroom apartment in a Capitol Hill high-rise as a “virtual ant farm.” Other times she calls it a “virtual Habitrail,” with her as the hamster running around in it. But that’s okay by this 33-year-old Internet novice known to her growing legion of online visitors simply…
Denver-area residents who want–but can’t get–a permit to carry a concealed weapon have their sights set on Grand Junction, where they hope a candidate for sheriff will give them the legal right to pack heat. “There’s an awful lot of people in Denver who feel there’s a need to carry,”…
Post toasted: The Rocky Mountain News wasn’t going to beat the Denver Post on this scoop: Post editor-in-chief Dennis Britton had won the 1998 Edgar O’Malley Award for newsroom leadership–specifically, the paper’s handling of the Summit of the Eight, the Oklahoma City bombing trials and the JonBenet Ramsey murder. Just…
Maybe Lawrence Eugene Doby was destined to be overshadowed. In the course of his thirteen-year major-league career, he batted .283, hit 253 home runs and led the American League in homers in 1952 and 1954. But because he played in the golden era of Mantle, Mays and Snider, Larry Doby’s…
Dial straits: It’s tough keeping up with all the changes in Denver’s mercurial entertainment scene, but the Rocky Mountain News could at least give it a try. Its “Radio Log,” published weekly in the Spotlight section, is woefully behind the times–in fact, this log is just so much dead wood…
“Get the facts about anyone–your ex-spouse’s hidden assets, a new client’s credit history, your lover’s secret past or information about any business–quickly and legally.” Hurry! This sounds like a job for one of the Clinton operatives investigating Kenneth Starr–and recently subpoenaed by the independent counsel as thanks for their efforts–or…
