Off Limits

Is that a radio in your pocket? Departing congressman David Skaggs is crowing that the feds will review security at Rocky Flats, as he requested over a year ago when reports surfaced concerning inadequate security and safeguards at the decommissioned nuclear-weapons plant. When he visited the facility on Friday, departing…

A Growing Problem

Is there any way to prevent the Front Range from becoming a nonstop city that stretches from Wyoming to New Mexico? A state senator and a group of local activists, frustrated by legislative inaction, may try a direct appeal to the voters to fight sprawl. They’re about to issue a…

Shouts to Murmurs

When it was all over, rider Kent Desormeaux said he felt sick to his stomach. Then proved it. He had asked his mount for winning speed too soon, he said gloomily, then let the horse’s attention wander with a furlong to go. Down in the jockeys’ room, Chris McCarron draped…

What a Pane!

She calls him the Anne Frank of the trailer park. When she drives him home from school, her son has to duck down in the seat. When he’s in the yard, he has to watch over his shoulder for the park manager. He’s not a thief. Or a drug dealer…

Letters

Can We Be Frank? Westword has sunk to a new low with Dewey Webb’s “Final Episode” Killer Curse, in the June 4 issue. At last you look like the sleazy tabloid you really are. Ray Brown Denver The connection between the last episode of Seinfeld and the death of Frank…

Facing Off

Some domestic violence victims turn to the extreme end of the victim-services spectrum: They call Mike Newell.

A Shock to the System

The rush to protect battered women has turned domestic violence into “the social issue of the Nineties” — and raised issues of fairness for both perpetrators and victims.

A Helping Handout

Longmont’s Main Street still reflects its farm-town roots, with mom-and-pop diners serving homemade pie and realtors posting notices for “horse property” in storefront windows. But like so much of Colorado, Longmont is changing. An influx of high-tech firms has sparked an economic boom. Subdivisions are going up on all sides…

What’s on Tap?

Welton Street isn’t the only maintenance district facing problems. But while Welton Street’s battles are internal, the major threat to other districts is coming from the outside. Specifically, from the Denver Water Board, which is contemplating charging a retroactive “tap fee” for water lines that were installed years ago. Those…

High-Maintenance Man

Crayton Jones surveys Welton Street, the spine of Five Points. Outside his C&B Cleaners at 2748 Welton, he spots four barren trees. “The trees are dead,” he says. “He’s supposed to maintain ’em all.” He’s talking about James Parker, former American Legion commander and longtime Points activist. Over the past…

“Final Episode” Killer Curse Revealed!

“Seinfeld”/Sinatra Death Link Exclusive! “TV shows don’t kill people . . . but final episodes sure do!” That’s the shocking claim from experts who insist that legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra’s fatal heart attack was actually a result of the Final Episode Curse–a bizarre jinx that strikes a death blow whenever…

Gratuitous Behavior

Let’s say you earn a decent salary–on paper, at least. But each payday, your employer deducts a couple hundred bucks to tip your secretary, the payroll director and the guy who cleans your office. After all, your employer explains, those people are your support staff–you couldn’t get your job done…

The Money Pit

Mildred Bennett won’t get her home back, or anything close to the full market value of the two-story Victorian in the Baker neighborhood from which she was evicted eighteen months ago. But under a settlement agreement reached late on Friday, May 22, the 72-year-old blind and mentally disabled woman will…

Off Limits

Blade runners: The battle of the TV news choppers continues down at Speer Boulevard and Logan Street, where KUSA-TV/Channel 9 is finally poised to begin flying in and out of its inner-city digs sometime in mid-July. The station, which backed away from the use of copters after suffering six Sky9…

Ask Not for Whom the Bulls Toll

Last Wednesday night, Michael Jordan threw a little outside fake, stopped short and rose from the floor of the United Center like an ascending saint. The soft jumper hit dead center, of course, and just like that, His Airness had the 34,999th and 35,000th points of his storied career. Even…

Letters

Underground Railroad After reading Patricia Calhoun’s “Up From the Underground,” in the May 21 issue, I wonder if anywhere in this city is safe–above ground or below. Thanks for the alert. Mae Powers via the Internet “Up From the Underground” was a great article with the inclusion of some Colorado…

Give Him Liberty!

There is one point of fact upon which Ron Siegfried and the City of Lakewood agree. Here it is: When code-enforcement officer John Holmes came to tell Siegfried that his grass was too long and neighbors had complained, Siegfried was indignant and unrepentant. “I’m an American,” both parties agree he…