In Colorado, property-tax bills are due April 30; if they are not paid, the landowner receives a delinquent tax notice a few months later. In Denver, which has approximately 171,000 separate pieces of taxable property, about 10,000 people–just under 6 percent–were late on their payments and received such a notice…
Smiling, frosted-haired matrons, their teeth capped in orange and blue. A naked man in a barrel making a heartfelt plea for playoff tickets. Nightly weather bulletins on the field conditions in Kansas City or Pittsburgh, pre-empting the local snow report. If it all sounds vaguely familiar, then consider yourself a…
Eleven years ago, Bronco Vance Johnson was ready to explode into the national consciousness. A cocky little wide receiver known for his pigtails, flashy lifestyle, motormouth and allegedly artistic drawings, he parlayed the Super Bowl hoopla into an appearance on the Joan Rivers Show, during which “The Vance,” as he…
Mildred Bennett was born to royalty. She is the child of a Russian czar–the proof, she tells you, being a birthmark on her back. George Washington is her grandfather. One of her husbands was the king of Spain; she was the queen. A second husband was a king of France,…
No bull: On Tuesday, animal-rights activists–the Vegetarian Society of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Animal Defense Fund–hung what they’d promised would be a “huge” banner, but which more closely resembled a bath towel, off the 15th Street overpass to protest the Stock Show’s cruelty to animals. Their action lasted exactly…
Fred Elbel spends his days as a mild-mannered Littleton computer consultant and his nights in what he describes as an epic struggle. “It’s a war,” Elbel says, “and I’m caught up in one of the biggest battles.” Elbel’s enemy is unsolicited electronic mail, and he’s one of several local residents–including…
When the Jefferson County district attorney’s office went after a dozen bookies from a Golden boiler-room sports-betting operation last year, the defendants contended they weren’t doing anything different from those who operate supposedly legal offshore sports-betting lines advertised on Denver radio and in newspapers. Deputy District Attorney Dennis Hall, who…
An unusual marriage of convenience between a northern Colorado environmental group and loggers could end in divorce quicker than you can say “Timber!” For the moment, however, the two sides, which have butted heads many times in the past, are united in protest against the way the U.S. Forest Service…
How bad have things gotten for the Denver Nuggets? Well, the loudest cheer at any Nuggets home game in the last two miserable seasons, one bemused fan reports, erupted the time Rocky the Mascot, the red-sneakered mountain lion with the jagged lightning bolt shooting from his butt, yanked spectator John…
Friday night, and the Wazee Supper Club is packed–as it has been for Friday night after Friday night since long before LoDo was the center of Denver’s universe, since before LoDo was even called LoDo. But although the Wazee is packed, as always, the space seems oddly empty. Something is…
The Kiling Field Steve Jackson’s January 15 “Murderer’s Row” was a well-written article about this monster, Tom Luther. As the parent of a child who was victimized by a violent sexual predator (now residing in a Colorado prison), I found it obvious that Jackson has obtained an understanding of many…
Earl Elder loaded a small artificial Christmas tree into his car and drove west into the mountains. Six miles past Idaho Springs, he exited the interstate onto Highway 40, which passes through the town of Empire before it runs up and over Berthoud Pass. But Earl didn’t intend to go…
The bitter feud over the $1 billion estate of cable-television magnate Bob Magness came to an end last week as all parties involved reached an out-of-court settlement. The multiple lawsuits enmeshing Magness’s sons, Kim and Gary, his widow, Sharon, University of Denver chancellor Daniel Ritchie, and Tele-Communications Inc. and its…
After years of bedeviling some of the state’s most powerful people, the Moffat Tunnel Commission is about to disappear. The obscure state agency, which was intended to do nothing more than oversee a pair of ancient railroad and water tunnels under James Peak, will chug into the sunset on February…
While most Coloradans are busy planning how to spend the state tax refunds they will receive thanks to our booming economy, residents of Huerfano County are anticipating the opposite: Homeowners in the southern Colorado county could actually pay higher taxes this year to make up for money their local government…
The only person charged by police in connection with last summer’s “Ghost Bridge” crash in rural Arapahoe County that killed two young girls has become something of a phantom herself. When 21-year-old Jennifer Lynn Wambeke, whose younger sister was one of the two killed in the June 21 accident, failed…
Steel yourself: The Denver Broncos may have gotten the last laugh, but not before Pittsburgh had a few yuks at our expense. Last Friday the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered its “Top ten reasons to be extra thankful for home-field advantage,” some too filled with Pittsburghian lingo to translate, but others easily…
Super Bowl, Stupor Bowl. I’m thinking ballpark. I’m thinking ballpark food. Baseball-park food. I’m thinking cornmeal-crusted red snapper on a pink plastic plate with the bulging eyes staring at you, and a huge heap of something unnamable piled next to him as a bonus. What are these things? Look like…
Steer Clear! Yee-haw. I wouldn’t have thought that Kenny Be could top his “politically corrected” guide to the Stock Show on the cover of the last issue–but then I saw his Worst-Case Scenario about “high-speed skier safety headgear.” I’m sure you’ll get complaints from all those tasteful folks out there,…
When Suzanne Harris and Peter Ludwell quit their full-time jobs to become crusaders in the fight for health freedom, they expected to draw fire from critics of their conspiracy theories regarding government and big business. But it never occurred to them that their life’s work would go up in flames…
Derek Cianfrance, the local filmmaker headed for the Sundance Film Festival in a few weeks with his first feature, Brother Tied, had good reason to become unhinged during the process of making the film: At one point, his landlord locked him out of his editing room. The solution? Equally unhinged…
A man who tried to push Governor Roy Romer out of office by running against him is now trying to push him out by suing him. “I don’t want to send Romer to jail,” says Dick Sargent, a Republican candidate for governor back in 1994, “but I filed this thing…
