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…
Sealed With a Kiss Off C’mon, Westword. With Bill “Colorado Is Not Enough Like Texas” Owens poised to take over the governor’s mansion and sign much of the legislation proposed by the Arvada/ Colorado Springs contingent of crazies, you give us endless variations on U.S. Representative Diana DeGette’s alleged snub…
A few weeks ago, neighbors reported a fire smoldering in John McBride’s garage. Firefighters were able to save the detached structure that sits across the street from Manual High School in north Denver. But heirlooms belonging to McBride’s deceased father–a piano, furniture and some old photos–were consumed. Fire-department investigators have…
Snit happens: News flashes from Washington, D.C., last week said U.S. Representative Diana DeGette was fightin’ mad when big bad Bill Clinton failed to give her a pat on the head during a White House ceremony about the plight of uninsured children. After Free Willy failed to note that DeGette…
Three Lakewood police cars and a K-9 unit responded to a call from the Cherry Bomb Lounge at around 1 a.m. on February 8. The cops were tipped off by someone at the West Sixth Avenue bar who said there was a wanted woman inside. She had been eluding Arapahoe…
Colorado attorney general Gale Norton is investigating one of the most controversial charges yet against tobacco companies: that the firms encourage kids to shoplift cigarettes as part of an effort to hook them on smoking. But even as Norton is turning up the heat in her lawsuit against big tobacco,…
When Jannette Mayhew popped open the trunk of her car and discovered the bullet-pierced body of her son, she probably thought things couldn’t get much worse. But that was before her husband reached into a box he’d been told contained his son’s personal effects–but which actually contained the boy’s internal…
That confidence wafting up from Tucson, Arizona, that unmistakable whiff of spring hope, might be real this year. A lot of baseball folk believe the Colorado Rockies improved their roster in the off-season more than any other team in the National League, and it’s hard to argue with them. I…
The art of the deal: In the face of encroaching development, the Robischon Gallery is holding down the artistic fort at 18th and Wazee streets–a stand that earned founder Jim Robischon an award of appreciation from the Lower Downtown District Inc. at last week’s annual meeting. And Robischon won’t be…
While the Broncos prepare for the second half of their big playoff game in the Colorado Legislature, why don’t we just sit back and enjoy the halftime show? The high-priced entertainment, of course, is reserved for the VIPs–the Very Important Politicians who will be voting on SB 171 (read: the…
Better Read Than Dead Regarding Harrison Fletcher’s “Seeing Red,” in the February 19 issue: Has Westword ever met a Communist it didn’t like? Forgive me if I don’t break out the crying towels over Pat Blawis’s passing. In the early part of World War II, the Nazis and the Communists…
Even after five months, he can feel the chill. “There’s definitely something about the place,” Doug Gradisar says, looking up the side of an abandoned flour mill northwest of Coors Field. “It gives you the creeps.” Gradisar is an outreach worker for homeless teens. The last time he was here,…
The first volley of bullets smacked into police chief Kris Monson’s parked squad car at 1:30 a.m., while he was sitting behind the wheel in downtown Olathe, doing paperwork. The windshield shattered into a spider web, and the young Western Slope lawman hit the floor. He felt a sharp pain…
Denver drunk-driving lawyer Brent M. Martin is on a collision course with justice. Make that with a judge. Attorney Martin, who regularly defends people accused of driving under the influence, is scheduled to appear in Denver County Court February 26 to face charges that he got liquored up last summer…
Belly up to the barbecue: Three years after local uranium magnate turned po’ boy Oren Benton first filed for bankruptcy, lawyers and accountants still have their snouts buried in his estate. And, man, is the eatin’ good. Featuring hundreds of millions of dollars in debts and an international cast of…
