part 1 of 2 September 15, 1994–Denver General Hospital Dr. Adam Myers picks a surgical mask off the wall outside an isolation room on the ninth floor. Placing it over his mouth and nose and smoothing his short, silver-gray hair, he knocks on the door and enters. The mask is…
A woman’s work is never done: In anointing Sandy Martin its 1994 Businesswoman of the Year, the Northwest Business and Professional Woman’s Organization cited Martin’s fifteen years of service and “unselfish commitment” to the city of Arvada, as manifested in her work as director of human services for the city…
By the time you see this, the dogcatcher in Resume Speed, Idaho, has probably been voted out of office, and Teddy Kennedy may be driving a cab in Boston. The American electorate is clearly in a sour, surly mood for the long haul, the political pundits say. After Tuesday’s midterm…
The roller coaster and Ferris wheel for the relocated Elitch Gardens amusement park in downtown Denver are going up quickly–but the lobbying firm that helped grease the skids for the company’s move appears to be sinking fast. Late last month Denver City Clerk Arie Taylor banned White & Cole Associates,…
In June 1992, three little boys, ages eight, six and four, were taken from their mother, Mrs. M., and handed over to the Jefferson County Department of Social Services. Mrs. M., it was alleged, had allowed all three of her sons to be sexually molested by at least two different…
Bringing Up the Rear Patricia Calhoun’s editorial relating to Bruce Benson’s gubernatorial campaign (“Preserved for Posteriority,” October 26) was a beautiful piece, absolutely mature with a reasonably subtle dig. I laughed with tears in my eyes. Congratulations. One of the things Calhoun might want to explore someday, and I hope…
cartoon…
part 2 of 2 As much as their cases have become a rallying cry for women seeking payment for the controversial bone marrow transplant treatment, Barbara Tepe and Cynthia Snow could just as easily be held up as examples of why insurance companies ought not to pay. After all, both…
part 1 of 2 Last spring, when Barbara Tepe walked out of her California home, slipped into the car next to her husband and began driving to Colorado, it was not the beginning of a pleasure outing. It was a journey to stay alive. Six months earlier Tepe had been…
Strike while the irony is hot: Timing is everything–particularly when you’re Ken Hamblin, Denver’s mouth that roared, then bored. “Hamblin ramblin’ to be `black Rush,'” read a headline in the Washington Times last week. “Mile-high talk host climbing fast.” Anyone who read last January’s New York Times profile of Hamblin…
Frankie Accardo, the philosopher, used to say that the greatest feeling in the world is when your horse wins. The second greatest feeling, he added, is when your horse doesn’t win. Frankie would know. In his customary perch just inside the eighth pole at Jamaica or Aqueduct, he experienced the…
Denver Post columnist Ken Hamblin was suspended last week after it was discovered that his October 18 column contained several paragraphs that had been plagiarized from an October 16 Rocky Mountain News story. He told his editors it was “a stupid mistake,” and he was quoted in the Post as…
It started out as a way to save the Boulder Theater. But ballot initiative 2C, to be decided by Boulder voters on November 8, has become more than that–a lot more. Even Kent Zimmerman, the executive director of the Boulder Bureau of Conference Services and Cultural Affairs, as well as…
Neder Say Die I would like to thank Westword for printing the article on David Shortridge, candidate for the RTD board and a member of the Nederland Board of Trustees (“Sick Transit,” October 26). Reporter Arthur Hodges painted a grim picture of Shortridge, focusing on his history of filing allegedly…
John and Jim Cipriani hope to accomplish in federal civil court what police and prosecutors have been unable to do for the past four years–prove that Colorado State Patrol trooper Bob Benefiel murdered their sister, former El Paso County sheriff’s deputy Cecilia Cipriani Benefiel. Benefiel has denied killing her (“A…
A real estate deal touted by Denver city officials as key to the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport suffered another blow last week when the King Soopers grocery chain missed a second closing deadline. King Soopers officials have told the Denver City Council that the company needs more time to…
It was twilight when Jack Ducey’s family arrived at his dark hulk of a house in north Denver. They’d come when their phone calls went unanswered and they spotted the newspapers collecting on his stoop. There was no sign of life. To the contrary, one of Jack’s dogs was lying…
On paper–certain pieces of it, anyway–David Shortridge looks like a clear favorite to win a seat on the board of the Regional Transportation District in November’s election. Shortridge, a member of the town council in Nederland, has experience as an elected official, while his opponent, thirty-year-old businessman Jon Caldara, is…
DIA’s tape delay: The controversy over Denver International Airport has tempers soaring even 2,000 miles away. After learning that someone on Senator Hank Brown’s staff had tape-recorded the GAO’s off-the-record, DIA background briefing for Colorado’s congressional delegation, Representative Pat Schroeder wrote Brown on October 14, complaining of the secret taping…
Now that the National Basketball Association season is about to tip off, local connoisseurs are cautioning Denver Nuggets fans not to get their hopes up. That shocking upset of the powerful Seattle Supersonics in the playoffs last spring, the pundits reason, was not only a sign that the young Nuggets…
The Colorado Supreme Court told him to get with the program. The publicity of a family sex scandal put his potential for personal bias in the spotlight. But one year later, critics say Denver Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Dana Wakefield has found another way to stonewall the state law that…
Vance in His Pants Bravo, Calhoun! Your October 19 column about Vance Johnson, “Who’s Sorry Now?,” was right on target. Funny, too. Adios, amigo. Joe Harris Denver I was appalled by Patricia Calhoun’s attack on Vance Johnson. Here is a man who admitted his mistakes and is trying to make…
