part 1 of 2 The cancer, Brian Rusca remembers, seemed to devour John Savage from within, like a weevil inside a boll of cotton. In May, when Rusca flew out from Fresno to Colorado Springs for a final visit, his normally robust, six-foot-one-inch friend was down to a wire-thin 140…
part 2 of 2 During the late 1980s and early 1990s Savage spent a lot of time jetting back and forth between England and Colorado, where he had also developed a number of business contacts. One was Michael Bergman, a Fort Collins man who hoped Savage would provide him with…
Fly-by-night operation: Bad enough that four Denver City Council members–Cathy Reynolds, Tim Sandos, Joyce Foster and president Debbie Ortega–got caught accepting a city concessionaire’s overnight junket, but to the Broncos-Buffalo game? The only thing more embarrassing than Denver’s performance on the football field is Denver’s performance on its new airfield–but…
Certain Christian theologians tell us that the worst thing that can happen to a person is to catch a momentary vision of heaven, then watch the big gate swing shut without getting to go inside. Even if that’s not true, it could explain what’s wrong with those thugs and vigilantes…
Listening to Denver city officials, residents might be tempted to conclude that the missteps and delays plaguing Denver International Airport are rare blips on the clear screen that is city government. As any city hall veteran can confirm, however, DIA’s holding pattern is unique only in its scale. Consider the…
Ron Parrish, the publisher of Denver’s first-ever newsletter devoted entirely to talk radio, says he’s confident there are plenty of other locals as addicted to babble as he is. But so far, he doesn’t have much evidence. “I have a friend or two who listen to talk,” reveals the 41-year-old…
One of the largest-ever private grants awarded to a Denver neighborhood has driven a rift between community groups in the very area it’s supposed to be helping. Last year the Denver nonprofit group NEWSED scored a major coup when it was picked to receive more than $3 million from the…
Members of a taxpayer-funded citizens’ group set up to monitor developments at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant say a second public watchdog group has become a mouthpiece for the government. The accusations come in the wake of three resignations this summer at the five-year-old Rocky Flats Cleanup Commission, a…
Love That Bob! I am appalled by Steve Jackson’s “Top of Their Game,” in the September 21 issue, for its tacit approval of the activities of “Bob,” the self-appointed eco-terrorist who seems to limit his involvement in the environmental movement to stealing the Colorado Mountain Club’s summit registers from the…
part 2 of 2 The Savings & Loan Connection In 1991 Benson made much public hay over Senator Tim Wirth’s ties to the national savings-and-loan debacle. Specifically, Benson accused Wirth of indirectly propping up an unhealthy industry through the senator’s allegedly overclose relationship with junk-bond company Drexel Burnham Lambert. Yet…
The political circus comes to Adams County every four years right about now. And the race for county sheriff often occupies the center ring. Eight years ago, when sheriff Bert Johnson was awaiting the start of his trial on sexual assault and harassment charges, he was still debating whether to…
part 1 of 2 Ever since Bruce Benson began waging his campaign for the governor’s office, his opponents have used his fortune against him by portraying him as a consumer shopping for an office. During the primary, Republican candidate Dick Sargent vowed, “We’re going to take him out with one…
Bush baby: In town last week to plug her book–as well as to push the Republican candidate for governor–Barbara Bush did an excellent job of ignoring former first son Neil Bush’s tarnished ties to Denver, courtesy the board of Silverado. And the local media was apparently happy to help out,…
In any other season, a gust of wind or an act of God would have steered the visitors’ last-ditch field goal try through the uprights. In any other season, the Colorado State Rams–the Rodney Dangerfields of football on the high plains–would again have found themselves reeling off to the dressing…
Piker’s Peak Regarding Steve Jackson’s “Top of Their Game” in the September 21 issue: It would seem as though the PC police have now found it necessary to inflict their own brand of morality even on top of our highest mountains. In your story about the “Fourteeners Cleaner,” it is…
State parks officials want to build a “world-class environmental learning center” on Mt. Evans as part of a proposed recreation area flanking Highway 5, the summit-topping roadway that the state touts as the highest paved road in North America. But critics say the popular Fourteener 35 miles west of Denver…
Denver airport officials have been wooing financially troubled MarkAir with a $30 million loan guarantee backed by aviation fuel-tax money. But now the Alaska-based airline is asking for much, much more. In a secret “economic-development plan” presented to aviation director Jim DeLong, debt-ridden MarkAir says it will relocate its headquarters…
Officer Bob Kishell is cruising slowly past Faith Lutheran Church School when a young woman dashes through the rain and sleet to reach his patrol car. “Hi, Robin,” Kishell says, as he rolls down his window. Robin speaks hurriedly, hugging herself against the cold. A man has been skulking in…
An engineer chosen by the city of Denver to help design the alternative baggage system at Denver International Airport is also being sued by the city for “negligence,” “errors” and “design deficiencies” in his work on DIA’s tent-roofed terminal building. Sami Miro, president of S.A. Miro Inc. of Denver, has…
part 2 of 2 Tom Tancredo has been stirring the political pot in Colorado for two decades. In the Seventies, he and other freshman legislators who hated environmental laws and other government mandates were dubbed the “House Crazies.” They were successful in installing a new speaker, rancher Bob Burford. When…
It is autumn in northwest Denver, and the smell of roasting green chile is why. From now until the first frost, the fragrance will hit you as you drive down Federal Boulevard, past the hand-lettered signs with neon green letters reading: HATCH/PUEBLO CHILI! FREE ROASTING! At least fifty two-bushel burlap…
part 1 of 2 In the midst of a mind-numbing ramble about the Founding Fathers, lecturer Marty Nalitz finally said something worth remembering: “Every one of those guys was a right-wing, Bible-thumping fundamentalist!” Nalitz, whose real job is hosting talk radio on the nationwide USA Patriot Network, was preaching to…
