First on returning CU students’ agenda: Getting smashed?

Today, students start returning to the University of Colorado at Boulder for the fall semester, and school officials and local cops plan to greet them somewhat differently. CU’s got a range of activities on the schedule, including an “Ice and Dice” party — think indoor ice skating and a poker…

Josh Penry would like to grill barbecue thieves

Josh Penry may be quickly becoming the leading Republican candidate for governor, thanks to the rapid implosion of Scott McInnis’ campaign and the difficulties Ryan Frazier is having in regard to gaining traction — but not everything’s going his way. Yesterday morning on his Twitter feed, he wrote, “What kind…

Joe Nacchio: See you in 2011

Yesterday’s decision by the U.S. Justice Department not to appeal a ruling that former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio’s six-year jail term and accompanying $52 million fine were excessive could well mean a couple of years, and perhaps even more, will be shaved off his sentence when Judge Marcia Krieger…

Denver Police Department just discovers it’s on Twitter

Members of the local media are seldom effusive about the timeliness and responsiveness of the Denver Police Department’s public-information office — and a release issued today exemplifies its effectiveness. or lack thereof. “The Denver Police Department would like the community to know they can now follow the DPD on Twitter,”…

Is a wanted man a burglar or just a lost friend-of-Bob?

Crime must not be rampant in Boulder right now — because the police department there has time to produce a composite sketch and send out a press release on an incident that won’t exactly make aging members of the Manson family wish they’d tried something similar. Yesterday afternoon, a man…

Update: Man risks death to save… a ’95 Nissan?

There are a lot of things for which most of us would put our lives on the line. Our country. Our loved ones. Giant canvas bags filled with unmarked bills. But a ’95 Nissan? Most of us would just bid that sucker farewell — but not Ryan Calles, 31. According…

A statement from stabbing victim Dean Withers’ family

Earlier today, we pointed out that the family of eighty-year-old Dean Withers, who was stabbed at a north metro King Soopers earlier this week, would be holding a press conference in Westminster; Ryan Patrick Nichols, who suffers from schizophrenia, is being held in the incident. Following the event, the Westminster…

Denver Post stumbles on a scoop in its own clip file

At 10:30 a.m. this morning, the family of Dean Withers, an 80-year-old man stabbed in the back at a north metro King Soopers, will hold a press conference at the Westminster Public Safety Center, where a photograph of the victim will be made available. In the meantime, the family of…

Colorado Crimes: Brian Christopher Naranjo shouldn’t have drawn that gun

The press releases issued in the wake of yesterday’s officers-involved shooting suggest that Longmont resident Brian Christopher Naranjo, 35, had numerous opportunities to avoid getting shot and killed. Naranjo, who’s been arrested in the past for everything from forgery to menacing (and was wanted on a failure-to-appear traffic charge), led…

So long, robbers, and thanks for all the dumbness

The Snowboard Bandits, who we wrote about last year, terrorized Front Range banks in 2007 and 2008. They were clever enough to disguise themselves in full-body snowboarder gear, but made a slip-up or two once the heists were over — like, for example, trying to launder the money by actually…