News

View larger image This week’s Worst-Case Scenario takes a look at the ubiquitous denizens of summer festivals. Starting today through Tuesday, Kenny Be is bringing a bonus festival-goer to the web, in full color. Use the comments section to tell us about any favorite festival folks we might have missed,…

Want to dig deeper into the tangled web of Mike Zinna’s ongoing conflict (chronicled in this week’s cover story by Alan Prendergast) with the powers-that-be in Jefferson County? These PDFs of court documents are a good place to start. First, check out this 21-page summary of the CBI’s investigation of…

Turn an ear — and an eye — to the fresh content available from Westword’s blog quintet. Demver reveals the connection between a local activist and Crosby, Stills & Nash. It’s a new take on conventional wisdom. Backbeat Online offers a Beyond Playlist post with extended reviews of recordings by…

The June 29 edition of Meet the Press — the first to be anchored by onetime NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw since he agreeing to helm the program through the presidential election following the death of longtime moderator Tim Russert — will co-star Colorado’s governor, Bill Ritter. Why? Ritter…

“Lifeguards Win Right to Bare Legs,” reads the headline over a Bill Scanlon article in the June 27 Rocky Mountain News. The story is about the abolition of an unpopular rule put in place by Aurora city officials that required lifeguards to wear long pants while working at the Aurora…

What is it with wide receivers? Is the speed at which they move like meth, turning their cerebellums to tapioca? Whatever the case, the Denver Broncos are certainly suffering from their fly-catchers’ faults. First, high-priced Javon Walker, who sat in the car next to Darrent Williams when the latter was…

The men and women of the Independence Institute, and specifically the organization’s guiding force, Jon Caldara (the subject of Message columns accessible here and here), have done an impressive job of putting their conservative/libertarian theories in front of eyeballs aplenty via their canny use of the media. But they’re after…

Have any of you Mesa County residents out there been molested by a homosexual or transgendered person during a visit to a public restroom over the past month? If so, you’re apparently the first to suffer a fate our protectors at Focus on the Family warned about in relation to…

In recent days, the Rocky Mountain News has tried its damnedest to excite the public about accusatory comments made by White House (no) hopeful Ralph Nader about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. On June 25, the paper highlighted a piece by M.E. Sprengelmeyer in which Nader accused Obama of…

The folks at the Colorado Public Radio Blog, a site that was launched following attorney Frances Koncilja’s resignation from CPR’s board last year (see this June 14, 2007 Message column for details), recently made an interesting discovery. CPR general manager Max Wycisk (pictured), who, despite his mild-mannered persona, remains one…

Former Greeley Central High School and Colorado Rockies standout Shawn Chacon is at the center of what the national media has treated as the biggest Major League Baseball story of recent days: an altercation with Ed Wade, general manager of Chacon’s current team, the Houston Astros, which ended with the…

There are rumors circulating around Denver that you can make money renting out your home during the week of the Democratic National Convention in August. Serious money. And serious rumors, considering that Bill Clarke of the Rocky Mountain News had a piece about exactly that on June 22. As evidence,…

The American public has a love-hate relationship with Colorado’s own Crocs — but let’s focus on the hate, shall we? The folks at cable’s VH1 have had a great deal of success with nostalgia-fests such as I Love the 70s, I Love the 80s and I Love the 90s, in…

On the last Friday of each month, the Denver Art Museum throws a theme party. On June 27, the organizing topic is textiles in honor of the soon-to-close Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt, which is currently on display in the Stanton Gallery in the Ponti-tower but will be…

This week’s cover story on the ongoing conflict between Mike Zinna and various Jefferson County officials is full of self-serving personalities, corrupt politicians and lurid accusations. To get a feel for at least one of those personalities, have a listen to this 20 minute clip from a recent Zinna radio…

Allow us to take you on a tour of the other Westword.com blogs… The Cat’s Pajamas introduces us to a lovely boutique called, appropriately enough, Lovely. Cafe Society presents a video showing Marisol, the author of a romantic novel entitled The Lady, the Chef and the Courtesan, cooking while on…

“The Obama Tapes,” a so-called “report” about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama by attorney and KHOW radio host Dan Caplis (pictured), is considerably less than advertised. Rather than spotlighting fresh information capable of bolstering Caplis’ contention that Obama’s election would endanger America in a slew of different (and terrible)…

In this June 25 blog, I expressed frustration after the Colorado Rockies lost two consecutive games to the freakin’ Kansas City Royals immediately after taking just one of three games against the New York Mets at home. So imagine how I (and every other Rockies booster) felt after the Royals…

Attacked from the left. Attacked from the right. By the time the Democratic National Convention gets underway in Denver to crown Barack Obama as the nominee, there may not be much of him left. On June 24, Focus on the Family leader James Dobson, who has been spewing his own…

Anyone who wonders why so many members of the general public think journalists are putzes will find an explanation of sorts in “Media No Fan of Protest Neighbors,” in the June 26 Denver Post. According to the piece, “National media representatives are upset that an area designated for protesters during…