On March 22, after years of avoiding questions about when they would launch an early newscast, managers at Channel 31, Denver’s Fox affiliate, provided their answer: the debut of Good Morning Colorado, a programming block between 5:30 and 8 a.m.. Suddenly, cable-challenged Denver viewers who’d grown accustomed to getting their…
Welcome to sweet April, when anything is possible. The Colorado Rockies can still win the National League pennant this year and beat the Yankees in five hard-fought games in the World Series. Donald Trump might propose to Omarosa. Topeka could get Italian food. And, if a thousand things go perfectly…
You Can Fool Some of the People… Censor and sensibility: I just finished reading John Reidy’s “Silencing Radio 1190” in the April 1 issue, and I am pissed! Quoting CU’s Betsy Hoffman: “To keep the barbarian madness of our football team from spreading to the lily-white student body who lap…
John Elway to the rescue! The former Broncos quarterback has been offered the head coaching job at the University of Colorado, and he’s expected to accept the $1.6 million-a-year position pending final negotiations, which have reportedly snagged over university cutbacks in dental coverage. The 43-year-old Broncos great would replace embattled…
The University of Colorado football program recruiting scandal has claimed an unlikely casualty. Radio 1190, the popular student-run radio station broadcast from the basement of the University Memorial Center on the Boulder campus, has been sanctioned by the university for apparent violations relating to the football program. You can now…
Editor’s note: These writings, scribbled in a tiny, cramped hand, graced the flyleaf of a battered copy of Are You Running With Me, Jesus? recently discovered in an abandoned locker at fulsome Folsom Field. Although their authenticity has not been verified, the handwriting expert consulted in the JonBenét Ramsey ransom-note…
When Roxanne Whittles decided to further her education, she soon had a good problem on her hands: too many grad schools to choose from. At 21, Whittles already had a reputation as a rising star in the field of biological research. In 2002, she’d graduated summa cum laude from Stanford…
Denver’s Civic Center was born at the turn of the last century, when legendary mayor Robert W. Speer, creator of the “City Beautiful” concept, began pushing the idea of building a grand city hall and park facing the brand-new State Capitol. Speer’s dream was greeted with jeers in the press…
The following item violates the City of Denver Solid Waste Management Department’s recently issued guidelines concerning media coverage of graffiti and graffiti-related issues. Reader discretion is advised. Spray it, don’t say it: Last month, a criminal artist or artists unknown spray-painted a dozen stencil-graffiti images of commander-in-chief George W. Bush,…
Like it or not, controversies and speculation go together like Donald Trump and comb-overs, and the more innuendoes there are, the greater the pressure on newsmakers and the media to address them in a public forum. Such was the case last month in Texas, when Governor Rick Perry grew so…
One of the great things about sports is that you never know where a story will take you. An account of a couple of professional football running backs, one supernaturally talented, the other a plugger, can morph into the life lessons offered in Brian’s Song. More often than you would…
Eyes on the Prize Best wishes: Regarding Kenny Be’s Worst-Case Scenario in the March 25 Best of Denver issue: Thanks for the look at Commerce City in “The Best of Commerce City.” It was great fun. Now others can appreciate some of the finer points of suburban Denver’s pride and…
It had been a long time since Dick Lamm last visited the Colorado Senate. Dressed in a dapper suit and tie, he glowed as he prepared to speak at a Senate event honoring the late Dr. Abe Kauvar, who created Denver’s public-clinic system. As Lamm entered the chamber, the senators…
From the outside, the small building in the back yard of 111 West Archer Place appears to be a simple sheet-metal shed. But inside is a DIYer’s paradise: the Denver Zine Library. The newest experiment in Denver’s tradition of upstart libraries — the city’s first was begun in a newsstand…
As the Colorado Avalanche wraps up another Tuesday-night home game at the Pepsi Center, Flash maneuvers his way through LoDo looking for fares. “This is such a dead-end job,” he says. “My back is killing me and my ass is numb.” Flash has been driving for Metro Taxi for just…
The first rule of publicity stunts is to deny everything, so that the masses and the media won’t know they’ve been played. No one understands this better than Bob Richards, a deadpan exec with the Denver division of Clear Channel, the nation’s largest owner of radio stations. When asked if…
Students who turned up for a journalism conference at Mesa State College earlier this month picked up some helpful hints, like not to become reporters unless they can deal with low pay, long hours and placement just below “Kobe Bryant defense attorney” on the list of most-respected careers. Yet many…
Todd Bertuzzi runs for mayor of Denver. Haiti nukes Fort Lauderdale. John Ashcroft and Mel Gibson get married at Caesars Palace. The Air Force Academy basketball team kicks a ton of tall civilian butt, then flies smartly on into the NCAA Tournament. Which do you find most improbable? The last…
The Plot Sickens Let’s get reel: I cannot understand why all the movie deals about Rocky Flats have fallen through. From reading Patricia Calhoun’s “Toxic Shocker!” in March 11 issue, it seems like this story has everything, from government villains to ordinary citizens as heroes (one a cowboy, even) to…
For Albert Galvan, his dad was a model of what not to be. The man was a violent alcoholic who frequently kicked his son and hit him with a belt for playing too loudly. Then he would turn on Albert’s mother and beat her for the noise his children were…
No one knows what Rosa Avina wished for on February 19 when she blew out the five candles on her birthday cake. But her biological and foster parents each had their own wishes for her. Ever since Rosa was a baby, her identity has been in limbo: Is she an…
For parents like Albert Galvan, whose daughter was seized by social services as soon as she was born, Senate Bill 117 offers new hope. The bill — also known as the Sunshine Gates Act, for the little girl who inspired its creation — would require social workers or police officers…
