Ray Gifford, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Progress & Freedom Foundation, doesn’t keep his political sympathies a secret. The stepson of Congressman Tom Tancredo and a onetime appointee of Governor Bill Owens, for whom he served as head of the Colorado Utilities Commission, Gifford is a pro-business Republican through and…
Last Writes Innocence lost: Thank you for printing Alan Prendergast’s “The Death of Innocence” in the July 31 issue. It was very well written, very well researched, and I’m so glad I had the chance to read it. I hope your action in increasing public awareness has a positive outcome…
At 6:40 p.m. on April 5, 2002, a police task force made up of local and state law-enforcement agencies swarmed around a single-story cinderblock industrial building on South Federal Boulevard. While their actions — and cries of “Let’s go!” — were captured on film by news crews from two Denver…
In their interviews with several girls who’d worked for Jim Grady, police often seemed perplexed about what they were looking for. At times, the investigators also managed to convey — in not-so-subtle ways — that while the girls may not have felt exploited, they were. After their interviews, some models…
Although “pornography” and “obscenity” are often used interchangeably, there’s a crucial difference between the two words. The first (when it involves adults, at least) is legal; the second is not. But the vocabulary of sin can get garbled quickly when you’re talking about dirty pictures. Discussing obscenity back in 1964,…
Kent Hups has a saying he likes to spring now and again, one that captures the essence of his talents, the depth of his obsessions and his reasons for getting out of bed each day: “You can find some really interesting things while peeing.” Hups is a Renaissance man. A…
1. Mob: Which is true about the “flash mob” phenomenon that has infected Denver? A. It’s run by anonymous folks with apparently unlimited free time and Internet access. B. The concept was first postulated by Aspen free thinker Casimir “Caz” Bemiji. C. A group of street buskers has called for…
Denver’s public schools were in bad shape last year. Students were entering middle school — even high school — without basic reading skills, and the state had deemed more than half the schools in the district “low” or “unsatisfactory” based on their scores on the Colorado Student Assessment Program exam…
If Planet Hollywood hadn’t become Planet Hasbeen, Arnold Schwarzenegger might be the governor of Colorado. Or maybe Gary Coleman would be giving Bill Owens a run for his money. Instead, both stars — one big in stature and cultural clout, one substantially lacking in both — are among the almost…
At 10 a.m. on August 6, the western half of Chambers Road, one of Eagle’s main thoroughfares, looks like a dusty set from The Last Picture Show. The county fairgrounds that parallel I-70 are deserted, and the undeveloped landscape beyond is too forbidding to provide many taste treats for the…
By nature, baseball players tend to be brass-bound optimists. Tuned to the long haul, they keep their hitting shoes laced tight amid soul-killer losing streaks, try to ignore bad omens and play through pain. No single win ever gets them too high, and they take a couple of losses with…
Throwing Away the Book Trash landing: I guess Stuart Steers’s “Checked Out,” in the August 7 issue, explains what I’ve noticed lately at my beloved Denver Public Library (where I’ve borrowed books for over thirty years): first, the de-emphasis on serious works, then the de-emphasis on books themselves, attended by…
For more than twenty years, Cynthia Monley had devoted a good part of her life to the Denver Public Library. Every year she and a dozen other volunteers would spend months preparing for the library’s huge annual book sale, sorting through the thousands of discarded books, deciding what might sell…
Total Science, a junglist duo from the U.K., is behind the Snake Pit’s DJ booth. Their beats have the primal feel typical of British electronica, but faster. Think Underworld on ephedrine. It’s a fitting soundtrack to the night, because outside it’s Trainspotting — only on crack, not smack. Dave Maddux,…
The words “summer camp” dredge up a ton of memories: campfires, rashes, leaky canoes, homesickness. But at Kake Studios, tucked away behind the Spruce Pool parking lot just off Pearl Street in Boulder, the kids sport AFI wristbands and Incubus T-shirts instead of hiking gear. Instead of bunks, they have…
1. The wait is over for new Nuggets guard Andre Miller. What’s his official weight in kilograms on the NBA Web site? A. 30.3 B. 90.7 C. 200 D. 149.85 2. As Colorado surges into the lead as the state with the most reported cases of West Nile virus, Liberty…
We’re witnessing the end of an era. Several eras, actually. In June, Gart Sports began renovating the historic facade of the Gart Brothers Sports Castle at 10th Avenue and Broadway. And when the scaffolding came down last week — just in time for Gart’s merger with the Sports Authority –…
Plenty of people long to be in front of cameras, behind microphones or opposite journalists jotting down their every word — but that doesn’t mean the experience of serving as press fodder always leaves one feeling fine the morning after. Witness onetime Denver Deputy Manager of Aviation Amy Bourgeron, who…
Nancy Canning and her two daughters, Mallory and Erin, who have driven nine hours to Denver from Kansas City just for this event, wait in the vast expanse of parking lots that surround Invesco Field at Mile High. It’s early Sunday morning, and the highlight of the Canning family vacation…
From Cradle to Grave Left shaken: I am a mother of a six-month-old and a 21-month-old, and Alan Prendergast’s “The Death of Innocence,” in the July 31 issue, made me cry — always a nice way to spend nap time. I wanted to let you know that I am very…
An accident. A terrible accident. That was the first story told about how Kyran Gaston-Voss got hurt. The baby fell. The baby hit his head. It was an accident. That’s the way it always starts, of course. The baby fell, the baby tripped, the baby leaped out of my arms…
In pursuing a murder case against Krystal Voss for the death of her son, Kyran, the prosecutor and police in Alamosa may have disregarded critical evidence and developed a theory of the crime that is medically impossible. Among the most glaring problems: 1. The autopsy report. Voss admitted shaking her…
