The Unkindest Cuts Banned aid: I just finished reading Stuart Steers’s “Cutting Edge,” in the February 14 issue. Has everyone become so wrapped up in glittery profit that they’ve forgotten about the people who are sick? I am a single mother who works menial jobs so that my daughter can…
Shortly after 8 a.m. on February 5, radio listeners tuned to Colorado Public Radio stations across the state heard hosts Mike Lamp and Monika Vischer engaging in one of public broadcasting’s necessary but irritating evils: a seemingly endless fund drive. Not that Vischer used this phrase very often during the…
The properties in Colorado Public Radio’s hutch have been multiplying so rapidly of late that its acquisition total may change before the ink on this page is dry. At present, its broadcast assets include: • KVOD-FM/90.1 in Denver. Formerly KCFR-FM, the outlet took the call letters of KVOD, the commercial-classical…
Last February, Officer Ronnie Williams of the Denver Police Department observed Black History Month by holding a press conference in City Park in front of a statue of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., at which he announced that he was forming a new organization to protect the rights of…
Less than nine months until Election Day 2002 — do you know who you’ll be voting for? If not, you’re not alone: Keeping track of who’s running for what is tougher than finding an honest Olympic figure-skating judge. To help keep score, we’ve compiled a summary of who is where…
“Based on what I’ve been told,” says Denver Post columnist Woody Paige, “the two evil forces of the Salt Lake City Olympics are the French figure-skating judge and me.” Maybe so — and the comparisons between France’s Marie-Reine Le Gougne and Paige don’t end there. Le Gougne was suspended by…
The bumper sticker reads: “A bad day fishing is better than a good day at the office.” If you are Ted Takasaki, that is not technically true: A bad day fishing is pretty much a bad day at the office, too, because for him they are one and the same…
Wheels of Misfortune Controversy to go: Since I work in Westwood and have lived in this area all my life, I read with interest Harrison Fletcher’s “The Truck Stops Here,” the February 7 article about the mobile food vendors. I like them. There used to be one at Federal and…
Denver resident Steve Bieringer knows what it’s like to suddenly lose insurance coverage that he’d previously taken for granted. A longtime diabetic, Bieringer uses an insulin pump. After changing jobs several years ago, he transferred to his wife’s insurance plan. He was under the impression that the new plan included…
Robin Darbyshire is the first to admit that she hasn’t led an exemplary life. The bad checks, the multiple arrests and convictions, the Texas parole violation — they’re all a matter of record. So when the 41-year-old woman was arrested in Nevada last spring on an outstanding warrant for theft…
Just when people living near the Denver Botanic Gardens thought that relations with the institution were finally improving, the DBG has come up with a proposal that could wilt further meaningful neighborhood involvement. Last spring, the DBG’s governance committee decided that the board of trustees would be more effective if…
Denver is the ninth-best city in the land for living the single lifestyle, or so says a recent survey conducted by America Online. But it also has some of the worst traffic congestion in the lower 48, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute. All of which makes…
Since the mid-’90s, morale at the Denver Post has been an up-and-down affair. And after a run of sunniness, the mood may be clouding over again. The latest flood of grumbling was prompted by the reassignment of several veteran reporters to suburban beats — decisions that mystify numerous observers inside…
What everyone has been hoping for — at least when sports are not actually being contested on ice and snow — is an Olympics about as exciting as happy hour at the Mormon Tabernacle. So far, so goody-goody. Osama bin Laden didn’t show up with a bomb in his turban…
The Tapes of Wrath Mountains of praise: I’ve been a Westword and Patricia Calhoun fan for years. As a “minor” publisher myself (Westword actually receives my weekly paper, the Mountain Jackpot), I have to say that Calhoun’s February 7 column, “Tape Worms,” was one fine piece of editorial journalism. You…
Gertrudes “Raul” Cabral leans against the cold counter of his Chevy lonchera, shaking off the sleep. He was here until eleven o’clock last night, sweeping bits of cheese from the floor, wiping the grill, washing pans, hosing rubber mats, counting cash, locking the doors. Now, as the first school buses…
For the past couple of years, Lawrence Brown has rarely gotten into his car without carrying along a box cutter, a pair of sturdy gloves, some liquid spray adhesive and a pair of eagle eyes. At 6′ 3″ and 270 pounds, he isn’t worried about protecting himself against road-ragers or…
When former P.S.1 charter school principal Steve Myers was accused in January of making inappropriate comments to a male student at Amherst Regional High School in Massachusetts, where he has been principal since August, some of his old Denver colleagues felt vindicated, but hardly surprised. The colleagues — Annie Huggins,…
First there were the 1999 rumors that John Elway — who’d just retired from the Denver Broncos after two consecutive Super Bowl victories — would move into Denver to challenge Democrat Diana DeGette in the First Congressional District. Political operatives and analysts figured that Elway would be the only Republican…
“I honestly thought back in October that I’d probably get fired,” says KHOW’s Reggie Rivers. “We had quite a few advertisers who pulled off my show, and my bosses and the sales department were upset. I went to work most days thinking this could be my last day.” His fears…
Mack Newton tells a story about Jay Novacek, the great NFL tight end. It was late 1989, and Novacek was teetering on the edge of a good, but not extraordinary, career. He had just been cut from the Arizona Cardinals after a series of injuries, and suddenly he found himself…
The Kids Are All Right Life after death: “A Hard Hit,” the January 24 story about the short but meaningful life of Eric Scott, rivals any piece of investigative journalism I’ve read. Eric Scott was proof that a young street person can turn his life around. That he helped so…
