Shortly before six on a Wednesday evening, the first wave of derailers arrives at the charmless offices of the Independence Institute, the conservative think tank in Golden (sign in the window: “Will do public policy for food”). Stragglers come in over the next half-hour. There are eleven of them in…
That rumble of discontentment down in the Rockies clubhouse can now be heard in the cheap (and not so cheap) seats up above. Last Tuesday, for instance, midway through the club’s disheartening and premature fiftieth loss of the year (to the Dodgers, 6-5), you could, for the first time, hear…
Child’s Prey Bravo, Patricia Calhoun. Your column about Colorado’s children (“Raised From the Dead,” July 17) was right on the mark and had a very important message. If Renee Polreis is not convicted in the death of her son, it will be an outrage. And if no one is ever…
We can sit out here,” Becky Estrada says from her front porch. She shrugs and shakes a cigarette out of its pack, pausing a moment to stare down the street as though looking for someone. Then she lights up. “The house is a mess.” Small wonder. An endless parade of…
The line of tap dancers stretches out in front of the mirror in the basement studio. There is some sort of confusion over the rehearsal hats–a motley assortment of battered New Year’s Eve party bowlers. You’re supposed to take them off and put them back on–on the beat. This is…
Eighty-year-old Jane Spence of Denver didn’t plan on dying. But when she caught a fatal case of pneumonia this past March, her lack of foresight resulted in her estate losing a $3,500 damage deposit she had put down at the Golden Orchard assisted-living home in Littleton. Golden Orchard, which offers…
The future looks bleak for what is perhaps the most unloved courthouse in Colorado. Empty for a decade now, the ninety-year-old Arapahoe County Courthouse sits on the east side of downtown Littleton, hemmed in by a jail and a decrepit office building and partially hidden by an asbestos-tainted addition. Aside…
Rocky Mountain guy: A hung jury left John Denver hanging Saturday night, when six Pitkin County residents couldn’t agree on the fate of the singer–charged with driving under the influence after he wrapped his car around a tree in Aspen’s Starwood subdivision three years ago. In defending his celebrity client,…
When Richard Brady pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month in the death of security guard John Adamo, he was playing the odds: He could accept the plea bargain from the Denver District Attorney’s office or take the chance of losing his first-degree-murder trial and ending up with an automatic…
The hardened baseball fan’s devotion to statistics–most home runs hit, most hot dogs eaten–has long since taken on the unearthly glow of religion. A thirsty man can no longer enter his corner saloon without being accosted by some bright-eyed wonder stuffed full of minutiae from The Baseball Encyclopedia–a glut of…
It wasn’t so very long ago that Governor Roy Romer wanted to promote Colorado as the “best place to raise a child.” Just a few murders ago, in fact. The state couldn’t buy the attention that’s been focused on Colorado children lately–but it’s hardly the promotional coup that Romer envisioned…
Lust Horizons The only thing more horrifying than reading Scott Yates’s article about the Ava Owens case (“Little Boy Lust,” July 3) was reading John Lombardi’s letter about the article last week. I am appalled that anyone could think the Tran family looks at the situation as a “lottery win.”…
James Carey is in the hole again. He moves slowly into the visitors’ room, hands cuffed and tethered to his waist, his stride reduced to a shuffle by the shackles around his ankles. He sports a full head of hair, whiter than a new pair of Keds. A grin flashes…
When the Colorado Convention Center was dedicated on a spring day in 1990, the promises flew as fast and furious as a March snowstorm. Politicians who had spent years campaigning for the new center didn’t disguise their delight with the opening of the tenth largest convention center in the United…
Charles Dudley Martin was just starting his law career when he came across the Thomas Gaddis book Birdman of Alcatraz. The Springfield, Missouri, attorney was so impressed by the story of Robert Stroud, convicted murderer turned bird researcher, that he wrote to a committee of Stroud’s associates that was campaigning…
Get ready for a cutthroat battle. The Winter Park ski area wants to build a road on public land along a creek, saying it’s needed to evacuate injured skiers. Environmentalists say the unpaved road would be nothing less than a ski trail to some thrilling backcountry runs on the area…
Nine months ago, Paul Cooper, a Denver attorney, wrote a letter to another local attorney, Jay Horowitz. The two lawyers represent different parties in the infamous ethnic-intimidation/wiretapping dispute between two Evergreen families, the Aronsons and the Quigleys. “Dear Jay,” the November 20, 1996, letter began, cordially enough. “When I asked…
Gail force: If it worked for fearless leader Roy Romer, why wouldn’t it work for his lieutenant? A dozen years ago, before then-state treasurer Romer ran for governor, he got a makeover from image maven Jo Farrell, who told him to ditch the heavy glasses and absent-minded-professor hairdo (and then…
Even though the refurbished Casino Cabaret nightclub in Five Points doesn’t have a liquor license, it still serves alcohol at its series of jazz concerts. How? By having the nonprofit Denver Black Arts Festival obtain special-event liquor licenses from the state liquor division. Such licenses enable nonprofits to sell alcohol…
They say we’re living in the new Golden Age of Sports. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever to lace up a pair of sneakers, they say, and Jerry Rice is the best pass receiver who’s ever run a post pattern. Young Tiger Woods won his first Masters as…
Teacher’s Petting Scott Yates’s story about the Vietnamese boy victimized by his teacher (“Little Boy Lust,” July 3) was the most frightening thing I have ever read. It almost broke my heart to see how the Tran family still honored Ava Owens, even after all the horrible things she had…
When their son’s teacher came into the room one day this spring, Duc and Mai Tran stood out of respect. They smiled an almost embarrassed smile, waved and bowed their heads. Nothing unusual about that, says Diana Nga Miller, vice-president of a community support group for Vietnamese immigrants to Colorado…
