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Eighty-two-year-old Valjean Joshvema leans forward in his chair and sings a Hopi prophecy that has come to pass. The ageless Hopi lyrics foretell of an era when the Hopi will wander the high desert mesas they and their ancestors have occupied for more than twelve millennia. According to the prophecy,…

Over the past six months, someone allegedly has committed a string of burglaries at the Monument home of state senator Charles Duke, making off with Duke’s pocketknife, part of his 1996 tax file, a single component from his laser printer and a “tie-clip” microphone the legislator had used to bug…

Mild in the streets: As if to justify Parenting magazine’s recent pick of Boulder as the top place to raise your kids (into spoiled brats), bored white youth rampaged through the town this past weekend, throwing espresso mugs into bonfires and rallying to the cry of “We’re too young to…

In the fall of 1995, Kenneth Allen Coleman made the mistake of his life. Flush with cash from an insurance settlement, the 28-year-old parolee got mixed up with a flashy dope peddler named Andrew Chambers, who was eager to sell him a kilo of cocaine for $16,500. When Coleman showed…

None of the regulars at the Trackside Bar on the outskirts of Holly has seen the Virgin Mary on Yolanda Tarango’s bedroom wall. Most have seen the TV reports, though. A few even saw the news helicopter land. And no one is shy about throwing their two cents in. “I…

It’s Their Party Regarding Ward Harkavy’s “God’s Own Party,” in the May 1 issue: I am not surprised that churches are wanting to take over politics and have ties to right-wing nut groups. How many more people will die in the name of their “God”? I doubt their God even…

Lights flashing, the vehicle sped toward the intersection, hurrying to an emergency call. But approaching fast from a side street came another car, this one driven by a seventeen-year-old about to run a stop sign. The two vehicles collided not in Denver, but in Grand Junction on December 28, 1993…

The Rushing family’s mobile home stands alone off U.S. 34 on the arid plains southeast of Greeley. Speeding past on the two-lane highway, motorists are likely to miss the trailer. They’re equally likely to miss the town, identified by a solitary highway sign as Dearfield. As has always been the…

For two decades Al Meiklejohn was Mr. Republican in Arvada. His state Senate seat was safe, and Republicans themselves were safe picks for voters looking to speed up business and slow down social change. Meiklejohn is one of those Republicans who ally themselves with chambers of commerce. They used to…

Life has just gotten even more difficult for local residents who need non-emergency medical care and who have the bad fortune to be uninsured. Because of a wave of funding cuts from University Hospital to the community health centers serving the metropolitan area’s poorest patients, those safety-net clinics have been…

Denver is spending millions to build a new park along the South Platte River that is intended to be the centerpiece of the Platte Valley renaissance. There’s only one problem with this idyllic return to nature: A power line runs through it. A massive, 120-foot-high Public Service power line, to…

Attorney General Gale Norton is adamant in saying she doesn’t want to go after big tobacco companies the way so many other states have. If that sounds like the position of somebody who has taken money from those tobacco companies, that’s because it is. When Norton ran for re-election in…

Critical mess: A major game of musical–and otherwise–chairs is now in progress at Denver’s dailies. On Monday the Denver Post filled its long-vacant movie-critic spot with arts writer Steve Rosen, who was already at the paper when Howie Movshovitz was shoved aside last December. The announcement included a corollary surprise:…

Good, Bad, Indifferent Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s “It’s a Good Thing,” in the April 24 issue: Who cares whether Governor Roy Romer knows who Martha Stewart is? I’m more worried that he may not remember where Colorado is. Hey, Roy: It’s in the center of the country. Remember? Jack Haynes Arvada…

Last summer a Denver emissary for Columbia Hospital Corporation, the nation’s largest for-profit health-care chain, had lunch with one of the city’s prominent community leaders. A pair of hospitals were on the menu. Leaning over the table during the meal, Richard Anderson, chairman of the local Columbia/HealthONE joint venture, reportedly…

Daytime-television viewers know Frank Azar as the fighting attorney who can retrieve the insurance settlement an automobile-accident victim deserves. His TV ads feature the crumpled remains of a car crash and an alchemic pledge: “Turn this wreck…into this check!” But today the promise has proven false, and Azar is furious…

Our daily dread: As if Denver’s newspaper war weren’t already hell, another combatant has entered the field: the New York Times. The venerable newspaper has poured $20 million into a national advertising campaign, promising not only that readers across the country can “expect the world,” but also have it delivered…

The Boulder apartment David Wittlinger rented for his final year at the University of Colorado wasn’t great, but it was okay–until the weather turned cold. The furnace never worked, and calls to the owner and the property manager yielded no heat. Because space heaters would blow a fuse, Wittlinger shivered…

A quixotic effort to run English-style punts through downtown Denver got off to a slow start last summer, but that hasn’t deterred promoters of the boat trips from planning a $2 million expansion of the unusual network of dams and locks along puny Cherry Creek. Punt the Creek was launched…

Like a lot of residents of southeast Denver, Judy LaMar has come to embrace the High Line Canal trail as a refuge from the urban madness. Joggers and strollers, horseback riders and bicyclists all flock to the cottonwood-shaded trail, which offers a weathered asphalt path flanked by what LaMar calls…