James Darnell is in a rut. Just days before the 63-year-old Colorado Springs man was slated to go on trial for trying to hire a hitman to kill a woman and her young child, he was arrested for allegedly taking out a murder-for-hire contract on four other people, including a…
Taking stock: Yee-haw! Yep, the National Western Stock Show is in town, inspiring unusually pungent odors in Denver’s air and equally stinky reporting jobs by writers who don’t know bull about their beat. Which accounts for this correction in a recent newspaper: “A cutline in Tuesday’s Denver Post identified an…
Ken Fleck’s former career as an oil wildcatter in Kansas was a series of risky maneuvers–where do you drill and how deep? His present career as a calendar publisher may seem much more tame, but not the way Fleck does it. He’s taken the plunge into slick, specialty products like…
If they look hard enough, Green Bay fans will be able to find bratwurst in New Orleans. When it comes to fulfilling desire, you can find anything in New Orleans. Of course, the Wisconsin snowfolk might do better to sample the piquant local sausage called andouille, which Cajun/Creole chefs put…
The body was found at the bottom of a six-foot-deep pit at a construction site near a Boulder public-housing project. The hole was covered with particle board, marked with cones and blocked by construction equipment. Two weeks later, on December 19, Boulder County Coroner John Meyer ruled the death of…
What a Beaut Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s January 16 column, “Global Warning”: Patricia Calhoun is very defensive. She typically tries to steer the reader away from the real issue. The real issue is reality. Yes, little JonBenet was murdered. Yes, the police are handling the case in a much different manner…
Emily Herrera listened carefully to the first few notes of the aria emanating from the audition hall. The “Caro Nome” aria, she thought. From Rigoletto. The singer’s voice pierced the quiet like a dagger. She’s good, Emily thought. But she’s a coloratura soprano. Emily, a lyric soprano, relaxed. She listened…
Sam Zakhem casts a hungry eye on the milling bodies in the halls of the State Capitol. The press conference room is filling up nicely, but the crowd is mostly made up of well-wishers and business associates. Where are the cameras? “Are any of the TV stations coming?” Zakhem asks…
In an effort reminiscent of the 1950s national crusade to wipe out polio, beginning next fall, Colorado children entering elementary and middle school will be required to receive vaccinations against the hepatitis B virus, the leading cause of liver cancer. The idea is to protect the children from themselves in…
All Ramsey, all the time: The JonBenet Ramsey murder has created a killing schedule for local media pundits discussing the who, what, when, where and whydunit for a national audience. Denver Post columnist Chuck Green has been sighted on Dateline, Tom Snyder and CBS This Morning, where he was tagged…
There are those who think that communes reached their popular peak in the Sixties, but a new style of communal living called CoHousing is springing up in Boulder. These residential developments, which combine private and public living spaces, have helped some people solve their growing feelings of social isolation. CoHousing’s…
In Lyle Johnston’s lone beehive, a drowsy clump of bees staggers across a plastic honeycomb frame. They are in a semi-dormant state, more concerned with survival than with honey or the current queen. A warm, un-wintery buzz hums from the hive, which sits near a grove of old cottonwoods at…
Let’s hope Daffy Duck buys the Los Angeles Dodgers. Or Boris Yeltsin. If the Bosnian government puts together an ownership group, writes a check for 300 million bucks and moves the team to burned-out Sarajevo, that will be fine. Maybe Madonna is interested. For all that it matters, she can…
It’s What’s Up Front That Counts What’s the deal with the penis envy at your office? With all the stuff going on in Denver/Boulder, I would think you could have a better cover story than Eric Dexheimer’s “Growing Pains,” in the January 2 issue. I also saw the little link…
What’s wrong with this picture? Compared with the beauty-pageant clips of JonBenet Ramsey that keep popping up on television, the crime-scene photos published in Monday’s issue of the Globe look like something from Mother Goose. Night after night, the ghost of six-year-old JonBenet parades across the news, imitating a Las…
Three days a week, the blue bus from Canon City pulls up at the corner of Smith Road and Peoria and discharges a stream of men dressed in cheap polyester suits. The men are parolees, and each one has a check for $100 and two bus tokens in his pocket…
Margot Anderson was rear-ended while driving her car in 1989. Yolanda Martinez was hit in her car two years later. Together the two Colorado women helped change the state’s open-records laws to make it easier for the public to examine court documents once considered off limits. Their unlikely legal journey…
A few weeks ago Stanton Stegner took over a small warehouse at the corner of 22nd and Curtis Streets, where an auto-parts supply store used to be. Using his 1969 Ford van and a flatbed trailer, he systematically began depositing sculptures made from old chrome bumpers and scrap steel around…
The Moffat Tunnel Commission went out with a bang last week, engaging in one last act of defiance before being swept into the dustbin of Colorado history. At a New Year’s Eve meeting marked by angry exchanges between commissioners and audience members, the elected panel considered a plan to sabotage…
Anchors away! Channel 2 reporter Jann Tracey, who lost the tip of a finger while shooting a segment with a caged, allegedly tame bear last week (the station declined to run the bloody aftermath), probably considers TV reporting tough duty. But it’s nothing compared with actually watching the stuff. View…
Where does free enterprise end and profiteering begin? The answer depends on which side of the dollar you’re on. And in this case, Denver city officials are caught in the middle. Manager of Safety Fidel “Butch” Montoya has been called upon to mediate a dispute between the manager of a…
Whooooops! Afterward, Lionel Washington couldn’t hold back the tears. A devastated Shannon Sharpe wondered aloud if he’d be able to look at himself in the mirror come Sunday morning. Or face John Elway. Sharpe predicted it would be “years until the Broncos get over this loss. Probably the next century.”…
