Attorney Tom Handley remembers the case: a hand-to-hand drug deal behind Argonaut Liquors on East Colfax. Another lawyer in his office had worked out a routine plea bargain with the prosecutor that would have given their client a low-level felony conviction and probation. But before the deal could be sealed,…
Harass is on the line: A lawsuit filed last week in federal district court won’t be the October surprise of this year’s Senate campaign, but it does target Democratic candidate Tom Strickland’s vulnerable flank: the powerful law firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber & Strickland. If there’s an important issue in…
Perry Ayers, founder of the Denver Black Arts Festival, says he’s “the ultimate optimist,” and why not? In the past ten years he’s built the DBAF into one of the largest black-arts events in the nation–and sometimes he’s had to stage it on little more than a wing and a…
It’s been five years, one federal trial and at least $30,000 since the Denver Sheriff’s Department fired deputy Trina Burks-Richardson for allegedly going trigger-happy in a Texas town. But the tortuous legal proceedings–including a federal judge’s surprising backtracking–may end soon, if not necessarily happily, for the city and its taxpayers…
Think Ross Perot is a long shot to win the White House a week from Tuesday? How about the Green Party candidate for president? Or the Libertarian? How about Mrs. Grundy of the Civic Purity League? Well, to tell the truth, they’ve all got a lot better chance in their…
Witness for the Prosecution Andy Van De Voorde’s October 17 story about the Denver DA’s race, “Trial by Ire,” was excellent but may have missed a couple of the real issues. First, the financial necessities and politics of Denver and Colorado predicate a plea-bargain rate that is at a rock-bottom…
Three men pause on a path that winds through Fort Logan National Cemetery. On the fresh-mowed lawn before them, row after row of uniform headstones rise like bone-white exclamation points, marching up and over the hill. All three men have friends and former comrades-in-arms buried on these grounds. Someday two…
Every politician loves a parade, but Bill Ritter and Craig Silverman were marching to a different tune last month in Montbello. Incumbent Denver DA Ritter and his challenger both showed up with throngs of supporters at the northside community’s thirtieth-anniversary parade. It was a feel-good event that provided an unlikely…
For the past year, a Minneapolis housepainter has been using his weapon of choice, the fax machine, to bombard the public and media with thousands of fliers decrying Boston Chicken’s lack of environmental awareness. But don’t mistake Frank Erickson for just an environmentalist. He considers himself a modern-day crusader. Erickson’s…
The taxman cometh: Twenty years ago, former state senator Ben Klein was sentenced to prison on five counts of income-tax evasion. At the time, he blamed his tax problems on mental illness–which subsequently led to Klein becoming Colorado’s first politician to be officially declared sane. This time, Klein–now chair of…
Psychology professor Arthur C. Jones stepped onto the stage of a University of Denver auditorium as some 200 students and teachers grew silent in anticipation. But instead of a lecture on Jungian philosophy or Freud’s interpretation of dreams, Jones opened his mouth and began to sing. Sometimes I feel like…
Western Pacific Airlines, the media darling that captivated the public by offering a low-cost alternative to high prices at Denver International Airport, has hit heavy turbulence in its effort to become a homegrown success story. While other airlines have been reporting record profits, the Colorado Springs-based carrier has been flying…
In the Acme Oyster House on Iberville Street, three big fellows wearing muddy aprons and yellow rubber gloves were shucking as fast as they could. The Sunday afternoon hangover crowd was packed cheek-to-jowl inside the Acme, harbored now from a steady, gulf-blown rain, but not from the whips and jangles…
Strike While the Irony is Hot Patricia Calhoun’s October 10 column, “The Road to Ruin,” hit just the right note. Central City has only itself to blame for its precarious position. Be careful what you wish for, indeed. Jane Sidwell Denver I am one of the “pigeons” that frequently has…
More than $5 billion worth of property in this state is exempt from taxation but still receives the services that every other piece of property does. Since you–the upstanding and law-abiding Colorado taxpayer–are bankrolling police and fire protection for these properties, you deserve to ask a few questions. Such as:…
In the weeks before her adopted son died, Greeley business owner Renee Polreis told friends she had come to fear David. Where others saw a delightful two-year-old towhead, she saw a monster who was destroying her marriage and making life, in her own words, a living hell. David’s tantrums were…
Denver mayor Wellington Webb’s campaign to revitalize the South Platte River has sent currents of currency flowing to a veteran Democratic operative–and it’s reopened the floodgates in a dispute over the city’s hiring of outside law firms. Ken Salazar, who served in Governor Roy Romer’s cabinet for three and a…
Call Rick Trotter the poster boy for brand loyalty. The owner of Horizon Computers, the last remaining exclusive Atari dealer in Colorado, Trotter has stuck by his beloved computer no matter what. In the mid-Eighties, when fourteen-year-olds dumped their Atari 2600 consoles in favor of Nintendo, Trotter didn’t flinch. By…
Congress passed a Republican-sponsored bill last week that will cut down administrative costs for ski resorts and the U.S. Forest Service by untangling the complicated formula under which the resorts pay for the use of public land. The so-called Ski Fee Bill sparked opposition from Democrats on financial grounds. But…
After summer-long accusations of incompetence and mismanagement, the federal government has just completed its second audit in four years of Denver’s Weed and Seed anti-crime program. The results have improved this time around, but the audit indicates that nearly one-fifth of the program’s funds are unaccounted for, and it confirms…
Sneak attack: The Denver District Attorney’s office is in hot water over an incident involving a chief deputy DA and a Japanese-American lawyer under his command. Deputy DA Geanne Moroye has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming that District Attorney Bill Ritter demoted her after…
The City of Denver’s dream of creating a string of parks along the South Platte River came true last month when it announced the purchase of most of the land for the thirty-acre Commons Park. While Denver will have a new showpiece park right downtown, some key political supporters of…
