News

Fried couch potatoes: Judging by all the ridiculous hype and hoopla that preceded, and coincided with, and followed the network affiliation switch Sunday morning, we have indeed become a nation of vidiots. Not entirely, of course. Some folks at the daily papers were smart enough to figure out that the…

In case you missed it, Lewis and Floorwax, the morning DJs on KRFX/103.5 The Fox, held a contest on July 28. It was called “Denver’s Biggest Butt.” Coming in third was Jackie. Despite the disappointing finish, Jackie had no reason to be ashamed. She was prodigious. She was the first…

Bill Loeffler first stepped into an airport information booth in 1986. He’s stayed there for one reason: public contact. “I see everybody I’ve ever known in my life at least once a year,” Loeffler says. “I’m 65 years old, and I still see people I knew in high school. There…

LoDo Lowdown Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s September 6 column, “It’s Not Over Till It’s Over,” I submit the following comments: It’s not over, Patricia…it’s just under way. Your depiction of LoDo development is unbalanced and over-emotional, because it details symptoms rather than true, underlying problems caused by LoDo development. Consider the…

Last year thousands of baseball fans paid for the privilege of having their names inscribed on bricks placed along the Wynkoop Plaza leading to Coors Field. But for the same $75 fee paid by the masses, some of the most powerful people in Colorado got a little something extra. The…

The new-age movement has invaded Rocky Mountain National Park–and knowingly or not, modern-day mystics are destroying sites of historical significance to American Indian tribes. The damage is being done by people who move rocks and other artifacts in places where Indians once lived or conducted religious ceremonies, says Kenny Frost,…

From “The Top Ten Signs Your U.S. Senator Is Nuts.” Number 9: Breakfast, lunch and dinner? Zima. When David Letterman jokes about an alcoholic beverage night after night, something’s going on. Just what, exactly, isn’t clear–unlike the drink itself. Coors Brewing Company, the nation’s number-three brewer, devoted one and a…

part 1 of 2 Thin and frail, Pauline Robinson lay down on her couch. She would have liked to read a book to pass the time, but her cataracts made that all but impossible. The difficulty was irritating; there was still so much she wanted to read, and at her…

part 2 of 2 In the last quarter of her junior year Pauline was ready to quit, this time for good. It wasn’t just the prejudices of a few misguided people that wore her down. Working and studying was a drain; there was never enough money, and she was ashamed…

Meet Duncan, the techno-savvy Generation X-er who is your personal guide through the Zima site–the Zimaverse–on the World Wide Web (http://www.zima.com). Your first stop is the fridge, the storage bin for Zima and the place Duncan calls home. From here nine links take you to different areas; Duncan suggests you…

Room at the top: Dateline NBC caught Colorado congressman Scott McInnis (see story, left) napping last month, when the TV news magazine checked out which representatives were calling the House Office Building home. Although McInnis, who represents the state’s third congressional district, had told reporters that he was giving up…

Students expecting to graduate in October from the licensed practical nursing program at Denver’s Concorde Career Institute have been told they must wait until January. Greater than their disappointment, say some nursing students, is their fear that the education that cost them $12,000–many times the price of LPN programs at…

Suffer the Children Regarding Michelle Dally Johnston’s “The Clients,” in the August 23 issue: The timing of your article regarding the GAL program in Denver was eerie, since I had started to look into the availability of such a program just last week. I moved here approximately eight months ago…

Republican congressman Scott McInnis of Glenwood Springs is fond of criticizing his Washington colleagues–especially Denver’s Pat Schroeder–for their taxpayer-supported travel. So last year, after running a re-election campaign based on reforming Washington, McInnis took a trip to South Korea and found a private interest to pick up the tab: the…

Colorado residents have a right to look at the state’s public records. But more and more often, that right comes with a stiff price tag attached. Eager to raise revenue in an era of belt-tightening, state agencies are charging citizens up to $1.25 per page for copies of everything from…

It’s a Friday afternoon in mid-August, and the Colorado Rockies are preparing to play one of the most important games in team history. The club had spent the previous several weeks blowing a six-game lead in the National League’s Western division; going into the evening’s contest, the Rockies trail the…

part 2 of 2 Where does the money go? More than two years’ worth of board minutes obtained by Westword, covering a period starting in January 1992, paint a picture of a nonprofit Christian ministry flooded by funds yet facing big bills. Daily cash flow pulsated into six figures. On…

part 1 of 2 On a Sunday in July, three elderly women huddle in the foyer of the Happy Church, their eyes squeezed shut, their heads fiercely nodding in affirmation, their voices murmuring “Yes!” as Pastor Wally implores God to drive cancer out. Out! In addition to expelling demons, Pentecostal…

A shot in the dark: The media dubbed summer 1993 the “Summer of Violence” after a few well-publicized shootings, including the Capitol Hill slaying of popular Imi Jimi proprietor Tom Hollar. Now you can chalk up 1995 as the official “Summer of Silence.” Although the homicide rate is running much…