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The growing popularity of the Internet has spawned discussion groups that offer something for just about everyone, from lovers of Jean-Luc Picard (try alt.sexy.bald.captains) to haters of a certain children’s television program (alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die) to obsessives consumed by politics, computer lore, comic books or the hidden messages embedded in a single…

And they call it puppy love: Denver police officer N.B. Henry pulled some ruff duty in August when he replied to a complaint at a northeast Denver home. A woman there told Henry she’d returned home to give her dog some water when she heard a noise in the garage…

Two lawsuits alleging that the City of Denver harasses anti-abortion protesters seem to be in their death throes. But that didn’t stop one of Mayor Wellington Webb’s top aides from blaming the litigation for the mayor’s refusal to support a program designed to prevent the spread of AIDS. During an…

This year is one of big changes for the University of Colorado Buffaloes football team. Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Rashaan Salaam is gone. The team has a new coach for the first time in a decade. And, starting with the game against Colorado State University four weeks ago, each player began…

Open Secrets Regarding Steve Jackson’s “Closed Encounters,” in the September 27 issue: Let me see if I comprehend this correctly: Jefferson County Open School is a “school” with no texts, no tests and no grades (to hurt a child’s self-esteem), in which “students” design their own curriculum, progress at their…

part 1 of 2 High school senior Rebekah Myles is a teenager with plenty on her mind–and a legal muzzle that prevents her from talking. Otherwise, she’d love to discuss what happened to her mother, Karla Myles, a school principal who lost her job and her reputation when a female…

part 2 of 2 Myles demanded that teachers put more time into helping students prepare their self-evaluation portfolios, “which, of course, meant more work,” says Honnecke. “And some of them did not like that.” “In particular, she and Ted Bettridge often butted heads,” says one Open School staffer. “You could…

The storms blow in from the northwest at the State Line Cafe, a timeworn diner that since 1928 has stood like a sentry on the Colorado-Wyoming border. When the blizzards hit, it doesn’t take long for the lone Wyoming state patrolman assigned to U.S. Highway 287 to come down and…

California schemin’: City officials have been surprised to pick up their phones lately only to find Arnold Schwarzenegger on the line. The Terminator is heavily involved in real estate development in LoDo, where his Pumping Bricks company has owned property for over a decade; now Schwarzenegger is pushing–and this guy…

Black to the Future Regarding Eric Dexheimer’s “Fade to Black,” in the September 20 issue: Are we supposed to care what Lauren Watson is doing these days? Judging from Eric Dexheimer’s story, he is cutting his lawn and living off the government. How the mighty do fall…and we wind up…

In September, cheerful trolls still stand on the Park Hill neighborhood fence, though their magenta hair is bleached white from the rains of summer. A giant plastic slug eyeball, once a gumball-machine treasure, is disintegrating into a pile of sludge dotted with once-live flies–a poignant contrast to a nearby array…

Jon Dickerson’s job reminded him a lot of Glengarry Glen Ross. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Mamet play, frantic salesmen scramble for good leads–prospective buyers–doled out by their boss so they can sell dubious timeshares. Instead of selling real estate, though, Dickerson sold education. Beginning in 1989, when he was…

Taxpayers shelled out more than a quarter of a million dollars over the past year to try to determine whether some rocks in a Boulder field constitute a federally protected Indian sacred site. The money was used to pay representatives of fourteen federally recognized tribes–many with nebulous or transitory historic…

part 2 of 2 Watson’s primary public role, it seemed, was to get arrested. “I spent a lot of time spread-eagled over somebody’s hood or trunk,” he says. Today many of the charges appear foolish, and the whole dance–provocation, arrest, rhetoric–reads like a game in which both sides agreed to…

part 1 of 2 A quarter of a century ago, Lauren Watson organized the Denver chapter of the Black Panther Party. For a little over two years he led the local arm through the party’s familiar litany of threats, arrests and occasional riots, and at his peak in 1970, Watson…

The letters arrived in the third week of May. They came in the mail, dozens of them, addressed to city council members, county commissioners, ministers, teachers, parents–anybody who was anybody in Las Animas, a town of 2,500 on the eastern plains, where everybody seems to know everybody else’s business. First…

Home improvement: Back when voters passed Amendment 1, elected officials across Colorado were wringing their hands and moaning that such tax limitations would put the state in dire peril. So far, of course, Colorado’s managed to survive–although numerous government entities, including RTD and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, are…

Poem on the Range Regarding the September 13 Off Limits: Legal lyrics not done solo News for some within Westword Prosecution prose pro bono But not without some effort. Verse is not an easy art As anyone can see Rhyming is the biggest part At least it is for me…

During the past year, budding, nonviolent juvenile delinquents have been turned into budding, nonviolent artists, the idea being that the pint-sized perps would sell their artwork to reimburse crime victims. It may be working. The youngsters, all age sixteen or younger, have raised roughly $5,000 (the bulk of it in…