People stare as Peter Spitz feels his way into the restaurant. They’re not looking at him, exactly. What they see is not the man, but the dark glasses, the white cane, the gadget in his throat and the oxygen tube snaking into his backpack. He settles into a booth, listens…
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s plan to reduce wild horse herds on public lands and relocate thousands of mustangs to preserves back East has triggered protests of roundups across the West — over everything from the costs involved to the brutal conditions of the government “gather” techniques. Tonight presents…
Last night, participants in the Western Governors’ Association confab at the Curtis Hotel got a sneak preview of models from the five finalists in an international design competition to build a special wildlife bridge over West Vail Pass — and each entry was a pretty impressive blend of the wild…
As reported here last summer, a controversial state study suggesting no harmful psychological effects from solitary confinement was drawing heated protests from prison activists even before it was published. Now that it’s been released, psychiatric experts and the ACLU of Colorado are saying the report is just — well, crazy…
We realize that the average consumer of methamphetamine is ill-suited to traveling Colorado’s mountain roads. If said motorist had half a brain left, he or she wouldn’t be smoking meth. Yet a recent bust of one dope-toting couple on I-70 was so ridiculously easy that it should be studied by…
At six-foot-two-inches and 314 pounds, Michael Lee Jones is one of the larger felons in Colorado’s prison system. And now, thanks to a gripping account in the December Vanity Fair of the unusual investigation that linked him to at least four rapes in three states, he’s one of the state’s…
It didn’t make much sense that Candice and Kristin Hermeler would travel halfway across the world to enact a suicide pact at a local gun range — until reports began to surface about the Australian twins’ obsession with the Columbine shootings. While police have tried to downplay that angle, a…
Short staffing, improper restraint procedures and dysfunctional policies contributed to three patient deaths at the state hospital, according to a new report by an independent team of investigators. Officials at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, which houses hundreds of patients deemed in “acute psychiatric distress” or criminally insane,…
Scott McInnis still doesn’t quite get how he went from a governor’s office shoo-in to a political pariah. He’s back in the spotlight, engaging in an act of premature rehabilitation in the Denver Post, vowing to clear the air over this silly plagiarism scandal that derailed his campaign — and…
Gustavo Arellano and Tom Tancredo didn’t find much common ground in their debate about illegal immigration Tuesday night, but they did agree that the war on drugs has been a very costly failure. A new report seeks to quantify that costby looking at the long-term effects of adding increasing numbers…
When two Austrailian snowboarders robbed a bank in Vail on a whim in 2005, then tipped a cabdriver $20,000 in the midst of a lame and ultimately unsuccessful getaway, the inept heist provided fodder for talk-show monologues for weeks. But the ordeal was no joke for teller Jessica Gunther –…
A torrid blast of publicity hasn’t exactly boosted sales for Pueblo author Philip R. Greaves II, whose e-book The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover’s Code of Conduct has drawn death threats and compelled Amazon to remove the book from its site. And now other Greaves works are…
After two weeks of outraged protests and threats of boycott, Amazon finally pulled a self-published e-book by a Pueblo man that proposed certain “non-injurious rules” for pedophiles to follow in their molestation of children. The book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover’s Code of Conduct, reportedly broke…
More than two decades ago, freelance writer Gregory Daurer thought it would be cool to track down William S. Burroughs at Naropa and hook him up to a brain machine. Audio excerpts of Daurer’s interview with Burroughs surface in a new documentary on the outlaw novelist playing tonight at 7…
For years this space has been the repository of staff rants about the weird selections made by the city’s One Book, One Denver program — most of which have little or nothing to do with Colorado and seem to be, at best, a nod toward oh-so-PC mediocrity. The worst offender…
It was a year ago this Saturday night that Andrew Gelston Graham, a 23-year-old University of Colorado grad who threw a mean Frisbee and loved poetry and music, was killed by a single gunshot wound a short distance from his Arapahoe County home. Family, friends, law enforcement officers and others…
For months commentators have been engaged in a coded whisper campaign about Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen’s health and diminished role in the organization. As the 2-6 team staggers into a bye week amid raging concerns about its leadership, talk about Bowlen’s admitted “short-term memory loss problems” and low profile…
Forget Carmelo Anthony. Our hopes for NBA glory this season are riding on Paolo Bacigalupi, a gifted but not particularly tall sensation from Paonia. That’s NBA as in the National Book Awards. And fond as we are of Melo’s tweets, we’re banking on NBA finalist Paolo as the state’s best…
Update: As of Wednesday at 5 pm, Dobersen’s margin of victory had dropped to under 300 votes. A mandatory recount is expected. And you thought the Buck-Bennett race was a squeaker? It may be days before veteran Arapahoe County Coroner Michael Dobersen finds out if he’s held onto his job,…
Xcel’s evolving proposal to retire several aged coal-fired power plants to comply with a tough new Colorado law has been hailed as bold and innovative. But similar plans may soon be cropping up around the country as utilities face a new round of federal antipollution laws aimed at coal-belching plants…
It may be the closest political contest of any consequence anywhere in the country. It’s certainly one of the most expensive. As the U.S. Senate battle between Ken Buck and incumbent Michael Bennet enters its final hours, expect to be slimed by nasty ads about the spineless Obama stooge and…
Fidel Ramos was a criminal and a drug addict. He was also a smart and fearless man who had a central role in forcing the State of Colorado to transform its prisons from hellholes into something more humane. Ramos, who died of a brain hemorrhage at Sterling Correctional Facility last…
