Here’s a lesson for young CEO wannabes looking for negotiating tips: When you agree to become a chief executive officer of, say, a local phone company, make sure that your contract has a clause in it that ensures that if you lose your job through a merger, your landing will…

Late one afternoon, after an overly long day at work, I left my office and began walking toward my car. I assumed I was alone until, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a man leaning against a nearby dumpster. He appeared to be about 25 and wore…

Last year, three days before Christmas, in an isolated field outside the tiny Western Slope town of Mancos, Richard Skala and Kelly Green began drinking hard. The two men lived in small trailers near each other. Neither did much in the way of regular employment. Green worked a mining claim…

The Denver Tennis Club’s 4.5 men’s team was marching inexorably toward a second straight national championship, when suddenly, in the middle of the Colorado district championship tournament last month… “It’s the revenge of the nerds,” snarls Larry Gabler, the team’s coach. “It had everything to do with them wanting me…

When US West announced that it had decided to reject its first suitor, Global Crossing, and marry Qwest instead, most shareholders rejoiced at their good fortune. After all, Qwest’s bid of $69 per share was considerably more generous than Global Crossing’s offer. And no one had more reason to be…

It was early last September when Raymond Gutierrez heard the helicopter circling overhead. He was washing dishes. The way Raymond lives, washing dishes takes some time, and he often lets them pile up for days. Pushing aside the cloth that covers the doorway, he walks outside his one-story stone house…

Here in Rocky the Leprechaun’s converted Evergreen garage, Mark Speck has reached ground-zero for his Y2K doubts. He eyes the display of thirty No. 10-sized cans of Mountain House freeze-dried foods. Rocky looks on. “I only carry main dishes,” says Rocky. “Mmmm. Chocolate,” says Mark, before turning his attention to…

Tom McCroskey’s teammates call him The Retriever. During a late spring match–May is still considered early season for competitive tennis in Colorado–McCroskey, who plays for the Denver Tennis Club, is ahead in the score. But that is far from the worst of it. McCroskey is so frustrating to play against…

Earlier this year, Detective John Incampo quit the Lakewood Police Department after a quarter-century of working as a cop–the last half of it as a detective–to begin a new career in corporate security. As his last day approached, he wrapped up his loose ends, handing over pending cases to his…

Life hasn’t been the same for J. Stewart Jackson IV since 1996, when he sold Denver Burglar Alarm, the business his family had run since 1917 (“Who Stole Denver Burglar Alarm?” September 17, 1998). An effort to start a new company last summer–Jackson Burglar Alarm–has resulted in a lawsuit filed…

With John Elway finally acknowledging that he’s become too creaky for football, the Broncos find themselves in the unfamiliar position of having to gamble on a new quarterback. It won’t be the first time that Pat Bowlen has tried his hand at a game of chance. But here’s hoping the…

This December will mark seventy years since the Royal Gorge Bridge was strung 1,053 feet above the Arkansas River where it cuts through a sheer canyon a dozen miles outside of Canon City. The project was the brainchild of Lon Piper, a San Antonio toll-bridge promoter who conceived the undertaking…

In the state Department of Corrections’ Alternative Program, also known as “boot camp” and modeled on military-style training, guards may apply specific tactics to persuade newly arrived prisoners to follow orders. One approved method is called “chesting.” The corrections officer, keeping his hands down by his sides, bumps his chest…

In the spring semester of 1992, Dr. Peter Buirski, dean of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver, handed out to his doctoral students the standard assignment for his Ego Models course: Read “Portnoy’s Complaint” and write a paper which formulates the character’s psychological problem according…

In the peculiar economics of farming, this year’s Colorado apple crop was the best of times–right up until it became the worst of times. Last fall, the size and quality of the state’s harvest was the healthiest in nearly a decade. Unfortunately, growers across the country enjoyed the same luck…

Several pieces of proposed legislation making their way through the Colorado General Assembly raise the question: If Secretary of State Vikki Buckley had nothing left to do, could she do it well? Early last week, three bills designed to take away a huge chunk of her responsibilities were awaiting action…

It’s a cool, sharp spring morning, early April, 11:45, a time when most people are swallowing the last gulp of their second cup of coffee or feeling the pangs of lunch hunger. Ciaran Redmond has just finished robbing his third bank of the day, and he isn’t finished yet–can’t be,…

The cops were wrong, and Ali Seyed Kazemi was right: Despite the three-year police investigation that concluded otherwise, it wasn’t he who tried to pass a fake prescription for a painkiller (“Prescription Grudge,” December 10). “There’s not a doubt in the world that there was probable cause to bring charges,”…

A couple of years ago, Art Greer developed an interest in local history and began working to revive the decrepit neighborhood just northeast of LoDo. The area is one of the few that hasn’t been goosed by the proximity of Coors Field, but convincing the government bureaucrats to sign on…

At least this much is clear: Somebody entered the Payless Drugs pharmacy on South University Boulevard early in the afternoon on October 9, 1995, and tried to refill a prescription for the painkiller Vicodin. The pharmacist thought the guy looked “Arabic.” She also suspected his prescription was being refilled prematurely…

Planning your next trip out of Denver International Airport? Here’s some helpful advice: Log on to the Web site www.denverairport.com. You won’t find any information on how to get to Terminal B or where to find a rental car. But you will get to see plenty of tits. “Yes, I’m…