Charity Begins at Home

Elected officials in Denver get to do double duty. In celebrity-short Denver, they’re in constant demand for do-good events. On Friday night, for example, Denver DA Mitch Morrissey was on deck at Elway’s in the Concerts for Kids “celebrity server” event, which raised more than $50,000 for children’s charities. The…

The Tom-Tom Club

Although Florida’s movers-and-shakers may not pay much attention to Tom Tancredo, he definitely has his supporters. Laura Leighton of Tucson, for example, who over the weekend sent Westword a spirited, if out-of-right-field, defense of the Colorado congressman, repeated verbatim below: You’ve got your traitors wrong! Traitors are the people who…

Beating the Tom-Tom

Tom Tancredo will never be president. Shocking, I know, given his spot in the back of the pack of Republican candidates.But in Denver, where the sixth congressional district representative can grab a headline faster than he’d nuke Mecca, we have an outsized view of the impact that Tancredo has had…

This Little Piggy

With fall finally here, leaves aren’t the only things turning. Over at Marczyk Fine Foods, 770 East 17th Avenue, Peter and Paul Marczyk have fired up the roasters — actually, big barrel drums — for the sixth annual Pig Roast. Under the brothers’ attentive eyes, those porkers will turn all…

Marathon Men

It’s not easy finding celebrities in Denver — but the Denver Marathon took a good run at it for this year’s Celebrity Inspiration Run Online Auction. Thirteen of the town’s biggest, boldest names will be auctioned off for a good cause, with proceeds from the online auction benefiting the celebrities’…

Another Deal

The two men accused in the plot to kill Amateur Poker Tour owner Matt Sowash appeared in Jefferson County Court today, September 26. Last December, Herb Beck, left, invested $36,000 in the poker company, which the Colorado Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating for securities fraud. In March, he hired…

Fucking With McSwane

Once again, David McSwane is the most talked-about student journalist in the country. But rather than saluting his enterprise with awards, this time the prudey-pants professionals are tsk-tsking the editor of the Colorado State University newspaper for this shocker: He published an editorial with the headline:”Fuck Bush.” If you can’t…

Sparkle Plenty

Kevin Larson is having a ball. After a six-year hiatus, Kevin Larson and a host of hip hosts have come together to throw the 2007 Platinum Ball, the town’s only black-tie gala geared toward thirty-somethings. The ball had disappeared along with Colorado’s economy, but over the past few years, that…

Go for the Gold

Fall in Colorado is solid gold, and with the aspens nearing their peak, this is an ideal day to Rush to the Gold. To help steer people to the most colorful sites, Colorado State Parks has devised eight trips that take drivers through a total of twenty state parks (out…

Life Partners

In the two years since Westword first profiled Nate Ybanez, top, and Erik Jensen (“Headed for Trouble,” July 7, 2005), their story has gone national with pieces on Frontline and in Rolling Stone that inspired support from around the globe. But the two remain locked up in Colorado state prisons,…

The Donkey’s Ass

Anti-abortion protesters rallied outside the Pepsi Center yesterday, giving Denver just a taste of what’s going to hit this town next August, when the Democratic National Convention convenes here. The city got another preview earlier this month, when CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) filled the Colorado Convention Center…

Things to Do in Denver When You’re Not Dead

Now it looks like Colorado’s latest celebrity arrived in this state by accident. . According to his attorney, fugitive financier Norman Hsu was “sick and confused” and may have mistakenly gotten out of an Amtrak train heading to Denver rather than the Bay Area Rapid Transit train that would have…

On The Road, Again

Unpack your berets and bongos and prepare for a finger-snappin’ sit-in at the Denver City & County Building. Because on September 18, when the city reveals its choice for the next One Book, One Denver selection, it will not be On the Road. Again. Never mind that author Jack Kerouac…

Michael Heckuva Job Brown Knows Disaster

It’s a disaster in the making. “Since the terrible events of September 11, 2001, and with the increasing and widespread concern for pandemic influenza worldwide, Coloradans have been deluged with constant warnings about their ongoing safety,” reads the What If? Colorado program overview page prepared by the Office of Emergency…

Even More Readers Weigh in About Newspaper Cartoons

The letters section of Westword’s September 13 issue is absolutely jam-packed with missives from readers responding to the previous week’s Message column about the weakness of far too many current comics. Still, we couldn’t fit every worthy take in the print edition — so here are three more pieces of…

A Real Kick

When I wrote about Glendale going from titty city to rugby town last year, plans for the 5,000-seat rugby stadium and adjacent rec center were still in the design phase. After adopting rugby as the city’s official sport, Glendale was going to spend $20 million to build the first municipally-owned…

So Hsu Me!

Some boosters think Colorado needs celebrities in the worst way. And that’s how this state gets them. Earlier this summer, Andrew Speaker was kept under wraps — literally — at National Jewish, after his global run from a tuberculosis diagnosis. And yesterday, fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu wound up in a…

Ports-to-Plains: Keep on Truckin’

“Mexican Trucks Stampede to U.S.!” Web sites and radio shows are full of talk today about the Mexican truckers who will soon — perhaps even today — cross the border into Texas in a Bush-sanctioned trade deal. This talk describes the Mexican truck deal as the camel’s nose under the…

Carp Diem

The carp, long considered just a trash fish, moves to the top of the heap today when a crew of carp-lovers holds the first-ever South Platte Pro-Am Carp Slam — a fly-fishing tournament right in the heart of Denver. Not only will each participant be placed with a fly-fishing pro…

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow

When the 37th annual confab of the Beewery Collectibles of America — the CANvention — convened in Denver last week, there was only one possible person to deliver the keynote address: Mayor John Hickenlooper, who gave this town one of its most liquid assets when he and a couple of…

Father Figure

First, a confession: After a dozen books, I was getting a little tired of Father John O’Malley and his obsession with the mission on the Wind River Reservation (although I could certainly appreciate his love of that rugged Wyoming landscape), not to mention his obsession with Indian attorney Vicky Holden,…

In for Life: Day Four of the Michael Tate Murder Trial

The fourth day of Michael Tate’s first-degree murder trial for killing the father of his friend, Michael Fitzgerald, was supposed to start with Fitzgerald on the stand. But for the third straight day, the trial started late. First, Tate’s attorneys tried to keep Fitzgerald from testifying – an effort that…