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Yes, it’s a bit creepy that Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove hired his buddy, ex-cop-turned-private-dick Daril Cinquanta, to follow around gadfly Mike Zinna. Creepier still that Congrove got the county to pay more than $7,000 for Cinquanta’s surveillance services, slipping the request past his sleepy-headed fellow commissioners on the grounds…

They are the modern versions of monster stories. True Crime writers seek out such tales every day, finding them in two sentence-long police blotter blurbs, law enforcement sources lamenting the one that got away, or victims looking for justice. They pile on hours of research and interviews, building a case…

Monday, January 7 by David Amram Putnam Valley, New York | In 1956 Jack Kerouac and I first met at a bring-your-own-bottle party at a painter’s loft and instantly began collaborating artistically. I backed him up musically while he read and from the earliest days of our working together I…

Monday, January 7 by Audrey Sprenger, Ph.D Denver | There has been a lot of talk about Jack Kerouac this year and the 50th anniversary of his novel On The Road. It’s buzzed through Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, public broadcasting and public radio. Over and over again I hear…

A quick guide to what you missed at Westword.com over the past two days: 3Oh!3 and the Photo Atlas lit up the stage on Saturday. Bela Karoli and the Wheel did the same at the Lion’s Lair. Luke Turf recounts his trip to Haiti. Three prominent Columbus Day protesters’ criminal…

Westword reporter went to Haiti for his recent feature story “The Social Conscience of a Missionary.” Be sure to check back in for the next few days as he recounts his personal journey through the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Slide Show On the last night in Haiti, ICOF…

Unless thousands upon thousands of news reports were terribly wrong, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on December 27 in advance of parliamentary elections in which she planned to challenge the country’s current president, Pervez Musharraf. But in the January 6 Denver Post, and in plenty of other…

The weeks following Christmas are tough for local malls — particularly older ones whose battle for survival becomes more touch and go with each passing year. That’s certainly the case for Tamarac Square, at 7777 E. Hampden. These days, the first thing shoppers see if they’re approaching the center from…

Westword reporter went to Haiti for his recent feature story “The Social Conscience of a Missionary.” Be sure to check back in for the next few days as he recounts his personal journey through the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Slide Show The town of Grand Goave is our…

Westword reporter went to Haiti for his recent feature story “The Social Conscience of a Missionary.” Be sure to check back in for the next few days as he recounts his personal journey through the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Slide Show After the Christmas party for 10,000 kids,…

Charges against several key anti-Columbus Day Parade agitators were dismissed today by a Denver County Court Judge. Russell Means, Glenn Spagnuolo and Shannon Francis will not have to face a jury trial for blocking the annual Columbus Day Parade on October 6. Judge Claudia Jordan threw out the cases –…

Chelsea Handler is a one-woman comic powerhouse. The last time I spoke to her, she talked about why babies suck, why flying can be fun, her latest work and how much she doesn’t like Cleveland (don’t worry, Denverites — she says of our fair city: “I had the best time…

Westword reporter went to Haiti for his recent feature story “The Social Conscience of a Missionary.” Be sure to check back in for the next few days as he recounts his personal journey through the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Slide Show It was our first morning in Haiti…

Colorado lost one of its most talented resources in the war on crime a few weeks ago, when forensic psychiatrist John Macdonald passed away at the age of 87. A familiar figure to any reporter, cop, criminology student or thug interested in the state’s most notorious killers over the latter…

In 1996, Westword published its thirteenth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from Best Yuppie on a Harley (then-senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who posed for a Banana Republic ad) to the Best New Public Art (Mark di Suvero’s still-controversial “Lao Tzu”) to the Best…

“Bad Santa,” Off Limits, December 20 Dog in the Manger This seems to be about a pervert reporter who is trying to make some kind of name for himself (does sleaze fit?). The Children’s Museum is a great place, and having a Santa there was a good thing. This reporter has probably…

The drunken frat boys stumbling down Blake Street late one summer evening found an angel blocking the sidewalk. She had wings strapped to her back and a coffee can in her hand — for donations for kids in Haiti, she said. If they wanted, the boys could follow her to…

Before Haiti became the world’s first black republic, it was a slave nation. On the island, there were quarantines, where a new slave was broken down, beaten physically, informed of his inferiority and told to be thankful to his captors — because it was the work that the slave would…

Seek the pig, ye foodie snobs, ye noble gastronauts, ye bewildered and befuddled and besotted masses. King Pig, hanging under the lights like a beacon, like a promise. Find Osteria Marco, go down into its embrace and eat until you pop. That kinda says it all, doesn’t it? Osteria Marco,…