News

The November 8 Message column about an editorial attacking Governor Bill Ritter discusses Post owner/publisher Dean Singleton’s role in shaping the piece’s message and placing it on page one. But it doesn’t detail the item’s possible repercussions in the newsroom — one of several topics concerning staffers according to Post…

Oh, to be a fly on the wall. While researching recent prostitution busts in the city of Glendale, Westword came across audio recordings of these close encoutners between a Glendale cop and a few working girls. Below are two transcripts from these encounters: Transcript #1: Tatiana: Ok, I’m going to…

Two-thirds of the 10,000 people released from Colorado prisons on parole this year will be back behind bars by 2010. Parole revocations now account for 37% of all prison admissions in the state, costing close to $80 million a year. The reasons behind the staggering failure rate of parole have…

How small does an election have to be in order for Denver officials not to screw it up? Seriously — does the turnout have to be in the single digits for ballot hawks to come up with a final tally on the actual day of the vote? Why the hell…

“Taking It to the Streets,” Jared Jacang Maher, October 25 THEY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH I enjoy good political protests as much as the next lefty. But “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That famous statement was made by a dead white male, so I…

Colorado Rockies spokesman Jay Alves wasn’t returning a lot of calls last week, not with all those cranky people questioning his explanation that World Series ticket sales had been sabotaged by an “external malicious attack,” but Off Limits had left a message with these magic words: Steve Horner. Yes, at…

Loyal readers may recall my dear friend Brett, often referred to in these pages as “the law student.” He’s a full-fledged lawyer now — Mazel tov, Brett! Pay me the money you owe me, you cheap bastard — with a keen eye for injustice. And on a recent night on…

The two women that Mike Gross had ordered from Craigslist were running late, and he suspected they might not show, so he found two more in the back of Westword. But the second duo’s phone number led him right back to the first pair he’d called, one of whom proceeded…

Rather than mincing words, a November 4 editorial in the Denver Post sliced and diced its subject, Governor Bill Ritter — and Post kingpin Dean Singleton supplied the blade and did much of the carving. Two days earlier, on a Friday afternoon (a day and time when politicians often take…

Stapleton is big enough for everyone, but after five years, it’s having trouble making room for affordable homes. Last June, Nicoleta Nagel and her three-year-old daughter moved out of their rented apartment in Lowry and into a burgundy-colored condominium in Stapleton. For the 27-year-old Romanian immigrant, the second-story home didn’t…

If Forest City can’t sell its newest affordable townhomes at Stapleton, it will probably start building more low-income rentals, which the company committed to as part of its agreement with Denver. According to that plan, Stapleton should have 4,000 rental units by the time it is built out in 2020;…

In 1988, Westword published its fifth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from the Best Band (the Subdudes, just going national) to the Best Hungry Young Band (Big Head Todd and the Monsters, long before they started singing Hillary Clinton’s song) to the Best…

You have to hand it to Boulder proto-hipster Waylon H. Lewis. In his five years in the niche publishing racket, the 33-year-old has managed to take a rather lackluster magazine concept – Yoga in the Rockies – and revamp it under the canopy of Elephant, a kind of post-new age…

Say you point out that’s something wrong in your workplace, and you get fired for it. Now say you happen to be a cop or a doctor or a rocket scientist, and the problem you’re pointing out could get somebody killed. Think you’ve got a constitutional right to speak your…

When I was talking with Tom Ryan for my review of Smashburger, he told me that Icon Burger — the classic burger joint at 2755 Dagny Way in Lafayette that was the first burger property picked up by Cervantes Capital — will soon be shut down and turned into a…

View a larger image of the full wall. As always, it’s back to the CIA wall where RTD honcho ACEE, HOME from BTR crew and Double from GuerillaGarden have sprayed down an homage to the Dave Chappelle character Sir Smoke-A-Lot, from the 1998 cult classic, Half Baked. It’s the little…

Across from me, a man is talking movies with his obviously hung-over, obviously completely disinterested girlfriend. He’s talking almost exclusively about the oeuvre of John Cusack — from his early work with Savage Steve Holland (whom this man incorrectly identifies as John Hughes) to his later work in movies like…

View a larger image of the full wall. As always, it’s back to the CIA wall where RTD honcho ACEE, HOME from BTR crew and Double from GuerillaGarden have sprayed down an homage to the Dave Chappelle character Sir Smoke-A-Lot, from the 1998 cult classic, Half Baked. It’s the little…

Almost two years after the shooting that first paralyzed their son, Richard Velarde, and then eventually claimed his life, Richard’s parents, Jody and Butch, finally have a small sense of closure. On Thursday, November 1, Michael Rollie, the man who’d been accused of shooting Richard (pictured here and profiled in…

Like so many others, my friends and I wanted to take advantage of the extra hour of drinking Saturday night (and into Sunday morning) after the clocks turned back. A close friend was moving out of the country, and we headed to LoDo so that we could send him off…