Here, kitty, kitty: Hysteria over animal mutilations this spring evoked the “cattle mutes” of two decades back — a still-unexplained phenomenon in which cattle throughout the region were found with their innards neatly excised. In a rising yowl of anguish, local news outlets detailed dozens of attacks on pets, typically…
1. Tracy Baker. Arapahoe County’s e-mail-slinging, girlfriend-promoting clerk and recorder has earned a permanent place in the Westword Hall of Shame. After more than a year of very public wrangling with his fellow Republicans in Arapahoe County, Baker still refused to go quietly into the private sector. “I love what…
Linda Donelson pulled into her driveway at six o’clock on a wintry Monday evening in March. She’d just picked up her seven-year-old grandson, Caleb, from daycare, and he was eager to see his mom. But before Linda could open the garage and go in the house, she noticed a piece…
On the sixth floor of Denver police headquarters at 1331 Cherokee Street is a cluster of rooms few people know about. From these spartan offices that overlook the mountains beyond and the city below, murders, rapes and robberies are solved. It’s the cop shop’s very own crime lab, where handwriting…
College senior Sally Vizas is no stranger to the chilly reception law-enforcement types give families and private investigators looking into cold cases. “Calling police and sheriff’s departments has been a huge pain. Some have not wanted to cooperate at all,” she says. “When I called Adams County, someone in the…
David Ryan Urton, a 21-year-old cadet at the United States Air Force Academy, faces possible disenrollment and a $100,000 fine for taking beer to an off-campus party attended by underage cadets. This is the second example in as many days of how the academy is compensating for past indiscretions. In…
1. The Endangered Species Act celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this month. Which targeted critter became the focus of an early fight? A. Plympton’s penguin. B. The snail darter. C. Colorado lynx. D. Dobbs’s bacteria. 2. Speaking of endangered, upon hearing that Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge endorsed legal illegals, Congressman…
Attendance at the premier annual fundraising event for the Denver Public Library was down this year, a sign that tension between the library administration and the Friends of the DPL may be costing the library support. Normally, much of Denver’s high society turns out for the gala event, but just…
Calling Alan Jackson! If ever clothes made the man, it’s apparent in the makeover of new Denver City Council representative-at-large Doug Linkhart. We mean no disrespect. We’re fond of the councilman known as “Leftie Linkhart,” as fellow makeover victim Charlie Brown (Off Limits, December 11) swears the other council reps…
When ex-pitcher Jim Bouton appeared on the November 28 edition of Bill Moyers’s signature PBS program, NOW With Bill Moyers, he thought he was simply promoting his latest book, Foul Ball. But afterward, he and Moyers were beaned by complaints from pretty much every entity Bouton portrays as villains in…
Most of us never come close to solving the great mysteries of life. You know: What’s a “Hoya”? Do Jesus and Mohammed get together for lunch? How does the washing machine know to take in four socks and give back only three? Where have the Bush twins gone? I mean…
The Lost Boy Tales from the dark side: Regarding Laura Bond’s “Nowhere Boy,” in the December 4 issue: My wife and I were foster parents for three years; coincidentally, it was for Lost and Found Inc. Although we had three teenage boys, all dealing with difficult issues that had landed…
Prowers County sits just shy of the Kansas border. Most of the 14,219 people who live here struggle to survive by growing winter wheat and grazing cattle. They know other Coloradans may not consider their home on the southeastern plains to be one of the state’s more scenic regions, but…
The saga of the East Village housing project has finally come to an end. Last week, wrecking crews arrived at the 16.5-acre site off Park Avenue West just east of downtown to begin demolishing what had started as planned housing for the 1976 Winter Olympics but soon deteriorated into a…
1. Which food would not be a breeding zone for bacteria if left at room temp for more than two hours? A. Roast turkey. B. Shrimp. C. Yummy baked ham. D. Brain tacos. 2. Which is not a symptom of food poisoning? A. Rockies pitching. B. Weakness. C. Fever. D…
David Ryan Urton, a 21-year-old cadet at the United States Air Force Academy, faces possible disenrollment and a $100,000 fine for taking beer to an off-campus party attended by underage cadets. This is the second example in as many days of how the academy is compensating for past indiscretions. In…
“I haven’t been measured for anything in years,” says Charlie Brown. Denver City Council’s resident cowboy is standing in Suavecito’s, the Santa Fe Drive boutique run by former social workers Craig Peña and Jay Salas, and he’s looking a little bewildered at the prospect of being fitted for a suit…
Tim Brown, chief executive officer of Denver’s NRC Broadcasting, is normally an upbeat fellow — and why wouldn’t he be? On December 5, he filed paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission to buy NRC’s twelfth radio station in just over eighteen months. KKHI-FM/105.5, currently held by Laramie Mountain Broadcasting, is…
A few years back, I was sitting with a friend in a duck blind. It was a slow day of hunting, and we were discussing the recently passed Colorado initiative outlawing the spring bear hunt. The new law also prohibited baiting while pursuing a bear — a good thing, I…
Wed Alert! Marilyn uh-oh: Regarding Kenny Be’s Worst-Case Scenario in the December 4 issue, “A Most-Grave Situation,” here’s a letter to Marilyn Musgrave: I am saddened by your attempt to devalue me as both an American and a beautiful creation of God. My main issue with you is that you…
For David Mallamo, fantasy has always been kinder than reality. At fifteen, with scruffy brown hair and glasses, he resembles his hero, Harry Potter — a boy who’s abused by his family but finds power and adventure in an alternate world. Now living in his tenth home since birth, David…
The structure of public funding for mental-health care changed dramatically in 1995, when Colorado moved from a fee-for-service system and began to operate on a managed-care model. Eight mental-health assessment and service agencies, known as MHASAs, were contracted by the state to provide mental-health services to Medicaid recipients, while seventeen…
