In the tumult of an ugly and tragic year, the realm of public villainy has expanded to accommodate Arab terrorists with a lust for mass destruction, Catholic priests with a taste for little boys, and wealthy corporate swindlers with their manicured mitts in your bank account. There’s no end in…
Time’s Up Violators will be towed: I was amused by Julie Jargon’s “Yeah, That’s the Ticket,” in the July 25 issue, and appalled when I read at the end of her parking-division timeline that John Oglesby is still on leave — and still getting a paycheck. Denver should give that…
She never sees it coming, the shot that drops her. One moment Terri Cruz is gliding across the ring, snapping that jab, firing that right, when all of a sudden there’s canvas, and she’s like, “Whoa. Damn. This is reality.” Arturo Jr., Terri’s older brother, sits in the audience. He’s…
In any language, the battle for Colorado schoolchildren’s right to bilingual education is heating up. Late one recent morning, Francine Haver dropped by her local King Soopers. As she walked up to the Belcaro Shopping Center store, she remembers, a man in his late twenties asked her to sign a…
With most of the big guns saving their ammo for this fall, the only campaign that’s rivaled that of Ron Unz (see story above) for verbal volleys belongs to Rick Stanley, the Colorado Libertarian Party’s candidate for Senate, who shoots off his mouth more often than he does his famous…
For the first two years of this column’s existence, John Temple, the editor, publisher and president of the Rocky Mountain News, was about as accessible to Westword as Osama bin Laden. He didn’t return e-mails, he didn’t return voice-mail messages, and he didn’t return messages left with his secretary, who…
For decades, the Rocky Mountain News has been a model of clean, effective newspaper design, especially compared with the often unsightly Denver Post. The paper’s reputation for openness, warmth and reader friendliness is well-deserved. So on the surface, the decision to redesign the Rocky appears to be a classic case…
It all started innocently enough– just another tale of youth, hockey and a pretty girl. Even now, it’s hard to know if the whole episode was just a series of coincidences, a piece of bad luck, or the simple unspooling of fate. Ryan Netzer had been living in Hawaii, whiling…
The White Stuff A day at the racists: I wanted to say that I have tremendous respect for David Holthouse’s July 25 articles, “Skin Deep” and “White Like Me.” His depiction of the neo-Nazi subculture (and the like) took the most unbiased approach I’ve truly seen about something of this…
Leon, a 29-year-old pipefitter and self-proclaimed “Soldier of the Fourth Reich” from West Virginia, was wearing a T-shirt printed with the picture of a blue-eyed girl with blonde pigtails, dressed in a Hitler Youth uniform, smiling prettily while holding up a canister of Zyclon-B cyanide gas. “Got Jews?” the shirt…
It’s been a week since I became a skinhead. Seven nights ago I did a few tequila shots, and then I did a few more, and then I said “Let’s do this” to a friend of a friend who’s in beauty school. She cut away the long hair I’ve had…
Last fall was a particularly trying time for Kelly Grizzell. Emotionally devastated by the murder of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Stephanie, she was dreading the approach of October 28, 2001 — the day that would have been Stephanie’s eighteenth birthday. She didn’t think her life could get much worse. She was…
Although Denver’s Parking Management Division has been getting a lot of negative press lately, the city’s three parking referees really have it rough. While the referees have nothing to do with issuing tickets, they’re the ones who have to deal with the angry masses on a daily basis. In fact,…
Denver’s Parking Management Division, which is part of the Department of Public Works, has been under intense scrutiny for the past six months. Much of the controversy has focused on John Oglesby, director of the beleaguered division; two separate investigations are under way to determine his culpability in several matters…
While Denver continues its crumble into dust, Denver Water remains a font of creativity. The sandwich boards with their catchy slogans (and overheated wearers) are still working their way around town, and the next stage of the conservation campaign is about to roll out. In August, those slogans will move…
Dave Kopel is accustomed to pissing people off. As the research director of the Independence Institute, an area think tank that generally operates on the conservative end of the political continuum, he’s defended the rights of firearms manufacturers, knowing that folks with opposing views will accuse him of giving aid…
What a mess. It is taking the Denver Nuggets much longer to hire a new head coach than the Egyptians took to build the pyramids. While the search continues, here’s the inside story of the team’s painstaking selection process. You won’t read it anywhere else, simply because nobody else employs…
Sin and Tonic Join the club: Thank you! David Holthouse’s “Sip of Fools,” in the July 18 issue, finally speaks the truth about GHB and its effects. I’ve been to Amsterdam and have seen a lot of the “partying” that goes on there. It’s an outrage that the owners would…
On the flatbed trailer is a bed of nails, and on the bed of nails is a contortionist who is performing oral sex — on himself. “Damn, look at that,” says Martin, a 26-year-old DJ at a topless bar in Denver. “That boy’s flexible and stiff.” Martin goofs on his…
Dave Babak pulls his music studio out of a suitcase. “The last CD was on analog tape — a nightmare and expensive time,” he remarks. “This new technology is great, because now I can go to them. If somebody’s homeless, you can’t just call them up. You have to find…
An epic court battle over Colorado’s most troubled piece of real estate has reached a historic turning point — and none too soon. Many of the original parties in the dispute over the 77,000-acre Taylor Ranch are no longer alive, and those who survive have waited decades for some resolution…
Not since purple thistle invaded from Scotland has anything spread so quickly across Colorado. Hundreds of four-by-eight-foot, purple “Owens for Governor” billboards have sprung up around the state. The goal of this frenzy, according to campaign staffer Cinamon Watson, is to get at least 400 Bill Owens-supporting signs in place…
