News

The recent purchase of Fort Collins’s KUNC-FM — a 100,000-watt public-radio station affiliated with the University of Northern Colorado — by a community organization dubbed Friends of KUNC may have marked the end of a battle with Colorado Public Radio, which also wanted the property, but the war certainly isn’t…

I Drink, Therefore I Am The glass is half-empty: After reading Patricia Calhoun’s “A Mile High,” in the March 1 issue, I have to wonder what she thinks the solution might be. Should our state welcome murderers like Donta Page with open arms just so a few drunks don’t have…

When it comes to songwriting, there probably aren’t that many points on which indie rockers and Elton John agree. Still, one of Sir Elton’s most famous phrases seems wholly in step with the current philosophy of underground music makers: A sad song says so much. Optimism fueled the power-to-the-people rock…

Chris Klug kissed his girlfriend, Missy, for luck and tromped to the starting gate of the Park City, Utah, World Cup snowboard parallel giant slalom. He snapped his red racing boots into the bindings of his long, yellow Burton board, adjusted the goggles beneath his helmet, and peered down the…

Monday: Samierah Moran, vice president of her junior class at Manual High School, is smart, talented — and bored. She gets good grades, but she doesn’t care much for her classes. She often goes in to see principal Nancy Sutton to complain about the fact that the school is a…

After months of delays, city officials announced on February 9 their decisions regarding the future of five of the six nonprofits that currently lease city-owned community centers. For Jan Belle, the director of the sixth nonprofit, the Southwest Improvement Council (SWIC), the wait has been “torturous,” and it’s not over…

At first glance, it appeared that the Empire had struck back at Fantastic Media, the Aurora company known nationwide as a one-stop worship center for aficionados of Star Wars and Star Trek. But in truth, a pair of business transactions that seemed to spell doom for the plucky firm actually…

Cliff May is bigtime. Over the past few months, the former Rocky Mountain News editor/columnist and sometimes Denver talk-show host has gone from his post as spokesman for the Republican National Committee to acting as new Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s temporary media advisor to a job with one of the…

In the radio biz, hosts are supposed to be provocative: Executives don’t pay the big bucks for nice and dull, do they? But there’s always a danger of going one joke over the line, particularly since said line is often a moving target, shifting this direction or that based on…

Rave Reviews Mayhem madness: Laura Bond’s atypical rave article, “Home of the Rave” in the February 22 issue, was something I would like to thank you for. She provided an overview of the situation without resorting to phrases such as “drug-fueled mayhem” and the like. If only more papers could…

Bart Barnum answers the phone in a theatrical fashion, his voice slow and cartoonish. “Barnum House,” he says. You ask him if it might be possible for you to come by and take a look at the place. Of course it is, he responds enthusiastically. He would be delighted to…

There are plenty of people in Colorado who, it is now clear, should not ever have had guns. It’s hard to argue that the world would not have been better off if Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and Matthaeus Jaehnig and many, many others had not been able to get…

The handsome Rossonian Hotel sits empty at the center of Five Points, a symbol of the neighborhood’s long-ago heyday and its ongoing struggle to come back to life. Although the City of Denver has sunk nearly $2 million into fixing up the historic building, hoping to spur its redevelopment, it…

To prevent their schools from being converted into charter schools because of poor performance on the annual Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) exams, principals at Del Pueblo, Maxwell and McGlone elementary schools are trying a new strategy that they hope will help them raise their historically low scores: operating year-round…

Complaints that a Denver-based suicide phone line is understaffed, that its service is inconsistent and that its volunteers are untrained have once again gone unanswered by the Colorado Mental Health Grievance Board. After examining the latest complaints against the Living Support Network (LIS’N) — which include allegations that executive director…

Wild West adventurer turned entertainer William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was no stranger to the spotlight. He knew how to please a crowd, and, true to form, so does Buffalo Bill lookalike Lance Michaels — even if it took Michaels six or seven takes to nail a plug for CBS’s…

Since the approval of the joint operating agreement that will bind the business departments of the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post forever and ever (or at least until one side atrophies and dies), the minions at the Denver Newspaper Agency have been working overtime to coordinate what DNA…

Rave New World Party on! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for Laura Bond’s objective and informative article on the Colorado rave scene, “Home of the Rave,” in the February 22 issue. I’m a DJ here in Denver, and I play at a lot of these…

On a cold Saturday night in February, Santa Fe Drive is swarming with teenage life. The Aztlan Theatre is hosting an event put on by Roofless Productions, a local promoter that specializes in electronic music and tends to draw young crowds. By 11 p.m., kids are convening from all directions,…