Natalie Vasquez was raised in Chamisal, a shabby village set among the piñons and red rolling hills of northern New Mexico, a poverty-stricken stepchild to the wealth and culture of nearby Taos and Santa Fe. The centuries-old settlement, beset by the problems of a modern age — drugs, welfare, dropouts…
Last month, a small group of protesters gathered on the traffic island outside Aurora’s Buckley Air Force Base. It was an unseasonably warm day, and a gusty wind had suddenly materialized out of nowhere. The demonstrators, some of them in their sixties and seventies, narrowed their eyes against the swirling…
After the protest at Buckley Air Force Base, Westword contacted the base’s public-information office to request information about what, exactly, goes on out there — and what taxpayers’ money is paying for. Candrea Thomas, deputy director of public affairs, asked for a couple of days to research our questions. Four…
Under ordinary circumstances, what happened October 30 inside holding cell No. 4 at the Denver County Courthouse would have been just that — ordinary. One inmate has words with another, a scuffle ensues, blood is spilled, a deputy intercedes, the fight’s over. What sets this particular fracas apart is that…
Denver District Juvenile Court Judge Dana Wakefield surprised everyone and baffled some last week when he ruled on the 21-month-old Ponciano Lazaro-Avina case. Ponciano, a Mexican immigrant, had been fighting to have his daughter returned to him and his family ever since she became a warden of the state shortly…
It’s November 3, and in the Boulder County Courthouse, Judge Daniel Hale is about to rule on a motion filed by Joshua Beckius, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder five years ago at the age of sixteen and was sentenced to forty years in prison (“This Boy’s Life,” March 23)…
Taking their cue from police departments that solicit help from TV shows such as America’s Most Wanted to track down the most elusive of criminals and clues, the folks at the Colorado Department of Unclaimed Funds, part of the state treasurer’s office, recently gave out info on their toughest –…
The two women were both in their mid-thirties, with three kids and one frost ‘n’ tip dye job between them. In no way did they look like potential naked people. “…so then I told her to quit driving so fast, and that’s when I pressed a big fat moon up…
Reporter Aldo Svaldi is currently a sought-after commodity — but it wasn’t always this way. A graduate of the University of Missouri, Svaldi began his journalism career proper in a challenging locale: He interned at a publication in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, experiencing a genuine baptism by fire…
In épée, the most duel-like of the three events that make up fencing, the foot touch serves two purposes. The first, of course, is that it counts as a score. Unlike foil, in which a combatant must contact an opponent’s torso with his blade to score, or saber, for which…
Lofty Ideals Can’t stop the music: I was angry and disappointed when I read T.R. Witcher’s “Last Dance,” in the November 9 issue. However, I was more surprised by my reaction: favoring the club over the residents. I, too, live in LoDo. My loft is directly above a bar. My…
Next week, residents of the Rocky Mountain Warehouse Lofts may finally get a good night’s sleep. On Tuesday, November 14, the F-Stop nightclub will close its doors for the last time. No more boisterous crowds hanging out at 2 a.m. on the 1800 block of Wazee Street. No more monster…
A dozen years ago, Dale Ervin saw his partnership with Amoco as permanent. The dealer leased four Amoco service stations around Denver and had racked up an office full of company performance awards; his Colorado Boulevard station was one of only two in the state to sell more than three…
The 1991 court victory against Amoco proved the last hurrah for service-station dealers in Colorado. The company chipped away at the trial verdict, partially overturning the decision on appeal. In 1996, exhausted from the struggle and facing a new round of appeals, the dealers agreed to settle, took the money…
This month, a team of analysts will begin sniffing around the Denver Police Department, hunting for some fat to trim. They’ll likely find a good amount stashed in one place: the rank of captain. Former police chief Tom Sanchez, who held the keys to the big office for just a…
When he was a cop in Eaton, Eric Harding spent Halloween 1996 cruising around in his patrol car, pulling up in front of unsuspecting trick-or-treaters with lights flashing. He would then emerge from the vehicle, clad from the neck down in his police uniform and from the neck up in…
As governor, Dick Lamm made national headlines when he pronounced that we all have a “duty to die” and get out of the way. But today the former Governor Gloom is only 65, which means he may have another twenty, or even thirty, years left before he fulfills that duty…
To many who live at 37th Avenue and Lipan Street, Bernabe “Indio” Franco is little more than a name on a sign, someone who lived in the neighborhood many years, then died. Yet there are times when people who live in this corner of north Denver step into the park…
For many young urbanites, the cultural vitality of a community can be judged by the number of homegrown, advertiser-supported periodicals that are piled up near the doorways of CD stores or funky restaurants — and by those standards, Denver’s in the dumper. At any given time during the last decade,…
To Hilltop and Back Home, sweet home: I had strong feelings regarding Stuart Steers’s “You Can’t Go Home Again,” in the November 2 issue. What a strange way local politician Susan Barnes-Gelt discusses free enterprise! The “son of a bitch” who purchased her childhood home did so legally, and he…
Hunched over the counter of the only 7-Eleven in Widefield, an elderly black man named Leo mulls over what could be his most consequential purchase of the day. You never know; this could be the time, the magic moment, that life-altering, red-letter, once-in-a-lifetime lucky day. You just don’t know. This…
Sorting through a stack of planning documents and books on a shelf in her office, Denver city planner Ellen Ittelson pulls out a faded booklet with yellowed pages. It’s a Denver planning-department primer from the 1940s, and the main topic is how to remake the city’s streets to accommodate cars…
