Jan Belle knows who in her neighborhood is having a baby and who’s in need of food. With the Westwood Community Center as her home base, she and fellow center workers offer support to pregnant women and let struggling families know about the center’s emergency food program, through which they…
While Coloradans no longer have to live in fear of Soviet nuclear weapons obliterating metro Denver, the end of the Cold War hasn’t brought peace to the western suburbs. Instead, two local governments are squabbling over a proposed museum that would chronicle the history of the former Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons…
Spit happens to hometown girl Amy Van Dyken. During Saturday’s Olympics coverage, NBC’s camera caught the spittin’ image of Van Dyken engaged in a trademark intimidation tactic: hawking a loogie into a competing swimmer’s lane, in this case that of Dutch rival Inge de Bruijn. NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines…
Plagiarism seems like a straightforward offense: It’s one writer using the words of another without crediting him, right? But there are times when figuring out if someone’s at fault can be as sticky as Richard Gere’s mythical gerbil. For proof, consider the complaints recently leveled against Warren Epstein, a columnist…
Behold the ancient rituals of autumn. The sting of just-rubbed wintergreen oil catches in the nostrils. Two tall quarterbacks kneel facing each other, soft-tossing spirals, while a lean wide receiver yanks on a pair of black Adidas sport gloves, then balls them into fists. Weariness mingles with anticipation as a…
Playing Doctor The ugly truth: It should come as no surprise that Patricia Calhoun would support librarians, and the Denver Public Library, over Dr. Laura Schlessinger (“The Doctor Is Out,” September 21). From its front page to its last, Westword is full of things that are not family-friendly. Ms. Calhoun…
While Larry Cordle’s “Murder on Music Row” has become an unlikely C&W hit, songs about Nashville’s musical pitfalls are nothing new. Over the years, a handful of artists have penned songs protesting the town’s evil ways — all in vain, unfortunately. Here are some of our favorites: “Are You Sure…
The Center for Loss and Life Transition sits on a picturesque ridge on the outskirts of Fort Collins. The dirt road leading to it would be tough to negotiate for anyone not driving a tank; there are no less than four sharp switchbacks, and potholes large enough to lose a…
Carolyn Butler, co-founder of the Argus Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, tells the story of a Denver family — a mom, a dad and two sons, ages nine and ten — whose golden retriever died while in the critical-care unit of CSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital before the…
The small neighborhood where David Rapier lives used to be a quiet place. The ranch homes in this agricultural area west of Old Wadsworth Boulevard are spread far apart; most houses sit on one-acre lots. Some people keep horses, others raise llamas. There are no streetlights or sidewalks, just semicircular…
Pine residents angry over a proposal to build a facility for juvenile sex offenders in their mountain town may be surprised to discover that they have a lot in common with the people who operate the facility where those offenders are now living: Pine doesn’t want the group home in…
The Denver courts put too much faith in Oscar Paniagua. The self-titled “Messenger of Truth” is officially a fugitive after failing to show up for a scheduled court appearance September 5 (“The Truth Hurts,” August 31). Denver police had predicted just such an outcome following court rulings that reduced Paniagua’s…
Cheap shots: On Friday, Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies responded to the ICG building near the Denver Tech Center on a report that a shot had been fired at the top-story conference room, breaking a window. According to the sheriff’s office, the area was checked and no suspects were found, but…
The Justice Department’s voluminous report on the joint operating agreement that will bind the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News in holy wedded monopoly, released to the public last week, isn’t exactly overflowing with surprises. The document, issued under the signature of Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein, uncovers a…
When does an athlete stop being an athlete and simply start being a lunatic? The question of where to draw the line occurred to me a few weeks ago when a friend and I drove up to Leadville late on a Saturday night to watch the finish of the Leadville…
Life Savers Family ties: I was sickened, but not surprised, to read Stuart Steers’s “Broken Trust” in the August 31 issue, about the women with disabilities who were yanked away from their makeshift family. Unless a glaring fact was omitted, the caregiver appeared to genuinely love the women in her…
Tom Horn made his name in law enforcement — even if many of his actions straddled the law. Legal or not, however, they were certainly effective, although not the sort of behavior that inspires most modern law-enforcement agents. Then again, those agents don’t have Kelly Hamilton’s job. A few years…
Last May, six homeless people sleeping outside the Denver City and County Building were awakened by the cops and arrested. They were there because city sweeps of the traditional homeless camping grounds along the South Platte River and Cherry Creek had forced them to migrate to Civic Center Park and…
In an effort to streamline what promises to be a lengthy legal process, all fourteen lawsuits filed by families of people injured or killed in the shootings at Columbine High School have been moved to federal court in Denver. But an attorney for two of the families says his clients…
The teachers and students of Columbine returned to school last month to the welcome sounds of silence. There were no news photographers to record the moment, no live cable coverage of hundreds of suburban teens streaming into the building. No pep rallies, no speeches about “taking back the school,” no…
In its short history, the City Park West Gazette has published articles condemning the temporary closing of a local liquor store due to suspension of its license, the housing crisis at East Village and what it calls Mayor Wellington Webb’s policy of “economic cleansing.” But the little monthly paper, which…
Rocky Mountain Animal Defense was out prowling again this weekend, protesting the use of dogs in labs at the University of Colorado medical school. The group had already made the papers several times this year, even convincing Nederland state representative Tom Plant to propose a bill that would ban med-school…
