“Curtins!,” by Robin Chotzinoff, February 24, 2000 Maxine Munt — what a wonderful woman! Thank you for Robin Chotzinoff’s “Curtains!” last week. Although I left Denver long ago, I was still saddened to read that Maxine had died, but made glad as I remembered everything that the Changing Scene –…
It was all over in three minutes. At 1:47 p.m. on September 29, 1999, a Denver SWAT team, acting on information contained in a fatally flawed search warrant, burst through the front door of 3738 High Street. At 1:50 p.m., Ismael Mena lay dead on the floor of his bedroom,…
The man on the phone says he doesn’t want anyone to know his name. He may wind up being the star witness in a police perjury trial, but right now he doesn’t need to have his name in the newspaper. That stuff can get you killed. Still, it takes only…
Two weeks ago, Barbara Walton received the kind of phone call that quickens a curator’s heart. Having worked at the Denver Public Library for the past fifteen years, she’d already amassed an impressive collection of programs and posters relating to community theaters in Denver, some dating back to the 1800s…
Next to theater, dancing, Maxine and a few glasses of sherry, Al Brooks’s favorite activity is talking. The first to admit when he has gone so far out on a tangent that he can’t remember how to get back, Al is nevertheless a seasoned and entertaining practitioner of the monologue…
Few people love Denver International Airport as much as Gregorio Bonifacio. More than five years ago, Bonifacio began working at DIA as a security guard while it was still under construction. He then held a series of temporary jobs at the airport, doing everything from driving a fuel truck to…
Feeling shut out of the political process? You should. For starters, Coloradans will never get the pleasure of snubbing pooped-out presidential wannabes like Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes and Liddy Dole, since our primary election doesn’t roll around until March 10, long after New Hampshire and Iowa have made mincemeat of…
Please fasten your seatbeltsIt may seem like forever since former mayor Federico Peña’s pet project finally debuted after one of the most agonizing waits in civic history, but Denver International Airport celebrates only its fifth anniversary next week. Over the years (both before and after DIA opened), there have been…
Bill Good’s head is like a giant lightbulb. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, ideas flutter up to him like moths on a summer night. From time to time, he’ll pluck one of these notions out of thin air, examine it and say, “Hmmm.” “I just get…
Most broadcast execs shy away from criticizing the local TV newscasts that help butter their bread. But Cindy Velasquez, Channel 7’s general manager, isn’t most broadcast execs. “Look what local TV stations have become,” she says. “They’ve become very nice, very cautious — and I think that’s why so many…
So there she was, standing in the vast ballroom at the Las Vegas Riviera at the North American Eight Ball Championships last May, and Conifer resident Christine Honeman knew she was toast. She knew it with such certainty that she couldn’t even look at the table. The shots that were…
“Access Denied,” by Michael Roberts, February 10, 2000 I howled with laughter upon reading Michael Roberts’s “Access Denied,” in the February 10 issue. This one time, I applaud Westword for revealing to the public the kind of idiot Jann Scott is. I urge all people everywhere to reject nihilistic types…
On nights when the Idalia Wolves challenge the Liberty Knights in basketball, farmers and ranchers get in their pickups and head to town. They pull into the Idalia School parking lot, where they leave their keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. They file into the school’s new gym,…
Aspen Burkett holds the national girl’s high school record for the 50-yard dash — 5.84 seconds — but the last six months of her life have been sluggish. In July the 23-year-old came down with mononucleosis, which laid her up for three months and took her out of fall training…
When officials at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons set out to build a supermax penitentiary capable of holding the most dangerous inmates in the federal system, they didn’t mess around. Opened in 1994 at a cost of $60 million, the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum outside of Florence, Colorado, better known…
The tiny of town of Erie rests at the end of a long stretch of farmland west of I-25. Signs of expansion in this old coal-mining town are everywhere: Bulldozers grade fields in preparation for new homes; for-sale signs dot vacant pieces of land; and a steady stream of customers…
The right write stuffSaturday’s services for veteran journalist and sometime politico Sherry Keene-Osborn, who died last week at age 54, brought out numerous writers who’d gotten their start when she edited the Rocky Mountain Business Journal (now the Denver Business Journal) back in the ’70s. But during three decades of…
One of my favorite unreal images of love is the newlywed husband and wife relaxing amid half-unpacked boxes — obviously taking a break from moving into their very first cheap apartment, even though it has hardwood floors and a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Both are wearing beautifully…
Denver police chief Tom Sanchez was nowhere to be seen in footage of the February 8 news conference where Mayor Wellington Webb officially handed him his hat and showed him the door — but he’d gotten plenty of television face time just a couple of days earlier. Not that he…
The Apes of WrathRegarding Juliet Wittman’s “Origin of the Specious,” in the February 10 issue: The misguided A Natural History of Rape is similar to the books published years ago that attempted to use “biology” to explain racial differences. The racists then championing their theories behind the guise of “scientific…
Feminists say men rape to assert dominance over women. But a new book co-authored by a University of Colorado instructor suggests that while the immediate motivation for rape may be anything from the need to impress other males to rage over a breakup, the deep-seated and essential spur is man’s…
The air’s not dead at Boulder’s Community Access TV, but it sure isn’t feeling very good. In January, Ron Secrist, Boulder’s city manager, put a new CATV contract for the year 2000 on hold until after a review panel appointed by the city council investigates charges that the organization is…
