No Fighting in the War Room

High security and high profile have never been an easy mix at the headquarters of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, better known as NORAD–probably the most celebrated top-secret military command post in the world. Hidden deep inside Cheyenne Mountain south of Colorado Springs, heavily guarded and designed to “button…

Off Limits

The bottom of the tenth: The hottest race in the May 4 election is now smoldering in Capitol Hill, where four candidates are vying for the District 10 Denver City Council seat. For starters, while the incumbent, Ed Thomas, is a former cop and still has a brother on the…

The Beat Goes On

If you didn’t know better, you might think Carnell Green is hurting, the way he sits on stage in his black suit and shiny shoes, stiff-backed and stone-faced, squeezing the life from his 73-year-old thumb. “Ladies and gentlemen,” a woman announces from the podium. “Thank you for coming.” Carnell and…

Letters

Honk If You Hate Jesus of the Week Let me second Sandra Metz’s March 18 letter as to your offensive Jesus of the Week feature. Would you do the same for the leader of any other religion? I have defended your paper due to its sometimes excellent articles, despite many…

Wise Gal

By October 1997, Anne Liv Slemons had run out of options in Southern California. She’d never liked the warm weather anyway. So, six months pregnant and on probation for forging a $5,000 check, the 22-year-old ran. She didn’t know where she was headed until she arrived in Colorado and found…

Dealing With the Devil

Antonio Martinez has some last-minute Christmas shopping to do. He buzzes through Kmart, picking out a serving bowl for his grandmother, a video game for a cousin. In Denver just for the holidays, he shivers as he steps outside. He got rid of his winter clothes when he moved west…

Uncharitable Contributions

Homeless people need good credit, too–that is, if they want some local agencies to help them get off the streets. Members of Humanity for Homeless, a homeless advocacy group, are angry about a policy that requires homeless individuals to pay $15 when they apply for transitional housing through Catholic Charities…

Off Limits

The loneliness of the long-distance runner: With just a day to go until the deadline for would-be candidates to file, the May 4 Denver election is looking like a major snore. Except, of course, for the usual wake-up call from former Republican Party state finance chair, onetime Littleton Rotary head…

Same As It Ever Was

It was March 20, 1996–three years ago this week–when 25-year-old Jeff Truax and his buddies stumbled out of the 1082 Broadway nightclub where police officers Kenny Chavez and Andrew Clarry were moonlighting. Until then, it had most likely been a relaxing evening for the cops. Pulling down $20 an hour…

Powder Vroom

The Old Ladies’ Board Adventure Team (OLBAT) will now come to order. If you are male, have always been athletic and wish to catch big air while riding faster than common sense would indicate you should, this is not your meeting. All you 26-year-olds? Who smoke cigarettes on the chairlift?…

Letters

Coming to a Head The March 11 juxtaposition of the third installment of Steve Jackson’s “Dealing with the Devil,” the Brandy DuVall torture/rape/murder trial coverage, and Eric Dexheimer’s Deitz v. University of Denver story, “Head Case,” was most interesting. If Peter Buirski is still teaching Freud’s misogynist theories as viable…

Dealing with the Devil

Antonio Martinez negotiates his way through a maze of boxes scattered across the living room of his small apartment as a massive stereo system pulsates with gangsta rap. Except for the stereo, he’s almost packed–and ready to get the hell out of Denver. The night before, his mother threw him…

Head Case

In the spring semester of 1992, Dr. Peter Buirski, dean of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver, handed out to his doctoral students the standard assignment for his Ego Models course: Read “Portnoy’s Complaint” and write a paper which formulates the character’s psychological problem according…

Off Limits

Must see TV: By the end of this summer, there will be no more boring waits wondering where your bus is. Instead there will be boring waits knowing where your bus is. That’s because, like transit authorities in several other cities around the country, including New York, RTD is getting…

A Slippery Slope

Ann Mygatt and other owners of mountain property in Boulder County are literally fighting an uphill battle. After a harrowing drive up a one-mile stretch of the steep and narrow Nancy Mine Road, Mygatt and her son arrive at a clearing where she hopes her future home will stand. Mygatt’s…

Rust in Peace

Is Currigan Exhibition Hall destined to become a part of the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection? If Denver voters approve the $200 million proposed expansion of the nine-year-old Colorado Convention Center next fall, Currigan’s thirty-year role as part of the city’s convention complex will come to an abrupt halt. Current…

Imperfect Pitch

If Darryl Kile is conversant with the Navier-Stokes Equation or the Magnus Effect, he’s not letting on. The man who was supposed to reinvigorate the Colorado Rockies’ demoralized pitching staff last season and lead the club out of the doldrums wound up with a 13-17 record. At Coors Field, which…

Letters

The Gang’s All Here Regarding Steve Jackson’s current series, “Dealing with the Devil”: Each time I read about Brandy DuVall, the savagery sickens me. If I could make a deal with the devil, it would be to purge that whole family, as well as eternal damnation and excruciating pain for…

Blast From the Past

Way back when, a cantankerous old guy named E.H. “Brownie” Brown climbed atop his taxidermy shop south of U.S. 85 near what would become Highlands Ranch and posted a sign painted in big red letters: “Hellsville, USA.” Brownie wanted the world to know exactly what he thought of the DuPont…

Star Hustlers

Sir Alec Guinness has won two Oscars, one for best actor and the other honorary, and has been nominated for four more. Queen Elizabeth knighted him in 1959. A remarkable career; a distinguished actor. And, now, for just $275, you can have a sixteen-inch ceramic cookie jar in the shape…

Dealing With the Devil

Theresa Swinton looks at the simple two-story house at 2727 California without much affection. An uncle she never knew purchased it for his parents, her grandparents, shortly before he died in action during World War II. It was the childhood home of her mother, aunts and uncles. The address is…

Off Limits

Fat chance: Hmmm…if rumors were running rampant that Scripps Howard had a March 15 deadline for purchasing your newspaper, would you call a March 12 staff meeting–without telling staffers why? Denver Post editor Dennis Britton would, and when he announced the mandatory meeting this past Monday, he threw Nervous Nellie…