News

Dial straits: It’s tough keeping up with all the changes in Denver’s mercurial entertainment scene, but the Rocky Mountain News could at least give it a try. Its “Radio Log,” published weekly in the Spotlight section, is woefully behind the times–in fact, this log is just so much dead wood…

“Get the facts about anyone–your ex-spouse’s hidden assets, a new client’s credit history, your lover’s secret past or information about any business–quickly and legally.” Hurry! This sounds like a job for one of the Clinton operatives investigating Kenneth Starr–and recently subpoenaed by the independent counsel as thanks for their efforts–or…

Sealed With a Kiss Off C’mon, Westword. With Bill “Colorado Is Not Enough Like Texas” Owens poised to take over the governor’s mansion and sign much of the legislation proposed by the Arvada/ Colorado Springs contingent of crazies, you give us endless variations on U.S. Representative Diana DeGette’s alleged snub…

A few weeks ago, neighbors reported a fire smoldering in John McBride’s garage. Firefighters were able to save the detached structure that sits across the street from Manual High School in north Denver. But heirlooms belonging to McBride’s deceased father–a piano, furniture and some old photos–were consumed. Fire-department investigators have…

Snit happens: News flashes from Washington, D.C., last week said U.S. Representative Diana DeGette was fightin’ mad when big bad Bill Clinton failed to give her a pat on the head during a White House ceremony about the plight of uninsured children. After Free Willy failed to note that DeGette…

Three Lakewood police cars and a K-9 unit responded to a call from the Cherry Bomb Lounge at around 1 a.m. on February 8. The cops were tipped off by someone at the West Sixth Avenue bar who said there was a wanted woman inside. She had been eluding Arapahoe…

Colorado attorney general Gale Norton is investigating one of the most controversial charges yet against tobacco companies: that the firms encourage kids to shoplift cigarettes as part of an effort to hook them on smoking. But even as Norton is turning up the heat in her lawsuit against big tobacco,…

When Jannette Mayhew popped open the trunk of her car and discovered the bullet-pierced body of her son, she probably thought things couldn’t get much worse. But that was before her husband reached into a box he’d been told contained his son’s personal effects–but which actually contained the boy’s internal…

The art of the deal: In the face of encroaching development, the Robischon Gallery is holding down the artistic fort at 18th and Wazee streets–a stand that earned founder Jim Robischon an award of appreciation from the Lower Downtown District Inc. at last week’s annual meeting. And Robischon won’t be…

While the Broncos prepare for the second half of their big playoff game in the Colorado Legislature, why don’t we just sit back and enjoy the halftime show? The high-priced entertainment, of course, is reserved for the VIPs–the Very Important Politicians who will be voting on SB 171 (read: the…

Better Read Than Dead Regarding Harrison Fletcher’s “Seeing Red,” in the February 19 issue: Has Westword ever met a Communist it didn’t like? Forgive me if I don’t break out the crying towels over Pat Blawis’s passing. In the early part of World War II, the Nazis and the Communists…

Even after five months, he can feel the chill. “There’s definitely something about the place,” Doug Gradisar says, looking up the side of an abandoned flour mill northwest of Coors Field. “It gives you the creeps.” Gradisar is an outreach worker for homeless teens. The last time he was here,…

The first volley of bullets smacked into police chief Kris Monson’s parked squad car at 1:30 a.m., while he was sitting behind the wheel in downtown Olathe, doing paperwork. The windshield shattered into a spider web, and the young Western Slope lawman hit the floor. He felt a sharp pain…

Denver drunk-driving lawyer Brent M. Martin is on a collision course with justice. Make that with a judge. Attorney Martin, who regularly defends people accused of driving under the influence, is scheduled to appear in Denver County Court February 26 to face charges that he got liquored up last summer…

Belly up to the barbecue: Three years after local uranium magnate turned po’ boy Oren Benton first filed for bankruptcy, lawyers and accountants still have their snouts buried in his estate. And, man, is the eatin’ good. Featuring hundreds of millions of dollars in debts and an international cast of…

A three-acre plot of land along Leetsdale Drive has become a major headache for nonprofit KRMA-TV Channel 6, which has been battling neighbors over its proposed profit-making commercial projects on the property it’s owned for the past decade. A recent proposal to build a 24-hour Amoco station and a Grease…

Take one: When the curtain goes up at the Academy Awards next month, Denver filmmaker Donna Dewey will be there–nominated for her documentary A Story of Healing. The 28-minute film–which follows a California medical team, Interplast, on a volunteer mission through Vietnam in January 1997–has gotten raves since it premiered…

The Team knows how to tantalize a twelve-year-old. “Don’t be trying any of this at home, kids. What you are about to see is very, very dangerous. We don’t even do what Trey Tally does–breaking concrete and ice with his head! So don’t you try it!” Trey Tally’s nickname is…

Babes in Royland Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s “Strange Bedfellows,” in the February 19 issue: Roy Romer proved himself a serial liar and a man without honor. Making a total ass of himself and exposing his wife to the cruelest kind of public humiliation, he cast off the last rags of any…

A year ago, Boulder police chief Tom Koby faced the cameras and promised that “our guy won’t walk.” Since then, of course, the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation has limped along. Thus far, the only arrests remotely related to the case have been that of a friend of the Ramseys who…