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Tony Carpenter sells cell-phone service, plays with his two kids, finds his wife a nice Valentine’s Day remembrance, contemplates the occasional acting job. Because he injured his shoulder six months ago, he hasn’t tried flying lately. In fact, he hasn’t even heard that the Y’s nearly seventy-year-old trapeze program was…

Tom Keuer peers into the glass-doored storage cabinet like a television teen cruising the fridge, thirsting for a swig of Sunny D. “Any of the good stuff around here?” he asks. A blue-jeaned lab worker shrugs. “It’s back in the freezer now.” Keuer pokes around among jugs of clear solutions…

Ask religious broadcasters, from the elfin Pat Robertson to the funky Reverend Ike, and they’ll tell you: Doing the Lord’s work takes plenty of cash. Precious airtime that could be spent trumpeting the Gospel gets consumed in pleas for tithes, donations, prayer offerings–“the green stuff,” as Ike used to call…

Amid the current national backlash against affirmative-action programs, Colorado is taking what could be the first step toward instituting a state procurement system that would favor female- and minority-owned businesses. The state’s Department of General Support Services has quietly submitted a request to the General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee to…

The white stuff: For a half-dozen years the “Underwear Tree” off Chair 5 in Vail’s back bowl has been one of the ski area’s most entertaining sights (along with watching Texans fall on their butts). The tree is festooned with undergarments, including several unusually “well-proportioned” items, according to Vail’s Paul…

If there are two things the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center ought to understand, it’s death and education. The first it sees every day. The second is its reason for existing (its motto: “We practice what we teach”). The two topics have even been part of the hospital’s employee…

Surrounded by happy, if cramped, campers unrolling toilet paper over my head, I thought to myself: There has to be a better way. I had finally sunk so low as to fly out of Colorado Springs. And now I was paying the price, sheet by sheet. Not that I enjoyed…

Who’s on First? Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s column “Last Call,” in the February 7 issue: Calhoun can dish it out, but she can’t take it. When she wants to criticize a person or a business, she wraps herself in the First Amendment. When the city is critical of her paper, she…

part 2 of 2 When police and firefighters arrived at Smith’s home, they found the house clean and tidy, making Wirtzfeld all the more incongruous. He was sitting on a corner of the sofa, perched casually as if he’d fallen asleep while chatting with friends. He was leaning on his…

part 1 of 2 For three years, until his death in January 1994, Gary Smith’s life was a nightmare of medication, hospitalizations, chemotherapy and pain–pain so severe that eventually even huge doses of morphine could not extinguish the fire that coursed through his cancer-riddled body. “Smitty’s” wife, Sue, found some…

As soon as Bette Handon gets foster children in her home, she starts teaching them what she calls survival skills–no matter how young they are. “You teach them how to turn on the stove without burning the house down,” says Handon. “How to open a can. How to scramble eggs…

In any discussion of Colorado’s child-welfare system, getting even the most basic information about children in state care is nearly impossible. That’s not because of statute but because of individual county policies about what gets said to whom. State law merely instructs professionals in the system to keep the identity…

Higher and higher education: Under host Howard Higman, the University of Colorado’s Conference on World Affairs was one hell of a party. When he founded the annual event in 1948, Higman’s goal was to bring the world to Boulder, throwing international notables from all sorts of disciplines–they eventually included Cold…

If I had it to do over again, I would use dry ice,” Shaun Gothwaite says. “Louie began to turn a little purple without it.” Other than that, it was the perfect wake. No one who knew Louie Aran could imagine him filled with embalming fluid or laid out among…

Sooner or later, just about every politician vows to “close loopholes.” This is important so “the rich don’t get richer” and people “pay their fair share.” But ever wonder how such holes become looped in the first place? A visit to the state legislature last week helped explain it. In…

Double Indemnity I was amazed by Eric Dexheimer’s January 31 story, “Double Trouble,” on Douglas Pichon. I knew him as Doug, a classmate and friend of mine in high school in Colorado Springs 25-plus years ago. I have not seen him since. In high school, Doug was bright, well-liked, respected…

Don’t listen to what I say. Watch what I do,” Joe Rogers said last November when he announced his candidacy for the retiring Pat Schroeder’s congressional seat. But if you had been watching Rogers in 1991, when he wasn’t a Republican candidate but merely a member of the Denver law…

part 1 of 2 Driving into Douglas County on Interstate 25, the metro area’s future unfolds before your eyes. Thousands of new homes march up the hillsides, their pastel shades glinting in the Colorado sun. “Douglas County: Where Quality of Life Comes First” says the sign that greets motorists at…

part 2 of 2 Douglas County officials believe they’ve come up with a solution to the water problem. But their reliance on Denver to help them out of their dilemma may lead to the county’s biggest battle yet. The county commissioners want to spend as much as $600 million to…

Megan Ross shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She was growing impatient and leaned over to peek into the basket on the floor by her side. Someone was droning on about the status of anonymous AIDS testing. More of the same old, same old…as the agenda of these meetings of the…