The elderly man on the phone explained that his wife was distraught. It had been ten days since they buried their loved one at Evergreen Memorial Park, and she had since learned that the casket wasn’t airtight. There would surely be seepage when the mountain snow melted in the spring–and…
Six-year-old Alexis Storkson emerges from her first-grade classroom, scanning the greenery that surrounds her Arvada elementary school in search of a familiar face. She soon finds one: Chris Perry, her father, is standing beneath a small tree, wearing a broad smile and holding out his arms. Within five seconds, a…
Guv, American-style: Even before Bruce Benson did his petulant Ross Perot imitation last Thursday, presenting incumbent Roy Romer with a bowling trophy and pulling out of any future debates because “we want to go back to our game plan and play by our rules,” the Colorado governor’s race had attracted…
The personification of baseball this October–the game’s patron saint–might as well be William Aloysius Bergen, late of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. For he suits the present mood. Bergen, who spent eleven seasons as a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers right after the turn of the century, played…
Last year, when Bruce Benson had the court records of his divorce from his former wife, Nancy, sealed, he became a member of a very elite club. Of the 36,250 couples who filed for dissolution of their marriages in Denver County District Court between 1986 and 1993, only 68 have…
A national watchdog of charitable donations on behalf of the nation’s disadvantaged trotted into town Tuesday to sink its teeth into one of Denver’s largest philanthropic foundations. But Robert Lee, the executive director of the Denver Foundation, says it was a case of a bark being worse than a bite…
Glenda Swanson Lyle struck a blow for good government last year when she introduced a bill in the Colorado legislature to prevent dishonest politicians from taking office. But Representative Lyle, a Democrat who represents voters in northeast Denver, is now fending off questions about her own integrity. The state has…
A Public Nuisance Patricia Calhoun certainly got herself worked up over the Denver City Attorney’s decision to make supposedly public documents private (September 28’s “The Client” and October 5’s “Open and Shut-Up Case”). But I, for one, applaud Daniel Muse’s attempt to keep the city’s legal contracts confidential. It is…
Ronnie Crawford and Russell Enloe are making their semi-annual trip to see Vic. Although their quest for cool old stuff continues every day of the year, taking them to thrift shops, basements and attics all over town, a visit to Vic’s department store in southern Colorado is more of a…
part 1 of 2 The cancer, Brian Rusca remembers, seemed to devour John Savage from within, like a weevil inside a boll of cotton. In May, when Rusca flew out from Fresno to Colorado Springs for a final visit, his normally robust, six-foot-one-inch friend was down to a wire-thin 140…
part 2 of 2 During the late 1980s and early 1990s Savage spent a lot of time jetting back and forth between England and Colorado, where he had also developed a number of business contacts. One was Michael Bergman, a Fort Collins man who hoped Savage would provide him with…
Fly-by-night operation: Bad enough that four Denver City Council members–Cathy Reynolds, Tim Sandos, Joyce Foster and president Debbie Ortega–got caught accepting a city concessionaire’s overnight junket, but to the Broncos-Buffalo game? The only thing more embarrassing than Denver’s performance on the football field is Denver’s performance on its new airfield–but…
Certain Christian theologians tell us that the worst thing that can happen to a person is to catch a momentary vision of heaven, then watch the big gate swing shut without getting to go inside. Even if that’s not true, it could explain what’s wrong with those thugs and vigilantes…
Listening to Denver city officials, residents might be tempted to conclude that the missteps and delays plaguing Denver International Airport are rare blips on the clear screen that is city government. As any city hall veteran can confirm, however, DIA’s holding pattern is unique only in its scale. Consider the…
Ron Parrish, the publisher of Denver’s first-ever newsletter devoted entirely to talk radio, says he’s confident there are plenty of other locals as addicted to babble as he is. But so far, he doesn’t have much evidence. “I have a friend or two who listen to talk,” reveals the 41-year-old…
One of the largest-ever private grants awarded to a Denver neighborhood has driven a rift between community groups in the very area it’s supposed to be helping. Last year the Denver nonprofit group NEWSED scored a major coup when it was picked to receive more than $3 million from the…
Members of a taxpayer-funded citizens’ group set up to monitor developments at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant say a second public watchdog group has become a mouthpiece for the government. The accusations come in the wake of three resignations this summer at the five-year-old Rocky Flats Cleanup Commission, a…
Love That Bob! I am appalled by Steve Jackson’s “Top of Their Game,” in the September 21 issue, for its tacit approval of the activities of “Bob,” the self-appointed eco-terrorist who seems to limit his involvement in the environmental movement to stealing the Colorado Mountain Club’s summit registers from the…
part 2 of 2 The Savings & Loan Connection In 1991 Benson made much public hay over Senator Tim Wirth’s ties to the national savings-and-loan debacle. Specifically, Benson accused Wirth of indirectly propping up an unhealthy industry through the senator’s allegedly overclose relationship with junk-bond company Drexel Burnham Lambert. Yet…
The political circus comes to Adams County every four years right about now. And the race for county sheriff often occupies the center ring. Eight years ago, when sheriff Bert Johnson was awaiting the start of his trial on sexual assault and harassment charges, he was still debating whether to…
part 1 of 2 Ever since Bruce Benson began waging his campaign for the governor’s office, his opponents have used his fortune against him by portraying him as a consumer shopping for an office. During the primary, Republican candidate Dick Sargent vowed, “We’re going to take him out with one…
Bush baby: In town last week to plug her book–as well as to push the Republican candidate for governor–Barbara Bush did an excellent job of ignoring former first son Neil Bush’s tarnished ties to Denver, courtesy the board of Silverado. And the local media was apparently happy to help out,…
