The most sweeping change in Denver growth policies in a generation will soon be considered by the city council. The plan that the council comes up with will determine what parts of the city will see the most intensive development over the next twenty years, as Denver struggles to accommodate…
For Greg Kolomitz, election “day” this year felt like it lasted forever. In actuality, it was three weeks long. But the 21-day stretch between when the polls opened in Denver’s first all-mail-ballot election and when they closed November 6 meant that politicians and political strategists such as Kolomitz had to…
The only thing that’s certain about the Central Registry of Child Protection is that it’s not clear whether it’s serving its intended purpose, according to a four-month evaluation by the Office of the State Auditor. The Central Registry was created by the state legislature more than thirty years ago to…
Movie screenings aren’t normally a tough ticket in this town. Free passes to early showings of the average flick can be snagged easily — not just by local film critics, but by anyone who knows where to go to get one. But then, The Fellowship of the Ring — the…
“Yes,” says Paul Saunders, “there is a Santa Claus!” Saunders has never really doubted the existence of the Big Red One: With a snowy beard and a bowl-full-of-jelly physique, he’s the very image of St. Nick, whom he’s been portraying this holiday season at Estes Park’s landmark Stanley Hotel. But…
Don’t bother calling Ripley’s Believe It or Not or the supermarket tabloids, because they won’t believe it either. On Sunday afternoon, a crazed computer from Morristown, New Jersey, snuck up behind a buffalo in Boulder, Colorado, and forced nonconsensual sex on the hapless beast. That’s not all. It also proceeded…
Lost and Found Miracles happen: I just read Harrison Fletcher’s wonderful article regarding the journey of the Lost Boys, “Coming to America,” in the December 6 issue. I was extremely touched by the cause of these young men who, to me, represent a forgotten type of miracle. Janine Paglia via…
They have seen so much already — the destruction of their homes, the deaths of their friends and families, deserts littered with human bones — and now, as they arrive at Denver International Airport, the three young men from southern Sudan must confront a contraption called an “elevator.” They stand…
A year before the shootings at Columbine High School, Eric David Harris already had the plan worked out in his head. He knew what time to attack the school in order to kill and maim the most students. He knew where he and fellow gunman Dylan Klebold, alias “V” or…
Last week’s dismissal of most of the lawsuits against police and school officials stemming from the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School left frustrated victims’ families contemplating a wide range of responses, from legal appeals and legislation to renewed calls for a grand jury to investigate possible police misconduct. If…
Last December, a group of activists with the Denver Justice and Peace Committee staged a protest outside the Kohl’s department store in Golden. As part of a nationwide day of action against the store chain, they chanted mock Christmas carols about the evils of sweatshop labor and human-rights abuses in…
Today, Colorado motorcyclists continue to be excluded from the state’s no-fault insurance law (“A Vicious Cycle,” July 12). But last week, Denver mayor Wellington Webb announced an effort to improve the status of bikers — as long as they’re members of the Denver Police Department, that is. Although officers who…
Although this year’s joint operating agreement made the business operations at the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post inseparable, most members of the dailies’ editorial departments take pride in their continued independence — so much so that their battles for stories are often every bit as intense as they…
Arapahoe County-based AT&T Broadband believes in making holiday wishes come true; it says so right in the glossy advertisement that was inserted in hundreds of thousands of Denver newspapers on Sunday. “With monthly rates starting at $35.95, AT&T Broadband Internet service makes it easy and affordable to shop for everyone…
Naming Names No kidding around: I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed Julie Jargon’s article about the Central Registry (“The Name Game,” November 1). I found it very informative and an interesting read. I work at a child-care facility, and not too long ago we were under…
This all started around 65 million years ago, when a large carnivore died badly in the wilds of what is now eastern Wyoming. But no human paid any attention to the big fellow’s demise until one day in the summer of 1995 — the day two men lugged a box…
As theater lovers lined up around the block last weekend to buy tickets to The Lion King, a musical extravaganza coming to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts this April, they may not have realized that the law of the jungle extends to the ticket counter. Since last February,…
Okay, so he’s a not a super-duper star, but he is pretty famous, especially now that he’s co-starring in the remake of Ocean’s 11 with five legitimate superstars — and hey, he’s from Denver, which usually is enough to rate several gossip-column items when an actor visits his hometown. Still,…
Thanks to movies like Broadcast News and television programs such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, most people have a clear image of how TV newscasts are assembled. We’re familiar with the camera operators, the lighting and sound technicians, the control rooms filled with crew members in thrall to a…
His earthly triumphs interrupted by exhaustion and injury, home-run king Mark McGwire retired a couple of weeks ago. This came as unhappy news in baseball-savvy St. Louis, where the massive, red-headed slugger made home-run history in 1998, and in countless other precincts of the grand old game. It’s a good…
Drug Bust Praisin’ Kane: Regarding federal judge John Kane (Stuart Steers’s “Disorder in the Court,” November 22), I have three words for this man: God bless him. It amazes me that so few in his position see what is painfully obvious: The “War on Drugs” is a colossal waste of…
United States District Court Judge John L. Kane is informally holding court behind his desk in downtown Denver’s federal courthouse. The 64-year-old jurist puts on his reading glasses, arches his bushy gray eyebrows and begins leafing through a pile of articles he keeps in a folder. He pulls one out…
