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Sure, Michelangelo was a really, really good sculptor, Francisco Sotomayer says, but what made him special was the ‘Wow’ factor. “It’s a very simple rule. You look at the pyramids, and they make you say ‘Wow!’ You look at the accomplishments of Rome, and they make you say ‘Wow!’ You…

At first, the townspeople couldn’t believe it. And they didn’t want to talk about it. It is, after all, the heart of their community, the only flat spot in the canyon where people can walk their dogs, the only place where kids can play safely away from the highway that…

About 80 percent of the time, the companies that contribute to the contamination of Superfund sites pay for their cleanup, according to Barry Levene, director of the Colorado unit in Superfund Region 8. The statistics are even better in Colorado, where the EPA has had to help pay for the…

The beggars of Denver call it “flying a sign.” The endeavor’s only requirements are a scrap of wood or cardboard, a magic marker, and a willingness to stand all day like a scarecrow in the sun, washing down the taunts of strangers with the exhaust from their cars. Get a…

Western history is filled with stories of sometimes violent conflicts between railroads and common folk. In the days when trains were the only transportation link to the outside world, farmers and ranchers were often at the mercy of the rail line, which could charge exorbitant fees with no fear of…

Five weeks ago, attorney Jerry Stevens was up to his neck in a six-month battle with the Colorado Supreme Court over required continuing legal education courses (“A Real Page-Turner,” June 21). Stevens wanted the classes he’d taken at a mystery-writers’ convention last fall to count; the court’s Board of Continuing…

Father Carl Kabat, the 67-year-old Catholic priest and longtime protestor of nuclear weapons, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 12 for his latest act: an August 6, 2000, “action” in which Kabat and another man climbed the fence surrounding the N-7 Minuteman missile silo near Raymer, Colorado, placed unconsecrated…

No one likes a backseat driver. They’re pushy and distracting, and even if they’re right, their tone of voice is annoying. The same goes for those LED signs on the refurbished portion of Speer Boulevard that passes through downtown, the freeway free verse that for the last few weeks has…

For better or worse, Denver may be home to more media-savvy legal experts per capita than any other American city: Scott Robinson, Dan Caplis, Craig Silverman and Larry Posner, among others, appear frequently in local TV, radio and print reports and receive national exposure when an area story grabs the…

Up Against the Wall, Denver The mural of the story: I cannot believe the balls of the City of Denver, being somehow aghast at the new Terabeam mural (Jonathan Shikes’s “The Writing’s on the Wall,” June 28). They sell the rights to a stadium owned by the people — Pepsi,…

Garry Rudd never saw the flash. He never felt the heat of three suns upon his body or the million volts of electricity humming through his veins, but he remembers the blackness, the chill and the dreams. He is lying beside an irrigation ditch, and his family is looking for…

In the first hours after Jude Friend was struck by lightning, at a moment when she did not know whether she would live or die, she crawled to an opening in her tent and gazed at the morning sky. “What a beautiful sunrise,” she thought. Twenty-one years later, the image…

Steve Marshburn Sr. was hit by a thunderbolt in 1969 — while working indoors at a bank. The lightning flashed from ten miles away, struck a drive-through teller window, entered the bank building through an ungrounded speaker and shot into his spine. Since then, Marshburn has suffered myriad ailments, including…

On the day Peyton was born — February 6, 1975 — Pat Tuthill cuddled her sleeping daughter, promising to protect her and keep her safe. “And I will love you forever,” she whispered. Peyton was a child any parent would be proud of: loving, intelligent, athletic, talented, adventurous — but…

At 120 feet wide and 80 feet tall, Terabeam Corp.’s new billboard demands attention. And since it appeared on the wall of the Allright Parking garage at 1420 Stout Street, it’s gotten plenty of attention from the Mayor’s Office of Art, Culture and Film, the city’s zoning department, and just…

Vail, whose motto over the last few decades could well have been “Where rich kids come to get drunk and party,” now wants to crack down on drinking and partying (although probably not on rich kids), at least for the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve. Last December 31,…

In March, Tom Green announced that he would be leaving his post as lead sportscaster on Channel 7 to take the helm of Rocky Mountain Sports Report, a locally based program slated to debut on Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain come late spring. In May, Green divulged that his agreement…

The Verdict Is In Waiting can be murder: I am very impressed with the current “Penalty Zone” series. Steve Jackson has captured the very essence of the trials. Even though we know the outcome, I was as excited reading his work as I would have been reading a new novel…

Cynthia Devereaux is on the phone, calling everybody who’s anybody in Costilla County. She calls Father Pat Valdez, the parish priest in San Luis. She calls Patti Swift, the county judge. She calls her father, Ernesto Sandoval, the former county sheriff. She calls the neighbors. Her message is simple, delivered…

They were an unlikely pair of killers, the big-talking ladies’ man and the quiet missionary. George Woldt and Lucas Salmon. One was supposedly the leader and the other the follower, but it’s doubtful that either would have had the nerve to do alone what they did together. They planned their…