If they went to a traditional high school, Wendy Ginther and her three best friends would probably be in different cliques. Wendy, who is articulate beyond her seventeen years, is the writer. Erick Mudge, who’s wearing a T-shirt with a Celtic design and a crystal around his neck, is the…
In the past few years, lower downtown and the adjacent Central Platte Valley have become Denver’s most sought-after addresses. An area that was once home to winos and run-down warehouses now boasts some of the most expensive lofts and condos in the city, with more than a few units going…
The man who gives — and takes — the flak for decisions made by Denver Public Schools is smarting from the recent false alarms the district sounded over possible budget cuts that had been slated for next year. The announcement that the district was short by $17 million to $25…
U.S. Representative Joel Hefley was no fan of President Bill Clinton; the Colorado Springs Republican regularly critiqued the Clinton administration. But Hefley does have reason to mourn the changing of the guard: He’s losing his favorite target. Although Coloradans know Hefley as the most silent, and arguably most conservative, member…
In Denver, sports is to many locals what Catholicism is to residents of Vatican City — and for that, Tim Griggs, vice president and general manager of Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain, would like to offer a prayer of thanks. After all, that fanaticism is one of several reasons the…
One night last week, the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks played a professional basketball game in the Pepsi Center. At least that’s what the morning papers said. Beheld from our vantage point, in lofty section 369, the event might actually have been one of many things: a concert…
The Light Stuff Out of the blue: Regarding Julie Jargon’s “Hide the Light,” in the February 15 issue, I can testify that Curtis Park is not alone in being affected by the obnoxiously bright Qwest sign. Even with the shades drawn in my fourth-floor loft near Coors Field, my bedroom…
Questions about Henry Lee Lucas will be debated for decades. This report is not offered as a final answer. There may never be a final answer. — Report from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, April 1986 A few weeks before Christmas, Tammy Andrews was rummaging through a storage space beneath…
Victor Saouma carefully shapes his sentences, at pains to be accurate. Part Lebanese, part Colombian, he holds himself with dignity. A professor of civil engineering who earned his doctorate at Cornell University and did post-doctoral work at Princeton, Saouma once thought of his employer, the University of Colorado, as a…
Curtis Park residents have reported a creepy blue glow hovering above their neighborhood for the past seven months. Is it a blue moon? No. Aliens? No. It’s…the Qwest building at 1801 California Street. The light, which emanates from the gigantic neon sign on the telecom company’s building (one of three…
Inside virtually every defense attorney beats a bleeding heart. These lawyers love to expound on the meaning of justice, how everyone deserves a fair trial, and how the true measure of a society rests in the way it treats its most reviled members. When it comes to Marvin Gray, however,…
They don’t call sunny skies “chamber of commerce weather” for nothing; the last thing any of these membership organizations wants is clouds on the horizon. That’s why officials at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce were taken aback last week when they were criticized for their portrayal of pioneer businessman…
“Did you see that?” In a blur of movements from measuring cup to rolling pin to cast-iron griddle, Charlotte Saenz mixes, rolls, toasts and then presents the perfect homemade tortilla to her Aurora cooking class. “You make it look so easy.” “Do you cater?” “What about the aluminum tortilla press…
“I don’t think there’s any real TV sports journalism in this market any longer,” says veteran Denver broadcaster Les Shapiro. “It’s been thrown out the window. The TV stations don’t care about it anymore, and evidently, the current anchors don’t either, because they don’t work it very hard.” Harsh words…
Time was, sports and recreation were something you did in your off-hours. Sure, there was always the company softball team. But at least you could choose who was on the squad. No geeks allowed — and that guy in sales and marketing who showers once every pay period? Forget it…
Garden Party Things that go bumpkin in the night: As a native of LaSalle, another dusty little town on the way from Denver to Greeley, I appreciated Robin Chotzinoff’s “The Plot Thickens,” her February 8 article on Garden City and its infamous history. During my adolescent years in the area,…
In the late 1800s, what is now lower downtown was the heart and groin of Denver, a rowdy, rollicking locus that served as a jumping-off point for folks hell-bent on gold and riches. The neighborhood teemed with saloons, gambling halls and bawdy houses, and it seemed that cardsharps, ladies of…
Ali Pahlavi certainly isn’t the first hustler to find his way to Denver. He isn’t even the first person to pose as a member of one royal family or another, although in this sports-crazy town, cops are more familiar with men who pretend they’re a member of the Denver Broncos…
The smell of feedlot hung in the air as I drove up Route 85 from Brighton, and a sign reading “Welcome to Garden City” flashed by. Whatever sort of place Garden City was, I drove through it in less than a minute and right on into the heart of Greeley…
For weeks now, Mike Cerbo has been Mayor Wellington Webb’s worst nightmare. Cerbo, the secretary-treasurer of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 14, has campaigned relentlessly against Denver’s $64 million subsidy of a Hyatt hotel planned for a parking lot across 14th Street from the Colorado Convention Center. The $217…
Peter Reshetniak respects wildlife. Dale Todd respects life. Neither man feels he is getting much respect from the state legislature, however, since lawmakers are well on their way to approving a bill that would not only make it harder for groups to qualify for specialty license plates but could also…
Every February, Rocky Mountain Wa Shonaji invites a well-known quilter to give a lecture in Denver. This year, the group (whose name means “people who sew” in Swahili) selected Raymond Dobard, a respected quilter and art-history professor from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Two years ago, Dobard, who gave his…
