The halls of the Federal Building in downtown Denver are lined with helpful bulletins advising visitors of their right to a hassle-free workplace. Sexual harassment, discrimination on the basis of disability or race or national origin, gender-based bias in hiring or promotion–all the unspeakable, unconstitutional acts of modern society are…
In 1995, the famed Tibetan Buddhist monk and scholar Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche visited the Federal Correctional Institute in Englewood. The holy man walked through the main entrance of the medium-security prison onto its linoleum floors, which looked dull even under the harsh fluorescent lighting, and through a rabbit-infested courtyard…
It was fun while it lasted, but the Denver Public Library has finally lost patience with patrons who use its computer facilities as a video arcade–or, for that matter, an adult-video arcade. In an effort to relieve congestion on their overburdened PCs, library administrators are working on a plan that…
One Thursday evening in mid-September, Catherine Bauer hopped the RTD light-rail train from her receptionist job in a downtown communications-strategy firm. By 7:30 she was in the Broadway Marketplace lot, just south of Alameda and Broadway–but her car wasn’t. “At first I thought it was stolen,” she says. “I was…
Proof of the dumbing-down of the news–or at least its alleged gatherers–arrived Saturday in an announcement from Colorado Public Radio that the station had “temporarily removed” Tia Marlier from the news department, where she worked as announcer for the popular All Things Considered and Weekend Edition news shows. Her sin?…
Some wonderfully gaudy facts and feats have decorated this extraordinary baseball season. Mutual admirers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa demolished home-run history, of course, going downtown a total of 136 times. Cal Ripken–he of the silver countenance and the iron constitution–finally decided to take a day off after seventeen years…
Ex Marks the Spat Regarding Ward Harkavy’s “Fact or Friction?” in the October 1 issue: The very idea that gays come from bad families, smothering mothers, etc., is absurd, to say the least. I know many gays, including myself, who come from very loving families where “the lifestyle” was never…
Twenty years ago, Denver led the way in dealing with domestic violence. While other cities were just beginning to recognize the plight of battered women–hell, in some states it was still legal for a husband to rape his wife–Denver was funding safehouses, establishing police protocols and reconfiguring courts to provide…
Maybe it was the flea-market matador that sparked the lightbulb over Henry Whittaker’s head. Or the wooden tiki mask. Or the Fisher-Price dollhouse. Or the plaster conquistador figurine. Heck if Henry knows. Besides, even if he could remember what inspired his collection, it’s hard to explain the appeal of a…
John Paulk’s life has really changed. A few years ago he was nobody, just another former drag queen. But that was before he started going public with his “conversion” from homosexuality, before he became the straight man for the “ex-gay” propaganda campaign. That campaign kicked into high gear this summer…
“As time passes, memories fade, but we will never forget.” –Inscription from the WSU crash memorial at Loveland Pass On October 2, 1970, highway construction crews working above Georgetown looked up to see a puzzling site. A Martin 404 twin-engine plane was traveling low through the canyon, straining for the…
Penalty flagged: Even as Broncos owner Pat “The Great Patsby” Bowlen was ratcheting up his campaign for a publicly financed football palace last month, one of his most prominent employees showed up on a list of 1997 tax delinquents. Defensive back Tyrone Braxton appeared on the City of Denver’s overdue…
Lead Promise Keeper Bill McCartney is standing at the podium at the World Arena in Colorado Springs, urging 8,900 men to “make a commitment” for January 1, 2000. Every man in the arena is standing, promising to bring his family and invite ten other families to Promise Keepers rallies across…
Think of John Elway and the rest of the Broncos’ offense trying to score without their front line. Or the Avalanche endlessly trying to kill an eternal double penalty. Now you know what it’s like to work in Secretary of State Vikki Buckley’s division of commercial recordings, which is struggling…
For Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and a stampede of horses called the New York Yankees, this has been the most glorious of baseball seasons. Not so for the 77-85 Colorado Rockies, who in the mists of April were thought to be solid contenders. But when the ax fell, as everyone…
Justice, Boulder Style Thanks for a great article on Alex “See No Evil” Hunter (Juliet Wittman’s “He Aims to Plea,” September 24). I can only hope that as Election Day 2000 nears, the people of Boulder will finally do the right thing and vote him out. As inbred as Boulder…
For six hours we’ve been surrounded by elk we never see. They move around us in tight circles, mating, pooping, bugling, but always invisible. How can this be? After all, between the two of us, we have one person who knows hunting backward and forward and one who at least…
Listen carefully. In the 21 months since JonBenet Ramsey’s body was discovered in a Boulder basement, Colorado has tried the two men charged with the Oklahoma City bombing, convicting both Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols and sentencing McVeigh to death. We have hosted the Summit of the Eight. We have…
Sunder Schlagel: You mean I make love better to you now than I was when I was ten years old or eleven years old? Jill: Mmmm-hmmmm. Yeah. Sunder: Mother, you cut me down… Sunder: That’s basically it. The sex life was just probably the only thing that was working out,…
Mark is looking after a friend’s three-month-old baby. “I’m her godfather,” he says proudly. Mark is a young man with fair hair and fresh coloring, sipping an iced mocha in a downtown Peaberry’s, the baby sleeping in a carrier at his feet. Mark, now twenty years old, is one of…
In the early 1990s, residents of the 1600 block of Humboldt Street–a mix of retirees, young professionals and middle-class families–fought to save the block from crime and drug traffic. Today the neighborhood, situated between downtown Denver and City Park, is flush with activity fueled by the massive redevelopment that is…
When Robin Bowman gets a notion to start something, wild horses can’t stop her. In fact, for the idea she’s exploring right now, the horses could only help. They’re part of her equestrian equation, a striking symmetry that’s hard to resist. Here’s the equation: Colorado prisoners tame wild horses in…
