News

The skeletons of two large greenhouses stand at the back of Roy Obluda’s property. “I’ve been a little slow tearing them down,” he says. “Reluctant, I guess.” When they are gone, so will be the last physical reminder of 36 years in the flower business. Thirty-six years of growing carnations…

Prologue: It all started when a group of women in the Denver city treasurer’s office began going out to lunch together. In the end, all that was left was an $80,000 check and a receipt from Hooters. Laura R. Fisher sued the city after quitting her job as a senior…

The sun refused to appear last Thursday morning at the Regional Transportation District’s light-rail station at I-25 and Broadway, but nobody seemed to mind. There were plenty of other dignitaries on hand, and this was clearly Ben Klein’s moment to shine. Klein, the chairman of RTD’s elected board of directors,…

Paramedic Rick Stolte liked practical jokes. So did his co-workers at the Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton. During almost six years of working there, Stolte saw or participated in everything from snowball fights to cars stuffed with shredded paper to colleagues fooling around in the hospital’s computer system. Neither…

Time is about to run out on Colorado’s most irascible political entity. But the tiny Moffat Tunnel Commission is going down swinging. State legislators last week abolished the commission, an obscure state agency whose political monkey-wrenching in the past four years has drawn the wrath of some of Colorado’s most…

Unreal estate: Seems like only yesterday that Denver megadeveloper Larry A. Mizel, last week dubbed “dean” of real estate at the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business, was just another rich kid in Tulsa. Eventually, of course, he became George Bush’s mightiest fundraiser (he collected $1 million for the…

This is Historic Denver Week, which neatly overlaps with National Historic Preservation Week. And so on Thursday, Mayor Wellington Webb is scheduled to speak on the “importance of preserving, renovating and reusing Denver’s historic structures.” He will do so at the newly refurbished Holtze Executive Place on 17th Street. No…

Rest in Piss Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s May 9 column, “Disturbing the Piss”: Although it is probably a waste of time to dispute the opinion of anyone who would use such a vulgarism in the title of her article, I feel I must try. Perhaps Ms. Calhoun does not mind “letting…

Legislators like to give the impression that they are part of a sacred mission. Working in dark-paneled chambers filled with high-minded speechifying, they create the laws that drive social policy, behavior and morality, all for the greater public good. Right. In reality, legislators can get awfully personal. So can their…

We help injured people…that’s our job!” “I know how to handle insurance companies; I used to be their attorney!” “I will fight for your rights!” “Been in an accident? Got your check yet?” On the tube there’s the guy in the tank who runs over a car, the woman in…

It’s one hell of a way to get ahold of somebody. But more than twenty years after US West assigned a devilish prefix to telephone users in the towns of Louisville and Lafayette, the communities are still getting their kicks dialing 666. Over the years, the numerical sequence has inspired…

That’s rich! Now that the Rocky Mountain News has cut back on its distribution area, it’s not as much fun to compare the two dailies’ creative-writing efforts that “interpret” the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation. Not surprisingly, both the News and the Denver Post found something to…

Students left out in the cold when Barnes Business College closed its doors last August may find their student loans forgiven by the state. Colorado taxpayers may not be so forgiving: Since the school’s owner declared bankruptcy, they’re the ones who will have to foot the bill. According to C…

The metro area’s startling growth rate has alarmed Coloradans the past few years, as new subdivisions and mini-marts crowd valleys and hillsides from Longmont to Castle Rock. But a little-noticed effort by local cities to constrain urban sprawl–by drawing a line around Denver and daring developers to step across it–may…

You are at a formal event, in heels and a sequined gown, when nature calls. Does the fact that you have a penis prevent you from using the ladies’ room? Not in Denver, it shouldn’t. But apparently it’s easier to dance backward in a tight dress and high heels than…

Attitude Adjustment Michelle Dally Johnston’s story “Adopting an Attitude,” in the April 25 issue, was mean-spirited, inaccurate and biased. (Whatever happened to the tradition of objective reporting?) She said there were 42 private adoption agencies in Colorado and then proceeded to lump them all together as incompetent, overpriced and non-essential…

After a long run, an athlete is chewing the fat. “Fifty-two-point-five miles,” Matt Reilly reports from Portland. “Yeah, I finished the race. It took me eleven hours, and I seem to have run until my butt cheeks chafed. You want a quote? Here: Chicks dig guys who run ultra-marathons.” “How…

Kiowa, the county seat of Elbert County, is tucked in a cottonwood-lined valley half an hour east of Castle Rock on state highway 86. The town of 300 consists of a few blocks of homes on each side of the highway, which also serves as Kiowa’s main street. On a…

Officials at Denver International Airport are moving forward with plans for major work on the baggage system in Concourse A, even though the carriers who use the concourse say they’re happy with the system they have and don’t want to pay for new construction. The expenditure also comes amid persistent…

Faculty members at the University of Oklahoma journalism school are split over Melissa Klinzing’s decision to leave an Oklahoma City television station to accept a post as news director for KMGH/Channel 7 in Denver. Assistant professor Bill Loving says that some of his colleagues were delighted to hear that Klinzing–who…