part 2 of 2 It’s the noon hour at a nearby restaurant, and Bob Sylvester is trying to nab a bite or two of his chicken sandwich while offering an ex-con’s appraisal of Bruce Benson’s crime plan. The sandwich can’t compete; it sits there, cold and forlorn, while Sylvester expounds…
part 1 of 2 Are tattoos a problem? Maybe not for Drew Barrymore or some teenage goof scooping frozen yogurt down at the mall. But they haven’t spent nine and a half years in the joint, in a sea of tattoos, like Roy has. “It’s hard not to feel funny…
part 1 of 2 To many people, Dennis Lamothe would seem to pose an unacceptable risk. For starters, on this scorching Saturday morning he is busy loading three solid-propellant motors inside his very large–two stories high, 350 pounds–homemade rocket. The motors are encased in shiny aluminum tubes. They weigh about…
part 2 of 2 As anyone familiar with rocketry knows, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This week in Argonia, that particular law of physics appears in the shape of Rick Wills. Wills, who designs airplane cockpits for the Air Force, is the owner of Midwest…
Things to do in Denver when you’re read: If you’re Ken Hamblin, try the decaf. The normally mellow Sunday segment of the Today Show was quite an eye-opener September 4 when Hamblin, live from KCNC in Denver, took aim at three guests in the New York studio who were discussing…
If major-league baseball players and owners want to know what’s good for them–they remain stubbornly in the dark about that–both sides would do well to lay down their golf clubs and set aside their disputes this month to finish school. The professor will be Ken Burns, the ground-breaking documentary filmmaker…
Here’s Muddy’s in Your Eye I recently wrote to thank Westword for Patricia Calhoun’s July 13 column “Feel the Burn,” which alerted us that the city was going to use the Washington Park Recreation Center for the curfew program. Now I must thank you again, this time for the August…
King Soopers, the grocery chain Denver city officials touted last summer as the anchor tenant for a redeveloped Stapleton International Airport, may end up checking out of that major role. At a press conference in July 1993 in Mayor Wellington Webb’s office, it was reported that the grocery chain would…
It really wasn’t much of a tree. The little conifer that grew next to a roadside cutoff on Highway 74 outside of Evergreen was only four feet tall and, compared with the impressive specimens on the hillside above it, the tree’s misshapen branches and crooked trunk were hardly worth a…
The money and effort government spends in the name of economic development is supposed to bring a community new companies and additional jobs. But did economic development actually cause Fort Collins to lose $300 million worth of new investments? Last week AT&T announced that it was putting its NCR Microelectronic…
part 2 of 2 But it was a certain group of sixth-grade boys who gave Trost the most trouble. On January 12, a week after the West Side Story incident, Trost was once again having a hard time making himself heard. One of the loudest kids was a boy he’d…
part 1 of 2 John Trost takes a deep breath. Dressed in a sports jacket and tie that speak of upper-class tastes, the slight, boyish-looking man and his “wife” bustle onto the stage at the Theatre on Broadway. “Boy, have we got a story to tell you,” exclaims another couple…
It was in late August 1984 that residents in the southwest Denver subdivisions of Friendly Hills and Harriman Park called a news conference to demand an explanation from public officials about an unusual number of cancer deaths and health problems among children living in the area. Ten years later, they’re…
California schemin’: Douglas Bruce, the self-proclaimed “terrorist” who keeps Colorado hopping with his ballot proposals (including this year’s much-feared Amendment 12), turned 45 last week. To mark the august occasion, the almost-year-old Colorado Springs Independent sent news editor Cara DeGette to uncover Bruce’s Southern California roots. Among DeGette’s findings, published…
When they’re not preaching the Word of God or playing General MacArthur, football coaches are usually stewing in their juices. Is it seemly for grown men to worry quite so much about the efficacy of the all-out blitz or the state of mind in the Atlanta Falcons locker room? Probably…
In legal matters involving disgruntled former teachers, the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver has won one and lost one. And the victory came when a judge ruled that the federal government couldn’t intervene on a fired Machebeuf Catholic High School instructor’s behalf without infringing on the Church’s First Amendment religious freedoms…
Their Passion Was in Tents I have just read Patricia Calhoun’s August 17 column, “Fold Your Tents,” in reference to the airport. Well done! It says everything that needs to be said again and again and again. The whole project from the beginning–there may never be an end–hasn’t been well…
City of Denver airport officials are continuing to woo financially troubled MarkAir–this time with a deal that could give the Anchorage-based airline up to seven months of free rent for agreeing to put a new reservations center at Stapleton International Airport. Despite MarkAir’s precarious fiscal history, city officials and the…
Rob Betts loves industrial rock, dislikes authority and has a grudge against police. And for more than a year now, the Denver college student has channeled those traits into editing The Denver MonkeyWrench, a funky underground newsletter with an anti-cop bent. Not surprisingly, Betts’s creation has earned him a special…
At first glance, it looks like an inconsequential little controversy involving nothing more significant than some burned-out light bulbs, missing trash cans and wads of discarded chewing gum. But in recent weeks, a seemingly mundane dispute over street maintenance along Denver’s Santa Fe Drive has turned into a heated political…
Teresa Hailey, state director of the Miss Colorado Metroplex pageant, would have done well to commit her organization’s mawkish creed to heart. “Be too large for worry,” it reads, “too noble for anger, too strong for fear, too happy to admit the presence of trouble.” On June 12, however, nearly…
All stirred up: According to Denver police chief Dave Michaud, the SafeNite program “is an excellent additional tool that is being used by police officers to remove kids from dangerous environments.” Coffee, anyone? One month into the program, the city had nabbed a total of 118 kids for curfew violation–at…
