In September, cheerful trolls still stand on the Park Hill neighborhood fence, though their magenta hair is bleached white from the rains of summer. A giant plastic slug eyeball, once a gumball-machine treasure, is disintegrating into a pile of sludge dotted with once-live flies–a poignant contrast to a nearby array…
Jon Dickerson’s job reminded him a lot of Glengarry Glen Ross. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning David Mamet play, frantic salesmen scramble for good leads–prospective buyers–doled out by their boss so they can sell dubious timeshares. Instead of selling real estate, though, Dickerson sold education. Beginning in 1989, when he was…
Taxpayers shelled out more than a quarter of a million dollars over the past year to try to determine whether some rocks in a Boulder field constitute a federally protected Indian sacred site. The money was used to pay representatives of fourteen federally recognized tribes–many with nebulous or transitory historic…
part 2 of 2 Watson’s primary public role, it seemed, was to get arrested. “I spent a lot of time spread-eagled over somebody’s hood or trunk,” he says. Today many of the charges appear foolish, and the whole dance–provocation, arrest, rhetoric–reads like a game in which both sides agreed to…
part 1 of 2 A quarter of a century ago, Lauren Watson organized the Denver chapter of the Black Panther Party. For a little over two years he led the local arm through the party’s familiar litany of threats, arrests and occasional riots, and at his peak in 1970, Watson…
The letters arrived in the third week of May. They came in the mail, dozens of them, addressed to city council members, county commissioners, ministers, teachers, parents–anybody who was anybody in Las Animas, a town of 2,500 on the eastern plains, where everybody seems to know everybody else’s business. First…
Home improvement: Back when voters passed Amendment 1, elected officials across Colorado were wringing their hands and moaning that such tax limitations would put the state in dire peril. So far, of course, Colorado’s managed to survive–although numerous government entities, including RTD and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, are…
Hey, y’all. This here’s Jerry Jones, and I wanna tell you this afternoon ’bout a couple of changes to our fuhball team that’s gonna git us back in the Super Bowl faster’n a coyote goes in heat, I’m pretty sure. Now, some folks said the Dallas Cowboys were finished, that…
Poem on the Range Regarding the September 13 Off Limits: Legal lyrics not done solo News for some within Westword Prosecution prose pro bono But not without some effort. Verse is not an easy art As anyone can see Rhyming is the biggest part At least it is for me…
During the past year, budding, nonviolent juvenile delinquents have been turned into budding, nonviolent artists, the idea being that the pint-sized perps would sell their artwork to reimburse crime victims. It may be working. The youngsters, all age sixteen or younger, have raised roughly $5,000 (the bulk of it in…
Linda Donnelly is what you could call a lawyer cop. As head of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel for the Colorado Supreme Court, she’s charged with making sure the 20,376 attorneys who belong to the Colorado Bar are respectable, upright citizens who zealously represent their clients without robbing them blind…
The Denver Housing Authority is planning an ambitious $26.4 million renovation of Quigg Newton Homes, the city’s largest housing project, but northwest Denver community leaders say the DHA has been secretive and has left them in the dark. Leaders of Sunnyside United Neighbors angrily accuse the housing authority of excluding…
On Thursday, September 7, following fourteen hours of deliberations, a Fort Morgan jury acquitted Charles “Butch” Allee of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and three other charges related to the February 19 beating death of Wiggins farmer Jeffrey Lousberg. Allee’s teenaged son, Charles Allee III, is scheduled to stand trial September…
Denver’s halfway houses are supposed to help state prisoners ease their way back into society. But for an ever-increasing number of inmates, “community corrections” facilities are simply an easy ticket to freedom. Inmates have escaped or walked away from Denver halfway houses at a record pace this year. According to…
“The time has come The time is now Just go, go, go I don’t care how.” –from “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” by Dr. Seuss I am standing by the Northern Shores exhibit at the Denver Zoo, watching media stars Klondike and Snow and thinking: Christ on…
Pronghorn Gifts, the Denver Zoo Number of polar bear items on display: 18 Overall theme: Noble, endangered, anonymous adult polar bears meet personality-laden juveniles Klondike and Snow in a fluffy yet environmentally aware display. T-shirt situation: Too many to count, ranging in price from $13.95 to $18.95, with a choice…
Fried couch potatoes: Judging by all the ridiculous hype and hoopla that preceded, and coincided with, and followed the network affiliation switch Sunday morning, we have indeed become a nation of vidiots. Not entirely, of course. Some folks at the daily papers were smart enough to figure out that the…
If you don’t watch where you walk–well, you know. Any time 400 dog lovers and their pets get together in one place, the footing can get hazardous. But that’s not the only thing. Confused Labrador retrievers sometimes leap over the rail and scamper up the backstretch in the wrong direction…
In case you missed it, Lewis and Floorwax, the morning DJs on KRFX/103.5 The Fox, held a contest on July 28. It was called “Denver’s Biggest Butt.” Coming in third was Jackie. Despite the disappointing finish, Jackie had no reason to be ashamed. She was prodigious. She was the first…
Bill Loeffler first stepped into an airport information booth in 1986. He’s stayed there for one reason: public contact. “I see everybody I’ve ever known in my life at least once a year,” Loeffler says. “I’m 65 years old, and I still see people I knew in high school. There…
LoDo Lowdown Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s September 6 column, “It’s Not Over Till It’s Over,” I submit the following comments: It’s not over, Patricia…it’s just under way. Your depiction of LoDo development is unbalanced and over-emotional, because it details symptoms rather than true, underlying problems caused by LoDo development. Consider the…
Last year thousands of baseball fans paid for the privilege of having their names inscribed on bricks placed along the Wynkoop Plaza leading to Coors Field. But for the same $75 fee paid by the masses, some of the most powerful people in Colorado got a little something extra. The…
