News

The new-age movement has invaded Rocky Mountain National Park–and knowingly or not, modern-day mystics are destroying sites of historical significance to American Indian tribes. The damage is being done by people who move rocks and other artifacts in places where Indians once lived or conducted religious ceremonies, says Kenny Frost,…

From “The Top Ten Signs Your U.S. Senator Is Nuts.” Number 9: Breakfast, lunch and dinner? Zima. When David Letterman jokes about an alcoholic beverage night after night, something’s going on. Just what, exactly, isn’t clear–unlike the drink itself. Coors Brewing Company, the nation’s number-three brewer, devoted one and a…

part 1 of 2 Thin and frail, Pauline Robinson lay down on her couch. She would have liked to read a book to pass the time, but her cataracts made that all but impossible. The difficulty was irritating; there was still so much she wanted to read, and at her…

part 2 of 2 In the last quarter of her junior year Pauline was ready to quit, this time for good. It wasn’t just the prejudices of a few misguided people that wore her down. Working and studying was a drain; there was never enough money, and she was ashamed…

Meet Duncan, the techno-savvy Generation X-er who is your personal guide through the Zima site–the Zimaverse–on the World Wide Web (http://www.zima.com). Your first stop is the fridge, the storage bin for Zima and the place Duncan calls home. From here nine links take you to different areas; Duncan suggests you…

Room at the top: Dateline NBC caught Colorado congressman Scott McInnis (see story, left) napping last month, when the TV news magazine checked out which representatives were calling the House Office Building home. Although McInnis, who represents the state’s third congressional district, had told reporters that he was giving up…

Students expecting to graduate in October from the licensed practical nursing program at Denver’s Concorde Career Institute have been told they must wait until January. Greater than their disappointment, say some nursing students, is their fear that the education that cost them $12,000–many times the price of LPN programs at…

Suffer the Children Regarding Michelle Dally Johnston’s “The Clients,” in the August 23 issue: The timing of your article regarding the GAL program in Denver was eerie, since I had started to look into the availability of such a program just last week. I moved here approximately eight months ago…

Republican congressman Scott McInnis of Glenwood Springs is fond of criticizing his Washington colleagues–especially Denver’s Pat Schroeder–for their taxpayer-supported travel. So last year, after running a re-election campaign based on reforming Washington, McInnis took a trip to South Korea and found a private interest to pick up the tab: the…

Colorado residents have a right to look at the state’s public records. But more and more often, that right comes with a stiff price tag attached. Eager to raise revenue in an era of belt-tightening, state agencies are charging citizens up to $1.25 per page for copies of everything from…

It’s a Friday afternoon in mid-August, and the Colorado Rockies are preparing to play one of the most important games in team history. The club had spent the previous several weeks blowing a six-game lead in the National League’s Western division; going into the evening’s contest, the Rockies trail the…

part 2 of 2 Where does the money go? More than two years’ worth of board minutes obtained by Westword, covering a period starting in January 1992, paint a picture of a nonprofit Christian ministry flooded by funds yet facing big bills. Daily cash flow pulsated into six figures. On…

part 1 of 2 On a Sunday in July, three elderly women huddle in the foyer of the Happy Church, their eyes squeezed shut, their heads fiercely nodding in affirmation, their voices murmuring “Yes!” as Pastor Wally implores God to drive cancer out. Out! In addition to expelling demons, Pentecostal…

A shot in the dark: The media dubbed summer 1993 the “Summer of Violence” after a few well-publicized shootings, including the Capitol Hill slaying of popular Imi Jimi proprietor Tom Hollar. Now you can chalk up 1995 as the official “Summer of Silence.” Although the homicide rate is running much…

Last week, graffiti made local headlines as never before–community leaders decried the defacement of a beloved rec-center mural, a “volunteer” bloodhound was pressed into service to track down spray-paint-toting vandals, and a local radio station opened a graffiti hotline to report acts of vandalism. Just one week earlier, however, Denver…

Klondike and Snow Job I am compelled to write Westword regarding Kenny Be’s August 9 Worst-Case Scenario depicting the proposed habitat for Klondike and Snow as being decadently opulent while the homeless of Denver are housed in subhuman shelters. In fact, Klondike and Snow’s habitat in Florida would be smaller…

The world may be a safer place with Jeffery Thomas behind bars, but it sure is a lot more complicated. In January 1993, Thomas (who is serving three life sentences for murdering his girlfriend) was assaulted by guards at the state prison in Limon. Then, after Thomas filed a formal…

Newt Gingrich’s “Earning by Learning” program caught heat recently when the Wall Street Journal reported that a close friend of the House Speaker’s pocketed fully half of the west Georgia program’s private donations for his own compensation. The criticism came in light of Gingrich’s earlier comments that all of the…

part 2 of 2 Magistrate Melvin Okamoto runs Division 6 in Denver Juvenile Court. It’s a place where families in crisis shuffle in and out, in some cases demonstrating their dysfunction in full view of everyone present. On the rare occasion where two parents exist and show up at court,…

part 1 of 2 Twelve-year-old Alicia remembers the date of her entry into Denver’s juvenile court system by heart. “July 17, 1991,” she says, without having to think. On that day, the State of Colorado formally took charge of Alicia, having determined her parents were at least temporarily unfit due…