Back in May 2003, Denver believed it had made the bling-bling bigtime when Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records, stood beside then-mayor Wellington Webb and promised to bring his Hip-Hop Festival and Summit to the Mile High City. Denver’s still waiting for him to make good on that promise…
On the first day of school I awoke with a sick feeling in my stomach. It did not hurt, it just made me feel weak. The sun did not sing as it came over the hill. — Bless Me, Ultima By now, University of Colorado president Betsy Hoffman must long…
Public Advisory: The State of Colorado wishes to provide you with information concerning the history of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, formerly Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, the radioactive and other hazardous materials that were used and released at that site when it was in operation, and the cleanup…
At midnight, looking over the city from the confluence of the rivers where Denver was born, all is calm, all is bright. But not quite as bright as it all once was. Understandably, the lights of the D&F Tower, the Adam’s Mark logo, even the classic neon “Travel by Train”…
The road stretches ahead, smooth and made for speed. Getting to this point, however, was anything but fast — or smooth. Just past the sign welcoming westbound traffic on I-70 to Clear Creek County, “Mountains of Things to Do,” a massive scar cutting across the slopes to the right marks…
At the first hint of good weather — the mysterious thaw that warms up early February, the late October sun that spins the autumn air into gold — Coloradans head to the parks or hit the streets. In Denver, every square of cement suddenly sprouts seating. No matter what the…
At this time of year, in this part of the country, heated arguments break out at the drop of a spoon. No, not over the election, but over green chile. On street corners around town, the last of the chiles — the genuine article from Hatch, New Mexico; the counterfeits…
“Dickie Pilager cares about Colorado…;” The political ads were all over CNN last Friday morning, as Pete Coors commercials alternated with the latest swift-boat torpedoes. So when the start of Richard Pilager’s stump speech for governor sounded at 7:24 a.m., it seemed to fit right in. But Pilager — who…
In Denver’s crowded, competitive real estate market, getting a call from a man who says he’s interested in purchasing eight prime units is nothing to sneeze at. Not even after it becomes clear that the man is calling from the Immigration and Naturalization Services detention center in Aurora — where…
Once again, Colorado’s dirty laundry is on public display. Just think: better high-altitude detergent and this state might stay out of the headlines. Because once again, Exhibit A is mystery DNA in panties — this pair belonging to Kobe Bryant’s accuser. Just last Thursday, the day before Bryant’s sexual-assault trial…
On Tuesday evening, after the following column went to press, Jon Lipsky got a call from the FBI telling him he was not allowed to discuss the Rocky Flats case. Lipsky read a statement to that effect at Wednesday’s press conference and said nothing more. He was not wearing a…
If only Colorado’s current Kobe connection would disappear so effectively. Twelve miles south of Leadville on Highway 24, just before the valley narrows, the words “Kobe, Colo” appear written in stones on a hillside. Below, by the train tracks alongside the Arkansas River, a metal shed bears the word “Kobe.”…
Sitting in a restaurant in Cherry Creek, minding my own business — which means, of course, everyone else’s — I spotted a table of well-groomed, well-heeled white-hairs, the sort of people whose third homes might be in Aspen. They poured an amusing but not inexpensive red wine, then raised their…
This was better than sending out a cheery Christmas letter: So you believe in mandatory sentencing. By Saturday evening, my voice mail was full of messages from people across the country, friends and former colleagues who’d crowded into showings of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 — which, at most theaters, is…
Denver’s dailies and newscasts love to localize any story they can — if a plane crashes in India, a victim’s second cousin is found grieving in Longmont — but even with all the ink and airtime devoted to the passing of Ronald Reagan, they’ve overlooked Colorado’s connections to the fortieth…
Colorado has taken a serious beating in public print recently, with the Columbine High School massacre, the football rapes in Boulder, the Jon-Benet Ramsey case, and the repulsive police corruption that stains Denver’s once proud image. Denver has never pretended to be a civilized place. When you think of Denver,…
So, did you hear the one about how the commission investigating the University of Colorado recruiting program hung on every word of testimony…from an official at the Air Force Academy, the institution that raised the bar for sex-assault scandals? But Colonel Debra Gray’s appearance Tuesday before the Independent Investigative Commission…
The Columbine collection at the Colorado Historical Society stretches across fifteen linear feet. And this is just the paper collection. The three-dimensional items — the T-shirts, the teddy bears, the beanie babies, the banner from a Texas church — are kept in secured storage in two more departments in the…
Gary Barnett, the still-on-paid-leave-for-two-more-weeks coach of the University of Colorado football team, finally got to sing Tuesday before the panel investigating whether CU used alcohol or sex (as if the two were ever independent of each other) in the Buffs’ recruiting program. “There is no question in my mind that…
All of Denver’s panhandlers must be over at the State Capitol, lobbying to make marriage legal only when the two participants are not of the same sex, but of the same religion and, probably, on the same page of the hymnal. This week they sure weren’t hanging out along the…
“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” says Wes McKinley. The rancher/math teacher/trail-ride wrangler/cowboy poet has been an active participant in democracy for close to six decades, since he first learned all about his civic duty in a one-room schoolhouse in that dusty corner of southeastern Colorado where he still lives…
Welcome to Colorado, the sex-assault capital of the world, where our governor goes on national TV to talk not about snow falling over the Rockies, but fallout over the University of Colorado’s recruiting scandal — and the rape charges that initially got buried in a CU snow job. Eighteen months…
