I was up on stage, midway through some new routine that I would probably never use again, floundering, when a man walked off of Colfax and straight into infamy. He was frazzled and drugged-out-looking — nothing out of the ordinary for a Tuesday-night comedy open-mike at the Squire Lounge. Unlike…
On a bitter winter morning four years ago, Heather Gooch stood in her apartment on South Bannock Street and listened to the awful thumping. The noise was coming from the floor above and getting louder, as if someone was slamming weights down again and again. Gooch had never heard anything…
Thursday afternoons in courtroom 151P tend to be less formal than other proceedings in Denver county courts. Judge Larry Bohning still hands out an occasional scolding (“Time’s running out, Mr. Finn; you need to stay away from that alcohol”), and every once in a while somebody gets their probation revoked…
This week’s feature story tells the gruesome tale of convicted killer Thomas Espinoza’s brutal murder of his neighbor, and his subsequent efforts to escape justice by claiming he was insane. Here are several brief excerpts from his taped confession. When you’re done with those, have a look at this slideshow…
Frontier Airlines reached an agreement with the Teamsters Union on Tuesday for a wage and benefit cut that will last through the summer. Meanwhile, many of the employees who are seeing as much as a 10 percent slash in hourly pay are wondering if the DIA-based carrier will be around…
Colorado hosts two graduations with major policy speeches today: one by a current president looking back and one by a (possible) future president looking forward. Barack Obama will host an invitation-only town hall meeting at 11:30 a.m. at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton, where he is…
For all the talk about John McCain being too old to run for president, the guy sure seems to stay up awfully late. No four-thirty dinners at Furr’s Cafeteria for this guy—that is, unless he’s planning on supplementing that diet with a 1 a.m. “fourthmeal” from Taco Bell. This is…
A story in today’s New York Times — and previewed yesterday by Matt Drudge — details Denver’s problems raising money for the upcoming Democratic National Convention. “So far, the Denver host committee is about $15 million short of the $40.6 million it must raise by June 16,” the Times reports…
As noted in a November 2007 Message column, few folks know about the Colorado branch of The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer, PBS’ weeknightly news staple, even though it’s celebrating its 25th year of existence and continues to contribute mightily to the program as a whole. Two correspondents, Tom Bearden (pictured)…
Australia’s Lincoln Hall didn’t live through his descent from the summit of Mount Everest in May 2006 – or at least that’s what his companions thought. He tells his unlikely survival story in Dead Lucky, a new book he’ll share with an audience at the Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch (click…
The May 8 Message column looked at the ways travel budgets at print and electronic media outlets have been impacted by tight budgetary times — and coverage of the ongoing Stanley Cup matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins shows that this situation is affecting news organizations…
Local television has gotten more sophisticated over the years, even in mid-size markets such as Denver. But remnants of small-time cheesiness remain, and thank goodness, since they infuse the increasingly slick medium with much needed charm. The anachronistic phone-in segments regularly featured on Channel 9’s a.m. news block are an…
The concept of advertising on the front page of the Denver dailies isn’t entirely foreign; note the use of irritating stickers that are regularly affixed to their covers these days — a topic explored in this October 2007 Message column. But the Sunday, May 25 Denver Post took up-front advertising…
A December 2006 Message column documented the incredible proliferation of free weekly papers going after readers in the northern Colorado triangle formed by Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland – five at the time of the article’s appearance, including two independents, the Rocky Mountain Chronicle and the Fort Collins Weekly, and…
View Larger Image South Carolina Total Number of Delegates: 54 Pledged: 45 Unpledged: 9 How to Recognize a South Carolina Delegate: The tourism slogan of “Smiling Faces, Beautiful Places” is just a poetic figure of speech for this state’s ability to “grin and bear it.” South Carolinians have not had…
May 18, 2007, was a tough day on the job for Lieutenant Mike Gross of the Glendale Police Department. The sometime spokesman for the department was playing the john in a sting operation at the Staybridge Suites in Glendale, entertaining a series of women he’d found in escort ads. Tatiana…
Move over, Ohio and Florida. As John McCain and Barack Obama plan stops in Colorado next week, it’s clear that nine little electoral votes out West will hold the keys to the door of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Long decreed a “purple” state by optimistic Democrats who’ve seen the area trending…
Local television tends to shine when covering actual breaking news, as opposed to the sort that’s overhyped in an attempt to get folks to tune in to evening updates even when nothing out of the ordinary is happening — and that was certainly the case on May 22 in the…
Of the city’s half-dozen artist-cooperatives, Spark Gallery on Santa Fe Drive is the oldest, having opened in 1979, a little over a year before Pirate did. This pioneering role in the alternative space arena is reflected in the solidity of the membership at Spark, which is mostly made up of…
When it comes to shmucks, it’s hard to beat a guy who leaves a three-year-old girl alone in a car while he gets his groove on at a strip club — although the girl’s mother likely wants to. As first reported first by Westword, Alan Baxter was arrested on May…
This has been a groundbreaking and altogether interesting election process, but the music, as per usual, is bland – do presidential candidates listen to music? Do we really want to elect someone without knowing their tastes? You could all win my vote if you switched some things up…
Special Agent Peter Miles Regenold Bergman of the Institute of Sociometry relayed this official memo concerning a recent experi-stunt involving those stacks of Qwest phone books that Dex routinely abandons in lobbies of offices and apartments across the city. This marks the first action the Institute has undertaken downtown since…
