On a cold afternoon in January 1995, the parents of 43-year-old Denver securities lawyer Daniel B. Matter reported to Denver police that their son was missing and probably suicidal. Matter struggled with manic depression, and while his mother was visiting from Florida to keep him company after the holidays, he’d…
On October 24, Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman’s team of public-information officers hosted local reporters at a meet-and-greet session in the DPD’s press room. The gathering was a throwback to the alleged good old days when cops and reporters sat barstool to barstool. This morning get-together, however, was fueled by…
Standing at a makeshift podium in a field outside the Florence federal prison complex, Jim Davis gestured angrily at the stark walls encased in razor wire. Dozens of listeners sat on hay bales, many of them broad-shouldered men clutching signs calling for “Fair and Equal Treatment” and wearing T-shirts that…
The sale earlier this month of El Jebel Shrine Temple, at 1770 Sherman Street, the former home of the Eulipions theater organization, may finally have ended one act in a bitter dispute between two rival Eulipions factions, but the story is far from over. In October, a real estate company…
Denver International Airport, that little bigtop on the prairie, has never exactly blended in with the natural environment. And why should it? DIA’s an airport, not a state park, and its form should follow a function dedicated to great planes, not the Great Plains. But despite its size, noise and…
On a terrace 5,500 feet above sea level, Ted Polito Jr. leans over and lets me in on a little secret: People pray up here, he whispers. They’re not supposed to, because this is Colorado’s Capitol Building, but they do anyway. They usually come on Fridays, two men and two…
In the year 2000, Channel 9’s Adele Arakawa is Denver’s undisputed local news queen, the reliable, levelheaded, take-no-crap senior anchor for the city’s highest-profile newscast. The departures earlier this year of Channel 9 longtimers Ed Sardella and Ron Zappolo had TV insiders predicting that the station’s ratings winning streak might…
Just a wild surmise, but doesn’t it seem to you that in recent weeks Denverites have been far more concerned with the name of their new football stadium than with the name of their new president? Terrorists could blow up Boettcher Concert Hall in mid-Mozart, and not a soul would…
Gas Pains We want to pump you up! I know vertical integration is different from monopoly. Or is it? Still, since the feds have had our eyes directed at Microsoft, maybe we’ve not noticed the oil-company convenience stores that have sprung up on every street corner over the past ten…
Natalie Vasquez was raised in Chamisal, a shabby village set among the piñons and red rolling hills of northern New Mexico, a poverty-stricken stepchild to the wealth and culture of nearby Taos and Santa Fe. The centuries-old settlement, beset by the problems of a modern age — drugs, welfare, dropouts…
Last month, a small group of protesters gathered on the traffic island outside Aurora’s Buckley Air Force Base. It was an unseasonably warm day, and a gusty wind had suddenly materialized out of nowhere. The demonstrators, some of them in their sixties and seventies, narrowed their eyes against the swirling…
After the protest at Buckley Air Force Base, Westword contacted the base’s public-information office to request information about what, exactly, goes on out there — and what taxpayers’ money is paying for. Candrea Thomas, deputy director of public affairs, asked for a couple of days to research our questions. Four…
Under ordinary circumstances, what happened October 30 inside holding cell No. 4 at the Denver County Courthouse would have been just that — ordinary. One inmate has words with another, a scuffle ensues, blood is spilled, a deputy intercedes, the fight’s over. What sets this particular fracas apart is that…
Denver District Juvenile Court Judge Dana Wakefield surprised everyone and baffled some last week when he ruled on the 21-month-old Ponciano Lazaro-Avina case. Ponciano, a Mexican immigrant, had been fighting to have his daughter returned to him and his family ever since she became a warden of the state shortly…
It’s November 3, and in the Boulder County Courthouse, Judge Daniel Hale is about to rule on a motion filed by Joshua Beckius, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder five years ago at the age of sixteen and was sentenced to forty years in prison (“This Boy’s Life,” March 23)…
Taking their cue from police departments that solicit help from TV shows such as America’s Most Wanted to track down the most elusive of criminals and clues, the folks at the Colorado Department of Unclaimed Funds, part of the state treasurer’s office, recently gave out info on their toughest –…
The two women were both in their mid-thirties, with three kids and one frost ‘n’ tip dye job between them. In no way did they look like potential naked people. “…so then I told her to quit driving so fast, and that’s when I pressed a big fat moon up…
Reporter Aldo Svaldi is currently a sought-after commodity — but it wasn’t always this way. A graduate of the University of Missouri, Svaldi began his journalism career proper in a challenging locale: He interned at a publication in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, experiencing a genuine baptism by fire…
In épée, the most duel-like of the three events that make up fencing, the foot touch serves two purposes. The first, of course, is that it counts as a score. Unlike foil, in which a combatant must contact an opponent’s torso with his blade to score, or saber, for which…
Lofty Ideals Can’t stop the music: I was angry and disappointed when I read T.R. Witcher’s “Last Dance,” in the November 9 issue. However, I was more surprised by my reaction: favoring the club over the residents. I, too, live in LoDo. My loft is directly above a bar. My…
Next week, residents of the Rocky Mountain Warehouse Lofts may finally get a good night’s sleep. On Tuesday, November 14, the F-Stop nightclub will close its doors for the last time. No more boisterous crowds hanging out at 2 a.m. on the 1800 block of Wazee Street. No more monster…
A dozen years ago, Dale Ervin saw his partnership with Amoco as permanent. The dealer leased four Amoco service stations around Denver and had racked up an office full of company performance awards; his Colorado Boulevard station was one of only two in the state to sell more than three…
