News

Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s “Hold, Please,” in the March 2 issue: Why don’t you guys interview some of the US West employees and write an article exposing Sol Trujillo for the schmuck that he truly is? Everyone I have talked to seems to think that he shelled out the company, stripped…

Patrick Gourley arrives at the Infectious Diseases Clinic on the fifth floor of the old city hospital and walks into his cramped office, which includes both a desk and an examination table. Gourley, head of nursing at the clinic, pulls a small, clear plastic container out of his purse, sighs…

For more than twenty years, Edie Bryan has been an advocate of alternative means of transportation — formerly as a Lakewood city councilwoman and RTD boardmember, and most recently as the chairwoman of the Colorado Rail Advisory Committee. But now that Colorado has elected a governor who wants bigger and…

ere are some terms commonly associated with the word “potato”: French-fried, mashed, Mister, scalloped, baked, Dan Quayle. Here is one that is not: embezzled. Colorado ranks sixth of all states in the nation in potato production. Seventy-five trucks a day rumble out of the San Luis Valley alone during harvest…

“Hi, my name is Mick,” reads a mailer sent to voters in Glendale last week. “My owner, Mike Dunafon, is running for Glendale Mayor, please vote for him because he won’t be a good mayor, he’ll be a GREAT Mayor! Besides, he loves animals!” OK, so the pooch is no…

Bear country: Flush with pride over the success of its Y2K @ DIA promotional flashlights (“Press Released,” February 24), the public-relations staff at Denver International Airport moved on to its next moneymaking gig on Monday by selling $20 commemorative Air Bears as part of its fifth-anniversary “celebration.” True to bear…

Those who know Viviane Le Courtois-Mitchell have come to expect those moments when she reaches into a garbage pail, plucks out a crusty banana peel — and frames it. Last November, for instance, she squeaked open her refrigerator door, rummaged around and, in the back by the bread and veggies,…

At last week’s Grammy presentation, Jennifer Lopez turned plenty of heads — and caused others to become engorged, thanks to a practically nonexistent dress that seemingly defied every law of Newtonian physics. (How come there’s never a stiff breeze when you need one?) But she’s hardly the only current pop…

“Curtins!,” by Robin Chotzinoff, February 24, 2000 Maxine Munt — what a wonderful woman! Thank you for Robin Chotzinoff’s “Curtains!” last week. Although I left Denver long ago, I was still saddened to read that Maxine had died, but made glad as I remembered everything that the Changing Scene –…

It was all over in three minutes. At 1:47 p.m. on September 29, 1999, a Denver SWAT team, acting on information contained in a fatally flawed search warrant, burst through the front door of 3738 High Street. At 1:50 p.m., Ismael Mena lay dead on the floor of his bedroom,…

The man on the phone says he doesn’t want anyone to know his name. He may wind up being the star witness in a police perjury trial, but right now he doesn’t need to have his name in the newspaper. That stuff can get you killed. Still, it takes only…

Two weeks ago, Barbara Walton received the kind of phone call that quickens a curator’s heart. Having worked at the Denver Public Library for the past fifteen years, she’d already amassed an impressive collection of programs and posters relating to community theaters in Denver, some dating back to the 1800s…

Next to theater, dancing, Maxine and a few glasses of sherry, Al Brooks’s favorite activity is talking. The first to admit when he has gone so far out on a tangent that he can’t remember how to get back, Al is nevertheless a seasoned and entertaining practitioner of the monologue…

Few people love Denver International Airport as much as Gregorio Bonifacio. More than five years ago, Bonifacio began working at DIA as a security guard while it was still under construction. He then held a series of temporary jobs at the airport, doing everything from driving a fuel truck to…

Feeling shut out of the political process? You should. For starters, Coloradans will never get the pleasure of snubbing pooped-out presidential wannabes like Gary Bauer, Steve Forbes and Liddy Dole, since our primary election doesn’t roll around until March 10, long after New Hampshire and Iowa have made mincemeat of…

Please fasten your seatbeltsIt may seem like forever since former mayor Federico Peña’s pet project finally debuted after one of the most agonizing waits in civic history, but Denver International Airport celebrates only its fifth anniversary next week. Over the years (both before and after DIA opened), there have been…

Bill Good’s head is like a giant lightbulb. No matter where he is or what he’s doing, ideas flutter up to him like moths on a summer night. From time to time, he’ll pluck one of these notions out of thin air, examine it and say, “Hmmm.” “I just get…

Most broadcast execs shy away from criticizing the local TV newscasts that help butter their bread. But Cindy Velasquez, Channel 7’s general manager, isn’t most broadcast execs. “Look what local TV stations have become,” she says. “They’ve become very nice, very cautious — and I think that’s why so many…

“Access Denied,” by Michael Roberts, February 10, 2000 I howled with laughter upon reading Michael Roberts’s “Access Denied,” in the February 10 issue. This one time, I applaud Westword for revealing to the public the kind of idiot Jann Scott is. I urge all people everywhere to reject nihilistic types…

On nights when the Idalia Wolves challenge the Liberty Knights in basketball, farmers and ranchers get in their pickups and head to town. They pull into the Idalia School parking lot, where they leave their keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked. They file into the school’s new gym,…