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The surgical team gathers early one Saturday morning, not exactly hiding what they’re doing, but not advertising it, either. The procedure is still in its experimental stages, and who knows how people will react. Dr. Stanley Biber stands beside the operating table, white light shining down, the patient’s chest rising…

This case really smells. The first deal went down on April 8, 1997, in a Kmart parking lot at 50th and Federal. Dennis and Mona Mohan arrived in their BMW and were met by a man who called himself “Earl” and had the product in a Foley’s department store bag…

Ramsey tough: This week’s revelation that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gail Schoettler’s husband Donald L. Stevens was a college buddy of John Ramsey’s at Michigan State University has prompted the usual blast of conspiracy theories about the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. More mystifying, though, than Stevens and Ramsey’s status as former…

The Rocky Mountain News expects to soon be an official sponsor of the Jefferson County public schools under an agreement that calls for the newspaper to provide everything from high-school journalism workshops to commencement speakers. In return for $95,000 a year for the next five years, the News will get…

Licensed practical nurse Velma Gilbert says that on June 20, when she began working for Caring Hands, a home-health-care company that provides services for the Cherry Oaks Retirement Community in metro Denver, she was promised a $1,500 signing bonus. She never saw the bonus. During the next six weeks, Gilbert…

My grandfather was too old to fight in World War II. He went anyway. (He lied to get into World War I, too–but was booted after recruiters learned he was underage.) In 1943 he was an orthopedic surgeon, his practice finally taking off after the Depression, when patients often couldn’t…

Suicide Botch I read Patricia Calhoun’s August 20 “Suicide Mission” with great interest, as I have worked in the psychiatric field for ten-plus years and have evaluated individuals for lethality. If the documents in this case regarding aftercare instructions are true, West Pines should probably be prepared for a settlement,…

On the last day of May 1985, on an isolated nine-acre patch of land in the middle of a former wheatfield 25 miles northeast of Denver, Gary Antonoff created his own personal government. It didn’t have an army, or even any citizens to govern. But it had all a government…

This is how Department of Corrections spokeswoman Liz McDonough describes the events of last June at the Colorado State Penitentiary, during which close to a dozen inmates were forcibly “extracted” from their cells and charged with offenses ranging from disobeying a lawful order to assaulting staff and engaging in a…

Personal foul!: Last year, longtime local architect Stuart Ohlson was making headlines with his innovative plans for remodeling Mile High Stadium, plans that would not only upgrade the facility to meet NFL specifications but also save taxpayers millions. But that was before “The Great Patsby” Pat Bowlen insisted that it…

Since 1974, the Denver Museum of Natural History has been letting a little popular culture seep into the facility on weekend nights, when it transforms Gates Planetarium into a laserium: Instead of gazing at simulated stars, audiences watch laser light shows set to music–rock music. But early next month, those…

The patriarch of East Colfax Avenue has finally made it off the street. On August 5, James “Chico” Hamilton–“Papa Colfax” to those on Denver’s seediest stretch–died from complications of a handful of illnesses eating at his 58-year-old frame. For more than fifteen years, Hamilton, a homeless junk dealer and artist…

Kerouac Shlepped Here According to the August 6 Off Limits, Woody Harrelson wanted to see places in Denver where Jack Kerouac had been. Sadly, most of those places are gone. But the real bad news was delivered in your August 13 issue, with Jack Boulware’s excellent article, “The Howls That…

On May 22, 1996, John Sheron put on his softball uniform and told his wife he was going to a game. He played for a while, then drove up to the Wal-Mart in Evergreen, where he bought a shotgun. He took the gun out to his car, got in and…

True glamour is something I achieved one night three years ago, when I accessorized a $15 silver evening gown from TJ Maxx with plaid Wile E. Coyote sneakers and a child’s toy tiara. Although I have not worn the dress since, the tiara has proved a remarkably useful hair ornament,…

Ida Mae Brueske has lived in her small, north Golden home since 1962. An affable 76-year-old grandmother who raised five boys in this house with her late husband, Brueske thought she’d spend the rest of her days on the quiet street of well-kept lawns and backyard barbecues that, appropriately enough,…

Info:Correction Date: 09/03/1998 Info: The Howls That Jack Built Gerald Nicosia has spent a decade challenging the disposition of Jack Kerouac’s $20 million literary estate. Along the way, he’s annoyed most of what remains of the beat generation. By Jack Boulware Short and stocky, sporting a colorful children’s Band-Aid wrapped…

Hot to trot: Yes, that was Congresswoman Diana DeGette you saw pressing the flesh last Tuesday on the 16th Street Mall, surrounded by a rugby scrum of political officials from 25 “developing” countries. The lucky foreigners, from as far away as Angola, El Salvador and the Democratic Republic of the…

The Denver Police Department has embarked on a plan to compile a high-tech database of information on kids who hang out on the 16th Street Mall, a move that civil libertarians and youth advocates warn has dangerous implications because it will open police files on kids who’ve done nothing illegal…

The afternoon of July 24, a squad of Denver SWAT cops stormed the Walker family’s home at 2639 Humboldt Street to serve warrants on Kenneth Walker and his cousin Alvin Young for possession of a controlled substance. On Walker, they say, they recovered six-hundredths of a gram of crack cocaine…