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part 1 of 2 It took less than 24 hours for Galen Travis to go from feeling like a very lucky man to someone whose luck had run out. Last fall, Travis, a beefy-faced man who grows alfalfa and wheat outside of Burlington, thirty miles from the Kansas border in…

part 2 of 2 Rol Hudler looks like an English professor and smells of pipe smoke. A thin, balding man with round glasses, he is the third-generation Hudler to be editor and publisher of the Burlington Record; his son, who has begun working for the paper, will be the fourth…

part 2 of 2 Chiffon began studying classical piano at age twelve, “kind of old to do a career in music,” she says. But she loved it–and she excelled. “I did seven years’ worth of lessons in two years,” she says. “I can go to any city any time and…

part 1 of 2 The Maine lobsters were delicious. No, they were better than delicious. Fresh, sweet and juicy, at $17.95 per person for all Rick Gottdenker and Marilyn Richter could sink their teeth into, they were wonderfully, absurdly priced. But that’s what the ad had promised, and that’s what…

Resign of the times: After an almost unbroken 35-year stretch at the Denver Post, columnist Tom Gavin’s recent “retirement” seemed a tad abrupt. And so it was. Having already been eased out of his desk (the prime spot was turned over to Pulitzer winner and special-projects czar Lou Kilzer), last…

An Open Book Read Calhoun’s latest, “Open Wide,” in the February 8 issue. All I can say is: Good work, Westword! Glad you have the guts to go after those city-attorney records. Too bad the dailies don’t. Harry Ellis Denver Bayou Leave I was very disheartened to read about Wellington…

Westword has been named a finalist in the Free Press Association’s prestigious Mencken Awards for investigative journalism. The newspaper was honored in the national contest for its 1994 series examining waste and mismanagement at Denver International Airport. Written by former staff writer David Chandler, the series exposed problems with the…

Arizona sheriff Richard Mack says he’s not interested in feuding with Denver police, but events are heading in that direction anyway, with a little help from a coterie of “patriots.” Mack, who heads up the thirteen-member Graham County Sheriff’s Department in eastern Arizona, says the issue concerns a miscarriage of…

A woman enters the elevator at the extreme rear of the Jean Nicole department store on the 16th Street Mall. A choice is at hand. Either she travels up one floor, to 2, or down one, to B. In order to do so, she will have to select one of…

9 a.m., Main Terminal Flight attendant Eric Blake looks at himself in the mirror of Stapleton Terminal Barber Shop and waits to be noticed. “Pretty handsome, right?” he says, without a trace of irony. “I’m growing out a flat-top, I’ve got the greatest job in the world, it’s my first…

part 2 of 2 In 1990, Cathy, who had moved to Manitou Springs with her husband and nine-year-old daughter, went to donate blood, something she had done regularly in the past. A few days later, though, she received a call from a blood bank official who told her she couldn’t…

part 1 of 2 The gravel crunches beneath the slow tread of Mike Lamb. Every so often, he pauses to gather his strength, then continues on up the trail that winds into the heart of the Garden of the Gods. One of his old drinking buddies is getting married at…

The envelope from the Bonfils Blood Center was addressed to her husband, but Valerie Sportsman opened it. The letter inside said that Dennis Sportsman had a disease, one that apparently could be contracted through drugs or sex. Valerie knew her husband didn’t use drugs, so that meant… Dennis Sportsman arrived…

Bob Hornbuckle takes another drag on his cigarette and looks up from under the brim of his cap. His face looks worn and tired in the afternoon light that sneaks into the bar. A recovering junkie and, some say, the best blues guitar player in Denver, Hornbuckle has hepatitis C…

Everybody’s talking: With all the new radio shows cropping up, is anyone left to listen? That lord of discipline, Horace Mann vice principal Ruben Perez, now chats about education issues Sundays on KHOW (on weekdays, Denver Public Schools has consigned Perez to campus). At the Independence Institute’s tenth-anniversary dinner last…

In the midst of the confusion surrounding the Denver Public Schools teachers’ strike last October, Robert Feldstein of New York City found himself in the perfect spot: passing through town, teaching certificate in hand, with no qualms about crossing a picket line. Feldstein even garnered his fifteen minutes of fame,…

Eight years ago, after he won a low-interest, $50,000 loan from the City of Denver to build a restaurant and bar in west Denver, Don Sandoval brushed aside criticism that the loan was improper. Sandoval was a state senator at the time, and Denver’s auditor had complained that the city…

James Colden’s face peered from a dozen “Wanted” fliers hung throughout the City of Arvada’s administrative offices. Contact police if he shows up, the fliers warned, because Colden is potentially violent. But Colden’s only “crime” is in getting a divorce. And Colden–who has filed a notice of intent to sue…

With Denver’s mayoral election less than three months away, and with four Democrats in the running, tempers are flaring over allegations that the forces of Mayor Wellington Webb are attempting to hijack the local Democratic Party machinery. The party’s own treasurer questions a fundraising scheme last October in which county…

The Sorrow and the City So Patricia Calhoun has now decided she must save the city from Douglas Bruce (“Another Slum Dunk From Doug Bruce,” February 1). But who will save the city from Ms. Calhoun? Joe Garcia Denver After reading the letters attacking Patricia Calhoun for her very good…