Hitting Home In response to Karen Bowers’s story on the Wahrle family situation (“A House Divided,” December 21), I would like to educate the writer on human decency. It was obvious, in my opinion, that Ms. Bowers acted as judge, jury, then God in her description of this horrible life…
Colorado’s fringe political parties have been griping for years that the state makes it unfairly difficult for them to get their candidates on the ballot. Now, many of them fear, it’s about to get even tougher. A nascent electoral-reform proposal backed by former secretary of state Natalie Meyer could drastically…
A homebuilder under grand jury investigation in Florida for leaving dozens of buyers without promised houses is now building luxury homes near the Front Range town of Evergreen, where he moved in 1993. Clyde Hoeldtke, 58, once one of the largest residential builders on the Gulf Coast of Florida, claims…
Denver businessman Herman Malone seemed to score a coup sixteen months ago when he won a huge chunk of the pay-phone contract at Denver International Airport. As a subcontractor on the deal to long-distance carrier MCI, Malone’s RMES Communications would install more than 300 phones at DIA and share in…
Sixth-grade science students at Peck Elementary School in Arvada have been putting on up-with-nature environmental shows for more than a decade. Only recently, however, have the half-hour performances, staged for Rotarians and other community groups, begun featuring a new prop: a Geiger counter supplied to science teacher Dudley Weiland by…
part 2 of 2 This Christmas it was the Kauffman family’s turn to be creepidential. “It’s a big family,” Sister Maureen says, “and they put all the money they would have spent on presents for each other into an envelope. I just received this envelope–with nearly a thousand dollars in…
part 1 of 2 Sister Maureen Kottenstette is trying to escape the office for the third time this evening when a knock sounds at the door. She needs to leave before dark, she explains, because she’s just had cataract surgery and can’t see to drive at night. As she gets…
Backward, march! Here’s a prediction for 1995: Denver will get some new prognosticators. Since psychic Lou Wright got mired in future shlock a few years back–money and marital problems, in particular–the town’s been shy a seer or two. As a result, on New Year’s Eve the Denver Post resorted to…
Have you heard? Somebody shot the archduke. That means war, of course. As they straighten their crimson plumes, mount white horses and gallop off to the front, both sides still believe they will be home in three or four weeks, flushed with glory. But the dark skeptics think otherwise. This…
After Elliot “Hollywood” Raibon’s murder trial in May 1989, Denver district attorneys knew that gang cases were going to be different from anything they’d done before. “We didn’t have a gang unit back then,” recalls Tom Clinton, who tried the case and now heads the Denver district attorney’s gang-prosecuting unit…
The Slime of Your Life Just when I think Patricia Calhoun may be developing a lick of sense, along comes a column like “The Mind Is Reeling” (December 21) to restore my faith. Comparing life to movies may work for a P.J. O’Rourke, but it falls flat when done by…
The new director of AIDS programs under the auspices of the troubled Metropolitan Urban League has resigned after less than a month on the job. Her departure raises concerns among activists and even the state department of health about the Urban League’s commitment to AIDS services in the black community…
part 2 of 2 EDUCATION Young people apparently had a bit more trouble relating to the Denver Public Schools, which began the school year with a week-long teacher’s strike. The district never stopped learning, though, bringing in replacement teachers to show movies in the gym and dodge spitballs. State officials…
part 1 of 2 It was once the hate state. But now Colorado’s in a state of ecstasy. During a visit to northern Douglas County, a real estate scout for Merrill Lynch was so overwhelmed by the sight of a herd of antelope that the company decided to build a…
Stop or I’ll Squirt A masked gunman wearing a stocking cap and a ski mask stole twenty head of cattle from a Weld County dairy farm. The daring raid took place at 3:45 a.m. while a milker was working in the barn. “He held the gun on him and told…
Mike Musgrave Occupation: Manager of Denver Department of Public Works Thanks to a change in the city charter a few years back, Baby Face Musgrave was given subpoena power in his role as the czar of public works. And Bozo the Airport Clown used it with a vengeance, demanding that…
This was the most tumultuous year in American sports history–O.J. Accused! Nuggets Beat Seattle! World Series Canceled!–but behind the screaming headlines lay a core of sheer absurdity. Just two weeks ago, for instance, newspapers reported that June 17, 1994, the evening that fugitive O.J. Simpson led three dozen police cars…
Reel Life Regarding Patricia Calhoun’s “The Mind Is Reeling,” in the December 21 issue, I can only respond: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Phyllis Lawrence Denver In keeping with Calhoun’s theme, it’s obvious to me that the Westword staff gets its inspiration from old episodes of Lou Grant…
As the two women hit and kicked him, Deputy Stan Marin struggled to keep a grip on his prisoner. It was the second time this year he’d had to fight a would-be escapee in the halls of Denver’s City and County Building. And this time he was losing. “I was…
Mail call! In case you belong to one of the three households in Denver that did not receive a “Newt Gingrich Stole Christmas” card from Representative Pat Schroeder, it’s another cutout classic from our favorite congressional cutup. The reverse side updates recipients on the doings of the X-Generation Schroeders and…
We had Cuban sandwiches, oxtail stew and cold beer in a place on Southwest Eighth Street. Then we drove out to Calder in Martinez’s new Coupe de Ville. “Nice car, Henry,” I said. “It’s okay.” He shrugged. “Blessings of America. Who you like today?” I opened my fresh copy of…
Some Came Gunning Re: December 14’s “Under the Gun,” by Leslie Jorgensen and Sherry Keene-Osborn. It seems to me that one thing is very clear: If people like Francisco Duran cannot get guns (especially assault weapons!), then they cannot shoot at the president. It also seems to me that these…
