Frankie Accardo, the philosopher, used to say that the greatest feeling in the world is when your horse wins. The second greatest feeling, he added, is when your horse doesn’t win. Frankie would know. In his customary perch just inside the eighth pole at Jamaica or Aqueduct, he experienced the…
Denver Post columnist Ken Hamblin was suspended last week after it was discovered that his October 18 column contained several paragraphs that had been plagiarized from an October 16 Rocky Mountain News story. He told his editors it was “a stupid mistake,” and he was quoted in the Post as…
It started out as a way to save the Boulder Theater. But ballot initiative 2C, to be decided by Boulder voters on November 8, has become more than that–a lot more. Even Kent Zimmerman, the executive director of the Boulder Bureau of Conference Services and Cultural Affairs, as well as…
Neder Say Die I would like to thank Westword for printing the article on David Shortridge, candidate for the RTD board and a member of the Nederland Board of Trustees (“Sick Transit,” October 26). Reporter Arthur Hodges painted a grim picture of Shortridge, focusing on his history of filing allegedly…
John and Jim Cipriani hope to accomplish in federal civil court what police and prosecutors have been unable to do for the past four years–prove that Colorado State Patrol trooper Bob Benefiel murdered their sister, former El Paso County sheriff’s deputy Cecilia Cipriani Benefiel. Benefiel has denied killing her (“A…
A real estate deal touted by Denver city officials as key to the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport suffered another blow last week when the King Soopers grocery chain missed a second closing deadline. King Soopers officials have told the Denver City Council that the company needs more time to…
It was twilight when Jack Ducey’s family arrived at his dark hulk of a house in north Denver. They’d come when their phone calls went unanswered and they spotted the newspapers collecting on his stoop. There was no sign of life. To the contrary, one of Jack’s dogs was lying…
On paper–certain pieces of it, anyway–David Shortridge looks like a clear favorite to win a seat on the board of the Regional Transportation District in November’s election. Shortridge, a member of the town council in Nederland, has experience as an elected official, while his opponent, thirty-year-old businessman Jon Caldara, is…
DIA’s tape delay: The controversy over Denver International Airport has tempers soaring even 2,000 miles away. After learning that someone on Senator Hank Brown’s staff had tape-recorded the GAO’s off-the-record, DIA background briefing for Colorado’s congressional delegation, Representative Pat Schroeder wrote Brown on October 14, complaining of the secret taping…
Now that the National Basketball Association season is about to tip off, local connoisseurs are cautioning Denver Nuggets fans not to get their hopes up. That shocking upset of the powerful Seattle Supersonics in the playoffs last spring, the pundits reason, was not only a sign that the young Nuggets…
The Colorado Supreme Court told him to get with the program. The publicity of a family sex scandal put his potential for personal bias in the spotlight. But one year later, critics say Denver Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Dana Wakefield has found another way to stonewall the state law that…
Vance in His Pants Bravo, Calhoun! Your October 19 column about Vance Johnson, “Who’s Sorry Now?,” was right on target. Funny, too. Adios, amigo. Joe Harris Denver I was appalled by Patricia Calhoun’s attack on Vance Johnson. Here is a man who admitted his mistakes and is trying to make…
Given their shoestring campaigns and the perception by the press and both major political parties that they’re kooks, the invisible candidates of fringe parties need to be either very smart or very loud to get noticed. Two weeks ago, Green Party candidate Philip Hufford showed he was both. The 46-year-old…
Subby the Submarine is an awfully nice vehicle, and environmentally friendly, too–he’s solar-powered. He and his best friend, an Arctic tern named Terrence, are enjoying a lovely day when they hear a strangled voice calling, “Help! Help! Help!” The calls are coming from a dolphin trapped in a drift net,…
Get past the unending stream of annoying television ads and Amendment 11, the “Workers’ Choice of Care” initiative, is essentially a labor-management dispute in which voters are being asked to act as arbitrators. Unfortunately, they’ll have to make up their minds based largely on high-priced media campaigns rife with exaggeration,…
part 2 of 2 In 1973 Congress passed the Archaeological Resource Protection Act, which prohibits disturbing sites of human habitation over fifty years old. Seventeen years later the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act was made law, requiring that human remains be returned to Native Americans for reburial. Still,…
part 1 of 2 After a steep ascent, the trail plunged down a rocky slope toward a wall of sheer cliffs. Kenny Frost pulled up short. U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Bill Kight stopped and looked at his friend, the Ute tribe’s liaison with the Forest Service and the Bureau of…
Walk softly and carry a big schtick: Say! Wasn’t that renowned waffler Bill Clinton plunging head-first into the fray outside Denver’s Planned Parenthood clinic? Not quite. It was actually presidential look-alike Michael Newell, a Littleton security consultant who’s poofed up his hair to play Clinton at venues ranging from a…
You always remember your first time. For Charles Sampson, it happened in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, in 1972, when he was fourteen. “That one should be a good ride,” the owner said to no one in particular, and Charles–they called him Pee Wee back then–clambered up on the fence for a better…
Amendment 16, the innocuously worded anti-obscenity measure on November’s ballot, has the potential to stir up more passion than most blue movies. And in a strange twist that recalls Victorian-era anti-smut crusades, Denver’s bluebloods have been recruited to bankroll the amendment and serve as foot soldiers. While proponents say the…
Clothes Encounters Thanks for Robin Chotzinoff’s article on vintage clothing, “The Thrifters,” in the October 5 issue. I’ve been into vintage since high school, and I’d hate to tell you how long ago that was. I’ve shopped at all the stores in Denver and Boulder, and I’m glad to see…
One year after 2,000-odd runners sprinted or limped across the finish line, the defunct and discredited Denver International Marathon continues to keep the pulse of Denver city officials pounding. The most recent headache comes from south of the border. Three weeks ago Mexico’s consul general in Denver, Ambassador Leonardo Ffrench,…
