LETTERS

Platte Busted Kenny Be is so right on. His May 24 “Valley of the Cars” should be mailed to every Denver city planner, along with a stink bomb, an $80 monthly lot fee and a permanently renewable parking ticket. They’ve created a mecca no one can get to, or at…

HIDE THE SWAMI

Antoinette Marcel had her day in court last week. But the swami didn’t show. So magistrate Terence Hunter of Boulder District Small Claims Court concluded that Swami Amar Jyoti, the guru of the Sacred Mountain Ashram west of Boulder, sexually assaulted Marcel more than twenty years ago. And Hunter awarded…

THE EX-FILES

More than fifty boxes of former Denver mayor Federico Pena’s Denver International Airport files have been removed from the Colorado State Archives at the request of current Mayor Wellington Webb. Those public records, which include staff reports, notes and other documents accumulated during the Pena administration, were taken to the…

THE FIGHT OF THEIR LIVES

part 2 of 3 “He’s never going to be back,” said his mother. “He’s never going to be the Paul that we knew.” Holcomb had been raised in Colorado, and it was on vacations to see her family that Paul had fallen in love with the place. She and her…

THE FIGHT OF THEIR LIVES

part 1 of 3 A little after noon on April 16, 1993, an office worker at Paddock Center, a vocational education school in Boulder, peered out the window as she dialed the police. “I want to report a gang fight,” she said. A few minutes earlier, she had watched as…

THE FIGHT OF THEIR LIVES

part 3 of 3 The detectives asked Matt if he knew the expression, “What are you claiming?” “Claiming, it’s like, it’s sort of territorial,” he replied. “Or it could also be like, you can claim a part of a group, too. You can be like, `I claim, you know, I’m…

OFF LIMITS

Choice opportunities: After Mary DeGroot’s surprisingly strong showing in the May 2 election, some early supporters complained they could no longer get through to the busy–and suddenly much more popular–candidate. That wouldn’t surprise Sue Bollman, immediate past president of NARAL, who says she was “appalled” by DeGroot’s response when incumbent…

THE SCHOOL OF HIGHER EARNING

About five minutes after Duke’s Grant Hill was selected in last year’s National Basketball Association draft, the hucksters slapped his name on a pair of $110 sneakers and sent along a check big enough to keep him in Armani suits, BMWs and swimming pools until the millennium. However, it took…

MINORITY VIEW

A Hispanic-owned firm that won millions of dollars’ worth of contracts as an electrical supplier at Denver International Airport actually is nothing more than a front company operating a bogus pass-through scheme to take advantage of affirmative-action rules, a city hearing officer has ruled. The company, Denver-based M&N Electrical Supply…

D.C. POWER

Susan Casey, who’s running for Mary DeGroot’s soon-to-be-vacant city council District 6 seat, wants the public to know she’s not the typical kind of money-and-politics candidate. She won’t take donations from PACs, corporations, or “special interests.” Her campaign slogan is “Soccer Mom for City Council,” and her literature guarantees that…

A LITTLE JAB’LL DO YA

The room’s only source of illumination is the wavering morning sunlight filtering though the fence, past the basketball court and into a bank of windows along one wall. Already, the dulcet sounds of new-age flute music float from a portable tape player, a backdrop to the soft shuffling of feet…

LETTERS

Don’t Slam the Door Do I hold the record for generating the most indignant and irate replies to a letter? It is truly gratifying to find that you have such a righteous readership (Letters, May 10 and May 17). You may let them know I am leaving Los Denverles forever…

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

Detective James Rock remembers it as one of the worst professional decisions he’d made in 24 years with the Denver Police Department, although there was no way he could have known that at the time. He simply made one of those judgment calls that cops make a dozen times a…

DON’T TOUCH THAT DIALOGUE

Five years ago, the best minds in Colorado sat down with Governor Roy Romer and brainstormed a way to make environmental cleanups faster and cheaper. At least that was the idea. Present were leaders from industries, higher education, regulatory agencies and the environmental movement. The result of the one-day think…

OFF LIMITS

What’s in a name? Rather than carry heavy tomes through the rest of Denver’s mayoral campaign, clip and save this handy guide: In Funk & Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary, a “crony” is simply a friend. Webster’s New World Dictionary turns up the heat, defining “cronyism” as “favoritism shown to close…

TAKE BACK YOUR RING

Enough is enough. The World Boxing Council, a collection of crooks that competes against two other collections of crooks to control the world’s supply of human fighting flesh, last week pronounced Mike Tyson its number-one heavyweight contender. Perfect. That puts Leg-Iron Mike just a couple of angry lurches away from…

FINDERS KEEPERS

Four years ago, the Colorado Legislature passed a bill designed to make it more difficult for stalkers to track down their prey. What the law may have done instead is give potential victims a false sense of security. Senate Bill 91-74, enacted in 1992, limits access to driver’s license information,…

SNOW BLIND

Two years after Mayor Wellington Webb tried to sell the Winter Park ski resort to the Winter Park Recreational Association for as little as $24.5 million, an appraisal commissioned by the city itself has valued the resort at nearly three times that amount. The Webb administration won’t make the appraisal…

LETTERS

Art of the Deal Calhoun, you are too kind. After reading your “Indecent Exposure,” in the May 10 issue, I took a look at the alleged art. Mutombo should sue. Herb Powers Denver Patricia Calhoun’s column was the most mean-spirited piece I have ever read. Shame. Denver should be honored…

THE BALD TRUTH

When Geno Marcovici went into the hair-plug business last year, he didn’t give much thought to demographics. “I could have really narrowed it down,” he recalls. “But then I realized it was simple. Who wants a hair transplant? A man. We see millionaires from Aspen and dishwashers from Mexico. Here’s…