part 1 of 2 On a Sunday in July, three elderly women huddle in the foyer of the Happy Church, their eyes squeezed shut, their heads fiercely nodding in affirmation, their voices murmuring “Yes!” as Pastor Wally implores God to drive cancer out. Out! In addition to expelling demons, Pentecostal…
A shot in the dark: The media dubbed summer 1993 the “Summer of Violence” after a few well-publicized shootings, including the Capitol Hill slaying of popular Imi Jimi proprietor Tom Hollar. Now you can chalk up 1995 as the official “Summer of Silence.” Although the homicide rate is running much…
That was no optical illusion. And it wasn’t fear playing mind tricks on mere mortals–although there was plenty of that to go around, too. Fact is, Monica Seles has grown another inch during her 28-month absence from tennis, and she’s gained six or seven pounds of sheer muscle. Up at…
Last week, graffiti made local headlines as never before–community leaders decried the defacement of a beloved rec-center mural, a “volunteer” bloodhound was pressed into service to track down spray-paint-toting vandals, and a local radio station opened a graffiti hotline to report acts of vandalism. Just one week earlier, however, Denver…
Klondike and Snow Job I am compelled to write Westword regarding Kenny Be’s August 9 Worst-Case Scenario depicting the proposed habitat for Klondike and Snow as being decadently opulent while the homeless of Denver are housed in subhuman shelters. In fact, Klondike and Snow’s habitat in Florida would be smaller…
The world may be a safer place with Jeffery Thomas behind bars, but it sure is a lot more complicated. In January 1993, Thomas (who is serving three life sentences for murdering his girlfriend) was assaulted by guards at the state prison in Limon. Then, after Thomas filed a formal…
Newt Gingrich’s “Earning by Learning” program caught heat recently when the Wall Street Journal reported that a close friend of the House Speaker’s pocketed fully half of the west Georgia program’s private donations for his own compensation. The criticism came in light of Gingrich’s earlier comments that all of the…
part 2 of 2 Magistrate Melvin Okamoto runs Division 6 in Denver Juvenile Court. It’s a place where families in crisis shuffle in and out, in some cases demonstrating their dysfunction in full view of everyone present. On the rare occasion where two parents exist and show up at court,…
part 1 of 2 Twelve-year-old Alicia remembers the date of her entry into Denver’s juvenile court system by heart. “July 17, 1991,” she says, without having to think. On that day, the State of Colorado formally took charge of Alicia, having determined her parents were at least temporarily unfit due…
They spent their young adult lives looking after kids and husbands, cooking and cleaning. And then Arla Tolman and Suzanne Martin decided they wanted something to safeguard their futures. They wanted careers–as dental assistants. What they say they got was the financial and psychological equivalent of a root canal. That…
Snow job: Is there a mover and shaker in the state whose name hasn’t been mentioned in connection with the top spot at Colorado Ski Country USA? Age doesn’t seem to give candidates an edge in this race, because so far, the leading contenders are all under forty: former Comsat…
From the beginning, that big white clock outside Coors Field has had a mind of its own. So at 3:54 last Thursday afternoon, this unreliable timepiece assured the gathering throngs on Blake Street that it was 3 p.m. By evening, 54 minutes were still missing in action and, for all…
After a tough fight, a second charter school will finally open in Denver this fall. But it won’t be the controversial Thurgood Marshall school, nor will it be another proposed school aimed at helping at-risk inner-city kids. The lucky winner goes simply by P.S. 1, a so-called urban school based…
The government’s latest reports show that crime is down in major cities across the nation. Not since before the advent of crack have the mean streets been so mellow. But don’t you dare relax! Westword has examined police blotters in small towns throughout Colorado and found disturbing evidence that crime…
Town Haul Regarding Robin Chotzinoff’s “Our Town,” in the August 16 issue: The story of John and Ida May Noe was interesting. Today the Greenland Ranch is owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company of Oklahoma City. This is the picture of many small farms across America. Farm policies, run by…
Nick Forster, the man behind the Boulder-based radio program E-Town, no longer has to follow every twist and turn of the debate over whether federal funding for public broadcasting should be cut or eliminated. That’s because E-Town, a music-and-environmental-news show that’s been a National Public Radio staple for years, already…
part 2 of 2 Back at police headquarters, Komesu was singing like a canary. He admitted that he was a morphine addict, Kuretich says, and he admitted forging prescriptions. “He said he’d taken a large amount of morphine so he could start slowly decreasing his use,” Kuretich says. “And he…
part 1 of 2 Fort Morgan hospital pharmacist Andrew Komesu was already in jail facing charges of forging prescriptions and plundering drugs when local police and federal agents discovered his stash. The haul, made in May 1994, was one of the largest in ten years for a DEA anti-drug task…
The small house Ida May Noe shares with John, her husband of 52 years, is one fence line away from the hundred-year-old Noe Farm, run by John’s brother James. Both places sit just back from Noe Road, which cuts a two-mile dirt track through the southern half of Douglas County…
Standing Pat: Talk-show host Mike Rosen isn’t the only conservative taking swings at Representative Pat Schroeder. In the current issue of the Republican National Committee’s Rising Tide magazine, Colorado state treasurer Bill Owens ranks a “Doer’s Profile” that includes several enlightening answers to the profile’s standard questions. To wit: “Latest…
Peter McNeeley is the heavyweight champion of certain parts of Massachusetts and a couple of saloons in eastern Connecticut. He’s beaten such luminaries as Jesus Rohena, Ron Drinkwater and Howard Kelly. Two years ago he knocked out Miguel Rosa in Revere, Massachusetts, in the second round, and he won a…
Hold on to your TV remote: TeleCommunications Inc., the world’s largest cable company, is ready to grant you absolution. Recently, the Englewood-based cable giant–which has 11.5 million subscribers across the country–has been running late-night television commercials announcing that August is “amnesty month” for cable pirates and warning that in September…
