Wake-Up Call: Pitch, pitch, pitch

A moment of silence for the passing of a pop-culture icon, gone so young at the age of fifty.

Yes, that's right: Billy Mays, star of Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel, has died, silencing that big voice that had become ubiquitous on late-night infomercials. Mays got his start on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, but where did his career really take off? Here in Colorado, where he became the pitchman for Orange Glo, a homegrown company specializing in home-cleaning products.

But even Mays might have had trouble pitching some of the packages on the line in Denver this week....

Today at 10 a.m., the Adams County Board of County Commissioners will hold a hearing on the controversial Alpine Waste and Recycling Dump, which has residents demanding that they "dump the dump." And tomorrow's the last day to comment on the ASARCO Globe Plant Superfund Site five-year review. With the highway department contemplating the replacement of I-70 through Globeville, no telling what old dust that project could stir up.

Expect more dust-ups when the city holds the last in a series of public budget hearings from 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 30 at Washington Park United Methodist Church, 1955 East Arizona Avenue; for more info, go to www.denvergov.org. Discussions of the city's proposed new zoning code will continue into July. The next is slated from 6 to 9 p.m. on June 30 at Temple Sinai, 3509 South Glencoe Street. Find details at www.newcode.org.

And finally, Ward Churchill gets another day in court on July 1, when District Judge Larry Naves will consider the argument that he should get his job back at the University of Colorado -- or buckets of money. For a preview, tune into HBO at 7 p.m. tonight for a showing of Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech, a ninety-minute doc.