Why? Apparently because people who live in Boulder are godless heathens who the Lord has decided to strike down with furious vengeance. Here's the text from their latest screed:
Hal Hebert has always insisted he didn't kill his wife.
Seven years ago, after an emotional murder trial that was rich in incriminating circumstantial evidence but short on motive, a Denver jury found Hal Hebert guilty of shooting his wife Carol in 2001 in their Belcaro home. A key witness for the prosecution was an oddball named Richard White, who testified that he sold a gun to a friend of Hebert's -- a gun that Hebert allegedly acquired six weeks before the murder.
The murder weapon was never found. But a few weeks after Hebert's trial, White was arrested and charged with homicide in Arapahoe County. White soon began telling investigators about five women he'd sexually assaulted and killed, including three prostitutes he'd picked up on Colfax. Two bodies were exhumed from his back yard in Park Hill, another from a grave in southern Colorado.
White cut a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty and is now serving multiple life terms in the state supermax. And Hebert -- who, like Richard "Fugitive" Kimball, has always insisted that an intruder killed his wife -- now claims to have evidence that the serial killer who testified against him is the man who shot his wife in the back of the head, put her in the trunk of her car and abandoned the vehicle several miles away.
That's not news to Eagle resident Elizabeth James, one of the many Prius drivers whose stories appear in our April 2009 feature "The Prius Can Take Owners on a Wild Ride." Thanks to what reporter Paul Knight refers to as an "unintended acceleration" problem, James's vehicle wound up in a river.
This morning, Schneeberger is having the last laugh. The spot that aired yesterday (see it below) made no explicit mention of "abortion," "choice" or any obvious code word. Instead, it featured Tebow's mom Pam talking about how she almost lost Tim -- after which Tebow, in an unexpected sight gag, appears to tackle her. Then viewers are referred to the Focus on the Family website, where an additional video features Pam talking about having been urged by doctors to get an abortion and her refusal to do so -- with the result of her decision being Tim.
In the end, Focus scored big with the ad thanks to those protest groups, which wound up serving as a megaphone for its pro-life philosophy. This wasn't Focus's concept from the start: "It was definitely an accident," Schneeberger admits. But he's clearly happy with how it turned out.
Apparently Denver Public Schools isn't the only organization that views chicken -- fried or Southern-style -- and collard greens as a way to honor black history.
And it's not the only organization to be criticized for playing into racial stereotypes by doing so.
As the Huffington Post reports here, the NBC cafeteria served fried chicken, collard greens and jalapeno cornbread for lunch yesterday to honor Black History Month.
Senator Chris Romer's bill about the relationship between doctors and medical marijuana patients rolls on -- and advocates such as Matt Brown of Coloradans for Medical Marijuana Regulation don't see it as especially onerous.
To put it mildly, that view isn't shared by the folks at the Cannabis Therapy Institute. Many of the group's members, including patients with serious medical conditions, testified against the measure yesterday, only to watch the House judiciary committee pass it on a unanimous vote. Afterward, CTI released a jeremiad declaring that the bill would harm patients and rack up unnecessary costs for taxpayers.
Stand-up comedians often complain about having to prove they're good at their job whenever they meet someone. ("Say something funny! Make me laugh!") Denver-based psychic Rebecca Rosen knows how they feel.
"People will say, 'You should know my name,' or 'What are the winning lotto numbers?'" she notes, adding, "It gets old after a while."
She'd better get used to it. On Tuesday, she released Spirited: Connect to the Guides All Around You, a new book intended to make talking to dead people seem perfectly normal -- and that same night, she starred in an extended segment on ABC's Nightline that served as a virtual blueprint for a reality-TV show. Since then, confirms the mother of two kids just as telegenic as she is, she's been bombarded with pitches to launch just such a project.
One Colorado, a new statewide gay-rights organization that's actually an umbrella for a trio of organizations including an advocacy group, a non-profit education group and a political action committee, is attempting to use 53 questions, in the form of a survey, to answer one: What is it like to be LGBT in Colorado in 2010?
"There are plenty of people out there who would like to define our community for us. We have more than enough of them in this state," says Bobby Clark, chairman of One Colorado's board. "So we said, 'Let's define our community ourselves. Let's tell people what our lives are like.'"
This week's cover story relates the tale of how Nic Gray, an Iraq war veteran, got caught up in the criminal justice system and eventually landed in an innovative new program called the El Paso County veterans treatment court. Gray describes what happened in his own words in the above video, produced by former Westword staff writer Jared Jacang Maher at Manmade Media.
Yesterday, we told you about a new worship space at the Air Force Academy designed for use by cadets and staffers who practice Earth-centered beliefs, including Pagans, Wiccans and Druids.
A photo of the new Air Force Academy worship space -- with an unwelcome addition.
Shortly thereafter, a photo began to circulate showing that last month, persons unknown placed a cross against the rock circle at the center of the space -- an apparent act of pro-Christian bullying of the sort pinpointed in a 2005 military study documenting religious intolerance at the Academy.
The response to this breaking news? The Academy is in full damage control mode, with Lieutenant General Mike Gould, AFA's superintendent, issuing a statement decrying the action (see it below) and Brigadier General Samuel Cox addressing cadets during lunch at noon today.
At the session, portions of the measure dealing with what Golden previously described as "measurements to see if the areola of a woman's breast is exposed or checking people's underwear" were excised. But the rest of it moved forward -- and Golden now believes the regulation is being pushed by the Boulder Police Department as a way to permanently squash such events as the Naked Pumpkin Run and a potential revival of the Halloween-themed Boulder Mall Crawl.
Are the elephants at the Denver Zoo freezing their giant butts off? In Defense of Animals says they are. The zoo says no way.
According to a Groundhog Day-themed report issued today by the animal watchdog group, the Denver Zoo is among the thirty-one U.S. zoos housing the hot-weather animals in cold-weather climes, which makes the elephants sad. Or crazy. IDA says that confining elephants (especially during long, hard winters) can lead to aggressive behavior and repetitive rocking or swaying, not to mention painful foot disease and arthritis.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks explores the history of the woman whose stolen cells changed millions of lives.
In her decade-in-the making tracing of a woman whose cells were instrumental to modern medicine, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot, a Colorado State University graduate, uncovers the injustice of one family whose biological legacy was stolen.
The undying HeLa cells, as medical scientist have come to call them, were pivotal in "developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions."
But the living vessel that produced the cells -- Henrietta Lacks, a poor tobacco farmer who toiled upon the same Virginia lands as her slave ancestors -- was buried in an unmarked grave more than sixty years ago. She's all but a ghost of a memory to her descendants, who can't even afford health insurance.
Imogene Jackson's family would just like for her to rest in peace.
Yesterday, we told you about the strange case of Imogene Jackson, who was mistakenly buried in place of another woman with the same last name -- who happened to wind up in the open coffin of a wake held to honor Imogene.
This incident took place at Pipkin Mortuary, which was subsequently accused of placing a dead male child in a pink coffin against the wishes of his parents. But this fine establishment will have fewer chances to make similar gaffes thanks to actions by the state's Department of Regulatory Agencies, which has slapped Pipkin with a cease-and-desist order. The unregistered (!) mortuary is precluded from taking new clients pending the results of an investigation into the Jackson-for-Jackson exchange and can only complete scheduled services through February 9.
Bet these particular customers will be watching the Pipkin staff very closely. See the DORA press release below:
The 2005 Naked Pumpkin Runners could be in a lot of trouble five years later.
Well, at 6 p.m. tonight, the council will hear the first reading of just such an ordinance. But attorney Judd Golden, representing the Boulder branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, sees the entire exercise as misbegotten. In his view, "there are tools we can use to deal with public disorder that don't focus on measurements to see if the areola of a woman's breast is exposed or checking people's underwear."
The last decade wasn't always kind to the Air Force Academy. In January 2003, Westword published "The War Within," a feature by reporter Julie Jargon about mistreatment of female cadets that kicked off a series of scandals and PR black eyes. Among the latter: A 2005 military study that documented religious intolerance at the Academy, some of it reportedly aimed at cadets who weren't evangelical Christians.
In the years since then, the Academy has tried to prove its openness to attendees of all faiths. The latest effort? The establishment of a worship space specifically designed for use by cadets and staffers who practice Earth-centered beliefs, including Pagans, Wiccans and Druids.
Cory Voorhis is playing the waiting game -- again.
Last week, ex-ICE agent Cory Voorhis made his case for why he should get his old job back during a two-day hearing; click here to read J. David McSwane's account of the first session and here for his take on the second one. But even as he waits for Merit Systems Protection Board Judge Jeremiah Cassidy to determine whether he should be reinstated (a ruling is expected in thirty to 45 days), Voorhis is already thinking about going back to court.
"I fully intend to seek some judicial review about how this case has been handled and conducted," he says.
Channel 7 reports that Carter, whose grandfather founded the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and remains a prominent civic leader, joined members of Kappa Sigma, hisTexas Christian University fraternity, for a skiing trip to Breckenridge last month. There, he got drunk enough to let his bros brand the frat's letters on his behind using a hot coat hangar.
What could possibly go wrong with a plan that well-thought out? Well, Carter wound up with second- and third-degree burns. But he'll always remember that trip to Breckenridge...
The folks at Pipkin Mortuary have a lot of 'splainin' to do -- but no amount of apologetic words is likely to salve the wounds of the various families involved in an unbelievable body mix-up -- or another family whose son's remains had to be exhumed following another botch.
The grandchild of Imogene Jackson discovered that an unfamiliar person was in a coffin at an open-casket wake; turns out Imogene had been mistakenly buried in place of another woman with the same last name, Evelyn Lucille Jackson -- the lady laying before them. And once that story broke, another family came forward to say Pipkin initially buried their dead son in a pink casket. The boy's body had to be exhumed and reburied in a coffin with a color scheme they found more appropriate.
Check out Channel 31's coverage of these stories above and below -- and be prepaerd for your jaw to hit the floor.
Assurant Health refused to pay Jennifer Latham's medical bills after this 2005 auto accident.
Last Friday, as six Boulder County jurors tried to determine punitive damages in the case of a woman whose health insurance company refused to pay her medical bills after a devastating auto accident, one figure loomed large: $150 million.
That's the amount that Time Insurance, also known as Fortis and Assurant Health, saved in benefits not paid over five years by rescinding thousands of policies, contending that the insured misrepresented information on their applications -- even if that information had nothing to do with the claim submitted. In the case of Jennifer Latham, who was badly injured in 2005 when her car was broadsided by a meth dealer fleeing cops, Assurant denied her claim because ambiguous information about a uterine condition and an ER visit for a panic attack wasn't disclosed in the application she submitted months earlier.
As first reported here, the jury decided after six hours to award Latham and her two youngest children $37.3 million, including economic and punitive damages -- the largest bad-faith judgment against an insurance company in Colorado history.
Attorney Marc Levy urged the jury to send a message to Time Insurance. They did.
Deciding on one of the largest punitive damage verdicts in Colorado history, a Boulder jury has awarded $37 million to a mother of four whose health insurance company refused to pay medical bills after she was severely injured in a 2005 auto collision with a meth dealer who was fleeing police.
Longmont teacher Jennifer Latham and her husband Frank both suffered broken bones, internal injuries and brain injuries from the crash. But Time Insurance, also known as Fortis and Assurant Health, rescinded a health insurance policy Jennifer had recently taken out, claiming that she'd failed to disclose a complete and accurate health history on its application form--leaving her with more than $180,000 in medical bills.
Time is notorious in the health insurance industry for its "post-claim underwriting"--going back to the application after a claim is made to determine if misrepresentations were made that would warrant revoking the policy, even if the medical conditions involved have nothing to do with the claim. A similar case in South Carolina, in which the company rejected coverage for a teenager who discovered through a blood donation that he had AIDS, resulted in a $10 million punitive judgment. That verdict was upheld last fall by the state's supreme court.
"Even thinking about making the Pro Bowl makes me happy."
Gather 'round, kids, and read these three Denver blogs.
Over at Bronco Talk, Mr. East wonders whose Pro Bowl vote is it anyhow? Along the way, he writes, "One could even argue that Kyle Orton deserves a go instead" of David Garrard, who made the cut. For the first half of the season, maybe...
WhoSaidYouSaid.com's Kelly Maher shares this bit of wisdom from Mayor John Hickenlooper: "Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face." Can we watch?
Fired ICE Special Agent Cory Voorhis wants his job back.
In the second day and final day of a hearing before a federal administrative judge (read day one coverage here), Cory Voorhis, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was fired for leaking information from restricted databases to Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, says he sought to expose "potentially illegal" plea-down policies handed out to illegal immigrants by the Denver District Attorney's office.
But the issue Voorhis said was the real injustice has been buried in a years-long saga that's been riddled with controversies, which some see as contributing to Governor Bill Ritter's decision to not run for re-election and his Chief of Staff Stephanie Villafuerte's withdrawal from consideration for a vacant U.S. Attorney spot.
Voorhis testified on Thursday that his controversial leaks and the subsequent uproar in the media and the legal community were "absolutely not" politically motivated, even though he handed a potentially crippling "smoking gun" to a political campaign in the heat of election season.
No surprise, then, that individuals and groups ideologically in-tune with Focus are trumpeting the commercial, too. Witness the clip above, created by the conservative American Policy Roundtable and featuring veteran Christian musician Phil Keaggy, as well as video testimony by Jay Riemersma, a Congressional candidate from Michigan. See it below.
Of course, neither the APR folks nor Rimersma have actually seen the ad. Imagine how much run Focus on the Family will get once it actually airs...
Now, a new development: The National Socialists' designated chunk of U.S. Highway 85 is being moved approximately two miles away from the Elmwood Baptist Church, whose pastor, Gary Randall, was frustrated by the proximity of the signage.
The reason? According to CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman, the church had already adopted that segment of roadway, which should have precluded the neo-Nazis from snagging it in the first place.
The Denver hearing encapsulated the dramatic twists and embarrassing turns the story's taken over the last few years -- including theories that Voorhis fallout may have contributed to Governor Bill Ritter's decision to not run for re-election and former Ritter aide Stephanie Villafuerte's withdrawal of her name from consideration for a U.S. Attorney post.
In day one of the hearing, Voorhis's attorney, Tom Muther, prodded and exposed old wounds -- including the flip-flopping testimony of ICE supervisor and alleged perjurer Tony Rouco, who Voorhis says had knowledge of, and even supported, the leaks to the Beauprez camp.
The great Colorado debate over medical marijuana finally reached the gold dome of the State Capitol on Wednesday when Democratic Senator Chris Romer introduced the first of two proposed bills dealing with the issue.
More than 150 people, including a large number of disabled medical marijuana patients, turned out before the senate's health and human services committee to listen or give their opinions over regulations that would require doctors to provide physical exams to their patients and offer follow-up care, among other proposals.
The CSU Board of Governors, which oversees campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo, is expected to adopt a ban of concealed weapons February 23, but not with the support of many students and now, along with Alderden, The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Club.
On its face, the resistance to a gun ban sounds, well, like something a crazed second amendment group -- or a slap happy sheriff -- might do. But considering the reality of campus safety, the opposition might not be so nutty.
Art Cormier's name has popped up plenty of times in Westword over the years. Take this 2005 piece about the Regency Hotel, a once-elegant joint turned into a nexus for neighborhood complaints under Cormier's ownership.
Now, shortly after controversy enveloped Amazing Jake's funplex, a Cormier property in Aurora, he's got more troubles. Mr. Biggs, a popular teen hangout and bowling alley in unincorporated Jefferson County, was recently cited by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department for what spokesman Mark Techmeyer describes as an aborted fashion show featuring topless models, some under the legal drinking age.
Wasn't chasing this sucker more fun than rescuing Mr. Whiskers?
Two weeks ago, David Lane, attorney for Balloon Boy dad Richard Heene, griped that a $47,000-plus restitution charge for leading law-enforcement officials on a wild experimental-craft chase was way too high.
That complaint has now been formalized: A motion challenging the amount was filed on Friday -- and this morning, a Denver Post editorial unexpectedly sided with the Heenes.
When reached this morning, Lane had not yet read the editorial -- but he's got plenty of complaints about the charges. For one thing, he asserts that the Heenes are being charged "so the sheriff can look pretty on TV."
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