At a meeting this afternoon, on March 14, Denver Post editor Lee Ann Colacioppo announced layoffs for thirty employees, constituting nearly one-third of the newsroom staff. It’s the largest example of downsizing at the Post in recent memory and leaves the broadsheet with fewer than 25 percent of newsroomers employed during its peak. Less than a decade ago, around 300 journalists were on the job.
For folks in the United States and much of the Western world, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, who passed away early today, March 14, in Cambridge, is the most famous person to die thus far in 2018, and the social media reactions vary from heartfelt tributes to bizarre takes along the lines of a Facebook item that reads, “Stop trolling. Stephen Hawking is not dead. Chairs can’t die.” Such reactions are to be expected according to a recent report by University of Colorado Boulder researchers.
Denver City Councilman Rafael Espinoza’s call for an investigation over improper texts Denver Mayor Michael Hancock sent to Denver police detective Leslie Branch-Wise when she was a member of his security detail circa 2011-2012 is not being echoed by other members of the panel. The Denver City Council has now issued a joint statement that essentially shrugs off the need for such an inquiry while calling for greater transparency related to any assertions of sexual harassment by officials. Yet the information that led to this decision was dispensed at a closed-door meeting, during executive session.
Last night, on the eve of planned gun-control-related student walkouts at schools throughout the Denver area and the nation, Adams 12 Five Star Schools superintendent Chris Gdowski sent a letter to parents warning about “a high volume (over 40 at this time) of anonymous Safe2Tell reports…raising safety concerns at each of our five comprehensive high schools (Horizon, Legacy, Mountain Range, Northglenn and Thornton) for tomorrow, March 14, 2018.” Gdowski added that “we have been in contact with neighboring school districts in the Denver-metro area and this is consistent with what they are experiencing.”
Denver City Councilman Rafael Espinoza has asked for an independent investigation of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock following his video apology for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise in 2011 and 2012, when she was on his security detail. But the controversy has also sparked renewed interest in stories from that same period suggesting that Hancock had been a client of the Denver Players/Denver Sugar prostitution ring, originally headed by former professional skier Scottie Ewing. The latter tale got another workout yesterday, March 12, when Ewing took to the local airwaves to attack a weekend column by Chuck Plunkett, the Denver Post’s editorial-page editor. Plunkett had co-starred alongside Ewing in a recently broadcast recording from the period when the newspaper was investigating the Hancock claims. In the piece, Plunkett called Ewing a “professional liar” while detailing the Post’s investigative process, and in conversation with KNUS talk-show host Peter Boyles and me, Ewing returned the favor.
Shortly before news broke last night that the Denver Broncos plan to sign free agent quarterback Case Keenum, the team was forced to respond to a much unhappier development: the arrest of defensive lineman Adam Gotsis for an alleged rape back to 2013. It’s one of the most serious charges this century against a member of the Broncos, a team with more arrests than any other NFL squad since the year 2000. See the documentation below.
In a strongly worded letter accessible below, Denver City Councilman Rafael Espinoza calls out Denver Mayor Michael Hancock over improper texts he sent to Denver police detective Leslie Branch-Wise when she was a member of his security detail circa 2011-2012. Espinoza refers to the actions as sexual harassment, an assertion Hancock has denied, and advocates for “an independent investigation by an outside party, selected by Council, to delve into this matter and provide a full accounting,” with particular focus on settlement payments made to Branch-Wise and former Hancock friend Wayne McDonald.
At the highly unusual time of 11:10 p.m. on Monday, March 12, news broke that the Denver Broncos plan to ink Minnesota Vikings quarterback Case Keenum on Wednesday, March 14, when the free agency period is set to begin. As such, Keenum, the most prominent Broncos signing since Peyton Manning six years ago this month, will be charged with returning the squad to glory after an utterly pathetic 5-11 season. Unlike Manning, however, Keenum’s résumé to date is thin and the jury is still out as to whether he’ll be a top-tier NFL quarterback or a journeyman who managed to parlay a single good season into a giant payday.
The morning after last week’s Colorado caucus, we knew that former Colorado treasurer Cary Kennedy was the big winner among Democrats running for governor. Days later, however, there are still no definitive results in regard to Republican gubernatorial hopefuls, since the Colorado GOP hasn’t released official statewide totals regarding the straw poll conducted on caucus night, nor does it plan to do so. But based on information shared by some key counties, as well as a recent survey, it appears that Colorado treasurer Walker Stapleton currently leading the pack.
The skier who died at Breckenridge on March 8 has been identified as Derek Cressey, a 38-year-old “gentle giant” from Windham, Maine. And the outpouring of love and loss that followed the news of this young father’s passing speaks to the impact he had on friends and loved ones during his too-short life.
The March 2 resignation of Manual High School principal Nick Dawkins and his subsequent assertion that he “was targeted by those that called me a nigger and vowed to bring harm to me” after reports of a confederate flag at a Manual-Weld Central High School football game last September was preceded by a Denver Public Schools investigation into an alleged hostile work environment, as he has acknowledged. According to multiple sources, staff concerns about Dawkins included inappropriate sexual and racial comments, his lack of discretion about sensitive personnel matters (including copying others on an implicit job threat to a staffer on family medical leave), and his disappearance after a meeting in which he accused DPS of compiling a secret dossier on him due in part to complaints from white women.
Gary Cruz, a popular Denver sportscaster during a reported seventeen-year run that included parts of three decades, has died of cancer in Arizona at age 68. And while he’s been off the Mile High City airwaves for more than a generation, he remains well remembered among many local viewers.
Rich Wyatt, the star of American Guns, a once-popular Discovery Channel program that showcased him, his telegenic family, including wife Renee and kids Paige and Kurt, and his business, Wheat Ridge’s Gunsmoke Guns, has been sentenced to 78 months, or six-and-a-half years, in prison for conspiring to deal firearms without a license and multiple tax charges. The verdict, which comes nearly a year after he was found guilty of these offenses, represents the ultimate comedown for a once-prominent TV personality who rubbed shoulders with celebrities such as rock star Ted Nugent and even a former President of the United States, George W. Bush.
A thus-far-unidentified male skier died at Breckenridge ski area yesterday, March 8. He is the first fatality at Breckenridge during the 2017-2018 season but the tenth since 2015-2016. In addition, the skier is the third person to lose his life on or near Breckenridge’s Peak 8 during that span.
In early 2016, we told you about the Western Slope arrest of former Texas death-row resident Claude Wilkerson for allegedly keeping a woman chained to his bed and repeatedly raping her. Just over two years later, Wilkerson has agreed to a plea deal in the case, and it’s a sweet one. He’s admitted guilt to a pair of lesser charges, for which he’ll serve just six years behind bars and three on probation — an astonishingly brief sentence given the initial description of his crimes.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s apology for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise in 2011 and 2012, when she was on his security detail, has sparked renewed interest in reports from that same period of him having been a client of the Denver Players/Denver Sugar prostitution ring. How did Hancock skate out of trouble back then? A recording of a conversation between Scottie Ewing, the enterprise’s central figure, and the Denver Post’s Chuck Plunkett, now the paper’s editorial page editor, demonstrates how Denver’s power elite managed to prevent Hancock, the mayor-elect at the time, from being brought down by the scandal. And you can bet similar dynamics are at play today in regard to the Branch-Wise matter.
On February 6, as we’ve reported, 24-year-old Sam Failla was declared dead just outside Vail ski area, where he worked as an instructor. Today, the circumstances of Sam’s tragic passing, and particularly the eleven hours or so that elapsed between an exhausted companion’s first 911 call and the discovery of Failla’s body in a stream only about a mile from the base of a major ski lift, remain mysterious. And while the investigation is ongoing, John Failla, Sam’s father, believes multiple opportunities to save his son’s life were missed.
Results from the 2018 Colorado caucus are nearly complete, and while state Republicans aren’t releasing details about the vote, Democratic attendees have given gubernatorial candidate Cary Kennedy a big victory. At this writing, she has 50 percent of the vote, more than all of her competitors combined.
Last July, as we’ve reported, Joseph Hopper and twelve others associated with Hoppz’ Cropz stores in Colorado Springs were indicted for alleged illegal distribution of marijuana (nearly 200 pounds’ worth) in a variation on the sort of “free” pot giveaway schemes that date back to the days before and just after the launch of legal recreational cannabis sales in the state. Now, Rob Corry, Hopper’s attorney, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on a technicality — specifically that Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman isn’t licensed to practice law in the state under the name listed in the document. And he’s right.
One of the most disturbing crime stories in the nation right now involves Vincent Terry, who was arrested in Florida for allegedly killing his pregnant wife, Chrystal Terry, and taking photos of her corpse. But a Colorado connection to the case that we reported about nearly four years ago makes the latest events even more horrific.
According to the latest report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, single family home prices in Denver now average more than $500,000, the highest number ever recorded for such residences in the Mile High City. But this benchmark wasn’t achieved by way of a sudden spike. The climb to this sum has been inexorable over the past year, with occasional clues that the market had plateaued proving false.
Ever since Denver Mayor Michael Hancock apologized for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise during the 2011-2012 period when she was on his security detail, various organizations related to local law enforcement have made their displeasure with the situation clear. The latest: Hours after Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, told us that Hancock had lost the respect of cops in the Mile High, the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, the state’s primary police union, sent a scathing letter to Governor John Hickenlooper demanding that the mayor resign over his treatment of now-Detective Branch-Wise and plenty more.
