Posted inColoradans, News

Former Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex, who issued 1st same-sex marriage licenses, dies

BOULDER — Clela Rorex, a former Colorado county clerk considered a pioneer in the gay rights movement for being the first public official to issue a same-sex marriage license in 1975, has died. She was 78. Rorex died Sunday of complications from recent surgery at a hospice care facility in Longmont, the Daily Camera reported. […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Silverman: Former Denver District Attorney Norm Early was a fierce advocate for victims’ rights

When Norm Early entered a room, people took notice.  Norm was tall, with broad shoulders, a powerful chest and solid arms. Norm’s full head of hair framed a handsome, mustachioed face that lit up any venue when he smiled, which happened frequently. Rooms reverberated with Norm’s infectious booming laugh, now silenced forever at age 76. […]

Posted inEducation, News

Ricardo Martinez remembered as “a warrior” for justice in Denver schools

For three decades, Ricardo Martinez, co-founder of the advocacy group Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, helped parents and students fight racism in Denver Public Schools. Last week, Denver lost the humble and fierce organizer. He died of a stroke and its complications, according to a written remembrance shared by his family. “At his core, he was […]

Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News

The alleged killer thought no one would miss him. But the “reading man” has been missed — and now memorialized.

An imaginary south wind has bent an iron-work tree over a curved metal chair and riffled the pages of a sheet-metal book titled, “And You Also.” That was a signature comment of Warren Barnes, a gentle, homeless 69-year-old who was a downtown fixture known as “the reading man” because he so often sat along this […]

Posted inNews, Opinion, Opinion Columns

Steve Knopper: Jim Sheeler was a fierce friend, who helped his besties turn down the volume on “You Suck FM”

“I know!” was maybe the most frequent phrase I remember Jim Sheeler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who died last weekend at 53, saying to me during our 30-year friendship. One time, I told him the story about a Pepsi Center full of Jimmy Buffett fans booing me because I refused to return the volley of […]

Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors

Pikes Peak Marathon legend Arlene Pieper Stine, the first woman to run a sanctioned marathon, has died

One of Colorado mountain running’s most beloved heroes used to climb up the ladder next to the sign draped across the town of Manitou Springs’s main drag — “Welcome, Pikes Peak Runners” — so that she could send off the hundreds of runners who had packed the narrow street to head off for the summit […]

Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News

Boulder shooting victim Rikki Olds “lived life on Rikki’s terms,” family and friends say

Rikki Olds didn’t pay attention to what other people thought of her.  The 25-year-old was constantly dyeing her blonde hair, deciding on a whim what the latest color would be. Her coworkers at the Table Mesa King Soopers in Boulder nicknamed her “Wendy” because she often wore her blue/purple/pink locks in braids. When she wanted […]