by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Travel
by Megan Carthel
The Glendale Sports Center has a new director. Monica Henrichs started the position in mid-November, something she has been working toward.
“I want to say I’ve been preparing for this for a while because mentally I always knew this is where I wanted to be,” Henrichs said.
Henrichs is from Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin where she studied Kinesiology and met her husband, Eric. The couple moved to Denver after being married for three weeks. Prior to the move to Denver, Henrichs was a trainer, 
fitness instructor and health coach at a gym in Wisconsin, where she was working toward the director position.
“I’ve always felt like I wanted to be in a director role where I can still talk to people and work with people but have more of a say in how programs run and be a little more creative on that side,” Henrichs said.
Henrichs isn’t afraid to get creative when it comes to running the Glendale Sports Center. In the works for 2017 is a variety of classes and challenges to form more of a community within the gym.
“I’d like to introduce some new formats of classes, offering a lot more variety I think is huge for our members because then they stay a little more excited,” Henrichs said. “My big, big goal for 2017 is to create a community between the fitness center and group fitness.”
Henrichs said she is compiling a list of new classes the current instructors would like to teach and that the classes should be available around April. Henrichs has more up her sleeve than just new classes
“We’re going to do a lot of fun challenges coming up that are fitness center based but also include group fitness and so people who are just fitness center people are getting a little bit of group fitness and vice-versa. That makes it more interesting I think,” Henrichs said.
In March, Henrichs and the Sports Center are planning a “fitness Bingo” challenge that is designed to incorporate both fitness center and group fitness aspects. The current 2017 class schedule has one minor adjustment added to it. Henrichs is teaching a bootcamp class on Thursday evenings. The class is a head-to-toe workout based on strength and includes cardio and speed drills. Each week is a little different, but Henrichs can guarantee one thing.
“Lots of fun sweating time,” Henrichs said.
Outside of the gym, Henrichs likes to watch sports and is an avid Green Bay Packers fan, owning a fair share of team emblazoned coffee mugs and a cheese head. She said she is excited for rugby to start up, a sport she has watched since she was a kid.
Henrichs and her husband have embraced the Colorado lifestyle, already hiking a fourteener and enjoying breweries around town.
by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Valley Gadfly
“If music be the food of love, play on,” Shakespeare wrote. February is the month of love and romance with swooning ballads and contemporary pop songs to help us build a dream. Every self-respecting music fan — and that’s most of us — are plugged into high fidelity soundtracks. Thus snow, music and love become putty in our hands.
“Give me excess of it,” Shakespeare says in Act I of Twelfth Night. Illyria’s Duke Orsino opens the play with that emotion affected by airs of a melancholic lover.
Here are our heart to heart choices for shopping, dining and entertainment for sharing, caring and growing together so you’ll feel the bliss and get a hug and kiss:
3 Strike all the right chords as the Sean McGowan Trio plays the love songs of Lerner & Loewe at Dazzle Jazz, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. Finger style guitarist McGowan’s music will melt your heart. Information: 303-839-5100.
3 Capture love’s recipe at the Seasoned Chef Cooking School’s couples class to fire up romance at home Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m. Information: 303-377-3222.
3 Giggle, love and laugh together at Bovine Metropolis Theater’s Armando playing Feb. 10-11 and 14 at 7, 8 or 9 p.m. Information: 303-758-4722.
3 Share a musical sure to have your love asking for more by making it to Motown The Musical at the Buell Feb. 15-19. Information: 303-893-4100.
3 Fuel the flames of passion by treating your sweetheart to the Inn at Cherry Creek’s Valentine package including champagne, dinner, accommodations for two plus breakfast at sweet, sweet savings. Information: 303-377-8577.
3 What better gift than a home to share with your Valentine? Make your dreams come true with loan rates on a $400,000 home as low as $14,000 down from Stone Creek Mortgage. Information: 303-573-1200.
3 Re-energize your love life with meals, parties, events plus two plays at the New Play Summit in the DCPA Feb. 24-26. Information: 303-893-6030.
3 Swoon to the music, art, design and flavors of the Beaux Arts Ball at the Colorado Convention Center Feb. 25, 6 p.m. Information: 303-728-6546.
3 You and your buddy or beau will be bubbling over with love listening to the more than 25 songs in Red Hot & Cole. The Cherry Creek Theatre’s regional premiere of the two-act revue runs through Feb. 19. Performances are Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. Sunday shows also on Feb. 12 and 19, 7 p.m. The Theater’s new home is at the MACC on the JCC campus, 930 S. Dahlia. Information: 303-800-6578.
This is the shortest month of the year. The Welsh call February “y mis bach” which means “little month.” Those of us living in the Valley are still trapped in winter, but we can at least feel uplifted that spring will soon be here. Throughout the 28 days Buddy Holly’s melodic words assure us: “Our true love ways will bring us joy to share.”
The third week in February is International Flirting Week. If you believe Paul McCartney’s silly love songs, take to heart it’s also An Affair to Remember Month.
Elvis Presley’s tune “Can’t Help Falling In Love” is fair warning. So if it isn’t snowing and you’re spinning around you’re on love’s musical joyride. You’ll feel love’s chill whether it’s Mozart, Madonna, tango or techno. Actually, neither true love nor music make the world go around but it sure makes life’s high notes seem sweeter.
— Glen Richardson
The Valley Gadfly can be reached at newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com.
by Mark Smiley | Jan 30, 2017 | Editorials
A couple of well accepted axioms are that bureaucracies endlessly seek to grow and expand and that some of the least ethical of humans naturally gravitate to ethical boards and commissions if for no other reason than to help obscure their own highly unethical conduct in life. Both appeared to be at work in the most recent attempt of the Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) to control home rule cities and others throughout Colorado under Amendment 41 by attacking former Glendale City Councilman Jeff Allen on behalf of owners of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs store.
Amendment 41 was the brainchild of Jared Polis before he became a congressman and it was a ballot initiative to the State Constitution imposing draconian limits on gifts by lobbyists and others to elected officials and to restrict certain lobbying for two years. By its express terms it did not apply to home rule cities in Colorado such as Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and 67 other cities since the Amendment stated it “shall not apply to home rule counties or home rule municipalities that have adopted charters, ordinances or resolutions that address the matters that are covered by this article.”
That is how the IEC has apparently ruled ever since its inception in 2006. But that all changed just before Christmas when the five-member board unanimously claimed jurisdiction over every city in the state.
The new IEC position was almost unanimously condemned by all g
ood government groups in Colorado and even by strong Amendment 41 supporters such as Ethics Watch and Colorado Common Cause.
This is certainly not the first public condemnation of the IEC while under the control of its Chairman William Leone, an attorney, who has been controversial and is considered in some quarters to be highly disreputable. In early 2016 the State Auditor did an audit of the IEC and as stated by the headline in The Colorado Independent, “Audit: Colorado’s Ethics Commission has questionable ethics.” The State Auditor castigated Leone’s IEC saying it engaged in incredible sloppy record keeping and openly violated the state’s open meetings and open records laws. The Auditor could not even determine “whether the IEC consistently followed it rules over time, or properly conducted hearings . . . .” Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler has simply called the IEC — “Corrupt.”
As a result of the audit the Colorado Legislature was aghast at the conduct of IEC and Leone who was a former Acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado, albeit intimately involved in the Alberto Gonzales scandal at the United States Department of Justice in 2006.
When Pat Steadman, State Senator for District 31 (which includes Denver and Glendale), sought to address the ethical lapses of Leone and the IEC including its use of the Attorney General lawyers and not its own, Leone went ballistic. He declared the bill was a “backroom deal” made by an unnamed former commissioner and Ethics Watch and Common Cause. He threatened to sue the legislature and “fight to the death in court,” if necessary. Steadman was incredulous at Leone’s assertion that not even the legislature had the right to pass bills that would in any manner affect the IEC. As one observer noted, “Bill Leone believes he is above the law and the ethics rules apply to everyone but him.” The bill ultimately failed and Leone’s megalomania went unchecked.
But few people knew exactly how out of control Bill Leone was until mid-January. Under Amendment 41 all complaints to it must be kept confidential until it is determined that the IEC has jurisdiction and the complaint is determined to be “non-frivolous.” The IEC illegally leaked to The Denver Post that it had determined that a complaint against Jeff Allen filed by the owners of the Authentic Persian & Oriental Rug store by Russell Kemp of Ireland Stapleton was “non-frivolous.”
The claim proffered was that Allen should not have voted on a unanimously approved city budget because the City, under a law adopted years ago, gives money to the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce and Jeff Allen as COO of the Chamber draws a small salary. Under such ludicrous logic no councilman could ever approve any annual budget because under that budget they draw a salary approved years before.
But the key to the decision is what in the world does such a complaint have to do with the IEC under Amendment 41 and its gift/lobbying limitations? Aha! It doesn’t. Amendment 41 has a vague little noticed provision that declares that the IEC has jurisdiction over not only gifts and revolving door lobbying but also “any other standard of conduct or reporting requirement in state law.” Thus under Bill Leone the IEC could go after doctors, lawyers, contractors, or virtually anyone else in the state. Its purported jurisdiction is virtually unlimited according to William Leone.
Moreover, individuals covering IEC meetings and hearings have reported possible skullduggery concerning the Allen case. Last year another ethically dubious establishment character Bernie Buescher (once an appointed Secretary of State but later soundly rejected by voters) was discovered hanging around various meetings although he had no public case or controversy before the IEC. He was engaged in what appeared to be illegal ex parte communications with Leone and Leone’s Executive Director Dino Ioannides. When caught in the act he disclosed that he was representing “rug merchants” in Glendale to get their high-rise built and was hoping to use the IEC to pressure the City Council. Upon review it was discovered that Buescher is “of counsel” to the law firm of Ireland Stapleton which of course represents M.A.K. Investments.
In various IEC minutes Ioannides declared that he has a “conflict of interest” regarding a certain mysterious case which observers believe concerned Jeff Allen. Typical of the lack of ethics of the IEC, Ioannides did not disclose (as required by state law) what was in fact the “conflict of interest.” Did it involve Bernie Buescher and the wealthy rug merchants of Glendale?
Which brings us back to Jeff Allen. He is but a pawn in a massive power game of William Leone. Allen left the City Council years ago and gets only a small salary as a Chamber COO. He has no funds to fight the sick megalomaniac dreams of ethically challenged Bill Leone and his IEC. It will of course bankrupt him.
That is, of course, why Leone picked Allen. If he challenged Mayor Michael Hancock over his 2015 Super Bowl Trip he could expect a major fight on his hands. Leone and the IEC can roll over the corpse of Jeff Allen many times over. He has no ability to fight a cadre of sleazy, unscrupulous lawyers like Bill Leone, Russell Kemp and Bernie Buescher.
It can only be hoped that Glendale and home rule cities throughout Colorado will rise up to take on Bill Leone and his highly unethical Independent Ethics Commission on behalf of Allen. If Allen goes down, he will be only the first of many potential victims of one morally repugnant individual — William Leone.
— Editorial Board
by Peter Boyles | Jan 30, 2017 | Blasting with Boyles
As a little guy growing up with black and white television in Pittsburgh, I always thought the greatest thing on TV was professional wrestling. Today, as an old guy, I believe the greatest thing on TV is still professional wrestling.
I know all the news that I get — like Archie Bunker — comes from the National Enquirer, and the only real sport left is professional wrestling.
As a highlight of my life, as a young boy, disc jockey and a professional wrestling fan, I reached out to then local professional wrestling promoter the late Gene Reed, to see if I could get any professional wrestlers to appear on my show when they were in town.
I was the mid-day guy at the now defunct KAAT radio and hosted a mid-day show from the Yum-Yum Tree, a big barn like affair with restaurants inside, and lo and behold I got to interview the man I later found out owned the whole wrestling company, the late, great Verne Gagne. At that point, I could have died happy. You see, I was then officially called a “mark.” Wait, but what is a mark you ask? A mark is a person who believes professional wrestling matches are real. Some historians believe that the term dates back to a carnival term, when carnies would put chalk marks on a guy’s back so he was marked. And others would call a mark, a sucker. Other people believe it’s called hitting the mark which is a scam aimed at a sucker. And when it works, they hit the mark.
It’s the term that pro wrestlers and promoters use for people who buy tickets. Remember, these people are not considered fans or followers, they are simply marks. The wrestlers are only concerned with being paid, smirk at the marks, and when I finally got to do my first job as a ring announcer at Denver’s old Auditorium Arena, a couple of the guys and Verne “smartened me up.” Now I was on the inside and no longer a mark.
What strikes me now is how many people are marking for Barak Obama, George W. Bush, John Hickenlooper, Michael Hancock, The Denver Post, local news stations, and any politician that they think cares about them or their families.
Pro wrestling has two principal terms, one is called a “work” and the other is called a “shoot.” A shoot is real and everything else is a work. I am beginning to believe that Donald Trump became our president in a shoot and everything else is a work. Hancock’s and Hickenlooper’s Road Home is a work, George Bush’s war in Iraq was the biggest work of all time. Barak Obama’s life story is a total work. Are you starting to see the idea?
Sometimes the “boys” (what wrestlers call each other) use the term “smarks,” which is even more derogatory because they can point at you and call you that and you have no idea they are marking you. Another great pro wrestling term is called “selling.” Selling is to act as though you have been on the receiving end of a real fighting maneuver. The Denver Post leads the league. They have been selling for all of the above for so long they have no idea where real ends and work begins. Another term is called a “squash,” a huge mismatch where some heel (bad guy) takes some little face (good guy) and beats him up on TV. Everybody is selling, everybody is marking and no one is shooting. Now you understand the Train to the Plane. Another great term from the business, is called “switch the heat” or “pass the blame.”
And last, but not least, you have “workers” and a term called “work rate.” Those are both positive terms. It’s the pace of a match and the skill level of the wrestler. Ask yourself for real, how many real workers are in Front Range media and politics? I leave you with one more term that I was told about, it was the greatest definition for a wrestling match I had ever heard. It’s called a “Broadway.” It’s one hour long, everybody works very hard and it ends up a draw and they are rare and far between. We haven’t seen a full Broadway in this city for a long ass time. Andre the Giant was not 7’4”. But what the hell. Michael Hancock never bought a hooker. Ring the bell.
— Peter
