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  • Students’ fight-turned-shooting near Denver high school sets neighbors on edge

    Students’ fight-turned-shooting near Denver high school sets neighbors on edge

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    A fistfight between two Excel Academy students escalated into a shooting this week, sending people running for cover and setting neighbors around the Denver public high school on edge.

    The fight-turned-shooting happened at around 12:15 p.m. Monday in the 3100 block of West Colorado Avenue, around the corner from Excel Academy, a pathway school that is designed to help students who are behind on credits get back on track for graduation.

    Two students and their families were involved in the fight, Principal Cynthia Navarro wrote in a letter to parents Monday.

    “At no point were our students or staff inside the building ever in danger,” she wrote.

    The shooting comes as Denver Public Schools faces increased public scrutiny over its handling of gun violence among students, particularly in the wake of last year’s shooting at East High School in which a 17-year-old student wounded two school administrators.

    People who live near Excel Academy said during a Denver Police Department neighborhood meeting Wednesday that they’ve raised concerns about the school for years — particularly around nuisance issues like students parking across driveways, littering or drag racing in the streets — and questioned whether school officials were doing enough to protect students and residents.

    On Monday, two young women met in the street to fight while a crowd of about a dozen people watched, according to video of the incident reviewed by The Denver Post. Most appeared to be high-school-aged, but there were at least two adults in the mix, said Cyan Santillana, who witnessed the fight. One of the adults was encouraging the fight, she said.

    After a couple of minutes of fighting, at least one of the people watching drew a gun and fired shots, the video shows. The crowd scattered, with people diving behind cars or into alleys for cover. A single adult man was shot in the incident and survived, Denver police said.

    No arrests had been made by Wednesday and police did not answer questions about the man’s condition or about the shooting.

    Fights in the neighborhood, which abuts Federal Boulevard, are not entirely uncommon, Santillana said, but this was the first time she could remember shots being fired.

    “It’s getting to the point where something definitely needs to be done now,” she said. “There are kids in this neighborhood, there is an elementary school right down the street, and there was this active shooting right in front of the houses.”

    She added that most of the 250 students at Excel Academy don’t cause problems, but that the small group who do “give the school a bad rap.” One student just happened to be walking by when the shooting happened and had to run for cover, Santillana said.

    The shooting took place during the school’s lunch hour, when many students were out of the building enjoying warm weather, said Scott Pribble, spokesman for Denver Public Schools. The fight prompted a 20-minute “secure perimeter” at the school, during which staff and students stayed inside and locked exterior doors, Navarro said in the letter to parents.

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    Shelly Bradbury

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  • 13-year-old boy charged with murder in Denver RTD bus shooting

    13-year-old boy charged with murder in Denver RTD bus shooting

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    A 13-year-old boy suspected of fatally shooting a 60-year-old man on a Denver RTD bus in January has been charged with first-degree murder, though prosecutors are still determining if they will seek to move the case to adult court.

    Denver police allege the boy shot and killed Richard Sanchez on a bus near South Federal Boulevard and West Mississippi Avenue on the evening of Jan. 27 because Sanchez’s leg was blocking the aisle.

    Sanchez was pronounced dead at a local hospital due to multiple gunshot wounds. A second person on the bus was also injured but was not taken to the hospital.

    The boy was arrested on Feb. 1 and is facing 14 charges including first-degree murder, Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Maro Casparian said Wednesday.

    Prosecutors consider many factors when deciding whether to pursue trying a juvenile as an adult, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.

    Those include the circumstances of the crime, the suspect’s age, what contact they’ve had with the juvenile system, their upbringing and background, provisions of the law and the perspective of the victim or victim’s family.

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    Katie Langford

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  • ACLU sues Children’s Hospital Colorado for halting adult gender-affirming surgeries

    ACLU sues Children’s Hospital Colorado for halting adult gender-affirming surgeries

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    The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado alleges Children’s Hospital Colorado is discriminating against transgender patients by refusing to perform surgeries it offers to cisgender patients with other conditions.

    The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Denver District Court, also states the hospital is discriminating on the basis of disability, because gender dysphoria — distress when a person’s sense of their gender doesn’t align with physical characteristics — is a medical condition.

    The ACLU filed it on behalf of an 18-year-old Denver patient who was on track to receive gender-affirming surgery before the hospital discontinued that service.

    The main reason young cisgender men seek chest reconstruction is if they developed feminine-appearing breasts because of hormonal imbalances or medication side effects, according to the lawsuit. The hospital also sometimes performs breast reduction surgery on young women who have excessive chest tissue that causes pain, it said.

    The patient, who is identified in the lawsuit by the pseudonym Caden Kent, started receiving care at Children’s for mental health concerns when he was 16. He was diagnosed with gender dysphoria a few months later and had undergone about eight months of assessment before determining he was a candidate for surgery once he turned 18.

    In July, the hospital announced it would no longer offer chest reconstruction surgery for transgender patients, though they could still receive other gender-affirming treatment, including counseling, puberty blockers and hormone therapy. The hospital had only offered surgery to patients who were at least 18.

    The hospital stated it had received an unusual number of referrals for gender-affirming surgery as programs shut down in other states, and that it didn’t shut down the program because of threats. It came at a time when children’s hospitals were scrubbing references to transgender care from their websites, though, with at least 21 removing information in 2022. A search on the hospital’s website for its TRUE Center for Gender Diversity no longer turns up any results.

    According to the lawsuit, Kent chose to undergo surgery at Children’s because he received other care there, and hoped to recover from the surgery before leaving for college in the fall. Other surgical providers who accept his family’s insurance are booked up, meaning his parents will have to pay out-of-pocket for him to undergo the surgery in that time frame. Kent had resorted to chest-binding to ease his dysphoria, but found himself withdrawing from others when binding became too painful and he couldn’t otherwise hide the breast tissue, it said.

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    Meg Wingerter

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  • Tattered Cover CEO will be paid $120K despite predecessor’s protests

    Tattered Cover CEO will be paid $120K despite predecessor’s protests

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    Tattered Cover’s current CEO can be paid a salary of $120,000 this year, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge ruled Monday, despite the objections of its former CEO.

    Kwame Spearman, who owns a minority stake in the company, led Tattered Cover between early 2021 and early 2023, when he stepped down following an aborted mayoral bid to focus on running for Denver school board, ultimately unsuccessfully.

    His successor is Brad Dempsey, a bankruptcy attorney who took over soon before the company filed for Chapter 11 in October and has led it through the bankruptcy process. Tattered Cover’s board of directors wants him to stay on through 2024 in exchange for $120,000.

    That salary had to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. Spearman objected to it.

    “We have not seen any official plan for the reorganization of the business and there is concern that a compensation for Mr. Dempsey at $10,000 per month might be extraordinarily excessive,” Spearman told Bankruptcy Judge Michael Romero at a hearing Monday afternoon.

    Tattered Cover was scheduled to submit its plan by Jan. 16 but asked for and received a one-month extension instead. Gabrielle Palmer, an attorney for the bookstore chain, said Monday that Tattered Cover will likely need another extension this week.

    “If the plan shows merit that Mr. Dempsey should be making $120,000 annually, we’re all fine with this,” Spearman said, before again criticizing Dempsey for not crafting a plan.

    “Moreover, I have not heard (about) the net income situation. I have heard that, allegedly, sales were slightly up from 2022, but as we’re all aware, sales are not the determinant, net income is the determinant. As a creditor, I think there is strong suspicion to believe that the business is actually in a worse financial situation under Mr. Dempsey’s leadership,” he added.

    Palmer defended Dempsey’s tenure as CEO, noted that the company’s six-person board of directors wants him to stay on, and called his proposed salary “fair and reasonable.”

    Tattered Cover is being propped up financially by a $1.3 million loan from Read Colorado LLC, a company formed by local philanthropists. That loan requires Dempsey to remain as CEO and states that Tattered Cover will be in default of the loan if he leaves the company.

    “It doesn’t make sense to change from Brad Dempsey now or to not allow Brad Dempsey to be paid. We are at a critical time,” said Tim Swanson, a lawyer for Read Colorado.

    “It can’t be lost that the lone objector to Mr. Dempsey’s continued employment is someone who is seeking to try to purchase the company,” Swanson said of Spearman.

    Spearman countered that he hasn’t made a bid for the company but acknowledged he has requested Tattered Cover’s financial reports in order “to evaluate the terms of a potential offer” to buy it. At one point, he repeatedly used the word “we” to describe people who doubt “the viability of the (company’s) board of directors and Mr. Dempsey’s leadership.”

    “Who’s ‘we?’” Romero asked. “You’re the only one who filed an objection, Mr. Spearman.”

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    Justin Wingerter

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  • RTD Downtown Boulder Station to reopen over a year after meth contamination forced closure

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    The RTD will reopen the Downtown Boulder Station lobby on Feb. 19 after over a year of renovations to replace the building’s interior ductwork, which was contaminated with methamphetamines last year.

    The inside of the station at 1800 14th St. in Boulder was closed last January after an investigation into strong odors emitting from a restroom revealed levels of meth exceeding Center for Disease Control limits, according to Regional Transportation District news releases. Residue was also detected in the ductwork and was impossible to clean out, necessitating a full replacement of the ventilation system.

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    Michael Braithwaite

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  • Cyberattack shuts down Colorado public defender’s office

    Cyberattack shuts down Colorado public defender’s office

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    A cyberattack on the Office of Colorado State Public Defender has forced the office to shut down its computer network, locking public defenders across the state out of critical work systems.

    Colorado public defenders do not have access to their work computers, are unable to access court dockets or court filings and can’t do any significant work for clients in court, according to internal emails reviewed by The Denver Post.

    Office spokesman James Karbach confirmed the breach in a statement Monday, saying officials “recently became aware that some data within our computer system was encrypted by malware.”

    Karbach did not say how long the public defender’s office expects to be shut down or when the attack happened, but emails sent to public defenders indicate the statewide office is effectively “non-operational” and the outage could last as long as a week.

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    Shelly Bradbury

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  • Three-car crash in Jefferson County sends three people to the hospital Saturday night

    Three-car crash in Jefferson County sends three people to the hospital Saturday night

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    A three-car crash in Jefferson County sent three people to the emergency room Saturday night, according to West Metro Fire Rescue.

    The crash happened on Colorado 470 near Ken Caryl when one car crossed the median and collided with two other cars, West Metro Fire Rescue stated in a post on X at 6:02 p.m. Saturday.

    The total number of passengers involved in the crash is unknown, but three people were taken to the hospital, one with serious injuries, the post stated.

    West Metro Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.



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    Lauren Penington

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  • Fourth-ranked CU Buffs rack up assists, dominate Oregon to reach 20-win mark

    Fourth-ranked CU Buffs rack up assists, dominate Oregon to reach 20-win mark

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    Fast break

    Why the Buffs won: They were incredibly unselfish, posting 32 assists on 36 buckets and were stellar on defense, holding the Ducks to 32.8% shooting.

    Three stars:

    1. Maddie Nolan: She scored a season-high 19 points, hitting 5-of-9 from 3-point range, while also having a season-high six assists and adding four rebounds.

    2. Quay Miller: Posted yet another double-double, with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

    3. Jaylyn Sherrod: Finished with six points, six assists, three rebounds and two steals.

    Up next: Colorado will host No. 17 Oregon State on Sunday at noon at the CU Events Center.

    Maddie Nolan yelled and pumped her fist after another bucket by the Colorado Buffaloes, but while she was the leading scorer on Friday night, this celebration came after one of her passes resulted in points for someone else.

    The unselfish nature of the No. 4-ranked CU women’s basketball team was on full display Friday as it raced past Oregon, 90-57, at the CU Events Center.

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    Brian Howell

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  • Colorado civil rights attorney Kevin Williams, who fought to improve lives of people with disabilities, dies at 57

    Colorado civil rights attorney Kevin Williams, who fought to improve lives of people with disabilities, dies at 57

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    Colorado civil rights attorney Kevin Williams died this week after 26 years of fighting to improve the lives of people with disabilities. He was 57.

    Williams died Tuesday after a short illness, according to colleagues at the Denver-based Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, where he launched the legal program in 1997 upon graduation from law school.

    A quadriplegic paralyzed from his chest down following a car crash at age 19, Williams steadily increased access for disabled people by filing lawsuits — pressing for enforcement under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and the Fair Housing Act.

    He began this work as a third-year law student at the University of Denver. Shortly before his graduation, he sued his law school. The issue was compliance with the ADA. He prevailed, leading to required improvements, including a wheelchair-accessible graduation venue.

    Often serving as the plaintiff, Williams repeated that feat again and again, expanding access for Coloradans with disabilities in stores, restaurants, public transit systems, theaters, arenas and travel pathways around the state. For example, his litigation compelled the operators of Red Rocks Amphitheatre to provide accessible parking, seating and ticketing.

    He also led other lawyers into disability rights work.

    Williams grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland.  He made Colorado his home in 1990, the year President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law. He enjoyed drives in the mountains, attending concerts and visiting local breweries and distilleries.

    Friends this week remembered him as passionate in his pursuit of civil rights.

    “Kevin was contemplative, thorough and certain not to leave any stone unturned, especially in litigation,” said Andrew Montoya, who worked in the coalition’s legal program as an assistant and then was inspired to attend law school.

    “Even seemingly mundane legal issues could occupy hours of lively discussion ranging from interpretive case law to contemporary and historical politics to litigation strategy to the meaning of life, and back again,” Montoya said. “His passion for civil rights, both in general and specifically those of people with disabilities, clearly animated his work, both in the courtroom and in the rest of the world.”

    He also had a knack for making light of difficulties. Friends recalled his adaptation of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” — a rendition that he titled “Let Us Pee.” (“When I find myself in times of trouble; The bathroom door is two-foot-three; Whisper words of wisdom; Let us pee, let us pee.”

    “He was intense, passionate, focused and very analytical. What kept him motivated was seeing people with disabilities face discrimination and knowing that the laws that are supposed to protect us are being violated,” said Julie Reiskin, co-executive director of the coalition.

    “What bothered him was the blatant violation of the law, especially by those who should know better, such as courts and lawyers that made excuses rather than working to fix the problem.”

    Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.

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    Bruce Finley

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  • Marijuana prevention speaker to present in Weld RE-4, sparking controversy – Greeley Tribune – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Marijuana prevention speaker to present in Weld RE-4, sparking controversy – Greeley Tribune – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    Though many school students have sat through presentations about the dangers of drugs, some community members worry about the tactics of an upcoming speaker in the Weld RE-4 School District.

    Laura Stack, founder of the marijuana prevention nonprofit Johnny’s Ambassadors, will speak this month at multiple schools across Weld County, teaching students and their guardians about the negative impact of THC, the component of cannabis that makes users feel high.

    Stack said her findings are based on research about the difference between today’s marijuana and the marijuana past generations ingested.

    In 2022, 30.7% of 12th graders reported using marijuana in the past year, and 6.3% reported using marijuana daily in the past 30 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Stack intertwines her son’s story with marijuana use into her attempts to wean middle and high school students off or keep clear of marijuana.

    Three days before Johnny, Stack’s son, died by suicide at the age of 19, he told his mother that weed ruined his life and his mind. Stack said Johnny began using marijuana at 14 in the form of heating and inhaling highly potent marijuana concentrates, known as “dabbing.”

    Stack’s upcoming stops in the Weld RE-4 School District to educate children about the dangers of THC generated a handful of concerned community members and parents who question Stack’s credibility and bias, arguing she conveys a fear-based approach that may not have…

    Original Author Link click here to read complete story..

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    MMP News Author

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