Colorado’s reinsurance program will save people who buy their health insurance on the individual market an estimated $493 million next year, compared to how much premiums would have risen without it, according to the Polis administration.
Statewide, premiums on the individual market will rise by an average of 5.6%, while they will increase about 7.1% for small-group plans.
Reinsurance is a backstop that limits how much insurance companies have to pay out for the relatively small number of people who have highly expensive medical needs each year. Since they aren’t on the hook to pay out as much, the companies charge lower premiums, which in turn means the federal government doesn’t have to spend as much on tax credits to people buying insurance on the marketplace. Colorado got permission from the federal government to use those federal savings to further lower monthly premiums.
A news release from Gov. Jared Polis’ office estimated that premiums in 2025 will be about 24% lower than they would have been without a reinsurance program. The amount any customer would save depends on where they live, their age and how many people in their family need coverage.
A 40-year-old buying individual coverage would have an average savings of $1,500 over the course of a year. People living on the Western Slope would save more, while the change was smaller near the Front Range.
Open enrollment on the marketplace begins Nov. 1 and runs through Jan. 15.
Charlie Blackmon, who retired last month after a 14-year career with the Colorado Rockies, has moved back to Georgia and listed his home in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood.
Blackmon lives full time in Atlanta with his wife, Ashley, and their two young children, so he’s selling his home in a gated community near Cherry Creek.
He listed the 5,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bath home with a three-car tandem garage on Sept. 11 for $4.3 million. Justin Joseph and Deviree Vallejo with LIV Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.
Blackmon purchased the home, constructed in 2014, for $2.8 million in June 2018.
“We’ve loved the outdoor living space and think it’s among the best features of our home. The home gets great sunlight which lends itself to a dip in the pool or just enjoying the patio,” said Blackmon, who answered questions about the home in writing.
“We’ve also enjoyed many cool Denver evenings hanging around the custom gas firepit with friends. When the weather is great, we also open the sliding doors that merge the outdoor TV area with the living room,” he said. “We’ve loved it all.”
The home features a chef’s kitchen with Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, a built-in Miele coffee maker, and a large marble island and ample storage. The second floor includes three large bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom.
Joseph called the home a peaceful enclave in the city’s heart and an entertainer’s paradise.
After Blackmon purchased the home, he improved the outdoor space by adding performance tile and inlaid turf that extends around the home’s side for a dog run, Joseph said.
Living in a gated community was helpful for a local celebrity.
“When we purchased the home, we really liked how the community is a protected enclave,” Blackmon said.
Blackmon, a second-round draft pick, overcame an injury-plagued start to finish his career hitting .293 with 227 home runs and 1,805 hits. He trails only Rockies first baseman Todd Helton in games played, runs, hits, doubles, extra-base hits and total bases, and leads the Rockies with 68 triples.
NEW ORLEANS — This game between the the Broncos and New Orleans got circled on the NFL calendar because of the past: Sean Payton’s past with the Saints and what he accomplished alongside quarterback Drew Brees and many others over 15 years.
As those memories and stories came rushing back over Denver’s short stay here in the Bayou, Payton felt the weight of them.
But he also reminded himself about the memories being made now.
Boy, did his Broncos put together one for the scrapbook Thursday night.
Their 33-10 drubbing of New Orleans in primetime not only got the team to 4-3 and cleansed the palette of a bitter loss to the Chargers on Sunday, but it also gave Payton the chance to step back a bit. It gave him a chance to take in the Superdome scene and appreciate not just what was before, but what is now.
His first head coaching chapter and his second.
“(I) came over here early just to kind of get started going through the game plan again,” said Payton, noting he slept in late after the short week of prep before briefly crashing Drew Brees’ Hall of Fame ceremony at a nearby hotel. “It meant a lot because there were a lot of moments here. And you get a chance to see old players that are here.”
After Denver polished off a resounding victory, he sought out some of those former players and coaching staff members and reserved particularly big hugs for long-time Saints Alvin Kamara and Cam Jordan.
Then Payton retreated to the cramped visiting locker room, where Broncos CEO Greg Penner gave Payton a game ball in the locker room.
“To be here with this team and this ownership group, it’s the reason you miss it,” said Payton, who spent one year doing television work between resigning as the Saints’ head coach after the 2021 season and getting hired by the Broncos after 2022. “The one year out, you miss relationships and you miss making memories.”
He said he told his team not to take these times for granted and used All-Pro cornerback Pat Surtain II’s 100-yard interception return touchdown along the Broncos’ sideline in Week 5 against Las Vegas as an example.
“There will be a day when I don’t remember his name and I’m having applesauce out of a straw, but I’ll remember that play,” Payton said. “And that part of it, being around young people and having a chance to be part of their journey and coach them, is a pretty good job.
“It was kind of emotional.”
Payton noted that in beating the Saints he’s now got wins over all 32 NFL teams.
Does that mean he’s just old?
“It means you had two jobs,” Payton quipped before a hint of sentimentality. “I’m glad I’m here.”
Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, centered on suburban Jefferson County, hasn’t had a Republican in the seat since Bob Beauprez left Congress nearly 20 years ago.
But Sergei Matveyuk, an antiques repairman from Golden and the GOP contender for the seat in the Nov. 5 election, urges voters not to count him out in his battle with incumbent Brittany Pettersen. The first-term Democratic congresswoman is seeking reelection.
“People are hurting economically,” Matveyuk, 57, told The Denver Post. “They want someone who feels the pain.”
He’s running in a once-battleground district that has turned decidedly blue in the last decade or so, with Democratic former Rep. Ed Perlmutter winning election eight times running, until his retirement announcement in 2022 ushered in an open race.
Pettersen, 42, a former state lawmaker from Lakewood, won the 2022 election by 16 percentage points over Republican Army veteran Erik Aadland. The bulk of the district’s electorate calls left-leaning Jefferson and Broomfield counties home, while redder areas in the district — such as Teller, Custer and Fremont counties — simply don’t have the populations to give Matveyuk a sizable boost.
As of Sept. 30, Pettersen had raised more than $2.2 million this cycle, compared to about $35,000 collected by Matveyuk, according to campaign finance filings. There are two minor party candidates on the ballot this time: Former state lawmaker Ron Tupa is running on the Unity Party of Colorado ticket, while Patrick Bohan is running as the Libertarian candidate.
Matveyuk, a political neophyte, said that as a small business owner, the historically high inflation of the last two years has hurt those like him who are particularly sensitive to escalating prices. But it’s his personal story that he thinks will resonate with voters in the current political climate, in which border policy has taken center stage. Matveyuk, who is of Polish descent, and his family left the Soviet Bloc in the late 1980s after experiencing life under communist rule and immigrated to the United States.
“As an immigrant myself, I know how hard it is to start a new life — but it has to be legal,” he said.
Matveyuk doesn’t echo former President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations but says migrants who “are hurting our people and committing crimes need to be deported, for sure.”
“We need immigration reform — 40 years ago we had a regulated border and now we have a porous border,” he said.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data through August, there have been more than 8.6 million migrant “encounters” at the southern U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. That influx has prompted many big city mayors across the country, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, to cut city services to pay for migrant housing and plead for help from the federal government.
Pettersen acknowledged that the U.S. asylum system is “absolutely outdated.” But many of the arriving migrants are filling jobs that businesses in the district, like nursing homes, are desperate to staff, she said.
Making people wait years before getting work permits is an unworkable policy, Pettersen said.
“We don’t have the people in the U.S. to meet our economic needs,” she said. “We need legal pathways based on economic need.”
Though Pettersen is in the minority party in the U.S. House, a bill she sponsored was recently signed into law by Biden. It directs the federal government to study and report on illicit financing associated with synthetic drug trafficking.
Last month, she introduced a bill that seeks to incentivize more states to offer substance use treatment through Medicaid, six years after she sponsored a bill in the state House requiring Colorado to provide that care. Pettersen has often spoken publicly of the struggles her mother faced battling opioid addiction.
If reelected, she said in The Denver Post’s candidate questionnaire that she would work to protect abortion rights and to address the opioid epidemic. Her top priority would be “modernizing our tax code to rebuild the middle class.”
“We need to lower costs by reinvesting in access to affordable housing, childcare, health care, and higher education,” she wrote.
No team in the NHL is going to win much when five of the top nine or 10 players on the roster are not available.
For the Colorado Avalanche, that’s just the state of things right now. But the issues for the Avs during an 0-3 start, particularly in an ugly 6-2 loss Monday night to the New York Islanders, go beyond just missing some very good players.
It’s a pretty simple message: Focus on the process and clean up the areas that the healthy players can control.
“I think we recognize what we have to improve on,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “We played good enough in games one and two to sort of try and replicate that. Then, for whatever reason, we deviated from our entire game plan and you saw the result (against the Islanders). It wasn’t pretty for us.
“We know the aspects of the game that we have to focus on.”
Most of those aspects involve the part of the game where Colorado does not have the puck. It’s still an incredibly small sample size, but the volume of what the Avs are yielding to the other team has not been the issue.
It’s the quality. The Avs entered their game Wednesday night against Boston ranked 10th in the NHL in scoring chances against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and in the top five in shot attempts allowed per 60.
High-danger scoring chances are another matter — Colorado is 19th. Given the troubles the goaltenders have had, and the missing players, the margin for error is very slim. Allowing too many Grade-A chances is a recipe for disaster, as the Avalanche has found out.
“Defensively, we’re giving up too many rush chances, too soft in front of our net,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s just stick to the habits that have given us success in the past, the execution and the competitiveness. That’s an area we probably lacked in last was our competitive urgency, especially in the defensive zone.
“Giving guys too much time and space, not playing hard enough at our net front — I think those are areas that if we clean those areas up within our structure, we should be able to have success. We have been pretty good offensively with generating chances, but we’re giving up way too much.”
The Avalanche began this season without Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, three forwards who are all dynamic offensive players. Colorado lost Jonathan Drouin after the first game, and defenseman Devon Toews is set to miss his second straight contest against the Bruins.
While those are all strong offensive players, the Avs have not felt their absence with the puck nearly as much as they have without it. All of the offensive numbers, traditional or advanced, have been strong.
But those four forwards are also all strong two-way players. They make a significant impact without the puck as well. That’s the part of their games that Colorado appears to be missing the most so far this season.
“They’re very trusted, highly reliable, good-to-great defensive players,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “But, the message is … realistically, checking and playing away from the puck — yeah, there’s skill and ability involved in that, but it’s hard work and commitment. Those are two (things) that we keep bringing up.
Bednar thought Toews could be a possibility to play Wednesday night, but he remains out with a lower-body injury. There isn’t a timeline for any of the four forwards right now, though Lehkonen could return early next month if the checkup on his surgically repaired shoulder at the end of this month goes well. Nichushkin can’t return until mid-November at the earliest, but he’ll likely need time after being reinstated to get up to game speed.
Avs GM Chris MacFarland said he doesn’t want his team to wait for the calvary to return right before the season began. The number of key missing players has grown since then. It’s going to be on the players who are in the lineup to sort out the defensive issues and at least get back to having a strong process, let alone improving the results.
“Right now, it’s about us, with some of the things we have to do to have success,” Bednar said. “(Playing the Bruins) is just another opportunity for us to get our game in order and back on track.”
John Fabbricatore enforced federal immigration laws in his position as an ICE field office director until two years ago, and now he hopes to help secure America’s borders as a congressman.
The Republican candidate in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is drawing on his career with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he runs against U.S. Rep. Jason Crow in the Nov. 5 election. Crow, a Democrat, just finished his third term in Congress as the representative of the district, which includes Aurora, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village and Centennial.
The odds weigh heavily in Crow’s favor. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report doesn’t consider the fight for the 6th District to be competitive. It’s ranked as solidly Democratic, in part because Crow, 45, won all three of his elections by double-digit percentages and redistricting in 2020 resulted in boundaries more favorable to Democrats.
That’s a change from 2018 when the district was seen as a battleground and Crow won his first race by unseating then-U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, now Aurora’s mayor.
But this time, Fabbricatore, 52, says voters are looking for a candidate who will prioritize the economy and lower taxes — and he contends that he’s the person for the job.
“They want someone that wants to fight,” Fabbricatore said.
He and Crow share certain traits. They’re both veterans: Fabbricatore served in the U.S. Air Force, and Crow was an Army Ranger. They’re hunters, each having longstanding experience with firearms. Neither hails from Colorado originally, with Fabbricatore raised in New York City and Crow in Madison, Wisconsin.
And the candidates, both fathers of two children, reside in Aurora.
Beyond that, their stances on major issues diverge — including on immigration, which Fabbricatore refers to as his “subject matter expertise.”
He argues jobs are going to immigrants compensated with lower wages, taking positions that could be filled by Americans for higher pay. Fabbricatore says he supports “legal, vetted” immigration and more stringent enforcement of existing laws.
“If we actually just enforce those laws, we will be doing much better than we are doing today with immigration,” he said.
In recent weeks, Fabbricatore has raised the alarm alongside former President Donald Trump and other conservatives about the presence of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora — while Crow has called out exaggerations and criticized Trump for distorting the problems in certain apartment complexes.
Crow notes that he represents “one of the most diverse districts in the nation,” with nearly 20% of his constituents born outside of the U.S. He wants to use federal grants and other programs to help immigrants and defend them against racist rhetoric.
He said he backed a bipartisan immigration deal that ran aground earlier this year after failing to earn enough Republican support. It would have boosted the number of border patrol agents, immigration judges and officers that oversee asylum cases, as well as established more legal pathways for migrants and others without documentation.
Fabbricatore said in a Denver Post candidate questionnaire that he would not have supported the bipartisan bill, instead preferring another bill with a greater focus on border security.
Gun violence is what motivated Crow to run for office. He backs a ban on assault weapons and supports universal background checks. He’s also working to pass a bill that would apply the same restrictions to out-of-state residents when they purchase long guns and shotguns as they face when buying handguns — requiring that the gun be shipped to a federally licensed seller in their home state, with a background check performed there.
Gun violence is “just an unacceptable, avoidable, ongoing national tragedy,” Crow said. “We don’t have to live with mass shootings.”
Fabbricatore says he believes in gun rights and is instead pushing for investments in mental health.
The candidates differ on abortion. Crow favors abortion rights, saying he aligns with the majority of Coloradans who back legal access to abortion — and he would support a federal law establishing that as a right. Fabbricatore says Congress should leave abortion’s legal status to the states. He opposes abortion, but he says he recognizes a need for exceptions, including in cases of rape.
“Having been someone who worked in sex trafficking and saw what many women went through, I could never tell a woman that she couldn’t have a medical procedure to end what happened to her,” he said.
Fabbricatore points to the economy as his No. 1 issue, saying it’s impacted by energy policy and immigration. He sees Colorado’s potential to participate in the energy sector through solar, wind, fracking and coal.
He says he wants to leave the younger generations with a prosperous economy, reliable job market and reasonable housing prices.
Crow says the nation’s inflation and interest rates are dropping, but he contends that prices are still “way too high for many Coloradans.”
He points to corporate price gouging as a contributing factor. Crow argues that the labor shortage, which drives up prices, could be addressed through immigration reform.
“There’s more work to do, but we’re on a good path — and certainly need to keep on the path that we are to make sure things are affordable,” Crow said.
Initial observations from Colorado’s 31-28 loss to the Kansas State Wildcats in a Big 12 showdown in Boulder.
Wildcats gashing: Kansas State’s primary key to victory was running the rock. In the first half alone, junior DJ Giddens trampled the Buffs for 127 yards on 12 carries, good for 10.6 yards a pop. Ex-Buff Dylan Edwards added 17 yards and a TD. Giddens was untacklable at times, and the CU linebackers and secondary had an especially hard time wrapping up in the second and third levels. KSU continued to pound the football and bleed the clock in the second half, starting with nearly an eight-minute TD drive in the third. A Colorado local, Durango graduate and starting right tackle Carver Willis, helped pave the way for an 182-yard rushing night for Giddens.
Hunter, Horn hurt: CU star wideout/cornerback and Heisman Trophy candidate Travis Hunter, who has been central in the Buffs’ 4-1 start coming into Saturday, left the game midway through the second quarter with what ESPN reported as a shoulder injury. Hunter caught a 14-yard pass, but was crunched by KSU safety Daniel Cobbs, and immediately left the game. He didn’t return, and sophomore Colton Hood came on in Hunter’s place on defense (and later picked off K-State). On offense, CU also lost wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. to injury in the first half and Horn didn’t return, either. The absence of those two playmakers, especially Hunter, took some explosiveness out of CU’s offense, even if the Buffs managed to put 28 on the board.
Hood in clutch: No Hunter to play lock-down corner in crunch time? No problem, at least for a moment. Hood came up clutch late in the fourth quarter with an interception and runback that set up CU’s go-ahead touchdown with 3:20 left. On fourth-and-6 at the CU 31-yard line, Avery Johnson’s pass was tipped by Preston Hodge and then corralled by Hood. He ran it back to the KSU 17-yard line, tripping himself up on the grass to come up just short of the pick-six. However, the next drive, Jayce Brown burned Hodge for a 50-yard TD catch.
Shedeur shines: Once again, the CU QB looked like a top draft pick, despite playing without his two top targets in Hunter and Horn. No. 2 completed 16 straight passes across the second and third quarters — a CU record streak — and willed the Buffs back in the game with his arm despite taking some big hits. His lone blemish was an interception on an overthrow, and his final stat line was videogame-esque: 34 of 40 for 338 yards, three touchdowns and a 186.2 rating.
Big sacks: Both team’s defensive lines made noise in the first half, as the Wildcats tallied four sacks for minus-49 yards, while CU’s defense had three sacks for minus-29 yards. Kansas State’s pressure also forced an intentional grounding on CU’s last possession of the half that effectively killed the drive. In the second half, the Wildcats continued to bring the heat, especially as the Buffs all but abandoned the run. KSU had two sacks for minus-25 yards over the final two quarters, finishing with six sacks overall. On a third-quarter sack, KSU defensive end Ryan Davis celebrated with Shedeur Sanders’ signature wristwatch move, holding the pose for a few seconds toward the CU crowd.
KSU QB hurt, returns: The Wildcats also had an injury of their own to dual-threat quarterback, but Johnson’s absence was brief. The sophomore suffered what looked like a side injury on KSU’s opening possession of the second half, following an impressive threaded pass that went for 33 yards to Brown. Senior Ta’Quan Roberson spelled Johnson, who returned to the field later in the drive to throw a one-yard TD pass to Brown that made it a two-score lead. That 16-play, 81-yard drive chewed up more than half the third quarter.
Who’s who: As has become the norm with Buffs games under Coach Prime, an array of stars were on the CU sidelines on Saturday night at Folsom Field. That list included current Nugget Russell Westbrook, retired former Nugget Carmelo Anthony (who rocked a Peter Forsberg Avs jersey), former Wizards star John Wall, current NBA stars Kevin Durant and John Wall, and rapper Cam’ron. Plus, former CU football stars and current NFL receivers Laviska Shenault and Juwann Winfree were also on hand.
More than 10 people are trapped underground in a Colorado gold mine on Pikes Peak after an equipment malfunction, according to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office and Denver7.
The sheriff’s office was responding to an equipment malfunction at the Mollie Kathleen Mine, a tourist destination near Cripple Creek, as of 2 p.m., agency officials said in a post on Facebook.
Gov. Jared Polis is “closely monitoring” the situation and state emergency personnel are on scene responding with more on the way, the governor’s office said in a news release.
“The state is assisting Teller County and sending resources to rescue those inside the mine. We will do everything possible and assist the county to ensure a speedy and safe resolution of the situation,” Polis said in a statement.
The now-defunct mine offers hourlong tours by taking visitors 1,000 feet down the shaft into the southwest side of Pikes Peak, according to the tour company’s website.
The mine has offered tours in some format since it opened in the 1890s, with mine tours becoming the main focus after production ceased in 1961.
During Sean Payton’s study of Bo Nix ahead of the 2024 NFL draft, the Broncos head coach was galvanized by the quarterback’s ability to avoid getting sacked.
In his first season in Denver, there was a sense of frustration about the amount of sacks former quarterback Russell Wilson had taken. And he knew his next signal caller had to prevent putting himself in those minus yard situations.
Five weeks into the season, Nix hasn’t been perfect but has proven to be a hard player to take down, which Payton attributes to his sneaky quick speed and being a quality processor.
“Getting through a progression quickly is extremely helpful in avoiding unnecessary sacks,” Payton said after Wednesday’s practice. “His ability to process has helped that greatly.”
In Wilson’s final season of his short two-year tenure with the Broncos, he was one of the league’s most sacked quarterbacks. He was taken down 45 times — fourth-most in the NFL — despite having the second-longest time to throw (3.06 seconds), according to Next Gen Stats.
Part of the issue was Wilson holding on to the ball longer than he should. Wilson was responsible for 24.3% of his sacks, according to Pro Football Focus, the highest percentage among quarterbacks in 2023.
Nix has had his fair share of struggles, but evading pressure has been his strength thus far. The former Oregon star has been sacked seven times, with three of those takedowns coming in Sunday’s win over the Raiders.
“I think it’s understanding timing and protections,” Nix said. “I took three on Sunday and I wish I could have them back (because) sacks kill drives.”
Nix was sacked six times in each of the two seasons with the Ducks, according to Pro Football Focus. Even though the pro level is more sped up compared to college, he has figured out a way to avoid getting hit.
Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said Nix is aware of what’s happening on the field. He thinks Nix does a solid job of going through his reads and monitoring defenses pre snap.
“That allows him to sort of evade those pressure looks, (allowing) second chances for this offense,” Surtain said. “He’s very smart back there (in the pocket). That just goes into preparation.”
Even though Nix has been praised for being a processor, his speed has had defenses on its heels. There have been a few times when Nix sensed pressure coming, turned on the jets and broke down the field for a big gain. In Week 3 against Tampa Bay, Nix escaped a potential sack before scrambling down the field for a 22-yard gain. In the fourth quarter against Las Vegas, Nix felt the pocket beginning to collapse and ran 11 yards for a first down.
“To sustain drives, I think that you have to eliminate as many minus plays as possible,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “(Nix has) been doing a really good job over these past few weeks of understanding how to take care of the ball and sustain drives. It’s so much more in store.”
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall just after midnight Thursday near Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf coast as a large and dangerous storm, and it will retain hurricane strength for its entire track across the state to the east coast. But forecasters warned that devastating effects will spread well north and south of the exactly landfall location.
After days of shifting forecast tracks, models have settled on a region within 40 miles north ofr south Sarasota. Tampa Bay, where a direct hit would bring catastrophic storm surge, is not out of the woods.
As of Wednesday morning, Milton was still a Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds of 160 mph. Some weakening is expected in the next 12 hours as the storm hits wind sheer, but it will likely be too late to spare the region from a major landfall.
The forecast cone of uncertainty stretches from Tarpon Springs in Pinellas County south to Port Charlotte in Charlotte County. Forecasters warned residents along nearly the entire Gulf coast to have their hurricane survival plans finished within hours or to evacuate if instructed by officials to do so. Wherever the storm hits, it will produce a nearly unsurvivable storm surge of over 10 feet.
After landfall, the forecast shows Milton tracking parallel to Interstate 4 toward Orlando, and exiting the east coast somewhere between Port Orange and Port St. Lucie. A hurricane warning extends across the entire central part of the state from the west to east coasts.
Regardless of where the storm hits directly, much of the central portion of Florida is at risk of flash flooding, destructive wind and possible tornadoes.
When officers contacted the man — who has not been identified by police — he allegedly approached them “aggressively” with the knife and one officer shot him, police said in the statement.
Paramedics took the man to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting and the officer’s use of force.
JERUSALEM — A year after Hamas’ fateful attack on southern Israel, the Middle East is embroiled in a war that shows no signs of ending and seems to be getting worse.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive was initially centered on the Gaza Strip. But the focus has shifted in recent weeks to Lebanon, where airstrikes have given way to a fast-expanding ground incursion against Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war began.
Next in Israel’s crosshairs is archenemy Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other anti-Israel militants in the region. After withstanding a massive barrage of missiles from Iran last week, Israel has promised to respond. The escalating conflict risks drawing deeper involvement by the U.S., as well as Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
When Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, it called on the Arab world to join it in a concerted campaign against Israel. While the fighting has indeed spread, Hamas and its allies have paid a heavy price.
The group’s army has been decimated, its Gaza stronghold has been reduced to a cauldron of death, destruction and misery and the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed in audacious attacks.
Although Israel appears to be gaining the edge militarily, the war has been problematic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too.
Dozens of Israeli hostages are languishing in Hamas captivity, and a year after Netanyahu pledged to crush the group in “total victory,” remnants of the militant group are still battling in pockets of Gaza. The offensive in Lebanon, initially described as “limited,” grows by the day. A full-on collision with Iran is a possibility.
At home, Netanyahu faces mass protests over his inability to bring home the hostages, and to many, he will be remembered as the man who led Israel into its darkest moment. Relations with the U.S. and other allies are strained. The economy is deteriorating.
Here are five takeaways from a yearlong war that has upended longstanding assumptions and turned conventional wisdom on its head.
A region is torn apart by unthinkable death and destruction
A long list of previously unthinkable events have occurred in mind-boggling fashion.
The Oct. 7 attack was the bloodiest in Israel’s history. Young partygoers were gunned down. Cowering families were killed in their homes. In all, about 1,200 people died and 250 were taken hostage. Some Israelis were raped or sexually assaulted.
The ensuing war in Gaza has been the longest, deadliest and most destructive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gaza health authorities say nearly 42,000 people have been killed — roughly 2% of the territory’s entire population. Although they do not give a breakdown between civilians and combatants, more than half of the dead have been women and children. Numerous top Hamas officials have been killed.
The damage and displacement in Gaza have reached unseen levels. Hospitals, schools and mosques – once thought to be insulated from violence – have repeatedly been targeted by Israel or caught in the crossfire. Scores of journalists and health workers have been killed, many of them while working in the line of duty.
Months of simmering tensions along Israel’s northern border recently boiled over into war.
A growing list of Hezbollah officials – including the group’s longtime leader — have been killed by Israel. Hundreds of Hezbollah members were killed or maimed in explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies. Israel’s ground offensive is its first in Lebanon since a monthlong war in 2006.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced tens of thousands of Israelis and over 1 million Lebanese. Israel promises to keep pounding Hezbollah until its residents can return to homes near the Lebanese border; Hezbollah says it will keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
The leaders of Hamas and Israel appear in no rush for a cease-fire
When the war erupted, the days appeared to be numbered for both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Netanyahu’s public standing plummeted as he faced calls to step aside. Sinwar fled into Gaza’s labyrinth of tunnels as Israel declared him a “dead man walking.”
Yet both men — facing war crimes charges in international courts — remain firmly in charge, and neither appears to be in a rush for a cease-fire.
The end of the war could mean the end of Netanyahu’s government, which is dominated by hard-line partners opposed to a cease-fire. That would mean early elections, potentially pushing him into the opposition while he stands trial on corruption charges. Also looming is the prospect of an unflattering official inquiry into his government’s failures before and during the Oct. 7 attack.
Fearing that, his coalition has hung together even through mass protests and repeated disagreements with top security officials pushing for a deal to bring home the hostages. After a brief period of post-Oct. 7 national unity, Israel has returned to its divided self — torn between Netanyahu’s religious, conservative, nationalist right-wing base and his more secular, middle-class opposition.
Sinwar, believed to be hiding in Gaza’s tunnels, continues to drive a hard bargain in hopes of declaring some sort of victory. His demands for a full Israeli withdrawal, a lasting cease-fire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for scores of hostages have been rejected by Israel — even as much of the international community has embraced them.
With cease-fire efforts deadlocked and Netanyahu’s far-right coalition firmly intact, the war could go on for some time. An estimated 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced in Gaza while an estimated 68 hostages remain captive in Gaza, in addition to the bodies of 33 others held by Hamas.
Bitter enemies experience the limits of force
Early in the war, Netanyahu promised to destroy Hamas’ military and governing abilities.
Those goals have been achieved in many ways. Israel says it has dismantled Hamas’ military structure, and its rocket barrages have been diminished to a trickle. With Israeli troops stationed indefinitely in Gaza, it is difficult to see how the group could return to governing the territory or pose a serious threat.
But in other ways, total victory is impossible. Despite Israel’s overwhelming force, Hamas units have repeatedly regrouped to stage guerrilla-style ambushes from areas where Israel has withdrawn.
Across the Middle East, bitter enemies are witnessing the limits of force and deterrence.
Israel’s deepening invasion of Lebanon and repeated strikes on Hezbollah have failed to halt the rockets and missiles. Missile and drone attacks by Iran and its allies have only deepened Israel’s resolve. Israel is vowing to strike Iran hard after its latest missile barrage, raising the likelihood of a broader, regionwide war.
Without diplomatic solutions, the fighting is likely to persist.
Israel and Gaza will never be the same
Israel is still deeply traumatized as people try to come to terms with the worst day in its history.
The Oct. 7 killings and kidnappings had an outsized impact on a tiny country founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Israelis’ sense of security was shattered, and their faith in the military was tested like never before.
Photos of Israeli hostages are everywhere, and mass demonstrations are held each week calling on the government to reach a deal to bring them home. The prospect of ongoing war looms over families and workplaces as reserve soldiers brace for repeated tours of duty.
The trauma is far more acute in Gaza – where an estimated 90% of the population remains displaced, many of them living in squalid tent camps.
The scenes have drawn comparisons to what the Palestinian call the Nakba, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. The Palestinians now find themselves looking at a tragedy of even greater scale.
It remains unclear when displaced Palestinians in Gaza will be able to return home and whether there will be anything to return to. The territory has suffered immense destruction and is littered with unexploded bombs. Children are missing a second consecutive school year, virtually every family has lost a relative in the fighting and basic needs like food and health care are lacking.
After a hellish year, the Palestinians of Gaza have no clear path forward, and it could take generations to recover.
Old formulas for pursuing Mideast peace no longer work
The international community’s response to this bloodiest of wars has been tepid and ineffective.
Repeated cease-fire calls have been ignored, and a U.S.-led plan to reinstate the Palestinian Authority in postwar Gaza has been rejected by Israel. It remains unclear who will run the territory in the future or who will pay for a cleanup and reconstruction effort that could take decades.
One thing that seems clear is that old formulas will no longer work. The international community’s preferred peace formula – the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – seems hopelessly unrealistic.
Israel’s hard-line government opposes Palestinian statehood, says its troops will remain in Gaza for years to come and has further cemented its undeclared annexation of the West Bank. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has been pushed to the brink of irrelevance.
For decades, the United States has acted as the key mediator and power broker in the region – calling for a two-state solution but showing little political will to promote that vision. Instead, it has often turned to conflict management, preventing any side from doing anything too extreme to destabilize the region.
This approach went up in smoke on Oct. 7. Since then, the U.S. has responded with a muddled message of criticizing Israel’s wartime tactics as too harsh while arming the Israeli military and protecting Israel against diplomatic criticism. The result: The Biden administration has managed to antagonize both Israel and the Arab world while cease-fire efforts repeatedly sputter.
This approach has also alienated the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, complicating Kamala Harris’ presidential aspirations. The warring sides appear to have given up on the Biden administration and are waiting for the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election before deciding their next moves.
Whoever wins the race will almost certainly have to find a new formula and recalibrate decades of American policy if they want to end the war.
For the first time, Coloradans have a clear picture of where they can go for sometimes-controversial health services such as abortion, gender-affirming care or medical aid-in-dying.
In much of the state, though, the answer is “nowhere close.”
Hospitals are required to disclose data about restrictions on 66 services related to reproductive, gender-affirming and end-of-life care to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment under a law passed in 2023. Starting this month, they also must provide copies of their disclosure forms to patients ahead of their appointments.
Only three Colorado counties — Denver, Douglas and Weld — have unrestricted access in at least one hospital to three services from the list that The Denver Post sampled.
Access to gender-affirming surgery was especially limited; only 13 of Colorado’s 64 counties have a hospital without non-medical restrictions on a double mastectomy, also known as “top surgery,” for gender affirmation. (Eighteen counties have no hospital within their borders, and the rest either don’t offer mastectomies to anyone or restricted who could receive one.)
Nor was access to the other sampled services much broader.
Thirteen Colorado counties have a hospital that would assist with a request for medical aid-in-dying without religious or other non-medical limitations, and 15 have one that would provide comprehensive treatment for a miscarriage, which can include drugs and procedures used in induced abortions.
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Facilities that restrict the services they offer aren’t likely to make changes because of the law — particularly since many of the restrictions stem from religious beliefs — but at least patients will know what to expect when they go for care, said Dr. Patricia Gabow, a former CEO of Denver Health who has written about the intersection of religion and health care.
Of course, transparency only does so much for people who live in a county where the only hospitals are Catholic-owned, Gabow said. Catholic hospitals, which include those owned by CommonSpirit Health and some belonging to Intermountain Health, generally don’t offer contraception, sterilization, gender-affirming care, medical aid-in-dying or abortion.
“People who live in Durango, I don’t know what they’re supposed to do,” she said.
Mercy Hospital in that city follows Catholic ethical and religious directives for health care, and the closest hospital that offers comprehensive reproductive services or assistance with medical aid-in-dying is in Del Norte, about two and a half hours away.
Catholic doctrine requires health care providers to “respect all stages of life,” and not participate in procedures such as medical aid-in-dying or sterilization without a medical reason, said Lindsay Radford, spokeswoman for CommonSpirit Health, which owns Mercy.
The system’s hospitals work with patients and their families to provide appropriate pain and symptom relief as they near death, she said.
“We respect and honor the physician-patient relationship, and medical decisions are made by a patient and their doctor. Patients who seek care at a CommonSpirit Health hospital or clinic are fully informed of all treatment options, including those we do not perform,” she said in a statement.
Geographic and political differences
Generally, access to potentially controversial services was greater in more areas with larger populations, though with significant exceptions.
Both of Jefferson County’s hospitals, St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, won’t allow measures to end a pregnancy if a fetus still has a heartbeat.
The state’s form conflates “threatened” and “completed” miscarriages, said Sara Quale, spokeswoman for Intermountain Health, which owns Lutheran Hospital. The hospital doesn’t restrict care once a fetus has died, but if it still has a heartbeat, doctors attempt to treat whatever is causing the miscarriage, she said. The most common cause of miscarriages is a problem with a fetus’s chromosomes, which doesn’t allow it to survive and has no treatment.
In contrast, people in rural Prowers County on the Eastern Plains can get comprehensive miscarriage treatment without driving elsewhere. So can residents of Rio Grande County.
Local politics also don’t necessarily match up with access.
The three counties that had at least one hospital offering unrestricted access to the three sampled services were deep-blue Denver and thoroughly red Weld and Douglas.
While their residents might differ on many issues, Weld and Douglas counties shared one common characteristic with Denver: They’re home to at least one hospital owned by a secular system, such as UCHealth, Denver Health or HCA HealthOne.
At least 22 hospitals in Colorado have religious restrictions on care options: 17 owned or formerly owned by Catholic organizations, and five affiliated with the Adventist faith. In some cases, when a hospital changes hands, provisions of the deal require the new owner to honor the seller’s religious and ethical rules, even if the buyer is secular.
Some secular organizations also listed certain services as restricted.
UCHealth generally doesn’t serve patients under 15, while Denver Health doesn’t provide abortions under certain circumstances because of concerns about losing federal funding, spokesman Dane Roper said.
The seven HealthOne hospitals also had non-religious restrictions, but didn’t specify their nature. Banner Health didn’t respond to inquiries about service limitations at its five Colorado hospitals.
Informed decision-making
So far, Colorado is the only state that requires hospitals to directly tell patients when they don’t offer services for religious or other non-medical reasons, said Alison Gill, vice president of legal and policy with American Atheists, which supported the law as it went through the legislature.
That provision will be important not only for Coloradans seeking care, but for people traveling to the state because of its welcoming policies around reproductive and gender-affirming care, she said.
“We are encouraging other states to enact similar provisions because it is essential to provide patients with information about service availability so that they can make informed decisions about their health care,” she said.
The law has some limitations, said Gabow, formerly of Denver Health. For example, an outpatient gynecology office owned by a religious health system doesn’t have to give patients the disclosure form, and insurers don’t have to include hospitals offering care without limitations in their networks, she said.
Colorado’s law won’t inherently increase access to health care, but it may prevent surprises for patients who don’t know to look up the closest hospital’s religious affiliation or don’t realize it could affect them, said Dr. Sam Doernberg, a physician researcher at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Doernberg wrote a study that found 132 counties nationwide had “religious monopolies” in their hospital markets as of 2020. The vast majority involved Catholic hospitals, and 11 involved Adventist hospitals. The study didn’t include counties that don’t have a hospital and are adjacent to a monopoly county, so the actual number where people don’t have the full range of choices may be higher, he said.
While no states have tried them yet, researchers do have a few ideas to more directly increase access to care while still respecting the religious rights of organizations that own hospitals, Doernberg said.
For example, they could directly fund public health departments so they can provide more reproductive services in areas where the dominant health system limits options, or they could require that insurance companies don’t charge patients an out-of-network rate if none of the in-network hospitals offer gender-affirming care, for example, he said.
“There are other possible solutions that are not currently being pursued,” he said.
With summer officially over, it’s back to business (or school) for many people, which can mean more time writing longer things, especially on the go. The smartphone has replaced the laptop for many tasks, but when it comes to text input, tapping away on tiny onscreen keys might make you wish you had hauled along the computer just for its keyboard. Thankfully, your phone includes several features to make text entry much easier. Here are a few suggestions.
Visit your settings
Thanks to predictive text prompts, automatic punctuation and other shortcuts (like pressing vowel keys to see the pop-up menu of accent marks), typing on small glass rectangles isn’t as awkward as it used to be. To find out what features are available for your phone, start with its Settings app.
On an iPhone, tap General and then Keyboard.
For many Android phones, tap System, Keyboard, On-screen Keyboard and then Gboard (often the default app). Galaxy models typically offer the Samsung Keyboard with similar options.
You should see choices for spell-check, text correction — yes, Apple’s infamous Auto-Correction has gotten better — and other aids. For example, both the Apple iOS keyboard and the Google Gboard (which has an iOS version, too) can display a compact keyboard for easier single-handed input.
On the Gboard keyboard, press and hold the comma key for a shortcut into the settings — or tap the four-squares icon on the far left and select the One-Handed button; the same menu lets you resize or “float” the keyboard around the screen if you prefer.
Password-manager tools prevent mistyped logins, and fewer taps may help to prevent errors elsewhere. With tools like Slide to Type from Apple and Glide Typing by Google, you can drag your finger around the keyboard and the software guesses the word you want; note that the results may vary.
The keyboard can move the text-insertion cursor, too. On an iPhone, press and hold the space bar until the keyboard dims, and then drag your finger to reposition the cursor on the screen. For the Google Gboard, you can move the cursor by sliding a finger along the space bar if the “gesture cursor control” is enabled in the Glide Typing settings.
Apple and Google include keyboard layouts for typing in languages other than English or inserting emojis. You can add third-party keyboard apps, but beware of software from unfamiliar companies that could pose security risks.
Add hardware
If you have a lot of text to enter, pairing your iPhone or Android phone with an external Bluetooth keyboard (including the Magic Keyboard made by Apple) lets you switch to traditional typing hardware. You can even use navigational buttons and shortcuts with an iPhone by going to Settings, Accessibility and Keyboards and enabling the Full Keyboard Access feature.
If you don’t want to haul a full keyboard around, consider a folding model, as it can fit easily in a jacket pocket but expand into something resembling a full-size set of keys.
Traveling keyboards, which typically fold up into two or three sections when not in use, range in price from about $25 to $80 depending on the size and features.
Speak your mind
Speech-to-text technology that converts the spoken word into editable type on the screen has been around for decades and has only become more accurate as the software has improved. Many apps (including virtual assistants) can take dictation. The Apple Notes app in iOS 18 can now directly record a live audio file and transcribe it.
To use the feature on an iPhone, open Settings, select General and then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation. The Auto-Punctuation option automatically inserts commands, periods and question marks as you talk, but Apple’s site has a full list of dictation commands for editing text and inserting emoji characters.
On Android phones using the Gboard keyboard, open the Settings app, go to System, select Keyboard and make sure Google Voice Typing is enabled. When you tap the microphone icon, you can start speaking or select the Info icon (an encircled “i”) to see the list of voice commands that Gboard understands, including in the Google Docs word processor. As with most dictation apps, you must call out punctation by name, like “question mark” or “new paragraph,” and other formatting.
Dictation can be helpful for quickly transcribing a lot of words, but it may not be the best method for, say, a crowded coffee shop or composing a confidential memo within earshot of co-workers. Some dictation requests are uploaded to the internet for processing and require a network connection.
But no matter how you input your text, be sure to proofread it (or have artificial intelligence do it) before you send it along, as typographical errors do have a way of sneaking in no matter how you get your words on the screen.
The chief of the Center Police Department and a sergeant, twin brothers, have been charged with theft and placed on administrative leave.
Aaron Fresquez, the police chief, and Sgt. Adam Fresquez are accused of operating a private K-9 training business while on duty at the department in the San Luis Valley and using city resources. The 35-year-old brothers trained dogs for other police agencies and then kept the money that should have gone to the town of Center, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Friday.
Aaron Fresquez was also cited with a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.
The charges were filed after a yearlong investigation by the CBI at the request of the 12th Judicial District Attorney. The district attorney has asked the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office serve as special prosecutors to avoid a conflict of interest.
The brothers were served summons to appear in the court at a later date.
The city has appointed Lt. Eidy Guaderama as interim police chief.
After nearly 10 months of extensive repairs and cleaning, the Colorado Supreme Court building will reopen its doors to the public on Tuesday.
“The Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center is an important symbol in our legal community — it is the hub of activity for a number of agencies critical to our judicial system,” Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez said in a news release. “Its partial reopening marks a significant milestone in the recovery process from the devasting events that severely damaged the tower complex earlier this year.”
The Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, which houses the Colorado Supreme Court, in Denver on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Brandon Olsen, 45, allegedly shot through a window and broke into the court building in the early morning of Jan. 2 while fleeing from a car crash at 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street, police said.
The 45-year-old faces charges of arson, robbery and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, according to court records. He is accused of holding a security guard at gunpoint and starting a fire on the seventh floor of the building.
The seventh-floor fire was extinguished by the building’s sprinklers, which ran for a couple of hours and caused significant water damage. In total, the break-in caused $35 million in damages and left four floors unusable, court officials said.
Floors 3 through 7 are currently being rebuilt from scratch and are expected to reopen next summer, building officials said.
During the building’s initial reopening next week, the public will have access to floors 1 and 2 of the office tower between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Access to floors 8 through 12 will be available by appointment only.
Olsen is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 18 for an arraignment hearing, according to court records.
Escargot wontons would get anyone’s attention. But French onion soup nachos seals the deal.
Adam Branz, the chef behind Ultreia and Split Lip: An Eat Place, is introducing a new concept at Dewey Beer Co.’s Denver taproom. The Delaware-based brewery has been running Mockery Brewing’s former space in the River North Art District since January.
The kitchen, called Cul-de-Sac, will feature what Branz calls “sleazy French street food” served out of a food trailer. In addition to the wontons and nachos, the menu will eventually include other tantalizingly off-centered plates like coq au vin nuggets-on-a-stick, duck confit quesadillas made with “a stinky French cheese,” and even slow-poached frog’s legs served with clarified butter, like a lobster roll.
Adam Branz of Ultreia, Split Lip and Cul-de-Sac. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“My first chef job was at Bistro Vendome, so I have a special place in my heart for French food — and Parisian food in particular,” said Branz, who attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts before moving to Denver and working his way up through the restaurant group founded by Jenn Jasinski and Beth Gruitch, which included Bistro Vendome, Ultreia and Rioja.
But for Cul-de-Sac, he wanted to approach French food in the same way he does with the menu at Split Lip, which specializes in flavor-packed, cheffed-up versions of casual regional dishes like Nashville hot chicken, Oklahoma-style fried onion burgers, and Buffalo wings.
“The Split lip lens is playful, raw and even abrasive at times,” he said.
That means treating fun food with the extreme attention to detail — timing, balance, degrees of heat — that classically trained chefs use in more formal settings.
For the wontons, for example, Branz and his team braise the snails low and slow to bring out the aromatics, pre-cooking them in a classic French butter sauce. Then they are cooled down and folded into the wontons. (Before landing on wontons as the vehicle for the escargot, Branz experimented with jalapeno poppers and ravioli.) “But the wontons came out incredible.”
Branz’s inspiration for this approach comes from an usual place. “I once spent nine months working on a dish at Ultreia,” he said, making minor adjustments and tweaks over that time in order to find the perfect balance of flavor and texture. Then after work one day, he went to the drive-thru at Carl’s Jr. — Branz loves fast food — and ordered a Western Bacon Cheeseburger. “The amount of balance was perfect. … That’s the beauty of casual American food.”
To run the trailer, Branz and his team, including chef Cameron Tittle, will prep all of the food in a commissary-style kitchen inside the Number Thirty Eight bar and venue where Split Lip is located. Then they’ll carry it down the alley to Dewey for the final stage of cooking.
The partnership with Dewey came about first because of proximity: Number Thirty Eight, at 3560 Chestnut Place, is right around the corner from Dewey, at 3501 Delgany. “I used to finish up my shift at Number Thirty Eight and go have a beer at Dewey,” Branz said — the brewery’s Pizzetta Pilsner in particular, a lighter, floral “Italian-style” lager with a gentle hops profile. After a while, he and his friends and co-workers became friends with Dewey’s Matt Lindy.
The logo for Cul-de-Sac, a new concept from chef Adam Branz. (Provided by Cul-de-Sac)
“It was because of us hanging out there that the conversation started up,” Branz explained. The name Cul-de-Sac comes from Dewey’s location on Delgany, which dead ends, while the logo plays off of the Canadian street signs for cul-de-sacs, which are accidentally provocative.
Cul-de-Sac will open today, Oct. 3, with a very limited menu and hours, growing slowly during October before a grand opening on Nov. 1. It will have extended hours — as will the brewery — Oct. 10-12 while the Great American Beer Festival is taking place in Denver.
Since joining the Colorado Rapids, Connor Ronan never complained about playing a role he’s not accustomed to in the defensive midfield.
Wednesday night against MLS Western Conference leader LA Galaxy, he was rewarded with his first goal of the season — his second with the Rapids — on the way to a 3-1 loss.
Even on the 45th minute scoring move, Ronan made a play to stop a dangerous Galaxy counterattack after a Rapids corner kick was cleared toward a streaking Joseph Paintsil. Ronan broke it up and played a ball to defender Reggie Cannon. Two passes later, and midfielder Djordje Mihailovic got the assist on Ronan’s left-footed blast from distance to the far post.
After Ronan opened his account, he ran to the Rapids’ bench, where he and defender Lalas Abubakar held up a jersey toward the family suite that read “Monsieur Cabral” on the back. Kevin Cabral, whose father recently passed, was watching his teammates clap in his honor from the suite.
Despite a dominant first half from the Rapids, two quick second-half goals from the Galaxy ultimately buried the Rapids. As a result, the 13-game unbeaten streak at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was snapped and the Rapids slid to sixth in the Western Conference.
The first came in the 50th minute when Gabriel Pec beat Rapids defender Andreas Maxsø in a footrace and looked to have mishit a shot, but it trickled past Zack Steffen’s trailing foot anyway. Nine minutes later, Galaxy star Riqui Puig had the ball in a favorable two-on-one, cut inside and tucked it to the far corner.
Puig doubled his deposit and the Galaxy’s lead in the 90+1st minute.
And for the first time this season, the Rapids lost at home directly after a road loss. Prior to Wednesday night, the Rapids won four such matches and drew two.
The Rapids will need points this Saturday to keep hope of a home playoff advantage alive against the Seattle Sounders. The match will kick off at DSGP at 7:30 p.m.
A 27-year-old man who shot two of his Topgolf coworkers — killing one of them — in December has pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder.
Victor Salazar-Guarache took a plea deal in Adams County District Court on Thursday, according to court records.
Salazar-Guarache pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, court records show. The plea deal dropped charges of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree attempted murder and a violent-crime sentence enhancer from his case.
The then-26-year-old Topgolf dishwasher was arrested in December after a midnight shooting in the parking lot of the Thornton Topgolf, 16011 Grant St., left one man dead, police said.
Bryce Holden, a 22-year-old Topgolf dishwasher, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds, police said. The kitchen manager who walked out with Holden also was shot.
As Holden and the manager exited the building and entered the parking lot, Salazar-Guarache got out his car and fired 12 shots at the pair, continuing to shoot even after Holden fell, according to his arrest affidavit.
A Lyft driver who was picking up another employee told officers he saw Salazar-Guarache exit his vehicle and, when he returned to his car after the shooting, it appeared Salazar-Guarache was laughing, the affidavit stated.
Salazar-Guarache will next appear in court for a sentencing hearing Oct. 11, according to court records.
