One person was injured and transported to the hospital after a stabbing Thursday in the 1700 block of Wazee Street, according to the Denver Police Department.
Officers responded to the are at 7:18 p.m. and found one victim with injuries that were not life threatening, department officials said. It appears the stabbing happened a block or two away from where the victim was found.
No one has been arrested and investigators are working to identify and locate the suspect.
Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups — a Denver native and former basketball star at the University of Colorado and with the Denver Nuggets — allegedly participated in a years-long scheme to rig Mafia-led poker games through sophisticated technological means, scamming wealthy players out of millions of dollars, according to a sweeping federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Billups was arrested Thursday in Oregon and faces federal charges of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The NBA said he was placed on immediate leave.
The 49-year-old coach appeared in court later in the day, and attorneys from both sides told the judge they had agreed on Billups’ release from custody on the condition he secure “a substantial bond,” though the amount wasn’t discussed in court. He is also prohibited from gambling-related activity.
Chris Heywood, Billups’ attorney, released a statement to ESPN on Thursday night denying the allegations.
“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation, and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” the statement read.
“Furthermore, Chauncey Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League, as it would tarnish the game he has devoted his entire life to.”
The arrest came as part of a massive federal investigation into illegal, high-stakes poker games with ties to organized crime families. A second, related criminal case involved professional basketball players and coaches allegedly using inside information to set up fraudulent bets for their associates.
The 22-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges the poker games began as early as 2019 and spanned New York state, Las Vegas and Miami.
Victims of the scheme thought they were playing in “straight” illegal poker games, according to the indictment.
In reality, a group of people — referred to as the “cheating team” — worked together to scam them out of more than $7 million, investigators said.
They used a variety of high-tech methods to rig the games, federal authorities alleged. Wireless technologies to read the cards dealt in each hand. Rigged shuffling machines. Electronic poker chip trays that could secretly read cards placed on the table. Card analyzers that could surreptitiously detect which cards were on the table. Playing cards that had markers visible only to people wearing specially designed contact lenses or glasses.
Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.
The indictment spells out one game in April 2019, in Las Vegas, when the group defrauded poker players of at least $50,000. Billups, along with four others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine,” according to the indictment.
‘Threats of force and violence’
Authorities say the games operated “with the express permission and approval of” members of certain organized crime families of La Cosa Nostra.
These individuals — with nicknames like “Spanish G,” “Flapper Poker,” “Sugar” and “Albanian Bruce” — provided support and protection for the games and collected debts in exchange for a portion of the illegal proceeds
The organized crime families used “threats of force and violence” to secure repayment of debts from these poker games, according to the indictment.
All told, the poker scheme defrauded participants of at least $7.15 million, investigators said.
“Using the allure of high-stakes winnings and the promise to play alongside well-known professional athletes, these defendants allegedly defrauded unwitting victims out of tens of millions of dollars and established a financial pipeline to La Cosa Nostra,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher G. Raia said in a statement. “This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families.”
Thursday’s indictment “sounds the final buzzer for these cheaters,” said Joseph Nocella Jr., the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The second criminal case involved NBA players and coaches divulging nonpublic information to their associates for the purpose of placing bets.
The 23-page indictment does not name Billups, but does list nine unnamed co-conspirators, including an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021. Billups played in the NBA from 1997 to 2014 and was hired by the Blazers in 2021.
That individual, referred to as “co-conspirator 8,” allegedly told a bettor that several of the Blazers’ best players would be sitting out a March 23, 2023, game against the Chicago Bulls in order to increase their odds of getting a better draft pick.
The gamblers wagered more than $100,000 that Portland would lose the game. The Blazers lost by 28.
Chauncey Billups with the Denver Nuggets during practice at the Pepsi Center in Denver on April 6, 2010. (Photo By Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post)
The Denver-born phenom graduated from George Washington High School and played basketball at CU before being selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
Known as Mr. Big Shot nationally and the King of Park Hill locally in Denver, Billups also played for Toronto, Denver, Minnesota, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers. Billups won the Joe Dumars Trophy, the NBA’s sportsmanship award, in 2009 while playing for his hometown Nuggets.
Billups is in his fifth season as Portland’s coach, compiling a 117-212 record. The Trail Blazers opened the season Wednesday night at home with a 118-114 loss to Minnesota. Billups’ brother, Rodney, is currently the Nuggets’ director of player development and an assistant coach on David Adelman’s staff.
The Portland coach also serves as executive director of the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy, a summer program affiliated with Denver’s Regis University. The academy helps third through 12th-graders “cultivate character development through an extensive academic curriculum and exposes young leaders to career opportunities in their pursuit of individual success.”
Academy representatives said in a statement that they are “deeply troubled by the indictment against Chauncey Billups, co-founder of the Porter Billups Leadership Academy. We respect the legal process and will closely monitor developments as the facts emerge. Our unwavering commitment to the underserved youths through the PBLA program and our institutional integrity remains steadfast.”
Billups’ attorney indicated in the statement to ESPN that Billups planned to fight the charges made by the federal government.
“Chauncey Billups has never backed down. He does not plan to do so now,” the statement read. “He will fight these allegations with the same tenacity that marked his 28-year career. We look forward to our day in court.”
When Briar Patch opened in Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood this summer, its owner wanted the food to be a little more “elevated” than the pub fare he served at his Jefferson Park brewery, Briar Common.
A season later, however, customer input and economics have led Kent Dawson to bring in a new chef and make food similar to what is found at his brewing enterprise, which he opened nine years ago.
“We had some items that were a bit too prep-heavy, a little bit too involved for what people were wanting,” Dawson said. “In several ways, we’ve simplified things.”
Part of the adjustment was to dispel a neighborhood perception that Briar Patch, at 1222 Madison St., was a “date night” spot in comparison to the more casual cafes on the block, he said.
The jalapeño popper burger at Briar Patch, one of the newer items on the menu at the restaurant, which opened in July of 2025 in the Congress Park neighborhood of Denver. (Provided by Kent Dawson)
Gone are the “Tots and Lox”, for instance. The dish, consisting of tater tots with salmon belly that was cured in-house, required too much time and too many ingredients.
“It’s just not something that people were buying,” he said. “So now, we have wings with three different sauces and we’re selling the heck out of them.”
“We’re definitely looking to do the neighborhood thing,” Singh said about the food, adding that the restaurant’s food costs have dropped by 23% with the new menu.
That will be important, since Briar Patch is the fourth concept to give the space a shot over the past few years. The others were Crepes & Crepes, Billy’s Inn and TAG Burger Bar.
In addition to the wings with three different sauces (buffalo, barbecue and garlic parmesan), there are sliders, rotating burgers (currently it’s the jalapeño popper burger), Reubens and chicken pot pie. Brunch will begin next month, with Singh cooking eggs Benedict topped with salmon cakes and her hollandaise sauce.
SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Gordon gets hyphy when he’s near his hometown.
His string of exceptional scoring performances at Golden State might seem to defy explanation, but it turns out there is one. Home is where the heart is, or in Gordon’s case, where the ear is.
“Man, the DJ was playing slaps, you know what I mean?” the Nuggets forward said after Denver’s season-opening overtime loss on Thursday. “So I’m vibing the whole game. He’s playing the straight Bay that I grew up with. Just like hyphy music, you know what I mean?”
He’s talking about Oakland-style hip-hop, the frenetic subgenre that emerged in the ’90s and spread across the Bay Area as he was growing up in San Jose in the early aughts. Give Gordon the soundtrack of his youth, and he’ll give you a memorable game.
Fifty was not enough on Thursday night, and that will haunt the Nuggets, even if it was only the first game of the season. It will haunt them in annoyingly sentimental and emotional ways more than it will in the standings, at least for now.
Warriors 137, Nuggets 131 in an overtime opener for the ages.
“I feel awful for Aaron,” coach David Adelman said unprompted. “Aaron had a night that I’ll never forget. I know that he won’t.”
Gordon shone brightest, but Steph Curry got the last laugh in a city that he wields so effortlessly in the palm of his hand, even at 37 years old. His effect on the Bay Area is as timeless as hyphy’s spell on Gordon. When he stepped to the foul line late in regulation for three free throws, he first paused, took notice of a momentary lull and calmly implored Chase Center to get noisier. They couldn’t jump to their feet fast enough.
“He doesn’t need a lot,” Nikola Jokic said. “He just needs to see one ball go in.”
That was the second-most striking crowd reaction of the night, outdone only by the authentic joy when Gordon missed his first 3-pointer. It happened late in the third quarter, on Gordon’s ninth try. He seemed invincible up to that point, and afterward, too. The final stat line: 50 points and eight rebounds on 17-of-21 shooting, including 10 of 11 outside the arc.
“Whoever scores 10 threes in a game,” Jokic said, “it’s easy to play with that person.”
Even after he cashed in a few, the Warriors relentlessly made head-scratching defensive decisions — going under a ball screen, not picking Gordon up in transition as he brought the ball up, selling out to take away the paint from him off-ball instead of the 3-point line, as Draymond Green did with 25 seconds left in regulation.
Gordon’s 10th triple should have been the game-winner.
But…
“He hit a super-tough shot to send it to OT,” Gordon said. “That’s Steph being Steph.”
From 34 feet deep, Curry pulled up and stole Gordon’s moment. The Nuggets were helpless to stop it. They showed him bodies and ran him off the 3-point line effectively early in the game, but steadily, he turned Christian Braun’s sneakers into ice-skates, predicted the beats and rhythms of Jokic’s double-teams, and found the angles that transferred control back to him. He scored 35 of his 42 points after halftime.
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors does his “night night” celebration after Jimmy Butler III #10 made a three-point basket against the Denver Nuggets in overtime at Chase Center on Oct. 23, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The Nuggets didn’t defend well enough. They relinquished a 14-point lead.
“A few times, we didn’t send him in the direction of the defense,” Adelman said. “If he gets the other way, there’s no one on the other side of that pick. … The shot he made to tie, it’s a shot that only he can make. But obviously you have to be up (the floor) more.”
Denver still had a chance to win on the last possession of regulation. The Warriors had offense-based personnel on the floor from the previous sequence. But Adelman was OK using a timeout and allowing them to substitute if it meant getting organized on the pick-and-roll setup and making sure his players didn’t rush to shoot before the buzzer. They produced a quality shot out of that timeout, but Jokic missed from floater range.
This was a night when plenty of components weren’t good enough around Gordon. Braun struggled at both ends. Cam Johnson was cold from 3-point range and had a minus-17 in his Nuggets debut. The defense was often tangled or disorganized getting back in transition. But Jokic’s individual inefficiency stood out. In one of the lesser triple-doubles of his career, he missed 13 of his last 16 field goal attempts. He was 0 for 4 in the last two minutes of overtime. He was 2 for 13 from three. It was a sobering inversion of Gordon’s hyphy night.
Asked if he could’ve done more to establish an interior presence in lieu of those 3s, though, Jokic played a bit of defense.
“I think I need to mix it up, (but) I’m happy with the 3-point (looks),” he said. “I think I was open. Most of them seemed like they were going in, but they didn’t. So I mean, I’m happy with the shots.”
Just not the results — a beloved teammate’s career night wasted, a homecoming squandered.
“It sucks,” Gordon admitted. “They’re asking if I wanted the game ball. And no, I don’t want the game ball to take an L home with me. No, thank you. So it sucks. But it’s one game. It’s our first game. That’s a good team. It’s a really good team. It’s hard to win on the road. You’ve gotta execute offensively and defensively down the stretch. So we’re gonna reconvene, watch the film, go back home and try to play better in our home opener.”
The arrest of Chauncey Billups in a sprawling gambling investigation shook up the NBA — and his hometown.
Billups is the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, but he’s known in Colorado as “The King of Park Hill” and a former CU Boulder and Denver Nuggets basketball player.
“There’s a lot of disbelief,” said Leon Kelly, the local minister and anti-violence activist, who has known Billups since he was a middle-schooler.
Kelly had heard rumors on Wednesday night that news might break about Billups, but only learned on Thursday that he had been arrested alongside more than 30 other people in an investigation that spans the nation and the world. Also arrested was Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.
“We’re seeing all over the headlines — our neighborhood hero, champion, standard bearer,” said Jeff Fard, better known as Brother Jeff Fard, the northeast Denver community leader. “A heck of a thing to wake up to is an understatement.”
Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games in Las Vegas, Miami, Manhattan and the Hamptons that were backed by La Cosa Nostra Crime families.
While the poker indictment makes sweeping allegations about Billups and the others, it references Billups specifically only in connection to card games in Las Vegas “in or around April 2019.” In those games, according to the indictment, Billups, among others, “organized and participated in these rigged games using a rigged shuffling machine …”
Both Billups and Rozier face money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy charges. Prosecutors accused Rozier in a scheme to rig sports bets by altering athletes’ performances; Billups was not named in relation to that scheme.
A mural on the Skyland Park basketball court is dedicated to NBA star Chauncey Billups. Oct. 23, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
A long legacy in Denver
“I’ve known this kid — since he was a kid. I’ve seen him grow up,” Kelly said. Billups and his family, he said, “have, I feel, great morals and great values. You know, we often say that one is certainly innocent until proven guilty.”
Born in 1976, Billups was raised in Park Hill in northeast Denver and attended George Washington High School in southeast Denver, where he was repeatedly honored as “Mr. Basketball” for the state of Colorado. He would eventually have the words “King of Park Hill” tattooed on his arm.
At CU Boulder, Billups took the Buffaloes to their first NCAA Tournament win in nearly 30 years.
“Chauncey Billups has been a valued member [of] the CU Buffs community. CU Athletics learned today through the media about the allegations against him. As this is an ongoing investigation which does not involve CU, we have no further comment,” university officials said in a statement.
Billups eventually won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004. He also played for the Denver Nuggets from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2011. Billups was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
Billups has been placed on leave from the Portland Trail Blazers, where he has been the head coach since 2021.
He has remained a presence in Denver throughout his career. His likeness is shown in a large mural in Skyland Park, where he played as a young man. While working in television in Los Angeles, he returned three days a week to Denver to be with his wife and three daughters, The Athletic reported at the time.
Billups also is known for his involvement in the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy, a college prep program founded by former Regis University Head Coach Lonnie Porter, which Billups joined as a supporter in 2006.
“He has not forgotten where he comes from,” Kelly said.
Billups also has stayed involved in local politics. He endorsed Mayor Mike Johnston in his 2023 elections campaign.
Fard expected the Park Hill community to stand with Billups.
“Chauncey is from Park Hill. He’s going to withstand this storm. We’re going to stand with him. And I guarantee you, at the end of all of whatever this is, Chauncey Billups will be standing tall. That’s Mr. Big Shot. That’s Park Hill,” Fard said.
The court cases have shaken the NBA and grabbed the national spotlight.
“The fraud is mind boggling,” FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. “We’re talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation.”
The poker scheme is alleged to have cheated at least $7 million out of unsuspecting gamblers who were lured into rigged games with the chance to compete against former professional basketball players like Billups and Jones.
The indictment claims that games were rigged using sophisticated cheating technology, such as altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in poker chip trays, special sunglasses and even X-ray equipment built into the table to read the cards of unsuspecting players.
Once the targeted victims — known as “fish” — lost, Mafia families used extortion and violence to make sure they paid their gambling debts, Nocella said.
Prosecutors are arguing for releasing Billups and Jones but with “substantial bail conditions,” including a prohibition on any form of gambling and travel restrictions.
“My initial thoughts are caution not to be sucked into headlines and sensationalism that seems to drive a lot of the public narrative,” Fard said.
Billups and Rozier were expected to make initial court appearances on Thursday.
“God forbid … if it was true to any degree …, the question is, what happened? Was he pressured?” Kelly said, “Why? Why? Why? But, you know, again, we all make choices, and sometimes there are bad choices.”
CPR News journalist Anthony Cotton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hundreds of people crammed into a town-hall meeting on Wednesday to demand that Mayor Mike Johnston shut down Denver’s licence-plate tracking surveillance system and stop working with the technology company Flock Safety.
Among them was an influential YouTuber who flew in from Austin — a sign of how fights over surveillance technology across the U.S. have gone viral.
“I’m a privacy person. So the idea that you’re going to be watched everywhere that you go and there’s nothing that you can do about it is highly offensive to me,” said Louis Rossmann, a consumer rights activist and YouTube streamer. “But mostly I wanted people to realize that they can make changes in their local government … if they put their mind to it and if they actually show up.”
Rossmann livestreamed the protest to 24,000 viewers, and the in-person crowd included plenty of his followers — known as “Clippies,” after the iconic and notorious Microsoft character. Two overflow rooms also were packed wall-to-wall.
“I came out here actually because Louis Rossmann was talking about it on his channel, and I realized that it was going to be in my city and I didn’t know before all the things that Mayor Johnston had done,” Erica Kasson said. ”And it made me very, very angry to know that someone I voted for is all right with surveilling the citizens or residents of the city. It’s an egregious violation of our rights and civil liberties. I cannot, with words, describe how [expletive] angry I am.”
Clayton’s Envirotech building is filled with people for a community meeting about the use of Flock AI cameras in Denver. Oct. 22, 2025.Kiara DeMare/Denverite
Safety vs. surveillance
At the center of the controversy is the city’s use of Flock Safety, a company that produces license-plate reading cameras and software. Police agencies and cities across the country have embraced the technology, which can scan millions of license plates, helping investigators quickly track and locate vehicles in criminal investigations.
But the cameras have drawn fierce criticism about potential privacy violations, especially because federal immigration authorities have had access to the national Flock network.
“It already raises serious alarm bells about potential Fourth Amendment violations and our protections against unreasonable search and seizures,” said Julian Camera, the lead organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado. “But then when you add all this lack of transparency and false information being shared by city officials and Flock itself, we have a real problem on our hands.”
The city of Denver installed 111 solar-powered cameras across the city in May 2024. But some Denver City Council members balked at the idea of extending the contract a year later. Facing opposition, the Johnston administration instead bypassed the council, extending the contract by keeping its cost below a certain threshold.
“We were not a part of that conversation,” Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez said at the town hall. She is a part of the Johnston-appointed surveillance task force.
“I did ask the mayor directly about that. I said, ‘I’m concerned that we’ve had this task force that has been meeting now for a couple of months and this has now just popped up and here is the solution without any consultation,” Gonzales-Gutierrez said. “And I was reminded that that is executive authority.”
A camera watches over Alameda Avenue at Downing Street. Oct. 23, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
City officials say they’re putting in new safeguards and that they will bring the question to a full city council vote next year. In a press release, Johnston said the privacy questions have been solved in this new contract extension.
“I’ve made clear to Flock’s leadership that I expect total transparency and that anything less will result in an end to our relationship,” Johnston said in a press release. “To their credit, they have agreed to our terms and will build a Denver-specific package that will lead the way in using this technology for the public good.”
Some see the technology as an existential threat.
“I’m really curious about separation of this technology from the federal government,” said Annie Ray Briggs of East Colfax.
“With current conversations right now in the United States, it’s not unlikely that within the next year I’m going to be labeled a terrorist for being transgender, for being anti-Israel, for being a protester,” Briggs continued. “All these things are things that could very much put me on a watch list. What’s protecting me as a citizen of Colorado from having this information be sold about me?”
Johnston wasn’t at the town hall protest, but Tim Hoffman, his policy director, fielded questions. He said that the city’s new agreement doesn’t allow jurisdictions outside of Denver to access the data, unless there is a memorandum signed between Denver and an outside city or law enforcement.
“Isn’t that what Flock said before?” someone shouted from the crowd.
During the original contract run, city officials said Denver’s data was not accessible to other agencies through a national database. But in April police officials said that, unbeknownst to them, Denver’s data was exposed to a “national search” function.
The city says there is no evidence that Denver’s Flock data has been used for immigration enforcement. But thousands of agencies around the nation had access to Denver data through the “national search” function — which DPD officials said they didn’t know until April, when they deactivated the function.
Another crowd member asked Hoffman how this was going to affect Johnston’s chance of reelection.
Tim Hoffman, director of policy for Mayor Mike Johnston, speaks during a community meeting about the use of Flock AI cameras in Denver. Oct. 22, 2025.Kiara DeMare/Denverite
“I just was kind of thinking about my role coming here tonight. I would describe myself as a normie Democrat, like someone who votes ‘blue no matter who,’ someone who would probably vote for Mike Johnston nine times out of 10, until this stuff comes up,” said one attendee who gave the name August.
But August warned that “what makes us most upset with our political leaders is when we feel disrespected by them.”
Hoffman said that while they disagree on this issue, Johnston has built support with other policies, like his handling of the immigration crisis.
“There is no one in the mayor’s administration, the mayor especially, who wants ICE rounding up our most vulnerable citizens or residents. There is no one in the mayor’s administration, the mayor especially, who wants a woman who comes here from Texas for reproductive health care to then have that action be prosecuted back in the state of Texas,” Hoffman said. “So that is why we have instituted all of these new safety measures, to make sure that those things don’t happen.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the attribution of Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez’s quote, which had previously been incorrectly attributed to Councilmember Sarah Parady.
Coba bathhouse CEO Memphis Orion (from left), chief creative officer Jon Medina and chief strategic officer Adam Lerner sit in their “Cobacita” — a mobile sauna — which is parked at the company’s property in La Alma/Lincoln Park. Oct. 10, 2025.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The team behind Coba is a long way from realizing its grand vision to put a pool-packed wellness mecca south of downtown Denver.
So, for the moment, the company — named by combining the words “Colorado” and “bathhouse” — has settled for a sauna on wheels.
A custom-built trailer, called the Cobacita, sits at the site of the planned bathhouse in the La Alma neighborhood near Denver’s Auraria Campus. Behind a set of folding glass doors, visitors will find rounded cubbies for their belongings and curtains blocking off a pair of changing areas.
The sauna itself offers benches for 16 people around a wood-burning stove. Cold plunge pools, of course, await outside to reduce inflammation and shock anyone’s frayed nervous system back into the embodied present. It’s all meant to offer a preview of the far more ambitious plans for the former industrial site at 1339 N. Osage St.
Coba aims to eventually transform the property into a new type of cultural destination in Denver.
Over the next few years, the company plans to renovate a pair of brick buildings built shortly after World War II. The company spent $3.5 million to buy the property late last year.
One will house a reception desk, locker rooms and a café. The other is set to transform into an 8,500-square-foot bathhouse packed with 13 different spa amenities, including saunas, hot tubs, a steam room and float pools. The entire complex will have capacity for more than 400 people, according to planning documents.
“Imagine a spa that’s as accessible as a beer garden,” said Adam Lerner, the company’s chief strategic officer.
Similar bathhouses have proven popular in New York City and San Francisco. There are also a number of traditional bathhouses in the Denver area already, including a traditional Korean bathhouse in Aurora and a Russian bathhouse on Colfax.
Memphis Orion, the company’s CEO, wants to build on traditional bathhouse culture to take advantage of the rising skepticism of alcohol among Generation Z. Someday, he imagines, the bathhouse could provide an alternative “third place” where Denverites can gather, instead of a bar or a brewery.
“We’re providing another opportunity for people to come together, down-regulate and have an experience that’s more about being connected with each other,” Orion said.
Not exactly a hot spring, but geothermal
Public bathhouses have offered an oasis in cities like Tokyo and Budapest for centuries.
Those locations often relied on local resources to create communal spaces. In Japan, for example, traditional sentos have heated pools by burning scrap wood from nearby demolition projects. Most residents now bathe instead in water piped over long distances and heated by natural gas.
Coba aims to take advantage of a different local resource: geothermal energy. Last week, the Colorado Energy Office announced the project had earned a $526,200 state tax credit to build a thermal energy network in Denver.
The system will rely on a series of 500- to-800 foot boreholes drilled beneath an existing parking lot. At those depths, the Earth’s temperature barely changes with the seasons, hovering at around 50 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
By linking the boreholes to heat pumps, the bathhouse would use electricity to harvest the ambient underground energy to heat its indoor spaces. In the summer, the system could work in reverse to shift heat underground and cool occupants.
It’s a concept already helping Colorado Mesa University, in Grand Junction, save thousands of dollars on its energy costs. On a smaller scale, individual homeowners can tap steady underground temperatures by drilling wells straight into their backyards.
Coba can’t build a big enough borehole field at its current site to serve all its energy needs. In the short term, the bathhouse plans to rely on natural gas to heat water for its many planned hot tubs. But Orion has also started conversations with Domo — a Japanese restaurant next door — about someday expanding the geothermal network across both properties.
With a big enough system, the bathhouse could someday resemble something closer to a natural hot spring. Only instead of geological cracks bringing hot water to the surface, modern technology would let visitors bathe in energy harvested from Earth’s shallow crust.
Gov. Jared Polis has made it a priority to jump-start a geothermal energy industry in Colorado. In a written statement, Ari Rosenblum, a spokesperson for the Colorado Energy Office, said Coba received a tax credit because the project aligns with state goals to cut climate-warming emissions and adopt innovative clean energy solutions.
Don’t get your bathing suits just yet
It’s unclear exactly when Coba will open its public bathhouse — or what it will cost to visit.
The company is still raising capital and considering loans to support construction, and it’s waiting for city officials to approve initial plans for the facility. Orion declined to say when the company expects to open the bathhouse, but it’s already allowing people to book sessions inside its Cobacita sauna currently located on-site.
The company will offer memberships and one-time drop-in visits, but it hasn’t yet detailed how much visitors will pay for either option. Lerner, however, insisted the price won’t exceed the cost of a nice lunch out.
“We believe that deep relaxation should be a part of the flow of your daily life, not a kind of escape from your life that you do once or twice a year. It’s priced to allow you to come four or five times a month,” Lerner said.
Lerner has some experience attracting visitors to less traditional cultural experiences. In 2019, he stepped down as the director and chief animator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.
He hopes the bathhouse will offer a different type of civic gathering space built around relaxation. Once it’s fully established, he expects roughly 300,000 people will visit the facility annually, lured by the prospect of deep relaxation at an affordable price.
“This is the next evolution in leisure. It’s a lack we’re making up for,” Lerner said.
Vote “No” on Denver’s bonds to reject irresponsible debt
After reading my ballot, I researched previous bonds that were passed by voters. The Rise Denver bond in 2021 was $260 million, and the Elevate Denver Bond in 2017 was $937 million. I added up the 2A to 2E bonds this year, and the total is up to $950 million. The total for all of these bonds adds up to more than $2 billion.
The debt repayment for the current bonds is about $1.9 billion. The ballot states, “without imposing any new tax,” but that is not completely correct. The reason is that all these bonds are paid through commercial and residential property taxes in Denver County. The mill levy could go down if voters say no, and if voters say yes it also could have to increase to pay for these billions of dollars if property values decrease. Denver County is where I live, and expenses have gone significantly higher this year. Why do we keep adding to the bond debts? We should not vote to increase the county’s debt.
Pete Hackett, Denver
Denver clerk errs in leaving out information on ballot issues
Did I hear that correctly?
Denver’s “Ballot Issue Notice” does not provide any information about three matters: 2F, 2G and 310. I called Denver’s Clerk and Elections Office to ask why the omissions. I was told two things: 1) Those three ballot issues have no fiscal impact on government, so applicable law does not require their inclusion in the notice. 2) Due to “budget cuts,” it was decided not to address them in the notice. Then, I was informed that I could garner information about them at denvervotes.org.
Denver voters expect the notice each year to address all matters on the ballot. The current notice does not highlight that 2F, 2G and 310 are not included and does not highlight denvervotes.org as a source of information about them.
I have no way of learning how much money was “saved” by excluding these ballot matters. What I do know is that it would have been money well spent.
Vic Reichman, Denver
Trump’s cuts to education funding risk America’s future
Re: “Federal government’s cuts cost state colleges millions,” Oct. 9 news story
As an educator, I was saddened to read: “Trump administration cuts grants to Colorado colleges serving high percentage of diverse students,” October 9.
Every American, regardless of race, gender or religious persuasion, should have the opportunity to realize their natural potential via education. Yet, there are wide swaths of America that are not properly educating students and where students are just unable to succeed for economic or other reasons. As a result, America is not producing sufficient STEM graduates to sustain, let alone grow, America’s high level of technology upon which we all heavily depend for our economy, well-being and national defense.
On top of that, President Donald Trump has made it significantly more challenging for foreign students (who would often pursue STEM careers) to enter American schools.
Given the fact that the president is seeking to reindustrialize America, I would like to ask him from where will the required scientists, engineers, technicians, doctors and other highly educated specialists come? America is now in crisis as we seek to pay down our $37 trillion debt and stay competitive internationally. One way to do this would be to encourage and help all groups of Americans — particularly those who are underrepresented in STEM (as an untapped talent pool) — to pursue STEM careers. Persecuting and defunding schools that seek to help underrepresented students succeed and contribute to America’s recovery is absolutely the wrong thing to do.
Education is the only hope for the next generation of Americans to move forward.
Michael Pravica, Henderson, Nevada
If the U.S. doesn’t support Ukraine, we are complicit in its destruction
Recent news articles galvanized my thought that America is sleepwalking while Ukraine is fighting for survival against Russia’s genocidal invasion. We need to take a moment to answer the question: Are we really supporting Ukraine to win? It is in America’s interest that Ukraine is successful. Our future prosperity, and that of our children, depends on what we do right now.
Either the United States supports Ukraine to win, or we will be complicit in its destruction. Such complicity will damage national security by strengthening enemies, driving away allies, harming international trade, increasing nuclear proliferation, encouraging new wars of territorial conquest, and ending America’s role as leader of the free world. There will be less stability and fewer allies within the West, investments abroad will be less safe, and the entire West will be less prosperous. Therefore, what all of us should strive for in Ukraine is not peace at any price, because that will be bad for all countries, but a future that makes Ukraine, America, and the West stronger by making its enemies weaker.
Take a moment to consider our future and then do what you feel is best: take up a keyboard and send a note, pick up a pen and write your political leadership, sit down with friends or family and discuss this letter, or pull out your checkbook, but just do something now. History will judge what we do today; which side will you be on?
Arthur Ives, Highlands Ranch
Don’t just give away national forest lands
Should our beloved but flat-broke White River National Forest sell an asset worth more than half its annual budget or just give that asset away?
Retired White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams’ 2021 plan to effectively donate 832 acres surrounding Sweetwater Lake to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for the creation of a state park might have made sense prior to DOGE’s cuts to the forest service’s budget. It also might have made sense before the $23,860,000 Derby Fire burned 5,453 acres in the national forest just one mile east of the lake.
However, the White River National Forest is now so destitute that even before the federal shutdown visitor centers were closed, volunteers emptied latrines, and its maintenance budget for 2,800 miles of roads was bupkis, zero, zilch, nada. The nation’s most visited national forest is not in any position to make donations.
Gov. Jared Polis desires Sweetwater Lake for a state park, so a logical solution is for the national forest to sell those 832 acres at fair market value. The Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife is an “enterprise agency” and fiscally sound despite Colorado’s budget woes. Furthermore, the Trump administration has shown a willingness to divest federal lands, thereby creating a win-win.
Selling the Sweetwater Lake land requested by the CPW should generate more than $13 million for the White River National Forest to fund operations or cover expenditures incurred fighting the Derby Fire. It would be a dereliction of duty for current national forest Supervisor Brian Glaspell to execute this eight-figure donation as proposed by his predecessor.
Power lines hang over an alley in Athmar Park. July 11, 2023.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
On Sunday, Xcel issued a warning that it might shut off power ahead of high winds on Monday in Denver and surrounding counties. The shutdown never happened, but it made us wonder: How often does Xcel shut off power, what goes into that decision and how does it work?
During bouts of high winds and dry temperatures, Xcel Energy has two ways to reduce the risk that a powerline will spark a fire.
The first option is less dramatic.
On days like Monday, Xcel changes how it handles problems with lines.
Normally, if a tree branch or other debris falls on a power line, it will reset automatically, as long as the object doesn’t stay on the line.
But during high winds, “Enhanced Powerline Safety Settings” (EPSS) can be enacted. In this mode, debris causes a line to turn off immediately. It will only come back on once someone from Xcel checks the line.
According to a video from Xcel, patrols are done by aerial inspection, by truck or on foot. Once it’s cleared, they’ll turn the power line back on. Xcel enacted this protocol on Monday, and it may have led to some power outages. Xcel was not able to provide a number.
There’s also a more extreme preemptive measure.
Xcel can shut down lines if they’re near active wildfires or if there’s extreme risk, which it considered doing on Monday. This is known as the “Public Safety Power Shutoff” (PSPS) plan. The utility warned that shutdowns might be necessary for up to seven hours, but they didn’t ultimately happen.
According to Xcel’s website, the PSPS measure is not a step it takes “lightly.” It’s a five-stage plan that starts 72 hours before the power shuts off and ends 72 hours after the “all clear.”
Xcel previously did preemptive shutdowns in April 2024, when winds spiked to around 100 mph. About 55,000 people around the northern Front Range were without power as a result of the PSPS, according to the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, and roughly 100,000 more lost power through unplanned outages.
Xcel said it communicates with customers as soon as the forecast includes extreme weather.
The risks of fire are extreme — both for utilities and the public.
Xcel launched its wildfire mitigation program in 2020, which includes shutdown, community outreach and resources during shutdowns. Xcel plans to spend about $1.9 billion on wildfire mitigation through 2027, including on measures like burying power lines.
In 2021, the Marshall Fire destroyed nearly 1,000 buildings in Boulder and Jefferson counties. It began as two fires – including one that investigators said was sparked by an Xcel powerline.
Xcel and two telecom companies recently settled a lawsuit over the fire for $640 million. Xcel admitted no fault.
Flock cameras were installed in Denver in May 2024, and there are now more than 100 cameras mounted at 70 intersections across the city.
The Denver Police Department has credited the license plate readers for hundreds of arrests and recovered stolen vehicles, as well as the recovery of dozens of firearms. But at a packed community meeting Wednesday night, residents called for the city to “De-Flock Denver” and for the mayor to include the community in conversations about the future of the cameras.
Denver7
John McKinney, president of the East Colfax Neighborhood Association, told the packed crowd he has a simple message for Mayor Johnston.
“Quit doing this behind closed doors and come out and debate us in the public forum, you f—-ing p—y!,” said McKinney.
The gathering brought together several registered neighborhood associations (RNOs) against the use of Flock.
This meeting came on the same day Johnston announced new privacy protections for the cameras, stating that only Denver police officers can access Denver’s camera data.
“No federal agency of any sort, no federal employee of any sort will have access to Denver’s data,” Johnston told Denver7 Investigates.
Under the updated contract, other Colorado law enforcement agencies can access the information only if they sign agreements promising not to share data with federal agencies. An agency that signs the agreement and violates it will be subject to prosecution by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
Flock will pay a $100,000 fine for any instance in which it shares data with the federal government, according to the city.
Denver
Denver bans sharing of Flock camera data with the federal government
McKinney dismissed these safeguards as insufficient protection.
“It’s very weak regulation,” McKinney said.
Johnston acknowledged in his interview Wednesday that he cannot satisfy all critics but defended the program’s effectiveness in reducing auto theft and solving murders.
“For folks who are never going to ideologically believe in any use of a camera system in the country, we won’t find common ground on that idea,” Johnston said.
Watch our full interview with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston below
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston discusses 5-month extension with Flock | Full interview
Denver City Council members who attended the town hall said they were not involved in the mayor’s contract decision with the company. Councilwoman Shontel Lewis publicly criticized Johnston Wednesday night.
“I want to say that it’s important for you all to identify the kings in the castle in the cities in which you all live,” said Lewis. “And the mayor is one of those.”
The heated debate over license plate reader cameras is expected to continue in the coming months. Denver7 will continue to stay on top of this issue.
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Claire Lavezzorio
Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio covers topics that have an impact across Colorado, but specializes in reporting on stories in the military and veteran communities. If you’d like to get in touch with Claire, fill out the form below to send her an email.
Mayor Mike Johnston announced Wednesday that the city will again extend its agreement to keep Flock Safety license plate cameras operating in Denver, despite pushback from the Denver City Council.
The technology, which police say is helpful in stopping auto theft and other crimes, has drawn fierce criticism about potential privacy violations and the threat the data could be shared with federal immigration enforcement and other external agencies.
City officials say the extended contract will come with new conditions meant to protect Denver’s data.
The city put up 111 solar-powered Flock cameras at 70 sites citywide in May 2024. Since then, the system has photographed roughly 2 million license plates per month, allowing police to track and locate vehicles. The captured images led to 352 arrests, 250 recovered vehicles and 39 recovered firearms, according to the city.
Now, the Johnston administration has another temporary solution. The mayor’s office announced that it would again extend its contract with Flock by another five months — this time at no cost, meaning council still doesn’t have to approve it.
The new agreement runs through March 31, 2026 — more than a year after the contract originally was set to expire — and comes with changes.
“I’ve made clear to Flock’s leadership that I expect total transparency and that anything less will result in an end to our relationship,” Johnston said in a press release. “To their credit, they have agreed to our terms and will build a Denver-specific package that will lead the way in using this technology for the public good.”
At the end of the extension, the city plans to present a long-term contract to council, which will require a vote.
The extended contract comes with safeguards, the city says.
Flock has faced national controversy over how its data is used. It includes functions that allow individual law enforcement agencies to search a national network of cities that use Flock cameras.
In a University of Washington report, researchers found law enforcement agencies across Washington conducted searches on behalf of immigration enforcement agencies. In Colorado, the city of Loveland allowed immigration enforcement access to its data, as did many other agencies across the country through a sanctioned Flock program that was disclosed to 9News.
The city says there is no evidence that Denver’s Flock data has been used for immigration enforcement. But thousands of agencies around the nation had access to Denver data through the “national search” function — a fact that DPD officials said they weren’t aware of until April, when they deactivated the function.
Johnston’s office said from now on, it won’t be possible for external agencies to search Denver’s Flock data without coming to an agreement with the city.
“Agencies will need to negotiate an [memorandum of understanding] with Denver, which will state that any data sharing with the federal government regarding civil immigration enforcement will result in an immediate loss of access to data sharing and referral to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for prosecution,” a city press release said. “Additionally, no federal agents will be allowed to search Denver’s data, even if they are assigned to a Denver task force.”
The mayor’s office added that Flock has agreed to only allow search terms for a select number of crimes and will not permit searches related to immigration or reproductive healthcare.
If data is improperly released to external parties, the city said Flock has agreed to pay Denver $100,000 in damages. Flock has verbally agreed to those changes, city officials said, but they haven’t been written into a signed contract.
A representative for Flock said the company was committed to the deal.
“Flock Safety is committed to working with communities like Denver to provide critical public safety technology that helps law enforcement prevent and solve crime, while protecting residents’ privacy. We fully support Mayor Johnston’s commitment to transparency and accountability and will continue partnering with the City to ensure that Denver’s program reflects its values and priorities,” a written statement read.
Some of Flock’s critics are still skeptical.
Councilmember Kevin Flynn praised the new contract, saying it adds “strong guardrails”.
“The system has already proved its worth in solving crimes around the city. We can boost safety while ensuring the data is restricted,” he said. Numerous local cities use Flock, and police have cited the cameras as providing key evidence in cases. Aurora police this week said they used Flock to identify a suspect’s vehicle in a deadly hit-and-run, later arresting him.
But at-large Councilmember Sarah Parady said she was “stunned” to learn that Johnston had been negotiating with Flock.
“As the ACLU; members of Congress; reproductive and First Amendment rights watchdogs; multiple other local governments including Austin, Texas; and a growing chorus of voices nationwide have recognized, this company is dishonest, motivated primarily by the profit potential that comes with aggregation of data, and has no place in our city,” she wrote in a statement to Denverite.
Katie Leonard, a community organizer with the Denver branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said in a statement that Denver advocacy groups have been largely ignored in their concerns about Flock cameras.
“For months, Denver residents and community leaders have demanded an end to Flock cameras in the city. And for months, their concerns were ignored,” Leonard wrote. “It was only because of the persistence of community advocates that we are seeing the needle move, just slightly, toward protecting the constitutional rights of people in Denver.”
The Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said Johnston’s administration should be more transparent about Flock.
“There must be full transparency from the mayor’s office when it comes to Flock Safety. There should be no more private negotiations on Flock contracts. The full Flock task force should be included in all matters involving Flock’s contract with the city, and the public’s concerns and input should be a part of that process,” the organization said in a statement.
Before Johnston had announced the contract extension, organizers had been planning a Wednesday evening town hall to discuss concerns with Flock cameras. The town hall will take place at Geotech Environmental at 2650 E. 40th Avenue at 6:00 p.m.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with comment from Flock, the Denver branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Colorado chapter of the ACLU.
Gov. Jared Polis is still trying to find a way to comply with a federal immigration subpoena, four months after a Denver judge ruled that doing so would violate Colorado law.
In repeated court filings, including one submitted Friday, Polis’ private attorneys have said they intend to turn over records on 10 businesses that employed several sponsors of unaccompanied children to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They’ve asked a Denver judge, who previously prohibited some state employees from complying with ICE’s subpoena, to dismiss the case and clear the way for them to turn over a more limited batch of records.
The recent filings represent the second attempt by Polis to comply with the April immigration enforcement subpoena. The governor’s first attempt was blocked by District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones in June, after Jones sided with a senior state employee who’d sued Polis earlier that month to stop the state from fulfilling the subpoena.
The employee, Scott Moss, argued that providing the requested records would violate state laws that limit what information can be shared with federal immigration authorities.
But though Jones preliminarily sided with Moss, his ruling is complicated. He prohibited Polis from directing a specific division of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to comply with the subpoena. But he said he couldn’t prevent Polis from directing others to comply with the subpoena, even though Jones said doing so would still likely violate the law.
The records that Polis now says he intends to turn over to ICE are in the custody of another labor department division not covered in Jones’ order.
In an email Tuesday, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman declined to comment on the case or why Polis is still seeking to provide records to ICE. She pointed to the administration’s recent legal filings.
The administration has previously said it wanted to support ICE’s efforts to check on unaccompanied minors without legal status, though the governor’s office has not provided any evidence that it has sought assurances that ICE wasn’t seeking the information purely for immigration enforcement efforts.
David Seligman, whose law firm has supported the case, criticized the governor’s decision to seek the lawsuit’s dismissal while indicating his intention to turn over records to ICE. While ICE wrote that it wanted detailed employment records so it could check on the well-being of unaccompanied children, Seligman and Moss, the employee who brought the lawsuit, have argued that the agency only wants the information so it can arrest and deport the children’s sponsors.
“It is absolutely absurd that this governor would be going out of his way to comply with and cooperate with ICE in light of everything that we’re seeing right now,” Seligman said.
Moss has since left the department, and Polis’ lawyers now argue that no one associated with the case has a legal standing to challenge compliance with the subpoena. They’ve also argued that they can turn over the records because the employers’ addresses and contact information can be found online.
The records are only part of the broader swath of personal details that ICE initially requested, and they cover only six of the 35 sponsors for which ICE first sought records. The sponsors are typically family members of children without legal status, who care for the minors while their immigration cases proceed.
The administration has similarly told ICE officials that it intends to comply with part of the subpoena once the lawsuit is concluded. In a July 11 email, Joe Barela, the head of the Department of Labor and Employment, wrote to a special agent in ICE’s investigative branch that the agency planned to “provide your office with the names and contact information for those 10 employers.”
Jones must now rule on whether to dismiss the lawsuit or let it proceed. Between June and early September, Recht Kornfeld, the private law firm Polis hired to represent him in the lawsuit, has billed the state for more than $104,000, according to records obtained by The Denver Post through a public records request.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has said it was unable to represent Polis because of legal advice it provided to the governor related to complying with the subpoena. The office has declined to characterize the nature of that advice.
The subpoena was sent to the state labor department in April as part of what ICE described as essentially a welfare check of unaccompanied minors in the state. The subpoena sought employment and personal records for the children’s sponsors.
Initially, administration officials decided not to comply with the subpoena because of the state’s laws limiting such contact. But Polis abruptly changed course and decided to turn over the records, prompting Moss to sue.
Polis’ office has claimed that the governor wanted to comply with the subpoena because it was part of a “targeted” criminal investigation into human trafficking. The state’s immigration laws — including one signed by Polis in late May — allow state officials to comply with federal subpoenas if they’re part of criminal probes, rather than immigration enforcement operations.
But the governor’s office has not released any evidence that the criminal investigation actually exists or that it made any effort to ensure that it did.
Jones wrote that “the subpoena — on its face — was not issued as part of a criminal investigation,” and he said that no one in Polis’ office or the labor department, “with the potential exception of the governor himself,” actually believed that the subpoena was part of a criminal investigation.
The subpoena is not signed by a judge, and the federal statute that it cites is related to immigration enforcement.
In her email Tuesday, Wieman, Polis’ spokeswoman, did not address questions about whether the state had pursued or received any additional information confirming the existence of the investigation allegedly underpinning the subpoena. Nor did she address questions about whether Polis had directed any state resources to check on the children.
Eight children were killed in domestic violence incidents across Colorado in 2024 — the highest number since the state began tracking annual domestic violence deaths eight years ago, according to a report released Tuesday by the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.
The youngest child to die was 3-month-old Lesley Younghee Kim, who was found dead with her mortally injured mother in a Denver home in July 2024.
“It’s a wakeup call, I hope, for people in Colorado,” said Whitney Woods, executive director of the Rose Andom Center, which helped compile the board’s report. “This is a real problem.”
Seventy-two people died in domestic violence incidents statewide in 2024. That’s up 24% from the 58 domestic violence deaths in 2023 but remains below pandemic-era peaks, when 94 people died in 2022 and 92 people died in 2021.
The pandemic years also saw elevated numbers of children killed, with four children killed in 2021 and six in 2022. Across the other years, no more than three children died in any given year, the board’s reports show.
Five of the eight children killed in 2024 died amid custody disputes between their parents, the report found.
“These findings highlight custody litigation as a high-risk period for families experiencing domestic violence and point to the urgent need for stronger safeguards within family court proceedings,” the report concluded. The legislatively-mandated board, chaired by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, began tracking domestic violence statewide in 2017 and makes annual recommendations for policy changes aimed at preventing deaths.
The fatality review board last year recommended that the state’s child and family investigators and parental responsibilities evaluators go through training on domestic violence, particularly around understanding the dynamics of domestic violence and how to evaluate the risk of lethality during the custody process. The Colorado Judicial Department is still developing such training, with work continuing in 2026, the report noted.
“That is to my mind a call to action,” Weiser said. “And we are working with the court system on this right now — how do we make sure our family courts and the general system for addressing domestic violence provides protection, support, services, so that we don’t see these deaths happen?”
The increase in domestic violence deaths came even as statewide homicides declined 17% to a five-year low. Roughly one in six homicide victims in Colorado in 2024 died during domestic violence incidents. Domestic violence victims account for 18% of all homicide victims statewide, the highest proportion in five years, the annual review found.
“That is really alarming in this line of work, for us,” Woods said.
The increase in domestic violence homicides amid the drop in overall homicides “suggests that while broader public safety interventions may be reducing general violence, they are not having the same impact on (domestic violence fatalities),” the report found.
The increase also comes at a time when many organizations aimed at preventing domestic violence and supporting survivors are facing funding shortfalls and uncertainty, Woods noted.
Among the 72 people killed in 2024, 38 were victims of domestic violence, 26 were perpetrators of domestic violence and eight — all of the children — were considered ‘collateral victims.’ The victims were overwhelmingly female and the perpetrators overwhelmingly male.
Across all 72 deaths, guns were used 75% of the time. The second most common type of attack was asphyxiation, which was involved in 8% of all deaths, followed by a knife or sharp object, used in 7% of deaths.
“Occasionally, people will make comments like, ‘If someone wants to kill someone they can kill them with a knife,’” Weiser said. “I think it’s fair to say access to firearms makes it far more likely that a domestic violence perpetrator will kill somebody.”
Removing guns from a suspect when domestic violence begins can be an effective prevention strategy, Woods said.
The report makes a number of recommendations aimed at preventing domestic violence deaths, including passing a new state law that would require police officers to take guns (those in plain sight or discovered during a lawful search) from domestic violence suspects at the time of arrest and hold onto those guns for 48 hours or until the suspect first appears in court. Suspects could then retrieve their guns if they were allowed to legally posses them.
“By empowering officers to disarm abusers immediately at the scene, the proposed law would provide urgent protection for victims and responding officers, create a period to reduce the chance of lethal escalation, and provide a tool for law enforcement to fill the relinquishment gap,” the report reads.
The report also recommends adjusting Colorado’s laws around third-degree assault, suggests law enforcement should give resources to both people involved in a domestic violence incident even when there is not enough evidence to make an arrest, and widening the scope of material gathered by local fatality review boards.
A weather balloon may have been the culprit that cracked a United Airlines plane’s windshield while the flight was en route from Denver to California, according to investigators.
United flight 1093 took off from Denver International Airport at 5:51 a.m. Thursday and was cruising at approximately 36,000 feet above Utah when its windshield cracked, according to flight tracking software FlightAware and federal investigators.
Now, a company responsible for manufacturing weather balloons and collecting atmospheric data is saying that one of their balloons likely collided with the plane, causing the damage.
WindBorne Systems, which has previously partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on weather research, was first alerted to the fact that one of its balloons may have been responsible for the plane’s cracked windshield and subsequent diversion late Sunday night, three days after the incident, company spokesperson Kai Marshland said.
Within hours, the company sent a preliminary report to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, Marshland said. Company officials are working with both federal agencies to investigate further.
“We are grateful that, to our knowledge, there were no serious injuries and no loss of pressurization,” WindBorne officials said in a statement. “… We immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. These changes are already live with immediate effect.”
WindBorne also plans to use live flight data to allow its weather balloons to autonomously avoid planes, even if planes are flying at a nonstandard altitude, according to the company’s statement.
The company has recorded more than 4,000 weather balloon launches, actively coordinating with the FAA and filing aviation alerts before each launch, according to WindBorne’s statement. The balloons weigh roughly 2.4 pounds at launch and get lighter throughout the flight.
“The system is designed to be safe in the event of a midair collision,” WindBorne officials stated.
United Airlines spokesperson Russell Carlton previously said that airplane windshields are designed with multiple layers and can still function safely if one of those layers is cracked. Carlton was unable to answer additional questions on Monday, including whether the pilot was injured by the cracked glass.
The Thursday flight was safely diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport, where the 134 passengers and six crew members on board switched planes and continued their journey to Los Angeles, Carlton said. The new plane touched down in California at about 1:23 p.m. PDT, nearly six hours late, according to FlightAware.
NTSB officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Hernandez was charged as an adult, but his plea deal dropped five felonies from his case: first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder with extreme indifference, attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault and illegal discharge of a firearm, court records show. Two violent crime sentence enhancers also were dismissed.
Denver officers responded to the fatal shooting in the 500 block of North Sheridan Boulevard just before 6:30 p.m. June 8, 2024.
When they arrived, they found Quintana with gunshot wounds, police said. Paramedics took Quintana to a hospital, where he died. A woman who was with Quintana also was shot but survived, according to the district attorney’s office.
Denver police identified Hernandez and his codefendant, Simon Eugene Elijah Gurule, as suspects through automated license plate readers and community tips.
The 29-year-old’s jury trial is scheduled to start in January, according to court records. He faces the same five felonies that Hernandez originally was charged with and, if convicted of first-degree murder, will be sentenced to life in prison.
ENGLEWOOD — Metro Denver budtender Quentin Ferguson needs Regional Transportation District bus and trains to reach work at an Arvada dispensary from his house, a trip that takes 90 minutes each way “on a good day.”
“It is pretty inconvenient,” Ferguson, 22, said on a recent rainy evening, waiting for a nearly empty train that was eight minutes late.
He’s not complaining, however, because his relatively low income and Medicaid status qualify him for a discounted RTD monthly pass. That lets him save money for a car or an electric bicycle, he said, either of them offering a faster commute.
Then he would no longer have to ride RTD.
His plight reflects a core problem of lagging ridership that RTD directors increasingly run up against as they try to position the transit agency as the smartest way to navigate Denver. Most other U.S. public transit agencies, too, are grappling with a version of this problem.
In Colorado, state-government-driven efforts to concentrate the growing population in high-density, transit-oriented development around bus and train stations — a priority for legislators and Gov. Jared Polis — hinge on having a swift public system that residents ride.
But transit ridership has failed to rebound a year after RTD’s havoc in 2024, when operators disrupted service downtown for a $152 million rail reconstruction followed by a systemwide emergency maintenance blitz to smooth deteriorating tracks that led to trains crawling through 10-mph “slow zones.”
The latest ridership numbers show an overall decline this year, by at least 3.9%, with 40 million fewer riders per year compared with six years ago. And RTD executives’ newly proposed, record $1.3 billion budget for 2026 doesn’t include funds for boosting bus and train frequency to win back riders.
Frustrations intensified last week.
“What is the point of transit-oriented development if it is just development?” said state Rep. Meg Froelich, a Democrat representing Englewood who chairs the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee. “We need reliable transit to have transit-oriented development. We have cities that have invested significant resources into their transit-oriented communities. RTD is not holding up its end of the bargain.”
At a retreat this past summer, a majority of the RTD’s 15 elected board members agreed that boosting ridership is their top priority. Some who reviewed the proposed budget last week questioned the lack of spending on service improvements for riders.
“We’re not moving the needle. Ridership is not going up. It should be going up,” director Karen Benker said in an interview.
“Over the past few years, there’s been a tremendous amount of population growth. There are so many apartment complexes, so much new housing put up all over,” Benker said. “Transit has to be relied on. You just cannot keep building more roads. We’re going to have to find ways to get people to ride public transit.”
Commuting trends blamed
RTD Chief Executive and General Manager Debra Johnson, in emailed responses to questions from The Denver Post, emphasized that “RTD is not unique” among U.S. transit agencies struggling to regain ridership lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson blamed societal shifts.
“Commuting trends have significantly changed over the last five years,” she said. “Return-to-work numbers in the Denver metro area, which accounted for a significant percentage of RTD’s ridership prior to March 2020, remain low as companies and businesses continue to provide flexible in-office schedules for their employees.”
In the future, RTD will be “changing its focus from primarily providing commuter services,” she said, toward “enhancing its bus and services and connections to high-volume events, activity centers, concerts and festivals.”
But agency directors are looking for a more aggressive approach to reversing the decline in ridership. And some are mulling a radical restructuring of routes.
Funded mostly by taxpayers across a 2,345 square-mile area spanning eight counties and 40 municipalities — one of the biggest in the nation — RTD operates 10 rail lines covering 114 miles with 84 stations and 102 bus routes with 9,720 stops.
“We should start from scratch,” said RTD director Chris Nicholson, advocating an overhaul of the “geometry” of all bus routes to align transit better with metro Denver residents’ current mobility patterns.
The key will be increasing frequency.
“We should design the routes how we think would best serve people today, and then we could take that and modify it where absolutely necessary to avoid disruptive differences with our current route map,” he said.
Then, in 2030, directors should appeal to voters for increased funding to improve service — funds that would be substantially controlled by municipalties “to pick where they want the service to go,” he said.
Reversing the RTD ridership decline may take a couple of years, Nicholson said, comparing the decreases this year to customers shunning a restaurant. “If you’re a restaurant and you poison some guests accidentally, you’re gonna lose customers even after you fix the problem.”
The RTD ridership numbers show an overall public transit ridership decrease by 5% when measured over the 12-month period from August 2024 through July 2025, the last month for which staffers have made numbers available, compared with the same period a year ago.
Bus ridership decreased by 2% and light rail by 18% over that period. In a typical month, RTD officials record around 5 million boardings — around 247,000 on weekdays.
The precautionary rail “slow zones” persisted for months as contractors worked on tracks, delaying and diverting trains, leaving transit-dependent workers in a lurch. RTD driver workforce shortages limited deployment of emergency bus shuttles.
This year, RTD ridership systemwide decreased by 3.9% when measured from January through July, compared with that period in 2024. The bus ridership this year has decreased by 2.4%.
On rail lines, the ridership on the relatively popular A Line that runs from Union Station downtown to Denver International Airport was down by 9.7%. The E Line light rail that runs from downtown to the southeastern edge of metro Denver was down by 24%. Rail ridership on the W Line decreased by 18% and on R Line by 15%, agency records show.
The annual RTD ridership has decreased by 38% since 2019, from 105.8 million to 65.2 million in 2024.
A Regional Transportation District light rail train moves through downtown Denver on Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Light rail ‘sickness’ spreading
“The sickness on RTD light rail is spreading to other parts of the RTD system,” said James Flattum, a co-founder of the Greater Denver Transit grassroots rider advocacy group, who also serves on the state’s RTD Accountability Committee. “We’re seeing permanent demand destruction as a consequence of having an unreliable system. This comes from a loss of trust in RTD to get you where you need to go.”
RTD officials have countered critics by pointing out that the light rail’s on-time performance recovered this year to 91% or better. Bus on-time performance still lagged at 83% in July, agency records show.
The officials also pointed to decreased security reports made using an RTD smartphone app after deploying more police officers on buses and trains. The number of reported assaults has decreased — to four in September, compared with 16 in September 2024, records show.
Greater Denver Transit members acknowledged that safety has improved, but question the agency’s assertions based on app usage. “It may be true that the number of security calls went down,” Flattum said, “but maybe the people who otherwise would have made more safety calls are no longer riding RTD.”
RTD staffers developing the 2026 budget have focused on managing debt and maintaining operations spending at current levels. They’ve received forecasts that revenues from taxpayers will increase slightly. It’s unclear whether state and federal funds will be available.
RTD directors and leaders of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, an environmental group, are opposing the rollback of RTD’s planned shift to the cleaner, quieter electric hybrid buses and taking on new debt for that purpose.
Colorado lawmakers will “push on a bunch of different fronts” to prioritize better service to boost ridership, Froelich said.
The legislature in recent years directed funds to help RTD provide free transit for riders under age 20. Buses and trains running at least every 15 minutes would improve both ridership and safety, she said, because more riders would discourage bad behavior and riders wouldn’t have to wait alone at night on often-empty platforms for up to an hour.
“We’re trying to do what we can to get people back onto the transit system,” Froelich said. “They do it in other places, and people here do ride the Bustang (intercity bus system). RTD just seems to lack the nimbleness required to meet the moment.”
Denver Center for the Performing Arts stage hand Chris Grossman walks home after work in downtown Denver on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Riders switch modes
Meanwhile, riders continue to abandon public transit when it doesn’t meet their needs.
For Denver Center for the Performing Arts theater technician Chris Grossman, 35, ditching RTD led to a better quality of life. He had to move from the Virginia Village neighborhood he loved.
Back in 2016, Grossman sold his ailing blue 2003 VW Golf when he moved there in the belief that “RTD light rail was more or less reliable.” He rode nearly every day between the Colorado Station and downtown.
But trains became erratic as maintenance of walls along tracks caused delays. “It just got so bad. I was burning so much money on rideshares that I probably could have bought a car.” Shortly before RTD announced the “slow zones” last summer, he moved to an apartment closer to downtown on Capitol Hill.
He walks or rides scooters to work, faster than taking the bus, he said.
Similarly, Honor Morgan, 25, who came to Denver from the rural Midwest, “grateful for any public transit,” said she had to move from her place east of downtown to be closer to her workplace due to RTD transit trouble.
Buses were late, and one blew by her as she waited. She had to adjust her attire when riding her Colfax Avenue route to Union Station to manage harassment. She faced regular dramas of riders with substance-use problems erupting.
Morgan moved to an apartment near Union Station in March, allowing her to walk to work.
She still hoped to rely on RTD for concerts and nightlife, and to reach DIA for work-related flights at least once a month. But RTD social media posts have alerted her to enough delays on the A Line that she no longer trusts it, she said. To reduce her “anxiety” and minimize the risk of missing her flights, she shells out for rides — even though these often get stuck in traffic.
She and her boyfriend recently tried RTD again, riding a train to the 38th and Blake Station near the Mission Ballroom. They attended “an amazing concert” there, she said, and felt happy as they walked to the station to catch the train home.
A man on the platform collapsed backward, hitting his head. He was bleeding. She called 911. Her boyfriend and other riders gathered. She ran across the street to an apartment building and grabbed paper towels. RTD isn’t really to blame, but “I just wish they had a station platform attendant, or someone. I do not know head-injury first aid,” Morgan said.
The train they’d been waiting for came and went. An ambulance arrived. They got home late, the evening ruined, she said.
“His head cracked open. He had skin flaps hanging off his head. This was stuck in my head, at least for the rest of the night.”
Denver police are searching for the driver in a Friday evening hit-and-run who seriously injured a motorcyclist in Athmar Park.
The unidentified woman, believed to be in her mid-20s, was driving a gray 2015 GMC Sierra pickup truck with Colorado license plate EFC-I90 when she crashed with a motorcycle in the 2200 block of West Alameda Avenue, according to a Medina Alert issued by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Denver police said the motorcyclist, who has not been publicly identified, was seriously injured in the crash at about 6:45 p.m. Friday.
The pickup truck was last seen in the block where the crash happened, investigators said in the Medina Alert. It had a black bed cover and damage to the passenger-side truck bed and bumper. An American flag decal was also displayed on the lower left corner of the windshield.
Anyone with information about the vehicle or driver is asked to contact the Denver Police Department at 720-913-2000.
On 10/17/2025 at 6:45 pm a gray 2015 GMC Sierra, Colorado plate EFC-I90, driven by a mid-20 year old female, fled the scene of an accident that caused serious bodily injury. The vehicle was last seen in the area of 2200 W. Alameda Ave. If seen call Denver PD at 720-913-2000. pic.twitter.com/pycWsqbXTa
Police have arrested a 20-year-old man for allegedly assaulting a middle-aged man who interjected himself into Denver’s downtown No Kings demonstration, shouted expletives and a slur, then fell in a street fracas and suffered a serious injury.
The assault occurred after the older man declared: “‘Yes Trump,’” according to a Denver Police report.
A video circulating on social media showed the older man, wearing a blue New York Giants logo shirt, gesturing at and deriding demonstrators on Saturday afternoon as they rallied near Denver’s Union Station. The man ran and fell against pavement on his face, the video shows.
He got up and ran, again, then was tripped and fell onto the street by a curb against his head. Bleeding, he got up again and, with friends, ran, and clashed with demonstrators. Some demonstrators tried to help him, pointing to his head suggesting he needed medical care as blood covered the left side of his face.
Denver police on Monday confirmed they arrested Jose Cardenas after tracking him from Wynkoop Street, where the assault occurred at about 2:30 p.m., to North Lincoln Street near the intersection with 14th Avenue, “where Cardenas attempted to run from officers.” Witnesses identified Cardenas as the one who assaulted the counter demonstrator, the police statement of probable cause for arrest said. “Cardenas was transported to the Denver Jail and charged with aggravated assault.”
Police did not identify the victim. The report said he suffered “a serious laceration to his head.”
Sean Payton has no intention of handing play-calling duties off, even temporarily.
The Broncos head coach, though, indicated Monday morning that almost anything else is on the table as he and his staff try to sort through what’s causing widespread offensive problems.
Sunrise, however, brought a new week and a sober Monday morning reality check about what the first 45-plus minutes looked like for Denver’s offense.
The Broncos didn’t score. They had just 10 first downs and 180 offensive yards at 3.8 per play. Bo Nix entered the fourth quarter 11 of 25 for 105 yards passing.
Even those numbers didn’t tell the entire story as the five plays to end the third quarter featured four carries for 48 yards from J.K. Dobbins and a 16-yard completion from Nix to Courtland Sutton.
“It’s been encouraging that we’ve been able to finish some games, and yet we’re going to play in bigger games and we’re going to have to be a lot more efficient in the first half of games,” Payton said.
The third-year Broncos coach said around 10 a.m. that players hadn’t yet been in for film review, but when that happened, they’d see myriad problems offensively.
“We really didn’t amount to anything until we got into the end of the game — fourth quarter,” he said. “Mental errors, mistakes, snaps, wrong reads. You name it.”
He sounded like a coach who is ready to put a lot of the offensive plan on the table with his staff and consider any number of changes to the group’s approach through seven games.
“You start with who,” Payton said. “Who is it that we’re asking to do certain things from a personnel standpoint? There may be some guys whose playing time goes up. Some might begin to diminish. You look closely at the personnel. Then you look at the scheme and does it fit us?
“There’s a lot to that question.”
One element that’s not part of the equation, though, is the play-calling duties themselves. Payton’s long been considered one of the best in the business — he’s called it a strength of his over the course of his career — and he had a quick answer when asked Monday if he’d ever considered handing the duties off to somebody else, even for a short stretch.
“No, I think we’re comfortable as an offensive staff as to how we’re operating,” Payton said.
Police are investigating after a Sunday night crash killed a pedestrian on the edge of Denver and Lakewood.
The Denver Police Department first posted about the fatal crash near South Sheridan Boulevard and West Center Avenue at 10:29 p.m. Sunday. That intersection is on the western border of Denver’s Westwood neighborhood.
The unidentified pedestrian died at the scene of the crash, police said.
Additional information about the crash — including whether the driver remained on scene, if any additional injuries were reported and the cause of the crash — was not immediately available Monday morning.
