Tag: fox31

DENVER (KDVR) — A huge hot dog on wheels is heading to Colorado with its first stop on Thursday.

If you’re not familiar with the 23-foot-long American icon, it’s the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile — the hot dog company’s slightly odd way of advertising.

The Wienermobile was created in 1936. By 1988, Weinermobiles were hitting the road all across America, according to Oscar Mayer’s website.

Almost 100 years later, these cars are still spotted all over the country, and one of them will be in Colorado for the next two weeks.

Starting on Thursday, the hot dog on wheels will be in the Centennial State handing out wiener whistles, taking pictures and playing games at each stop.

Wienermobile schedule

Here’s where you can “ketchup” with the car:

Day	Time	Location
Thursday, June 27	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	9255 S. Broadway, Littleton
	2-5 p.m.	181 W. Mineral Ave., Littleton
Friday, June 28	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	3325 28th St., Boulder
	2-5 p.m.	3800 W. 44th Ave., Denver
Saturday, June 29	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	2150 S. Downing St., Denver, CO 80210
	2-5 p.m.	4800 Baseline Road, Boulder
Tuesday, June 30	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	Arapahoe Rd, Erie
	2-5 p.m.	81334 Colorado Blvd., Firestone
Wednesday, July 3	10 a.m. – 1 p.m.	9229 Lincoln Ave, Lone Tree
	2-5 p.m.	880 S. Perry St., Castle Rock
Thursday, July 4	Starts at 1:30 p.m.	Park Hill Parade at the intersection of 23rd Avenue and Dexter Street

This isn’t the only moving, gigantic hot dog on the road. There are many all across the country, where you can track their journey from one destination to the next.

DENVER (KDVR) — Warmer-than-normal temperatures and afternoon thunderstorms stick around Denver’s weather forecast through the end of the workweek. A slight break from the heat is on the way, but it will not last long.

Weather tonight: Drying, warm

Wednesday night, showers and thunderstorms will gradually clear out. Low temperatures will stay on the warm side, only falling to the mid-60s, which is nearly 10 degrees above what is typical for this time of year.

Weather tomorrow: Another warm day with afternoon thunderstorms

Thursday, clouds will increase as high temperatures climb to the lower 90s. Clouds will be paired with thunderstorms by the afternoon and evening.

Looking ahead: Cooler start to the weekend

Friday will look similar to Thursday with a high near 90 degrees and an afternoon and evening chance for thunderstorms.

Saturday brings some relief from the heat with highs reaching the mid-80s ahead of more thunderstorms.

The below-normal temperatures will not last long. High temperatures will climb to the low to mid-90s on Sunday and stay in the 90s for the first half of the workweek.

DENVER (KDVR) — Not all hotels are created equal, and it’s hard to find one that checks all the boxes. However, one Colorado hotel was named among the best of the best in the U.S.

Whether it was a good or bad experience, travelers will go onto Tripadvisor and post their honest reviews of their lodging based on the location, service, cleanliness and more.

Tripadvisor looked at thousands of hotels to find the ones that received a high volume of above-and-beyond reviews for more than 12 months. According to the review website, of the 8 million hotel listings, fewer than 1% are recognized.

The top 25 listings were named in Tripadvisor’s 2024 Best of the Best Hotels, and one accommodation is right here in Colorado.

No. 23 Sonnenalp Vail

The hotel, located in the heart of Vail Village, was booked as one of the best of the best hotels in the U.S.

Sonnenalp Vail is a luxury resort hotel in the Rocky Mountains. According to Tripadvisor, the hotel has a five-star rating with over 1,900 reviews.

Those who reviewed the hotel praised it for its exceptional service and the “spacious European elegance” of the rooms. However, the only qualm many reviewers had is the price, as it is not the most budget-friendly accommodation. Per the hotel’s website, rooms go for at least $450 a night.

Sonnenalp Vail is located at the base of the ski resort and is within walking distance of many local restaurants and attractions.

According to Tripadvisor, reviewers also loved the luxurious amenities of the hotel like turndown treats and heated floors.

While Vail is an international destination in the winter for skiers and snowboarders, there is still plenty to see in the summer.

If you are looking for a luxurious weekend stay, Sonnenalp Vail is considered one of the best hotels by Tripadvisor.

Other hotels that made the “Best of the Best Hotels”:

1. Shore Hotel – Santa Monica, California
2. Luma Hotel Time Square – New York City, New York
3. FivePine Lodge & Spa – Sisters, Central Oregon, Oregon
4. The Bryant Park Hotel – New York City, New York
5. Hotel Emma – San Antonio, Texas

You can see the full list of 25 hotels on Tripadvisor’s website.

DENVER (KDVR) — A Colorado cat rescue group is scrambling after its co-founder said two foster kittens were stolen, along with the vehicle they were sitting in, on Monday morning in Denver.

Kris Meding, co-founder of Colorado Feline Foster Rescue, said the foster kittens were sitting inside a “socializing pouch” inside a sport utility vehicle, on Washington Street between 11th and 12th avenues. She said the foster parent had started the vehicle and briefly stepped away.

Within a few moments, the vehicle and kittens were gone.

“Stepped out of the car for a minute to grab something else, came back and the car was gone with her purse, her phone and the kittens in it,” Meding said.

The vehicle is a 2005 Toyota 4Runner, license plate BQAX60. Meding said both felines are chipped and were rescued from Carlsbad, New Mexico.

She said the foster parent has filed a report with the Denver Police Department.

Colorado Feline Foster Rescue has 170 cats in foster homes. Currently, the all-volunteer organization has 90-100 foster families. Last year, the group adopted out 1,200 cats.

For more information, please contact info@coloradofelinefosterrescue.org or call 303-888-7238.

DENVER (KDVR) – From the outside, the Denver Mint may be just another two-story government office across from Civic Center Park. But inside the Cherokee Street building, staff and machinery are busy pressing metal coils into millions of coins per day.

According to the Mint, it’s one of two facilities responsible for making circulating coins in the United States – making it a huge part of the nation’s coin flow.

According to Tom Fesing with the Denver Mint, the facility produces roughly 4.5 million coins every 24 hours. Fesing estimates that about $750,000 to $1 million has gone through the facility each day this year.

That said, the Mint can’t exactly predict how much is going to be produced throughout the year as the number of coins depends on the orders the Mint receives monthly from the central bank, the Federal Reserve System, Fesing said.

Despite the millions of dollars in coins passing through, Fesing said the coin with the lowest value, the penny, has historically had the most production.

Those numbers depend on how many coins are needed for cash transactions in the economy, according to Fesing.

“When someone gets back a cent in change, what happens to them? They usually end up in piggy banks, or in a jar, and they’re not introduced into circulation as fast as, let’s say, a quarter or a dime,” Fesing said.

While the Mint can’t predict the numbers for the end of this year, it has produced almost 1.3 billion coins this year, with almost 800 million being pennies. In 2023, the Mint produced around 5.65 billion coins for the entire year.

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver woman, previously homeless, says it took her a year to find housing through the city.

Sherry Lopez said she was recently notified by the St. Francis Center that she had been accepted into a downtown Volunteers of America location.

“Yeah, I got my apartment, finally,” she said.

St. Francis Center is a contracted service provider at one of the All in Mile High communities, part of Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration’s efforts to get people off the streets and into homes.

Previously, Lopez said she had no luck in securing a spot.

“I was getting denied. They didn’t have no reason,” she said. “They just said that I didn’t fit the qualifications.”

The city of Denver has just released its latest All in Mile High community numbers, which take a closer look at how much of the homeless population is moved off the streets.

As of June 18, 1,623 people have been moved indoors. Of this total, 536 people were permanently housed and 703 people have been sheltered for 30 or more days.

There are also 51 people who have been sheltered for fewer than 30 days.

ELIZABETH, Colo. (KDVR) — It was just another Wednesday when Grant Herring, co-owner of Pineco, a tree farm in Elizabeth, went to check up on his trees.

“We came out here to check the irrigation, make sure things were running just with the heat and stuff,” Herring said.

As he walked through the rows of trees, he noticed something wasn’t quite right.

“Noticed a couple were down right, left and the more you looked the worse it got,” Herring said.

He then realized it was a lot worse than he thought. Their fence had been broken through, trees had been sawed, some trees were missing tops and their drip hoses had been cut.

“From there, we’ve just started taking kind of a rough inventory and we knew within five minutes it was somebody, somebody’s doing,” Herring said. “Wasn’t, you know, Mother Nature or like a rogue wind or anything else. It was obvious.”

He said he could tell based on the clean cuts, it was probably done with an electric saw. He also checked with neighbors who said they hadn’t heard anything.

“Electric saws are a lot quieter than gas saws. I mean, they obviously did their homework. They kind of knew what they were doing,” Herring said.

He said there was no real motive for what they had done since they didn’t get anything out of it. But, he did say they had left him with anywhere from a quarter to a half million dollars in damages.

“It hurts us in a way that you know, we have a crop of trees that they’re just finally getting to the height and size that people are looking for and they know that,” Herring said.

In the meantime, he said he is hoping something will turn up.

“There’s some hope you know with cell phone pings and stuff like that to maybe track who was there at that specific time. Maybe some fingerprints on some of the hoses that were cut.”

Herring added that it’s not so much about the money, it’s about why whoever did what they did.

“It’s just the personal attack against myself, my brother, our family. You know, you don’t go after people’s livelihood. If there’s an issue, you know, knock on the door, you know you don’t just do stuff like this in the middle of the night where nobody can see you. I mean, that speaks volumes of the person who did this.”

He reported the incident to law enforcement, but he is also offering a $10,000 reward for any information on the vandals.

“We’re prepared to do a lot more than that,” Herring said. “I mean, like I said, it’s not just the money, it’s the basic principle of what was done, you know, and we’ll pay top dollar for anybody who has any information.”

DENVER (KDVR) — Denver’s annual Indy Eve event on July 3 will have multiple new features this year, but it won’t include a firework show as it has in the past.

Instead, about 300 drones will light up the sky over Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park. According to the Civic Center Park website, it will be the biggest drone show Denver has ever seen.

“Denver has never seen a drone show this big. We are really excited about the local company we’re working with and have developed a show that we think the public is going to be really surprised and delighted by, and something you’ll only see at Indy Eve,” Eric Lazarri, Executive Director of Civic Center Conservancy told FOX31 in an email.

Lazarri added that the decision to replace fireworks with drones was among several changes they are trying out as part of an effort to make the “best event possible.”

“After more than a decade of this event, that meant trying out a drone show instead of fireworks, adding the projection mapping on the Greek Theater, as well as creating more things for people to actually do,” Lazarri wrote.

One of those things is the night market, which will include local food options, an artisan market, family-friendly games and activities.

There will also be music from the Colorado Symphony as well as young DJs from Youth on Record.

For those who want to see the lights, the park website said the best view of the drone show will be from the south area of Civic Center’s Great Lawn. Additionally, there will be light shows on some of the park’s iconic structures — Voorhies will have lighting and lasers and the Greek Theater will have projection mapping.

The event, held by the Civic Center Conservancy nonprofit and sponsored by the City and County of Denver, is free for all to attend and is happening at Civic Center Park on July 3 from 5 to 10 p.m.

DENVER (KDVR) — Relatives say a Denver man was killed in a crash on the way to the hospital on Monday as his son was being delivered.

The godmother of 34-year-old Bobby Murphy says her godson did not survive a motorcycle crash at East 14th Avenue and North Milwaukee Street that occurred Monday morning.

Denver Police are continuing their investigation, but Sgt. Mike Farr of the Traffic Investigation Unit said Monday that officers arrived on scene to find a motorcyclist in distress. He said the motorcyclist had collided with the back end of a roll-off dump truck.

Reached by phone, Michelle Tortarella, said that Murphy, a native of Poughkeepsie, New York, had moved to Denver about 7-8 years ago. She said he was already a father to a young daughter.

Tortarella told FOX31 that Murphy and his current girlfriend are the parents of a newborn boy: A baby boy who Evans never got to meet.

The family has established a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses.

DENVER (KDVR) — Boulder police are looking for three stolen bikes. While bikes are reported stolen on a weekly basis in the city, police hope their distinct features can help them get recovered.

The Boulder Police Department posted about the bikes on X on Thursday.

The bikes were reportedly valued at $12,000 and were stolen between June 14-18 from a garage in the 3700 block of Birchwood Drive in the Winding Trail neighborhood.

While Boulder deals with hundreds of reported bike thefts each year, with 233 reported so far this year, police are hoping the bike’s distinct features make them easier to spot.

Officers offered the following descriptions of the bikes.

Mountain bike

• Brand: Liv
• Model: Intrigue
• Color: Teal – darker than a sky blue
• Size: Extra small with 27.5-inch wheels
• Has a sticker of a moth with a cream background and a brownish moth on the top bar
• Value: $6,000

Road bike

• Brand: Felt
• Model: Women’s VR3W
• Color: Dark blue with lighter blue tiered stripes
• Has “Felt” written on the bottom tube and fork, has a fuel belt bag and a Lezyne pump attached to the left side of the frame
• Value: $3,000

Gravel bike

• Brand: Felt
• Model: Broam
• Color: Mist green with dark green or gray, mustard, blue, and red stripes near the front fork
• Has REI bags and water bottle cages and Wahoo Bolt computer
• Value: $3,000

Anyone who has seen these bikes or has information is asked to call Investigations Specialist Hart at 303-441-4407.

The Boulder Police Department has an interactive map that is updated daily and shows all the reported stolen bikes in the city. According to the report, 52 bikes were reported stolen in the past 30 days.

DENVER (AP) — Brenton Doyle broke a ninth-inning tie with a sacrifice fly and the Colorado Rockies rebounded from a tough loss to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-6 on Wednesday night.

Doyle’s fly ball to center was deep enough for Jake Cave to score from third, giving Colorado the victory a night after the Rockies blew a five-run lead in the ninth inning in an 11-9 loss.

“I was trying to get a ball up in the zone to allow me to drive the ball somewhere in the air and deep enough to score Jake,” Doyle said.”

Cave and Elhehuris Montero led off the ninth with singles off Yohan Ramirez (0-3), and rookie Adael Amador, who had two hits, reached on a fielder’s choice.

Tuesday night’s loss came when Teoscar Hernandez hit a go-head three-run homer with two outs after first-base umpire Lance Barksdale ruled the slugger had not swung at strike three.

Cave was animated as he yelled at Barksdale from right field and said Wednesday’s win had more meaning.

“Baseball is kind of poetic and this is a little glimpse of that,” he said. “With some drama happening late (Tuesday) night to be in the ninth inning, tie ballgame, couple or runners on and no outs I get the chance to score the winning run.”

Michael Toglia homered and tripled and Jalen Beeks (3-3) pitched an inning of relief to help Colorado snap a four-game skid.

Shohei Ohtani doubled, singled and drove in three runs for Los Angeles. Freddie Freeman also had two hits for the Dodgers.

Los Angeles’ Bobby Miller made his first start since April 10 after spending more than two months on the injured list because of inflammation in his right shoulder.

After Toglia hit a three-run homer off Miller in the first inning, the Dodgers took a 4-3 lead in the second on Ohtani’s three-run double and Freeman’s RBI single.

“The adrenaline was pretty high in the first inning, got a couple of quick outs and then a two-out walk,” Miller said. “(Toglia), I missed a fastball down the middle. I’d like to think if I throw it in a different spot I’d only let up two runs.”

Jason Heyward, who hit a grand slam to start Los Angeles’ seven-run ninth inning Tuesday night, doubled home two runs in the fifth off Rockies starter Ryan Feltner.

Miller went 6 1/3 innings – his longest outing this year – but was denied the victory when Colorado scored twice in the seventh.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Dodgers: Placed RHP Walker Buehler on the 15-day injured list because of inflammation in his right hip. Manager Dave Roberts said Buehler has been bothered by the hip for a few starts and then was hit by a comebacker Tuesday night.

Rockies: OF/DH Charlie Blackmon was out of the lineup because of a sore right hamstring. … OF Nolan Jones was a late scratch due to an illness

UP NEXT

Dodgers RHP Gavin Stone (7-2, 3.01 ERA) was set to start Thursday against LHP Ty Blach (3-4, 4.65) to wrap up the four-game series.

DENVER (KDVR) — Artificial intelligence is changing the customer service experience.

More than 1.5 billion people now talk mostly to chatbots used by businesses in the United States, India, Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil, according to a Tidio study.

Shelley Brouwer told FOX31 she spent a week communicating with a chatbot and waiting on hold for customer service after her airline lost her bags.

“Aside from what I lost, not being able to talk to anybody has been absolutely miserable,” she said.

The Problem Solvers reached out to the airline, which confirmed that the customer was able to eventually get through to an agent. The staff quickly initiated a search for the bags.

Chatbot use growing in business world

Chatbots are used by commercial businesses, utility and property management companies and medical care facilities. Technology experts told FOX31 the cost-cutting software is often preferred because of high turnover in call centers and the need to reduce complaints about rude customer service agents.

The Tidio study showed that 90% of customer questions are resolved in 10 or fewer messages.

While 96% of people know what a chatbot is, the technology is so developed that some do not even realize they are not talking to a real person.

Technology security expert Mitch Tannenbaum of CyberCecurity told FOX31 that chatbots are becoming more popular in the business world.

“The main objective, I think, is saving money,” he said.

He said while bots are getting more sophisticated, they still have a lot of room for improvement.

“To the degree that a chatbot is programmed effectively to deal with the real problems the customers actually want resolved, then I think the chatbot could be valuable,” he said.

Chatbots can be a challenge for those with problems that need executive decisions, who are not proficient in computer use or who have disabilities.

“They give you the wrong answer or they say, gee, could you rephrase that question? And all they do is upset the customer,” Tannenbaum said.

Is there a way to avoid chatbots?

The Tidio study shows that 38% of customers would rather wait to talk to a human, while 68% would just use a bot. That depends, of course, on the kind of issue a customer needs to discuss.

Brian Cather of CP Cyber tries to hack bots while testing security systems. The Problem Solvers asked him about the best way to improve the chances of talking to a real person on a company’s website. He said the time of day can make a difference.

“From 9 to 5, you ask for a human, it gets you to a human. It hits 6 o’clock, you might ask for it, it might not give it to you,” Cather said.

Cather told FOX31 that the interaction with bots is stored and documented.

Brouwer said she realizes chatbots are here to stay but hopes the concerns of real people will not be left behind.

“It makes me really sad that that’s the way the world is headed,” she said.

DENVER (AP) — The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at an LGBTQ+ club that was a refuge in the conservative city of Colorado Springs pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges on Tuesday, but once again declined to apologize or say anything to the victims’ families.

Prosecutors nevertheless highlighted the importance of Anderson Lee Aldrich finally being forced to take responsibility for the hatred toward LGBTQ+ people that they say motivated the mass shooting. As part of the plea agreement, Aldrich repeatedly admitted on Tuesday to evidence of hatred.

“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it’s important to the community of Club Q,” said prosecutor Alison Connaughty.

By targeting Club Q, Aldrich attacked a place that was much more than a bar, Connaughty added.

“It’s a special gathering place for anyone who needed community and anyone who needed that safe place,” she said. “We met people who said ‘this venue saved my life and I was able to feel normal again.’”

Aldrich, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges in the 2022 shooting last year. Federal prosecutors focused on proving that the attack at Club Q — a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people in the mostly conservative city — was premeditated and fueled by bias.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, was hearing victim testimony before deciding whether to accept the sentencing agreement, which would avoid the death penalty, instead recommending 50 life sentences for the hate crimes plus a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts.

Aldrich, appearing in an orange prison uniform with his head shaved and wrists handcuffed, declined to speak at the sentencing, and his attorney David Kraut made no explicit mention of hate or bias in his comments. Kraut said there’s no singular explanation for why Aldrich carried out the shooting, but he mentioned childhood trauma, a sometimes abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as factors that “combined to increase the risk that Anderson would engage in extreme violence.”

Defense attorneys in the state case had pushed back against hate as a motivation, arguing that Aldrich was drugged up on cocaine and medication at the time. In phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich didn’t answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only, that’s “completely off base,” and ultimately pleaded no contest to the state hate crime charges, which is short of admitting guilt.

Connaughty said investigators uncovered evidence of Aldrich’s hate for the LGBTQ+ community that included two websites created by Aldrich to post hate-related content, a target found inside the defendant’s house with a rainbow ring that had bullets in it and the defendant’s sharing of recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 killing of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida,.

Aldrich also studied other mass shootings, accumulated weapons, shared an online manifesto from a mass shooter who referred to transgenderism as a “disease,” and coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, the prosecutor said.

According to other evidence prosecutors presented to support their sentencing recommendation, Aldrich spent over $9,000 on weapons-related purchases from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the attack on Nov. 19, 2022. A hand drawn map of Club Q with an entry and exit point marked was found inside Aldrich’s apartment, along with a black binder of training material entitled “How to handle an active shooter.”

Defense attorneys in the state case said Aldrich is nonbinary, and uses they/them pronouns. But that was rejected by some of the victims as well as the district attorney who prosecuted Aldrich in state court, who called it an effort to avoid hate crime charges.

They include Ashtin Gamblin, who worked the front door that night and remains in physical therapy after being shot nine times. A true member of the LGBTQ+ community would know about the discrimination and the mental health challenges they face and wouldn’t attack its members in such a sanctuary, she said ahead of the hearing.

“We deserve to be safe and go in public and actually survive being in public,” Gamblin told the judge on Tuesday, speaking with her husband by her side, putting a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Gamblin’s mother also spoke, describing how her daughter buried her face in a friend’s blood in hopes of avoiding being shot, and then was taken to a hospital in an ambulance shared by the handcuffed killer. Both mother and daughter as well as other victims said they would prefer Aldrich get the death penalty.

Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack, including stopping by an hour and a half before the shooting, according to prosecutors. Just before midnight, Aldrich returned wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and carrying an AR-15 style rifle and started firing immediately. Aldrich killed the first person in the entryway, shot at bartenders and customers at the bar and then moved onto the dance floor, pausing to reload the rifle’s magazine.

“The defendant was able to level everyone,” Connaughty said, adding that Aldrich fired 60 rounds in less than a minute. “The defendant emptied the magazine. The defendant was prepared to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the minimum amount of time.”

The shooting was stopped by a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect’s rifle, burning his hand, and an Army veteran who helped subdue Aldrich until police arrived, authorities have said.

There had been a chance to prevent such violence: Aldrich was arrested in June 2021, accused of threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer ″ while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. But Aldrich’s mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve subpoenas to family members that could have kept the case alive, so the charges were eventually dismissed.

Aldrich, who will be returned to state prison after the hearing, was being sentenced federally under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal law in 2009 to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

VA working to determine source of substance on medical equipment

AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — The Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Aurora is still working to determine the cause of a mysterious residue found on reusable medical equipment, but now they have an idea of what it is.

Over a month ago, staff members halted surgeries once they noticed the substance.

“This is really thanks to some amazing staff who stopped the line,” said Amir Farooqi, interim director at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System.

As of June 13, 436 surgeries and 103 dental appointments were affected by the residue, but no known patients have been harmed as a result.

“It was concerning enough to us that we felt like we’ve got to do something,” Farooqi said.

Farooqi said the substance is black and visible to the naked eye. The good news, he said, is it is plastic. If it were biological, it might have been contagious.

Now that they have an idea of what it is, it can help narrow down the possibilities of where it came from.

“We don’t know for sure where that plastic is coming from. We believe and we can assume that it’s probably coming from something within the equipment,” Farooqi said.

‘We just want to pinpoint the source and make sure it’s fixed’

The Rocky Mountain Regional VA is now working with patients to either postpone their surgeries if they are not urgent or get them to community hospitals, which they will cover.

“Usually in these cases where we’re sending a patient out to the community for these procedures, that’s something where a VA will cover it,” Farooqi said. “We actually set up a network of community care providers … to make sure they get the care they need.”

While he said they understand the inconvenience and are working to get this issue resolved, it will be an intensive process.

“When it comes to sterilization, it sounds simple. But there’s actually a lot that goes into sterilization. The equipment is very complicated,” Farooqi said. “That may mean breaking down the equipment, and we’re OK with doing so, because ultimately we just want to pinpoint the source and make sure it’s fixed.”

Farooqi said at the end of the day, he is thankful for the quick actions of the staff to identify the problem and continuing to show their standards of care.

“I’m really proud of our staff,” Farooqi said. “Ultimately for us, it is about patient safety, it’s about being a highly reliable organization, and I appreciate what they’re doing by doing the right thing.”

DENVER (KDVR) — It’s time to prepare your rainbow best for Denver PrideFest, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend in the Mile High City. The event is slated for Saturday and Sunday, with hundreds of thousands of attendees at Civic Center Park.

The annual event is the Center on Colfax’s largest fundraiser, annually raising over $1 million to help LGBTQ organizations in the Denver and Colorado region. This year’s event celebrates its origins from 1974, celebrating icons that helped shape PrideFest into the celebration it is now.

How to get to the festival

PrideFest is a two-day celebration on Saturday, June 22 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., continuing on Sunday, June 23, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Civic Center Park, located at the intersection of West Colfax Avenue and Broadway.

Parking is limited downtown. The festival’s website suggests reserving a spot beforehand on the Denver PrideFest Parking Page, where spots were still available as of Monday for around $7-15.

For attendees who are biking or taking another mode of transportation to the park, make sure to have a plan before arrival to store that transportation device. The festival website states that Denver police will remove items chained to the festival’s temporary fences.

Events and entertainment

Pride weekend starts with a 5K on Saturday along with the festival at Civic Center Park, which will have over 250 exhibitors, 30 food vendors and several live performances like critically acclaimed drag queen Pattie Gonia as well as Alyssa Edwards and Shea Couleé.

On Sunday, there will be a parade with colorful floats and music. Full listings of Center Stage headliners, DJs and performances at the Latin Stage are listed on the website. There’s also a schedule for the family area which includes activities like button making, a parachute storytime and a dance party.

The festival map showing gate entrances, vendors and more can be found on the festival‘s app.

There are many safety measures in play for the weekend as well. On factory-sealed beverages or empty containers will be allowed inside the PrideFest area, and all bags and containers are subject to search by security. No unicycles or other similar items will be allowed inside as well. A full list of the festival’s rules is available online here.

The website also notes that by being at the festival, attendees consent to having their picture and video taken and used by The Center on Colfax.

DENVER (KDVR) — There is another hot day on tap for Denver’s weather Sunday. Temperatures will be well above average, meaning heat advisories and red flag warnings are in store for the area Sunday.

A heat advisory will be in effect from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday as temperatures climb to the 90s and near triple digits in the afternoon in the metro and over 100 degrees in some spots south.

A fire weather warning is in effect from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday for low relative humidity and strong wind gusts.

Humidity will fall as low as 10% and wind gusts out of the south will reach up to 30 mph.

Weather today: Sunny & hot

Father’s Day is looking to be very hot and sunny.

Temperatures start out this morning in the 70s before climbing into the middle to upper 90s under mostly sunny skies. Winds will remain out of the southwest and will range anywhere from 5 to 15 mph.

Weather tonight: Mostly clear and breezy

Temperatures Sunday night sink down into the upper 50s and lower 60s under mostly clear skies. Winds will be out of the southeast anywhere from 5-15 mph and gusts possibly up to 25 mph at times.

Looking ahead: Hot start to the workweek ahead of thunderstorm chances

More sunny and hot weather is in the forecast for Monday. Then, a cold front will sweep through the area knocking temperatures down to only 80 degrees on Tuesday and will shift winds out of the north.

Look for daily storm chances starting on Wednesday and continuing through Saturday.

Those storms will move into the picture in the afternoon hours. Wednesday will be the coolest day of the week, with highs in the upper 70s ahead of another warming trend that will bring high temperatures near 90 degrees again by the end of the workweek and the start of next weekend.

DENVER (KDVR) — A mother of five is now out of the hospital recovering after she was struck by a stray bullet that came through the front door of her Denver home.

For nearly three days Cadence Casillas has been in a lot of pain, and it’s no fault of her own.

“I’m supposed to be safe in my house, and clearly I wasn’t,” said Casillas.

It was around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday outside North Wolff Street in Denver when Casillas said she was finishing up school work in the living room.

That’s when she heard what sounded like firecrackers.

“I was like alright that was loud,” said Casilla. “I’m going to get up to shut the door.”

When she did she never expected what would happen next.

“I hear another loud pop, and my whole leg just went painful, numb,” she said.

She was hit by a stray bullet on her right leg. The bullet pierced through her front door.

Her 12-year-old daughter, 1-year-old, and 15-year-old son were all in the living room at the time.

“That’s when I saw blood on the other leg, ended up on the floor and just screamed. My 15-year-old was the first one next to me, he grabbed his belt and put it on as a tourniquet. My 17-year-old had a blanket he was using as compression. My husband called 911 and my 17-year-old also called 911,” she said. “I can’t even express to them how amazing they are. I know as parents we don’t tell our kids enough how grateful for them or how amazing they are. It was their quick thinking, I am blessed.”

Three bullets entered her home.

“I got lucky that the wound isn’t much worse, but I’m most grateful that it didn’t hit any of my kids or my husband. Yes, I’m upset because I got hit, but it was actually a pretty good outcome because it missed everything,” she said.

Her son told FOX31 that dozens of shots were fired in the neighborhood.

“I was in my house on the second floor and I still got hit,” she said. “It just feels like nothing is that safe anymore.”

Casilla’s home was not the only one hit. A bullet also went through her neighbor’s front door as well.

“Stop, guns are not toys,” said Casilla.

She hopes her story is a reminder to others of what can happen when bullets are randomly fired.

“I don’t see what’s so fun and fascinating about running or driving down someone’s neighborhood and randomly shooting,” she said. “We got lucky it wasn’t worse.”

Police say this case is still under investigation. No arrests have been made at this time.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe has been set up for the mother of five to help cover her medical costs.

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ARVADA, Colo. (KDVR) — Four teens were briefly detained in Arvada last week after an officer spotted what he thought was a real gun in their vehicle, and now a family is questioning the police response.

Police say they were called to a house party last week on a report of a large fight among dozens of young people. Shyanne Cruickshank said she and a group of friends were preparing to leave the party when a police officer approached them.

The 17-year-old said the officer pulled up to their vehicle and flashed a light through the window.

“He immediately pulled out his gun and was like, telling us he would ‘end us,’” Shyanne told FOX31.

The police sergeant appeared to believe the object in the front seat was a weapon.

“We were screaming it was a BB gun, not a real gun …. Next thing, we’re staring at the barrel of his gun,” she said.

Shyanne said the interaction with Arvada police officers lasted about an hour. The four young people in the car were ordered out, briefly handcuffed and eventually released.

Police: Officers responding to fight told of gun

The Arvada Police Department released this statement about the incident:

“We are aware of the concerns in this case and are in contact with the parents of the juveniles. On June 7th at 11 pm, concerned community members called the police about a large physical fight involving 30 to 50 people in the 6600 block of Depew St. Officers were told there was a gun involved by parties on the scene. A replica gun was recovered. No charges have been filed at this time.”

Arvada Police Department

The department also sent FOX31 photos of the front seat of the vehicle and what they referred to as a “replica gun.” They confirmed to FOX31 that the replica gun found in the vehicle was the same one they recovered that night.

The teen’s father, Randy Cruickshank, said the video shows “it was this close from something bad happening.”

“There’s a whole lot of police officers that would have handled that a whole lot better,” he said.

DENVER (KDVR) — The U.S. has entered a new bilateral security agreement with Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian invasion.

The deal promises American support in military weapons and training for the next 10 years. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the pact Thursday at the G7 summit of leading industrialized nations, held this year in Italy.

That deal comes on the heels of an international agreement to give Ukraine another $50 billion in support. The funding comes in the form of a loan from some of the wealthiest Democratic countries in the world, and it’s paid for with frozen Russian assets.

Between the cash and the commitment from the U.S. to help, the hope is the aid will bring the end of the war a little closer.

On this week’s ‘Colorado Point of View’

But the new 10-year agreement is not binding if Republicans — who have held up Ukraine funding in the past — win the White House in November and decide to get rid of the deal.

On “Colorado Point of View” this week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow said he does not believe that will happen. He thinks Biden will win a second term.

“I happen to think it will be President Joe Biden. Regardless of that, we have to make sure we’re working in the best interest of Americans,” Crow said.

Crow said the decision is in America’s best national security interest, regardless of who’s in the White House,

“People talk about it as aid,” Crow said. “It’s not charity.”

Watch the full conversation with U.S. Rep. Jason Crow on “Colorado Point of View” on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on Colorado’s Very Own Channel 2.