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Tag: front range

  • Colorado House committee defeats bill to repeal anti-BDS law on PERA investments

    Colorado House committee defeats bill to repeal anti-BDS law on PERA investments

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    Colorado’s public pension program must continue divesting from companies that economically boycott Israel after a state House committee rejected a bill that would have repealed the requirement.

    The 10-1 bipartisan defeat of HB24-1169 late Monday in the House Finance Committee came after hours of emotional and tense testimony. The discussion often spiraled into support or condemnation for Israel and its months-long military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

    More than 100 people testified for or against the measure, which would have repealed a 2016 state law that requires the Public Employees Retirement Association to divest from companies that participate in the BDS movement. That movement promotes boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel as a way of protesting the country’s treatment of Palestinians.

    Only three companies have been flagged under the law, according to PERA. It applies only to international companies. The law costs roughly $10,000 a year to administer.

    Just one member of the Democrat-controlled finance committee, Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat, voted to advance the bill. The measure was sponsored by Rep. Elisabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat. She was reprimanded by House leadership last month for, among other things, disrupting House proceedings and joining pro-Palestinian protesters seated in the House’s gallery during the November special session.

    Nearly 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel launched the war in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, which killed 1,200 people and included the taking of about 250 hostages, some of whom are still being held.

    Epps told fellow lawmakers Monday that she repeatedly had been told the legislature had no business weighing in on international affairs, but she argued that the 2016 anti-BDS law did just that.

    “There is a particularly insidious criticism that is made of folks who are protesting a range of issues,” she said. “The central element of that criticism is that we’re not doing it right. … If you want to petition your pension board to do an economic boycott, that’s not right either. That can’t be how we continue to do business here.”

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    Seth Klamann

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  • Denver opening severe weather shelter Tuesday night

    Denver opening severe weather shelter Tuesday night

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    Denver city officials will open a severe weather shelter Tuesday night as temperatures are forecast to drop below 20 degrees.

    The McNichols Civic Center Building at 144 W. Colfax Ave. will be open from 6 p.m. Tuesday to 9 a.m. Wednesday for walk-up service, the city said in a news release Monday.

    People can also access shelter through the city’s other access points, including:

    • For individual men at the Lawrence Street Community Center, 2222 Lawrence St.;
    • For individual women at Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St.;
    • For youth ages 15-20 at Urban Peak, 2100 Stout St.

    Families in need of shelter should call the Connection Center at 303-295-3366.

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

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    Katie Langford

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  • Nikola Jokic on his defense after 4 steals vs. Warriors: “I think I’m not bad, not good. I’m in the middle.”

    Nikola Jokic on his defense after 4 steals vs. Warriors: “I think I’m not bad, not good. I’m in the middle.”

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    SAN FRANCISCO — The cartoonish Defensive Player of the Game chain is objectively the Nuggets’ corniest tradition, a blinged-up symbol of morale and affirmation usually reserved for college football sidelines rather than NBA locker rooms. If it seems one is too many, brace for impact.

    “We only travel with one. We’ve gotta change that,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after a 119-103 win over the Warriors on Sunday. “Because if we had two chains, Nikola would have gotten the other one.”

    The lone chain couldn’t belong to anyone else but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for his dogged efforts in trying to out-cardio Steph Curry in the half-court. But in Nikola Jokic’s trio of videogame performances since the All-Star break, his defense has stood up respectably next to his offense. He’s averaging 27.3 points, 16.7 rebounds and 15 assists on 68.7% shooting … plus three “stocks,” a combination of blocks and steals.

    When he’s on the floor this season, the Nuggets are allowing 112.1 points per 100 possessions, 1.3 below their overall total as a team.

    As a crowded MVP race heats up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic, Jokic’s four steals against Golden State were a testament to the trickiness in evaluating his defense. He’s not always noticeably impactful — the No. 1 argument skeptics make against his annual candidacy is that he’s a liability, even — but when he’s engaged in the game plan and actively anticipating an opponent’s next move the way he does on offense, he can be a master of his role in Denver’s defensive system.

    “I think I’m not bad, not good,” Jokic said Sunday at Chase Center. “I’m in the middle.”

    By the same token that Jokic doesn’t dunk the basketball often, he rarely swats shots or plays above the rim defensively. Instead, the Nuggets maximize their center’s strengths by having him guard higher up against ball screens than most big men in the NBA, subsequently leaning heavily on weak-side help from Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. to contain rollers. When Jokic can play from the middle of the floor, his vision and IQ work in sync with his quick hands.

    “The more he’s up in pick-and-rolls and on the ball … that’s what he’s great at,” Caldwell-Pope said recently. “Just being up. Active hands. Getting deflections when they try to make that pocket pass.”

    Jokic amassed five deflections to go with his four steals in Denver’s seventh consecutive win against the Warriors. As of the 56-game mark, he was tied for eighth in the league with 2.9 per game (as many as the absurdly wingspanned Victor Wembanyama). “That speaks to activity, that speaks to a physicality, that speaks to being in that right place in the right time,” said Malone. Disrupting the pocket pass is a facet of Jokic’s innate understanding of pick-and-roll angles, the same understanding that makes his two-man game with Jamal Murray so brilliant at the other end of the floor.

    It’s not Murray he’s generally teaming up with to defend the pick-and-roll, though. It’s Caldwell-Pope, who’s regularly charged with premier backcourt matchups. The experienced Caldwell-Pope is one of the best guards in the league at navigating screens. But the Nuggets have minimal off-day practice time during the season to refine two-man defensive chemistry, and Jokic and Caldwell-Pope haven’t been playing their entire careers together. So, says Caldwell-Pope, it’s a matter of “learn on the go.”

    “I feel like with Jok, in a pick-and-roll with him defensively, I know he’s gonna be up,” he said. “I know he has great hands, just like I have great hands. He’s gonna try to go for the steal as well. So just us two, being in that action, it helps me out a lot. It helps him just to get back to his man and helps me stay as close as possible to my man. That’s our game plan, him being up. And it’s good for our team, for him to be up.”

    Caldwell-Pope added that his individual emphasis, to hound the ball-handler through the screen while Jokic also stays up, is made easier by Jokic dropping marginally behind him and being able to see other aspects of the play unfolding. “He reads plays faster than I can sometimes,” the former Laker said.

    “That’s him, to be honest,” Jokic retorted of his chemistry with Caldwell-Pope. “I’m just there to not mess up. He’s a really good defender, and I’m there to just, try to help him a little bit. As much as I can. But it’s mostly him.”

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    Bennett Durando

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  • Church in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood sells for $1.5M after four months on market

    Church in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood sells for $1.5M after four months on market

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    A Berkeley congregation has completed its real estate exodus.

    Highlands Lutheran Church sold its roughly 14,000-square-foot church at 3995 N. Irving St. last week for $1.48 million, or about $106 per square foot. It had been listed at $1.75 million.

    The buyer was Mounashram Inc., a faith-based nonprofit. Attempts to reach the organization were unsuccessful.

    Highlands Lutheran, which had been on Irving Street for the past century, moved last year to 7375 Samuel Drive, where it is renting a church from the Rocky Mountain Synod, the regional Lutheran Church organization.

    Pastor Samm Melton-Hill said the congregation is still figuring out what to do with the proceeds from the sale, but expects some of the funds to be used for community grants for those in need.

    “We’re really excited for what the space will look like for north Denver and hope it continues to be a center part of that community and neighborhood,” Melton-Hill said.

    The church building hit the market in October 2023 with the goal of selling quickly, as the congregation had no property manager and upkeep with the space became difficult, according to The McMillan Cos. broker Monnie Elliott, who represented the church along with Dana Crawford.

    But a quick turnaround could not come at the expense of the church’s mission, she added, saying it had to be sold to an entity that “would be of service to the community.”

    At one point, the property was under contract to a group trying to build a preschool there, but that deal fell through.

    “We had a tremendous amount of interest from churches and religious groups … We felt really good about it (the buyer) instead of selling it to someone who would bulldoze it and build two luxury homes on the property,” Elliott said.

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    Matthew Geiger

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  • Michael Porter Jr. scores season-high 34 as Nuggets cruise past Trail Blazers

    Michael Porter Jr. scores season-high 34 as Nuggets cruise past Trail Blazers

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — Written on the locker room whiteboard Thursday night at Ball Arena was a summons for players to get to the Denver airport by 10:20 p.m. for their team flight to Oregon. It was an unrealistic goal, especially considering Nikola Jokic’s typically methodical postgame process and media obligation.

    So maybe the Nuggets were a little late to take off. They made it to Portland just fine.

    And after a slightly slow start at Moda Center the next night, the defending champions took off and earned a 127-112 win over the Blazers, sweeping a back-to-back out of the All-Star break. Michael Malone called a timeout after three early turnovers yielded an 8-3 deficit. Then Denver cruised.

    The Nuggets (38-19) gave Jamal Murray the night off to avoid straining him in the back-to-back after he went into the break dealing with shin splints. His absence was more for precautionary reasons after an encouraging performance against the Wizards and before a marquee matchup Sunday at the Warriors. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, on the other hand, played after missing the second half of Thursday’s game with a sprained finger.

    Without Murray, Nikola Jokic posted a triple-double by the end of the third quarter for the second time in 24 hours, and Michael Porter Jr. scored a season-high 34 points on 21 shots to go with a dozen rebounds.

    “I was just getting easy shots. My teammates were finding me in transition,” Porter said. “When a player like ‘Mal is out, a lot of guys have gotta step up.”

    “Michael is such a big target, and (defenders) play on the high side, so they’re trying to make him a 2-point scorer,” Malone said. “And he’s shown that he can do that just as efficiently (as scoring from three). This was a night when Michael played at a high level throughout the course of the game.”

    Jokic finished the night with 29 points, 15 boards and 14 assists on 12-of-17 shooting. With 2:37 remaining in the first half, he missed his first shot in 15 attempts since the break. Aaron Gordon also supplied another efficient and well-rounded game, going for eight points on 4-of-5 shooting (all in the first half) and seven assists.

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    Bennett Durando

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  • Rockies, federal officials planning active shooter and bombing simulation at Coors Field

    Rockies, federal officials planning active shooter and bombing simulation at Coors Field

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    Officials from the Colorado Rockies and a federal cybersecurity agency are planning a “full-scale” active shooter and bombing simulation at Coors Field to practice responding to an attack during a regular season baseball game.

    The May 22 event will bring together stadium and team officials, local first responders and state and federal agencies “to perform response actions that would be taken during an attack at Coors Field,” organizers wrote in an email sent to a Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management mailing list on Friday.

    Organizers are looking for volunteer actors to participate in the simulation, which will take place when the Rockies are scheduled to play in Oakland, according to the email.

    “The scenario involves a simulated explosion followed by an active shooter during a regular season weekend Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field,” organizers with the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency wrote on an intake form for volunteer actors.

    Two 60-minute scenarios will be held during the 6-hour training and will include being “exposed to loud noises, including simulated gunshot and explosive sounds,” organizers wrote.

    Volunteers are required to be 18 years or older and must answer if they are willing to have simulated injuries painted on or applied, including fake bruises, scratches, burns, gunshot wounds and blood, according to the intake form.

    Getting fake injuries applied, which is known as moulage, is not mandatory for participation.

    The Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management referred questions about the event to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Representatives for the agency and Colorado Rockies could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.

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    Katie Langford

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  • Nikola Jokic on NBA’s 65-game rule after Joel Embiid injury: “It forces players to play, even if they’re injured”

    Nikola Jokic on NBA’s 65-game rule after Joel Embiid injury: “It forces players to play, even if they’re injured”

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    INDIANAPOLIS — No matter how many All-Stars the NBA filed into a packed room Saturday to talk over one another in simultaneous news conferences, a silence reverberated loudest. Loud enough to be heard in at least a few of the questions.

    The most significant absence in Indianapolis this weekend is the one that’s shaking up the 2023-24 MVP race.

    Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid was the presumptive favorite until early February when he underwent surgery to repair his lateral meniscus. The left knee injury has rendered him ineligible to repeat as league MVP under new NBA policy, which requires players to appear in a minimum of 65 games to be considered for end-of-year awards such as MVP and All-NBA.

    The procedure will sideline Embiid long enough that he almost definitively wouldn’t have won MVP even without the new rule. However, his situation has still sparked debate in league circles about whether or not the 65-game minimum should have been instituted in the first place. Why? Because there was wide speculation Embiid felt pressured to play through a pre-existing knee injury in order to maintain awards eligibility, especially after getting ridiculed for missing his fourth consecutive road game against the Nuggets — and MVP adversary Nikola Jokic — in late January.

    Two games later, Embiid was back in the lineup when Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga fell on his leg and caused the injury that required surgery.

    Jokic is perversely positioned to benefit from Embiid’s unfortunate situation. The Nuggets center is the new betting favorite to win his third MVP in the last four years. But he takes no joy in that. He was asked about the 65-game rule Saturday during his media session at All-Star weekend.

    “Definitely forcing players to play, even when they’re injured or whatever,” Jokic said. “But we saw what happened with Joel. … I don’t know. I just don’t like it, how it forces players to play even if they’re injured, if they want to achieve something.”

    Arguments against the rule largely depend on the arbitrary nature of the league’s chosen number. No data-driven evidence was provided to explain why 65 makes more sense as a games-played minimum than, say, 67 — one more than the number of games Embiid played last year when he won MVP. In 2022-23, Jokic finished second in voting with 69 games played. Giannis Antetokounmpo was third with 63.

    With the door wide open now, Jokic’s biggest challenger for the 2023-24 crown is his All-Star teammate, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

    The Thunder guard, who ranks second in the league in scoring (31.1 points) and first in steals (2.2), wasn’t as quick to condemn the rule as Jokic was.

    “I’m not too sure. I think no matter what, there’s like a fine line,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Like, when it comes down to it, there’s always a fine line in games played and availability. And I think the league has the right intention in trying to make that line a little bit bolder and easier to make a decision. Now, I try to be as available as I can every night, not only for that but just for the love of the game. But as far as how the rule goes, I don’t really have an opinion. I’m gonna try to be available for my team to win basketball games every night, and if I can’t be available, then I just can’t, and it is what it is.”

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    Bennett Durando

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Shelly Bradbury

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Katie Langford

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Meg Wingerter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Justin Wingerter

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

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

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

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    Michael Braithwaite

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  • Cyberattack shuts down Colorado public defender’s office

    Cyberattack shuts down Colorado public defender’s office

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

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

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

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

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    Shelly Bradbury

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

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

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

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

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

    West Metro Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.



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    Lauren Penington

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  • NBA trade deadline winners, losers: Did rest of league catch up with Denver Nuggets?

    NBA trade deadline winners, losers: Did rest of league catch up with Denver Nuggets?

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    While the Nuggets didn’t change their 18-man roster at the 2024 NBA trade deadline, other contenders around the league made a variety of moves — mostly on the margins — in an effort to steal the throne from Denver.

    From the view at altitude, here are the winners and losers of the deadline:

    Winner: New York Knicks

    The leader of every other winners-and-losers think-piece is the leader of this one, too. New York landed Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks on deadline day at relatively low cost, but the Nuggets already got a close-up view of the new Knicks when O.G. Anunoby registered six steals against them at MSG. With Milwaukee reeling and Philadelphia hedging after Joel Embiid’s injury (Buddy Hield was a solid middle-ground acquisition), New York suddenly transformed into the most proactive win-now team in the East this deadline.

    Loser: Dallas Mavericks

    In arguably the highest-profile trade on actual deadline day, Dallas overpaid for P.J. Washington, whose 13.6 points per game felt somewhat like empty calories in Charlotte. The trade was simultaneously an admission of failure in the Grant Williams Experiment and a brand-new roll of the dice. More importantly, the Mavericks did what the Knicks avoided: They traded a precious first-round pick (2027). Future: mortgaged. Draft assets are close to extinct now for Dallas, a franchise throwing darts at the wall and hoping one will stick before it’s too late to salvage and extend the Luka Doncic era.

    Winner: Boston Celtics

    Is Xavier Tillman going to be a significant role player in Joe Mazzulla’s playoff rotation? Probably not. Will the Celtics feel a lot more comfortable having an affordable, playable backup big ready to aid the injury-prone Kristaps Porzingis and aging Al Horford? Absolutely. Especially if they’re dealing with six or seven games of Nikola Jokic. This was a depth move that felt tailored to fit a Nuggets NBA Finals matchup, but it cost Boston only two second-round picks to add a salary under $2 million.

    Loser: Oklahoma City Thunder

    The Thunder should have done what Boston did. Don’t get me wrong: Gordon Hayward seems like an outstanding veteran addition to a young team. A lot of teams would have pursued him if Charlotte had bought out his contract. But Oklahoma City’s biggest need still hasn’t been addressed. Back in October, I asked Michael Porter Jr. for his first impressions of Chet Holmgren after Denver won in OKC. “I think he’s very, very talented,” Porter said. “To me, he’s more of a four.” Holmgren, who has an even more injury-prone body type than Porzingis and already missed all of last season, is the Thunder’s starting five. Sophomore charge-taking specialist Jaylin Williams (6-foot-9) backs him up. The center position runs dry from there. For a team so small and with a rebounding weakness (No. 27 in the league), it seems neglectful not to dip into a horde of 10,000 picks and add a more traditional five to at least deploy in bench lineups. Without reinforcements, Holmgren is susceptible to getting worn down by Jokic in a long series.

    Winner: Monte Morris

    Congratulations to one former Nuggets backup point guard, who moved from the league’s most puzzling team (Detroit) to a Western Conference title contender. Smart trade for the Timberwolves, who needed more offense to support their top-rated defense. Minnesota’s two most common lineups involving point guard Mike Conley have net ratings of 9.6 and 7.6, respectively, in 635 combined minutes. The most common lineup without Conley on the floor is a minus-5.1 in 127 minutes (a lineup including Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns), and second-most common without Conley is a modest 4.9 in 100 minutes (using all four starters except him). Morris supplies 3-point shooting and an upgrade in turnover prevention for an offense that’s third-worst in the NBA at protecting the ball in clutch time.

    Loser: Bruce Brown

    Pour one out for a different former Nuggets backup point guard. Brown did the Reverse Morris three weeks ago, getting traded from a young playoff-caliber core in Indianapolis to a losing team. But the league-wide expectation was that Toronto would flip Brown. There was a market for his versatility and recent championship experience. So he waited and waited, until the deadline passed Thursday, leaving him temporarily stranded in Canada. Brown was just one bullet point on a list of head-scratching decisions by the Raptors, also including their forfeiture of a 2024 first-round pick among other assets for Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    He also led other lawyers into disability rights work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Bruce Finley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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  • Board of County Commissioners organizes marijuana regulation hearing – Longmont Times-Call – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    Board of County Commissioners organizes marijuana regulation hearing – Longmont Times-Call – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    The Boulder County Commissioners will hold a public hearing Thursday to discuss marijuana licensing regulation updates.

    The hearing will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in a hybrid format, with community members able to attend and comment virtually via Zoom or in person at the Commissioners’ Hearing Room at 1325 Pearl St.

    The proposed amendments largely deal with changes in terminology due to the Colorado Medical Marijuana Code and Colorado Retail Marijuana Code being combined into the combined Colorado Marijuana Code and other state and county name and department changes.

    The regulations would also strike a prohibition against stores selling products online and allow in-person pickup for marijuana products with sufficient identification would provide hearings for alleged violations.

    To register for the virtual meeting, visit www.boco.org/BOC-NOV30-2023 or call in by dialing 1-833-568-8864. The Webinar ID is 160 534 0974.

    Reach out to the Permit and License Operations Manager Kathy Gissel with any questions at kgissel@bouldercounty.gov or call 720-564-2626.

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