Updated 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 17: Hundreds of demonstrators marching through downtown Denver on Saturday afternoon caused rolling road closures, police officials said.
Streets around the state Capitol were intermittently closed because of the demonstration, the Denver Police Department said at 1:20 p.m.
All road closures were lifted as of 3:15 p.m.
Protesters gathered on the steps and lawn of the state Capitol at noon on Saturday to demonstrate against actions by President Donald Trump’s administration, including the recent surge in immigration enforcement in Minneapolis and the fatal shooting of Renée Good[cq comment=”cq” ] by a federal immigration officer.
Original story: Denver police and Regional Transportation District officials on Friday were bracing for potentially disruptive demonstrations downtown on Saturday before and during the Denver Broncos’ football playoff game and other high-traffic events.
The Denver Police Department “respects people’s right to demonstrate” and will monitor planned demonstrations, agency officials said in an emailed statement. “DPD’s approach to demonstrations is to allow people to march or gather peacefully, and to conduct traffic control to help ensure safety. It’s those assaultive, destructive, and/or highly dangerous behaviors that prompt police intervention.”
A “One Year is Enough” rally was scheduled at the Colorado State Capitol from noon to 3 p.m., part of “a continued commitment to fighting against the oppression we see here and abroad,” according to an emailed notice from the Denver Coalition Against Trump. After that, a “Colorado Bridge Trolls” resistance dance party was planned.
The coalition includes 50501 Colorado, the American Friends Service Committee, Aurora Unidos, the Denver Aurora Community Action Committee, the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response, Denver Anti-War Action, Denver Students for a Democratic Society, the Denver Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Teamsters for a Democratic Union.
RTD officials said they expect increased ridership on buses and trains Saturday because of the demonstrations, the Denver Broncos playoff game that kicks off at 2:30 p.m. on Empower Field at Mile High, the Denver Nuggets basketball game at Ball Arena, and the National Western Stock Show.
They said they’re coordinating with police and advised riders to monitor RTD online alerts for updates.
“While RTD is focused on being prepared for the demonstrators with the potential to disrupt services, it can be difficult to predict crowd actions in the moment,” the RTD statement said. Transit staffers will monitor events “to support public safety” and “to the greatest extent possible minimize service disruptions.”
RTD’s alert said demonstrations could disrupt transit on 23 routes — including bus routes 0, 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 15, 15L, 16, 19, 20, 28, 32, 38, 43, 44, 48, 52, 83L, 120X, ART, FF, and FREE and the D, E, H, L, and W rail lines.
Very few people embody the spirit of the West quite like George Eidsness.
From his upbringing in northeastern North Dakota to building Transwest automotive group into a diverse group of businesses, Eidsness hasn’t forgotten the simple rules that make the Western way of life so special.
And after more than 70 years of unrelenting hard work and a “fix-anything-with-a-pocket-knife” type of resilience, Eidsness has earned the honor of being named the 2026 Citizen of the West from the National Western Stock Show.
George Eidsness, who has been honored with The Citizen of the West award by the National Western Stock Show, poses for a portrait on his ranch, the Flying E Ranch in Fort Lupton on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (Brice Tucker/Staff Photographer)
The award “recognizes those who embody the spirit and determination of the Western pioneer — a true representative of the Western lifestyle, ideals, agricultural heritage and traditions,” according to the stock show’s website.
“It’s pretty humbling,” Eidsness said. “Like a friend of mine said, ‘You’re walking in pretty tall cotton.’ A lot of great people before me have received it, and to be put in a class with them is a real honor.”
Raised on a wheat farm near Brocket, N.D., that spirit was instilled in him at a young age. He took it with him to the University of North Dakota, where he earned a degree in business, then to Fargo, N.D., where he spent 17 years wearing a number of different hats at a local dealership.
In 1990, he and his wife, Barbara, bought Transwest Trucks, a Commerce City dealership that had been in business for just 18 months at the time. In the 35 years since, Transwest has grown exponentially, now with 25 locations across the western United States and Canada. Its dealerships specialize in service, sales and parts for the heavy-duty truck, trailer, automotive and recreational vehicle industries.
As Transwest began to quickly expand, Eidsness and his wife decided they needed a little room to stretch their legs as well — both professionally and personally.
In 1996, Eidsness acquired Steamboat Lake Outfitters and the Flying E Ranch.
“We were going to build a new house in town (Westminster), but decided that city life wasn’t really what we wanted,” Eidsness said. “We wanted to be out in the country and had an opportunity to buy an 80-acre parcel of land near Fort Lupton.”
Since buying that 80-acre parcel, Eidsness added another 65 acres, completing the property he has called home for nearly three decades.
The Flying E has an indoor rodeo arena on the property that the former owner would lease out for team penning events. When the transaction went down, one was already on the books, scheduled for after Eidsness closed on the property.
Team penning is a timed event in which a team of three sort three numbered cattle out of a head of 30 and place them in a pen on the opposite end of the arena.
“I stood around for most of the day watching the sport,” Eidsness said. “I finally saddled up a horse and tried it out and I was kind of hooked on it after that.”
A third-place finish that day launched the next chapter of Eidsness’s life: nearly 20 years traveling across the West competing in various team penning events. He also produced countless events at the Flying E and helped produce shows at National Western.
“I met a lot of great people,” Eidsness said. “Many of them are still friends today.”
The Code of the West sits in a window in George Eidsness’ office, who has been honored with The Citizen of the West award by the National Western Stock Show, at his Transwest dealership in Brighton on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025. (Brice Tucker/Staff Photographer)
In 2023, Eidsness was inducted into the U.S. Team Penning Hall of Fame.
Eidness credits that spirit of the West for getting him where he is today. It wouldn’t have been possible without a lot of hard work and a strong moral compass, he said. The guiding light for that moral compass: the Code of the West. While technically a set of unwritten rules, the code is agreed upon as:
Live each day with courage.
Take pride in your work.
Always finish what you started.
Do what has to be done.
Be tough, but fair.
When you make a promise, keep it.
Ride for the brand.
Talk less and say more.
Remember that some things aren’t for sale.
Know where to draw the line.
“It’s unique, I think, the Western culture,” Eidsness said. “The way people have learned to be responsible, to take care of their peers, to do the jobs that they’re supposed to do, and the lifestyle that’s expected. It is very important to try and keep that culture going. If we were to lose that part, the country we live in would not be the same.”
Eidsness has also incorporated the code into running Transwest, displaying it in his company’s buildings to remind employees of what Transwest represents.
“How they conduct themselves, how they treat others. It’s something that we adhere to,” Eidsness said. … “It’s important to maintain that culture of who we are and how we want to run our business.”
Even more important to Eidsness than embodying that spirit himself is passing it forward to the younger generations.
“We need more people embodying that spirit,” Eidsness said. “We can find more. And probably more importantly, we can make more.”
When asked how to make more, his answer was direct and confident.
“Education and leadership,” he said.
That’s why he’s long supported groups that introduce children to agriculture and educate them on it, such as 4H and Future Farmers of America.
“It’s certainly something that you don’t have to be born into,” Eidsness said. “You can be introduced to it at a later age and you can learn it. A lot of people who came from a different culture went to work on farms and ranches and businesses and learned the lifestyle and the work involved with it and eventually became part of that culture.”
That’s also why he has been a longtime supporter and sponsor of the National Western Stock Show. And the stock show will be returning the favor, celebrating Eidsness as the 47th Citizen of the West at the stock show’s annual award dinner on Jan. 12. Proceeds from the event support the National Western Scholarship Trust, which awards 100 scholarships to students attending colleges and universities in Colorado and Wyoming for studies in agricultural science, rural medicine or veterinary medicine.
For tickets, contact Rachel Melia at 303-299-5560 or RMelia@NationalWestern.com.
“Walking in tall cotton”
As the 47th honoree, Eidsness joins a long list of distinguished Westerners who came before him, including a former vice president of the United States (Dick Cheney), a former Supreme Court yustice (Byron White) and a founder of major league soccer (Philip Anschutz).
2025: Sharon Magness Blake
2024: Gen. Ralph E. “Ed” Eberhart
2023: Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead
2022: Ron Williams
2020: Marcy & Bruce Benson
2019: Robert “Bob” Tointon
2018: Tony Frank, DVM, PhD
2017: John Malone, PhD
2016: Michael J. Sullivan
2015: Philip F. Anschutz
AP Photo/William J. Smith
Associate Supreme Court Justice Byron “Whizzer” White in his office in Washington, DC, Apr. 17, 1963.
Ever since Grace Kennedy met Quinn in May, the teenager’s goal has been to fatten the Hereford calf up — but not too much, not if she wants to auction it off at this month’s National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Quinn, who is about a year-and-a-half old, weighed 460 pounds when Grace won the animal from the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program. The calf weighed about 1,250 pounds as of early December.
“They just want a good-looking carcass,” Grace, who lives just outside of Morrison, said of the judges who will determine how well she did in raising Quinn for beef.
The 17-year-old is just one of Colorado’s 4-H youth members who will attend the Stock Show in hopes of making a sale. Teenagers from across the state will come to Denver to auction off cattle, goats and other livestock, with the goal of earning money for college, first cars or to reinvest in their farming endeavors.
4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, tries to convince her one-year-old steer, Quinn, to continue his walk around the property on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
The Stock Show began Saturday and will run through Jan. 25.
“Being from Colorado, I feel like it would be really cool making a sale in a national show in your state,” 15-year-old Ty Weathers said.
Ty, who lives on a cattle ranch outside of Yuma in northeastern Colorado, has been showing cows since he was about 7 years old. He will show a steer named Theodore at the Stock Show this year, and he hopes to sell the animal to earn money for a car.
Unlike Grace, who received Quinn through the Catch-A-Calf program, which requires participants to sell their calves during the Stock Show, there’s no guarantee Ty will make a sale.
“I like winning,” Ty said, referring to his hope he’ll be able to auction Theodore off for the highest price. “I’ve grown up in it, so it’s just a part of life.”
Zemery Weber, who lives in Gill in Weld County, started showing goats when she was 8 years old to earn money, but this is her first time doing so at the Stock Show.
“I got a goat this year that seems to be pretty good,” the 14-year-old said. “I’m excited, but I’m also nervous because it’s my first time.”
Zemery will show a goat named Nemo. She plans to save part of the money she earns from selling the goat for meat for her first car and college.
Zemery Weber, 14, leads her goat, Nemo, outside of a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. Weber plans to show the goats at the National Western Stock Show. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“It has helped me become the person that I am,” Zemery said of showing goats. “It is a very good experience for students to have and kids to have to learn responsibility and reliability.”
Showing animals is just one way students can participate in the Stock Show.
In the Front Range, county 4-H programs — which have youth participate in agricultural, STEM and other projects — also put on a field trip for elementary school students to visit the show so they can learn about animals and where their food comes from, said Josey Pukrop, a 4-H youth development specialist with the Colorado State University Extension in Jefferson County.
Last year, about 12,000 children participated in the field trip, she said.
4-H has been operating nationally for more than 120 years, through it, children participate in programs that include showing livestock, gardening and building robots. The youth program is largely funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, according to the agency’s website.
More than 100,000 Colorado students participate in 4-H via community clubs and other programming, said Michael Compton, the state 4-H program director at the CSU Extension.
Like Ty, Grace’s family is in the cattle business, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she began to take an interest and dream of owning her own ranch someday.
Grace’s foray into cows began when the dance studio she attended closed because of COVID-19 in 2020. Grace, in search of a new hobby, got into horses and trail riding with her father.
4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, leads her one-year-old steer, Quinn, around the property as training for being shown at the National Western Stock Show next month, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
Soon after, she took an interest in cows and worked on her grandfather’s cattle ranch in South Dakota during the summer. Grace’s parents have their own herd near Morrison, and the teenager has started breeding and raising her own cattle.
“Animals are the coolest things,” Grace said. “They are here to teach us something, to teach us life qualities. They’re peaceful.”
Grace has been a member of 4-H for six years, showing cattle for four.
She is participating in the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program, which loaned her a calf so she can learn cattle management.
The Catch-A-Calf program started in 1935 and is open to teens ages 14 to 18 who live in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, according to the Stock Show’s website.
“Sometimes it’s kids that haven’t raised these animals before,” Pukrop said.
Zemery Weber, 14, cleans the pens for her goats, Theo, left, and Nemo, in a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Teens participating in the program have to rope a calf, feed it and return the cow to the next Stock Show to be judged on showmanship and carcass quality. The program’s Grand and Reserve Grand Champions get to sell their steers at an auction held on the final Friday of the Stock Show, according to the website.
The program is about “taking accountability and staying on track with your animal and really learning what goes behind their feed and all the math,” said Miranda Leatherman, a 15-year-old participant from Arvada.
By participating in the Catch-A-Calf program, Grace and Miranda had to send monthly reports to sponsors on their steers’ progress and track their weight and how much they are fed.
Grace doesn’t know how much Quinn will sell for, but if she doesn’t win and make it to auction, the calf will still be sold — just for a lower price.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice,” she said.
Grace plans to use any earnings from Quinn’s sale to cover expenses of his upkeep, such as grain and veterinary bills. Anything left over is profit, she said.
“It was a cool opportunity,” she said. “It was a way to get more involved. It was a great way to strengthen this project I have been doing.”
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — At first glance, Jesse Quintana looks like any other Bear Creek High School senior juggling school and soccer. But off the field, he’s striking a different kind of chord as one of the top young fiddle players in the country.
“I was two years old when I got my first fiddle,” Quintana told Denver7 Sports. “My mom and dad just got me a small fiddle for Christmas, and I was into it right away. I would play that thing for eight hours a day, just nonstop.”
His love for music started even earlier, thanks to family traditions and Colorado’s bluegrass culture.
“My grandma played the violin, which is more classical-based, but at the White Fence Farm, there was a lot of bluegrass jams that I would go to,” he said. “My parents would bring me there, even when I was in the womb. My mom said whenever we’d go to a jam, I’d just be kicking a bunch.”
When he was just 4 years old, Quintana stepped on stage with his fiddle for the first time at the National Western Stock Show, where he still returns to compete every January.
“Oh, it’s so fun. It brings in people from all over the United States, and we get to fiddle together,” he said. “I fell in love with it; it’s an adrenaline rush for sure.”
Since then, Quintana has competed and won at both state and national levels. On the soccer field, he brings the same passion and discipline, but his coach, Brent Carpenter, said his humility stands out most.
“Jesse is such a humble kid,” Carsaid. “You would really never know what champion he is — I mean, he’s a good soccer player, but you would have never known that he had this other skill that so few humans possess. I mean, he’s top 1% of all fiddle players.”
After high school, Quintana plans to study engineering, but he doesn’t plan to leave the fiddle behind.
“I definitely want to keep it up on the side and keep going to competitions and start teaching if I get a chance,” he said.
Balancing two passions that couldn’t be more different, Quintana proves that young athletes don’t have to choose just one path.
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In January during the National Western Stock Show, the Jeffco sheriff’s office said it conducted an undercover operation called “Rodeo Rescue.” Investigators rescued two adults that were believed victims of human trafficking and connected them with support services.
The Jeffco sheriff’s office said it identified Cortez D’Angelo Dennis, 31, as a suspect in the trafficking of women from across the Denver metro area.
On September 10, Dennis was arrested and booked into Arapahoe County Jail on charges of Human Trafficking for Sexual Servitude and Pimping. He is in custody on $500,000 cash-only bond.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said it believes there may be additional victims of human trafficking that have not yet been identified.
JCSO Arrests Suspect in Human Trafficking Investigation
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a suspect in connection with an ongoing human trafficking investigation following an undercover operation earlier this year.
Anyone who believes they may be a victim or have information about this case is asked to call the Jeffco sheriff’s office tip line at 303-271-5612.
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Tell me you don’t like rural Coloradans without telling me. That’s what two initiatives will ask the state’s urban-suburban majority to do this November; tell rural folks they’re not welcome in their own state, that their ways are passé, particularly ranching and hunting.
Initiative 91 would outlaw the hunting of bobcats and mountain lions. The initiative is both unnecessary and a slap in the face to rural populations who live with these predators and take part in their management through hunting. These animals are plentiful and well managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in partnership with hunters, many of whom hail from the rural Western Slope.
Contrary to advocates’ assertions, Colorado law already prohibits hunting mountain lions for sport; the meat must be harvested for consumption. Initiative 91 not only rejects science-based wildlife management, it is a deliberate affront to the rural way of life which for many includes hunting and fishing.
Not surprisingly, Colorado’s most recent experience with ballot box biology hasn’t gone well for rural Coloradans. Veal beat venison in a wolf taste test. Thanks to Proposition 114, wolves were reintroduced to western Colorado in December 2023. Soon after, several of them decided to ditch swift deer for slow livestock. They’ve killed 16 calves, cows, and sheep in Grand County alone.
Ranchers appealed to the state for relief. CPW is planning to trap the depredating wolves to relocate them. During similar trap and relocation efforts in Montana, mated pairs separated and abandoned their pups. Scientists over at CPW knew the potential consequences of bringing back this apex predator and resisted it until a narrow majority of voters forced their hand. If urban voters had known that the romantic notion of wolf reintroduction meant eviscerated livestock and dead puppies, would they have voted differently?
Wolves won’t be the only ones going after ranchers’ livelihoods if another initiative passes. Denver voters will be asked in November to shut down the 70-year-old employee-owned Superior Farm slaughterhouse near the National Western Stock Show complex. Not only would the employees lose their jobs, the closure will adversely impact sheep ranchers and the state’s economy.
According to a study by the Colorado State University Regional Economic Development Institute, the business generates around $861 million in economic activity and supports some 3,000 jobs. The Denver facility carries about a fifth of all U.S. sheep processing capacity. If it is not rebuilt elsewhere in Colorado, Colorado ranchers will have fewer options and could go out of business for want of places to send their livestock.
According to the study, the loss of U.S. processing capacity will prompt markets to replace domestic supply with imports. Consumers will likely pay more for meat. Also, not every country that raises and slaughters sheep has same humane livestock regulations and standards as the U.S.
A minority of voters could negatively impact the majority not just in Colorado. The people pushing this initiative represent an even smaller minority. They don’t believe humans should eat meat, according to their website, and this is their way to take a bite out of the age-old practice.
Most vegetarians and vegans are live and let live but a small percentage would like to foist their lifestyle on the rest of us. It only took 2% of registered voters in Denver to push this ballot question that would single out a business for closure, toss its employees out of work, harm ranchers throughout the state, cost the state millions of dollars in economic activity, force markets to import meat, and reduce choices for those who want locally-sourced products. It’s hard to imagine a worse idea.
If urban and suburban voters are tempted to support these no-good, feel-good initiatives, they should first visit their neighbors on either side of the Front Range who will be impacted. A little empathy for rural Colorado is wanting.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on X: @kristakafer.
