Charlie Blackmon, who retired last month after a 14-year career with the Colorado Rockies, has moved back to Georgia and listed his home in Denver’s Belcaro neighborhood.
Blackmon lives full time in Atlanta with his wife, Ashley, and their two young children, so he’s selling his home in a gated community near Cherry Creek.
He listed the 5,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bath home with a three-car tandem garage on Sept. 11 for $4.3 million. Justin Joseph and Deviree Vallejo with LIV Sotheby’s International Realty have the listing.
Blackmon purchased the home, constructed in 2014, for $2.8 million in June 2018.
“We’ve loved the outdoor living space and think it’s among the best features of our home. The home gets great sunlight which lends itself to a dip in the pool or just enjoying the patio,” said Blackmon, who answered questions about the home in writing.
“We’ve also enjoyed many cool Denver evenings hanging around the custom gas firepit with friends. When the weather is great, we also open the sliding doors that merge the outdoor TV area with the living room,” he said. “We’ve loved it all.”
The home features a chef’s kitchen with Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances, a built-in Miele coffee maker, and a large marble island and ample storage. The second floor includes three large bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom.
Joseph called the home a peaceful enclave in the city’s heart and an entertainer’s paradise.
After Blackmon purchased the home, he improved the outdoor space by adding performance tile and inlaid turf that extends around the home’s side for a dog run, Joseph said.
Living in a gated community was helpful for a local celebrity.
“When we purchased the home, we really liked how the community is a protected enclave,” Blackmon said.
Blackmon, a second-round draft pick, overcame an injury-plagued start to finish his career hitting .293 with 227 home runs and 1,805 hits. He trails only Rockies first baseman Todd Helton in games played, runs, hits, doubles, extra-base hits and total bases, and leads the Rockies with 68 triples.
X users may be migrating to bluer skies after a major change.
Bluesky is an open, ad-free social network that grew out of Twitter, now X, in 2019. The platform announced on Thursday that half a million new users signed up within a day of X announcing that it would be changing up its blocking feature “soon.” Blocked users on X will be able to see public posts but not like, reply or engage with them in any other way.
Although X said the change was to prevent people blocking others from sharing sensitive information about people they have blocked, X users stated that the move would support stalking, render the Block function useless and violate Google Play Store and Apple App Store requirements.
Meta’s Threads also appears to be experiencing a surge in users; it is currently first under the top free apps for iPhone list, with Bluesky coming in fifth. Threads surpassed 175 million users in July.
The battle for legal marijuana continues and it is pitting the leaders of the GOP against each other…and another player has jumped into the fray
Florida is a battleground state for this election in more than one way. While the majority of Floridians are pro some form of cannabis legalization, the governor is not and has waged an all out battle with the industry. Now, Elon Musk supports DeSantis blocking marijuana legalization. How is will all end up is anyone’s guess.
In 2013, the group United for Care turned in 745,613 of the required 683,149 signatures, to do a ballot initiative for medical marijuana. The state contensted, but the Florida Supreme court allowed it to move forward. It failed with 57.6% of the vote, short the 60% supermajority required for constitutional amendments in Florida. Nevada casino owner Sheldon Adelson rode to he rescue with $5.5 million to help fund the opposition campaign.
In 2016, a second attempt was made and the initiative was approved on November 8, 2016, with 71.3% of the vote.
Now a new initiative is on the ballot and has pitted Governor Desanits and Elon Musk against the GOP Presidential nominee. DeSantis has had a testy relationship with the GOP leader since the governor’s failed presidential run. But the nominee seems to have a working partnership with Musk and has suggested creating a new role for Musk of Secretary of Cost Cutting.
Photo by Andrii Yalanskyi/Getty Images
DeSantis has struggled in his fight against the popular plant. He is under fire from leaders in his own state for using state resource to fight against legalization. Also, the group DeSantis has approved to raise funds to stop cannabis has raised less than $20 million. The pro group has raised over $100 million. But now Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is riding to DeSantis’s rescue.
Faithful & Strong Policies, Inc., made the $500,000 contribution to Keep Florida Clean, Inc. earlier this month, campaign filings show. Keep Florida Clean. Musk has given the organization $10 million. Musk was also a supporter of the Governor’s campaign.
Polls show the initiative stands a strong chance of hitting the 60% to pass. Being a presidential year with other big issues on the ballot is a help to cannabis, but with fresh cash nd Twitter fighting it, only time with tell how it goes. And it will be interesting to see what happens with the three mega personalities of the Republican Party.
Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, centered on suburban Jefferson County, hasn’t had a Republican in the seat since Bob Beauprez left Congress nearly 20 years ago.
But Sergei Matveyuk, an antiques repairman from Golden and the GOP contender for the seat in the Nov. 5 election, urges voters not to count him out in his battle with incumbent Brittany Pettersen. The first-term Democratic congresswoman is seeking reelection.
“People are hurting economically,” Matveyuk, 57, told The Denver Post. “They want someone who feels the pain.”
He’s running in a once-battleground district that has turned decidedly blue in the last decade or so, with Democratic former Rep. Ed Perlmutter winning election eight times running, until his retirement announcement in 2022 ushered in an open race.
Pettersen, 42, a former state lawmaker from Lakewood, won the 2022 election by 16 percentage points over Republican Army veteran Erik Aadland. The bulk of the district’s electorate calls left-leaning Jefferson and Broomfield counties home, while redder areas in the district — such as Teller, Custer and Fremont counties — simply don’t have the populations to give Matveyuk a sizable boost.
As of Sept. 30, Pettersen had raised more than $2.2 million this cycle, compared to about $35,000 collected by Matveyuk, according to campaign finance filings. There are two minor party candidates on the ballot this time: Former state lawmaker Ron Tupa is running on the Unity Party of Colorado ticket, while Patrick Bohan is running as the Libertarian candidate.
Matveyuk, a political neophyte, said that as a small business owner, the historically high inflation of the last two years has hurt those like him who are particularly sensitive to escalating prices. But it’s his personal story that he thinks will resonate with voters in the current political climate, in which border policy has taken center stage. Matveyuk, who is of Polish descent, and his family left the Soviet Bloc in the late 1980s after experiencing life under communist rule and immigrated to the United States.
“As an immigrant myself, I know how hard it is to start a new life — but it has to be legal,” he said.
Matveyuk doesn’t echo former President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations but says migrants who “are hurting our people and committing crimes need to be deported, for sure.”
“We need immigration reform — 40 years ago we had a regulated border and now we have a porous border,” he said.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data through August, there have been more than 8.6 million migrant “encounters” at the southern U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. That influx has prompted many big city mayors across the country, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, to cut city services to pay for migrant housing and plead for help from the federal government.
Pettersen acknowledged that the U.S. asylum system is “absolutely outdated.” But many of the arriving migrants are filling jobs that businesses in the district, like nursing homes, are desperate to staff, she said.
Making people wait years before getting work permits is an unworkable policy, Pettersen said.
“We don’t have the people in the U.S. to meet our economic needs,” she said. “We need legal pathways based on economic need.”
Though Pettersen is in the minority party in the U.S. House, a bill she sponsored was recently signed into law by Biden. It directs the federal government to study and report on illicit financing associated with synthetic drug trafficking.
Last month, she introduced a bill that seeks to incentivize more states to offer substance use treatment through Medicaid, six years after she sponsored a bill in the state House requiring Colorado to provide that care. Pettersen has often spoken publicly of the struggles her mother faced battling opioid addiction.
If reelected, she said in The Denver Post’s candidate questionnaire that she would work to protect abortion rights and to address the opioid epidemic. Her top priority would be “modernizing our tax code to rebuild the middle class.”
“We need to lower costs by reinvesting in access to affordable housing, childcare, health care, and higher education,” she wrote.
According to filings released by the US Federal Election Commission on Tuesday night, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and owner of X, is now one of the biggest donors to Donald Trump’s campaign. Since publicly endorsing Trump on the heels of the July assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, Musk has donated close to $75 million to the his own political action committee, America PAC, which is aggressively campaigning on the ground in swing states for the Trump campaign.
Musk has been one of many Silicon Valley elites who have expressed their support for Trump. Peter Thiel, billionaire and cofounder of Palantir, has been a longtime Trump supporter (though he said he would not be donating to candidates in 2024), and venture capitalist David Sacks, who is also a friend of Musk’s, has also thrown his support to the Republicans. Trump has also received support from PACs and individuals in the crypto space.
But Musk has put more money into the Trump campaign than nearly any other individual from the tech industry. In addition to his support for the America PAC, he also donated more than $289,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. While some companies and institutions in Silicon Valley, like venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, have backed Trump, individual donors from those same companies may not. For instance, Marc Andreessen and his business partner Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to the pro-Trump Right for America PAC last quarter. Andreessen has also donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; Horowitz has backed Democratic campaigns as well, and in early October said he would support Harris rather than Trump going forward.
The graphic below focuses specifically on donations that help Trump directly, rather than GOP giving more broadly. You can see a breakdown of how much each person gave—and where the money went—by scrolling over or tapping each name.
Sacks donated only $6,600 to Trump’s campaign directly, but $114,500 to the Republican National Committee and $250,000 to the Trump 47 PAC. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who run the crypto exchange Gemini, each donated more than $350,000 to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supports the Trump campaign. The twins also donated $250,000 each to the America PAC. Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture firm Sequoia Capital, has donated $500,000 to the America PAC, $300,000 to the Trump 47 PAC, and $6,600 to the Trump campaign directly. Billionaire and early Tesla backer Antonio Graciasdonated $1 million to the America PAC, as did Palantir cofounder and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale. Kenneth Howery, a PayPal Mafia member and former ambassador to Sweden under Trump, put $1 million into America PAC in addition to smaller direct contributions to the Trump campaign.
Musk has contributed more to the Trump campaign than all of them combined, several times over. That puts him in a league with Trump’s most lavish donors, including Miriam Adelson, the widow of Sheldon Adelson, who donated $95 million to the pro-Trump Preserve America PAC over the past three months—including $45 million in September alone. Billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon railroad fortune, remains the campaign’s largest donor, having put at least $115 million in the Make America Great Again PAC just this year.
Musk’s largesse, combined with his vocal support of Trump on the platform he controls, has been a windfall for Trump in an increasingly close presidential race. He’ll continue trying to get out the vote in person this weekend with a series of appearances in Pennsylvania.
No team in the NHL is going to win much when five of the top nine or 10 players on the roster are not available.
For the Colorado Avalanche, that’s just the state of things right now. But the issues for the Avs during an 0-3 start, particularly in an ugly 6-2 loss Monday night to the New York Islanders, go beyond just missing some very good players.
It’s a pretty simple message: Focus on the process and clean up the areas that the healthy players can control.
“I think we recognize what we have to improve on,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “We played good enough in games one and two to sort of try and replicate that. Then, for whatever reason, we deviated from our entire game plan and you saw the result (against the Islanders). It wasn’t pretty for us.
“We know the aspects of the game that we have to focus on.”
Most of those aspects involve the part of the game where Colorado does not have the puck. It’s still an incredibly small sample size, but the volume of what the Avs are yielding to the other team has not been the issue.
It’s the quality. The Avs entered their game Wednesday night against Boston ranked 10th in the NHL in scoring chances against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and in the top five in shot attempts allowed per 60.
High-danger scoring chances are another matter — Colorado is 19th. Given the troubles the goaltenders have had, and the missing players, the margin for error is very slim. Allowing too many Grade-A chances is a recipe for disaster, as the Avalanche has found out.
“Defensively, we’re giving up too many rush chances, too soft in front of our net,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s just stick to the habits that have given us success in the past, the execution and the competitiveness. That’s an area we probably lacked in last was our competitive urgency, especially in the defensive zone.
“Giving guys too much time and space, not playing hard enough at our net front — I think those are areas that if we clean those areas up within our structure, we should be able to have success. We have been pretty good offensively with generating chances, but we’re giving up way too much.”
The Avalanche began this season without Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, three forwards who are all dynamic offensive players. Colorado lost Jonathan Drouin after the first game, and defenseman Devon Toews is set to miss his second straight contest against the Bruins.
While those are all strong offensive players, the Avs have not felt their absence with the puck nearly as much as they have without it. All of the offensive numbers, traditional or advanced, have been strong.
But those four forwards are also all strong two-way players. They make a significant impact without the puck as well. That’s the part of their games that Colorado appears to be missing the most so far this season.
“They’re very trusted, highly reliable, good-to-great defensive players,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “But, the message is … realistically, checking and playing away from the puck — yeah, there’s skill and ability involved in that, but it’s hard work and commitment. Those are two (things) that we keep bringing up.
Bednar thought Toews could be a possibility to play Wednesday night, but he remains out with a lower-body injury. There isn’t a timeline for any of the four forwards right now, though Lehkonen could return early next month if the checkup on his surgically repaired shoulder at the end of this month goes well. Nichushkin can’t return until mid-November at the earliest, but he’ll likely need time after being reinstated to get up to game speed.
Avs GM Chris MacFarland said he doesn’t want his team to wait for the calvary to return right before the season began. The number of key missing players has grown since then. It’s going to be on the players who are in the lineup to sort out the defensive issues and at least get back to having a strong process, let alone improving the results.
“Right now, it’s about us, with some of the things we have to do to have success,” Bednar said. “(Playing the Bruins) is just another opportunity for us to get our game in order and back on track.”
The Nuggets remain winless in preseason play with one game remaining after a 124-94 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday at Ball Arena. The last chance to earn a win is Thursday in Minnesota.
Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook were out this time for the Nuggets, leaving them with a cast of role players to fend off Oklahoma City’s full starting lineup — an inverse of Sunday’s game, when Denver ran the starters for three quarters against Phoenix’s bench.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he had planned to rest Murray for this game even before his knee started bothering him Sunday while warming up.
What awaits Strawther after outstanding preseason?
Denver’s clear standout performers this preseason (other than the three-time MVP) have been Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther, both of whom continued to carry the offense during the first-half minutes Tuesday. Strawther made his first five shots, including 3-pointers in rhythm, a driving floater and a couple of buckets in the lane, where he used his footwork or body to go up strong through traffic. He finished with 12 points.
Most importantly in these four games, he is 8 for 18 from distance, where his teammates have struggled. Christian Braun, who’s expected to start at shooting guard over Strawther, is 1 for 13. That probably won’t change how the rotation will shake out, though.
“Obviously it’s never going to be just about who’s playing better in a vacuum,” Malone said when asked about the position battle. “It’s always going to be about, yes, who’s playing well, but also who complements that unit. And right now to be honest, I think C.B. and Jamal and Michael and Aaron (Gordon) and Nikola, that’s a group that really complements each other well. I think (Russell Westbrook), when we get Peyton Watson back — and that’s been really hard for us, not to have Peyton — but I think Russ, Julian, Peyton, Dario (Saric) and whoever else, I think that’s a really good complementary group as well. But I will give Julian some more chances to get out there and start and play with that (starting) group.”
Watson (hamstring) still hasn’t played this preseason, but Malone says the plan is to have him ready for the season opener next Thursday at Ball Arena.
Nnaji puts together consecutive good games
As frustrated as Malone was with his team’s collective performance against the Suns on Sunday, he pointed to Zeke Nnaji’s fourth-quarter minutes as one of the few positives.
Nnaji earned a starting nod Tuesday and built on his productive outing with 11 points, three rebounds, two steals and three blocks, including one against Jalen Williams in space. There were occasional lapses, too — a ball-screen miscommunication leading to an easy dunk in the first half, a ball fake getting him to leave his feet for a blow-by in the second half — but the highlights should be a welcomed confidence boost. Nnaji’s form has looked smoother, too. He buried a couple of 3s Tuesday.
Before opening tip, Malone gave a candid answer when asked if he believes Nnaji is better at the four or the five, speaking to the general skill set the coach wants to see from Nnaji.
“I don’t get into all that. I think that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Malone said. “‘Are you a four or are you a five?’ In today’s NBA, you’re a big, you’re a small. … This is not 1980s where it’s three-out, two-in. Zeke’s a big. So go out there and play your game. I mean, is Dario Saric a center in anybody’s eyes? Well, he is for us. So yeah, the whole four (or) five thing, I just don’t really understand.”
Two-way guard sneaks up depth chart
Without Murray and Westbrook, this exhibition offered a glimpse of other ways the Nuggets can initiate offense. They used a variety of players to bring the ball up, from Aaron Gordon to Strawther to Braun. And notably, in Malone’s nine-man rotation during the early stages of the game, two-way player Trey Alexander made an appearance over Jalen Pickett, who checked in during the third quarter and played most of the second half.
If there’s anything definitive from Denver’s 0-4 preseason start, it’s that the end of the bench just doesn’t have much to work with. Malone has turned red in the face during the second halves of every game so far. The Nuggets held up pretty well against a mismatch in the first half without Jokic — it was after halftime that they fell apart again.
John Fabbricatore enforced federal immigration laws in his position as an ICE field office director until two years ago, and now he hopes to help secure America’s borders as a congressman.
The Republican candidate in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District is drawing on his career with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as he runs against U.S. Rep. Jason Crow in the Nov. 5 election. Crow, a Democrat, just finished his third term in Congress as the representative of the district, which includes Aurora, Littleton, Englewood, Greenwood Village and Centennial.
The odds weigh heavily in Crow’s favor. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report doesn’t consider the fight for the 6th District to be competitive. It’s ranked as solidly Democratic, in part because Crow, 45, won all three of his elections by double-digit percentages and redistricting in 2020 resulted in boundaries more favorable to Democrats.
That’s a change from 2018 when the district was seen as a battleground and Crow won his first race by unseating then-U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, now Aurora’s mayor.
But this time, Fabbricatore, 52, says voters are looking for a candidate who will prioritize the economy and lower taxes — and he contends that he’s the person for the job.
“They want someone that wants to fight,” Fabbricatore said.
He and Crow share certain traits. They’re both veterans: Fabbricatore served in the U.S. Air Force, and Crow was an Army Ranger. They’re hunters, each having longstanding experience with firearms. Neither hails from Colorado originally, with Fabbricatore raised in New York City and Crow in Madison, Wisconsin.
And the candidates, both fathers of two children, reside in Aurora.
Beyond that, their stances on major issues diverge — including on immigration, which Fabbricatore refers to as his “subject matter expertise.”
He argues jobs are going to immigrants compensated with lower wages, taking positions that could be filled by Americans for higher pay. Fabbricatore says he supports “legal, vetted” immigration and more stringent enforcement of existing laws.
“If we actually just enforce those laws, we will be doing much better than we are doing today with immigration,” he said.
In recent weeks, Fabbricatore has raised the alarm alongside former President Donald Trump and other conservatives about the presence of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora — while Crow has called out exaggerations and criticized Trump for distorting the problems in certain apartment complexes.
Crow notes that he represents “one of the most diverse districts in the nation,” with nearly 20% of his constituents born outside of the U.S. He wants to use federal grants and other programs to help immigrants and defend them against racist rhetoric.
He said he backed a bipartisan immigration deal that ran aground earlier this year after failing to earn enough Republican support. It would have boosted the number of border patrol agents, immigration judges and officers that oversee asylum cases, as well as established more legal pathways for migrants and others without documentation.
Fabbricatore said in a Denver Post candidate questionnaire that he would not have supported the bipartisan bill, instead preferring another bill with a greater focus on border security.
Gun violence is what motivated Crow to run for office. He backs a ban on assault weapons and supports universal background checks. He’s also working to pass a bill that would apply the same restrictions to out-of-state residents when they purchase long guns and shotguns as they face when buying handguns — requiring that the gun be shipped to a federally licensed seller in their home state, with a background check performed there.
Gun violence is “just an unacceptable, avoidable, ongoing national tragedy,” Crow said. “We don’t have to live with mass shootings.”
Fabbricatore says he believes in gun rights and is instead pushing for investments in mental health.
The candidates differ on abortion. Crow favors abortion rights, saying he aligns with the majority of Coloradans who back legal access to abortion — and he would support a federal law establishing that as a right. Fabbricatore says Congress should leave abortion’s legal status to the states. He opposes abortion, but he says he recognizes a need for exceptions, including in cases of rape.
“Having been someone who worked in sex trafficking and saw what many women went through, I could never tell a woman that she couldn’t have a medical procedure to end what happened to her,” he said.
Fabbricatore points to the economy as his No. 1 issue, saying it’s impacted by energy policy and immigration. He sees Colorado’s potential to participate in the energy sector through solar, wind, fracking and coal.
He says he wants to leave the younger generations with a prosperous economy, reliable job market and reasonable housing prices.
Crow says the nation’s inflation and interest rates are dropping, but he contends that prices are still “way too high for many Coloradans.”
He points to corporate price gouging as a contributing factor. Crow argues that the labor shortage, which drives up prices, could be addressed through immigration reform.
“There’s more work to do, but we’re on a good path — and certainly need to keep on the path that we are to make sure things are affordable,” Crow said.
The 2023 Kansas City Royals were embarrassed. A 106-loss season can — and should — do that to a major league team.
Royals owner John Sherman said something about it. Then he did something about it.
“It sucked,” Sherman told MLB.com at the end of spring training. “But that’s what motivates you. Sometimes, you need that slap upside the head, right? We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we cannot tolerate something like that again for our fans.”
So the Royals went big and bold.
Their aggressiveness stoked a remarkable 30-game about-face (56-106 last season to 86-76 this season), a two-game sweep of the Orioles in the American League wild-card series, and a berth in the ALDS before they fell in four games to the Yankees.
By beating the Orioles, Kansas City became just the second team to win a postseason series one year after losing at least 100 games. The other was the 2020 Marlins, who snuck into the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 60-game season.
Rockies fans should hope owner Dick Monfort was paying attention.
Monfort’s club, which lost 103 games last season and 101 this season, is making some strides toward a turnaround with some young talent on the roster and in the system. But does the will and the wherewithal exist at 20th and Blake to put the Rockies in position for a playoff swing?
“Our talent base is getting better,” Schmidt said at the end of the season. “Our depth is getting better. I’m not going to say we’re going from this year to win 95 next year. Our record this year might be similar (to 2023), but we’re going to be a better club.”
Asked if Colorado can mimic the Royals and the Tigers (who went from 78-84 to 86-76 and the playoffs), Black answered: “Kansas City? Detroit? Anything is possible. When I got here in ’17 … what happened in ’16? (Colorado was 75-87 under Walt Weiss.) And then we made the playoffs. I’m going to say yes. I’m optimistic.”
But the Rockies aren’t the Royals and Monfort is not Sherman.
During the offseason, K.C. committed $109.5 million to free agents, the most money in any offseason in franchise history, including free-agent starting pitcher signees Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha. They also signed their star shortstop, Bobby Witt Jr., to a contract extension that could add up to $377 million over 14 years.
The Royals’ first big roster move was signing free-agent pitcher Will Smith for the back end of their bullpen. Smith had been on the roster of the last three World Series champions, with the Rangers, Astros and Braves.
During the season, when they sensed success was on the horizon, they acquired closer Lucas Erceg and outfielder Tommy Pham.
The Royals, who had not been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2015, created an effective roster mix. Their postseason roster featured 12 homegrown players, including draftees and international signees. The other 14 players came from trades and free agency. Of those 14 players, 11 had previous postseason experience.
The Royals are far from a powerhouse franchise. Last season, they averaged just 16,136 fans per game at Kauffman Stadium, ranking 27th in the majors, ahead of only the Marlins and the A’s. This season, the Royals drew 20,473, ranking 26th.
According to Spotrac, Kansas City’s total payroll this season was $122.5 million, ranking 20th. Last year, it was $96.1 million (23rd).
After the 106-loss debacle, GM J.J. Picollo immediately began reshaping the front office. He hired Brian Bridges as the new scouting director, promoted Jim Cuthbert to director of pro personnel and strategy, and beefed up the preseason and development department by hiring six new people.
And so the seeds of a playoff team were planted.
The Rockies, meanwhile, have some distinct advantages over the Royals. They drew 31,360 fans per home game this season, ranking 15th. Their payroll was $147.4 million (17th).
The problem is not the Rockies’ failure to spend money; it’s how they’ve spent it. This season, $28 million (19%) of Colorado’s payroll went to the perennially injured Kris Bryant, who played in just 37 games with 155 plate appearances. For the record, that amounts to about $757,000 per game.
Giving former closer Daniel Bard a two-year, $19 million deal for the 2023-24 season was also a big misstep. Bard, derailed by injuries, did not pitch a game in ’24.
With pitching prospects Chase Dollander, Carson Palmquist, Sean Sullivan and Gabriel Hughes nearing their big-league debuts, the starting rotation has a chance to be better and deeper than it’s been since 2018. We know that free-agent starters aren’t going to come to Colorado, so the Rockies will need their youngsters to make the big-league grade.
But even if they do, as soon as next season, the Rockies’ tepid offense has a huge strikeout problem that must be solved. For all of the optimism about the bullpen during the season’s final month, it remains a huge question mark. Plus, the Rockies lack a middle-of-the-lineup slugger.
After their 106-loss season, the Royals faced similar dilemmas. Their offseason blueprint included finding two quality veteran starting pitchers, a trio of tested relievers, and a big bat. They acquired all of the pieces and more.
The Rockies, in the hole with a losing record for six consecutive seasons, believe they’ve moved into the on-deck circle. Now it’s time for them to prove they’re serious about stepping up to the plate.
Late this summer, before Columbine began defending its Class 5A football title, senior offensive/defensive lineman DJ Ironshell summed up the Rebels’ football philosophy.
“We just run the ball and let the pads do the talking,” he said.
The Rebels’ pads talked plenty of smack Friday in their 35-14 win over Arvada West at Jeffco Stadium. But the other key in Columbine’s 21st straight victory was its penchant for big plays in big moments.
The first two drives of the game illustrated the point.
A-West, expertly guided by junior quarterback Logan Duhachek, put together an opening 16-play, 52-yard drive to eat nearly nine minutes off the clock. The Wildcats had first-and-10 at the Columbine 17-yard line, but senior linebacker Rory Marez sacked Duhachek for a 9-yard loss. On the next play, sophomore Keith Fischer sacked Duhachek for 11 yards. The Wildcats had to settle for a 52-yard field goal attempt that fell short and wide.
“I think big plays was it for us tonight,” coach Andy Lowry said. “Our defense gave up a lot of yards in between but we got the big plays when we needed them. They had a lot of long drives but came up empty a lot.”
The Rebels’ rushing attack, as it almost always does, produced from the get-go. On Columbine’s first play from scrimmage, junior Mark Snyder bounced off a tackle at the line of scrimmage, cut inside, and sailed 80 yards for a touchdown.
“It wasn’t supposed to go that way, but I just cut back and was in the clear,” said Snyder, who rushed for 166 yards and three touchdowns on 11 carries. “I’m not sure they even knew I had the ball.”
That’s the way the night went. Talented A-West, which fell to 5-2, put up plenty of yards through the air and put together three impressive long drives, but the relentless Rebels (6-0) had a big-play answer every time.
A-West tied the game, 7-7, late in the first quarter on a perfect 26-yard yard touchdown pass from Duhachek to junior wide receiver Keegean Balistreri. Duhachek finished the night completing 30 of 41 passes for 338 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw three interceptions.
The Rebels quickly retaliated, stinging the Wildcats with a six-play, 59-yard drive with Snyder powering in from the 3-yard line.
Two killer moments haunted A-West just before halftime.
With 16 seconds left, Columbine senior running back James Basinger pulled off a remarkable 20-yard TD jaunt — near the end zone he put a hand down to stay on his feet and pinballed off would-be tacklers — to put Columbine ahead, 21-7. Basinger rushed for 173 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries.
On the ensuing kickoff, A-West’s Caleb Gomez almost returned the ball for a touchdown, but he was dragged down at the 2 as time expired. The Wildcats were also called for holding during the return.
Snyder’s second game-buster of the night came on the fourth play of the second half. He burst through the middle for a 56-yard TD run to give the Rebels a 28-7 lead. That clinched the game for the Rebels.
“James (Basinger) and Mark (Synder) had some monster runs tonight,” Lowry said. “They’re pretty special.”
Columbine’s Mark Snyder (11) protects the ball while charging to the end zone for a touchdown against Arvada West LB Caleb Gomez (27) in the first quarter at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood, Colorado Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Columbine has been dealing with an assortment of bumps, bruises and minor injuries, so practice time was limited for several players this week.
“We have some pretty low numbers (of players) this year and a lot of our guys are playing both ways, so we’re pretty beat up right now,” Lowry said. “This was a next-guy-up night for us. A lot of guys got reps tonight. Right now, we’re just trying to get healthy.”
Next up is a showdown against No. 6 Ralston Valley (6-1).
“We have a big week coming up,” he said. “Last year, our win against Ralston was kind of a turning point for us. They had beaten us the previous couple of years, but last year we came out and out-hit them. That kind of turned it around and everybody kind of noticed how tough our kids were.”
Then there’s Caroline Calloway. The influencer and author, who lives in Sarasota, drew the ire of the internet when she posted on X “where there’s a Callowill, there’s a Calloway” and said she wouldn’t be leaving her home, even as officials were stressing the importance of evacuating. (“You are going to die,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned anyone who stayed put.) In an interview with New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, Calloway said she was staying to check on elderly neighbors, adding that her sense of humor is just “very dark.” On Thursday, she apparently sent a text to Intelligencer’s writer with a picture of herself and her cat with the message “I lived bitch.”
All of this wouldn’t feel so dystopian if the US—and the world—wasn’t hurtling toward a scenario when social media platforms, particularly TikTok, weren’t becoming a lot of people’s go-to news source. Even as Anderson Cooper braves the storm to give CNN viewers updates on Milton, a new report from Pew Research shows 52 percent of Americans who are on TikTok regularly get their news there. Not from media outlets, but from influencers and content creators.
While these accounts may be relying on reports from traditional outlets when they deliver news, their posts are “probably interspersed with a lot of very non-traditional content—like skits, funny dances or promotional content,” Aaron Smith, Pew’s managing director of data labs, told Axios. On-the-ground reporting from influencers, then, becomes mixed with entertainment. Watching it, or, admittedly, writing about it, feels like missing the point.
Loose Threads:
Lots of people were following the Waffle House Index during Hurricane Milton: If you don’t know, the Waffle House Index tracks whether or not a local outpost of the chain is open in a given location. If it’s closed, the coming storm is probably bad, because Waffle House prides itself on keeping its restaurants open as often as possible. When the chain closed several locations, people took notice.
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The Fat Bear contest has a winner: Grazer beat Chunk to win Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest. It was her second win, and she defeated the bear who killed her cub earlier this year.
Stay safe hiking out there: Thanks to a video from @stanchrissss, lots of people are posting TikToks demonstrating the ways they show people who they are while passing on hiking trails. For @stanchrissss and friends, it’s showing women they’re gay/uninterested. For one woman, it’s saying things like “I shot him twice and he cried.”
The Ohio mystery rug discoverer says she got hacked: A lot has happened to Katie Santry since that whole haunted rug thing we told you about last week. Including, maybe, getting hacked.
During Sean Payton’s study of Bo Nix ahead of the 2024 NFL draft, the Broncos head coach was galvanized by the quarterback’s ability to avoid getting sacked.
In his first season in Denver, there was a sense of frustration about the amount of sacks former quarterback Russell Wilson had taken. And he knew his next signal caller had to prevent putting himself in those minus yard situations.
Five weeks into the season, Nix hasn’t been perfect but has proven to be a hard player to take down, which Payton attributes to his sneaky quick speed and being a quality processor.
“Getting through a progression quickly is extremely helpful in avoiding unnecessary sacks,” Payton said after Wednesday’s practice. “His ability to process has helped that greatly.”
In Wilson’s final season of his short two-year tenure with the Broncos, he was one of the league’s most sacked quarterbacks. He was taken down 45 times — fourth-most in the NFL — despite having the second-longest time to throw (3.06 seconds), according to Next Gen Stats.
Part of the issue was Wilson holding on to the ball longer than he should. Wilson was responsible for 24.3% of his sacks, according to Pro Football Focus, the highest percentage among quarterbacks in 2023.
Nix has had his fair share of struggles, but evading pressure has been his strength thus far. The former Oregon star has been sacked seven times, with three of those takedowns coming in Sunday’s win over the Raiders.
“I think it’s understanding timing and protections,” Nix said. “I took three on Sunday and I wish I could have them back (because) sacks kill drives.”
Nix was sacked six times in each of the two seasons with the Ducks, according to Pro Football Focus. Even though the pro level is more sped up compared to college, he has figured out a way to avoid getting hit.
Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said Nix is aware of what’s happening on the field. He thinks Nix does a solid job of going through his reads and monitoring defenses pre snap.
“That allows him to sort of evade those pressure looks, (allowing) second chances for this offense,” Surtain said. “He’s very smart back there (in the pocket). That just goes into preparation.”
Even though Nix has been praised for being a processor, his speed has had defenses on its heels. There have been a few times when Nix sensed pressure coming, turned on the jets and broke down the field for a big gain. In Week 3 against Tampa Bay, Nix escaped a potential sack before scrambling down the field for a 22-yard gain. In the fourth quarter against Las Vegas, Nix felt the pocket beginning to collapse and ran 11 yards for a first down.
“To sustain drives, I think that you have to eliminate as many minus plays as possible,” wide receiver Courtland Sutton said. “(Nix has) been doing a really good job over these past few weeks of understanding how to take care of the ball and sustain drives. It’s so much more in store.”
Hurricane Milton, one of the biggest storms in recorded history, is set to make landfall in Florida on October 9. It will likely cause tens of billions of dollars of damage and could kill or injure many people who are unable to evacuate Tampa Bay and the surrounding region in time.
Iconic Director And Proud Nerd Kevin Smith On Sneaking Into Movies, Mallrats, And More
And yet, some influencers, TikTok content creators, and streamers are claiming that they will stick around and livestream through the historic storm. It’s a horrible idea and yet another example of how some creators are willing to do anything just to get more views, clicks, and subscribers.
On Tuesday, Forbes reported on numerous influencers who suggested in videos posted online that they would be sticking around even as Hurricane Milton makes its way closer and closer to Florida.
Influencer and writer Caroline Calloway posted on Twitter that even though her house is located in the evacuation zone and is on the beach, she won’t be leaving. Instead, she tweeted about how she’s not leaving and included an ad for her upcoming advice book. “I have champagne and four generations of Floridians in my veins. It’ll be fine,” tweeted Calloway.
Another TikTok creator, kricketfelt, has been posting videos about how her home is made out of concrete and she and her husband are going to stay and not evacuate. She’s continued to upload videos, making light of the situation, as the storm gets closer.
Meanwhile, a clip of controversial Kick Streamer Adin Ross supposedly offering people $30,000 to stick around and livestream through the hurricane went viral after being shared on Twitter and TikTok. However, during the full seven-hour livestream, it’s clear Ross isn’t offering this money to anyone and in fact, was just joking around with a friend. During that same stream, he also told viewers to evacuate Tampa Bay and suggested the hurricane was being used to “distract” people from the upcoming election. So a mixed bag.
Kotaku has reached out to Adin Ross for comment about his stream and statements.
Even though the offer wasn’t real, that didn’t stop some streamers from claiming that they were streaming live from Florida in the path of the hurricane. One Kick streamer, MikeSmallsJr, claimed to be streaming from Florida with nothing but an air mattress and some snacks. During one moment of his stream, he admitted that Ross’ offer wasn’t real and was taken out of context, but suggested the streamer still should pay him something for what he was doing.
“At the end of the day, I was the first Kick streamer to do this shit during Hurricane Helene. I’m out here busting my ass to entertain the people,” said MikeSmallsJr. Later he reportedly heard he wasn’t getting anything and wasn’t happy.
Another streamer, JamesWorley, claimed to be streaming during the storm and, when asked what he would do when or if he lost cell service, said: “I guess the stream will end.” A few moments later, his stream cut off. It returned a minute later.
Kotaku wasn’t able to verify their locations, but some did at least seem to be in Florida and were streaming during large amounts of rain. The storm isn’t set to make landfall until 8 p.m. EST, though thunderstorms and tornadoes are already covering much of the Sunshine State.
The reality is that even though Adin Ross didn’t actually offer large sums of money to encourage people to stream through the storm, the comments sadly might have inspired some people to stick around even as a deadly, incredibly powerful hurricane is about to hit where they live.
For some content creators, a massive hurricane is just an opportunity to risk their lives, troll their viewers, or create “edgy” content while possibly earning more views and subscribers. All of this in an effort to conquer the algorithm and rise above the thousands and thousands of other creators out there, all trying to desperately make money on social media and streaming platforms that, more and more, feel like sinking ships and not the future of entertainment.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had to speak to Elon Musk on the phone to get the tech billionaire and Donald Trump superfan to stop spouting hurricane relief misinformation.
Buttigieg and Musk initially clashed on X last Friday, when Musk falsely claimed that the Federal Aviation Administration planned to “shut down” airspace over hard-hit states. They later spoke on the phone, Buttigieg told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, after Buttigieg corrected Musk publicly and invited the notedconspiracist to call him with questions.
“I’ve been amazed at how a little kernel of some detail gets blown up on the internet into something that it’s not,” Buttigieg told Psaki, adding that the torrent of partisan misinformation about the response to Hurricane Helene had “a real cost for people on the ground.”
Musk and Buttigieg’s specific dust-up involved temporary flight restrictions over North Carolina, where Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, has been establishing emergency internet service. “Hundreds” of pilots in the region had been unable to land because the FAA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency blocked their flights, Musk posted.
But the reality, as Buttigieg and FAA spokesmen have since explained, is less diabolical. The FAA never closed down airspace over North Carolina. In some areas, however, at the request of local law enforcement, the FAA and state aviation agencies have required what Buttigieg called a “higher level of coordination” between pilots and local airports to prevent in-air collisions. Such requirements are standard in the aftermath of major natural disasters, when nearby air space can become dangerously crowded.
That explanation appeared to work for Musk, who on Friday afternoon posted a message thanking Buttigieg for the call and helping to “simplify” FAA regulations. But he still hasn’t walked back any of his false or misleading posts, which also claimed that federal aid workers “seized” emergency aid shipments and exhausted their agency’s budget “ferrying illegals” to the U.S.
Experts who research emergency management have grieved the vibe shift on X, which once served as a useful source of real-time disaster information. Today, it’s ground zero for a wider right-wing disinformation campaign about the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.
“You look at what’s going on online [and] a lot of it seems to be driven by politics,” Buttigieg said. “And that is actively harming and disrupting the process of getting back to normal for so many people whose lives were upended by this awful storm.”
JERUSALEM — A year after Hamas’ fateful attack on southern Israel, the Middle East is embroiled in a war that shows no signs of ending and seems to be getting worse.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive was initially centered on the Gaza Strip. But the focus has shifted in recent weeks to Lebanon, where airstrikes have given way to a fast-expanding ground incursion against Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war began.
Next in Israel’s crosshairs is archenemy Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other anti-Israel militants in the region. After withstanding a massive barrage of missiles from Iran last week, Israel has promised to respond. The escalating conflict risks drawing deeper involvement by the U.S., as well as Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
When Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, it called on the Arab world to join it in a concerted campaign against Israel. While the fighting has indeed spread, Hamas and its allies have paid a heavy price.
The group’s army has been decimated, its Gaza stronghold has been reduced to a cauldron of death, destruction and misery and the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed in audacious attacks.
Although Israel appears to be gaining the edge militarily, the war has been problematic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too.
Dozens of Israeli hostages are languishing in Hamas captivity, and a year after Netanyahu pledged to crush the group in “total victory,” remnants of the militant group are still battling in pockets of Gaza. The offensive in Lebanon, initially described as “limited,” grows by the day. A full-on collision with Iran is a possibility.
At home, Netanyahu faces mass protests over his inability to bring home the hostages, and to many, he will be remembered as the man who led Israel into its darkest moment. Relations with the U.S. and other allies are strained. The economy is deteriorating.
Here are five takeaways from a yearlong war that has upended longstanding assumptions and turned conventional wisdom on its head.
A region is torn apart by unthinkable death and destruction
A long list of previously unthinkable events have occurred in mind-boggling fashion.
The Oct. 7 attack was the bloodiest in Israel’s history. Young partygoers were gunned down. Cowering families were killed in their homes. In all, about 1,200 people died and 250 were taken hostage. Some Israelis were raped or sexually assaulted.
The ensuing war in Gaza has been the longest, deadliest and most destructive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gaza health authorities say nearly 42,000 people have been killed — roughly 2% of the territory’s entire population. Although they do not give a breakdown between civilians and combatants, more than half of the dead have been women and children. Numerous top Hamas officials have been killed.
The damage and displacement in Gaza have reached unseen levels. Hospitals, schools and mosques – once thought to be insulated from violence – have repeatedly been targeted by Israel or caught in the crossfire. Scores of journalists and health workers have been killed, many of them while working in the line of duty.
Months of simmering tensions along Israel’s northern border recently boiled over into war.
A growing list of Hezbollah officials – including the group’s longtime leader — have been killed by Israel. Hundreds of Hezbollah members were killed or maimed in explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies. Israel’s ground offensive is its first in Lebanon since a monthlong war in 2006.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced tens of thousands of Israelis and over 1 million Lebanese. Israel promises to keep pounding Hezbollah until its residents can return to homes near the Lebanese border; Hezbollah says it will keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
The leaders of Hamas and Israel appear in no rush for a cease-fire
When the war erupted, the days appeared to be numbered for both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Netanyahu’s public standing plummeted as he faced calls to step aside. Sinwar fled into Gaza’s labyrinth of tunnels as Israel declared him a “dead man walking.”
Yet both men — facing war crimes charges in international courts — remain firmly in charge, and neither appears to be in a rush for a cease-fire.
The end of the war could mean the end of Netanyahu’s government, which is dominated by hard-line partners opposed to a cease-fire. That would mean early elections, potentially pushing him into the opposition while he stands trial on corruption charges. Also looming is the prospect of an unflattering official inquiry into his government’s failures before and during the Oct. 7 attack.
Fearing that, his coalition has hung together even through mass protests and repeated disagreements with top security officials pushing for a deal to bring home the hostages. After a brief period of post-Oct. 7 national unity, Israel has returned to its divided self — torn between Netanyahu’s religious, conservative, nationalist right-wing base and his more secular, middle-class opposition.
Sinwar, believed to be hiding in Gaza’s tunnels, continues to drive a hard bargain in hopes of declaring some sort of victory. His demands for a full Israeli withdrawal, a lasting cease-fire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for scores of hostages have been rejected by Israel — even as much of the international community has embraced them.
With cease-fire efforts deadlocked and Netanyahu’s far-right coalition firmly intact, the war could go on for some time. An estimated 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced in Gaza while an estimated 68 hostages remain captive in Gaza, in addition to the bodies of 33 others held by Hamas.
Bitter enemies experience the limits of force
Early in the war, Netanyahu promised to destroy Hamas’ military and governing abilities.
Those goals have been achieved in many ways. Israel says it has dismantled Hamas’ military structure, and its rocket barrages have been diminished to a trickle. With Israeli troops stationed indefinitely in Gaza, it is difficult to see how the group could return to governing the territory or pose a serious threat.
But in other ways, total victory is impossible. Despite Israel’s overwhelming force, Hamas units have repeatedly regrouped to stage guerrilla-style ambushes from areas where Israel has withdrawn.
Across the Middle East, bitter enemies are witnessing the limits of force and deterrence.
Israel’s deepening invasion of Lebanon and repeated strikes on Hezbollah have failed to halt the rockets and missiles. Missile and drone attacks by Iran and its allies have only deepened Israel’s resolve. Israel is vowing to strike Iran hard after its latest missile barrage, raising the likelihood of a broader, regionwide war.
Without diplomatic solutions, the fighting is likely to persist.
Israel and Gaza will never be the same
Israel is still deeply traumatized as people try to come to terms with the worst day in its history.
The Oct. 7 killings and kidnappings had an outsized impact on a tiny country founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Israelis’ sense of security was shattered, and their faith in the military was tested like never before.
Photos of Israeli hostages are everywhere, and mass demonstrations are held each week calling on the government to reach a deal to bring them home. The prospect of ongoing war looms over families and workplaces as reserve soldiers brace for repeated tours of duty.
The trauma is far more acute in Gaza – where an estimated 90% of the population remains displaced, many of them living in squalid tent camps.
The scenes have drawn comparisons to what the Palestinian call the Nakba, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. The Palestinians now find themselves looking at a tragedy of even greater scale.
It remains unclear when displaced Palestinians in Gaza will be able to return home and whether there will be anything to return to. The territory has suffered immense destruction and is littered with unexploded bombs. Children are missing a second consecutive school year, virtually every family has lost a relative in the fighting and basic needs like food and health care are lacking.
After a hellish year, the Palestinians of Gaza have no clear path forward, and it could take generations to recover.
Old formulas for pursuing Mideast peace no longer work
The international community’s response to this bloodiest of wars has been tepid and ineffective.
Repeated cease-fire calls have been ignored, and a U.S.-led plan to reinstate the Palestinian Authority in postwar Gaza has been rejected by Israel. It remains unclear who will run the territory in the future or who will pay for a cleanup and reconstruction effort that could take decades.
One thing that seems clear is that old formulas will no longer work. The international community’s preferred peace formula – the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – seems hopelessly unrealistic.
Israel’s hard-line government opposes Palestinian statehood, says its troops will remain in Gaza for years to come and has further cemented its undeclared annexation of the West Bank. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has been pushed to the brink of irrelevance.
For decades, the United States has acted as the key mediator and power broker in the region – calling for a two-state solution but showing little political will to promote that vision. Instead, it has often turned to conflict management, preventing any side from doing anything too extreme to destabilize the region.
This approach went up in smoke on Oct. 7. Since then, the U.S. has responded with a muddled message of criticizing Israel’s wartime tactics as too harsh while arming the Israeli military and protecting Israel against diplomatic criticism. The result: The Biden administration has managed to antagonize both Israel and the Arab world while cease-fire efforts repeatedly sputter.
This approach has also alienated the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, complicating Kamala Harris’ presidential aspirations. The warring sides appear to have given up on the Biden administration and are waiting for the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election before deciding their next moves.
Whoever wins the race will almost certainly have to find a new formula and recalibrate decades of American policy if they want to end the war.
After being introduced by Donald Trump as the guy who “saved free speech,” Elon Musk took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, jumping up and down to the crowd’s roaring welcome as he wore an Occupy Mars T-shirt and an all-black Make America Great Again hat.
“As you can see,” Musk adjusted his hat as he began the speech, “I’m not just MAGA, I’m dark MAGA.”
Trump’s return to the scene exactly twelve weeks after the first failed assassination attempt on his life, and one month until Election Day, “featured prayer, opera, parachute divers, and an artist who did a live painting of Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter killed in the shocking attack of July 13,” per reporting from Axios. Pennsylvania remains one of—if not the—most crucial states for Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on the road to 270.
“Now, America is the home of the brave, and there’s no truer test than courage under fire,” Musk, who officially endorsed Trump following the gunman nearly killing him, gestured to the former president.
Musk has, to date, spent considerable cash and effort in support of getting Trump into the White House, even co-founding a super political-action committee to do just that. A new investigation published this week by The Wall Street Journalfound that, in the past couple of years, “The Tesla CEO quietly gave tens of millions of dollars to groups with ties to Trump aide Stephen Miller and supporters of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential bid.” The Journal added that these contributions “make him one of the biggest donors to conservative causes, which in combination with his large social-media following makes him one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics.”
The billionaire’s speech primarily focused on getting people to register to vote and opt for Trump—and he did that by echoing some of the same alarmist language that the former president has employed. “This is a must-win situation. Must win. So I have one ask for everyone in the audience, everyone who watches this video, everyone on livestream. There’s one request, it’s very important: Register to vote, okay, and get everyone you know, and everyone you don’t know,” Musk said, adding, “Like, text people now. NOW. And then make sure they actually do vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction. Nothing is more important. Nothing is more important.”
Trump has repeatedly made the claim that if Christian Americans vote for him this time, they’ll never have to vote again.
“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” the Republican presidential nominee told a crowd at the Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit in July. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”
Yet, as Musk spoke in Butler, he argued that electing Trump is the sole way to preserve democracy. “You must have free speech in order to have democracy, that’s why it’s the First Amendment. And the Second Amendment is there to ensure that we have the First Amendment,” he said with a laugh. “President Trump must win to preserve the constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America.”
Like many other current Trump fans, their relationship hasn’t always been so rosy. Trump has previously suggested that Musk was cozying up to the Joe Biden administration “because of all the government subsidies he gets, and all the permits he needs.” And in July of 2022, Trump posted on Truth Social about Musk asking for his favor while in office.
“When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it’s electric cars that don’t drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he’d be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican,” Trump began, adding, “I could have said, ‘drop to your knees and beg,’ and he would have done it…”
For the first time, Coloradans have a clear picture of where they can go for sometimes-controversial health services such as abortion, gender-affirming care or medical aid-in-dying.
In much of the state, though, the answer is “nowhere close.”
Hospitals are required to disclose data about restrictions on 66 services related to reproductive, gender-affirming and end-of-life care to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment under a law passed in 2023. Starting this month, they also must provide copies of their disclosure forms to patients ahead of their appointments.
Only three Colorado counties — Denver, Douglas and Weld — have unrestricted access in at least one hospital to three services from the list that The Denver Post sampled.
Access to gender-affirming surgery was especially limited; only 13 of Colorado’s 64 counties have a hospital without non-medical restrictions on a double mastectomy, also known as “top surgery,” for gender affirmation. (Eighteen counties have no hospital within their borders, and the rest either don’t offer mastectomies to anyone or restricted who could receive one.)
Nor was access to the other sampled services much broader.
Thirteen Colorado counties have a hospital that would assist with a request for medical aid-in-dying without religious or other non-medical limitations, and 15 have one that would provide comprehensive treatment for a miscarriage, which can include drugs and procedures used in induced abortions.
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Facilities that restrict the services they offer aren’t likely to make changes because of the law — particularly since many of the restrictions stem from religious beliefs — but at least patients will know what to expect when they go for care, said Dr. Patricia Gabow, a former CEO of Denver Health who has written about the intersection of religion and health care.
Of course, transparency only does so much for people who live in a county where the only hospitals are Catholic-owned, Gabow said. Catholic hospitals, which include those owned by CommonSpirit Health and some belonging to Intermountain Health, generally don’t offer contraception, sterilization, gender-affirming care, medical aid-in-dying or abortion.
“People who live in Durango, I don’t know what they’re supposed to do,” she said.
Mercy Hospital in that city follows Catholic ethical and religious directives for health care, and the closest hospital that offers comprehensive reproductive services or assistance with medical aid-in-dying is in Del Norte, about two and a half hours away.
Catholic doctrine requires health care providers to “respect all stages of life,” and not participate in procedures such as medical aid-in-dying or sterilization without a medical reason, said Lindsay Radford, spokeswoman for CommonSpirit Health, which owns Mercy.
The system’s hospitals work with patients and their families to provide appropriate pain and symptom relief as they near death, she said.
“We respect and honor the physician-patient relationship, and medical decisions are made by a patient and their doctor. Patients who seek care at a CommonSpirit Health hospital or clinic are fully informed of all treatment options, including those we do not perform,” she said in a statement.
Geographic and political differences
Generally, access to potentially controversial services was greater in more areas with larger populations, though with significant exceptions.
Both of Jefferson County’s hospitals, St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, won’t allow measures to end a pregnancy if a fetus still has a heartbeat.
The state’s form conflates “threatened” and “completed” miscarriages, said Sara Quale, spokeswoman for Intermountain Health, which owns Lutheran Hospital. The hospital doesn’t restrict care once a fetus has died, but if it still has a heartbeat, doctors attempt to treat whatever is causing the miscarriage, she said. The most common cause of miscarriages is a problem with a fetus’s chromosomes, which doesn’t allow it to survive and has no treatment.
In contrast, people in rural Prowers County on the Eastern Plains can get comprehensive miscarriage treatment without driving elsewhere. So can residents of Rio Grande County.
Local politics also don’t necessarily match up with access.
The three counties that had at least one hospital offering unrestricted access to the three sampled services were deep-blue Denver and thoroughly red Weld and Douglas.
While their residents might differ on many issues, Weld and Douglas counties shared one common characteristic with Denver: They’re home to at least one hospital owned by a secular system, such as UCHealth, Denver Health or HCA HealthOne.
At least 22 hospitals in Colorado have religious restrictions on care options: 17 owned or formerly owned by Catholic organizations, and five affiliated with the Adventist faith. In some cases, when a hospital changes hands, provisions of the deal require the new owner to honor the seller’s religious and ethical rules, even if the buyer is secular.
Some secular organizations also listed certain services as restricted.
UCHealth generally doesn’t serve patients under 15, while Denver Health doesn’t provide abortions under certain circumstances because of concerns about losing federal funding, spokesman Dane Roper said.
The seven HealthOne hospitals also had non-religious restrictions, but didn’t specify their nature. Banner Health didn’t respond to inquiries about service limitations at its five Colorado hospitals.
Informed decision-making
So far, Colorado is the only state that requires hospitals to directly tell patients when they don’t offer services for religious or other non-medical reasons, said Alison Gill, vice president of legal and policy with American Atheists, which supported the law as it went through the legislature.
That provision will be important not only for Coloradans seeking care, but for people traveling to the state because of its welcoming policies around reproductive and gender-affirming care, she said.
“We are encouraging other states to enact similar provisions because it is essential to provide patients with information about service availability so that they can make informed decisions about their health care,” she said.
The law has some limitations, said Gabow, formerly of Denver Health. For example, an outpatient gynecology office owned by a religious health system doesn’t have to give patients the disclosure form, and insurers don’t have to include hospitals offering care without limitations in their networks, she said.
Colorado’s law won’t inherently increase access to health care, but it may prevent surprises for patients who don’t know to look up the closest hospital’s religious affiliation or don’t realize it could affect them, said Dr. Sam Doernberg, a physician researcher at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Doernberg wrote a study that found 132 counties nationwide had “religious monopolies” in their hospital markets as of 2020. The vast majority involved Catholic hospitals, and 11 involved Adventist hospitals. The study didn’t include counties that don’t have a hospital and are adjacent to a monopoly county, so the actual number where people don’t have the full range of choices may be higher, he said.
While no states have tried them yet, researchers do have a few ideas to more directly increase access to care while still respecting the religious rights of organizations that own hospitals, Doernberg said.
For example, they could directly fund public health departments so they can provide more reproductive services in areas where the dominant health system limits options, or they could require that insurance companies don’t charge patients an out-of-network rate if none of the in-network hospitals offer gender-affirming care, for example, he said.
“There are other possible solutions that are not currently being pursued,” he said.
The Colorado School of Mines football team’s three-year RMAC win streak ended in the same place the last one did — inside Stocker Stadium on the Western Slope.
Colorado Mesa quarterback Liu Aumavae threw a pair of touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, and the Mavericks rallied from 13 points down to upset fourth-ranked Mines, 14-13, and claim the Nyikos Cup on Saturday.
A two-point conversion put the Mavericks (3-2, 2-1 RMAC) over the top, with Sam Horneck getting it done on a reverse option pass that handed Mines (4-1, 2-1 RMAC) its first RMAC loss in three years.
The Orediggers’ last conference defeat also came at Colorado Mesa — a 26-21 loss on Oct. 23, 2021, that ended a 14-game conference win streak. Mines won 23 straight RMAC games after that en route to two NCAA Division II championship game trips. But after playing with fire in back-to-back narrow road wins to start the season, the Orediggers were unable to stave off the Mavericks on Saturday.
Mines quarterback Evan Foster hooked up with Max McLeod for a 10-yard touchdown in the first quarter to open the scoring. McLeod finished with seven catches for 92 yards, breaking Brody Oliver’s program record of 4,010 career receiving yards in the process.
A punt block set up the Orediggers at the Mavs’ 9-yard line in the second quarter. Three plays later, Landon Walker dove into the end zone for a 13-0 lead after Mines missed the point-after attempt.
The Orediggers didn’t score again, however, as Foster was sacked five times and finished 14-of-30 passing for 159 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
Aumavae found Trevin Edwards for a 6-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, but the PAT was blocked by Jaden Healy to keep the Orediggers’ lead at 13-6.
After Mines punted on its next possession, CMU chewed up 5 minutes, 41 seconds of clock with an 11-play, 98-yard march that ended with Aumavae connecting with Quezon Villa for a 9-yard score. After the trick play two-point conversion gave CMU a 14-13 lead, Mines had two possessions to drive for the winning score but came up empty both times. A strip sack recovered by the Mavericks ended the game.
Despite the company’s recent decision to abide by the demands of the Brazilian Supreme Court, X still isn’t back online in Brazil — and according to Reuters, that’s at least in part because it paid its fines to the wrong bank. After weeks being banned in Brazil, X in late September named a legal representative for the country as ordered, and took down accounts the court accused of spreading misinformation and hate speech. Its final hurdle was to pay off the fines that it had racked up, reportedly amounting to roughly $5 million.
Citing Friday court filings, Reuters reports that X says it’s paid the fines and requested to have services restored. But, Justice Alexandre de Moraes said the funds went to the wrong bank, and the decision will have to wait until they’ve been transferred. X maintains that it paid its fines correctly, according to Reuters. X has been banned in Brazil since the end of August. While the company initially resisted the court’s orders, it recently changed its tune and said it was working with the Brazilian government to get the platform back online in the country.
With summer officially over, it’s back to business (or school) for many people, which can mean more time writing longer things, especially on the go. The smartphone has replaced the laptop for many tasks, but when it comes to text input, tapping away on tiny onscreen keys might make you wish you had hauled along the computer just for its keyboard. Thankfully, your phone includes several features to make text entry much easier. Here are a few suggestions.
Visit your settings
Thanks to predictive text prompts, automatic punctuation and other shortcuts (like pressing vowel keys to see the pop-up menu of accent marks), typing on small glass rectangles isn’t as awkward as it used to be. To find out what features are available for your phone, start with its Settings app.
On an iPhone, tap General and then Keyboard.
For many Android phones, tap System, Keyboard, On-screen Keyboard and then Gboard (often the default app). Galaxy models typically offer the Samsung Keyboard with similar options.
You should see choices for spell-check, text correction — yes, Apple’s infamous Auto-Correction has gotten better — and other aids. For example, both the Apple iOS keyboard and the Google Gboard (which has an iOS version, too) can display a compact keyboard for easier single-handed input.
On the Gboard keyboard, press and hold the comma key for a shortcut into the settings — or tap the four-squares icon on the far left and select the One-Handed button; the same menu lets you resize or “float” the keyboard around the screen if you prefer.
Password-manager tools prevent mistyped logins, and fewer taps may help to prevent errors elsewhere. With tools like Slide to Type from Apple and Glide Typing by Google, you can drag your finger around the keyboard and the software guesses the word you want; note that the results may vary.
The keyboard can move the text-insertion cursor, too. On an iPhone, press and hold the space bar until the keyboard dims, and then drag your finger to reposition the cursor on the screen. For the Google Gboard, you can move the cursor by sliding a finger along the space bar if the “gesture cursor control” is enabled in the Glide Typing settings.
Apple and Google include keyboard layouts for typing in languages other than English or inserting emojis. You can add third-party keyboard apps, but beware of software from unfamiliar companies that could pose security risks.
Add hardware
If you have a lot of text to enter, pairing your iPhone or Android phone with an external Bluetooth keyboard (including the Magic Keyboard made by Apple) lets you switch to traditional typing hardware. You can even use navigational buttons and shortcuts with an iPhone by going to Settings, Accessibility and Keyboards and enabling the Full Keyboard Access feature.
If you don’t want to haul a full keyboard around, consider a folding model, as it can fit easily in a jacket pocket but expand into something resembling a full-size set of keys.
Traveling keyboards, which typically fold up into two or three sections when not in use, range in price from about $25 to $80 depending on the size and features.
Speak your mind
Speech-to-text technology that converts the spoken word into editable type on the screen has been around for decades and has only become more accurate as the software has improved. Many apps (including virtual assistants) can take dictation. The Apple Notes app in iOS 18 can now directly record a live audio file and transcribe it.
To use the feature on an iPhone, open Settings, select General and then Keyboard, and turn on Enable Dictation. The Auto-Punctuation option automatically inserts commands, periods and question marks as you talk, but Apple’s site has a full list of dictation commands for editing text and inserting emoji characters.
On Android phones using the Gboard keyboard, open the Settings app, go to System, select Keyboard and make sure Google Voice Typing is enabled. When you tap the microphone icon, you can start speaking or select the Info icon (an encircled “i”) to see the list of voice commands that Gboard understands, including in the Google Docs word processor. As with most dictation apps, you must call out punctation by name, like “question mark” or “new paragraph,” and other formatting.
Dictation can be helpful for quickly transcribing a lot of words, but it may not be the best method for, say, a crowded coffee shop or composing a confidential memo within earshot of co-workers. Some dictation requests are uploaded to the internet for processing and require a network connection.
But no matter how you input your text, be sure to proofread it (or have artificial intelligence do it) before you send it along, as typographical errors do have a way of sneaking in no matter how you get your words on the screen.
