Meagan

As Denver shapes the 2025 Vibrant Denver General Obligation (GO) Bond, we must ask: What does a truly vibrant city look like? Traditionally, GO bonds have funded infrastructure like parks, cultural spaces and roads…

Remnants of the COVID-19 pandemic not only damaged Colorado students’ ability to learn but also changed the way many schools function around the state — including getting rid of snow days. 

Now when a snowstorm causes schools to close, instead of bundling up and running to the nearest sledding hill, many Colorado students have to open their laptops for a day of online learning instead.

But for 12-year-old Emily Beckman, that needed to change.

“One day at school, a teacher asked what the greatest invention in the world was, and I said that it was snow days and most of my friends agreed,” Beckman said. “And we were talking and then we heard that we only get two and the rest are e-learning. So I decided to make a petition.”

That was in November, now her petition has garnered almost 3,500 signatures and the attention of her school district’s superintendent.  

Her request was simple: “Make the first six snow days of the year, which are already built into the D20 calendar, traditional snow days for all grades,” the petition reads. “This will not change the last day of school and will allow kids to be kids on these days.”

Just a little over a month later, plus a meeting with the school board, and lots of handmade pins and T-shirts, Emily’s petition has succeeded. On Jan. 24, Academy School District 20 officially announced the change in their snow day policy. 

For the remainder of the school year, “if another two weather-related closures are necessary, they will be treated as traditional snow days for all grade levels,” the district said in a statement. 

The district said it will honor Emily’s petition and make the first six snow closures traditional snow days next school year.

According to Emily’s dad, Jeremy Beckman, Emily has always had the “activist bug.” He says that he first started her willingness to champion causes close to her heart shortly after she started attending School in the Woods, a nature-based magnet school in their district.

“She had a protest in her PE class,” said Beckman. “She was mad that the boys were being mean to [the girls] in dodgeball. So she organized all the girls to sit in dodgeball until the boys agreed to be nice to them.”

Emily said she doesn’t think her activism work will end anytime soon.

“When my brother went to sixth grade, instead of letting them do a whole class book report about the Hunger Games, they took it away and had them do another book…” she said. “But I might do a petition about that … so we’re allowed to do the Hunger Games as a class together.”

For now, the 12 year old says she’s just happy her and her classmates will have their relaxing snow days back.

“I love that snow days are just a day where you can get an unexpected break from school and I love the nights before how kids are talking,” Emily told CPR News. “They say stuff like, ‘Oh, make sure to put something right by your windowsill or put a spoon under your pillow and sleep with your pajamas inside out. And then you get to sleep in that day — which is amazing and you just have a free day to do whatever you want.”

CPR News reached out to Academy School District 20, but administrators have not responded to requests for comment.

The first time Janae Burris was asked by a comedy club to leave politics out of her set, she was angry. 

“I was like, ‘how dare you?’ A Black woman is running for office and I can’t talk about it?” Burris, who is Black, recalled recently.

Burris has been a part of the Denver comedy scene for the past 10 years and travels nationally with her comedy group, “Moms Unhinged.” Last fall, after a show in Nebraska, the venue reached out to tell her they’d had to return a couple tickets after a few people in the audience were offended by a positive reference Burris made to Kamala Harris.

But at that same show, she also had a few women come up and thank her for talking about her in their deep conservative state. 

“They were whispering to me, ‘thank you for mentioning Kamala.’ And that’s all I did, was mention her, I didn’t really go into it. But a member of that audience was like, ‘we feel like we can’t speak up.’ She said it made her feel safe,” Burris said. “But on the flip side, that’s the show where we got emails from the conservative people who were like, ‘don’t even mention it.’”

Burris says comedy can be inherently political, especially depending on who’s performing. 

“I feel like when I’m on stage as a Black woman, that is a political statement already. I walk out, I’m a woman, I’m Black, everybody’s got some thoughts about it, so I feel very comfortable talking about whatever I want to talk about,” she said. 

But since then, she’s heard from more venues, reaching out ahead of shows to ask that she leave the politics out of her sets, and she’s started to see the business logic in that position.

“The more I thought through it from a professional standpoint, it was like, yeah, alright, we want to book that room again. We want to sell tickets in that town again, let’s just keep it on the light side,” Burris said. “We don’t want to pick fights. We’re just trying to earn a living.” 

She’s not the only comedian rethinking whether to include their politics on stage in this divisive era.

Bryon Graham, a comedian and former comedy beat writer for Westword, has avoided politics post-2016. That year, Graham hosted a New Talent Night at Comedy Works on election night and tried his hand at a “fairly benign anti-Trump quip” that sent the already anxious crowd into a booing frenzy. 

The initial boo came from a member in the crowd who didn’t appreciate the joke, he said, then others in the crowd started heckling the initial booer. 

“Everyone eventually settled down, but the rancor was both impossible to ignore and anathema to the sense of goodwill required for a good show. Following that night, many comedians –myself included– steered away from Trump jokes,” Graham wrote to CPR in an email. “Not so much because they were divisive, but because they were so commonplace and because their topicality had such a short shelf life.” 

It’s not surprising comedy audiences are often seeking laughs without a side of politics. Political fatigue in general is running rampant throughout the country. According to the Pew Research Center, 65 percent of people say they either always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics, and 78 percent hardly or never feel excited about politics. 

“They don’t want to talk about it. I’m guessing it is tension in their real lives, tension at work, dividing families,” Burris said. “But in this tense political climate, we’re just sidestepping it all together. We’re in a different world, we’re in a bubble. Politics don’t exist while we’re on stage. Our audience, they don’t want to hear it. They really don’t want to hear it.” 

CPR reached out to several local comedy venues for their perspective on the issue but did not receive any responses.

Local shift doesn’t match national trend 

But the same market forces that are driving politics away from local comedy stages make it a lucrative topic for comedians who find their audiences in other places.

In the worlds of online and podcast comedy, political identity can help a comedian find a built in audience.

“The first thing I’ll say is economic incentives in doing comedy today push (comedians) to declare politics,” said Nick Marx, an associate professor of film and media studies in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. “It’s very rare that you come across a comedian with a huge amount of success who you can’t identify their politics.” 

Marx is the co-author of the book, “That’s Not Funny, How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them,” which explores the rise in conservative comedy during the first presidency of Donald Trump and how those comedians began to find more space in mainstream media. 

“There was a real coming together of what were previously kind of disparate independent strains of right-wing comedy,” Marx said. “And it’s mainly that these comedians found an economic incentive to announce themselves as politically conservative, to network with one another across conservative media spaces, and they found an audience for it.” 

In his book Marx and his co-author studied Greg Gutfeld from Fox News and the podcasters Joe Rogan, Steven Crowder and Gavin McInnis, all of whom have successfully cultivated large audiences online, and many who got their start in stand-up comedy. 

“I do think the way to have a successful, sustainable career as a performer is likely to lean into one political identity and create that loyal audience,” said Marx. “Even if it means it’s half the amount of people, they’ll stick with you for that much longer, versus trying to play to people from all political persuasions.” 

Graham, the former Westword writer, says it’s all part of a shift in how fans are consuming comedy; they aren’t just going to a club and paying to see someone do their full set any more. They’re getting it everywhere from short clips on TikTok to longform comedy podcasts. 

“Frankly, I’ve fallen completely out of love with comedy because it seems like for a huge percentage of the audience, solid joke-writing and stagecraft are incidental,” Graham wrote to CPR. “What they actually want is proximity to a podcaster with whom they’ve developed a parasocial relationship.” 

For his part, Marx also notes that at the same time many comedians have an incentive to declare their politics, some politicians are using some of the tools of comedy to build on their own brand. 

He points to Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s success, in part because of the way she uses humor and a larger-than-life public persona to engage with supporters. 

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

“She’s not a comedian, but she is kind of out there,” Marx said. “Her sort of identity aligns with a broader sense of boundary-pushing and taboo-breaking that Trump kind of represents.” 

When Boebert spoke as a warm up act at a Trump rally in Aurora this past fall, she made sure to crack a few jokes. 

Talking about the southern border, she quipped, “These radical leftists think that they could tell you not to believe your eyes, they’re gaslighting you harder than a toxic ex during a break up.”

“They’re like ‘oh there’s no crisis at the border,’” She went on to laughter from the crowd. “Right, and my AR-15 is a squirt gun.”  

But while comedy can provide a useful assist for politicians working a crowd, the increasingly divisive nature of politics means more up-and-coming comedians are resigning themselves to leaving it out of their sets.

Those who, like the Denver comedian Burris, make their entire livelihood off of comedy can’t afford not to listen to what the venues — and their audiences — are saying.

“Those are the rules. Don’t offend the people with the money,” she said. “It’s annoying and it’s not as fun as when I was working at a restaurant and just doing bar shows and saying whatever I wanted to say, but I’m living the dream, earning the paycheck as a performer.”

Even if that means avoiding certain topics that once felt natural.

In recent years, more and more regional fast-food chains have expanded to Colorado. In 2020, In-N-Out drew huge lines when the California-based chain opened its first locations in the state…

After another tough year for the restaurant industry, some longtime staples are opting to close for good. At the beginning of the month, Big Red F announced that it was shuttering the LoHi location of the Post, ending the group's twenty-year run at that address…

In March, four metro Denver grocery stores were named among the worst in the country — but none of them were King Soopers locations. The Kroger grocery chain operates 118 locations in the state, but not all offer the same shopping experience…

Entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on Colorado’s agricultural resources and business climate now have another route to develop and test out their ideas in Denver. 

Colorado State University’s Spur campus, which launched its Food Innovation Center two years ago, aims to help businesses find the resources they need to be successful. The center and its team of food scientists invite participants to develop food products and identify potential markets for them, driving economic development in the state. 

Inside, you’ll find a commercial kitchen, a sensory testing lab and a soon-to-open dairy center, among other specialized testing facilities. 

Mike Gable, director of the Food Innovation Center, said that businesses both large and small come to the center for help with quality control, creating a nutrition facts panel or just to make sure that their product tastes good. 

“The Food Innovation Center is really set out to support food entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. [From] people saying, ‘I want to get my grandmother’s recipe into supermarkets,’ [to] the people that say, ‘I’ve launched brands before, I just need a food scientist to help me with shelf life,” Gabel said. 

CSU Spur Food Innovation Center

The sensory lab on site has a database of roughly 1,700 registered “taste buds” – or people who are paid to try everything from tonic water to sausage. 

“[They] just say, ‘right, that’s good, but I prefer sample A versus sample B’, or ‘I don’t taste any difference between these two’. And so that really is something helpful for a lot of the companies before they go forward with [their] launch,” Gable said. 

Sensory manager Martha Calvert builds the taste testing list around versatility. If a company wants to isolate a particular age group or see how their product will do with a Hispanic audience, she can bring together the specific type of focus group they need.

People wanting to join the list of taste buds need no special training, but if you’d like to learn how to describe food more accurately, Calvert offers the opportunity to go through a training program and serve on the descriptive panel. Right now, that panel includes about 20 trained testers with the ability to accurately describe the levels of fruitiness or earthiness in products. The group is split up into categories with specializations like wine, chocolate, and beer. 

CSU Spur Food Innovation Center

‘You forget how rich Colorado Agriculture is’ 

Beyond product development, the Food Innovation Center was also created to help agricultural producers draw revenue by turning their harvests into value-added products. For the many peach and apple producers on the Western Slope, this can look like learning to freeze-dry their fruit or turn it into a puree for breweries.

“You forget how rich Colorado agriculture is,” said Gabel. “I think when you live in the Front Range, you really kind of miss that. In the San Luis Valley, we have one of the best table potato productions, we have a lot of corn production, we have a lot of beef production. We have growers, producers, and ranchers thinking about innovation.” 

CSU Spur Food Innovation Center

Down the hall from the sensory lab, Gabel says they’ve just installed equipment for pasteurizing and homogenizing milk at the dairy lab, which should be operational by the end of the year. With the state doing more than a billion dollars in milk sales last year, the center’s users will be able to experiment with products like cheese and ice cream.

“Last January we asked people to help us come up with the Spur signature ice cream. The top one was called Mineral Mountain. It is a chocolate ice cream base with caramel toffee bites and brownie bites,” Gabel said. “So fantastic, and yeah, indulgent.”

The center also recently added a melanger and other equipment for processing cocoa to make chocolate, which will help the Willy Wonkas of the world create the perfect truffle, peppermint bark or chocolate-covered treat. On Dec. 14, families can see the campus in action for free at the upcoming Winter Wonder event. 

“You can come in, you can watch some of the entrepreneurs we work with producing their products in the kitchen. It’s an opportunity, especially [for] the younger crowd, to come in and see where their food comes from,” said Gabel. 

Denver's Jan Scott-Frazier, a prominent figure in the anime industry in both the U.S. and Japan, died on December 3 of kidney disease. She was 59…

Educational ice cream shaped like an iceberg melts to reveal a penguin or polar bear figure on top of the ice cream stick. Summer Talk Ice Cream Packaging designed by BXL teaches kids about the impact of climate change. This packaging design is powerful because it turns a simple experience of eating ice cream into […]

Foldable desk created to be ridden like an electric scooter allows you to take your office workstation to any outdoor location. Worknic Desk on Wheels is the future of portable workstations, offering a liberating way to break free from traditional office setting. Designed for the “refresh workers” of Generation Z, the desk on wheels transforms […]

Prices for health care services can vary wildly. 

Now Coloradans can compare costs for more than 260 health care services at more that 150 hospitals and facilities around the state, through an updated online tool called Shop for Care.

“Colonoscopies can be as low as $500 and as high as $5,000,” said Cari Frank, vice president of communication and marketing, with the nonprofit The Center for Improving Value in Health Care. “That’s something everybody should be getting and you definitely don’t want to be hindering people from getting a preventive service like that.”

Frank said the tool offers essentially a one-stop-shop to compare quality and prices, often helping people find affordable options that might otherwise miss.

“You can save a lot of money into the thousands of dollars by shopping for health care services,” said Frank.

And how.

A run down of the disparities between the highest and lowest prices is sometimes jaw-dropping, according to information on the center’s website.

• Hip replacements are between $3,930 and $36,040, and knee replacements can cost from $4,800 to $36,040.
• Removal of the uterus, tubes or ovaries could cost as little as $2,000 or as much as $26,660. A vaginal delivery without complications is priced between $4,580 and $15,000.
• The cost of a psychiatric diagnostic evaluation varies from $120 to $420. Shock treatment ranges from $260 to $1,300.
• A cardiovascular stress test can cost anywhere from $270 to $1,970, while an ultrasound of the heart (echocardiogram) ranges from $700 to $3,390.
• A blood test for thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) costs between $10 and $250, and a comprehensive metabolic panel ranges from $10 to $700.
• A moderately complex physical therapy evaluation can cost between $60 and $380 per unit, while physical therapy to one or more regions is $40 on the low end and $240 on the high end per unit.
• An MRI of the brain is priced between $520 and $2,360, and a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis (with contrast) costs $300 to $4,750.  

The data is based on commercial claims submitted by health insurance payers to the Colorado All Payer Claims Database.

Why the gaps between the highest and lowest prices?  

“I think that that is the million dollar question actually. There isn’t necessarily rhyme or reason in terms of why prices are so high,” Frank said. 

In some areas, rural areas may have higher costs of living. They may have to pay their providers more, “but you don’t consistently see higher prices in areas with higher cost of living. It doesn’t necessarily correlate to anything.”

It comes down to negotiations between payers, health insurance companies and government insurance programs, and the providers that they’re paying, she said.

“So it comes down to those individual negotiated rates that they come up with year after year, and usually they’re just increasing it somewhat over what they paid last year,” Frank said. 

It depends on where the two sides set that baseline to start with.

“And it doesn’t necessarily follow a specific formula that anybody that I’m aware of has ever been able to understand,” said Frank. 

Those with or without insurance can use the tool as a starting point to select a facility for the medical service or procedure they seek. For folks with insurance, actual costs will hinge on several things. Those include health status, whether the facility is in or out of network, and cost-sharing benefit plan specifics. 

For Coloradans who do not have insurance, many facilities do offer self-pay discounts. The center suggests consumers reach out directly to the facility of choice or their insurance company to estimate actual costs for services for their situation.

The tool has been available for about a decade but never had data for this many services and locations. Frank said the group typically gets around 2,000 web page hits per month for the Shop for Care tool; they hope the updated version will see even more traffic. 

“We know a lot more people could be using it and should be using it,” she said. “I think a lot of people are just, are not accustomed to shopping for healthcare is not something that we’re used to doing.”

Some people have even been able to save money on the back end of getting a service or procedure.

“We have had people actually negotiate rates down after the fact. We’ve had people come to us and say, ‘Hey, I got charged $14,000 for an X-ray of my arm. I used your tool, saw that the average is actually $2,000 and I got my bill reduced by $10,000.’”

“So that’s a really cool after the fact use case too, is that you can actually retrospectively use it as a tool to get unexpected high bills under control,” Frank said.

The four-part miniseries explores a brand-new incarnation of the Star Wars Universe you may (or may not) come to prefer.

For a while, it seemed as though Meow Wolf would never stop growing. The immersive-entertainment corporation began in 2008 as a renegade arts collective in Santa Fe; with the support of author George RR Martin, its members were able to remodel a former bowling alley into the massive House of Eternal Return in 2016…

Lois and Arn Hart have smiles and personalities that are as big as their actions and, as their name implies, hearts.

The longtime Colorado residents put their focus into philanthropy, and their most recent act of helping others comes in the form of donations to the McKee Wellness Foundation to provide the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority and Berthoud Fire Protection District with new AED units.

Recently, the Harts donated more than $14,000 to the foundation, which it used to order a total of 20 AEDs, 14 that went to the LFRA and six that went to the BFPD. Kara Pappas, executive director of the foundation, said this is part of the HeartSafe Community program, an initiative that, according to the foundation website,  calls for “placing AEDs in public gathering places throughout the city of Loveland.”

“The great thing about the HeartSafe community is the collaborative effort that comes together to make it happen,” she said.

Pappas said that several months ago, LFRA Fire Chief Tim Sendelbach had approached her about the need for AEDs for the authority’s two Drake stations as well as in staff vehicles. She said she immediately thought of the Harts as potential donors.

The Harts, both originally from the East Coast and married for 55 years, have lived in Northern Colorado since the late 1970s.

While they moved around to Lyons, Boulder, Lafayette, Weld County and even up to Montana for a period of time — something they did so that Arn could have more chances to enjoy sailing on a nearby lake as he was dealing with prostate cancer — they found their way back to Northern Colorado in the mid 2010s. While the pair have lived in both Fort Collins and Loveland, they currently reside in Berthoud in what they say is their final home.

Throughout their lives the Harts have given their time and money to communities they live in, from starting a community foundation from scratch while living in Montana to donating money to various Northern Colorado nonprofits. The pair plan to use Arn’s disability money from his time serving in the Air Force during Vietnam to help others, with Arn Hart saying he was recently declared 100% disabled because of Agent Orange.

“We will have more money we can give for various projects here,” he said. “It is like winning the lottery when you are 99 years old.”

It was through this philanthropy that they came to know Pappas. Lois Hart said when Pappas came to them and asked if they would be interested in helping provide AEDs, they were on board, especially given the fact that Lois had dealt with her own heart concerns in the past. But, being Berthoud residents, Lois Hart said she wanted to make sure the foundation secured AEDs for both LFRA and the BFPD

The Harts’ donation funded eight of the 14 LFRA AEDs — Pappas said the other six were funded through the Rotary Club of Loveland and various other donations — as well as all six Berthoud AEDs.

“We realize now we are actually going to help save lives,” Lois Hart said. “With our population growing we need more of these defibrillators to be in all equipment.”

For the LFRA, the AEDs will primarily be used in staff vehicles. While two of the 14 have been placed at Stations 8 and 9 in Drake, the other 12 will be make it so all LFRA staff vehicles have the devices on hand.

The Harts were able to meet with the LFRA and see the 12 units at Station 1 on Wednesday.

“The objective is for anything that has LFRA’s logo on it (to be) equipped to take care of a medical emergency,” Sendelbach said. “If we are going to label vehicles, I want them to be able to intervene on an emergency and not pass on an emergency.”

Berthoud Fire Chief Stephen Charles said their six AED units will be added to the department’s wildland fire vehicles. He said these vehicles serve not only Berthoud but the general area and are even sometimes called further away to help in blazes, including last week when they were up in Wyoming helping put out a grass fire.

Making sure these units have AEDs on hand in the event of a medical emergency is important, Charles said.

“Structural firefighting is laborious, but wildland firefighting is laborious as well,” he said. “We want to make sure our wildland trucks and our battalion chief vehicles (have) the appropriate equipment on it in the event that (someone needed it).”

Pappas, Sendelbach and Charles all recognized the donation as an important piece of community safety.

Charles said not only does it make sure that Berthoud firefighters are prepared in the case of an emergency, it also means they can attain their mission of helping others without asking the taxpayers of Berthoud to give them more money, even describing the donation like a grant.

“I take it as a significant value because budgets are tight, times are a little difficult right now,” he said. “This is very, very beneficial to us. It is another benefit, another service we could provide.”

Sendelbach said this donation reflects the community and what it is all about. He also said it is important that the department reflects the training and effort it is putting toward making sure they are ready to respond and help people no matter what.

“It means a lot to me, because I want us to reflect what we are asking the community to reflect, and that is to be prepared,” he said. “Neighbor helping neighbor in the case of a medical emergency.”

“These LFRA staff vehicles are out and about in the community constantly,” Pappas said. “To know we have first responders who are equipped with the tools to do the job the minute a cardiac arrest occurs is so vitally important. Because that is who community members are going to look to.”

For the Harts, though, the giving is just what they do.

“It’s our mission,” Lois Hart said.

Arn Hart added that he sees their philanthropy like his time in the Air Force: working for something bigger than himself.

“If you get retired and just sit around you are not doing anybody any good,” he said. “So we have got our butts in gear.”

The very talented guitarist Jamie Dupuis played a moody fingerstyle cover of the classic Nirvana song “Come As You Are” on the silicon strings of an AeroBand digital guitar.

Come As You Are (Nirvana) – MIDI Fingerstyle Guitar Arr.

The AeroBand Guitar

This particular guitar has silicon strings, built-in MIDI output capabilities, and is very portable. The softer strings, leaner neck, and faster action make it a good choice for those who have hand or wrist injuries. It’s also good for someone who wants to play the guitar but doesn’t want calluses on their fingers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AeroBand (@aerobandofficial)

Dupuis Previously Did a Review of This Unique Guitar

I’ve never seen a guitar like this before it has features that are actually mind-blowing …I’m going to show you is what this guitar can do does it sound good and who is it best suited for.

A backcountry skier died Sunday after getting caught in an avalanche near Crested Butte, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

The skier got caught in the avalanche about 1 p.m. Sunday east of Ohio Peak in the Anthracite Range, in an area known as the Playground, according to the CAIC.

The skier’s partners located and extricated him from the debris, according to the CAIC, but he died from his injuries.

This is the second avalanche death this season after a snowboarder died in January near Telluride.

"This is a show about language," director Julie Rada says of Letters of Suresh, which will have its regional premiere at Curious Theatre Company. Through a series of letters that span continents, the production examines the depths of longing and the enduring power of connection…

A year ago, we wondered whether Denver could ever get its mojo back. After years of the entire country being high on the Mile High City, Denver was deflated…

Series of original and eye-catching shopping bags that cleverly incorporate the bag handles into the overall design. Creative shopping bags designed by Rob Gros offer unique and functional way to promote a brand or product. Shopping bags with cool designs not only help people carry items, but also act as a form of visual communication. Integration […]

Jello wrestling. Raucous punk concerts. Making clay pipes in pottery class to sell to stoners…

Nestled along Autrey Reservoir, Montmere at Autrey Shores by Koelbel Urban Homes is building luxury townhomes with rooftop decks, some of which provide unobstructed views of the Flatirons and the mountains beyond Boulder.

MONTMERE AT AUTREY SHORES BY KOELBEL URBAN HOMES

• What: Montmere at Autrey Shores by Koelbel Urban Homes combines a lock-and-go lifestyle with spectacular Flatirons views. The luxury townhomes sit beside beautiful Autrey Reservoir and are within walking distance of Flat Iron Crossing’s restaurants and shops.
• Where: 2343 Lakeshore Lane in Superior. From U.S. 36/Boulder Turnpike, exit at Interlocken Loop, south on Interlocken past Flatiron Crossing, turn west on W. Flatiron Crossing Drive, then drive 4 blks to Autrey Drive
• Price: From low $800s to $1.2M
• When: The sales center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday.
• Phone: 303-300-8845
• More Info: Koelbelco.com/montmere

New homeowners will gain access to the 27-mile trail network surrounding the 13-acre Autrey Reservoir and can enjoy an easy walk to Autrey Park and hiking or biking trails in Boulder County’s vast open space. The townhomes are also a short walk to shopping, dining, and entertainment at Flatiron Crossing.

Located a convenient drive from Boulder and Denver, the homes provide a perfect location for couples who commute, says Dana Keller, Vice President Sales and Marketing at Koelbel. The townhomes, which range from the $800s to $1.2 million, also offer flex space that can easily become a home office.

“The homes offer endless possibilities that provide Boulder benefits without the Boulder price tag,” Keller says.

Open floorplans, luxury finishes

The two- or three-bedroom townhomes range from 1,460 square feet to 2,970 square feet and offer two- or three-car garages. All seven plans provide rooftop decks with optional kitchens. Some include the option to add an elevator.

Keller says that the stair tower to the rooftop deck provides some privacy from neighbors.

The open floorplans by Neo Studio Architects feature floor-to-ceiling windows to let in natural light and provide more opportunities to enjoy the spectacular view.

The homes feature hardwood flooring in the primary living areas, quartz countertops, and upgraded bathroom floor tiles, and you can upgrade the carpet in the bedrooms to hardwood floors. The homes also include fireplaces surrounded by floor-to-ceiling tiles.

Related Articles

• April 22, 2022
  Sponsored: Hot Properties |
  Sponsored:Choose Barefoot Lakes and live in the haven that nature calls home
• April 22, 2022
  Sponsored: Hot Properties |
  Sponsored: Skip home maintenance and do what you love at Applewood Pointe
• April 22, 2022
  Sponsored: Hot Properties |
  Sponsored: Revel in lakeside living at Pelican Shores at Water Valley
• April 15, 2022
  Sponsored: Hot Properties |
  Sponsored: Wannabe artist takes time to downsize, find perfect Arizona home
• April 15, 2022
  Sponsored: Hot Properties |
  Sponsored: Find the perfect home for you at Reunion near DIA

Homeowners also can go to Koelbel’s design center to select their finishing touches.

Model homes open soon

The first model home will be finished in early June, with a second coming in July.

Can’t wait? Then visit the two-story sales office at 2343 Lakeshore Lane in Superior that gives you a sense of the homes’ view potential, Keller says.

“With both waterfront and mountain views, Montmere at Autrey Shores has something to offer everyone,” Keller says.

The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this post’s preparation.

It's been open for nearly fifteen years. Finding a last-minute, beautifully crafted, high-quality cake for a special occasion or springtime gathering can be a daunting challenge, but Cake Crumbs Bakery & Cafe at 2216 Kearney Street is here for panicked procrastinators with its daily stock of 6-inch “In a Pinch” cake options. “I think the convenience and flavor variety, and the fact that you can buy a cake that looks custom straight out of the case, is a unique opportunity for many customers — especially because we offer it in five different flavors,” says Katie Magner, who purchased the business five years ago with her husband, Joe.…

Google wants you to know that Android is so secure, it has a Men In Black-style memory eraser for your search queries.

Read more...

People trying to fly from the United States to China may soon be confronted with an unthinkable scenario: Starting next week, there are likely to be no commercial flights bound for the country as Beijing tries to keep coronavirus infections out ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King quietly moved to reduce the 110-year sentence for the truck driver who killed four people on Interstate 70, just four days after a judge laid down the prison term in the 2019 crash.

King started the process to potentially reduce Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’s sentence Friday — an abrupt about-face for her office, which pursued the charges that ensured he would go to prison for decades if convicted.

She did not announce the move until Tuesday, as an online petition calling for a sentence reduction swelled to more than 4.5 million signatures and Gov. Jared Polis said he would expedite consideration of a petition for clemency from the truck driver.

King filed a request with the court for a hearing in which District Court Judge Bruce Jones can by law reconsider the mandatory minimum sentence for Aguilera-Mederos. Under the state’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Jones can reconsider a sentence in “unusual and extenuating circumstances” after receiving a report from the Department of Corrections about Aguilera-Mederos.

Jones said when he sentenced Aguilera-Mederos last week that he had no discretion to lay down a different prison term, but that he would if he could. He indicated he’d be willing to reconsider the sentence through the process detailed in state law.

On Tuesday, Jones scheduled a hearing in the case for Monday to discuss King’s request and whether she made it too quickly. The law says that a sentence modification can’t take effect until at least 119 days after a defendant enters prison.

The Department of Corrections must submit its report on Aguilera-Mederos within 91 days of taking him into custody, but King said in court filings that the prison system’s report may be done as soon as Thursday. King’s request asks that the hearing be set “as soon as practicable upon the receipt of the report.”

King said in a motion that her office is talking with the victims in the case to see where they stand on a sentence reduction and will provide that information to Jones once it’s been gathered.

During Aguilera-Mederos’s sentencing last week, many of the victims who spoke said they believed Aguilera-Mederos should spend time in prison. One family member of a man who died said he did not wish to see Aguilera-Mederos spend the rest of his life in prison, but did want to see him serve at least two decades.

Related Articles

• Jeffco DA to ask judge to reduce Rogel Aguilera-Mederos’ sentence to 20-30 years in fatal I-70 crash
• PHOTOS: Rally calling for clemency, reform for I-70 trucker sentenced to 110 years in prison in fatal crash
• Calls for clemency, reform at rally for I-70 trucker sentenced to 110 years in prison in fatal crash
• Prosecutors in I-70 trucker trial exchanged semitrailer brake shoe as “memento”
• Denver march planned in hopes of changing sentence of trucker who caused fatal I-70 crash

King’s office won convictions on 16 first-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault charges against Aguilera-Mederos. Those “crimes of violence” must be sentenced consecutively, not concurrently, under Colorado’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which strip decision-making from judges and give prosecutors tremendous power to determine how much prison time a defendant will face if convicted.

James Colgan, Aguilera-Mederos’s defense attorney, said Tuesday that King’s request is about “political survival.”

“It’s political scrambling,” he said. “They’re feeling a lot of heat and they want their foot off the fire as quickly as possible.”

Aguilera-Mederos submitted a petition for clemency to the governor’s office Monday, Colgan said. He added that Aguilera-Mederos does not trust the district attorney’s office to “come up with any kind of fair number.”

He declined to say what sort of sentence he’d consider appropriate. In the days since the sentencing, the case gained national attention, including from Kim Kardashian West, who called it “so unfair” in a tweet Tuesday.

Aguilera-Mederos testified during his trial that he lost his brakes in Colorado’s high country and couldn’t control his semitrailer on April 25, 2019. He passed at least one runaway truck ramp — a safety feature designed specifically to stop trucks that lose their brakes on the interstate’s mountain passes — and was seen driving recklessly fast in the hours before the crash, prosecutors said during the trial. He at one point realized he had a problem with his brakes and pulled over, but then continued driving, prosecutors said.

After losing his brakes, Aguilera-Mederos drove on the interstate’s shoulder until his path was blocked by a parked tractor-trailer under an overpass in Lakewood. At that point, Aguilera-Mederos turned his semitrailer into stopped traffic, killing four people and injuring others.

A jury in October found Aguilera-Mederos guilty on four counts of vehicular homicide, six counts of first-degree assault, 10 counts of attempted first-degree assault, four counts of careless driving causing death, two counts of vehicular assault and one count of reckless driving.

 

Dyson V7 Fluffy | $200 | Newegg

Read more...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — A custom guitar played by Prince at the height of his stardom in the 1980s and 1990s has sold for a staggering $563,500 at auction.

The “Blue Angel” Cloud 2 electric guitar skyrocketed beyond the estimate of $100,000 to $200,000 it was expected to fetch at the Music Icons sale run by Julien’s Auctions on Friday and Saturday in Beverly Hills.

Prince played the blindingly blue guitar with the artist’s “love” symbol on its neck beginning on the 1984 Purple Rain Tour, on the classic albums “Lovesexy” and “Sign O’ The Times.” He used it into the early 1990s.

Archivists going through Prince’s possessions at his Paisley Park home and musical headquarters in Minnesota recently found the guitar that was thought to be lost during the four years since his death from an overdose at age 57. A similar Prince guitar sold for $700,000 in 2016.

At the same auction, a macrame belt that Elvis Presley wore about 30 times on stage brought in nearly 10 times its expected price, with a final bid of $298,000.

An ivory gown worn by Madonna in her 1990 “Vogue” video sold for $179,200.

The identities of the buyers were not revealed.

Items still to be sold Saturday included Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to the Beatles song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

Quite a bit of news dropped on Friday, so you may have missed a hedgehog-related alert that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued early that afternoon.

Those tiny, prickly, adorable mammals – which have jumped in popularity as household pets in recent years – may be carrying salmonella germs and spreading them to nearby humans, according to the CDC.

“CDC and public health officials in several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to contact with pet hedgehogs,” the agency’s notice read.

As of Friday, the CDC said there had been 11 people in eight states sickened by a strain of Salmonella typhimurium; in 10 of the 11 cases, “ill people reported contact with a hedgehog,” the agency said.

Though one person was hospitalized, no deaths have been reported. Three of the cases were reported in Missouri, two in Minnesota and one each in Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming.

Researchers collected samples from hedgehogs in the two Minnesota patients’ homes and identified the strain of salmonella that was making people sick. It’s still unclear if all or some of the pet hedgehogs came from “a common supplier,” the CDC said.

Symptoms of a salmonella infection include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps lasting four to seven days. In rare cases, a salmonella infection can lead to death – a dire enough risk that the CDC gently suggested certain households “might consider a different pet.”

Related Articles

• Gold Medal five pound bags of flour recalled, could have salmonella
• Food recalls up 10 percent; meat and poultry incidents up 67 percent since 2013

However, for those who could never part with little “Spike,” “Sonic” or “S,” the agency has recommended avoiding certain direct contact with their hedgehogs: That is, not nuzzling them or propping them up to your face for the perfect Instagram photo.

“Don’t kiss or snuggle hedgehogs, because this can spread Salmonella germs to your face and mouth and make you sick,” the CDC warned. “Don’t let hedgehogs roam freely in areas where food is prepared or stored, such as kitchens.”

If you do touch a hedgehog or clean its supplies, wash your hands immediately afterward. And don’t clean your hedgehog’s cage or toys in the same place you prepare human food.

This may be a tall order for a new crop of hedgehog owners eager to cuddle with their new pets. Hedgehogs are legal pets in most of the United States – but remain banned in California, Georgia, Hawaii, New York City, Pennsylvania and the nation’s capital, according to the Hedgehog Welfare Society.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

As campaigning for the Nov. 6 ballot ramps up to a fever pitch across Colorado over the next several weeks, a smaller — but no less nasty — political battle will reach its crescendo this week in Englewood.

In this city of 35,000 directly south of Denver, a group of residents has launched an effort to unseat Councilwoman Laurett Barrentine from the Englewood City Council more than a year before her four-year term ends. A recall election in District 3 of the city is being held Tuesday.

The issues swirling around the removal effort involve city finances, government transparency and allegations of improper treatment of city staff. But they also seem to hinge on the far more personal: charges of bullying, troublemaking and “creating turmoil.”

That’s how former Councilman Steve Yates sees Barrentine’s tenure on the seven-member council, both when he shared the dais with her and in the 10 months since he’s been off the council.

“It’s about creating turmoil — it’s not about planning for the future,” Yates said. “That’s what she does in the council meetings.”

Yates and others behind the recall effort, which includes two former Englewood mayors, say Barrentine is an “obstructionist” who “repeatedly refused to approve (the) city budget, jeopardizing police, fire, streets and water.” They accuse her of routinely violating the city charter, wasting time and resources with unnecessary requests for information and data, and being unprofessional with colleagues and residents.

They even posted to their pro-recall campaign website a police report from May, in which Councilwoman Cheryl Wink told law enforcement that “she did not feel safe” after Barrentine followed her out of a meeting and yelled at her.

“The way she speaks, she rubs people the wrong way,” said Eric Keck, Englewood’s city manager, who earlier this month announced that he was stepping down from his post of four years on Oct. 5. “Is she tough to work with? Absolutely, she’s tough to work with.”

Keck said his decision to leave the city for a job in the private sector was not primarily due to his interaction with Barrentine, though he said her continued presence in city leadership was part of his calculus to step down.

But Barrentine, who was elected to council in 2015, says she is only one of seven on the City Council and that trying to persuade her colleagues to see her point of view on issues — “that’s my job.” She said she was unaware that she had upset Wink earlier this year and said she has since sat down and shared drinks and laughs with her colleague.

“I like her,” Barrentine said. “I’ve enjoyed working with her.”

Barrentine, who served a stint on council from 2003 to 2007, admitted she can be blunt and direct with people but that getting answers about city operations is what she was elected to do.

“I ask a lot of questions,” she said. “I would prefer not to be recalled for doing my job.”

Related Articles

• Allegation against Brett Kavanaugh tests support of GOP women
• Here’s how Republican Walker Stapleton can win the Colorado governor’s race
• Releasing tax returns an issue in governor races
• Colorado gun owners group accuses Centennial Republican of “voting like a gun-grabbing Democrat”
• Ad fact check: Republican Mike Coffman attacks challenger Jason Crow’s record as an attorney

Specifically, she said the latest trouble began when she asked for a forensic audit of the Englewood Environmental Foundation and Englewood McLellan Reservoir Foundation, two private entities that help oversee redevelopment in the city — notably the former Cinderella City mall site that has become the city’s municipal center.

Barrentine wants to know more about how the foundations have been spending taxpayer money and whether there has been financial mismanagement at either one of them — mismanagement that could point back to former political leaders in the city.

“Past mayors and council members who don’t want things they’ve done exposed,” she said. “Under their stewardship, things happened that they didn’t want to come out.”

Barrentine didn’t offer any details as to what form the financial mismanagement might have taken but she questioned why the city would be so reluctant to do the kind of examination she is asking for.

“We should do business in the open and above board,” she said.

But Yates accused Barrentine of making outlandish accusations about people working for the city, upping the level of stress and prompting employees to look towards the exits. He characterized some of her requests for information and data as “frivolous” and redundant to what council members are provided in their bi-weekly packets.

“She will make life so unpleasant that these professionals will leave,” he said.

Keck, the outgoing city manager, said he hopes Englewood and its city leaders can move past the backbiting and recriminations that have arisen of late — no matter whether Barrentine is booted or not.

“As the community moves forward, they are going to have to heal and figure out how to work together,” he said.