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Arrests of MS-13 street gang members in metro Denver raise hopes violent gang disrupted

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

A multi-agency crackdown on the violent Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang over the last four years has metro Denver authorities hopeful they have at least temporarily disrupted its operations here, but they warn a porous border is an invitation for gang members to return.Prosecutors have completed cases leading to the conviction and sentencing of 15 MS-13 members, including a “shot-caller” nicknamed “Diablo” with MS marked on his forehead and chest and another leader with MS tattooed on his belly and 13s on his legs. In addition, an alleged national leader living in Thornton has been indicted by a U.S. attorney, accused of directing killings in New York. Other cases are working through the system.MS-13 members in metro Denver ignited a vehicle containing the body of perceived gang rival Vicky DeDios, 46, who’d been stabbed 20 times, along Interstate 225 in September 2019. MS-13 members also killed Martin Galdamez, 24, an immigrant from El Salvador...

Colorado won’t enforce “abortion pill reversal” treatment ban until late October

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

Colorado’s ban on a controversial abortion-reversal treatment won’t take effect until late October or later under a decision this week to delay enforcement of new state medical rules.The Colorado Medical Board cited a pending lawsuit by a Catholic clinic challenging the state’s new ban on the treatment when it voted Wednesday to push back enforcement of its rules until at least Oct. 23. The board’s rules had taken effect in mid-August following their adoption, and two other professional boards are still considering related rules.Lawmakers earlier this year banned clinics from providing the hormone progesterone to patients who want to keep their pregnancies after previously taking medication to induce abortions — a practice that prominent medical groups, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say has no scientific basis.Senate Bill 23-190 prohibits the use of “deceptive advertising” by crisis pregnancy centers and designates ...

A heavier regulatory burden has Colorado business leaders looking elsewhere, poll says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

Colorado business leaders are much less worried about finding new workers than they were a year ago, but they have increasingly soured on the state’s regulatory climate, and a host of new labor laws passed in recent years are cited as a chief reason why.“Having conducted more than 50 studies of businesses in other states, this is the greatest concern about the regulatory climate that I’ve ever recorded,” said Pat McFerron, president at Cole Hargrave Snodgrass & Associates, which surveyed 156 Colorado business leaders between June 26 to July 28.McFerron, speaking on a Zoom call to discuss the results, said the high cost of doing business is causing a “striking” number of businesses based in the state to consider expanding and making investments elsewhere.“Lawmakers need to understand that every new regulatory burden coming from the capitol has a real impact on jobs and economic growth. The data is clear – we’re losing out to other states because of our business ...

Will a strong El Niño bode well for Colorado ski resorts?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

A strong El Niño weather pattern has set up in the Pacific Ocean, which could be good news for skiers and snowboarders in Colorado’s southern mountains. But the National Weather Service’s 90-day outlook is forecasting above-average temperatures for Colorado’s high country through November, which doesn’t sound like good news at all.Here’s the reality that may be most important for snow riders to bear in mind as they wonder what kind of snow season is in store for Colorado resorts: Meteorologists always caution that long-range forecasting is often wrong.Last year is a good example. Sam Collentine, a Colorado-based meteorologist for the OpenSnow forecasting and reporting service, recently analyzed predictions made a year ago with a post headlined: “Did Anyone Accurately Forecast the 2022-23 Winter Season?”“Nearly every three- to six-month forecast was far from accurate,” Collentine said via email this week while traveling in Europe....

Troubled towers: Breaking down Denver’s distressed office properties

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

The pandemic brought major changes to how companies use office space — and that has put many landlords in a difficult position.Interest rates have made refinancing loans difficult. Downsizing and sublease trends have impacted building valuations. All the while, if they haven’t matured already, loans secured by office towers are still inching closer to that date.BusinessDen scoured county foreclosure records, third-party reports and court filings to determine the downtown and suburban buildings that have exhibited signs of distress — which can take a number of different forms — since the pandemic began.The below list is not necessarily comprehensive, but will be updated when we have more information, or when a particular property’s situation changes.Denver Energy CenterAddress: 1625 and 1675 Broadway, DenverYear Built: 1979Square Footage: 785,000Owner: JPMorgan ChaseSituation: Foreclosed, reverted to lenderJPMorgan Chase had loaned $114 million to allow the building’s pre...

Children’s Hospital Colorado asks healthy adults to consider donating part of their livers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

Children’s Hospital Colorado is asking healthy adults to consider giving a piece of their livers to get kids off the transplant list.Typically, that list fluctuates between four and 10 kids at any time, but fewer livers have been available from deceased donors this summer, which created a backlog, said Dr. Megan Adams, surgical director of pediatric living donor transplantation at Children’s.It’s not clear why liver donations have dropped off, she said.If some of the waiting kids don’t receive a liver soon, they could become too sick to undergo the surgery, meaning they’d be out of treatment options, Adams said. Most of the children on the waiting list were born with malfunctioning livers or bile ducts, which connect the liver to the small intestine. Others have autoimmune diseases that damaged their livers, or metabolic conditions that could be cured by a transplant, she said.“These kids that are waiting now are kind of at the mercy of the universe,...

Cult-favorite dumpling spot and two other mobile businesses debut shared restaurant space in Park Hill

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

Good things come in threes. This week, Yuan Wonton, Denver’s hottest food truck; Pho King Rapidos, a Vietnamese food truck with global influences; and Sweets & Sourdough, a delivery-only artisan bakery, debuted their shared restaurant space in Park Hill.The restaurant: 2878 Fairfax St., Denver Provided by Yuan WontonThe chili wontons at Yuan Wonton are made with shrimp and pork and wrapped in light egg dough, then doused in Szechuan hot chili oil and Chinese black vinegar. (Provided by Yuan Wonton)About: This isn’t your typical restaurant setup. Yuan Wonton, Pho King Rapidos, which is operating under the name Thuy by PKR, and Sweets & Sourdough plan to alternate their days and hours of operation in the same space.“It’s hard enough building one restaurant,” Penelope Wong, owner of Yuan Wonton, wrote on Instagram. “We built three in one.”Wong met Amy Patterson and Rachel Elkon, owners of Sweets & Sourdough, through the shared commi...

Homeowner, housing group fighting Summit County’s short-term rental rules

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

A recent lawsuit about short-term rental regulations in Summit County is bringing attention to an issue that’s stumped many of Colorado’s mountain towns: where to draw the line on hotel alternatives.The ecosystem of the towns that serve the state’s ski industry – such as Summit County’s Breckenridge, Frisco, Keystone and Silverthorne – relies on the cash flow of tourists, the labor of seasonal and year-round workers who often can’t find affordable housing and the contributions of homeowners trying to pay their mortgages and taxes.Some residents make ends meet by renting their homes on Airbnb and Vrbo, while others want to maintain the sanctity of their neighborhoods by curbing those rentals.Last month, Summit County homeowner Todd Ruelle, alongside nonprofit Summit County Resort Homes Inc., filed a lawsuit against the county’s board of commissioners over its latest round of regulations on short-term rentals in the its unincorporated areas, arguing...

Orange Unified School District approves controversial transgender policy 

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

The latest battlefront in the culture wars unfolded Thursday night at the Orange Unified School District Board meeting where officials voted to approve a controversial parent notification policy regarding transgender students.  After a deeply divisive evening, with vocal opposition and support for the parental notification policy, the vote was still underway late into the night.  The final vote came in just before midnight with the majority of the board voting in favor of the new policy. Three of the board members were absent from the vote.Cheers could be heard from those in attendance when the final approval of the policy was announced. The new policy requires schools in the district to notify parents if their child requests to be identified or treated as a gender other than what’s listed on their birth certificate. The policy would include requests to use pronouns that don’t align with their biological sex or gender or a name different from their legal name. Additionally, pa...

Firefall and Fleetwood Mac

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 10:53:00 GMT

Firefall and Fleetwood Mac: Jock Bartley of country rockers Firefall told us about his Fleetwood Mac experience.Jock Bartley: I’ve seen so many amazing live shows in my life and musical career. My band Firefall had the great fortune and timing to tour with Fleetwood Mac frequently in 1976 and 1977. It may sound presumptuous for me to name here a concert that I played on. But our last concert ever opening for Fleetwood Mac during their Rumours tour on May 1, 1977 was in Firefall’s hometown of Boulder, Colorado at Folsom Stadium in front of nearly 70,000 people. The bill that day was Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Bank, Firefall and a late addition of John Sebastian to open the show. Crazy! Only two years earlier, Firefall was playing a little club in Boulder, The Good Earth, preparing to go into Criteria Studios in Miami to make our very first album – and on this 1977 show, we played in front of our largest crowd ever in our home-state of Colorado! Fleetwood Mac...