Author: reporter

After prevailing in a dramatic first-round series, the Nuggets have been rewarded with a matchup against the NBA’s top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. Here’s a breakdown of the matchup: Who has the edge? Guards Prepare the poutine and maple syrup. Queue up Drake, Rush, Joni Mitchell and The Band. This isn’t your ordinary Kendrick-soundtracked Nuggets playoff series anymore. Los Angeles is eliminated, leaving us with a Canadian jamboree in the second round. Kitchener’s Jamal Murray is up against two of his national team backcourt companions, nine months removed from his disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics. Toronto’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an…

Ish Smith drove in from Charlotte to spend time with the new recruit. He was already committed to play basketball at Wake Forest, but another promising guard in his high school class was visiting all the way from Los Angeles. For all Smith knew, maybe they would follow in Chris Paul’s footsteps together as a backcourt tandem. Smith had a pleasant time on the visit. As they hung out, he got to know “a quiet kid from California.” Then, eventually, it was time to get in the gym for a workout with some of Wake Forest’s players. Casual pickup. Nothing…

For the first time in the Nikola Jokic era, the Denver Nuggets will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in a playoff series. And for the second series in a row, the Nuggets go into the best-of-seven affair as decided underdogs, with BetMGM setting the top-seeded Thunder as -800 favorites to win the series as of Sunday afternoon. The series will also be a referendum of sorts on the NBA MVP race, with the likely top two finishers facing off in OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Jokic. The winner will be announced during the series. Oklahoma City is coming off a…

DALLAS — It took 99 days for Chris MacFarland to piece together a historic remodel for a franchise with Stanley Cup aspirations. It took a little less than 13 minutes for a guy who was part of this team’s core 100 days ago to tear it all down. There were smashed sticks in the aftermath. There were red eyes. There were thousand-yard stares into the abyss. The Colorado Avalanche’s season ended Saturday night. The shock, disappointment and pain from this one will linger longer than most. A dream Game 7 for almost 48 minutes became a nightmare. “They were missing…

Before winning one national title and being on the doorstep of another, Mark Hull started his tenure as the men’s golf coach at Colorado Christian University by asking male students around campus a simple question. Do you have clubs? It was the summer of 2004, and Hull had just been hired at the private college in Lakewood. But Hull had only two guys on the roster, an incoming freshman and a returner who had never broke 80 in a tournament. Before he could worry about talent, he needed bodies. “I got some guys I asked in the residence hall who…

By Kevin Hardy, Stateline.org Missouri Republicans may take their tax-cutting efforts to new heights this year as lawmakers consider exempting profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate from state income taxes. Part of a broader push to eliminate the state income tax altogether, legislation making its way through the Capitol would provide an unprecedented benefit to the wealthy by excluding capital gains, the long-term earnings from the sale of assets. If approved, tax experts say, the legislation would mark the first time a state with an income tax has eliminated capital gains tax. The Republican sponsors say…

Carla Medina was delivering a DoorDash order to Buckley Space Force Base last year when she was detained by federal immigration officials. Six months later, the Honduran mother of two is still sitting in the detention facility in Aurora. Her husband and children are on edge, and so is Medina. Although her entire family is moving through the legal process to seek asylum in the United States, Medina is the only one in confinement — and she has unanswered questions about why she’s there. “I’ve never been in a prison,” Medina said. “I’ve never had this experience.” The Denver Post interviewed…

By Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News When the Trump administration cut more than $11 billion in COVID-era funds to states in late March, addiction recovery programs suffered swift losses. An Indiana organization that employs people in recovery to help peers with substance use disorders and mental illness was forced to lay off three workers. A Texas digital support service for people with addiction and mental illness prepared to shutter its 24/7 call line within a week. A Minnesota program focused on addiction in the East African community curtailed its outreach to vulnerable people on the street. Although the federal assistance…

For a long time, when I thought of trying my hand at fly fishing, I pictured myself standing in the ankle-deep water of a mellow river with a large rod in hand and a helpful professional fly-fishing guide next to me in matching waders. New York resident Mike McGovern fly fishing near Jaffee Park in Woody Creek on the Roaring Fork River Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. (Anna Stonehouse/The Aspen Times via AP) Oh, but there is more than one way to fly fish in Colorado, and it looks different than what I had imagined. On a trip to Buena Vista…

Only the Rockies could find a way to somehow fail sideways. The baseball wonks up in the Grading The Week offices have been trying to find a foothold to cling to during this already-lost Rox season. When you’re 6-26 as of Saturday morning, that’s a mighty slippery slope. One that’s made even dicier by the fact that the Rockies, who were on a pace to lose 132 games after Friday night’s defeat in San Francisco, aren’t even eligible to parlay all this awful into the No. 1 pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. Or the third pick. Or even the…