Author: reporter

Homelessness and its effects have become some of the most critical issues of our time across Colorado and much of the nation. After all my years in American government, I have learned that tough challenges like these require innovative thought, persistence, and the need for proven, long-term solutions.While the efforts to tackle these issues in the city and county of Denver tend to dominate headlines, I believe it is important to highlight and clarify the work we are doing in Aurora and provide a reminder that Aurora’s approach is distinctly different from Denver’s approach.The first part of Aurora’s new strategy…

Welcome to the Deion Sanders Era, where the CU Buffs are last in the Pac-12 but first in irony. Because to hear scouts tell it, the notion that Shilo Sanders needs cash is … probably costing him money.“The bankruptcy and the fact that he has been playing under his father with the last two programs has not (helped),” Dave Syvertsen, longtime scout and senior draft analyst with the Ourlads.com scouting service, told me Monday. “He does not grade out athletically at an extremely high level. He’s going to be an older rookie.“I would say that (Shilo) is going to fight…

The Denver City Council on Monday authorized up to $24 million in additional spending on private security services across the city this year.The greater financial latitude — expanding contracts with three different companies — is necessary to meet Denver’s evolving security needs, according to summary documents, particularly around 24/7 shelters for migrants from the southern U.S. border and people who are homeless.The council approved expanding the maximum amount of an existing contract with Securitas Security Services USA from $25 million to $43 million. That contract, which first went into effect at the beginning of 2022, expires at the end of…

Two young brothers and their cousin were wandering through a fossil-rich stretch of the North Dakota badlands when they made a discovery that left them “completely speechless”: a T. rex bone poking out of the ground.The trio announced their discovery publicly Monday at a Zoom news conference as workers at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science prepare to begin chipping the fossil out of its rock cast at a special exhibit called Discovering Teen Rex. The exhibit’s opening on June 21 will coincide with the debut of the film “T.REX,” about the July 2022 find.It all started when Kaiden…

Pat Surtain II dressed the part.On Monday night at Surtain’s “Football2Fashion” fundraiser, the Broncos starting cornerback was dressed in Bottega pants and boots with a red cardigan sweater as if he was about to walk down a runway of his own fashion show.Surtain’s fundraiser was meant to express his love for fashion while raising money for his foundation’s outreach programs.“It came to mind based on my style and everyone coming together to raise money (for) the inner city youth to make sure they have the resources to fulfill their dreams,” Surtain told a small scrum of reporters at Social Capitol…

Colorado voters will begin receiving ballots this week for the state’s primary election on June 25.County clerks began mailing out ballots Monday. Registered unaffiliated voters and those affiliated with parties with primary elections should receive mailed ballots automatically.Unaffiliated voters will receive a ballot for both Democratic and Republican primaries, but can only vote one of those ballots to have their vote count. Voters affiliated with a party will only receive their party’s ballot.Monday is the last day for voters affiliated with a party to change their registration to vote in another party’s primary. Ballots are also going out to all…

A Milliken police officer shot a man early Monday after the man allegedly made threatening statements and ran at the officer with a knife, according to the 19th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team. Police responded to a report of a suspicious person near Milliken Elementary School in Weld County at around 1:20 a.m. Monday, according to a news release from the agency.An officer spoke with the man, later identified as Colin Brixius, by phone before arriving at the school, and Brixius made “multiple threatening statements toward law enforcement,” Weld County officials said Monday.When the Milliken officer tried to contact him…

Elijah McClain (Courtesy of McClain family) The sole Aurora police officer convicted in the death of Elijah McClain is seeking to change his sentence from 14 months of jail work-release to in-home detention, telling a judge he is depressed, paranoid, sleeping poorly and has lost 30 pounds since beginning his part-time jail sentence. Former officer Randy Roedema was convicted in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in McClain’s 2019 death. McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man who had committed no crime, was violently arrested by Aurora police and then injected by paramedics with an overdose of a powerful…

NEW YORK — Bill May chuckles at the mere mention of the words “Saturday Night Live,” knowing that the conversation is about to turn to the TV show’s 1984 skit starring Martin Short as one of two brothers attempting to make it to the Olympics in what then was called synchronized swimming.If you want to laugh, too, go ahead and Google the mockumentary-style 4 1/2 minutes, which include Short’s character earnestly looking into the camera and admitting, “I don’t swim,” and show him wearing an orange life vest in the pool. It’s satire, of course, and a sign of the…

A 16-year-old at-risk Colorado Springs girl is missing, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.Patience Rose Bristow was reported missing Sunday and was last seen in the 2600 block of Gobi Drive, police said Monday in a post on X.“There are serious concerns for Patience’s safety and she requires daily medications,” Colorado Springs police wrote.Patience is described as white; 5 feet, 6 inches tall; and 140 pounds with long blond hair and brown eyes.She was last seen wearing a black and gray hoodie, gray leggings, black and white shoes and carrying a Walmart bag.Anyone with information about her whereabouts can…