A just-released report about the ski lift accident that killed San Antonio mom Kelly Huber in December 2016 reveals that the culprit was an electronic drive whose failure raises concerns that go well beyond this single incident. Indeed, the 151-page document notes that “due to the unprecedented nature of this dynamic occurrence, continued investigation/analysis of this event will likely continue for years.”
Finding that dream house in Denver’s red hot real estate market has become so difficult that one couple has sent a letter to approximately 1,200 homeowners in the Park Hill neighborhood whose properties aren’t for sale in the hope of convincing someone to let them buy their place anyhow.
In the wake of the deadliest season at Colorado ski resorts in five years, a national snow-sports safety advocate recently argued in this space for ski areas to share data about injuries and casualties and publish their safety plans. At present, though, there is no legislation pending or in the works at either the state or federal level that would make such actions a requirement for the ski industry, which fears that greater transparency could lead to a flood of lawsuits. Moreover, no state legislators and just one member of Colorado’s Congressional delegation, Representative Jared Polis, appear to have the issue on their radar.
Deon Jones was arrested in rough, guns-drawn fashion because he was black and behind the wheel of a car from Aurora that was parked in Denver, where local cops thought it didn’t belong, according to a new lawsuit. Attorney David Lane, who represents Jones in the case, argues that this alleged example of racial profiling, captured on police body-camera video on view below, remains the Denver Police Department’s policy and practice.
Spring is pothole season in Colorado, with the rainy weather much of the state has experienced over the past few days further exacerbating the vehicle-abusing phenomenon. And while any roadway is susceptible to hosting potholes, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation says one area in the system is consistently the worst.
The chair of Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board, empowered by Mayor Michael Hancock to make recommendations about law enforcement use-of-force incidents and disciplinary decisions, is critical of the mild suspensions given to deputies over the November 2015 jail death of Michael Marshall. Likewise, she’s frustrated that Executive Director of Safety Stephanie O’Malley, whose office dispensed what critics see as wrist slaps in the case, declined to discuss the situation at a recent board meeting.
As the 2016-17 ski season winds down, Colorado resorts have been linked to fourteen fatalities, the most in five years. And according to Dan Gregorie of the SnowSport Safety Foundation, ski areas here and throughout the country are hiding risks by failing to provide any data about injuries and casualties, as well as by refusing to publish their safety plans.
Four former dancers at Shotgun Willie’s have filed a class-action lawsuit against the iconic Denver strip club, alleging that they were ripped off by way of an illegal system that charged them to perform and forced them to help cover other employees’ earnings out of tips they received. The complaint’s charges mirror those outlined in a March lawsuit filed against the company that owns five other exotic-dance venues in the Mile High City, including the Diamond Cabaret.
North Korea’s branding of Cory Gardner as a “psychopath” and a “man mixed in with human dirt” is not just a boon for the Colorado senator, whose reputation as a foreign policy hawk will no doubt be enhanced by the rogue nation’s decision to attack him. It’s also among the country’s ten best insults of all time, joining a memorable list shared below.
Roosevelt High School in Johnstown will be open for classes today, May 9, following yesterday’s closure. In an announcement from the Weld RE-5J School District, Dr. Martin Foster, the district’s superintendent, writes that local police say a possible threat over a Roosevelt Spanish teacher’s use of a President Donald Trump piñata has been discredited. Apparently, the whole thing was fueled by rumor.
The Denver Post plans to move its main newsroom out of its iconic Denver address, at 101 West Colfax, to the newspaper’s printing facility, in Adams County at the intersection of 58th and Washington.
According to data shared by the Colorado Department of Revenue, 29 counties in Colorado generated nearly $35 million in tax revenues during 2016, not counting the nearly $200 million in tax revenue collected by the state itself. The amounts range from just over $70,000 in one mountain county to more than $14 million in the state’s most populous metro area.
A new lawsuit claims that the decision by Denver Sheriff Department personnel to march Christopher Colbruno naked into Denver Health violated his basic rights as a human being. The suit is the second to be pressed over the matter, after a filing from a civilian investigator who said he was fired by the DSD, which has been accused of failing to report some complaints about the treatment of inmates, in part because he refused to destroy video of the incident.
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which requires tax increases to be okayed by popular vote, was approved in 1992, meaning that it’s been in place for nearly a quarter-century and a pain in the neck to legislators for the same amount of time. Six years ago, a coalition of lawmakers and other notables filed suit in federal court to overturn it. But their efforts have been stymied again, this time by a U.S. District Court ruling that says the plaintiffs don’t have standing to have brought the suit in the first place.
Jeff Hunt, the Colorado Christian University educator behind the petition to ban the Denver 420 Rally, says teenage pot smoking that harmed his short-term memory and the negative marijuana experiences of friends turned him against cannabis, which he and others at CCU see as a civic ill that needs to be cured.
Jamaal Edwards, who was charged with two counts of first degree murder after a double murder in January 2015, has been found guilty of a lesser charge in one of the deaths. In the second slaying, the jury failed to reach a verdict, resulting in a mistrial. A new trial has been ordered in the latter case, which took place amid an ugly incident that Edwards is quoted as summing up with the two-word phrase, “Shit happened.”
Because Senator Cory Gardner is still refusing to hold any in-person town halls, Indivisible Front Range Resistance, the group that staged its own town hall sans Gardner back in February, has assembled a collection of more than 225 videos in which his constituents pose questions they’d like to ask him in person.
The new Denver Renter Confidence Survey from ApartmentList.com reveals that most local renters give the Mile High City excellent marks, placing it among the most highly rated large cities in the country. But there are warning signs in the findings, including great discontent with high rent costs and other daily expenses, as discussed in our recent post “Why It’s So Hard to Make a Living in Denver Despite Strong Economy.”
Former Denver reporter Eli Stokols left Fox31 in favor of Politico in early 2015, and since then, he’s seen his star rise on the national journalism stage. He was recently named a White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and from this high-profile position, he has a closeup view of the Trump administration, for better or worse.
Denver Public Schools has sent a letter to parents about 13 Reasons Why, a Netflix series about a high school student who leaves behind audio recordings that explain her reasons for committing suicide. The district’s decision was based in part on a subject of the show’s final tape, a school counselor who essentially brushes off the student’s revelation that she’s been raped. Shortly thereafter, the student takes her own life.
Experts suggest that the number of real-estate listings in Denver’s red-hot housing market is at an all-time low. But there’s no shortage of real-estate agents looking to sell those homes. Right now, there are more agents than there are properties on the market in Denver, and perhaps as many as ten times more.
Cesar Reyes-Marquez has now been found guilty a second time for killing Servando Morelos-Avila nearly seven years ago. The long delay occurred because the first judgment was tossed out over improper jury instructions. The result was a second trial, during which Reyes-Marquez was convicted of similar charges stemming from a fight that spun out of control, with at least two other people winding up seriously injured.
