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OBITUARIES
Bulldogs fall 1-0 to Chaparral in class 5A regional playo s
BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
PARKER -- For the second straight season, Brighton High School’s baseball team made it to the championship game of the class 5A regional playoffs.
And for the second straight year, BHS came up short in its bid to enter the state 5A baseball tournament.
Brody Sprinkle’s eighth-inning single gave the Wolverines a 1-0 win over the Bulldogs on May 23 on Chaparral High School’s fi eld. The loss ended Brighton’s season. The Bulldogs fi nished 18-7.
“I don’t know how many we left on, but it had to be double digits,” said BHS coach Justin Stringer. “We had to be able to fi nd a hole or a gap, hit by pitch or something? Man. We made tons of plays. Brok (pitcher Brok Eddy) had control of the game.”
Eddy fi nished with an eight-hitter and 10 strikeouts.
“We couldn’t fi nd a hit early in the game that would have put us on top,” Stringer said.
Eddy wiggled his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the fi fth inning. That was Chaparral’s most serious threat until the game-winning rally in the eighth inning.
Brighton had 11 base runners, including nine who reached on walks.
Bryce Peterson, who was the winning pitcher in the opener (an 8-5 win over Loveland) had both of Brighton’s hits. Andrew Schmeh and Garrett Chadwick reached on walks in the second inning. Walks to Eddy, Drai Wagner and Schmeh loaded the bases in the sixth inning.
But BHS couldn’t get that key hit to drive anyone home.
“One or two (hits) looked like a million, the way Brok throws,” Stringer said. “If we can fi gure out how to scratch one across, the game is different. Brok is the best pitcher in the state, and someone opposing teams fi nd it diffi cult to square up. I don’t think I’ve seen a better pitcher all year. I’m glad he plays for us.”
In the Loveland game, Peterson lasted into the seventh inning and struck out seven. Anthony Treto came on in relief to pick up the save. Eddy drove home fi ve runs, including a bases-clearing triple in the second inning.
“At the beginning of the game, my fastball out (outside) was working,” Peterson said. “They were trying to go with that. So I tried to come back in on their hands, throw curve balls away when I was ahead in the counts. It depends on what kind of swings they are taking.
“This team, they were really focused on trying to hit the ball the other way,” he continued. “So when I saw that, I came back in on their hands. When I was ahead, I would go down with the curve ball or up with the fast ball.”
Brighton’s Brok Eddy o ers a check swing at this pitch during the Bulldogs’ win over Loveland High School in the regional playo s May 23 in Parker. Loveland’s catcher is Carter Leben. PHOTO BY STEVE SMITH
Fund awards $1M in scholarships to Adams County students
BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
More than $1 million in scholarships were awarded to 58 Adams County High School students May 17 through the Adams County Scholarship Fund.
“We are proud to support these worthy students by providing a path to help them further their education,” said Lynn Baca, chair of the Adams County Board of Commissioners. “These scholarships will alleviate some of the worries of paying for college, and we send our best wishes to all the student recipients.”
Adams County commissioners established the scholarship fund in 2016 in partnership with the Colorado Department of Higher Education’s Colorado Opportunities Scholarship Initiative.
The county’s voter-approved 3% tax on retail marijuana sales pays for the scholarships. In addition, the scholarship funds are matched by Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative funding, increasing the scholarship pool.
High school students who are first-generation and low-income high school seniors are among those who are eligible to apply for one of the scholarships.
The Adams County Education Consortium manages the Adams County Scholarship Fund for the county and works directly with the school districts or district foundations.
The Adams County School districts include Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Adams 14 Education Foundation, School District 27J Education Foundation, Mapleton District 1 Education Foundation, Westminster District 50 Education Foundation, Strasburg School District 31J, and Bennett School District 29J.
Adams 12 Five Star Schools
The following students received $20,714.28 scholarships: Maryam Akbari, Zora Alexander, Yesenia Aragon, Abhiyan Barailee, Erick Becerril Barbaosa, Isabela Castaneda Rodelo, Kamyar Dargahi, Alondra Eguino, Marcus Farmer, Brayden Gibbens, Quianna Gooch, Sarai Ibuado Castro, Madison Jenks, Jorge Lopez Garcia, Angel Montoya, Solomon Mushabe, Saima Omar, Erika Salas Palos, Delina Servin, Evelyn Smith and Sarthak Tiwari.
Adams County School District 14
The following students earned $15,000 scholarships: Cesar Garcia, Liliya Gokh, Isai Hernandez, Angela Macias, Ajaiye Mitchell, Claudia Murillo, Yuvia Rocha, Diana Soto-Macias, Katherine Teter and Efren Vidana.
Bennett 29J
Katelyn Chapman received an $18,000 scholarship.
Mapleton Public Schools
The following students won $10,000 scholarships: Veronica Aguilar-Gonzalez, Citlali Campos, Aaron Corral, Yanetzy Estrada Sanchez, Jocelyn Hernandez, Priscila Holguin Munoz and Carmen Marmolejo.
Anette De Santiago, Ari Quezada Caro and Alexia Tavarez earned $20,000 scholarships
School District 27J
The following students received $26,000 scholarships: Nabor Alvarez, Angelo Flores, Salina Le, Madisyn Pinney and Emiliano Salcido.
Strasburg School District 31J
Emma Atkinson and Tallin Hall earned $11,500 scholarships.
Westminster Public Schools
The following students earned $15,555 scholarships: Makenzie Allen, Victoria Butler, Kaitlyn Dunaway, Michelle Le, Laura Nguyen, Isabella Perez, Valeria Salayandia Adame, Hailey Wong and Yinlai Yang.
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A legal newspaper of general circulation in Commerce City, Colorado, Commerce City Sentinel Express is published weekly on Thursday by Colorado Community Media, 143 S. 2nd Pl., Brighton CO 80601. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT Commerce City and additional mailing o ces.
Here’s how scientists protect their homes
BY SAM BRASCH COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO
Over the last few summers, Colorado residents have grown accustomed to hearing the same set of recommendations when wildfi re smoke blankets their community: Avoid outdoor exercise. Head inside. Shut the windows.
But experts say those immediate actions only go so far.
Alex Huffman, an associate professor studying air contaminants at the University of Denver, notes smoke can invade a home through cracks and ventilation systems, so preventative measures are necessary to guard indoor air quality and protect people’s health.
“You can’t completely stop it, but there are things you can do to help the amount you breathe in,” Huffman said.
It’s now clear that in the West, and even in many further afi eld parts of the country, wildfi re smoke will be a chronic side-effect of climate change and decades of poor forest management. As wildfi res grow larger and more frequent, a CPR News analysis found Colorado residents now experience between two to four additional smoky weeks every year compared to a decade ago.
The trend worries public health experts because smoke contains tiny particles capable of burrowing themselves deep into the human body. Breathing that material can trigger shortness of breath, asthma attacks and heart attacks. Long-term risks include weakened immune systems and premature births.
There are proven ways to limit exposure even as particulates sneak indoors. Here’s what Colorado scientists have done in their own homes — and what they’d recommend for yours.
Monitor indoor and outdoor air quality
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Huffman brought home a professional air monitor to assist with his work on germ-carrying droplets. When wildfi re season kicked up, it gave him a surprising view into the effect of outdoor smoke plumes.
Even deep in his basement, the instrument showed unsafe levels of particles in the air.
The EPA moves to declare the Front Range a ‘severe’ air quality violator. Here’s why that matters.
Huffman now recommends households explore far cheaper methods to monitor outdoor and indoor air quality. To help manage his asthma, he keeps a careful eye on the EPA’s fi re and smoke map, which tracks nationwide smoke plumes and air quality readings.
To monitor indoor air quality, he purchased an egg-shaped monitor from PurpleAir, which now sits on a table inside the front door of his home in Centennial. It glows green, yellow or red depending on the severity of suspended particulates.
Basic senses are an even cheaper alternative. Colorado air forecasters recommend assuming air quality is unsafe if you can’t clearly see something less than fi ve miles away. Smells can also serve as evidence of wildfi re smoke, but shouldn’t always be trusted. Christine Wiedinmyer, an air quality scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, said smoke from far-off fi res doesn’t carry an odor but can be dangerous nonetheless.
Buy or make a high-quality indoor air filter
Huffman has a portable air purifi er in his living room to help remove wildfi re smoke. He demonstrated its effi ciency by turning on a popcorn popper with a fi lthy heating element.
Smoke fi lled the room as his indoor air monitor turned an alarming red. The purifi er then pulled the smoke closer with a gentle hum, bringing particulates back to safe levels in about 30 seconds.
When shopping for an air purifi er, Huffman said it should have HEPA fi ltration to remove particles. He recommends against anything with “plasma” or “ionization,” which doesn’t do much about wildfi re smoke and can add other pollutants to the air.
If a $200 machine is out of the question, another option can be fashioned from a box fan taped to one or several furnace fi lters of a MERV13 grade or higher. The device, called a CorsiRosenthal Box, was born after a mechanical engineer tossed out the idea on Twitter.
Huffman installed a number of these contraptions around his house and donated others to his kids’ classrooms. Instructions are available online.
Seal openings and run your air conditioner
Wiedinmyer recommends sealing doors and windows to prevent any wildfi re smoke from making it into the home. If you have an air conditioner, replace the fi lter then set it to recirculate air to further cut indoor pollutants.
Not all homes have the luxury of air conditioning. Huffman has a swamp cooler, which he prefers for its energy effi ciency. Because those systems rely on circulating cooled external air, they aren’t nearly as well equipped to handle poor outdoor air quality.
“It’s just pushing wildfi re smoke into our house pretty effi ciently, which is really unfortunate,” Huffman said.
He doesn’t see an easy way around the problem at the moment. On smoky days, he said households that use swamp coolers or open windows will need to decide if welcoming the bad air is worth it.
Wear a high-quality mask
When you have to head outside on a smoky day, Huffman recommends wearing a high-quality N95 mask to protect against particulates. Don’t bother with cloth masks, though; their mesh isn’t fi ne enough to stop the bits of wildfi re smoke, he said.
This story is from Colorado Public Radio, a nonprofi t news source. Used by permission. For more, and to support CPR News, visit cpr.org.
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‘ We cannot become numb to it’: Colorado leaders react to elementary school shooting in Texas
BY KYLE COOKE ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
Familiar feelings of dread set in May 24 after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. An 18-year-old gunman opened fire in classrooms, killing at least 19 children and two adults.
The attack happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a predominantly Latino town west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officers reportedly killed the shooter.
Nearly 1,000 miles away in Colorado, state leaders reacted to the tragedy with a common message: shootings of this type are hauntingly familiar, and action is needed to prevent similar massacres in the future.
“Another senseless tragedy and another painful reminder that we must act,” Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a series of tweets. “Prayers and thoughts mean well. They are indeed comforting. But action is better. We as a society have to act.”
“This morning I visited Mancos Elementary School and saw the joy on the faces of students and teachers in their last week of school as they looked forward to new adventures this summer and next school year,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. “Now fourteen students and a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas had their joy ended forever from a cold blooded attack and their parents, friends and families won’t ever hold them in their arms again or be able to watch them grow. Colorado’s hearts are heavy for our friends in Texas and join in showing love for the families and community affected.”
Polis released his statement before the full death toll was reported.
The Uvalde shooting happened just 10 days after a racist attack at a Buffalo grocery store that left 10 people dead. And this year alone, there have already been 27 school shootings, according to data from Education Week. Renewed calls for gun control legislation arose following the tragedy in Uvalde.
“This horrific gun violence is uniquely American. We cannot become numb to it,” tweeted Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado. “We need to act and #EndGunViolence now.”
For his part, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), who was serving as the Governor of Colorado during the Century 16 movie theater shooting in Aurora, said, “As a parent, I weep. Our children deserve so much better than this nightmare. We need to protect our future from this senseless violence.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado said, in part, “We cannot lose more children or loved ones. We must find a way to solve our country’s gun violence epidemic & save lives.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch supporter of gun ownership who once said she would bring a handgun to Congress, encouraged people to “turn to God for comfort and healing,” later adding from her campaign’s Twitter account that “You cannot legislate away evil.”
Craig Nasion, a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting, said, “This is America. There is no end in sight for the
steady cadence of mass gun violence we seem unwilling to ever address. A reality my peers could not have imagined on our worst day in April 1999.” President Biden delivered a televised address May 24 to talk about the Uvalde shooting. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” the president asked. “Why do we keep letting aren’t nearly as well equipped to handle this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the [gun] lobbies? It’s time to turn this pain into action.” As Biden emphasized in his remarks, most Americans support legislation that would help curtail gun violence. But such bills have been nonstarters in Congress, largely due to the fact that they would require Republican support in order to pass. Less than a day after the shooting in Uvalde, several GOP lawmakers have already made it clear that they would not support gun control legislation. Some are instead advocating for arming teachers, a policy that is unpopular on a national level. After the shooting in Uvalde, NPR spoke with Ron Avi Astor, a mass shooting expert and professor at UCLA, who said he is unsure why gun laws have barely changed since the Sandy Hook shooting 10 years ago. “Maybe it is money. Maybe it is the gun lobby. Maybe it’s become politicized and an ideological thing,” Astor said, “but [gun violence] should be treated as a public health measure.”
Governor Jared Polis and other Colorado lawmakers made statements regarding the elementary school shooting in Texas. PHOTO BY LUKE ZARZECKI
This story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonprofit public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs. org.
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