After crossing the border for better schools, some parents are pulling their kids and leaving the metro area — and the United States
Nothing hurts like the truth. Here it comes:
First off, bats aren’t blind. They can actually see really well.
Go ahead, sugar up your neighbor’s kids when they come to visit. The old adage about sugar making kids hyper? Not true. No evidence at all. Lots of stories, though.
Fortune cookies? Yeah, not Chinese. Invented in California.
More?
Coffee does not stunt growth. Really. Lightning does strike twice, sometimes it strikes the same place a lot. And no one ever got warts from a toad or frog, because they have none.
Now for the hard part.
Providing drug addicts with a safe, public place to shoot up heroin or some other illegal drug does not encourage users to keep on using, nor does it keep people from kicking their addiction.
I know, it’s hard to believe because it’s so antithetical to what most of us were indoctrinated with since we were young. For the most part, and for most people, we’re raised to believe that, as humans, we do the “right thing” because we fear the consequences for being bad.
“Do you want a spanking?” is training for “Do you want to get a ticket?” which leads to “Do you want to go to jail?”
Human history is filled with the idea that the fear of bad is what keeps the vast majority of us being good, or relatively good.
Having been subjected at an early age to conditioning known as “Catholic Guilt” and “Jewish Guilt” and “Stress Eating Guilt,” I totally get it. Most of us live our lives by some version of the Ten Commandments and not the Torah, Bible and Quran books and gospels that show us all, by example, how we should act to be better people.
So I wasn’t surprised last week during a city council meeting when some city lawmakers began objecting to a plan to spend some Opioid Addiction Settlement money on installing a couple of vending machines in Aurora that would dispense Narcon, or naloxone. Those are the almost miracle drugs that can actually stop someone from dying from an opioid overdose.
The drugs are so effective that they’re credited with saving the lives of thousands of people in Aurora, Denver and across the country who were overdosing on fentanyl or some other opioid concoction. Basically, an opioid overdose prevents your body from telling itself to keep breathing. The opioid molecules stick to special cell receptors in the brain and in your body, causing a euphoric high, and slowing respiration, even to the point of death. Naloxone hogs those receptors, with no side effects, and can restore breathing, all in a matter of minutes.
The trick to naloxone’s success is making sure someone has a bottle of the nasal spray when someone near them is overdosing. Remarkable success has come from huge campaigns to mail it to just about anyone who asks, let them get it from a pharmacy, or hand it out to government types likely to interact with people who do drugs. So people like cops, medics, social workers and folks like that, who can recognize someone overdosing and knows how to ad-
minister the drug can, and do, save a lot of lives. So can just folks you work with, maybe your brother-in-law or a teacher.
Since almost all of us really frown on people shooting up heroin, snorting cocaine, or outright popping fentanyl pills, there’s a lot of guilt, shame and stress for people who not only occasionally, and unwisely, do these drugs, but especially those actually addicted to them.
Opioid addiction is among the most insidious things humans have ever inflicted on themselves. I’ve known people addicted to these drugs. I’ve seen them jones for it. It’s horrible and relentless. I’ve seen people lose limbs to diseases caused by using dirty needles or simply destroying their circulatory systems. I’ve known people who traded their addiction to Percocets or Vicodin for a workable addiction to Methadone.
Drug addiction is filled with myths and misconceptions. For the most part, people with serious opioid addictions aren’t partying when they’re using. They’re often nearly comatose or non-functioning, but the idea that they’re having a great time is so far from the truth. They’re ill.
Another myth is that drug addicts are mostly homeless people, or that most homeless people are drug addicts. There’s no doubt that there are lots of people living on the streets who suffer all kinds of addiction and other health problems, but an opioid user or addict is more likely to be your neighbor, your niece, or someone who doesn’t look anything like what most of us are taught to think of as drug addicts.
So that’s why the objections of the city council are what’s so antithetical to good science, reality and saving lives.
“I just want to make sure we’re not promoting any sort of, you know, safe injection sites, and for me, that kind of teeters on that,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said during a recent city council meeting as city staff talked about a plan to put a couple of naloxone vending machines in the community.
No doubt we all grimace thinking about a
safe injection site, where people show up, get a clean needle, inject their heroin or speedball while a nurse looks on, and then heads out. The reality of those places is that they’re primarily used by people who otherwise would shoot up in the dark part of a park or aside the Dumpster behind a fast-food restaurant. They might overdose or die there. They might contract HIV or get a blood infection and end up in the emergency room, costing all of us tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, all for a $10 high gone wrong. Several Canadian studies have even shown that those who use these safe-shoot sites quit their addictions, rather than die from them.
The science is solid. They don’t attract crime. They don’t bother anyone. They work.
The science is just as solid about getting as much naloxone out into the public as possible. There’s no street party around the vending machines, usually set up in hospitals or controlled public areas. Nobody does heroin or “blues” any more or any less because they think naloxone is a “checkmark” for “all good to go.”
These machines simply give people unable or unwilling to ask a pharmacist or explain to someone at home why they’re having naloxone mailed to the house. It’s just a place where they can get this life-saving drug, just in case they know someone who would need it.
I know it’s hard for most of us to get past the idea that this just enables people’s dangerously destructive behavior, but the reality is, addicts are going to drink, shoot up or snort their folly despite what we think or believe. Thousands of years of addiction across humanity doesn’t lie.
Safe injection sites and making naloxone easily available do not promote drug use or crime around the machines or clinics. They prevent death, and living people can and do kick their addictions.
Dead ones don’t. No lie.
Follow@EditorDavePerryonBlueSky, Threads,Mastodon,TwitterandFacebookor reachhimat303-750-7555ordperry@SentinelColorado.com
“I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE WE’RE NOT PROMOTING ANY SORT OF, YOU KNOW, SAFE INJECTION SITES, AND FOR ME, THAT KIND OF TEETERS ON THAT,” – COUNCILMEMBER DANIELLE JURINSKY
BY CASSANDRA BALLARD, Sentinel Staff Writer
Aurora is eligible for substantial funding for opioid overdose prevention, but some city lawmakers are balking at spending grant money on vending machines that dispense naloxone, fearing it could promote drug use.
“I just want to make sure we’re not promoting any sort of, you know, safe injection sites, and for me, that kind of teeters on that,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said during a Monday city council meeting about a plan to procure the vending machines.
The city is on track to receive more than $3.4 million over the next 17 years as part of Colorado’s share of national opioid settlement funds to help combat the opioid crisis, and naloxone — also known as the brand name Narcan — vending machines were one prevention proposal.
The drug is used to treat people suffering an opioid drug overdose, which can be fatal.
Opioid overdose deaths have risen dramatically since 2020, according to Colorado Department of Health statistics. In 2023, the state recorded 1,865 overdose deaths, about 200 occurred in both Adams and Arapahoe counties. Denver and some cities across the country have been implementing vending machines for more than two years as
a way to make the life-saving opioid antidote more accessible to drug users and to those who come in contact with them.
The grant funds come from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies, distributors and retailers found to be responsible for fueling the opioid epidemic, according to Calli Tucker, Aurora’s Crisis Intervention Program administrator.
Aurora police, rescuers and similar public-facing workers have been supplied with naloxone, so far provided from the state to Aurora for free, according to Jessica Prosser, director of Housing and Community Services.
As of 2024, $1,737,942 in opioid settlement funds have been made available to the city, with only $245,540 approved so far for vans and buses to transport people to and from the Aurora Navigation Campus. The center is Aurora’s work-first, one-stop shop facility for handling homelessness in Aurora. It’s expected to open later this year.
“Given the nature of how we expect these settlement funds to be dispersed, we anticipate the amount the city of Aurora receives to fluctuate, and so that has been taken into account for the sustainability of the recommendations that we will see,” Tucker said.
An agreement with the state allows for expenditures to fall within certain
areas: treatment, prevention, services for children, support for first responders, community leadership, staffing and training, research and related administrative costs.
According to Tucker, city staff proposed four initial funding projects based on the city’s history and available evidence:
• Consulting services to access Medicaid billing, estimated at $125,000
• Implement naloxone vending/resource distribution sites, estimated at about $10,000 for each site, possibly two or more sites
• Expanded emergency medical services for opioid overdoses, estimated at $112,000
• Expanded intervention services in response to opioid overdoses, estimated at $55,000-$87,000, per site, with possibly two sites
Although there has been recent national news about Medicaid funding cuts, the opioid settlement money appears to still be secure, according to city officials.
“For the time being, the state has gone through the federal government and gotten approval for the rest of this year at least, to be using this funding, Medicaid funding, for supportive services,” Emma Knight, Homeless Programs manager, said. “For now, they
have received a waiver for us to be able to do things like this.”
Both Jurinsky and Coffman said they were skeptical about naloxone vending machines in public places, especially when city staff, healthcare workers, and employees at the soon-to-be-open Navigation Campus would already be equipped with naloxone themselves. They both said concerns that a readily available vending machine would give the impression that illicit drug use is acceptable.
Proponents of naloxone distribution say the reduction in overdose deaths has been attributed to a public information campaign and making the antidote drug widely accessible, without stigma.
There were 442 non-fatal opioid overdoses , which had been abated before patients when to emergency rooms, in Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas Counties in 2023,” Tucker said.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a 13.9% decrease in fatal overdoses in Colorado from October 2023 to October 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
The deaths caused by synthetic
Family of Kilyn Lewis marks anniversary with balloon release at police shooting site
On the anniversary of the death of Kilyn Lewis, his family and supporters went to the condo parking lot where he was fatally shot by police and released balloons at the time of his shooting, 11:37 a.m.
“We’re marking the death anniversary for my son, Kylin. It’s a celebration as well for us to be out here together as a community, to be out here to celebrate life with him,” LaRonda Jones, Kylin’s mother, said at the event May 23. “It is also a heartfelt moment because we are here at the place where he actually lost his life, unjustifiably.”
Jones said she made balloons with a farewell message and her son’s picture, so everyone could remember her son.
“Kilyn forever missed and always cherished restful sleep until we meet again, Big K Lo,” The balloons read.
Kilyn was fatally by Aurora SWAT Officer, Michael Dieck, as his SWAT unit tried to arrest the 37-year-old Denver man in an Aurora condo parking lot.
Lewis was a suspect in a Denver shooting in May 2024.
“The SWAT Team was called to assist when the suspect was located driving a red sedan in Aurora,” police spokesperson Matthew Longshore said in previous reporting. “The suspect arrived at the apartment complex just before noon.”
Aurora SWAT officers approached Lewis as he exited his car and attempted to arrest him, but he went to reach for his phone from his back pocket and was shot.
Dieck was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the shooting by the former Arapahoe County district attorney. He was cleared of violating police department policy by an internal investigation board and police chief.
“The system is very corrupt,” Jones said. “The system doesn’t stand for the oath that they took.”
Jones said that when she comes to the place of her son’s death, she remembers that the police only gave the media and the public what they wanted them to see to justify his death, and she said that his death was not justified.
“If he were here, I would say ‘Unitedly we stand, dividedly we fall,’” she said.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
The Aurora City Council on Monday approved a resolution to assist, respond, detect, detain and investigate drone operators flying too close to Buckley Space Force Base.
“This agreement does not declare additional jurisdiction nor limit or modify the existing jurisdiction vested in the parties,” the agreement said. “This agreement is intended only to provide primary responsibilities for the specific subject matter of Unmanned Aerial Systems incursions into Buckley Space Force Base airspace from outside the installation.”
Under the agreement, the Aurora Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will respond to reports of drones, or Unmanned Aerial Systems, activity around the base. They will collaborate with Buckley law enforcement, including the 460th Security Forces Squadron.
The resolution authorizes approval of an intergovernmental agreement
between the three agencies to work against possible threats to national defense airspace around the base.
“Promoting safety in our built environment through effective administration of city codes and ordinances and responding to emergencies appropriately to preserve and enhance the community’s sense of security and well-being” is the strategic outcome of the agreement, according to the city council packet.
Aurora has for decades worked to ensure the future of base, addressing concerns about the encroachment of development and lobbying to guarantee needed airspace for the bases’ flight mission.
The joint response will allow Aurora police to take responsibility for civilian suspects outside the base within five miles of the base’s perimeter until federal authorities take jurisdiction. The FBI will also coordinate efforts when federal offenses are suspected.
The agreement will also encourage mutual training exercises and public outreach on drone regulations.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
Colorado advocates struggle for info about 12 immigrants to
Immigration advocates in Colorado say they have identified about 12 immigrants in Colorado whom they believe federal authorities have removed to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Some details of their cases are uncertain, because immigration authorities, both in court proceedings and through public communication, have largely refused to release information about enforcement activities.
But lawyers and community groups working on behalf of the immigrants —through contact with family members, media coverage, videos from CECOT, and scant clues from federal sources — have constructed the best available profile of people who vanished from Colorado.
As Colorado Newsline previously reported, Tim Macdonald, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, in April first revealed in federal court in Denver that at least 11 people had been removed from Colorado to the brutal prison in El Salvador. The ACLU represents two Venezuelan nationals, as well as a larger class of immigrants, who are being held at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora and fear deportation under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump to hasten deportations.
Tim Macdonald, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, speaks to reporters outside the Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse in Denver on April 21, 2025. Macdonald represents plaintiffs who are suing the Trump administration over their potential deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. (Quentin Young/Colorado Newsline)
The Colorado case is one of several throughout the country that challenges the Trump administration’s hyper-aggressive pursuit of mass deportations as unconstitutional, affording detainees little to no due process.
Attorney Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at Westminster-based Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, which has worked on the federal case of the Venezuelan detainees and others in Colorado, told Newsline this week that immigra›› See METRO, 6
opioids, such as fentanyl, dropped 28.5%, from 1,192 to 852, according to the article. Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, which is part of CU Anschutz’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, said that one reason the fatal overdose rate has declined is that naloxone is readily available for anyone to have.
This “non-judgmental tone” is a significant factor in one of their opioid prevention campaigns, dubbed “Keep The Party Safe.”
Keep The Party Safe, which is led locally by a consortium and CU An-
schutz, is aimed at occasional and recreational drug users between the ages of 18 and 45 who are unaware that fentanyl can be found in drugs including cocaine, MDMA, meth and heroin. Counterfeit versions of prescription drugs, including Xanax and OxyContin, are also a danger, according to a research article from CU Anschutz.
“The Keep the Party Safe campaign has a non-judgmental tone and shares information that empowers individuals to take steps to protect themselves and others from overdose, particularly by keeping naloxone on hand, testing drugs and knowing the signs of an overdose,”
according to the essay.
Multiple studies have attributed the vending machines to decreases as high as 15% in fatal overdoses, according to Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
“Research showed that 73.3% of drug overdose deaths in Colorado in 2023 had at least one potential opportunity for intervention, most often by a bystander,” Tucker said during the meeting. “Which speaks to why the focus on opioid abatement fund strategies are so crucial.”
Coffman and other council members requested that the city staff return with more detailed information for further discussion.
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tion advocates think there are “about a dozen” people the U.S. removed from Colorado to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act.
“In some instances, we were in touch with their loved ones, who said, “We saw our loved one on the news, and he is in CECOT,”” Lunn said.
Numerous images and videos have emerged from the prison since March 15, when American officials, in possible violation of a court order, flew 238 migrants from the U.S. to be incarcerated in El Salvador. The roughly dozen immigrants transferred from Colorado to CECOT are believed to have been on one of three March 15 flights, Lunn said.
Newsline requested responses to a set of specific questions for this story from a spokesperson for ICE Denver. The spokesperson referred questions to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who did not respond.
The Western region branch of the American Friends Service Committee helped to confirm, largely through interaction with family members, about six of the Colorado-to-CECOT detainees, Jennifer Piper, the region’s program director, said. They are Venezuelan men roughly between 19 and 25 years old. There is no indication any of the roughly 12 individuals from Colorado were legal residents or citizens of the U.S., but they were removed from the country before they could present facts on their own behalf, Lunn noted.
For some family members, the first indication a loved one had been transported to El Salvador was the release by CBS News of a list of detainees who were on the March 15 flights.
One Colorado detainee’s mother whom Piper works with spotted her son in a video from CECOT just this month.
“She finally was able to see her kid’s face, when they went walking down the halls,” Piper said. “So, you know, you’re talking two months, more than 60 days that you have no idea if your loved one is alive, dead, in El Salvador, disappeared into the immigration system in Guantanamo. No idea.”
Some details on at least three Colorado-to-El Salvador detainees have
been reported through government and media sources. They include Jose Eduardo Moran-Garcia, Yohendry Jerez-Hernandez and Nixon Azuaje–Perez. Jerez-Hernandez and Perez appear on the CBS list. Sources for this story declined to give the names of other individuals they’re working with.
Colorado and Aurora became a focus of Trump’s plan for mass deportations as he campaigned for reelection last year, including during a rally in Aurora in October. Local and federal authorities in recent months have undertaken several operations against immigrants on the Front Range.
They include the September arrests of four men in connection with a shooting at an apartment on Nome Street in Aurora, a raid on a “makeshift nightclub” in Adams County in January, a coordinated set of operations at residences in Denver and Aurora in February, and a raid on a “makeshift nightclub” in Colorado Springs last month.
At least some of the detainees sent from Colorado to CECOT were rounded up during these actions, Piper said, adding, “Not a single person was convicted of a crime.”
Trump administration officials often allege that some detainees in Colorado and elsewhere have ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
“It’s really important to understand that those ties have not been proven in any way,” Piper said. “They haven’t been able to provide any proof of that in any of the court documents where they’re being sued.”
Some of the removed immigrants faced criminal charges, but they were local, not federal, charges, often filed well after the individuals were initially detained, Piper said.
“No one gets to go to their final court date to argue their case” before removal, Piper said. Some detainees didn’t even face local charges and were removed to El Salvador because federal officials said, “Oh, we didn’t like your tattoo,” she said.
Lunn has appeared as a “friend of the court” during hearings for some of the Colorado detainees believed to be at CECOT. Government attorneys have never acknowledged the detainees were sent to El Salvador, she said.
“I’ve been doing detained work for people in immigration proceedings now for about 15 years. It is unprecedented for somebody’s case to be docketed and for ICE to show up to court and say, “We don’t know where this person is, and we’re not at liberty to tell you where they might be,”” Lunn said.
The cases are devoid of typical due process and documentation.
“It would be one thing if there was like a legal basis that the government could point to as to why somebody was placed on one of those planes, but because they provided them no prior notice, because people were taken without the opportunity to review any allegations against them, that means that there really is no paper trail of what allegations existed,” Lunn said. “We don’t even know what the government supposedly alleged in order to invoke the (Alien Enemies Act) against people.”
She rejects the term “deportation” to describe these cases.
“It’s not a deportation, because they don’t have a deportation order,” Lunn said. “It’s lawlessness … People were disappeared.”
Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver issued a preliminary injunction that indefinitely blocks the Trump administration from removing detainees in Colorado under the Alien Enemies Act while the case is pending.
— Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline
The Aurora City Council approved a resolution May 19 night hoping to persuade Congress and the Trump administration to preserve the federal tax exemption of municipal bonds.
“A little context or background, some in the presidential administration have floated the idea of removing the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds to help pay for their tax package, and that obviously would be very detrimental to the City of Aurora and all other municipalities as well,” Councilmem-
ber Curtis Gardner said during a May 5 study session.
Municipal bonds are essentially loans from a wide range of investors offered at less-than-market rates because repayment is relatively secure, and interest made on the loans are tax free.
The bonds are key tools for financing city infrastructure such as roads, utilities, all kinds of buildings and even hospitals.
“This is an issue that the National League of Cities, Colorado Municipal League and other municipal groups have been working on,” Gardner said.
Without such bonds, the cost of borrowing would be more expensive, resulting in a new burden on taxpayers, the resolution said.
“This is just a simple statement saying that the council wants Congress to maintain tax-exempt status for municipal bonds and requests that a copy of the resolution be forwarded to our delegation,” Gadner said.
The resolution said that the federal tax exemption for municipal bonds dates back to the 1800s and was incorporated into the modern tax code 1913. It has been crucial for state and local governments to finance critical infrastructure projects affordably.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff
City lawmakers tweak new restrictions on public addressing council at meetings
Aurora city lawmakers approved a minor change May 19 night to the one person at the lectern rule, but the resolution mainly remained the same.
Councilmember Françoise Bergan said she discussed the new ordinance with City Attorney Pete Schulte, and the city is removing the physical disabilities language that was added during the last meeting. Instead, they added a clause that addresses Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
“That is why I’m bringing it back, by removing that portion, but yet putting it in the whereas clause,” she said. “When we do amendments on the fly, it gets really difficult.”
The resolution passed with council members Crystal Murillo and Ruben Medina opposing the entirety of the rule. The change will limit speakers to one person at a time at the lectern in the “council well” unless they have a child with them.
“We are not going to violate the ADA,” Schulte said. “It was just impossible to get all the different variations in the actual rule itself.”
The city council has struggled with protesters linked to the death of Lewis for almost a year.
Lewis was fatally shot May 23, 2024, by an Aurora SWAT officer during Lewis’ arrest at an Aurora apartment complex. The arrest was linked to attempted murder charges in Denver. Arapahoe County prosecutors said SWAT Officer Michael Dieck did not break any laws during the shooting. Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said internal investigations revealed Chamberlain did not break any police policies during the shooting. As police were yelling at Lewis to surrender during the parking-lot confrontation, Dieck fired at Lewis as he was raising his arms and hands. Lewis was holding a cell phone in his hand, and Dieck told investigators he thought it was a gun.
Since then, friends, family members and activists have protested during, before and after Aurora city council meetings, sometimes shutting them down
and spending hours speaking to or in front of the city council.
City lawmakers have increasingly restricted how the public addresses the city council without specifically targeting the Lewis coalition of about a dozen regular participants.
The resolution tonight initially had a section prohibiting cameras or any other recording device in the “well” of the council chambers and obstructing views in the audience with tripods live-streaming during the “public invited to be heard” session before the council meeting. It would have also restricted the media from photographing in the area, but Councilmember Francoise Bergan, the measure’s sponsor, decided to delete that section.
“It was a bit confusing as the intention was not to preclude a speaker from videotaping or taking a photo,” she said in an email to the Sentinel before the meeting.
City Attorney Pete Schulte described the “well” of the chamber as the floor space between the front row of the auditorium seating and the dais where city council members sit.
The part of the proposal that passed will allow only one person at a time at the lectern on the council floor when the public is addressing the council at the dais.
Last month, MiDian Schofner, one of the regular Lewis protesters, invited people to stand with her at the lectern. The group stood together in the “well” throughout the public listening session. The group has similarly moved onto the council floor numerous times over the past 10 months.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
Aurora lawmakers consider cutting, merging advisory boards to save cash, time
Aurora lawmakers looking to eliminate and consolidate some city boards and commissions in an effort to reduce expenses and the use of staff time have targeted a host of long-standing advisory groups.
The entities mentioned during a study session on May 19 that could be cut include the police department Independent Review Board, the city Human Relations Commission and the Veterans Affairs Commission.
“All these boards or commissions serve at the pleasure of council,” City Manager Jason Batchelor said. “They’re all advisory, and again, the intent of this is really to make sure that you all are getting the structure and feedback you all need as the elected leaders.”
Projected cost savings and staff time saved as not immediately available.
There were also some boards and commissions targeted for consolidation. That could include combining the Aurora Fox Arts Center Board, the Cultural Affairs Commission and the Art in Public Places Commission into one group.
City Council members are also considering consolidating the Golf Course Advisory Committee, Open Space Advisory Board and Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
“The recommendation is to consolidate those similarly into one commission with some standing subcommittees in those areas,” Batchelor said.
The Aurora Oil and Gas Advisory Committee was saved from the chopping block and proposed to be ›› See METRO, 7
reduced to quarterly meetings after Councilmember Francious Bergan said she thought the group was still helpful to city council but did not need to meet as often.
There was also a proposal to break up the Aurora Youth Commission and have its members sit on open seats in other boards and commissions. That proposal created the most disagreement among city council members, with council members Ruben Medina and Crystal Murillo saying it was potentially unfair to the youth members who the change would affect.
Staff recommended cutting the police Independent Review Board because it was seen as a duplicate of the Civil Service Commission, which provides oversight for police and fire discipline. Batchelor said the board was not needed because it is “functionally defunct,” and it delays the discipline process.
Council members Alison Coombs and Murillo objected to ending the Human Relations Commission. Mayor Mike Coffman wanted to clarify their work for the city, since he remembered serving on the commission and distributing grants to different groups.
“These are boards that staff found are a little outside of the direct service provision of the city, and wanted to see what council’s direction was,” Batchelor said about the Human Relations Commission and the Veterans Affairs Commission.
The Human Relations Commission focuses on the needs of marginalized groups, such as foster children, people of color and immigrants. The group
organizes events like the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and commemoration, and donates to local nonprofits.
The Human Relations Commission is the one that Councilmembers Danielle Jurinsky and Steve Sundberg said they wanted to see eliminated, without offering reasons why.
“I understand the idea that this may be outside the purview of the city, but in terms of complaints related to ADA issues, complaints related to discrimination issues,” Coombs said. “How are we going to be handling those types of concerns that may be brought forward through that board, as it currently is?”
The Aurora Fox Arts Center was also discussed as a spot of contention between council members, with it being a passion project for Councilmember Stephanie Hancock, who is working to revive the arts district on Colfax Avenue, which the Aurora Fox theater is the centerpiece of.
“I’d like to see all three consolidated versus one eliminated,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said. “I think the Fox Theater is a huge financial drain to the City of Aurora, and I think that that still needs to be included as part of the discussion with this board. We have got to figure out how to stop having the Fox Theater be a huge financial drain to the people of Aurora.”
The Fox is funded by the city as well as the regional Science and Cultural Finance District as a Tier II recipient.
Hancock acknowledged the financial strain the Aurora Fox currently is for the city, but said she believes that if the community is built as an arts and cultural destination, it will turn the organization around.
They both agreed to the consolida-
tion.
Jurinsky said that although she is a veteran, Veterans Affairs are handled at the county level, and she doesn’t see the need for a board at the city level.
“Obviously, we are a veteran community,” she said. “It does sort of lend to the question of what it is that we’re asking them to do and comment on, it’s a little far-reaching, because we’re not doing that direct provision of services.”
Batchelor said city staff will take city council comments into consideration and bring a proposal back at a future date. Cuts or combinations could be presented to city council as a single bill, or as separate issues.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Colorado mandates dyslexia testing for all elementary students
Surrounded by smiling supporters and curious fourth graders, Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a bill into law that will require universal dyslexia screenings in Colorado schools starting in the 2027-28 school year.
The sunny signing ceremony outside the front doors of Lukas Elementary School in Westminster was a momentous occasion. For students, it was the only thing besides lunch separating them from the start of summer break. For advocates of children with dyslexia, it was the culmination of a dogged effort to ensure students with the most common learning disability are flagged early so they can get the help they need.
The dyslexia bill, one of three edu-
cation bills signed into law at the ceremony, was especially personal to some lawmakers. Rep. Matt Soper, a Republican representing western Colorado and one of the bill sponsors, has dyslexia and talked about his reading struggles growing up. Polis noted that both his father and his fifth grade daughter have dyslexia.
Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Democrat representing parts of Adams County and one of the bill sponsors, choked up as he talked about the mental health toll dyslexia once took on his daughter, who’s now a sixth grader.
“I’m going to go home and tell my daughter that we did something for her today,” he said. “I’m going to tell all those students who are falling through the cracks that we’ve done something for them.”
Dyslexia is a common learning disability that makes it hard to decode and spell words, but with the right instruction, students with dyslexia can do as well as their peers in school. About 15% to 20% of the population has dyslexia, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
While the new law, which comes with no funding, won’t immediately require schools to screen kindergarten through third grade students for signs of dyslexia, it marks another milestone in the state’s ongoing campaign to boost reading proficiency among Colorado students. Over the last seven years, state leaders have cracked down on debunked reading curriculum, required more training for elementary teachers and principals, and held teacher prep programs to higher standards for how they train future elementary educators to teach reading.
About a dozen Colorado school dis-
tricts currently screen all students in certain elementary grades for dyslexia.
Two more — Jeffco and Douglas County — will start next year and by 202728, more than 160 other districts are expected to join the club.
At last week’s ceremony, Rachel Dobronyi, a senior at the Colorado School of Mines, was one of four students with dyslexia invited to stand near the podium during lawmakers’ speeches.
An environmental engineering major, Dobronyi said she entered college reading at a second grade level. She participated in a special two-year program to help her re-learn how to read. One of her biggest moments, she said, was her 19th birthday when she was able to read her birthday cards for the first time.
For Rachel, and her mother Amy Dobronyi, a longtime advocate for children with dyslexia, Friday’s signing was emotional. During the event, Amy leaned into Rachel and told her, “I did this for you, and your dad, and your brother.”
Rachel almost started to cry during the ceremony.
“It was really amazing,” she said. “I’ve watched my mom fight for these bills for so long.”
The new dyslexia law, a bipartisan effort that had more than 60 lawmakers sign on as co-sponsors, represents the third attempt since 2019 to require statewide dyslexia screening. An even earlier effort in 2008 led to a mostly toothless law that allowed but didn’t require the state education department to offer school districts training on dyslexia.
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Still, it was progress, said Sally Pistilli, a Douglas County mother who started pushing for changes many years ago after her own son, now an adult, was diagnosed with dyslexia after second grade.
“You have to understand that back then, you couldn’t even really say the word dyslexia in most schools,” she said. “It was a victory in that we got a bill passed with the word dyslexia in it.”
The 2008 law didn’t do a lot, but it helped lead to the passage of Colorado’s flagship reading law — the READ Act — four years later, said Pistilli, who was unable to attend Friday’s signing event. That law mandated reading assessments for all K-3 students and reading plans for those who were farthest behind. But the assessments often missed kids with dyslexia, continuing the cycle of failure and frustration.
Around that time, a fellow dyslexia advocate bought Pistilli a joke gift acknowledging the slow pace of progress: a purple and green T-shirt that said, “For our grandchildren.”
“She kind of really foresaw what was happening,” Pistilli said of her friend, who has since died but is survived by grandchildren.
Today, Pistilli has two Colorado grandchildren of her own, a 4-monthold, and one who is almost 2.
“I am beyond thrilled to be able to see [screening] happen for all the kids, but now my own grandchildren as well,” she said.
— ANN SCHIMKE | Colorado Chalkbeat
COPS AND COURTS
Texas man gets 36 years after local arrest for trafficking minors, sex assault
A Texas man accused of pimping and trafficking two teenagers and an adult woman, and sexually assaulting one of the teens, was sentenced May 23 to 36 years to life in prison, according to Arapahoe County prosecutors.
Kenneth T. Noel, 34, was found guilty in February of trafficking minors as well as an adult, pimping and child sex assault in the case, all felonies.
Noel was arrested in June 2020 when he was stopped during what prosecutors said was a routine traffic stop on an undisclosed part of Interstate 70 somewhere in Arapahoe County.
“The trooper noticed an SUV with temporary tags driving in the left lane with no traffic around it,” 18th Judicial District officials said in a statement. “In Colorado, drivers on I-70 should stay
in the right lane unless actively passing another vehicle or avoiding a road hazard.”
Court officials did not disclose why the case took nearly five years to get to trial and sentencing.
Investigators said when the officer pulled over the car, it was being driven by an adult female, and Noel was a passenger. There were two teen girls in the back seat.
“The two female passengers in the back initially gave the trooper fake names,” 18th Judicial District spokesperson Eric Ross said in a statement.
“When questioned further, the trooper was able to identify the two teenagers as runaway juveniles. Both were 14-years-old at the time of the traffic stop and told the trooper they were on their way to Nevada to work as strippers.”
During an investigation, one of the victims said she had been assaulted by Noel the night before they were pulled over in Arapahoe County.
During the trial, prosecutors linked Noel to online advertisements for sex and trafficking, some of which included the adult female in the car.
“Further investigation revealed these sex ads appeared in cities across the United States,” Ross stated.
The 36-year prison sentence is two months short of the maximum, officials said.
“Sadly, human trafficking is a multi billion-dollar industry in the United States,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacob Kremin said in a statement. “Statistics show that victims who are subjected to human trafficking at 13 or 14-years-old simply will likely not live to see their 21st birthday if they don’t escape this illegal enterprise.”
The U.S. Administration for Children and Families reports that young victims of trafficking often die at a young age from a variety of causes.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Mar Michalek credited the state trooper who was skeptical during the traffic stop and reported seeing signs of a trafficking crime.
“After nearly five years, with assistance along the way from FBI Kansas City and FBI Houston, as well as support from community service providers,- the survivors were able to watch a judge sentence their abuser to prison, where he won’t be able to victimize additional juveniles or adults.”
Anyone who is a victim of trafficking or suspects someone else may be a victim can call a special state hotline at 1-866-455-5075 or text “HELP” to 720999-9724.
— Sentinel Staff
18-year-old Wheat Ridge man fatally shot in Aurora; boy, 17, also injured
Police say an 18-year-old Wheat Ridge man was fatally shot and a 17-year-old Denver boy was wounded May 25 in northwest Aurora.
Officers were called to a shooting at about 7:15 p.m. somewhere in the 3100 block of Ursula Street in the Morris Heights neighborhood.
“Once at the scene, officers located two male victims who had sustained apparent gunshot wounds,” Aurora spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement. “Both were rushed to local hospitals; one with life-threatening injuries and the second with non-life-threatening injuries.”
The critically injured man, 18, from Wheat Ridge, died at the hospital from his shooting injuries. The second shooting victim, a Denver boy, 17, is expected to recover, Moylan said.
“The circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation,” Moylan said. “There is no suspect information at this time. “
Police said anyone with information can call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and still be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000, police said.
— Sentinel Staff
Aurora joins 5 cities suing state, Polis, over new affordable housing laws
Aurora has joined five other “home rule” cities in Colorado in suing the state, alleging it has unconstitutionally usurped its local authority over land use and zoning as it pushes communities to allow denser housing development.
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of an executive order Gov. Jared Polis signed last week to withhold some state grants from local communities if they fail to implement a slate of recent housing laws. The cities say the order encroaches on the powers of both the General Assembly and the judiciary to say what the law is and is “beyond the Governor’s authority.”
The cities are also asking the courts to find they don’t have to follow two new laws approved by the legislature last year which require cities to allow denser housing near transit and to do away with minimum parking requirements for some new multi-family developments.
“We’re seeing a steady erosion of our citizens’ ability to have a voice in the communities in which they live,” said Greenwood Village Mayor George Lantz in a written statement. “The flurry of legislative proposals continually eroding our Home Rule rights applies a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach, removing all of their uniqueness.”
response to the lawsuit, his office told CPR News that the state faces a housing shortage and Coloradans are demanding action from their leaders to bring down housing costs.
“The Governor wants to bring everyone to the table to help find solutions because this is a challenge that crosses local boundaries. It’s disappointing to see certain local governments that have among the priciest homes in Colorado use taxpayer money on a lawsuit that could go toward lowering the cost of housing. It’s clear this lawsuit is about preventing more housing from being built that Coloradans can afford,” said spokeswoman Shelby Wieman.
Wieman said the laws are a common sense effort to break down barriers to new housing.
“The Governor is proud of this work, appreciates the partnership and collaboration with so many local governments, and looks forward to seeing its impact in communities across the state. We are confident a court will rule in the state’s favor.”
The lawsuit is just the latest twist in the increasingly confrontational push and pull between the state and some local communities on housing. On May 23 Polis signed an executive order requiring local governments to show that they’re enacting recently passed housing laws in order to be eligible for more than a $100 million in state grants for things like transportation and energy.
Polis has consistently asserted that the state has authority to regulate in this area.
“Housing is an interjurisdictional regional issue,” he told CPR News on Friday, ahead of the executive order.
“That’s why it’s an issue of state concern. What one community does affects housing prices in other communities because people have a choice of where to live.”
Polis noted that a 20 minute commute in the Denver metro area can potentially cross 14 jurisdictions; “so it’s really about how we address this as a state.”
He said local communities should be following state law.
Gov. Jared Polis, flanked by members of his cabinet and other supporters, announces his “Vision 2026” policy roadmap near an RTD light rail station in Lakewood on Dec. 7, 2023. The plan calls for greater housing density and more transit service, which Polis says will make Colorado more affordable and more climate friendly.
The housing policies targeted in the lawsuit have been championed by the Polis administration as well as some Democrats at the statehouse as a way to increase the amount of housing available and to slow the rise in housing costs.
But local governments have pushed back, with some saying they do not intend to follow the new laws.
housing shortages. Instead, the dogged insistence on telling local leaders what is best for their communities – followed by this weird flex of threatening to withhold grant funds – has been a greater detriment to building more housing than has market conditions, inflation, and all the other factors that Colorado has experienced.”
While Polis’s executive order requires cities to comply with more than a half dozen recent laws to keep receiving state funding, the new lawsuit takes aim at two in particular.
One law would allow new multi-family developments near transit hubs to include fewer off-street parking spaces per unit than cities have traditionally allowed. Backers of the policy argue that requiring parking essentially subsidizes sprawl and drives up costs for developments, to the point where some projects may be financially non-viable.
But in the lawsuit, cities pushed back, arguing new buildings with few parking spots would negatively impact their communities.
“Especially in Arvada’s Olde Town area, despite having dedicated garage and lot parking, Arvada continues to struggle with parking availability and often faces shortages,” the suit notes in one example.
An RTD G Line train idles at the Olde Town Arvada stop during a test run on February 8, 2019.
In the lawsuit, the cities said they have important reasons for requiring parking, with Glendale describing properly managed parking as “essential to ensure the health, safety and welfare of both Glendale’s residents and its substantial business community.”
Glendale said if residential developments lack sufficient parking, residents will just park in commercial lots, causing conflicts with local businesses.
The other law centers on denser housing near transit. It requires cities to allow up to 40 units per acre on lots near transit hubs, a density similar to the condo developments that have grown up in parts of northwest Denver. Cities also could also fulfill the mandate by concentrating even denser development in smaller areas.
Thirty-two local governments along the Front Range are covered by the law. Backers say Coloradans are begging for more housing and there is no better place to increase density than near transit, allowing those residents to get around without cars.
But Lanz said the communities in the lawsuit disagree that upzoning will bring housing costs down or boost ridership on RTD.
“Affordable housing requires subsidization and the low ridership on RTD is not going to be fixed by zoning,” he said.
— BENTE BIRKELAND, CPR News
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In addition to Aurora and Greenwood Village, the cities of Arvada, Glendale, Lafayette and Westminster joined the lawsuit filed on Monday.
Lantz said the laws the cities are challenging prevent local governments from holding public hearings on dense housing proposals near transit. Local communities, the lawsuit argues, have a right to weigh in on how they develop and already have comprehensive plans on growth and development that have been vetted by the communities.
“For over 100 years, local land use planning has been left to residents and their locally elected officials, rather than the state,” said Lanz.
Polis has made housing affordability and increased housing development top priorities for his administration. In
“Colorado municipalities will not be bullied by an administration and legislature that gives lip service to local control but does not understand or respect home rule authority,” said Kevin Bommer, head of the Colorado Municipal League, in a press release responding to the lawsuit.
Bommer also blasted Polis for Friday’s executive order, saying the state would be better served to work with local governments, rather than trying to preempt them. He argued Colorado municipalities have been leaders and innovators on housing and land use issues for decades, while listening to their residents on how they want their own communities to grow and provide services.
“The last three legislative sessions could have been spent working to solve
Half of the four teams left in the chase for the Class 5A baseball state championship hail from Aurora, but the odds are long that the title comes to town.
Top-seeded Grandview and sixth-seeded Regis Jesuit survived the opening weekend of the double-elimination tournament to remain in championship contention, though both face long roads — all of which go through defending champion Cherry Creek — to hoist the winners’ trophy.
seed” senior Chase Chapman said. “Being No. 1 puts a target on your back for a lot of people, but you just have to realize that they have targets on their backs as well. We’re going to fight you and if we get a punch in the face, we’re going to punch right back.”
That is exactly what the Wolves did against Castle View and Broomfield, which both took multiple-run leads after one at-bat against them, only to have Grandview absorb the early blow and then rally to victory.
The SaberCats benefitted from a three-base
BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor
Both area teams suffered losses to the second-seeded Bruins in the opening set of games and if either one of them can get past the other remaining team — No. 5 Broomfield — in the May 30 semifinals at All-Star Park, would have to defeat Cherry Creek twice May 31 to take the title.
Grandview enters the final weekend in the best position of the two Aurora programs despite a 7-1 loss to Cherry Creek May 24 at AllStar Park by virtue of wins in its first two games against No. 8 Castle View (5-2) and Broomfield (5-4). Coach Scott Henry’s team is set for a 12:30 p.m. contest May 30 against the winner of a 10 a.m. game between Regis Jesuit and Broomfield.
The Wolves are the only program among the final four that has never won a championship, as they share the semifinals with Cherry Creek (which has nine), Broomfield (which has eight) and Regis Jesuit (which has three), which makes it interesting for them as the top seed.
“There’s many things Grandview has never done before, like going back-to-back in the Final Fours for two years in a row and being the No. 1
error on the second hitter of the game to take an immediate 2-0 lead, but didn’t get anything else against junior Ethan Wachsmann, who gave his offense plenty of time to work with six shutout innings to follow. The Eagles pushed three runs across against senior starter Jax Pfister, but got only one more in the next six innings against Pfsiter and senior reliever Josiah Giron.
“We just always stay locked in on winning, no matter what,” said Pfister, who pitched six strong innings for the win and turned a 3-2 double play with sophomore catcher Kayden Bohmeyer to end the win over Broomfield.
“We could be down by 10 runs and we’re still going to give it 100 percent effort to win because that’s what we want to do. We always say ‘we don’t need it’ when something bad happens. We’re just focused on the next pitch and I think that’s really helped us.”
With the chance to take the driver’s seat for the title, Grandview was unable to rally from a deficit against Centennial League rival Cherry Creek. The Bruins scored four runs with two outs and capitalized on two errant pickoffs, while two pitchers allowed only two hits.
For the weekend, sophomore Matthew Schimberg had four hits, while Chapman was on base frequently and stole three bases with four runs scored, while junior AJ Maroni drove in a combined four runs and senior Justin Dean had three RBI. The Wolves should have all of their pitching available to try to get through three games.
Regis Jesuit’s chances to win the program’s first state championship since 2019 and fourth all-time changed dramatically with a walk-off 4-3 loss to Cherry Creek May 23.
The Raiders — playing in the Championship Series for a fourth straight season — started the opening day with an 11-5 win over No. 3 Arvada West in a game that was highlighted by several multiple-run rallies, including a four-run sixth inning burst that included senior Jace Filleman’s three-run home run.
Regis Jesuit then managed to build a 3-2 lead after six innings against Cherry Creek when senior Isak Stevenson delivered a pinch-hit RBI single to plate
But the Bruins scored the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded and got a walkoff win on a sacrifice
GIRLS GOLF
Whitmore ties for 5th to lead locals at Class 5A girls state golf tourney
The tears began as soon as the golf ball fell into the cup for the final time for Regis Jesuit senior Audrey Whitmore.
The Raiders’ standout rolled in a short putt on the green of Hole No. 18 at Todd Creek Golf Club May 20 to cap her prep golf career and seal her best-ever finish at the Class 5A girls golf state tournament.
In her fourth career state tournament, Whitmore shot plus-7 79 in the final round — a day after she shot 78 — and it lifted her into a tie for fifth place.
“I’m really sad, I was super emotional on the last hole,” Whitmore said. “I made my putt and I just started crying. It’s been quite an adventure. I was talking with a lot of seniors and they are like ‘I don’t know why this is so sad,’ but for me, it’s because I’m really close with a lot of my team and this has been a massive part of my life for the last couple of years. It’s super emotional.”
Whitmore saved her best for last when it came to the state tournament, as she eclipsed her eighth-place finish at last season’s tournament at the Broadlands G.C. That came after she was 18th as a sophomore and 45th as a freshman.
Additionally, Whitmore carded a two-day total of 157 to come in 17 strokes clear of the next-highest finishers among the Aurora area’s total of nine state qualifiers, as Cherokee Trail sophomore Brinnon Cook shot a two-day total of 174 that tied her for 27th. Cook’s Cougars edged Whitmore’s Raiders by a single shot in the team race, however, as Cherokee Trail grabbed 10th and Regis Jesuit 11th. Cherokee Trail senior Haylee Clark, a three-time state qualifier, finished a stroke behind teammate Cook in a tie for 30th. Clark finished 37th as a sophomore in 2023 and tied for 58th as a freshman in 2022.
GIRLS GOLF
Capua sets Vista PEAK Prep standard with finish at 4A girls state tourney
Sophia Capua became the highest finisher for a Vista PEAK Prep girls golfer with a fourth-place finish at the Class 4A state tournament, which concluded May 20 at The Broadlands G.C.
Making her third career state tournament appearance, the junior standout closed her second round with a flurry that included a birdie on the penultimate hole and worked her way up a
fluctuating leaderboard to tie for fourth. Capua’s plus-5 77 tied for the lowest score for any of the 81 golfers who finished the final day, as she shaved six strokes off her opening-round 83 for a two-day total of 160. Ponderosa’s Kaylee Meyering, who finished one stroke behind Air Academy’s Landry Frost for the individual title, also shot 77 in the final round. Vista PEAK Prep’s other 4A state qualifier, junior Brielle Austin, finished 69th with scores of 111 and 117 for her two rounds.
The 4A state team title went to Riverdale Ridge, which earned a 10-shot victory over runner-up Durango.
The Paul McMullen Junior Golf Scholarship — awarded annually by the City of Aurora’s Golf Division — went to three Aurora area prep golfers.
The McMullen scholarship is named for Paul McMullen, who spent more than 20 years in Aurora golf and created the Aurora Junior Golf Program among other contributions. The Golf Course Citizen’s Advisory Committee selects winners of the award, which has been given out since 1989 and is worth
a minimum of $1,000 per recipient. This year’s selections were Vista PEAK Prep senior Casey Nesbitt, Cherokee Trail senior Haylee Clark and Smoky Hill senior Hyojae Lee. Clark just finished her prep career as a three-time 5A girls state golf tournament qualifier for the Cougars and she is headed to Garden City Junior College, where she plans to pursue a career in the healthcare field for EMT/Paramedic Program. Nesbitt served as captain of the Vista PEAK Prep boys golf team in the fall and is headed to Colorado State, while Lee is headed to either the University of Colorado or Colorado College.
9
The Raiders were certainly discouraged, but coach Matt Darr was pleased to see how they bounced back when they faced Continental League rival Castle View May 24 in an elimination game. Regis Jesuit got a goahead two-run single from senior Nick Wiley in the bottom of the sixth inning and tacked on two more runs with RBI from senior Luke Reasbeck and sophomore Brady Wright to secure a 9-7 victory over the SaberCats.
“It’s always hard to lose the way we did to Creek and the stakes of that game,” Darr said. “I’m just proud of the kids, we’ve got guys hurt and not 100 percent, but they are competing.”
The Raiders scored 23 runs on 27 hits in three contests — which included three extra-base hits and five RBI from Filleman, plus five hits and 3 RBI from Wiley and four hits from junior Chase Massey — so they are hitting as well as they have all season according to Darr.
Should that continue, that puts the onus on a pitching staff that may or may not have junior ace Hudson Alpert. Alpert removed himself from his start against Arvada West due to injury.
Reasbeck pitched well in the loss to Cherry Creek and sophomore Michael Kroll was big against Arvada West, while sophomore Cade Filleman earned the win in relief against Castle View. It will be all hands on deck if the Raiders hope to get through four games to win title.
Darr believes his team can come into the final weekend and make some noise, much like it saw last season from Cherry Creek. Regis Jesuit remembers well that it was in the prime position last year, but couldn’t stop the red-hot Bruins — who also had an emotional edge with the retirement of coach Marc Johnson — in two games on the final day.
“We’re situation now where there’s really no pressure; you know you have to win four games in a row, but you emphasize the hitting and the little things and just see what happens,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you win a couple and you start to get momentum and suddenly something happens like we experienced last year against Creek, where they came into the last day with momentum.
“If we can gain that the first day, we’ll be dangerous Saturday.”
BY ISABEL GUZMAN, Colorado Community Media
With the arrival of summer, families are headed outside to enjoy the sunshine and road trips — and they’re bringing the furry loved ones, too.
Veterinarians across the state typically see spikes in pet health emergencies during the warmer months, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. These include emergencies such as heat stroke and injuries from being hit by a vehicle.
In 2024, 111 animal deaths that resulted from heat-related issues and another 388 animals that were rescued from the heat were reported to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals..
“Heat stroke is a major summer emergency and is most commonly seen in ‘short-nosed’ dogs such as bulldogs and pugs,” said Danielle DeBrincat, emergency vet and medical director at VEG ER for Pets Littleton. “They can not release heat the same way that dogs with longer noses can, so it is extra important to keep them out of the heat, not over exercise them, and always have water on hand.”
DeBrincat joined VEG in March 2020 after graduating from Michigan State University and has been the medical director for over two months.
plan, where owners can see everything that’s going on with their pet and their vet team. Owners can stay with their pets throughout the duration of their stay, even through surgery.
“Although we do offer rooms for the more scared or reactive pets, most owners and pets choose to stay in the main hospital area with the nurses and doctors so that we are able to have more fluid communication,” DeBrincat said.
VEG offers quick triage and diagnostic workups for sick pets, like blood and urine tests, in addition to emergency surgery, endoscopic foreign body removal, transfusion medicine and hospitalization.
DeBrincat said that something as simple as taking your dog for a walk on a trail could be dangerous.
She warned that rattlesnake bites become more frequent throughout the summer and any dog in the foothills runs the risk of being bitten.
“If your dog is bitten, the best thing to do is to get them to an emergency veterinary clinic as soon as possible. Do not place a tourniquet or do anything to the bite area. The main treatment is antivenin and pain medication, and most dogs who receive the antivenin recover fully,” she said.
outside more often. It is important to keep your pets on leashes in populated areas, respect other dogs and check with the owner to see if they are friendly before approaching them,” DeBrincat said.
While travelling, owners can take precautions to keep their pets safe by packing a medical bag.
DeBrincat advises to include sterile gauze and bandaging material for any wounds, tweezers to remove any foxtails, thorns or ticks, and fresh water to flush out wounds, eyes or burn areas in the emergency kit.
“Even if they love us, pets may bite if they are injured and protecting themselves, so a muzzle or rolled gauze to make into a muzzle should also be considered safe,” DeBrincat said.
When it comes to deciding when to call a vet, DeBrincat said: “If you are ever concerned, it is time to call a vet. VEG ER for Pets is open 24/7 and you will always talk to a doctor on the phone. They can help determine if this is a true emergency or if it can wait to be seen by your primary care veterinarian.”
Dogs play in the water at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek in Denver.
By mid-afternoon, the temperature can hit 96 degrees in June during heat waves. AP File Photo/ Brittany Peterson
During her internship after college, DeBrincat developed a passion for emergency medicine.
“Having the ability to help pets and their people in the most challenging moments (is) incredibly fulfilling. I haven’t looked back,” she said.
VEG ER for Pets, previously known as Veterinary Emergency Group, serves the metro area through five locations.
Its emergency rooms employ an open-concept floor
In addition to venomous bites, certain popular summer plants pose toxic threats to pets. For example, lily flowers, which typically bloom in the warmer season, are toxic to cats, and wild mushrooms that grow in the Denver area can be toxic to dogs.
In native grasses, foxtail seeds can embed into a pet’s skin, ears, and nose and cause an infection.
“Dog fights and hit-by-car trauma are both also more common in the summer as people take their pets
Common warning signs that may indicate a pet medical emergency are any changes in breathing, persistent vomiting and diarrhea, blood in vomit or stool, major change in mentation such as lethargy, pale gums, straining to urinate and not eating or drinking for 24 hours or more.
Primary veterinarians and emergency veterinarians are experts in different fields, DeBrincat said.
“Primary care vets are the experts at routine care and diagnosis, and at managing a plethora of chronic and long-term management disorders. Emergency vets are experts at stabilizing and treating fast-acting, life-threatening diseases in the worst stages,” she said.
‘I don’t want to be treated like a delinquent,’ González said. ‘I’m from Venezuela and have tattoos. For (Trump), that means I’m a criminal’
Even as immigrants in the United States avoid going out in public, terrified of encountering immigration authorities, families across the country are mostly sending their children to school — but that’s not to say they feel safe in this country. In some cases, families are telling their children’s schools that they’re leaving. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration, data obtained from 16 districts across nine states showed a decline in school attendance for a few weeks. Dozens of districts didn’t respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they feared drawing the attention of immigration enforcement.
For the last two months of their life in the United States, José Alberto González and his family spent nearly all their time in their one-bedroom Denver apartment. They didn’t speak to anyone except their roommates, another family from Venezuela.
They consulted WhatsApp messages for warnings of immigration agents in the area before leaving for the rare landscaping job or to buy groceries.
But most days at 7:20 a.m., González’s wife took their children to school.
The appeal of their children learning English in American schools, and the desire to make money, had compelled González and his wife to bring their 6- and 3-year-old on the months-long journey to the United States.
They arrived two years ago, planning to stay for a decade. But on Feb. 28, González and his family boarded a bus from Denver to El Paso, where they would walk across the border and start the long trip back to Venezuela.
Even as immigrants in the U.S. avoid going out in public, terrified of encountering immigration authorities, families across the country are mostly sending their children to school.
That’s not to say they feel safe. In some cases, families are telling their children’s schools that they’re leaving.
Already, thousands of immigrants have notified federal authorities they plan to “self-deport,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump has encouraged more families to leave by stoking fears of imprisonment, ramping up government surveillance, and offering people $1,000 and transportation out of the country.
And on Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, potentially exposing them to deportation. Without Temporary Protective Status, even more families will weigh whether to leave the U.S., advocates say.
Departures in significant numbers could spell trouble
for schools, which receive funding based on how many students they enroll.
“The amount of fear and uncertainty that is going through parents’ heads, who could blame somebody for making a choice to leave?” said Andrea Rentería, principal of a Denver elementary school serving immigrant students. “I can tell them as a principal that I won’t let anybody in this school. Nobody is taking your kid. But I can’t say the same for them out in the workforce or driving somewhere.”
Rumors of immigration raids on schools became a turning point
When Trump was elected in November after promising to deport immigrants and depicting Venezuelans, in particular, as gang members, González knew it was time to go. He was willing to accept the trade-off of earning just $50 weekly in his home country, where public schools operate a few hours a day.
“I don’t want to be treated like a delinquent,” González said . “I’m from Venezuela and have tattoos. For him, that means I’m a criminal.”
It took González months to save up the more than $3,000 he needed to get his family to Venezuela on a series of buses and on foot. He and his wife didn’t tell anyone of their plan except the single mom who shared their apartment, afraid to draw attention to themselves. Telling people they wanted to leave would signal they were living here illegally.
They sent their children to their Denver school regularly until late February, when González’s phone lit up with messages claiming immigration agents were planning raids inside schools. That week, they kept their son home.
“Honestly, we were really scared for our boy,” González said. “Because we didn’t have legal status.”
In the months following Trump’s inauguration, Denver Public School attendance suffered, according to district data.
Attendance districtwide fell by 3% in February compared with the same period last year, with even steeper declines of up to 4.7% at schools primarily serving immigrant newcomer students. The deflated rates continued through March, with districtwide attendance down 1.7% and as much as 3.9% at some newcomer schools.
Some parents told Denver school staff they had no plans to approach their children’s campus after the Trump administration ended a policy that had limited immigration enforcement at schools.
The Denver school district sued the government over that reversal, saying attendance dropped “noticeably” across all schools, “particularly those schools in areas with new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred.” A federal judge ruled in March the
district failed to prove the new policy caused the attendance decline.
Attendance dropped in many schools following Trump’s inauguration
Data obtained from 15 districts across Colorado eight additional states, including Texas, Alabama, Idaho and Massachusetts, showed a similar decline in school attendance after the inauguration for a few weeks. In most places, attendance rebounded sooner than in Denver.
From 2022 to 2024, more than 40,000 Venezuelans and Colombian migrants received shelter or other assistance from Denver. Trump said during the campaign he would begin his mass deportation efforts nearby, in the suburb of Aurora, because of alleged Venezuelan gang activity.
Nationwide, schools are still reporting immediate drops in daily attendance during weeks when there is immigration enforcement — or even rumors of ICE raids — in their communities, said Hedy Chang of the nonprofit Attendance Works, which helps schools address absenteeism.
Dozens of districts didn’t respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they feared drawing the attention of immigration enforcement.
In late February, González and his wife withdrew their children from school and told administrators they were returning to Venezuela. He posted a goodbye message on a Facebook group for Denver volunteers he used to find work and other help. “Thank you for everything, friends,” he posted. “Tomorrow I leave with God’s favor.”
Immediately, half a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian women asked him for advice on getting back. “We plan to leave in May, if God allows,” one woman posted
In Denver, 3,323 students have withdrawn from school through mid-April – an increase of 686 compared with the same period last year. Denver school officials couldn’t explain the uptick.
At the 400-student Denver elementary school Andrea Rentería heads, at least two students have withdrawn since the inauguration because of immigration concerns. One is going back to Colombia and the other didn’t say where they were headed.
School officials in Massachusetts and Washington state have confirmed some students are withdrawing from school to return to El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico. Haitians are trying to go to Mexico or Canada.
In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a 6,000-student district where nearly half the students are still learning English, a handful of families have recently withdrawn their children because of immigration concerns.
One mother in March withdrew two young children from the district to return to El Salvador, according to district administrator Daniel Mojica. Her 19-year old daughter will stay behind, on her own, to finish school – a sign that these decisions are leading to more family separation.
In Bellingham, Washington, two families withdrew their children after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in early April at a local roofing company, where agents arrested fathers of 16 children attending Bellingham schools. Both families returned to Mexico, family engagement specialist Isabel Meaker said.
“There’s a sense, not just with these families, that it’s not worth it to fight. They know the end result,” Meaker said.
The impact is in Aurora, too
Angelib Hernandez of Aurora began keeping her children home from their schools a few days a week after Trump’s inauguration. In April she said doesn’t send them to school at all.
She’s worried immigration agents will visit her children’s schools, detain them and separate her family.
“They’ve told me, ‘Hopefully we won’t ever be detained by ourselves,’” she said. “That would terrify them.”
Hernandez and her children arrived about a year ago and applied for asylum. She was working through the proper legal channels to remain in the U.S., but changes in immigration policies have made her status tenuous.
In February, after a host of local raids, her fears have intensified. She says, her perception is “everyone” — from Spanish-language media to social media to other students and parents — is giving the impression that immigration agents plan to enter Aurora-area schools. The school tells parents that kids are safe. “But we don’t trust it.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are not known to have entered schools anywhere. But the possibility has alarmed families enough that some districts are pushing for a change in the policy allowing agents to operate in schools.
Aurora Public Schools passed a resolution earlier this year that is nearly identical to one the board approved in 2017 written with parent and student groups, according to reporting by Chalkbeat Colorado. It states that as one of the most diverse districts in the state, Aurora is dedicated to supporting and serving all students. The resolution includes updated demographic information showing that the district’s students now speak more than 160 different languages and that more than 42% of all students are learning English as a new language.
The resolution adds a requirement that Aurora schools update student emergency contact information twice a year instead of once per year and encourages families to include a non-family contact in case fami-
ly members can’t pick up students, Chalkbeat Colorado reported.
As for the school district reading into absentee trends, the data isn’t meaningful as to what’s happening with the immigrant community, according to school officials.
“We do not track the immigration status of our students or their families,” APS spokesperson Corey Christiansen said in response to questions from the Sentinel. “We do have an online program that is available to students,” in all grades.
Cherry Creek schools officials were not available to comment on absentee trends in that districts since Trump took office, and after local raids in the metro area.
Immigrant families are gathering documents they need to return home
Countries with large populations living in the United States are seeing signs of more people wanting to return home.
Applications for Brazilian passports from consulates in the U.S. increased 36% in March, compared to the previous year, according to data from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Birth registrations, the first step to getting a Brazilian passport for a U.S.-born child, were up 76% in April compared to the previous year. Guatemala reports a 5% increase over last year for passports from its nationals living in the United States.
Last month, Melvin Josué, his wife and another couple drove four hours from New Jersey to Boston to get Honduran passports for their American-born children.
It’s a step that’s taken on urgency in case these families decide life in the United States is untenable. Melvin Josué worries about Trump’s immigration policy and what might happen if he or his wife is detained, but lately he’s more concerned with the difficulty of finding work.
Demand for his drywall crew immediately stopped amid the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs. There’s also more reluctance, he said, to hire workers here illegally.
(The Associated Press agreed to use only his first and middle name because he’s in the country illegally and fears being separated from his family.)
“I don’t know what we’ll do, but we may have to go back to Honduras,” he said. “We want to be ready.”
The size of the exodus and its impact on schools remains unclear, but already some are starting to worry.
A consultant working with districts in Texas on immigrant education said one district there has seen a significant drop in summer school sign-ups for students learning English.
“They’re really worried about enrollment for the fall,” said Viridiana Carrizales, chief executive officer of ImmSchools, a nonprofit that advises school districts how to meet the needs of immigrant students and their families.
Education finance experts predict budget problems for districts with large immigrant populations.
“Every student that walks in the door gets a chunk of money with it, not just federal money, but state and local money, too,” said Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown University professor focusing on education finance. “If a district had a lot of migrant students in its district, that’s a loss of funds potentially there. We think that’s a real high risk.”
Trump’s offer to pay immigrants to leave and help them with transportation could hasten the departures.
González, now back in Venezuela, says he wouldn’t have accepted the money, because it would have meant registering with the U.S. government, which he no longer trusts. And that’s what he’s telling the dozens of migrants in the U.S. who contact him each week asking the best way home.
Go on your own, he tells them. Once you have the cash, it’s much easier going south than it was getting to the U.S. in the first place.
IF YOU GO
Date: June 7, 5 p.m.
Place: Hogan Park at Highlands Creek, 24495 E 35th Drive in the Aurora Highlands Tickets: Free Details: theaurorahighlands.com
Kick off Pride 2025 with the Denver Rock Orchestra’s newest show “Rainbow Connection”
For two high-energy nights on the eve of Pride month, come enjoy a mix of familiar rock and pop music that honors the spirit and joy of the LGBTQIA+ community, re-imagined with classical instruments and killer vocals. Let’s make some noise together!
IF YOU GO
Dates: May 30 and May 31, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $23.02 - $28.22
Place: The People’s Building, 9995 E Colfax Ave
Details: www.thepeoplesbuilding.com/
Music at the Movies at Traditions Park and Moana 2
Aurora’s Music at the Movies offers free concerts followed by family-friendly movies under the stars. This week is Hawaiian night at Traditions Park. Concert is provided by Kalama Polynesian Dancers. The movie to follow is Moana 2, rated PG.
Every is invited to bring chairs, blankets and treats to enjoy during the flick under the stars.
Bags are subject to inspection. No animals are allowed with the exception of service animals. No glass bottles. No unlawful devices. No illegal substances. No open carry of firearms. No outside alcohol. No unauthorized sound amplification devices.
IF YOU GO
Time: concert at 5 p.m. and movie at 6 p.m. May 28
Place: Traditions Neighborhood Park, 100 S. Jackson Gap Way
Details: facebook.com/ events/694404563259204/
Art in the Park kickoff concert series at the Aurora Highlands
A fusion of music, art, and community are slated for June 7 at Hogan Park at Highlands Creek as part of a free concert in the park series.
Headliner BYNX will open the evening, as well as Sak Noel. Also slated are Catalyst and SALMANNAQ offering something for every musical taste.
The concert will be held next to“Umi,” the towering sculpture by internationally renowned artist Daniel Popper. Participants are invited explore other pieces in the huge, open-air gallery of large-art installations across the park, including *Broken but Together* by Michael Benisty and *The Only Way Out is Through* by Snyder and Olivia Steele.
“Pack your blankets, lawn chairs, and coolers,” organizers say. “Everyone is welcome to bring their own food and drinks, or get treats from nearby food trucks.”
offers free,
The annual KidsFringe mini-festival returns June 7–8 with a weekend of free, family-friendly performances at The Savoy in Denver and The People’s Building in Aurora.
Part of the larger Denver Fringe Festival, KidsFringe features interactive and imaginative shows designed especially for young audiences. This year’s performances include:
• Sickly Victorian Rat Circus*, a circus arts and shadow puppet tale of two rats seeking a new home;
• PreTend Friend Show*, a puppet-led celebration of classic stories, audience etiquette and the power of pretend;
• The Big Bug Adventure*, a colorful, musical journey with Stripes the Caterpillar focusing on teamwork and big feelings;
• The Swashbuckling Adventures of Pirate Zeb*, a wild, squirrel-pirate treasure hunt through the Savoy;
• La Gran Aventura del Gusano Stripes*, a Spanish-language version of Stripes’ big adventure to the “Firefly Dance Party.”
All shows are free and open to the public.
Where: Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St. and at The People’s Building, 9995 E. Colfax Ave
When: June 7 and June 8, show times vary.
Tickets: Tickets are free and available at denverfringe.org/join-us/ kidsfringe
City Park Jazz will launch its 39th annual summer concert series June 1, bringing 10 weeks of free Sunday evening performances to the City Park Pavilion through Aug. 3.
The 2025 lineup celebrates the diversity of jazz and features an all-local roster, including returning favorites Chris Daniels and The Kings with Freddy Gowdy, ATOMGA, Dzirae Gold, and Buckner Funken Jazz. The series will also showcase internationally recognized Zimbabwean percussionist Blessing Bled Chimanga and a tribute to late Denver jazz pianist Neil Bridge featuring The Bridge 12 and his wife, Karen.
This year’s season finale on Aug. 3 will start at 5:30 p.m. and feature a three-hour “Brass Band Extravaganza” with performances by Colorado Youth Bands Brass Band, Rowdy Brass Band, Tivoli Club Brass Band and Guerilla Fanfare.
Concerts run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays and attract crowds of up to 12,000 people. The family-friendly events include a curated selection of vendors and food trucks. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets, lawn chairs, and refillable containers for filtered water, while adhering to Denver park rules prohibiting glass.
IF YOU GO
Show Dates: June 1, Blessing Bled Chimanga; June 8, Tribute to Neil Bridge Featuring The Bridge 12; June 15, ATOMGA, June 22, Colorado
Mambo Orchestra: June 29, Buckner Funken Jazz: July 6, Chris Daniels & The Kings w/Freddy Gowdy; July 13, Better Sensory Perception; July 20, Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra; July 27, Dzirae Gold; Aug. 3: Brass Band Extravaganza Featuring: Colorado Youth Bands Brass Band, Rowdy Brass Band Tivoli Club Brass Band and. Guerilla Fanfare
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Denver City Park Pavillion: 2001 Steele St,
Details:: CityParkJazz.org
Aurora library summer of reading kicks off this month
Aurora Public Library’s Summer of Imagination returns this year with the theme “Color Our World.”
Starting May 27, participants in the summer reading program can register to receive a free book, while supplies last, a statement from the city said.
“Summer reading is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent the ‘summer slide’—the learning loss many students experience when school is out,” Joanna McNeal, deputy director of Library Services, said in the statement.
Summer reading takes place every year to encourage reading as a life-long habit, increase engagement with the library and encourage school-age children to continue reading over the summer, according to the statement.
“Through our Summer of Imagination program, we aim to keep reading fun, accessible and inspiring for all ages, while supporting lifelong learning and sparking creativity across our diverse community, ” McNeal said in the statement.
After registering, participants pick up an activity log filled with reading challenges and colorful activities, the release said. After completing the log, they can turn it in at any library branch for a chance to win the grand prize.
A grand prize winner will be chosen Aug. 1.
A library card is not needed to register, but it can still be requested. Participation in all Summer of Imagination activities is free.
There will be additional events and activities for all ages that will take place throughout Summer of Imagination, including Poetry Breakfast, Aurora Water and Aquatic Critters and more, according to the statement.
IF YOU GO
• May 27, 4 p.m., Chambers Plaza Library, 1551 N. Chambers Road
There will be a special crafty club to launch Summer of Imagination, featuring magician Ann Lincoln. The event is open to all ages.
May 30, 3 p.m., Central Library, 14949 E. Alameda Parkway
A chance to register for Summer of Imagination and explore colorful celebrations around the world in and outside the library. The library will celebrate by throwing colorful powder, making crafts and getting excited for reading. Supplies will be provided. Please wear clothing that may get stained.
•May 31, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tallyn’s Reach Library, 23911 E. Arapahoe Road
A day of fun, color and characters with different programs happening all day. Registration will be open for our Summer of Imagination.
• June 7, 2 p.m., Mission Viejo Library, 15324 E. Hampden Circle
A Balloon Performance by Kidz Balloonz followed by cupcakes, crafts and more.
• June 11, 6 p.m., Hoffman Heights Library, 1298 Peoria St.
A farmer’s market will be held at the local library while people register for Summer of Imagination.
Roll with it: ‘Ride the Cyclone’
A thrilling blend of dark comedy and catchy tunes arrives in Aurora with the regional premiere of ‘Ride the Cyclone,’ a musical that promises to entertain and provoke. The production takes the stage at the Nickelson Auditorium at the Vintage, under the direction of Jennifer Schmitz.
Written by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, ‘Cyclone’ follows six Canadian teens whose lives are tragically cut short in a bizarre roller coaster accident. But death is only the beginning. In a surreal twist, the teens awaken in limbo, where a mechanical fortune teller offers each a once-in-a-lifetime — or afterlifetime — opportunity: Tell their story for a chance to come back to life.
With a script praised for its wit and emotional depth, and music that spans a variety of genres, the musical has become a cult favorite in the U.S. and Canada. NOTE: Ride the Cyclone contains mature themes and language. Even though these characters are in high school, this “mischievous musical” is intended for mature audiences.
Where: Nickelson Auditorium at the Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St. When: Through June 8. Curtains vary.
Tickets: $20-$39
Details and sales: www.vintagetheatre.org/ or 303 856-7830
Really, Really Rembrandt arrives at the Denver Art Museum: Masterpieces from National Gallery
Metro residents a rare opportunity to experience the work of one of history’s greatest painters up close. As part of a nationwide initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, the Denver Art Museum is holding two Rembrandt-related masterpieces on loan from the National Gallery of Art.
The featured works — “A Woman Holding a Pink” and “Portrait of Rembrandt,” likely painted by his workshop —w ill be on display in the museum’s European Art Before 1800 galleries through Feb. 6, 2027. The exhibit is part of the National Gallery’s “Across the Nation” program, which brings significant pieces from the national collection to museums across the U.S.
“We are honored to be among the first museums in the country to participate in this initiative,” said Christoph Heinrich, DAM’s director. “It is an incredible moment to carry the talents of Rembrandt at the DAM and offer our visitors the opportunity to interact with his brilliance.”
The exhibition places the Dutch master’s portraits alongside works by Mary Beale, Peter Lely, and Anthony van Dyck, highlighting Rembrandt’s lasting influence on European art.
IF YOU GO
When: Through 2025
Tickets: General admission includes access to the exhibit, and youth under 18 can visit for free.
Details: www.denverartmuseum. org or call 720-865-5000.
Place: Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Avenue Parkway
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama features more than 40 paintings loaned to the museum by the Japanese American National Museum and Ueyama’s family, whose combined efforts to preserve his work have allowed the story of this accomplished and cosmopolitan artist to be told at the Denver Art Museum for the first time.
Born in Japan, Tokio Ueyama moved to the United States in 1908 at age 18, where he made a home until his death in 1954. This exhibition tells the story of Ueyama’s life, including his early days as an art student in San Francisco, Southern California, and Philadelphia; his travels abroad in Europe and Mexico; his role as artist and community member in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles; and his unconstitutional incarceration during World War II at the Granada Relocation Center, now the Amache National Historic Site, in southeast Colorado.
Where: Denver Art Museum, 100 W 14th Ave Parkway Tickets: Included in general admission, which is free for members and for all visitors 18 and under.
Details: www.denverartmuseum.org
Prairie Pup Adventures offers Preschool Fun at Plains Conservation Center
Preschoolers can explore nature, science and history through hands-on activities at Prairie Pup Adventures, held at the Plains Conservation Center in southeast Aurora. Programs run from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and are designed for children ages 3–6 with a caregiver.
Upcoming topics include:
• Cheyenne Native Americans on May 27: Venture to the tipis to learn about the Cheyenne tribe and how they lived for centuries off the natural resources of the prairie. Examine artifacts, listen to Native American stories, play traditional games and taste dried berries and bison jerky to explore the amazing culture and history of the Cheyenne people.
• Campfire Safety on June 10: Learn about the science of fire, how to build a safe campfire and how to cook on one. We will work together to assemble the layers of a successful campfire and make edible campfire snacks to munch on while we watch the fire burn, then we’ll roast smores and learn how to prevent wild fires.
•Flower Power on June 24: Flowers are beautiful and serve an important role for the plants they grow on. Join us on the prairie to learn all about flowers from their parts to their pollinators through science and art. Activities at all events include crafts, games, story time, and outdoor exploration.
IF YOU GO
Tickets: The fee is $8 per child; one adult per child is free. Additional adults and non-participating siblings over age 6 are $5. Infants under 18 months attend free.
Details: botanicgardens.org
Venue: Plains Conservation Center 21901 E. Hampden Ave
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON EXCLUSION OF PROPERTY
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to all interested persons that a Petition for Exclusion of Property (the “Petition”) has been or is expected to be filed with the City of Aurora requesting the property described below be excluded from Porteos Business Improvement District, City of Aurora, Adams County, Colorado (the “District”).
NOTICE IF HEREBY FURTHER GIVEN that, the City Council, City of Aurora, Adams County, Colorado will hold a public hearing on the Petition on June 23, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the City Council may hear such matter. The public is invited to participate electronically; please see the City’s website at www. auroragov.org to register and view the meeting.
The name and address of the Petitioner and a description of the property to be excluded from the District is are as follows:
Name of Petitioner: Green Industrial Development Group, LLC
Address of Petitioner: 26100 E. 86th Avenue, Sute 240 Aurora, Colorado 80019
General Description of Property: Approximately 8.1 acres of undeveloped land in the southeast quarter of Section 5, Township 3 South, Range 66 West of the 6th Principal Meridian, City of Aurora, County of Adams, State of Colorado, as further described in the Petition.
NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN to all interested persons that they shall appear at the public meeting and show cause in writing why such Petitions should not be granted.
Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON SERVICE PLAN IN RE COTTONWOOD CREEK METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NOS. 3-5 AND THE ORGANIZATION OF COTTONWOOD
CREEK METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
NOS. 6-10, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, pursuant to § 32-1-204(1), C.R.S., an Amended and Restated Service Plan for Cottonwood Creek Metropolitan District Nos. 3-5 and Service Plan (collectively, the “Service Plan”) for the proposed Cottonwood Creek Metropolitan District Nos. 6-10 (the “Districts”) has been filed with the Office of Development Assistance at the City of Aurora.
A public hearing on the Service Plan will be held by the Aurora City Council (the “City Council”) on June 23, 2025, at 6:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the City Council may hear such matter, at the Aurora Municipal Center at 15151 E. Alameda Pkwy, Aurora CO 80012, or virtually (PLEASE GO TO THE CITY OF AURORA WEBSITE AT AURORAGOV.ORG FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON PARTICIPATION).
The purpose of the hearing is to consider the Service Plan and to form a basis for adopting a resolution approving, conditionally approving or disapproving the Service Plan.
A general description of the land contained within the boundaries of the Districts is south of Jewell Avenue, east of E-470, and north of Yale Avenue, and containing approximately 660 acres.
The type of districts are metropolitan districts.
The proposed Maximum Debt Mill Levy is 50 mills, subject to adjustment as set forth in the Service Plan. The Maximum Debt Mill Levy for the repayment of Debt shall not apply to the Districts’ ability to increase its mill levy as necessary for the provision of administrative, operation and maintenance services.
Pursuant to § 32-1-203(3.5), C.R.S., any person owning property in the Districts may request that such property be excluded from the Districts by submitting such request to the City Council no later than ten (10) days prior to the public hearing. All protests and objections to the Districts shall be deemed to be waived unless presented at the time and in the manner specified herein.
All protests, objections, and comments to the Service Plan must be submitted in writing to the City Council by mail to City Clerk, City of Aurora, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, CO 80012, or email to CityClerk@ AuroraGov.org prior to the public hearing or any continuance or postponement thereof in order to be considered. All protests, objections, and comments to the Service Plan shall be deemed to be waived unless presented at the time and in the manner specified in this notice.
BY ORDER OF THE CITY OF AURORA
Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
NOTICE is hereby given pursuant to Section 32-1-204(1), C.R.S., that on Monday, June 23, 2025, at 6:45 p.m., or as soon as possible thereafter, a public hearing will be conducted. The hearing will be conducted at the Aurora Municipal Center’s Paul Tauer Aurora City Council Chamber, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, Colorado 80012, or at such other time and place as this hearing may be continued, or virtually (PLEASE GO TO THE CITY OF AURORA WEBSITE AT AURORAGOV.ORG FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON PARTICIPATION). A public hearing will be heard upon the application on file with the Aurora City Council, by the ACC Metropolitan District (“District”), for approval of a Second Amended and Restated Service Plan. The affected property is 162 acres, more or less, generally located south of 26th Avenue, east of E-470, north of Smith Road and west of Picadilly Road, in the City of Aurora, County of Adams, Colorado.
All protests, objections, and comments to the Service Plan Amendment must be submitted in writing to the City Council by mail to City Clerk, City of Aurora, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, CO 80012, or email to CityClerk@AuroraGov.org prior to the public hearing or any continuance or postponement thereof in order to be considered. All protests, objections, and comments to the Service Plan Amendment shall be deemed to be waived unless presented at the time and in the manner specified in this notice.
NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that pursuant to Sections 32-1-203(3.5) and 32-1204(1.5), C.R.S., any owner of real property within the District may file a request with the Aurora City Council, requesting that such real property be excluded from the District. Such request may be filed any time after the Second Amended and Restated Service Plan is filed with the Aurora City Council, but no later than ten (10) days before the day fixed for the hearing on said Service Plan.
Reason: Second Amended and Restated Service Plan
Project Name: ACC Metropolitan District Date of Application: May 14, 2025
Maximum Mill Levy – Debt: 50.000 mills; unlimited (subject to District’s debt to assessed ratio)
Maximum Debt Mill Levy Imposition Term (residential): 40 years
Type of District: Metropolitan
Publication: May 29, 2025
Sentinel
NOTICE OF VACANCIES ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE SOUTHLANDS METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 1
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERNand particularly to the electors of the Southlands Metropolitan District No. 1 of Arapahoe County, Colorado.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to Section 32-1-808, C.R.S., that vacancies currently exist on the Board of Directors of the Southlands Metropolitan District No. 1 (“District”). Any qualified, eligible elector of the District interested in filling such vacancy and serving on the Board of Directors should file a Letter of Interest with the Board on or before the close of business on June 9, 2025.
Letters of Interest are available and can be obtained from the Southlands Metropolitan District No. 1, c/o Ann E. Finn at Public Alliance LLC, 7555 E. Hampden Avenue, Suite 501, Denver, CO 80231, 720-2136621. SOUTHLANDS METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 1 By: /s/ Ann Finn Secretary
Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE OF VACANCY ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF ACC METROPOLITAN DISTRICT TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, and particularly to the electors of the ACC Metropolitan District of the City of Aurora, Adams County, Colorado.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Section 32-1-808, C.R.S., that three (3) vacancies currently exist on the board of directors of the ACC Metropolitan District (the “District”). Any qualified, eligible elector of the District interested in filling such vacancy and serving on the board of directors should file a Letter of Interest with the board of directors of the District on or before the close of business on Monday, June 9, 2025, at the District Management office.
Forms of Letters of Interest are available and can be obtained from the ACC Metropolitan District, c/o David Solin at Special District Management Services, Inc., 141 Union Boulevard, Suite 150, Lakewood, CO 80228, (303) 987-0835.
ACC METROPOLITAN DISTRICT By: /s/ Paula J. Williams Attorney for the District
Publication: May 29, 2205 Sentinel
PURSUANT to Section 32-1-808(2)(a)(I), C.R.S., notice is hereby given that a vacancy exists on the Board of Directors of the Eastern Hills Metropolitan District No. 23 (“District”). Any eligible electors of the District who are interested in appointment to the Board may contact the Districts’ Attorney, David S. O’Leary, via e-mail: doleary@spencerfane.com. The Board of Directors of the District may fill said vacancies 10 days after the date hereof.
By: David S. O’Leary, Esq. Legal Counsel
Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Aurora Housing Authority will submit an application to the Colorado Division of Housing (DOH). The purpose of this application is to request $ 1,200,000 to develop 75 units of rental housing at 2520 N. Jamaica St Aurora, CO 80010. The request of funding from DOH is to benefit persons with low and moderate incomes by increasing the availability of affordable housing in the Eastbridge Community. It is not the intent to cause displacement from any existing housing; however, if persons are displaced from their existing residences reasonable housing alternatives shall be offered.
All interested persons are encouraged to contact the applicant for further information. Written comments should be sent to mpetrov@aurorahousing.org and will be forwarded to DOH for consideration during the application process.
Members of the public may request a public meeting and should arrange a request with the Applicant. Applicant shall post notice of meeting (Date, Time, and Location) to ensure other members of the public are aware of meeting. If reasonable accommodations are needed for persons attending the public meeting, please contact the Applicant.
Publication: May 29, 2025
Sentinel
SERENITY RIDGE
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 2
NOTICE CONCERNING 2024 BUDGET AMENDMENT
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to all interested parties that the necessity has arisen to amend the Serenity Ridge Metropolitan District No. 2 (the “District”) 2024 Budget. The Amended 2024 Budget has been submitted to the Board of Directors of the District; and that copy of the proposed Amended 2024 Budget has been filed at the Districts office, 141 Union Boulevard, Suite 150, Lakewood, Colorado, where the same is open for public inspection; and that adoption of Resolution Amending the 2024 Budget will be considered at a public hearing of the Board of Directors of the District to be held on Thursday, June 5, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. This District Board meeting will be held via Zoom.
Zoom information: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5469119353?pwd=SmtlcHJETFhCQUZEcVBBOGZVU3Fqdz09 Meeting ID: 546 911 9353 Passcode: 912873 Dial In: 1-719-359-4580
Any elector within the District may, at any time prior to the final adoption of the Resolutions to Amend the 2024 Budget inspect and file or register any objections thereto.
SERENITY RIDGE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 2
By /s/ David Solin
District Manager
Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
SUMMONS (CITATION JUDICIAL)
CASE NUMBER: (Numero del Caso): 24SMCV05894
NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: (AVISO AL DEMANDADO): AVERY PARK AND SQUARE LLC, an Oklahoma limited liability company, VIEN NGUYEN, an individual, AARON CLOPTON, an individual TOBIAS IMADOMWANYI, an individual and DOES 1 through 100 YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: (LO ESTA DEMANDANDO EL DE- MANDANTE): CITYWIDE LLC, a Delaware limited liability company
NOTICE! You have been sued. The court may decide against you with- out your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.
You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS af- ter this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written re- sponse at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/self- help), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you can- not pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warn- ing from the court.
There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an at- torney, you may want to call an attor- ney referral service. If you cannot af- ford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a non- profit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self- Help Center (www. courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp), or by contacting your lo- cal court or county bar association.
NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.
¡AVISO!Lo han demandado. Si no responde dentro de 30 días, la corte puede decidir en su contra sin escuchar su versión. Lea la infor- mación a continuación.
Tiene 30 DÍAS DE CALENDARIO después de que le entreguen esta citación y papeles legales para pre- sentar una respuesta por escrito en esta corte y hacer que se entregue una copia al demandante. Una carta o una llamada telefónica no lo protegen. Su respuesta por escrito tiene que estar en formato legal correcto si desea que procesen su caso en la corte. Es posible que haya un for- mulario que usted pueda usar para su respuesta.
Puede encontrar estos formularios de la corte y más información en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California (www. sucorte.ca.gov), en la biblioteca de leyes de su con- dado o en la corte que le quede más cerca. Si no puede pagar la cuota de presentación, pida al secretario de la corte que le dé un formulario de exención de pago de cuotas. Si no presenta su respuesta a tiempo, puede perder el caso por incumplimiento y la corte le podrá quitar su sueldo, dinero y bienes sin más advertencia.
Hay otros requisitos legales. Es recomendable que llame a un abo- gado inmediatamente. Si no conoce a un abogado, puede llamar a un servicio de remisión a abogados. Si no puede pagar a un abogado, es posible que cumpla con los requi- sitos para obtener servicios legales gratuitos de un programa de servi- cios legales sin fines de lucro. Pu- ede encontrar estos grupos sin fines de lucro en el sitio web de California Legal Services, (www. lawhelpcali- fornia.org), en el Centro de Ayuda de las Cortes de California, (www. sucorte.ca.gov) o poniéndose en contacto con la corte o el colegio de abogados locales. AVISO: Por ley, la corte tiene derecho a reclamar las cuotas y los costos exentos por im- poner un gravamen sobre cualquier recuperación de $10,000 ó más de valor recibida mediante un acuerdo o una concesión de arbitraje en un caso de derecho civil. Tiene que pagar el gravamen de la corte antes de que la corte pueda desechar el caso.
The name and address of the court is: (El Nombre y direccion de la corte es): Superior Court of California County of Los Angeles Santa Monica Courthouse 1725 Main St. Santa Monica, CA 90401
The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: (El nombre, la direccion y el numero de telefono del abogado del deman- dante, o del demandante que no tiene abogado, es):
Steffanie Stelnick, Esq. (SBN. 290248)
The Law Offices of Steffanie Stelnick 28001 Smyth Dr., Ste. 101, Valencia, CA 91355
Date: (Fecha) 12/03/2024
Clerk, by (Secretario) A. Salcedo David W. Slayton, Executive Officer/ Clerk of Court, Deputy (Adjunto)
First Publication: May 29, 2025 Final Publication: June 26, 2025 Sentinel
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Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE OF CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR91
Estate of Millie Cardona, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado on or before September 30th of 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Abigail Pride
Personal Representative 2156 S. Waco Ct. Aurora, CO 80013
First Publication: May 22, 2025
Final Publication: June 5, 2025
Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR614
Estate of William “Bill Anthony Szalach, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before August 28, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.
Kristina Stiltner
Personal Representative 119 Chaparral Bend Dr. Montgomery, TX 77316
First Publication: May 22, 2025
Final Publication: June 5, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR165
Estate of Lisa Louise Guttery, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before September 22, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Lindsay Guttery
Personal Representative 16854 Trail View Cir. Parker, CO 80134
First Publication: May 22, 2025
Final Publication: June 5, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR229
Estate of David William Child, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before October 8, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Robert J. Child Personal Representative 10141 Vrain Ct. Westminster, CO 80031-2543
First Publication: May 29, 2025
Final Publication: June 13, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR30455
Estate of Barbara Lee Flieger AKA Barbara L. Flieger AKA Barbara Flieger, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Arapahoe County District Court on or before September 29, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Gary Gordon Flieger, Personal Representative c/o CHAYET & DANZO, LLC
650 S. Cherry St., #710 Denver, CO 80246 (303) 355-8500
First Publication: May 29, 2025
Final Publication: June 12, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR30515
Estate of Don A. Brown aka Don Anthony Brown aka Don Brown, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before September 29, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Michael A. Brown
Personal Representative 1374 Fairfax St. Denver, CO 80220
First Publication: May 29, 2025
Final Publication: June 12, 2025
Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR149
Estate of William Scott Johnson, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before September 15, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.
Attorney for Personal Representative Jennifer Poynter 8773 E. Phillips Place Centennial, CO 80112
First Publication: May 15, 2025
Final Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR30204
Estate of Claudine F. Holmes, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before September 15, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.
Elizabeth Holmes
Personal Representative 7550 W. Yale Ave., Ste. B202 Denver, CO 80227
First Publication: May 15, 2025
Final Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2025PR30338
Estate of Dolores E. Mueller, Deceased.
All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Adams County, Colorado, on or before September 29, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Gregory J. Mueller, P.C. Personal Representative 902 Colorado Ave. Grand Junction, CO 81501
First Publication: May 29, 2025
Final Publication: June 12, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S.
Case No. 2025PR30405
Estate of Gerald Ransom DeBow aka Ransom DeBow aka Ransom G. DeBow aka Ransom DeBow, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before September 15, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Scarlett DeBow and Sean DeBow Personal Representative 8199 S. Corona Way Centennial, CO 80122 First Publication: May 15, 2025 Final Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801,
President Donald Trump’s disdain for fact-based journalism and the First Amendment that makes it possible are inextricable.
Trump’s fear and loathing for news reports that come from diligent reporters who base their coverage on facts, and fact-checking, is well documented by the legitimate press and Trump’s own social media posts.
Unable, so far, to successfully upend or suspend the First Amendment, Trump is now desperately trying to stymie free press by illegally cutting federal funds approved by Congress to public media in his latest attempt to stop reporters from undermining his extensive and relentless propaganda campaigns.
Earlier in May, Trump ordered the National Corporation for Public Broadcasting to shut down funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System.
This week, Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and other NPR-related radio news entities sued Trump for his caustic and clearly illegal schemes.
There’s no doubt before the courts that Trump is retaliating against NPR and stations like Colorado Public Radio, because he’s repeatedly made those points himself.
“It is not always obvious when the government has acted with a retaliatory purpose in violation of the First Amendment. But this wolf comes as a wolf,” lawyers for CPR and other Colorado public radio stations state in the lawsuit filed in Federal District Court in Denver Tuesday. “The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President’s view, their news and other content is not ‘fair, accurate, or unbiased.’”
Trump speaks for himself, as well, on the allegation.
Trump called NPR a “LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE” on a social media post last year while campaigning. “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM!”
Trump’s problem with the legitimate media is two-fold. First, he incessantly makes inaccurate, unfounded, misleading statements to the media. Or, often, he outright lies. Then he becomes infuriated when the legitimate media holds him accountable for his rhetoric by including facts, context and corrections.
Few national news sources have avoided Trump’s wrath when they report the facts about what he says or does, rather than simply repeat his prose, unchallenged and uncorrected.
Even Fox News has been the target of Trump’s media rage on the rare occasion reporters there point out something so wrong that Trump says that reporters would come off as daft without providing correction.
Both NPR and CPR provide not just important and thorough news coverage that are unavailable anywhere else — both nationally and locally — but listeners and readers can easily see how accurate, fact-driven and credible their work is because the information, data and interviews they base it all on are, for the most part, available to anyone.
Despite the cliché, the issue Trump has with legitimate “mainstream” media is that “the facts speak for themselves.” Real reporters dig hard to uncover the facts of a story. Propaganda sources do not.
Rather than just roll over for Trump’s recent tantrum about NPR and PBS, stations like those in Colorado are asking the courts to decide whether Trump is within the power of the presidency to “de-fund” public media by fiat because of news coverage he finds inconvenient, troublesome or unflattering.
In a statement, the radio stations make clear that they not only choose to fact-check Trump’s rhetoric and protect themselves from his illegal maneuvers, as journalists, they’re compelled to do the right thing.
“This is not about politics — it is about principle,” radio station officials said in a joint statement. “When the government tries to limit press freedom or control the flow of information, we have not only the right, but the obligation, to speak out and defend our rights that make independent journalism possible.”
Everyone has that same right and obligation.
Trump, like local news subjects, has every right to challenge media accounts of the news.
He, and most of his current and past administrations, often made clear their dislike of the legitimate media reports of what they say or do, but they have been unwilling or unable to provide evidence supporting their claims or facts to substantiate seemingly endless assertions. “They say,” a regular Trump source for his bombast and verbosity, are not acceptable cites for most journalists. The throw-away lines of “fake news” and “alternative facts” should be discarded by everyone — unless Trump and similar critics of journalism can provide verifiable details that stand in opposition.
Beyond Trump’s anti-First Amendment scheme, he overlooks that NPR and associated stations and programs provide a wide range of programs that are entertaining, illuminating and, in the case of Colorado, cover rural areas of the state that have no other source of local news.
Trump, like every politician, has every right to promote his version of reality, no matter how off-base it is. But he does not have the right to prevent the media from pointing out when he’s wrong, or when he’s right.
Histrionics over Trump is a product of democracy not going the way of critics
Civil disobedience is a constant of history. Like the Boston Tea Party, a violent symbolic demonstration against British tyranny in 1773 that preceded the American Revolutionary War. An unelected English king appointed English governors who ruled with an iron hand in the colonies. There was taxation without representation and American colonists had no peaceful political recourse.
On the night after Donald Trump’ s first presidential election in November 2016 there were acts of civil disobedience in downtown Denver, with angry, disturbed, Trump-hating Democrats blocking traffic on city streets and near the Broncos stadium on I-25 (where I was personally trapped in my car for most of an hour before the police politely ushered them away.)
Trump’s crime was winning a free and fair election thanks to voters in states other than Colorado. The obvious difference between these two acts of civil disobedience is that unlike the tea partiers, the post-election disruptors of 2016 did have political recourse. Their candidate, Hillary Clinton, simply lost. It was needless to disturb the peace other than for these sore losers to indulge their hurt feelings. Trump’s second coming has been met with a far greater level and degree of outright hatred and violence ― like fire-bombing Elon Musk’s Tesla dealerships for the crime of trying to make government more efficient. Profane postings and threats by many Trump haters on social media and public statements by elected Democrats have encouraged anti-Musk arson and even the outright assassination of the president.
In his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), argued that one should not support a government if it sanctions policies with which one disagrees. His primary cause was the abolition of slavery and his preferred action was civil disobedience. But he also called for those who took that action to willingly accept the consequences, like going to jail.
We got a harrowing taste of civil disobedience during the 2020 BLM Summer of Violence in what its sympathizers dismissed as “mostly peaceful” protests that ransacked stores, besieged police stations, set fire to patrol cars, and ravaged neighborhoods; running up $2 billion in damages. While thousands of arrests were made, only a tiny fraction went to jail or stayed there very long, dodging the consequences part of Thoreau’s tradeoff with woke or progressive prosecutors filing mostly minor charges or none at all.
Serious revolutionary Marxists and this generation’s idealistic college kids indoctrinated in leftist ideology in K-12, higher-ed, liberal media, and social culture are reveling in disruptive protests. And they do want to go to jail. But only for show with a brief
visit so they can get the arrest on their record to wear as a protestor badge of honor, the leftist equivalent of an honorable combat campaign ribbon for a soldier. When this fad ends, the kids can get back to protesting against student loans they had promised to repay.
As for the clueless anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrators performing in their trendy keffiyeh scarfs on college campuses who violate the rights of fellow students with their barriers, encampments, and occupation of buildings, it’s strange that many if not most are liberated young women. Perhaps they’ll marry a murderous, Hamas Islamist fundamentalist, intent on exterminating Jews, who’d enclose them in a burqa and physically beat them in keeping with Sharia law.
I’ll concede that Trump has overreached in some of his chaotic multi-front counterattacks on the Democrats’ entrenched bureaucracy and the administrative state (employing tactics he learned from Obama and Biden). Trump will win some battles in congress and legal disputes in the courts all the way up to SCOTUS, and he’ll lose some others. As expected, Democrats have risen in “resistance.” Some are singing idiotic songs in street protests. This is ineffective and embarrassing, but it’s what they do for fun, and it’s a form of psychotherapy. A more effective tool is lawfare, and Democrats are very good at that. But they don’t always win, as Trump has amply shown.
Claims that Trump is “a threat to our democracy” are just silly. Anyone with a basic knowledge of political science and civics knows our system of government isn’t a pure democracy, although it does have some democratic institutions. We’re a constitutional republic with representative government and the rule of law. Trump is no threat to that. The ultimate outcome of his presidency will be decided not by Trump as a dictator, nor by political protests but through our system of checks and balances, the separation of powers, and voters in the mid-term elections.
LongtimeKOAradiotalkhostandcolumnistfor theDenverPostandRockyMountainNewsMikeRosennowwritesforCompleteColorado.com.
Dolores E. Mueller
September 29, 1932 - March 31, 2025
Dolores Eileen “Dee” (Zrubek) Mueller, born 9/29/1932 Stratton, NE, died 3/21/2025 Thornton, CO. A registered nurse from Mercy Medical Center, Denver, she joined Adams County School District 12 as a school nurse in 1963, retiring in 1992. She was beloved by “her kids” for her caring nature, patience and guidance. Dee married James Mueller in Fort Collins, CO, May 1955. She is survived by sons Bernard and Gregory and Geoffrey Mueller. She was preceded in death by Jim after 68 years of marriage, in 2024. Dolores was dedicated to the service of Holy Cross Catholic Church for 65 years. She organized weddings for 20 years, funeral administration for another 20 and was a Eucharistic Minister for the home bound. Dee played bridge in many groups and was a leader known to “take charge”
AVISO PÚBLICO
La Ciudad de Aurora, como jurisdicción participante y beneficiaria de la Subvención Global para el Desarrollo Comunitario (CDBG), la Ley CARES para la Subvención Global para el Desarrollo Comunitario (CDBG-CV), la Ley de Asociaciones de Inversión en Vivienda (HOME), la Subvención de Asociaciones de Inversión HOME - Programa del Plan de Rescate Estadounidense (HOME-ARP), la Ley CARES para la Subvención para Soluciones de Emergencia (ESG-CV) y los fondos de la Subvención para Soluciones de Emergencia (ESG) del Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Urbano de los Estados Unidos (HUD), deberá proporcionar a los residentes, organismos públicos y demás partes interesadas acceso razonable a los registros relativos a cualquier uso o asistencia prestada con estos fondos durante los cinco años anteriores. Además, antes de presentar su informe anual de desempeño sobre las actividades de vivienda y desarrollo comunitario, la Ciudad deberá brindar a los residentes, organismos públicos y demás partes interesadas la oportunidad de comentar sobre dicho informe antes de su presentación al HUD. Puede consultar un borrador del Informe Anual Consolidado de Desempeño y Evaluación (CAPER) de 2024 en el Centro Municipal de Aurora, ubicado en 15151 E. Alameda Pkwy, Aurora, CO 80012, así como en el sitio web que se indica a continuación. Las instalaciones del Centro Municipal de Aurora son accesibles y pueden acomodar a personas con discapacidad.
El martes 13 de mayo de 2025 a las 18:00 h, durante la reunión del Comité Asesor Ciudadano sobre Vivienda y Desarrollo Comunitario, se celebrará una audiencia pública para el BORRADOR del CAPER del año fiscal 2024. La audiencia se llevará a cabo en 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, Colorado 80012, en la Sala Aurora del Centro Municipal de Aurora. Se anima a los residentes, organismos públicos y demás partes interesadas a asistir y a presentar sus comentarios sobre el BORRADOR del CAPER del año fiscal 2024.
Los residentes, las agencias públicas y otras partes interesadas tendrán hasta las 17:00 h del miércoles 28 de mayo de 2025 para presentar comentarios por escrito sobre el CAPER. Los comentarios deben especificar a qué notificación se dirigen los encuestados para garantizar que el personal municipal los recopile para el documento correspondiente. Comuníquese con la División de Desarrollo Comunitario si necesita servicios de traducción u otras adaptaciones especiales. Las personas con discapacidad auditiva o del habla pueden llamar al 7-1-1 para obtener el número de retransmisión de Colorado. Las consultas y comentarios de residentes, agencias públicas y otras partes interesadas pueden dirigirse a:
Ciudad de Aurora, División de Desarrollo Comunitario 15151 E. Alameda Ave, Suite 4500, Aurora, CO 80012 Sarah A. Pulliam, Gerente de Desarrollo Comunitario, 303-739-7601 o 303-739-7900, sacarrol@auroragov.org
Para obtener más información sobre la División de Desarrollo Comunitario y consultar el CAPER 2024 en línea, visite el sitio web de la Ciudad: https://www.auroragov.org/residents/community_development/reports__stats_and_documents/ Publication: May 29, 2025 Sentinel
