Denver

I have Comcast, but my deal for the last two years recently ended just in time for me to also start having hour+ long outages multiple times per week. I'm curious about my options, and specifically I wonder how viable wireless options like Verizon or T-Mobile are. Are the speeds consistent (and high) enough for video conference? Video streaming? I don't really game so I don't think latency is that important for me.

I live in the Cheesman/Cap Hill area and have one of those hideous green Verizon 5g poles right outside my building, but the eligibility checker on Verizon's site thinks it may not be in range for me somehow so I wonder how fragile it is.

I have Mint Mobile (T-Mobile) with no issues at home but I guess I'm not really stressing the throughput on my phone.

Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure formed a committee to “review and refine Sidewalk Ordinance 307,” according to a statement from the agency. The group has been meeting twice a month since August to hammer out the finer details of the ordinance.

Now, the committee is proposing three big changes to the ordinance to address community concerns over high fee assessments and how they might affect lower-income homeowners, how the measure conforms to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), and to make sure DOTI can implement a working program to build, fix and repair sidewalks throughout the city.

This is kind of a specific question and I didn’t think any of the local magazine “best bakery” lists would make it easy to find.

Do you have a favorite cinnamon roll in Denver? The first two places that make them that come to mind are Izzio and Right Cream (on the weekend). Izzio’s is tasty but way too soft and fluffy. I need my rolls to have a bit more bite to them.

Is it just me, or are those hockey sticks?

Hopefully this isn't too far out of range. There's a special vibe to those Waffle Houses along I-25.

Pretty much title. I haven't had cable in a decade, and I'm not really a sports person, so I'd really rather not have to sign up for some sports streaming package, but I do kinda like watching Avs games. A friend asked me why I didn't just get an antenna to watch the games, but the broadcast TV page on the Denver Post doesn't look like they actually carry Avs games. Just wondering if I missed something.

Gotta love the "or more." So, we really don't know.

A busload of migrants was dropped off outside the Colorado Capitol building in Denver on Monday morning in what a city official believes is the latest in a wave of buses chartered by the Texas state government.

It’s unclear how many people were on the bus. Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who was at the Capitol as the bus was unloading about 8:30 a.m., estimated the number of people onboard at 40 to 50. She directed them into the building to get warm while officials coordinated the next steps.

Gonzales said some of the migrants told her they’d come from Eagle Pass, a Texas town near the border with Mexico. Evan Dreyer, a deputy chief of staff to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, said he hadn’t received confirmation about the circumstances of the bus trip but that it matched a recent pattern of buses arriving from the border state.

“The state of Texas, the governor’s office, has contracted with two or three different bus companies to transport migrants out of Texas to various locations around the country, Denver being one of those locations,” Dreyer said. “That’s our understanding, and that’s how this has operated for several months. Denver has received more than 200 charter buses direct from Texas over the last six months.”

Spokespersons for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not return requests for comment Monday.

Gonzales said the migrants she spoke to told her they were from Venezuela. More than 29,000 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, have arrived in Denver since December 2022, after groups of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border began overwhelming Texas cities. Many of the migrants have fled widespread violence and economic instability in the South American country, often traveling through Central America on foot.

Dreyer said city officials repeatedly have requested that arriving buses take migrants to Union Station or a city intake center, but those requests have been ignored. Migrants have been dropped off near city and county buildings, though Dreyer said he believed Monday was the first time people have been left at the state Capitol.

The migrants were later directed to the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office a few blocks away, Dreyer said.

Gonzales praised city officials for their work in helping migrants in recent months.

But Dreyer criticized the decision to drop the migrants in Denver without coordination or cold-weather clothing. Temperatures in Denver were in the low to mid-40s Monday morning.

“These are folks who have come from the Texas border after long journeys, and they are not prepared for cold weather,” he said. “And to drop them off like that, just randomly, in the cold — in the freezing cold — is inhumane, dangerous and it puts their lives at risk. It’s shameful.”

Three people were hospitalized in Aurora Monday after an early-morning shooting on East Colfax Avenue, according to the Aurora Police Department.

Around 12:15 a.m. Monday, Aurora officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 9500 block of East Colfax Avenue, near Clinton Street, according to a post on social media from the police department.

When officers arrived on scene, they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds and a third person who had been physically assaulted, the department stated online.

All three victims were transported to a local hospital by paramedics, and one of the gunshot victims was in critical condition, according to the Aurora Police Department.. As of 6 a.m. Monday, the unidentified victim was in stable condition.

A large perimeter was set up after the shooting as police searched for the suspects involved.

Around 1:30 a.m., police said online that the suspects were last seen running near East 13th Avenue and Dayton Street. In a 6 a.m. update, they announced that a person of interest had been taken into custody.

The investigation is ongoing and no other information is available at this time, police said.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston plans to shut down homeless encampments near 20th and Curtis streets and 48th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard and move more than 200 people living in them off the streets, his administration announced Friday.

Those relocations will happen “in the next couple of weeks,” city spokesman Derek Woodbury said Friday. A specific timeline is being kept under wraps to protect the safety and privacy of people living in the encampments, city officials say.

If those actions — which Johnston and his team call encampment closures — are successful, it would more than double the number of people the administration has gotten off the streets in three prior cleanup efforts. It would also move Johnston significantly closer to the 1,000-person sheltering goal he set on his second day in office and has made the overwhelming focus of his work as mayor thus far.

The online dashboard tracking the progress of Johnston’s House 1,000 homelessness initiative on Friday morning counted 311 people as sheltered or housed through that work. That leaves 30 days to move close to 700 people off the streets, a goal the mayor continues to say is deliverable.

“We are delighted to bring more than 200 Denverites into housing, help close encampments and reactivate public spaces all around the city,” Johnston said in a statement Friday. “Every individual we get into housing is a life changed and every encampment that we close is a neighborhood transformed.”

Media members are being asked to stay away from the encampments so that the city can carry out its relocation and cleanup work “with minimal disruption.” The locations of the converted hotels where people will be moved are also being kept confidential.

The city has already carried out one encampment closure in the area of 20th and Curtis streets. That effort, which concluded on Nov. 1, moved 61 people to shelter and resulted in the area bordered by Broadway, Curtis, 20th and Arapahoe streets being “permanently closed to any camping,” according to an announcement at the time.

In that action, dozens of people camped around the post office at 951 20th St. — on the east side of Curtis Street — were not moved. Woodbury confirmed that the action announced Friday will focus on the encampment in front of the post office.

Converted hotels have emerged as the primary form of shelter fueling Johnston’s effort. His proposed micro-communities — collections of tiny homes or other temporary shelter units set up on vacant land or surface parking lots — have faced delays and opposition from wary neighbors.

The administration announced on Nov. 24 that a former Embassy Suites hotel at 7525 E. Hampden Ave. was being eyed as a shelter for families, transgender and nonbinary individuals. A lease agreement for that hotel was pulled from a City Council committee agenda next week to give officials more time to finalize details, Woodbury said, but the administration still hopes to bring an agreement before the council before the end of the year.

City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis — whose District 8 in the northeast part of the city is home to three hotel properties that are either already being used as shelters or are being prepared to serve that purpose — has repeatedly raised concerns about her district bearing the brunt of the sheltering effort while people living on the streets there have not been prioritized for shelter spaces. The 48th and Colorado encampment will be the first in her district closed as part of the House 1,000 work.

“While there is no magic wand that can be waved to eliminate homelessness, we know that offering stable housing works more than any other approach,” she said in a statement on Friday.

Johnston’s team is not seeking additional shelter sites in District 8 at this time, officials say.

As the administration gears up for a final push toward the mayor’s 1,000-person goal, the city is seeking volunteers to help prepare shelter sites for new arrivals. The first volunteer opportunity will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the former DoubleTree hotel at 4040 N. Quebec St., officials say. More information is available at denvergov.org/volunteer1000.

Here's the article explaining why excited delirium should not be taught:

While the term “excited delirium” has been used by law enforcement officers and coroners’ offices for years to explain sudden, in-custody deaths, it has increasingly fallen out of favor following the high-profile, in-custody deaths of George Floyd in Minnesota and Elijah McClain in Colorado.

Our ongoing investigation has tied more than 150 deaths across the U.S. to the term since 2010. All but two happened during or shortly after law enforcement or medical restraint.

A Denver Public Schools parent has sued the district over its policy allowing teachers to display Progress Pride flags in their classrooms, saying LGBTQ+ flags “discriminate” against his straight, cisgender, white children.

Nathan Feldman, whose children attend Slavens School in southeast Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood, on Nov. 10 filed the federal suit in the U.S. District of Colorado that states DPS’ policy supporting LGBTQ+ students is “not inclusive of all students” or of his children, who are “heterosexual, Caucasian, and/or binary/’cisgender.'” The lawsuit comes after his unsuccessful attempts to have what he described as a “straight pride” flag displayed in his children’s classrooms.

The lawsuit alleges Feldman and his children have “suffered irreparable harm directly” because of the district’s policy, and it seeks an injunction stopping the district from enforcing the policy that prohibits the straight flag display and a declaratory judgment on the unconstitutionality of the policy.

The lawsuit also seeks $3 million in punitive damages from Slavens School Principal Kurt Siebold, DPS Director of Operations Christina Sylvester, and DPS family constituency specialist Katherine Diaz, who are named individually in the lawsuit as well as the district, the DPS school board, Superintendent Alex Marrero and two of Feldman’s children’s teachers.

According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a flag he described in an email as a “straight pride” flag, a black and white striped flag with a linked male and female gender sign on it, in front of his children’s classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to his request.

“Each day at school, (Feldman’s children) are exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘Progress Pride Flags’ that DPS officials have strung throughout the Slavens School classrooms and halls as a means of expressing and promoting DPS’ favored viewpoint on the topic,” the lawsuit states. “Due to the fact that (Feldman and his children’s) views differ, (Feldman and his children) simply requested to have their views expressed, as well. But DPS has refused, and continues to refuse, to permit (Feldman and his children’s) speech or expression to even exist in its schools.”

Feldman first raised his concerns about pride flags to the district Oct. 6, 2022, according to the lawsuit, after he attended a school event and saw Progress Pride Flags displayed in front of classrooms.

He asked his children’s teachers about the flag displays because “Pride Flags are not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represent one viewpoint on the topic of sex,” and if he could have the straight pride flag displayed as well.

Neither teacher responded, so he sent a follow-up email that Siebold answered, explaining district policy that supports teachers’ right to display a rainbow flag or any other sign of support for LGBTQ+ students.

The lawsuit alleges Siebold’s response and DPS policy “confirms” the district “does not allow students or staff to speak or express support for students or staff who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Siebold later allegedly sent an email that stated, in part, “DPS doesn’t allow for other flags,” according to the lawsuit.

Feldman went back and forth with DPS officials and school administrators and faculty, saying the use of the pride flags and alleged non-allowance for other flags violates the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

He also sent an email to Sylvester, stating he’d like to “follow [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies] to display a straight pride flag with 2 gender symbols” in front of his children’s classrooms.

He met with Siebold and Diaz in January, where Diaz allegedly said, “‘sexual orientation, gender identity and race protections only apply to homosexuals, people of color, and trans people.”

Feldman claims, according to the lawsuit, straight, white, cisgender people should “be members of protected classes or protected against discrimination” because those are parts of sexual orientation, race and gender identity.

Feldman and his children are being represented by Michael Yoder and Chad LaVeglia, two Washington D.C.-based attorneys.

DPS Director of External Communications Scott Pribble said as of Monday the district had not been served the lawsuit, but even if they had could not comment on pending litigation.

Two Aurora paramedics violated every step of their training when they made the decision to inject Elijah McClain with ketamine after a struggle with police without taking steps to make sure giving him the sedative would be safe, a state prosecutor said Wednesday.

But defense attorneys for the paramedics now facing trial for McClain’s 2019 death argued they had to make decisions quickly based on information from Aurora police officers that McClain was incoherent, showing extreme strength and aggression and was “on something.”

An attorney also said the fire medics didn’t have authority over the situation while police officers kept McClain handcuffed on the ground and controlled the scene. They urgently began administering medical care as McClain was uncuffed and loaded into an ambulance, according to defense attorney Shana Beggan.

Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec face charges in Adams County of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and three counts each of second-degree assault. They have pleaded not guilty.

The assault charges include assault causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon (ketamine) and illegally administering the sedative without consent.

The attorneys made their opening statements in the paramedics’ trial in an Adams County courtroom filled with family members and firefighters supporting Cooper and Cichuniec. Supporters of McClain present included Auon’tai Anderson, the outgoing Denver Public Schools Board of Education vice president.

Cooper had authority for medical decisions at the scene, while Cichuniec had the administrative responsibility for scene safety. Cichuniec requested the ketamine dose from Falck Rocky Mountain, a private ambulance company that contracts with Aurora Fire Rescue, and Cooper administered the injection.

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson said during her opening statement the two fire medics failed their responsibility toward McClain as their patient by not examining him or talking to him. Instead, she said, they stood by for several minutes waiting for the ketamine to arrive, while McClain visibly deteriorated, and then administered the drug after he had turned mostly unresponsive.

The 500 milligrams given to McClain was the maximum authorized for anyone, and about a 50% overdose for his 140 pounds, Stevenson said.

“This wasn’t just a tragedy or an accident. It wasn’t just careless or sloppy. It was cruel,” Stevenson said.

McClain, 23, went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing within a few minutes of receiving the ketamine. A doctor declared him brain dead in the hospital three days later.

Beggan, representing Cooper, said McClain’s symptoms mentioned by police at the scene are signs of “excited delirium,” a condition which obligated the paramedics, according to their training, to administer ketamine.

Even if someone appears to have calmed down, that person may still have dangerous internal symptoms, such as a rapid heartbeat and high levels of acid in the blood, she said.

Excited delirium is a controversial diagnosis. The National Library of Medicine notes that neither the American Psychiatric Association nor the World Health Organization recognizes excited delirium as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis. The American Medical Association said in 2021 it had adopted a policy opposing it as a diagnosis, saying "excited delirium" is “disproportionately cited in cases where Black men die in law enforcement custody.”

Body-worn camera footage from police officers at the scene captured McClain repeatedly saying he could not breathe while on the ground, telling officers he was an introvert and saying things such as “I don’t do any fighting.” His last words were, “Please help me.”

Stevenson said the only attempt the paramedics made to assess McClain was asking the police if he spoke English, and they did not monitor his vital signs or make sure he was in a position to have a clear airway after the injection.

“They don’t take a single vital sign until he has none.”

During her opening statement, Beggan notably did not argue whether any information relayed from the police officers was true, instead focusing on what the fire medics believed based on that information.

She said the paramedics were never told Elijah had said he was just going home and pleaded that he could not breathe while on the ground.

Going into the situation, the paramedics only had information from 911 dispatch notes, she said. When their fire engine approached the scene, the road was so choked with police vehicles that they had to park more than a block away.

“It’s concerning about ‘what are we walking into?’ It’s concerning about safety,” Beggan said.

The fire medics aren’t doctors and can’t make diagnoses, and are trained to look for patterns to determine appropriate medical treatment, she added.

“In their brain, they’re flipping through a Rolodex” to determine which protocol to follow, she said.

Three Aurora police officers stopped McClain the night of Aug. 24 as he walked home from a convenience store because a 911 caller had reported a suspicious person when he spotted McClain, who waved his arms while listening to music and wore a black mask covering most of his face. McClain, seemingly caught off guard, initially tried to keep walking and told officers he was going home.

He was unarmed and had not been accused of any crime.

The district attorney for Adams County at the time declined to pursue charges in McClain's death because the forensic pathologist who performed his autopsy initially listed his cause and manner of death as "undetermined," later amending the cause to an overdose of ketamine.

Wednesday also included testimony from the owner of the convenience store where McClain bought iced tea right before the encounter, the 911 dispatch worker who took the initial call, a fire dispatch worker who sent the medical response to the scene and the administrator of the Aurora Police Department’s body-worn camera program.

A Littleton man charged in August of sexually assaulting three unconscious women he had met at bars could have more victims, the 1st Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a Thursday news release.

Christopher Kenny Jackson, 63, faces six counts of sexual assault for the alleged incidents that happened between December 2004 and February 2008.

Investigators found video of Jackson assaulting the women while reviewing files seized during a February 2023 search of his Littleton home. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office searched the home after the Colorado Internet Crimes Against Children task force linked his IP address to alleged pornography uploads, the DA’s office said.

Investigators seized computers, phones and an external hard drive during the search. Jackson was not cooperative during the search, according to an arrest affidavit.

On Jackson’s electronic storage device, investigators found footage of four different adult women who were partially naked being sexually assaulted while they appeared unconscious in what they believe to be Jackson’s living room.

Investigators identified the four women, though one of them is now dead, the DA’s office said.

In interviews with investigators, two of the women identified Jackson, according to the affidavit. One knew him and “speaks to him on occasion,” and the other only recognized him as a “‘creepy’ guy who hung out at the same bars she did.”

Jackson could be seen in the videos sexually assaulting both women with objects, according to the affidavit.

The third woman did not recognize Jackson but identified herself on one of the videos being sexually assaulted in Jackson’s living room.

None of the women had any memory of the incidents on the videos, and investigators found the women had likely been in contact with Jackson at bars in southern Jefferson County.

Prosecutors filed the charges on Aug. 18, and Jackson was taken into custody on Aug. 23. He later posted a $150,000 bond.

According to the arrest affidavit, investigators also linked Jackson to a Drive account that Google reported had been uploaded with seven sexually explicit and a few abusive images of children no older than 12 years. Prosecutors initially charged him with one count of sexual exploitation of a child but district attorney’s office spokeswoman Brionna Boatright confirmed the charge has since been dismissed.

Anyone who may have seen or interacted with Jackson in circumstances like these allegations can contact First Judicial District Attorney’s Office Investigator Kim Holmes at 303-271-6915.

Denver’s trigger point for activating extreme weather shelters during winter lags behind other frigid cities with large populations of homeless residents — 20 degrees Fahrenheit, up from a 10-degree threshold last year.

But a medical expert and advocates are pressing Mayor Mike Johnston to open shelters at 32 degrees and cancel sweeps of street camps when temperatures dip below freezing. New York, Seattle, Minneapolis and other cities have set thresholds at 32 degrees while also, like Denver, factoring in wind chill and snowfall.

Johnston wasn’t available to discuss the matter Tuesday but his administration issued a statement saying the mayor’s office is open to “re-evaluation.”

Hundreds of homeless metro Denver residents end up in hospitals for emergency treatment of hypothermia and frostbite, according to Dr. Joshua Barocas, an internal medicine and infectious disease physician at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus who sees homeless patients at the Denver Health Medical Center.

At one metro Denver hospital where an informal study was done during a cold month last winter, 49 patients were treated for hypothermia and frostbite, Barocas said. The costs of such treatment at hospitals around the city exceed $5 million a year, above the cost of a new, fully-staffed cold weather shelter, Barocas said, noting “it is incredibly frustrating that we have a system set up that allows people to get frostbite or hypothermia and suffer.”

Denver City Council members Shontel Lewis and Sarah Parady have proposed changing the city’s threshold and ban sweeps when temperatures drop below freezing, Denverite reported Monday. A hearing is set for Dec. 20. Denver’s current 20-degree mark reflects lobbying last year that led to a compromise to open cold weather shelters if the citywide capacity for sheltering homeless people is exhausted and National Weather Service forecasts include a wind chill advisory and more than two inches of snow or an overnight low temperature of 20 degrees or lower.

The threshold aligns with the average overnight winter low temperature in Denver, the city’s Cold Weather Shelter Plan says; about half the nights between December and March typically drop below 20 degrees.

But prolonged outdoor exposure to temperatures of up to 40 degrees can lead to frostbite and hypothermia, said Barocas, who recently briefed city leaders at a council meeting.

The first symptoms include an altered mental state: confusion and slurred speech easily misdiagnosed as intoxication. Body movements slow, sometimes with shivering. At the worst stages of hypothermia, people sit down as their heartbeats and breathing diminish.

Homeless advocates favor swift action before temperatures turn colder. A cold spell after Thanksgiving prompted city officials to open shelters. Denver police reported four deaths of people living on streets, and city health officials on Tuesday said drug overdoses likely were the cause. Opioids, in particular, can exacerbate the impacts of cold weather.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless supports the change, spokeswoman Cathy Alderman said. “It will save lives,” she said. “It will take pressure off the broader shelter system, which is at capacity.”

Last weekend when city officials directed their contractor, Bayaud Enterprises, to open cold weather shelters, more than 200 people came in, below a capacity of around 500, said Tammy Bellofatto, Bayaud’s director. “We don’t force people to come in.”

Staffers are available should the city direct a larger deployment, Bellofatto said.

A statement emailed by Johnston’s press secretary Jordan Fuja addressed the cold weather sheltering.

“Winter in Denver brings dangerously cold weather, and the city is committed to saving lives by bringing people indoors,” the statement said. “Last year, the city increased the threshold for emergency cold weather sheltering from 10 degrees to 20, and we are always open to continued re-evaluation of our policies to better serve Denver residents.”

Shelters around the city currently house more than 4,000 people, officials said, “and city outreach teams and first responders work through the night on cold nights to connect unsheltered residents to warm, safe shelter beds.”

Fuja added in a follow-up email that, “We are constantly re-evaluating our programs. As we evaluate the city’s cold weather sheltering plan, we have to consider the availability of city resources like staffing, space, and funding.”

The man shot and killed by Denver police on Nov. 20 after chasing people in Commons Park with an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle and shooting at officers had more than 400 rounds of ammunition on him, Denver Police Department officials said Wednesday.

Police responded to calls of a man with a rifle yelling at a group of people and chasing people near 16th and Platte streets at 3:40 p.m. on Nov. 20.

Officers located the man, later identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner as 42-year-old Joshua Mitchell, sitting on a park bench with the rifle, Cmdr. Matt Clark said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Officers in two police vehicles parked approximately 100 feet from Mitchell, one on a hill and one on a nearby path, Clark said. Body-worn camera footage shows the officer on the hill commanding Mitchell to drop his weapon before Mitchell started firing at the officer, who returned fire.

Two officers fired seven rounds during the shooting, Clark said. Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators have not found evidence that Mitchell had a larger plan, Clark said, but are still working to obtain information from his cell phone and social media accounts.