Short-term rentals get closer look
Less
than half of properties are licensed, o cials say, leading to bigger problems
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Arvada has more than 800 short-term (less than 30 days) rental properties in operation, though just 250 to 300 of those are licensed, which can create problems for code enforcement o cials, Arvada’s Director of Community and Economic Development Jessica Gardner said.
‘Show them with your lyrics’
Acclaimed Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman visits Colorado Christian University
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
It’s not every day that a vetime Grammy Award-winner visits your college campus, but for students at Colorado Christian University, that prospect came to fruition when acclaimed Christian musician Steven Curtis Chapman stopped by for a master class, performance and scholarship presentation.
Chapman’s appearance at CCU on Feb. 7 marks the second edition of the school’s President’s Speaker Series — the rst featured former Vice President Mike Pence making an appearance. e festivities began with a songwriting master class where six students from CCU’s music school who are majoring
in composition shared their original songs with Chapman and got feedback from the celebrated artist.
“Don’t tell them — show them with your lyrics,” Chapman said during the masterclass. “When we o er up the gifts that have been entrusted to us, that can be used for God’s glory, amazing things can happen.”
After that, a dinner with students, faculty and donors was held in Chapman’s honor, and two scholarships were handed out, one to Joanna Hansen, who is in CCU’s adult education program, and one to Cooper Kimbriel, an incoming freshman who will be studying music at CCU next fall.
Kimbriel is a songwriter from the Western Slope who competed in a songwriting contest to earn the scholarship.
Steven Taylor, dean of CCU’s School of Music, presented the scholarship awardees with commemorative plaques and thanked Chapman for his inspiration.
“People learn the theology; they believe more from the song they sing more than the bible they read,” Taylor said.
Later on in the evening, Chapman gave a special, career-spanning performance, featuring songs from his decades-long career, including Christian contemporary hits such as “Cinderella” and “I Will Be Here.”
Chapman said he learned to play guitar from his father, who taught him “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. Chapman played a segment of “Folsom,” but was sure to stop short of the “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die” line with a wink of acknowledgement for the crowd.
Gardner discussed the current state of short-term rentals in Arvada during a workshop at the Feb. 10 city council meeting and said that when a property has chronic issues but no license, it makes it very di cult to enforce city codes because it becomes unclear who to contact to resolve potential issues.
“ ere are many, many properties operating, they don’t have a license, but one of the bigger challenges we have is when we’re dealing with persistent chronic problems from some of these properties, it’s also because they don’t have a license, so it makes it even more di cult to enforce,” Gardner said.
Code Enforcement O cer Peter Krentz said that although complaints against short-term rental properties are a small proportion of the cases he handles — about 3% of cases, or 23 complaints against short term rentals out of over 2,000 complaints against other properties — license gaps make following up on those cases di cult at times.
“I have issues when they don’t have a license and there’s no one to track down,” Krentz said. “A lot of (short-term rental properties) are owned by LLCs, some of them by foreign LLCs or they’ll loop them through other states, or some of them will be defunct and I’ll have no one to talk to, and it’s back to square one again.”
CRIME
Grammy winner Steven Curtis Chapman was the second guest at Colorado Christian University’s President’s Series. COURTESY OF CCU
Applications sought for exterior improvements
$15,000 matching grant available for businesses’ façade, landscaping
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Small-business owners in Arvada looking to make an improvement to their storefront might be able to get a boost thanks to the Arvada Economic Development Association’s Exterior Improvement Grants. e matching grant — worth up to $15,000 — helped 13 businesses make various improvements to their exteriors last year.
AEDA is going into its ninth year of offering the grant, which will accept applications until March 17. e organization’s Economic Development Specialist, Sarah Miley, said AEDA started the grant to help the community feel cohesive, though there are sometimes other positive e ects as well.
“It’s just really to better the business community in Arvada,” Miley said. “We want to encourage private-sector investment, creating goodwill with neighbors and assisting businesses who are interested in property capital improvements and enhancing the look of commercial properties in the community.
“We’ve found it to be a great tool to build relationships with businesses in the area and help them achieve goals,” Miley continued. “Anything from enhancements that improve crime prevention in their business to upgrades that, you know, help them align their business with their
AI tool may be just what the doctor ordered Program saves
hours on electronic medical records
BY JOHN INGOLD
THE COLORADO SUN
Dr. Daniel Kortsch is a pretty popular guy these days in the hallways of Denver Health, the hospital where he works in primary care.
Colleagues come up to him for spontaneous hugs. He’s received at least one box of chocolates.
e reason for this a ection has to do with Kortsch’s other job at the hospital — as chief medical information o cer, sort of a guru at the intersection of technology and patient care. After months of testing, Denver Health is now widely rolling out an arti cial intelligence program that helps doctors transcribe conversations with patients and then convert them into notes that can be entered into the hospital’s electronic medical records system.
Sound simple enough? Well, for doctors overburdened with tedious documentation work long after their day at the clinic is over, it is life-changing.
“It’s transformational,” Kortsch said. “I think it is the most transformational tech-
future goals… It’s really a nimble tool to help people achieve kind of a number of di erent areas of opportunity for their business.”
Miley added that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the grant was sometimes used to make patio improvements.
Megan Ruder, owner of Ruder Construction, said the improvements her company was able to make with its Exterior Improvement Grant — which included a privacy fence — allowed her business to improve its relationship with neighbors.
“I de nitely feel like it’s improved our relationship with neighbors,” Ruder said. “ e property looked pretty junky, and there’s a beautiful apartment complex right behind us, and then obviously we have neighbors on either side. It’s really kind of enhanced not only the functionality of our property but also the curb appeal, while still kind of being able to preserve the character of Arvada, because we really haven’t changed.
“It’s this little house in the front and then a big shop area in the back,” Ruder continued. “So, it still kind of has that Olde Town charm in the front and we have that character, but we’ve cleaned up a lot on the outside, and that’s really
nology I have seen in my medical practice, ever.”
Arti cial intelligence has for years now been making its way into patient rooms and medical records in Colorado, whether that is to diagnose tricky conditions or to spot health risks before they emerge. But Denver Health’s use of AI highlights another front: e potential for AI programs to make doctors’ work ow a little less clunky and burdensome.
e program Denver Health uses comes from a company called Nabla, which now counts 50,000 doctors and other medical practitioners across the globe — but mostly in the United States — as adopters. e Nabla program supports 35 languages, and it integrates directly with a hospital’s medical record system.
Because Nabla was developed specically for use in medicine, it is trained not to trip up on complex medical jargon or tongue-twister drug names, in the way that more generic AI transcription services might. If it does make a mistake, users send a note to Nabla informing the company of the goof.
“ e point is really to focus on patients, not the clinical notes,” said Delphine Groll, a Nabla co-founder and the company’s chief operating o cer.
To use the program, doctors simply click a button and then talk with their patients naturally while the program works in the background. For privacy reasons, the program does not keep a recording of the conversation, and the transcript it creates is quickly deleted.
At the end, the program produces a summary of the visit for the doctor to review. If the doctor gives the OK, those notes get entered into the hospital’s re-
helped the curb appeal.”
AEDA matches up to $15,000 for the project, meaning that if a company is making a $10,000 renovation, they would only have to pay for $5,000 while AEDA would pay for the other half. Some applications that are approved don’t receive a
cords system — looking very much like the kinds of notes on visits that doctors have long entered into patient records.
But what used to take several minutes per patient now takes a few seconds. e result, Kortsch said, is less time working in the clinic after hours to catch up on documentation and less “pajama time,” the term doctors use to describe the hours at home at night spent on digital paperwork.
“It makes everything slightly easier and slightly better,” Kortsch said.
At Denver Health’s Montbello Family Health Center, physician assistant Jessica Wallace said she typically sees 10 to 12 patients during every half-day shift. at comes out to about 15 minutes per patient.
“ e demand in terms of what we’re expected to do within primary care have increased exponentially over time, and our patients have become a lot more complicated,” she said.
A patient may come into the clinic not just to address one issue — hypertension, say — but multiple issues at a time — hypertension and diabetes and knee pain. at’s a lot to cover in just a few minutes.
Before Nabla, Wallace would walk out of a patient’s room and think to herself whether she had enough time to crank out notes to enter into the patient’s record before racing to the next appointment. If she didn’t, it meant working late or at home at night.
But now, she said, she has enough time to enter the notes and then go to the bathroom or grab a drink of water.
“It doesn’t solve all that ails primary care,” she said. “It takes away the one stupid thing that nobody loved doing and
50% match. In those cases, AEDA will pay a smaller share of the project’s total cost. Last year, AEDA got 23 applications and approved 13 including Arvada Dental Center, Ralston Road Shops, Rocky Mountain Commissary and McCla in Real Estate.
nally makes it easier.”
Kortsch said Denver Health has mainly presented Nabla to its medical providers as a wellness initiative — a way to help ease burnout due to the digital paperwork of an electronic medical records system. And in that sense, it appears to be succeeding.
e hospital has a little over 500 medical providers using Nabla. In an earlier pilot project, Kortsch said the hospital saw a 42% reduction in manual typing by those using Nabla. A survey found that 83% of providers using Nabla said the program has increased their desire to continue seeing patients.
But there have been other bene ts, as well. Kortsch said Nabla has been “budget neutral” for Denver Health — meaning it has allowed doctors to see more patients, which has o set the cost of the program. And patients, who are informed about the use of Nabla before each visit, also appear to like it.
Denver Health’s patient satisfaction scores have improved for providers using Nabla. One reason for that, Kortsch said, is that use of the program has appeared to increase eye contact between doctors and patients.
In other words, physicians are turning their eyes away from the computers where they had previously typed furiously during visits and turned them toward the people they are actually treating.
“ e only di erence you’ll notice,” Kortsch said, “is that your doctor looks at you more.”
is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.
Before (above) and after (below) of the Ralston Road shops thanks to the AEDA Exterior Improvement Grant.
If You Don’t Find the Home You’re Looking for, We Have the Tools to Find On e That’s Not on the MLS
I took a class recently in which I learned to use a tool for searching public records in the same way that agents can search the MLS, using criteria that even the MLS doesn’t have. Now, if you can’t find a home for sale that meets your needs, we know how to conduct a search of all homes using those same criteria and reach out to the home owners to see if they would sell to you.
whether the home is owner occupied or a rental, and other criteria, including:
Deck
Swimming Pool
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
By the way, this tool is only available to agents who are Realtors — that is, members of the local and national Realtor association. Only about half of Colorado’s licensed real estate agents are Realtors.
Here’s how it works. Although not always up-to-date because of homeowners who did not get permits for certain improvements to their homes, the public records do contain extensive information that can be searched using this tool.
We can search not only for style, square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms and lot size, but also for finished or unfinished basements,
Barn
Workshop
Corner lot or cul-de-sac
Fireplace
Estimated value
The estimated value is not the assessor’s valuation which is often inaccurate and, at any rate, not current. The assessor’s valuation is as of June 30th of the previous even numbered year (2024). This tool’s valuation is based on recent comparable sales from both the MLS and off-MLS transactions.
Last, but definitely not least, we can search for homes that were purchased over 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Owners who purchased their home less than five years ago are least likely to be interested in selling, so we don’t bother.
By the way, this same tool can also be used instead of the MLS itself to search MLS listings using those same search criteria above, many of which are not available on MLS
searches. Also, we can add any other search criteria that is important to you, not just the ones listed above, using a key word search. These can include anything — sauna, walk-in bathtub, or you-name-it (literally).
Another important criterion for any buyer is location. You can specify any area, city or subdivision — or multiple areas and subdivisions.
So, let’s say, hypothetically, that you would like us to solicit owners of two-story homes with Littleton addresses but not in Douglas County that were purchased over 10 years ago. The home must have 3-4 bedrooms and 2 or more bathrooms, and it must have a 3-car garage, a finished basement and a workshop. You will consider homes with a valuation up to $900,000. The house should be not more than 30 years old, and it must be owneroccupied.
Working with those criteria, we come up with an Excel spreadsheet which includes the address and name of the owner. Using a separate app, we could add to the spreadsheet the landline and cell number of each owner .
Using a mail-merge program, we could send individually printed letters in individually printed envelopes saying that we have a
Have You Heard of ‘Pig Butchering’? It the Latest, Most Dangerous Kind of Scam
We all know someone who has been scammed. My own sister lost $15,000 to a scammer. Since starting this column/ad in 2003, I have warned readers at least ten times about rental scams, and a few months ago I described how a scammer listed a parcel of land he didn’t own with us, and we only found out that was the case when the title company sent a FedEx letter to the owner of record to verify the transaction before it was “sold” to a neighbor.
In my April 6, 2017, column I wrote about a Golden man whom I met because he wanted to buy a million-dollar property once his “inheritance” arrived from his Nigerian scammer. I couldn’t convince him he was being scammed, and he died penniless and homeless, still clinging to his dream.
You and those you know probably have your own stories about scammers.
Recently I came across of an 8-part podcast by Economist Podcasts called “Scam, Inc.” I strongly recommend listening to it.
(It costs a couple dollars per month to subscribe to all Economist podcasts, but this one is worth every penny by itself, and you can cancel after you’ve listened to it.)
“Pig butchering,” I learned, is a Chinese term. Pork is their most precious meat, and the scam entails finding the “pig” (you), building a pig sty (messaging by text or on WhatsApp), feeding it (building rapport, and eventually guiding the person to invest in crypto), rewarding it (showing phony paper returns on the crypto investment), and ultimately butchering it (taking all your funds before you realize the investment was a hoax). Pig butchering take a lot of time.
It sounds a lot like what Bernie Madoff did, doesn’t it? But this is done by Englishspeaking Southeast Asians, mostly in Myanmar, who find a reason never to betray themselves by speaking to you on the phone, where you would recognize they’re not who they pretend to be.
Sometimes, but not always, these are ro-
Just Listed: 2-Bedroom Townhome in Lakewood
mance scams, where the scammer gradually convinces you of their love and provides pictures which are stolen off the internet. The first example in the Scam, Inc. podcast, however, was of a Kansas bank president who was conned into investing his bank’s reserves in crypto by a non-romance scammer who simply appealed to the banker’s desire for self-enrichment. He lost $42 million of the bank’s money. The bank was ultimately forced out of business. No one who knew the president could believe what he had done.
Here’s a bit of advice I learned. Take the picture you received from a possible scammer and go to the search field of Google.com. At the right of that field next to the microphone icon is an icon which says “Search by image” when you float your cursor over it. Click on that icon, drag or upload a picture, and it will instantly show you everywhere that picture appears. I uploaded my own picture and, fortunately, it only showed my own websites.
Again, please listen to the “Scam, Inc.” podcast. You’ll learn a lot you need to know.
buyer who is looking for a home like theirs. We could also call the owners or give you the list and let you call them after you’ve signed a buyer agency agreement with us. (This would require that the home is not listed by another agent, which we can confirm.)
This tool can also be used to search expired listings without the use of lead generation services which often provide faulty or out-ofdate data and don’t verify that the home has not been relisted by another agent. Although the inventory of homes for sale is much greater than it has been, this tool allows us to open up the whole universe of homes, whether for sale or not, which match your specific desires. If this sounds like something you’d like us to play with on your behalf, call me or any of our broker associates (listed below) and we’ll get to work for you.
Is Your Home Wildfire Ready?
My January 13, 2025, column described ways in which homes could be made fireresistant. If you read that article on our blog, http://realestatetoday.substack.com, you saw multiple links to articles and reports from Colorado to California on how to harden you home against wildfire. Since then, I became aware of a website, www.RotaryWildfireReady.com, created by the Rotary Clubs of Evergreen, Conifer, Boulder and Mountain Foothills, in cooperation with fire departments, community leaders and Fire Adapted Colorado. You’ll be impressed, as I was, by how comprehensive this website is, providing a wide array of advice and resources, not just on hardening your home but on preparing for the eventuality of an evacuation order.
Environmental Film Festival
The Colorado Environmental Film Festival runs this weekend, Feb. 21-23 at the Green Center, 924 16th Street, Golden, on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines. I wrote about the festival in last week’s column.
You can study the three-day schedule at https://ceff2025.eventive.org/schedule and buy tickets at https://ceff.net/tickets
If you go, look for our booth in the EcoExpo, where you can browse the display of current solar-powered homes and let us know if you’d like to see any of them.
Don’t miss this remodeled two-bedroom, one-bathroom townhome at 3355 S. Flower #59, in the quiet Jefferson Green subdivision northeast of Highway 285 and Kipling Street. Features include new luxury wood-look vinyl flooring throughout the first floor, new lighting fixtures, new stainless steel sink and range. The fully tiled bathroom has a new vanity and lighting. The bedrooms have new carpeting, ceiling fans, and the primary bedroom has a walk-in closet. There are newer windows throughout. The LG washer and dryer are included. Also included is one space in the 2-car shared garage, with a storage area included. A second designated parking spot is in the parking lot. This home is move-in ready! Listing agent David Dlugasch has created a narrated video walk-through which you’ll find along with lots of magazine-quality pictures at www.GRElistings.com. He’ll be holding it open this Saturday, February 22nd, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Or call him at 303-908-4835 to arrange a private showing.
$785,000
Meticulously maintained with many quality upgrades, this turnkey patio home at 2601 S. Kipling Court is ready for new owners. Located in a private gated community, it is two blocks from Bear Creek Park. The large main level has vaulted ceilings and south facing windows that provide plenty of natural light. The spacious main floor is 1,911 square feet and features an updated kitchen with quartz countertops, gas range and stainless steel appliances. The living room is open to the kitchen and dining areas and has a stacked rock gas fireplace. The large primary bedroom with a 5-piece bath has a sliding door to access the outdoor patio. The main level also includes a second bedroom, a 3/4 guest bathroom and an office space. Quality wood flooring, lighting, handrails and paint add to the cozy ambience. There is a large main-floor laundry with built-in cabinets and utility sink (washer and dryer included). The basement is professionally finished with 9-foot ceilings, family room, bar, pool room (with custom pool table included), a 3rd bedroom and 3rd bath, and a large 350-sq.-ft. storage area. There is a newer furnace and A/C, as well as new garage door and opener. The seller is open to selling any furniture in the home. Find additional photos and view a narrated video walk-through at www.GRElistings.com. To arrange a showing, call listing agent Jim Swanson on his cell phone anytime, 303-929-2929.
Golden Real Estate lists and sells residential properties across the entire metro area.
Resignation plan for federal workers moves forward
Je erson County has about 6,000 federal employees; AG’s next steps unclear
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole on Wednesday reversed his earlier ruling to delay the deadline for President Donald Trump’s administration’s resignation offer, known as a “Fork in the Road,” after determining the unions who brought the lawsuit didn’t have legal standing to challenge the order.
e program is now closed. According to McLaurine Pinover, spokesperson for the O ce of Personnel Management, around 75,000 federal employees accepted the o er.
According to reporting by NPR, “Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, one of the plainti s, called the decision a setback but not the end of the ght.” e judge didn’t rule on the legality of the program.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser had joined a coalition of 21 state attorneys general in ling an amicus brief challenging the controversial directive issued by the U.S. O ce of Personnel Management.
e lawsuit argued that the directive violates federal ethics regulations and labor laws.
It’s unclear what, if anything, Weiser’s next step will be. Colorado Community Media has reached out to the AG’s o ce
since the judge’s ruling.
e initial directive issued on Jan. 28 gave federal employees until Feb. 6 to choose whether to accept a legally questionable “deferred resignation” or potentially face termination.
Employees who opted for resignation would continue to receive pay and bene ts through Sept. 30 without having to report to work. However, unions representing federal workers argue the plan
On behalf of CommonSpirit St. Anthony and OrthoColorado Hospitals, we invite you to attend our Hospital Community Bene t Forum on April 14 to learn about our 2024 Community Bene t investments and Community Health Needs Assessments. Our leaders will also share how we advance care by participating in the Hospital Transformation Program. Additionally, one of our Health Equity & Advancement Fund awardees will share information about their organization and how their funded initiative is improving Community Health in our region.
Your attendance and participation will help us strengthen our multisector collaboration and our commitment to building healthier communities.
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Please visit mountain.commonspirit.org/forums or scan the QR code to register for the event.
is coercive, illegal and has caused widespread confusion.
“Approximately 40,000 federal employees live and work in Colorado, and they deliver important bene ts and services to the American people,” Weiser said in an earlier news release. “A change in the federal workforce must be planned according to the law and with public input. By joining this court brief, we’re sending the message that we stand with federal workers who are committed to public service.”
e amicus brief also argues that the plan has led to an “extreme information imbalance,” forcing employees to make signi cant career decisions under duress.
Weiser argued that the potential loss of federal employees is especially concerning for Colorado’s veterans. e Department of Veterans A airs, which already faces sta ng shortages, could see further
RENTALS
Some council members, including Bob Fifer and Shawna Ambrose, said they have been getting complaints from residents themselves and said short-term rentals do little to help the local community.
“I am amazed that you only got 24 complaints, because I got 13 of those about ve di erent properties in 2024,” Ambrose said. “According to our Housing Needs Assessment, we are short 2,790 units for just renters. at is the number of a ordable units the city lacks, and having 800 of them for short-term rentals, which is less than 30 days, seems to be adding to the crisis.”
Fifer said the city would be better o to just do away with short-term rentals as a whole.
“I think we should stop this resolution and just not allow them in our city,” Fifer said. “It’s just not worth it for what little we get.”
e fee to register a short-term rental in Arvada is $150 annually.
Gardner said cutting the short-term rental program in Arvada would likely
strain on its ability to provide medical care and bene ts.
E ect on Lakewood e Denver Federal Center, home to more than 28 federal agencies, employs thousands of workers whose roles range from managing public land to disaster response.
“Any impact on the federal employees who work at the Federal Center in Lakewood would also impact our economy and community. ere are about 6,000 federal employees who work in Je erson County,” Je erson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper said. “We are advocating for our county at the state and federal levels as well as monitoring the situation closely. We will continue to provide essential services and resources to our community.”
According to the Department of Veterans A airs O ce of Inspector General’s report, “Determination of Veterans Health Administration’s Severe Occupational Sta ng Shortages Fiscal Year 2024,” VA facilities nationwide reported nearly 3,000 severe occupational sta ng shortages in 2024, with medical o cers and nurses among the hardest-hit roles. Social Security o ces could also be a ected, exacerbating existing service delays. e lawsuit noted that the Social Security Administration’s workforce was already at a 27-year low before the directive, raising concerns that further reductions would leave the most vulnerable populations struggling to access bene ts.
Legal and ethical challenges
e directive has also raised alarms about the potential for politically motivated purges of the federal workforce. e amicus brief cites the history of civil service protections designed to prevent political interference in federal employment.
e brief argues that the directive undermines these principles by pressuring employees to resign under ambiguous terms.
is is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
do more harm than good.
“I just want to acknowledge the challenge of short-term rentals; I know they can be di cult, and I know we get some kind of problem properties that arise that are very noisy and cause a lot of problems for the council members,” Gardner said. “ at is the minority of the short-term rentals that are out there.
“ e other thing I want to mention is that once we decide that we don’t want to regulate, it won’t get rid of them; it will just get rid of the mechanism to regulate them,” Gardner continued. “And we won’t have any fees coming in to o set the costs to manage that situation. So, what we feel is the best way to move forward is let’s regulate them and let’s do the best job we can to try and catch those challenges we face and do the best we can to bring them into compliance.”
Council resolved to direct the city team to nd a third-party vendor who can manage short-term rentals within the city and get the unlicensed properties in compliance while also elding reports of concerns 24/7. e cost for that is estimated to be $18,000. e city team and city council discussed taking that out of the police budget or funding that through licensing fees.
Denver Federal Center’s main entrance in Lakewood, CO.
PHOTO BY SUZIE GLASSMAN
Violent crime down to pre-pandemic levels in 2024
National report:
Colorado Springs saw biggest jump in homicides
BY AMANDA HERNÁNDEZ STATELINE
e number of homicides across the United States declined by 16% in 2024, continuing a recent downward trajectory, according to the latest crime trends report from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank.
Homicides spiked during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and crime became a central focus of President Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign.
Trump insisted that FBI crime data showing declines was “fake” and claimed that crime was “through the roof.” e second Trump administration is expected to adopt a tough-on-crime approach.
State legislatures nationwide also are expected to prioritize a variety of criminal justice measures this year, including prison oversight, illegal immigration, retail theft and policing standards and procedures. Polls show most Americans see crime as a signi cant problem, though fewer than in recent years.
e Council on Criminal Justice, known as CCJ, gathers data from individual law enforcement agencies for its biannual crime trends reports, meaning the data is more recent than the FBI’s annual report. Both the think tank’s and the
FBI’s reports, however, show a similar turnaround in violent crime.
In 2023, criminal homicide -- which the FBI de nes as murder or non-negligent manslaughter -- was down by 11.6% from the previous year. It was the largest single-year decline in two decades, according to the FBI’s annual crime report published last year.
e CCJ report shows that the downward trend appears to be continuing, with homicides in 2024 dropping by 16% compared with 2023. at drop equates to 631 fewer homicides in the 29 cities that provided data for the category, according to the council’s report.
If this decrease holds as more jurisdictions report their data to the FBI later this year, 2024 would rank among the largest single-year homicide drops since at least 1960, the start of modern record-keeping, according to the report.
Despite the recent decline in homicides, crime remains a politically salient issue. A majority of Americans -- 56% -believe that national crime has increased or consider it an “extremely” or “very” serious problem. But public concern about crime has lessened over the past year, according to Gallup’s annual crime survey.
Perceptions of crime are heavily in uenced by political a liation. e survey found that 60% of Democrats believe crime has decreased over the past year, whereas 90% of Republicans think it has increased.
Some crime experts say that media reports, political messaging and viral social media posts may exaggerate Americans’ worries about disorder, making crimes
such as shoplifting and public drug use appear more prevalent than they actually are. Still, some individual cities and neighborhoods may be experiencing higher crime rates, which could further explain these concerns.
“We still have problems with crime, still have problems in the criminal justice system, and even though the crime rates are improving, we should not take our focus o crime and criminal justice,” said Ernesto Lopez, the report’s co-author and a senior research specialist with the council, in an interview with Stateline.
e council analyzed crime trends in 40 U.S. cities, although not all cities had data available for every type of o ense.
Among the cities studied, 22 saw a decline in homicides last year, with Chandler, Arizona, and Little Rock, Arkansas, recording the largest decreases at 50% and 43%, respectively. Six cities experienced increases, with Colorado Springs leading the way with a 56% jump.
When comparing homicide rates between 2019 and 2024, the council’s study sample saw a 6% decline, largely driven by cities with traditionally high homicide rates, including Baltimore and St. Louis.
Homicides are still above pre-pandemic levels in some cities, including New York City and Washington, D.C. In New York City, for example, there were 382 homicides in 2024 compared with 319 in 2019. In Washington, D.C., there were 187 homicides in 2024 and 166 in 2019.
e CCJ report also examined trends in other violent and property crimes, including gun assault, carjacking, motor vehicle theft and drug o enses. Most of
these o enses were lower in 2024 than in 2023, with shoplifting being the only exception, showing a 14% increase. Shoplifting also was 1% higher in 2024 compared with 2019.
Researchers were surprised that shoplifting rates increased last year despite retailers taking more measures to combat it, such as locking up merchandise behind glass. Some experts say that the rise may re ect improved reporting efforts rather than an actual spike in theft.
Last year, state legislatures placed a strong emphasis on tackling retail theft, and this momentum is likely to continue into this year, with Maryland lawmakers already considering a bill aimed at addressing large-scale organized retail theft.
From 2023 to 2024, incidents of robbery dropped by 10%, carjackings fell by 32%, and motor vehicle theft decreased by 24%.
Violent crimes such as sexual assault, domestic violence and robbery are now below pre-pandemic levels, but aggravated assaults, gun assaults and carjackings remain higher than in 2019, according to the report.
Property crime trends over the past ve years varied. Residential burglaries and larcenies decreased, while nonresidential burglaries increased. Motor vehicle thefts rose by 53%, and drug o enses fell by 28%.
is story from Stateline comes courtesy of Colorado Newsline and was made available via the Colorado News Collaborative. For more, and to support the news organization, visit coloradonewsline.com.
REVERSE MORTGAGES MADE
Questions and answers about immigration law
BY JENNIFER BROWN AND OLIVIA PRENTZEL THE COLORADO SUN
Questions are swirling about how the Trump administration’s new immigration policies will continue to a ect Colorado, especially after federal agents went door to door in Denver and Aurora on Feb. 5 detaining an unknown number of people.
Could an immigration enforcement operation like the 2006 raid of a Greeley meat-packing plant that resulted in 262 arrests happen again? Would hiding in a church to avoid deportation, like Jeanette Vizguerra did during the last Trump administration, work now?
Here are answers to some major immigration questions.
Can local law enforcement arrest someone for their immigration status?
No. Under Colorado law passed in 2019, local law enforcement o cers are not allowed to make an arrest or detain a person based solely on their immigration status or an ICE request.
ey also are barred under state law from notifying ICE about the immigration status of someone in their custody. However, if law o cers arrest someone who has an ICE detainer, they can notify ICE when that person is being released from custody. ey cannot, however, detain people after their release in order to facilitate pickup by ICE.
“If the city receives a release noti cation request from ICE for someone in custody, we will comply,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said recently. “However, our law enforcement o cers are not immigration o cers, and we will never ask
them to do the work of the federal government via immigration enforcement. e bottom line is Denver will always enforce criminal law and maintain public safety, regardless of an individual’s immigration status.”
Pueblo County Sheri David Lucero said recently that his o ce will not participate in any ICE roundups, but would help support the federal o cers in cases involving criminal charges and for backup if an o cer is in danger.
“If there is something criminal related and we know the o ender is in our coun-
ty, absolutely we will support them,” Lucero said in a statement. “We will not support any roundup operations. My role isn’t to enforce immigration laws. I am not the federal sheri . My role is to enforce Colorado law and to ensure the safety of the citizens of Pueblo County.”
State law “prohibits depriving a person of their liberty on the basis of a suspected civil immigration violation in the absence of a warrant signed by a judge,” the ACLU said.
Probation o cers are prohibited from sharing information with ICE.
Last year, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the Teller County sheri ’s practice of holding undocumented immigrants in its county jail through an agreement with federal authorities violated state law.
When is it illegal to report someone to ICE? It is illegal, under a Colorado law passed in 2021, to threaten to report another person’s immigration status to law enforcement to pressure them to perform an act or refrain from performing a lawful act.
Colorado also has a speci c law to protect tenants from this type of threat. e ACLU of Colorado recently led a lawsuit against an Aurora landlord alleging that the landlord made repeated threats to report tenants to immigration authorities, a violation of Colorado’s Immigrant Tenant Protection Act. e Venezuelan tenants said the landlord wanted to evict them, changed the locks without telling them and repeatedly threatened to call ICE if the family did not vacate, the ACLU said. e tenants have pending asylum cases to try to stay in the United States.
Can a federal agent demand a list of residents, employees, students, etc., who do not have Social Security numbers?
Under Colorado law, state agencies cannot share personal identifying information with ICE unless ICE provides a warrant or a subpoena.
State agencies can only collect immigration status when they are required by state or federal law.
ICE stages in the Best Buy parking lot at 4100 E. Mexico Ave., Feb. 5, 2025, in Denver. PHOTO BY JEREMY SPARIG / SPECIAL TO THE COLORADO SUN
Je co’s plan for Je erson
BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
For years, Joel Newton has watched Je erson Jr./Sr. High School shrink, not just in size but in opportunity.
His daughters saw electives disappear. Sports teams struggled to nd enough players. Teachers came and went.
As executive director of the Edgewater Collective, Newton has spent the past decade working to strengthen schools in the Je erson articulation area, but the challenges have only grown.
Now, Je co Public Schools is proposing a major restructuring — one that would merge Je erson students into Wheat Ridge High School and Everitt Middle School while repurposing the Je erson building for a career-focused program or part-time Career and Technical Education center.
As a result, Je erson Jr./Sr. High School would close for the 2026-27 school year for construction and planning.
District o cials say the change is necessary to provide students with better academic opportunities, pointing to a boundary study showing that enrollment has steadily declined, from over 700 students at its peak to fewer than 450 projected in the coming years.
Lisa Relou and Claire Takhar, district ofcials leading the transition, said Je erson’s low enrollment makes the school unsustainable.
But for many families, predominantly Latino, working-class and deeply rooted in the neighborhood, the proposal feels like yet another loss.
“ is news comes as fears connected to immigration raids are deeply impacting this community,” Newton said. “Our schools are a safe space, and the loss of this connection is really hard.”
Newton also pointed to rising home prices and gentri cation, which have led higher-income families to opt into schools with more programming options, further driving Je erson’s decline.
“Je erson gets a considerable amount of perpupil funding,” he said. “I’m not convinced the district knows how to help them succeed.”
Takhar acknowledged that the community has called for change for years but said previous e orts haven’t reversed enrollment declines.
“Je erson Jr./Sr. High has received over $7.8 million in additional dollars over the last decade, including Title I funding to support programming and outcomes,” Takhar said. “Ultimately, these resources haven’t reversed the enrollment declines, and so the patterns have continued.”
School closure by another name
As recently as September 2024, Je co Superintendent Tracy Dorland assured the Lakewood City Council there would be no more school closures for at least three years.
But for many students who prefer a comprehensive high school experience, the district’s plan to shutter Je erson Jr./Sr. High School for a year and reopen it as a career-focused program feels like a closure in all but name.
“I still feel like it’s ambiguous and confusing because it sounds a lot like closing a school and consolidating it into another one and then guring out what to do with the building — just said in di erent ways,” Board Member Danielle Varda said.
Board Member Erin Kenworthy echoed concerns that the community sees this as a closure, regardless of the district’s framing.
“I know declining enrollment is just a hard reality, and we’ve been dealing with it here in Je co for a while,” Kenworthy said. “From the people who’ve reached out to me, what they heard is closure. And they’re still struggling with understanding how two stable elementary schools equals one unstable junior/senior high school.”
Je co Public Schools announced plans to close Je erson Jr/Sr High School for the 26-27 school year due to declining enrollment and reopen the following year in a di erent format.
teachers, and students.
District data supports the concern. Lumberg and Edgewater Elementary Schools have stable enrollment and are not at risk for closure, yet nearly half (47%) of families in the Je erson boundary choose to enroll in other middle or high schools. at number is alarming for Kenworthy.
“When we look at 47% of students choosing out of our junior/senior high school, we’re looking at an unfortunate victim of the privilege of choice for families,” she said. “So we’re seeing another Title 1 school essentially being abandoned due to community choice. Other small schools across the state have found ways to still o er a comprehensive program, but that requires a lot of innovation and support.”
Community engagement opportunities
Newton said he hopes that the district will use this opportunity to listen to students and redesign the school in terms of opportunities that t the hopes and dreams of those who plan to attend.
“I want them to listen to students and families who historically haven’t had access to the same opportunities as students at other high schools,” Newton said.
District o cials have outlined several engagement opportunities to gather community input before nalizing a plan. e rst information session took place on January 28, where district sta presented the draft proposal and elded questions from families,
“We have the opportunity to engage with community in a di erent kind of discussion,” said Takhar. “We did a lot of listening, we did a lot of presenting to try to explain some of the ideas we were bringing forward to the community for consideration, and then we did a lot of listening.”
A series of co-design sessions are planned for Feb. 11, March 3 and March 31, where community members can share ideas, provide feedback and explore alternative solutions to the district’s proposal.
“ ese are places to share ideas and come up with solutions,” Takhar said. “We’re going to have chart paper and sticky notes and dots and nd ways to have conversations about this draft plan.”
ose needing child care or translation services for the Feb. 11 meeting are asked to RSVP by Feb. 7.
By April 30, district o cials plan to recap community feedback and outline next steps. If a nal proposal emerges from this process, the board will vote on it in June or August 2025.
While district leaders insist this is an opportunity to reimagine Je erson’s future, skepticism remains.
Kenworthy urged families to actively participate in the upcoming meetings to ensure their voices are heard.
“For the folks who sent me emails and text messages during the community meeting, I just want to say here that I’ve heard from district sta that they do want to hear solutions and ideas from community members,” Kenworthy said. “You have to show up and participate if you want to be heard.”
CRIME BRIEFS: Police search for robbery suspect
BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A gas station near 80th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard was robbed by a man wearing black and wielding a gun who then ed on a bicycle and evaded authorities.
Arvada Police are looking for the suspect — who they believe is a white male, approximately 18 years old — in the Feb. 1 robbery. e suspect was wearing black gloves a black facemask and a black hoodie. He pointed a gun at the gas station attendant demanding cash. One register was empty and the other only had a few dollars, according to Arvada Police. e suspect then ed the scene and has not
yet been identi ed. APD is asking folks with knowledge of the suspect to contact them at 303-980-7800.
Explosion at unhoused camp
At 8:18 a.m. on Feb. 2, a re and an explosion occurred at a camp for unhoused people in the alleyway behind 7800 Grandview Ave. Arvada Fire personnel responded to the incident and were able to put the re out. ere were no injuries, although a residential fence was destroyed. An investigation into the re’s cause is ongoing.
SWAT team called in for drug, weapons bust
At 8 a.m. on Jan. 31, the Je erson County
Regional SWAT team assisted the West Metro Drug Taskforce in executing a search warrant for drugs and weapons at 6364 Gray St. Two women were arrested on outstanding warrants, and four dogs and a cat were removed from the home and taken to Foothills Animal Shelter. A Lookout Alert was issued for the area around the property.
Quail Street speed study
A speed study conducted Jan. 10-22 at 7800 Quail St. found no signi cant speed issues on the two-way, undivided street. Arvada Police reported 9,093 vehicles were recorded with an average speed of 25.2 miles per hour and a 85th percentile speed of 30 miles per hour.
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CLARIFICATIONS
Email linda@cotln.org if you notice a possible error you would like us to take a look at.
In the article on the INSPIRE program in the Feb. 13 edition, the group’s organizers would like to clarify that while care for participants may cost as much as $20,000, no family pays that much to attend. The charitable foundation Active 4 All provides financial support.
COURTESY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
VOICES
Watch How Things Change at ’Clybourne Park’
Agood satire has the power to hold a mirror up to society and show the many ways things could be changed for the better. at’s the aim of Bruce Norris’“Clybourne Park,” which the Arvada Center is staging for its rst show of 2025.
Directed by Kenny Moten, “Clybourne Park” runs at the Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., through Sunday, March 30. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 1 p.m. on Wednesday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
According to the provided information, “Clybourne Park” uses one modest bungalow in a Chicago suburb to explore how society changes over time. e show goes from 1959 to 2009 and during that time the neighborhood transitions from a predominantly white neighborhood to a predominantly Black neighborhood. e audience has the opportunity to explore topics like race, gentri cation and more throughout the decades.
We interviewed Kendall Malkin, who plays Betsy in the production, about the show, her character and more.
Interview edited for brevity and clarity. Who is Betsy?
She is a Deaf character who also happens to be eight months pregnant and married to Karl. I am Deaf, and I found it appealing that this production was searching for authenticity with having a Deaf actor play a Deaf character. is is something that is not common, but there’s a growing change in the theater world to include more actors with disabilities. However, I also had to consider the time period and how Betsy is portrayed in regards to how she communicates.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
What’s your favorite part about being in the show?
My favorite part has to be how inclusive the Arvada Center and this production has been, which you will see is very ironic because in this play Betsy is often excluded. e cast and crew has been very welcoming and thoughtful, often asking great questions to get to know me, but also how to accommodate my needs.
ey have provided ASL interpreters during rehearsals which has been profoundly helpful to assist me to succeed in my role and working with the cast.
What do you hope audiences take away from the show?
Many people who would meet Betsy would think that is how all Deaf people communicate. Betsy has what is often called “Deaf speech,” and signs at the same time. However, I want to be clear that is actually not how I speak. ere is a spectrum of communication in the Deaf community. Some deaf people can speak well, others may not be verbal for various reasons and communicate with sign language. In regards to the show, I think it sparks much-needed conversations and awareness of how we interact, understand and include people in our everyday lives.
Information and tickets are available at https://arvadacenter.org/events/clybourne-park.
Recognize Black Excellence at the Owl Club of Denver
A great way to celebrate Black History
Month is to check out History Colorado’s Owl Club of Denver: Legacies of Excellence exhibit, which runs at the History Colorado Center, 1200 Broadway in Denver.
On display through May 10, the exhibit explores a prominent all-Black debutante cotillion club in Denver and uses oral histories and a collection of photographs to tell the story. e Owl Club was founded in 1941 by eight railroad Pullman, waiters and businessmen to recognize the academic excellence of young African American women from Denver, according to provided information.
To learn more about the club and its importance for the community, check out the exhibit. All the details are available at www.historycolorado.org/exhibit/owl-club-denver.
Celebrate Freedom Through Film at Englewood
e I Love Independence Mini Film Festival, will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Englewood Arts, 10901 E. Winner Road.
e free event will showcase winning lms from entries that focused on telling stories that raise awareness of the historical signi cance of independence.
e aim of the contest and festival is to encourage lmmakers to showcase their creativity and passion for history, foster community and civic engagement in the city’s historical heritage, and connect the community and visitors to the city’s history and cultural sites, according to provided information.
For all the details about the festival, visit www.iloveindependence.org.
SEE READER, P9
Your work today will reap benefits in the future
Ten years ago, my wife, Beth, decided that we needed to plant a vegetable garden. Not just a garden; a raised garden. I was nonplussed by the idea; it looked like a ton of work, and I had survived 40-plus years without a garden and seemed to be doing OK.
But I went along with the plan. First, the raised boxes had to be built; then the sprinkler system for the boxes needed to be installed; then the huge (emphasis on huge) pile of super special garden growing dirt needed to be moved from the street to the boxes; and after all of that, we had to purchase the plants, and nally we needed to plant things in speci c places. e tomatoes needed a wall to climb, the zucchini needed room to vine, and each plant needed to be perfectly placed.
e entire process took several weeks of hard work, enduring weather that was either too cold or too hot, which led to more than a few frustrated exclamations. e work was challenging, and throughout it all, I struggled to see a compelling reason for putting in such e ort. While the idea of having fresh vegetables was appealing, I felt that store-bought options were su cient. en we got to August. It was time to
Will nuclear formally be put on the table?
State Sen. Larry Liston, a Republican from El Paso County, has carried a lonely torch during the last two legislative sessions. His bills that proposed to classify nuclear energy as “clean” in Colorado went exactly nowhere. is year’s nuclear bill has a di erent look. It has four prime sponsors, two of them Democrats. And it comes after warnings about rapidly escalating electrical demand for data centers.
WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
harvest the rst crop of cherry tomatoes. As we were out picking those tomatoes, I popped one in my mouth. Everything changed in that moment. at tomato and the hundred or so that followed burst with avor, a tangy richness I had never experienced in any other vegetable. e avor lingered on my taste buds; an explosion I can still taste as I sit here writing. For the next two months we had cherry tomatoes with just about every meal, and I honestly never tired of them. e same rich taste was true of the zucchini, the summer squash, the jalapenos, the basil, and the rest of the crop. In re ection, I saw how right Beth had been and how amazing her vision for what was possible. I could nally see how the work had paid o , how it made a di erence — a delicious di erence. e “work” you are doing, whether to overcome a struggle or to lay plans for your future, is much harder than the work of creating that garden. It will
not always be easy, but you must stay committed to your plan; the payo for the e ort will be an unmatched avor of perfection. It’s a sweetness that will stick with you for years and years to come, and a avor you will never forget.
As you move forward. keep in mind the amazing taste that awaits you; the taste of perfection, the taste of success. Each day you can be another step closer. You have got this. I hope my words inspire you, and that you will share them with those who need encouragement. ank you to everyone who has shared their stories with me so far; I truly appreciate hearing about the valuable ideas you nd in these columns and how you use them to uplift those around you. You can reach me at jim.roome@gmail.com.
Jim Roome lives in Arvada with his wife Beth. He spent 34 years in public education. Lessons learned from the one two punch of being diagnosed with MS shortly before his best friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer led him into a new pursuit as a freelance writer and speaker. He uses his life experiences and love of stories to inspire, educate and encourage local, national and international audiences.
House Bill 25-1040 will get its rst committee hearing on ursday afternoon. It would allow nuclear energy to count toward Colorado’s clean energy goals of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Unlike Liston’s previous bills, it might even get approved. All ve Republicans in the House Energy and Environment Committee will likely support it. e committee chair, Alex Valdez, a Democrat and former solar developer, helped write the bill.
In public testimony, the other seven Democrats will likely be reminded that we have no long-term solution for safeguarding radioactive waste. ey will likely hear that nuclear plants remain extremely expensive. Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear plant was originally projected to cost $14 billion. It was completed in 2023 at a cost of $36 billion. Other nuclear projects have had similar cost overruns.
Some Coloradans also remember St. Vrain, the problem-plagued nuclear power plant south of Greeley. It operated from 1976 to 1989. Customers of Public Service Co. of Colorado, now a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, paid $1 a month from 1993 until 2016 to cover the $125 million cost of decommissioning the nuclear plant.
Legislators likely are hearing from Xcel’s lobbyists. It has two nuclear plants in Minnesota. e utility announced in October that it has models showing nuclear delivering 1,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity within Colorado by 2035-37. at compares with the 750 megawatts of Comanche 3, the coal- red power plant in Pueblo that Xcel plans to retire before 2031.
A Pueblo task force created by Xcel and some local leaders in early 2024 reported that a nuclear power plant was the best replacement for the jobs and property taxes lost in the transition from coal. Craig, in northwest Colorado, has similarly been hunting for answers to replace jobs and tax base after the last coal plant closes in 2028. Cheerleaders for nuclear usually ignore the costs. All of the technologies that will get us beyond 85% to 90% renewables have the same problem. eir gambles are smaller, though. In Wyoming, Bill Gates has invested in a rst-of-kind small modular liquid-metal fast reactor. If successful, these smaller modular reactors would lower the nancial risks. e downside? Presumably, the tax base for Pueblo would potentially be far less.
Clarke Reader e BIG PIVOTS
Allen Best
Jim Roome
READER
Clarke’s Concert of the Week — MJ Lenderman at the Bluebird Theater “Manning Fireworks,” the solo album released by MJ Lenderman (the guitarist of Wednesday), was one of the biggest indie rock successes of 2024. e album is a galvanizing mix of classic rock and alt-country, and doesn’t sound that far o from a modern version of iconic folk-
rock groups like e Band.
In support of the album, Lenderman is coming to the Bluebird eater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver, at 9 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28. He’ll be joined by Wild Pink, an alt-rock band I’ve written about numerous times in this column.
It’ll be an evening featuring some of the best indie rock around, so get tickets at www.axs.com.
Clarke Reader’s column on culture appears on a weekly basis. He can be reached at Clarke.Reader@hotmail.com.
orado’s carbon emission reduction goals.” Obviously, he added, conversations must also occur about security and waste.
Liston, a retired investment banker, told me he hopes for nuclear costs mirroring the declined cost of computing. at has a certain irony. e explosive growth of data centers being predicted provides a key argument for taking nuclear seriously. Xcel has told state regulators it projects need 1,923 megawatts of new generation — equivalent ot several coal- red plants — for large customers by 2031, with 70% of that coming from data centers. How real will this demand be? And who bears the risks of investment in new and still expensive technologies? I caught up with Dylan Roberts at a water conference. If adopted, the bill will “allow nuclear to be part of the conversation about Colorado’s energy future,” he said. “It doesn’t obligate the state nancially in any way. It doesn’t move anything forward as far as permitting or regulations. It would just say that if we get to a point where it becomes nancially viable and a private entity – along with local governments — buy in and they decide they want to pursue this, it would count toward Col-
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A crucial di erence in this year’s bill — to be o ered as an amendment in the committee hearing on ursday — is a requirement that nuclear pay property taxes similar to coal and other energy producers.
Roberts pointed out that France gets 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy. “As far as I know, nobody is scared of going to France,” he said. “ ey have found a way to do it and do it safely and responsibly. I’m not saying it has to be part of Northwest Colorado’s energy portfolio or the state’s portfolio, but at least it can be part of the conversation if a bill like this passes.”
I’m not sure that “love is in the air,” as one columnist concluded. Less-expensive opportunities may arrive in enhanced geothermal, for example. What we do have is sober discussion about the hard work of getting to zero emissions by 2050 while satisfying increased energy demands. at will be harder than closing coal plants by 2030.
Allen Best publishes Big Pivots, which chronicles the energy and water transitions in Colorado. For more on this topic, visit BigPivots.com.
to Colorado Community Media and should not submitted to other outlets or previously posted on websites or social media. Submitted letters become the property of CCM and should not be republished elsewhere.
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BY CHRIS KOEBERL CKOEBERL@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Friday mornings during ski season, a lot of kids in Clear Creek County will wake up before the sunrise to check equipment, snowboards, skis, helmet, goggles and gloves in preparation of hitting the slopes.
After they’re dressed and with a quick breakfast, they wait in Idaho Springs or Georgetown for the school bus to take them to Loveland Ski Area for a day of lessons or just fun with friends.
e program Snow Dodgers has been teaching local kids from kindergarten and up the con dence and skills to ride the mountains on skis or snowboards since 1963, according to board members.
“If they’re good enough, they can just be free-range skiers and do their thing all day,” rst-year Snow Dodgers volunteer Chelsea Dendegna said. “It sets them up with lessons if they need it and just supports them on their journey as skiers or snowboarders.”
Many of the students who started early in the program are now in the sixth grade and riding doubleblack diamond trails at Loveland.
“I’ve learned a lot by watching other people and my family teaching me things, so I’ve improved a lot,” Carlson Elementary sixth-grader Maddie Hinojos said.
A team of volunteers and board members keep Snow Dodgers going each year, piling equipment
into pickup trucks and checking names as kids get on the bus to perpetuate what generations before them had done.
“Everybody works hard to make things come together for a project like this. It’s just a nice community,” Hinojos said.
According to state records, Snow Dodgers is one of the longest-standing ski clubs in Colorado, and many locals can attest to parents and grandparents who learned to ski with its volunteers throughout the years.
Some of the organization’s mottoes on the website clarify goals and motivation: “Take Risks and Reap the Rewards,” “Be Prepared To Experience New Adventures” and “Overcome Your Fears and Master Your Skills.”
e organization’s long-standing relationship with Loveland Ski Area in Dillion is seen as mutually bene cial, according to Loryn Roberson, director of marketing for Loveland Ski Area.
“For Loveland, our community is everything and it’s so important to support these new skiers and riders and give them a space to not only learn but also to enjoy the slopes,” Roberson said.
Snow Dodgers typically runs from the second weekend in January to the second weekend in March.
“Having a program like this in place really allows
them to familiarize themselves with the sport and it really grows the next generation of skiers and riders which is incredibly important to Loveland,” Roberson said.
Ongoing education in ski industry
Opportunities for mountain youth to learn and excel in the sport of skiing and riding don’t end with Snow Dodgers.
High school and middle school programs in Clear Creek County o er hands-on experiences in the manufacture, maintenance and business of the ski industry.
“Creek Craft” is a new name in the ski and snowboarding industry, and Clear Creek County high school students, mentors and teachers aim to make it pro table.
Students in the Clear Creek High School Entrepreneur II class are taking their business education to the next level by creating a sustaining model for manufacturing and marketing, according to Career Connections coordinator Dacia Kelly.
“ e students in this class are learning how to start a business and they’re doing it through a real-world project rather than a hypothetical,” Kelly said.
MOUNTAIN KIDS
Meanwhile, outdoor rec and tech instructor Ben Shay at the high school and middle school in Evergreen gives students the hands-on experience of building a board or skis starting with plywood, laminate and an idea.
“It gives kids an outlet to do creative work with their hands and bring something to fruition. I like to tell the story, ‘Kids used to go home and give their mom a wooden spoon they made in wood shop.’ Now they get to show up with their own pair of skis or snowboard,” Shay said.
Several rec and tech students were eager to show o their one-of-a-kind creations they made just for themselves when the Courant visited the class in November. e art of creating a board or ski is dependent on the individual creating it; thick or thin tails and tips, shaping and tapering you create your custom ride with graphics you’ve designed, 11th-grade student Johannathan Scott said.
“It’s really a surreal kind of feeling when you get to make something that you’re going to use.., it’s just a really good feeling,” Scott added.
Another advantage to the rec and tech program is local students are learning the skills in high-demand at local ski areas and shops, according to both Shay and Roberson.
“It’s such a unique program. ese other communities and these other schools have things like woodshop and home economics; but for our community, the thing we all live and breathe is skiing. So, to be able to modify it and have this program that allows them to learn that skill set is invaluable,” Roberson said.
“ ey learn a lot of the woodworking skills here that they would in a wood shop, but then they get something that they actually get to strap on their feet, go to Snow Dodgers, ride the hill and say, ‘Look, I made this,’” Shay said.
The pinnacle of skiing skills: Alpine Rescue
Based in Evergreen, Alpine Rescue is an all-volunteer, mountain search-and-rescue team that’s been operating, free of charge, for more than 60 years.
Alpine Rescue is one of 13 Colorado teams accredited by the Mountain Rescue Association in technical rock rescue, wilderness search, avalanche rescue and winter technical rescue, according to its website.
“In the last few months we’ve had some pretty intense rescues and our pick of the rst to go in are usually pretty tough skiers and they have had to go miles in
sometimes very deep snow that is not easy to ski in. So, there’s a lot of physical endurance and strength,” Alpine Rescue volunteer and public information o cer Dawn Wilson said.
“To have kids learn how to ski and not just ski but be ‘mountain aware’ is idyllic. I’m jealous of those kids,” Wilson said.
Programs like Snow Dodgers instills early education and muscle memory in kids that are critical to working and playing in the mountains, according to Wilson.
“If those kids grow up and they want to give back to their community and volunteer for re or a mountain rescue team they’ve got that ingrained in their body and soul, they don’t even have to think about it,” Wilson said.
BOTTOM LEFT: Alpine Rescue volunteers cross country ski into the dark to find missing hiker in Clear Creek County Jan. 31.COURTESY OF ALPINE RESCUE
BOTTOM RIGHT: Alpine Rescue volunteers work to find missing hiker in Clear Creek County Jan. 31. COURTESY OF ALPINE RESCUE
PHOTO ON PG10: Ski lift at Loveland Ski Area takes Snow Dodgers to top of the mountain Feb. 7. PHOTO BY CHRIS KOEBERL TOP PHOTO: Clear Creek Snow Dodgers at Loveland Ski Area. PHOTO BY TIFFANY DALTON
‘Clybourne Park’ opens at the Arvada Center
Decades-spanning story hits the Black Box Theatre
BY LILLIAN FUGLEI
Painted houses, gardens and sprawling yards that make up a neighborhood shift and change over time — just as the inhabitants of those houses do. Now, these changes are taking center stage at the Arvada Center in “Clybourne Park.”
“Clybourne Park” follows the story of two families—one, a Black family in 1959, the other, a white family in 2009— as they move into the same home on Clybourne Street. In the 50 years that separate the two families, the neighborhood has changed from a white middleclass neighborhood to a gentrifying Black neighborhood.
e play, written by Bruce Norris, is a sequel to Lorraine Hansburry’s 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun.” Hansberry’s play follows the Youngers, a Black family trying to move out of their kitchenette apartment. Norris’s play picks up two hours after Hansberry’s ends, inside of the house the Youngers are trying to move into in Clybourne Park.
While act one continues the Youngers story, act two jumps 50 years ahead to the same house, as a new family moves in.
“It’s sort of the cycle of what happens in this one house over 50 years,” director Kenny Moten said. “It has this quality of being sort of a spin o that is tethered to the classic Raisin in the Sun.”
Continuing Hansburry’s story, the play addresses many similar themes, bringing
them into a more modern context.
“(‘Clybourne Park’) deals with so many di erent things about America: race, class, gender, belonging, where does everybody t?” Moten said. “From 1959 to 2009 what I really tried to focus on was making these folks real people. ere’s no good guys and bad guys.
ey’re all just people, and that’s rare.”
Moten’s focus in directing was to take the characters from words on the page and turn them into real people on the stage. is came with twice the work, because every actor plays two characters; one character in act one, and another in act two.
“Actors have the hard task of being characters in 1959 and then they’re completely di erent characters in act two in 2009,” Moten said. “After the short intermission, they come back as completely di erent people in this new space.”
However, intermission doesn’t just change the actors. e set changes as well, re ecting the 50 year jump. In the Arvada Center’s Black Box eatre—which has a thrust stage, so the audience surrounds the stage on three sides—there’s no curtain to hide behind, so those changes must take place in front of the audience, even at intermission.
“Intermission here takes the house
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from 1959 to a run down house 2009,” said Moten “of course, we’re in the Black Box eatre, so everyone has to watch that happen as well.”
In creating the Arvada Center’s version of “Clybourne Park,” Moten made sure to keep the audience in mind.
“ e audience are voyeurs watching something happen in this space,” Moten said. “ e power of this play is that it does create so much conversation. We’re doing a play to really level the playing eld and have some honest performances that really resonate with people here.”
For Moten, this means that the play doesn’t really end when the actors exit the stage.
“ ere’s two acts to the show,” Moten said, “but I think the third act is when conversation begins, and that’s when people are driving home.”
“Clybourne Park” runs from Feb. 14 through March 30, with performances Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday matinees at 1:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the Arvada Center’s website.
With each act taking place in a di erent decade, the set for “Clybourne Park” has to be adaptable, portraying different eras within the same house.
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MUSICIAN
He also relayed the story of how he met his wife, Mary Beth Chapman, in college and told of how the pair started a life together while he rose through the ranks on his way to becoming one of the best-selling Christian contemporary artists of all time. Near the end of the evening, during a Q&A with CCU President Eric
Hogue, Chapman re ected on his family — which includes three “natural” children and three “supernatural” children who were adopted, according to Mary Beth — and said the group might have to make a return to CCU in the near future.
“My wife has already given CCU the highest compliment possible — she said that our granddaughter will most certainly be considering CCU when the time comes,” Chapman said. “ is is a very special place. You can feel it.”
State gets behind bid for Stanley Hotel film center
But that deal fell through. Now, the CEFCA is stepping in.
“We’ve come a long way in a really di cult market,” Cullen said during a meeting Tuesday with the state’s economic development commission.
Colorado is upping its stake in developing Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel into a tourist destination for horror lm bu s.
e state’s economic development commission approved a $1 million grant from its strategic fund for the Colorado Education and Cultural Facilities Authority, or CEFCA, the Colorado agency taking over the property. e cash will go toward greasing the wheels for the CECFA to issue $400 million in bonds. e proceeds will be used to transform the iconic hotel, best known as the inspiration for Stephen King’s “ e Shining,” into the Stanley Film Center.
e project, billed as a horror-themed museum and event space, has been in the works for a decade. It was approved for state funding in 2015 under Colorado’s Regional Tourism Act, a state program created in 2009 to attract out-of-state visitors following the recession brought on by the housing crisis. To qualify for funding, projects had to show they were likely to substantially increase visitation to the state.
e lm center has since run into numerous delays and struggled to raise cash. Owner John Cullen, whose Grand Heritage Hotel Group bought the property out of bankruptcy in the 1990s, announced a deal to sell the property to an Arizona nonpro t in 2023.
On top of the $1 million grant, to be paid out after the bonds are sold, the commission approved the early release of some taxpayer funds already allocated to the lm center from the Regional Tourism Act. e project was awarded up to $46.3 million from state sales tax to be paid out over 30 years. e commission also extended the deadline for completion to Dec. 31, 2028.
“Since there’ve been some challenges and delays in getting the nancing done, we want to allow the project adequate time to be completed,” Je Kraft, deputy director of Colorado’s O ce of Economic Development and International Trade, said during the meeting. e CEFCA is a state bonding authority that issues low-cost debt to fund things like schools and museums. It was created by Colorado’s state legislature in 1981. is is the rst time it’s taking ownership of a property. Despite its challenges, the Stanley Film Center has had some wins. Horror movie studio Blumhouse has signed on to curate the exhibit space. Last year, the Sundance Film Festival announced a partnership with e Stanley to host its Directors Lab. Colorado is currently courting Sundance to become the new home of its signature lm festival. is story is from CPR News, a nonpro t public broadcaster serving Colorado. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.
Chapman played to 1,200 community members at CCU’s Armstrong Performance Center.
School libraries could get an extra layer of protection from bans
BY JENNY BRUNDIN CPR NEWS
A bill to make it harder to remove books from public school libraries cleared its rst legislative hurdle Feb. 10.
After a three-hour debate, members of the Senate Education Committee approved the bill that would require schools to have a policy on school library book challenges.
e bill stipulates that only parents or legal guardians of children at a school could challenge a book in their child’s library and ask for its removal. It protects school librarians from retaliation and requires that a school’s challenge policy be transparent and posted for the community. It also limits challenges to a book’s place in a library to once every two years.
“It’s never been more important to protect the freedom to read,” said bill sponsor state Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Je erson County Democrat. “Free societies don’t ban books.”
She said the bill would protect school libraries from what’s known as “ban bombing,” where hundreds of requests to ban books bombard school librarians. Book challenges have become more prevalent nationwide. In 2022, Colorado was home to nearly 10 percent of all book challenges, according to the American Library Association.
Challenges have drawn lawsuits
Last August, the Elizabeth school board voted to remove 19 books from library shelves after board members conducted a review for content such as racism, graphic violence and sexual content. Many of the books on the list were written by or about people of color or LGBTQ people, such as “ e Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “ e Hate U Give” by Angie omas. School board members called the books “disgusting” or “ugly” and said it was their duty to protect children. Dozens of other books are on a “sensitive list” – including a number of religious books, books like “To Kill A Mockingbird,” “Catcher in the Rye” and “ e Hunger Games” – that allows parents to prohibit their children from checking out the books.
In December the ACLU led a federal lawsuit on behalf of two students and two groups including NAACP of the Rocky Mountains, arguing that the ban violates federal and state free speech protections. It said the book removals deny authors their right to share their books with students free from viewpoint-based censorship.
Passionate testimonials
Dozens of parents and students gave impassioned testimony in support of the bill Feb. 10. ey said that books have opened their minds to new ideas and perspectives and have given them a window into lives very di erent from their own. ey said books spark imagination and are a way to develop critical thinking skills and empathy.
Hripsime Vartanyan, an exchange student from the nation of Georgia, testi ed for the bill. She explained to legislators that her parents and grandparents grew up in the Soviet Union when books were banned.
“But when I was growing up, there was no Soviet Union. So my parents … they tried for me to have a choice to read whatever book I want. And I’m thankful to
them that they give me choice and the opportunity to be educated and read about the topics that I want, not someone else,” Vartanyan said.
She said she was confused when she heard about books being banned in the United States.
Denisse Solis of Reforma Colorado said her school library was one of the most meaningful parts of her childhood.
“Reading about characters navigating challenges helped me process my own experiences and gave me the words to articulate them. e more I learned, the more I could help my family. Libraries didn’t just make me a better student, they made life better for all of us,” Solis said.
Liz Wilson, co-founder of the Pro-Colorado Education Project, said a small but loud group targeted several books at her daughter’s public charter school. Wilson said the turmoil derailed the productivity of the school’s board, sta and parents from focusing on academics.
“I urge you to pass this bill because without it, Colorado public schools, students and communities will remain vulnerable to chaos, intimidation, and censorship. If we fail to act, these attacks will escalate,” Wilson said.
Erin Meschke, a Boulder resident opposed to the bill, said no one is trying to ban books. Rather, they are trying to make sure books are aligned with standards protecting children from pornography.
“ e majority of books being challenged … graphically portray sex, pedophilia, rape, incest, and other things that have nothing to do with developmentally appropriate interest, education, or enlightenment,” Meschke said.
Rev. Lori Goebel of Faith Now Fellowship said she believes that other people besides parents should be able to lodge complaints against books. She said books that some parents may nd o ensive shouldn’t be in public school libraries.
“If a parent or guardian chooses to allow their child to access what another parent would deem inappropriate for their child, that is their choice, and there are other places to access those books without placing these books in a school library and crossing the boundaries placed by other parents for their children,” Goebel said.
But Meg Reed, a grandmother, challenged opponents’ assertions that they want to protect parents’ right to guide their children.
“What they really want is to dictate what is right for all families,” Reed said. “While they’re completely free to deny their own children access to whatever books they might nd o ensive, they do not have the right to make those decisions for other parents.”
Mark Fink, executive director of Anythink Libraries, supported the provision that would make it illegal to re, demote or punish a school library worker for selecting, retaining, or displaying a book before it’s been reviewed.
“Without this protection, school library workers are vulnerable to smear campaigns and personal attacks while they do their jobs, which include fostering creative thinking and providing access to a vast marketplace of ideas,” Fink said.
Matt Cook, director of public policy and advocacy for the Colorado Association of School Boards, said most school districts already have policies that meet the requirements of the bill.
What happens next?
A similar bill died last year in the Colorado Senate Education Committee.
is year, with two di erent Democrats on the committee and some changes to appease the Colorado Association of School Boards, the bill passed on a 5-to-2 vote. It now goes to the Senate oor for a vote.
is story is from CPR News, a nonprofit public broadcaster serving Colorado. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.
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New books at Glennon Heights Elementary library in Lakewood in 2019. FILE PHOTO
SPORTS
Girls wrestling teams thrive in year one, send athletes to state
Conifer, Ponderosa girls programs start strong with high numbers, higher goals
BY JOHN RENFROW JRENFROW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As girls wrestling continues to sweep the country as the nation’s fastest-growing high school sport, local programs are wasting no time making a splash in Colorado.
Quali ers for the state wrestling tournament at Ball Arena on Feb. 13-15 have been announced, and many schools are sending rst-time representatives on the biggest high school stage.
Ponderosa High School in Parker is in the rst season of its girls wrestling program. In year one, a whopping 19 girls signed up for the team. After a strong season, four quali ed for state.
“We were kind of shocked, because, in your rst year, girls wrestling is a tough sport,” Head Coach Frankie Sanchez said. “So, we gured we’d maybe have a couple of state quali ers, but having four was pretty good. And then the two regional champions, and then one runner-up, that was pretty exciting.”
e Mustangs quali ed Arianna Sanchez (regional champion), Presley Pearson (regional runner-up), Elizabeth Sandy (regional champion) and Abriella Deitz (regional third-place) to state, each representing four weight classes.
To have that many sign up for the program’s rst year is impressive, but maybe not that big of a surprise, Sanchez said. Until Ponderosa had its own team, interested girls would wrestle for Douglas County High School.
But now, the Mustangs can proudly wear their own uniforms and have adopted some wrestlers from Lutheran and Legend high schools.
It’s not enough to just be happy to be there, Sanchez said. e girls are hungry as they go into the state competition.
For Sandy, the Mustangs’ senior qualier and commit to Adams State University, it’s about revenge. She lost in last year’s nal. Her determination is rubbing o on the rest of the squad.
“We tell them to not be satis ed,” Sanchez said. “A lot of these girls get satised with just being a regional champ or getting down to Ball Arena. But, you know, we try to tell them that, you know, the show is not over yet. You still got a medal to go pick up.”
Conifer High School is also in year one. According to Head Coach Nick Adamson, there has been growing interest in developing a girls team in recent years. Last season, one girl who attended Conifer wrestled for Evergreen.
Now the Lobos have 11 wrestlers.
“I got the boys program started a few years ago,” Adamson said. “ is was our fourth season bringing the boys program back. It had been defunct for about ve years prior. So really, over the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of interest with individual girls and parents approaching me about when we were going to get a girls team going.”
(third at regionals) and Penny Dickinson (third at regionals) to Ball Arena. ere’s a lot of pride among the teammates as they craft the culture that will shape the program’s foundation.
“Being the inaugural girls team, it’s really a point of pride for them. I think it means a lot to them, even the ones that didn’t necessarily see a lot of individual success or individual accolades throughout the year. I think that’s kind of the feather in their hat is that, ‘I was a part of creating and being a part of that the rst girls program and establishing it hopefully generations to come.’”
e Lobos only have one senior, so Conifer is returning nearly the whole team. is year was a building block, and the wrestlers are eager to return to the mat next season with a better grasp of the sport and higher goals for success.
High school girls wrestling is blooming in Colorado, and it’s here to stay.
Before rebooting the boys team, Adamson had been bolstering the youth club in the area, establishing a group of youth wrestlers — boys and girls — who would develop into high school athletes.
“It’s just something that I’ve always felt really strongly about, just what the sport o ers kids in general,” he said. “And it’s awesome that we can now have that
available for the girls too. I would have been happy with four or ve (girls wrestlers), just out of the gate rst year. So, to get that many was great, and I think we should be well up over 15 to 20 next year.”
Conifer is sending Sierra Nordwald
“Women’s wrestling right now is the fastest-growing sport in high school sports,” Sanchez said. “I mean, it’s huge. e NCAA just announced in January that it was the 91st o cial championship sport for college. So it’s now sanctioned for Division I, Division II and Division III ... is is us building a program we only started in November. So, imagine giving us another six months, or even a year. I think we’re going to be pretty dominating.”
View an updated version of this story online at coloradocommunitymedia. com/sports
Pomona junior Timberly Martinez (in black) grabs the leg of Conifer senior Sierra Nordwald during a semifinal match at 140 pounds on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Columbine High School. Pomona captured the first girls wrestling Je co League title winning the Je co League Tournament.
Pomona girls wrestlers captured the Je co League title on Thursday, Jan. 30, at Columbine High School. The Panthers will try to win back-to-back state team titles in a few weeks at Ball Arena.
PHOTOS BY DENNIS PLEUSS / JEFFCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
House cats with bird flu could pose risk
Some pets died after drinking raw milk, midnight prowls
BY SARAH BODEN KFF HEALTH NEWS
More than 80 domestic cats, among many other types of mammals, have been con rmed to have had bird u since 2022 — generally barn cats that lived on dairy farms, as well as feral cats and pets that spend time outdoors and likely caught it by hunting diseased rodents or wild birds.
Now, a small but growing number of house cats have gotten sick from H5N1, the bird u strain driving the current U.S. outbreak, after eating raw food or drinking unpasteurized milk. Some of those cats died.
e strain of bird u currently circulating has not adapted to e ciently spread among people. And there have been no known cases of cat-to-human transmission during the current outbreak of H5N1. Still, there’s always been the risk that cats, which are arguably only semi-domesticated, could bring home a disease from a midnight prowl.
“Companion animals, and especially cats, are 100% a public health risk in terms of the risk of zoonotic transmission to people,” said virologist Angela Rasmussen, who studies disease progression in emerging viruses at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.
is is because we snuggle with and sleep in bed with our cats. When we’re not looking, cats drink from our water glasses and walk on kitchen counters. So, cat owners should be aware of the ongoing spread of bird u. “By reducing the risk to your cats, you reduce the risk to yourself,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen doesn’t think pet owners should be afraid their cats will give them bird u but said taking precautions is good for pets, and for public health.
Signs of bird u in cats include runny nose and discharge around the eyes, explained Michael Q. Bailey, presidentelect of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
H5N1 also causes neurological problems like dizziness and seizures, which are symptoms of rabies, too. Rabies is almost always fatal, and it poses a threat to human health, so any animal suspected of having the viral disease must be euthanized. Bailey encourages people to ensure pets are up-to-date on their vaccinations.
Veterinarian Jane Sykes, who special-
izes in infectious diseases in cats and dogs at the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, said people should not assume it’s bird u if their cat is sick — even if their animal spends time outdoors or eats a raw diet. Upperrespiratory illnesses are common in cats, while H5N1 is “still pretty rare.”
Sykes gives her indoor cat, Freckles, regular kibble exclusively. She told NPR and KFF Health News she has no concerns about Freckles getting H5N1 because the heating process of making dry or canned pet food kills viruses.
More cases in cats, more risk to humans
Some people feed their pets raw meat or unpasteurized milk because they think it’s a more nutritious or natural diet.
e American Veterinary Medical Association’s website discourages this due to foodborne pathogens like salmonella and listeria, and now the highly pathogenic H5N1.
State and local public health agencies, including those in Los Angeles County and Washington state, have issued similar warnings against raw food diets for pets.
Concerns for human health are partly why the FDA announced last month it is now requiring cat and dog food companies to update their safety plans to protect against bird u. is came after the Oregon Department of Agriculture discovered a cat that was “strictly an indoor cat” had contracted H5N1 and died after consuming a frozen turkey product made by the raw pet food brand Northwest Naturals. It stated that “tests con rmed a genetic match between the virus in the raw and frozen pet food and the infected cat.”
Northwest Naturals voluntarily recalled that batch of its frozen turkey-based product. e company told KFF Health News and NPR that the recall involved “a small product run” and that it has concerns about the accuracy of the Oregon Agriculture Department’s testing.
Los Angeles County’s public health department said ve cats from two households tested positive for bird u after drinking unpasteurized raw milk from the Raw Farm dairy in California’s Central Valley. Raw Farm voluntarily recalled its milk and cream after retail products tested positive for H5N1, but it denies any food safety issues, calling the concern “a political issue.”
Veterinarians also warn pet owners not to allow cats unsupervised time outside as there’s the risk of them getting H5N1 by interacting with other animals that might carry the disease.
“ is is a very scary virus, given that it can infect so many di erent host species,” said Bruce Kornreich, director of Cornell University’s Feline Health Center.
At least one instance of a cat infecting a person with bird u occurred in 2016. As NPR reported, a veterinarian in New York City caught the virus after having close contact with infected cats. e vet experienced mild symptoms and quickly recovered.
In that case, the strain of bird u was H7N2, not the H5N1 that is now circulating in the U.S.
H7N2 is a very di erent type of virus, Sykes explained. But she said it shows that cat-to-human transmission of avian in uenza is theoretically possible. ere isn’t a lot of research on transmission of bird u from companion animals like cats or dogs to humans, though Rasmussen agreed it’s de nitely a concern: e more infections you have in animals, “the more your luck is potentially going to run out.”
Most people who have caught H5N1 are agricultural workers who had direct contact with infected poultry or cattle. Of at least 67 con rmed human cases of H5N1 in the U.S., there’s been one fatality in an immunocompromised person who had contact with birds.
Chances for mutation
Part of the concern with this H5N1 outbreak is that bird u viruses change. Just a few mutations could make this strain adept at spreading between people. And the more people who catch H5N1, the more likely it would adapt to be more e cient, said Suresh Kuchipudi, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, where he researches zoonotic diseases. Kuchipudi has studied H5N1 in cats.
Another concern is something called reassortment. If an animal or person is
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infected with two viruses at once, the viruses can trade genetic material, creating something new. is is common in in uenza, so virologists are on the lookout for a case in which the bird u reassorts to make a virus that’s far more contagious, and potentially more virulent.
Virologist Rasmussen is way more worried about this happening in pigs. Human respiratory physiology is more like that of swines than felines. So far, the current outbreak of H5N1 has not reached commercial hog operations. Rasmussen hopes it stays that way.
Kuchipudi said that reassortments are relatively rare events, but the outcome is completely unpredictable. Sometimes the results are benign, though it was likely a reassortment that involved an avian virus that led to the 1918 u pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people. In the century since, virologists have established a global surveillance network to monitor in uenza viruses. Scientists say continued investment in this network is key to preparing for and hopefully preventing another pandemic.
Winter is “reassortment season” because of all the in uenza viruses circulating, Rasmussen said. A reassortment in cats could technically be possible since these pets occasionally get seasonal u, but it’s highly unlikely. Rather, Rasmussen said, it’s more likely that a cat would pass H5N1 to a human who already has seasonal u, and then a reassortment happens in the sick person. While the risk isn’t zero, Rasmussen doubts this will happen. It would depend on how ill the human was, and how much virus they’re exposed to from their cat.
“Unless the cat is really shedding a ton of virus, and you’re kind of making out with the cat, I think it would be hard,” she said.
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CROWSSUPDRO ELZZ
1. TELEVISION: How many castaways are on “Gilligan’s Island”?
2. GEOGRAPHY: Which Asian nation’s nickname is “Land of the under Dragon”?
3. LITERATURE: What is author J.K. Rowling’s real rst name?
4. SCIENCE: What is a type of material that can’t carry an electrical charge?
5. U.S. STATES: Which state’s nickname is “ e Last Frontier”?
6. MEASUREMENTS: How many quarts are in a half gallon?
7. MOVIES: Which famous landmark is featured in the movie “Rebel Without a Cause”?
8. ANATOMY: What does the cerebellum control in the human brain?
9. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Where is the late Jimmy Carter’s presidential library located?
TrIVIa
10. HISTORY: When did the Great Fire of London occur?
Answers 1. Seven.
2. Bhutan.
3. Joanne.
4. An insulator.
5. Alaska.
6. Two.
7. Gri th Observatory.
8. Movement and balance.
9. Atlanta, Georgia.
10. 1666.
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Are there “protected areas” in Colorado where federal agents cannot make immigration-related arrests?
e rules on this have recently changed. e Trump administration last month reversed a 2011 policy that prevented agents from making arrests in sensitive locations, including schools and churches. e policy was made under former President Obama and reinstated under President Biden.
But under the new administration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the end of that policy and said it is allowing agents more authority to carry out immigration enforcement. is set o panic in some Colorado schools and might have resulted in an increase in absences.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. e Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” Benjamine Hu man, the acting Homeland Security secretary said Jan. 21.
In addition to schools, the previous federal policy listed several other protected areas, including medical facilities, churches, day care centers, social service centers, funerals and graveside ceremonies and places where there is an ongoing parade, demonstration or rally.
Local elected o cials are opposed but somewhat powerless to stop it.
“We also believe that everyone deserves to be able to get an education, get health care, and worship without fear,” the Denver mayor’s o ce said. “Schools, hospitals and churches are the bedrock of the community and essential to providing the services that build healthy societies. We strongly oppose immigration enforcement or raids in these sensitive locations and will do everything in our legal authority to protect them.”
BIRD FLU
Rasmussen and Kuchipudi caution there isn’t enough research to know for sure how much virus cats shed, or even how they shed the virus.
e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was poised to release a new study about H5N1 in cats, but that was delayed when the Trump administration paused the Morbidity and Mortal-
ICE cannot make arrests in or around courthouses or when someone is on their way to or from court, under federal policy. In 2017, the First Unitarian Society church in Denver allowed a mother of four who was facing deportation back to Mexico to hide in its building. Jeanette Vizguerra, a housekeeper who was accused of using a made-up Social Security number on a job application, lived in the sanctuary for more than three years before deportation proceedings were halted by the Biden administration.
For what reasons can ICE agents legally arrest someone?
ICE is authorized to arrest individuals suspected of immigration violations. Federal immigration agents can arrest people without legal status, even if they have no criminal record or pending charges. Immigrant advocacy groups are advising people not to answer their doors at home if ICE knocks. Federal immigration agents are not allowed to enter without a warrant signed by a judge. ICE has not responded to questions about whether it had a warrant for the raids conducted in Denver and Aurora last week. e agency was accompanied by several other federal law o cers, including from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which said it had a warrant.
Can state laws ever supersede federal law on immigration?
No, but states have the power to make laws surrounding immigration as long as they do not con ict with federal law. It’s solely up to the federal government to regulate who can enter the country, yet states have the authority under the Tenth Amendment to limit their involvement in federal immigration enforcement, which is how Colorado is allowed to prohibit local authorities from arresting people because of an immigration detainer. States also can decide things such as whether immigrants need to show proof of legal status to get driver’s licenses. In Colorado, that proof is not required.
Federal law restricts undocumented
ity Weekly Report. at investigation, revealed through emails obtained by KFF Health News in a public records request, found that house cats likely got bird u from dairy workers.
Scientists and public health agencies should question previously held assumptions about bird u, Kuchipudi urged. He noted that 20 years ago nobody would have predicted that bird u would infect dairy cattle the way it is now.
Dogs seem to fare better e FDA says other domesticated animals,
immigrants from receiving federal public bene ts, including Medicaid and food assistance. But states have the power to manage some public bene ts as long as they are funded by the state. In 2021, the Colorado legislature made state and local bene ts, including retirement, food assistance, health care and housing, available to undocumented residents.
What rights does someone have after they are detained by ICE? Can they be deported without a hearing?
Only an immigration judge can order someone’s deportation — but there are exceptions.
Immigrants without legal status have a right to defend themselves in a court hearing, as long as they have not been deported previously. ere is also an exception called “expedited removal,” which allows the Department of Homeland Security to deport someone without a hearing.
e rules surrounding expedited removal can change with the administration, and the Trump administration has already “dramatically expanded” the reasons for expedited removal, according to a lawsuit led by the ACLU.
e Trump administration issued a rule Jan. 21 that said expedited removal now applies to people found anywhere in the country who cannot prove they have been in the United States for more than two years. Prior to this, federal agents only used expedited removal against people within 100 miles of the border and within 14 days of their arrival in the country, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Undocumented immigrants have the right to consult an attorney, but the government does not provide one for free the way it does in serious criminal cases. Colorado has more than 77,000 pending immigration cases at the federal courthouse in Denver and inside the ICE detention center in Aurora.
Are raids allowed on businesses or factories suspected of employing people who are undocumented?
ICE agents are allowed to enter pub-
including dogs, can get bird u infections.
ere are no con rmed cases of H5N1 among dogs in the U.S., though in other countries they have died from the virus.
ere’s some disagreement and an overall lack of research on whether cat biology makes them more susceptible to H5N1 than other mammals, including humans, pigs, or dogs.
ere’s very little people can do about the H5N1 circulating in wild birds. As Rasmussen explained, “It’s ying around in the skies. It’s migrating north and south with the seasons.”
lic spaces such as restaurants or stores. However, they cannot enter private areas of a workplace unless they have a warrant or permission from the employer, according to the ACLU.
In 2006, more than 100 federal agents raided the Swift & Co meatpacking plant in Greeley, arresting 262 workers. It was the largest immigration raid in U.S. history, news outlets reported at the time, saying Latino neighborhoods in the Weld County city were abandoned as people ed in fear or hid in basements.
ICE raided ve other Swift plants in Texas, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota, detaining 1,297 undocumented workers. e raids were the result of an investigation into fraudulent Social Security numbers.
What does it mean that Trump is ending temporary protected status?
Some of the relatives of people taken during last week’s raids in Denver and Aurora said their loved ones had temporary protected status, a federal designation that grants temporary legal status to people from speci c countries that are facing humanitarian crises. People from Haiti, Afghanistan and Venezuela have been allowed to enter the country in recent years through TPS.
It allows them to live and work in the United States while their home countries are facing political or environmental crises, but does not give them permanent legal status.
About 600,000 Venezuelans across the country have temporary protected status that had been extended by former President Biden until October 2026. Trump’s new homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, revoked that extension, meaning the designation for those 600,000 Venezuelans will expire in April.
Migrants whose temporary protected status has expired could face deportation.
is story was printed through a news sharing agreement with e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonpro t based in Denver that covers the state.
But she said there’s a lot people can do to keep the virus out of their homes. at includes limiting a pet’s exposure to H5N1 by not feeding them raw food or unpasteurized milk, and trying to keep them from interacting with animals like rodents and wild birds that could be infected with the virus.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.
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