The Trump Show draws jeers with Gaetz of Hell and the Dud Kennedy acts
It would probably be a safe bet to say that if the presidential election were held this Tuesday, just days after Donald Trump announced the nightmare he’s nominating to run the country, Kamala Harris would be a shoo-in.
Even my friends who are serious Trump supporters are freaked out about the freak show of deadbeats, dirtbags and dumb-sters scuttling out from the dark corners of the country to take their place on the Trump Administration Cabinet.
The choices are so alarming that it’s hard to find a place to start.
But let’s start with Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz as Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general.
I know. Me, too.
Don’t set aside the worrisome scandal about his involvement in sex trafficking and having sex with a 17-year-old, but understand this is where it comes from.
Gaetz has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he paid a 17-year-old girl he was having sex with to travel with him.
Trump’s first attorney general, Bill Barr, focused an investigation on Gaetz’s friend and Republican political ally Joel Greenburg. Greenburg was sentenced in 2021 to 11 years in prison after being convicted of paying women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men, according to Associated Press reports. The “other men” were not identified in court documents during the plea deal.
DAVE PERRY Editor
Multiple news reports insist Greenberg fingered Gaetz as being involved in some of his crimes.
When no charges were brought against Gaetz, a House Ethics Committee, run by fellow Republicans, took up the scandal. That months-long investigation was scheduled to be released Friday, but Gaetz unexpectedly resigned his seat in the House immediately, just hours after Trump appointed him.
The odd move was made in a spurious attempt to prevent the Ethics Committee report from being issued. Republicans and Democrats both in the House and Senate are crying foul over that scheme.
And locally, even some of the most loyal Republicans and ardent Trump supporters are saying ‘oh hell no’ to putting Gaetz in charge of the Justice Department.
“Matt Gaetz is hands down the WORST nomination for the Trump cabinet,” said former GOP Chairperson Kristi Burton Brown, who staunchly stands with her party. “No guy credibly accused of the trafficking of minors and sex with teens should be anywhere near the Attorney General’s office or the DOJ — unless they’re arresting him.”
It clearly says just as much about Trump as it does about Gaetz. It’s a grotesque assault on the nation and the very idea of American rule of law and democracy.
The only fans of the creepy notion, besides Trump, are people like Jewish Space Laser whack job Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado’s own carpetbagging, moon-howling, public fondler, Lauren “Space Aliens!” Boebert.
But wait, there’s more.
The Kennedy Clan’s own version of the Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis family feud show, “Grey’s Garden” with Little and Big Edie Bouvier Beale, now stars Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 12, 2024.
AP Photo/Nathan Howard
Kennedy’s claim to fame, before running for president against Harris and Trump, was as one of the nation’s loudest and most infamous anti-vaxxers.
Kennedy is both an exposed prolific liar and a fraud.
He founded and funded the Children’s Health Defense, a dangerous anti-scientific movement that fraudulently linked childhood vaccinations to autism.
Despite that, he regularly, and even last week, claims that he’s not “anti-vax.”
He’s a dangerous lunatic.
In 2021, he said during a Louisiana legislative hearing that the COVID vaccines were the “deadliest” vaccines ever made.
Real science has repeatedly shown that to be unreservedly false.
Kennedy has also worked feverishly to lower America’s guard against selling unpasteurized milk. The science here is long, unchanging and unequivocal: It’s dangerous.
Raw milk can, and does, infect people with all kinds of serious and even deadly bacteria and viruses. It has long been proven, by real science, that raw milk is no more nutritious or has any added health benefits than does pasteurized milk.
Still, Kennedy has for years persisted in this and a wide range of assorted quackery.
He has long linked anti-depressants to mass shootings, another whacko conspiracy theory disproven by facts, data and science.
He infamously told New York Magazine last year that scientists gone bad conspired to falsify research in a scheme to wrongly show that AIDS is caused by HIV.
Yes, he really did.
Kennedy said science and industry conspired to cook up a cure and killed people doing it.
The sour cream de la creme of Kenedy’s serious sick-o-ness came in 2023 when he told the New York Post that there was scientific “evidence” that the COVID-19 virus was not only a man-made creation, but that it was engineered to target white and Black people.
“The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he said, during an interview that was videotaped, and you can see for yourself, because nobody would believe anyone could be that crazy, delusional or racist, unless you heard it for yourself.
Kennedy’s freaky claims about 5G cell
phone networks controlling humans and ivermectin curing COVID — both utterly false — aren’t even included in his lengthy tenure of being dangerously deranged and a candidate for at least a 72-hour hold.
Kennedy’s nomination to this critical national job drew a collective American gasp from everyone, except Gov. Jared Polis. In what can be described only as some kind of political petit mal seizure, Polis charged out onto social media this week saying how “excited” he was to work with Kennedy on food safety. Lambasted by Republicans, fellow Democrats and the media, Polis has been walking back his enthusiasm since. I’m hoping for a complete recovery.
Kennedy and Gaetz are just two fake gems in the Trump White House of Horrors he’s rolling out every day. There’s the white supremecist-suspect Department of Defense chief, Pete Hegseth a TV-propaganda show host who said he never had forced sexual relations with that woman who accused him of sex assault and he paid off so he wouldn’t lose his job at Fox News.
And then there’s former Congressperson Tulsi Gabbard, another crack-pot provocateur who is nominated to be the chief of national intelligence, which is something clearly in short supply with the president-elect and his flowering administration.
Gabbard was seriously tabbed a traitor a couple years ago when she repeated and promoted Russian propaganda myths that the United States was running bio-warfare labs in the Ukraine.
These aren’t just the usual policy differences that aggravate most presidential political turnovers. This is criminal political malpractice. Trump, now deeply paranoid from his previous experience with a multitude of mutinous staffers, is choosing only the “best people” who won’t invoke the 25th Amendment before spring break.
It’s an outright attack against the nation, real conservatives and the former Republican Party.
No sense any of us who told you so repeating that. Collectively, we need to ask ourselves every day the most important question of the 2024 election, “Did the price of potato chips go down yet?”
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Police clear Aurora o cer of wrongdoing in fatal shooting of Kilyn Lewis
“THE STATEMENT BY CHIEF CHAMBERLAIN CLAIMING THIS DECISION ALIGNS WITH THE DEPARTMENT’S MISSION TO MAKE AURORA A ‘SAFE COMMUNITY TO LIVE, WORK, AND RAISE A FAMILY’ IS HOLLOW AND CRUEL”
BY SENTINEL STAFF
The Aurora police officer who fatally shot Kilyn Lewis did not violate police policy when he fired his gun during Lewis’ arrest in May, police said in a statement released Nov. 15.
“The review concluded Officer (Michael) Dieck was not in violation of agency policy or misconduct,” police spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement.
“The Aurora Police Department has chosen not to hold Officer Dieck accountable for the life he took,” family members of Lewis said in a joint statement. “Instead, they have invited him back into the very community he betrayed. With this decision, our pain, already unbearable, has been compounded.”
The police announcement follows a district attorney decision last month not to press charges against Dieck for his part in the death of the unarmed Black man.
The shooting has prompted a bevy of protests at Aurora City Council meetings and outside city hall.
Family members of Lewis have repeatedly been critical of the department for what they deem was the wrongful police shooting of an unarmed Black man and a preventable death.
Lewis was wanted on a warrant to face charges for first-degree attempted murder for shooting an unarmed man in Denver earlier this year in May. Police said Lewis was also connected to another shooting from inside his moving car.
Aurora police said Nov. 14 that the department’s Force Review Board, which includes
Chief Todd Chamberlain, concluded Dieck “was not in violation of agency policy or misconduct,” according to the statement.
Police said the incident has prompted Chamberlain, who joined the force in September, to review all SWAT operations and functions.
“As with all department functions, we will ensure that the operations not only align with industry best practices, but also with our mission to make the city of Aurora a safe community to live, work and raise a family,” Chamberlain said. “The review is being done in the spirit of the principles of the consent decree including transparency, continuous improvement and accountability to our residents.”
After the decision by District Attorney John Kellner, who investigated the shooting, Dieck returned to work at the police department in the Electronic Support Section of the department and will not return to SWAT, Moylan said.
Five officers rushed onto Lewis May 23 while attempting to arrest him at an Aurora apartment parking lot. Police bodycam video showed that only one officer, Dieck, fired at Lewis as he raised his hands above his head, holding a mobile phone in one hand.
In video clips taken from the perspectives of multiple officers, Lewis can be seen raising his hands, one of which held a phone, before Dieck fired the single shot that police say caused Lewis’ death.
Lewis had run-ins with law enforcement prior to May, pleading guilty to separate incidents of robbery, child abuse, trespassing and illegally discharging a firearm. State records show he served time in Colorado’s Department of Corrections.
But the SWAT unit moved in to arrest Lewis because of the Denver shooting.
The arrest
Police officials said Aurora and Denver police tracked Kilyn Lewis to an apartment complex in the 300 block of South Ironton Street, where Aurora SWAT officers confronted him as he was standing near the open trunk of a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, one of the vehicles visible on surveillance camera footage taken of the drive-by shooting weeks prior.
The body-worn camera footage released in June shows officers approaching Kilyn Lewis with their guns raised and demanding that Lewis get on the ground.
Kilyn Lewis starts to back away and reaches behind his back. He then moves his hands, one of which holds a cellphone, from behind his back and raises them, and is shot once by Dieck. As he falls to the ground, Kilyn Lewis yells multiple times, “I don’t have nothing.”
Family members have repeatedly asked for unedited and all body cam video from the shooting, but as of October, had not received it, a spokesperson for the family said.
In the Oct. 11 DA report, investigators essentially repeated that description of events, adding some detail.
“The officers converged on Mr. Lewis with weapons drawn, identifying themselves as police officers, and yelling repeated commands for him to show his hands and get on the ground,” according to the investigation report. “Mr. Lewis initially showed his left hand but did not follow commands and instead dropped his right hand to his right rear pocket and began to dig in that pocket, out of direct view by the officers.
“Mr. Lewis then brought his hand up from his right rear pocket holding something in his hand. At that point, Officer Mike Dieck of the APD SWAT team fired one round from his pistol, striking Mr. Lewis in the stomach.”
The investigation says that Lewis fell to the ground and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
The report cites an autopsy, revealing that the cause of death was the gunshot wound to the abdomen.
“Toxicology results revealed recent cocaine and fentanyl use by Mr. Lewis,” the report states.
Kellner said he accepted Dieck’s explanation for firing at Lewis.
“Dieck explained that he fired because he believed the object in Mr. Lewis’ hand was a firearm, and based on the totality of the circumstances, including Mr. Lewis’ body movement, moving towards the officers when confronted, the crime Mr. Lewis was wanted for, and his violent history, that Lewis was preparing to shoot at Dieck and other officers,” Kellner stated.
Previous history for Aurora officer
Three years before the fatal shooting of Kilyn Lewis, Aurora police Dieck used a Taser on a suspect during a 2021 incident that resulted in charges being filed against another officer who beat the same suspect with a gun as well as a third officer who failed to intervene.
The Sentinel on July 3 received a confidential tip about Dieck’s involvement in the July 23, 2021, arrest of Kyle Vinson by officers John Haubert and Francine Martinez. Vinson
Sentinel Screen Capture
and two other men were sitting in a parking lot at the time they were confronted by Haubert and Martinez, who were responding to a trespassing call.
After learning that the three men had outstanding warrants, Martinez tried placing one of the men with Vinson in handcuffs. The man pulled away from Martinez, and he and the other man with Vinson fled on foot. Haubert then pushed Vinson, who had remained seated, backward onto the ground.
Despite the fact that Vinson did not run or attack officers, Haubert repeatedly struck Vinson in the head and face with his pistol. He held Vinson down by the throat as the 29-year-old cried and pleaded for Haubert to stop, repeatedly telling Haubert, “Don’t shoot me,” and, “You’re killing me.”
Arrest affidavits describe and footage captured by the body-worn cameras of Haubert and Martinez show Dieck arriving on the scene as backup while Haubert and Martinez continue to restrain Vinson. By this point, Vinson’s face is bruised and covered with blood, and he yells for help as Dieck approaches.
Haubert and Martinez roll Vinson onto his side, and Dieck shoots Vinson in the leg with a Taser. Vinson screams, and Dieck warns Vinson that, if Vinson doesn’t extend his hands, he is “going to get it again.”
Vinson was ultimately arrested for a domestic violence warrant — at the hospital, he was treated for the head wounds inflicted by Haubert and received multiple stitches.
Then-police chief Vanessa Wilson condemned the treatment of Vinson during a press conference shortly after the incident, saying she was “disgusted” and that the actions of the officers involved were “not police work.”
Martinez was subsequently charged with and found guilty of failure to intervene in the use of excessive force, the first conviction of its kind in Colorado. Haubert was charged with assault, felony menacing and other crimes but acquitted at trial in April.
While the arrest affidavits for Haubert and Martinez mention Dieck’s involvement in the arrest of Vinson, Dieck was not criminally charged, and police department spokesman Joe Moylan wrote in an email July 9 that Dieck’s use of a Taser during the 2021 incident was evaluated by APD’s Force Investigations Unit and found to have been “objectively reasonable.”
Family members said they will continue protesting the decision.
“The statement by Chief Chamberlain claiming this decision aligns with the department’s mission to make Aurora a “safe community to live, work, and raise a family” is hollow and cruel,” the family said in Friday’s statement. “This decision does not restore trust — it deepens the divide between the Aurora Police Department and the community. It reinforces the painful truth that our safety is not a priority, and our lives are not valued.”
SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION
Cherry Creek, statewide school leaders worry Polis’ budget pitch will undo nascent funding promises
Colorado districts expect millions in cuts to what they anticipated receiving next year if changes proposed by Gov. Jared Polis make it into the 2025-26 budget.
Polis, who released his budget proposal on Nov. 1, has presented austerity measures due to the state facing an over half-billion dollar budget deficit.
His plan would increase school funding by about $115 million next year, bringing total spending to $9.8 billion. However, district leaders said that would be far less than what they are supposed to get, with school finance advocates calculating schools receiving about $190 million less next year if Polis’ changes are enacted.
The powerful six-member Joint Budget Committee, which does the majority of the work crafting the budget, would need to adopt his proposals. Committee lawmakers have expressed concerns.
And district leaders in the Metro area worry that Polis’ budget framework opens up the possibility for the state to find a new way to cut their budgets after lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session eliminated a practice this year that withholds money from schools for other priorities. District leaders say the changes would also exacerbate funding disparities and lead to harmful cuts for students, especially in districts grappling with declining enrollment. Ultimately, the JBC and Colorado General Assembly will have the most say on how the state proceeds in terms of the budget, said Chuck Carpenter, Denver Public Schools chief financial officer. The district likely won’t see a major impact in funding cuts compared to other districts if the proposal goes through.
But the proposal makes budget planning difficult and, if passed, would fail to meet the promises made last year by lawmakers.
“This is just another way where K-12 is used to balance the budget,” Carpenter said.
District leaders hoped for stability in the 2025-26 budget
During the 2024 legislative session, school officials celebrated after lawmakers pushed to invest more in K-12 education.
Lawmakers eliminated the socalled budget stabilization factor after 15 years, which diverted constitutionally-mandated school funding for other priorities.
They also were able to approve a new school funding model that’s expected to boost state spending by $500 million. The law called for phasing the money in over six years and will better distribute state funding based on the types of students districts teach and help rural and smaller districts. The law also changed student enrollment counts from five to four years for the purpose of the budget.
Polis’ budget proposal tries to address an about $640 million budget shortfall next fiscal year, partly due to rising costs in Medicaid. At the same time, the state is limited by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in how much revenue the state can keep.
His budget framework would change the student counts from the planned four-year average to a single year count. If lawmakers approve the change, this would have the biggest impact on schools with declining enrollment because averaging creates a multi-year buffer for them.
The governor also wants to slow the phase-in of the new school finance formula to seven years.
Jefferson County School District
Superintendent Tracy Dorland said her district has made hard decisions to close schools as enrollment has declined. In Colorado, many districts have experienced enrollment declines.
Any funding change would cause even more disruptions for her students and families, she said.
“They need to leave things alone for a minute so that we have some clarity and some stability in our revenue models,” Dorland said.
In proposing the change, Polis has pointed to the majority of states that use one-year counts. He also said his proposal would fend off any return to using the budget stabilization factor.
Nationally, since the pandemic, some states have started to do the opposite of what Polis has proposed, according to Christopher Duncombe, Education Commission of the States principal, who is a school finance expert.
He said a few states have opted to blend enrollment across multiple years to protect districts with declining enrollment from financial losses. For example, California allows districts to choose between a one-year count or a three-year average.
Tracie Rainey, Colorado School Finance Project executive director, added a change would also pull money away from schools during a time when the state is still awaiting a study that shows how much schools need to adequately educate students.
Her analysis shows the $191 million cuts would unevenly impact districts, with some receiving a 33% cut in what they expected while others would see zero impact.
“It’s not bringing back the budget stabilization factor, but in all essence, it’s a cut to K-12,” she said.
Polis’ proposal sparks district and lawmaker concern.
On Wednesday, during a presentation from Polis, budget lawmakers shared reservations about enacting his plan. The Joint Budget Committee does the bulk of the work to craft the budget.
Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Weld County Republican, said she was finding it difficult to take Polis’ budget seriously because it doesn’t keep the promises made by the legislature in the last year.
“I’m very disappointed that it looks like we’re actually cutting funding to K-12 education,” Kirkmeyer said.
Dorland said her district would get about $23 million less under this proposal.
“And this is after, since 2009, $10 billion that has been withheld from Colorado public education,” she said. “The JBC really needs to think about how removing averaging will impact districts across the state and the impact we’ve already had over the last decade.”
Cherry Creek School District Chief Financial and Operating Officer Scott Smith said although his district didn’t experience enrollment declines this year, the elimination of averaging would still impact his district by about $10 to $15 million.
“We’ve shortchanged a generation of kids,” Smith said. “We should be doing everything we can to not allow that to happen again.”
Meanwhile, Chris Gdowksi, Adams 12 superintendent, said three Adams County districts, including his, are some of the lowest-funded in the Metro area and his district would get about $13.8 million less than expected. Other districts in the area have a buffer because they raise more local property tax dollars for schools.
Changes to the state budget are felt more acutely in the three districts because of low property tax wealth, he said.
For Adams 12, Gdowksi said he might have to cut positions such as support staff, hold off on crucial raises in a district that has struggled to
stay competitive with the surrounding area, and increase class sizes.
Gdowksi said funding for public education needs a long-term solution. He, like other district leaders, said he would like to see a bipartisan-backed statewide ballot measure to raise more funding for schools. And he’s hopeful lawmakers will find a different way to balance the budget in the short-term.
“I am hopeful that folks can lean in and find a different way,” Gdowski said. “There are different and better ways to get there.”
— Jason Gonzales of Chalkbeat Colorado
Cherry Creek Innovation Campus tabbed as a top 100 education innovators in the world
The Cherry Creek Innovation Campus was acknowledged this week as one of the top 100 most impactful, innovative programs globally and among the top 10 in the United States.
“This honor reflects our commitment to providing innovative, real-world learning experiences that prepares students for their Pathway of Purpose in college, career and beyond,” Christopher Smith, superintendent of the Cherry Creek School District, said in a statement.
As the only public school district awarded, this distinction from 100 further sets the innovation campus and Cherry Creek schools apart for its forward-looking vision and commitment to preparing students for success in the workforce today and into the future, officials said in a statement.
Selected from more than 3,000 reviewed programs, this recognition highlights the Innovation Campus’ unique approach to integrating education with industry, preparing students for workforce careers.
The Innovation Campus merges public education with the innovation of industry.
Courses include aviation, automotive, business, hospitality, IT, manufacturing, construction and healthcare. The classrooms intersect industry credentials, college credit, professional skills and industry-grade equipment and standards. Doing this connects student interests with labor needs to serve the community.
“We are redefining what education looks like and are committed to preparing students with the skills, experience, and confidence they need to excel in the modern world,” said Steve Day, principal of the Innovation Campus.
Opened in 2019, the Innovation Campus has garnered various accolades, including two Grand Prize wins from Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, the Manufacturing Workforce Innovator Award from the Colorado Manufacturing Network and recognition as a Quantum Computing Tech Hub under the K-12 Initiative. Serving students in grades 10 through 12, CCIC delivers transformative education throughout the Cherry Creek School District.
The Cherry Creek community’s recent approval of a mill levy and bond measure will further expand the CCIC, allowing it to double in size and amplify its impact in the coming years, according to school officials.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
CU Denver, Community College of Aurora team up to broaden engineering access
The Community College of Aurora has partnered with the University of Colorado Denver to expand access for underrepresented Colorado students to electrical engineering and technology careers.
“Together, we’re building path-
ways that equip students with high-demand skills while celebrating their unique backgrounds,” CCA President Mordecai Brownlee said in a statement.
This collaboration is part of a new initiative funded by a $1.2 million Minority University Research and Education Project grant awarded to CU Denver by NASA. This year, only six such grants were awarded nationwide, totaling more than $7 million, with CU Denver securing one of them.
The grant will fund a series of summer camps designed by CU Denver to spark an early interest in engineering among high school students. Students participating in the camps and other interested high schoolers will have the opportunity to enroll in engineering courses tailored to NASA missions, which can also count toward college credit.
CU Denver’s Jaedo Park, PhD professor of electrical engineering, and Kent Seidel, PhD associate professor of research and evaluation methods, will lead the project.
“It’s no secret that many underrepresented students often face systemic disadvantages like insufficient academic preparation, lack of role models and limited access to advanced STEM courses,” Park said. By using evidence-based strategies from experiential learning theory and active project-based learning, we aim to enhance STEM interest and skills among our students.
A central feature of the program is its focus on connecting students with engineering curricula tied to real-world space industry applications while also addressing barriers faced by underrepresented students.
“The program will use authentic engineering projects related to NASA missions to inspire, motivate and identify the next generation of engineers,” Park said.
Other key partners include Metropolitan State University of Denver, Aurora Public Schools and Westminster Public Schools. This consortium is dedicated to nurturing a more diverse pipeline of students into STEM fields, particularly engineering.
CCA, one of Colorado’s most diverse colleges, is federally designated as both a Hispanic and Minority Serving Institution, making it a fitting partner in this mission, school officials say. The college’s Center for Applied Science and Technology, set to open in fall 2025, will further support this mission, housing many of CCA’s STEM-focused programs.
— Cassandra Ballard, Sentinel Staff Writer
Aurora, state experts look at how best to help kids recover from concussions
‘We have new protocols to support these kiddos’
During cheerleading practice in April, Jana Duey’s sixth grade daughter, Karter, sustained a concussion when she fell several feet headfirst onto a gym floor mat. Days after, Karter still had a headache, dizziness, and sensitivity to light and noise.
Karter rested for a week and a half at home in Centennial, then returned to school when her concussion symptoms were tolerable — initially for just half-days and with accommodations allowing her to do schoolwork on paper instead of a screen and take extra time to get to and from classes. Karter went to the nurse’s office when she had a headache, Duey said. She began physical therapy to rehab her neck and regain her balance after the accident left her unsteady on her feet.
After children get concussions, a top concern for them and their parents or caregivers is when they can go back to sports, said Julie Wilson, Karter’s doctor and a co-director of the Concussion Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
›› See METRO, 6
Returning to school as quickly as possible, with appropriate support, and getting light exercise that doesn’t pose a head injury risk are important first steps in concussion recovery, and in line with the latest research.
“It’s really important to get children and teens back to their usual daily activities as soon as possible, and as soon as they can tolerate them,” Wilson said.
In August, the Colorado Department of Education updated guidelines dispelling common myths about concussions, such as a loss of consciousness being necessary for a concussion diagnosis. The revised guidelines reflect evidence-based best practices on how returning to school and exercise can improve recovery. Educating families and schools about the new guidelines is critical, according to medical experts, particularly during autumn’s uptick in concussions from sports such as football and soccer.
More than 2 million children nationwide had been diagnosed at some point with a concussion or brain injury, according to the 2022 National Health Interview Survey. A flurry of studies in the past decade have shown that adolescents recover more quickly from concussions and decrease the risk for prolonged symptoms by exercising lightly, for example on a stationary bike or with a brisk walk, two days after a concussion. That time frame may also be the sweet spot for getting back to the classroom, as long as the kids can tolerate any remaining concussion symptoms.
“Even though the brain is not a muscle, it acts like one and has a useit-or-lose-it phenomenon,” said Christina Master, a pediatrician and sports medicine and brain injury specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Instead of waiting at home to fully recover, Master said, students should return to school with extra support from teachers and breaks in their schedule to relieve symptoms such
as headaches or fatigue, with a goal of gradually doing more.
Every state has return-to-play laws for student-athletes that include policies such as removal from sports, medical clearance to return, and education about concussions. While some states, such as Virginia and Illinois, have “return-to-learn” policies, Colorado is not among them. It and 15 other states have community-based concussion management protocols.
That is what Colorado updated this summer. REAP — which stands for Remove/Reduce; Educate; Adjust/Accommodate; and Pace — is a protocol for families, health care providers, and schools to help students recover during the first four weeks after a concussion. For example, school personnel can use an emailbased system to alert teachers that a student sustained a concussion, then send weekly updates with details about how to manage symptoms, like difficulty concentrating.
“We have new protocols to support these kiddos,” said Toni Grishman, senior brain injury consultant at the Colorado Department of Education. “They might still have symptoms of concussion, but we can support them.”
Symptoms of concussion resolve in most patients in the first month. However, patients with ongoing symptoms, called persistent post-concussive symptoms, can benefit from a multidisciplinary care team that may include physicians, physical therapists, psychologists, and additional school support, Wilson said.
David Howell, director of the Colorado Concussion Research Laboratory at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, is studying how children and their families cope with the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional impacts of concussions. In some studies, adolescents wear sensors to measure exercise intensity and volume, as well as common symptoms of concussion, like sleep and balance problems. In others, children and their parents
answer questions about their perceptions and expectations of the recovery process.
“What you bring to an injury is oftentimes exacerbated by the injury,” Howell said, citing anxiety, depression, or just going through a difficult time socially. Recovery can be influenced by peer and family relationships.
Duey said the most difficult part of Karter’s recovery was her not being able to participate in cheer for nine weeks, including her team’s final competition in Florida. Karter, now 12, watched practice and supported her teammates in the spring, but missing out tore her up inside, Duey said.
“There were a lot of tears,” Duey said.
While recognizing a concussion and acting quickly can help anyone, in practice, more than half of students in Colorado may slip through the cracks with undiagnosed concussions, according to Grishman’s estimates.
The reasons for missed diagnoses are many, Grishman said, including lack of education, barriers to medical care, parental reluctance to inform schools about a concussion for fear their child will be excluded from activities, or not taking symptoms seriously in a student with a history of behavioral issues.
Getting schools to follow concussion guidelines, in general, is a challenge, Grishman said, adding that some districts still do not. She said it was hard to track the number of schools that followed Colorado education department guidelines last year but hopes improved data collection will provide more specifics this year. During the past school year, Grishman and her colleagues trained 280 school personnel in concussion management across 50 school districts in Colorado.
Whenever possible, athletic trainers should be on the sidelines to support student-athletes, Master said, and athletes should be aware of concussion symptoms in themselves and their teammates and seek care right
away. But concussions are not limited to the school athletic field or sports like football or soccer. Adventure sports like parkour, slacklining, motocross, rodeo, skiing, and snowboarding also pose concussion risks, Wilson and Grishman said. “Cheerleading is actually one that has a lot of concussions associated with it,” Howell added.
Duey said Karter occasionally has headaches, but her balance returned with help from physical therapy and she no longer experiences symptoms of her concussion. She is back to flying with her cheerleading squad and preparing to compete.
News
— Kate Ruder, KFF Health
COPS AND COURTS
DA will re-try assault case against former Aurora cop who shot man in the ankle
A jury reached a split verdict last week in connection with a former Aurora Police officer charged with assault after shooting a man in the leg during a police call on New Year’s Eve 2022.
A jury found Douglas Harroun, 34, not guilty on a first-degree assault charge and did not reach a verdict on a second-degree assault charge, as first reported by 9news.
Prosecutors from the 18th Judicial District said they would retry Harroun on the second-degree charges at a later date, according to district spokesperson Eric Ross.
Last month, in an unrelated case, Harroun avoided jail time by pleading guilty to assaulting a woman with a disability, days after the New Year’s Eve shooting. Police said he repeatedly punched and choked a woman in the parking lot of his Aurora apartment complex during a January 2023 argument about a loose dog.
In an agreement with prosecutors last month, he pleaded guilty in
September to a single misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. In exchange, Harroun agreed to two years of supervised probation and a requirement that he complete anger management classes.
In the New Year’s case, shortly before 11 p.m. Dec. 31. APD responded to a 911 call for a woman who said she was being physically assaulted by a man in a home in the 1200 block of Chambers Road.
Harroun and fellow Officer Daniel Aguirre arrived at the scene, with now-former Officer Eduardo Landeros responding later as backup.
At the scene, the woman said that Juan Ruiz-Reta, had come upstairs while drunk, broke down the door to her room, pushed her in the chest, grabbed her cell phone and smashed it against the ground.
By the time police arrived, he had gone into the basement, the affidavit said. The woman told officers that Ruiz-Reta spoke only Spanish and that she did not believe he had any weapons.
Ruiz-Reta refused commands from the officers to come upstairs, and Harroun and Aguirre radioed for backup and descended into the basement with their guns drawn.
There were three men in the basement, the affidavit stated. Ruiz-Reta put his hands up and the other two retreated and raised their hands.
Harroun placed Ruiz-Reta into custody, and while he was attempting to handcuff him, the two got into a physical altercation that dislodged Harroun’s body camera, the affidavit said. After being handcuffed, Ruiz-Reta resisted going up the stairs and struggled with Harroun on the staircase.
While on the staircase, Harroun could be heard from Landeros’ body camera footage telling someone three times to get back, the affidavit stated. After the second time, Harroun drew his gun and shot one of the other men in the room.
›› See METRO, 9
ey loved a parade.
CREEK
STUDENTS AND VETERANS WOWED BY WEEK OF APPRECIATION EVENTS
BY CASSANDRA BALLARD, Sentinel Staff Writer
Altitude Elementary School in Aurora put on a stirring celebration Thursday to honor the men and women who have served our country and community, complete with a TV star jet flyover and certified heroes.
The event capped a week filled with events at each Cherry Creek district school to honor local veterans and active service members in the community.
Altitude Elementary School had one of the largest celebrations with a parade, a flyover, first responder vehicles and even a special appearance from the U.S. Space Force.
“I grew up in the Midwest where you could find a parade every week,” said Scott Schleich, principal of Altitude school. “I wanted to make sure our kids had something like that – not only to see a parade but to be in one that’s all about honoring those who have sacrificed for us.”
The parade featured various vehicles, from sleek Corvettes driven by Air Force veterans to trickedout military Jeeps. Schleich organized most of the event, gathering many people who made up the parade and other festivities.
“The kids just love seeing all the different cars and trucks,” Schleich said. “It adds a real sense of energy and excitement to the whole event.”
Two fifth-grade students, Ari Agarwal and Amilla Millie Brennan, shared their experiences and reflections on the veteran parade. They both said the entire school participated in the parade in some way, with different grade levels walking through the streets.
Agarwal said his favorite part was seeing the
veterans riding through at the end of the parade.
“A ton of people were standing up and thanking veterans when they came through, at least in my class,” Agarwal said.
Some students even rode in cars with their veteran parents or grandparents, Agarwal said.
“My favorite part of the parade was probably seeing all the veterans that have survived through what they’ve been through, and having them smiling through this parade and being happy.”
Grand Marshal Mark Russell is a 95-year-old Korean War veteran and a retired movie and TV actor. Russell is best known for playing Detective Saperstein in the American television drama Kojak.
Russell said he enjoyed the whole experience, mainly seeing young children lining the streets and waving, thanking him and his fellow veterans and active members for their service.
“I had a fantastic time, and I started crying because of all the beautiful children and people associated with this parade,” he said. “It was so sweet.”
Both fifth-graders expressed gratitude for their school’s efforts to honor veterans.
“I am so grateful to be part of a school that does this and honors the veterans of our school and all the teachers who are veterans and some parents, the community and the veterans that are in the parade and on the outside,” Brennan said, “and all the veterans that have served that aren’t able to be here.”
The entire week was filled with festivities and education. The school district’s annual celebration left a lasting impression on the students through its creative blend of patriotic pageantry and heartfelt community spirit, educators said.
“It’s just a great day and a great message for our kids,” Schleich said. “Hopefully, that memory and that lesson stays with them, so they never forget the importance of honoring and supporting those who serve.”
This was Russell’s first time participating in a parade. However, he was previously recognized as the Boulder Veteran of the Year and was excited to say he got to sing the national anthem in front of the President.
Beyond the parade, Russell had a busy and meaningful Veterans Week. He said he served for three years in combat on the front lines in North Korea during the Korean War, initially training in Japan before deploying to the frigid conditions of Incheon. Despite the challenges, Russell talked about the importance of his squad and the role of infantry troops, even in modern warfare. He drew parallels to the heavy losses experienced by veterans in World War II, emphasizing the continued need for ground forces to occupy territory.
Russell was able to provide a small glimpse into the personal experiences and perspectives of a local veteran, honoring their service and sacrifice while celebrating the community’s efforts to recognize and support those who have served.
“I could see the little tots lined up along the street, waving, telling me thank you for my service,” Russell said. “I’d do it again if I could bring joy to people.”
The school district puts the events on annually at each school to allow the community to honor and celebrate their hometown heroes.
GRAND MOMENT: Grand Marshal Mark Russell center in the wheelchair, is a 95-year-old Korean War veteran and a retired movie and TV actor. Russell is best known for playing Detective Saperstein in the American television drama Kojak. He’s talking here with school officials who helped him into the Grand Marshal car for the parade.
PHOTO BY CASSANDRA BALLARD /The Sentinel
scene
& herd
Curious Theatre presents ‘Confederates’
Dominique Morisseau’s work returns to the Curious stage this fall with Confederates, a powerful exploration of race, power, and history. Known for previous hits like Skeleton Crew and Detroit ‘67, Curious is no stranger to Morisseau’s masterclass of weaving together personal, historical, and social narratives, and this show is considered her most ambitious yet.
The play explores institutional racism through the dual lenses of Sara, an enslaved rebel turned Union spy, and Sandra, a tenured professor in a modern-day private university. The regional premiere leaps through time to trace the stories of these two Black American women.
IF YOU GO:
Tickets: $28-$55
When: Thursdays through Sundays, through Dec. 8 at 7:30pm. Curtains vary.
Where: Curious Theatre Company, 1080 Acoma St
Details and sales: curioustheatre.org
Astronomy Nights at Plains Conservation Center
Join experts and fellow astronomy fans for an evening of telescopes and s’mores! Volunteer astronomers from the Denver Astronomical Society will have telescopes set up for participants to mingle through and learn about the objects in the night sky.
IF YOU GO:
Who: Perfect for ages 8 and older
Tickets: $8 per person
Where: Plains Conservation Center, 21901 E. Hampden Ave.
When: 5:30 p.m. Nov. 22
Details: botanicgardens.org/
The Denver Christmas Show
The Denver Christmas Show opens this year at National Western Complex in Denver. Come get ready for the holidays with more than 275 booths to shop, photos with Santa, live performances, holiday decor, food, drinks, and more. Three days only to enjoy festive entertainment while finding gifts to purchase for everyone on your holiday shopping list.
IF YOU GO:
When: Nov. 22 through Nov. 24, opening at 9 a.m.
Where: National Western Stock Show 4655 Humboldt St.
Tickets: $14-$16, children under 13 are free.
Details: denverchristmasshow.com
Christmas In Color Drivethru Animated Light Show
A dazzling drive-through holiday light show synchronized to festive music straight through your car radio. Cruise past giant candy canes, towering snowmen, glowing arched pathways and more as millions of lights illuminate your route. Enjoy the season’s magic at your own pace.
IF YOU GO: Nov. 15 - Dec. 29
Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, 25690 E. Quincy Ave.
$44-$58 https://christmasincolor.net/
25th Annual Festival of Wreaths
The Aurora Museum Foundation presents its Annual Festival of Wreaths, a fundraiser showcasing community-crafted wreaths at the Aurora History Museum. Starting Nov. 5, wreaths will be on display, with visitors encouraged to vote and bid, either in-person or online via Bidding Owl. This year’s festival coincides with The Grand Celebration on Nov. 16, marking the museum’s 45th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of Trolley Trailer #610, featuring both silent and live auctions to support museum exhibits and educational programs. Community members are invited to participate by decorating and donating wreaths for the event.
IF YOU GO: Festival of Wreaths
Nov. 5- Dec. 6
Aurora History Museum, 15051 E. Alameda Parkway
Free
Family-friendly auroragov.org/things_to_do/aurora_history_museum
The Pond Ice Rink
Southlands’ popular ice rink, The Pond, reopens on Nov. 8, kicking off the holiday and winter season. Advance tickets for skating sessions will be available soon. Group rates are also offered; contact (303) 928-7536 for details and reservations or email southlands@icerinkevents.com.
IF YOU GO: The Pond is open
Southlands, 6155 S. Main St. $14
Family-friendly shopsouthlands.com/
“Where The Wild Things Are” Package
In collaboration with Denver Art Museum’s brand-new “Where The Wild Things Are” exhibit, honoring the cherished children’s book, The ART Hotel Denver, has launched a Wild Things package. The package will include a hardcover edition of “Where the Wild Things Are” book. Two tickets to the “Wild Things” exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, truffles and a personalized note from the book’s main character, Max.
IF YOU GO: Through Feb. 17
The ART Hotel Denver 1201 Broadway, Denver Free www.thearthotel.com/specialoffers/wild-things
Nunsense, a divine comedy
Nunsense is a musical comedy by Dan Goggin that premiered Off-Broadway in 1985. It follows the Little Sisters of Hoboken, who stage a fundraiser to bury fellow nuns accidentally poisoned by their cook, Sister Julia. Updated with new jokes, lyrics, and a fresh song, Nunsense remains popular for its witty humor, catchy songs and audience interaction.
IF YOU GO:
2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. showtimes, Oct. 25 - Nov. 17
The Schoolhouse, 19650 E. Mainstreet in Parker $34 for tickets Mild Adult Content parkerarts.org/event/nunsense Clyfford Still and Community: A Talk and Conversation
The exhibition Dialogue and Defiance: Clyfford Still and the Abstract Expressionists explores Clyfford Still’s connection to the late 1940s and 1950s artistic community despite his resistance to the idea. Scholar Allan Antliff will present on Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, and Romanticism, followed by a discussion inspired by “The Club” gatherings of that era with curator Valerie Hellstein and CSM’s Bailey H. Placzek. The program is $5 for the public and free for CSM members, with limited space and registration required.
IF YOU GO:
Clyfford Still Museum
Doors open at 6 p.m., galleries open 6-6:30 p.m. and talk in the lobby 6:30-7:30 p.m.
1250 Bannock St 720-354-4880
https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/ events/clyfford-still-incommunity-talk/
Vanity and Vice: American Art Deco
Delve into the vibrant era of 1920–1933 and explore the dynamic designs that emerged during this period of rebellion.
Step into the story of a progressive Prohibition-era woman as you journey through her boudoir and a speakeasy, immersing yourself in the Art Deco objects that defined her world. Experience the freedom and change of the time, as American women embraced independence both at home and in society.
From chic bobs to cocktail parties, this exhibition showcases the evolution of the modern woman through fashionable perfume atomizers, vanity sets, and stylish drinking and smoking accessories. Vanity & Vice: American Art Deco invites you to indulge in the glamour of a bygone era.
This special exhibition is included with admission and does not require a separate ticket.
IF YOU GO:
Through Jan. 12, 2025, opens at 11 a.m.
Kirkland Museum
1201 Bannock St. Info: www.kirklandmuseum.org/ vanity-vice/#
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama
The Life and Art of Tokio Ueyama features more than 40 paintings loaned to the museum by the Japanese American National Museum and Ueyama’s family, whose combined efforts to preserve his work have allowed the story of this accomplished and cosmopolitan artist to be told at the Denver Art Museum for the first time.
Born in Japan, Tokio Ueyama moved to the United States in 1908 at age 18, where he made a home until his death in 1954. This exhibition tells the story of Ueyama’s life, including his early days as an art student in San Francisco, Southern California, and Philadelphia; his travels abroad in Europe and Mexico; his role as artist and community member in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles; and his unconstitutional incarceration during World War II at the Granada Relocation Center, now the Amache National Historic Site, in southeast Colorado.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Tokio and his wife Suye were among more than 120,000 Japanese Americans forcibly relocated into American concentration camps. More than 10,000 people were unconstitutionally incarcerated at Amache in the following years, making it the third largest “city” in Colorado at the time. There, Ueyama taught adult art classes to 150 students. This exhibition tells a story of a time in Colorado’s history, of a place where Americans experienced dislocation and loss, and, more importantly, displayed unimaginable resilience, tenacity, and creativity in the face of prejudice.
IF YOU GO:
Tickets: Included in general admission, which is free for members and for all visitors 18 and under.
10 a.m. daily from Oct. 3 Denver Art Museum, 100 West 14th Ave Parkway Details: 720-865-5000 and www.denverartmuseum.org/en/ exhibitions/tokio-ueyama
Biophilia: Nature Reimagined
Biophilia: Nature Reimagined brings together more than 70 imaginative works, including architectural models and photographs, objects, fashion, digital installations, and immersive art experiences that collectively highlight the transformative power of nature. “Biophilia” is a term popularized by American biologist and author Edward O. Wilson to describe his theory that, as humans have evolved as a species, they have been intricately intertwined with the natural world. Wilson’s hypothesis invites deep reflection and poses relevant questions for audiences to consider life in our hyper-accelerated digital and urban-centric world. Organized by Darrin Alfred, Curator of Architecture and Design, Biophilia provides a space for leading architects, artists, and designers to re-examine and reanimate our intrinsic bond with the natural world.
IF YOU GO:
Exhibit is included in museum admission. Free for those under 18, tickets range to $27 10 a.m.
Denver Art Museum 100 W 14th Ave Parkway INFO: 720-865-5000 or, denverartmuseum.org
Fun at the Firehouse
Come at 10 am on the first or third Saturday of each month for a fire-related story and craft time. You can even stick around after the craft for a guided children’s tour of the Museum that’s great for the whole family. Reservations are required to ensure appropriate supplies for the crafts. There will be a different book and craft each month.
IF YOU GO: 10 a.m. Oct. 19
Tickets: $9-$15 reservations required
Denver Firefighters Museum, 1326 Tremont Place Details and RSVP: denverfirefightersmuseum.org
Discovering Teen Rex
Take an extraordinary journey into our prehistoric past with the arrival of “Discovering Teen Rex” as we unveil a remarkable fossil discovered by a crew of inquisitive young dino hunters in North Dakota. The fossil prep lab will be displayed alongside dinosaur fossils, including Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science collection. The whole family is invited to come experience history in the making as our team of renowned paleontologists clean, preserve and study this rare adolescent T. rex fossil — one of only a handful found worldwide — before the public on the Museum floor.
IF YOU GO: Free with museum ticket purchase Daily 9-5
Tickets: $19.95-$25.95
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. Details: 303-370-6000 or at dmns.org
The Power of Poison
The Denver Museum of Nature & Science exhibition provides an interactive experience and incredible way to discover what you’ve always wanted to know about nature’s toxic arsenal. Through a live performance and interactive dioramas, the spellbinding “The Power of Poison” will take Museum visitors into familiar and novel tales of illness, enchantment and death by poison. Journeying through the Colombian forest, they will uncover fascinating secrets about the many plants and animals that wield poison as a potent tool for defense and survival. Finally, the exhibition will uncover how scientists are studying poison’s effects on human cells to protect, repair and heal our own bodies and improve our health.
IF YOU GO: Open every day, 9 a.m-5 p.m., Most Fridays 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Included with museum admission ticket, $19.95-$24.95
2001 Colorado Blvd. Info: 303-370-6000 and www. dmns.org/
A description of Landeros’ body camera footage said the victim was at the bottom of the stairs with his left hand in or near his pocket, and his right hand visible without any weapons.
“He appears to be walking towards the stairway in a non-aggressive manner,” the affidavit said. “He took an additional two steps towards the stairs as the ‘get back’ commands were being said.”
Ruiz-Reta was taken into custody on a domestic violence charge. The shooting victim was transported to University Hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his right ankle. According to the affidavit, a doctor who treated the victim described the injuries as carrying a substantial risk of serious permanent disfigurement and protracted impairment of function.
The incident was investigated by the 18th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team, which is responsible for conducting an independent investigation anytime there is a use of force incident by a police officer.
In an interview with the lead CIRT detectives, Harroun said that he shot the victim because it looked like he was planning to move up the stairs. He said he could not see the victim’s left hand, and was worried that he had gone into the basement kitchen and grabbed a knife.
He told investigators that he could not use his taser because he was being screamed at and hit by the woman who had made the 911 call, and he was attempting to fend her off with his left hand.
In reviewing body camera footage from the three officers, an investigator with the DA’s office said he did not observe the woman attacking Harroun, and that Landeros’ body camera showed that he was standing between her and Harroun at the time of the shooting.
“Your affiant did not observe any aggressive posturing, mannerisms or movements that would justify or authorize Officer Harroun using deadly force” against the victim, the affidavit said.
Despite that, jurors did not agree to a conviction on either charge.
In the later assault case, police were called Jan. 11, 2023 to investigate an assault in the apartment parking lot in the 15000 block of East Briarwood Circle in Aurora.
Police requested the support of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office because one of the parties was an Aurora Police Department officer, Harroun, according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators said Harroun and his wife were driving into the complex where they lived and got into an argument with a woman who was walking her dog off leash in the road.
The woman yelled at Harroun for following her, and he and his wife then got into a verbal argument with her, the affidavit said. They then got out of the car and continued to argue.
Witnesses told investigators they saw Douglas punch the victim in the left side of her face, the affidavit said. The victim “fell to the ground and Douglas got on top of her and continued to punch her in the head four to five more times.”
The affidavit said the woman has a chronic pain disorder that affects the nerves in half of her body.
Harroun was placed on indefinite suspension without pay following his arrest, and resigned from the department at the end of January 2023.
The victim told investigators that Harroun had been driving so close to her dog that she thought he was going to hit him, and she asked Harroun why he was following them so closely. She said that Harroun became verbally confrontational with her.
The victim had a canister of pepper spray in her pocket and told police that she at one point she threatened
Harroun with it while he was yelling at her to try to get him to back down, but she did not deploy it.
From there, she said that Harroun knocked her to the ground, punched her six to eight times in the head with a closed fist and used his right hand to put pressure around her neck to the point where she had difficulty breathing.
She told investigators that Harroun also said that he was a police officer and that she was under arrest.
The woman Harroun assaulted has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city. A federal judge in September refused the city’s request to dismiss her case, saying Aurora Police Department’s murky policies regarding officers on administrative leave could have contributed to Harroun’s behavior.
— Sentinel Staff
Police investigating whether shooting in gated Aurora community was selfinflicted
Police say a gunshot wound to the chest injuring a man walking outside his gated-community apartment last week night may have been self-inflicted.
The man, 23, is expected to survive, police said Tuesday.
The man told police on Nov. 11 he was walking outside his home on the 1500 block of South Iola Street, which is inside the Crestone gated apartments, east of Havana Street.
At one point “he was shot by an unknown person,” Aurora police spokesperson Sydney Edwards said in a statement.
Police said later in the week they’re investigating whether that is the case, and there are no suspects in the shooting.
“The victim made it back to their home, suffering from the gunshot wound, and that’s when police were notified,” Edwards said.
The shooting was filmed on home security video, and it is now part of the investigation, police said.
— Sentinel Staff
Police seek public help to shed light on fatal Oct. 12 shooting in northwest Aurora
Aurora police are asking the public to help shed light on an October fatal shooting in northwest Aurora.
A resident living in the 1900 block of Kingston Avenue called police at about 2:45 p.m. Oct. 12 to report that a man was lying in the street, apparently suffering from gunfire wounds.
The man was later identified as Mario Arturo Lopez-Alvarado, 26.
Police and rescuers rushed Lopez-Alvarado to a nearby hospital, where he died from his gunfire injuries.
Investigators say they have no suspects in the case and are asking the public for information for leads.
“Homicide detectives are interested in speaking with anyone familiar with Lopez-Alvarado and who might have information about his activities in the days leading up to the shooting,” police spokesperson Sydney Edwards said in a statement. “Detectives are also asking residents around East 19th Avenue and Kingston Street to review their surveillance camera footage from Oct. 12 and to contact the Aurora Police Department if they have any video of the shooting or any other suspicious activity.”
Police said anyone with information can call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and still be eligible for a reward of up to $2,000, police said.
— Sentinel Staff
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ARAPAHOE COUNTY
November is National Adoption Month Arapahoe County would like to send a big thank you to all the families who have opened up their hearts and homes to adoption. You can thank them too! Offer a kind word of
AURORA’S MIGRANT MAELSTROM
BY
Trump’s ‘Operation Aurora’ has prompted more questions than answers amid a sea of rhetoric and tangled law
It was early September, the height of election-season hyperbole about Venezuelan gang violence in Aurora, when former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan hit town campaigning for conservative candidates.
“If the right guy gets in office in January, I am coming back, and I won’t forget the City of Aurora and the people that live here. You can take that to the bank,” he said at city hall.
Sure enough, Homan became one of Donald Trump’s first appointees, whose position as “border czar” will play a key role in an unprecedented nationwide deportation plan the president-elect has dubbed “Operation Aurora.” Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”
This won’t be the first time Aurora — a city where one in five residents is foreign-born — has anticipated roundups. When Trump first became president in 2017, school boards, social service providers, churches, community groups and civil rights advocates put in place a host of protections for immigrants, in addition to several laws passed by the state legislature. It turned out that legal and procedural snags kept Trump from carrying out the mass raids and deportations he planned in his first term, legal and civil rights experts say.
They expect Trump’s crackdown on immigrants will be far more successful in his second term, when his administration will have learned from past legal and legislative obstacles and devised ways to work around them. Besides, experts note, with the Supreme Court and the Republican-led Senate and House presumably behind him, Trump is likely to face less pushback this time around.
“The first Trump administration was brutal, but there were guardrails in place,” said State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Democrat who has played a key role in passing state laws protecting immigrants. “Now there will be no guardrails except the ones that we in our communities and in our local and state governments have built.”
That assessment is common among local immigrant activists.
“Trump’s a major threat and he’s put a target on Aurora’s back,” said Gladis Ibarra, co-executive director of
for
What are the various legal and non-legal immigration statuses and how might they change after January?
An undocumented immigrant means just that: a person who has entered the United States without authorization and has no legal right to live or work in the country. Yet some have been more protected from deportation than others under various forms of humanitarian parole U.S. presidents have granted for reasons such as natural disasters, armed conflict or other extraordinary conditions that prevent their return home.
Humanitarian protections do not place immigrants on a path to citizenship or to permanent resident status — also known as a “green card” —which allows the holder to live and work in the United States permanently. Rather, they safeguard beneficiaries from deportation and allow them to work and travel temporarily,
Of the estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States, about 2.7 million people claim one form or another of humanitarian protection, including a designation called Temporary Protected Status. The protections usually last for six to 18 months at a time,but typically have been extended. Some migrants from El Salvador, for example, have been living in the U.S. with protected status since 2001 following a series of deadly earthquakes in that country. Others from Nicaragua and Honduras have had their TPS authorization renewed since Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
The Biden administration has extended, reinstated or created protections for about 863,000 people from 16 countries, including Venezuela — more than twice the number from four years ago. Tens of thousands more immigrants are eligible and awaiting approval.
Venezuelans, Haitians and Salvadorans are the largest group of Temporary Protected Status holders. However, government and activist group officials estimate that about 70% of undocumented immigrants are from Mexico.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. AP
Photo/Alex Brandon
SUSAN GREENE, Sentinel Reporter in Residence
the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, who said she fears the president-elect will use the city as a testing ground
his plans.
Aurora has long had a large population of Salvadoran migrants with humanitarian protection, and the city even has a Salvadoran consulate.
Many of the estimated 40,000 Venezuelans who have migrated to Colorado in recent years — fleeing violence, economic collapse and political corruption under President Nicolás Maduro — also have settled in Aurora. Some have Temporary Protected Status protections and others have been shielded from deportation under a lesser-known status that Trump granted at the end of his first presidency.
But, unless extended, Temporary Protected Status will expire in 2025 for immigrants from 13 of the 16 countries, including Venezuela, while protections for people from Haiti, Somalia and Yemen will end in 2026.
The groups considered most likely to face deportation are those Trump singled out on the campaign trail: Haitians, whom he notoriously and falsely accused of eating their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio, and Venezuelans, whom he spoke of as murderous thugs who have violently taken over Aurora.
Trump made little distinction between Aurora’s Venezuelan community as a whole and members of a Venezuelan prison gang called Tren de Aragua whom he claimed, falsely, have overrun the city. Aurora police, in conjunction with other local and federal law enforcement agencies, have arrested nine alleged Tren de Aragua members in connection with 14 crimes this year. Still, authorities say the gang’s members make up only a minute fraction of overall gang activity in Aurora, and an even smaller fraction of the city’s Venezuelan community in general.
Trump is threatening to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to circumvent conventional due process delays to round up suspected foreign-born gang members, detain them, and quickly “send them back where they came from.”
The act is a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country that the U.S. is at war with. Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott has advanced a theory that illegal immigration amounts to an invasion to justify state enforcement measures, so far without success, but legal scholars say judges may be reluctant to second-guess what a president considers a foreign aggression. The sweeping Alien Enemies Act authority may sidestep a law that bans the military from civilian law enforcement, military legal experts say.
Trump also has pledged that “Operation Aurora” will go much further, targeting non-criminal immigrants by rescinding their immigration safeguards and allowing Temporary Protected Status and similar humanitarian designations
to end. That may include the 500,000 or so recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which has delayed the deportation of people without documentation who came to the U.S. as children. Trump tried and failed to end DACA protection in his first term, and is expected to try again.
Local and national officials say it’s unclear how Trump may use the military to round up immigrants suspected of being undocumented. Trump on several occasions has mentioned the use of the National Guard, which is under control of state governors. But there are provisions for the president to summon guardsmen. Trump and his supporters have said recently that active duty members of the military would have roles in enforcing security at the border or maintaining camps created for immigrants either being adjudicated or deported.
Hans Meyer, an immigration lawyer in Denver, predicts the president-elect “will end TPS
for everybody.”
“We’ll see a much more pernicious and sophisticated elimination of as many immigration statuses as possible,” he said. “The Trump Administration was playing junior varsity ball in 2017 and will be playing varsity ball in 2025.”
What about the kids?
Federal laws prohibit public schools from discriminating against students because of their national origin. That keeps classrooms and other benefits such as free lunches and social services open to immigrant children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials historically have treated schools — like hospitals and places of worship — as safe spaces, and has avoided raiding them.
Migrants fear that will change in Trump’s second term.
“God forbid,” said Frida Nuños, a Venezuelan mother of four living in northwest Aurora
who, since the election, has cried every time she drops her two eldest at school.
Eight years ago, local school districts and community groups were less concerned about raids at schools than workplace sweeps that would lock up parents, leaving nobody to pick up or care for their children. ICE’s arrest of 273 workers during a 2006 raid on a Swift meat-packing plant in Greeley left families panicked not just in that community, but as far away as Aurora where some of the workers lived. As the Denver Post reported, more than 200 students throughout the Front Range came home that day to find one or more of their parents gone.
Arapahoe and Adams counties’ social services teams and officials in Aurora Public Schools have not responded to inquiries about ways they might protect immigrant families
›› See MIGRANT, 12
Alisson Ramírez, top center, watches as classmates collaborate on a math worksheet Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez
reads a statement from the city government.
The City Council passed a resolution in 2017 declaring Aurora is not a “sanctuary city.”
“Aurora intends to continue to comply with all constitutional and lawful federal immigration laws and regulations and will continue its practice of non-obstruction with regard to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to enforce federal immigration laws and regulations,” that resolution reads.
City council approved another resolution earlier this year halting city support of migrants and people experiencing homelessness.
“We are bringing forward a resolution to let cities know that they’re not allowed to bus migrants into our community without us knowing,” said Councilman Steve Sundberg. “We want to simply let our residents know that although we are empathetic towards the plight of such folks, we cannot host them out of pure reality and our financial situation.”
Sundberg and most members in the council’s conservative majority stayed silent this election season as conservative Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky falsely claimed in interviews with right-wing national and international media outlets that Tren de Aragua gang members had overrun the city. Coffman at first parrotted some of Jurinsky’s claims, but then renounced them, saying the exaggerations she and Trump were making about the gang threat were hurting Aurora’s reputation among companies seeking to do business and groups considering holding conferences here.
Only two council members, Democrats Crystal Murillo and Alison Coombs, defended migrants in Aurora and slammed Jurinsky for scapegoating them for political reasons and jeopardizing their livelihoods and safety.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain — the seventh person to lead the department in five years — swore into office a month after the political firestorm about Venezuelan in the city blew up. He said upon his arrival that he wants migrants to feel safe in Aurora.
“As law enforcement, we do not handle immigration. Immigration is handled through the White House, it’s handled through the federal government, and again, however they get here, however they arrive, whatever that situation is, once they drop down, our job and our role is to provide for their safety. Whether they’re documented or whether they’re undocumented, I don’t care less,” he told the Sentinel in late September.
Yet two weeks later, Chamberlain firmly defended the department’s efforts to recruit new officers at Trump’s political rally in the city — the same event where Trump dubbed his national deportation plan “Operation Aurora.”
That prompted push back from some of the city council and immigrant activists across the city.
“Trying to recruit officers at a rally built on fear mongering, xenophobia, and all the phobias just feels like a really irresponsible thing to do,” Councilmember Murillo criticized the police department at the time.
Gonzales, who has spent years championing immigrant protections as a community organizer and state lawmaker, called Chamberlain’s defense of the recruiting efforts “stunning, but not surprising,” and a “clear indication of who he really is.”
“Chief Chamberlain and all local communities have a choice as to whether they’ll do Donald Trump’s dirty work for them. We have banned that at the state level. But now it’s up to local governments themselves whether they will follow the law or follow Donald Trump. We will all be watching closely.”
second Trump term discourage CIRC’s and its members’ work building what they call a “unified statewide voice to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees in Colorado.”
“The election results maybe are a big shock or awakening to a lot of people and maybe not what we expected as a community. But people need to know that we need to be united and will need to support each other more than ever for the next few years,” Ibarra said.
CIRC is working on an updated preparedness packet to hand out to families and planning know-your-rights training for migrants in Aurora and elsewhere in Colorado.
By law, undocumented immigrants are required to carry work authorization forms and/ or proof of their immigration status with them. The coalition is encouraging them to apply for Colorado identification cards or driver licenses they can show ICE officers if the need arises. State law doesn’t require drivers to have citizenship. The Department of Motor Vehicles is in the process of making licenses and ID cards even easier to get for undocumented residents and other newcomers. Tests are available in English and Spanish, and getting a license requires fewer documents for some applicants. It’s unclear how these documents may help prevent or delay deportation under a new Trump effort.
“It’ll be much more accessible, regardless of your immigration status,” Ibarra said.
Gonzales urges people in immigrant communities to also carry other documents they can show ICE agents in case of an emergency. Such packets, she says, should include copies of any applications they’ve filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or proof of having paid off any traffic tickets or other court fines, if they’ve had any. Also recommended to keep on hand are letters or other paperwork showing they have volunteered at their kids’ schools, are involved in their local church, coaching little league or otherwise are contributing to their communities.
Gonzales also encourages people to meet with an immigration attorney to evaluate their legal options.
For DACA recipients whose work authorizations are set to expire in 2025, she said, “It’s imperative that you submit your renewal application as soon as possible.” She recommends the nonprofit group Juntos Community, which offers in-person and virtual help renewing authorizations and gives financial aid to those who can’t afford the $555 federal online filing fee.
“Do the paperwork now. Don’t be frozen by fear,” Gonzales urges. “The rhetoric that President-elect Trump and his cronies are putting out is meant to instill fear. It’s meant to make you shrink and feel small. Know that there are people in your family, in your community and across the state who see you, who support you, and so now it’s time to prepare.”
Many Hispanic citizens and green card holders are also planning to take precautions. Some have gone on social media to say they will start carrying birth certificates, passports or certificates of naturalization in case they’re approached by ICE. There is even chatter about avoiding large gatherings of Latinos for fear of getting swept up in an ICE raid.
Meyer, from Meyer Law Office, a prominent Denver immigration firm, warns his clients against over-reacting and panicking, saying, “Trump taking office doesn’t mean we’ll immediately have storm troopers on the streets taking down doors.”
He said affected residents need to manage their angst over the unknown.
threatened by Trump’s immigration policies.
In 2017, APS pioneered a policy delaying ICE agents from entering schools except in “extremely rare situations.” At the urging of RISE Colorado — an education-centered nonprofit that organized immigrant students to persuade school boards — APS passed a resolution ensuring the district doesn’t collect information about the legal status of students or their families. The resolution also prodded APS leadership to create a system for parents to let teachers know who would be taking care of their kids in the event that an ICE action prevents them from picking them up after school.
Educators who have experienced immigration raids in their communities say that keeping accurate and up-to-date emergency contact records is the single most critical step they can take on behalf of immigrant families.
In Cherry Creek School District, where at least 30,000 students from Aurora are enrolled, district officials are starting to have conversations to plan for a variety of immigration-related scenarios come January.
“We remain fully committed to protecting our students and schools and ensuring all students have equal access to quality public education,” said Abbe Smith, Director of Communications.
What’s the word from city hall?
Since Trump’s election on Nov. 5, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has staunchly insisted his city will not participate in Trump’s mass deportation plans. That means, in part, that Denver police and jails won’t collaborate with ICE, which at least for now doesn’t have enough agents or detention space on the Front Range to carry out mass raids and lock-ups.
State law prohibits local law enforcement from arresting or jailing someone on the basis of their immigration status — which is a civil, rather than criminal matter — anyway.
In Aurora, Mayor Mike Coffman and city management are vague about how resistant they would be in collaborating on potential immigration actions in Trump’s second term.
“As we always have, we will work with our federal partners and follow federal law and directives as they apply to our community,”
In the meantime, U.S. Rep Jason Crow, who represents Aurora, posted on X this weekend saying, “I want to be clear on Trump’s “Operation Aurora.”
“I will always stand with our immigrant community and continue to do everything in my power to protect Coloradans of all backgrounds, defend the Constitution, and stand against Donald Trump’s worst impulses,” he wrote.
Jurinsky responded with the following: “Nothing and no one will stand in the way of Operation Aurora commencing in Aurora. Citizens and non citizens have suffered enough. It ends now!”
What are communities and individuals doing to prepare?
Like most people she is close to, Ibarra, Colorado Immigration Rights Council co-executive director, needed a week for Trump’s victory to set in. Having emigrated from Mexico at age 8, she has been living under temporary protective status as a DACA recipient and has a lot to lose.
Still, she is determined not to let fear of a
“I’m just telling people to live your life, keep working, keep living in your family and community,” he added. “Don’t take yourself out of the game or fall prey to propaganda, which is just giving them a victory.”
Ibarra urges citizens to show up for non-citizens much the way non-Asians showed up for Asians during a period of intolerance during the COVID pandemic. She and other organizers recommend volunteering to witness and record potential ICE raids, frequenting immigrant-owned shops and hiring services by immigrants, and even posting yard signs or bumper stickers saying they care about immigrants and “will stand up for them when the time comes.”
“People with more privilege, it is equally important for them to understand what their role will be in January,” she said. “If you care about your neighbors and you care about what happens in your community, to your coworkers, your children’s friends at school, I would say this is the time to show up.”
AP/The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tom Homan, left, is seen in a April 26, 2018 photo in East Point, Ga., and Stephen Miller is seen in a Oct. 9, 2024, photo in Reading, Pa. The Associated Press.
The Vice President of El Salvador, Félix Ulloa, meets with local business owners during a networking event, Dec. 13, in the Aurora Room at the Aurora Municipal Center. Ilopango, El Salvador became a sister city other than Aurora in 2022. Sentinel Colorado File Photo
Jose Manuel Castillo Perez-Gomez is the consular for the Colorado El Salvador Consulate. Sentinel Colorado File Photo
›› MIGRANT, from 11
Right: Regis Jesuit seniors JoJo Hernandez (1) and Grayson McPherson (83) celebrate in the end zone after a fourth quarter touchdown during the Raiders’ 24-17 Class 5A second round state football playoff loss on Nov. 16 at Valor Christian High School.
Below top: Regis Jesuit sophomore Benjamin Bacon (28) heads upfield after catching a screen pass during the opening half.
Below middle: Regis Jesuit freshman quarterback Luke Rubley (12) surveys his options during the fourth quarter, during which he threw two touchdown passes in a Raiders’ rally that came up just short.
Below bottom: Regis Jesuit sophomore Cade Filleman (2) stiff arms a defender during the fourth quarter on one of the Raiders’ scoring drives.
PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/AURORA SENTINEL
Ten weeks apart on the same field against the same opponent, the Regis Jesuit football team began and ended its season. The Raiders made tremendous strides between the opening game against parochial school rival Valor Christian and the Class 5A second round state playoff showdown Nov. 16, but ultimately couldn’t flip the result against the Eagles.
Twelfth-seeded Regis Jesuit lost a 17-0 decision to host and fifth-seeded Valor Christian in Week 1 and closed the gap to a touchdown in a 24-17 loss that saw the Eagles (10-1) hold on to advance to the quarterfinals.
FOOTBALL
Finally, the Eagles broke through when took advantage of a turnover on downs near midfield with a series that ended with Mason Walters’ 29-yard field goal. Junior Jack Manthey matched that on Regis Jesuit’s subsequent drive, which lasted 14 plays and took the clock down to just over two minutes remaining in the half.
Valor Christian used up nearly ever second of what was left on a 65-yard march that ended with junior Cash Spence taking a direct snap into the end zone for a 10-3 halftime edge. The margin grew to 21-3 midway through the third quarter after a 37-yard pass set the Eagles up for junior Chase Hanosh’s rushing touchdown.
Future building
BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor
“We were a young team to start off the season, but everybody grew up this year,” senior Grayson McPherson said. “The improvement we’ve made on both sides of the ball since that first game is huge. ...We fought until the end, which is pretty much how our season has been.” Indeed, the 17-0 loss to Valor Christian back on Aug. 30 was part of an 0-3 start for coach Danny Filleman’s Raiders, who also played top-seeded Cherry Creek and Arizona powerhouse Brophy Prep in that opening stretch.
Regis Jesuit — which started a freshman at quarterback in Luke Rubley — got on track in the midway point of the season, learned from two late losses and had two strong playoff performances to finish 6-6 overall.
It was a testament to growth in addition to the leadership of a small, but impactful set of seniors.
“We battled all year,” senior JoJo Hernandez said. “We weren’t a senior-heavy team. We were really young, but to be able to step up as seniors and play late in the season was big for us.”
Regis Jesuit wasn’t sure what to expect in the first meeting with Valor Christian, but in the rematch, McPherson said it came in “knowing we could play with them.”
Indeed, the Eagles — who had an opening round bye — had only been kept off the scoreboard in the first quarter twice in its previous 10 games, but the Raiders stymied all three of its drives in the opening period.
Rubley threw three touchdown passes in a first round win over No. 21 Eaglecrest and he cooly engineered a scoring drive to get the team back in the game. An 80-yard march that took 16 plays ended when Rubley threw a 4th-down touchdown pass to McPherson.
The Raiders nearly got the ball back immediately, but on a 3rd-and-8, saw Olk drop a 44-yard bomb into the hands of senior Ben Herbek to extend the drive. Another Spence touchdown on a direct snap gave Valor Christian the insurance that it ended up needing.
“We were doing good defensively, then they got those explosives and momentum would kind of change,” Hernandez said.
Regis Jesuit refused to go away, however, as sophomore Cade Filleman pounced on an Eagles fumble with just under two minutes left. Following back-to-back 15-yard penalties on the Eagles, Rubley found Hernandez running free and he willed his way into the end zone to make it a one-score game with 1:36 remaining.
Valor Christian recovered the subsequent onside kick and was able to run out the clock.
“We’re young, but we can’t say their inexperienced anymore,” Danny Filleman said of his team, which had Rubley (who threw for just under 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns) and also had an impact freshman on defense in safety Colt Jones, emerging sophomore running back Benjamin Bacon and some size on both sides of the line that should return.
“They’ve seen a lot and they’ve grown.”
Added Hernandez: “Coming up in two years, I’m very excited to see what these underclassmen can do. They are really talented and so there’s a lot to look forward to.”
Right: Grandview
Xay
reaches back to snare a pass in the back corner of the end zone during the second quarter of the Wolves’ Class 5A second round state football playoff game at Cherry Creek on Nov. 15 at Stutler Bowl. Neto made the catch and got his heels inbounds for the only touchdown for 17th-seeded Wolves in a 38-10 loss to No. 1 Cherry Creek.
Below top: Grandview senior Kyler Vaughn (4) finds open fieldl after making a catch in the second half.
Below
Below
Down just seven points to top-seeded Cherry Creek, the Grandview football team went into the lockerroom at halftime Nov. 15 with hope.
The 17th-seeded Wolves had stood up well in the opening two quarters against the Centennial League rival Bruins and trailed the Class 5A state playoff second round game by just a score after a spectacular touchdown catch by senior Xay Neto.
But just 33 seconds into the third quarter, the deficit had doubled and the task became much bigger. Cherry Creek eventually put some distance between itself and Grandview in a 38-10 victory at Stutler Bowl to advance to the state quarterfinals.
FOOTBALL
Maxwell Lovett — but Grandview’s defense also created a turnover on a fumble recovery from junior defensive lineman Alex Crounse in between.
The Wolves couldn’t get their ground game going against the Bruins defense (they netted just three yards for the game) and the offense was held without a first down until its last drive of the first half.
Chunk plays on passes from McCarty to senior wide receiver Kyler Vaughn and sophomore tight end Matthew Schimberg got Grandview into the red zone. On third down, McCarty lofted a ball towards the back pylon for Neto (who finished with 64 yards receiving), who snared it while he fell backward and got a heel down as he fell for a touchdown.
The end game
“We fought, but they are just a very good team,” Grandview coach Tom Doherty said of Cherry Creek, a program with which he served as defensive coordinator for nine seasons, including three that ended with state championships.
BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor
“The season is over and we’re upset, but there’s a lot for them to take from this,” he added. “At one point, they were 0-3 and dead to rights, but they played hard, they stuck together and they kept plugging away. There’s a lot to be said for that and I couldn’t be more proud of them for that.”
Once their hard-fought opportunity in the postseason arrived, the Wolves (who finished 6-6) sure didn’t look like a team that started the season 0-3 and had to fight for the majority of the campaign just to make the postseason.
In a rematch with a Cherry Creek team it lost to 35-18 in the regular season finale, Grandview actually got on the scoreboard first after its defense created a turnover on downs.
Back-to-back completions from junior quarterback Blitz McCarty (who finished with 233 yards passing) to junior Aaron Ball got the Wolves quickly into the red zone, but they ended up settling for a 30-yard field goal by sophomore Quinn Reynolds.
Another turnover on downs created by the Grandview defense provided a chance to build the lead, but a three-and-out set up Cherry Creek near midfield. The Bruins put together their first scoring drive, which ended in a 32-yard field goal by Jolon Quintana to tie the game in the first minute of the second quarter.
Cherry Creek put up two touchdowns in the period — both on passes from Brady Vodicka to
“The first half went really well for us,” senior safety Jericho Andrews said. “We needed to keep it going in the second half.” Indeed, the Wolves soared into the break with belief, only to watch Cherry Creek receive the opening kickoff and go 64 yards on just four plays for a touchdown.
“We’re feeling pretty good, but then they went down and scored right away and that was exactly what we couldn’t have happen,” Doherty said.
Following a turnover, the Bruins threatened to score again, but Neto — who has played a larger role on defense in the late stages of the season — picked off a pass in the end zone.
In the fourth quarter, both defenses created turnovers on downs as well as takeaways (including a fumble recovery by Andrews), but Cherry Creek took advantage of a short field to go up 31-10 on another Fox touchdown run. Another long run by reserve Elijah Cromwell provided the final margin.
Doherty knows well that only one team in Colorado will end up happy when the postseason comes to a close, but he found it difficult to look at life going forward with the loss of this year’s seniors.
It was a group that included the multi-talented Neto plus Vaughn and Donavon Vernon on offense, standouts on defense in safeties Andrews and Brandon Kahre and lineman Marcus Nesbitt, plus a variety of others who filled roles that were needed to earn the program’s 19th playoff berth in the past 20 seasons.
“This was the first class to come in when I got to Grandview, so they probably don’t realize how much they mean to me,” Doherty said. “They are like my first born child in that sense, so they are special to me. We’ve been through a lot.”
Added Andrews: “All four years with Coach Doherty have been amazing and all the seniors loved it. We played this last game as hard as we could, we just couldn’t change the final outcome.”
senior
Neto, left,
middle: Grandview senior Brandon Kahre (24) reacts on the sidline in the final seconds of the loss that ended the Wolves’ season with a 6-6 record..
bottom: Grandview sophomore Matthew Schimberg tries to outrace Cherry Creek defenders on a big gain in the second quarter.
PHOTOS BY COURTNEY
OAKES/AURORA SENTINEL
ABOVE: Cherokee Trail senior Noah Collins, left, heads upfield as he gets blocks from teammates during a Class 5A state football second round playoff game on Nov. 16 at Jeffco Stadium. Collins rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns as the 20th-seeded Cougars fell to the fourth-seeded Rebels 42-21. BELOW TOP: Junior Brian Cusack (20) cradles a touchdown pass that put Cherokee Trail on the scoreboard first against Columbine. BELOW MIDDLE: Cherokee Trail senior quarterback Tyson Smith (15) launches a pass towards the end zone during the first half. BELOW BOTTOM: Cherokee Trail senior Marquis Jamison (1) flexes after making a big stop on a Columbine ballcarrier in the opening quarter of the Cougars’ loss, which gave them a 5-7 final record.
PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/AURORA SENTINEL
The Cherokee Trail football team took its best shot at dethroning the defending Class 5A state champions Nov. 16, but Columbine refused to have its run come to an end.
The fourth-seeded Rebels were held to one score by the 20th-seeded Cougars in the opening half at Jeffco Stadium, but piled up 35 in the final two quarters on their way to a 42-21 victory.
Columbine got a touchdown on the opening playoff of the second half on a kickoff return and rushed for four touchdowns the rest of the way to earn a spot in the quarterfinals, where it will face No. 5 Valor Christian.
FOOTBALL
said. “They are just so opportunistic. …They don’t beat themselves and you almost have to play a flawless game against them.”
Mabini struck again on defense shortly after that with an interception on a pass Smith had intended for senior Cade Brook (who finished with a team-high 70 yards receiving while playing a massive role in the interior defense). That series also ended with a touchdown for Columbine, which overcame a hurdling penalty on a run by Snyder, who made up for it three plays later with a 1-yard run.
Best for last
“We went in thinking we were going to shock the state, but not ourselves,” said coach Justin Jajczyk’s Cougars, who finished the season 5-7. “Even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, our guys really left their mark on Columbine and the state. We have a lot to build on.”
BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor
Jajczyk said he offered to postpone the game out of respect for longtime Columbine head coach Andy Lowry, whose wife, Janet, died the previous night after a lengthy battle with cancer. But Lowry wanted the game to go on as scheduled and turned out to be more of a battle than many might have expected.
Cherokee Trail — which came into the contest after a first round upset of No. 13 Castle View — knew what it faced in Columbine, which had become a regular season opponent several times in recent years and came ready to play in the opening half.
The Cougars even got on the scoreboard first at the end of a sustained drive that began late in the first quarter and ended with 9:09 left in the half when senior quarterback Tyson Smith rocketed a pass into the end zone to junior Brian Cusack. The score came on a 4thand-long after Smith’s rushing touchdown had been negated by a holding call.
Columbine got a significant return on the ensuing kickoff and followed it with a 12-play drive that took up most of the rest of the quarter. Mark Snyder scored the first of his three touchdowns in the game on a 1-yard run, which sent the game into halftime at 7-7.
That changed on the opening play of the second half, however, as Rebels’ sophomore Juice Mabini took the opening kickoff back 89 yards to the end zone.
“They hadn’t broken a kickoff since the state championship game last year against Cherry Creek,” Jajczyk
The Cougars tried to respond, but Smith stumbled and went down on a 4th down play near midfield. The Rebels took advantage of a short field as Snyder and James Basinger chewed up all the yardage with Basinger securing a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it a three-score game.
Smith worked the ball upfield on the next possession with connections with Brook, Cusack and senior Brandon McCullough, while senior Noah Collins (who rushed for 109 yards) finished the drive with a tough 3-yard touchdown run. Collins would score again with three minutes left, but that came after Snyder and Chris Angelini both had scores.
“There were three plays I would like to have back, but otherwise, our kids were tremendous with their execution and toughness,” Jajcyzk said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Much like the other two Aurora area programs that also made it to the second round — 12th-seeded Regis Jesuit and 17th-seeded Grandview — Cherokee Trail played its best football when it counted.
It came through a difficult non-league schedule that featured No. 2 Mountain Vista and Dakota Ridge (4A’s No. 1 seed) — both of which remain alive in the quarterfinals of their respective postseasons — then started Centennial League play against 5A No. 1 seed Cherry Creek.
A big 14-13 win over Eaglecrest at a pivotal point of the season put the Cougars in position to make it to the postseason and once there, they dispatched Castle View in the opening round with a thorough performance.
Cherokee Trail graduates a group that includes standouts in Brook, Collins, Smith, Marquis Jamison and others who made the Cougars a team to be reckoned with after all they had been through.
This experience, plus a strong group of returners on the offensive line, defensive backfield and the maturation of some promising freshmen seem to have the program pointed in the right direction.
“The seniors did a great job of raising the standard,” Jajczyk said. “From getting the first playoff win here in three years and going toe-to-toe with the defending state champion, they were absolutely huge.”
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Cherokee Trail falls in two matches at Class 5A state tournament
The Cherokee Trail girls volleyball team dropped both of its matches at the Class 5A state tournament Nov. 14-15 at the Denver Coliseum.
In the first season as head coach, Amber Cornett helped guide the Cougars back to the state tournament for the first time since 2022, where the No. 11 seed lost to No. 6 Pine Creek in the opening round and then to No. 4 Legend — an eventual 5A state finalist — in the Contenders Bracket to finish the season 18-8.
To get into the state tournament, Cherokee Trail won Region 11 with a pair of victories in matches in which it lost the opening set. The Cougars also did that against Pine Creek on Nov. 14, but couldn’t recover this time in a 25-16, 25-8, 25-14 loss to a team that owned a height advantage at the net as well as had a lot of previous state experience. The Eagles made it to the semifinals before they were eliminated.
Cherokee Trail returned refocused Nov. 15 in an elimination match against Legend with a strong showing that ultimately came up short in a 25-11, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23 loss to a team that went on to play in the state championship match against Valor Christian, which triumphed to win its third straight title.
The Cougars — who were undefeated in Centennial League play in the regular season and finished as the league-runner to Cherry Creek after the Centennial League Challenge — will have to replace a key group of seniors led by Kassie Cooley, Quincey McCoy and Bella Sieve. They expect to return a number of key juniors in outside hitter Ella Nothiesen, setter Avery Krause and libero Alize Flores, plus freshmen Londyn Donaldson and Harper Wilson, who got good experience in the stretch run of the season.
FOOTBALL
Hinkley snaps 44-game losing streak with 26-13 win over Littleton
In a game delayed until after the conclusion of the regular season for other prep football teams in Colorado because of weather, Hinkley ended the 2024 season with a 26-13 win at Littleton Nov. 12.
The Thunder snapped a 44-game losing streak that dated back to the opening game of the coronavirus pandemic-affected 2021 spring season.
Hinkley ended its season on a major high note with touchdowns in all three phases of the game. Senior Gabriel Ocampo rushed for a 45-yard touchdown, senior Larik Dominguez took back an interception 55 yards to the end zone and senior Marco Duran had a 69-yard kickoff return score for coach Dennis York’s team.
“Everything finally fell into place after three years of hard work,” York told the Sentinel . “I am so proud of our players and extremely proud of our seniors that finally tasted victory after four years. It was a tough hill to climb, but they did it.”
The Hinkley program won the last two games of a 7-3 2019 season under former coach Michael Farda, followed by an 0-6 campaign in the spring of 2021 (when Aurora Public Schools programs chose to play after the arrival of COVID-19) and 0-9 in the subsequent fall under late coach T.C. Newland. York — a member of Newland’s staff — took over and went through two 0-10 campaigns and an 0-9 start this season until the big win.
UNIFIED BOWLING
Vista PEAK Prep, Rangeview qualify for state tournament
All of the Aurora area’s Unified bowling teams competed in the same Region 3 tournament Nov. 14 and two of them were able to extend their seasons.
The top three teams in all of the regionals with six or more teams moved on to the state tournament and area programs earned two of the three berths in regional play held at the Arapahoe Bowling Center.
SIGNING DAY
Aurora athletes take advantage of first National Signing Day
Athletes from a variety of Aurora area high schools took advantage of the start of the first National Signing Day period Nov. 13.
For more on these stories, visit sentinelcolorado. com/preps
Vista PEAK Prep ended up as the regional champion, while Rangeview (which came in third behind Cherry Creek) secured the other spot in the state tournament, which is set to begin at 10:45 a.m. Nov. 22 at Bowlero at Lone Tree. Each of the 28 qualifying teams will bowl five three-player co-ed/modified Baker Games (where teammates alternate rolls) and the top two teams in total pinfall will be crowned state champions and runner-up.
Rangeview played in last season’s state tournament and placed 13th among 27 teams. Vista PEAK Prep will make its first state appearance.
In October, the NCAA decided to end the practice of using National Letters of Intent (which had existed since 1964 and were binding agreements between athletes and schools). This year, prep athletes were able to sign financial aid agreements with colleges where they will compete after they graduate.
There will be a number of other Signing Day periods in the coming months, beginning with an early one for football players Dec. 1. Another will come Feb. 5.
Here’s a list of Aurora prep athletes by school that signed at ceremonies or individually on the first Signing Day: CHEROKEE TRAIL: Madeline Gibbs , basketball, Eastern Washington University; Delainey Miller , basketball, Northern Arizona University; Kaeli Powe track & field, University of Central Florida; Talia Strode , basketball,
Colorado State Pueblo; Carter Wilcox , baseball, University of Iowa; EAGLECREST: Jada Bobb , basketball, Colorado State Pueblo; Annika Boex , soccer, Northern Arizona University; Danika Gonzales dance, Northwest Mississippi C.C.; Callie Johnson , softball, Southeast C.C.; Isabella Kollmann , dance, Northwest Mississippi C.C.; Nolan Tepper , lacrosse, Adams State University; Nevaeh Yrineo , soccer, Trinidad State College; GRANDVIEW: Sienna Betts , basketball, UCLA; Brooklyn Heil , softball, University of Nevada Las Vegas; RANGEVIEW: Maddie Kilmer , volleyball, Valdosta State University; REGIS JESUIT: Iliana Greene , basketball, Colorado College; Jada Hodges basketball, Adams State University; Madisyn Jokerst , lacrosse, University of South Florida; Anthony Lore golf, University of Northern Iowa; Reid Magner , swimming, United States Military Academy; Brooke Metcalfe , soccer, Gonzaga University; Connor Morley , lacrosse, Ohio Wesleyan University; Garrett Reece , wrestling, University of Maryland; Jane Rumpf , basketball, University of Wyoming; Avery Stanga , swimming, Seattle University; Benjamin Stone , lacrosse, Providence College; Samuel Walker , golf, Trinity (Texas) University
WINTER SPORTS
Winter prep sports teams begin official practice
The Colorado High School Activities Association permitted the start of tryouts and practice for the 2024-25 winter prep sports season Nov. 18.
Ice hockey dropped the puck on practice Nov. 11, while boys and girls basketball, boys and girls wrestling, girls swimming and skiing waited an extra week. The first regular season competition for ice hockey is allowed Nov. 21, while everything else begins Dec. 2.
The Aurora area has a defending team state champion in the Regis Jesuit ice hockey team, while the Regis Jesuit girls swim team finished as the Class 5A state runner-up last season.
Individually, three Aurora area boys wrestlers were state champions last season and are expected to return in Cherokee Trail’s Cooper Mathews, Regis Jesuit’s Garrett Reece and Grandview’s Charlie Herting, while the Wolves also had an underclassman (Jonathan Montes Gonzales) that was a state runner-up. Vista PEAK Prep’s Amelia Bacon finished as a runner-up at last season’s girls wrestling state tournament.
ABOVE: Cherokee Trail junior outside hitter Ella Notheisen (3) lofts a shot over the net as Pine Creek’s Lauren Watson goes up with a block during a Class 5A girls volleyball state tournament match on Nov. 14 at the Denver Coliseum. BELOW LEFT: Senior Larik Dominguez (2) and the Hinkley football team earned a 26-13 victory over Littleton in its season final on Nov. 12 for the program’s first victory since the final game of the 2019 season. The game was played after the conclusion of the regular season for most teams due to weather. BELOW RIGHT: Cherokee Trail senior Kassie Cooley celebrates an ace in the Cougars’ 5A state tournament opener. (PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/AURORA SENTINEL)
Wastewater Authority. Please contact Matt Vigil by email at mvigil@acwwa.com or by telephone at 303-790-4830 to make arrangements to inspect the budget(s) prior to visiting the foregoing office. Any interested elector within the Authority may, at any time prior to final adoption of the 2025 budget and the amended 2024 budget, if required, file or register any objections thereto. ARAPAHOE COUNTY WATER AND WASTEWATER AUTHORITY
November 21, 2024 Sentinel
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED 2025 BUDGET AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE AMENDED 2024 BUDGET
The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the TOLLGATE CROSSING METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 2 (the “District”), will hold a public hearing at the Tollgate Crossing Community Center, 24625 E. Bellewood Drive, Aurora, Colorado and via teleconference on November 26, 2024, at 6:30 p.m., to consider adoption of the District’s proposed 2025 budget (the “Proposed Budget”), and, if necessary, adoption of an amendment to the 2024 budget (the “Amended Budget”). The public hearing may be joined using the following teleconference information:
The Proposed Budget and Amended Budget are available for inspection by the public at the offices of Brightstar Management Group, 9351 Grant Street, Suite 500, Thornton, Colorado 80229.
Any interested elector of the District may file any objections to the Proposed Budget and Amended Budget at any time prior to the final adoption of the Proposed Budget or the Amended Budget by the Board. The agenda for any meeting may be obtained at https://www.tollgatecrossingmetro.org/ or by calling (303) 858-1800. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: TOLLGATE CROSSING METROPOLITAN DISTRICT NO. 2, a quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado /s/ WHITE BEAR ANKELE TANAKA & WALDRON
Attorneys at Law
Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED 2025 BUDGET AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON THE AMENDED 2024 BUDGET
The Board of Directors (the “Board”) of the SOUTHGLENN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT (the “District”), will hold a public hearing via teleconference on Monday, December 2, 2024 at 10:00 A.M., to consider adoption of the District’s proposed 2025 budget (the “Proposed Budget”), and, if necessary, adoption of an amendment to the 2024 budget (the “Amended Budget”). The public hearing may be joined using the following teleconference information: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetupjoin/19%3ameeting_ZDZmMDc1NTQtMzRkNy00M2NiLTg1NzAtZjMzZmFkOTZkODFj%40t hread.v2/0?context=%7b% 22Tid%22%3a%224aaa468e-93ba-4ee 3-ab9f- 6a247aa3ade0%22%2c%22Oid %22%3a%221f1b712c-e235-4dd5-b5c5d830e47350db%22%7d
Phone Number: 720-547-5281 Conference ID: 666 834 73#
The Proposed Budget and Amended Budget are available for inspection by the public at the offices of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, 8390 E. Crescent Parkway, Suite 300, Greenwood Village, Colorado 80111.
Any interested elector of the District may file any objections to the Proposed Budget and Amended Budget at any time prior to the final adoption of the Proposed Budget or the Amended Budget by the Board.
The agenda for any meeting may be obtained at www.southglennmetro.org/ or by calling (303) 858-1800. BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: SOUTHGLENN METROPOLITAN DISTRICT, a quasi- municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado /s/ WHITE BEAR ANKELE TANAKA & WALDRON Attorneys at Law
Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel
NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30565 Estate of Harold Michael Papoi, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Adams, Colorado, on or before March 7, 2024, or the claims may be forever barred. Christy Anna Papoi Jones Personal Representative 980 Fayben Circle Elizabeth, CO 80107
First Publication: November 7, 2024
Final Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel PUBLIC NOTICE
The Lakewood Housing Authority DBA. Metro West Housing Solutions (MWHS), is requesting proposals and pricing information from Qualified Environmental Professionals to coordinate, direct, and oversee the brownfield site cleanup activities at MWHS’ Belmar Groves Apartments complex. This project is partially funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) brownfields cleanup grant and all work will need to comply with local, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and Federal regulations. Please go to the website MWHS. org and go to the Work With Us and Procurement to see the RFP.
First Publication: November 21, 2024 Final Publication: November 28, 2024 Sentinel REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS/ PROPOSALS
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT Aerotropo-
lis Area Coordinating Metropolitan District, a quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado, is soliciting qualifications and proposals from qualified contractors to be selected as the 48th Ave (E470 to Aerotropolis Pkwy) Contractor for the Aurora Highlands Project in Aurora, CO.
Please be advised that the Aerotropolis Area Coordinating Metropolitan District is planning to publish this Request for Qualifications/Proposals contemporaneously on BidNet. A full copy of this Request for Qualifications/Proposals will be available at the following link: https://www.bidnetdirect. com/private/supplier/solicitations/search, use the BidNet search tool for open solicitation named “48th Ave (E470 to Aerotropolis Pkwy)” Reference No. 0000368260. Qualification/Proposal submittals must be electronically submitted via BidNet before 12:00 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday December 5, 2024. Qualifications/Proposals will not be accepted after the foregoing submission deadline, and hardcopies of Qualifications/Proposals will not be accepted.
A public opening will be held at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday December 5, 2024 via Microsoft Teams. A link to this event can be found in the Request for Qualifications/Proposals.
For further information contact: Aaron Flemming, PE Construction Project Manager aaron.flemming@aecom.com
Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel
REVISED NOTICE CONCERNING
DISTRICT
NOTICE is hereby given that a proposed budget has been submitted to the Board of Directors of Grand Ave Metropolitan District for the ensuing year of 2025; that a copy of such proposed budget has been filed in the office of Cockrel Ela Glesne Greher & Ruhland, P.C., 44 Cook Street, Suite 620, Denver, Colorado, where the same is open for public inspection; and that such proposed budget will be considered at a public hearing of the Board of Directors of the District shall be conducted on December 5, 2024, at 1:00 p.m., virtually via Zoom. To virtually join the meeting, please visit the following link or call the following phone number: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83148108293
Or One tap mobile: +17193594580,,83148108293# US Any elector within the District may, at any time prior to the final adoption of the budget, inspect the budget and file or register any objections thereto.
GRAND AVE
METROPOLITAN DISTRICT By /s/ Lisa Porter Secretary
Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel
VEHICLES FOR SALE 2010 Buick enclave brown 183453
Publication: November 21, 2024 Sentinel
Notice to Creditors NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION
PURSUANT TO §15-12-801,
Editorials Sentinel
Trusted news media must provide factual accounts of Trump’s tenure
It’s hard to argue that the nation is not precariously nearing war with itself. A review and the results of the 2024 presidential election make that clearer than ever.
Here in the Aurora area — where Trump lost the election by a whopping 20 points — about 100,000 residents voted for him.
It seems unfathomable that a man who, for years, has been such a prolific and proven liar, who has repeatedly slurred immigrants and people of color, who has actually done and offered so little and faces more criminal charges than the average American thug, could make the ballot, let alone get elected president.
Academics and historians will be pouring over polls and interviews for the next several weeks, months and probably decades trying to explain how someone like Trump became president, twice.
Initial analysis reveals an explanation nearly as unsettling as the result. Despite the constant barrage of reputable news about both presidential candidates, many American voters have made clear they paid little attention, or simply didn’t care about Trump’s personal, legal and veracity problems. They’re simply fed up with high prices and unnerving stories about immigrants.
For those in Aurora, and across Colorado, repulsed by the national vote results, residents can take some comfort in local and regional politics. Numerous state and congressional officials have promised to stand up to Trump’s threats of political revenge and unconstitutional malevolence toward LGBTQ+ citizens, legal and undocumented immigrants, reputable media and even his personal political nemeses.
To a lesser degree, city officials in this deep-blue city, peculiarly run by far-right Republicans, have at least said they will apply the rule of law as everyone discovers whether Trump has offered another presidential term of bluster or genuine blunder.
Aurora, and the state, are depending on leaders like Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow, Attorney General Phil Weiser, Gov. Jared Polis and others to keep their word to stand strong against a feared wave of federal overreach and attempts to punish Colorado for its resilient Democratic, independent or liberal voters.
There has probably never been a time in the history of the nation, since it pushed away from the British monarchy, that the role of the press and media have been more critical.
Whether residents are avid fans of Trump and his chaos, or whether residents just unwisely voted for Trump in hopes of positive change, or whether readers are repulsed by Trump’s election, factual reporting during Trump’s term will be critical.
Because Trump is such a notorious liar, and because his acolytes are so prone to repeat or even defend his lack of veracity and accuracy, only trusted and credible media will be able to tell Americans what’s really happening. Only review and analysis by reputable and trusted fact-checkers can allow residents to feel confident in understanding the effects of Trump’s imminent presidency. Only credible, independent news media can provide the transparency and accountability that the nation will desperately need and depend on during Trump’s tenure.
Tragically, the news media must not only take on the Herculean task of shining a bright and antiseptic light on Trump’s presidency, it must do so hobbled by incessant propaganda purposely targeting media credibility. Trump, his newest ally, Elon Musk, and an army of misguided or miscreant followers work to discredit responsible and reputable media for the sole purpose of elevating acceptance of Trump’s own lies, distortions and propaganda.
The Sentinel joins other trustworthy media in ensuring readers can be confident that the mission and goal of our work is to provide accurate, factual and relevant news and analysis for the community and the region.
Supporting these quality and trusted news sources, and holding them accountable to their mission and goals, will ensure Trump and his administration know they have license from voters to enact legal and constitutional policies, but the news media will ensure Americans are apprised of factual accounts of what’s about to happen.
JIM J. HANNIFIN, LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Local drugs and criminals devastated Aurora apartment, not immigrant gangs
Editor:
Immigrants aren’t the problem in Aurora at Aspen Grove Apartments, 1568 Nome St., where the city boarded up the dilapidated apartment building owned by CBZ.
I have owned an apartment building nearby since 2015. The trouble on the street was from pervasive and existing fentanyl abuse among longstanding residents and citizens, and also home-grown, U.S. born petty criminals. There’s been enough said about the absent property owner, who deserves the most blame, but what actually plagued the neighborhood was drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and their customers – the johns and addicts – who were using that place as a base.
These two dozen or so street-crawlers and their customers all spoke English, and to all appearances were a mix of every demographic except straight Latino (for those who might wonder).
Individually they were mostly harmless and irrational, but all together they made a bad scene.
I don’t know what kind of hellhole the immigrants inside Aspen Grove had to put up with (although I’ve heard about rot and sewage and black mold blooms you could bury a hand into) but outside of 1568 Nome St., they and their neighbors (including children) were constantly witnesses to the saddest forms of human degradation and addiction.
Residents were resigned to a constant background of fear from the crazy behavior, yelling, intimidation, urination, drug paraphernalia, theft, having their parking spots taken over by drug and sex customers, and occasional shootings.
That is, until various city organizations including Aurora Police, code enforcement, and city licensing finally cleared the problems in one fell swoop, by boarding up the nightmare building. But that only came after months and months of giving the CBZ owners every possible chance to take steps to fix things.
My point: The troublemakers at Aspen Grove and the immediate area were born-in-the-USA English-speakers.
It may well be true that some Tren de Aragua gang-linked people smelled opportunity and moved in, but the real problem to the neighborhood was the home-grown petty criminals, and the American property owner who tried to wash his hands of any duty or responsibility.
We are very grateful to the persistent efforts of the police and other city agencies to bring civic peace, lawfulness and a return of tranquility to those who remain in this neighborhood.
JIM J. HANNIFIN AURORA
