Sentinel Colorado 6.29.23

The election is closer than you think. A preview look at the races for city council, mayor and 2 school districts

Ready to rodeo?

Get ready for an unforgettable rodeo experience like no other!

Colorado proudly hosts the world’s longest-running gay rodeo, showcasing all the beloved rodeo events you know and love, from bucking bulls to racing horses.

But gay rodeo wouldn’t be gay without a few spectacular twists — imagine wigs and stilettos soaring through the air as drag queens ride wild steers across the arena.

For the adventurous, there’s the Community Goat Dressing relay, where you and a friend compete to dress a goat with underwear in record time.

Don’t miss out! Join in on July 8 & 9 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds for the Rocky Mountain Regional Gay Rodeo.

Tickets available at: www.CGRArodeo.com

Let’s Rodeo!

Proudly sponsored by Sentinel Colorado

The lunacy behind Trump’s impossible endurance is actually sad, not sadistic

It’s not the heat, the rain, the new wobble of the planet or Mars exiting retrograde.

Like most folks, I’m forever looking to heap answers onto the perennial questions that spring eternal from my yard and from government types all over.

My tomatoes look like crap because of the long, cold, rainy, cloudy, haily spring. I’m sure of it. Except the one I fertilized to death the first week I got it. Handfuls of dried blood and nitrogen pellets. What a way to go.

I blame the new weird noises emanating from my car on Mars retrograding through my Gemini space. I was warned about weird mechanical angst.

But Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP oddities that have turned the elephant in the room into a circus of stars defy explanation.

There is hardly an hour that goes by without Trump or an army of trolls with entirely too much time on their hands to launch some media bomb that 10 years ago America never dreamed could really happen.

Trump has evolved from being a skeezy, lying, racist into a clearly criminal skeezy, lying, racist.

None of that is hyperbole.

The lie-o-meters created by the NY Times and a handful of other trusted news sources look like the gas-pump “pay this amount” blur of rolling numbers when gas rolls around at $5 a gallon. Trump’s recorded, documented lies are in the tens of thousands.

Even before Trump rolled out on the national political stage, his exploits as being a pervy creep were not just well-founded, they were even recorded on video tape.

Trump has been indicted for a hush-money scandal that became criminal because he allegedly used campaign funds, rather than his own, to pay off a porn actress he had sex with and then lied about.

Now, in another recorded caper, Trump is holding the smoking gun he pointed at his own foot in 2021 by bragging to virtual strangers — long after he was run out of the White House and lost his Jan. 6 coup attempt. He was boasting about having a pile of top-secret, classified docs on his desk. He said he never declassified the stuff, which detailed a classified attack plan against Iran.

This is a guy so clearly mentally ill that national psych magazines entertained theories about just what kind of mental illness Trump suffers and just how seriously.

“Some mental health professionals have publicly stated their view that Trump’s behavior aligns with the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid personality disorder, according to the DSM-5,” Psy-

chology Today editors wrote in 2020.

Some psychiatric experts call his obsession with believing his own lies “solipsistic,” a fancy psych word for intensely selfish.

“Trump makes things up, comes to believe partially in his lies, exploits those lies in his assault on truth, and viciously attacks those who question them,” doctors Jay Lifton and Nancy L. Rosenblum wrote last year for Psychology Today. “He makes broad threats of violence that are sometimes carried out by a righteous subculture of white supremacy groups. Not only are individual lives destroyed but there is a constant aura of political violence.”

Nice. Sound like presidential material to you?

It does to 6-out-of-10 Republicans, according to constant polling.

Despite suffering two criminal indictments recently, Trump far outpolls runner-up Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has staked his own claim to a campaign based on hate and intolerance.

Focused on the fact that it’s the government charging Trump with his crimes, because nobody else can, according to the U.S. Constitution, a lot of people claiming to be Republicans not only like Trump’s gaslighting missives, they throw hundreds of millions dollars of their hard-earned money at it.

“The Biden Department of Justice tried to JAIL its leading opponent – me – as an innocent man,” Trump said in an email to anyone who will listen. “Disloyal Republicans devised a $300 MILLION PLOT to try and stop us and replace me with a nominee who will make nice with the Deep State.”

Those “disloyalists” would be the four out of 10 Republicans who draw the line at lying, hateful, despicable, intolerant bigots.

The vast and unquenched mystery here is, how does Trump do it?

He’s a parody of himself: crass, orange, sadistic and dull. Why would anyone pay any attention to someone like Trump, who so obviously and prolifically lies?

Experts say narcissists can be pathological liars, simply because they don’t care about the truth. They care about power and control, and if deception delivers what they want, bingo.

If it seems that Trump is then turning perfectly normal conservatives into people just like himself, that’s not the case, experts say.

In a 2021 conversation with NPR about a study into who supports Trump and why, John Hopkins University Professor Lilliana Mason said that Trump didn’t create hatred and animus toward so many marginalized groups of people, he simply harvests what’s out there.

“So this was a latent faction of Americans that had just - that had already been sitting there and had already existed.”

It isn’t that Trump’s supporters like that he’s a proven liar, enveloped in his own brand of debauchery, it’s unimportant in light of the empowerment he brings them.

When you look at it like that, it’s not outrageous. It’s really very sad and pathetic.

Meanwhile, other Republicans began to fear Trump’s supporters, first assuaging them and, now, acquiescing them — at least in public.

Here in Colorado, where Trump’s acolytes can do nothing but drink in Fox News and howl on Twitter, it’s just exhausting. But in blood-red states and Washington, it’s dangerous.

It’s good to understand conundrums like this, but it would be even better to understand how to fix it. Follow @EditorDavePerry on

him at 303-750-7555

Decency, public opinion overrules Supreme Court penchant for graft

The court of public opinion and common sense is unanimous in the matter of personal ethics, a debacle that clearly escapes the lower, U.S. Supreme Court.

A recent thorough investigation and stories by ProPublica has revealed that at least two Supreme Court justices have grossly violated accepted and critical ethics standards, accepting lavish gifts from politically active and influential billionaires. The indisputable graft was never reported, and the cases were potentially affected by corrupted members of the high court arguing and voting on critical issues. The scandal has indelibly tainted these justices, the cases affected and the court itself.

The debacle began when ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism group, revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas has for more than 20 years accepted gifts of luxury trips and vacations for himself and his wife, all paid for by billionaire and Republican mega donor Harlan Crow.

One 2019 trip to Indonesia, detailed in the ProPublica investigation, comprised private yachts and jets that would have cost more than $500,000 booked by himself, according to the reports.

Not only did Thomas regularly and consistently take hundreds of thousands of dollars in graft from Crow, he never disclosed it. The investigation also revealed that Thomas sold three personal properties to Crow over 10 years, in deals worth more than $100,000, never disclosing the sale nor the details.

Finally, Thomas allowed Crow to also pay private school tuition for two years for a child raised by Thomas and his wife.

He argued that squishy ethics and reporting rules for the high court justices did not make reporting the gifts of “friendship” a requirement, and that he clearly did not feel compelled to reveal the graft.

The astounding revelations made clear two things: the Supreme Court ethics and disclosure rules are inadequate, and Thomas does not have the ethical temerity to sit on the high court.

The rules themselves, bent versions of federal court reporting requirements need to be rewritten by Congress.

Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told the Associated Press that a tepid ethics and finance reporting framework for the high court is only part of the problem. The Supreme Court also does not detail nor require justices to recuse themselves from cases tainted by their personal involvement with litigants.

“There is no room to debate that the Supreme Court has the weakest ethics rules in federal government,” Payne told the AP. We agree.

The Supreme Court ethics scandal got worse last week when ProPublica continued its reporting and revealed that Justice Samuel Alito also was thick in taking graft from two rich GOP donors.

The story revealed that Alito let Republican donor and businessman Paul Singer pay the justice’s way on an opulently expensive remote Alaska fishing trip in 2008.

The plane trip alone, on a private jet was valued at more than $100,000.

Rich Republican donor Robin Arkley, II, paid for Alito’s luxury lodging for the trip, and the part of the junket was sewed together by Leonard Leo, then chief of the conservative Federalist Society legal group.

Alito did not disclose any of the graft on reporting forms.

Worse, he ruled on about a dozen cases brought before the high court involving hedge-fund billionaire Singer.

Alito never once recused himself from any of the cases nor mentioned his generous friend during hearings.

In a final example of his clear lack of yielding to any kind of ethical compass, Alito refused to comment to ProPublica or any legitimate media outlet on the revelations. Instead, he wrote his own defense and opinion of the conundrum, publishing it in the Wall Street Journal.

The people need Congress to step in and make indisputable how vital transparency is among the justices by legislating rules of conduct justices cannot weasel out of.

Justices Thomas and Alito should resign from the court. Both have exhibited, indisputably, not only their desire to take graft, but that they have both defended the practice, clearly not understanding nor admitting that their lack of ethics impune their personal work and that of the court.

Neither justice understands that the appearance of impropriety in their jobs is as corrupt as the actual deeds. The court of public opinion gets it, and polls show that trust in the court continues to slide.

Fix the rules and clear the corruption off the bench.

Permitting reform will greenlight green energy across Colorado

Atwo-decade drought across the Southwest has shrunk the Colorado River to the point that the Biden Administration is stepping in to ensure fair access to its waters.

Climate change is a major driver of this looming crisis. It underscores the urgent need to develop and deliver clean energy sources.

The good news is that policymakers are getting serious about transforming America’s energy infrastructure. Next, they need to get busy reforming an outdated regulatory regime. Right now, unwieldy permitting processes are a red light for green energy.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress last year, dedicated $369 billion to clean energy projects over the next decade. This investment could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 5% and lead to a nearly 40% increase in clean energy production by 2031 — if, that is, we can get out of our own way. As matters stand, our permitting processes are delaying or even halting new infrastructure projects, including solar and wind facilities.

The irony here is that the projects we most urgently need to protect the environment from further damage due to climate change are being slowed by regulatory processes put in place to — protect the environment.

The National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), which requires comprehensive analysis of environmental impact of projects, is a particular obstacle. It was passed by Congress in 1970 to slow projects. But now, we recognize we need to build.

Ultimately, by the time all these approvals have been granted, it can take a clean energy project more than a decade to come online. Many others simply never materialize. Of current proposed wind energy projects, only 21 percent are underway. The Ten West Link, an energy transmission line from Arizona to California, won’t be online until 2025. Its developers began the federal permitting process in 2015.

President Biden’s laudable goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050 requires the

speedy creation of vast new supplies of clean energy and transmission lines. If these goals are to be more than merely lofty aspirations, we need serious permitting reform.

Legislators are aware of the incompatibility of forward-thinking green energy investment with a decades-old regulatory process. Recently, there has been a flurry of activity in the Congress to address clean energy permitting, including creating a better process for permitting reviews, prioritizing projects by scale, and making some modest but important changes to NEPA. But more needs to be done. Our hope is that Senator John Hickenlooper and Senator Michael Bennet will continue advancing the conversation to finally achieve significant permitting reforms.

It flies in the face of reason that Congress allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change but leaves obstacles in the way to winning that fight.

The precious resource of the Colorado River is in peril, but there is another waning resource: time. America does not have unlimited time to meet its clean energy goals. The longer we delay much-needed permitting reforms, the less likely we are to achieve them.

J.A. Briggs is a local activist and former chair of the Summit County Democratic Party. He has managed and consulted on many campaigns.

JA BRIGGS, GUEST COLUMNIST

APS board members harassed former

Black superintendent Rico Munn for not being ‘Black enough’

A SCHOOL BOARD CONSULTANT DESCRIBED AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE RICO MUNN’S “BLACK CARD” WAS CONSISTENTLY CALLED INTO QUESTION BY SOME BLACK BOARD MEMBERS.

BY CARINA JULIG, Sentinel Colorado Staff Writer

Two Black members of the Aurora Public Schools board of education said former Superintendent Rico Munn was “not Black enough” and criticized him for not prioritizing the hiring of Black employees over other people of color, according to a report made by an external investigator.

Those allegations and claims of racial bias were among others in a formal complaint Munn lodged against the school board earlier this year.

A decision by an outside employment law attorney hired by the district, published earlier this month and obtained by the Sentinel, substantiated Munn’s allegations and ruled that racial bias played a factor in his contract not being renewed. The decision also sanctioned two

board members, Stephanie Mason and Tramaine Duncan, for their “unlawful race discrimination.”

“Based upon a thorough review of multiple documents and testimony from many witnesses, I conclude that it is more likely than not that Mr. Munn was constructively discharged from his position as Superintendent because of his race,” the decision said. “Specifically, a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that certain influential Board members convinced a majority of the Board to favor the non-renewal of Mr. Munn’s contract based upon their discriminatory belief that Mr. Munn failed to conform to the stereotypes of his race – i.e., that he was ‘not Black enough’ to advance the Board’s mission of hiring and retaining Black employees.”

The decision, dated June 6, was written by employment attorney and investigator Doug Hamill. In an ad-

dendum, Hamill said he was contracted by APS to conduct an investigation into Munn’s complaint as an outside party to prevent a conflict of interest.

Munn announced in December that he would not be seeking to renew his current contract, which expires at the end of the 2022-2023 school year, citing a “conflict of vision” with the school board. Munn has clashed with the board on a number of issues, particularly since the most recent school board election in November 2021, where three new members were elected.

The board members have also frequently struggled to come to a consensus among themselves. At a meeting this spring, members spoke about a lack of trust among the board and questioned whether efforts to improve things would even be worthwhile.

Four of the district’s seven school

board directors — Duncan, Mason, Anne Keke and Michael Carter — are Black, as is A.J. Crabill, a consultant who has been working with the board for a number of years.

The June 6 decision letter said that Munn had enjoyed a “good working relationship” with the board until the fall of 2021, after which he began to clash significantly with Mason and Duncan for “refusing to exclusively focus on the advancement of Black people but rather focusing his attention more broadly on the Board’s written policy of the advancement of People of Color.”

Carter, Keke, board member Vicki Reinhard and interim Superintendent Mark Seglem all said in interviews that some board members had criticized Munn for what the decision letter described as him not being Black enough or not protecting Black employees.

Rico Munn Sentinel Colorado File Photo

The letter said that Keke stated that Duncan wanted Munn to “act Blacker.”

Crabill described an environment where Munn’s “Black card” was consistently called into question by some board members, and he said that Mason was particularly critical of Munn, according to Hamill’s report.

Crabill also said that Mason and Duncan had approached him privately to seek guidance about whether or not to renew Munn’s contract, the letter said.

The letter shed more light on the process that led to Munn stepping down. The report stated that in August board members met in executive session to discuss his contract, where a majority of board members were in favor of not renewing his contract. Keke and Carter opposed this decision, the letter said, and Carter told Munn about the decision and said it was “BS.”

After that, the letter said the board vacillated for about six or seven weeks as to whether to renew Munn’s contract and then in September told him it would not be seeking a renewal. At that point, the letter said Munn began preparing a separation agreement where he would step down in December.

In a determination in the letter, Hamill wrote that he disagreed with a determination from a representative of the district’s human relations compliance officer that race was not a significant factor in the board’s decision not to seek a

renewal of Munn’s contract.

Hamill agreed with findings from the APS compliance officer’s representative that there was not evidence of a race-based hostile work environment or retaliation and that there had not been any violations of Colorado Open Meetings Law.

“The preponderance of the evidence establishes that at least two Board members – Stephanie Mason and Tramaine Duncan –believed that Mr. Munn was ‘not Black enough’ to continue serving as Superintendent,” the complaint said. “This belief is unlawful discrimination based upon Mr. Munn’s race.”

Hamill cited case law making clear that even though Munn was being harassed about his race from those of the same race, claims of racism ring true.

“It is reasonable to conclude, based upon the totality of the evidence, that this racial-stereotyping belief fueled the criticisms and ultimate demise of Mr. Munn’s tenure as Superintendent.”

The decision letter said that Duncan and Mason should be publicly reprimanded and censured and would be ineligible for serving as president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer for the remainder of their four-year terms.

Mason’s term expires this fall, and she has signaled that she does not plan to run again. Duncan’s first term began in fall 2021 and ends in 2025.

All board members are required to participate in five hours of equal

opportunity training within 90 days and, if he requests, the decision can be included in Munn’s APS personnel file.

The decision said that normally monetary damages would be appropriate, but that they were off the table because as part of his transition agreement Munn waived his right to that kind of compensation.

It also said that the letter should be “in a conspicuous space on the homepage of the APS Board’s website” within 10 days and included in the agenda of the next public meeting, neither of which had occurred by June 20, the date of the district’s last regularly scheduled business meeting of the school year.

A two-hour executive session meeting is scheduled for June 28 “for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding a Policy AC complaint,” according to the school board’s website.

Board President Debbie Gerkin told the Sentinel Tuesday that she could not comment until after the executive session, which will be the board’s first opportunity to meet with counsel regarding the decision.

Munn officially stepped down as superintendent at the end of 2022 and is currently serving in an advisory role until his contract expires at the end of June. He has accepted a position as Colorado State University President Amy Parson’s chief of staff beginning next month.

Michael Giles, who currently

serves as the Assistant Superintendent of Equity, Culture and Community Engagement in the Cherry Creek School District, will take the reins as the next APS superintendent July 1. Giles is also Black, as were the other two named finalists for the role, Andre Wright and Nia Campbell.

Munn was the district’s first Black superintendent, and he spoke regularly throughout his tenure about the importance of providing a quality education for all of the district’s 38,000 students, over half of whom are Hispanic and about 18% of whom are Black. He spoke less about his own personal background, but on some occasions was candid about his experiences as a Black man, including in an opinion piece he penned for the Sentinel during the summer of 2020 where he discussed the discrimination he has faced and how it shaped his outlook on life.

“I am a man,” he wrote. “I am a Black man. I am a Black man in America. I am a Black man in America who holds a position of relative authority and privilege. All of these things are true and all of these things hold meaning for me, especially at this moment in time.”

In a February 2021 article interviewing prominent Black Aurorans about Black history, Munn spoke to the Sentinel about the district’s work to recruit more teachers of color. He also said that he thought the district needed to be more explicit about the diversity work it was doing.

“We have done really good work trying to elevate voices and trying to identify and speak to key equity issues,” he said. “But we have not necessarily been as explicit about the why and the imperative around that as I think we could be and needed to be in this moment in time.”

During Munn’s tenure, APS named three schools after Black community members and East Middle School band director Jimmy Day became Colorado’s first Black man to be named teacher of the year.

In an email this week, Munn said that his family was dealing with a medical issue that required the majority of his attention. He said in a statement that he was “proud to have led the most diverse team in the state as we served one of the most diverse communities in the nation.”

“Over the last ten years we created and championed efforts to support the achievement of the BIPOC, disabled and LGBTQIA communities as well as the economically, linguistically and neurologically diverse families who call APS home,” he said. “We must fight against any person or ideology that positions success as a zero sum game. In a just world there is room for all of us.”

Munn declined to speak more about the complaint. Mason said at Tuesday’s board meeting that she could not comment. Duncan was attending the meeting remotely and could not immediately be reached.

HURRY, GET THESE CD AND MONEY MARKET RATES TODAY

METRO

AROUND AURORA

Cops targeting expired license plate scofflaws with stepped-up patrolling

Aurora Police and other local law enforcement agencies are targeting unregistered vehicles and expired license plates, according to a news release from the department.

The campaign is slated to begin Sunday and run through July 1 and includes APD and the Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas County sheriff’s offices.

“Officers will be on the lookout and ticketing motorists driving vehicles that are unregistered or significantly expired by more than three months,” the release said. “The fine for driving on tags that are expired by 60 or more days or for driving on an expired temporary permit is $93, according to state law.”

Police say the advance notice gives motorists a few days to make good on missing registration and expired plates. Information about vehicle registration is available online at dmv.colorado.gov/registration.

— CARINA JULIG, Sentinel Staff Writer

Aaron Rodgers, Rick Perry talk about mental health at a psychedelics conference

An eclectic crowd of thousands — podcasters, vendors, startups, seekers — swarmed a psychedelics conference in Denver last week to experience everything from a dimly lit hall packed with kaleidoscope art and a wide-ranging lineup of speakers from a former Republican governor to NFL star quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The conference, put on by a psychedelic advocacy group, took place months after Colorado’s voters decided to join Oregon in decriminalizing psychedelic mushrooms. While it’s a sign of growing cultural acceptance for substances that proponents say may offer benefits for things like post-traumatic stress disorder and alcoholism, medical experts caution that more research is needed on the drugs’ efficacy and the extent of the risks of psychedelics, which can cause hallucinations.

Rodgers, who’ll soon debut with the New York Jets after years with the Green Bay Packers, spoke Wednesday night with podcaster Aubrey Marcus. Rodgers described taking ayahuasca with his teammates as “radically life-changing,” and claimed many other pro athletes have reached out to him.

“I found a deeper self love,” said Rodgers of his ayahuasca experience. “It unlocked that whole world of what I’m really here to do is to connect, to connect with those guys, and to make those bonds and to inspire people.”

The organization hosting the conference, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, is the largest U.S. advocacy group. It has strategized to reach the full political spectrum, said

Nicolas Langlitz, a historian of science who’s researched the boom and bust of psychedelic movements.

“At the time when any topic gets politically polarized, ironically, these super-polarizing substances now get bipartisan support,” Langlitz said. Still, he added, the conference is “purely designed to promote the hype.”

“Any kind of overselling is not good for science because science should be accurate rather than pushing things,” he said. “It’s a tradeoff. [The conference] generates interest, it generates ultimately more research, even though the research might be skewed toward positive results.”

Psychedelics are illegal at the federal level, though acceptance and interest in studying their potential benefits has grown. For example, some researchers believe psilocybin, the compound in psychedelic mushrooms, changes the way the brain organizes itself and can help users overcome things like depression and alcoholism.

The drugs themselves — and the interest in them — are not new. Midlast century, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey helped spur the use of psychedelics during the counterculture movement, and optimism brimmed among some psychologists over the drugs’ potential.

But the Nixon administration criminalized psychedelics, pushing them underground.

“In both cases you have this upwelling of exuberance that may or may not be irrational,” said author Michael Pollan, who wrote a book on psychedelics and will be speaking at the conference. “But I think a big difference [now] is that the enthusiasm for the potential of psychedelics cuts across a much more representative slice of the population — it’s not about a counterculture.”

Republican strongholds, including Utah and Missouri, have or are considering commissioning studies into the drugs, partly inspired by veterans’ stories. Former Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry spoke Wednesday about helping get a bill passed in the Texas legislature in 2021 to fund a study of psilocybin for veterans, though he doesn’t support recreational use. In Congress, similar veteran-focused proposals brought progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York and far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz from Florida into an unlikely alignment.

Public interest also appears to be growing. Just six years ago in Oakland, California, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies held a conference with roughly 3,000 attendees and a smattering of lesser-known speakers and die-hard proponents.

This time, organizers estimate at least 10,000 attendees. Other famous speakers will include former NHL player Daniel Carcillo, who owns a company specializing in psychedelic therapies; Olympic silver-medal figure skater Sasha Cohen; rapper and actor Jaden Smith; comedians Reggie Watts and Eric Andre, top-10 podcaster Andrew Huberman; and Carl Hart, the chair

of Columbia University’s psychology department.

Recruiting that celebrity support for psychedelics is part of MAPS’ public relations strategy, founder Rick Doblin said. When asked whether platforming a non-expert like Rodgers could mislead the public, Doblin demurred, adding it would be “dangerous” for anyone to claim that there are no risks to taking psychedelics.

Doblin said taking MDMA should happen “only under the direct supervision of a therapist, it’s never a take-home medicine.” He also emphasized what many speakers echoed during the first day about psychedelics being paired with mental health professional: “The

›› See METRO, 8

treatment is not the drug, it’s the therapy that the drug makes more effective.”

That was a more tempered approach than his introductory speech, when, to an overflowing theater, Doblin espoused grandiose goals such as “net-zero” trauma by 2070 through the use of psychedelics.

The American Psychiatric Association has not endorsed the use of psychedelics in treatment, noting the Food and Drug Administration has yet to offer a final determination. The FDA did designate psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” in 2018, a label that’s designed to speed the development and review of drugs to treat a serious condition. MDMA, often called ecstasy, also has that designation for PTSD treatment.

Both Pollan and Langlitz believe further research is key — especially as the nation faces an unprecedented mental health crisis and people struggle to find adequate treatment. But, Langlitz said, it’s important to let research shape the narrative.

“I would just try to keep my mind open to the possibility that in retrospect we will tell a very different story from the one that the protagonists of psychedelic therapies are currently predicting,” he said.

— JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press

COPS AND COURTS

Former Aurora cop accused of punching, choking disabled woman will face trial

A former Aurora police officer accused of punching a disabled woman during an argument in January will face trial for first-degree assault among other charges stemming from the alleged attack, an Arapahoe County judge ruled Wednesday.

During the hearing, witnesses said Douglas Harroun also strangled the woman until she lost consciousness and threatened to have her arrested, despite being off-duty at the time.

Harroun, 33, is facing charges of first-degree assault, a class 3 felony, second-degree assault, a class 4 felony, attempting to influence a public servant, a class 4 felony and third-degree assault, a class 1 misdemeanor in connection with a Jan. 11 incident where police were called to 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, 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.

Last week he was charged with first- and second-degree assault in connection with an incident where he shot a bystander in the leg during the arrest of a domestic violence suspect on New Year’s Eve. His first hearing on that charge is set for next week.

In a hearing Wednesday morning, Harroun’s lawyer David Goddard argues that the prosecution had not effectively demonstrated that Harroun caused or intended to cause the victim serious bodily injury, which made the first-degree assault charge invalid.

After listening to arguments from Goddard and testimony from four witnesses called by the prosecution, Judge Michelle Jones rejected the request to drop the charge.

“There was a substantial risk of death to [the victim],” Jones said.

The prosecution called three Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office employees who were involved in the investigation and Chelsie Saldate, a registered nurse who conducted a forensic examination of the victim after the assault.

Deputy Keith Basile spoke to

the victim in the ER, and he said she had physical signs of injury and appeared to be very upset.

“She appeared to be in a lot of pain, both physically and emotionally,” he said.

Basile said the victim told him that Harroun had been driving so close to her dog that she thought he was going to hit him and 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 Basile that 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 Basile that Harroun also said that he was a police officer and that she was under arrest.

Goddard argued that Harroun had not been trying to cause the victim serious bodily injury when he was straddling her after knocking her to the ground.

“He’s simply holding her down until other law enforcement has arrived,” he said.

He also argued that the first witness, an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Deputy who was at the scene, had not appropriately identified Harroun when asked to describe him in the courtroom because he said Harroun was the man wearing blue and white at the defense table, and both Goddard and Harroun were coincidentally wearing blue and white.

“I think the argument that the defense counsel strangled [the victim] is a little frivolous,” Jones said in response.

Goddard’s main argument stemmed from the fact that an emergency room doctor who treated the victim directly after the assault said that she had not suffered serious bodily injury and signed a form to that effect. From there, she was medically cleared to receive a forensic exam from Saldate.

On the witness stand, Saldate said that her exam of the victim showed physical symptoms that she had suffered an anoxic event due to being strangled by Harroun, meaning that oxygen to her brain was cut off. This causes the permanent loss of brain cells and can be a factor in long-term problems including memory loss and stroke, she said.

Saldate said that she has conducted hundreds of forensic exams involving strangulation, and that an ER doctor would not have the specific expertise to rule on whether the victim had suffered serious policy injury.

“If you asked a doctor to do a strangulation exam, they would have no clue where to even start,” she said.

During cross-examination, Goddard questioned why Saldate was sure the victim had lost consciousness when the victim herself couldn’t remember it. Along with

pointing to a number of physical symptoms, she said this is common among strangulation victims.

“When you’re asleep, you don’t know that you’re asleep,” she said.

After a brief recess for deliberation, Jones ultimately sided with the prosecution, ruling that due to the intensity of the altercation there was enough evidence to try Harroun for first-degree assault.

Intent was shown that Harroun “in fact intended to cause serious bodily injury to her when he placed his right hand on her neck and pushed his full body weight up on it,” Jones said.

Harroun is currently free in lieu of $25,000 bond in connection to the Jan. 11 case and a $50,000 bond in connection to the Dec. 31 case, according to online records.

His arraignment in the Jan. 11 case is scheduled for Aug. 21.

— CARINA JULIG, Sentinel Staff Writer

Aurora police make arrest in June 24 deadly shooting

Police say they arrested a man suspected in the early June 24 shooting death of a woman in north Aurora.

Aurora SWAT, FAST and DART teams arrested Jevony Gonzalez-Acuna, 32, at about 7 p.m. Saturday somewhere near Parker Road and East Dartmouth Avenue in south Aurora, according to a police statement.

Police were called to a home in the 3000 block of Peoria Street at 6:45 a.m. after reports of a shooting there.

“When officers arrived, they found an adult woman that appeared to have succumbed to a gunshot wound,” Aurora Police spokesperson Sydney Edwards said in a statement. The woman was pronounced at the scene. “Police were unable to locate the person that called the incident in.”

Police are asking that prosecutors charge Gonzalez-Acuna with first-degree murder and domestic violence.

The woman’s identity will be released at a later date by coroner officials.

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

1 shot June 25 in northwest Aurora; suspect arrested

An unidentified man is expected to recover from a shooting in the afternoon of June 25 in northwest Aurora, according to police.

At about 4 p.m., police said officers were called to the area of the 9000 block of East Montview Boulevard, near Akron Street, to respond to reports of a shooting.

›› See METRO, 9

METRO, from 8

“When officers arrived, they found one adult male suffering from a gunshot wound and the other still on scene,” police said in a social media post. “The gunshot victim was transported to the hospital and is expected to recover.”

Police said the shooting suspect was arrested “and is cooperating with police.”

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

Colorado Supreme Court strikes law allowing child sex abuse lawsuits from decades past

Childhood sexual abuse victims in Colorado will no longer be able to file lawsuits over abuse that happened decades ago, as the state Supreme Court struck down a law last week that gave victims a three-year window to sue over abuses as far back as the 1960s. The court cited the state Constitution’s ban on legislation that retroactively applies to conduct prior to its passage.

Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Act, passed in 2021, was partly intended to allow child victims to bypass the statute of limitations and seek reparations and accountability for their assailant and/or organizations that might

have failed to catch and stop any abuse. The bill’s sponsors argued that, particularly for children, such abuse often goes unreported at the time it happens.

The law was part of a national effort following the #MeToo movement to roll back time limitations on victims’ ability to seek justice.

“We certainly understand the General Assembly’s desire to right the wrongs of past decades by permitting such victims to hold abusers and their enablers accountable,” wrote Justice Monica M. Márquez in the opinion. “But the General Assembly may accomplish its ends only through constitutional means.”

The case before the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday centers on Angelica Saupe, who sued the school district where she said a high school basketball coach sexually abused her in the early 2000s. Saupe appealed the case to the Supreme Court after a lower court ruled against her.

Stuart Suller, the school district’s attorney, argued in an April hearing that under the state Constitution, the General Assembly cannot retrospectively apply laws to past conduct.

The Supreme Court concurred, noting that the law attached “liability for conduct predating the Act and for which any previously available cause of action would be timebarred” and was therefore unconstitutional.

Saupe’s lawyer, Robert Friedman, argued that because school districts are lesser political entities than the state, they cannot claim they are protected against retro-

spective laws the General Assembly enacts. Friedman also argued that since the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of minors has been flexible, abusers can’t expect to avoid facing a lawsuit.

— The Associated Press

41% at risk of losing Medicaid in Colorado

More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.

Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, Presidents Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some states are accomplishing the task.

“Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.

In Colorado, state officials have launched a public campaign to ensure the state’s 1.69 million Medicaid recipients update eligibility data to continue coverage or seek other health-care options.

All Medicaid recipients are encouraged to go to www.healthfirstcolorado.com/renewals to ensure coverage.

Already, about 1.5 million people nationwide — possibly tens of thousands in Colorado — have been

removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press.

“The end of continuous coverage will be the beginning of the review of eligibility for tens of thousands of Coloradans who have Health First Colorado as their health insurance, and members will need to take action to continue their health coverage,” Annie Lee, president and CEO of Colorado Access said in a statement. “Some will no longer qualify and need to connect to health insurance through other means, others will automatically re-qualify through processes established by the state, and others will no longer qualify for Health First Colorado, but will qualify for Child Health Plan Plus. Regardless of the scenario, we are here to navigate this process with each of our members. Please call, we are here to help.”

The state-funded health insurance and Medicaid exchange is at www.coaccess.com.

Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

More than 93 million people nationwide were enrolled in Medicaid as of the most recent available data in February — up nearly one-third

from the pre-pandemic total in January 2020. The rolls swelled because federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the health emergency in exchange for providing states with increased funding.

Advocates fear that many households losing coverage may include children who are actually still eligible, because Medicaid covers children at higher income levels than their parents or guardians. A report last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forecast that children would be disproportionately impacted, with more than half of those disenrolled still actually eligible.

That’s difficult to confirm, however, because the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services doesn’t require states to report a demographic breakdown of those dropped. In fact, CMS has yet to release any state-by-state data. The AP obtained data directly from states and from other groups that have been collecting it.

— DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

303-770-ROOF

Close Up H2OH!

The heat is on as the temperatures rise during the first full week of summer.

City residents can find respite at a number of pools across Aurora, and if you just need a quick cool down for the kids, there are a couple of splash pads at some parks as well.

While there is a shortage of lifeguards at the moment, lifeguard training is taking place and more positions will be staffed. Some pools are open on a staggered schedule, but the pools at the Central Recreation Center and the new Southeast Recreation Center are open seven days a week.

The pool at Utah Park, however, remains closed.

More information regarding the days and times of operation can be found at auroragov.org/pools

Close-up by Philip B, Poston, Sentinel Colorado Photo Editor

Preps

Right: From left to right, Kaelan Kombo, Kahari Wilbon, Jaylon Moore and Peyton Sommers won the Class 5A state championship in the boys 4x200 meter relay to claim the spot in the event on the 2023 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Boys Track Team.

Below top: Rangeview senior Micah Dobson won the 5A boys state championship in the triple jump and claimed the All-Aurora spot that comes with it.

Below middle: Overland sophomore Jarrius Ward swept All-Aurora spots in the throwing events after he finished as the 5A runner-up in the discus and shot put.

Below bottom: Cherokee Trail senior Beck Gutjahr led Aurora competitors with a third-place finish in the 5A boys 800 meter run and also earned All-Aurora honors with the Cougars’ 4x400 and 4x800 meter relay teams.

For a third straight season, the Class 5A boys state track championship came home to Aurora, as Cherokee Trail followed up back-to-back titles by Grandview in 2021 and 2022 with one of its own in 2023.

ALL-AURORA BOYS TRACK

The Cougars appear to have some staying power, as well, as several of the key figures for coach Chris Faust’s team — including breakout sophomore star Peyton Sommers — expect to return next season.

Sommers was unable to run in the 4x400 relay at the state meet because he already had been in four events, but he teamed with Kombo, Wilbon and senior Beck Gutjahr at the Centennial League meet, which produced a Colorado state record time of 3:13.02. It was also the 10th-fastest time in the country for the season.

Senior Reuben Holness filled in at state and the Cougars ran a strong 3:15.85 to finish second behind Thunder Ridge, which surged to set a 5A state meet record of 3:15.29.

Gutjahr also appears heavily on the All-Aurora team as he picked up a key result for Cherokee Trail in the 800 meter run when he placed third in a time of 1:54.03.

Right on track

The 2023 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Boys Track Team, which is based on state meet performance — or best in the regular season — comes from a variety of city programs and feautures an abundance of state champions and some that came up just short of winning as well.

BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor

A good representation from 5A state team champion Cherokee Trail appears, as do athletes from Eaglecrest, Grandview, Overland, Rangeview and Regis Jesuit.

Sommers finished no worse than second in any of the four events he competed in and swept All-Aurora spots in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. He won state championships in the 200 and 400 meters with times of 21.10 and 46.77 seconds, respectively, that were the best clocked in 5A all season. Sommers finished a close second in the 100 meters, but his time of 10.50 run at the Centennial League Championship meet topped all Colorado runners regardless of classification.

Besides that, Sommers ran the anchor leg of Cherokee Trail’s championship-winning 4x200 relay team, as he followed fellow sophomore Kaelan Kombo, junior Kahari Wilbon and senior Jaylon Moore with the baton. The Cougars’ time of 1:25.65 led all Colorado teams for the season, regardless of classification.

He also anchored the Cougars’ runner-up 4x800 relay team that also included Holness and juniors McKay Larsen and Brady Smith. A dropped baton on the final exchange between Smith and Gutjahr — with Cherokee Trail holding a slight lead — gave Mountain Vista just the break it needed to move in front and win. The Cougars still finished in 7:45.69.

Rangeview had a small, but mighty, group at the state tournament that very nearly saw two of its three individual state qualifiers earn championships.

On the opening day, senior Micah Dobson did just that in the triple jump, which he secured with a jump of 46 feet, 1 1/2 inches. Dobson — the Aurora City champion whose season-best jump of 46-11 came at the Cherry Creek Invitational — waited out more than an hour-long delay due to lightning and heavy rain and notched the winning jump on his final attempt.

Junior Jaheim Alexander nearly made it 2-for-2 for coach Marty Witmer’s Raiders as he threatened to take the 110 meter hurdles crown. Alexander had the fastest time in prelims of 14.59 and then went a season-best 14.45 in the finals, but he finished an eyelash behind Denver East’s Nigel James, who got to the finish line in 14.36 seconds.

PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/SENTINEL COLORADO

Right: From left to right, sophomore Leiava Holliman, junior Makiya Singleton, senior McKenzie Droughns and junior Gabriella Cunningham won the Class 5A state championship in the 4x100 meter relay and earned the event’s spot on the 2023 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Girls Track Team.

Below top: From left to right, Eaglecrest sophomore Jaylynn Wilson and seniors Bianca Gleim, Maya Walters and Kiara Garcia finished on top in the 5A girls 4x200 meter relay.

Below middle: Grandview junior Gabriella Cunningham earned four All-Aurora spots — three individuals and one with a relay — for her 5A state meet performance, which included two state championships.

Below bottom: Cherokee Trail sophmore Kaeli Powe captured two field event spots on the All-Aurora team in the long jump and triple jump.

It was another outstanding season in Aurora for girls track and field and it was spread out throughout town.

The 2023 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Girls Track Team — which is based primarily on results from the state meet or from the regular season —includes a significant portion of athletes from 5A state team runner-up Grandview plus Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Hinkley, Regis Jesuit and Vista PEAK.

Cunningham also didn’t run her top time of the season in the 300 hurdles but still managed to take the event. She clocked a 42.36 at the Arcadia Invitational in Florida in April and was just slightly off that pace in the finals with a winning time of 42.71 seconds.

ALL-AURORA GIRLS TRACK

The Wolves won the first 5A state championship for outgoing coach John Reyes in runaway fashion in 2017 and tried to send him out with another in a state meet that was much more contentious. Grandview had a chance to win that went all the way down to the meet-closing 4x400 relay but couldn’t finish in front of Valor Christian with the title on the line.

In her last attempt to help bring home the team championship for Grandview, Cunningham put the finishing touches on a state championship victory for the Wolves in the 4x100 meter relay. Sophomore Leiava Holliman, junior Makiya Singleton and senior McKenzie Droughns ran the first three legs of the races that finished in a time of 47.63 that was the fastest run in 5A all season. It was just enough to keep Eaglecrest out of the top spot, as the Raptors finished second in 48.12.

Another gear

Junior Gabriella Cunningham came into the season with high expectations and lived up to every single one of them. With a focus completely dedicated to track after she had helped Grandview win a 5A girls basketball championship in the 202122 season, Cunningham grabbed three individual All-Aurora accolades plus one with a relay team.

BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor

Second the previous season in both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles, Cunningham finished on top of the medal podium in both events this time around and had the fastest times in Colorado regardless of classification.

She opened the final day of the state meet with a fourth-place finish in the 100 meter dash — with a time of 12.21 seconds that also earned her All-Aurora honors — and claimed her first title in the 100 meter hurdles. Cunningham ran the exact same time in prelims and finals of 13.78 that was her second-fastest of the season after she turned in a 13.69 at the Stutler Twlight. It led the way in a dominant city performance in the event as Vista PEAK’s Kendall McCoy took second and Cherokee Trail’s Sanaai Hancock third.

Rounding out Grandview’s All-Aurora contingent is junior Anna Wehrenberg (400 meters), who also teamed with senior Ava Robinson, junior Julia Pace and sophomore Kennedie Bird Bear on a fifthplace finish in the 4x400 meter relay. Wehrenberg ran a season-best time of 57.66 in the prelims, and a 57.87 in the finals placed her fourth. She then led off the relay team, which ended up crossing the finish line in a season-best 3:57.19.

Grandview’s last All-Aurora performer was senior Dallis Robinson, who claimed fifth place in the 5A girls high jump, which saw five Aurora athletes make the championship finals. Robinson cleared 5 feet, 3 inches — same as freshman teammate Sasha Kennedy — but cleared it on her second attempt while it took Kennedy until her third.

The Eaglecrest 4x100 runner-up team of seniors Kiara Garcia, Maya Walters and Bianca Gleim and sophomore Jaylynn Wilson didn’t walk away without a state championship, however.

A day earlier, that group of Raptors had come out on top of the Wolves in the 4x200 meter relay, giving the program a second consecutive championship in the event. With Wilson running the anchor leg, the Raptors ran a time of 1:41.63 that was fastest in 5A for the season and second only to 4A state champion Mesa Ridge (1:41.21) in Colorado.

The last running event All-Aurora spot went to Vista PEAK senior Averi Williams, the city’s top performer in the 200 meter dash. One of four city

PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/SENTINEL COLORADO

Due to graduation and injury, Grandview’s championship run came to an end, but the Wolves still had plenty of strong performances. Senior Gibby Leafgreen — who is a dedicated football player who came to track via retiring coach John Reyes — placed in both hurdles events. His fifthplace finish in the 300 meter hurdles came with his best time of the season of 39.07 seconds.

Overland has a throwing star in Jarrius Ward, who was the city’s top performer at the state meet in the discus and shot put, in which he finished as the runner-up at the state meet.

Ward and club teammate Charles LaFore of Chatfield dueled in both events, and LaFore ended up on top this time in both. Ward did finish the season with the longest throw in the discus of anybody in 5A, however, with a toss of 185 feet, 4 inches at the Cherry Creek Invitational May 6. His season-best shot put throw of 531 put him second at state and was third-longest for the entire season.

Peyton Taylor excelled in football in the fall and basketball in the winter for Eaglecrest, then had a big impact on the track team in the spring. He finished the season as Aurora’s top performer in the long jump and high jump at the state meet. Taylor won the Centennial League championship in the high jump with a PR of 6 feet, 4 inches, but topped out at 6-1 in the competition at state that put

GTRACK, from 12

a season-best time of 4 minutes, 16.12 seconds, in the 1,600 meter run at the Class 5A state track meet, which earned him a fifth-place result. CENTER: Rangeview junior Jaheim Alexander had the fastest time in the prelims of the 5A boys 110 meter hurdles and ended up in the second place spot on the medal podium. RIGHT: Grandview senior Gibby Leafgreen got on the medal podium in both hurdles events at the 5A state track meet, including a city-best fifth in the 300 meter hurdles. (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Sentinel Colorado)

him in fourth place. He finished just off the medal podium in 10th place in the long jump at state with a top effort of 20-10, which was short of his season-best of 21-6 that came at the Hawk Invitiational in April.

In addition, Taylor teammed with seniors Diego Cearns and Cameron Gay and junior Cam Chapa on a 4x100 meter relay team that edged Cherokee Trail by 0.05 of a second for All-Aurora honors. The Raptors crossed the finish line in 42.02 to the Cou-

athletes among the nine finalists, Williams finished in front of Wilson — who was second in prelims — with a time of 25.09, her season best.

Aurora was shut out in terms of state championships in the field events, but Cherokee Trail had the majority of the area’s top performers. Sophomore Kaeli Powe earned All-Aurora honors in both the long jump and triple jump, while senior Sydnie Bernard earned the pole vault spot.

Powe won the Centennial League championship in the triple jump with a PR of 38 feet, 10 1/2 inches, and she started strong in the event at state with a lead of 37-8 in the first of her six attempts. She wasn’t able to better that in the next five, however, and settled for the runner-up spot behind Pine Creek’s Joy Nnantha (38-5 3/4). She also was the Centennial League winner in the long jump — though with an effort well shy of the season-best 19-2 that won her the Cherry Creek Invitational — and Powe finished fourth at state with a best jump of 18-1.

Bernard has been Aurora’s top girls pole vaulter for quite some time and she again collected All-Aurora honors. A state qualifier, Bernard — who set a season-best of 11 feet at the Centennial League championship meet — cleared 10-10 at state to finish 11th.

All-Aurora throwing honors were split between seniors in Hinkley’s Leilah Swanson (discus) and Eaglecrest’s Blythe Cayko (shot put), who were both in their third season of competition. Swanson and Cayko each placed in the top eight in both throwing events, but flip-flopped city supremacy.

Cayko — who played field hockey in the fall and was a state championship finals in girls wrestling in the winter — only had three of her six attempts in the shot put count, but one of them landed her a fourth-place finish.

gars’ 42.07.

All-Aurora pole vault honors went to Regis Jesuit senior Sullivan Martin, who built throughout the season and achieved his season-best of 14 feet at the state meet. Martin won the Denver North Invitational at 12-9 May 5, finished ninth in the Continental League meet at 13-3 May 12 and then hit 14 to finish seventh at state.

Martin was just one of three Regis Jesuit boys to make the All-Aurora team, as he joined the distance pair of junior David Flaig

(3,200 meters) and sophomore Braeden Focht.

Flaig had a strong cross country season in the fall and followed that with a state track meet that saw him run a 4:16.12 (more than four seconds faster than his previous season best) to place fifth in the 1,600 meters.

Focht — who was also a state qualifier in the 1,600 — knocked nearly five seconds off his season-best in the 3,200 with a 9:27.36 that left him off the medal podium in 12th place.

2022-23 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Boys Track Team

4x800 meter relay — Cherokee Trail (Reuben Holness, Beck Gutjahr, McKay Larsen, Brady Smith); 110 meter hurdles — Jaheim Alexander, jr., Rangeview; 100 meter dash — Peyton Sommers, soph., Cherokee Trail*; 4x200 meter relay — Cherokee Trail (Kaelan Kombo, Kahari Wilbon, Jaylon Moore, Peyton Sommers)*; 1,600 meter run — David Flaig, jr., Regis Jesuit; 4x100 meter relay — Eaglecrest (Peyton Taylor, Diego Cearns, Cam Chapa, Cameron Gay); 400 meter dash

— Peyton Sommers, soph., Cherokee Trail*; 300 meter hurdles — Gibby Leafgreen, sr., Grandview; 800 meter run — Beck Gutjahr sr., Cherokee Trail; 200 meter dash — Peyton Sommers, soph., Cherokee Trail*; 3,200 meter run

— Braeden Focht, soph., Regis Jesuit; 4x400 meter relay — Cherokee Trail (Kaelan Kombo, Kahari Wilbon, Reuben Holness, Beck Gutjahr); Long jump — Peyton Taylor, sr., Eaglecrest; High jump

— Peyton Taylor, sr., Eaglecrest; Pole vault — Sullivan Martin, sr., Regis Jesuit; Triple jump — Micah Dobson, sr., Rangeview*; Discus Jarrius Ward, soph., Overland; Shot put — Jarrius Ward, soph., Overland

* — Class 5A state champion

2022-23 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Girls Track Team

800 sprint medley relay

— Grandview (Leiava Holliman, Makiya Singleton, Anna Wehrenberg, Ava Robinson); 4x800 meter relay — Regis Jesuit (nonstate qualifier); 100 meter hurdles Gabriella Cunningham, jr., Grandview*; 100 meter dash

— Gabriella Cunningham, jr., Grandview; 4x200 meter relay

season-best

The Centennial League champion in the event (with a throw of 37-2 1/4), Cayko’s 35-10 1/2 at state put her into a tie with Liberty’s Hope Callen, who got the third-place spot thanks to a second throw that was longer.

Swanson, who played volleyball in the fall and basketball in the winter, finished eighth in the shot put competition (in which she was the City League champion). She finished much higher in the discus, where she launched a season-best throw of 117 feet, 5 inches, to finish in third. Swanson’s best effort came on the first throw of finals.

Distance running was down for Aurora girls, as nobody from a city program qualified for state in either the 800 or 3,200 meter runs.

Regis Jesuit senior Jo Collins earned All-Aurora honors in the 1,600 meter run, though she did not make it onto the medal podium. She

had the 18th-fastest time in the regular season (a 5:05.82 that would be her season’s best) to get the last state berth, then came in 16th with a time of 5:07.40. Collins missed state by less than two seconds in the 800 meters, but was still the best in Aurora with a showing of 2:18.45 achieved at the same venue as the state meet at the Don Ossie Invitational April 13.

Grandview senior Grace Kirkpatrick finished with the 36th-fastest time in 5A in the 3,200 meters, which left her out of the state meet, but led city runners. Her season-best time of 11:33.07 came at the Stutler Twilight meet.

Aurora also did not have a state qualifier in the distance relay (4x800), so the honor went to Regis Jesuit, which had the 20th-fastest time in the state. The Raiders ran 10:01.96 at the Liberty Bell Invitational, where they placed 13th.

— Eaglecrest (Kiara Garcia, Maya Walters, Bianca Gleim, Jaylynn Wilson)*; 1,600 meter run — Jo Collins, sr., Regis Jesuit; 4x100 meter relay — Grandview (Leiava Holliman, Makiya Singleton, McKenzie Droughns, Gabriella Cunningham)*; 400 meter dash — Anna Wehrenberg, jr., Grandview; 300 meter hurdles — Gabriella Cunningham, jr., Grandview*; 800 meter run — Jo Collins, sr., Regis Jesuit (non-state qualifier); 200 meter dash — Averi Williams, sr., Vista PEAK; 3,200 meter run — Grace Kirkpatrick, sr., Grandview (non-state qualifier); 4x400 meter relay — Grandview (Anna Wehrenberg, Julia Pace, Kennedie Bird Bear, Ava Robinson); Long jump — Kaeli Powe soph., Cherokee Trail; High jump — Dallis Robinson, sr., Grandview; Pole vault — Sydnie Bernard sr., Cherokee Trail; Triple jump — Kaeli Powe, soph., Cherokee Trail; Discus — Leilah Swanson, sr., Hinkley; Shot put — Blythe Cayko, sr., Eaglecrest

* — Class 5A state champion

LEFT: Regis Jesuit junior David Flaig ran

LEFT: Hinkley senior Leilah Swanson earned third place in the Class 5A girls discus with a season-best throw of 117 feet, 5 inches, and earned All-Aurora honors in the process . RIGHT: Vista PEAK senior Averi Williams ran a

time of 25.09 seconds in the finals of the 5A girls 200 meter dash to finish in front of three other city finalists (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Sentinel Colorado)

Preps

BOYS SWIMMING

Relays lead way among city’s nine NISCA AllAmerican honors

It was the year of the relay in Aurora, as five different teams from three different programs — Regis Jesuit, Grandview and Smoky Hill — were among the fastest in the country on the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association’s (NISCA) All-American list for the 202223 boys swimming season.

Regis Jesuit, which secured a back-to-back Class 5A state championship, had no individuals make the All-American list for NISCA — which annually honors the top 100 verified performances in each event from across the country — but all three of its relay teams earned the prestigious distinction.

Smoky Hill had one relay performance that was All-American caliber in addition to a pair of individual accolades for junior Daniel Yi and sophomore Ian Noffsinger.

All three Aurora programs were recognized as All-Americans in the 200 yard medley relay — which saw a whopping nine Colorado teams finish in the top 100 — which was led by the Grandview team of seniors Matthew Scicchitano and William Schimberg, junior Evan Higgins and sophmore Oliver Schimberg. The Wolves’ top time of 1 minute, 32.53 seconds, made them the 46th-fastest outfit in the country.

Next came Smoky Hill’s team of seniors Antonio Goris and Nicholas Gordon and juniors Yi and Benjamin Brewer, whose time of 1:33.50 put it 92nd, just in front of the 93rd-fastest mark of 1:33.52 turned in by Regis Jesuit seniors Charlie Klein, Carter Anderson and Harry Kerscher plus sophomore Hugh Boris.

Regis Jesuit’s 5A state championship-winning 200 freestyle relay team of seniors Anderson, Hawkins Wendt (Seattle University), Ronan Krauss (Georgetown University) and Truman Inglis (water polo, Chapman University) cracked the top 20 nationally. The Raiders’ time of 1:23.19 put them 19th. Wendt, Krauss, Inglis and Klein swam a 3:05.45 in the 400 freestyle relay that put them in 47th place in the country.

Schimberg became Grandview’s second all-time 5A state champion when he won the 100 yard backstroke and achieved All-American honors in the event to boot. Schimberg’s submitted time of 48.76 seconds for coach Dan Berve’s Wolves put him 36th in the country.

Yi came up short of winning an individual state championship but was an All-American in both of the events he swam at the 5A state meet for coach Scott Cohen’s Smoky Hill team. Yi swam a time of 54.74 in his specialty, the 100 yard breaststroke, that ranked him 31st in the country, while his 1:49.83 in the 200 yard individual medley put him 67th.

Smoky Hill sophomore Ian

Noffsinger, who placed third in the 500 yard freestyle at the 5A state meet, tied for 100th in the country in the event with a 4:31.76.

All of the local All-Americans appear heavily on the 2022-23 SentinelColoradoAll-Aurora Boys Swim Team, which was in the issue on stands June 22 and can be found at sentinelcolorado.com/preps.

Outside of the Regis Jesuit, Grandview and Smoky Hill contingent, swimmers and relay teams from Cherry Creek, Discovery Canyon, Columbine, Wheat Ridge, Heritage, Chatfield, Highlands Ranch, Windsor, Arvada West, Monarch and Fairview earned All-American honors.

All-American diving and Academic All-American lists will be released by NISCA in the near future.

GIRLS SWIMMING Regis Jesuit, Grandview earn multiple NISCA AllAmerican honors

The fruits of a strong 2022-23 winter season for girls swimmers from Regis Jesuit and Grandview paid off on the release of the National Inter-

scholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) All-American list.

Regis Jesuit coach Nick Frasersmith had a smaller than usual team — with 15 fewer individual state qualifiers than the previous season — but it still managed a second-place finish at the Class 5A girls state swim meet in February at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center.

The Raiders’ showing — the best for the program since 2016 — was made possible in large part by some top-end performances, which is evidenced by five appearances on the All-American list from NISCA, which annually recognizes the top 100 verified times in the country in each event. Colorado times may have a slight adjustment due to altitude.

Junior Charlotte Burnham — who transferred from Mullen — garnered four of those All-American honors, including two individually. She won the 5A state championship in the 100 yard breaststroke and her adjusted time of 1 minute, 2.26 seconds, registered as the 36th-fastest in the country. Burnham also had the 59th-fastest time in the 200 yard individual medley of 2:01.84.

LEFT: As a capper to his junior year at Smoky Hill, Daniel Yi, right, earned two individual spots and one with a relay on the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association (NISCA) All-American list for the 2022-23 boys swim season . ABOVE: Regis Jesuit’s Charlotte Burnham, right, and Grandview’s Paige Dailey finished first and second, respectively, in the 100 yard breaststroke at the Class 5A state championship meet. Both also earned NISCA All-American honors in the event. Burnham garnered four All-American awards for the season.

Burnham also earned All-American honors with seniors Sophia Frei and Samantha Aguirre (a Naval Academy recruit) and freshman Taylor Johannsen on the 400 yard freestyle relay team, which had a time of 3:26.65 that put it 31st in the country. Burnham, Frei, senior Sophia Mitsuoka and sophomore Taylor Hoffman turned in a time of 1:43.52 in the 200 yard medley relay that put them in a tie for 34th.

The other All-American individual award went to Frei, who swam a 54.54 in the 100 yard backstroke that put the University of North Carolina signee 39th. Frei also was an All-American last season in the same event when she ranked No. 62 with a time of 54.95. She was part of the Raiders’ All-American 200 free relay in 2021-22 as well.

Coach Karen Ammon’s Grandview team — which earned a fifthplace finish in the 5A standings, the program’s highest finish since 2007 — had two individual All-Americans in senior Paige Dailey and junior Amelia Brown.

Dailey, a Cal-Davis signee, had the top individual finish for the Wolves as she finished a very close

second to Burnham in the 100 breaststroke. Her submitted time of 1:02.32 put her in a tie for 41st in the nation. Brown’s top time in the 50 freestyle of 23.30 put her in a tie for 82nd in the nation.

All of the local All-Americans appear heavily on the 2022-23 SentinelColoradoAll-Aurora Girls Swim Team, which can be found at sentinelcolorado.com/preps.

Outside of the Regis Jesuit and Grandview contingent, Colorado swimmers from Cherry Creek, Boulder, Legacy, Heritage, Arapahoe, Pine Creek, Fairview, Cheyenne Mountain, Niwot and Fossil Ridge also earned All-American honors. All-American diving and Academic All-American lists will be released by NISCA in the near future.

SOFTBALL Flood of 16U and 18U softball teams return to Aurora and state

The softball diamond around Aurora and in several other places in Colorado will be bustling beginning June 26 with the arrival of more than 1,000 competitive fastpitch girls teams from around the country in 16U and 18U categories.

Triple Crown Colorado’s Sparkler/Fireworks Tournament — in addition to a variety of camps and clinics — is spread among facilities all across the metro area, including a major hub at the Aurora Sports Park and other surrounding facilities in Aurora through July 2. Pool play games begin June 27.

Prior to the tournament, the International Challenge took place June 23-25 at the Christopher Complex in Westminster. Canada won the 18U championship game with a 7-6 victory over Italy. The Canada roster included Smoky Hill graduate Gabi Giroux.

(Photo by Courtney Oakes/Sentinel Colorado)

FIRST LOOK

Potential candidates for city council, mayor and 2 school boards testing the waters for Election 2023

BY CARINAJULIG & MAX LEVY, Sentinel Colorado Staff Writers

On Nov. 7, Aurora voters will have the chance to choose their representatives on the city council and school boards, setting the tone for the next four years of A-Town politics.

At least three local ballot questions are likely to make it on the ballot this fall that would amend Aurora’s charter to remove limits on lateral hiring for police and firefighters, peg the number of senior police leadership positions to the city’s population and allow the chief of police to block promotions.

Those questions are being brought forward by Aurora’s public safety agencies with the blessing of Aurora’s city council.

Mayor Mike Coffman is reportedly behind another campaign to ask voters to change the role of the city’s mayor, giving that person the power to veto legislation and directly manage city staffers.

Coffman is also running for a second term as mayor this fall, facing progressive Councilmember Juan Marcano as well as Democrat Rob Andrews. Democrats are hoping to capture a majority on the council this year after losing ground in 2021, while conservatives hope to maintain or expand their majority.

The Aurora City Council races are non-partisan, yet partisan politics are a regular feature of the workings of the group.

Earlier this year, Democrats running for city council offices announced they would run as a bloc. That has since changed with at least some Democrats pulling away from the campaigning cohort. Rev. Thomas Mayes, running for city council at large, said he was reconsidering running with the group.

Arapahoe County voters will also have

the opportunity to select new board members in both Aurora Public Schools and the Cherry Creek School District, where three board seats are open in each district.

The most recent school board election cycle in 2021 was dominated by discussion of COVID-19 policy and culture war issues such as the alleged teaching of critical race theory in schools, but locally, Republicans failed to make gains in either district by capitalizing on those issues.

It’s currently unclear whether school board races will have as much national attention this time around. Locally, major issues include youth mental health needs, declining enrollment in K-12 schools, calls for increases in teacher and staff pay as the cost of living continues to rise and the ongoing academic recovery from the pandemic years.

In 2021, incumbent Kelly Bates won another term on the Cherry Creek School Board, and newcomer Kristin Allen joined the dais, replacing term-limited president Karen Fisher.

This election cycle the seats of Angela Garland, Anne Egan and Janice McDonald are up for election. McDonald is term-limited, Garland and Egan are running for re-election.

Three other people have also declared an intention to run per the Colorado Secretary of State’s website, although candidates can’t request from the district, needed to get on the ballot, until August.

None of the three board members whose terms are up in Aurora Public Schools have said that they plan to run again, another signal of the current chaotic state of the board there.

In 2021 now-president Debbie Gerkin was elected to a second term and board members Anne Keke, Tramaine Duncan

and Michael Carter were voted into office. Since then the board has struggled to reach consensus on a number of issues, including on a controversial vote last year to close a number of district schools with declining enrollment.

A number of school board members also clashed with former Superintendent Rico Munn, who in December announced that he would be stepping down early. Michael Giles, an assistant superintendent in Cherry Creek Schools, will be taking over the lead APS role in July.

Munn filed a formal complaint against the board alleging that two of its Black members, Stephanie Mason and Duncan, had called his racial identity into question and said he was not doing enough to support Black employees. An independent investigator found the allegations credible; at press time, the board had yet to comment.

The seats of Stephanie Mason, Nichelle Ortiz and Vicki Reinhard are up this year. So far, none of the three have said they plan to run again or filed with the Secretary of State’s office, setting the stage for a district with a new superintendent and a very different board in just a handful of months. Three people have registered with the Secretary of State so far.

There are two statewide ballot questions approved so far. State lawmakers referred questions regarding the reducing of property taxes as well as a measure that seeks to funnel different state funding sources into universal preschool programs. There are a bevy of potential ballot questions still undetermined.

Although the Election Day is Nov. 7, the election is an all-mail-ballot contest, and ballots are sent to registered voters, generally by mid-October.

Aurora mayor and city council seats

Rob Andrews, Mayor

which led him to introduce a ban on camping and policy outline last year. In a news release, he said he also hopes to focus on public safety in his next term, reducing crime by adequately funding the city’s police department.

He also wrote that he wants to increase the city’s inventory of affordable housing by at least 3% each year with the help of funds made available through Colorado’s Proposition 123.

Coffman is a registered Republican.

Juan Marcano, Mayor

Andrews was born in Colorado Springs and was once a pro-football player for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League who went on to work for the re-election of former President Barack Obama.

After running for Colorado Springs City Council in 2009, he shifted his focus to social entrepreneurship and went on to become the president and CEO of the Denver-based nonprofit CommunityWorks.

According to Andrews’ campaign website, he hopes to promote public safety and build trust between Aurora residents and the police department by investing in community policing programs.

Other priorities mentioned on his website include promoting affordable housing and housing solutions that are specifically tailored to Aurora’s homeless residents as well as focusing on job preparation and placement services.

He is a registered Democrat.

Mike Coffman, Mayor

Marcano has served on the City Council since 2019, representing Ward IV in west Aurora.

The child of Puerto Rican immigrants, Marcano was raised in Texas and worked as an architectural designer before stepping back to focus on his elected role. He has promoted a housing-first policy for addressing homelessness as well as progressive solutions to rising housing costs, frequently butting heads with the council’s conservative majority over social issues.

Marcano’s plans if elected mayor include addressing crime through community outreach and strengthening partnerships with school districts, according to his website. He also hopes to promote conservation by discouraging development sprawl and creating walkable and accessible neighborhood centers.

Marcano says he would also advocate for the arts, living wages and accessibility for residents with disabilities.

He is a registered Democrat and is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

Scott Liva, Mayor

Liva moved to Aurora in 2015 and has previously worked in utilities and property management, according to past information shared with the Sentinel. While no campaign website could be found for Liva, he has registered with the office of Aurora’s city clerk to accept campaign contributions.

Hancock brings years of experience in the business and arts communities, having co-founded 5280 Artist Co-Op and serving as president of the Aurora Cultural Arts District.

She is a graduate of Texas Southern University and a U.S. Air Force veteran, and she has lived in Aurora for more than 30 years. On her campaign website, Hancock says she wants to promote public safety by building on laws passed by the city council that enhance penalties for car theft and shoplifting.

She also says that she wants to encourage the growth of Aurora’s business community and that laws passed by Colorado’s General Assembly have made housing in Aurora less affordable.

Hancock is a Republican. Last year, she ran to unseat Democrat Iman Jodeh in Colorado House of Representatives District 41 but was unsuccessful.

Lawson is running for a third term on Aurora’s City Council, this year as a voice for Aurora’s southwest ward rather than an at-large representative.

She has lived in Aurora’s Ward V for more than two decades and holds master’s degrees in social science, public administration and public policy. Lawson previously worked in the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, where she oversaw the Elections Division’s lobbyist registration program.

Lawson’s priorities for her third term would include making sure Aurora’s public safety resources keep up with the city’s growing population and implementing traffic calming measures to improve safety in the ward.

She says she will also encourage economic development by streamlining the permitting and design processes for businesses and working with the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority to repurpose

Coffman was elected to the mayor’s office in 2019, the latest chapter in a political career that has taken the longtime Aurora resident from the statehouse to the halls of Congress.

Coffman previously founded a property management company in Aurora and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 2008, he left his position as Colorado’s Secretary of State to replace Tom Tancredo in the U.S. House of Representatives. Coffman served in Congress until 2018, when he was defeated by Democrat Jason Crow.

As mayor, Coffman’s priorities have included reducing street homelessness,

Liva is a registered Libertarian and in past elections advocated for limited government, gun rights and restructuring the city’s police department.

He ran for the Ward I city council seat held by Crystal Murillo in 2021 and tried unsuccessfully to unseat Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown last year.

Kirk Manzanares, Mayor

Manzanares has registered with the office of Aurora’s city clerk to accept campaign contributions. No other information about Manzanares’ campaign was available at press time.

Stephanie Hancock, Ward IV, central Aurora

Angela Lawson, Ward V, southwest Aurora

The scene of a June 29, 2023 police shooting at the north east corner of 6th Avenue and Billings Street, following the police pursuit of an attempted murder suspect the previous night.

Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado

old retail space.

Lawson’s voter registration shows she is unaffiliated with any political party, though she often votes along with other conservatives on the council.

Chris Rhodes, Ward V, southwest Aurora

ing back the city’s camping ban and providing housing and other services to the city’s unhoused residents.

Rhodes is registered as a Democrat.

Francoise Bergan, Ward VI, southeast

Aurora

Rhodes, a union organizer, seeks a seat on the council to participate in what Democrats hope will be a new, progressive majority come November.

He describes coming from a working-class background on his campaign website and says his time in Aurora has been spent unionizing the lowest-paying jobs for United Airlines at Denver International Airport and organizing in Aurora around economic justice issues. He holds a degree in social studies education from Purdue University.

Rhodes advocates for including affordable housing in all future developments and using government-owned land for public housing projects in Aurora. He argues that affordable housing is a key part of addressing crime along with co-response teams that free up police from having to respond to mental health crises and other non-law-enforcement tasks.

To address homelessness, Rhodes says he would support immediately roll-

Bergan is running for a third term on the council, representing the ward that encompasses the southeast part of the city.

She previously worked in management and consulting. She said her tenure on council reflects her advocacy for the city’s new southeast Aurora recreation center, efforts to combat street racing and support of new parks and trails in her ward.

Bergan was appointed by the council to serve as mayor pro tem in 2021 and 2022. Other achievements highlighted by Bergan include her support of legislation to increase the consequences for theft and crack down on illegal marijuana grow houses, as well as supporting the ban against homeless camping.

She says she also supports the city conserving its limited water supply by adding storage, investing in water recapture technology, conserving water and regulating growth.

Bergan is registered as a Republican.

Matise is a retired attorney and an Aurora resident of more than 20 years challenging Bergan for the Ward VI seat this fall.

Matise specialized in commercial litigation, product liability mass tort litigation and class actions. He is also an expert in special districts and has sued several metropolitan districts on behalf of homeowners.

On his campaign website, Matise argues that the police department should rebuild trust with the community by focusing on a neighborhood-based approach where mental health workers and other specially-trained officers can respond to calls about people in crisis.

He also denounces the city’s use of financing tools such as regional improvement authorities and certificates of participation to fund capital projects and says the city’s tolerance of sprawling development has contributed to housing prices and traffic.

Matise is registered as a Democrat.

Perry Deeds, Ward VI, southeast Aurora

Deeds has registered with the office of Aurora’s city clerk to accept campaign contributions. No other information about Deeds’ campaign was available at press time.

Jon Gray, Ward IV, central Aurora

Gray was born in Denver and attended Englewood High School, going on to obtain degrees in sociology and business management from Mesa State College and Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He worked in the nonprofit sector with underprivileged youth and continued his work with children as an Aurora Public Schools teacher for several years before moving into his current role in the finance division of the Arapahoe County Department of Human Services.

Gray’s plans, if elected, include addressing crime rates by fostering trust between community members and police, according to his campaign website.

The website also states that he will pursue cooperation with the county, nonprofits and private organizations to address poverty, environmental problems, homelessness and healthcare gaps, in part by promoting affordable housing and food programs for families.

Gray’s campaign website describes him as a Democrat.

Coombs hopes to trade her Ward V seat for an at-large position this fall. She was elected in 2019, defeating Republican incumbent Bob Roth, and she works as a program manager at a residence for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve on Aurora’s City Council.

During her first term, Coombs has sponsored legislation to increase minimum wages in the city, provide funding for affordable housing and establish resident committees for civic engagement and environmental sustainability.

According to her campaign website, she hopes to encourage the development of mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods that support multiple modes of transportation.

She also wants to promote affordable housing in part through land banking and requiring sellers of new for-sale homes to only sell to owner-occupants for the first 90 days of the property being on the market.

She is registered as a Democrat.

Mayes, pastor of Living Waters Christian Center Church in Aurora, is running again for a seat on Aurora’s City Council.

He has been an active part of the Aurora community for many years, including serving as a community liaison for the Aurora Police Department following the 2012 theater shooting and as part of the Community Advisory Council currently involved in the implementation of APD’s consent decree.

Mayes does not appear to have a campaign website, but he announced earlier this year he would be running on the 2023 Democratic slate. He ran unsuccessfully for an at-large seat in 2019.

Brian Matise, Ward VI, southeast Aurora

Thomas Mayes, At-Large

A homeless encampment on Dam Road is seen across Parker Road. Sentinel Colorado file photo

Curtis Gardner, At-Large

Cherry Creek school board

Angela

Garland

teacher at a number of schools in Colorado and in Texas for six years as well as a former Boy Scout Scoutmaster and Cubmaster. He has not spent any money, according to campaign finance records.

Anne Egan

Gardner is running for re-election to the at-large seat that he was first elected to in 2019.

He has lived in Aurora most of his life. Gardner holds a master’s degree in finance and worked at a local credit union for 14 years before accepting his current job as a local government liaison in the solid waste industry.

He wrote in a release announcing his candidacy that the council needs to focus on investing in essential services like road maintenance and law enforcement while avoiding partisan conflict on the dais.

On his website, Gardner advocates for seeking out economic development opportunities, ensuring that the city’s public safety agencies have adequate resources and making sure the city’s recreation and quality of life facilities keep up with Aurora’s growing population.

Gardner is registered as a Republican.

Jono Scott, At-Large

Garland was first elected to the school board in 2019. Currently one of two Black members on the seven-person board, Garland has spoken about the importance of diversity and equity throughout her board term and has also been a strong proponent of the work the district is doing to increase its mental health resources. Garland is the mother of four children and before being elected was heavily involved in the district as a volunteer with the Cherry Creek Foundation, the District Accountability Committee and other district groups and had a career working in nonprofits and social services. She lives in Centennial. As of June 1 she had a balance of about $1,000, according to campaign finance records.

Christian

Caldwell

Caldwell lives in Aurora and is the president and CEO of My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper Colorado, an organization that works to improve outcomes for young people of color. According to his LinkedIn profile, he was employed by CCSD for four years as a technology specialist. He has not spent any money, according to campaign finance records.

A. Scott Graves

Little information is currently available for Graves, who is a co-founder and financial consultant at Alignment Financial Advisors in Aurora. According to his LinkedIn profile, Graves was a music

Egan lives in Greenwood Village and has been representing Cherry Creek’s Director District A since 2019, when she was appointed to the seat after running unopposed. Egan cited mental health as a priority during her first campaign and has been a longtime volunteer in the district, where her four children all went to school. She was also formerly an education policy advisor to Colorado governor Roy Romer. As of June 1, she had a balance of about $26,500, according to campaign finance records.

Ruthie Knowles

Little information is currently available for Knowles, who is a data analyst at National Jewish Health. She has not spent any money, according to campaign finance reports.

Aurora Public Schools board

Danielle Tomwing

After an unsuccessful run in 2021, Vanguard Classical Schools board chair Danielle Tomwing is making another bid for the APS school board. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, she has lived in Aurora since 2010, according to her campaign website. She has two daughters who attend the charter school

Vanguard Classical Schools West, according to the board website. She has a career in IT and spent four years working on an ocean liner. Her campaign website lists her priorities as diversity and equity, building community centered schools and safety, including mental well-being. During her previous campaign, she was endorsed by state representative Naquetta Ricks, Pastor Thomas Mayes and the Colorado League of Charter Schools. As of April, she had a balance of about $2,000, according to campaign finance records.

Maria Saucedo

Military veteran and retired teacher Maria Saucedo is running for APS school board on a platform of fiscal responsibility, school safety and diversity and inclusion, according to her campaign website. Born in Mexico, Saucedo was raised in Illinois and has lived in Colorado since 1988. She enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve to pay for college, according to her website, where she served in a number of positions before retiring in 2015. In 1992 she began working for Denver Public School, and retired in 2016 after serving as a teacher, teacher leader and assistant principal. She has two children. To date, Saucedo has not filed any financial records with the Secretary of State’s office.

Aspen Chin

Little information is currently available for Chin, who lives in Aurora and runs the nonprofit The Lounge, which provides support and mentorship to local youth. She has not spent any money, according to campaign finance records.

Scott also plans on returning to the Aurora political stage this fall to run for a seat on Aurora’s city council.

The pastor and director of a local food bank has lived in Aurora for more than 30 years and holds a master’s degree in religious education as well as an undergraduate degree in biblical studies.

He described himself as a “constitutional American” and said on his website that he would support public safety, economic development and housing affordability while opposing new taxes.

He also said that he would try to reduce crime rates by expanding penalties for violating the law and support small businesses by eliminating unnecessary regulations.

He is a registered Republican and ran unsuccessfully for the Ward III seat in 2021.

Universal preschool will begin during the summer of 2023, and will provide 10 hours of preschool to 4-year-olds across the state regardless of family income.

Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado

FIREWORKS FOR YOUR TASTEBUDS: TORTELLINI SALAD EXPLODES WITH COLOR AND FLAVOR

BY KATIE WORKMAN, Associated Press

Even though you can serve tortellini salad all year round, it feels like the perfect dish for summer. It speaks of picnics and potlucks, it’s easy to make in a big batch, and people go nuts for it.

There are so many types of filled tortellini available, even in just a well-stocked grocery store.

In a supermarket in Connecticut, I found these types of tortellini: Three Cheese; Spinach and Ricotta; Chicken and Roasted Garlic, Sweet Italian Sausage; Herb Chicken; Chicken and Prosciutto; and Spinach and Cheese. That’s a lot of choices, right there!

Any of them will work just fine.

I like to use a vegetarian cheese-filled tortellini for this salad. I always look to keep side dishes vegetarian if possible, so everyone can enjoy them, and I also think they hold better at room temperature.

This is a colorful salad, and you can make it even moreso by using multi-colored tortellini. Switch up the vegetables as you like, depending on what you have on hand, and

what looks good at the market.

I like a combo of grape or cherry tomatoes, spinach and onions. Artichoke hearts and olives add nice briny flavor.

THE CHEESE AND PESTO

As for the mozzarella, see if you can find the perlini-sized mozzarella balls, named because they are “pearl-size,” and then you can use them as is. BelGioioso and Galbani are two brands to look for.

Or, if you find slightly larger little balls, like bocconcini, just halve or quarter them into bitesize pieces. Large balls of mozzarella can be cubed and added. Or try smoked mozzarella for a change of pace; just dice it up.

For the pesto dressing, you can use either homemade or storebought pesto. The small amount here gives the salad a wonderful, basil-garlicky-Parmesan flavor. Feel free to add more if you want a more pronounced pesto flavor. If you have nut allergy concerns, make sure your pesto is nut-free.

TORTELLINI SALAD

LOTS OF ROOM TO ADD AND SUBSTITUTE

This pasta salad is terrific as written, but you can also add more ingredients. For instance:

For a salad that meat lovers will enjoy, consider adding salami, either sliced or cut into matchsticks. (If you like the tortellini salad from Costco, you know that lots of salami is part of its appeal. It makes it more of an antipasti tortellini salad.) Crumbled cooked bacon or pancetta is another option.

Besides the vegetables in the recipe below, you might add bitesize pieces of other vegetables — perhaps grilled, steamed or roasted broccoli, cauliflower or asparagus. Consider adding pepperoncini or drained jarred antipasti salad. Sub in baby kale for the spinach, and try scallions instead of red onions.

Tortellini salad will keep for up to four days in the fridge. You can serve it cold, or I prefer bringing it to room temperature for about 15 minutes before serving to take the chill off, and allow the flavors to come forward more.

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 (16- to 20-ounce) package refrigerated tortellini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

8 ounces mini mozzarella balls, halved, quartered, or cubed if large

1 cup roughly chopped baby spinach

1 (15-ounce can) artichoke hearts, roughly sliced or chopped

½ cup olives, any color, any type, drained and halved

½ cup diced red onion

Dressing:

3 tablespoons basil pesto, store-bought or homemade

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

¼ cup torn or chiffonaded basil leaves

Directions:

Cook the tortellini according to package instructions. Drain, rinse quickly with cool water, and immediately toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil and spread out on a rimmed baking sheet to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, mozzarella, spinach, artichoke hearts, olives and onion in a large serving bowl.

Make the dressing: In a small container or bowl, combine the pesto, 3 tablespoons olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, and the Parmesan if using.

Add the cooled tortellini to the bowl, drizzle over the dressing and toss to combine. Sprinkle the basil over it and serve.

Taste of Colorado at Civic Center Park

scene & herd

Happy Gilmore: Movies on the Green at Noonan’s Sports Bar and Grill

Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Cherry Creek North

4th of July Spectacular at Aurora Municipal Center

6:00 p.m., July 6 at 13521 E. Iliff Ave. Aurora, CO 80014. Visit http:// alturl.com/xiwr5 for more information.

Tell us a more appropriate movie to screen at a golf course than Happy Gilmore. Ok, maybe Caddyshack. And yes, one has to assume that Noonan’s is named after Danny Noonan from the latter of the two movies mentioned just above. But Happy Gilmore is pretty darn apropos for the venue. And this hack sees it as maybe a tad funnier than Caddyshack, but we’ll digress.

This free event is a perfect excuse to get out of the house for a night and take in a comedic classic. In addition to the movie, there will be relay races, a DJ and a photobooth to capture the memories of what will surely be a fun night out with the family.

8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., July 9 at Civic Center Park 101 14th Ave. Denver, CO 80202 visit https://www. atasteofcolorado.com/ for more information.

Who’s hungry? You better bring your appetite to the third Taste of Colorado event of the year, down at Civic Center Park in Denver. Good food, local music, time spent with family and a bevy of other activities to easily fill the eight-hour day of gluttony and fulfillment.

Upon arrival you will find a healthy line of food trucks, a stage with local music acts and even a family-friendly activation zone where you can decorate bike helmets, get your faces painted and play a variety of games.

Oh yeah, and there’s definitely a bar for the adults to quench their thirst with some delicious libations.

Summer Jams and Storytime with Gora

July 1 through July 3 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Visit https://cherrycreekartsfestival.org/ for more information.

This weekend one of the metro area’s long-standing arts festivals returns for another year, with the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. More than 250 juried artists will showcase their talents as the festival fills the streets of the Cherry Creek North neighborhood.

To compliment the bevy of art, festival goers will be treated with live music, art education, kids activities, food and a litany of other exciting events to keep you entertained throughout.

Admission is free, so head on over and get yourselves some extra culture.

Denver Fan Expo at the Colorado Convention Center

Tuesday, July 4 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. 15151 E. Alameda Pkwy. Visit www.auroragov.org/things_to_ do/events/4th_of_july_spectacular for more information.

We’re almost there folks. Time really does move at a rapid clip, and July 4 is nipping at our heels.

You can already hear the Sousa thinking about another great Fourth of July night taking in a spectacular fireworks display on the Great Lawn of the Aurora Municipal Center. There’s more on tap than just the beautiful gunpowder filled explosives, which will be launched from Bicentennial Park at approximately 9:30. Live music is slated from 6:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m. and there will be a variety of vendors on site.

So grab the family and the blankets and celebrate the country’s independence. The fireworks show will last 30 minutes.

Gora

Orkestar at Utah Park

July 12 at 4:30 p.m. 1800 S. Peoria St. Aurora, CO 80012. Visit http://alturl.com/hvfvw for more information.

Aurora Public Libraries and Cultural Arts Division has put together an exciting new summertime event in Summer Jams and Storytime.

The event starts with storytime from the new bookmobile for the kiddos as well as a craft or activity. After which a dance performance will take place from the Aurora Dance Hearts. The concert in the park will begin immediately after the dance performance, with the concert running from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

And no need to fret parents, the concerts are appropriate for all ages.

Havana Street Global Market at the Havana Exchange Shopping Center

June 30 through July 2 with entry times varying depending on the day. 700 14th St. Denver, CO 80202. For ticketing and event times visit http:// alturl.com/neg8j.

Denver Fan Expo returns for another year, and this hack is as excited about it as the rest of you mega fans. We’re talking three days of fun and fan-filled pop culture overload.

A weekend full of shopping for your favorite fandom items, panels with big-name celebrities like Hayden Christensen, Chevy Chase, Christopher Lloyd and Christina Ricci, to name a few — all of which you will have the chance to meet and accrue autographed memorabilia. And the panels! Oh the panels. They’ve even scheduled an evening with Anakin Skywalker himself, Hayden Christensen.

It’s truly a fun-filled weekend oozing with pop culture excitement, and we will see you there.

July 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 2802 S. Havana St. Aurora, CO 80014. Visit http://alturl.com/4f6ij for more information.

Tis the season for outdoor markets and bazaars — and right around the bend is the second of the monthly Havana Street Global Markets. This event plays host to the rich diversity that our city boasts so proudly. We are, as you well know, the most diverse city in our fine state.

Vendors from all around the world offer tasty delicacies, complimented by a bevy of music and entertainment, including some new faces to the markets.

And don’t forget about those night markets, to which we will keep you attuned.

Let Us Know All Your scene & herd

Payment due, again

IT’S ALMOST TIME TO RESUME STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS. NOT DOING SO COULD COST YOU

BY CORA LEWIS AND ADRIANA MORGA, Associated Press

After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end soon. Student loan interest will start accruing on September 1 and payments are starting in October.

It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits.

Columbia University class of 2020 graduates pose for photographs on Commencement Day on Wednesday, May 20, 2020, in New York. After three years, the pandemic-era freeze on student loan payments will end in late August. It might seem tempting to just keep not making payments, but the consequences can be severe, including a hit to your credit score and exclusion from future aid and benefits.

More than 40 million Americans will have to start making federal student loan payments again at the end of the summer under the terms of a debt ceiling deal approved by Congress.

Millions are also waiting to find out whether the Supreme Court will allow President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan to go ahead. But payments will resume regardless of what justices decide.

That means tough decisions for many borrowers, especially those in already-difficult financial situations.

Experts say that delinquency and bankruptcy should be options of last resort, and that deferment and forbearance — which pause payments, though interest may continue to accrue — are often better in the short term.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON’T MAKE STUDENT LOAN PAYMENTS?

Once the moratorium ends, borrowers who can’t or don’t pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can badly hurt your credit rating and make you ineligible for additional aid and government benefits.

If you’re struggling to pay, advisers first encourage you to check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan, which determines your payments by looking at your expenses. You can determine this by visiting the Federal Student Aid website. If you’ve worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which forgives student debt after 10 years.

Carolina Rodriguez, Director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program at the Community Service Society of New York, emphasizes that anyone temporarily unemployed should be able to qualify for a $0 payment plan. And many others qualify based on income and family size.

“The repercussions of falling into delinquency can be pretty severe,” Rodriguez said.

“The federal government can administratively intercept tax refunds and garnish wages. And it can affect Social Security, retirement,

and disability benefits. Does it make financial sense at that point? Probably not.”

Rodriguez says her organization always advises against deferment or forbearance except once a borrower has exhausted all other options. In the long term, those financial choices offer little benefit, as some loans will continue to accrue interest while deferred.

Abby Shafroth, senior attorney and director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center, said that, of the two, deferment is generally a better option.

That’s because interest generally does not accrue on Direct Subsidized Loans, the subsidized portion of Direct Consolidation Loans, Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans, the subsidized portion of FFEL Consolidation Loans, and Federal Perkins Loans. All other federal student loans that are deferred will continue to accrue interest.

“Forbearance allows you to postpone payments without it being held against you, but interest does accrue. So you’re going to see your balance increase every month.”

WHAT ABOUT DECLARING BANKRUPTCY?

For most student loan borrowers, it’s still very difficult to have your loans discharged, or canceled, through bankruptcy. Borrowers must prove a very hard standard of financial circumstances, called “undue hardship.”

“That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t look into it,” Rodriguez said. “But they may not be successful at discharging their loans.”

For borrowers who show that level of financial strain, chances are they have other options, Rodriguez said.

She advises that borrowers make sure they are speaking to a bankruptcy attorney who understands student loan bankruptcy, which requires a different proceeding than other types of bankruptcy.

Shafroth, of the NCLC, says that new guidance on student loan bankruptcy has been coming out in recent years.

“Though it is difficult to get your loans discharged through the bankruptcy process, an increasing number of borrowers are eligible to get their loans discharged that way,” she said. “A lot of people write that off as ‘there’s no way, it’s impossible.’ But it’s increasingly possible.”

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A LOAN GOES INTO DEFAULT?

When you fall behind on a loan by 270 days — roughly 9 months — the loan appears on your credit report as being in default.

“At that point, it’s not just behind, it’s in collections,” Shafroth said. “That’s when you become ineligible to take out new federal student aid. A lot of people go into default because they weren’t able to complete their degree the first time. This prevents them from going back to school.”

Once a loan is in default, it’s subject to the collection processes mentioned above. That means the government can garnish wages (without a court order) to go towards paying back the loan, intercept tax refunds, and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit payments.

WHAT ARE OTHER OPTIONS IF I CAN’T MAKE PAYMENTS?

Shafroth said that many borrowers may still be eligible to have loans canceled via a patchwork of programs outside of the Biden administration’s proposed

debt relief program.

“If your school closed before you could complete your program, you’re eligible for relief. If your school lied to you or misrepresented the outcome of what your enrolling would be, you can file a borrower defense application, and request your loan be canceled on that basis,” she said. “If you have a disability, you can sometimes have your loans canceled on that basis.”

Shafroth encourages borrowers to look at the Student Aid website to see what their options might be before missing payments.

WHAT IF MY LOANS WERE IN DEFAULT BEFORE MARCH 2020?

Under the Biden administration’s Fresh Start program, borrowers with federal student loans who were in default before the pause have a chance to become current.

Borrowers who were in default will not be subject to collection processes or have wages garnished through about August 2024, or roughly one year after the payment freeze ends. These borrowers have also been granted permission to apply for federal student loans again, to complete degrees. Lastly, these defaulted loans are now being reported to credit bureaus as current.

That said, borrowers must take action if they want to stay out of default after this year-long leniency period ends.

To eliminate your record of default, you should contact the Education Department’s Default Resolution Group online, by phone, or by mail, and ask the group to take the loans out of default via the Fresh Start policy. In four to six weeks, any record of default will be removed from your credit report, and the loans will be placed with a loan servicer. This will also give you access to income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, if applicable.

WHAT IF I WAS BEHIND ON PAYMENTS OR DELINQUENT BEFORE MARCH 2020?

The Fresh Start program also applies to borrowers who were delinquent prior to the payment pause. Those accounts will be considered current, and borrowers will have the option to enroll in income-driven repayment plans that can lower bills to as little as $0, or to apply for deferment, forbearance or bankruptcy.

Millennial money matters

Should you financially support adult kids?

BY ELIZABETH AYOOLA, Associated Press

Parenting comes with many responsibilities, and one is raising financially independent kids. But adult kids sometimes still need financial support. Financially supporting adult kids is a kind thing to do but can have downsides if you’re not financially secure. Not only can it affect your retirement savings, but it also may strain your relationship with your kids. Before agreeing to financially support them, assess whether you can afford it. Setting boundaries around how much help you’ll extend can help protect your finances and relationship. Most importantly, guiding your kids toward financial independence is one of the best intangible gifts you can give them.

Some parents will tell you firsthand there’s no expiration date on this raising kids gig. For some, that means they extend financial help to their kids into adulthood. When I was 21 and got into a master’s program at a college of my dreams, my mom swooped in to help me pay for my degree. Many parents have been kind enough to do this and more.

When I say “many,” I’m backed up by a 2023 survey from Savings.com that found 45% of parents with a child 18 or older spend an average of over $1,400 per month supporting their kids financially, excluding adult kids with disabilities.

But is this financial support always a good idea? A certified financial planner and a therapist who both have experience in this department share their thoughts.

WHY PARENTS SUPPORT ADULT KIDS

There are many reasons a parent may choose to support their adult kids. Disabilities and wanting to help them achieve major life milestones are a couple. Shelmeshia Hill-Brown, the CEO of Wholistic Resolutions LLC in Chesapeake, Virginia, is a social worker and therapist who works with parents who financially support their adult kids. A major theme she sees is parents helping pay for school, especially since the pandemic. Buying a home and exploring infertility treatments are other reasons her clients financially

support their kids.

While some parents offer financial support because they want to, others feel obligated even when it’s financially inconvenient. Sometimes, the obligation stems from guilt of not preparing their kids for financial independence early on, HillBrown says.

“They didn’t do that oneon-one time with them, to sit down and actually teach them,” she says. “But a lot of that also stemmed from, it never (being) done with them, as well, so they were learning along the way, and it made it a little bit more challenging to sit down and come up with a plan to implement with their own children.”

RISKS OF SUPPORTING ADULT CHILDREN

Supporting your kids can be satisfying, but it also may be detrimental if you’re not financially secure. It also can affect retirement savings, which many Americans already have concerns about. Fidelity’s 2023 Retirement Savings Assessment tells us 52% of American households may not be able to cover essential expenses in retirement. And roughly 50% even plan to work during retirement.

Nonetheless, some parents think about dipping into their savings so their adult kids don’t have to take out loans, says Kayla Walter, a certified financial planner at Bailey Wealth Advisors in Silver Spring, Maryland. She advises clients against that, seeing as there are student loans, but no loans for retirement.

“You’re blowing through your savings at a much faster rate, and it’s not going to last you as long as maybe you intend to live,” she says.

PROTECTING YOUR FINANCES AND RELATIONSHIP

The risk in providing for adult kids is twofold: It can affect your finances and relationship. Yes, it may give you a sense of purpose and make you feel connected to your child, but it also can cause resentment, says Hill-Brown.

“There are some [parents] who actually find themselves

in a financial bind because they were not open with their own financial responsibilities and how it would be impacted,” she says. “And that’s where that resentment and guilt takes place as a result.” She adds that resentment can happen even for parents who can afford to support their kids.

To protect your finances, make sure you can afford to extend help to your kids before saying yes, and know your limits. You can then communicate these limits with your child. For those who have kids who are financially dependent on them, gradually reduce support and set boundaries around how financial support will look moving forward, Hill-Brown says. Also, be willing to say no when necessary.

If you’re feeling guilty about it, keep in mind that financial support without limits could keep your child from becoming financially independent, which is something Hill-Brown says they could then pass on to the next generation.

ENCOURAGING FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

After setting those financial boundaries, you can start steering your child toward financial independence.

One way to help do this is by bringing them into your finances, Walter says.

“If they’re feeling like they didn’t do enough for their children, a good time to kind of help them learn more about finances would be bringing them into the meeting with your adviser and make it a family meeting so that way they can see what’s going on,” she says.

Another option is to point adult kids to financial services that can help. For instance, instead of loaning them money if they’re in serious debt, you could direct them to a debt consolidation service. Additionally, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has an abundance of resources.

Finally, Walter suggests being a good example to your kids and mirroring healthy money habits.

“There’s never not a good time to set a good financial example for your children.”

Because the people must know

COMBINED NOTICE -

PUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103

FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0137-2023

To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust:

On March 31, 2023, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s)

Celeste Trevino

Original Beneficiary(ies)

MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC. AS NOMINEE FOR CHERRY CREEK MORTGAGE CO., INC., ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS

Current Holder of Evidence of Debt

COLORADO HOUSING AND FINANCE

AUTHORITY

Date of Deed of Trust

September 24, 2009

County of Recording Arapahoe

Recording Date of Deed of Trust

October 21, 2009

Recording Information (Reception No. and/ or Book/Page No.)

B9115545

Original Principal Amount

$158,574.00

Outstanding Principal Balance

$124,791.45

Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: Failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof.

THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

SEE ATTACHED LEGAL DESCRIPTION.

LEGAL DESCRIPTION

CONDOMINIUM UNIT NO. 7, BULIDING 24, WINDSONG CONDOMINIUMS, IN ACCORDANCE WITH AND SUBJECT TO THE DECLARATION OF COVENANTS, CONDITIONS AND RESTRICTIONS OF THE WINDSONG CONDOMINIUMS RECORDED ON JULY 12, 1983 IN BOOK 3912 AT PAGE 441 AND MAP RECORDED ON JULY 12, 1983 IN BOOK 65 AT PAGE 47, IN THE RECORDS OF THE COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, TOGETHER WITH THE RIGHT TO THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF PARKING SPACE NO. 443, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO

Also known by street and number as: 7474 East Arkansas Avenue #2407, Denver, CO 80231.

THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST.

NOTICE OF SALE

The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 08/02/2023, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)’ heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys’ fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication 6/8/2023

Last Publication 7/6/2023

Name of Publication Sentinel

IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO

A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE

A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED;

DATE: 03/31/2023

Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado

By: /s/ Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Alison L Berry #34531

N. April Winecki #34861

David R. Doughty #40042

Nicholas H. Santarelli #46592

Lynn M. Janeway #15592

Janeway Law Firm, P.C. 9800 S. Meridian Blvd., Suite 400, Englewood, CO 80112 (303) 706-9990

Attorney File # 21-025965

The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose.

©Public Trustees’ Association of Colorado

Revised 1/2015

COMBINED NOTICEPUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103

FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0148-2023

To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust:

On April 7, 2023, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s) CHERI M CRAWFORD Original Beneficiary(ies) MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC. ACTING SOLELY AS NOMINEE FOR QUICKEN LOANS

Current Holder of Evidence of Debt

ROCKET MORTGAGE, LLC F/K/A QUICKEN LOANS, LLC F/K/A QUICKEN LOANS INC.

Date of Deed of Trust

December 20, 2016 County of Recording Arapahoe

Recording Date of Deed of Trust

December 23, 2016 Recording Information (Reception No. and/ or Book/Page No.)

D6149891

Original Principal Amount

$202,730.00

Outstanding Principal Balance

$179,744.03

Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: Failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof.

THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

LOT 22, BLOCK 3, OLDETOWN SUBDIVISION FILING NO. 1, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO.

Also known by street and number as: 293

S NOME ST,, AURORA, CO 80012-1212. THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST.

NOTICE OF SALE

The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 08/09/2023, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)’ heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys’ fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication 6/15/2023

Last Publication 7/13/2023

Name of Publication Sentinel IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED;

DATE: 04/07/2023

Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado

By: /s/ Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Anna Johnston #51978

Ryan Bourgeois #51088

Joseph D. DeGiorgio #45557

Randall M. Chin #31149

Barrett, Frappier & Weisserman, LLP 1391 Speer Boulevard, Suite 700, Denver, CO 80204 (303) 350-3711

Attorney File # 00000009761586

The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose.

©Public Trustees’ Association of Colorado

Revised 1/2015

COMBINED NOTICEPUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103

FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0170-2023

To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust:

On April 14, 2023, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s)

Alejandra Gomez AND Jessica A Gomez

Original Beneficiary(ies)

MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC. AS NOMINEE FOR FAIRWAY INDEPENDENT MORTGAGE CORPORATION, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS

Current Holder of Evidence of Debt

COLORADO HOUSING AND FINANCE

AUTHORITY

Date of Deed of Trust

December 09, 2021

County of Recording

Arapahoe

Recording Date of Deed of Trust

January 19, 2022

Recording Information (Reception No. and/ or Book/Page No.)

E2006869

Original Principal Amount

$476,215.00

Outstanding Principal Balance

$469,093.25

Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: Failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof.

THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

LOT 35, BLOCK 1, HIGHPOINT SUBDIVISION FILING NO. 4, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO. PARCEL ID NUMBER: 031600588

Also known by street and number as: 4102 S Andes Way, Aurora, CO 80013.

THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST.

NOTICE OF SALE

The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 08/16/2023, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)’ heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys’ fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication 6/22/2023

Last Publication 7/20/2023

Name of Publication Sentinel IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED;

DATE: 04/14/2023

Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado

By: /s/ Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Alison L Berry #34531

N. April Winecki #34861

David R. Doughty #40042

Nicholas H. Santarelli #46592

Lynn M. Janeway #15592

Janeway Law Firm, P.C. 9800 S. Meridian Blvd., Suite 400, Englewood, CO 80112 (303) 706-9990

Attorney File # 23-029685

The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose.

©Public Trustees’ Association of Colorado

Revised 1/2015

COMBINED NOTICEPUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103

FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0174-2023

To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust:

On April 18, 2023, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s)

Thongchai Sorawet

Original Beneficiary(ies) MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC. AS NOMINEE FOR PARAMOUNT RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE GROUP, INC., ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS

Current Holder of Evidence of Debt COLORADO HOUSING AND FINANCE

AUTHORITY

Date of Deed of Trust

December 07, 2021

County of Recording

Arapahoe

Recording Date of Deed of Trust

December 10, 2021

Recording Information (Reception No. and/ or Book/Page No.)

E1187458

Original Principal Amount $448,725.00

Outstanding Principal Balance

$442,014.38

Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: Failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof. THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

LOT 8, BLOCK 2, RED WILLOW SUBDIVISION FILING NO. 1, AMENDMENT NO. 1, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO. APN #: 1975-07-4-30-008

Also known by street and number as: 138 S. Granby Court, Aurora, CO 80012. THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST.

NOTICE OF SALE

The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 08/16/2023, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)’ heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys’ fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication 6/22/2023

Last Publication 7/20/2023

Name of Publication Sentinel

IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE

A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED;

DATE: 04/18/2023

Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado

By: /s/ Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Alison L Berry #34531

N. April Winecki #34861

David R. Doughty #40042

Nicholas H. Santarelli #46592

Lynn M. Janeway #15592

Janeway Law Firm, P.C. 9800 S. Meridian Blvd., Suite 400, Englewood, CO 80112 (303) 706-9990

Attorney File # 23-029649

The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose.

©Public Trustees’ Association of Colorado

Revised 1/2015

COMBINED NOTICEPUBLICATION CRS §38-38-103

FORECLOSURE SALE NO. 0160-2023

To Whom It May Concern: This Notice is given with regard to the following described Deed of Trust:

On April 11, 2023, the undersigned Public Trustee caused the Notice of Election and Demand relating to the Deed of Trust described below to be recorded in the County of Arapahoe records.

Original Grantor(s)

Bekhzod Eshkobilovich Abdiev

Original Beneficiary(ies)

MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC. AS NOMINEE FOR SOUTHWEST FUNDING, LP., ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS

Current Holder of Evidence of Debt

COLORADO HOUSING AND FINANCE

AUTHORITY

Date of Deed of Trust

September 07, 2021

County of Recording

Arapahoe

Recording Date of Deed of Trust

September 16, 2021

Recording Information (Reception No. and/ or Book/Page No.) E1144413

Original Principal Amount $504,591.00

Outstanding Principal Balance $494,488.47

Pursuant to CRS §38-38-101(4)(i), you are hereby notified that the covenants of the deed of trust have been violated as follows: Failure to pay principal and interest when due together with all other payments provided for in the evidence of debt secured by the deed of trust and other violations thereof.

THE LIEN FORECLOSED MAY NOT BE A FIRST LIEN.

LOT 10, BLOCK 14, SADDLE ROCK HIGHLANDS FILING NO. 1, COUNTY OF ARAPAHOE, STATE OF COLORADO

Also known by street and number as: 3710 S Nepal Court, Aurora, CO 80013.

THE PROPERTY DESCRIBED HEREIN IS ALL OF THE PROPERTY CURRENTLY ENCUMBERED BY THE LIEN OF THE DEED OF TRUST.

NOTICE OF SALE

The current holder of the Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, described herein, has filed Notice of Election and Demand for sale as provided by law and in said Deed of Trust.

THEREFORE, Notice Is Hereby Given that I will at public auction, at 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, 08/09/2023, at The East Hearing Room, County Administration Building, 5334 South Prince Street, Littleton, Colorado, 80120, sell to the highest and best bidder for cash, the said real property and all interest of the said Grantor(s), Grantor(s)’ heirs and assigns therein, for the purpose of paying the indebtedness provided in said Evidence of Debt secured by the Deed of Trust, plus attorneys’ fees, the expenses of sale and other items allowed by law, and will issue to the purchaser a Certificate of Purchase, all as provided by law.

First Publication 6/15/2023

Last Publication 7/13/2023

Name of Publication Sentinel IF THE SALE DATE IS CONTINUED TO A LATER DATE, THE DEADLINE TO FILE A NOTICE OF INTENT TO CURE BY THOSE PARTIES ENTITLED TO CURE MAY ALSO BE EXTENDED;

DATE: 04/11/2023

Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee in and for the County of Arapahoe, State of Colorado

By: /s/ Michael Westerberg, Public Trustee

The name, address, business telephone number and bar registration number of the attorney(s) representing the legal holder of the indebtedness is:

Alison L Berry #34531

N. April Winecki #34861

David R. Doughty #40042

Nicholas H. Santarelli #46592

Lynn M. Janeway #15592

Janeway Law Firm, P.C. 9800 S. Meridian Blvd., Suite 400, Englewood, CO 80112 (303) 706-9990

Attorney File # 23-029600

The Attorney above is acting as a debt collector and is attempting to collect a debt. Any information provided may be used for that purpose.

©Public Trustees’ Association of Colorado

Revised 1/2015

FreeDailyCrosswords.com

ACROSS-----------�

DOWN

WE’RE DIFFERENT. SO ARE YOU.

The Sentinel not only cares deeply about bringing our readers accurate and critical news, we insist all of the crucial stories we provide are available for everyone — for free.

Like you, we know how critical accurate and dependable information and facts are in making the best decisions about, well, everything that matters. Factual, credible reporting is crucial to a sound democracy, a solid community and a satisfying life.

So there’s no paywall at SentinelColorado.com. Our print editions are free on stands across the region, and our daily email E-ditions are free just for signing up, to anyone.

But we need your help to carry out this essential mission.

The cost of producing top-notch journalism is steep. We need readers like you to become partners and help us. Even if it’s a little, it means a lot.

Join our mission by providing even a few dollars a month, or more if you’re able. Whether you can or can’t give right now, visit SentinelColorado.com to subscribe to our free daily email E-ditions.

If stories like the one you just read matter, help us keep the Sentinel here when you need us, for everyone. Join us now at SentinelColorado.com and click on the red “Donate 4 Sentinel” button at the top of the page. Or mail checks to:

Sentinel Colorado, 2600 S. Parker Road, Suite 4-141, Aurora, CO 80014

An F-16 takes off from Buckley Space Force Base, March 31, as J.P. and Maj. Joseph “Stinger” Valdez look on during J.P.’s Top Gun experience wish granted by Buckley and Make-A-Wish.

Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/ Sentinel Colorado

Students of the Denver Westies Swing Class practice their moves following the instructional hour of the class, May 14 at the Stampede country-western dance hall.

Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado