Sentinel Colorado 9.12.2024

Holy moly and water, Venezuelan frenzy draws the whack out of the very weird

The life of a journalist is stressful and exhausting — and bizarre.

For the last few weeks, this newsroom and others around the metro area have worked far past overtime to bring clarity, facts and reality to the explosion of melodrama and panic over supposed Venezuelan gang takeovers of Aurora.

Despite the freakish frenzy this story has inspired among right-wing extremists elected to public office, self-appointed on social media or masquerading as journalists at FoxNews, you gotta laugh at some of this.

It’s not funny that thousands of Aurora residents have suffered for decades as tenants in slummy apartments. It’s not funny that most of the victims under the media microscope right now are helpless Venezuelan immigrants, who freaking walked here from South America in hopes of finding a piece of the American life most of us take for granted every single day.

What is funny, is that some people have so much time on their hands and are so committed to the idea that brown people trying to come to the United States are “them.” They passionately believe that those lucky enough to be born here are “us.” And some of them are willing to stop by the Sentinel newsroom and irrigate me with holy water in an effort to help send “them” back from where they came.

Last Thursday, the hate mail filled our email inboxes and the phones rang and rang and rang with people anxious to tell me how heinous it is that the Sentinel pushed back on accepting the “gang takeover” narrative, without demanding vetted and verifiable proof. It’s what sets apart journalists here at the Sentinel and similar media from other venues rolling film and leaving viewers to figure out for themselves how to fill in between the lines and gaps.

I picked up the newsroom line early to loud yelling from a man with a charming New England accent demanding to know what I was doing to stop the flood of Venezuelan gangsters from over-

taking Aurora, or maybe not. He wasn’t making a lot of sense, but he was making a lot of noise. He said his job is to make loud noise on the Take A Stand Radio Show in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

“This is all everyone in Rhode Island is talking about,” he said, demanding to know whether as a fellow “patriot and journalist,” I was going to tell him the inside story.

DAVE PERRY Editor

When I asked his name, he hung up. Must be a patriotic journalist thing.

But before he could, an unhappy middle-aged couple came into the newsroom, asking for me. They seemed taken aback by either my gray hair, which takes me aback nearly every morning, or my penchant for short pants.

“You need Jesus Christ in your life,” the woman insisted, saying that finding Jesus would set the Sentinel and my errant signed columns on the right path.

I asked if Jesus might be able to help with a pile of rewrites, as I would have an empty desk for him.

She wasn’t amused, pulled out a plastic bottle labeled, “Holy Water” pulled the cap off and began dousing me.

I objected and said that unless she was ordained, she had to take her bottled water, her lobbying for Jesus and dubious behavior back out into the parking lot.

It’s been like that for several days.

In between, the Sentinel article comments, tweets and twits have been a rich mix of hate for me, for journalism, for immigrants and just stuff in general.

Here’s a sample:

“What do these (Venezuelan) freeloaders expect?Theycomeherewithnoskills,nomoney andnoprospectsandexpectthestrugglingUS Citizenstosubsidizethem.Wemustrollupthe welcomematandturnourbacksontheseinvaders.Theydonothingbutdiminishoursocietyand

drainresourcesthatcouldsupportthetaxpayers that contributed. NO MORE ILLEGALS!!!”

— Juan

“Allour(news)mediacentersarewithinwalkingdistanceofeachother.Let’sbbqintheirparkinglotsandinterrupttheirlivebroadcastingwith heavyproteinfarts.”

— lark216

“You are fu***** insane!!!”

—CatherineH

“Lockthemup!!”

—ScottDaniels

“Dude,giveitup.Youtriedandfailedtocover itup.Admityou’realiarandrunningcoverfor the Dems. Aurora is lost.”

— Jerry Lewis

“OnlyaBolshevikwouldseebarelyhumanimmigrantsandimmediatelydemonizethepeople sheddinglightontheNEGATIVEeffectsthese “people”haveonAmericansociety.Theydon’t belonghere..andhonestly,youdon’tbelonghere either.Stopcallingcommonsensegoverning“far rightpolicies”

— Quinn Gardner

Nooneisanti-immigrant.Weareanti-crime. We all came in through Ellis Island, where we werevetted.Whointheirrightmindwouldallow anyonetowalkacrosstheborderwithacriminal history?Doyouletcriminalswalkthroughyour backdoor?(House,notbutthole)

— ImagineAGreat

In addition to the fabulous pay, the luxurious schedule and the glorious work conditions, journalism does have its pitfalls, but the lack of an interesting day isn’t one of them.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-7507555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com

Editorials Sentinel

A trusted Aurora official must counter Venezuela gang frenzy — now

Amid a torrent of controversy over Venezuelan immigrants and gang members in Aurora, the city desperately needs help — from itself. By design, by accident or by default, Aurora appears to be a rudderless government, run by a frenzied propagandist, a confused and waffling mayor and FoxNews.

Immediately, the city must choose a credible spokesperson for this large and durable government to provide at least daily press conferences where accurate and detailed information is provided to all the media and the public, and where the media can press for clarity.

Instead, Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky and other Republican politicians are, along with right-wing social-media trolls and FoxNews, defining the crisis and story with a flood of propaganda, exaggeration, misinformation and an undeniable anti-immigrant and patently racist agenda.

Since Jurinsky began her political career on city council three years ago, she has gone out of her way to stand behind nearly any and every move made by the Aurora Police. Suddenly she now paints them on local and national TV stations as lazy and inept dullards, mostly responsible for allowing Aurora to become “overrun” by members of the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan prison gang and covering up their presence.

Jurinsky has repeatedly provided complicit local and national media outlets with a barrage of factless or debunked allegations, and yet the city officials and administrators have not stepped forward to call out her misinformation for what it is.

Coffman has provided a vast array of ever-changing stories and opinions, sometimes contradictory to Jurinsky’s public tantrums, and others that parrot them. Just as irresponsible and damaging to all of Aurora, Coffman issues inaccurate, conflicting and unclear edicts and announcements on TV or in social media posts, and it takes hours and even days for the media to get clarity and facts from reputable city and police officials.

Last week, near the end of the day on Friday, Coffman announced on his Facebook page that Aurora would seek “emergency” court orders to essentially seize and shut down additional dilapidated northwest Aurora apartment complexes. Such a move would involve evicting hundreds of poor and struggling residents, many of them Venezuelan immigrants, with nowhere else to go. It wasn’t until days later that city officials began making clear Coffman’s announcement was erroneous. The facts were, instead, that the threatened shut-downs were only options for the city. In reality such a scheme would take weeks, months or even years.

But the damage was done, and Coffman’s factless assertion caused undue fear and panic among vulnerable residents of the apartment complexes and the public.

This Friday, Coffman said on Facebook that he agrees with police and residents that gangs have not now nor ever “taken over” any of the problems owned by “slumlords.” But he agreed with the same “slumlords” that gang problems forced property managers “to flee.”

Neither Coffman nor Jurinsky have the credibility nor are in a position to be the public face of clarity, transparency, accountability and factual detail in this issue.

Neither run nor administer the city. Jurinsky has one of 11 votes among the city council. Coffman does not run or administer city government. The charter empowers the mayor only to run city council meetings and make minor appointments, nothing else. City Manager Jason Batchelor is Aurora’s chief executive.

It’s unclear whether police and city managers and staff are too fearful to publicly denounce Jurinsky’s propaganda and factless tirades, or to correct Coffman’s rogue missives. It could be that police and city officials are overwhelmed and unprepared to manage the crisis.

But, enormous damage has already been done to residents directly affected by this controversy, as well as everyone who lives and works in Aurora. Venezuelan residents have repeatedly told police, aid workers and the media that they do not fear gangs nor gang activity in these buildings, they fear racist reprisal by vigilantes and public panic created by the political farce perpetrated by Jurinsky and complicit politicized media outlets.

Despite that, both Jurinsky and Coffman have become the near sole sources of public information — primarily misinformation — about an Aurora crisis that is not Venezuelan immigrants and gangs, but hysteria created in a vacuum of reliable information from a credible city source. That information should come from either the police chief, a deputy chief or a professional city spokesperson.

We agree with Aurora Congressman Jason Crow on his view of the sham.

“You have politicians, in this case, who are misrepresenting and distorting the facts for political purposes…” Crow told the Sentinel Thursday.

The city cannot wait another day before changing tactics in making public the factual details and critical plans about to unfold.

A credible city spokesperson, in person and answerable to credible media, must set the record straight. At the same time, this spokesperson must factually detail how the city will address the long-standing and now critical underlying issues in northwest Aurora that a bevy of unscrupulous politicians and media have misappropriated.

JOE GUZZARDI, CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST

Kamala Harris, re-imagined

In political history’s most remarkable U-turn, Vice President Kamala Harris – the Democrat’s presidential candidate – has converted into a tough on border security advocate. She pledges to hire thousands more border agents, to defeat drug cartels and to jail gun smugglers. A new ad the Harris campaign released nationwide concludes with this line: “Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”

The spot is so brazenly dishonest and such a shameless insult to voters’ intelligence that even the most grizzled, cynical political observers are taken aback.

Under her watch, millions of illegal aliens have crossed the border unchecked and disrupted communities into which they have resettled. Her home city of San Francisco, where she served as District Attorney, and California, where she was the Attorney General and the senior U.S. Senator, are crime infested messes.

Harris’ problem is her congressional voting record betrays her campaign promises. She cast seven votes against bills that would have strengthened border security. And Harris’ votes on interior enforcement reflected her disdain for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency she compared to the KKK and wants to abolish.

American voters. She has not, however, softened her amnesty advocacy. With her vice presidential choice, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democrat ticket has doubled down on amnesty. In 2021, Walz wrote to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to urge that millions of illegal immigrants be put on a pathway to citizenship.

On 21 occasions, Harris voted for bills that would weaken interior enforcement including legislation to end sanctuary cities. Harris also opposed using 287 (g), the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) program to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove incarcerated criminal noncitizens. A sampling of her votes:

– In 2017, Harris cosponsored S. 1615, the Dream Act of 2017, that would grant amnesty to about three million illegal immigrants, the so-called DREAMers.

– In 2017, Harris cosponsored S. 845, the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act which prevents federal immigration agents from detaining illegal aliens in certain public places.

– In 2018, Harris voted for Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) amendment to grant amnesty to 3.2 million illegal aliens, again the DREAMer population.

– In 2019, Harris cosponsored S. 175, the Agricultural Worker Program Act. The legislation would have granted amnesty to approximately 3 million agricultural workers. Harris voted against an amendment offered by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that would block federal grants to sanctuary districts, which protect illegal alien criminals that otherwise would be prosecuted.

– As a 2020 presidential candidate, Harris promised to amnesty six million illegal aliens through executive action, if necessary.

Harris is trying to recast herself as having evolved from extreme immigration positions that are out of step with

But Harris cannot escape the indisputable fact that, over several years, she has made countless statements and cast dozens of votes that oppose enforcement and support illegal immigration. With her tacit blessing, millions have entered, including ninety-nine on the terrorist watch list that the Department of Homeland Security released into the interior. A House Judiciary Committee report found that at least 27 on the terrorist watchlist who came through the southwest border and were bonded out by immigration judges. At least four other terrorists were granted asylum. Moreover, during FY 2024, border patrol has encountered tens of thousands of illegal aliens nationwide from countries that could present national security risks, including 2,134 Afghan nationals, 33,347 Chinese nationals, 541 Iranian nationals, 520 Syrian nationals, and 3,104 Uzbek nationals.

Harris was also one of only four Democrats who co-sponsored the Immigration Enforcement Moratorium Act, legislation that would prevent DHS from deporting the worst of the worst criminals – murders, child molesters and rapists.

Harris was Biden’s partner in every failed policy he initiated. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized to reporters during a recent briefing how “aligned” Biden and Harris have been throughout the president’s term and how the vice president has been a “critical part” of all the president’s decision-making.

Biden is not on the ticket; he’s been deposed. But Harris’ border policies are identical to her former boss’. No one wants four more years of mass illegal immigration.

In March 2021, Biden appointed Harris his border czar, or, in his words, he asked his vice president to lead the administration’s efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — countries that will: “need help stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border.” Harris shirked that responsibility and let illegal immigration run wild.

Harris will try to hide from voters the devastating affects her negligence had on U.S. communities, but that goal will be a major challenge for her candidacy.

JoeGuzzardiisanInstituteforSoundPublicPolicy analystwhohaswrittenaboutimmigrationformorethan 30years.

LIFE ON AURORA’S MEAN STREETS

Thousands of Venezuelan immigrants struggle, surviving on hope, luck and borrowed time

BY BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS, AP Writer

Ivanni Herrera was eight months pregnant when she was forced to leave her Denver homeless shelter. It was November.

She took her 4-year-old son Dylan by the hand and led him into the chilly night, dragging a suitcase containing donated clothes and blankets she’d taken from the Microtel Inn & Suites. It was one of 10 hotels where Denver has housed more than 30,000 migrants, many of them Venezuelan, over the last two years.

First they walked to Walmart. There, with money she and her husband had collected from begging on the street, they bought a tent.

They waited until dark to construct their new home. They chose a grassy median along a busy thoroughfare in Aurora, known for its large immigrant population.

“We wanted to go somewhere where there were people,” Herrera, 28, said in Spanish. “It feels safer.”

That night, temperatures dipped to 32 degrees. And as she wrapped her body around her son’s to keep him warm enough that he could sleep, Ivanni Herrera cried.

Seeking better lives, finding something else

Over the past two years, a record number of families from Venezuela have come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Instead, they’ve found themselves in communities roiling with conflict about how much to help the newcomers — or whether to help at all.

Unable to legally work without filing expensive and complicated paperwork, some are homeless and gambling on the kindness of strangers to survive. Some have found themselves sleeping on the streets — even those who are pregnant.

Like many in her generation, regardless of nationality, Herrera found inspiration for

her life’s ambitions on social media. Back in Ecuador, where she had fled years earlier to escape the economic collapse in her native Venezuela, Herrera and her husband were emboldened by images of families like theirs hiking across the infamous Darién Gap from Colombia into Panama.

If all those people could do it, they thought, so can we.

They didn’t know many people who had moved to the United States, but pictures and videos of Venezuelans on Facebook and TikTok showed young, smiling families in nice clothes standing in front of new cars boasting of beautiful new lives.

U.S. Border Patrol reports show Herrera and the people who inspired her were part of an unprecedented mass migration of Venezuelans to America. Some 320,000 Venezuelans have tried to cross the southern border since October 2022 — more than in the previous nine years combined.

Just weeks after arriving in Denver, Herrera began to wonder if the success she had seen was real. She and her friends had developed another theory: The hype around the U.S. was part of some ‘red de engaño,’ or network of deception.

After several days of camping on the street and relieving herself outside, Herrera began to itch uncontrollably with an infection. She worried: Would it imperil her baby?

She was seeing doctors and social workers at a Denver hospital where she planned to give birth because they served everyone, even those without insurance. They were alarmed their pregnant patient was now sleeping outside in the cold.

Days after she was forced to leave the Microtel, Denver paused its policy and allowed homeless immigrants to stay in its shelters through the winter. Denver officials say they visited encampments to urge homeless migrants to come back inside. But they didn’t venture outside Denver limits to Aurora.

As Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora is a place where officials have turned down requests to help migrants. In February, the

Aurora City Council passed a resolution telling other cities and nonprofits not to bring migrants into the community because it “does not currently have the financial capacity to fund new services related to this crisis.”

Yet still they come, because of its lower cost of living and Spanish-speaking community.

In fact, former President Donald Trump last week called attention to the city, suggesting a Venezuelan gang had taken over an apartment complex. Authorities say that hasn’t happened.

The city is in the eye of a political hurricane, where Venezuelan immigrants are being accused of creating havoc in northwest Aurora neighborhoods, simply because of their sheer numbers and mostly because of allegations that there are crimes being committed by notorious Venezuelan gangs. Police and federal officials have pushed back against widespread alarm created by Republican politicians, insisiting that gang crimes perpetrated by Tren de Aragua gangsters have resulted in some Aurora neighborhoods and apartment complexes being “taken over” by criminals. Police, state, city and federal officials say the allegations are overstated at best.

Local and national Democrats say breathless allegations is grandstanding, creating fear and real danger for immigrants and the public.

“Those exaggerating and distorting the Aurora gang issue need to stop,” Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow said in a social media post on Saturday. “Their misrepresentations are not based in reality. I’ve met and spoken with federal law enforcement and local leaders: the gang issues are being grossly exaggerated and misrepresented. “

Another family, cast out into the night

The doctors treated Herrera’s yeast infection and urged her to sleep at the hospital. It wouldn’t cost anything, they assured her, just as her birth would be covered by emergency Medicaid, a program that extends the health care benefits for poor American families to unauthorized immigrants for labor and delivery.

Herrera refused.

“How,” she asked, “could I sleep in a warm place when my son is cold on the street?”

It was March when David Jaimez, his pregnant wife and their two daughters were evicted from their Aurora apartment. Desperate for help, they dragged their possessions into Thursday evening Bible study at Jesus on Colfax, a church and food pantry inside an old motel. Its namesake and location, Colfax Avenue, has long been a destination for the drug-addicted, homeless veterans and new immigrants.

When the Jaimez family arrived, the prayers paused. The manager addressed the family in elementary Spanish, supplementing with Google Translate on her phone. After arriving from Venezuela in August and staying in a Denver-sponsored hotel room, they’d moved into an apartment in Aurora. Housing is cheaper in that eastern suburb, but they never found enough work to pay their rent. “I owe $8,000,” Jaimez said, his eyes wide. “Supposedly there’s work here. I don’t believe it.”

Jaimez and his wife are eligible to apply for asylum or for ” Temporary Protected Status ” and, with that, work permits. But doing so would require an attorney or advisor, months of waiting and $500 in fees each.

At the prayer group, Jaimez’s daughters drank sodas and ate tangerines from one

participant, a middle-aged woman and Aurora native. She stroked the ponytail of the family’s 8-year-old daughter as the young girl smiled.

When the leader couldn’t find anywhere for the family to stay, they headed out into the evening, pushing their year-old daughter in her stroller and lugging a suitcase behind them. After they left, the middle-aged woman leaned forward in her folding chair and said: “It’s kind of crazy that our city lets them in but does not help our veterans.” Nearby, a man nodded in agreement.

That night, Jaimez and his family found an encampment for migrants run by a Denver nonprofit called All Souls and moved into tent number 28. Volunteers and staff brought in water, meals and other resources. Weeks later, the family was on the move again: Camping without a permit is illegal in Denver, and the city closed down the encampment. All Souls re-established it in six different locations but closed it permanently in May.

At its peak, nearly 100 people were living in the encampment. About half had been evicted from apartments hastily arranged before their shelter time expired, said founder Candice Marley. Twenty-two residents were children and five women were pregnant, including Jaimez’s wife. Marley is trying to get a permit for another encampment, but the permit would only allow people over 18.

“Even though there are lots of kids living on the street, they don’t want them all together in a camp,” Marley said. “That’s not a good public image for them.”

A city’s efforts, not enough

Denver officials say they won’t tolerate children sleeping on the street. “Did you really walk from Venezuela to be homeless in the U.S.? I don’t think so,” said Jon Ewing, spokesman for Denver’s health and human services department. “We can do better than that.”

Still, Denver struggled to keep up with the rush of migrants, many arriving on buses chartered by Texas government officials in a political effort to draw attention to the impact of immigration. All told, Denver officials say they have helped some 42,700 migrants since last year, either by giving them shelter or a bus fare to another city.

Initially, the city offered migrants with families six weeks in a hotel. But in May, on pace to spend $180 million this year helping newcomers, the city scaled back its offer to future migrants while deepening its investment in people already getting help.

Denver paid for longer shelter stays for 800 migrants already in hotels and offered them English classes and help applying for asylum and work permits. But any migrants arriving since May have received only three days in a hotel. After that, some have found transportation to other cities, scrounged for a place to sleep or wandered into nearby towns like Aurora.

Today, fewer migrants are coming to the metro area, but Marley still receives dozens of outreaches per week from social service agencies looking to help homeless migrants. “It’s so frustrating that we can’t help them,” she said. “That leaves families camping on their own, unsupported, living in their cars. Kids can’t get into school. There’s no stability.”

After the encampment closed, Jaimez and his family moved into a hotel. He paid by holding a cardboard sign at an intersection and begging for money. Their daughter only attended school for one month last year, since they never felt confident that they were settled anywhere more than a few weeks. The family recently moved to a farm

outside of the Denver area, where they’ve been told they can live in exchange for working.

On the front lines of begging

When Herrera started feeling labor pains in early December, she was sitting on the grass, resting after a long day asking strangers for money. She waited until she couldn’t bear the pain anymore and could feel the baby getting close. She called an ambulance.

The paramedics didn’t speak Spanish but called an interpreter. They told Herrera they had to take her to the closest hospital, instead of the one in Denver, since her contractions were so close together.

Her son was born healthy at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. She brought him to the tent the next day. A few days later the whole family, including the baby, had contracted chicken pox. “The baby was in a bad state,” said Emily Rodriguez, a close friend living with her family in a tent next to Herrera’s.

Herrera took him to the hospital, then returned to the tent before being offered a way out. An Aurora woman originally from Mexico invited the family to live with her — at first, for free. After a couple weeks, the family moved to a small room in the garage for $800 a month.

To earn rent and pay expenses, Herrera and Rodriguez have cleaned homes, painted houses and shoveled snow while their children waited in a car by themselves. Finding regular work and actually getting paid for it has been difficult. While their husbands can get semi-regular work in construction, the women’s most consistent income comes from something else: standing outside with their children and begging.

Herrera and her husband recently became eligible to apply for work permits and legal residency for Venezuelans who arrived in the United States last year. But it will cost $800 each for a lawyer to file the paperwork, along with hundreds of dollars in government fees. They don’t have the money.

One spring weekday, Herrera and Rodriguez stand by the shopping carts at the entrance to a Mexican grocery store. While their sons crawl along a chain of red shopping carts stacked together and baby Milan sleeps in his stroller, they try to make eye contact with shoppers.

Some ignore them. Others stuff bills in their hands. On a good day, each earns about $50.

It comes easier for Rodriguez, who’s naturally boisterous. “One day a man came up and gave me this iPhone. It’s new,” she says, waving the device in the air.

“Check out this body,” she says as she spins around, laughing and showing off her ample bottom. “I think he likes me.”

Herrera grimaces. She won’t flirt like her friend does. She picks up Milan and notices his diaper is soaked, then returns him to the stroller. She has run out of diapers.

Milan was sick, but Herrera has been afraid to take him to the doctor. Despite what the hospital had said when she was pregnant, she was never signed up for emergency Medicaid. She says she owes $18,000 for the ambulance ride and delivery of her baby. Now, she avoids going to the doctor or taking her children because she’s afraid her large debt will jeopardize her chances of staying in the U.S. “I’m afraid they’re going to deport me,” she says.

But some days, when she’s feeling overwhelmed, she wants to be deported — as long as she can take her children along. Like the day in May when the security guard at the Mexican grocery store chased off the women and told them they couldn’t beg there anymore. “He insulted us and called us awful names,” Rodriguez says.

The two women now hold cardboard signs along a busy street in Denver and then knock on the doors of private homes, never returning to the same address. They type up their request for clothes, food or money on their phones and translate it to English using Google. They hand their phones to whoever answers the door.

The American Dream, still out of reach

In the Aurora garage where Herrera and her family live, the walls are lined with stuffed animals people have given her and her son. Baby Milan, on the floor, pushes himself up to look around. Dylan sleeps in bed.

Herrera recently sent $500 to her sister to make the months-long trip from Venezuela to Aurora with Herrera’s 8-year-old daughter. “I’ll have my family back together,” she says. And she believes her sister will be able to watch her kids so Herrera can look for work.

“I don’t feel equipped to handle all of this on my own,” she says.

The problem is, Herrera hasn’t told her family back in Venezuela how she spends her time. “They think I’m fixing up homes and selling chocolate and flowers,” she says. “I’m living a lie.”

When her daughter calls in the middle of the day, she’s sure not to answer and only picks up after 6 p.m. “They think I’m doing so well, they expect me to send money,” she says. And Herrera has complied, sending $100 a week to help her sister pay rent and buy food for her daughter.

Finally, her sister and daughter are waiting across the border in Mexico. When we come to the U.S., her sister asks, could we fly to Denver? The tickets are $600.

She has to come clean. She doesn’t have the money. She lives day to day. The American Dream hasn’t happened for Ivanni Herrera — at least, not yet. Life is far more difficult than she has let on. She texts back: “No.”

ON THE COVER: Ivanni Herrera holds her baby Milan Guzman during an interview in a park Friday, May 18, 2024, in Aurora. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

TOP: A protester holds up a placard during a rally staged by the East Colfax Community Collective to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries in central and South America Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Aurora (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

BOTTOM: Manuel Rodriquez, left, and Dylan Guzman play in a park Friday, May 18, 2024, in Aurora. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Aurora swore in its seventh police chief in five years Monday afternoon amid even more bitter discord than the already turbulent city government is used to.

Todd Chamberlain, a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, takes control of Aurora’s beleaguered police department while the city has been making national and international headlines as the epicenter of an election-season frenzy over undocumented immigrants in the U.S..

Far-right Aurora Council Member Danielle Jurinsky has for the past six weeks fomented both fear and anger over

when she said gang members have not in fact overrun the apartment complexes in question, as both have asserted.

Fabrricatore posted on X on Sunday that Morris, “Will be replaced tomorrow. She gaslighted the public about the apartments and knew about the gang violence for months. She should never hold another Chief position anywhere.”

Morris — who has left the department upon Chamberlain’s arrival — hasn’t returned an inquiry seeking her response.

Still no answers

what she has described, often without basis, as lawlessness among Venezuelan migrants locally and rampant violence by members of a Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, otherwise known as TdA.

BY SUSAN GREENE, Staff Writer

She has defended the owner of three blighted apartment complexes who, along with his attorneys, has claimed the buildings fell into neglect and disrepair because violent TdA members overran them, extorted rent payments from tenants and chased off property managers and maintenance crews.

Her warnings about an alleged Venezuelan reign of terror at the complexes have been echoed, to varying degrees, by Mayor Mike Coffman, and other conservative council members; U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who is vying for a new congressional seat that abuts Aurora; John Fabbricatore, the Republican former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) field office director seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Jason Crow; dozens of conservative politicians and far-right media influencers; and even Donald Trump, who has been exaggerating the situation in stump speeches about what he falsely claims are “thousands and thousands and thousands of terrorists pouring into our country at record levels.”

“In Aurora, Colorado, entire apartment complexes are being taken over by armed Venezuelan gangs with weapons the likes of which even the military doesn’t see,” Trump said at a rally Saturday in Wisconsin. “They’re terrorizing residents and they’re just menacing the whole state … and the people are petrified. Even the sheriff, he’s trying his best, but he’s got a small force by comparison. This is like a military force. And they’re vicious, violent people.”

Closer to home, Jurinksy and Fabbricatore took aim at Aurora’s outgoing Police Chief Heather Morris, accusing her of covering up and downplaying TdA’s threat to the city

Chamberlain, like Morris and the long string of recent police chiefs before her, will face the challenge of being candid with the public, even if it means contradicting the often politically motivated and false assertions of the council members he works for.

At Monday evening’s City Council meeting, civil rights activists berated city officials for rescheduling Chamberlain’s swearing in from the City Council meeting Monday evening to a less public event at police headquarters at 3 p.m.. They said that switch reflects the same lack of transparency and inclusion that surrounded Chamberlain’s appointment, which was made with no public input.

Mohamed Kuziez, a pediatrician in Aurora, described “the shadowy process” by which Chamberlain was hired as “alarming.”

Several activists equated the city’s secrecy around Chamberlain’s appointment to its lack of transparency about the May 23 shooting of Kilyn Lewis, an unarmed Black man, by Aurora SWAT Officer Michael Dieck. As they have at council meetings throughout the summer, they derided city officials for withholding information about the shooting from Lewis’s family, and for refusing to speed up the investigation into the incident, fire Dieck and criminally charge him for killing Lewis.

Still, the activists had a broader message for city officials at this week’s meeting: To stop exaggerating the presence of TdA in the city and demonizing Venezuelans and other immigrants.

Activist Leondard Lorton blamed Coffman for starting a “race war” with “unsubstantiated allegations.”

Activist Auon’tai Anderson admonished Jurinsky for spreading misinformation about Venezuelan migrants in what he called an attempt to seek an appointment in a Trump administration.

“How do you sleep at night?” he asked her. “Did you really think your lie was going to stick?”

To Coffman and Jurinsky, Lewis’ brother, Kiowa Lew-

is, asked God to forgive “y’all who are exhibiting evil” and denounced their “hate and racist agenda.”

A few of the public speakers on Monday expressed their concerns about the blighted apartment complexes at the center of the Venezuelan gang controversy and persistent gunshots they hear near them.

“The City of Aurora and Aurora Police Department have been aware of these issues for many months but did provide a reasonable response until this started getting media attention. Even then, they invested considerable attention trying to downplay these issues. Many of us in this community have felt ignored,” Shannon Peterson, a neighbor of the complex at 12th and Dallas streets that has received heavy media attention, told the Sentinel earlier Monday.

“I do not want to demonize an entire group of people,” Peterson’s neighbor, Maddy Schaffner, told the council. “I want to focus on removing dangerous people from our community. It doesn’t matter where they’re from.”

The council met in executive session Monday to discuss the city’s legal options regarding the blighted apartment complexes. One proposal is to post Aurora police officers at the complexes for at least two weeks in exchange for a promise from the owner to keep property managers on site.

The public-comment portion of the council meeting ended abruptly at 8:30 p.m. after comments by a call-in speaker who described himself as a white supremacist. He referred to Venezuelans and protesters as “shit-skinned” people. And, among other comments, he described Gov. Jared Polis — who has been critical of Jurinsky’s and Coffman’s handling of the Venezuelan controversy — as a “faggot kike governor.”

Councilmember Crystal Murillo, a Latina woman, said later in the meeting she was unnerved by the racist and threatening remarks. She said the recent rash of exaggerated allegations against immigrants has emboldened such public comment.

The protesters in the audience started chanting for council members to “apologize now” for allowing the caller on the line, and for the Venezuelan controversy in general.

All council members present at Monday’s meeting walked out of the chamber but for Crystal Murillo and Ruben Medina, both of whom have defended Venezuelans in the community.

MiDian Holmes, an activist who has been helping organize recent demonstrations at City Hall, turned the cameras and spoke directly to the new police chief.

“To Todd Chamberlain that was sworn in at 3 o’clock today, I hope you understand and realize what you have stepped into. You are now the permanent police chief behind leaders that are inciting individuals that have given clear warning tonight of what they plan to do.”

Protesters inside Aurora city council chambers raise their hands and chant Sept. 9, 2024. The group of about 30 participants were objecting to what they say is the politicizing and exaggeration of an alleged Venezuelan gang problem in Aurora. PHOTO BY TRI DUONG, Aurora Sentinel

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

As student hunger persists at colleges, higher education tries out providing free food

Foxy’s Mobile Market hadn’t even opened yet, and the line to get free food in the Community College of Aurora parking lot already stretched 30 students deep.

At the mobile market’s first visit of the new school year, students could grab potatoes, carrots, celery, Pringles, assorted canned goods, and some refrigerated meat. Staff members also lined up to help those students get connected to federal food assistance, transportation, and other school resources.

Taina Garcia-Reyes, who on that August day worked at the market passing out free red CCA shirts, said it’s a valuable resource, especially for the many students who struggle to feed themselves and their families while juggling school. She knows this very well, because she’s a student who’s experienced food insecurity herself.

“Anytime I talk with other students, I tell them about the mobile market,” she said. “And students know now, it’s OK to go get your bread. Go get your chips.”

The Community College of Aurora has joined the growing number of colleges nationwide providing free food to students, hiring staff to increase food access and erase a commonplace stigma around asking for help.

Many community colleges and universities in Colorado and the nation now provide food assistance to students at a time when food costs have spiked and more students are believed to be experiencing hunger. The pandemic helped highlight the problem, and many schools have committed to continue funding such food resources after federal COVID aid for colleges runs dry later this month.

An estimated 23% of college students in 2020, or about 3.8 million students, experienced food insecurity, according to a federal analysis released in July. The report again shed light on what previous analysis of federal data have shown — that a large share of students struggle to put food on the table. The study reported that about 2.2 million of those 3.8 million students had low food security, or ate less than they should or skipped meals altogether.

And the share who experience student hunger has likely grown in the pandemic’s wake, according to Mark Huelsman, the director of policy and advocacy at The Hope Center at Temple University that studies the barriers college students face.

“This has always been a persistent problem in higher education,” Huelsman said. “The fact that we’re starting to see campuses create ecosystems of support for students, hopefully that means more students will be able to take advantage.”

Food insecurity impacts students in many ways

Before Garcia-Reyes passed out shirts at the mobile market, she grabbed a few groceries for herself and her family.

Garcia-Reyes, 35, started her second try at being a college student in 2021. She and her husband felt it was important for her to finish her education. But it hasn’t been easy.

Helping students put food on the table doesn’t solve every difficulty stu-

dents face. But Aurora officials know that school serves many students with major challenges to overcome before they can graduate, such as being from low-income backgrounds or the first in their families to go to college.

So the food assistance from Foxy’s Mobile Market and other sources eases an everyday burden and helps students like Garcia-Reyes better manage their studies and lives outside of schools, or even bigger life crises, said Reyna Anaya, senior student affairs officer and dean of student success.

In her second semester, professors noticed Garcia-Reyes was struggling. She’s managed mental health issues her entire life, but after her grandmother in Puerto Rico died after a long illness, she struggled to concentrate on her studies. She also underwent hand surgery.

The food she gets from Foxy’s Mobile Market helps take one big worry off her plate. She also gets benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, a federal nutrition assistance program that provides a food stipend to eligible individuals and families. The school helped her connect to SNAP, which she’s used in the past.

Foxy’s Mobile Market visits the two Aurora campuses twice a month and the school pays about $3,000 for the food on the truck per visit. The school partners with SECOR Cares, a food program for Denver-area families.

The market feeds about 150 students on average every visit to the two campuses, and many have parents, kids, or spouses at home who also benefit, said Megan Dempsey, CCA’s coordinator of basic needs and student wellness.

Garcia-Reyes said school leaders helped “really open my eyes” to ways the school wants to help her meet basic needs like food. The support extends beyond food.

“I want to get my degree and I want to be able to not be stressed. But the stress comes, and what can I do?” she said. “Having that support, to get through it from the college — that’s important.”

More schools make food assistance standard

In Garcia-Reyes’ work-study job with the student advocacy office, students frequently ask her questions about how to get connected to food services such as: How do I apply for resources, is this free, or can I even qualify?

Huelsman said schools expanded food services for college students during the pandemic. The hope from school leaders, especially at public colleges and universities, is that food resources such as pantries eventually become as common as book stores.

“You do see more things like campus food pantries or basic needs centers,” Huelsman said. “They’re shining a light on a problem that had already existed. It was just being ignored before.”

The University of Northern Colorado, Colorado State University, and Fort Lewis College maintain food pantries. Other colleges, such as the Metropolitan University of Denver, have expanded its food pantry in recent years. To get food from such resources, schools only require that students show a valid school identification.

Not every college has a mobile market, but they are becoming increasingly common. Along with its Buff Pantry, the University of Colorado Boulder, the state’s largest school, hosts a mobile food pantry once a month for students, staff, and employees where they can re-

ceive up to 30 pounds of food. Colleges and universities also help use the pantry as a way to assist students in seeing if they qualify for SNAP benefits.

While SNAP is a big program, it presents challenges. For example, college students must work at least 20 hours a week to qualify, the federal government says, and many can’t do that. So Aurora tries to post fliers about food resources around campus, and professors sometimes round up students to take to Foxy’s Mobile Market. And as long as there’s enough supply at the market, the school doesn’t place limits on the amount of food students can take.

“There’s a lot of dignity in not being told you can only have two of these or one of these. So we’re really intentional about that,” said Beau Green, CCA director of student advocacy.

But sometimes, the food colleges like Aurora provide that can help students the most doesn’t necessarily lead to a full stomach.

Garcia-Reyes said she especially likes the school’s snack cabinet. A little food helps her concentrate before class.

“Sometimes I need a snack,” she

said. “I mean, that snack cabinet is a hit.”

— JASON GONZALES, Chalkbeat Colorado

Colorado 2025 Teacher of the Year: Meet 4 of the finalists, 1 from Aurora

State education officials made surprise visits to four of Colorado’s 2025 Teacher of the Year finalists last week: a Denver history teacher, a Boulder music teacher, a Highlands Ranch English teacher, and an Aurora educator who helps students feel a sense of belonging.

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There are seven finalists total, and the Colorado Department of Education said it will announce the other three over the next two weeks. The winner will be chosen next month.

Each 2025 Teacher of the Year finalist will receive $1,500 from the state department and the Boettcher Foundation, and their schools will each receive a $500 donation from Boettcher.

The eventual winner will represent Colorado in the national Teacher of the Year competition. They will also serve on the Commissioner’s Teachers Cabinet, which is a statewide advisory panel, and

The 2024 Colorado Teacher of the Year is Jessica May, a consumer and family studies teacher at Turner Middle School in Berthoud.

The four finalists announced Friday were:

Janet Damon, history teacher, DELTA High School, Denver Public Schools

“Her lessons focus on inquiry, research, digital storytelling, and culturally sustaining learning. She designs learning to help students think critically about challenges in their lives,” the Colorado Department of Education said in a press release about Damon, who has been teaching for more than 25 years. “Her students imagine new solutions to problems in our state and create podcasts to advocate for issues like homelessness, gun violence, incarceration, inflation, immigration, racism, health disparities, and drug addiction in Colorado.”

Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) understands the importance of growing, supporting, and celebrating stronger communities.

We provide valuable resources to prepare you for the most important investments in your life—your home and your future. We appreciate the opportunity to get to know you.

and daughter, CHFA homeowner, Colorado Springs

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Aurora on Oct. 30, 2022, prosecutors said. He was also convicted in an Arapahoe County district court of one count of attempted murder.

“This coward executed an entire family and innocent tenant,” Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney Darcy Kofol said in a statement. “This defendant couldn’t accept the fact that his ex-girlfriend wanted to move on with her life. Instead, he decided to viciously murder everyone she loved.”

Judge David Karpel agreed with prosecutors’ request for four consecutive sentences despite defense lawyers’ argument that the sentencing was unwarranted.

Castorena and Serrano, who were not injured, have two children together. Their children were out-of-state with family at the time of the shooting, police have said.

Castorena fled the city after the shooting and was arrested more than a month later in Mexico and extradited to Colorado.

Tera Johnson-Swartz, English teacher, STEM School Highlands Ranch, Douglas County School District

“She specializes in building meaningful relationships with her students while also providing lessons remembered beyond her classroom,” the department said of Johnson-Swartz, who has been an educator for two years. “She tells her students from day one that teaching wasn’t a career she had to take, but one she wanted to, humbly and with all her heart.”

Amy Okimoto, connections coordinator, Summit Elementary School, Cherry Creek School District

Prosecutors said Castorena broke into the home and hid inside with a gun until family members returned home.

’When Serrano arrived at about 2 a.m., she noticed Castorena’s keys in her bedroom and called police to report that she thought her ex-boyfriend was in the house and that he was not supposed to be there.

Dispatchers said they could hear gunfire as she spoke to dispatchers, prosecutors said.

A week before the shooting, Serrano sought a court protective order, saying that Castorena had held a gun at her and threatened to kill her. She also said he held her in his car and would not let her go home.

“Amy is an incredible educator whose dedication to social-emotional learning and restorative practices has made a big impact at Summit Elementary,” Cherry Creek Superintendent Christopher Smith said in the press release. “Her leadership in student groups and her commitment to fostering a supportive community exemplify the values we hold dear.”

Wanda Vásquez García, music teacher, Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer, Boulder Valley School District

“We are incredibly lucky that Ms. Vásquez García found a love for music at such a young age, an outstanding network of support from both her parents and her mentors at the Dominican Republic National Symphony Orchestra, and that she has chosen to invest it all in the next generation of musicians in the Boulder Valley School District,” Boulder Valley Superintendent Rob Anderson said in the press release.

— Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat

COPS AND COURTS

Aurora man sentenced to 4 life terms in 2022 domestic violence shooting deaths

A man was convicted of killing four people at his ex-girlfriend’s home in Aurora in 2022, a week after she was granted a court order to keep him away from her, was sentenced Sept. 4 to four, consecutive life terms in prison.

Joseph Mario Castorena, 22, was convicted in May of four counts of first-degree murder after deliberation for killing three of Jessica Serrano’s relatives as well as a man who rented an RV on the family’s property in northwest

Slain victims in the shooting were 51-year-old Jesus Serrano, 22-year-old Maria Anita Serrano, 20-year-old Kenneth Eugene Green Luque and 49-yearold Rudolfo Salgado Perez.

“This defendant committed a series of heinous crimes and then tried to avoid facing accountability by fleeing to Mexico,” Deputy District Attorney Lauren Raible said. “The Aurora Police Department deserves tremendous credit in helping us track him down and bring him to justice.”

— Sentinel Staff

Top state firefighter union admonishes and censures Polis, Weiser over Elijah McClain prosecutions

Four top state officials, including Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser, were censured by International Association of Fire Fighters for prosecuting two Aurora paramedics last year. The paramedics administered a lethal dose of ketamine to Elijah McClain.

The criminal prosecutions and ultimate convictions were among the first of their kind nationally for on-duty conduct for paramedics.

Former Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper were convicted by an Adams County jury of criminally negligent homicide after giving McClain, a 23-year-old Black massage therapist, a fatal dose of ketamine in 2019 and also not doing enough to help him while he struggled on the ground in distress in handcuffs.

At an international convention held last week, the international fire fighters union resolved to censure Polis, Weiser, Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber and Solicitor General Shannon

Sentinel Muse

MULTICULTURAL SMOKE

AROUND THE WORLD OF CUISINE, GRILLING BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN VEGETABLES

— ALBERT STUMM, Associated Press

When barbecue expert Steven Raichlen traveled the world searching for novel grilling traditions, he marveled at the commonalities across 60 countries.

The way live fire brings people together. The universal embrace of smoky flavors. The theatrical nature of what could otherwise just be a family getting food on the table.

“If you simmer a pot of soup on the stove, nobody’s going to gather around and watch the show,” said Raichlen, author of “The Barbecue Bible” and 32 other books.

He wasn’t searching for grilled vegetables. He found them everywhere anyway.

Grilled mushrooms, peppers and even artichokes in Italy. Planks of asparagus laced onto wire-thin skewers in Japan. Corn and chilies served in countless ways in Latin America.

Much of what he found ended up in “ How to Grill Vegetables,” which also is a nod to his wife, daughter and cousin, all vegetarians. “So it’s sort of self-defense.”

But he notes that nearly all his books devote a substantial section to vegetables.

“There’s nothing like the high, dry heat of the grill that intensifies a vegetable’s sweetness,” he said. “In so many cultures, grilled vegetables

really

have a very important place.”

How to get the most out of vegetables on the grill

The first thing to consider is the structure of the vegetable, Raichlen said, and then select the appropriate method.

As a general rule, high-moisture vegetables like zucchini, peppers and mushrooms are best served by direct grilling, meaning cooking over a high-heat fire with the lid open. He recommended bringing the temperature to 500 F to 600 F.

Denser vegetables like turnips, cauliflower or leeks are better served by indirect grilling, or cooking next to the fire, with the lid closed, at 350 F to 400 F.

Closing the lid presents another opportunity to inject the vegetables with smoky flavor by adding wood chips or chunks to the fire or smoker vault of a gas grill, he said.

“Then you can smoke as well as roast, so you wind up with very incredible flavors,” he said.

Or try ‘caveman grilling’

Many cultures char certain vegetables directly on hot coals, which Raichlen calls “caveman grilling.”

Baba ganoush, the Middle East’s smoky eggplant dip, is the bestknown example.

“It’s an absolutely magical dish, because the eggplant has a smoking

device built right into it,” he said, referring to its thick skin. “All you do is char the skin and it permeates the flesh.”

Tomatoes, onions, squash and zucchini work, too. Just fan the embers with newspaper to blow away excess ash. Sear the vegetables on all sides, turning frequently, and scrape away the most-burnt parts.

Don’t limit yourself to the obvious

Beyond corn, peppers and other usual suspects, Raichlen also has grilling recipes for potatoes, beets, carrots, avocados and even lettuce.

He makes a grilled version of the steakhouse classic wedge salad with a quick homemade dressing spiked with chipotle peppers. Simply cut a head of iceberg lettuce into quarters and briefly sear the cut sides. The edges get sweeter and pick up smoky notes while the center stays cool and crisp.

Before grilling, it’s best to scrub the grill grate and coat it with vegetable oil — good advice for all types of grilling. And it’s usually a good idea to first season vegetables with an olive oil-based marinade.

Then it’s a matter of “doing a dance on a razor’s edge” between pleasantly charred and outright burnt, Raichlen said. “You try and get as close to burnt as possible without actually burning.”

Recipe from Raichlen’s “How to Grill Vegetables”:

Grilled Wedge Salad with Smoky Ranch Dressing Serves 4

• Time: 15 minutes to prep, 3 to 4 minutes on the grill

• 1⁄3 cup mayonnaise

• 1⁄3 cup buttermilk

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 1 teaspoon minced canned chipotles in adobo

• 1⁄2 teaspoon lime zest

• 1 tablespoon lime juice

• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or dill

• 1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into quarters through the core

• 1⁄4 cup chopped smoked almonds

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, buttermilk, vinegar, chipotle, and lime zest and juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Wait to stir in the cilantro until just before serving.

Set up your grill for high-heat, direct grilling. Scrape the grill grate clean and coat with vegetable oil. Brush the cut sides with olive oil. Arrange the wedges cut sides down on the grill on a diagonal. Grill until lightly singed, 1 to 2 minutes, giving each wedge a quarter turn after 30 to 60 seconds to lay on a crosshatch of grill marks. Grill the other cut side, working quickly so the lettuce remains raw in the center.

Transfer the wedges to a platter, spoon over the dressing and sprinkle with almonds.

scene&herd

Della Doucet

Opening the Vintage Theatre 20242025 season, Della Doucet a romantic comedy opens Aug. 23.

Written by Kirsten Dahl and directed by Paul Jaquith in the Bond-Trimble Theatre, the world premier promises laughs about love.

On the run from a military marriage, Southern-born Della struggles to find her way in the gritty New York art world of 1981. The romantic comedyis winner of the Vintage 2023 New Play Festival.

IF YOU GO:

Through Sept. 22, Fridays and Saturdays with some matinees. Curtain times vary.

Tickets: $20-$37

Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St.

Details: VintageTheater.org 303-856-7830

Discovering Teen Rex

Take an extraordinary journey into our prehistoric past with the arrival of “Discovering Teen Rex” as we unveil a remarkable fossil discovered by a crew of inquisitive young dino hunters in North Dakota. The fossil prep lab will be displayed alongside dinosaur fossils, including Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science collection. The whole family is invited to come experience history in the making as our team of renowned paleontologists clean, preserve and study this rare adolescent T. rex fossil — one of only a handful found worldwide — before the public on the Museum floor.

IF YOU GO: Free with museum ticket purchase Daily 9-5 , Tickets: $19.95-$25.95 Denver Museum of Nature and Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd. Details: 303-370-6000 or at dmns.org

Bright Nights at Four Mile Historic Park

Bright Nights is a collaboration with Tianyu Arts an Culture, Inc., the largest producer of Chinese lantern festivals in North America. This event transforms the Park into a captivating realm with larger-than-life sculptures illuminating the night across its 12 acres. Each year brings a fresh theme, new experiences, and captivating sculptures.

Bright Nights at Four Mile is the only opportunity to experience a Tianyu festival in the Mountain West. The event features art by day and magic by night, and with each new year will come a new theme, a new experience and new sculptures to the festival.

IF YOU GO: Tickets: $13 - $42 Through Sept. 29, begins at 7 p.m. and runs through 11 p.m. or midnight. Four Mile Historic Park 715 S Forest St. Tickets and info: www.fourmilepark.org/

Grilled wedge salad with smoky ranch dressing from the cookbook “How to Grill Vegetables” by Steven Raichlen. (Steven Randazzo/Workman Publishing Group via AP)

Michael Rosman stood on the tee box with just three holes left in the best round of golf in his life and allowed himself to think about the score for the first time.

Just a few weeks after Fossil Ridge’s Austin Barry shook up the Colorado prep golf world with a 59 that is believed to be the state record, Rosman stood over the 16th tee at Aurora Hills Golf Course Sept. 4 with the same score or better within range.

Rosman carded three eagles and three birdies among his first 13 holes at the Centennial League tournament and gave himself a moment to consider the possibilities if he could carry that kind of play to the finish.

“I wasn’t even thinking about the score,” Rosman told the Sentinel. “The first time I even thought about it was on the 16th tee and I thought ‘if I birdie out, I shoot 59.’ I was just worrying about every shot and about my set up. I just know I do what I need to do and the score will just happen.”

three holes, but made part on each instead.

“I was just approaching every shot and focusing on my setup and my posture,” Rosman said. “I can get a little sloppy and fall into bad habits, especially with putting. If you can’t putt, you can’t really score, so I focused on my setup and posture and doing that worked.”

How low can he go?

BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor

The 59 happened for Barry on Aug. 27 at the Harmony Club in Timnath, where the SaberCats’ senior finished 13-under-par — with what is believed to be the Colorado prep record — in a Northern League tournament. His round included an eagle along with 11 birdies and a putt on 18 that came up an inch short.

Rosman hadn’t come close to such a feat — with a low score of 69 during a league tournament at Foothills G.C. — but he had a pretty good senior season going. He had shot 72 or better in his previous four tournaments, finished under par twice and placed in the top eight in every tournament he played so far.

But he felt like there was more that he could achieve, so he made two or three “little changes,” that loomed large in the end. It resulted in a round that included three eagles — all on par 5s on holes 2, 12 and 13 — with three other birdies sprinkled in. Rosman could have matched Barry’s score with birdies on the final

Grandview head coach Kurtis Bailey has seen the work that Rosman has put in to get to this point and enjoyed how it came out in the round to remember.

“Michael is an excellent ballstriker and you match that with a putter on that day and it all came together for him really well,” Bailey said. “We see it in practice and we’ve seen him shoot low scores before, but to see him go out and do it in a tournament was great.”

Rosman is looking forward to what the rest of the rapidly moving season can bring. He has had a set of golf clubs in his hand from the age of 2 (plastic ones provided by his parents, so he could hit wiffle balls around his house) and said often enjoyed watching golf on television when he was a toddler.

Competitively, he branched out into other sports like basketball and also skied regularly until he got to high school, when he joined the golf team. He said he took the sport casually at first, but then developed a voracious urge to find anything he could do to improve his game.

That work, coupled with playing in the Centennial League, where he gets pushed by players such as Cherokee Trail’s Brayden Forte, Eaglecrest’s Gregory White, Smoky Hill’s Reece Nuwash and others, Rosman said he is “not in the same galaxy” now as he was as a freshman.

He truly believes that he has what it takes to win a state championship. He tied for 62nd at the 5A state tournament as a sophomore and moved all the way up to a tie for 14th as a junior. In Rosman’s senior year, the state tournament just happens to be scheduled for CommonGround G.C., where he shot his previous low career round, a 64.

“Last time I played at CommonGround, it felt so easy,” he said. “It was good off the tee and the greens felt good. If the putter works, I’m the best player in the state. I’m going to try to focus on the simple stuff and it works out more often than not.”

Rosman’s score stood out, but there have been a lot of quality rounds played by Aurora golfers this season. Forte shot a 6-under-par 64 to win the City League tournament at City Park G.C. and is part of a group of Cougars that is completely intact after they finished in a tie for second place last season. White has won two league tournaments of his own, Nuwsh has been a top-10 placer in most every tournament and

or

has several returning state

every

Regis Jesuit

qualifiers been at

near the top of

Continental League tournament thus far.

GOOD ON THE GREENS:

Grandview senior Michael Rosman watches his putt near the cup on Hole No. 1 at Aurora Hills G.C. during a Centennial League boys golf tournament on Sept. 4. Rosman finished with a 10-under-par 62.Photo by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel

EAGLE EYE: Grandview senior Michael Rosman watches his tee shot fly on Hole No. 2 during the Centennial League boys golf tournament on Sept. 4 at Aurora Hills G.C. Rosman made an eagle — one of three in the round — on his way to a personal low of 62. (Photos by Courtney Oakes/Aurora Sentinel)

FOOTBALL

Eaglecrest moves to 2-0 as Aurora teams finish with 4-7 record in Week 2

Aurora football teams picked up one more combined win in Week 2 than in the opening week and Eaglecrest was the only repeat victor.

The Raptors — one of just three local winners in Week 1 — pulled away from Fort Collins Sept. 6 on their way to a 306 victory at Legacy Stadium. Eaglecrest got it done with the ground game, as it racked up 177 yards, which included 142 yards and two touchdowns from Josh Wiley. Quarterback Joe Steiner also had two rushing touchdowns and versatile Burke Withycombe finished with 161 yards of total offense for coach Jesse German’s team.

Three teams evened their records at 1-1, including Vista PEAK Prep, which got Mike Campbell his first victory as head coach with a 15-13 triumph over Overland Sept. 6 at Aurora Public Schools Stadium. The Bison forced four turnovers and one of them turned into points on a fumble return score by Collin Anderson. A touchdown pass from receiver Canaan Barthlow to Quay Davis in the third quarter stood up as the winning points, as Vista PEAK Prep withstood a comeback attempt from coach Tony Lindsay Sr.’s Trailblazers (1-1). Avante Hendrix had 102 yards receiving and caught a touchdown pass from Angel Chavez, while Jarrius Ward rushed for a late touchdown after Louis Amadeus Dupuis-Silva forced his second turnover.

Cherokee Trail bounced back from an opening loss with a 35-7 win over ThunderRidge Sept. 6 at Halftime Help Stadium that was fueled by defense. Coach Justin Jajczyk’s Cougars (1-1) scored their first two touchdowns via interception returns, as Marquis Jamison and Cade Brook both had pick-6s. Brook also caught one of two touchdown passes from Tyson Smith, who also found Brandon McCullough for a score. Noah Collins rushed for Cherokee Trail’s last score.

Rangeview fell behind Lakewood 140 Sept. 6 at Trailblazer Stadium before coach Chris Dixon’s team roared back for a 27-14 win to get to 1-1. Quarterback Tyson Tuck completed just three passes, but one went for a touchdown to Shae Burroughs, while Tuck rushed for 171 yards and three touchdowns.

Grandview sits at 0-2 for the first time in more than two decades and both losses have come in heartbreaking fashion. A one-score loss to Legend in Week 1 was followed by a 10-9 defeat for coach Tom Doherty’s team Sept. 5 at Legacy Stadium. The Wolves took a 6-0 lead into halftime on a bomb from quarterback Blitz McCarty to Xay Neto (who had 142 yards receiving) and again went in front 9-7 on a Quinn Reynolds field goal with three minutes left, but Ralston Valley drove down for a go-ahead field goal inside the final minute for the winning points.

Week 1 winner Aurora Central is now 1-1 in the wake of a 42-0 loss to Highlands Ranch Sept. 5 at APS Stadium.Regis Jesuit went to Arizona and trailed host Brophy Prep just 7-0 at halftime. Coach Danny Filleman’s Raiders ceded 37 points in the second half, however, in a 44-0 loss that dropped them to 0-2 on the season. Gateway (which fell to Greeley West 34-8 Sept. 7), Hinkley (50-0 loss to Skyview) Sept. 6 and Smoky Hill (45-0 loss to Douglas County Sept. 6) also sit 0-2.

WEEK PAST

The week past in Aurora prep sports

SATURDAY, SEPT. 7: The Overland girls volleyball tournament finished in second place at its own tournament with a 25-15, 25-9 loss to ThunderRidge. The Trailblazers defeated George Washington, Smoky Hill and Thornton to win their pool. The Buffaloes were 1-3 overall. ...Elliott Kaganer scored twice and Andreas Karpouzos netted a goal as well in the opening half for the Smoky Hill boys soccer team in a 3-1 road win at Rangeview. The host Raiders got a goal from Brandon Bonilla Aiden Petty scored in the first half and Peter Eugenio tallied in the second half for the Cherokee Trail boys soccer team in a 2-0 victory over Fossil Ridge at Legacy Stadium. …The Grandview softball team finished as the runner-up in the Gold Bracket at the Dave Sanders Memorial after a 7-6 loss in 10 innings to Columbine at the Aurora Sports Park. The Wolves finished 3-2 in the two-day tournament, which included a 5-1 win over 4A powerhouse Holy Family. Maddie Donaldson went 3-for-5, while Brooklyn Heil, Sasha Kennedy (who drove in a pair of runs), Leah Graves and Marin Hemstreet all had two hits apiece for Grandview. …The Eaglecrest softball team capped 2-3 showing at the Dave Sanders Tournament with losses to Columbine and Holy Family. The Raptors got two hits apiece from Zaya Elliott and Giana Vialpando Williams, plus RBI from Elliott, Callie Johnson and Ryleigh Stufft in the loss to Columbine. …Alexis Colvin, Elsa Pedersen, Claire Pariset and Abi Puschaver had two RBI apiece

TOP LEFT: Grandview senior Kamaya Soniea-Harris fires a pitch to a Holy Family batter during the Wolves’ 5-1 win in a Gold Bracket semifinal at the Dave Sanders Tournament on Sept. 7 at the Aurora Sports Park. Soniea-Harris allowed four hits and one run in seven innings to send Grandview on to the championship game, where it lost to Columbine in extra innings. LEFT: Vista PEAK Prep’s Tyrone Smiley, center, breaks the tackle of an Overland defender on his way upfield during the Bison’s 15-13 Week 2 football win Sept. 6 at Aurora Public Schools Stadium. TOP RIGHT: Eaglecrest senior quarterback Joe Steiner, right, delivers a pass in the face of the pass rush of Fort Collins’ JP Straubing in the first half of the Raptors’ 30-6 Week 2 football win Sept. 6 at Legacy Stadium. ABOVE: Cherokee Trail’s Tayah Burton (10) takes a pitch the opposite way during the fifth inning of the Cougars’ 12-2 win over Fruita Monument Sept. 5. (PHOTOS BY COURTNEY OAKES/AURORA SENTINEL) For more on these stories visit sentinelcolorado. com/preps

and Alex Tavlarides allowed three hits in three innings as the Regis Jesuit softball team blanked Monarch 160. …Colton White of Grandview finished in ninth place individually to lead locals in the boys varsity race at the Steve Lohman Cherry Creek Invitational. Cherokee Trail — led by Dylan Smith’s 27th-place result — led Aurora teams in ninth among 32 scoring teams. The Cherokee Trail girls were 10th with Jade McDaniel’s 24th place leading the way. ...The Vista PEAK Prep girls flag football team split a pair of games at George Washington, which included an 18-7 win over Lincoln. ...FRIDAY, SEPT. 6: The Vista PEAK Prep girls volleyball team got six kills apiece from Melinda Allred, Casandra Alaimaleata and Amanni Tisdell in a 25-16, 25-23, 25-16 sweep of Mountain Range. ...The Gateway boys soccer team rolled to a 5-0 victory over Thornton. ...The Vista PEAK Prep softball team got home runs from Amara Herrera (who went 5-for-5 with 4 RBI) and Nayely Duran, plus 3 RBI apiece from Duran and winning pitcher Lauren Reed plus a 3-hit day for Jaya Gray ...The Grandview softball team finished 2-1 and Eaglecrest went 1-1 at the Dave Sanders Tournament. ...The Regis Jesuit boys tennis team piled up 210 points to win the 16-team. Western Slope Open in Grand Junction. Alec Rodriguez-Fields, plus Blake and Sebastian Wright swept the singles titles, while Spencer Buege and Aiden Prananta at No. 4 led a doubles sweep as well for the Raiders. ...Katie Rasure scored two goals and Natalie Chilton had two assists as the Regis Jesuit field hockey team avenged a postseason loss to Denver East last season with a 3-1

win. ...THURSDAY, SEPT. 5: The Rangeview girls volleyball team swept past Prairie View 25-20, 25-20, 25-21. ...The Cherokee Trail girls volleyball team rallied against visiting Rock Canyon, but lost 24-26, 25-22, 25-18, 2025, 15-10. ...Cris Ramirez and Ethan Robl had second-half goals for the Eaglecrest boys soccer team in a 2-0 win over Brighton. ...Kaden Ottinger had a goal in the Grandview boys soccer team’s 1-1 tie with Golden. ...Sydney Cobb homered and drove in five runs, while Emma Rice allowed four hits with six strikeouts as the Cherokee Trail softball team downed Fruita Monument 12-2. ...The Vista PEAK Prep softball team got 4 RBI and 4 runs from Nayely Duran and four hits from winning pitcher Amara Herrera in an 18-8 win over Northfield. Jordyn Stilley scattered four hits in four innings and Giana Vialpando Williams knocked in three runs as the Eaglecrest softball team opened the Dave Sanders Tournament with an 8-2 win over Lakewood. ...The Cherokee Trail boys tennis team dropped a 5-2 Centennial League dual to Arapahoe despite doubles wins from the No. 2 team of Matthew Jeung and Alan Kamalov as well as the No. 4 team of Edward Tay and Kunj Patel. ...The Regis Jesuit boys golf team tied for second place in the Continental League tournament at South Suburban G.C. as Anthony Lore shot a plus-1 73 to take third. Roland Thornton (74) tied for fourth and Ryland Doolittle (75) tied for ninth. ...WEDNESDAY, SEPT.

4: The Overland girls volleyball team picked up a 25-16, 25-14, 25-18 road victory at Aurora Central. ...The Regis Jesuit girls volleyball team downed previously unbeaten Mullen 25-10, 25-22, 25-20 with help from Madelyn Hannam’s eight kills and 21 digs from

Josie Hanson. ...The Regis Jesuit softball team got a three-hitter from Alex Tavlarides in a 13-0 win at Smoky Hill Jill Samaras and Abi Puschaver each drove in three runs, while Anna Najmulski had three hits. Nikiah Light had two of the Buffaloes’ three hits. ...Maria Guttierez Benitez had two touchdowns and an interception for the Aurora West College Prep Academy’s girls flag football team in an 18-0 win over Gateway. ...The Rangeview girls flag football team picked up a 27-6 win over Aurora Central TUESDAY, SEPT. 3: Anayah Rucker piled up 19 kills, Katie Reed had 34 assists and Sydney Moses added 18 digs for the Eaglecrest girls volleyball team in a 23-25, 25-21, 2520, 25-14 win over Lakewood. ...Brandon Linares converted a pass from Fernando Mendoza for the lone goal in the Gateway boys soccer team’s 1-0 win over Bear Creek. ... Leo Garcia, Cameron Harkness and Andrew Harwell had goals for the Grandview boys soccer team in a 3-1 win over Hinkley, which got its goal from Chris Leon. ...The Vista PEAK Prep boys soccer team kept rolling with a 5-1 win over Douglas County. ...Nayely Duran went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI and Jaya Gray had three hits in the Vista PEAK Prep softball team’s 14-2 win over Denver East. ...The Smoky Hill field hockey team got a goal from Elyse Bailey in a 1-0 win over Poudre School District. ...The Cherokee Trail boys golf team shot 5-under-par for a one-stroke win in the City League Invitational at City Park G.C. Brayden Forte shot a 6-under 64 to take medalist honors, while teammate Dalton Sisneros shot 69 to tie for sixth. Grandview’s Michael Rosman (71) and Cherokee Trail’s Christopher O’Donnell (72) tied for eighth and 10th, respectively.

by publication, the appointment of provisional counsel shall be reviewed by the court and your provisional counsel may be released from their representation if you do not make an appearance.

Further hearings in this matter have not been scheduled at this time, but notice of any pre-trial or other hearing in this termination of parental rights matter shall be addressed to provisional counsel for the Respondents identified hereinabove.

This the 12th day of September, 2024. Christopher M. Watford Attorney for the Petitioner Robinson & Lawing, LLP 110 Oakwood Drive, Suite 200 Winston-Salem, NC 27103 First Publication: September 12, 2024 Final Publication: September 26, 2024

PUBLIC NOTICE SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION Case Number: 24CV31264 Courtroom: 204 ARAPAHOE COUNTY COMBINED COURTS DISTRICT COURT, ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLO- RADO, 7325 S Potomac St. #100, Centennial, CO 80112

Plaintiff: Dan’s Custom Construction, Inc., a Colorado corporation, v. Defendants: Eric W. Hoaglund, an individual, and The Eric Hoa- glund Painting Co., a Colorado corporation. The People of the State of Colorado to Eric W. Hoaglund, an individual, and The Eric Hoaglund Painting Co., a Colorado corporation.; Attor- ney for Plaintiff: James A. McDaniel, CHIPMAN GLASSER, LLC 2000 S. Colorado Blvd., Tower One, Suite 7500, Denver, CO 80222 Phone: (303) 578-5780 jmcdaniel@chip- manglasser.com

You are hereby summoned and re- quired to appear and defend against the claims of the complaint filed with the court in this action, by filing with the clerk of this court an answer or other response. You are required to file your answer or other response within 35 days after the service of this summons upon you. Service of this summons shall be complete on the day of the last publication. A copy of the complaint may be ob- tained from the clerk of the court.

If you fail to file your answer or other response to the complaint in writing within 35 days after the date of the last publication, judgment by default may be rendered against you by the court for the relief demanded in the complaint without further notice.

This is an action: seeking to in- validate the Notice of Intent to Lien, Notice to Extend Time to File Me- chanic’s Lien, and the Mechanic’s Lien that Defendants recorded in the Arapahoe County Clerk & Re- corder’s Office on March 26, 2024, as Reception Nos. E4017481 and E4017482.

First Publication: September 12, 2024 Last Publication: September 10, 2024 Sentinel PUBLIC NOTICE

Notice of Initiation of the Section 106 Process-Public Participation in accordance with the FCC’s Nationwide Programmatic Agreement. Castle Rock Microwave intends to construct a 185 ft (190 ft overall height) self-supporting telecommunication tower and a 10.7 ft x 23.5 ft communication building with associated equipment at TBD N Piney Lake Rd, Aurora, Douglas County, CO 80138 (39.562840, -104.679797). Castle Rock Microwave is publishing this notice in accordance with Federal Communications Commission regulations (47 CFR § 1.1307) for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We respectfully request that parties interested in commenting on this Federal undertaking relative to potential effects on cultural or historic properties or with questions on the proposed facility should contact GSS, Inc., 1054 Texan Trail, Suite 300, Grapevine, TX 76051; Ph. (682) 651-0034 within 30 days of the posting of this notice. (GSS #D24254-CO) Publication: September 12, 2024 Sentinel PUBLIC NOTICE OF CONTRACTOR’S FINAL SETTLEMENT

Pursuant to 1973 C.R.S. 38-26-107, notice is hereby given that on/or after the 17th day of September, 2024 final settlement with Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP , will be made by the Joint District No. 28J of the Counties of Adams and Arapahoe (Aurora Public Schools) for and on account of the General

Inc. , will be made by the Joint District No. 28J of the Counties of Adams and Arapahoe (Aurora Public Schools) for and on account of the General Construction Contract for New P8 to replace Lyn Knoll Elementary School, and that any person, co-partnership, association, company, or corporation who has an unpaid claim against any of the contractors for or on account of the furnishing of labor, materials, team hire, sustenance, provisions, provender, or other supplies used or consumed by such contractors, or any of their subcontractors, in or about the performance of said work may file at any time up to and including said time of such final settlement on/or after, September 24th, 2024, a verified statement of the amount due and unpaid on account of such claim with the Board of Education of said school district at the office of: Operational Services Aurora Public Schools 15701 E. 1st Avenue Aurora, CO 80011

Failure on the part of a claimant to file such statements prior to such final settlement will relieve said school district from all and any liability for such claimant’s claim.

JOINT DISTRICT NO. 28J OF THE COUNTIES OF ADAMS AND ARAPAHOE STATE OF COLORADO

First Publication: September 12, 2024 Final Publication: September 19, 2024 Sentinel

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS/ PROPOSALS

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT Aerotropolis Area Coordinating Metropolitan District, a quasi-municipal corporation and political subdivision of the State of Colorado, is soliciting qualifications and proposals from qualified contractors to be selected as the AACMD Walls & Fencing Contractor for the Aurora Highlands Project in Aurora, CO.

Please be advised that the Aerotropolis Area Coordinating Metropolitan District is planning to publish this Request for Qualifications/Proposals contemporaneously on BidNet. A full copy of this Request for Qualifications/Proposals will be available at the following link: https://www.bidnetdirect. com/private/supplier/solicitations/search, use the BidNet search tool for open solicitation named “AACMD Walls & Fencing” Reference No.0000361951.

Qualification/Proposal submittals must be electronically submitted via BidNet before 12:00 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Qualifications/ Proposals will not be accepted after the foregoing submission deadline, and hardcopies of Qualifications/Proposals will not be accepted.

A public opening will be held at 2:00 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday, September 26, 2024 via Microsoft Teams. A link to this event can be found in the Request for Qualifications/Proposals.

For further information contact: Charlotte Russell Civil Engineer I Charlotte.russell@aecom.com

Publication: September 12, 2024 Sentinel

SURROGATE’S COURTºORANGE COUNTY SUPPLEMENTAL CITATION THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, BY THE GRACE OF GOD FREE AND INDEPENDENT NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT OF PROCEEDING SUBJECT TO MANDATORY ELECTRONIC FILING FILE NO. 2024-336 TO: CHRISTOPHER ROSALAK Brook Lark Ing aka Carol Ann Brehmer, Deceased.

A petition having been duly filed by Nancy Elizabeth Bazzeghin, who is domiciled at 1 Harriman Ct., Tuxedo Park, NY 10987.

YOU ARE HEREBY CITED TO SHOW CAUSE before the Surrogate’s Court, Orange County, at Goshen, New York, on October 23rd, 2024, estate of Brook Lark Ing lately domiciled at 95 Maplebrook Road, Tuxedo, NY 10987 admitting to probate a Will dated March 8, 2017, deceased, relating to real and personal property, and directing that Letter Testamentary issue to Nancy Elizabeth Bazzeghin.

Dated, Attested and Sealed August 26th, 2024

/s/ Honorable Timothy McElduff, Jr., Surrogate

/s/ Amy J. Miller, Chief Clerk

Attorney for Petitioner Richard M. Ellsworth 16 Chestnut St., Suffern NY 10901

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the proceeding captioned above has been commenced as an electronically filed proceeding in the New York State Courts Electronic Filing System (“NYSCEF”) as required by CPLR § 2111 and Uniform Rule § 207.4-aa (mandatory electronic filing). This notice is being served as required by that rule.

NYSCEF is designed for the electronic filing of documents with the court and for the electronic service of those documents, court documents, and court notices upon counsel and unrepresented litigants who have consented to electronic filing.

Counsel for parties served with this notice must either: 1) immediately record their representation within the e-filed proceeding on the NYSCEF site; or 2) file the Notice of Opt-Out form with the clerk of the court where this proceeding is pending.

Exemptions from mandatory e-filing are limited to attorneys who certify in good faith that they lack the computer hardware and/or scanner and/or internet connection or that they lack (along with all employees subject to their direction) the operational knowledge to comply with e-filing requirements. [Section 207.4-aa(e)]

Parties not represented by an attorney:Unrepresented litigants are exempt from e- filing. They can serve and file documents in paper form and must be served with documents in paper form. However, an unrepresented litigant may participate in e-filing.

For information on how to participate in e-filing, unrepresented litigants should contact the appropriate clerk in the court where the proceeding was filed or visit www.nycourts.gov/efile- unrepresented. Unrepresented litigants also are encouraged to visit www.nycourthelp.gov or contact the Help Center in the court where the proceeding was filed. An unrepresented litigant who consents to e-filing may cease participation at any time. However, the other parties may continue to e-file their court documents in the proceeding.

For additional information about electronic filing and to create a NYSCEF account, visit the NYSCEF website at www. nycourts.gov/efile or contact the NYSCEF Resource Center (phone: 646- 386-3033; e-mail: nyscef@nycourts.gov).

Dated: August 29, 2024

/s/ Richard M. Ellsworth Balsamo Byrne Cipriani & Ellsworth 16 Chestnut St., Suffern, NY 10901 845-357-2744 rellswoth@bbcelaw.com

To: Christopher Rosalak 14120 Grant St. Apt. 14-102 Thornton, CO 80023

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: October 3, 2024

Sentinel

VEHICLE FOR SALE

04 Dodge 1500 4j183663

East Side Towing & Recovery, LLC 303-341-0837

Publication: September 12, 2024

Sentinel

VEHICLES FOR SALE

2010 GMC Acadia White, 175108

2010 Chevy Aveo Green 107283 2020 Jeep Cherokee blue 517243

Garlitos Towing 720-404-4583

Publication: September 12, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S.

Case No. 2024PR30485

Estate of Jack Lee Cozart aka Jack Lee Cozart, Jr. aka Jack Cozart, Jr., Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 14, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Ryan Cozart

Personal Representative 7478 Paloma Vista Payson, AZ 85541

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30828

Estate of Jim Hamilton aka James E. Hamilton aka James Eric Hamilton, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the aboved-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 5, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Tina Hamilton Personal Representative 6130 S. Cathay Court Aurora, CO 80016

Attorney for Personal Representative Samantha M. White Atty Reg #: 39182 Baker & Hostetler, LLP 1801 California St., Ste. 4400 Denver, CO 80202 Phone: 303-764-4054 First Publication: September 5, 2024 Final Publication: September 19, 2024 Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30860

Estate of Carl Henry Roath, Jr., aka C.

Henry Roath aka Henry Roath, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 12, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative

Hayley M. Lambourn

Atty Reg #: 43766

Wade Ash, LLC

5251 DTC Parkway, Ste. 825 Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Phone: 303-322-8943

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024 Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30885

Estate of Alec William Parkin aka Alec W. Parkin aka Alec Parkin, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before December 29, 2024, or the claims may be forever barred. William Parkin and Sharon Parkin Co-Personal Representatives c/o Baker Law Group, LLC 8301 E. Prentice Ave., #405

Greenwood Village, CO 80111

First Publication: August 29, 2024

Final Publication: September 12, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30894

Estate of Perry Alan Ziegler, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 13, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Jennifer Sanborn Myers

Personal Representative c/o Steven M. Weiser, Esq.

Atty Reg. #: 27535

Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP

360 S. Garfield St., 6th Floor, Denver, CO 80209

Phone: 303-333-9810

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2022PR31328

Estate of William Allen Cox aka William A. Cox aka William Cox, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado on or before January 5, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative

Jesse Aschenberg

Atty Reg #: 33022

6105 S. Main Street, Ste. 200

Aurora, CO 80016

Phone: 720-493-9733

First Publication: September 5, 2024

Final Publication: September 19, 2024 Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR243

Estate of Leanne A. Miller, Deceased.

All persons having claims agianst the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 13, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Lezlea Miller-Zessin

Personal Representative 11137 W. Marlowe Ave. Littleton, CO 80127

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30308

Estate of Bette Jo Evans, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Douglas County, Colorado, on or before January 13, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative

Kristi Radosevich

Atty Reg #: 34335 Karnopp, Radosevich & Preston, LLC PO Box 2708 Elizabeth, CO 80107

Phone: 303-646-2763

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30343

Estate of Charles Raymond Daum aka Charles R. Daum aka Charles Daum, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 5, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Patty L. Stanley

Personal Representative 1631 Northridge Dr. Highlands Ranch, CO 80126

Attorney for Personal Representative Richard D. Hughes, Esq.

Atty. Reg. #: 1218 THE HUGHES LAW FIRM, P.C. 7807 E. Peakview Ave., #410

Centennial, CO 80111

Phone: 303-758-0680

First Publication: September 5, 2024

Final Publication: September 19, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30621

Estate of Marilyn Rae Yetzbacher aka Marilyn R. Yetzbacher aka Marilyn Yetzbacher, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Adams County, Colorado, on or before December 23, 2024, or the claims may be forever barred. Heidi Allen

Personal Representative 3046 Waterfront Drive Monument, CO 80132

Electronic filing offers significant benefits for attorneys and litigants, permitting papers to be filed with the court and served on other parties simply, conveniently, and quickly. NYSCEF case documents are filed with the court by filing on the NYSCEF Website, which can be done at any time of the day or night on any day of the week. The documents are served automatically on all consenting e-filers as soon as the document is uploaded to the website, which sends out an immediate email notification of the filing.

The NYSCEF System charges no fees for filing, serving, or viewing the electronic case record, nor does it charge any fees to print any filed documents. Normal filing fees must be paid, but this can be done on-line.

Parties represented by an attorney:

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30812

Estate of Karen S. Tydingco aka Karen Sue Tydingco aka Karen Tydingco, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 13, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Jacob L. Toy Personal Representative 12213 Dundee Dr., #A Austin, TX 78759

Abigail L. Schwarz, Esq. Atty Reg #: 59295 Marketplace Tower II 3025 S. Parker Road, Ste. 820 Aurora, CO 80014

Phone: 303-671-7726

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30853

Estate of Rosalyn Angela Ciacco aka Rosalyn A. Ciacco, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 13, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative Kristi Radosevich Atty Reg #: 34335 Karnopp, Radosevich & Preston, LLC PO Box 2708 Elizabeth, CO 80107

Phone: 303-646-2763

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30862

Estate of Renee Marie Gregoire-Davis, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 5, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

John Harold Davis, Jr. Personal Representative 212 Madeline dr. Monrovia, CA 91016

Richard D. Hughes, Esq. Atty. Reg. #: 1218 THE HUGHES LAW FIRM, P.C. 7807 E. Peakview Ave., Suite 410 Centennial, CO 80111

Phone: 303-758-0680

First Publication: September 5, 2024

Final Publication: September 19, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30870

Estate of Kenneth McLain Millin, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 5, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative

Chad P. Hemmat

Atty Reg #: 20845 Anderson Hemmat, LLC 5613 DTC Parkway, Ste. 700 Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Phone: 303-782-9999

First Publication: September 5, 2024

Final Publication: September 19, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30879

Estate of David Edward Ouillette aka David E. Ouillette, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 6, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred.

Attorney for Personal Representative

Anna L. Burr, Esq.

Atty Reg #: 42205 Law Office Anna L. Burr, LLC 2851 S. Parker Road, Ste. 230 Aurora, CO 80014

First Publication: August 29, 2024

Final Publication: September 12, 2024 Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30936

Estate of Ted Soloman Herrera aka Ted S. Herrera aka Ted Herrera, Deceased.

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on or before January 12, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. Michael Carruthers

Personal Representative 1609 Horseshoe Dr. Pueblo, CO 81001

Attorney for Personal Representative Erika M. Kaiser Atty Reg #: 13555 1410 Bellaire Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80909 Phone: 719-473-8780

First Publication: September 12, 2024

Final Publication: September 26, 2024

Sentinel

NOTICE TO CREDITORS BY PUBLICATION

PURSUANT TO §15-12-801, C.R.S. Case No. 2024PR30995

Gretchen Yetzbacher Personal Representative 10462 Ellison Pl. Littleton, CO 80125

First Publication: August 29, 2024

Final Publication: September 12, 2024 Sentinel

Estate of Mavis Sampson, Deceased. All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, on or before January 15, 2025, or the claims may be forever barred. James Vance Personal Representative 8221 Bayard St. Philadelphia, PA 19150

Attorney for Personal

Stevenson.

Slothouber and Stevenson tried the case against Cooper and Cichuniec on behalf of the Colorado Department of Law.

“This resolution serves as a formal expression of disapproval and a call for these individuals to take full responsibility for their actions, to rectify the wrongs committed and to ensure that such injustices are never repeated in the state of Colorado,” the resolution, submitted by Aurora Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 1290, said.

It was unanimously adopted at the

1) Make pigtails

6) Trendy place to go downhill 11) Agent for trips? 14) Wavelike design

15) Brahman, for one 16) Ring bearer, often 17) Busy bodies?

19) Card to keep

20) Apple leftover

21) "Four" at the fore

23) Movie theater purchase

27) Knight to remember

29) Many have chapters

30) Erase

31) Claims on homes, e.g.

32) Chops finely

33) Nipper's co.

36) Damed thing

37) This makes five in this puzzle

Puzzles

and others for not supporting firefighters on the job, according to the IAFF website. The resolution is ceremonial in nature and has no binding power or authority.

Travis Pulliam, the president of AFR Local 1290 said in a statement to CPR News that they were calling for “exoneration of Brothers Cichuniec and Cooper.”

Pulliam said in the statement that McClain’s initial autopsy was an undetermined cause of death, but that Polis appointed Weiser to prosecute his death regardless, which meant he chose “politics over public safety.”

“An autopsy that stood unchallenged

i� FreeDailyCrosswords.com

38) Broadway star Verdon

39) Huricane heading, sometimes 40) Popular game 41) Beside

42) California county

44) Far from eager

45) Opens a map

47) More expressionless, as a stare

48) Hauled away

49) Exec, in slang

50) "How was know?"

51) Computer user's locale

58) Dog that's far from a purebred

59) Arctic inhabitant

60) Event with cowboys and lassos

61) Inquire

62) Requires 63) Brenda who was drawn out

E. Parker

department protocols and their training were found guilty of a crime they didn’t commit,” the written statement said.

Cichuniec was also convicted of an unlawful administration of drugs charge and has been incarcerated since the December conviction. He is scheduled to appear in court in a couple of weeks where attorneys are expected to argue that he has served enough time.

Cooper’s sentencing has been delayed pending an appeal and he has yet to serve any prison time.

Weiser’s office had no comment because of pending appeals, but a spokes-

8th September

DOWN

1) Mercedes competitor

2) "Winnie-the-Pooh" baby

3) Requirement for a useful balloon

4) Aggravate

5) Some church officers

6) Squash type

7) Ad headline, often

8) Letters on tires

9) "Yadda, yadda, yadda"

10) Snuggles down

11) It's done in some tanneries

12) Pelvic bones

13) Apprehension

18) d'oeuvre (appetizer)

22) "Dig in!"

23) Sign of life

24) Bermuda vegetable

25) Complicated, eccentric person

26) Bop on the head

27) Little leapin' lizard

28) Pub offerings

30) Funeral hymn

32) Ding-_ (doorbell sounds)

34) Perfume by burning

35) Rage

37) Breeze component

38) Hidden valley

40) Variety of apple

41) Images representing posters

43) Lobster eggs

44) Came down to earth

45) Central New York town

46) "We didn't do it!"

47) Some sculptures

49) Prepare to crash

52) Half and half

53) Have regrets viewer with

“While there is no way to bring Elijah McClain back. Gov. Polis stands by his decision to appoint Attorney General Weiser as the special prosecutor in this case to ensure justice. Elijah McClain’s death was a tragedy and was unnecessary, and the governor hopes that no other parents have to go through what Elijah McClain’s family did.”

His office also pointed out that he signed legislation earlier this year to remove the term “excited delirium” from law enforcement and emergency responder training and death certificates. He also signed a law in 2021 to limit the use of ketamine for restraint.

— ALLISON SHERRY, Colorado Public Radio

SWAT unit arrests man, 40, in northwest Aurora after shelter-in-place

order

Police issued an order for residents in the vicinity west of the Fitzsimons hospital campus to shelter in place for over an hour as SWAT officers attempted to arrest an man wanted on felony assault charges Sept. 4.

The man, later identified as Alfredo Jaquez, 40, who lives in the area, was arrested without further incident, police said. He was wanted on a felony menacing warrant out of Adams County, police said.

“Officers have been in contact with the suspect since arriving at the scene,” police said in a social media post at about 9:15 p.m., about an hour after first issuing the order to stay inside. “The suspect is not complying with orders to exit the residence. Crisis negotiators are in contact trying to coordinate his surrender.”

About 10 minutes later, Jaquez was arrested, police said.

He was taken into custody without incident,” police said in a social media post.

The stay-inside order affected residents living between Nome and Moline streets, between East 17th and East 19th avenues.

The order was first issued at about 8:15 p.m.

“Residents in the area, for your safety please stay in your homes and away from doors and windows,” police said in a social media post.

— Sentinel Staff

Man at Aurora convenience store shot in leg Monday expected to survive

“An unidentified man was shot in the leg in the parking lot of an Aurora convenience story early Sept. 9, police reported.

The man called 911 at about 4:15 a.m. from the parking lot of the Maverick gas station and convenience store at 1875 S. Havana St. to report he’d been shot, police said in a statement.

“The man is expected to survive,” Aurora police spokesperson Agent Matt Longshore said in a statement. “No one has yet been arrested and there is no suspect description.”

Officers said circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear.

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

Dispute between two men at an Aurora muffler shop results in gunfire, injury

Police were called to the Midas shop at 16708 E. Iliff Ave. at about 9:15 a.m. Sept. 9 after reports of a shooting there.

“The preliminary investigation has determined two men got into an argument,” Aurora police spokesperson Agent Matt Longshore said in a statement. “One of those two men pulled a firearm and shot the other.”

It’s unclear whether the shooting was inside or outside the shop.

“The shooter left the scene walking north,” Longshore said. “Responding officers were unable to immediately locate the suspect.”

Police did not disclose the condition of the shooting suspect, saying only that his gunshot injury was “serious.”

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

Man fatally shot at apartment in crux of Venezuelan gang controversy ID’d

Police have identified a man fatally shot in August amid gunfire near an apartment at the center of a controversy over Venezuelan gangs.

The slain man was identified as Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo, 25.

Dispatchers sent officers to the area of East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street after residents there reported gunfire at about 11:30 p.m. Aug. 18.

“When officers arrived they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound,” Aurora spokesperson Agent Matt Longshore said in a statement.” He was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.”

The area is adjacent to The Edge at Lowry apartments, the current center of a local controversy over Venezuelan immigrant and gang stories that have garnered national media attention.

Some city lawmakers insist, without proof, that the apartment complex and others nearby are “overrun” by Venezuelan gangs.

Several cars in the area of the shooting had gunfire damage after the shooting.

“Numerous shell casings have been located and detectives are actively investigating this incident,” Longshore said at the time.

Police did not say if the shooting was related to allegations of gang activity in the community near the apartment complex.

“The investigation remains active and ongoing,” Longshore said No arrests have been made.

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