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Opinion: Search and rescue overwhelmed by a generation “expecting to get rescued”

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

When I was leading groups into the Wyoming wilderness in the 1990s, once we left a trailhead we were on our own.If somebody got hurt, we could walk or carry the injured person out or send runners to the road to call for support. In the case of a life- or limb-threatening emergency, we could use a transponder to try to send a coded message to a passing aircraft, pleading for help.Things have definitely changed.“People expect to be rescued,” said Tod Schimelfenig, who has been on the search and rescue team for Fremont County, Wyoming, since the 1970s. “Maybe it’s that a whole generation has grown up with instant communication, and that drives what they do when they go into the wilderness.”What they do, according to Schimelfenig, is go farther and attempt more difficult objectives, which means demands on search and rescue teams have increased sharply over the last decade.The United States has a patchwork of search and rescue organizations charged with responding to backcountry emergenc...

Where will mayor-elect Mike Johnston house homeless? “The easy sites are gone.”

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

When mayor-elect Mike Johnston takes office, Denver will have more tools than ever to provide stopgap housing options to people living homeless on its streets.Tiny home villages, safe outdoor spaces populated with heavy-duty tents and parking lots that can host people living in their vehicles overnight are all now permanent options in Denver’s land use code following a City Council action in early June.These are the tools Johnston will need to deliver on his cornerstone campaign promise to eliminate homelessness in Denver in four years.But standing up temporary housing sites at a scale that meets the city’s deep needs remains an unmet challenge. Johnston has repeatedly expressed confidence he can secure the money to pay for his ambitious, tiny home-based homelessness plan. Still, another major question remains: Where will these communities go?“The easy sites are gone,” said outgoing City Councilwoman Robin Kniech, one of the driving forces behind the law chan...

“The Immortal King Rao” and other Colorado books take top honors

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

Denver Post book reviewer and author Sandra Dallas was among the winners honored by Colorado Humanities and the Center for the Book last week at the 2023 Colorado Book Awards earlier in June. “The Immortal King Rao,” by Vauhini Vara, which has won national acclaim, also took home a prize. Meanwhile, “Woman of Light,” by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, was honored by the Reading the West Book Awards, as was “Tracing Time,” by Craig Childs.Here are all the winners of the Colorado Book Awards:Little Souls by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Press)ANTHOLOGY: “Denver Noir,” by Cynthia SwansonBIOGRAPHY/HISTORY: “The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation,” by Mark Lee GardnerCHILDREN’S LITERATURE: “Swim, Jim!,” by Kaz WindnessCREATIVE NONFICTION: “Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation,” by Erika KrouseGENERAL FICTION: “The Immo...

Two cyclists, both badly injured in hit-and-runs, struggle with what they’ve lost

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

For nearly an hour, Lisa Ludwig had worked her way through a physical therapy session led by a therapist in Nebraska who was watching, instructing and encouraging her via Zoom video. After some exercises in the living room of her home high on a mountain near Evergreen, she’d gone outside for walking drills on a wrap-around deck with a stunning view of Mount Evans, cracking jokes and teasing her husband, Dave.Still suffering from cognitive deficits caused by a traumatic brain injury that she sustained on Father’s Day last year when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver while cycling with friends, she took slow, halting steps — with a walker, with two poles, with one hand on the railing of the deck, and then hand-in-hand with Dave.Suddenly Ludwig decided to try something that wasn’t on her PT program last Tuesday. And for the first time in 359 days since she was rushed from a roadside trauma scene near El Rancho to St. Anthony Hospital where she lay in a coma ...

The Book Club: Short book reviews from readers and staff include “Horse,” by Geraldine Brooks | Opinion

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this new series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email [email protected] Other Eden (W.W. Norton & Co.)“This Other Eden,” by Paul Harding (W.W. Norton & Co.)This novel is based on a true story of an isolated community founded by a former slave and his Irish-born wife on an island off the coast of Maine.  The few newcomers to the island are pretty eccentric by mainland standards, but they are embraced and made welcome by the island’s inhabitants.  Over generations, there is much intermarriage among the island’s inhabitants, with predictable results.  Also predi...

Metro Denver managing up when it comes to higher-paying jobs, leaving service workers on hold

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

A mystery of metro Denver’s runaway housing market is who can afford to buy all those $1 million-plus homes and pay $3,000 or more a month in rent for a luxury apartment. A recent study from the research arm of ADP, the nation’s largest payroll services provider, offers some possible insights into what might be happening.“It is harder to sustain any work in Denver that doesn’t pay enough to meet the cost of living there,” said Issi Romem, an economist and research fellow with ADPRI. And there has been a fundament shift in the mix of high-paying vs. low-paying jobs in popular metro areas like Denver.ADP studied the concentration of executive and management positions to customer service center jobs and how that ratio changed between 2005 to 2021. Both occupational categories tend to be mobile, in that a CEO doesn’t have to necessarily live where a company’s operations are located and call centers regularly relocate if a location gets too expen...

Colorado’s housing market was moving in favor of buyers, but not anymore

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

When residential mortgage rates crossed 7% last November, home sales slowed sharply, and it looked like the housing markets in Denver and other hot metro areas were finally entering a new and more favorable phase for buyers — lower prices, wider selection and less competition.But those expectations aren’t panning out, despite another surge in interest rates, due primarily to a lack of enough supply to meet the demand out there. While not as intense as in early 2022, bidding wars are back, some homes are commanding a premium above the list price, and the supply is tightening rather than loosening as the year moves on.“Potential sellers aren’t selling because they like their sub-3% mortgages and don’t see value in making a move-up purchase right now. Yet, demand for housing remains at an all-time high, and homes are selling at a faster rate than they were in December, January or February,” said Fort Collins-area Realtor Chris Hardy, in comments contained in a monthly...

To conserve gardening resources, utilize Colorado native plants at home

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

Can we ever truly go back to the original Colorado landscape before settlers arrived and built thriving cities of green spaces filled with water-thirsty grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers that reflected cities they left in the Eastern states?Back then, as Western town centers grew to cities, green areas were planted for people to gather, enjoy life and the culture of the times. Homeowners, businesses and municipalities reflected these elements by installing their own green landscapes.It’s too bad the folks before us couldn’t foresee how limiting our water resources would become as the population grew, which in turn would greatly impact the upkeep of the urban environment they built. Clearly, our ancestors didn’t consider that a more “leaning in” approach to gardening with plants that had already adapted to Colorado’s semi-arid climate and more-than-challenging growing conditions would have made the most sense.Ah, if only.Opportunities for entire do-overs don’t happen often, but...

SWAT team smokes out driver to end barricade situation in Studio City

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

A SWAT team was brought in Tuesday morning to put an end to a standoff between an assault with a deadly weapon suspect and police in Studio City.The incident began around 2 a.m. when a driver allegedly used his vehicle to ram into a Los Angeles Police Department patrol vehicle. The driver then led police on a brief pursuit that came to an end on Ventura Boulevard just east of Colfax Avenue. An hourslong standoff ensued after the driver refused to exit the vehicle.A driver is taken into custody following a standoff in Studio City on June 20, 2023. (KTLA)Sky5 video showed an armored SWAT vehicle had pulled up next to the driver and was using some type of smoke or gas to fill the vehicle around 5:30 a.m. By about 5:40 a.m. officers were seen pulling the suspect out of the vehicle and taking him into custody. No further information about the suspect was immediately released.

Multiple people shot, 2 killed in Valley Glen 

Published Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:51:58 GMT

Three people were shot, including two fatally, outside of a smoke shop in Valley Glen on Monday night. Authorities responded to calls of shots being fired around 10 p.m. near the intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Victory Boulevard. Police found three people suffering from gunshot wounds at the scene.One man believed to be between 50 and 60 years old was confirmed deceased at the scene, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. O'Connor said. Two others were transported to a nearby hospital, where one was pronounced dead.At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA) Barricaded suspect taken into custody after standoff in Porter Ranch Police be...