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Denver City Council offices violated city rules by making donations on credit cards, audit finds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

Denver city auditors flagged 14 times that City Council members or their staff members violated the rules by using city-issued credit cards to donate money to local organizations between 2021 and 2023.The improper spending, cited in a recent audit, included one donation that was spread over three transactions in a single day. The Denver Auditor’s Office said that suggested the cardholder, who wasn’t identified, was trying to get around a $2,000-per-transaction spending limit for city purchase cards.Those findings were highlighted in Auditor Tim O’Brien’s long-planned report focused on City Council operations. His office released the 46-page report, including a council response letter, last week.The audit was set to commence in 2021, but O’Brien sparred with then-council President Stacie Gilmore over the parameters of that work.“I’m glad we were finally able to conduct this audit,” O’Brien said in a news release. “The council’s complete agreement w...

The nation’s first VFW isn’t a smoky bar with vets telling war stories. Here’s what Post 1 in Denver is doing instead.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

The art gallery on Santa Fe Drive teemed with people on a recent night, part of the district’s signature First Friday art walk that takes over the funky strip south of downtown Denver.Families, young professionals and retirees — some with drinks in hand — took in the myriad works gracing the gallery’s walls, chatting amiably with the artists about their process. The gallery featured moonlit nature photography; avant-garde, black-and-white portraits; and artificial-intelligence-infused pieces.If visitors didn’t notice the 19th-century memorabilia hanging on the walls, they might confuse 841 Santa Fe Drive with just another art gallery.But this isn’t your average art space — this is Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1, the international veteran organization’s first and oldest post in existence, with origins dating back to William McKinley’s presidency. Its motto: “First of many, one of a kind.”“We want to change the s...

Colorado population growth bouncing back, but not as much as forecast

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

Population growth in Colorado accelerated this year, but it remains significantly below the pre-pandemic pace and gains fell short of what state demographers had expected.Colorado added 36,571 people to its population over the past year, bringing the total to 5,877,610 as of July 1 of this year, according to vintage estimates the U.S. Census Bureau released last week.That is up from a gain of 29,443 people in the July 1, 2022, count and 26,377 in the July 1, 2021, count. But even though population gains were 24% higher in 2023 than they were in 2022, the state remains well short of the 75,000 a year added on average last decade and the 51,900 the state demography office had forecast.Colorado’s population growth rate was in line with the national average. But the popularity that western states long enjoyed has shifted to southern states, which accounted for nearly 9 in 10 of the population gains the country experienced in the most recent count, according to the U.S. Census Bure...

Thieves take wallet from woman as she waits with baby for carousel: video

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

Police are searching for two thieves seen on video taking a wallet from a woman waiting in line for the Irvine Spectrum carousel last month.The Irvine Police Department on Tuesday posted a video on its Instagram page of the November incident. In the video, a woman can be seen holding a baby while in line for the carousel as the two suspects approach and stand beside her. Two people are suspected of taking a woman's wallet while in line for a carousel in Irvine. (Irvine Police Department)The pair is suspected of stealing the woman's wallet from her purse and walking away just as the woman turns to look at them. Police are asking the public for help in identifying the suspects. Anyone with information was asked to email [email protected]. Boy, 16, fatally shot during altercation; gunman at large The Police Department offered the following tips when in public. Keep your distance from strangersWhen you are in public, make sure your purse is zipped closed or latched shutWhen groc...

Wish Book: Vital San Jose youth center looks for tech upgrade

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

At the Washington United Youth Center, there is strength in numbers.As in the number of teens who support each other in the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood just south of downtown San Jose, where just walking the streets is a tenuous proposition because of a block-by-block patchwork of territorial gang claims.As in the number of adult counselors, social workers and staff who work tirelessly to ensure young people in the neighborhood have a safe space to do homework, talk to someone about their lives, pick up a pool cue or take to the handball courts after school.The youth center is a respite from the unrest that surrounds them. The conflicts and tensions that exist outside are checked at the door, led by a ban on wearing anything that could be considered promoting gang colors or culture. Teens who cluster in the halls are broken up and directed to the game room, or the gym: If you want to stay, you’ve got to be active.“This is a neutral ground where everyone can coexist...

State plans pricey fixes to California’s broken insurance market. Are homeowners on board?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

Chris Finnie didn’t lose her Boulder Creek home when the CZU Lightning Complex fires in 2020 ripped through the Santa Cruz Mountains. But she lost her home insurance anyway and got forced onto a bare-bones last-resort policy that costs three times as much.As Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara embarks on a politically risky bid over the coming year to stabilize California’s imploding home insurance market by making it easier to raise premiums, homeowners in fire-ravaged communities seem resigned to a grim fate. In a state already grappling with unaffordable housing, the cost of insuring homes in much of California is about to get a lot higher.“We’re kind of caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” Finnie said. “We either pay outrageous amounts money for substandard insurance, or outrageous amounts of money for actual insurance from insurance companies. I don’t see an alternative.”Chris Finnie, works at her home in Boulder Creek...

Smoke exposure from California’s wildfire-busting controlled burns is raising concerns. Are they safe?

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

At Wilder Ranch outside of Santa Cruz, the fire starts slowly. Forest managers clad in yellow protective gear use drip torches to light the grass, still damp from the previous day’s rain. Huge columns of smoke quickly obscure the sun and ash rains down. At first it smells like a campfire, but soon the smoke is choking, even as the breeze carries it toward the Santa Cruz Mountains.Prescribed burns, used to limit destructive wildfires, are growing in frequency at California State Parks. But as the smoke swirls around the firefighters and drifts into neighboring residential areas, it’s easy to see why many Californians are concerned about the health impacts of deliberately set fires.“I have asthma. My eyes were burning, my lungs were burning, it wasn’t affecting me kindly,” said Michael Brokaw, who lives in Scotts Valley, 6 miles from the Wilder Ranch burn. “I couldn’t go outside.”FILE – Hikers make their way along a path on the ocean side of Highway 1 at Wilder Ranch State Park ...

All the things Taylor Swift made us care about this year

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

By Leah Asmelash | CNNEvery year seems to be Taylor Swift’s year.Related ArticlesMusic | Debate erupts over Taylor Swift being a ‘distraction’ for Travis Kelce and Chiefs after latest loss Music | Why universities from UC Berkeley to Harvard are teaching courses on Taylor Swift Music | Taylor Swift slams Kim Kardashian for working with Kanye West to take ‘her down psychologically’ Music | Taylor Swift is named Time Magazine’s person of the year Music | Wikipedia, wrapped. Here are 2023’s most-viewed articles on the internet’s encyclopedia Since the early stages of her career, Swift has consistently held the news cycle in the palm of her hands — making headlines for everything from her romantic interests to the sale of her masters and the resulting rereleases.And yet 2023 feels like it was her biggest year yet. With a record-breaking world tour, an accompanying concert film, and a ...

NFC playoff outlook: Division rivals stay in playoff picture as 49ers cling to No. 1

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

The 49ers retained the top seed in the NFC despite a Christmas Night bellyflop against the Baltimore Ravens, and a pair of division rivals moved into position to join them in the postseason.A 33-19 loss to Baltimore was convincing enough that it’s not worth wasting time lamenting what could have been had they won. Not with five turnovers and 10 penalties for 102 yards, including four interceptions from quarterback Brock Purdy.If the 49ers finish out by beating Washington and the Rams, they’ll get what they desire — a first-round bye and no travel until (hopefully) Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.And while coach Kyle Shanahan isn’t looking past Washington on the road in a short week, the Rams have suddenly become the team no one wants to face based on how good they’ve looked of late. Los Angeles has won five of its last six and the only loss was in overtime to the same Baltimore team, on a punt return no less.The same Ravens team that was crowing about bea...

Opinion: My grandmother escaped Nazi Germany; I think of fleeing the U.S.

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:05:48 GMT

For longer than I care to admit I have been working on a book about my grandmother’s narrow escape from Nazi Germany in 1939.In her recollections before she died in 2004, my grandmother, Susi, detailed having to turn in her passport, being forced to read “Mein Kampf,” stopping and saluting when Nazi soldiers marched by on the street, and hearing Hitler’s harsh voice on the radio shouting for peace without the Jews.So, when I turned on Rachel Maddow and saw men in black masks, waving swastika flags and chanting “Weimar conditions, Weimar solutions,” and saluting Sieg Heil, I assumed it was vintage footage. But after listening, I realized it was 2023 Ohio with Neo Nazis protesting a drag queen event at a library.Yet another example of Neo-Nazis in this country stepping out of the shadows: Over Thanksgiving a Jewish friend went to visit her brother in Dallas and sent a photo she took of several masked men standing on the street corner, one waving a huge red flag with a black swastika a...