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Opinion: Ouch! Property tax increase will hurt, despite Democrat’s Rube Goldberg plan

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Like other Colorado homeowners, I opened a little white envelope this week and found out my property taxes were going to go up, way up. My home’s value is 57% higher than before which means I could pay $1,400 more in taxes next year.Adjunct professors aren’t one-percenters; we’re more like Starbucks employees minus benefits and free coffee. Property values, which are reassessed every two years in odd-numbered years, went up in the Denver metro area by 35% to 45%. Some of us got even luckier.Monday, the governor flanked by Democrats announced they’re here to help. In a departure from their usual rob Peter to pay Paul redistributionist schemes, their best idea is to rob Peter to pay Peter. They will place an initiative on the ballot asking voters to provide themselves property tax relief by, in effect, raising income taxes.The proposal would lower the state’s assessment rate on residential property from 6.98% to 6.7% of the value of the home. I did the math; that’s a reduction of less...

Book lover, entrepreneur and free speech warrior: Tattered Cover’s Joyce Meskis remembered

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Joyce Meskis, who made the Tattered Cover Book Store a national icon, passed away last December at the age of 80. She grew the Tattered Cover into an internationally recognized bookstore with multiple locations when she retired in 2017. She was one of the great entrepreneurs in modern Denver, and her entrepreneurial instincts were matched by her ideals.Joyce was a bookseller, but that label does not begin to do her justice.In 1974, she purchased a small 950-square-foot struggling bookstore in Cherry Creek called The Tattered Cover. She was ambivalent about whether “Tattered” was the best name for selling glossy new books, but over more than four decades she transformed that humble store into what the New York Times ultimately called “the best bookstore in America.”Like all great entrepreneurs, Joyce had an insatiable curiosity and the capacity for careful observation. What stands out most was her endless persistence in the pursuit of what mattered. In a time when female entrepreneur...

Commentary: On May the 4th, the Star Wars marketing holiday, a fan confronts his addiction

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

I was 6 years old when I saw “Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi” in a movie theater. As I tottered past the lobby posters on the way out, my dad and uncle grinning beside me, I was more slack-jawed and dreamy than I’d ever been.I wonder if that experience is even possible anymore with Star Wars. The parade of animated, live-action, video-game versions and other spinoffs has barely flagged since Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and began revving up the assembly line. The diminishing returns are clearer than ever in the wide-ranging quality (from the brilliant “The Last Jedi” to the atrocious “Rise of Skywalker”) and what feels like corporate demands for more, more, more.May the 4th, the unofficial Star Wars holiday, also feels more official with each passing year — like an in-joke that’s become public, and less funny for it. Significantly, “Return of the Jedi” is celebrating its 40th anniversary, having been released on...

Who should police the police? Boulder considers ousting oversight panel member over allegations of bias

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Should a community leader who has advocated for reallocating tax money away from law enforcement and said officers can’t be trusted serve on a police oversight panel?Lisa Sweeney-Miran (Photo via Boulder Valley School District)That’s the question the Boulder City Council will consider Thursday when it decides whether to remove Lisa Sweeney-Miran from the city’s Police Oversight Panel.The vote follows a $20,000 investigation into complaints filed by Boulder residents that the group that selected Sweeney-Miran failed to properly consider her advocacy for police reform and involvement in a lawsuit against the city for forcibly removing tents from people experiencing homelessness.The City Council will weigh whether having opinions on police reform counts as bias and should disqualify someone from participating on a panel tasked with improving the Boulder Police Department. The selection committee and the council previously reaffirmed the decision to impanel Sweeney-Mir...

Family of car buffs starts business to accelerate transition to electric vehicles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

“I’ve always liked internal combustion engines and I’ve always said there’s nothing like the sound of an American V8.”The declaration by Ron Rooney is a bit unexpected coming from the CEO of a business that installs home charging stations for electric vehicles. But Rooney said his lifelong love of cars, like automobiles themselves, is evolving.Rooney, who lives in Littleton, is on the waiting list for a Rivian SUV. And last year, he and two of his sons and fellow car enthusiasts started Peak EV Solutions, which installs home chargers. Rooney sees the business as a means to educate people about electric vehicles, what they need to keep them running and make sure they know all about the tax credits and rebates available from local governments and public utilities.“That’s part of our mantra is to educate people as well,” Rooney said.Building a startup company is a new venture for Rooney. He spent three decades in the corporate world, holding senior management po...

Colorado’s wild virus year wasn’t — and was — the new normal

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

With sniffles as a near-constant companion this fall and winter, and previously obscure viruses becoming household names in Colorado, you’re not alone if you wondered whether this past year was normal.Some pathogens — like respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and streptococcus bacteria, or strep — did damage that children’s hospitals called “unprecedented.” But the flu season was of about average severity, and a seeming cluster of unexplained hepatitis cases turned out to nothing out of the ordinary.That doesn’t mean fall and winter weren’t miserable for some, especially after two years with minimal viral spread. A January poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found about 38% of people reported someone in their home had been sick from flu, COVID-19 or RSV in the previous month.In some ways, that’s a return to the way things were before the pandemic, said Dr. Sam Dominguez, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children...

Gluten-free foodie fest, Herb’s Bar turns 90, Cinco de Mayo in Five Points, and more things to do in Denver this weekend

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Gluten Free Foodie FestivalSaturday. If you have a gluten allergy or intolerance, you might think you have to skip many of the myriad local beer festivals or risk paying full price to indulge in just a few drink options. Not so at the Gluten Free Foodie Festival, coming to Holidaily Brewing Co. on Saturday, May 6.Holidaily exclusively brews gluten-free beers using grains such as millet and buckwheat instead of barley in its award-winning recipes. On Saturday, stop by the brewery in Golden (801 Brickyard Circle) to pair the drinks with bites from nine food trucks and pop-up vendors that also specialize in gluten-free food. Vendors include Dedicated Bistro & Bakery, Farmhouse 5280 and Wave the Grain, among others.The festival is free to attend; patrons simply pay for what they want to eat and drink. More information at bit.ly/44tFmxR. — Tiney RicciardiHelen H. Richardson, The Denver PostDancers with Ballet Folklorico Baile Caliente perform on the Fiesta Folklorico & Conf...

Damien Patterson beat the odds as a celebrated dancer. Now he’s hanging up his shoes.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Pay no mind to the idea that artists must quake and fret on stage to truly feel their art: Damien Patterson’s best moments have arrived with all eyes upon him, and when he’s had the most to lose.“I felt like my own version of Beyoncé being in (‘Divisions’), which is the collaboration we first did with Flobots in 2017, “ said Patterson, who is retiring from a 24-year dance career after he finishes out Wonderbound’s run of “The Sandman” this month. “I remember looking the audience in eyes and being completely fearless.”That was just one of his best moves. Patterson, 42, has also gotten to act, write poetry, choreograph and work across all performing-arts disciplines at Wonderbound — particularly in artistic director Garrett Ammon’s “Winter,” “Ice” and “Snow” shows, where Patterson developed the same character over the course of six years.Any failures in these would reflect...

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Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

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In Pleasanton, an ancient Japanese tradition points a way to healthier aging

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:07 GMT

Every week, a small group of older women gathers in a little room next to the courtyard of a senior living center in Pleasanton to practice the centuries-old Japanese craft of arranging flowers.The ikebana stylists, ranging from 75 to 95 years old, have been meeting for years. They come together for an hour on Tuesdays to work with yellow daffodils and flowering purple veronica, creating beautiful, delicate, and impermanent arrangements they will enjoy in their homes until the next week comes.Ikebana follows strict rules that dictate style and form. Flower stems must be a precise length and lean at a precise angle. The second stem should be three-quarters the length of the first stem; the third, half the length of the second. The result is a colorful tapestry of flowers that are mathematically identical to one another, but completely unique in style.“Before I retired, I was a CPA,” said Alice Huang, the group’s instructor. “But every day I wanted to look at flowers.”Huang grew...