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How to show out-of-towners a good time in Denver

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

My family moved from the Detroit area to Littleton when I was nine, and I (unofficially) became an extension of Colorado’s tourism office. I sent handwritten cards to friends and family back in Michigan inviting them to come visit Colorado.Each invitation promised a West-facing seat at the dinner table for the duration of their visit so they could take in majestic views of the Rocky Mountains, and the envelopes contained fool’s gold nuggets I bought with my allowance from a mountain town gift shop. Hey, gold lured people to our state, as I had learned in my Colorado history class, so it seemed like a good marketing strategy.I drummed up plenty of interest, and, over the decades, as visitors came to town, my family developed a few go-to’s on our itinerary to dazzle our guests. Some traditions are no more. Who remembers the Baby Do’s mine-themed restaurant overlooking Interstate 25 and downtown?But many live on. The Zip Code Man still occasionally performs on Pearl Street in Bou...

Does it take a 77-page technical manual to regulate pickleball? In Centennial, it might.

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

A maelstrom of thoughts and feelings about pickleball is on full display in Centennial, as the suburban city embarks on an effort to devise regulations to ensure that residents are able to partake in the fast-growing sport without driving their neighbors crazy.“The sound from pickleball all day is extremely bothersome,” a woman wrote, one of more than 100 comments submitted to the city on the topic in June. “Courts should either be in existing parks or areas more than 500 feet of residences, with hopefully some kind of sound barrier.”At the other end of the spectrum are those who think the government should stay off the 44-foot-by-20-foot courts that play host to the tennis and ping-pong mashup that’s taking the country by storm.“Please build more pickleball courts anywhere and everywhere you can!” one resident posted. “Those who don’t like the noise can move away — we don’t want grinches in Centennial!”Noise is...

Will tipping disappear as Colorado restaurant service fees rise?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

Reading the fine print is always important, especially when dining at a restaurant these days.Call them “service fees” or “living wage fees” or “creating happy people” fees, as restaurateur Frank Bonanno’s restaurants do, but they can range from 4 to 22% — and they are catching on as a way to offer stability in a volatile industry.“It’s important for local diners to be aware that, now more than ever, restaurants are not money-makers,” Colorado Restaurant Association spokesperson Denise Mickelson said.The fees, she said, have lasted as the COVID pandemic ebbed because they offset pay disparities between front-of-the-house workers (servers, bartenders) and back-of-the-house staff (cooks, dishwashers) and help retain people amidst the industry-wide labor shortage across the country.While servers and customers have mixed thoughts about the use of fees (Casa Bonita is facing pushback from workers over its decision to cut tipping altogether), a re...

Think you know everything about the Manson murders? This enthralling book will make you think again | Opinion

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

Few incidents in American history have been as meticulously analyzed as the 1969 Manson murders, also known as the Tate-LaBianca murders. And few people know that better than journalist Tom O’Neill, who spent two decades obsessing over the details of Charles Manson and his infamous group of followers known as The Family in hopes of unearthing the true motivations behind the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and others.In 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the murders – O’Neill published “Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties,” an enthralling read that seeks to poke holes in the official narrative of the murders as outlined in the book “Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders.”When O’Neill started the project in 1999, his assignment was admittedly less ambitious than a 500-page investigation into one of the country’s most notorious cult leaders and the cultural context that fueled him. At the time, O’Neill was writing for Premiere magazine, which...

PHOTOS: Olathe Sweet corn harvest

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

For 41 years the Tuxedo Corn Company of Olathe Colorado has been growing and shipping its popular Olathe Sweet-brand sweet corn to grocery stores all over North America. This year’s harvest began early Thursday morning, with crews out to hand-pick the corn.This season Tuexdo Corn Company founder and farmer John Harold had planned to ship 600,000 boxes of corn to deliver his large Kroger contract. At 48 ears per box, the estimated yield in 2023 was 28.8 million ears. An infestation of ear worms has curtailed that estimate. Harold said he expects to ship about 100,000 fewer boxes than normal, with crews picking around the infested plants.The company is the largest grower of sweet corn in Colorado, with tens of thousands of acres of rural Olathe countryside planted each year. The corn is usually picked by hand due to the tenderness of its kernels, but this year workers are inspecting every single plant carefully to avoid the ear worms.Once the corn is harvested, it’s boxed,...

High rates putting “golden handcuffs” on many sellers in metro Denver’s housing market

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

Anna Vavruska and her husband would like to sell the home they purchased in the Sunnyside neighborhood at the start of the pandemic. But that would require a trade-off they aren’t willing to accept — a much higher mortgage payment.“Since we had a child, we definitely have thought about leaving central Denver, but it is not a good time. Even though we have equity in our home, we would still need to take on another mortgage,” Vavruska said.Instead of a 3% mortgage rate that now makes for a manageable monthly payment, they would be staring at something between 6.5% to 7%.Likewise, Tyler Bellis and his wife, Shayla, wouldn’t mind switching out the central Aurora home they acquired in 2018 for something roomier as they prepare to start a family.Yet, swapping out the low 2.7% rate they have on their mortgage for one at today’s rates would boost their monthly payment by $600 to $700  — even after slapping 31% down on the next property.“We wou...

Pascal Najadi- a Successful Banker Turned Social Activist Who Refused to Stay Tight-Lipped in the Face of Injustice

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

Today, the banking sector is at a turning point, facing challenges from cross-industry platforms like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, PayPal, and Spotify. These companies are enjoying constant success due to better economic models. Market experts insist banks are heading in the wrong direction due to poor futuristic strategy.What must be done to understand what went wrong? Maybe, a look at someone’s exceptional journey holds the answer, and who better to look at than Pascal Najadi? Having an extensive experience of 25 years in the banking sector, Najadi is the best man to look at.What went wrong in the past few years for the banking industry? One of the reasons is poor credit and lousy loan policies. Another reason for the crisis is bad management practices and high-interest rates. Hence, by the Great Recession’s end, more than 600 banks had failed. Many experts and economists emphasized that it was because of bad government policies.“The banking collapse was caused, mo...

Woman who hired a hitman using bitcoin to kill her ex-husband in Northern California gets five years in prison

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

RENO, Nev. — A Nevada woman who admitted to hiring a hitman on the internet for $5,000 in bitcoin to kill her ex-husband “and make it look like an accident” was sentenced to five years in prison.Kristy Lynn Felkins, 38, of Fallon, Nevada, pleaded guilty in March to a charge of murder-for-hire as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that avoided trial, court records show.A U.S. District Court judge in California also ordered on Thursday that Felkins be released under supervision for three years after she serves her prison sentence.Felkins began communicating with someone in 2016 on a dark web hitman website that claimed to offer murder-for-hire services, according to her September 2020 indictment. Felkins wanted her ex-husband killed while he was traveling in Chico, California, the indictment said.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Tracy man arrested on suspicion of killing his 65-year-old mother Crime and Public Safety | San Francisco homicides: ...

San Jose: Part of southbound highway 101 closed for nearly 90 minutes after four-vehicle crash

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

SAN JOSE — A crash involving four vehicles Monday morning forced emergency crews to shut down part of southbound Highway 101 in South San Jose for nearly 90 minutes, according to authorities.The closure was in effect between Tully Road and Capitol Expressway. A San Jose Fire Department tweet Monday morning said there was no estimated time to reopen the lanes as of 5:12 a.m. The collision was reported at 4:08 a.m.According to a Sigalert issued, all lanes were reopened by 5:47 a.m.The #SJFD is on-scene of SB Hwy 101 before Capitol Exp for a 4-vehicle accident. Three patients were transported – SB 101 is currently closed. No eta to reopening. TOC 0408 @CHPSanJose pic.twitter.com/mclvb8orPy— San José Fire Dept. (@SJFD) July 24, 2023Related ArticlesCrashes and Disasters | Traffic and safety project to close Eastshore Highway in Berkeley through September Crashes and Disasters | Driving with hazard lights flashing might seem like right thing to do, b...

‘Like Halloween’: Bay Area Swifties get creative with their Eras Tour outfits

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:52 GMT

Sarah Peters, 22, doesn’t consider herself a fashion designer. But she is a proud “Swiftie.” And so it turns out her pandemic painting hobby gave her the idea to design colorful, customized jeans adorned with Taylor Swift song references — Cornelia Street on one leg and a purple dragon on the other for her, and a different design for her mom, Tammi — to wear in honor of her muse’s Eras Tour concert in Santa Clara this month.They don’t have tickets and venue officials said fans without them should stay away. So Sarah and Tammi haven’t decided whether to travel from their Livermore home to join thousands of other bejeweled and bedazzled devotees paying homage to Swift both inside and outside Levi’s Stadium during two concerts July 28 and 29. Those fans have spent weeks preparing — from trading friendship bracelets to hand-making their own outfits that highlight one or the other of Swift’s career incarnations, from paisl...