Denver

Hundreds of homeless test positive for coronavirus in Denver, shelter workers also sickened

Hundreds of homeless people have tested positive for coronavirus in Denver, city officials said Saturday, and several shelter workers are reportedly infected as concern grows that a larger outbreak could occur at one of the large shelters. There are at least 203 cases of COVID-19 among Denver’s homeless population, according to a city spokesperson. Of those cases, 170 have been caught during health screenings at two large shelters in Denver at the National Western Complex and the Denver Coliseum. As coronavirus has spread throughout the country, there have been concerns the virus could sweep through the nation’s homeless population, many of whom have chronic health conditions and lack safe places to quarantine themselves. Homeless populations are particularly susceptible to COVID-19, which can be spread through coughing and sneezing. Cathy Alderman, the vice president of communications and public policy for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, told FOX31 that it’s only a matter of time before there’s an outbreak inside of the facilities. “We’re not able to test the hundreds of people that could be asymptomatic,” she said Saturday. “And we know that one in three people in many shelter systems across the country is carrying this virus, but not showing any symptoms.” Similar concerns have been raised by activists, including one in California who warned that sheltering people in large spaces such as a convention center could create “a powder keg” that could permit the contagion to rapidly spread. On Friday night, 579 people were inside the National Western Complex, which is where only men are staying. At the Denver Coliseum, there has been an average of 170 women staying there a night. Catholic Charities of Denver, which is running operations at the Coliseum, said so far eight women tested positive for the virus at health screenings outside. Mike Sinnett, who works for the group, said workers are just “trying to protect the ladies inside the shelter as much as we can.” “Until this thing runs out, I don’t think we can be overly prepared, or cautious, or guarded,” he told FOX31. Those working at the facilities have also fallen ill. At least seven COVID-19 cases have been confirmed among staff at the National Western Complex being operating by the Denver Rescue Mission, Denverite reported. Brad Meuli, the mission’s president and CEO, told the news outlet that of those who tested positive, three have recovered and returned to work. “This is the nature of the work that we’re doing right now,” he said. “We’re very much at risk.” On Monday, the Denver City Council is expected to vote on a $1.9 million agreement to provide an additional 140 hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness. Other states have undertaken similar measures, such as California, where officials have acquired over 15,000 hotel rooms to shelter people during the pandemic. “We’re trying to move people out of these congregate settings that are high risk,” Alderman told FOX31. “So I think that is a really smart strategy to prevent spread and extreme health complications among those high-risk individuals that could overwhelm the hospital system.” As of Sunday, there were 15,999 cases of COVID-19 in Colorado with at least 828 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Denver Sheriff’s Department fined $10K for hiring only US citizens

The intention, Denver officials said, was benevolent. The Denver Sheriff’s Department set out to hire scores of deputies last year to lessen the burden on its staff and cut millions in overtime. It advertised for prospects, and included U.S. citizenship as a requirement. By this past spring, it had hired 200 deputies. The Justice Department did not congratulate the agency – instead, it slapped Colorado’s largest sheriff’s department with a $10,000 fine and a host of steps it must take to address what was described as discriminatory hiring. In a summary of the settlement on its website, the Justice Department said that in insisting on citizenship, the Denver Sheriff’s Department violated an anti-discrimination provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that forbids employers from hiring only U.S. citizens except in cases where it is mandated “by law, regulation, executive order or government contract.”

Only Obama and his so-called Justice Department would fine a law-enforcement agency for hiring…U.S. citizens.  Imagine how insane that is!  Hopefully Attorney General to be, Jeff Sessions will put an end to this ridiculous nonsense.  Unreal..

Mysterious white plane spotted circling Denver metro area

A white plane spotted over the Denver metro area Wednesday morning left many wondering where it came from and where it was going. The Denver Channel reported that the flight named IRON99 was flying from California and it was heading over the Pacific Ocean until it veered back toward the west and eventually over Denver. As the flight approached the city, it began circling and flight tracking showed the plane making an oval over the city. It made a few loops and then took off for Oklahoma without any notion of it stopping. Officials at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora told the station that it never checked in with radar towers and didn’t land at the base despite circling over it a few times. Denver International Airport officials also told the station that the flight. According to the station, northeastern U.S. military bases give out the title of IRON to military flights and it usually reserved for T-38 aircraft, which the station says are usually black. The particular IRON99 flight only communicated with the U.S. Army and there was no public communications record available. U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Strategic Command neither confirmed or denied the flight existed or the location of where the flight was seen, the Denver Channel reported. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said there were only two “high-profile” flights in the air at the time.

Interesting..  This story is developing.  For more, click on the text above.

Denver Police Release ID Of Suspect They Say Threw Rock Into Trump Field Office

Police have released the identity of a suspect accused of throwing a rock through the window of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s field office in Denver on Friday night. According to police, Michael Ferrara, 33, is currently in custody in connection with the crime. Police rushed to 18th and Clarkson just before 9 p.m. Friday where they found a rock thrown through the Trump campaign field office. The campaign office serves as the headquarters for Trump’s Denver team. A security officer with Trump’s campaign detained Ferrara until police arrived. About two dozen Trump volunteers and staff were inside making calls at the time. No one was hurt. This is the second time the campaign office has been vandalized. There was paint on the front windows of the building and offensive words about the Republican presidential candidate were painted on the side..

Glad they caught the loser who did this.  Denver PD is still looking for the people who did the graffiti..  Hopefully they’ll get them as well.  Be careful out there today and tomorrow.  There are some lunatics out there..

Denver Police Running Low on Storage Space for Confiscated Marijuana

The Denver Police Department is asking the city for help after facing a storage space shortage for confiscated marijuana. “Prior to the legalization with Amendment 64, we received small quantities of marijuana, maybe a couple ounces or a few pounds,” said Lt. Cliff Carney, who manages the evidence and property section for the department, to KCNC. “After 64, we’re seeing huge seizures the come in. We’ll get sometimes 300 to 400 boxes of marijuana at one time on one seizure.” Even though marijuana is legal in Colorado, Denver, police are running out of storage space at police headquarters to store vast quantities of confiscated marijuana. In 2013, the year before Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, police seized a little more than 500 pounds. Next year, the department expects to seize 11,265 pounds, according to Police Chief Robert White’s budget presentation to council. There are only two storage rooms at the police department’s headquarters that are quickly filling up with processed pot, plants, and other evidence, KCNC reported. “We have a pretty good turnover so we don’t have to keep it forever, but we have to have a place to store it and process it to get rid of it,” Carney told KCNC. Police officials asked the city for $125,116 to hire two additional staff members and an additional $14,645 to purchase more storage devices, The Denver Post reported. Denver Police Department is one of the first to compost illegal pot plants, but a court has to approve of its disposal first, KCNC reported.

What a crazy problem!  It’s definitely a sign of the times..

Vandal smashes windows of Denver’s oldest active church

The Denver Police Department is searching for the person who damaged Denver’s oldest active church. Officers were called out to Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Sunday morning. Parishioners walked into the church to find damage to the historic sanctuary. They said someone at the church saw a man throwing things at the stained glass windows on Saturday night. “Oh, it’s just heartbreaking,” 30-year church member Liz Ruby said. “This is a 135-year-old church. The statue was over 100 years old. This has been our family. This is my family. It breaks my heart. It’s really sad to see.” Four broken stained-glass windows surround the sanctuary.

Just awful!!  Hopefully they catch the person(s) responsible..  To see photos, click on the text above.

Blizzard shuts down Denver airport, closes highways

A powerful spring blizzard stranded travelers at Denver’s airport and shut down hundreds of miles of highway in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska as it spread into the Midwest on Wednesday. Snow blown by gusts up to around 50 mph made it unsafe for planes to land or take off at Denver International Airport, leading officials to close it around midday. The closure came hours after long flight delays caused by power outages at the airport’s fuel depot and deicing supply and the cancellation of about a third of the airport’s daily flights. The last time a blizzard closed the airport was in 2006, for two days. The system is moving to the northeast across the Plains and into Michigan. The worst effects of the storm were expected later in the day in South Dakota, but strong winds were in the forecast all day. In Denver, the road to the airport was also impassable because of blowing snow. The outbound lanes reopened Wednesday afternoon, allowing passengers to escape to town, airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said. Visibility had started to improve by late afternoon, and some flights may resume Wednesday night, Stegman said. Meanwhile, restaurants are extending hours and some will be open all night for crowds of stranded travelers. Hundreds of people with suitcases and duffel bags stood or lay around the terminals. Some travelers leaned against walls, bags strewn at their feet, as others charged their phones. Some passed the time by hanging out at the airport’s bars and restaurants.

It is definitely crazy out there!  I was out in it earlier, and made it to my subdivision, which wasn’t plowed, and that’s where I got stuck..  So, if you’re out there, be careful!~

Denver joins list of cities struggling with homeless camps

Denver plans to start clearing out homeless camps that have developed around shelters as early as Tuesday. It’s a problem confronting fast-growing cities across the country as affordable housing becomes scarcer. Denver says the camps scattered on sidewalks near Coors Field pose a health hazard. Spokeswoman Julie Smith says the city has tried to get people into shelters for the last six months. She says people won’t be forced out, but their belongings will be put in storage. Some homeless people and advocates say many of those camped out there don’t have anywhere else to live in a time of skyrocketing rents and they shouldn’t be forced to live in crowded shelters. Last week in San Francisco, crews cleared out a homeless camp that officials had declared a health hazard.

It’s more than just a health hazard (which is reason enough to address it).  It’s a security/safety issue as well.  When people are leaving a Rockies game around 10pm, or some other event downtown Denver, they have to walk right past, or through, some of these areas.  And, sometimes these homeless people get a little belligerent in their begging for some cash.  I’ve seen it several times, personally.  There are plenty of shelters, and other similar places, for homeless people to go if they want/need a place to stay and get food.  Simply Google “Denver Homeless Shelter”..and see for yourself.  So, for these so-called “homeless advocates” to suggest that the homeless here “don’t have anywhere else to” go is simply, factually false.  These “advocates” like to play the sympathy card for their own self-serving reasons.  But, the truth is that there are plenty of churches, charities, and other organizations willing and able to help the homeless.  They just need to be pointed in the right direction.  Glad to hear they’re trying to address this problem which has gotten WAY out of control.

A Broncos Player Said He Tried To Rub His Nuts On Tom Brady’s Face

It’s no secret that the Broncos’ defense — and, more specifically, their pass rush — was the number one reason why they defeated the Patriots to earn a spot in Super Bowl 50. Denver was getting in Tom Brady’s face all game long, knocking him down and disrupting his rhythm, and the Denver front-seven rush was so dominant that New England fired their O-Line coach after the game. Monday Morning Quarterback’s Robert Klemko took a deeper dive into how Denver was able to dominate the line of scrimmage and leave Brady bruised and battered after the game, but one quote in particular from an unnamed Denver player stood out above the rest: “To the three or four rushers the Denver Broncos sent careening towards Tom Brady on any given down, the five men standing in front of them might as well have been rec league hoopers taking on the Golden State Warriors. Sebastian Vollmer, Marcus Cannon and company were deserving of no more respect than a quick step to the inside and a sprint around the corner. And the quarterback was subject to all manner of indignity in a 20-18 loss. “I tried to lay on him a few times,” said one Broncos rusher after the game. “I tried to rub my nuts on his face.” That’s just not right on so many different levels.

No kidding..  I think I’m gonna vomit.  I’m NO fan of Tom Brady, and gotta say..  But, sounds like this Bronco needs to be identified, and publicly humiliated…and then fired.

Biggest Storm This Season Breaks Daily Snowfall Record In Denver

The biggest winter storm to hit Denver so far this season has also broken a daily snowfall record for the city. As of 5 p.m. the official measurement since midnight at Denver International Airport was 7.7″. That is both the biggest one day snowfall so far this season and a new record for December 15. The previous daily record for Dec. 15 was 2.8″ set in 1897.

How crazy is that?  Here in otherwise sunny Aurora, Colorado I got about 8″ on my patio. The Aurora Police Dept did their own version of the Christmas song “Let it Snow” to celebrate the winter wonderland we’re in.  Tis the season!    🙂