December 21, 2020

Fremont County pays $2.4 million to woman wrongly arrested while naked

Fremont County paid $2.4 million last week to a woman who was wrongly arrested while naked and in her own apartment, then locked into a restraint chair and shocked with a Taser.

A jury last year awarded the woman, Carolyn O’Neal, $3.6 million after she sued the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office over the 2014 incident, but a federal judge later reduced that amount to about $2.1 million, prompting both sides to appeal.

The county later agreed to drop its appeal and settle with O’Neal for $2.4 million, her attorney, David Lane, said Sunday.

“This was an outrageous case,” he said. “Law enforcement officers who believed they were above the law got smacked down hard by a jury. And unfortunately this costs the taxpayers of Fremont County a lot of money. But I hope it inspires the citizenry to demand accountability from law enforcement — otherwise it’s coming out of their pockets.”

Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2020/12/20/carolyn-oneal-naked-arrest-fremont-county-sheriff-lawsuit/

December 21, 2020

Colorado has money to help struggling renters, but some landlords won't play ball

Federal and state funding has helped thousands of Coloradans pay their monthly rent or mortgage bills during the pandemic, and in turn, helped nearly 3,000 landlords get their own bills paid.

But while there’s cash assistance available to both, the program heavily relies on landlords — and if landlords are unwilling to participate, renters are out of luck.

That’s left Lucy Guereca and her family reeling this month.

Her husband’s job in construction has had reduced hours and wages and ended for three months as the pandemic slogged on. The family of four relied on the kindness of strangers to pay rent for their space at Elevado Estates mobile home park near Arvada (“It even comes before food,” she said). But faced with a 10% rent hike in December, Guereca said they had only half the $1,003 payment — after eight years of dutifully paying the rent each month. Their landlord has already sent her papers about late fees that kick in Jan. 1.

Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2020/12/17/colorado-renters-landlords-assistance-public-tenants/

December 21, 2020

No, Republicans, everything is not awesome

A few days ago a national headline caught my eye. It proclaimed that GOP leadership believes “Everything’s great” across the county.

I immediately began humming “Everything is Awesome,” the sarcastic song made famous in The Lego Movie. Tongue-in-cheek, the refrain continually declares everything awesome no matter how inappropriate (“I lost my job”) or nonsensical (“Rocks, clocks, and socks, they’re awesome”).

The song fits perfectly for a party that still finds itself caught in the vortex created by a president who made the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV” a part of the American lexicon. For four years the party faithful have cheered every rambling news conference, every garrulous stump speech, and every verbose Twitter thread.

The transformation is so complete, it is difficult to tell whether “side by side you and I are gonna win forever” is a Trump rallying cry or a lyric from The Lonely Island.

Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2020/12/20/republican-trump-politics-election-opinion/

December 21, 2020

Child predator suspected of three decades of sexual abuse in Colorado Springs sentenced to 624 years

A 69-year-old man who sexually assaulted at least two boys in his Colorado Springs neighborhood — sometimes drugging his victim — was sentenced Friday to 624 years in prison.

Joseph Lee Davis was convicted in July of 20 counts at a six-day trial in 4th Judicial District Court, including child sex assault and manufacturing child pornography, court records show.

Judge Jessica Curtis imposed the lengthy sentence after ruling that prosecutors had proved Davis had multiple prior felony convictions, including for prior attacks on children, making him a habitual offender subject to tripled penalties.

“Over the course of more than 20 years, the defendant groomed, manipulated, threatened, and molested children from his neighborhood and extended family,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a written statement Sunday.

Read more: https://gazette.com/news/child-predator-suspected-of-three-decades-of-sexual-abuse-in-colorado-springs-sentenced-to-624/article_09f1f702-431c-11eb-b487-cbc602e86af2.html

December 21, 2020

Univ. of Colo. Regent Heidi Ganahl Uses Far-Right Social Media Sites That Allow Bigotry &

Univ. of Colo. Regent Heidi Ganahl Uses Far-Right Social Media Sites That Allow Bigotry & Misinformation


University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl took to social media last week to announce her new side-gig as a conservative columnist for the Denver Gazette. In addition to posts on Facebook and Twitter, Ganahl shared the news on alt-right site Parler, which is known as a haven for far-right extremists, white nationalists, and conspiracy theorists. Some conservatives are choosing to join it and other “alternative” sites because of their belief that fact-checking efforts by mainstream social media platforms are censoring conservative speech.

Founded in 2018 with funding from conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, Parler positioned itself as a right-wing alternative to mainstream social media sites largely not to ban or remove misinformation or hate speech. The result? A site rife with swastikas, racism, and unsolicited pornography.

Ganahl joined Parker back in June, along with many other Colorado Republicans including Congressmen Ken Buck and Doug Lamborn Sen. Cory Gardner, Congresswoman-elect Lauren Boebert, and House Minority Leader Patrick Neville.

Buck, Boebert, and Neville are all regular users. Gardner appears to have created handles for both his office and his campaign, but never posted to either account. Ganahl’s Dec. 7 post was her eighth post or “Parley” on the site.

Read more: https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/150806/univ-of-colo-regent-heidi-ganahl-uses-far-right-social-media-sites-that-allow-bigotry-misinformation

December 20, 2020

Ski resorts work to stay open as coronavirus cases snowball

TELLURIDE — The day after Thanksgiving, Dr. Jana Eller and Dr. Shiraz Naqvi were seated beside an outdoor fire pit at the base of Telluride Ski Resort, taking a short break from skiing.

The two physicians from Houston had driven more than 18 hours to get here for the holiday weekend, and they were staying (and preparing meals) in a rented home. They traveled with another couple and their kids, colleagues they’ve been “bubbling” with in Houston.

“We got a COVID test prior to leaving and will get another when we return,” Naqvi said.

The skiing itself doesn’t feel much different during the pandemic, Eller said, but “the après ski scene is just gone.”

Read more: https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/12/19/ski-resorts-work-to-stay-open-as-coronavirus-cases-snowball/
(Boulder Daily Camera)

December 20, 2020

COVID-19 outbreak among staff, patients at Puyallup hospital. Union files complaint

MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup is the latest hospital to face a series of COVID-19 cases among staff that started with a patient testing positive.

MultiCare says it cannot link the staff cases together because of the rate of spread in the community at large.

A union representing workers at the hospital is pushing back against that assessment and what it says was delayed notification to workers.

The current third surge in coronavirus cases across the state and nation has invaded different hospitals in the area in recent months in both the CHI Franciscan and MultiCare systems, including St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Anthony in Gig Harbor and Auburn Medical Center in Auburn.

Read more: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/coronavirus/article247835240.html
(Tacoma News Tribune)

December 20, 2020

The alleged arsonist who attacked the Spokane County Democrats offices was a veteran, but so was the

The alleged arsonist who attacked the Spokane County Democrats offices was a veteran, but so was the man he tried to take hostage


It was like a bomb had gone off. When Joe Kuhn returned to what remained of the Spokane County Democrats offices in the Teamsters Building last Thursday, he was shocked by the sheer amount of damage.

Flames had peeled paint off the doors. Ceiling tiles had collapsed. The copy machine had melted from the intensity of the heat.

"It was destroyed. The whole inside was gutted," says Kuhn, a 56-year-old Teamster. "This guy clearly intended to burn the whole building down. He wasn't just trying to torch the office."

The day before, on Dec. 9, Kuhn had been standing in that office, face-to-face with 45-year-old Peter James Yeager, who police say drove 85 miles from his apartment in the tiny town of Grand Coulee, Washington, to Spokane to attack the Spokane County Democrats' headquarters.

Read more: https://www.inlander.com/spokane/the-alleged-arsonist-who-attacked-the-spokane-county-democrats-offices-was-a-veteran-but-so-was-the-man-he-tried-to-take-hostage/Content?oid=20805151
(Spokane Inlander)

December 20, 2020

Utah ICUs now at 99.4% capacity, as state reports 2,408 new COVID cases and 8 deaths

Intensive care units at Utah hospitals have never been so slammed during the pandemic — with many of them beyond officially full — as the state reported another 2,408 cases of COVID-19 and eight more deaths Saturday.

The percent of all occupied ICU beds statewide is now 99.4%, or 534 of 537 beds filled.

At the 14 biggest hospitals that handle the most coronavirus cases, the rate of ICU beds now occupied is 104.1%, or 480 patients, which is beyond their official capacity of 461 beds.

With COVID-19 on top of regular cases, the ICUs at University of Utah Health hit a point earlier this week where “we couldn’t admit anybody, and that lasted for several hours” before beds opened up as some patients left or were transferred, said Dr. Kencee Graves, assistant chief medical officer there.

Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/health/2020/12/19/feds-apologize-shipping/
(Salt Lake Tribune)