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The Book Club: Short book reviews from readers and staff include “Horse,” by Geraldine Brooks | Opinion

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. Sure, you could read advertising blurbs on Amazon, but wouldn’t you be more likely to believe a neighbor with no skin in the game over a corporation being fed words by publishers? So in this new series, we are sharing these mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email [email protected] Other Eden (W.W. Norton & Co.)“This Other Eden,” by Paul Harding (W.W. Norton & Co.)This novel is based on a true story of an isolated community founded by a former slave and his Irish-born wife on an island off the coast of Maine.  The few newcomers to the island are pretty eccentric by mainland standards, but they are embraced and made welcome by the island’s inhabitants.  Over generations, there is much intermarriage among the island’s inhabitants, with predictable results.  Also predi...

Metro Denver managing up when it comes to higher-paying jobs, leaving service workers on hold

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

A mystery of metro Denver’s runaway housing market is who can afford to buy all those $1 million-plus homes and pay $3,000 or more a month in rent for a luxury apartment. A recent study from the research arm of ADP, the nation’s largest payroll services provider, offers some possible insights into what might be happening.“It is harder to sustain any work in Denver that doesn’t pay enough to meet the cost of living there,” said Issi Romem, an economist and research fellow with ADPRI. And there has been a fundament shift in the mix of high-paying vs. low-paying jobs in popular metro areas like Denver.ADP studied the concentration of executive and management positions to customer service center jobs and how that ratio changed between 2005 to 2021. Both occupational categories tend to be mobile, in that a CEO doesn’t have to necessarily live where a company’s operations are located and call centers regularly relocate if a location gets too expen...

Colorado’s housing market was moving in favor of buyers, but not anymore

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

When residential mortgage rates crossed 7% last November, home sales slowed sharply, and it looked like the housing markets in Denver and other hot metro areas were finally entering a new and more favorable phase for buyers — lower prices, wider selection and less competition.But those expectations aren’t panning out, despite another surge in interest rates, due primarily to a lack of enough supply to meet the demand out there. While not as intense as in early 2022, bidding wars are back, some homes are commanding a premium above the list price, and the supply is tightening rather than loosening as the year moves on.“Potential sellers aren’t selling because they like their sub-3% mortgages and don’t see value in making a move-up purchase right now. Yet, demand for housing remains at an all-time high, and homes are selling at a faster rate than they were in December, January or February,” said Fort Collins-area Realtor Chris Hardy, in comments contained in a monthly...

To conserve gardening resources, utilize Colorado native plants at home

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

Can we ever truly go back to the original Colorado landscape before settlers arrived and built thriving cities of green spaces filled with water-thirsty grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers that reflected cities they left in the Eastern states?Back then, as Western town centers grew to cities, green areas were planted for people to gather, enjoy life and the culture of the times. Homeowners, businesses and municipalities reflected these elements by installing their own green landscapes.It’s too bad the folks before us couldn’t foresee how limiting our water resources would become as the population grew, which in turn would greatly impact the upkeep of the urban environment they built. Clearly, our ancestors didn’t consider that a more “leaning in” approach to gardening with plants that had already adapted to Colorado’s semi-arid climate and more-than-challenging growing conditions would have made the most sense.Ah, if only.Opportunities for entire do-overs don’t happen often, but...

SWAT team smokes out driver to end barricade situation in Studio City

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

A SWAT team was brought in Tuesday morning to put an end to a standoff between an assault with a deadly weapon suspect and police in Studio City.The incident began around 2 a.m. when a driver allegedly used his vehicle to ram into a Los Angeles Police Department patrol vehicle. The driver then led police on a brief pursuit that came to an end on Ventura Boulevard just east of Colfax Avenue. An hourslong standoff ensued after the driver refused to exit the vehicle.A driver is taken into custody following a standoff in Studio City on June 20, 2023. (KTLA)Sky5 video showed an armored SWAT vehicle had pulled up next to the driver and was using some type of smoke or gas to fill the vehicle around 5:30 a.m. By about 5:40 a.m. officers were seen pulling the suspect out of the vehicle and taking him into custody. No further information about the suspect was immediately released.

Multiple people shot, 2 killed in Valley Glen 

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

Three people were shot, including two fatally, outside of a smoke shop in Valley Glen on Monday night. Authorities responded to calls of shots being fired around 10 p.m. near the intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Victory Boulevard. Police found three people suffering from gunshot wounds at the scene.One man believed to be between 50 and 60 years old was confirmed deceased at the scene, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. O'Connor said. Two others were transported to a nearby hospital, where one was pronounced dead.At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA)At least three people were shot, including one fatally, in Valley Glen on Monday night. (KTLA) Barricaded suspect taken into custody after standoff in Porter Ranch Police be...

Kurtenbach: Zion to the Bay? Three bold draft-day trades for the Warriors

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

The NBA chaos machine is already running in fourth gear, thanks to the deal that is expected to send Bradley Beal from the Wizards to the Suns.And with the NBA Draft — the league’s most chaotic day — on Thursday, it seems imprudent not to explore some big, bold trade possibilities for the Warriors, who are looking to improve their roster after a disappointing season that ended in the first Western Conference playoff series loss under coach Steve Kerr.So I fired up the trade machine. We’ll start small and get big — 300 pounds big.The Shrewd OneWarriors receive: The Pacers’ first-round pick (No. 7)Pacers receive: Jonathan Kuminga, the Warriors’ first-round pick (No. 19)The Warriors shed a bit of salary and add a younger, slightly cheaper, and likely happier player with the No. 7 overall pick, while the Pacers add a much-needed athletic wing.Why would the Warriors do this? A few reasons:The first is that all salary savings the Warriors can make are positive. Whi...

Barabak: Why Boxer is warning progressives to back off on Feinstein

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

Barbara Boxer was once among the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, a favorite of progressives, who much preferred her over California’s other Democratic senator, the more staid and centrist Dianne Feinstein.So it’s noteworthy to hear Boxer’s advice for those most fervently wishing that Feinstein, who’s dealing with well-chronicled maladies, would immediately join her in post-Senate retirement.“I think the far left of my party, who’s agitating for this, ought to smell the roses,” Boxer said.As in, get real.She sees no guarantee that Republicans would allow another Democrat to replace the 89-year-old Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In fact, Boxer is convinced they would not.“They’ve already showed their hand,” she said, by refusing to let a temporary replacement fill in while Feinstein recuperates from shingles and its severe side effects. “I think it speaks volumes to their lack of humanity.”W...

SETI Institute trustee, billionaire explorer, famed French diver among 5 on board the missing sub

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

By Ivana Kottasová, CNNA billionaire father and son duo, a wealthy explorer and a diver with decades of experience exploring the Titanic are among the five people on board the submersible that has disappeared en route to view the world’s most famous shipwreck.Authorities said the small vessel – roughly the size of a minivan – was carrying five people when its mothership lost contact with it on Sunday morning, about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent to explore the Titanic wreckage.While the names of those on board have not been released by the authorities, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet have been confirmed to be on board the craft.The fifth person on board has been identified only as the vessel’s pilot.Harding, who has an impressive list of extreme expeditions under his belt, is based in the United Arab Emirates and is a trained jet pilot. He is the chairman of Action Av...

Opinion: Daniel Ellsberg legacy inspires whistleblowers and truth-tellers

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:21:55 GMT

Few people have understood and described the insidious corrosiveness of government secrecy as clearly as Daniel Ellsberg.Ellsberg, who died Friday at age 92 at his home in Kensington, is famous for providing the Pentagon Papers — a top-secret history of the Vietnam War — to the New York Times in 1971. While no one was clearer than Dan about how secrecy threatens democracy by preventing the public from making informed decisions, he also taught me how access to secret information actually causes government officials to make what he called “smart dumb” decisions.I first met Dan when I was helping to create the Freedom of the Press Foundation, co-launched in 2012 by several Electronic Frontier Foundation staffers, along with others. EFF is a nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech and innovation. Our co-founder and board member, John Perry Barlow, who was also deeply involved, brought Dan into the planning. EFF served as legal counsel for the fledgling organization....