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Opinion: This Fourth of July, missing rest stops could cause discomfort in your road trip

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

It was around 3 p.m., I was passing mile 500 for the day, and my knees were screaming.I’m doing lots of driving these days. Fortunate enough to be able to retire in my 60’s, and in possession of a car that sips gas sparingly and a cat that tolerates solo stints, and with both sons grown, I used my PERA check in June to go see my mom in the Pacific Northwest, and do a bit of traveling for fun as well.Sometimes I talk my partner into coming along, but mostly it’s just me, bombing down the highway at the speed limit (80 mph in Idaho!) and seeing the USA. Often, I even camp. It’s a freewheeling good time, catching 1970’s classics to sing – well, yell – along to, arguing with the surprisingly well-spoken right-wing and Catholic broadcasts, and glimpsing the flabbergasting vistas the Conestoga wagon folks fell in love with, almost 200 years ago.It’s a freewheeling good time, that is, until you need a break.The highways of Washington and Oregon, and even Idaho and Utah, feature beaut...

Two friends open all-day taco shop in Five Points

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

The restaurant: Taco Uprising, 2849 Welton St., DenverAbout: Taco Uprising is a Mexican food-inspired taqueria y cantina offering breakfast and day tacos, coffee and agave-forward cocktails. It’s open seven days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner from Monday to Saturday, as well as Sunday brunch. The Five Points restaurant is owned by friends Samuel Valdez and Matias Gutknecht. Valdez’s parents migrated to the U.S. from northern Mexico, and this is his way of sharing his heritage and passion for Mexican cuisine.Taco Uprising serves breakfast and day tacos, like the Birria taco with consommé. (Photo by Kristin Olson with Rosy Heart Photo)What’s on the menu:  Head to the to-go window early for some coffee and breakfast tacos, like the Early Bird Taco with breaded, buttermilk fried chicken, scrambled eggs and chorizo gravy, or the El Classico Taco with refried beans, scrambled eggs, cheese and salsa verde. All breakfast tacos are served on homemade flour tort...

Yellowstone National Park is all patched up. Here are 6 tips for your next trip

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

After historic flooding in 2022, Yellowstone National Park is fixed up and ready for visitors this year.“All major road in the park are now open, including the North and Northeast entrance roads, which were washed out due to the historic floods last year,” said Linda Veress, spokesperson for Yellowstone National Park. “Visitors to Yellowstone should anticipate delays due to road improvement projects and allow for extra time and flexibility as they travel throughout the park.”Veress recommends that visitors go to the park’s website for the latest road improvement updates.“The National Park Service did a great job of mobilizing contractors and getting funding,” Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing at Yellowstone National Park Lodges, said of the repaired roads. “The main item still in progress is the wastewater treatment plant in Mammoth where the hotel remains closed until the system is fully operational.”The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is expected to reopen this summer,...

Denver-area hospitals expand mental health and addiction treatment, but “we just need more”

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

The Denver region is seeing an influx of new options for mental health and addiction treatment, but it’s not yet clear how much of a dent those new and expanded programs will put in the sizable unmet demand for such care.UCHealth and Denver Health both recently opened new inpatient units, while a drug treatment facility in Parker is adding two buildings. Construction recently started on a new behavioral health hospital in Westminster, and HealthOne hospitals in the metro area have opened five units offering intensive outpatient behavioral health care to children and adults since 2020.The need for care is significant. About 29% of Colorado adults who reported they were experiencing anxiety or depression said they were unable to get counseling as of spring 2022, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment’s behavioral health needs assessment, which was completed in January, found about 41% of people who said they sought ...

Denver court OKs oil company’s motion in dispute with Colorado regulators

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

The ongoing saga of an oil and gas company accused of multiple violations and in danger of losing its right to operate in Colorado has taken a new turn with a court ruling that puts on hold an order that KP Kauffman Co. comply with all state rules by Aug. 1.The Denver company argued that to comply with the order, it would have to shut down all production because the state suspended its ability to move oil and gas from well sites. KP Kauffman, or KPK, said there isn’t enough time to shut in all the wells by the first of August, putting it at risk of losing its license.The company asked the court to put the order by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on hold, saying it would suffer “irreparable harm.” Company officials said KPK can’t make money if it can’t transport its oil and gas to sell it.Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen said in a Friday, June 30 ruling the company couldn’t safely shut down all its wells by Aug. 1. He appro...

After fatal shooting outside a Jewish school, a Denver paramedic finds a spiritual home

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

Justin Hovey found the rabbi in the emergency room’s waiting area.Hovey apologized for acting brusquely at the Orthodox boarding school off West Colfax Avenue earlier. He was trying to stop the bleeding from the teen’s gunshot wounds.Hovey was the first Denver Health paramedic on the scene after one of the school’s students, 18-year-old Shmuel Silverberg, was fatally shot by teens on a crime spree throughout metro Denver.When Hovey arrived, he found three rabbis tending to the boy just inside the front doors of Yeshiva Toras Chaim. He had to push them away so he could intervene and move the teen into the waiting ambulance.The rabbi in the waiting room wasn’t offended. He thanked the paramedic.“He told me that it’s just in God’s hands now and the outcome will be the outcome,” Hovey said. “And that’s something that stuck with me.”Shmuel’s death in the Aug. 17, 2021, shooting became a pivotal moment in Hovey’...

Will the Colorado Option bring health insurance prices down? We’ll get a clue soon.

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

Health insurers and hospitals reached deals meant to help bring down the price of Colorado Option insurance plans, but it remains to be seen whether they’ve met their goal of reducing monthly costs 10%.The Colorado Option is a standardized health insurance plan sold by private companies, not a true government-run public option. Its plans are required to cover more primary care and behavioral health services without out-of-pocket costs than most plans.Next year, the monthly premium costs of the plans are supposed to be 10% lower than they were in 2021, after adjusting for inflation.The insurers had to file their proposed rates for next year by June 26, and typically the Colorado Division of Insurance will release its initial findings in mid-July, said Adam Fox, deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.Usually, the rates that are finalized in October only differ from those proposed in July by a few percentage points, Fox said. That may not be the case this year...

Where to see fireworks in the Los Angeles area on July 4th

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

Colorful fireworks will fill this sky during the upcoming holiday weekend and into the workweek for Independence Day.While environmental regulations have caused some to cancel their fireworks shows, others are scheduled to go as planned. Fourth of July cookouts won’t be as expensive compared to last year, new study says Here is a roundup of a few shows happening across Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles County: Los AngelesDowntown Los Angeles will be taking a different approach to the July 4 celebration this year at Gloria Molina Grand Park. Fireworks will be replaced by a drone show. More information about the free “4th of July Block Party” can be found here.Long BeachThe city of Long Beach will host a free fireworks show at Queensway Bay in downtown Long Beach. Guests can view the fireworks display along the waterfront beginning at 9 p.m. Harbor Breeze Cruises is also offering a ticketed viewing experience of the show. More information about the fireworks show can be found here.Pasa...

Walters: Conflict of two California laws impedes housing construction

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

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom made an unusual appearance on Fox News, it was inevitable that conservative commentator Sean Hannity would bore in on California’s chronic housing shortage and homelessness crisis. Why, Hannity asked, did California have such problems?“Because housing costs are too high,” Newsom replied. “Our regulatory thickets are too problematic. Localism has been too impactful, meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction.”Newsom’s synopsis of the issue is quite accurate. The state’s housing shortage stems from the over-regulation of development, largely driven by local opposition. It drives up costs to tenants and would-be homebuyers and pushes some into the streets.That cause-and-effect relationship was confirmed in a recent in-depth study of homelessness by a UC San Francisco research team.Having pinpointed the underlying causes of the crisis, one might think that Newsom would energetically attempt to address them.Last w...

Muere por ahogamiento tras rescatar a dos niños que nadaban en parque estatal

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

QUAKERTOWN, Pensilvania — Un hombre se ahogó después de rescatar a dos niños que se metieron en problemas mientras nadaban en un parque estatal del este de Pensilvania, dijeron las autoridades. La oficina forense del condado de Bucks dijo que Marvin Alexan Fernandez Chicas, de 37 años, “desapareció en el agua” después de rescatar a los niños que nadaban en el Parque Estatal Nockamixon el jueves por la noche. La oficina forense dijo el viernes que la causa de su muerte había sido confirmada como ahogamiento luego de una autopsia y que la forma de muerte parecía ser accidental. La forense Meredith Buck dijo en un comunicado que la oficina está extendiendo “sus más profundas condolencias” a su familia. ¿Sabes reconocer si alguien se está ahogando? Mira cómo puedes saberlo y ayudar “Se estaba ahogando en el inodoro”: acusan a padres del maltrato que mató a su hijo de 6 años y afectó a otros infantes Wesley Robinson, portavoz del Depa...