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The Pro’s Closet in Louisville is like a Willy Wonka factory for bikes

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

The folks who run The Pro’s Closet bike refurbishment factory in Louisville simply call their online operation the world’s largest retailer of pre-owned bikes, and they say their new walk-in retail store is the Denver area’s largest bike shop. Yet the sheer scale of the operation, which buys and sells bikes to consumers throughout North America, is hard to grasp from the outside.The physical plant is the size of two and a half football fields, so immense that employees use scooters to get from one end of the factory floor to the other. Massive five-tier steel racks stack bikes in boxes waiting for purchase because, depending on the time of year, TPC refurbishes 50 to 150 high-end bikes per day, assembly-line style. Myles Gaines tests a refurbished bicycle at The Pro’s Closet in Louisville, Colorado on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. TPC buys used bicycles shipped to them from around the country and refurbishes bikes for online sale. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denv...

Mixed data on Suncor’s discharge of harmful sulfur dioxide illustrates complexity of air-quality monitoring

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

When a malfunction at Suncor Energy’s oil refinery spewed sulfur dioxide into the air over Commerce City in the predawn hours of April 12, a machine quietly sampling air quality in the community detected the pollution.Sensors at the Boulder Air monitoring station in Commerce City on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)But other instruments tracking the air around Suncor did not.Air monitors operated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Suncor itself and Cultivando, a nonprofit that serves as a watchdog over the refinery, all recorded different data on what had been blown into the air as people were just beginning their day. In fact, some instruments did not record the spike in sulfur dioxide at all.And when the state health department made the sulfur dioxide incident public later that evening, its report included a data set that did not reflect the peak emission point, but instead provided a less-alarming five-minute averag...

“Belly flop”: After promise to wade into water crisis, Colorado lawmakers propose further study

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Colorado’s legislative leadership promised this year that the state’s water problems would be the “centerpiece” of conservation efforts but their keystone proposal focused on the Colorado River and widespread drought plaguing the West is to study the issue further.At such a late stage in the drying American West, water experts tell The Denver Post that creating another study group amounts to procrastination while time is running out. And, they say, it’s unlikely that evaluating the drought – exacerbated and made permanent by climate change – yet again will yield any new ideas.Lawmakers introduced the bipartisan bill, SB23-295, late in their session. It is on its way to clearing the Senate and heading to the House of Representatives. Behind the measure are Western Slope Sens. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat, and Perry Will, a New Castle Republican, Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie, and Marc Catlin, a Montrose Republican.The bill would create a 16-mem...

Barcelona Wine Bar welcomes everyone with tapas, wine and fun | Opinion

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems). Find our previous Staff Favorites here.My girlfriends and I still chortle over ordering tapas at a seaside bar in Barcelona in 2004. (We guessed, since it was all in Spanish.) One dish was some little fried minnow-looking things, and my friends looked to me, an East Coast seafood-eater, for what to do.Paella Mariscos, with mussels, clams, calamari and prawn, at Barcelona Wine Bar in RiNo. (Thomas McGovern, provided by Barcelona Wine Bar)I confidently popped the whole thing in my mouth.In between spitting out shell and bones, I had to admit I had no idea what I was doing.I looked for those crunchy little mystery morsels on the tapas menu at Barcelona Wine Bar in Denver’s River North neighborhood when it first opened in 2018. But alt...

Drug dealers who sell lethal fentanyl doses rarely prosecuted under new Colorado law

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Prosecutions of drug dealers who sell fatal doses of fentanyl remain scarce in Colorado nearly a year after state lawmakers enacted harsher penalties for fentanyl sales that end in death.Since the law became effective July 1, Colorado prosecutors have filed nine cases against people suspected of dealing fentanyl that killed someone, court data shows. In that same time, at least 611 Coloradans have died of fentanyl overdoses, state health data shows.During the debate over the 2022 bill, prosecutors and law enforcement officials said the creation of a criminal charge of fentanyl distribution resulting in death would give them another needed tool to stem the flow of the synthetic opioid into communities and hold dealers accountable.Families of people who died of fentanyl also asked for change and criticized police for not investigating their loved ones’ dealers under existing drug distribution laws.But criminal cases under the new law remain rare. Only three of the state’s ...

The Eagles’ Joe Walsh, Mumford & Sons and Phish show why Chuck Morris’ CSU music-biz program is growing so fast

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

When Eagles singer and guitarist Joe Walsh popped into Colorado State University on Thursday to speak via video, he highlighted the stellar curation that makes the school’s music-business program such a hit — thanks in large part to the reputation of founder Chuck Morris.“Chuck and I have been able to bring in people the parents can relate to, but also people the students can relate to, so it’s a balance,” said Eric Griffin, assistant director of CSU’s three-year-old Music Business Program. “It’s taking our list of 16 weeks and looking at who we can get.”That includes not only Walsh, but names that college students would likely recognize, such as up-and-coming Boulder band The Velveteers, which has lately been opening for The Black Keys, singer-songwriter Neil Francis, and EDM artist GRiZ.Colorado’s The Velveteers are breaking out nationally — and playing Denver’s Gothic Theatre on Friday, Nov. 16. (Daniel Mermi...

Colorado county flouts state law aimed at curbing gerrymandering

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Weld County has a message for the state of Colorado: stay out of our business.At least when it comes to establishing new boundaries for the districts the county’s five commissioners are elected to represent.Weld County completed the task of redistricting — an exercise accompanying every decennial census — on March 1, despite accusations that it bypassed a state statute revamping the way some counties in Colorado must draw up their new lines. HB 1047, passed in 2021, calls for counties with commissioners who are elected by district only — as opposed to at-large — must follow a more comprehensive and public process that takes into consideration factors beyond the chief mandate to adjust districts for even population size.That’s all well and good, Weld County attorney Bruce Barker told The Denver Post, but it’s not something his county needs to worry about.“The state constitution guarantees the right to organize a county government accord...

Colorado lawmakers look to TABOR surplus to pay for big-dollar priorities for Democrats

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

A chunk of Colorado’s forecasted tax rebates could be directed toward tax credits for parents and low- to moderate-income residents and to promote decarbonization under a slate of proposals from Democratic legislators.The proposals wouldn’t eat the entirety of some $2 billion in projected rebates in coming years, but show a willingness by legislative leaders to tap into excess revenues — ones otherwise slated for blanket refunds to taxpayers — for policy priorities.“We look to that surplus and certainly want to find ways to think about using dollars in the right way for the people we serve,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie said.In Colorado, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, caps how much revenue the state can collect. Anything collected in excess of it needs to be returned. Lawmakers have historically used different mechanisms for those rebates, most recently the $750 “Colorado Cashback” checks that went out last fall.McClus...

Two new interactive art pieces downtown invite visitors to play, reflect on the world around them

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

Interactive art is only as good as its activators. That is to say, people need to push, pull, climb, punch and explore with verve when they encounter a piece of art that asks them to take part in its success, or it is doomed to fail.Two new works installed downtown this weekend make that inviting. Check that; both pieces actually make that irresistible. They are big, playful, credible and uncomplicated. Each is an oversized art-toy that sparks joy while asking people to experience their world from a new perspective. The first, “Pipelines,” a sprawling outdoor piece by Canadian artists Julia Jamrozik and Coryn Kempster, which debuted Tuesday as part of the international confab known as the Cities Summit of the Americas, though it will be up through Sept. 10. The piece, a 115-foot-long by 22-foot-wide weave of PVC pipes, brings life to the newly named Plaza of the Americas at 15th and Wewatta streets.“Ikebana” is a giant, plastic, inflatable sculpture by Mexico City-based artist ...

Man arrested in fatal hit-and-run in Irwindale

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:15:08 GMT

A Baldwin Park man was arrested after he was involved in a fatal hit-and-run traffic collision on Saturday. Irwindale police responded to a possible medical emergency in the 5000 block of Azusa Canyon Road around 1:26 p.m Saturday after a security guard discovered a man who was pronounced dead near railroad tracks in the area, authorities said in a news release. During their investigation, Irwindale police detectives found surveillance footage from local businesses that captured a dark colored SUV running over the victim and then quickly fleeing the area.Around 2:25 a.m. Sunday, authorities responded to a report that the car belonging to the suspect involved in the fatal hit and run was located at a residence in the same area where the man was found dead.Once deputies arrived and spoke with the resident, they confirmed that 33-year-old John Shin, was the suspect involved in the fatal hit and run. Shin was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit and run an...