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Quirky cat festival replaces Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

Nederland is known as one of Colorado’s quirkiest towns, in no small part because of Frozen Dead Guy Days, a festival that began in 2002 to celebrate “Grandpa Bredo,” a cryogenically frozen Norwegian man whose body rests nearby. But when the festival moved to Estes Park this year amid a dispute between its organizers and the town government, some locals decided to create a new event to continue the eccentricities that make Nederland feel like home to them.The Bizarre Cat Bazaar, organized by resident Deb D’Andrea, will hit downtown Nederland Saturday, Aug. 12. It’s a thoroughly cat-themed celebration to honor the town’s first and only feline mayor, Fred, a popular stray who won an election on write-ins in the late 1970s as a response to frustration with the local government. Fred is buried in front of Town Hall, his resting place denoted by a plaque that reads “Fred the Cat, Legend of First Street, 1972-1989.”“It’s all in the name of good fun,” D’Andrea said. “Thin...

It isn’t always pretty, but Denver is slowly getting safer for cyclists

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

At the intersection of the South Marion Street Parkway and Bayaud Avenue, just south of the Denver Country Club, a “ghost bike” spray-painted white stands chained to a shade tree in remembrance of Alexis Bounds, who was killed there while cycling in 2019. A few feet away, a blue street sign asks motorists to drive safely in her memory. Another memorial, faded now after four years, is painted on a nearby sidewalk.The 37-year-old mother of two small boys was riding in a bike lane on Marion when she was struck by a dump truck. At the time, city planners wanted to improve the safety of the parkway’s bike lanes but were being met by neighborhood opposition.“What made it horribly poignant is that we were having conversations with the community about the aesthetics, and the function, and the need for this bikeway,” said David Pulsipher, transportation planning manager for the city of Denver. “They were saying, ‘We don’t need it, it’s pe...

Colorado puts money on the table to build a roof over the home construction industry

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

Colorado’s housing shortage has gotten so severe that the state is now directing millions of dollars to finance factories that can lower construction costs and to assist companies in developing innovative construction methods.The goal is to improve affordability for those living in Colorado but also to make the state a leader in a sector that has suffered from severe productivity problems for decades, one that mounting labor shortages will worsen over time.“We are trying to help an issue that we had some role in creating,” said Jack Tiebout, senior program manager for the Innovative Housing Incentive Program, or IHIP, which is administered through the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).OEDIT has helped bring tens of thousands of jobs to Colorado through its various incentive programs, but that success also exposed the inability of developers and contractors to keep up with accommodations for a growing population.“The short...

Annual Perseids meteor shower to peak early Sunday morning

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

You’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning to see one of the year’s best meteor showers at its peak this weekend.August brings the height of the annual Perseid meteor shower, one of the most plentiful of the season with 50-100 meteors per hour at its peak, according to a NASA educational site that focuses on the solar system. The Perseids begin in mid-July and run until Sept. 1, but the peak of activity is expected to occur in the wee hours of Sunday morning.“With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long ‘wakes’ of light and color behind them as they streak through earth’s atmosphere,” the NASA post states. “Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.”The Perseids likely won’t be visible until the early morning hours on Sunday, however. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Perseu...

Inflation proving stickier in metro Denver than in rest of the country

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

Metro Denver’s inflation rate is coming down, but not as quickly as it is in other major cities or in the country as a whole, with stubborn housing and energy costs largely to blame, according to a bimonthly update Thursday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.The Consumer Price Index for Denver-Aurora-Lakewood was running at an annual rate of 4.7% through the end of July. That was down from a 5.1% annual rate in May, a 5.7% rate in March and a 6.4% pace in January.That decline would be something to cheer about, except that the annual U.S. inflation rate was also at 6.4% in January, got down to 3% in June, and bounced back a little to 3.2% in July, according to the BLS.After Miami at 6.9% and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., at a 5.7% rate, metro Denver and Detroit have the highest rate of consumer inflation this summer, at 4.7%.Housing costs represent 44% of the basket of goods used to measure the CPI in metro Denver, a heavier weighting than in the country as a whole. After w...

Listeria outbreak may be connected to recalled ice cream cups in California and 18 other state, FDA says

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

By Jen Christensen | CNNThe US Food and Drug Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials are investigating a multistate Listeria outbreak that may be connected with Soft Serve On The Go ice cream cups, the FDA said Thursday.Two people have gotten sick, and both were hospitalized. Both said they had eaten Soft Serve On The Go vanilla chocolate ice cream cups, made by Brooklyn-based Real Kosher Ice Cream.The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture was able to collect an unopened serving of the ice cream at the home of one of the patients, and it tested positive for the bacteria that causes a listeria infection. Investigators are running genetic tests to determine whether this is from the same strain of Listeria that’s causing the illnesses.The FDA says Real Kosher has recalled all its ice cream and sorbet flavors in the 8-ounce cups. Real Kosher has also temporarily shut down production of the product.Consumers who have any of the produc...

COVID Q&A: Can I use an expired test? Time to get boosted? How to cope with the sneaky summer surge

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

California’s COVID positivity rate has topped 10% and is still on a steep upward path, nearly tripling since June, according to new data from the state’s Department of Public Health.“Anecdotally, I feel like everybody I know has been getting COVID,” said Dr. Errol Ozdalga, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford.But unless your social circle has been hit by the virus recently, this wave might have caught you by surprise. The public health emergencies are over, testing has become harder to find, and data monitoring has been largely abandoned. But the virus is still among us, and more so now than in May or June.Once again Bay Area residents are scrambling to do the right thing when a family member tests positive, or they start feeling a tickle in their throat. What are the best practices these days for handling this persistent virus? What have we learned with three years of pandemic practice under our belts? We checked in with the experts.Q: I’m feeling sick...

Goodbye hotdogs, hello vegan masala: California’s school lunches are going gourmet

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

BY CAROLYN JONES | CalMattersThe hottest new restaurant in California might be your local elementary school.Thanks to a surge of nearly $15 billion in state and federal funding, school districts are ditching the old standbys — frozen pizza and chicken nuggets — in favor of organic salads, free-range grilled chicken, vegan chana masala, chilaquiles and other treats. Districts are building new kitchens, hiring executive chefs, contracting directly with local organic farmers, and training their staffs to cook the finest cuisine. One district in San Luis Obispo County even bought a stone mill to grind its own wheat for bread and pasta.The move to healthier, fresher school meals comes on the heels of California’s first-in-the-nation program providing free breakfast, lunch and snacks to nearly 6 million students in public schools, regardless of whether they qualify under federal income guidelines. The expansion of the meal program, combined with investments in school kitchens and training...

‘Underdog’ Ryan Walker enjoying rise from 31st-round pick to SF Giants’ bullpen

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

Toward the end of last spring training, Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey was giving manager Gabe Kapler the rundown of arms coming over from minor-league camp to round out their bullpen for one of their final exhibitions.Something stuck out about an otherwise relatively nondescript profile: 26 years old, right-handed, 31st-round draft pick, fifth year in pro ball, hadn’t pitched 10 innings above Single-A.“(Bailey) said, ‘It looks like he’s going to pick to third base every time he delivers the baseball,'” Kapler said. “I’m like, sure. Really can’t wait to see this. So I was excited to bring him into the game, and sure enough, full crossfire, full across-the-body delivery.“Sometimes different is enough to get hitters out. … It’d be cool to see him make a name for himself.”Speaking from the dugout of Scottsdale Stadium that morning in April 2022, Kapler had to be reminded of the name of the reliever he was talk...

Editorial: Finally, polluting Bay Area cement plant will be closed

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:04:12 GMT

At long last, after thousands of environmental violations and more than $2.5 million in fines, an agreement has been reached to shut down a 3,500-acre quarry that had sent wastewater laced with selenium into San Francisco Bay.The permanent closure of Lehigh Quarry and Cement’s cement production in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County near Cupertino is a long overdue environmental victory for the Bay Area.For decades, Lehigh had provided more than half the cement used in Bay Area construction projects. Cement distribution will allow construction projects to continue without the massive regional environmental impact.The East Bay Regional Park District’s new Dumbarton Quarry Campground in Fremont, seen from the air above, was converted from a gravel pit to a family campsite. The campground near the San Francisco Bay shore include 60 sites with full RV hookups, restrooms and showers, a camp store, an amphitheater, a playground and picnic areas. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Gr...