Comment on After months of decline, U.S. coronavirus death rate begins to rise

This week’s opening of the 2024 Colorado Music Festival comes with the announcement that music director Peter Oundjian has signed a new, five-year contract, extending a collaboration with the Boulder-based concert presenter that dates back to 2018. It is very big news indeed; perhaps historic. Remember that Oundjian is also the principal conductor with the Colorado Symphony in Denver where he takes up the baton for key performances and helps guide the programs that the ensemble plays over the course of its entire season.

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. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

It’s summertime. Let’s listen to live music outside. THE CITY PARK JAZZ series is one of Denver’s best free Sunday traditions. There’s still a lot of celebrating to take in when beloved Colorado singer Hazel Miller and the Collective take to the park’s Pavilion stage June 30 at 6 p.m. In July, enjoy the vibrations of JoFoKe & Same Cloth on the 7th, Delta Sonics Blues Revue July 14, the powerful Denver Jazz Orchestra on July 21, and saxophonist Nelson Rangell July 28.

The on-ramp from Broadway to southbound Interstate 25 in Denver is closed and construction crews are building a new on-ramp at Ohio Avenue, city officials said Monday. Related Articles Transportation | Northbound Interstate 25 near Mead reopens after crash Transportation | Colorado weather: Scattered showers, thunderstorms expected again Monday afternoon Transportation | Colorado weather: Scattered afternoon storms, severe storms possible across state Transportation | Evacuations prompted by 5-acre grass fire north of Wellington lifted Transportation | Westbound Interstate 270 reopens after fire in I-25 tunnels Moving the on-ramp to Ohio Avenue is expected to ease traffic and enhance safety, Denver transportation officials said in a news release.

Colorado, along with much of the country, is experiencing a summer bump in COVID-19 infections, showing the virus has yet to fall into a seasonal pattern. Flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other common respiratory bugs typically start spreading in the fall and peter out by spring. In Colorado, the worst points of the pandemic fell in the fall and winter, but COVID-19 hasn’t disappeared in the warmer months, as flu does. Four years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, scientists expected the virus would be well on its way to settling into a seasonal pattern by now, said Talia Quandelacy, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health. Now, they’re less sure whether COVID-19 will eventually do that, or if it can keep churning out new variants fast enough to remain active year-round, she said. “That’s one of the big questions in the field,” she said. Colorado’s most recent weekly wastewater data showed concentrations of the virus increasing in three-quarters of the 55 utilities statewide that supplied information.

Colorado business leaders started the spring with a brighter outlook but have shed some of that optimism, according to the Leeds Business Confidence Index from the University of Colorado Boulder. After two years in pessimistic territory, driven by concerns over inflation and a potential recession, the index surged from 45.3 for the first quarter to 53.7 in the second.