'public Option' — From Obscurity To Center Stage

Denver would eliminate its limit on the number of needle exchange programs that can operate in the city and remove restrictions on their location under a new ordinance set for a final vote Monday. The city allows only three programs currently, but if the City Council adopts the new rules, an unlimited number of sites could open in areas zoned for medical offices.

Despite evacuations of a gondola at Winter Park and a lift at Telluride last month, along with several recent incidents of people falling from chairlifts, accidents related to mechanical failures are exceedingly rare, according to the state agency that regulates and inspects ski resort lifts. More than 180 people were evacuated from the Winter Park gondola on Dec.

The state of Colorado is moving forward with its plans to purchase Estes Park landmark The Stanley Hotel and fund a substantial makeover of the property. During its October 2024 board meeting, the Colorado Educational and Cultural Facilities Authority approved issuing up to $475 million in bonds for the eventual purchase of the hotel. “Since then, RBC (RBC Capital Markets) has been working to finalize the financing structure and we expect to market the bonds beginning (this) year,” said Mark Heller, executive director of the agency, in an email to The Post last month. The proposed funding for the project is about $415 million, but the final price tag is still being evaluated. The bonds, which will be issued though a subsidiary called Space LLC, will help retire debt and acquire the existing Stanley properties, including all of the related land, the Hotel, the Aspire, the Concert Hall, the Carriage House, the Cryogenics Museum and everything related to the Stanley Hotel. The CECFA project will also help fund a $61 million addition to the hotel with 65 new guest rooms, along with a new covered entryway and lobby, and a new $66 million events center, which will be built near the existing Concert Hall and Carriage House. CECFA stepped up with a plan to buy the hotel after a deal to sell the Stanley to an Arizona nonprofit fell through. Since 1981 CECFA has issued over $7.5 billion in bonds, and its project list has grown to include museums, sports facilities, charter schools, alternative high schools and performance spaces, according to their website. The Stanley Film Center will be a two-story building, spanning more than 70,000 square feet, featuring events, exhibits and an archive dedicated to the history and culture of horror films. The film center will be designed by Denver firm MOA Architecture and include an auditorium with a 1,200-person capacity concert hall featuring 600 fixed seats. The center will also house an immersive film museum with both permanent and traveling exhibits, complemented by a 60-seat theater that can serve as part of the tour experience or offer a dedicated space for independent film screenings. Visitors can expect to see movie memorabilia, such as one of the fake axes used in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic “The Shining,” as it was the film center’s first donation.

Colorado air pollution regulators spend a lot of time thinking about greenhouse gases that create a smog across the Front Range and contribute to global warming, But this week, they’ll focus on five toxic chemicals that make people sick. Five new compounds soon will be listed as priority toxic air contaminants in Colorado and, over the next two years, the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment and Air Quality Control Commission will determine out how to regulate them. The state’s Air Pollution Control Division will recommend five compounds to be regulated to the commission during its two meetings that begin Thursday. The creation of the list of toxic air contaminants is the result of a years-long effort from environmentalists and public health advocates who want the state to do more to protect people from the pollution that can cause cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, and lung diseases, such as asthma, and can harm women’s reproductive health. For years, environmentalists have complained that air pollution permits issued by the federal and state governments allow companies to pollute with little attention given to how much of those contaminants are dangerous to human health. “We need to have laws that are based in health that protect people and not just issue permits to pollute,” said Ean Tafoya, director of GreenLatinos Colorado.

The Denver Art Museum’s Indigenous Arts of North America Collection is one of the things that sets it apart from other major cultural institutions. The museum’s holdings are among the best in the world — and for solid reasons. As the museum likes to point out, it was ahead of the game.

Amsalu Kassaw came to the United States from Ethiopia 17 years ago. As he left, he feared arrest by the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, a left-wing paramilitary group then in charge of the African country. The 42-year-old father of three now works as a lieutenant for the GEO Group, the private contractor that runs the U.