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Opinion: Colorado’s leaders need to get behind clean car rules

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

By now, everyone in Colorado knows that breathing smoke from wildfires is bad news for our lungs, especially after smoke from Canadian wildfires in mid-May obscured the Rockies, forced us inside. When the wildfires were extinguished, the skies cleared.But how many know that we are exposed every day to an even more pernicious air pollution problem? It’s from tailpipe exhaust from the hundreds of thousands of cars, trucks, and buses plying Colorado’s roads. The primary pollutants released from vehicle tailpipes are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbon, particulate matter, and other kinds of toxic substances.These chemicals, combined with heat, can form ground-level ozone, which is a health risk. This is why we are more likely to get an air quality alert on hot days. These tailpipe pollutants are literally driving a growing threat to our health and our climate. Air pollution from transportation, like smoke, is poisonous to breathe.This toxic transportation poll...

Peak home selling season wraps up in metro Denver

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

Metro Denver’s housing market ran cool in July, with closings off 16.3% from June and price gains showing signs of flatlining, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.The number of homes and condos sold fell from 4,395 in June to 3,677 in July. Over the year, sales are down 18.5% as higher mortgage rates reduce affordability for would-be buyers.New listings also remain off substantially, down 15.3% month-over-month and nearly 25% over the past year. Sellers holding low mortgage rates, many below 3.5% on a 30-year loan, are hesitant to list their properties and borrow at rates of around 7%, a phenomenon known as the “golden handcuffs.”More sellers who do list are having to provide buyers with concessions to get deals done. About three in 10 sales involved a concession in June of last year and this June, the figure was closer to one in two, with the average amount of assistance at $7,295, according to Libby Levinson-Katz, chairwoma...

Trump due to face judge over charges he tried to overturn 2020 election

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump is due in federal court Thursday to answer to charges that he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, facing a judge near the U.S. Capitol building that his supporters stormed to try to block the peaceful transfer of power.In what's become a familiar but nonetheless stunning ritual, Trump is expected to be processed by law enforcement, be taken into custody and enter a not guilty plea in front of a judge before being released, so he can rejoin the campaign trail as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.Workers put up barricades outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Federal Courthouse, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)An indictment Tuesday from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith charges Trump with four felony counts related to his efforts to undo his presidential election loss in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. governmen...

Walters: California ballot measures revive familiar ideological battle

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

As it stands, the 2024 California ballot would be, as the old saying goes, “déjà vu all over again.”Nine measures have qualified for the ballot: two constitutional amendments for the March primary election, and five initiatives and two referenda for the November general election. All are replays of polarizing ideological issues.The two March measures, both placed on the ballot by the Democrat-dominated state Legislature, typify the trend of refighting old battles. One would repeal a 2008 ballot measure, passed by a 52% vote, that prohibited same-sex marriages but was later voided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The other would repeal a constitutional mandate known as Article 34, passed by voters in 1950, that requires voter approval for low-income housing projects.The two referenda are by their nature replays of previous clashes, both backed by business interests seeking to overturn recent legislative efforts to impose more state regulation on their operations, and both are likely to spa...

Gov. DeSantis will join former President Trump at GOP event in Southern Californa

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be a keynote speaker at the California Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim in late September.The announcement of DeSantis’ visit comes just one day after the state party said former President Donald Trump would speak at a lunch on Friday, Sept. 29, during the fall gathering. The Flordia governor’s keynote speech is slated for a dinner that same day, the party said.Related: Former President Trump will head to Orange County in September“As Californians struggle under the weight of Democrats’ failed one-party rule, Gov. DeSantis has shown how a state can thrive under responsible, commonsense, conservative leadership,” said CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson.The fall convention is slated to take place at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1.DeSantis, like other GOP presidential hopefuls, has already visited Orange County. He headlined a Republican Party of Orange County event in March after visiting the Reagan Library in...

2 men killed in fiery plane crash at California Airport

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

A single-engine airplane crashed at Van Nuys Airport on Wednesday morning, Aug. 2, killing both men aboard, after the pilot had told the airfield’s control tower the aircraft had suffered a loss of power, according to authorities and a recording of the conversation.The pilot declared the plane was “having some power loss” but declined the assistance of firefighters meeting the plane on the tarmac, because “we are landing right now,” according to archived air-traffic-control communications.The tower informed the pilot he was clear to land on either runway.Moments later, the pilot made a brief yell, then later an air-traffic controller acknowledged the collision: “We’re on the phone with the crash people right now.”The tower recommended that other pilots land at nearby Burbank or Whiteman airports.At 10:37 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to the airport after the Cessna’s nose pounded into the tarmac’s ground.“The firefighters jumped into action very quickly,” said Capt. Erik Scott ...

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab makes contact with Voyager 2 after week of no communication

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

Amid a national craze about UFOs flying among us, NASA engineers at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory picked up the signal of a more homegrown spacecraft this week.After losing signal with the Voyager 2 space probe for more than a week, scientists received a faint signal Tuesday, indicating that the 46-year-old satellite is still operating in deep space.According to JPL spokesperson Calla Cofield, the crew lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 following an erroneous command that moved the satellite’s antennas off by 2 degrees, making signal transmission to and from Earth difficult.“Obviously, we’re discouraged that they lost contact. At the same time, it’s a spacecraft that’s been around for 46 years so it’s proven itself to be very durable,” she said.“So they’re hopeful as long as nothing goes wrong on board between now and (reconnecting), they’re anxious to get back in touch, but this is a pretty durable spacecraft. These are not spacecraft that are doing maneuvers or anything ...

Gang member gets 52 years to life in 2019 slaying of California teen

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

A Los Angeles man convicted of shooting a 17-year-old boy in Gardena after mistaking him for a rival gang member was sentenced Wednesday, Aug. 2, to 52 years to life in state prison.Marcos Medina, 24, kept his head straight ahead and appeared to roll his eyes after Judge Laura C. Ellison characterized the killing of David Amaro-Poblano in February 2019 as “cold-blooded,” in Torrance Superior Court.Jurors convicted Medina in June of first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.Amaro-Poblano was an honor-roll student who loved playing soccer and was months away from graduating from Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale when he was gunned down by Medina near 146th Street and Halldale Avenue.The teenager, his mother and his girlfriend had been running errands to prepare for his younger sister’s birthday party. He was standing on the sidewalk outside his aunt’s house as his mother delivered an invitation. His girlfriend stayed in the car.That’s when Medina and...

Southern California school board sued for critical race theory ban

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

The Temecula Valley school board is being sued over a critical race theory ban approved in December at the first meeting of its conservative Christian majority.The legal action was announced Wednesday morning, Aug. 2, at a Los Angeles news conference. Those suing include Temecula’s teachers union.Mark Rosenbaum, director of Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law project, called the filing “the first ever civil rights action in California challenging the imposition of curriculum censorship of what students can learn about American history, about racial and gender subject matters, and about their racial and gender identities.”Amanda Mangaser Savage, supervising senior staff attorney for Public Counsel, said the group will pursue a court order “seeking to strike down this resolution as unconstitutional.”Temecula Valley High School teacher Dawn Sibby speaks Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, at Public Counsel’s news conference in Los Angeles at which the group announced it is seeking a cour...

Barabak: Two politicians battled for Congress. They became unlikely friends

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:57:21 GMT

Democrat Ami Bera was a first-time candidate seeking a Sacramento-area congressional seat. Rob Stutzman, a longtime GOP strategist, was working to defeat him.Attacks — on the air, in newspapers, through the mail — flew like fists in an old Western.Bera assailed Stutzman’s candidate, Republican Rep. Dan Lungren, as a bought-and-paid-for captive of special interests. Stutzman hung Nancy Pelosi and Democrat’s unpopular health care plan around Bera’s neck.Bera lost that 2010 contest, then came back to beat Lungren two years later.Fast-forward to a recent scene at an upscale restaurant near the Capitol.Bera and Stutzman sit at a small table, smiling, tucking into a family-style dinner and sharing a bottle of wine. They toast, as friends do.“It’s never personal,” says Stutzman, who wielded his political skills for a generation of Republican office-seekers, including Arnold Schwarzenegger.“It’s about winning, right?” Bera responds with equal dispassion.Their improbably companionable relati...