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COVID cases surge in Colorado as summer comes to an end

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado health officials say the latest rise in COVID-19 cases was expected, but numbers might be higher than they thought across the state.More than 2,000 cases were reported in Colorado this week, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The number is up by almost 200 from the week prior. Trump lawyers move ‘insurrection’ clause lawsuit to federal court Hospitalizations are also up with the positivity rate. But there's no need for panic, according to doctors, although it is a better time than ever to know how to prevent more spread."It's not totally unexpected. I think it's probably a little bit worse than we were hoping," said Dr. Carrie Horn, chief medical officer at National Jewish Health.The number of new COVID cases in Colorado has spiked slightly higher than expected, in part, because of the new variant."The variants that are going around now are pretty infectious," Horn said. "It's pretty easy to get it still."That's not to b...

Troopers will be looking for drunk drivers this weekend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — With two high-profile sporting events in the Denver metro area this weekend, law enforcement is on high alert for drinking and driving.“It’s just basically like having St. Patrick’s Day/New Year’s Eve, because we have two big games,” Colorado State Patrol Master Trooper Gary Cutler said. Colorado icon ranked as one of the most overrated attractions in the world Cutler said they will have added enforcement near U.S. 36 for the Colorado Buffaloes football game and on Interstate 25 for Sunday’s Denver Broncos game at Empower Field at Mile High."We will definitely have additional troopers out in those areas, looking for anybody that decided to drink and drive," Cutler said.Cutler said a relatively new DUI enforcement team has paid dividends in keeping drunk drivers off the road.The Colorado Buffaloes football game versus Nebraska starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders clash on Sunday at 2:25 p.m.“We’re gonna be out there," Cutler said....

Editorial: The downside of Biden’s drug price control scheme

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

Economic fallacies are like horror movie villains. They just won’t stay dead.Late last month, the Biden administration announced it had selected 10 drugs for Medicare price “negotiation.” The list included drugs for diabetes, heart failure and blood cancer, among others. The White House said these are some of the most costly to the Medicare Program. In future years, Medicare will negotiate the prices on dozens of other drugs. The administration claims this will save money for both Medicare recipients and taxpayersThis sounds innocuous, even necessary. Of course, the federal government should use its purchasing power to obtain lower prices. But that’s not what’s happening here.Consider Bristol Myers Squibb. Its blood thinner, Eliquis, is one of the 10 drugs on Biden’s list. In a real negotiation, the company and Medicare would meet together. If they couldn’t come to a mutually beneficial agreement, both would go on their separate ways. But that’s not what will happen under the Inflat...

Lowry: Electric cars should be choice, not mandate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

Joe Biden has seen the future, and it is electric cars. Lots of electric cars. Electric cars — or else.The European Union wants to ban gas-powered cars in 2035. California, New Jersey and Massachusetts are doing the same.The goals here would make Soviet central planners blush. Last year, electric vehicle accounted for about 7% of U.S. sales, but according to the panjandrums at the Environmental Protection Agency, they’ll have to be nearly 40% by 2027. A couple of years after that, they’re supposed to be higher than 60%.And why not? All that’s missing is the charging capacity and supply and processing of the minerals necessary to build the 1,000-pound batteries, not to mention the consumer demand.For Biden and his allies, though, what kind of automobiles we drive is not a practical question but almost a theological one.Insofar a rush to electric cars throws us into the arms of Chinese manufacturers and suppliers, it should rightfully be thought of as an anti-i...

‘Madama Butterfly’ gets a do-over

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

Phil Chan believes “Madama Butterfly” should be celebrated as a masterpiece.Chan also believes the 120-year-old Puccini opera should be reclaimed and reinvented by Asian and Asian-American artists.Best known for his work in ballet and as a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an organization  committed to eliminating offensive stereotypes of Asians on stage, Chan makes his opera directing debut with the Boston Lyric Opera’s “Madama Butterfly.” The production, which runs Sept. 14-24 at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, is the culmination of a massive exploration of the legacy of “Madama Butterfly” undertaken by Chan, the BLO team and a dozen others.“We can say that ‘Madama Butterfly’ is inherently racist and sexist, but we could also ask, ‘How can we save it? What else can this work be?’” Chan told the Herald. “Three years ago, scholars, performers, directors, historians, and folks from all across the opera ecosystem took a look at this work asking what are problems with it and what i...

Varvaloucas: Gen Z dropping college dream, America should catch up

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

For years, we have lamented the spike in college costs and accompanying student debt bloat while we teach high schoolers to covet admittance to a tiny sliver of prestigious universities — ones that refuse to enlarge incoming class sizes despite endowments the size of some small countries’ gross domestic product.President Joe Biden’s first plan to relieve student debt is dead in the water, and the second is off to a slow start. Meanwhile, Americans’ confidence in higher education is eroding, and college graduates are surprised to find themselves still in the working class.Colleges are finally lying in the beds they made for themselves. According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse, undergraduate enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022 and doesn’t show signs of recovering post-pandemic. “The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record,” The Associated Press reported this spring, going on to paint those numbers as a crisis for Gen Z.But is it really...

Dear Abby: In the military, but jealous of others’ careers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

Dear Abby: I’m ashamed to admit that I’m envious of my younger brother’s recent success. He got into a fantastic medical program, and once he’s completed it, I’m sure he’ll get a great job with loads of perks. I am proud of him and I do love him, but I can’t deny my jealousy.I have been in the military for 13 years. It’s been fine as far as financial stability and job security, but my job is dull. I sit behind a desk and essentially push paper as well as perform many other unpleasant military tasks and traditions. I also follow the orders of mostly jackass supervisors.Unfortunately, I’ve got it in my head that I need to do 20 years to retire. I fear starting over or taking risks outside the military without a pension cushion. I have spent a lot of my life envying the success of others.They always seem to be very happy or at least doing better than me. My brother is the most recent one.This feeling of jealousy and, dare I say, mil...

Maldivians vote for president in a virtual geopolitical race between India and China

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

MALE, Maldives (AP) — Voting started in the Maldives presidential election Saturday, a virtual referendum over which regional power — India or China — will have the biggest influence in the Indian Ocean archipelago state.President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, perceived as pro-India, sought re-election for a second term amid allegations by his main rival, Mohamed Muiz, that he has allowed India an unchecked presence in the country. Muiz promised that if he won the presidency he would remove Indian troops stationed in the Maldives and balance the country’s trade relations, which he said is heavily in India’s favor.Muiz’s party, the People’s National Congress, is viewed as heavily pro-China. Its leader, Abdullah Yameen, when he was president in 2013-2018, made Maldives a part of China’s “One Belt One Road.” The initiative envisages building ports, railways and roads to expand trade — and China’s influence — in a swath across Asia, Africa and Europe.Mohamed Share...

Republicans’ opposition to abortion threatens a global HIV program that has saved 25 million lives

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The graves at the edge of the orphanage tell a story of despair. The rough planks in the cracked earth are painted with the names of children, most of them dead in the 1990s. That was before the HIV drugs arrived.Today, the orphanage in Kenya’s capital is a happier, more hopeful place for children with HIV. But a political fight taking place in the United States is threatening the program that helps to keep them and millions of others around the world alive.The reason for the threat? Abortion.The AIDS epidemic has killed more than 40 million people since the first recorded cases in 1981, tripling child mortality and carving decades off life expectancy in the hardest-hit areas of Africa, where the cost of treatment put it out of reach. Horrified, Republican U.S. President George W. Bush and Congress two decades ago created what is described as the largest commitment by any nation in history to combat a single disease.The program known as the U.S. President’s Eme...

For nearly a quarter century, an AP correspondent watched the Putin era unfold in Russia

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:54 GMT

NARVA, Estonia (AP) — At the Ivangorod-Narva border crossing, the last glimpse of Russia is of a sprawling fortress and the first sight of Estonia is another fortress on the other bank of a slender river. They’re almost comically close: People with strong arms could have a game of catch between the ramparts.But the proximity is deceptive — the psychological distance between Estonia and Russia is immense and only widening. The countries that once were part of the Soviet Union took radically different paths after the USSR’s collapse.Estonia largely fulfilled the wish of its former President Toomas Hendrik Ilves to become “just another boring Northern European country.” With low-key determination, Estonia remade itself into a model of order and ease, enticing to startup companies and “digital nomads.”Russia initially cultivated lively debate and flamboyantly welcomed the world, then gradually choked off freedoms and closed itself off while its citizens fled and uneasy foreigners felt c...