Coronavirus In Colorado; The Numbers

According to today's data release, in Colorado there have been 219,331 people tested, 28,183 positive cases, 4,859 hospitalized, 1,543 deaths among cases (1,292 deaths due to COVID), 299 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities, 60 of 64 counties with positive cases. In Adams County we have 3,605 cases and 138 deaths. Read More from CDPHE HERE

Gov. Polis Sends Letter To CDC, Requests Assistance For Flu Season And Emphasizes Importance Of Getting Vaccinated

Gov. Polis today sent a letter to the Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention requesting assistance in ensuring Colorado is prepared to respond during flu season, and can prevent the combined impact of flu and COVID-19 from overwhelming the health care system. Read More from Governor Jared Polis HERE

Gutted Colorado Budget Passed Its First Test On Party-Line Vote Last Week

K-12 education would take a nearly 10% hit and higher education would lose more than a quarter of its state support under the budget that passed the Colorado House last Wednesday. The budget, which had to be cut more than 21% overall, now moves to the Senate. Lawmakers are struggling with a projected $3.3 billion state revenue shortfall due to the coronavirus pandemic, although federal relief money will help with some education and other spending cuts. The House gave final approval to the budget last Wednesday on a party-line vote of 41-23. Read More from The Denver Post HERE

School Finance Act Advances, But With Many Questions About Proposed Property Tax Change

If you think Colorado’s school funding picture looks bad this year, just wait until next year. That was the case Speaker of the House K.C. Becker made Saturday to members of the House Education Committee for why a complicated property tax change should be included in the Public School Finance Act. The change wouldn’t bring in any extra revenue this year or next, but it would create a mechanism that future legislators could use to shift more of the cost of K-12 education to school districts and local taxpayers. Read More from Chalkbeat Colorado HERE

Senate Debates November Measure To Repeal Property Tax Amendment

The Colorado Senate passed a measure that would allow voters to decide in November whether to get rid of a budget control on property taxes that shortchanges local governments, special districts and schools. The resolution does not decide the question, but rather puts it before voters statewide in November, allowing proponents to bypass collecting 124,632 signatures from registered voters before Aug. 3 to qualify. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE

Coronavirus Temporarily Closed The Book On Colorado's Public Libraries, Buy They Found New Ways To Fulfill Their Mission

As libraries explored how they could still serve their communities with book lending on hold and their physical spaces locked down, they not only moved online but also embraced innovation. Some of those ideas, like Anythink’s phone calls, likely will end when buildings reopen and customers once again can engage face to face with their librarians. Anythink, like libraries all over Colorado, had brainstormed to reimagine its role in the quarantined world. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE

Students Of Color And The Vulnerable Await Fallout Of Colorado's Coronavirus-Induced School Budget Cuts

The rest of June will be tough for school districts. They await the final number that will define the size of cuts they face with bated breath. Educators say the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 on schools has been a generation in the making and felt along racial and class lines. Every time there is a downturn, every time there is a recession, schools bear the brunt of the cuts. And because of societal disinvestment in education, the repercussions will be big. Read More from CPR HERE

Colorado School Districts Fear Coronavirus Relief Money Won't Make Up For Budget Cuts

As Colorado school districts braced for budget cuts, Gov. Jared Polis gave them a $510 million lifeline in the form of federal coronavirus relief money. School district administrators around the state say they’re grateful, but also struggling with the restrictions that come with the money. Polis has said repeatedly that he intends to give districts as much flexibility as possible, but federal rules deem that it be used by the end of the calendar year for purposes related to COVID response. The Colorado Department of Education has yet to issue guidance specific to this pot of money. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE

Gov. Polis Cuts Red Tape For Restaurants, Allows More Flexibility in Licensing

Governor Jared Polis signed an Executive Order cutting red tape for restaurants and suspending certain statutes to remove bureaucratic barriers to serving alcoholic beverages in temporary outdoor dining spaces. This Executive Order allows restaurants to obtain temporary approval from State and local licensing authorities to modify their licensed premises to include outdoor dining areas within 1,000 feet of the restaurant, and also allows for the consumption of alcoholic beverages on a public right of way that has been authorized by ordinance, resolution, or rule adopted by a municipality, city and county, or county. This Executive Order also requires the Department of Revenue’s Liquor Enforcement Division to respond to the submission of an application for the temporary modification of a license within 24 hours to prevent any delays in restaurants offering safer outdoor service during the pandemic. Read More from Governor Jared Polis HERE

Colorado's Sweeping Police Accountability Bill Now Requires Officers To Face Imminent Threat Before Using Deadly Force

Colorado Democrats’ sweeping police accountability bill won preliminary approval Monday in the state Senate after undergoing a number of changes, including the addition of a prohibition on the use of deadly force by officers unless they face an imminent threat. Currently, officers may use deadly force if they reasonably fear for their lives or the lives of their colleagues and not necessarily if they are facing an imminent threat. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE

Denver Public Schools Students Organized Massive, Peaceful March For Black Lives Matter

Students from Denver Public Schools organized a march to end racism on Sunday, and drew in roughly 3,000 people who joined in the celebration and calls for action. The march marked the 11th consecutive day of protests since the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed in the custody of white Minneapolis police officers May 25. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE

Denver Police Ban Chokeholds, Adding To Rule Changes As Second Week of Huge Protests Continues

The Denver Police Department will ban all chokeholds, make SWAT team members wear body cameras and force officers to file a report any time they point a weapon at someone. As of Sunday, DPD updated the language of its policy to remove exceptions for chokeholds and “carotid compression techniques” that can stop blood from flowing to the head or neck. Previously, officers could not use them “unless engaged in a lethal force encounter.' Effective Sunday, any officer who points a weapon at someone will have to tell their supervisor. Read More from Denverite HERE

Inside Colorado's Wild Fight For PPE In The Pandemic's Early Months

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as Colorado officials were scrambling to acquire personal protection equipment for front line workers, the state’s Innovation Response Team received a promising lead on surgical masks. Officials pulled the trigger and the masks were shipped to a warehouse in New Jersey. The company wanted Colorado to pay in advance, something state officials wouldn’t do. So Gov. Jared Polis rang a friend who got the specifications and ran them past people he knew in China. These aren’t masks you could use in a medical setting. Read More from The Denver Post HERE

Amid Budget Crunch, Colorado Nets Much-Needed Windfall For Road Projects With Strong Debt Saale

For once, some good budget news. Colorado received a $111 million premium on a debt issuance of $500 million, thanks to strong investor demand for state-issued debt. As a result, budget writers say that $100 million in planned cuts to the Colorado Department of Transportation over the next two years — and some additional cuts likely to come — will be at least partially offset by an investment market that has largely shrugged off America’s broader economic malaise. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE

Black Hawk, Central City And Cripple Creek Slot Machines Will Reopen June 17

Slot machines will open in Colorado on June 17. The move was announced Sunday after the Colorado Department of Public Health approved a request from Gilpin County for a variance from COVID-19 business restrictions. Teller County can reopen slots the same day. Colorado’s casinos have been shuttered since Gov. Jared Polis issued a statewide stay-at-home order in mid-March. Guidelines for reopening include measures such as operating at 50 percent capacity to ensure social distancing and daily monitoring of symptoms for employees. Read More from CPR HERE

Denver's COVID-19 Infection And Death Rates Surpass A Flattening Weld County

Denver now has more COVID-19 cases and related deaths compared to population than Weld County, which was hit particularly hard by outbreaks, but the epidemic in Colorado’s capital is still far from the worst. Weld County initially was hit harder by the virus than any other of the state’s 10 most-populated counties, with outbreaks in a meatpacking plant, several nursing homes and the county jail. Denver overtook the county in deaths compared to population on May 23, however, and also had more cases per 100,000 people by Tuesday. Read More from The Denver Post HERE

Ethics Commission Concludes Hickenlooper Violated Colorado's Gift Ban For Public Officials

The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has concluded John Hickenlooper violated the state’s ban on valuable gifts to public officials twice during his time as governor. However, they dismissed four other trips included in the complaint. The commission concluded Hickenlooper crossed the line with a trip on a private plane to the commissioning of a U.S. Navy submarine in Connecticut, as well as when he accepted luxurious meals and other perks during a conference in Italy. Read More from CPR HERE

U.S. Has Entered Recession After Record Expansion, Economists Say

The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the Covid-19 pandemic spread and triggered the shutdown of businesses across the country, according to economists. The National Bureau of Economic Research made the designation official on Monday, announcing that a 128-month economic expansion — the longest on record — ended that month. The group said payroll employment based on a large survey of employers reached a "clear peak" in February. On a quarterly basis, the economy hit its peak during the last three months of last year, the organization said. Read More from Politico HERE

House Democrats Seek Policing Overhaul Amid Widespread Protests

House Democrats unveiled a sweeping overhaul of policing laws Monday aimed at making it easier to prosecute officers for misconduct, collect national data and establish new training programs to counter racial bias in response to the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. Currently federal prosecutors must establish that an officer not only used excessive force but also willfully violated a victim’s constitutional rights—meaning he knew what he was doing was against the law and acted anyway. The proposal would require prosecutors to establish that the officer had violated that right recklessly, instead of willfully. Read More from The Wall Street Journal HERE and NBC news HERE

May Jobs Report Reflects Racial Disparities

Friday’s jobs report showed the unemployment rate has dipped to 13.3 percent, down from 14.7 percent in April — but it rose slightly for black workers, to 16.8 percent. Part of the discrepancy can be attributed to the drop-off in public sector employment: Governments, which lost 585,000 jobs in May for a total loss of 1.5 million jobs in two months, have historically been a major employer of black Americans. In general employers are struggling to respond to a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black workers’ health and economic well-being. Read More from Politico HERE

Government Job Losses Continue to Grow

Drops in revenue spurred by the pandemic have forced state and local governments to cut essential workers providing services like public education and trash pick-up. Even as the U.S. added some jobs in May, the number of people employed by federal, state and local governments dropped by 585,000. The overall job losses among public workers have reached more than 1.5 million since March. The number of government employees is now the lowest it’s been since 2001, and most of the cuts are at the local level. Read More from Politico HERE and AP HERE

Exclusive Investigation On The Coronavirus Pandemic - Where Was Congress?

During President Trump's impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) asked Chief Justice John Roberts if he could make a brief announcement. McConnell’s remarks represented the first time that the novel coronavirus was mentioned in the Congressional Record this year. At the time, there was one confirmed case in the United States. In the next four-and-half months, more than 110,000 people in the United States would lose their lives to the virus, and the economy would be closed down — shutting businesses and forcing millions into unemployment. Read More from The Hill HERE

Police-Free Schools Movement Advances

A majority of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education members is expected to support a resolution — possibly on Thursday — to remove police from the city’s public schools. The effort follows the Minneapolis Public Schools Board last week unanimously voting to terminate its more than $1 million school resource officer contract with the police department in the city where Floyd died. In Portland, Ore., the superintendent announced on Thursday that the district was “discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers." Read More from Politico HERE

Almost Half Concerned About COVID-19 Exposure At Work

Nearly half of the Americans questioned in a new survey said they are concerned about the prospect of being exposed COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, as they return to work. The Gallup poll released Monday found that 13 percent of American workers said they are very concerned, while 33 percent are moderately concerned. By comparison, 29 percent are not too concerned and 25 percent are not at all concerned. The survey also found that 25 percent of workers “strongly agree” that they can safely return to work at this point while 20 percent “strongly disagree.” Read More from The Hill HERE

WHO - Data Suggests It's "Very Rare" For Coronavirus To Spread Through Asymptomatics

Contact tracing data from around the globe suggests that while there are instances of asymptomatic coronavirus patients transmitting the virus to others, they are not "a main driver" of new infections. Why it matters; Evidence early on suggested that person-to-person transmission among people who didn't experience symptoms could lead to outbreaks that would be difficult to control. The big picture; The WHO is now relying on data obtained through contact tracing. Read More from Axios HERE

As More Americans Head Out, 22 States Are Seeing Jumps In New Coronavirus Cases

While states lift more restrictions and more Americans go out to socialize or protest, almost half of US states are seeing higher rates of new coronavirus cases. But the situation would have been much worse had states not shut down, a new study says. More than 1.9 million Americans have been infected, and more than 110,000 have died in just over four months. Nationwide, 22 states are seeing upward trends in coronavirus cases. About 20 states have seen decreases in recent days, and eight states are holding steady. Read More from CNN HERE

Jobs Numbers Fallout

Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council said in an interview over the weekend that negotiations for a new package now might not even start until after July 4 — by which time many folks would have wanted something signed into law. Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) isn’t committing too much now either, and he’s not giving out much in hard dates. At the same time, it’s kind of tough to imagine that policymakers will just think the job’s done with the economy still in a precarious position, especially when their previous responses get part of the credit for Friday’s numbers. Read More from Politico HERE

New York City Begins Reopening After 3 Months Of Outbreak And Hardship

Exactly 100 days since its first case of coronavirus was confirmed, New York City, which weathered extensive hardship as an epicenter of the worldwide outbreak, is set to take the first tentative steps toward reopening its doors on Monday. As many as 400,000 workers could begin returning to construction jobs, manufacturing sites and retail stores in the city’s first phase of reopening— a surge of normalcy that seemed almost inconceivable several weeks ago, when the city’s hospitals were at a breaking point and as many as 800 people were dying from COVID-19 on a single day. Read More from The New York Times HERE

Food Banks Pushed To The Brink

The coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown has left at least 20 million Americans out of work, sending demand skyrocketing at food banks and other feeding programs around the U.S. The Agriculture Department is already spending $3 billion on surplus meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables to help nonprofits meet their needs, but anti-hunger advocates say there’s another way Washington should help: Increase food stamp benefits so hungry families can buy more groceries instead of leaning on food banks. Read More from Politico HERE

U.S. Hospitals Received Billions In Bailout Grants As C.E.O.s Got Millions

As some of the wealthiest health care companies in the United States received billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to help them cope with lost revenue from the pandemic, they laid off or cut the pay of tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and lower-paid workers, while continuing to pay their top executives millions. The New York Times analyzed tax and securities filings by 60 of the country’s largest hospital chains, which have received a total of more than $15 billion in emergency funds through the economic stimulus package in the federal CARES Act. Read More from The New York Times HERE

Protests Spread Over Police Shootings. Police Promised Reforms. Every Year, They Still Shoot And Kill Nearly 1,000 People

Protests against the use of deadly force by police swept across the country in 2015. Demonstrators marched in Chicago, turned chaotic in Baltimore, and occupied the area outside a Minneapolis police station for weeks. That year, The Washington Post began tallying how many people were shot and killed by police. By the end of 2015, officers had fatally shot nearly 1,000 people, twice as many as ever documented in one year by the federal government. Read More from The Washington Post HERE

Why Protesters Want to Defund Police Departments

When you talk to activists who are pushing to defund police departments, there’s a specific word that comes up often: Reimagine. The idea that police are the only answer to preventing crime and protecting people is one that has been so ingrained into American society that it can be hard to imagine a different reality. But amid a national uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, activists say it’s time to reimagine what the public actually needs. Read More from Time HERE

Poor Neighborhoods Are Only Getting Poorer

The latest maps of coronavirus cases in the U.S. confirm much of what we already know about the economics of location: People in poor neighborhoods have it worse. Health care isn’t as accessible, the ability to socially distance is less, and many residents fall into the role of essential workers, unable to work from home. What new research shows is that number of poor neighborhoods in metropolitan areas has actually doubled from 1980 — and most existing low-income areas only fell deeper into poverty. Read More from CityLab HERE

Strategies For Increasing Affordable Housing Amid The COVID-19 Economic Crisis

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans lacked stable, affordable housing. Now, the crisis has highlighted the social and economic costs of this crucial gap in the safety net. People living in poor-quality, overcrowded, or unstable housing—or without any home at all—cannot follow public health directives to safely “shelter in place.” Many people in this population also face risks of instability. Read More from Brookings HERE

COVID-19 Has Driven American Gamblers Online

Las Vegas has awoken from its pandemic-induced slumber. Photos from some of the 30-odd casinos that welcomed visitors for the first time in nearly three months showed gaming tables surrounded by guests, some wearing masks. Their thirst for a gamble is understandable. In quarantine, American high-rollers have struggled to find substitutes for the real thing. Read More from The Economist HERE

Governments Turn To Protectionism In Pandemic Fallout

Protectionism is poised to play an elevated role in global dealmaking, particularly as countries grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19. Driving the news; Governments are creating new regulations and incentives to maintain local ownership of homegrown companies Read More from Axios HERE

$1 Million Treasure Chest Found In Rocky Mountains After 10-Year Search

A bronze chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains has been found. Famed art and antiquities collector Forrest Fenn, 89, said he hid the treasure as a way to tempt people to get into the wilderness and give them a chance to launch an old-fashioned adventure and expedition for riches. A number of people lost their lives over the years in search of the hidden treasure, which was thought to be located somewhere along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. But now, the hidden loot has finally been found. Read More from 9News HERE