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'Chasing Piscasso' book releases this Saturday

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

ST. LOUIS - Fifty years ago today, April 11, 1973, a nude painting by Pablo Picasso was stolen from the St. Louis Art Museum. It hasn't been seen since.Where did it go, and who took it? All of those questions and theories are discussed and in a new book being released this Saturday called Chasing Picasso. Trending: St. Louis man flips after win on The Jennifer Hudson Show St. Louis author Carol Baker joined the station to discuss one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in St. Louis history.

Think your Claude Monet painting might be stolen? Submit tips to FBI using this art crime smartphone app

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

For Americans concerned about whether impressionist paintings, fabled violins and other treasured items might be stolen property, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a new art crime smartphone app that promises direct contact with agents.Anybody can use this free downloadable app, FBI officials announced Monday, to verify whether art and antiquities they own or are looking to buy weren’t stolen.“Submit tips to the FBI directly from the app,” officials said.This app gives mobile, on-the-run access to a National Stolen Art File database that FBI art crime investigators developed in working their cases.In the past, police agencies and art-industry partners in the United States and abroad have submitted information on stolen Claude Monet paintings, Stradivarius violins, Tiffany lamps and the like to this database, FBI officials said. It holds secrets on the provenance of scores of stolen pieces of art and other culturally significant property.Related Artic...

Arapahoe County considers 6-month drilling moratorium as Aurora residents worry about fracking near reservoir

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

Although it’s been a while since local officials in Colorado placed a halt on oil and gas drilling, commissioners in Arapahoe County on Tuesday will consider passing a six-month moratorium on new well permits in one of the state’s most robust places for energy extraction.The potential drilling delay, which would give the county time to refine recent oil and gas regulations, comes as Denver-based Civitas Resources rolls out plans for 174 new wells on a stretch of land owned by the Colorado State Land Board just east of the Aurora city line, in unincorporated Arapahoe County.Homeowners living near the proposed project, dubbed Lowry Ranch, are worried about the possible impacts of nearby oil and gas development on their neighborhoods, and, more notably, on the Aurora Reservoir — a drinking water source for Colorado’s third-largest city.Dozens of people signed up to speak about the moratorium during a March 28 county commissioner meeting. There wasn’t enoug...

Four more Front Range breweries closing their doors

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

New breweries have been opening at a furious pace in Colorado over the last several months — with more than a dozen more on pace to pour their first beers by the end of 2023.But when the glass is half full, it also means it’s half empty. In the past few weeks, four Front Range breweries or brewery-owned taprooms have closed or announced imminent closures.Smiling Toad Brewery, Colorado SpringsSmiling Toad Brewing, which was founded in 2013 before closing temporarily in 2020 and reopening a year later in a new location, has announced the end of the road.“We have news to share. After 10 fantastic years of brewing up a storm, Smiling Toad Brewery is calling it a decade,” owners Bill and Patti Biff wrote on Facebook on April 3. But the brewery plans to keep the taps open into May (or until the beer runs dry).Front Range Brewing, LafayetteThe Hoglund and Nichols families, owners of Front Range Brewing, made the “extremely challenging decision” to throw ...

As Colorado legislature’s focus turns to zoning reform, Democrats press tenant bills

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

Colorado Democrats have advanced a slew of pro-tenant bills amid a legislative session that one lawmaker called “the year of housing.” Despite concerns from some that two of the most high-profile bills may die, lawmakers and lobbyists say enough measures will advance this year to help achieve Democrats’ goal of rebalancing the relationship between landlords and tenants.“There’s too many of them,” said Drew Hamrick, a senior vice president with the Colorado Apartment Association who’s criticized many of those bills as being counterproductive. “And you can’t go to the same (Democratic) legislators over and over again and ask them to kill numerous of their party’s bills.”The focus on housing is in part driven by what Democratic candidates heard while campaigning last year, legislators said, and in part by the number of renters now serving in the General Assembly. The “year of housing” also extends beyond lawm...

DeSantis pushes toughest immigration crackdown in the nation

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

By Miriam Jordan, The New York TimesTALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with presidential ambitions, the Florida Legislature is considering a sweeping package of immigration measures that would represent the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration by any state in more than a decade.Expected to pass within weeks because Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers, the bills are part of what DeSantis describes as a response to President Joe Biden’s “open borders agenda,” which he said has allowed an uncontrolled flow of immigrants to cross into the United States from Mexico.The bills would expose people to felony charges for sheltering, hiring and transporting immigrants who are in the country without legal permission; require hospitals to ask patients their immigration status and report to the state; invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to immigrants in the country without legal permission; prevent them from being admitted to the bar i...

Colorado Democrats propose tougher oil and gas permit rules to curb air pollution — risking showdown with Polis

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

Legislation being proposed in the Colorado General Assembly would make the state’s air pollution permitting rules more stringent, largely impacting the oil and gas industry and setting up a potential showdown between the governor and supporters of the bill in the statehouse and among environmental groups.The bill, to be introduced later this week, has been in the works for two years, and its creation was championed by 24 environmental groups that, in a March letter of support, urged Gov. Jared Polis to back the legislation and criticized him for failing to include them in a recent plan to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the oil and gas industry.Environmentalists and the bill’s sponsors want state regulators to perform a modeling analysis of potential pollutants from any newly proposed oil and gas sites, and to consider the cumulative impact oil and gas production has on the state’s climate, before issuing new air permits.But it may be hard to convince the govern...

Is your Denver lawn snow-sick from a brutal winter? Here’s how to help

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

My dad commonly used the expression “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”He applied it to many situations in life, which mostly led to a laugh or shrug by his family. I’m not sure he’d apply this rationale to turf grass, but when looking at many lawns this time of year, even while they are dormant, some look to be in poor shape — sparse in many places and looking worn out.If grass could talk, it might say it was sick and tired from years of use, even though lawns are supposed to be well-used.Let’s roll up our sleeves and get our lawns into great shape for the coming outdoor season with four easy steps.After the snowy winter areas of the lawn can show signs of matted snow mold, just let it dry and rake it out. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)1. Start by taking a close look at the lawn for telltale damage. There could be gray snow mold where snow remained most of the winter — found in shady lawn locations, north sides of fences and buildings and w...

Colorado wildflower season is months away; so, why not check out an Arizona superbloom

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

Superblooms take place in some desert climates after unusually wet winters, when typically dormant seeds and plants wake up. The result, especially in California and Arizona, can be hillsides carpeted in color as thousands of flowers pop open around the same time.“There is not a hard and fast definition of superbloom,” said Michelle Thompson, chief of communications for Arizona State Parks. “The last time we had it was in 2019, and it depends on the weather and seed germination year to year.”While California is full of superblooms at the moment, they are a little harder to find in Arizona, but there are still plenty of flowers that make the trip worthwhile.Orange California poppies in bloom at Lost Dutchman State Park. (Mindy Sink, Special to The Denver Post)The springtime weather in Phoenix this year, with highs in the 70s and 80s (or even lower with a little rain), has made for a pleasant hiking season, too. It’s only a two-hour flight from Denver to Phoenix, making it easy to com...

2 critically injured in West Hollywood crash

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:16:12 GMT

Two people were critically injured in a crash in a possible wrong-way crash in West Hollywood late Monday.The collision occurred around 11:15 p.m. in the 1200 block of La Brea Avenue.Two vehicles were involved and both sustained major damage. The impact from the crash was so violent, both drivers were trapped inside their vehicles. They were eventually rescued by responding Los Angeles County firefighters and taken to a hospital with critical injuries, officials said.Investigators have limited information on the crash, but witnesses said one of the drivers was speeding and appeared to be going the wrong way.“Looks like the white car was driving not the opposite side of the road, going very fast, and hit a Mustang driving just normal,” Thomas Ourada said.North and southbound lanes of La Brea Avenue were closed amid the investigation, as debris covered the roadway.No further details about the crash have been released.