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Losing eyesight sharpens vision for artist Chloé Duplessis

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

Editor’s note: An untold number of unheralded artists live in Colorado, those creators who can’t (or don’t want to) get into galleries and rely on word of mouth, luck or social media to make a living. You’ve likely seen them on Instagram, at festivals or at small-town art fairs. This monthly series, Through the Lens, will introduce you to some of these artists.In 2018, a Stargardt disease diagnosis for the Louisiana-born, Denver-based artist Chloé Duplessis was a wake-up call. At 39 the digital artist, muralist, photographer and oral historian was faced with losing her sight.“As an artist, I thought, how can I go on when the very thing I do is visual?”Stargardt Disease is a rare form of inherited macular degeneration that causes retinal degeneration, central vision loss and most often ends with almost complete blindness.Now 44, she has lost 40% of her vision and is legally blind. “I am actively losing my vision in real time,” she explains. Duplessis doesn’t know when she is going to...

DPS board president calls out members’ “exorbitant” travel expenses amid uncertainty about spending limits

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

Members of Denver’s school board spent more than $40,000 traveling to conferences this past year, more than double the amount spent in other metro districts — and a figure that has spurred directors to call for changes in how the board handles expenses as the district faces financial constraints brought on by declining enrollment.Denver Public Schools board members, including President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, said the elected body needs to create a new policy governing directors’ expenses, including potentially setting a per-person cap to curb overspending.“I’m absolutely concerned about this level of spending,” Gaytán said of how much some board members have spent on travel. “I believe it’s an exorbitant amount.”Previous DPS boards operated with a $5,000 limit on expenses per person, but that cap wasn’t in writing. In interviews with The Denver Post, directors said the district lacks a clear policy on personal spending by its elected leaders — and they even disagreed on...

10,000 Coloradans mistakenly lost their Medicaid health coverage in 2023

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

More than 10,000 Colorado residents were mistakenly cut off from Medicaid after the state marked them as ineligible.This spring, states started going through their Medicaid rolls to determine who was no longer eligible for the first time in about three years. During the emergency phase of the pandemic, states that kept everyone covered received additional federal money. There was an exception for people who left the state or died.Colorado, like most states, has a program to automatically reenroll households if other data sources, such as applications for food assistance, show their incomes are low enough to qualify for Medicaid. In August, however, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asked states to determine if eligible people were falling through the cracks.Children and pregnant women can qualify at a higher income than non-pregnant adults. What that means is that even if a household as a whole made too much to qualify for Medicaid, certain members could still b...

What’s the purpose? Slow art can be taxing in a fast-paced world.

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

It might be funny to call Trey Duvall’s new art installation at Rule Gallery “exciting.” After all, the piece is a bit tedious to watch.Here is the visual: a broom sweeps across a mound of sand.That’s it. The broom, ordinary and plastic, moves back and forth very slowly. It pushes the sand this way, just a little, and then that way, just the same.Trey Duvall’s pile of sand at the beginning of the show on Aug 18. (Provided by Rule Gallery)Perhaps this review should end right here because there is not much more to say about the visuality of this particular piece of visual art. I could go on, as I sometimes do, over-describing the scene, talking about how the sand is the color of brown sugar, or how the broom is a pure white with honey-shaded bristles.Or I could get into the mechanics, which, like most of Duvall’s pieces, are decidedly low-tech. The broom handle is attached to a string, which is connected to a pulley on the ceiling, which is operated by a motor, which drags the broom t...

Bear spotted cruising along wall in Rancho Cucamonga neighborhood

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - A bear taking a morning stroll on a wall in an Inland Empire neighborhood was captured on video Sunday.The video, shared with KTLA by Esther Terrazas, shows the bear standing on an ivy-covered wall at the corner of Carnelian Street and Highland Avenue around 9:30 a.m. Terrazas says she was walking her dog in the Beryl Park area at the time. A bear was spotted taking a stroll in Rancho Cucamonga on Sept. 24, 2023. (Esther Terrazas)"Then all of a sudden I see a bear crossing the street. Me and a few other neighbors were in shock," she said.Terrazas and others, who were standing across a busy intersection from the bear, immediately left the area when it started climbing down the wall.Someone on the video could be heard saying they were thankful that Rancho Cucamonga sheriff's officers were patrolling the neighborhood. Animal control officials also arrived at the scene, Terrazas said.It was unclear if officials removed the bear or if it left on its own.

Thousands of new trees coming to 10 Bay Area cities in bid to right old wrongs, address climate change

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

On the block where Consuelo Ramirez and her four children live in Oakland’s flatlands, only a single scruffy tree grows between the sidewalk and the street. A few others rise from backyards. Up in the Oakland hills to the east, spacious homes nestle beneath leafy, green canopies and trees line every road.“They have more money,” Ramirez, a single mother who retired at 53 after a workplace injury, said of her distant neighbors.And because those in the hills have more money and more trees, they have more shade, cooler summer days, more peace and quiet, more birds, squirrels and other animals — and, experts say, likely a better quality of life.Now, neighborhoods like Ramirez’s are set to turn greener through a grant program intended to put leaves over the heads of people hit harder by the climate crisis.Ten Bay Area cities have been awarded federal grants to plant, maintain and restore trees under a $1 billion program paid for by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act ...

Native Americans invited back to help protect and preserve their former lands

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

For decades, Theresa Harlan was warned that her family’s beloved cabin in Point Reyes National Seashore would be torn down, erased like all other traces of Coastal Miwok heritage in this fog-veiled, wind-sculpted landscape.But now she has the park’s promise that it will stay, a small but symbolic gesture in the growing movement to correct historic wrongs and give Native Americans a voice about the fate of lands and waters that were once theirs.“There is a shift,” said Harlan, 63. “We are treated as stakeholders.”Long after being removed, sometimes violently, tribes are negotiating collaborative or cooperative roles in 80 national parks, including Point Reyes. This month, federal officials will release details about Native partnership in the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary off the Central California coast, the first tribal-nominated marine sanctuary designation in the nation.In another four national parks — Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona, Glac...

4 charged with stealing from California Macy’s suspected in 15 other thefts, police say

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

Four people charged earlier this month with stealing thousands in clothing from Macy’s in Pasadena are suspected of committing retail thefts in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, police said.The group, who had Romanian passports, have been linked to 15 other thefts, according to Pasadena Police Lt. Carolyn Gordon. Details about the other crimes have not been released.“This group could have been doing it for awhile. I would say within the last two months,” she said.Police do not know yet when the suspects entered the U.S and how long they have been here.The suspects did not provide statements to police and claimed they could not speak English, she said.On Sept. 8, Pasadena detectives were conducting an operation on organized retail theft and vehicle burglaries that included businesses within the South Lake Shopping District.“We were targeting any group that walked into stores (and) was stealing,” Gordon said.Investigators spotted four people at the Macy’s at 40...

Pit bull puppy’s owner disputes California police statement that dog OD’d on fentanyl

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

The owner of a pitbull puppy that Irvine police alleged overdosed on fentanyl is disputing claims made by police after the dog’s drug urine test came out negative.The Orange County District Attorney’s office has not yet filed charges against the couple, who were arrested Sept. 6 on suspicion of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, as well as animal cruelty.Police say the drug test did not specifically test the 8-week-old puppy, Myla, for fentanyl. Additional blood work testing is being done, according to Irvine Police Sgt. Karie Davies.Meanwhile, as of Friday, Sept. 22, her owner has 3 days left to pay $2,586 the city of Irvine wants for vet bills and room and board for Myla, according to police.Paying the tab will allow Caleb Gibson of San Juan Capistrano to retain legal ownership of the puppy, police said, though he would not get the dog back until the investigation is resolved.Myla is currently being held at the Animal Care Center in Irvine.Gibson, 27, said he is a full-ti...

Kaiser says new COVID-19 booster shots coming as early as this week

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:00:58 GMT

A new COVID-19 booster vaccine approved in mid-September has yet to make its way to Kaiser Permanente facilities, but that should be changing soon.The Oakland-based healthcare provider said Friday afternoon that booster shots will be coming online Monday, Sept. 25. An email sent to Kaiser members at 5 p.m. said vaccine appointments would begin Sept. 28 for members 12 years and older.“Appointments for children under 12 will become available as we receive supply,” the email reads.Walk-in vaccinations also will be available in select locations, Kaiser wrote, but it didn’t clarify where.“We will begin administering updated COVID-19 vaccines in most areas we serve … and possibly earlier at some locations,” Kaiser told the Southern California News Group earlier Friday.Also see: Kaiser’s 75,000 union employees to strike Oct. 4 if no deal struckThe FDA on Sept. 11 approved updated boosters from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech for people ages 12 and older. Younger people can get the shots under ...