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“Where Coyotes Howl” is a charming tale of love and loss on the prairie

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

Where Coyotes Howl (St. Martin’s Press)Denver’s own Sandra Dallas, author of more than a dozen novels, says her latest may be her “best one yet.”Apparently readers agree, because it’s already been on the Tattered Cover’s best-seller list and is in its second printing.“Where Coyotes Howl,” published in April by St. Martin’s Press, follows Ellen Webster, a young woman in 1916 Iowa who sees an ad for a schoolteacher in tiny Wallace, Wyo., and is chosen for the job because she is the most comely applicant.Ellen is ill-prepared for the harsh conditions of frontier life but is soon swept off of her feet by cowboy Charlie Bacon. (One sweet scene harkens back to  “Oklahoma,” when Ellen’s picnic basket fetches the most money in bidding by her paramour.) Together, they face the worst of what the High Plains in the early 1900s can toss at them.And I do mean worst: The unforgiving extremes of the weather in the winter and s...

Following Boulder King Soopers tragedy, local artist turns memorial flowers into compost

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

Artist Ana Maria Hernando’s “Flowering Eulogy” is a tribute wrought from tragedy.On March 21, 2021, a man carrying a semi-automatic rifle shot and killed 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder. The local community, shocked by the event and stunned by the loss of friends, family and neighbors, reacted with grief, and began transforming the site of violence into a tender memorial with “hundreds of bouquets of flowers of all sizes, browned and blackened and standing there as a love offering,” according to Hernando.After awhile, the city of Boulder collected the material and gave much of it to Hernando with a request to transform it through her artist’s perspective. She spent many months turning it into compost in her own backyard. On the second anniversary of the event, she presented her piece to the public, in small, brown-bag packages of the fertile, earthy material, accompanied by a letter of introduction and a package of wildflower seeds.I asked her to help us understand the piece a...

The first piece of AI-generated art debuted quietly at the Denver Art Museum. It won’t be the last.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

In the upper left image, Steven Yazzie poses for a portrait in his studio in Denver on May 15, 2023. Surrounding Yazzie are works of artificial intelligence. The AI-generated images were created by Yazzie and Denver Post photographer AAron Ontiveroz using Midjourney, a platform that converts natural language prompts into images. Each of the four sets of AI images were created using the original photograph of Yazzie and different words describing his work and identity. Prompts for these images included phrases like, “Steve Yazzi artist working in studio.” The images produced by the AI technology include photorealistic recreations as well as abstract works of art. Yazzie creates his own art in collaboration with artificial intelligence. (Photo and AI illustration collage by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)You can hear “Us” before you can see “Us.”That’s because the audio narration for the hypnotic, 5-minute video, titled “Us,” echo...

Same pay, fewer hours: Golden will try a four-day workweek starting this summer

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

Golden will be embarking on an experiment this summer that could prove to be the envy of every working stiff in Colorado: 40 hours of pay for 32 hours of work.It’s part of the burgeoning four-day-a-week movement that’s been given extra fuel by pandemic disruptions to traditional work schedules over the last three years. Golden will be giving the truncated workweek a try over the last half of 2023 with its police department only — for now.“I think it could be the largest single game changer in retention of government employees,” said Golden Police Chief Joe Harvey. “It’s about building a culture people won’t want to leave.”His department of 72 full-time employees, he said, hasn’t been at full strength since 2015.City Manager Scott Vargas said Golden has had “long-standing, long-term employee recruitment and retention” issues, with “many dozens” of city jobs still unfilled. If the pilot program with th...

Fatal multi-car crash closes southbound 405 Freeway

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

All southbound lanes of the 405 Freeway were closed in the Westwood area Monday morning due to a multi-vehicle crash that left at least one person dead.Officials said the crash occurred around 3:30 a.m. at Sunset Boulevard and involved four to five cars. One person was pronounced dead at the scene.California Highway Patrol issued a SigAlert around 4 a.m., blocking all southbound lanes of travel.The crash near Sunset Boulevard closed all southbound lanes of the 405 Freeway. May 22, 2023. (LLN)Traffic backups extended for into the Sepulveda Pass, and it was unclear when lanes would reopen. Cars were being diverted at Skirball Center Drive.The cause of the accident was under investigation.This is a developing story. Stay with KTLA for updates.

Will the Roots soccer team ever return to Oakland?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

OAKLAND — Amid all the talk of the A’s leaving town for Las Vegas, another of Oakland’s last-remaining professional sports teams is looking to make a stadium deal. And unless they do, the city might lose them, too.Earlier this year, popular upstart soccer franchise Oakland Roots SC trekked a half-hour south of its regular home field at Oakland’s Laney College to play at Cal State East Bay in Hayward.The once-temporary stay in Hayward is now set to last the rest of the 2023 season, with the Roots focused on building a 10,000-seat soccer stadium next to the Oakland Coliseum. Their plan has support among some of Oakland’s power players, as demonstrated at a public meeting of the Coliseum’s stewards on Friday.“It is a very positive opportunity for us to generate excitement and revenue and jobs and goodwill for this facility,” City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said during the meeting.The team has been in talks with a local group that’s on t...

Could your trash contribute to a clean fuel future? Richmond landfill plan says yes.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

One landfill’s trash may soon become an environmentalist’s treasure.Raven SR, a clean fuels company based in Wyoming, will transform a section of a West Contra Costa landfill into a facility that can convert up to 100 tons of organic waste into transportation-grade hydrogen.Tapping into California’s increasing efforts to promote renewable, zero-emission mobility options and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, Raven SR estimates that the 40,000-square-foot Richmond complex may produce up to 2,000 metric tons of hydrogen annually.Vegetation waste from the landfill will be heated until it breaks down and releases energy, without needing to be burned.Mike Fatigati, Raven SR’s chief technology officer, said during Tuesday’s Richmond City Council meeting that the facility will convert the gasses from green and organic food waste into “syngas” — a synthetic mix of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and other molecules, using a patented, innovative process called “Steam/CO2 Reformi...

Room rate was $249, but didn’t mention $90 in fees. California bill aims to stop that

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

Ted Mermin booked a hotel room for his family of four, advertised online at a reasonable-sounding $249 a night. But when they checked out, they were told there was an additional $50 “resort fee” plus a $40 charge for “incidentals.”There wasn’t a “resort” at the place, and the hotel couldn’t tell Mermin what the “incidentals” fee covered, though he noted it wasn’t the empty soap and shampoo dispensers. As executive director of the California Low-Income Consumer Coalition, he pushed back, and the proprietor waived the additional fees. But Mermin cited it to explain why his organization backs a California bill aiming to outlaw hidden or “junk” fees.“In my case it’s an inconvenience,” said Mermin, who would not identify the hotel or its location. “But for many Californians, hidden fees like this are the difference between whether a person can make it through the month and pay for the ne...

What you need to know about trap plants in your garden

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

You’ve probably heard the advice to those who like to go hiking in bear country: You don’t have to be the fastest runner in your group, you only have to be faster than your slowest friend.In the gardening world, trap plants are the equivalent of that slow friend.Trap crops have long been used by farmers to draw pests away from the main crop. Sometimes they are the same cultivar planted a few weeks earlier than the protected crop. This gives them a head start so the pest insects will start feasting before the main crop emerges. They are planted on the perimeter because the marauding insects will encounter them first before heading further into the field. Once the trap crops are covered in pest insects, they are either treated with pesticide or removed.Trap crops can be useful to the home gardener as well. Perhaps you’ve noticed that out of maybe 12 kale plants, one will seemingly collect all the aphids in the neighborhood. Don’t try to figure out what that one plant did to deserve su...

Dead & Company kicked off there farewell tour with a soaring show in LA

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:29:10 GMT

“I need a miracle,” read the signs held by dozens of fans outside the Kia Forum before Dead & Company took the stage Friday for the first of two shows in Inglewood this weekend.“I need a miracle.” It’s been Deadhead code for decades, long before Dead & Company brought three surviving members of the legendary San Francisco group together with singer-guitarist John Mayer in 2015 to keep the music of the Dead alive. In the parlance of the parking lot, it’s a prayer, a plea from the ticketless to the ticketed for a way into the show.Now the miracles are running out. For Dead & Company, despite success enough to fill arenas and stadiums, this is the final tour. What began at the Forum on Friday and Saturday will end at Oracle Park in San Francisco on July 14-15.John Mayer of Dead & Company performs on the first of two nights at the KIA Forum in Inglewood on Friday, May 19, 2023. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Contributing Photographer)Mickey Hart of Dead & Company performs...