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Meet the Denver chef behind Casa Bonita’s sopaipilla-scented candles

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Honey is the first scent that tingles your senses after you light the candle and inhale. After that, it’s caramelized sugar, a wave of citrus and a touch of cinnamon, even clove. From there, your brain does the rest of the work, associating the flood of scents in the air with their intended target: your memories of warm, honey-covered sopaipillas at Casa Bonita.The sopaipilla-scented candles are one of the quirky but creative additions to the new gift shop at the singular restaurant, but they aren’t some afterthought. Each one is hand-produced in Denver by Wooly Wax, a custom candle shop owned by Rachel Woolcott.And Woolcott isn’t just any candle maker. She’s the longtime Denver and Boulder chef behind Aix, a French bistro that found its niche along 17th Avenue’s restaurant row from 2001 to 2009.Casa Bonita’s sopaipilla-scented candles are made by Wooly Wax, a small Denver business led by former chef Rachel Woolcott. (Provided by Wooly Wax)Which is good, since eating the sopai...

Bobcat Thai curry, venison gyoza are all in a day’s work for Colorado chef-turned-hunter

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Two days into her first hunting trip, Rikki Folger sat still in a blind near a creek in Nebraska, preparing as the first turkey of the day started running toward a decoy.Folger, 30, didn’t rush the shot. She took a deep breath while her blind-mate, Mike Johnson of Fort Collins, plugged his ears, and the turkey went down quickly and cleanly. “Time seemed to slow down in that moment,” she said.Rikki Folger made some turkey lag carnitas tacos after her first turkey hunt in Nebraska in the spring of 2021. (Photo by Rikki Folger)Folger brought her first catch back to the campsite and cooked some turkey leg carnitas tacos on a two-burner propane stove for three friends. Then she saved the breast for Thanksgiving and made stock out of the bones.It was all in a day’s work.“Doing it in a field like that when you don’t have a kitchen at your disposal really spoke volumes about her comfort level preparing food,” Johnson said.The chef-turned-hunter has combined two of her favorite passion...

How Denver police quietly stopped using no-knock warrants

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Denver police haven’t served a no-knock warrant in three years.The police department quietly stopped using no-knock warrants in 2020 amid a nationwide outcry against police brutality and push for criminal justice reform, police records show.That year, then-Chief Paul Pazen informally changed the Denver Police Department’s policy to disallow no-knock warrants in narcotics cases, an adjustment formalized in 2021. That policy shift essentially ended the department’s use of no-knock warrants, though they are still allowed in exceptional circumstances, Division Chief of Investigations Joe Montoya said.The decline of the no-knock search warrant — which allows officers to enter a person’s home without first identifying themselves as police — marks the end of an era in Denver law enforcement. But it also coincides with a rise in the number of knock-and-announce warrants handled by the city’s SWAT team. Those warrants can be similar to no-knock warra...

Colorado saw 32% drop in older teens dying by suicide between 2020 and 2022

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Fewer older teens in Colorado died by suicide in 2022 than at almost any point in the past decade, but kids in early adolescence didn’t show the same improvement.The annual Kids Count in Colorado report, released Tuesday, showed 56 people between 15 and 19 died by suicide in 2022, down from a high of 83 in 2020 — a 32% drop. After adjusting for population growth, the suicide rate for older teens was at its lowest level since 2014.“It’s critical that Colorado keeps up the momentum,” said Charlie Veraza, advocacy manager at the Colorado Children’s Campaign, which partners with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to produce the annual report.Younger teens’ suicide deaths remained roughly level year-over-year, though, with 17 fatalities among kids between 10 and 14 in 2022. The rate was down slightly from its 2018 high, when 25 children in that age group died by suicide.It’s not clear why older and younger teens showed different trends, said Jac...

United hires hundreds from island of Guam for its ramp team at DIA

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Hundreds of islanders from Guam recently relocated to Denver to work for the area’s biggest employer: United Airlines.More than 460 residents of the U.S. territory in Micronesia now call the Mile High City home after United recruited them for ramp agent roles. Guam is about 6,650 miles from Denver, and was first colonized by the U.S. 125 years ago. As U.S. residents, Guamanians don’t need visas.Magda Morais, managing director of talent and acquisitions at United, said her team faced a “hard time recruiting our ramp agents” in the Denver market, so they had “to get creative.”They held a two-day job fair in January on the island, and extended to a third day because of “overwhelming interest,” she said in an interview.United received around 2,600 applicants in Guam, and the carrier offered over 800 jobs, with more than 460 passing the clearance process. “We filled the need” for ramp agents, Morais said.An entry-level employee ...

8 low-cost, all-ages things to do over Labor Day Weekend

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

8 low-cost, all ages things to do over Labor Day WeekendWe’re not letting go of summer just yet. But the time of swimming pools, mountain camps and children on the loose is swiftly coming to an end.To mark the transition into fall and, hopefully, cooler temperatures, we picked eight Labor Day weekend events in the Denver metro area (mostly) that are light on cost and heavy on all-ages fun.Most events take place between Friday, Sept. 1, and Monday, Sept. 4. Find more things to do in Denver at denverpost.com/theknow.RJ Sangosti, The Denver PostCarnival rides light up the night sky during the Colorado State Fair on August 23, 2019 in Pueblo, Colorado. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)Colorado State FairColorado’s biggest fair unites state-best agriculture and livestock, rodeo competitions, food, music, fine art and more on its sprawling grounds for diverse, family-friendly programming. Concert highlights this year include comic Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (Au...

Man found shot to death in Pacoima home; gunman on the loose

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Police are searching for a gunman after a man was found shot to death in a Pacoima home Tuesday.Officers responded to the home in the 12500 block of Debell Street around 9 p.m.Neighbors said they had heard as many as six shots earlier in the day but no one had called police. People react to a fatal shooting at a home in Pacoima on Aug. 29, 2023. (RMG News)It's unclear who eventually found the victim but when officers arrived they found a 22-year-old Hispanic man with multiple gunshot wounds at the rear of the home, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said. The unidentified man was pronounced dead at the scene. Standoff with armed man comes to end after nearly 11 hours in Orange County Video showed several people gathered outside the home, many of them were hugging and crying. There was no known motive for the shooting and no suspect description was immediately available.

Arnold & Lane get Amplified

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Arnold & Lane get Amplified: Arnold of Los Angeles house duo Arnold & Lane says that he started playing music when he was just nine years old.“Guitar/Bass/Drums — I played in and out of bands throughout high school/college,” he says. “I purposely steered away from electronic music, due to my naive opinionated belief at the time that rock/jazz music was the only way. I went to Hard Summer in 2012 and my whole world got rocked. The set that did it was seeing the Gaslamp Killer because he was playing Iggy Pop and Led Zeppelin in his sets. I found it hard playing in bands creatively because I played most of the instruments, and I would get frustrated with how everything was sounding. Seeing electronic music live made me realize you don’t need a band to be a performer. Shortly afterwards, I picked up a controller and taught myself how to DJ. From there the natural progression is making your own beats, so I got ableton and enrolled in a course. House music ...

‘Act of antisemitic vandalism’ reported at UC Berkeley Jewish fraternity

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

BERKELEY – In an “act of antisemitic vandalism,” shellfish was tossed inside and onto UC Berkeley’s Jewish fraternity house over the weekend, according to the fraternity.The incident happened between Friday and Saturday, on the first Shabbat of the school year, the Chi Alpha chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi said in a statement posted to Instagram.According to the statement, a group of six people threw shellfish – a non-kosher food – into the house and on the front porch. Shellfish was also scattered around the premises at 2430 Piedmont Ave.“This incident was undoubtedly deliberate, aimed at intimidating our chapter, who take pride in their Jewish identity and actively support the campus Jewish community,” the statement read.The fraternity said it is working with the city and university police departments, as well as campus administration, to “identify the individuals responsible for this hateful crime.”“Our aim is to send a resolute message that such behavior will not find acceptance wit...

Crime victims assail bill they say could free some of California’s worst killers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:01:48 GMT

Vanetta Perdue’s mother had tried desperately to leave her abusive husband, but he wouldn’t have it. In 1982, he broke into their home near Monterey, doused Perdue’s mother with gasoline and set her on fire, leaving their children to die with her in the flames.Now Perdue fears that her father — who’s serving life in prison without parole for nearly killing her and her siblings along with their mother — might be freed under a San Jose lawmaker’s criminal justice reform bill set for a hearing Friday in Sacramento.“Convicted murderers sentenced to life without the possibility of parole do not deserve to be given a second chance,” Perdue, of North Carolina, said Tuesday at a news conference of crime-victim advocates, law enforcement officials and lawmakers opposing the bill. “Life without parole is supposed to be just that, life without parole. Period.”Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat whose bill, SB 94, heads to a s...