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Colorado wants to win a “Tech Hub” designation, but so does almost every other state

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

The federal government is extending $500 million this year to promote innovation in 20 designated “Tech Hubs” across the country, and although the competition probably won’t match the frenzy around Amazon HQ2, Colorado is pushing hard to make sure its application comes out on top.“Bringing a hub to Colorado will help us create jobs and facilitate broad-based economic growth, ensure that we do our part addressing key national security challenges, and support innovation-centric growth,” Gov. Jared Polis told a gathering of tech and community leaders at a workshop hosted by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade on Wednesday.The CHIPS Act extends $500 million initially, with $10 billion authorized, for 20 Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs, known as Tech Hubs. The program, managed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, is designed to create and foster innovation centers to benefit communities and geographic regio...

Fan Expo Denver adds “Into the Spider-Verse,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Transformers” stars

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

This year’s Fan Expo Denver plans to host the iconic stars of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Transformers” and other pop-culture juggernauts when it arrives at the Colorado Convention Center, June 30-July 2.Convention producers on Wednesday said they had booked “Next Generation” actors Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Jonathan Frakes (William Riker), Brent Spiner (Data) and Michael Dorn (Worf) — all of whom are currently on the final season of the acclaimed Paramount+ series “Picard.”In a nod toward these conventions’ roots as comics-focused events, Fan Expo Denver will also welcome voice-actor legend Peter Cullen, who has played Optimus Prime across decades of “Transformers” cartoons and movies, and Shameik Moore, who voiced Miles Morales from the brilliant “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and its upcoming sequel.Also new at the event: genre-movie legend and character actor Danny T...

Kings of Wings reopens this weekend, more than a year after kitchen fire

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

Kings of Wings is returning to its throne in Wheat Ridge. The food truck-turned-restaurant is finally reopening on March 25, 15 months after a kitchen fire shut it down in December 2021.“After all the adversity we’ve faced, opening the restaurant during COVID, dealing with the fire and the rebuild, the most exciting part is finally getting to this point,” said Eddie Renshaw, who owns the shop with longtime friend Evan Pierce. “We’re hoping it’ll be smooth sailing from here.”Kings of Wings is also getting ready to open a new location in Golden with a tequila bar in early summer 2023. (Photo by Brian Lanzer with Lanzer Productions)The two had originally hoped to reopen last year, but ran into some permitting delays with the city. The inside of the shipping container that they use as a kitchen had to be completely gutted and restored with new kitchen equipment.But aside from that, everything about the restaurant and its beloved menu of slow-cooked and grilled wings, signature homemade ...

The Ku Klux Klan, post-partum depression and compassion course through “Amerikin”

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

At the start of “Amerikin,” Jeff Browning greets his newborn son with a slew of swear words, some loving enthusiasm and more than a little TMI. He confesses to the wee fella that his mother might have a slow time embracing him. (“I’m a little worried about your mom, tell you the truth. She, uh … ain’t been herself since you came out.”)Once they’re back at the Browning home — where much of Chisa Hutchinson’s unsettling and riveting play (onstage at the Curious Theatre Company through April 15) unfurls — it becomes clear that Michelle Browning is struggling with post-partum depression. A lullaby she sings later in the play is wrenching for the dark lyrics she reworks.Michelle Browning (Candace Joice) in a post-partum hell separate from Jeff’s crisis. (Michael Ensminger, provided by Curious Theatre Company)Her despair is just one of the many things ailing the Brownings. Neighbor and friend Alma wanders over to the house to suggest gently to Jeff that he stop cal...

Millions in outside spending shapes Denver mayoral race — and it’s not always clear where the money is coming from

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

In the race to be Denver’s next mayor, millions of dollars is being spent by outside groups to support a handful of individual candidates — separating a vast field into haves and have-nots.Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough stand as the haves. In the most recent filings, the Johnston-backing Advancing Denver reported $1.4 million in contributions and the Brough-backing A Better Denver reported $913,000. The have-nots, meanwhile, have reported a combined total of $760,000 in contributions — but also have not listed individuals for the sources of money fueling their efforts.For Advancing Denver, those contributors include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, hedge fund manager Steve Mandel and Kent Thiry, the former CEO of Denver-based dialysis provider DaVita. Hoffman, far and away the biggest contributor, gave nearly $780,000 to the committee while also posting to his social network about support for his friend, Johnston. Mandel is in for $250,000 so far and Thiry for $15...

Woman arrested after pursuit in Ventura County

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

Authorities pursued a stolen vehicle out of Ventura County on Thursday night.The vehicle was reportedly taken from a liquor store in the Moorpark area. When the California Highway Patrol tried pulling the suspect over, the driver sped off, leading authorities on a pursuit.The vehicle was seen speeding through red lights before parking momentarily at a Ralph's grocery store before driving off again.A spike strip was thrown onto the vehicle's path on the 101 Freeway, puncturing the suspect’s tires. The driver slowed down and exited the freeway in Sherman Oaks. A successful PIT maneuver shortly afterward disabled the suspect’s vehicle.The driver, who appeared to be a female, exited the car and walked over to a sidewalk as authorities surrounded her, asking her to surrender.Authorities pursued a stolen vehicle out of Ventura County on March 23, 2023. (KTLA)Authorities pursued a stolen vehicle out of Ventura County on March 23, 2023. (KTLA)Authorities pursued a stolen vehicle out of Vent...

A new ballgame: SF Giants, Oakland A’s broadcast teams adjusting to pitch clock

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

It’s a whole new ballgame in the booth as well as on the field.Or more accurately, similar to the old ballgame.“We got our game back,” longtime Giants announcer Mike Krukow said.The pitch clock era begins in 2023, fostering a “get on with it” tempo that mandates 30 seconds between batters and either 20 or 15 seconds between pitches, with pitchers getting an extra five seconds with runners on base.Through two weeks of spring training, game times were down to two hours, 36 minutes from three hours, one minute a year ago.The pitch clock has changed not only changed the pace of play on the field, but how it’s delivered to the consumer on television and radio.To get an idea of how it’s going so far and what to expect, I talked with Krukow as well as NBC Sports California producer DeAulaire Louwerse and first-year A’s radio announcer Johnny Doskow and included comments from the Giants broadcasters Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper off recent appea...

Beverage and food distributor buys big Richmond industrial center

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

Elevated view of Richmond Distribution Center 3, a warehouse, industrial and logistics complex at 500 Pittsburg Avenue in Richmond. (Colliers, Ares Management)RICHMOND — A beverage and food distribution titan with a global reach has bought a huge Richmond industrial center for more than $100 million in a real estate deal that could bring more jobs to the East Bay.Illinois-based Reyes Holdings, acting through an affiliate, has bought a warehouse and logistics complex at 500 Pittsburg Avenue in Richmond, documents filed on March 3 with the Contra Costa County Recorder’s Office show.The Reyes Holdings affiliate paid $140 million for the distribution center, the county records show.At this price, the transaction would appear to be one of the largest property purchases by dollar amount in the East Bay so far in 2023.The deal was arranged through brokers Todd Severson and Greig Lagomarsino of Colliers, a commercial real estate firm; and JLL, a commercial real estate firm....

Opinion: Access your brain? The creepy race to read workers’ minds

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

Modern workers increasingly find companies no longer content to consider their résumés, cover letters and job performance. More and more, employers want to evaluate their brains.Businesses are screening prospective job candidates with tech-assisted cognitive and personality tests, deploying wearable technology to monitor brain activity on the job and using artificial intelligence to make decisions about hiring, promoting and firing people. The brain is becoming the ultimate workplace sorting hat — the technological version of the magical device that distributes young wizards among Hogwarts houses in the “Harry Potter” series.Companies touting technological tools to assess applicants’ brains promise to dramatically “increase your quality of hires” by measuring the “basic building blocks of the way we think and act.” They claim their tools can even decrease bias in hiring by “relying solely on cognitive ability.”But research has shown that such assessments can lead to racial dispariti...

Beethoven’s hair: How a San Jose State museum docent turned genetic researcher debunked a famous relic

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:35:48 GMT

SAN JOSE — Tristan Begg was an anthropology student at UC Santa Cruz and a Beethoven fanatic when he volunteered as a docent at San Jose State University’s Beethoven center in the summer of 2009.He would pull out the drawer holding a lock of hair and tell visitors, “This is real” and that it once was on the head of the greatest composer who ever lived, the one whose music changed Begg’s life when he heard the first notes of Moonlight Sonata on Christmas morning at age 17.“It was instantaneous. I was astounded. I’ve never heard anything like it,” he said. “It was an instant sort of obsession.”Now, 14 years later, Begg, a Ph.D student at the University of Cambridge, is the lead author on a genome research study that debunked the story he once told. The hair is a fake.The findings, published this week in the journal Current Biology, revealed new insights about the life and death of Ludwig van Beethoven. Five other locks of hair were authenticated, including another one rece...