Elijah McClain (Courtesy of McClain family) BRIGHTON — Former Aurora paramedic Jeremy Cooper was sentenced Friday to 14 months of jail with work-release and four years of probation for his role in the killing of Elijah McClain nearly five years ago. “The life of Elijah McClain mattered, and matters,” District Court Judge Mark Warner said as he imposed the sentence. “It’s almost unthinkable, the way things rolled out and the facts and circumstances in this case.” Cooper, 49, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in McClain’s death. He faced up to three years in prison. Work-release pro ..read more

One of the most beloved film series of all time, “Star Wars,” has inspired the theme of the 2024 Cañon City Music and Blossom Festival, which will include a several callbacks to the space opera. According to Blossom Board President Cassandra Grow, the 86th annual festival is the largest community-run event in the state, and this year’s theme, ‘Band Wars: Return of the Blossoms’ will serve as a fantastic backdrop for the much-loved festival. “The Cañon City Music and Blossom Festival is the longest-running event in the city’s history, rain or shine, and it’s always held the first full weekend o ..read more

On Monday, students from the Gifted and Talented Education program visited the Canon City School Board. Students from third to eighth grade participated in the Noetic Learning Math Contest in November – a problem-solving contest that the district partakes in annually. According to GATE Director Shyla Christiansen, “The goal of the competition is to encourage students’ interest in math, to develop their problem-solving skills, and to inspire them to excel and math.” During the contest, students were given 44 minutes to solve 20 problems. Many problems were designed to challenge students and to ..read more

Choosing a bottle of wine can be a stressful task. Especially when that wine is meant for someone else. If you’re daunted by trying to decide what wine to bring to a party, the perfect bottle for a hard-to-please mother-in-law or something to entice a prospective paramour, consider some tried-and-tested tips from Chicago wine experts. Surefire party hits When selecting a wine to bring to a party, Chasity Cooper, a communications strategist and wine and culture writer, turns to trusted favorites. “Pinot noir from Oregon always delivers,” says Cooper, who recently published the “Wine Convo Gener ..read more

John T. Bennett | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s aviator sunglasses likely won’t be far away Saturday night when the president cracks some jokes at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. But not everyone will be laughing during Washington’s yearly spectacle — even if “Dark Brandon” makes another appearance. That’s Biden’s political alter ego, his team’s attempt to flip the conservative slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” on his foes. Biden ended his comedy set last year by slipping on his signature shades and pretending to morph into his edgier persona. Official Washingt ..read more

By Noah Bierman, Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s tough week showed as well as any to date why he is facing a new and unprecedented reality as a presidential candidate — as he ping-ponged among a dizzying array of court appearances, judicial rulings, competing allegations and subsequent grievances. By Thursday, he was complaining about the overlap in his busy legal schedule, railing that Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is presiding over his hush-money case in New York, wouldn’t let him leave that trial to attend a Supreme Court hearing in Washington, D.C ..read more

By Lillian Mongeau Hughes, KFF Health News MANTI, Utah — Garrett Clark estimates he has spent about six years in the Sanpete County Jail, a plain concrete building perched on a dusty hill just outside this small, rural town where he grew up. He blames his addiction. He started using in middle school, and by the time he was an adult he was addicted to meth and heroin. At various points, he’s done time alongside his mom, his dad, his sister, and his younger brother. “That’s all I’ve known my whole life,” said Clark, 31, in December. On the day of her release from Sanpete County Jail in rural Uta ..read more

Nada Hassanein | (TNS) Stateline.org Before the successful, healthy birth of her son, recalls Germine Awad — an Egyptian American who is a psychologist at the University of Michigan — clinicians told her that her hormone levels were too high and that her pregnancy was in danger. “They don’t know us,” her mother reassured her. Iyman Hamad, a Palestinian American public health graduate student at Wayne State University in Detroit, had to search online to figure out which race or ethnicity box she should check at the doctor’s office and on school forms. And Itedal Shalabi, who runs an Arab Americ ..read more

By Cindy Carcamo, Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — Food never happened in a vacuum for Karla Tatiana Vasquez. Stories always followed. Whenever her grandmother or mother cooked, Vasquez knew something special was coming. Their food unlocked memories, especially about El Salvador — the homeland they’d fled in the late 1980s during the country’s civil war. Vasquez was born in the Central American nation but had no memory of it. She was an infant when her family spirited her away to Los Angeles, where many family members ended up settling. As a child, Vasquez had a difficult time saying “Salvadore ..read more

A pair of teenage ghosts solve mysteries for their supernatural clientele in “Dead Boy Detectives” on Netflix, an eight-episode season that sits squarely in the YA genre. Picture something like “The Hardy Boys,” but British. And dead.  Edwin (George Rexstrew) died at his boarding school in 1916 and he is bookish and sensitive. Charles (Jayden Revri) died at the same boarding school in 1987 and he has a bolder streak and a dangly cross for an earring. The actors bear a physical resemblance that goes unremarked upon — thin and lanky, with dark hair and pointy features — but the characters a ..read more