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Denver’s family-owned Kolacny Music to close after nearly a century on South Broadway

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Family-owned musical instrument store Kolacny Music, which opened almost a century ago, will close at the end of September.Established in 1930, the store at 1900 S. Broadway in Denver has offered a trifecta of services – the sale, rental and repair of band and orchestra instruments – for decades. An announcement made in late July disclosed the news, pegging the closing date as Sept. 30.Co-owner David Kolacny confirmed that the owners of three nearby properties offered to buy the building, but he declined to identify their names or the final sale price.Kolacny’s grandfather, William, first started the business, then passed it on to Kolacny’s father, Richard. In the 1970s, Kolacny came on board, and has worked six or seven days a week for the past 45 years, alongside his sister, Donna, and his wife, Debbie.Financial reasons largely influenced the decision to shutter the store.“We never made a lot of money,” Kolacny said in a Thursday interview. “Our bookk...

More Colorado communities take “forever chemical” makers to court as contamination costs mount

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

CASTLE ROCK — They stand at least 30 feet tall and 10 feet across, eight giant baby blue tanks filled with what is this fast-growing town’s best defense against a glut of industrial cancer-causing chemicals that have been accumulating and percolating for half a century.Called GACs, short for “granular activated carbon” filters, the tanks at Castle Rock’s main water purification facility are effective at absorbing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — toxic and pervasive chemicals known by the shorthand PFAS — and removing them from drinking water.“It just so happens that one of the things the GAC filters are good at is filtering out PFAS,” Mark Marlowe, Castle Rock’s water director, said this week. “It’s definitely a big challenge because these chemicals are fairly difficult to remove.”And expensive — which is why Castle Rock’s town council on Tuesday chose to retain the services of a...

Six spots to play games — like ping pong, bowling, bocce and minigolf — between a round of drinks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

High-tech ax-throwing stalls and state-of-the-art golf simulators have taken over the sprawling third floor of what was once an air traffic control tower for Stapleton airport.Related ArticlesRestaurants, Food and Drink | Winery with LoDo, Fort Collins locations takes space in Golden Restaurants, Food and Drink | A perfect weekend in Telluride Over Flyte — which opened earlier this summer — is the newest addition to the former aviation-themed eatertainment complex. The adjoining FlyteCo Tower is a brewery, coffee bar and restaurant that’s furnished with bowling lanes and putt-putt golf greens, pinball machines and dart boards.“Eat, drink, and have a good time; that’s the idea,” said Vinay Patidar, owner of Over Flyte. “You could spend a whole day here and never get bored.”Eatertainment venues continue to spring up around Denver and the ‘burbs, catering to the Chuck E. Cheese kids who have grown up and are today’s bar-goers.Robert Daniels, 5, bou...

Extra water will ensure good rafting on Colorado’s busiest river through Labor Day weekend

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

An already excellent year for rafting conditions on the Arkansas River is receiving a boost to its flow levels through Labor Day, ensuring outfitters on Colorado’s leading whitewater river will have sufficient flows to operate through the holiday weekend.Because the water level must be drawn down at the Twin Lakes Reservoir to enable repairs on a power plant there, flows downstream through the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area will be augmented, according to Bob Hamel, executive director of the Arkansas River Outfitters Association. The Arkansas is far and away the rafting river in Colorado, accounting for nearly 248,000 user days in 2022, more than 45% of the state’s total number.It has been a good year for rafting already thanks to an above-average Colorado snowpack, a cool wet spring that kept runoff gradual and steady, frequent rain in early summer and now the monsoon. The added flow from the drawdown at Twin Lakes will be a boon for rafters.“We have some sup...

Woman suspected in downtown Los Angeles rampage flees from officers with fire extinguisher in hand

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

A woman who allegedly went on a violent rampage in downtown Los Angeles was taken into custody Thursday night.The incident occurred around 10:15 p.m. in the 200 block of South Broadway. A woman runs from police in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 2023. (OnScene.TV)Witnesses said the woman pried open the backdoor of an apartment building and started setting paper on fire in the lobby. The woman allegedly grabbed a fire extinguisher and attacked an apartment manager, sprayed tenants and broke a glass front door. One person was apparently injured in the incident.Police have not yet confirmed the witness accounts but video showed officers chasing a woman still carrying a fire extinguisher down the street.The unidentified woman was eventually taken into custody. No further information about the suspect or what prompted the incident were immediately available.

The Best Of LA’s Burgers – Beyond The Bun

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

Whether griddled, barbecued, smashed or vegan, L.A.’s burger diversity arguably offers an assortment of patties nestled between some crazy mixed-up buns to rival any other city in the U.S.  Whether it’s crazy hot burgers in Thai Town, a French-inspired Burger Americaine in Venice or a smashed burger in North Hollywood, here are 15 of our favorites.Yellow Paper Burger (Ben Shmikler)The Smash BurgerWhile the smash burger has been around for years and is nothing new, its crusty beef patty with a caramelized texture and lacy burnt-end edges is currently L.A.’s burger du jour, and a pop-up favorite. Yellow Paper Burger was born out of the pandemic as a side gig for Colin Fahrner and Katie Burnett. Backyard pop-ups grew into multiple residencies at bars and breweries around town. You can catch the red jumpsuit-clad team every week, mostly on the east side of town by checking on Instagram for their schedule and updates. Based in Monterey Park, they log about 36 miles a day round-trip...

Pleasanton eyes local tax measure — how did it get here?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

How did Pleasanton get here?That was one question posed by a resident during a City Council meeting Tuesday when the panel gave city staff the green light to explore placing a possible tax measure on a ballot next year.City officials will next take the temperature of the community through public opinion polls and other informational campaigns to determine what type of measure — local sales tax, hotel tax or bond, among possible revenue options — may be successful with voters.The city is studying a tax or bond measure as it stares down projections that show the city in coming years spending more money than it takes in.“Why are we in this situation?” Mayor Karla Brown said at the meeting. “One of them is COVID.”Pleasanton lost $11 million in hotel tax revenue during the last three years of the coronavirus pandemic, Brown said, and the industry has been slow to recover to pre-pandemic levels.Sales tax revenue has not been high enough to meet the city...

Opinion: The two big questions answered by Trump’s Georgia indictment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

The best way to think about Georgia’s sprawling indictment against Donald Trump and his allies is that it is a case about lies. It’s about lying, conspiring to lie and attempting to coax, coerce and cajole others into lying. Whereas the attorney general of Michigan just brought a case narrowly focused on the alleged fake electors in her state (Trump is not a defendant in that one), and special counsel Jack Smith brought an indictment narrowly focused on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has brought a case about the entire conspiracy, from start to finish, and targeted each person subject to her jurisdiction for each crime committed in her jurisdiction.In other words, this indictment is ambitious. But it also answers two related questions: Why bring yet another case against Trump in yet another jurisdiction? Isn’t he going to face a federal trial in Washington, D.C., for the same acts outlined in the Georgia indictment?The answ...

Stake in big San Jose apartment complex is bought by L.A. investors

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

SAN JOSE — A big San Jose apartment complex has drawn investment interest from a Southern California investment group in a sign of ongoing strength for Silicon Valley housing.   

As Michelin expands, Black chefs continue to miss out on stars

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

By Kwaku Gyasi | BloombergEarning just one Michelin star has the potential to elevate just another dining spot to the highest ranks of culinary attention.But even though Michelin Guides have been published for a century and have recently gone on an expansion tear, the number of current Michelin-starred restaurants run by Black chefs is still in the single digits.The issue was thrust into the limelight after British actor Will Poulter, a star of the hit TV show The Bear, said in a July interview that food of African origin is “massively underrepresented at the fine dining level.”Just six Michelin-starred restaurants around the world have Black executive chefs, according to Bloomberg analysis. (The chefs are Michael Caines, Charlie Mitchell, Marcel Ravin, Mory Sacko, Gerald Sombright and Georgiana Viou.) Poulter’s viral clip has amplified an ongoing question: Why are some food cultures overlooked by the standard bearers of restaurant guides—and who sets that standard?Culinary Gold Med...