West
Colorado Gov. Polis signs funeral home regulatory crackdowns into law
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed two bills into law Friday that overhaul state oversight of the funeral home industry after a series of gruesome discoveries, including 190 discomposing bodies in a facility, families being sent fake ashes and the unauthorized sale of body parts.
The cases put Colorado’s lax funeral home regulations — some of the weakest in the nation — in the spotlight and rocked hundreds of already grieving families.
Some families had ceremonially spread ashes that turned out to be fake. Others said they had nightmares about what their loved ones might have looked like in a decayed state.
CO LEGISLATURE PASSES FUNERAL HOME CRACKDOWN AFTER FAKE ASHES, HEAPS OF ROTTING BODIES MAKE NATIONAL HEADLINES
“When grieving the loss of a loved one, the last thing a family should worry about is the trustworthiness and professionalism of those entrusted to care for the person who has passed,” Polis said in a statement.
The new laws bring Colorado in line with most other states.
One requires regulators to routinely inspect funeral homes and give them more enforcement power. Another implements licensing for funeral directors and other workers in the industry. They would need to pass background checks and a national exam while possessing degrees and work experience.
Previously, funeral home directors in Colorado didn’t have to graduate from high school, let alone have a degree.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, front center, signs bills into law to bring more comprehensive guidelines into place for funeral facilities Friday, May 24, 2024, during a ceremony outside the Governor’s mansion in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The funeral home industry was generally on board with the changes though some expressed concern that strict requirements for funeral home directors were unnecessary and would make it difficult to find hirable applicants.
The bill signings follow a rocky year for Colorado funeral homes.
In early October, neighbors noticed a putrid smell coming from a building in the town of Penrose about two hours south of Denver. Authorities soon found 190 decaying bodies there including adults, infants and fetuses.
Some were stacked atop each other. Decomposition fluid covered the floors while flies and maggots swarmed.
Almost two dozen bodies dated to 2019 and some 60 more were from 2020. As the bodies were identified, families who had received ashes learned the cremains weren’t their loved ones.
The mother of a man whose body was found in the Penrose facility said she would keep after Colorado lawmakers to make sure the new laws are implemented stringently.
“I’m super excited. I think this is a great first step,” said Crystina Page, mother of David Jaxon Page, 20, who was killed by police during a mental health crisis in 2019.
The new laws should lead to regulations requiring crematoriums to independently verify the identity of remains, then certify to the state that those remains were cremated, Page said.
In most states, funeral homes are routinely inspected but no such rules were on the books in Colorado. The owners of the funeral home were arrested in November and collectively face hundreds of charges of abusing corpses and other counts.
Just months later, in February, a woman’s body was found in the back of hearse where a suburban Denver funeral home had left it for over a year. At least 30 sets of cremated remains were found stashed throughout the funeral director’s home.
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A man was being sought as the suspect in a double shooting in Bay Point that left one person dead and another injured early Friday morning.
The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were dispatched at about 1:30 a.m. to an unknown problem on Olivia Lane, just east of Alves Lane and south of Delta de Anza Regional Trail, which later was reported to be “shots fired.”
While arriving at the scene, deputies were flagged down by several people who were injured at the location, the Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies found one person who was unresponsive and he was taken to a hospital. The victim was later pronounced dead at the hospital, the office said.
A second person was taken to the hospital; the victim’s condition was not disclosed. The victim who died has not yet been identified.
Sheriff’s detectives identified the suspect as 35-year-old Avery Alexander Gibbs, described by the Sheriff’s Office as a transient. Gibbs was still at large as of Friday afternoon
The Sheriff’s Office said Gibbs should not be approached, and anyone seeing him should call 9-1-1. People with information on the shooting were asked to contact Sheriff’s Office investigators at (925) 313-2600 dispatcher at (925) 646-2441.
Denver, CO
Nations Cup in Colorado another showcase for Denver’s bid to host the 2031 Rugby World Cup
Think of Saturday’s rugby match at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park as a very physical audition.
The Nations Cup showdown between the USA Men’s Eagles and Portugal on the Fourth of July is another chance for Denver — long an epicenter for American growth in the sport — to showcase itself as a host city for the 2031 World Cup.
“We had that great moment at Dick’s last year where we qualified for the World Cup (by beating Samoa in the Pacific Nations Cup),” said national team captain Jason Damm. “Any opportunity to get out here, sort of in the middle of the country, feels like a connection point for the nation. It’s a good way to kick off this Nations Cup.”
Damm’s professional rugby roots are in Colorado. The Georgia native played for a team in Vail and for the Glendale Raptors, a now-defunct Major League Rugby franchise. Damm thinks Denver would be a “great fit” for hosting the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups, the first time the tournaments will be held in the U.S.
“We have a lot of guys now, and I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a lot of guys who went through that American Raptors program that was here for such a long time and really wanted to look after the development of some transition players (from other sports),” Damm said. “There’s just so much great rugby out here and good competitions.”
In addition to the legacy of the Glendale/American Raptors as well as burgeoning club and youth scenes, Denver is home to “Rugbytown USA,” the city of Glendale, which boasts the first rugby-specific stadium in the U.S. at Infinity Park. That’s where Colorado’s pro women’s team, the Denver Onyx, plays. The Onyx are the reigning champions of Women’s Elite Rugby.
And the college scene is solid, too, including strong performances by local women’s squads at this spring’s sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship, where CSU and CU placed in the Division I-AA tournament, Colorado Mesa was the Division II national champion and Mines was the Division III national champion.
All of that background makes Saturday another important milestone for rugby in Colorado. The Eagles have two locals in their player pool in prop Kaleb Geiger (Castle View High School) and lock Sam Golla (Denver East High School), but both players are coming off surgery and are not on the Nations Cup roster.
Golla, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLR Draft and the league’s 2023 rookie of the year, sees Saturday as another chance for Colorado to prove its support of the sport amid World Rugby’s ongoing selection process for the 2031 World Cup.
“I see myself playing in the 2027 World Cup (once healthy again), and also in 2031,” Golla said. “It’s not often that your home country gets to host a World Cup, let alone you get to play in it. And then on top of that, potentially having a game in my home state in the World Cup representing my country, that would be amazing. Only one can dream of all the stars aligning in that perfect figure.”
In March 2025, the Denver Sports Commission hosted delegates from World Rugby as part of its ongoing, separate bids to host the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups. While the bid for the women’s tournament is further off, the bid for the men’s tournament — one of the world’s largest sporting events — is heating up.
Last fall, World Rugby announced that 27 total cities entered the application phase. At the end of this year, World Rugby will reveal the formal candidates, and the host cities and venues will be announced following the Rugby World Cup in the fall of 2027. Eight to 10 cities are expected to be named hosts, according to Denver Sports Commission executive director Matthew Payne.
“We’ll continue to work with World Rugby on portions of the bid as they request them,” Payne said. “And so we’ll continue to give them information during this applicant phase with the whole goal of getting into the candidate phase.”
The 2023 men’s Rugby World Cup in France generated $1.95 billion in total spending, according to the Denver Sports Commission. Should Denver be named a host city, Empower Field will host matches due to its capacity, while Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and Infinity Park will serve as training venues.
The USA Men’s Eagles, which did not qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, have much to prove in the year-plus leading into the sport’s biggest stage next year in Australia. The Eagles, who have never advanced past the pool stage of the tournament, are a combined 2-21 over their last six World Cup appearances. In Japan in 2019, the Eagles went 0-4 with a minus-104 scoring margin.
So beating Portugal in the 7 p.m. match on America’s semiquincentennial, and then notching wins over Zimbabwe (July 11 in Charlotte, N.C.) and Spain (July 18 in Cary, N.C.), would be a good start. None of the other three nations are rugby powerhouses, as they’ve combined for only five World Cup appearances.
The Nations Cup, which also features Tonga versus Zimbabwe on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, will conclude with three additional rounds in November.
“We want to be able to compete at a Tier 1 level (which consists of the world powers, while the U.S. is Tier 2) around our set piece,” Eagles head coach Scott Lawrence said. “We feel like we have the players and the athletes to do that. We want to have a defense that stays in the fight with discipline and is physical.
“If we think about the game on Saturday and we back up from it, we’ve got to keep the end in mind, which is the World Cup. So it’s really around a new intensity, a new approach to the way that we’re building into that World Cup. And we think of Portugal as a first step along the way.”
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U.S. men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino will throw the first pitch before Friday night’s Major League Baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, which the team was invited to attend.
Pochettino played catch with a few of his players before Friday’s practice at Husky Soccer Stadium. The U.S. plays Belgium in the World Cup round of 16 on Monday at Seattle Stadium.
Pochettino has also joined tens of thousands of fans in singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” after the USA wins. The 54-year-old coach, who was born in Argentina and lives in Spain, has fully embraced the American experience this summer.
U.S. forward Folarin Balogun, who was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn to Nigerian parents but raised in London, marveled at the opportunities he, his teammates and the coaching staff have been afforded.
“I think that sort of stuff can only happen in America. So, I’m very, very proud,” Balogun said. “This is a unique experience for me, being in the World Cup in your home nation. And, I think you’re seeing, we’ve been able to be so focused, but, at the same time have so many things we can do to distract ourselves and to take our mind off the high-pressure environment. This evening will be another opportunity to do that.”
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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