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Controversial restaurant wage bill vote delayed amid uncertain support from Colorado lawmakers

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Controversial restaurant wage bill vote delayed amid uncertain support from Colorado lawmakers


A controversial bill intended to help struggling Colorado restaurants by cutting servers’ pay stalled out early Tuesday morning as the measure’s sponsors attempted to shore up support from leery fellow Democrats.

House Bill 1208 was set for a second committee vote Monday, with full votes in front of the House coming next. But after hours of testimony that stretched past 1 a.m. Tuesday, the measure’s sponsor — Denver Democratic Rep. Alex Valdez — asked that the bill be laid over, delaying it for at least a week.

The bill would clip the tipped minimum wage paid to restaurant workers in Denver and several other cities with higher rates than the state’s minimum, and it’s aimed at shoring up an industry that says it’s reeling from high costs. Under current state law, tipped workers can be paid $3.02 less per hour to account for tip income. As written now, the bill would require Denver and other local governments to lower their tipped minimums.

While the bill is sponsored by Democrats and backed by Gov. Jared Polis, its provisions have divided Democrats, both in the Capitol and in Denver. Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who testified against the bill Monday night, said it was “appalling” that Democrats were supporting the measure.

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The rhetoric and debate around the bill — which has played out in crude flyers depicting the bill’s sponsors — has become sharp enough to draw a rebuke from the House’s leadership; they condemned the flyers in a statement Monday.

Supporters said Monday that they had asked fewer restaurant owners to come testify because those who had testified at a prior hearing were later insulted and targeted with bad online reviews.

“It’s been the worst hearings in the seven years that I’ve been here,” Valdez said Tuesday morning, several hours after the vote was delayed. He’s co-sponsoring the bill, which would lower the tipped minimum wage for restaurant workers in response to restaurants’ warnings of high costs and a reeling industry, with fellow Denver Democratic Rep. Steven Woodrow.

Whether the bill had enough support to pass the House Finance Committee, which has an 8-5 Democratic majority, is unclear.

Valdez told The Denver Post that it “definitely” had enough support but that he wanted to work on finding a consensus among fellow Democrats, who hold near-supermajority status in the Capitol.

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He said he wanted to delay the vote because “we’re not trying to stuff anything down anyone’s throat here.” He had prepared several amendments, including one to soften the wage reductions in Denver and to make clear that restaurant workers would always be paid at least the state minimum wage.

“We’re negotiating with members of the caucus,” he said, referring to House Democrats.

But Rep. Lorena Garcia, an Adams County Democrat and a critic of the proposal, said the bill didn’t have enough support — from either Democrats or Republicans — to pass Tuesday morning.

“It does not actually help anybody in the restaurant industry,” she said of the bill. “I mean, where was there ever any proof that cutting wages supports an industry?”

Rep. William Lindstedt, a Broomfield Democrat and the Finance Committee’s chairman, said he didn’t know whether the bill had enough support to advance. The bill comfortably passed its first committee vote, though the committee Lindstedt leads has more progressive Democrats who’ve openly opposed the proposal.

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The bill would have its largest impact in Denver, where the tipped minimum wage is $15.79 and the standard minimum wage is $18.81, higher than the state’s standard of $14.81. City leadership is split: Mayor Mike Johnston has backed the proposal, and his deputy chief of staff — former state Sen. Dominick Moreno — testified in favor of the bill shortly before Valdez delayed the vote.

But roughly 90 minutes earlier, three members of the City Council — Lewis, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Sarah Parady — all testified against it.

The Denver council members said Monday night that the council wanted to address the problems facing restaurants, but the city should take the issue on itself.

However, in comments to The Post, Valdez accused the council members of “saying they have no interest in fixing the problem.”

The bill will likely be voted on next week. Should it pass the Finance Committee, it will proceed to the House floor.

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As Denver’s professional teams keep winning, business booming at local sports gear stores

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As Denver’s professional teams keep winning, business booming at local sports gear stores


As the Denver Nuggets, Denver Broncos and Colorado Avalanche fans celebrate winning seasons so far, local sports stores are ready with all the gear. The Broncos have the best record in the NFL and haven’t lost at home this season. The Avs have the best record on the ice and the Nuggets are tied for fifth best in the league.

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All those Ws are also a win for local businesses.

Derek Friedman, the owner of all four Sportsfan locations, says business has been booming. Friedman added excitement has been in the air all year long, even in the off-season. As the local teams are playing well, it’s also paying off at his stores.

“It’s always terrific when the local sports teams are playing awesome, and as you may or may not have heard, November was a huge month,” said Friedman.

It was also a record-setting month. In November, the Broncos, Avs and Nuggets combined for a record of 26-3-2. Online statisticians say that’s the best combined percentage by a trio of teams in a metro area in a month in the history of those leagues.

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  Derek Friedman

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“All of the teams kind of humming at the same time, but anytime that you have a championship, as we’ve recently have and maybe we’ll have shortly, there’s, there’s a ton of excitement, and people just needing to get stuff,” said Friedman.

Whether it’s buying that Broncos jersey during their winning streak or rocking a jersey of one of the Avs best stars, Friedman said fans are finding exactly what they need for the next game.

“Jokic, obviously the best player in the world and we’ve got this special hoodie here,” said Friedman.

Friedman said it’s been difficult to keep up with the demand, but they’re replenishing their stock as quickly as they can.

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“As these teams do so well, they need to get the gear. so that means the jerseys, the hoodies, and then as we head into holiday season, it gets especially ramped up,” said Friedman.

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Friedman is also encouraging holiday shoppers to shop early for the perfect Christmas item for their family or loved one.

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Cambodian Government Requests Records from Disgraced Art Historian and Denver Art Museum Board Member

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Cambodian Government Requests Records from Disgraced Art Historian and Denver Art Museum Board Member


The Cambodian government formally reached out to the family of Emma C. Bunker, an art historian who died in 2021 and who sat on the board of the Denver Art Museum, for her records and archival materials, the Denver Post reported.

The request follows on from the repatriation of 11 Asian artifacts by DAM in recent years to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand. The works had primarily been donated by Bunker, who came under scrutiny several years ago after it was found that she sourced acquisitions of several works from Douglas Latchford, an art and antiquities dealer accused of smuggling and dealing in looted Southeast Asian antiquities. Latchford died in 2020 before he could stand trial, while Bunker died a year later and was never officially charged with any wrongdoing.

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The Denver Post, however, continued to report on Bunker’s ties to Latchford after her death, releasing a three-part investigation in 2022 alleging that Bunker helped Latchford use DAM as a “way station for looted art.” Bunker had established an acquisitions fund for DAM to help set up its Asian galleries. The Post alleged that she used her scholarly reputation to vouch for Latchford and even helped the dealer forge provenance records to faciltiate the sales through the fund.

The museum cut ties with Bunker in 2023, removing her name from its Southeast Asian gallery wall and returning a sizable donation to her family.

Now the Cambodian government, through attorney Bradley Gordon, sent an email to Bunker’s son, Lambert, asking for his mother’s “extensive notebooks concerning Cambodia,” as wellas photographs of Cambodian statues that Bunker arranged for several publications co-written with Latchford.

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“We are very eager to consult these materials as we continue our search for several important statues originating from the country,” Gordon wrote in the email, which the Post reviewed.

The Denver Art Museum did not respond to a request for comment at press time.



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Denver housing market takes an early holiday

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Denver housing market takes an early holiday


Metro Denver’s housing market usually slows around the holidays, and for the second year in a row, November experienced a big drop in both new listings and sales, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Sellers put 2,620 homes on the market last month, which is 41.4% fewer than the 4,470 listed in October. For the year, new listings are down 4.6%. A year ago, the monthly drop was almost identical at 41.5%, with the annual change up 1%.

Buyers also continue to hold back. Closings fell 23.4% month-over-month and are down 13.2% year-over-year in November. That contrasts with monthly declines of around 16% the prior two Novembers.

With new listings down more than sales, the inventory of homes and condos on the market fell 15.9% in November to 10,506. The inventory remains up 12.8% from the same month a year ago.

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Rather than viewing the soft numbers as signs of a breakdown, they should be looked at as a market taking its normal seasonal break, according to comments included in the report.

“It’s not that sellers don’t desire to sell their current home and move, it’s that they don’t desire to part with a low APR rate on their current mortgage and trade it for a rate that could be three to four times higher,” said Susan Thayer, a member of the DMAR Market Trends Committee and an area Realtor, in comments included with the report.

Likewise, it isn’t that homebuyers don’t trust the homebuying process as much as they may not trust the state of the economy.

“Sellers who desire to sell and price their homes accordingly will find there are still plenty of buyers out there – even in the top price range of our market,” Thayer said.

Listings took a median of 36 days on the market in November, up from 28 days a year earlier. But attracting a buyer in today’s market is only half the battle. Close to 17% of sellers in Denver had a pending sales contract fall through in October, according to the real estate firm Redfin. That is above the U.S. average of 15.1%, and sits between San Diego and Phoenix in the rankings.

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Aside from uncertainty, buyers may also be sensing that a long-awaited pivot in home prices might be underway. The median price of a single-family home that sold in November was $640,000, down 1.5% from November and up 0.8% from a year earlier.

A reversal is more evident in condo and townhome prices, which are down 2% on the month and 7.3% on the year to $380,000. Higher HOA fees and more borrowing restrictions have made attached properties less appealing, even though they are more affordable on the surface.

Combine the drop in sales and the mix of homes sold, and November’s sales volume was down 25.6% from October and 11.3% a year earlier.



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