Denver, CO
Denver City Council bans flavored tobacco and nicotine products. Again.
The Denver City Council voted Monday to ban sales of nearly all flavored tobacco and nicotine products in city limits.
The council majority brushed aside arguments from convenience store and smoke shop owners facing potentially steep revenue losses and warnings about the potential of a black market forming for flavored products. Instead, they heeded calls from public health and children’s advocates who have decried products like strawberry mango e-cigarettes as lures that can draw young people into lifetimes of addiction.
“By supporting this ban, we are not pretending to solve every problem (but) we are creating more distance between something that hurts our children,” Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez said. “I have seen firsthand how tobacco products, especially when introduced at a young age, can shape a lifetime of struggle.”
Monday’s decisive 11-1 vote came three years and 10 days after a previous iteration of the council voted to approve a flavored tobacco ban of its own. Then-Mayor Michael Hancock vetoed the council’s 2021 ban, citing the negative impact on small businesses as part of the rationale behind his opposition.
This time, Mayor Mike Johnston has signaled his full support. His administration has described it as a critical public health policy — though his signature is not yet on the passed bill.
The lone no vote came from Councilman Kevin Flynn who doubled down on his belief that his colleagues’ decision will not prevent young people in Denver from obtaining products that remain legal in many surrounding communities.
Denver police officials testified in a committee hearing earlier this month that the department is not concerned about a black market forming around flavored tobacco and in fact, convenience stores may be less desirable targets for theft if they stop carrying those products. But Flynn was steadfast Monday.
“Bans create black markets. We know this is always true,” Flynn said. “Someone will buy this in Lakewood, bring it into Denver and sell it at a premium.”
But Councilman Darrell Watson, one of the ban’s three co-sponsors pushed back. Data from every state and municipality with similar bans has shown a decrease in youth access, Watson said.
During a public hearing, the council heard from medical professionals including epidemiologist Tessa Crume.
“The tobacco industry must secure its financial future by being forward thinking and understanding who its customers of tomorrow will be,” Crume said of the industry’s focus on protecting flavored offerings. “Nicotine as a drug, regardless of its delivery mechanism, drives repeated use and dependence much like cocaine and heroin.”
Crume’s grim description came opposite speakers who identified as former law enforcement agents who issued dire warnings about the risk of rising crime should the ban pass. Those included Carlos Sandoval who suggested that criminal organizations in other countries will see tobacco as a low-risk profit opportunity.
“Cartels bring e-cigarettes across the border,” Sandoval said. “Cartels and organized crime will grow stronger under prohibition in Denver.”
Dharminder Singh, a retailer with multiple locations that sell flavored tobacco products in Denver, suggested that the city is being hypocritical by going after nicotine when retail marijuana is legal citywide.
“We are promoting things that are more dangerous to society, and we are taking away things that are legalized,” he said.
Other retailers slammed councilmembers for what they described as a rushed process that did not leave room for negotiation or collaboration with law-abiding shop owners.
But Watson noted that he and his colleague spent eight months working on the ban, including more than 50 meetings with stakeholders and even paused the council approval process through the month of November. That pause resulted in hookah tobacco being exempted from the ban because of its significance to people from Middle Eastern and North African cultures.
The ban drew a significant lobbying effort from tobacco companies and groups that represent retailers large and small. In ads placed in The Denver Post, one lobbying group backed by tobacco industry giant Philip Morris International decried the potential sales tax losses to the city.
But during testimony at the committee level on Dec. 4, Donna Lynne, the CEO of Denver Health hospital, noted taxpayers often bear a majority of the long-term cost of the health impacts of tobacco and nicotine use.
Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez cited Lynne in her closing arguments in favor of the ban.
“When we talk about economic impact, that is what we’re talking about,” she said.
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Originally Published:
Denver, CO
Denver Broncos Foundation launches extension of ‘ALL IN. ALL COVERED.’ emphasizing youth football participation
DENVER (KKTV) – In extension of the Denver Broncos Foundation’s helmet distribution program, they have launched the “ALL IN. ALL COVERED.” Statewide Youth Football Participation Program, in partnership with Every Kid Sports and Good Sports.
Over the course of five years, the program will aim to reduce financial barriers to play by providing financial support and essential equipment to increase youth participation in tackle and flag football.
The Foundation will fund registration fees for underserved youth through Every Kid Sports, while increasing access to both individual and shared team equipment through Good Sports.
The program aims to serve more than 17,000 children across Colorado, using football as a pathway to drive equitable access and sustained participation in sport.
“We’re excited to work with Every Kid Sports and Good Sports to grow youth football participation across Colorado and help open doors to the sport for both boys and girls,” said Bobby Mestas, Broncos Senior Director of Youth & High School Football.
Coaches and players from across the Pikes Peak Region had their first look at the new helmets they received for free from the Denver Broncos Foundation back last year.
Copyright 2026 KKTV. All rights reserved.
Draft day in Denver ended with a yawn.
But behind the scenes, the Nuggets were pleased by their anticlimactic outcome.
On the clock Tuesday night with the 26th pick in the NBA Draft, the Nuggets chose to trade out of the first round, beginning to replenish an asset pool that was drained by the previous front office regime. San Antonio moved up to No. 26 in exchange for giving Denver the No. 35 overall pick in Wednesday’s second round and two additional future second-round picks.
Denver now controls a 2028 Minnesota second-round pick and a 2031 Sacramento second-rounder, according to league sources. The Spurs selected Connecticut big man Tarris Reed Jr. at No. 26. The Nuggets will go into Wednesday with two picks — 35th and 49th. Multiple teams had already called them to inquire about No. 35 by the end of Tuesday night, one source told The Post.
Co-general managers Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer have less than 24 hours to decide if they want to use that pick or parlay it into more future draft capital. Part of their rationale for trading back, multiple team sources told The Post, was that they felt the 2026 draft class had a substantial drop-off in talent around No. 20.
What the Nuggets eventually do with their new picks will determine how Tuesday’s trade is evaluated. Second-rounders are often used as trade assets rather than to select playable talent, and Denver’s shortage of them has inhibited its ability to get involved in trade conversations around the league recently. Wallace and Tenzer inherited the NBA’s most depleted war chest when they took over the front office in 2025, whereas adversaries like Oklahoma City and San Antonio are practiced in the art of asset accumulation.
If one first-round pick can slowly grow into a wider swath of lower-quality picks that can subsequently be put to good use in other trades to improve the roster, then No. 26 will have been a worthy sacrifice. That could take lots of time, hard work and negotiating tact.
But the Nuggets are also faced with awkward luxury tax decisions this offseason, and they’re tied to multiple contracts that are widely perceived as having negative value, namely Christian Braun and Zeke Nnaji. If they promptly use their new picks to dump either of those salaries without bringing back any helpful players, it would be a clear indicator that team ownership is prioritizing tax savings over roster improvement.
The front office’s challenge will be to balance and accomplish both goals, which tend to be at odds with each other. At least one salary-shedding move is essentially guaranteed to occur as Denver attempts to retain Peyton Watson in restricted free agency, as The Post reported in April.
Wallace and Tenzer still have not made a draft pick yet in their tenure. For now, Denver will treat it as a win if they can stockpile future picks and right some old wrongs. A seemingly tedious trade elicited applause inside the Nuggets’ war room Tuesday, even as team president Josh Kroenke was caught on camera looking disgruntled by something. His bemusement, according to a source, was in response to some confusion on the other end of the line as Denver was trying to call in the 26th pick on behalf of the Spurs.
San Antonio walked away from the first round with two prospects secured in Reed and Jayden Quaintance. Oklahoma City snagged Aday Mara 12th and Bennett Stirtz 16th — sobering reminders that talent is going to keep on flowing into the two rosters that pose the biggest existential threats to Denver.
Nuggets recent draft history
The Nuggets haven’t drafted in the top 20 since 2018 — the cost of becoming a perennial playoff team as Nikola Jokic entered his prime. They’ve gotten mixed results from their late first-round picks since then, which is typical at that stage of the draft. Five of their six first-rounders this decade are still on the active roster, though only two of them were in the everyday rotation last season: Christian Braun (21st) and Peyton Watson (30th), both of whom were selected by former GM Calvin Booth in 2022.
Nnaji (22nd in 2020) is the third-longest tenured player on the team, but the four-year, $32 million contract extension he signed in 2023 has turned out to be a small-scale albatross on Denver’s cap sheet. Bones Hyland (26th in 2021) was shipped off to the Clippers at the 2023 trade deadline after he caused locker room frustration by walking off the bench during a game. He plays for Minnesota now.
Braun was a bench contributor during Denver’s 2023 run to the championship and signed a five-year, $125 million extension last October. Watson will be a restricted free agent and an offseason priority for Denver’s front office in the coming weeks.
Julian Strawther (29th in 2023) has been in and out of the rotation throughout the first three years of his career, and his role was scaled back last season with Tim Hardaway Jr. slotted in at backup shooting guard. Strawther is eligible to sign a rookie-scale extension before next season, or he’ll become a restricted free agent in 2027. Denver traded three second-round picks to Phoenix to move up six spots for DaRon Holmes II (22nd in 2024), who tore his right Achilles tendon in his first Summer League game and spent most of last season developing in the G League.
The Nuggets’ 2025 first-rounder belonged to Orlando as part of their trade for Aaron Gordon. Their 2027 first currently belongs to Oklahoma City as part of the trade for the pick that became Watson.
Booth’s tenure was characterized by his willingness to mortgage future draft capital for immediate gain — or immediate salary relief. Most notably, he burned through six second-round picks in a matter of weeks during the 2024 offseason to get rid of Reggie Jackson and to move up for Holmes.
The NBA Draft kicks off Tuesday night at the Barclays Center in New York.
The Nuggets, who own the 26th overall pick, are looking to improve a team that was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
Here’s a look at who national draftniks are thinking will land in Denver.
The Athletic | Zach Harper | Updated June 23
Sergio de Larrea, guard, 6-6, Valencia
“It’s hard to say whether the Nuggets will have the roster flexibility to use this pick or if they kick it down the road by trading it. This team needs offensive creation outside of what Nikola Jokić does. Jamal Murray is more of a scorer than a creator, and they’ve been missing that guard off the bench to run some offense through. With de Larrea in the mix, they’ll have good size at the guard position and someone who can orchestrate more.” See the full mock draft.
Sports Illustrated | Kevin Sweeney | Updated June 23
Isaiah Evans, F, Duke
“Evans is a polarizing prospect after two years at Duke. At his best, he’s one of the most dynamic shooters in this draft, capable of getting his shot off with next-to-no separation and regularly going on streaks of multiple threes in short spurts. His overall impact on the game can be muted at times though, especially when threes aren’t falling. He’s a below-average athlete and mediocre defensively.” See the full mock draft.
Other picks:
- Second round, 49th overall pick: Aaron Nkrumah, G, Tennessee State
The Sporting News | Stephen Noh | Updated June 23
Isaiah Evans, F, Duke
“Denver has built a great offense without relying much on 3-pointers. What if they could take an even bigger step on that end of the floor?
“Evans could provide that extra oomph. He’s a good shooter who should be able to drill wide open looks while playing off Nikola Jokic. He has the size to defend capably. And he’s a decent athlete who can attack closeouts well.” See the full mock draft.
CBS Sports | Adam Finkelstein | Updated June 22
Ebuka Okorie, G, Stanford
“The Pistons, Grizzlies, and Wolves have done the most work on Okorie, but Denver has a real need for a paint touch point guard, especially as Nikola Jokic begins to age and they are forced to explore other ways of creating offense. Ejiofor has reportedly been to Denver as well. Veesaar would fit their system; Reed would be another potential backup five if he were available, and Isaiah Evans and Meleek Thomas could provide floor spacing.” See the full mock draft.
Yahoo Sports | Kevin O’Connor | Updated June 22
Ebuka Okorie, G, Stanford
“The Nuggets need some variety to their half-court offense aside from having Nikola Jokić initiate everything. Well, here’s a guy who could help. Okorie is the best driving guard in the class, a 6-1 jitterbug who manipulates defenders with a tight handle, sudden changes of speed, and an advanced feel for the game. He’s not an above-the-rim athlete, though, and not long ago he was a kid from New Hampshire who ranked outside the top 100 and committed to Harvard. Then Stanford found him, he flipped his commitment, and he proceeded to lead the ACC in scoring with eight 30-point games and a habit for hitting clutch shots. NBA teams will have to decide whether what carved up the ACC will survive against bigger, longer defenders.” See the full mock draft.
Other picks:
- Second round, 49th overall pick: Tobe Awaka, F, Arizona
CBS Sports | Gary Parrish | Updated June 23
Koa Peat, F, Arizona
“Peat impacts winning in a variety of ways and was among the reasons Arizona won the Big 12’s regular-season championship before advancing to the Final Four. Good size. Good body. Intriguing prospect. The issue is that he’s a 6-7 wing who doesn’t really shoot, evidence being that Peat only took 20 3-pointers in 36 games with the Wildcats. That’s not ideal for the modern-NBA and why Peat’s draft-range seems vast.” See the full mock draft.
SB Nation | Ricky O’Donnell | Updated June 23
Koa Peat, F, Arizona
No writeup available. See the full mock draft.
ESPN | Jeremy Woo | Updated June 23
Labaron Philon Jr., G, Alabama
“This would be quite a fall for Philon, who has interest in the late lottery from the Bucks if they opt for a guard at No. 13. But it seems likely that one of the point guards falls toward the back of the first round with the way the board has shaped up — particularly in this scenario, where the Pistons don’t take one.
“Philon’s range has seemed particularly wide of late, and teams have speculated that he could slip, with his recent workout for the Timberwolves (who have since traded out of the first round) raising some eyebrows.” See the full mock draft.
Other picks:
- Second round, 49th overall pick: Jaden Bradley, G, Arizona
Bleacher Report | Jonathan Wasserman | Updated June 22
Tarris Reed Jr., C, UConn
“Tarris Reed Jr. has been receiving strong reviews from workouts after putting together a rare statistical season, posting a 9.0 block percentage, 13.0 offensive rebounding percentage and 15.0 assist percentage.
“His combination of strength, paint touch, passing and rim protection should put him in first-round conversations for teams that want bigs.” See the full mock draft.
Other picks:
- Second round, 49th overall pick: Dillon Mitchell, F, St. John’s
USA Today | Bryan Kalbrosky | Updated June 23
Meleek Thomas, G, Arkansas
“The Denver Nuggets tend to look for players with a strong assist-to-usage ratio because they rely on high-efficiency passing and off-ball movement. Arkansas freshman Meleek Thomas averaged 16.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 43.2 percent on 3-pointers during his 21 games as a starter last season.
“He was efficient using off-ball screens and handoffs and occasionally showed some on-ball flashes as a pick-and-roll ball handler as well. He led the SEC in corner 3-pointers made (32) last season, per CBB Analytics, and his plus-four wingspan gives him solid length as a young guard who is still improving on both sides of the court. Thomas answered one of the biggest questions in college basketball when he decided to turn pro rather than return to the NCAA.” See the full mock draft.
Other picks:
- Second round, 49th overall pick: Dillon Mitchell, F, St. John’s
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