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Denver, CO

Dinosaur footprints, fossils discovered “in our own backyard” in Broomfield

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Dinosaur footprints, fossils discovered “in our own backyard” in Broomfield


BROOMFIELD — Past fields of yellow wildflowers, tall grass and prairie dog burrows, an Adams County geology teacher, four of his students and the Broomfield mayor huddled around the fossilized footprint of a horned dinosaur that roamed this land some 70 million years ago.

“To have this in our own backyard,” Mayor Guyleen Castriotta said. “You can’t beat it.”

The Friday afternoon field trip was the result of Northglenn High School geology teacher Kent Hups stumbling across dinosaur fossils about three years ago while out scouting.

Kent Hups, a science instructor at Northglenn High School, demonstrates how to carefully abstract fossils in Broomfield, Colorado, on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)

Hups is a researcher with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science who has excavated fossils throughout the West for decades. During the height of the pandemic, he stayed closer to home and took his high school geology students on virtual walks around his community hunting for natural treasures he could share with them over Zoom.

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That’s when he first found dinosaur fossils on Broomfield open space, adjacent to a suburban neighborhood. To help preserve the area, Hups doesn’t want to disclose the exact location.

“I’m excited as hell,” Hups said. “You do a lot of whooping and hollering by yourself when you find these things. When you find footprints, you’re looking at something that was left by a living animal. To be able to touch that — it’s like 70 million years ago, this thing was alive and stepped right here. I’m stepping in the same place. It’s an amazing feeling.”

Traversing through thick grasses and shimmying up and down steep hills, Hups led the class to three dinosaur footprints, but said there were surely more in the area. The fossilized footprints looked like garden stepping stones jutting up from the grass, a little larger than a basketball with ridges and indentations that Hups explained were the dinosaurs’ toes.

Based on the toe patterns, Hups said it was a horned dinosaur — possibly a Triceratops.

It took a while working with the city of Broomfield to get the proper permits, but on Friday, Hups was finally able to take some students to investigate the area. He handed out plastic bags to the teens — some who had trekked out in Doc Marten boots and Converse sneakers — and showed them how to crouch low to inspect the dirt for bones.

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Alanna Santa Cruz, 15, whipped a magnifying glass out of her back pocket as she squatted on the ground, her knees touching the earth through the ripped holes in her jeans.

Alanna Santa Cruz, 15, looks for dinosaur fossils in Broomfield, Colorado on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Alanna Santa Cruz, 15, looks for dinosaur fossils in Broomfield, Colorado, on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)

Alanna is in Hups’ school paleontology club.

“When I was a kid, I was obsessed with dinosaurs,” she said. “I knew all about them and had a bunch of the toys and watched all the movies. I wanted to see what it would be like to be a paleontologist.”

The area they visited Friday was ripe with small fossils and bones sticking out of the ground among rocks, cacti and dirt. Some were more obvious to the untrained eye — shaped like vertebrae, for example — while others could be confused for stones and debris. The pieces of creatures were small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and scattered everywhere, broken into bits after years of exposure.

Students approached Hups with cupped palms full of objects. Sometimes Hups told them they had just found a mineral, but other times, his eyes lit up as he announced they had found bone.

“If you’re not sure, lick it,” Hups said, bringing an object from the ground to his lips and grazing it with his tongue. “If it sticks to it like ice, that’s a fossil.”

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Kent Hups, a science instructor at Northglenn High School, demonstrates that dinosaur fossils stick to his tongue in Broomfield, Colorado on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Kent Hups, a science instructor at Northglenn High School, demonstrates that dinosaur fossils stick to his tongue in Broomfield, Colorado, on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)

Hups’ students looked at their teacher with disgusted grimaces.

“Try it!” he said with delight.

“No, thanks, mister,” Alanna said.

When Hups turned his back, Alanna marveled at an object in her hand, turning it over and over trying to determine its value. She brought it to her mouth and snuck a quick lick.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” she said, declaring it a fossil and popping it into her bag.

The class wrote down the GPS coordinates of their finds so they can bring them back later in the year after they’re done investigating them, so as not to disturb the natural resources, Hups said.

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Jonah Rotert, 17, was quiet and reserved at the start of the trek, but he couldn’t help but grin as his bag filled with tiny bones belonging to prehistoric creatures. Hups said he was sure Rotert had found a crocodile bone.

“It’s a really cool feeling,” Rotert said. “I’m the first person to touch these in millions of years.”

Millions of years ago, these massive creatures walked where the class stood, Hups said, pointing toward cars speeding down U.S. 287 in the distance.

Students at Northglenn High School walk through a field in Broomfield, Colorado on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)
Students at Northglenn High School walk through a field in Broomfield, Colorado, on Friday, May 31, 2024. (Photo by Zachary Spindler-Krage/The Denver Post)

“I love seeing the modern on top of ancient life,” Hups said.

Next school year, the students will present their findings to the city of Broomfield and come up with ideas on how to educate the public about the land, the fossils and how important it is to report findings, Hups said.

“What did this environment look like all these years ago?” Hups said. “Until we find fossils, we don’t know. What’s most important about them is the story they tell.”

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Denver, CO

Denver district attorney candidates make final pitches to voters

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Denver district attorney candidates make final pitches to voters


DENVER (KDVR)- Candidates in primary races are entering into the home stretch with ballot boxes closing Tuesday.

There are some hotly contested races in Denver, including the race for the next district attorney. With no Republican running for the seat, the two Democratic candidates are going all in ahead of the primary election.

Two Democrats with significant legal careers are going head-to-head in hopes of becoming Denver’s next district attorney. They are each making their final pitches to a group of voters who are notorious for turning in their ballots just before they close.

John Walsh and Leora Joseph are battling to become Denver’s next district attorney.

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Walsh served as U.S. Attorney during the Obama administration. Joseph is the director of the state’s Office of Behavioral Health. They both have some high-profile endorsements from influential figures across the state, but Walsh earned the endorsement of D.A. Beth McCann. Walsh wants voters to know he’s looking to reenergize the office while still holding people accountable.

“That depth of connection to the Denver metro community I think really matters. It’s that experience as a prosecutor but also a really, intimate understanding of this entire city that will make a difference,” Walsh said. “While I’m very proud to have Beth McCann’s endorsement, I’m not Beth McCann 2.0. In terms of what I would differently, I think we really have to focus on the problems we’ve got right in front of us. That includes a stubbornly high violent crime rate in Denver and an unfortunately increasing youth violence rate. That’s an area I would come at with vigor to make sure we are approaching it both to prosecute the small number of people both who are truly dangerous to the community but also that we work with the community to get young people opportunities to stay out of cultures that can lead to violence.”

Walsh also said he would focus on prosecuting drug dealers in an effort to curb the fentanyl epidemic and using the criminal justice system to get people treatment. He also said he wants to crack down on car theft.

Joseph wants voters to know she plans to prosecute crime but she also wants to use her background in behavioral health to bring a compassionate approach to what she says is a mental health crisis in the city.

“My central message: I’m running on change. If you think we need to change how public safety is being administered in this city, I’m your candidate,” Joseph said. “I think we need to handle public safety and the justice system differently. The biggest change that I am going to make is how the office is organized. Teams of prosecutors need to be in community and working hand-in-hand with police and community agencies, community organizations, the schools, nonprofits, mental health, we need to be a seat at the table and all of us need to be rowing in the same boat. I am committed to prosecuting crime, I am committed to not ignoring crime and I am committed to finding alternative solutions and pathways for people who are really struggling. When I talk about not ignoring crime, we’ve got to handle it. But what we’ve learned is that prison doesn’t work for everybody; prison isn’t the only option we need to do better. And the work I get to do now looks at models across the country. Where are local municipalities making change? That’s where I’ve been able to learn about how we use our court system and move people into treatment.”

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Both candidates are touting their experience as reasons for voters to support them.

“I actually have the experience of running a large prosecution office successfully, not just internally but with respect to the community and to other government agencies and to the state,” Walsh said pointing to his experience as U.S. Attorney. “I was the top federal prosecutor for the state and was in that position for essentially [President Obama’s] entire administration. The reason I focus on that is because it’s a very specific job running a big prosecution office and to be successful at it, you have to be able to collaborate with a whole range of folks: people actually in the community, other government agencies, the state government, the federal government, those are things I’ve all done and done with success.”

“I understand he’s held a federal position and that isn’t this job. This job involves managing teams at a local level, involved in local government and that’s the work I’ve been doing: at the local level in Colorado. Managing teams and working in the District Attorney’s Office which is a unique set of laws and working at the state level- not in the D.C. federal system,” Joseph said.

Regardless of their differences in backgrounds and where they stand on policy, both candidates are encouraging voters to get those ballots in as soon as possible before polls close Tuesday night.

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Denver, CO

Rideshare driver accused of unlawful contact may have 'other incidents,' Denver police say

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Rideshare driver accused of unlawful contact may have 'other incidents,' Denver police say


DENVER — Denver investigators believe there may be “other incidents” involving a rideshare driver accused of unlawful sexual contact.

According to the Denver Police Department, Nesrelah Bedru Kemal, 24, was arrested on March 11 following a report of unlawful sexual contact. He was charged with two counts of sexual contact – no consent and one count of false imprisonment.

In an update Thursday, Denver police said investigators received additional information and believe there may be “other incidents” involving Kemal while he was working as a rideshare driver.

Anyone with information on other incidents involving Kemal is encouraged to call the Denver Police Sex Crimes Unit at 720-913-6040.

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Denver, CO

Denver rideshare driver charged with unlawful sexual contact, false imprisonment

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Denver rideshare driver charged with unlawful sexual contact, false imprisonment


A 24-year-old Denver rideshare driver charged with unlawful sexual contact may have other victims, Denver police said in a news release Thursday.

Nesrelah Bedru Kemal was arrested March 11 and charged with two counts of sexual contact – no consent and one count of false imprisonment, according to the Denver Police Department.

The alleged incidents happened while Kemal was working as a rideshare driver, said Denver District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Matt Jablow.

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Investigators later learned there may have been other incidents involving Kemal when he was working as a rideshare driver, department officials said Thursday.

Anyone who may have been a victim can contact the Denver Police Sex Crimes Unit at 720-913-6040.

Kemal was released on a $1,500 bail.

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