Colorado paid $387,000 in an attempt to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit filed against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment by the state’s former disease control and public health response chief, who alleged he was fired in 2020 after disclosing the agency had mismanaged federal HIV money. The amount is the maximum Dr. Tony […]
Jill Hunsaker Ryan
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado will have hundreds more air pollution sources to permit. Here’s how the state is gearing up.
The EPA downgrade of Northern Front Range ozone pollution to “severe” from “serious” on Tuesday will require hundreds of Colorado companies to get emission permits from a critically backlogged state system, but health officials say their request for a steep budget increase from lawmakers will clear the jam and improve the air. State health officials […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado health chief’s testimony in whistleblower lawsuit against CDPHE wasn’t credible, judge says
A Denver District judge is allowing a whistleblower lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to move forward in a ruling that cast doubt on testimony from the agency’s leader. In a ruling last week, Judge Shelley Gilman denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by a former high-level employee, […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Colorado health chief says she “didn’t grasp” problem that led to huge HIV program cuts
Colorado’s top health official testified in Denver District Court this week that she failed to grasp the significance of a 2019 legal opinion that led to massive cuts in the state’s HIV prevention funding. Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, said she didn’t understand the implications […]
Posted inClimate, Energy, Environment, News
Colorado used since-“retired” memo when writing disputed Suncor refinery pollution permit
In drafting their long-disputed permit renewal for Suncor Energy’s refinery in Commerce City, state air pollution officials used the same 2010 internal guidance memo that they recently “retired” after whistleblowers called the memo illegal and protested it with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General, permitting records show. Colorado Department of Public Health and […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, Health, News
Former mining company attorney regularly granted a past client exemptions as Colorado’s head of air pollution control, records show
The director of the state’s Air Pollution Control Division repeatedly signed off on exemptions to pollution limits for the world’s largest gold miner, Newmont Corp. — a company that he previously represented as an attorney in private practice, according to state records. Air Pollution Control Division Director Garry Kaufman approved the exemptions for Newmont’s Cripple […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s coronavirus dial system ends Friday. As hospitalizations spike, it will be up to counties to respond.
Starting Friday, Colorado counties will be left to decide how to control rising coronavirus cases and hospitalizations as the statewide COVID-19 dial system, which has set public health restrictions for the past seven months, moves from a mandate to a recommendation. The state will place restrictions only on large, indoor gathering places, like sports arenas […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
The behind-the-scenes story of being Gov. Jared Polis during Colorado’s coronavirus crisis
A little more than a month into Colorado’s battle with coronavirus, Gov. Jared Polis and his team reached the helpless realization that there was no end in sight. At that point, more than 8,000 people had tested positive for the disease and over 350 had died, including scores living in senior-care centers. The stay-at-home order […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
It could take up to a year before every Coloradan who wants a coronavirus vaccine can get one
Most Coloradans who want a coronavirus vaccine could begin receiving one as early as spring but may have to wait up to a year, two state health officials said Thursday, tamping down expectations that promising news about vaccine development could rescue the state from the current surge in cases. Based on current projections, Colorado is […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Health, News
Colorado medics may have misdiagnosed “excited delirium” hundreds of times when dosing people with ketamine
Paramedics unnecessarily sedated hundreds of people with ketamine during confrontations with police officers in Colorado, exposing them to potentially life-threatening complications associated with the drug. That’s according to an estimate from Dr. Mark DeBard, a professor emeritus of emergency medicine at Ohio State University and expert in cases of “excited delirium.” “It may represent a […]