Arkadie owned and operated a home health care company in Aurora called Alternative Choice Home Care Nursing LLC. She was responsible for withholding the payroll taxes her employees owed the federal government, as well as her company’s portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes, and then forwarding the money to the IRS each quarter.

Between January 2015 and December 2020,  Arkadie took more than $1 million from the paychecks of her workers, but then didn’t forward the money on as required by law, the IRS said. She also failed to pay $500,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes that she owed the government as the employer.

“Shandel Arkadie is spending the next 12 months in jail and will be paying back the federal government for much longer than that,” said Amanda Prestegard, special agent in charge at the IRS Denver Field Office. “Her actions were motivated by greed with a complete disregard for her employees.”

Employment tax investigations are a high priority for the IRS because they not only cheat the federal government but also harm workers who think payroll withholdings are going to cover their obligations. Failure to pay those taxes can result in workers receiving reduced Medicare, Social Security and unemployment benefits in the future.

The two most common ways employers try to cheat the system are by preparing false payroll tax returns or failing to file employment tax returns, according to the IRS.

During a Wednesday morning news conference, officials with the Offices of U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service announced the largest meth bust in state history and described the work that went into the seizure.

Fifteen people were indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. One of the defendants, Marco Antonio De Silva Lara, is facing “the so-called drug kingpin charge as an alleged leader of a drug trafficking organization,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Despite calling a news conference and convening a gaggle of reporters, none of the agencies took questions from the media.

“This investigation had it all,” DEA Special Agent In Charge Dave Olesky said during the news conference. “From undercover activity to a series of complex wiretaps on targets of the investigation.”

Olesky described the operation as a “massive undertaking” spanning two years and multiple agencies. The bust was the result of wire tapping, undercover operations, about 75 search warrants and “extensive” surveillance,” he said.

Defendants named in the indictment include: De Silva Lara, Sergio Ivan Arce Lopez, Juan Luis Cabrera Saucedo, Luis Enrique Lopez Lopez, Rigoberto Aranda, Erik Alejandro Benitez Chavez, Robert Shane Gerstner, Joseph Ricardo Menzor, William Joseph Rollins, Brittney Pierce, Francisco Javier Armenta Barraza, Jamie Cash Hoover, Cesar Andres Huizar Guerra and Trenton Anthony Thompson. Eleven of those defendants are in federal custody. The remaining defendants are believed to be in Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The operation consisted of multiple drug busts beginning in December 2024 when agents seized 96 pounds of meth from a member of the alleged organization on a Greyhound Bus in Vail. In February, officials seized 101 pounds of meth and a half kilogram of fentanyl powder from another alleged organization member on “a highway in Colorado.” In April, more than 700 pounds of meth was taken from a Lakewood residence along with freezers, propane tanks and other equipment used to make meth.

Investigators said they found thousands of packages of meth hidden among containers of the fruit chayote.

In August, officials took nearly 50 pounds of meth from an Arvada residence.

All 15 defendants face drug charges carrying the potential sentence of no less than 10 years and up to life in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Four of the defendants are charged with money laundering.

In addition to the DEA, FBI and IRS, the Homeland Security Investigations and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations are also involved in the investigation along with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and the Arvada Police Department.

The Transnational Organized Crime and Money Laundering Section of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado is handling the prosecutions, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“This successful investigation boasts the largest methamphetamine seizure in Colorado history and intercepted more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine before it could be distributed into our community,” said United States Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly. “This investigation showcases what we are able to accomplish when we combine the resources, tools, and expertise of federal agencies with the passion, experience, and sweat equity of local law enforcement officers.”

The FTC said Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have deceived artists and consumers by advertising lower ticket prices than what consumers must pay and falsely claiming to impose strict limits on the number of tickets consumers can buy for an event.

In reality, the FTC said, Ticketmaster coordinates with ticket brokers who bypass those ticket limits. The FTC said brokers use fake accounts to buy up millions of dollars worth of tickets and then sell them at a substantial markup on Ticketmaster’s platform. Ticketmaster benefits from the additional fees it collects from those sales, the FTC said.

“Fans are sick and tired of having a fast one pulled on them every time they want to buy concert tickets,” Weiser said in a statement. “Ticketmaster has systematically made it harder for consumers to see the artists they love, deceived fans about pricing, let brokers scoop up tickets in bulk, and charged excessive fees multiple times on secondary markets. We are taking action to hold Ticketmaster accountable and ensure fairer access to live entertainment.”

The Associated Press left messages seeking comment Thursday with Beverly Hills, California-based Live Nation Entertainment.

Ticketmaster controls 80% or more of major U.S. concert venues’ primary ticketing, according to the FTC. Consumers spent more than $82.6 billion buying tickets from Ticketmaster between 2019 and 2024, the agency added.

“American live entertainment is the best in the world and should be accessible to all of us. It should not cost an arm and a leg to take the family to a baseball game or attend your favorite musician’s show,” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Joining the lawsuit were the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia.

Ticketmaster has been in lawmakers’ sights since 2022, when it spectacularly botched ticket sales for Taylor Swift¶¶Ňőap Eras Tour. The company’s site was overwhelmed by fans and attacks from brokers’ bots, which were scooping up tickets to sell on secondary sites. Senators grilled Live Nation in a 2023 hearing.

But reform in the industry has been slow. The Biden administration took action with a ban on junk fees, requiring Ticketmaster to display the full price of a ticket as soon as consumers begin shopping. That rule went into effect in May.

President Donald Trump has also taken aim at the industry. In March, with Kid Rock by his side in the Oval Office, Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. officials to ensure ticket resellers are complying with Internal Revenue Service rules. The order also directed the FTC to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.”

In August, the FTC sued Maryland-based ticket broker Key Investment Group use, alleging it has used thousands of fictitious Ticketmaster accounts and other methods to buy tickets for events, including Swift¶¶Ňőap tour.

Timothy McPhee, of Estes Park, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax evasion and wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday in a news release.

Prosecutors say McPhee, from 2018 to 2023, promoted a fraudulent tax shelter to taxpayers across the country, comprised of a private family foundation and three trusts.

He then taught clients who purchased the tax shelter how to use the foundation and trusts to evade paying federal income taxes on nearly all their income, the government said.

Clients who used the tax shelter only paid taxes on about 2% of their income, prosecutors said.

The total loss to the government? About $45 million in unpaid taxes.

“In pleading guilty, McPhee acknowledged that he gave directions to clients that he knew directly contradicted IRS guidance and that he deliberately ignored warnings from accountants and attorneys that the tax shelter was fraudulent and illegal,” the release states.

McPhee also used the tax shelter for his own personal gain. He concealed more than $5 million in income earned between 2016 and 2021, the DOJ said, meaning he avoided paying some $1.8 million in income taxes.

Additionally, prosecutors say McPhee operated a fraudulent investment scheme, promising 3% monthly payouts to investors. In reality, McPhee spent these investor funds on his own personal expenses and investments.

He’s set to be sentenced on Oct. 23 and faces a maximum of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge, five years for tax evasion and up to 20 years for wire fraud.

Ryan Ulibarri, owner and operator of Ulibarri Family Dentistry in Fort Collins, purchased an “abusive-trust tax shelter” for $50,000 in 2016, according to court documents.

The IRS Criminal Investigation division investigated the case and found that the tax shelter involved concealing income and creating false tax deductions through the use of a so-called business trust, family trust, charitable trust and a private family foundation, all of which Ulibarri created and controlled.

From 2016 through 2023, Ulibarri used the tax shelter to conceal from the IRS over $5 million in income he earned from his dental practice and evade more than $1.6 million in federal and state income taxes owed on that income.

To set up the tax shelter, Ulibarri signed trust instruments that named him as trustee of the three trusts and foundation, and he opened bank accounts in the name of each entity.

He further recruited friends to falsely sign his trust instruments as the purported creators of the trusts to make it seem as if Ulibarri himself was not the real creator.

Ulibarri transferred majority ownership of his dental practice to his business trust, despite being warned by attorneys and certified public accountants that Colorado law prohibits trusts from owning dental practices.

The announcement revealed Ulibarri then transferred over $5 million in income he earned from his dental practice into the bank accounts of the various trusts and foundation, attempting to make it appear that the funds belonged to those entities instead of himself.

Ulibarri retained complete control over those funds and used the funds to pay for personal expenses, including his home mortgage, credit card bills, boats, luxury vacations and professional baseball season tickets.

The Fort Collins dentist also filed false tax returns for himself, his dental practice, the trusts and his foundation, falsely reporting the income he earned from his dental practice as income of the trusts, officials said.

On those tax returns, Ulibarri also claimed fraudulent deductions for his living expenses, which he disguised as trust expenses and charitable donations.

In addition to his prison sentence, Ulibarri will serve three years of supervised release, pay a $150,000 fine and pay nearly $1.5 million in restitution to the IRS, along with approximately $166,966 to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Trial Attorneys Amanda R. Scott and Lauren K. Pope and Assistant Chief Andrew J. Kameros of the Tax Division prosecuted the case.

Unable to find enough tenants to support debt payments, about three in 10 commercial mortgages tied to office buildings in metro Denver are delinquent, the third-worst showing in the country out of 50 metros, according to a .

READ THE FULL PROJECT: At a crossroads: Downtown Denver is waiting for its rebound

Lenders, tired of waiting for a rebound, have taken over management or ownership of several buildings, including the iconic Wells Fargo Center, which the Denver Nuggets feature in their skyline logo, and the Denver Energy Center.

“I think we have a long road,” said Amy Aldridge, partner at Tributary Real Estate. “Honestly, we have a lot of 1980s high-rise towers that are mostly vacant. People want to come back to the office, but they don’t want to come back to the 1980s office.”

Discounts of 80% to 90% or more below the prior purchase price, once unimaginable, have emerged in the past year on oil boom-era buildings. Colorado Plaza Tower I and Tower II, at 633 and 621 17th St., sold in April for a jaw-dropping 98% discount. Valued for $200 million as recently as 2019, the towers could only fetch $3.2 million, sending an SOS flare soaring above the downtown skyline.

Newer office buildings in Lower Downtown, Union Station and the Central Platte Valley, while not at capacity, remain highly rentable. For office towers built after 2000, the vacancy rate averages a manageable 16.8%, about half the rate seen for the office towers built during the oil and gas boom in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

While some longtime downtown tenants are leaving for trendier markets like Antero Resources to Cherry Creek or Xcel Energy to the River North Art District, those committed to downtown still have appealing options, but not in the area with the heaviest concentration of office towers.

A flight to quality is underway, and it comes at the expense of older towers in Upper Downtown and Skyline Park. Downtown’s office market is essentially cannibalizing itself to survive.

Downtown Denver’s most distressed office towers are in a zone that stretches from Lawrence Street to Lincoln Street and from 14th Street to 20th Street, which mostly overlaps with an area known as Upper Downtown, home to the highest concentration of commercial real estate in the Rocky Mountain region.

It was the part of the metro area hardest hit in the pandemic and it has been the slowest to recover, according to Denver’s Downtown Development Authority Plan of Development, which Denver City Council amended and adopted on Dec. 9.

Thirty properties in Upper Downtown have been identified as distressed or deteriorating, defined as marketing over 40% of their rentable building area for lease. That list includes the Wells Fargo Center, 1999 Broadway, and the Lincoln Crossing tower.

A Denver Post analysis of the 105 largest downtown office buildings, with 100,000 or more square feet, found that more than a third face extreme financial distress that extended beyond a high vacancy rate.

That includes a loan default; a lender appointing a third party to manage a building, known as a receivership; a foreclosure where the lender took possession; a borrower voluntarily surrendering ownership to avoid a foreclosure; a distressed sale with a large discount, and buildings being deliberately emptied to prepare for a conversion to other uses.

BusinessDen, a partner of The Denver Post, maintains a running list of Denver’s , as well as a list of and those slated for a . Here are some of the better-known downtown towers that are in trouble.

• Republic Plaza at 370 17th St.: Brookfield Properties and MetLife Investment Management defaulted on a $134 million debt and reworked terms with bondholders in . Brookfield has had success in adding tenants, but the vacancy rate in Denver’s tallest tower remains elevated. That could complicate a refinancing when the loan comes due again next March.
• Wells Fargo Center at 1700 Lincoln St: Brookfield also failed to pay off a $327 million loan from Morgan Stanley that it used to purchase the iconic Cash Register Building when it came due in December 2022. Judy Duran of CBRE was appointed as a receiver to manage the property.
• Civic Center Plaza at 1560 Broadway: Rising Realty last November back to Heitman Capital Management, which had provided it a $101 million loan in June 2019.
• Denver Energy Center at 1625 and 1675 Broadway: JPMorgan Chase foreclosed on the twin towers and reclaimed them in June 2022 for $88.2 million after Gemini Rosemount defaulted on a $114 million loan it took out in 2013.
• Trinity Place at 1801 Broadway: LoanCore Capital of Connecticut claimed ownership of the tower at a foreclosure auction in November after Chicago-based Expansive, a co-working space provider, defaulted on a $35.4 million loan it took out in April 2019.

Lenders, if hesitant to take over a commercial building, will sometimes ease terms or delay taking action, a practice known as “extend and pretend.” Some of Denver’s towers may be current on debt payments, but only because loan terms were modified quietly. With vacancy rates and interest rates elevated, lenders may not be as patient as they were coming out of the pandemic.

Distressed situations can eventually result in distressed sales that wipe out the equity that owners put in and saddle lenders with large write-offs. And they eat away at the value of the surrounding buildings.

The Hudson’s Bay Centre at 1600 Stout St. sold to Dikeou Realty in October 2024 for $8.95 million, marking a nearly 80% haircut from its 2014 sales price of $41.5 million. Lincoln Crossing, a two-tower office campus at 1775 Sherman and 1776 Lincoln, , a 90% price discount from the price paid in 2018.

But the winner so far in the limbo game of how low can you go is Los Angeles developer Asher Luzzatto, who purchased Colorado Plaza Tower I and Tower II for the equivalent of $3.30 a square foot in a market where the average advertised office rent is $41.87 a square foot.

Luzzatto pulled off the equivalent of purchasing a rental car for the cost of a one-month lease. But both the engine and transmission are shot. His big spend will come later, when he invests $150 million to $200 million to create 700 apartments in the two towers, he told BusinessDen.

The buildings are on a ground lease, meaning the underlying land wasn’t part of the sales price. They are also on the older side, one constructed in 1957 and the other in 1973. But the towers weren’t crumbling edifices in fringe locations. With a combined 1.14 million square feet, they would rank as downtown’s fourth-largest complex behind the Wells Fargo Center.

Lower building values reduce what Denver can collect in property taxes, while empty buildings reduce the employee and sales tax generated by tenants. New residents will contribute to a more vibrant downtown and boost sales tax collections, but probably not enough to compensate for the lost property values.

A successful apartment conversion will generate about a quarter of the property taxes that a healthy office building would have otherwise generated, because of Colorado’s lower residential assessment rate, said Denver County Assessor Keith Erffmeyer.

Erffmeyer estimates downtown commercial real estate values fell by about a quarter in the last two-year assessment cycle, which ended on June 30. The most extreme discounts started showing up after that.

Even seemingly full buildings can get into trouble quickly. The Anthem Building at 700 Broadway on the border of Capitol Hill and downtown’s Golden Triangle had one of the lowest vacancy rates of any central Denver office tower at 4.7%. That reflected the dominant presence of Elevance Health, formerly Anthem, and before that Blue Cross and Blue Shield

Elevance late last year said it at the end of 2024, which single-handedly took the building’s once-solid vacancy rate to 60%. The lender put the building into a special servicing arrangement.

The move contributed to central Denver seeing almost as much office space come back on the market in the first quarter as in all of 2024, and it dashed hopes that the office leasing market was finally stabilizing.

An added source of stress for downtown landlords this year is coming from the federal government, normally considered one of the most stable tenants available. The Department of Government Efficiency, which the Trump administration has tasked with cutting down costs, is looking to terminate as many federal leases as it can and to sell off federal buildings.

1999 Broadway, which is already half vacant, could approach a 70% vacancy rate if the Internal Revenue Service drops the 125,000 square feet it holds there. Three blocks away, 1670 Broadway shows a healthy 15.4% vacancy rate on paper. But after a default last October, the lenders appointed an outside party to manage the building.

Too much debt is the core issue. Hana Financial Group, a Korean firm, paid $238 million for the building in August 2018 and couldn’t refinance the loan when it came due in the fall of 2023. Its lenders found someone else to manage the building, which has seen its outlook deteriorate even more.

said it wanted to terminate a lease for 86,809 square feet or 18% of the remaining square footage that Housing and Urban Development held in that building. Last August, the building’s largest tenant, TIAA, said it would relocate its Denver operations to a new campus in Frisco, Texas.

At the end of April, TIAA informed the state it would be terminating its lease three years ahead of schedule, in July 2026, and would let go of 84 Denver workers and move into a smaller space until its Frisco campus was completed. Once one of downtown’s largest employers, TIAA will leave behind a much smaller group in Denver to support teams working with clients.

Re: “City Council considers whether to keep cams taking photos of license plates,” April 7 news story

It’s a reminder of why I love Denver and Colorado. Denver City Council is debating keeping a license plate recognition program that has proven successful at identifying stolen cars driving past and, by extension, catching the “suspects” driving them.

Why the pause by the Council? Privacy concerns! Balancing the greater good with individual freedoms is government operating at its best.

One only has to observe our current national government grabbing people off the streets and, without “due process,” but for simply expediency, shipping them off to a hellhole prison in El Salvador.

It’s comforting to know someone still cares for the rule of law.

Harry Puncec, Lakewood

A violation of American values

Re: “Federal government detains international student at Tufts,” March 27 news story

Watching the video of Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish student working on a Ph.D., is pretty sickening, especially since it is occurring in the United States.  First of all, we keep hearing the lie that the administration is only deporting violent criminals. Then we have masked people who claim they are with law enforcement, grab her and handcuff her, and apparently cart her off to Louisiana. She did have a visa allowing her to study in the U.S., which the president’s administration apparently revoked and shipped her to Louisiana. Unlike these agents, Hitler’s SS did not bother wearing masks.

One story is that she spoke up and was against the killing of thousands of innocent women and children in Palestinian territories. Target Hamas? Yes. Slaughtering innocents? We all should be against.

I guess this is a way that President Donald Trump wants to keep people from traveling to the U.S. and spending dollars here. But America, it is not. It is evil and corrupt, in this 83-year-old’s opinion.

Wayne Wathen, Centennial

Work hard, pay taxes, get deported

Re: “Internal Revenue Service will send immigrant tax data to ICE enforcement,” April 9 news story

To Make America Great Again, the IRS will give the tax returns of immigrants who work and pay their taxes to Homeland Security so they can target and deport undocumented immigrants who work in America and pay their taxes. Why not? Makes about as much sense as the Trump tariffs scheme.

Jeffrey Stroh, Denver

Biden’s brag about job creation

I remember when former President Joe Biden boasted about the increase in employment each month. Nobody ever complained that many of those jobs were unneeded government jobs. Now everybody is complaining about the reduction in government jobs, especially the provisional workers who have been employed less than two years – the same two years Biden boasted about rising employment. The chickens have come home to roost.

Jim Lloyd, Lakewood

Shouldn’t we taxpayers be team owners too?

Re: “NWSL stadium: Denver to kick in up to $70M,” April 10 news story

So now, after the National Women’s Soccer League team owners have announced that they will bring a new team to Denver and have sold season tickets, the taxpayers of the city find out that they should kick in $70 million dollars to make this work. Why do cities keep doing this?

Private capital came up with $110 million to pay the fee for the NWSL expansion franchise. If Denver adds $70 million to the pot, then why should the city not own 39% of the team?

Professional sports have become a money spinner for team owners in America. Nonetheless, the taxpayers of Denver are being asked to put their money at risk with no reward for any upside.  Would you give someone 39% of the capital needed to start a new business without any ownership rights in the enterprise? So why should the taxpayers of Denver do this for the new NWSL team owners?

Guy Wroble, Denver

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AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, whose stripped-down locale on 2180 S. Delaware St. had its smoker right behind the order counter, is closed given the walkout. Owner Jared Leonard and former general manager and pitmaster Patrick Klaiber confirmed both the closure and the walkout Monday.

Leonard closed three other restaurants in February — Grabowski’s Pizzeria in Lakewood and two Campfire locations in Lakewood and Evergreen — putting an end to his seven-year tenure as a restaurateur in Denver. AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q was his last Denver establishment. He is currently in Mexico operating his other restaurants in the resort community of Punta Mita near Puerto Vallarta.

Klaiber said he had reached out to Leonard in recent weeks hoping to buy AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q. Lease negotiations, however, fizzled out. Klaiber reversed course after digging into his paychecks and noticing few contributions to his social security or Medicare benefits, he said, and other problems.

“Everyone decided to quit” after learning employees were being contacted by the Internal Revenue Service with letters asking for overdue withheld taxes, Klaiber said. They suspect Leonard was deducting money but not forwarding it to the IRS.

Leonard called the allegations, which were shared anonymously on Reddit before blowing up in other social media channels, “fake internet memes” and “fake internet stories.”

“Everyone has been paid every dollar they’re owed,” he said.

Public records in the Colorado court system show Leonard and his companies owing tens of thousands of dollars to individual lenders, landlords and purveyors who’ve sued him over the last 20 years. They include more than 20 cases where he, his companies and businesses are listed as defendants across Denver, Jefferson, Eagle and Clear Creek counties.

Plaintiffs include American Express, Shamrock Farms and the Seattle Fish Company, as well as companies and investors who claimed Leonard failed to pay rent, credit cards and costs of goods, according to legal filings.

One complaint filed in September of 2024 by Rocas LLC, a company registered by James Beard Award-winning chef Alex Seidel, alleged Leonard never paid back a $155,000 loan made the previous year. When he paid using a check from AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, it was returned for insufficient funds, according to the complaint.

In February, Denver District Court Judge Heidi L. Kutcher ruled against Leonard and the restaurant. She set a total fee of more than $670,000 and ordered seizure of his assets, including a 2017 Cadillac Escalade, a 2015 Porsche Panamera and fixtures and equipment inside of AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q and Grabowski’s in Lakewood, previously home to Seidel’s Roca’s Pizza & Pasta, to enforce payment.

Leonard said legal matters would be discussed through the courts. When asked if he’d return to Denver, he said, “it’s not as quick as just hopping on a plane.”

The money and assets owed to debtors was part of the reason Klaiber backed out on purchasing AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q, he said. He and some of the other 12 employees who quit are still looking for work.

Employees at previous restaurants Leonard ran shared similar concerns and red flags over their pay and benefits, Klaiber said. Some said they were paid via Venmo or other apps, for instance.

Mallory Peters, the former general manager of Campfire in Lakewood, said court summons and other legal documents would often arrive at the restaurant. “It all started piling up,” said Peters, who started working for Leonard in 2023.

After Campfire closed, she said she was unable to register for unemployment insurance through the state’s online system. The system did not recognize the company’s official name, she said, and Leonard has yet to provide her with information she requested to refile.

She commended AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q staff Monday for their collective walkout.

“I just wish we would’ve done something like that at Campfire,” she said.

We urge caution as the White House rapidly cuts jobs and programs, but such prudence likely must come from Congress. After decades of being unable to cut the deficit and begin paying down the debt, now is the moment for Congress to rise to the occasion and replace the sledgehammer being wielded by the White House with something more artful, such as a ball pein.

U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper – two long-time fiscal moderates with bipartisan credentials — should lead a charge. The likelihood of two Democrats succeeding when Republicans have the House and Senate is low, but it’s better than the alternative of crying about Elon Musk being unelected.

Shutting down the U.S. government in protest of the cuts, will only make matters worse for federal employees and anyone in need of services from the U.S. government. Democrats who agree that the U.S. can’t sustain this level of spending and Republicans with concerns about the president’s approach can unite around legislation that begins the slow retraction of money from the U.S. economy.

Bold, meaningful cuts are needed. But indiscriminate slashing that harms more Americans than it helps is a blatantly cruel and vengeful act by the Trump administration. Congress, which holds the purse strings, is at fault for not wielding its power.

There are reasons to worry that President Donald Trump’s rescission plans could hit Colorado hard in the coming months. There are about 57,000 federal workers in Colorado. Let’s assume the state’s strong job market could easily absorb 10% to 15% of those employees losing their jobs as long as things remain stable in other parts of our economy. Gov. Jared Polis issued a press release of support for laid-off workers, outlining how they could file for the state’s unemployment insurance to cover some of their lost wages while they look for another job. He also noted that the state has 60,000 job openings at the moment.

That won’t work, however, if federal funding to states is also drastically slashed and the state finds itself cutting jobs and freezing hiring as well, or if tariffs impact businesses in the private sector and cause layoffs.

Far less easy to absorb will be the commercial real estate that could be vacated. The Denver Post reported last week that the federal government rents 4.1 million square feet of commercial real estate in this state and that 90% of that is in Denver, Larimer, Jefferson, Arapahoe, El Paso, Boulder and Adams counties.

Terminated leases will add empty commercial real estate space to a market already struggling to rebound from the change to work from home.

Our military bases employ thousands of civilians alongside thousands of enlisted members. Colorado is also home to significant military contractors, meaning cuts to the Department of Defense spending are likely to ripple through our private sector as well.

Colorado is also home to a base of scientists who work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden and the Geologic Hazards Science Center in Golden.

Bennet and Hickenlooper should lead Colorado’s House members in a thoughtful response to the cuts. If Democrats don’t come forward with their own proposal for eliminating the deficit over time, then Republicans will only be emboldened to continue with this executive branch power-grab.

For example, Congress can easily push back on the 7,000 Internal Revenue Service employees laid off last Thursday across the nation. Cutting staff from the IRS likely will not save money as the IRS is one department that largely pays its own way by recovering unpaid taxes from people who either accidentally or intentionally underpay. If layoffs aren’t going to actually net the federal government money, there is no way to justify them.

Congress could pass legislation requiring the White House to restore the IRS to full funding and the full employment levels necessary to enforce our tax laws. Whether or not Republicans would ever agree to such a pushback on policy from the White House is another question. The GOP has also spent the last 10 years unfairly vilifying IRS employees.

Americans expect Congress to exercise its constitutional duty to check the powers of the White House. The last time Congress attempted to put its foot down on Trump’s actions was over funding for the border wall, and in a show of weakness, lawmakers backed down.

America didn’t rack up $36 trillion in debt in a year, and we shouldn’t try to pay it all off in a single president¶¶Ňőap administration. Eliminating the $1.83 trillion deficit (which has only grown since last fiscal year) may not even be possible without tax increases. Trump has said he plans to use tariffs to that effect, which will only work if Americans are still spending money on discretionary goods.

We need a long-term plan to stabilize our finances without tanking our economy. Colorado’s elected leaders need to step up now with a plan of their own that pushes back on this reckless approach to cutting spending.

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Re: “Internal Revenue Service: Layoffs hit Denver’s office,” Feb. 21 news story

I am sorry for anyone who lost their job, as it has happened to me more than once.

I was extremely surprised at all of the attention that The Denver Post and local TV newscasts gave to the recent layoffs at the IRS. Several years ago, a group of us was laid off by the IRS. However, there were no cameras nor reporters at 1999 Broadway to hear our stories nor sympathize with us.

What changed between then and now: Trump is president now and everything negative must be magnified. Media bias is not a myth.

Michael Lash, Parker

Coexisting with wolves requires a “Some, but not all” attitude

Re: “Parks and Wildlife confirms uncollared wolf killed cow,” Feb. 20 news story

Having grown up in rural Virginia, I am aware of the challenges facing farmers and ranchers. I witnessed the challenges my grandparents and parents faced living off the land.

My dad would get upset when the wildlife raided his crops. He developed a philosophy that changed his attitude and blood pressure! Dad decided to grow enough for us and for the animals. He would say, “They can have some, but not all.”

My dad taught me tolerance and coexistence. Recently, I had an epiphany. If ranchers developed this philosophy, it would address concerns, quell distasteful rhetoric, and open the door to coexistence with the reintroduced wolves. It has been said that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

The Ted Turner Ranch in Montana is an example of how this attitude can work. In a TV documentary, Ted Turner and Val Asher, wolf biologist, were interviewed, explaining their enlightened attitude towards coexisting with wolves while ranching. Turner told her, “Well, they (wolves) can have some of them (bison), but they can’t have all of them.” A smile emerged as I fondly recalled that my dad had the same attitude towards coexistence with wildlife!

It is unrealistic to expect zero depredation. It is normal for wolves to take “some.” The data supports that depredation by wolves is minuscule compared to disease, weather, and other predators. This simple, pragmatic philosophy of tolerance, sharing, and “altering one’s attitude” could benefit farmers, ranchers, wolves and other wildlife.  Some, but not all!

Kathy Webster, Littleton

Mark of a caring nation

DEI is common parlance. Diversity involves people from a wide range of social and ethnic backgrounds, genders and social orientations. Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial. Inclusion is the practice of providing opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. These three concepts are the core of all major religions, which call for justice, kindness and empathy.

While I was in the Army in 1960, my Black soldier friends were not allowed to enter Granite City, Ill., after sundown. Later, as a psychotherapist in a Black community, I learned firsthand about segregated communities, employment and housing discrimination, inferior schools, and racially biased voting restrictions and lending practices.

DEI is the mark of a caring nation that grows in character by embracing full acceptance and opportunities for all who are marginalized.

Glenn Gravelle, Centennial

The cost of doing business in Colorado

I resell used merchandise online. I sold a vintage set of napkin rings to a resident of Colorado. They paid sales tax plus a . The added fee is insane because it is being delivered via the U.S. Postal Service from Delaware during their normal route. The Retail Delivery Fee is a tax. Oh wait, fees are okay, but we cannot have tax increases.

Patrick Kennedy, Harrington, Del.

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