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Disney’s new “Haunted Ride” film adaptation fails to move the spirit

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Perhaps in 2043, Disney will make a top-notch movie based on its Haunted Mansion theme park ride.Powered by a typically engaging performance by its star, Eddie Murphy, 2003’s “The Haunted Mansion” performed pretty well at the box office, but it is a rather meandering affair.The second “Haunted Mansion” — in theaters this week, a few months shy of 20 years later — weaves a mostly different tale but is a similarly slightly scary-meets-family-friendly romp boasting a highly appealing ensemble led by Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and Owen Wilson.It’s also similarly ho-hum.That’s disappointing given not only its cast — which also features Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto — but also its flavorful New Orleans setting and its director, Justin Simien, who wrote and directed 2014’s “Dear White People,” as well as episodes of the TV series of the same name.Things start out well enough, with our introduction to Ben (Stanfield), an astrophysicist, w...

Security guard licenses are no longer the most popular in Denver as residential rentals takes top spot

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Denver has issued more than 7,800 residential rental property licenses, making it the top business license type in the city and county.The number of residential rental property licenses now surpasses the No. 2 license type, which is for security guards at around 7,700. The rest of the top five includes licenses for short-term rentals at 2,800, for retail food establishments at almost 2,500, and for combined – “addresses that have multiple licenses at one location,” like a hotel – at 1,800.“It demonstrates that we’re making a lot of progress in this overall city effort to raise the minimal housing standards across Denver with this new licensing requirement,” said Eric Escudero, spokesperson for the Denver Department of Excise and License.Unlike a lot of other Colorado cities, Denver doesn’t mandate that all businesses obtain licenses – typically just those with health, safety and welfare concerns. For example, bookstores and dress shops aren’...

Amazon gives Dish Wireless a boost as it builds the country’s fourth cellular network

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Amazon began selling SIM kits for Boost Infinite cellular service on Wednesday, greatly expanding the potential customer base for the monthly plan offered through Englewood-based Dish Network.“Amazon is the perfect place to offer this Boost Infinite exclusive deal, making it easy for Prime members to purchase our SIM kit online, with an exclusive 20% discount, and activate their postpaid wireless service without setting foot in a store,” said Jeremy McCarty, head of Boost Infinite, in a news release.Dish acquired Boost Mobile, a prepaid service provider, from T-Mobile, in August 2020 for $1.2 billion. The purchase was part of a larger deal that allowed T-Mobile and Sprint to merge. But Dish Wireless has lost more than a million prepaid subscribers as it rushes to build out its own state-of-the-art cellular network.In December, Dish Wireless rolled out Boost Infinite to tap the larger and more loyal postpaid part of the market — consumers who prefer to receive a bill each month...

Sky-high plans for Bounce Empire push EDM legend Brad Roulier to innovate

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Brad Roulier flung his arms wide atop a 13-foot-tall hydraulic platform, its base wreathed in fog and multicolored LED lights. Surveying his 50,000-square-foot empire from such a perch is not something the typically soft-spoken, behind-the-scenes Denverite relishes for a photo shoot. But he knows that his lofty plans won’t succeed without a bit of puffed-up promotion.“Let’s take the tour!” he said after the platform descended and he stepped onto the spongy gray floor. “I see you have the magic socks.”The grip-soled footwear is required to explore Bounce Empire, the newly opened “inflatable theme park” in Lafayette that Roulier says is the largest of its kind in the world. It’s an upscale, bounce-house paradise for kids and their parents that also offers DJ nights and other 21-and-up nighttime programming. Attendees can crowd around the circular hydraulic stage to see artists perform, or they can rent out a “VIP bounce house...

Denver’s best burgers, Avery Brewing’s 30th, rooftop yoga and more things to do in Denver this week

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Denver Burger BattleThursday. Denverites enjoy access to a miraculous selection of classic hamburgers, from the urban Cherry Cricket and My Brother’s Bar to the further-afield Bud’s Bar in Sedalia. But what about delicious innovations in the state at large?Denver Burger Battle, which returns on Aug. 3, will pit more than 20 Colorado restaurants and food trucks against one another in the ultimate red meat championship — including off-menu burgers, organizers said, along with new contenders such as Hickory & Ash, Edgewater Beer Garden and Slater’s 50/50.“A team of burger experts and enthusiasts carefully vet and hand select each competing burger so that guests have the chance to taste and vote from an impressive, curated bracket of local restaurants,” they wrote. (Full disclosure: Denver Post dining reporter Lily O’Neil is one of the judges.)Belly up for the patty battle starting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Auraria Campus Tivoli Quad, ...

Shohei Ohtani is off the trade block; Angels add top starter Giolito: Report

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Good news Angeles fans, not only has the club removed Shohei Ohtani from the trade market but the club became buyers ahead of the upcoming trade deadline. Despite receiving multiple offers for their star slugger and pitcher, the team has decided not to trade its megastar, Sports Illustrated reported. Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani talks to members of the Chicago White Sox as they sit in their dugout after hitting a single during the eighth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)Considered by many to be the most valuable player in baseball, Ohtani has slugged 36 home runs and sports a 3.71 ERA into late July.Further showing that they are all-in on a run at the playoffs, the Angels added starting pitcher Lucas Giolito in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. Disneyland expanding alcohol options, bringing beer, wine and cocktails to new restaurants In addition to Giolito, the Angels added White Sox reliever Reynaldo López in...

Even in Berkeley, the disabled community faces new challenges in a post-ADA world

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

This week marks 33 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibited discrimination against people with disabilities in workplaces, schools and a host of other aspects of public life.While the 1991 federal law has drastically improved the quality of life for many in the disabled community, modern barriers to the accessibility it promised still abound — particularly amid the Bay Area’s housing crisis, emergency disaster planning and rapidly changing technology in the digital age.Locally, Berkeley is widely credited as a birthplace of the disability rights movement. In the 1970s, disabled residents began transforming both urban landscapes and cultural assumptions, spurring everything from the installation of the nation’s first curb cuts to the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.But in the wake of the passing of two of the city’s pioneering activists, Hale Zukas and Judy Heumann, in the last several months, many of the city’s disabled residents are left ref...

Swiftonomics: California could see big economic boom from Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

Taylor Swift is reigniting a “Gold Rush” in California as the final leg of her record-breaking U.S. ‘Eras Tour’ comes to Santa Clara and Los Angeles with massive fanfare at the sold-out concerts.The cultural phenomenon is on track to boast the highest-grossing musical tour of all time, with more than $1 billion in revenue anticipated — along with a big boost to the economies of the cities in which she sets foot. Over the last several months, the impact of the ‘Eras Tour’ has trickled down from Swift herself to the entire U.S. economy, with one estimate from market research firm QuestionPro predicting her tour could generate $4.6 billion in spending across the country.The preliminary numbers from cities that Swift has already passed through are staggering.Visit Pittsburgh estimated $46 million in direct spending in Allegheny County, while Cincinnati Regional Chamber’s Center for Research and Data and Visit Cincy said the tour brought in more ...

California has adopted a new plan to teach math. Why are people so riled up?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

California is preparing to overhaul the way its schools teach math with new state guidelines, a 1,000-page effort that’s drawn both staunch support and fierce criticism over the nearly four years it’s taken to produce.At its core, the new approach reignites a years-old debate about the best way to teach math and how to balance the needs of students with different skill levels.The revision comes at a time when two out of three students are not meeting California’s math standards, according to state assessments last spring. Those results were even more staggering for minority students: Last year, 84% of Black students and 79% of Latino students did not meet those standards.“The traditional approaches (to teaching math) have yielded really poor results, really inequitable results, and whole generations of people who do not like math,” said Rachel Ruffalo, senior director of strategic advocacy for The Education Trust-West. “We’ve made traditional math instruction so na...

San Francisco was too expensive so they moved to Spain and bought a beautiful house for $50,000. Here’s how they did it

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:10:36 GMT

By Inka Piegsa-Quischotte | CNNJohn Flores and Michael Leitz. (Michael Leitz via CNN) When John Flores and Michael Leitz were looking for a home in which to spend the next stage of their lives, they realized that where they lived in San Francisco was too expensive.Instead, they began looking further afield – eventually buying a beautiful 120-year-old, three-story home in rural Spain for less than $50,000.Both Flores and Leitz worked in education in the US before retiring – Leitz was a high school history teacher while Flores was an administrator at UCLA.While they said they both enjoyed their San Francisco lifestyle, they realized that it would be unaffordable to live in rented property on pensions much lower than their salaries.“Europe was an obvious choice for us,” said Leitz. “I am part German and part Irish, so there were European roots from the family.  John is part Mexican, which makes for the Spanish connection, and he is fluent in Spanish too.“The closest you can come t...