Home Care In Denver, CO

DENVER, Colo. – The Gonzaga men's tennis team began play in the Denver Colorado Cup Friday, with Air Force, Denver, Gonzaga, and Montana all competing. Each participating team will play a different school each day. The Bulldogs' matchup on Friday was against Denver.

In doubles play, Jay Fairclough and Nicholas Reeves secured a win against Samuel Rovai and Platón Tsarenko, 6-4. Oscar Rashed and Michael Mitchell fell in their matchup with Alex Kotarski and Roman Glarner, 6-2. In an identical outcome, Diego Herrera and Tom Dunlop also fell in their match, 6-2. Tristan Hernandez and James Hutchinson came closer to a win in their match against Ander Tarrio Ponte and Rafe Samuel but ultimately lost, 6-4.

In singles matches, the Bulldogs picked up two wins from Diego Herrera and James Hutchinson. Hutchinson defeated Denver's Platón Tsarenko in straight sets after a dominant 6-2 first-set win and a similarly impressive 6-4 second-set victory. Herrera won the first set in his competition with Alex Kotarski, 6-3. Kotarski then took the second set, 6-2, before Herrera rallied to claim the third set, and the match, 6-2. Oscar Rashed defaulted in his match against Dylan Davies, ending the match in Davies' favor at 4-1. Tom Dunlop came back from losing the first set in his match, 3-6, to secure the second, 6-4, but ultimately fell in the third set, 3-6. Jay Fairclough and Nicholas Reeves lost their matches in nearly identical fashion, 6-3, 7-6(4) and 6-3, 7-6(3), respectively. Similarly, Tristan Hernandez and Michael Mitchell both fell in their matches, 6-2, 6-4.

Play in the Cup will continue through Sunday at the Denver Tennis Park. The Bulldogs will play Air Force on Saturday afternoon and Montana on Sunday morning.

Results:

Doubles:

Singles:

Starting in March, about 175,000 people currently covered by the Medicaid expansion in Colorado will have to meet new federal work requirements or get an exemption — though the state will more or less take their word that the requirement doesn’t apply to them for the first year.

People applying for new Medicaid coverage will need to attest that they’re working or volunteering at least 80 hours a month, enrolled in school at least part-time, or qualify for an exemption starting in January. The new requirements are part of H.R. 1, known as the “big beautiful bill,” which the Rand Corporation estimated would reduce Medicaid funding in Colorado by $267.6 million in 2028.

People enrolled under Medicaid expansion, which opened the program to adults without children earning up to 138% of the poverty line, should have received notices about the work requirements in September, with another letter scheduled for late October or early November.

Colorado and 24 other states sued to block the work requirements for new enrollees from taking effect Jan. 1. On Thursday, a federal judge issued an order throwing out federal rules for disability exemptions that went beyond the law’s text, but left the overall work requirement intact.

Other changes coming in January include reviewing enrollees’ eligibility every six months, rather than annually, and limiting healthcare providers’ ability to seek reimbursement for care they gave to patients who were eligible for Medicaid, but not enrolled.

About 377,000 of the 1.2 million people in Colorado covered by Medicaid, also known as Health First Colorado, are in the expansion population, said Adela Flores-Brennan, Medicaid director with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

More than half of them aren’t subject to the work requirements, she said.

In Colorado, new applicants for Medicaid will have to show they met the work requirement the month before, while people coming up for renewal must prove they met it in at least one of the previous six months, said Marivel Klueckman, the department’s eligibility division director.

In an unknown share of cases, the state will be able to verify compliance with the requirement without talking to the enrollee. Households that earn at least $580 per month (80 hours at federal minimum wage) are deemed in compliance, and the state should be able to check that using tax records, though people doing informal jobs wouldn’t show up. At Colorado’s higher minimum wage, that would come out to about 37 hours of work per month.

People with traditional jobs will be able to sign something attesting to their hours if the state can’t verify them. Those doing gig work or in-kind work, such as odd jobs for food and shelter, will need to find some way to prove it.

People with children under 14 or who act as caregivers to someone with a disability are exempt. If the parent and child live in the same home, the state should be able to establish the relationship relatively easily, though proving caregiving could be more challenging for parents with part-time custody or people providing care to someone who lives elsewhere.

Other exemptions cover pregnancy, the first postpartum year, the initial years after a child ages out of foster care and the first months after someone leaves jail or prison.

The law exempts people with serious or complex medical conditions, including substance use disorders, blindness and disabilities that interfere with everyday activities. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added that the disability must interfere with a person’s ability to meet the work requirement, though it didn’t say how states should assess that. Thursday’s ruling would apparently reduce the necessary documentation for people with chronic conditions, though the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing said it is still reviewing the implications.

“The timelines to implement this large policy change are challenging; we appreciate the court’s decision,” the department said in a statement. “As requirements evolve, coordination across policy, eligibility operations and technology will be essential.”

Next year, Colorado will accept people’s word that they have a qualifying disability, but the department and stakeholders are still working out how patients will prove they should be exempt starting in 2028, Flores-Brennan said. Part of the plan is to use software to comb medical records, but it isn’t clear what share of those who are eligible the software will flag.

Because the federal government didn’t fully define who should receive a disability exemption, people with the same condition and similar levels of impairment could have different experiences from state to state, or even depending on which doctor they see. Medical records can document which conditions a person has, but doctors don’t routinely assess their patients’ ability to work, unless they specialize in determining who qualifies for Social Security disability payments.

The option to attest to a disability will ease the process in the short term, but people who have a condition that’s likely to last for years will probably want to get themselves re-categorized as eligible for Medicaid based on their condition, so they won’t have to go through the process of proving their exemption over and over, said Julie Reiskin, co-executive director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition.

Reiskin said she worries most about people whose disability affects focus, task management and similar cognitive functions. For them, paperwork is a major challenge, particularly if they don’t have a family member who can help them document their work or their exemption, she said.

“Those are the people I’m losing sleep over,” she said.

The state seems to be trying to make the process as easy as possible, but some people likely will fall through the cracks, Reiskin said. Healthcare providers will have to work to fill in the gaps and connect their patients with care coordinators to help navigate the system, she said.

Kelly Daughtery, executive vice president of service delivery operations at Clinica Family Health and Wellness, said the group of safety-net clinics has been working with a vendor to set up online resources to help people navigate the new Medicaid processes. They have enrollment specialists and plan to train their providers and support staff to help, but simply don’t have the ability to walk every affected individual through the process, he said.

Clinica’s patients generally know that Medicaid changes are coming, but aren’t sure what they’ll need to do, Daughtery said. He estimated the state, patients and providers will need 18 to 24 months to find and fix bugs in the process.

“People are going to be confused and people are going to have questions,” he said.

In Nebraska, which implemented the work requirement in May, about 14% of new applicants and 7% of those renewing their coverage were denied because they didn’t meet the requirement or receive an exemption. The majority of those denied didn’t fill out the paperwork, so no one knows how many truly qualified.

Unhoused people are going to be at particular risk of falling through the cracks, since they may not receive the state’s messages about the work requirements, said Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

The population they work with generally has more health needs than housed people, both because severe illness is one factor that pushes people into homelessness and because living on the street can cause new medical problems, she said.

The coalition’s clinics are notifying patients and developing procedures to help them either document their work or apply for an exemption, but people who rarely seek care could be surprised to find out they no longer have Medicaid coverage when they do eventually come in, Alderman said.

“It’s really scary for those folks, because those folks are already the most vulnerable,” she said.

In addition, Medicaid is the major payer for the coalition’s clinics, so they could have to limit care to uninsured patients to make up for declining revenue if too many people lose coverage, Alderman said.

Ultimately, it doesn’t serve anyone if eligible people lose coverage, because their health will get worse, leaving them less able to work and forcing providers to offer uncompensated care, Reiskin said.

“No one wants to be poor, so if people can work, they generally do,” she said.

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Another round of heavy rain is expected to cause worse flooding in southwest Colorado than the catastrophic floods that devastated the region last week, and Archuleta County officials are urging residents to evacuate Saturday.

Heavy rain is expected to begin Sunday morning and continue through Monday, dumping 3 inches of rain in the Pagosa Springs area, and up to 18 inches of snow in the mountains, the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office said.

The San Juan River already had begun to rise Saturday morning and is expected to crest at 16.9 feet just after midnight Monday. That’s nearly 2 feet higher than last week’s floods, which in Archuleta County stranded dozens of residents, damaged about 540 homes and left 150 miles of roadway impassable. The highest the river has ever risen was 17.8 feet, during a 1911 flood.

Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect for all low-lying areas along the San Juan, Rio Blanco, Navajo and Piedra rivers. Hunters in the area and residents in Archuleta County who have not yet evacuated should evacuate Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.

“Those who have chosen not to evacuate should expect higher water levels than last week and must be prepared to safely shelter in place for the duration of the storm,” the sheriff’s office said. “Emergency responders may not be able to reach you.”

Residents not in the evacuation area should consider evacuating if they have medical needs or cannot safely shelter in place, the agency said.

The South Fork Rio Grande is forecast to rise to 9.1 feet by 11 p.m. Sunday, higher than the crest of 9.03 feet in last week’s floods. The Conejos River near Mogote is expected to crest at 8.1 feet about 5 a.m. Monday. That river reached 7.8 feet last week.

All residents in Conejos County were under a pre-evacuation notice, the Conejos County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday. Residents affected by last week’s flood, especially those in Conejos Canyon, Guadalupe and Manassa, should expect to be affected again, the agency said.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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Gov. Jared Polis on Saturday requested nearly $27 million in federal aid from the Trump administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as the state begins to recover from devastating flooding in southern Colorado that damaged hundreds of homes and dozens of roads, including three highways.

The aid request comes in the form of an expedited major disaster declaration, the Governor’s Office said in a Saturday news release. Polis requested funding in two forms — public assistance funding, which could be used to repair roads, bridges, public utilities, parks and other public infrastructure, and hazard mitigation grant funding, which would support efforts to reduce future flood damage.

State officials, working with FEMA, have already validated $26.98 million in damages in Archuleta and Rio Grande counties that would be eligible for federal public assistance funds.

That figure includes about $10.6 million in damage to local roads, bridges and culverts; $2.44 million in damage to public utilities; and $8.59 million in damage to parks and recreation facilities, the Governor’s Office said. The state also requested funding for debris removal and $4.16 million for emergency protective measures.

“Devastating flooding has damaged homes and businesses, washed away roads, and disrupted the basic services Southwestern Colorado families depend on. Colorado has deployed rescue teams, delivered supplies, quickly restored use of roads, and committed state funding to help communities respond and recover,” Polis said in a statement.

“The damage documented so far exceeds what state and local resources can address alone,” Polis added. “I am asking President Trump to swiftly approve this request to help restore essential services, rebuild damaged infrastructure, and support these communities on their road to recovery.”

The state is still working to assess the total damage caused by the floods, and additional costs and counties could be added to the request once damage assessments are complete. As of Thursday, about 100 homes in Archuleta County were still inaccessible.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, whose lands were also affected by the severe flooding, will pursue FEMA assistance separate from the state’s request, the Governor’s Office said.

Polis declared a disaster emergency on Oct. 22 for flooding in Alamosa, Archuleta, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Ouray, Rio Grande, San Juan, and San Miguel counties, later adding Conejos County.

The state has already received $6.5 million from the Federal Highway Administration to begin emergency repairs to three highways damaged in the floods.

The state deployed nearly 100 National Guard members and rescued 48 people and 31 animals.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

BOULDER — It’s one thing to keep moving the goalposts for Deion Sanders. But who takes them down for … K-State?

4-4 Kansas State?

4-4 and 1-4 in the Big 12 Kansas State?

4-4 and playing-its-third-string-and-fourth-string QBs Kansas State?

4-4 and shoulda-gone-for-two Kansas State?

CU Buffs students do, apparently.

Says a lot.

Not all of it kind.

“Our fan base is great,” Buffs tight end Charlie Williams said after his 11-yard touchdown grab in overtime sealed a wacky, field-storming 27-24 win over the Wildcats. “We love it. Kinda crazy because the field goal posts started coming down, and I was like, ‘All right, they’re storming the field.'”

For … that?

Yeah, we know, we know. Halloween weekend. Noon kick. Hangover special. CU students finally saw the Buffs’ (3-5, 1-4 Big 12) five-game losing streak snapped. They finally saw a nine-game Big 12 losing skid snapped. Saturday was the first time the Buffs had scored more than 24 points against a Power 4 opponent since a 52-0 demolition of Oklahoma State in November 2024.

Let ’em have their fun, right? Fine. But know this: Storming the field for an overtime win over a team you should’ve run out of the building — especially when you pile up a season-best 222 rushing yards — sure is a curious look for a program with championship aspirations. It’s awfully … well … 2022.

“Should have never went to overtime, I feel,” Sanders, now 19-26 over four seasons at CU, 10-22 in league contests, reflected later. “(We) allowed some crazy things to happen.”

The craziest stuff happened midway through the second quarter and right at the end of regulation. CU had Kansas State on the ropes at least twice. The Buffs should’ve put the QB-challenged Wildcats away just before halftime, only to fumble away a 13-0 lead out of the back of the K-State end zone.

The second K-State escape was more painful. CU was trying to salt away the clock while nursing a 21-14 lead with 50 seconds left. The Wildcats, behind former Erie quarterback Blake Barnett, got the ball back at their own 38.

And for the next 46 seconds, Colorado Avenue became Blake Street.

Barnett, tougher than old boots, completed a 23-yard pass to the Buffs’ 39. Then a 5-yard toss. On second-and-5 at the CU 34, K-State wideout Jaron Tibbs beat the Buff defense for a 31-yard gain to the Buffs’ 3. On third-and-goal from the Buffs’ 8-yard line, Barnett, on what looked like one good leg, squeezed a ball into tight end Garrett Oakley for a score with two seconds left to bring K-State to within 21-20.

In a decision he would probably regret later, Collin Klein, the first-year Wildcats coach and former Loveland High standout, chose to kick the extra point after initially lining up for a 2-point conversion to win in regulation.

Williams gave Sanders a Halloween treat to remember. And Klein is going to be kicking himself all the way back to Manhattan.

In hindsight, maybe it was only apropos for one of the weirdest weeks of the Coach Prime Era at CU — with Sanders denying he would pay critics $50,000 not to talk about him and national media buzzards circling a Buffs squad back in the Big 12 basement — to end with one of the strangest games at Folsom in recent memory. For one week, at least, the “buyout” chatter gets a sweet reprieve.

“It takes a lot of pressure off, honestly,” Buffs safety Randon Fontenette said. “There was a lot of chatter (this week) that I don’t even want to speak on… It felt like a dark cloud over this place… it’s a huge relief.”

Klein and his ‘Cats (4-4, 1-4) got the version of CU that the Buffs flashed in the second half here in a near-miss against Texas Tech and in the first half last weekend in Stillwater. Tailback Richard Young accounted for 120 yards and two TDs on 24 carries. Running mate JaQuail Smith added 63 on the ground.

From discipline to play-calling, this was Peak Buffs. Desperate Buffs. Urgent Buffs. CU was flagged for just 53 yards in penalties and turned it over only once. Sanders and offensive coordinator Brennan Marion leaned on the run game and punter Damon Greaves to leverage better field position rather than trusting QB Isaac Wilson in a one-score game.

Good call. The Buffs ran where they wanted, when they wanted, for the most part. Young’s 22-yard TD sprint three minutes into the final stanza capped a 10-play, 96-yard scoring drive that put the hosts up 20-14 before the extra point.

And, in hindsight, it shouldn’t have been that close. Special teams miscues continue to nag. Running with a return right after signaling for a fair catch. An illegal formation call on a fourth-quarter CU punt gave the Wildcats 22 more yards of field position after the second return.

A noon kick on a Halloween Saturday was always going to be a tough sell for college kids on a holiday weekend. And the first quarter was notable for the number of students who came disguised as empty seats. The crowd did trickle in before halftime, though, and those who remained for the duration came away with plenty to talk about.

K-State rolled into town without its top two QB options in Avery Johnson and Jacob Knuth. With Dillon Duff and Barnett warming up, Klein chose the former — a sophomore out of St. Louis making his collegiate debut. It showed. The visitors had all of two passing yards by the start of the second quarter.

But just as CU, which was already up 7-0, looked ready to put this bad boy away early, the football gods had other ideas.

The Buffs marched upfield quickly behind a 19-yard Wilson toss to DeAndre Moore Jr. to the K-State 40 and two Young runs that brought up a second-and-7 at the Wildcats’ 30. DeKalon Taylor took a pitch from his QB and exploded with the rock up the left boundary and raced into the end zone — which is where K-State, literally, got cheeky.

As Taylor reached the 1-yard line, Wildcat cornerback Kaleb Patterson went for the CU back’s legs and, as a result, hit the runner’s hands with his hindquarters. The ball squirted out like a wet bar of soap before rolling all the way out of the back of the end zone for a K-State touchback.

The Buffs were inches from a 13-0 lead before the turnover, but the fine margins bit Sanders’ team in the backside again.

“I don’t know what the definition of ‘desperation’ is. I don’t think these young men are desperate,” Sanders said later. “The main thing I told them to do is go out there and have fun. It’s impossible to have fun when you get your butt kicked.”

The desperate know better than to complain about a little light that breaks through all those dark clouds. Even when it’s 4-4 … K-State.

Even a dying dog has a good day, now and again, before the inevitable closes in and the goalposts come down for a long winter’s nap. For the first time since Georgia Tech, CU snatched a victory from someone in its weight class. With four winnable games left on the fight card, including road trips to Arizona State and Cincinnati, we’ll know soon enough if Sanders’ fourth team is actually ready for Prime Time.