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08_21_24_headlines Alexis Kenyon
Former Aurora Police officer denies charges of child sex crimes
A retired Aurora police sergeant is facing child sexual abuse charges in Douglas County. Multiple children are accusing 55-year-old Michael Hawkins of years of sexual and physical abuse from 2002 to 2021. Hawkins confronts seven felony counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust and one misdemeanor count of child abuse.
The allegations include raping an elementary-aged girl, groping several children, and using harmful physical tactics, such as holding a boy underwater until he nearly drowned.
Hawkins, who served on the Aurora Police Department for 23 years, faced scrutiny in 2017 following a police brutality incident where video footage showed him stomping on a woman’s head during an arrest, leading to a $335,000 settlement for the victim.
Hawkins retired from the Aurora police force in 2018, and victims filed charges against him for child sexual abuse in 2022. According to the Aurora Police Department’s brief, police needed two years to gather enough evidence to move forward with the case.
Days after officers arrested Hawkins in July, a district judge released him under a $50,000 bond. His attorney successfully argued that Hawkins posed no threat to public safety and has no prior criminal history.
Colorado test scores are getting better but there are still issues
On Tuesday, the Colorado Department of Education reported that many students have bounced back from pandemic setbacks, showing gains in state standardized tests.
Gaps remain, especially among students of color, those with disabilities, low-income students, and English learners. Students in various grades improved in math, English language arts, and science, with some even surpassing pre-pandemic scores. Yet, high schoolers struggled with math on the PSAT and SAT, and fourth graders saw the biggest drop in English language arts on the CMAS test.
Education Commissioner Susana Córdova praised the progress but stressed the need to close achievement gaps. These gaps remain wide, with disparities between white students and Black or Hispanic students ranging from 26 to 33 percentage points. Gaps between affluent and low-income students range from 31 to 33.5 percentage points.
About 500,000 students took the state exams in April, but participation rates have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. Some grades and subjects saw participation so low that officials urge caution in interpreting the data.
Despite these challenges, certain grades exceeded 2019 scores, and student growth has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels
Pitbulls aren’t legal in Aurora. A new ballot measure could change that.
Aurora voters will decide in November whether to allow pit bulls, American Staffordshire Terriers, and Staffordshire Bull Terriers back into the city after a 16-year ban.
The issue follows years of debate over the perceived aggression of these dogs. Aurora initially banned pit bulls in 2005 following an incident where a young boy was mauled by three pit bulls.
In 2014, voters rejected a repeal of the ban by a 2-1 margin. Then, in 2021, the City Council bypassed a public vote and repealed the ban, prompting some residents to welcome the breeds back. However, in March 2024, Matthew Snider challenged the repeal, claiming it violated the city charter and ignored the 2014 vote. A district court judge ruled in favor of Snider, stating that the council had overstepped its authority by repealing the ban without a public vote. The city appealed the court decision, but the judge’s ruling remains in effect.
In July 2024, the Aurora City Council voted to put the repeal of the ban on the November ballot, allowing voters to decide the issue once again
Year’s first human case of West Nile Virus in Boulder County reported in Longmont
Longmont has reported the first human case of West Nile Virus in Boulder County for the year. According to the Boulder County Health Department, a Longmont resident, who was reported to have the virus on August 16, is currently hospitalized and was likely bitten by a mosquito while at home before symptoms started.
Symptoms of the virus can include fever, extreme fatigue, headache, body aches, and occasionally skin rashes and swollen lymph nodes. Symptoms generally appear between three days and two weeks after someone is bitten by an infected mosquito.
There is no treatment, cure, or human vaccination for the virus; however, medical providers can treat symptoms. The announcement comes only days after Denver reported its first case of West Nile Virus over the weekend.
