thedenverpost--2020-07-24--Rockies Insider: Opening day is finally here, the one constant through all the years has been baseba

Rockies Insider: Opening day is finally here, the one constant through all the years has been baseball.

Opening day is finally here for the boys of summer and America ’ s national pastime .
Sports has always had a way of bringing folks together during troubling times , now fans turn to the game again as we continue to fight our way through the coronavirus pandemic .
Americans turned to sports in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center .
The way our country rallied together around baseball was special .
Nineteen years later , we need something to rally around again .
Even though the 2020 MLB season will only be 60 games @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
With opening day finally here , it ’ s hard not to think of the speech James Earl Jones gave at the end of “ Field of Dreams.
” “ The one constant through all the years , Ray , has been baseball .
“ America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers .
It ’ s been erased like a blackboard , rebuilt , and erased again .
But baseball has marked the time .
“ This field , this game — it ’ s a part of our past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all that once was good , and it could be again.
” Like what you ’ re reading ?
Share this with a friend and tell them it ’ s easy to sign up for the Rockies Insider here .
NEW 💥 If you enjoy The Denver Post ’ s sports coverage , we have a new subscription offer for you !
Try the first month for just 99¢ How Rockies reliever Daniel Bard conquered the yips and returned to MLB seven years after he left it Last Friday , the Rockies ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the major leagues more than seven years ago due to confounding case of “ the yips , ” was told he ’ d made the big-league team .
Read more… The waiting game continues for Rockies infielder Brendan Rodgers , while a major rehab awaits right-handed pitcher Peter Lambert .
Read more… Rockies beat writer Patrick Saunders takes questions from readers , including one from a fan who ’ s curious if there ’ s been a cooling of tensions between Nolan Arenado and Jeff Bridich .
Read more… + Jim Hilliard , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ son , Sam , play for Rockies Friday night + Keeler : Embrace Nolan Arenado .
Embrace weird .
Embrace asterisks .
2020 Rockies season is gift horse you don ’ t look in the mouth .
+ German Marquez will be Rockies ’ starter for 2020 season opener .
Here ’ s how other Colorado pitchers have fared If you see something that ’ s cause for question or have a comment , thought or suggestion , email me at jbailey @ denverpost.com or tweet me @ beetbailey .

Opening day is finally here for the boys of summer and America’s national pastime.
Sports has always had a way of bringing folks together during troubling times, now fans turn to the game again as we continue to fight our way through the coronavirus pandemic.
Americans turned to sports in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The way our country rallied together around baseball was special. Nineteen years later, we need something to rally around again. Even though the 2020 MLB season will only be 60 games, it could not be more welcome.
With opening day finally here, it’s hard not to think of the speech James Earl Jones gave at the end of “Field of Dreams.”
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.
“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.
“This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”
Watch the full speech here.
— Jeff Bailey, The Denver Post
Like what you’re reading? Share this with a friend and tell them it’s easy to sign up for the Rockies Insider here.
NEW 💥 If you enjoy The Denver Post’s sports coverage, we have a new subscription offer for you! Try the first month for just 99¢
Must-Read
Last Friday, the Rockies’ right-handed reliever, who last pitched in the major leagues more than seven years ago due to confounding case of “the yips,” was told he’d made the big-league team. Read more…
The waiting game continues for Rockies infielder Brendan Rodgers, while a major rehab awaits right-handed pitcher Peter Lambert. Read more…
Rockies beat writer Patrick Saunders takes questions from readers, including one from a fan who’s curious if there’s been a cooling of tensions between Nolan Arenado and Jeff Bridich. Read more…
Quick Hits
+ Jim Hilliard, battling ALS, will get to watch son, Sam, play for Rockies Friday night
+ Fast start looms large as Rockies enter weird, wild 2020 MLB season
+ Keeler: Embrace Nolan Arenado. Embrace weird. Embrace asterisks. 2020 Rockies season is gift horse you don’t look in the mouth.
+ Rockies reliever Scott Oberg starting season on injured list due to back strain
+ German Marquez will be Rockies’ starter for 2020 season opener. Here’s how other Colorado pitchers have fared
+ Rockies’ plan for playing safe, finishing MLB season amid coronavirus pandemic
+ Denver Post staff predictions for the 2020 MLB season
+ Rockies 2020 preview: MLB coronavirus opt-out tracker
Get in Touch
If you see something that’s cause for question or have a comment, thought or suggestion, email me at jbailey@denverpost.com or tweet me @beetbailey.


thedenverpost--2020-07-24--How Rockies reliever Daniel Bard conquered the yips and returned to MLB seven years after he left it

Adair Bard loaded her three small children into the car and headed for a Sonic drive-in last Friday , just down the road from her rental house on Lookout Mountain .
“ We did cheers to dad with slushies , ” she said with a laugh .
“ We went all out .
I mean , we had to celebrate , right ?
” It ’ s not often — close to never — that a pitcher does what her husband has done .
And as baseball finally returns amid the coronavirus pandemic , and as Americans search for rays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Daniel Bard ’ s journey is worthy of a raised glass .
Last Friday , the Rockies ’ right-handed reliever , who last pitched in the major leagues more than seven years ago due to confounding case of “ the yips , ” was told he ’ d made the big-league team .
This Friday , at Globe Life Field in Arlington , Texas , Bard , at age 35 , will stand with his teammates for baseball ’ s traditional opening-day introductions .
Goosebumps are expected .
And at some point this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bullpen , hike the mound and be back in a spot he wondered if he ’ d ever experience again .
“ This is the realization of a dream I ’ ve had for a long , long time , and one that almost went away , ” said Bard , who at last count had received more than 250 text messages of congratulations .
He threw his first big-league pitch as a member of the Boston Red Sox on May 13 , 2009 , at Fenway Park vs. the Angels .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ April 27 , 2013 , against the Astros .
For some perspective , consider this : Since Bard ’ s control problems forced him out of the game , Rockies star third baseman Nolan Arenado has won seven consecutive Gold Gloves .
Now they are teammates .
“ It ’ s going to be a great story when Daniel comes back and pitches well , ” said Rockies manager Bud Black , a former big-league pitcher who has seen his fair share of pitchers lose control and never make it back .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amazing , ” Story said .
“ What he ’ s been through is tough , but to be able to come back from that is awesome .
I ’ m proud to see what he ’ s done.
” In 2010 , Bard was a burgeoning hero in baseball-crazy Boston .
A first-round pick out of the University of North Carolina who could throw a 98 mph fastball , Bard pitched nearly 75 innings that season , posting a glittering 1.93 ERA .
He was the club ’ s heir apparent to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ injuries , control issues and creeping self-doubt .
Bard ’ s ERA skyrocketed to 6.22 in 2012 and he was demoted to the minors early in the 2013 season .
His career hit rock-bottom in the spring of 2017 in Port St. Lucie , Fla. , where he attempted to hook up with the Mets , the fifth team that tried , and failed , to find Bard ’ s lost pitch command .
Bard was so desperate that spring , he resorted to a submarine delivery .
It didn ’ t work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But his dream never really died .
Even though Bard ’ s first priority became raising his family — sons , Davis , 4 , and Sykes , 2 , and 8-month-old-daughter , Campbell — baseball kept whispering to him .
Adair watched as her husband built a homemade pitching net and started throwing in the backyard of their home in Greenville , S.C. “ At first I thought he was building it for our sons , but then I saw Daniel throwing more and more and I realized he was still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ’ s ridden the up-and-down life of a baseball wife for 10 years .
Adair calls her husband “ the most laid-back perfectionist I ’ ve ever met , ” and realizes that his quiet inner-drive is the key to his remarkable comeback .
But so is another component of his personality .
“ I ’ ve always admired Daniel for not being afraid of what others thought , ” she said .
“ Because what he went through would be extremely embarrassing for most people .
And I know he had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But he kept trying .
And finally , we decided , ‘ If this is crazy , let ’ s be crazy in it together.
’ ” For Bard , throwing a baseball had always been an automatic action .
Firing a 98 mph fastball into a catcher ’ s glove was a natural process .
Until , suddenly , it wasn ’ t .
Pitches sailing to the backstop became a common occurrence , which led to a vicious cycle .
Bard likens the problem to the simple act of walking , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becomes overly conscious of simple mechanics .
“ It was the yips , that ’ s what it was .
I don ’ t mind calling it that , ” he said .
Still , Bard wanted to stay in baseball and had connections within the game .
Mike Hazen , the Arizona Diamondbacks ’ general manager who knew Bard from Boston , hired him as a mental skills coach and player mentor in 2018 .
Bard , empathetic by nature , instructed players on meditation , breathing techniques and the mind-body connection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it all came back to me , in a way , ” Bard said .
“ But I didn ’ t plan it that way .
Not once did I think of it as a path to get me back to pitching .
It was almost by accident that I learned so much about myself by teaching the other guys.
” Feeling no pressure to perform , Bard eased back into pitching and realized there was still lightning in his right arm .
“ Toward the end of 2019 , I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with minor league players as a roving instructor , ” he said .
“ I was playing catch with guys as a way to connect with them .
Guys started saying , ‘ Dude , you ’ ve still got it.
’ ” Although Bard wasn ’ t really convinced , the seeds of a comeback had been planted .
He got back on a mound in January at the home ballpark of the Greenville Drive , the low-A minor-league team of the Red Sox .
Soon , he was throwing to big-league @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I was throwing strikes again , in the mid-90s , and it felt loose and easy … something I hadn ’ t felt in years , ” Bard said .
“ So , I told myself that I either had to give this a real shot , try to pitch again , or move on from baseball .
I knew I couldn ’ t stay in baseball and have the feeling that I could still pitch .
I had to give it a try.
” During a February tryout for pro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ariz. , Bard ’ s fastball lit up radar guns .
The Rockies contacted him first and pursued him hardest , so he signed a minor-league deal .
Bard had a so-so performance during spring training but bouts of wildness didn ’ t return .
But then the coronavirus shut down baseball and Bard ’ s remarkable comeback seemed to be in jeopardy .
Except that he didn ’ t see it that way .
“ It was a good thing for me , honestly , ” he said .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was able to go home .
I had a great group of guys to go work out with .
We had the stadium opened to us , and I was able to throw like 10-12 live BPs to Triple-A and big-league hitters and got tons of feedback , got real comfortable with my repertoire.
” For the Rockies to have any chance to contend for a playoff spot in a season cut from 162 games to 60 because of the pandemic , their bullpen must be stellar .
Black said Bard “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ He ’ s throwing 98 mph , his arm looks loose and he looks confident , ” Black said .
“ I ’ m excited to see what he can do for us.
” Adair can ’ t help but think about how far they ’ ve come .
When she and her husband first met , Adair knew next to nothing about baseball .
Now she speaks fluently about pitch command , fastballs and sliders .
And as she watched her husband throw batting practice in empty stadiums on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she found herself listening to the game .
“ Now , I think my favorite sound is the ball smacking into the catcher ’ s mitt , ” Adair said .
“ Because through the years , I heard too many balls going to the backstop .
So hearing that sound when Daniel throws a strike is music to my ears .
”

Adair Bard loaded her three small children into the car and headed for a Sonic drive-in last Friday, just down the road from her rental house on Lookout Mountain.
“We did cheers to dad with slushies,” she said with a laugh. “We went all out. I mean, we had to celebrate, right?”
Right.
It’s not often — close to never — that a pitcher does what her husband has done. And as baseball finally returns amid the coronavirus pandemic, and as Americans search for rays of joy during this trying summer, Daniel Bard’s journey is worthy of a raised glass.
Last Friday, the Rockies’ right-handed reliever, who last pitched in the major leagues more than seven years ago due to confounding case of “the yips,” was told he’d made the big-league team.
This Friday, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Bard, at age 35, will stand with his teammates for baseball’s traditional opening-day introductions. Goosebumps are expected.
And at some point this weekend, Bard will trot in from the bullpen, hike the mound and be back in a spot he wondered if he’d ever experience again.
“This is the realization of a dream I’ve had for a long, long time, and one that almost went away,” said Bard, who at last count had received more than 250 text messages of congratulations.
He threw his first big-league pitch as a member of the Boston Red Sox on May 13, 2009, at Fenway Park vs. the Angels. He threw his last big-league pitch on April 27, 2013, against the Astros.
For some perspective, consider this: Since Bard’s control problems forced him out of the game, Rockies star third baseman Nolan Arenado has won seven consecutive Gold Gloves. Now they are teammates.
“It’s going to be a great story when Daniel comes back and pitches well,” said Rockies manager Bud Black, a former big-league pitcher who has seen his fair share of pitchers lose control and never make it back.
Star shortstop Trevor Story called Bard’s journey “incredible.”
“The grit and perseverance it takes is amazing,” Story said. “What he’s been through is tough, but to be able to come back from that is awesome. I’m proud to see what he’s done.”
In 2010, Bard was a burgeoning hero in baseball-crazy Boston. A first-round pick out of the University of North Carolina who could throw a 98 mph fastball, Bard pitched nearly 75 innings that season, posting a glittering 1.93 ERA. He was the club’s heir apparent to star close Jonathan Papelbon.
Then came injuries, control issues and creeping self-doubt. Bard’s ERA skyrocketed to 6.22 in 2012 and he was demoted to the minors early in the 2013 season.
His career hit rock-bottom in the spring of 2017 in Port St. Lucie, Fla., where he attempted to hook up with the Mets, the fifth team that tried, and failed, to find Bard’s lost pitch command. Bard was so desperate that spring, he resorted to a submarine delivery. It didn’t work, so he retired as a pitcher.
But his dream never really died. Even though Bard’s first priority became raising his family — sons, Davis, 4, and Sykes, 2, and 8-month-old-daughter, Campbell — baseball kept whispering to him.
Adair watched as her husband built a homemade pitching net and started throwing in the backyard of their home in Greenville, S.C.
“At first I thought he was building it for our sons, but then I saw Daniel throwing more and more and I realized he was still missing baseball,” said Adair, who’s ridden the up-and-down life of a baseball wife for 10 years.
Adair calls her husband “the most laid-back perfectionist I’ve ever met,” and realizes that his quiet inner-drive is the key to his remarkable comeback. But so is another component of his personality.
“I’ve always admired Daniel for not being afraid of what others thought,” she said. “Because what he went through would be extremely embarrassing for most people. And I know he had moments of embarrassment and frustration.
“But he kept trying. And finally, we decided, ‘If this is crazy, let’s be crazy in it together.’ ”
For Bard, throwing a baseball had always been an automatic action. Firing a 98 mph fastball into a catcher’s glove was a natural process. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t. Pitches sailing to the backstop became a common occurrence, which led to a vicious cycle. Bard likens the problem to the simple act of walking, to where, suddenly, the mind becomes overly conscious of simple mechanics.
“It was the yips, that’s what it was. I don’t mind calling it that,” he said.
Still, Bard wanted to stay in baseball and had connections within the game. Mike Hazen, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ general manager who knew Bard from Boston, hired him as a mental skills coach and player mentor in 2018. Bard, empathetic by nature, instructed players on meditation, breathing techniques and the mind-body connection.
Then something remarkable happened.
“That coaching, that teaching, it all came back to me, in a way,” Bard said. “But I didn’t plan it that way. Not once did I think of it as a path to get me back to pitching. It was almost by accident that I learned so much about myself by teaching the other guys.”
Feeling no pressure to perform, Bard eased back into pitching and realized there was still lightning in his right arm.
“Toward the end of 2019, I was on the field a lot, interacting with minor league players as a roving instructor,” he said. “I was playing catch with guys as a way to connect with them. Guys started saying, ‘Dude, you’ve still got it.’ ”
Although Bard wasn’t really convinced, the seeds of a comeback had been planted. He got back on a mound in January at the home ballpark of the Greenville Drive, the low-A minor-league team of the Red Sox. Soon, he was throwing to big-league hitters who had gathered for winter workouts.
“I was throwing strikes again, in the mid-90s, and it felt loose and easy … something I hadn’t felt in years,” Bard said. “So, I told myself that I either had to give this a real shot, try to pitch again, or move on from baseball. I knew I couldn’t stay in baseball and have the feeling that I could still pitch. I had to give it a try.”
During a February tryout for pro scouts at a high school in Scottsdale, Ariz., Bard’s fastball lit up radar guns. The Rockies contacted him first and pursued him hardest, so he signed a minor-league deal.
Bard had a so-so performance during spring training but bouts of wildness didn’t return. But then the coronavirus shut down baseball and Bard’s remarkable comeback seemed to be in jeopardy. Except that he didn’t see it that way.
“It was a good thing for me, honestly,” he said. “It was a huge blessing in disguise. I was able to go home. I had a great group of guys to go work out with. We had the stadium opened to us, and I was able to throw like 10-12 live BPs to Triple-A and big-league hitters and got tons of feedback, got real comfortable with my repertoire.”
For the Rockies to have any chance to contend for a playoff spot in a season cut from 162 games to 60 because of the pandemic, their bullpen must be stellar. Black said Bard “could really have an impact for us.”
“He’s throwing 98 mph, his arm looks loose and he looks confident,” Black said. “I’m excited to see what he can do for us.”
Adair can’t help but think about how far they’ve come. When she and her husband first met, Adair knew next to nothing about baseball. Now she speaks fluently about pitch command, fastballs and sliders.
And as she watched her husband throw batting practice in empty stadiums on the long road back to the majors, she found herself listening to the game.
“Now, I think my favorite sound is the ball smacking into the catcher’s mitt,” Adair said. “Because through the years, I heard too many balls going to the backstop. So hearing that sound when Daniel throws a strike is music to my ears.”


thedenverpost--2020-07-24--Colorado’s billionaires make billions more during pandemic and recession

While Colorado was grappling this spring and summer with 10 % unemployment , a wave of small business closures , a massive state budget crunch and the possible eviction of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes , the wealthiest residents of the Centennial State were acquiring billions of dollars more .
Between March 18 and July 22 , Colorado ’ s 10 billionaires increased their net worth by a combined $ 6.9 billion — a 22 % gain — according to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness .
Only two of the 10 lost money in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdowns .
“ So few Americans can live such a fabulously wealthy life while everybody else is toiling away , trying to keep their head above water , trying to make it day to day and struggling , ” said Frank Clemente , executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness , a national group that advocates for progressive tax policies .
Charlie Ergen , co-founder and chairman of DISH Network , increased his net worth by about $ 4 billion , or 73 % , in the brutal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to the Forbes data .
Ken Tuchman , founder of the outsourcing company TTEC , increased his worth by $ 596 million , or 46 % .
Both men , through spokespeople for their respective companies , declined to comment this week .
Colorado ’ s wealthiest person , Phil Anschutz , began the recession with $ 11 billion and now has $ 11.7 billion .
Its second-wealthiest , media tycoon John Malone , had $ 5.8 billion on March 18 and $ 6.9 billion by Wednesday , according to the data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this are able to accumulate so much wealth for lots of reasons , but one reason is because their wealth is much more lightly taxed than an average person ’ s salaries and wages , ” said Clemente , a wealth tax proponent .
“ The growth in their wealth is not even taxed unless they sell their wealth.
” Pat Stryker , a medical technology heir and the wealthiest woman in Colorado , increased her wealth by 29 % — from $ 2 billion to $ 2.6 billion — in the four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spokesperson for Stryker ’ s Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins did not respond to a request for comment Thursday .
Two of Colorado ’ s billionaires lost money during the tough economic times this year .
James Leprino , CEO of Leprino Foods , watched his net worth go from $ 3.2 billion in March to $ 3 billion on Wednesday , according to the Forbes data , and financier Thomas Bailey lost a relatively modest $ 34 million in that time .

While Colorado was grappling this spring and summer with 10% unemployment, a wave of small business closures, a massive state budget crunch and the possible eviction of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, the wealthiest residents of the Centennial State were acquiring billions of dollars more.
Between March 18 and July 22, Colorado’s 10 billionaires increased their net worth by a combined $6.9 billion — a 22% gain — according to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness. Only two of the 10 lost money in the sudden and stark recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic and accompanying shutdowns.
“So few Americans can live such a fabulously wealthy life while everybody else is toiling away, trying to keep their head above water, trying to make it day to day and struggling,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, a national group that advocates for progressive tax policies.
Charlie Ergen, co-founder and chairman of DISH Network, increased his net worth by about $4 billion, or 73%, in the brutal economic months between mid-March and mid-July, according to the Forbes data. Ken Tuchman, founder of the outsourcing company TTEC, increased his worth by $596 million, or 46%. Both men, through spokespeople for their respective companies, declined to comment this week.
Colorado’s wealthiest person, Phil Anschutz, began the recession with $11 billion and now has $11.7 billion. Its second-wealthiest, media tycoon John Malone, had $5.8 billion on March 18 and $6.9 billion by Wednesday, according to the data.
“Folks at the top like this are able to accumulate so much wealth for lots of reasons, but one reason is because their wealth is much more lightly taxed than an average person’s salaries and wages,” said Clemente, a wealth tax proponent. “The growth in their wealth is not even taxed unless they sell their wealth.”
Pat Stryker, a medical technology heir and the wealthiest woman in Colorado, increased her wealth by 29% — from $2 billion to $2.6 billion — in the four months from mid-March to mid-July. A spokesperson for Stryker’s Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Two of Colorado’s billionaires lost money during the tough economic times this year. James Leprino, CEO of Leprino Foods, watched his net worth go from $3.2 billion in March to $3 billion on Wednesday, according to the Forbes data, and financier Thomas Bailey lost a relatively modest $34 million in that time.


thedenverpost--2020-07-24--Growing frustration in Colorado over delays in COVID-19 test results

Colorado officials are once again seeking ways to aggressively ramp up state testing for COVID-19 after a national backlog at private labs has left residents waiting days — and sometimes even more than a week — for results .
The number of new coronavirus cases in the state has increased for five consecutive weeks , and that rise in infections is highlighting gaps that continue to persist in the state ’ s ability to test for COVID-19 more than four months into the pandemic .
The testing difficulties in Colorado come as a national surge in coronavirus cases is straining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a shortage in supplies .
The situation echoes the early days of the outbreak when the spread of the disease far outpaced the ability to test for it .
“ While we would all be better off if there was a national strategy and effective management of supplies , that ’ s not the world we live in , ” Gov .
Jared Polis said during a Thursday news conference .
He said tests are “ almost worthless ” when it takes as many as 10 days to get results back .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new cases of COVID-19 , bringing the total number of infections since March to 42,314 Hospitalizations for the coronavirus , which had increased in recent weeks , have fallen for several days , and on Thursday dropped to 237 people from 247 individuals the day before .
Another two people were confirmed Thursday to have died directly from COVID-19 , bringing the total to 1,645 .
Since March , 1,786 people have died with the disease in their system .
During the week of July 12 , the state lab and private companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — the highest weekly total yet .
That ’ s up from the more than 43,200 tests during the week of June 14 .
The state also has seen the number of tests coming back positive increase from 3.14 % to 5.07 % during that same period , meaning there is more transmission of COVID-19 and the increase in cases is not just the result of more testing .
With the large laboratory companies , such as LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics , reporting long wait times for results , Colorado is pursuing other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state lab , health systems and private firms , Polis said .
For example , he said , Colorado has added a third , overnight shift at the state lab .
The state also has agreements with Children ’ s Hospital Colorado , National Jewish Health and other private labs , including Biodesix and Unipath , to process tests .
Colorado expects another 300,000 tests and 800,000 swab kits to arrive in the next eight weeks , according to a news release from the governor ’ s office .
“ We know that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lab partners that are now showing nine- , 10- , 11-day turnarounds , ” Polis said during the briefing , adding that such wait times are “ not acceptable.
” Quest Diagnostics did not respond to a request for comment .
A representative for LabCorp was not available for comment Thursday .
“ The problem is that the number of tests being asked to be performed each week is growing faster than the capacity that we can build , ” LabCorp CEO Adam Schechter told CNBC earlier this week .
LabCorp , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ takes three to five days for results , processes tests for Denver ’ s drive-thru site at the Pepsi Center , one of the largest testing sites in the metro area .
The Pepsi Center site has experienced such a large increase in demand for testing that city officials have placed a cap of 2,000 tests per day to avoid overwhelming labs and further delaying results .
For those who go to get tested at the Pepsi Center , it can take anywhere between one and 12 days to get results , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Public Safety , in an email .
Not everywhere has such long waits for COVID-19 testing .
Some health providers , such as Kaiser Permanente , can get test results within 24 hours .
Meanwhile , at the state lab , it takes on average four days for results , according to Colorado ’ s health department .
The state lab runs test samples for long-term care facilities , such as nursing homes , detention centers , jails , prisons , hospitals and some of the community testing sites across Colorado @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Public Health and Environment .
However , the recent delays in test results is a stark reversal of the progress state and city officials had seemingly made in increasing testing capacity .
Just a few weeks ago , the average turnaround time for test results was one to two days .
And last month , the Pepsi Center began testing people who don ’ t have symptoms of the novel coronavirus but believe they may have been exposed to someone with the illness .
The move to test those who are asymptomatic coincided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the thousands of people protesting police brutality in Denver get tested .
But it also indicated an expansion in testing , which at the start of the pandemic was so limited that even those with symptoms struggled to get tested and state officials at the time believed the number of confirmed cases was well below the actual number of Coloradans with COVID-19 .
Despite the recent delays in results , the Pepsi Center testing site is still testing those without COVID-19 symptoms , Christensen said .
“ We are in conversations with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs of the community going forward , ” she said .
But not everyone thinks those without symptoms should be tested , especially while there is a national backlog of tests and supplies shortages .
“ It ’ s only going to further delay the test results coming back for people who are symptomatic , ” said Ben Wiederholt , chief executive officer of Stride Community Health Center , adding , “ If the turnaround times weren ’ t the problem and the challenges aren ’ t what they are , I would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Health offers COVID-19 testing to those with symptoms , along with hospital workers and other first responders .
The center is also experiencing delays , including as much as two weeks for results .
Stride , which sends samples to Quest Diagnostics , is looking for other ways to get quicker test results , Wiederholt said .
“ The value of the testing drops with each day that a person doesn ’ t get their results , ” he said .

Colorado officials are once again seeking ways to aggressively ramp up state testing for COVID-19 after a national backlog at private labs has left residents waiting days — and sometimes even more than a week — for results.
The number of new coronavirus cases in the state has increased for five consecutive weeks, and that rise in infections is highlighting gaps that continue to persist in the state’s ability to test for COVID-19 more than four months into the pandemic.
The testing difficulties in Colorado come as a national surge in coronavirus cases is straining laboratories across the U.S. and there is a shortage in supplies. The situation echoes the early days of the outbreak when the spread of the disease far outpaced the ability to test for it.
“While we would all be better off if there was a national strategy and effective management of supplies, that’s not the world we live in,” Gov. Jared Polis said during a Thursday news conference.
He said tests are “almost worthless” when it takes as many as 10 days to get results back.
On Thursday, state health officials announced 616 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections since March to 42,314 Hospitalizations for the coronavirus, which had increased in recent weeks, have fallen for several days, and on Thursday dropped to 237 people from 247 individuals the day before.
Another two people were confirmed Thursday to have died directly from COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,645. Since March, 1,786 people have died with the disease in their system.
During the week of July 12, the state lab and private companies processed more than 62,000 tests for Colorado — the highest weekly total yet. That’s up from the more than 43,200 tests during the week of June 14.
The state also has seen the number of tests coming back positive increase from 3.14% to 5.07% during that same period, meaning there is more transmission of COVID-19 and the increase in cases is not just the result of more testing.
Wait times “not acceptable”
With the large laboratory companies, such as LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, reporting long wait times for results, Colorado is pursuing other ways to increase testing capacity via the state lab, health systems and private firms, Polis said.
For example, he said, Colorado has added a third, overnight shift at the state lab. The state also has agreements with Children’s Hospital Colorado, National Jewish Health and other private labs, including Biodesix and Unipath, to process tests.
COVID-19 basics Symptoms of COVID-19 — including fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, and nausea — can appear between two and 14 days after exposure, the CDC says. Public health recommendations: — Wear masks that cover your mouth and nose — Stay at least 6 feet from others — Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds More guidelines: covid19.colorado.gov
Colorado expects another 300,000 tests and 800,000 swab kits to arrive in the next eight weeks, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
“We know that we cannot count on these national lab partners that are now showing nine-, 10-, 11-day turnarounds,” Polis said during the briefing, adding that such wait times are “not acceptable.”
Quest Diagnostics did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for LabCorp was not available for comment Thursday.
“The problem is that the number of tests being asked to be performed each week is growing faster than the capacity that we can build,” LabCorp CEO Adam Schechter told CNBC earlier this week.
Reversal of progress
LabCorp, which said in a news release that it takes three to five days for results, processes tests for Denver’s drive-thru site at the Pepsi Center, one of the largest testing sites in the metro area.
The Pepsi Center site has experienced such a large increase in demand for testing that city officials have placed a cap of 2,000 tests per day to avoid overwhelming labs and further delaying results.
For those who go to get tested at the Pepsi Center, it can take anywhere between one and 12 days to get results, said Kelli Christensen, spokeswoman for the city Department of Public Safety, in an email.
Not everywhere has such long waits for COVID-19 testing. Some health providers, such as Kaiser Permanente, can get test results within 24 hours. Meanwhile, at the state lab, it takes on average four days for results, according to Colorado’s health department.
The state lab runs test samples for long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, detention centers, jails, prisons, hospitals and some of the community testing sites across Colorado, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
However, the recent delays in test results is a stark reversal of the progress state and city officials had seemingly made in increasing testing capacity.
Just a few weeks ago, the average turnaround time for test results was one to two days. And last month, the Pepsi Center began testing people who don’t have symptoms of the novel coronavirus but believe they may have been exposed to someone with the illness.
The move to test those who are asymptomatic coincided with city officials’ push to have the thousands of people protesting police brutality in Denver get tested.
But it also indicated an expansion in testing, which at the start of the pandemic was so limited that even those with symptoms struggled to get tested and state officials at the time believed the number of confirmed cases was well below the actual number of Coloradans with COVID-19.
Testing without symptoms
Despite the recent delays in results, the Pepsi Center testing site is still testing those without COVID-19 symptoms, Christensen said.
“We are in conversations with the state on how to best meet the needs of the community going forward,” she said.
But not everyone thinks those without symptoms should be tested, especially while there is a national backlog of tests and supplies shortages.
“It’s only going to further delay the test results coming back for people who are symptomatic,” said Ben Wiederholt, chief executive officer of Stride Community Health Center, adding, “If the turnaround times weren’t the problem and the challenges aren’t what they are, I would fully support that strategy.”
Stride Community Health offers COVID-19 testing to those with symptoms, along with hospital workers and other first responders.
The center is also experiencing delays, including as much as two weeks for results. Stride, which sends samples to Quest Diagnostics, is looking for other ways to get quicker test results, Wiederholt said.
“The value of the testing drops with each day that a person doesn’t get their results,” he said.


thedenverpost--2020-07-24--Why is a tech executive installing security cameras around San Francisco?

By Nellie Bowles , The New York Times SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds sinister .
A soft-spoken cryptocurrency mogul is paying for a private network of high-definition security cameras around the city .
Zoom in and you can see the finest details : the sticker on a cellphone , the make of a backpack , the color of someone ’ s eyes .
But in San Francisco , a city with a decades-long anti-authority streak , from hippies and pioneering gay rights activists to the techno-utopian libertarians and ultra-progressives of today , the crypto mogul has found a surprisingly receptive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While violent crime is not high in the city , property crime is a constant headache .
Anyone who lives here knows you shouldn ’ t leave anything — not a pile of change , not a scarf — in a parked car .
Tourists visiting the city ’ s vistas like Twin Peaks or the famously windy Lombard Street are easy marks .
The city government has struggled to solve the problem .
In the middle of this is Chris Larsen , a 59-year-old tech industry veteran , paying for hundreds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alternative system of urban security , and he hopes it becomes a model for other cities .
This just may be the best moment for him to explain why a rich guy paying for surveillance cameras all over a city is not a terrifying invasion of privacy .
Around the country , Black Lives Matter movement protests have led to a reckoning on policing and how it should be done .
Many of the activists leading this movement are fighting to abolish or defund — reduce funding for — police departments .
Last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the mayor announced the police budget would be cut by $ 1 billion .
In San Francisco , where many locals push for this kind of police reform , those same locals are tired of the break-ins .
So how do they reconcile “ defund the police ” with “ stop the smash and grabs ” ?
Larsen believes he has the answer : Put security cameras in the hands of neighborhood groups .
Put them everywhere .
He ’ s happy to pay for it .
First , let ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerns — that Larsen ’ s plan might be viewed with suspicion : He ’ s in tech .
Longtime San Francisco residents and the tech workers have not historically seen eye-to-eye on many things .
The natives resent the private tech shuttle buses and the spiraling cost of living brought on by the new arrivals .
They even resent their housing aesthetic : Glass and metal and pretty Victorian houses now painted in shades of black and gray .
But here ’ s where it gets more complicated : Privatization is hardly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Around a quarter of San Francisco parents send their children to private school , a higher percentage than many large cities , including New York .
Private security officers are a common sight .
Plenty of people already have security cameras pointing toward the street .
So would a privately owned camera network be so out of bounds ?
And Larsen is no tech carpetbagger .
He grew up in a middle-class family in the Bay Area .
His father worked the night shift as a mechanic at the San Francisco airport .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Francisco State University , and he is now a major benefactor , donating one of the largest gifts the school has ever received .
He also has been a longtime advocate for privacy , cofounding the coalition Californians for Privacy Now to help pass a 2004 privacy bill , California SB1 , commonly known as the California Financial Information Privacy Act .
In 1997 , Larsen co-founded an online lending company called E-Loan , which went public two years later , and he stayed on as chief executive until 2005 .
In 2012 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be called Ripple , which helped people send money online using so-called blockchain technology and the digital token called XRP .
During the peak of the speculator-crazed crypto boom of 2017 , its value spiked wildly .
Larsen became one of the few crypto entrepreneurs to make and then hang onto that overnight fortune .
His apartment on Russian Hill has a trophy view of San Francisco Bay and the tight curves of Lombard Street .
But also : the crews coming in to rob tourists ’ cars , right in the middle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drive by , and the criminals arriving 15 seconds later , smashing the vehicles ’ windows and stealing luggage .
“ They don ’ t care at all — they don ’ t care if they ’ re being seen , ” Larsen said .
“ It ’ s brazen.
” His father-in-law ’ s car was robbed .
Larsen ’ s own car windows were smashed .
When a group of men climbed into his garden and one of them cut the wires on his home security system , while his children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he had had enough .
When I wrote to Larsen asking for an interview , he immediately said yes , and he answered all of my questions .
He said he knew that what he was doing might raise concerns , so he wanted to be open about it .
Here is what he is doing : Writing checks for nearly $ 4 million to buy cameras that record high-definition video of the streets and paying to have them maintained by a company called Applied Video Solutions The rest is up to locals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , known as CBDs , nonprofits formed to provide services to the area .
Here is how the project works : Neighbors band together and decide where to put the cameras .
They are installed on private property at the discretion of the property owner , and in San Francisco many home and business owners want them .
The footage is monitored by the neighborhood coalition .
The cameras are always recording .
The cameras are not hidden .
Larsen believes they can serve as both deterrent and aid in investigations , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they have been in reducing overall crime .
Camera surveillance is happening in a lot of cities , but usually it is managed by police departments .
In London , there are around 420,000 closed-circuit cameras , according to a 2017 report by the Brookings Institution , and the city has begun testing using facial recognition software .
In New York , too , cameras are common .
In Newark , New Jersey , anyone with an internet connection can watch the streets from the city ’ s police cameras , which have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the area is under surveillance .
San Francisco is unique in that the cameras are not being installed and monitored by police but by private citizens , and it is unique in that one person is paying for so much of it .
Larsen started installing them in 2012 with just a few around his neighborhood .
These days , he funds a network of more than 1,000 .
He funds the CBDs to control and monitor them .
He funds the longstanding nonprofit SF Safe , which supports neighborhood watch groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city ’ s densest neighborhoods and commercial corridors — like Union Square , Japantown , Fisherman ’ s Wharf , the Tenderloin and Russian Hill — have signed on , and now the network includes 135 blocks .
“ You think they have all these video banks in their police stations ?
No .
Mostly they don ’ t have decent internet connections , ” Larsen said .
“ So we helped pay for some internet connections.
” From Japantown ’ s restaurants and nursing homes to the Union Square shopping district @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cameras .
Every neighborhood has sought to expand their program since installing .
As proponents of Larsen ’ s network see things , they get the safety of a surveillance state without the state .
“ If you went to the board of supervisors and asked the members to approve this , you ’ d end up having a conversation about government and surveillance , ” said Simon Bertrang , head of a CBD that is a coalition of businesses , residents and property owners in the Tenderloin .
A few of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t .
If someone wants the footage — a police officer or a crime victim or a defense lawyer — they ask the neighborhood coalition for it .
His ally in all of this is someone very different and a little surprising : Chesa Boudin , the new , ultraprogressive district attorney of San Francisco .
Boudin , a fiery lawyer who wants radical policing and sentencing reform , became San Francisco ’ s district attorney in January .
And he won despite a ferocious $ 700,000 opposition campaign by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the 39-year-old Boudin , son of two members of the militant organization Weather Underground , has elevated the calls to defund police departments .
“ In less than 24 hours my office has received over 1,000 emails demanding that San Francisco defund the police department , ” he tweeted on June 5 .
In January , Larsen and Boudin met in Japantown and walked to its Community Benefit District office .
It was a small office with three desks , one tiny dog bed , and two large screens with live video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monitored by the two-person benefit district staff .
That equipment is paid for by Larsen .
The rest was paid by the benefit district members .
The myriad CBDs , coalitions of local property owners , had mostly been around since the mid-2000s , so Larsen used that infrastructure as the local organizing unit to take his funding and use his supplier at Applied Video Solutions to buy and install cameras .
They said the footage was only stored locally within each CBD office and erased after 30 days .
In Japantown , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find where a car window has been shattered or trash has been dumped so they can send the neighborhood ’ s private cleanup crew , paid for by local property owners .
Other events they report to the police department .
There was the bike theft , the phone theft , the backpacks and purses .
One time a golden retriever was stolen , and they sent the footage to the San Francisco Police Department , which used the cameras to track him down .
Dmitri Shimolin , head of Applied Video Solutions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was at the computer leading the demonstration .
He zoomed in to show the quality of footage the cameras were getting .
“ An arrest was made from some footage , and we called the guy ‘ Dimples ’ because you could see the dimples on his face , ” Shimolin said .
The image quality from the cameras is much better than typical home-security cameras like Ring or Nest , and the field of vision is larger .
It is arguably more compelling evidence in court because the video is monitored @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it is a continuous feed .
It is time stamped .
And because the network covers many blocks , the footage can tell a broader story than a single camera about an event that might be moving from block to block , in the case of , for example , a fight .
One side effect of the cameras is that when one CBD installs them , it seems to push crime just a few blocks away , Larsen said .
The same day as the Japantown meeting , Larsen and Boudin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tenderloin , the city ’ s roughest neighborhood .
They sat at a folding table with about 10 people .
Conspicuously not present : anyone from the Police Department .
Last year , someone was shot dead right in front of the office during a team meeting .
Shootings have more than doubled in the neighborhood , up 130 % in a year , they said .
Since the coronavirus pandemic began , the number of tents for homeless people in the neighborhood had ballooned from around 120 to around 400 , until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city to move the tent-dwellers into safe sleeping sites , the group ’ s leader , Bertrang , said .
“ We don ’ t have a good law enforcement response right now , ” Boudin told the group .
“ It takes 10 cops to do a single drug bust , costs $ 20,000 or something .
And I don ’ t want my attorneys to be doing this for no benefit on the street.
” He said the more effective strategy would be to focus on the crime ring leaders , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The surveillance footage is completely deleted after 30 days , and Boudin wondered if it could be stored longer , giving his office more time to put a case together .
“ Sixty days would be nice , ” Boudin said .
“ A preliminary hearing has to happen within 60 days.
” The district attorney knows the alliance is a curious one .
If the goal is to reduce the power of police , private donors like Larsen can be extremely helpful .
But he worries their help can also involve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and he is not sure how much to lean on Larsen .
“ What I don ’ t know is where his work ends , right ?
” Boudin said .
“ There ’ s real risks.
” The protest movement that is rocking police departments around the country hinges on videos .
The shaking cellphone videos of killings have captured moments so irrefutable that it has inspired rage from more corners than just longtime police reform activists .
Calls to defund police departments are getting real traction .
And into this Larsen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police .
“ This has underscored the importance of not just cameras but of communitywide camera coverage , ” Larsen said .
“ Bodycams show some pretty core weaknesses because we don ’ t have universal access to police bodycam footage , and there ’ s a fundamental conflict of interest if the video shows something bad for the department.
” The answer is more cameras , he said , and then keep that footage in the hands of citizens .
“ We do not work with Mr. Larsen , ” a police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ There is a process for the department to request footage from the party that manages the cameras .
That party has the discretion whether or not to release footage to SFPD.
” When crime-fighting is put into civilian hands , new and unregulated behaviors can emerge .
San Francisco ’ s police are controlled by many laws that do not apply to civilians .
One of those laws is that police in the city may not use facial-recognition technology .
“ San Francisco has passed a very sophisticated surveillance ordinance that bans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but yet you have these independent agencies within the city limits making their own decisions , ” said Dave Maass , a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation , a privacy advocacy group .
The technology Larsen is using is sophisticated — video management from Motorola Solutions , evidence management from Genetec .
Those same cameras , and the software supporting them , can be used for more than what they are currently doing .
“ This is a system that is designed to scale up to do license plate reading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ That is where it ’ s going.
” Larsen balked at the idea of his cameras using facial recognition : “ We ’ re strongly opposed to facial recognition technology , ” he said .
“ Facial recognition is too powerful given the lack of laws and protections to make it acceptable.
” Circumventing the police means a lot of people now can make decisions about how crime is handled , and watchdogs worry about cameras being used for spotty or biased monitoring of the community .
Putting more power over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does not mean that power necessarily will be used wisely .
“ There is distrust of law enforcement , and so there are these community efforts to self-police , ” said Daniel Lawrence , principal research associate at the nonpartisan Urban Institute .
But , he added , “ there needs to be some sort of system that ensures the laws of society are applicable to everybody.
” He argued that trust will come in the form of full city camera coverage , so police can play a smaller , more subtle role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he argued , but strong neighborhoods with continuous video feeds on every corner will .

The New York Times News Service Syndicate

By Nellie Bowles, The New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds sinister. A soft-spoken cryptocurrency mogul is paying for a private network of high-definition security cameras around the city. Zoom in and you can see the finest details: the sticker on a cellphone, the make of a backpack, the color of someone’s eyes.
But in San Francisco, a city with a decades-long anti-authority streak, from hippies and pioneering gay rights activists to the techno-utopian libertarians and ultra-progressives of today, the crypto mogul has found a surprisingly receptive audience.
Here’s why: While violent crime is not high in the city, property crime is a constant headache. Anyone who lives here knows you shouldn’t leave anything — not a pile of change, not a scarf — in a parked car. Tourists visiting the city’s vistas like Twin Peaks or the famously windy Lombard Street are easy marks. The city government has struggled to solve the problem.
In the middle of this is Chris Larsen, a 59-year-old tech industry veteran, paying for hundreds of cameras. He sees it as an alternative system of urban security, and he hopes it becomes a model for other cities.
This just may be the best moment for him to explain why a rich guy paying for surveillance cameras all over a city is not a terrifying invasion of privacy. Around the country, Black Lives Matter movement protests have led to a reckoning on policing and how it should be done. Many of the activists leading this movement are fighting to abolish or defund — reduce funding for — police departments. Last week in New York, for example, the mayor announced the police budget would be cut by $1 billion.
In San Francisco, where many locals push for this kind of police reform, those same locals are tired of the break-ins. So how do they reconcile “defund the police” with “stop the smash and grabs”?
Larsen believes he has the answer: Put security cameras in the hands of neighborhood groups. Put them everywhere. He’s happy to pay for it.
The local cryptocurrency guy
First, let’s state the obvious reason — besides privacy concerns — that Larsen’s plan might be viewed with suspicion: He’s in tech. Longtime San Francisco residents and the tech workers have not historically seen eye-to-eye on many things. The natives resent the private tech shuttle buses and the spiraling cost of living brought on by the new arrivals. They even resent their housing aesthetic: Glass and metal and pretty Victorian houses now painted in shades of black and gray.
But here’s where it gets more complicated: Privatization is hardly a new thing in the city. Around a quarter of San Francisco parents send their children to private school, a higher percentage than many large cities, including New York. Private security officers are a common sight. Plenty of people already have security cameras pointing toward the street. So would a privately owned camera network be so out of bounds?
And Larsen is no tech carpetbagger. He grew up in a middle-class family in the Bay Area. His father worked the night shift as a mechanic at the San Francisco airport. In 1984, he graduated from San Francisco State University, and he is now a major benefactor, donating one of the largest gifts the school has ever received. He also has been a longtime advocate for privacy, cofounding the coalition Californians for Privacy Now to help pass a 2004 privacy bill, California SB1, commonly known as the California Financial Information Privacy Act.
In 1997, Larsen co-founded an online lending company called E-Loan, which went public two years later, and he stayed on as chief executive until 2005. In 2012, he co-founded a startup that would be called Ripple, which helped people send money online using so-called blockchain technology and the digital token called XRP. During the peak of the speculator-crazed crypto boom of 2017, its value spiked wildly. Larsen became one of the few crypto entrepreneurs to make and then hang onto that overnight fortune.
His apartment on Russian Hill has a trophy view of San Francisco Bay and the tight curves of Lombard Street. But also: the crews coming in to rob tourists’ cars, right in the middle of the day. Larsen watches police drive by, and the criminals arriving 15 seconds later, smashing the vehicles’ windows and stealing luggage.
“They don’t care at all — they don’t care if they’re being seen,” Larsen said. “It’s brazen.”
His father-in-law’s car was robbed. Larsen’s own car windows were smashed. When a group of men climbed into his garden and one of them cut the wires on his home security system, while his children were sleeping inside, Larsen decided that he had had enough.
The camera network
When I wrote to Larsen asking for an interview, he immediately said yes, and he answered all of my questions. He said he knew that what he was doing might raise concerns, so he wanted to be open about it.
Here is what he is doing: Writing checks for nearly $4 million to buy cameras that record high-definition video of the streets and paying to have them maintained by a company called Applied Video Solutions The rest is up to locals in neighborhood coalitions like Community Benefit Districts, known as CBDs, nonprofits formed to provide services to the area.
Here is how the project works: Neighbors band together and decide where to put the cameras. They are installed on private property at the discretion of the property owner, and in San Francisco many home and business owners want them. The footage is monitored by the neighborhood coalition. The cameras are always recording.
The cameras are not hidden. Larsen believes they can serve as both deterrent and aid in investigations, but it is difficult to say how effective they have been in reducing overall crime.
Camera surveillance is happening in a lot of cities, but usually it is managed by police departments. In London, there are around 420,000 closed-circuit cameras, according to a 2017 report by the Brookings Institution, and the city has begun testing using facial recognition software. In New York, too, cameras are common. In Newark, New Jersey, anyone with an internet connection can watch the streets from the city’s police cameras, which have a Newark police department placard to warn that the area is under surveillance.
San Francisco is unique in that the cameras are not being installed and monitored by police but by private citizens, and it is unique in that one person is paying for so much of it.
Larsen started installing them in 2012 with just a few around his neighborhood. These days, he funds a network of more than 1,000. He funds the CBDs to control and monitor them. He funds the longstanding nonprofit SF Safe, which supports neighborhood watch groups and the Police Department.
Some of the city’s densest neighborhoods and commercial corridors — like Union Square, Japantown, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Tenderloin and Russian Hill — have signed on, and now the network includes 135 blocks.
“You think they have all these video banks in their police stations? No. Mostly they don’t have decent internet connections,” Larsen said. “So we helped pay for some internet connections.”
From Japantown’s restaurants and nursing homes to the Union Square shopping district, business and homeowners have welcomed his cameras. Every neighborhood has sought to expand their program since installing. As proponents of Larsen’s network see things, they get the safety of a surveillance state without the state.
“If you went to the board of supervisors and asked the members to approve this, you’d end up having a conversation about government and surveillance,” said Simon Bertrang, head of a CBD that is a coalition of businesses, residents and property owners in the Tenderloin.
A few of the neighborhoods watch the footage live, others don’t. If someone wants the footage — a police officer or a crime victim or a defense lawyer — they ask the neighborhood coalition for it.
His ally in all of this is someone very different and a little surprising: Chesa Boudin, the new, ultraprogressive district attorney of San Francisco. Boudin, a fiery lawyer who wants radical policing and sentencing reform, became San Francisco’s district attorney in January. And he won despite a ferocious $700,000 opposition campaign by the city’s Police Department. Now, the 39-year-old Boudin, son of two members of the militant organization Weather Underground, has elevated the calls to defund police departments.
“In less than 24 hours my office has received over 1,000 emails demanding that San Francisco defund the police department,” he tweeted on June 5.
Boudin likes Larsen and vice versa.
The community groups
In January, Larsen and Boudin met in Japantown and walked to its Community Benefit District office. It was a small office with three desks, one tiny dog bed, and two large screens with live video of the streets. The screens are monitored by the two-person benefit district staff. That equipment is paid for by Larsen. The rest was paid by the benefit district members.
The myriad CBDs, coalitions of local property owners, had mostly been around since the mid-2000s, so Larsen used that infrastructure as the local organizing unit to take his funding and use his supplier at Applied Video Solutions to buy and install cameras. They said the footage was only stored locally within each CBD office and erased after 30 days.
In Japantown, the group mostly uses the cameras to find where a car window has been shattered or trash has been dumped so they can send the neighborhood’s private cleanup crew, paid for by local property owners. Other events they report to the police department. There was the bike theft, the phone theft, the backpacks and purses. One time a golden retriever was stolen, and they sent the footage to the San Francisco Police Department, which used the cameras to track him down. Dmitri Shimolin, head of Applied Video Solutions in San Francisco’s Mission District, was at the computer leading the demonstration. He zoomed in to show the quality of footage the cameras were getting.
“An arrest was made from some footage, and we called the guy ‘Dimples’ because you could see the dimples on his face,” Shimolin said.
The image quality from the cameras is much better than typical home-security cameras like Ring or Nest, and the field of vision is larger. It is arguably more compelling evidence in court because the video is monitored by a third-party intermediary who can testify that it is a continuous feed. It is time stamped. And because the network covers many blocks, the footage can tell a broader story than a single camera about an event that might be moving from block to block, in the case of, for example, a fight.
One side effect of the cameras is that when one CBD installs them, it seems to push crime just a few blocks away, Larsen said.
“It’s whack-a-mole,” Larsen said.
The same day as the Japantown meeting, Larsen and Boudin drove to the CBD headquarters in the Tenderloin, the city’s roughest neighborhood. They sat at a folding table with about 10 people. Conspicuously not present: anyone from the Police Department.
Last year, someone was shot dead right in front of the office during a team meeting. Shootings have more than doubled in the neighborhood, up 130% in a year, they said. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, the number of tents for homeless people in the neighborhood had ballooned from around 120 to around 400, until a lawsuit from local residents led the city to move the tent-dwellers into safe sleeping sites, the group’s leader, Bertrang, said.
“We don’t have a good law enforcement response right now,” Boudin told the group. “It takes 10 cops to do a single drug bust, costs $20,000 or something. And I don’t want my attorneys to be doing this for no benefit on the street.” He said the more effective strategy would be to focus on the crime ring leaders, rather than the people on the sidewalks.
The surveillance footage is completely deleted after 30 days, and Boudin wondered if it could be stored longer, giving his office more time to put a case together.
“Sixty days would be nice,” Boudin said. “A preliminary hearing has to happen within 60 days.”
The district attorney knows the alliance is a curious one. If the goal is to reduce the power of police, private donors like Larsen can be extremely helpful. But he worries their help can also involve private individuals too deeply in crime-fighting, and he is not sure how much to lean on Larsen. “What I don’t know is where his work ends, right?” Boudin said. “There’s real risks.”
The privacy fears
The protest movement that is rocking police departments around the country hinges on videos. The shaking cellphone videos of killings have captured moments so irrefutable that it has inspired rage from more corners than just longtime police reform activists. Calls to defund police departments are getting real traction.
And into this Larsen presents his solution: Go around the police.
“This has underscored the importance of not just cameras but of communitywide camera coverage,” Larsen said. “Bodycams show some pretty core weaknesses because we don’t have universal access to police bodycam footage, and there’s a fundamental conflict of interest if the video shows something bad for the department.”
The answer is more cameras, he said, and then keep that footage in the hands of citizens.
“We do not work with Mr. Larsen,” a police department spokesman wrote in an email. “There is a process for the department to request footage from the party that manages the cameras. That party has the discretion whether or not to release footage to SFPD.”
When crime-fighting is put into civilian hands, new and unregulated behaviors can emerge. San Francisco’s police are controlled by many laws that do not apply to civilians. One of those laws is that police in the city may not use facial-recognition technology. “San Francisco has passed a very sophisticated surveillance ordinance that bans facial recognition by the Police Department, but yet you have these independent agencies within the city limits making their own decisions,” said Dave Maass, a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.
The technology Larsen is using is sophisticated — video management from Motorola Solutions, evidence management from Genetec. Those same cameras, and the software supporting them, can be used for more than what they are currently doing.
“This is a system that is designed to scale up to do license plate reading and facial recognition,” Maass said. “That is where it’s going.”
Larsen balked at the idea of his cameras using facial recognition: “We’re strongly opposed to facial recognition technology,” he said. “Facial recognition is too powerful given the lack of laws and protections to make it acceptable.”
Circumventing the police means a lot of people now can make decisions about how crime is handled, and watchdogs worry about cameras being used for spotty or biased monitoring of the community. Putting more power over security into the hands of local leaders does not mean that power necessarily will be used wisely.
“There is distrust of law enforcement, and so there are these community efforts to self-police,” said Daniel Lawrence, principal research associate at the nonpartisan Urban Institute. But, he added, “there needs to be some sort of system that ensures the laws of society are applicable to everybody.”
Larsen acknowledged the issue.
He argued that trust will come in the form of full city camera coverage, so police can play a smaller, more subtle role. Individual vigilantism will not work, he argued, but strong neighborhoods with continuous video feeds on every corner will.
“That’s the winning formula,” Larsen said. “Pure coverage.”


thedenverpost--2020-07-25--What’s it like to face eviction? Colorado tenants share stories of fear, uncertainty

On Friday , July 17 , Keith Armintrout started packing up his two-bedroom rental in Longmont , beginning with his clothes , non-perishable foods , and pots and pans .
He was bracing for eviction , and with nowhere to go , the plan was to move as much of his stuff as possible into a storage unit he rents , and sleep in his 1991 Toyota Camry with his cat , Sweetness .
For the first time in his life , 67-year-old Armintrout was going to be homeless .
“ My anxiety went off the charts .
My blood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as hell , I really was , ” he said .
“ I used to camp , so I have some camping supplies and I figured , OK , I ’ ll go out and get a few items , cook ’ em , because I wouldn ’ t have a way to keep things cold .
I ’ d find someplace to go and I ’ d sleep in my car at night .
And that was scary , point blank.
” Armintrout is one of millions of Americans , and potentially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing instability as a result of the pandemic .
Advocates have warned for months of a coming deluge of evictions and while the data show that only a few hundred had been filed in this state as of earlier this month , there ’ s worry that this will get worse soon , as a number of factors combine to create what one attorney called “ a perfect storm ” : federal unemployment benefits that have kept millions afloat expired at the end of last week , Colorado ’ s eviction moratorium is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ levels .
Armintrout ’ s a handyman by trade , and he usually makes about $ 60,000 a year .
But he ’ s got a respiratory condition that puts him at higher risk of dying from the coronavirus , and makes it hard for him to breathe with a mask on .
So he has barely worked since March , earning about $ 3,300 since then — less than half what he owes for rent alone in that period , not to mention food and medicine and gasoline .
His landlord told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ let all that back rent slide , and later , in Boulder County court , a judge sided against him .
He had until this past Wednesday to come up with the money , or he ’ d be on the street , he said .
Armintrout was saved , nearly at the literal last minute , when local advocates connected him with the county rent stabilization fund , which he said has agreed to cover more than $ 7,000 in back rent and rent for next month .
( The county can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of individual clients , a staffer said , but it did confirm that it offers this assistance in general . )
This means he ’ s got a roof over his head until at least the end of August .
“ I don ’ t know , ” he said .
“ God sent these people to me .
He sent me the help .
I know he ’ ll find me a position , or a way for money to come in , so I can pay my rent.
” Catherine Azar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spot .
She also lives in Boulder County — Lafayette , to be exact , just a short drive from Armintrout — and also has been unable to work since the virus hit .
Azar does therapy work with show horses , among other animals , and shutdowns in the equestrian world have severely restricted her hours .
Last year , she said , she made about $ 65,000 .
She gets $ 521 from Social Security every month , and she ’ s lately gotten some help from family members .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her income since March is “ nothing.
” Unemployment benefits have helped keep many people housed and fed in Colorado this year , but not everyone qualifies .
Azar said she ’ s been repeatedly denied .
A state Department of Labor and Employment spokeswoman said about 10 % of claims are rejected , and people in that group , anti-eviction advocates and attorneys say , are at the front of the displacement wave .
“ Those are the people getting notices on their doors now , ” said Zach Neumann of Colorado @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough , on June 18 , Azar received such a notice : she had 30 days to pay about $ 7,000 in back rent , or she ’ d be evicted .
Earlier this month , as that 30-day period was nearing a close , Azar ’ s landlord told her to be gone within a week .
Like Armintrout , she was bracing for homelessness for the first time in her life .
“ If I can ’ t pay them , how am I going to rent something else ?
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to rent a truck for all my stuff ?
They were essentially saying they ’ d throw me out on the street .
“ Can you imagine ?
” she added , through tears .
“ After an entire lifetime ?
And I ’ m high-risk .
I ’ m 70 years old .
I ’ ve had a heart attack , and another near-miss on a heart attack , and I ’ m diabetic .
I ’ m like the poster child for high risk.
” Azar ’ s been scrambling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s got a friend helping her set up a GoFundMe , and she ’ s in touch with the Eviction Defense Project .
But Neumann is the first to admit that his group , and others offering resources and legal representation , can only do so much for someone who ’ s short on rent .
“ If you ’ re a non-paying tenant , you just don ’ t have a lot of options , ” he said .
Asked whether she ’ d reached out to the county for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Azar said she had no idea that was an option .
Getting the word out is a huge challenge for the county , said Mackenzie Sehlke , who works in public affairs at Boulder County Housing & Human Services .
She said the county is confident it can meet vulnerable tenants ’ needs through the end of this year , but that ’ s of course only true to the extent that people even know to call them .
The county set up a hotline — 303-441-1206 —and lists resources online in both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an email to The Denver Post , “ Access to a safe and stable home is crucial for all of us at all times , and especially now.
” There are other , non-county resources available , too , including from a recent allocation of $ 20 million that was approved by the state legislature .
That ’ s a big number , but it won ’ t go very far ; in May a similar rental assistance program , which had $ 15 million to dole out , had to suspend new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing industry maintains confidence that there won ’ t be as massive an eviction wave as advocates predict .
“ You ’ re not going to see a 10-fold increase in the evictions number , ” Drew Hamrick , senior vice president of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver , said last week .
“ The landlord doesn ’ t make any money on empty units , and obviously we all need a place to live.
” Gov .
Jared Polis doesn ’ t seem too worried , either .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans included , Polis recently let lapse the eviction moratorium he put in place early in the pandemic .
In its place , he ’ s requiring landlords to give 30-day notices — a little more time than the usual 10 days given for tenants to stave off eviction .
Asked on July 16 to explain why he decided against extending the eviction moratorium , he told reporters , “ People generally should be back at work and earning money.
” The state ’ s own numbers don ’ t exactly bear that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and it remains higher than it ever was during the Great Recession a decade ago .
Five Colorado counties had unemployment rates above 15 % in June , the state reported .
Because of this , some are holding out hope that Polis , a Democrat , will change his mind and reinstate the moratorium .
In Arizona and Massachusetts , two states run by GOP governors , moratoria are in place through October .
That was the target end date for a moratorium extension that the state legislature considered in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their majority in the chamber , could not agree on terms and they adjourned the session having passed no extension and thus kicking the matter back to the governor .
Azar ’ s and Armintrout ’ s fellow Boulder County resident , the Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg , said that as more evictions loom , he feels disappointed that the legislature punted .
“ The legislature couldn ’ t get it done , ” said Fenberg , who supported extending the moratorium .
“ A large part of the blame is on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We need to take on some of that responsibility as well , and I hope come January ” — that ’ s when the next legislative session is scheduled to begin — “ we ’ ll be able to .
That ’ s not to say that come January we will pass a moratorium , but we need to do more .
”

On Friday, July 17, Keith Armintrout started packing up his two-bedroom rental in Longmont, beginning with his clothes, non-perishable foods, and pots and pans.
He was bracing for eviction, and with nowhere to go, the plan was to move as much of his stuff as possible into a storage unit he rents, and sleep in his 1991 Toyota Camry with his cat, Sweetness. For the first time in his life, 67-year-old Armintrout was going to be homeless.
“My anxiety went off the charts. My blood pressure went up. I was scared as hell, I really was,” he said. “I used to camp, so I have some camping supplies and I figured, OK, I’ll go out and get a few items, cook ’em, because I wouldn’t have a way to keep things cold. I’d find someplace to go and I’d sleep in my car at night. And that was scary, point blank.”
Armintrout is one of millions of Americans, and potentially hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, facing housing instability as a result of the pandemic. Advocates have warned for months of a coming deluge of evictions and while the data show that only a few hundred had been filed in this state as of earlier this month, there’s worry that this will get worse soon, as a number of factors combine to create what one attorney called “a perfect storm”: federal unemployment benefits that have kept millions afloat expire at the end of this week, Colorado’s eviction moratorium is over and unemployment here remains at near-record levels.
Armintrout’s a handyman by trade, and he usually makes about $60,000 a year. But he’s got a respiratory condition that puts him at higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, and makes it hard for him to breathe with a mask on. So he has barely worked since March, earning about $3,300 since then — less than half what he owes for rent alone in that period, not to mention food and medicine and gasoline.
His landlord told him she couldn’t afford to let all that back rent slide, and later, in Boulder County court, a judge sided against him. He had until this past Wednesday to come up with the money, or he’d be on the street, he said.
Armintrout was saved, nearly at the literal last minute, when local advocates connected him with the county rent stabilization fund, which he said has agreed to cover more than $7,000 in back rent and rent for next month. (The county can’t comment on payments on behalf of individual clients, a staffer said, but it did confirm that it offers this assistance in general.)
This means he’s got a roof over his head until at least the end of August.
And then?
“I don’t know,” he said. “God sent these people to me. He sent me the help. I know he’ll find me a position, or a way for money to come in, so I can pay my rent.”
“Can you imagine?”
Catherine Azar, 70, is in a similar spot. She also lives in Boulder County — Lafayette, to be exact, just a short drive from Armintrout — and also has been unable to work since the virus hit. Azar does therapy work with show horses, among other animals, and shutdowns in the equestrian world have severely restricted her hours.
Last year, she said, she made about $65,000. She gets $521 from Social Security every month, and she’s lately gotten some help from family members. But other than that, she said, her income since March is “nothing.”
Unemployment benefits have helped keep many people housed and fed in Colorado this year, but not everyone qualifies. Azar said she’s been repeatedly denied. A state Department of Labor and Employment spokeswoman said about 10% of claims are rejected, and people in that group, anti-eviction advocates and attorneys say, are at the front of the displacement wave.
“Those are the people getting notices on their doors now,” said Zach Neumann of Colorado’s Eviction Defense Project.
Sure enough, on June 18, Azar received such a notice: she had 30 days to pay about $7,000 in back rent, or she’d be evicted. Earlier this month, as that 30-day period was nearing a close, Azar’s landlord told her to be gone within a week. Like Armintrout, she was bracing for homelessness for the first time in her life.
“If I can’t pay them, how am I going to rent something else?” she said. “How am I going to rent a truck for all my stuff? They were essentially saying they’d throw me out on the street.
“Can you imagine?” she added, through tears. “After an entire lifetime? And I’m high-risk. I’m 70 years old. I’ve had a heart attack, and another near-miss on a heart attack, and I’m diabetic. I’m like the poster child for high risk.”
Azar’s been scrambling to find a last-minute solution. A friend helped her set up a GoFundMe, and she’s in touch with the Eviction Defense Project. But Neumann is the first to admit that his group, and others offering resources and legal representation, can only do so much for someone who’s short on rent.
“If you’re a non-paying tenant, you just don’t have a lot of options,” he said.
Asked whether she’d reached out to the county for the same kind of assistance Armintrout got, Azar said she had no idea that was an option. Getting the word out is a huge challenge for the county, said Mackenzie Sehlke, who works in public affairs at Boulder County Housing & Human Services. She said the county is confident it can meet vulnerable tenants’ needs through the end of this year, but that of course can only be true to the extent that people even know to call them. The county set up a hotline — 303-441-1206 —and lists resources online in both English and Spanish.
Wrote Sehlke in an email to The Denver Post, “Access to a safe and stable home is crucial for all of us at all times, and especially now.”
State government’s response
There are other, non-county resources available, too, including from a recent allocation of $20 million that was approved by the state legislature. That’s a big number, but it won’t go very far; in May a similar rental assistance program in Houston, which had $15 million to dole out, had to suspend new applications after just 90 minutes.
The housing industry maintains confidence that there won’t be as massive an eviction wave as advocates predict.
“You’re not going to see a 10-fold increase in the evictions number,” Drew Hamrick, senior vice president of government affairs for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, said last week. “The landlord doesn’t make any money on empty units, and obviously we all need a place to live.”
Gov. Jared Polis doesn’t seem too worried, either. Unlike governors in other states, several Republicans included, Polis recently let lapse the eviction moratorium he ordered early in the pandemic. In its place, he’s requiring landlords to give 30-day notices — a little more time than the usual 10 days given for tenants to stave off eviction.
Asked on July 16 to explain why he decided against extending the eviction moratorium, he told reporters, “People generally should be back at work and earning money.”
The state’s own numbers don’t exactly bear that out: unemployment actually rose last month, and it remains higher than it ever was during the Great Recession a decade ago. Five Colorado counties had unemployment rates above 15% in June, the state reported.
Because of this, some are holding out hope that Polis, a Democrat, will change his mind and reinstate the moratorium. In Arizona and Massachusetts, two states run by GOP governors, moratoria are in place through October. That was the target end date for a moratorium extension that the state legislature considered in the spring, but Senate Democrats, despite their majority in the chamber, could not agree on terms and they adjourned the session having passed no extension and thus kicking the matter back to the governor.
Azar’s and Armintrout’s fellow Boulder County resident, the Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, said that as more evictions loom, he feels disappointed that the legislature punted.
“The legislature couldn’t get it done,” said Fenberg, who supported extending the moratorium. “A large part of the blame is on us, not just the governor. We need to take on some of that responsibility as well, and I hope come January” — that’s when the next legislative session is scheduled to begin — “we’ll be able to. That’s not to say that come January we will pass a moratorium, but we need to do more.”


thedenverpost--2020-07-25--Camps set to open after NFL, players’ union reach agreement

NFL training camps are set to open after the league and the players ’ union reached agreement on several issues , including future salary cap mechanisms and how players can opt out of the upcoming season because of the coronavirus .
The NFL Players Association ’ s executive committee and 32 player representatives approved the offers Friday .
Players who decide they want to opt out have until Aug. 3 to do so , and they will receive a stipend from the owners .
The amount of the stipend will be $ 350,000 for medical opt outs and $ 150,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with knowledge of the decisions told The Associated Press .
The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the stipend amount was not made public .
That agreement eliminated one major obstacle to a full opening of training camps next week .
Already , the sides had agreed to cancel all preseason games , as well as to a reduction in the number of roster spots in training camp from 90 to 80 — though teams will have until Aug. 16 to get down to 80 .
The NFLPA said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ board of representatives adopted the proposed amendments to the CBA by a vote of 29-3 .
The league also offered an extended acclimation period of 18 days for players , given that the coronavirus caused the cancellation of all offseason on-field activities at team facilities .
Training camps are to open Tuesday , though the Texans and Chiefs , who meet in the season opener Sept. 10 , have veterans scheduled to arrive this weekend for COVID-19 testing .
“ We have worked collaboratively to develop a comprehensive set of protocols designed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and club and league personnel , ” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement .
“ These plans have been guided by the medical directors of the NFL and the NFLPA and have been reviewed and endorsed by independent medical and public health experts , including the CDC , and many state and local public health officials.
” Many economic issues were settled , including how to handle revenue losses that would result from games played without fans or even canceled games because of COVID-19 .
The league has proposed a minimum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2021 ; this season ’ s cap is $ 198.2 million .
Should the 2021 salary cap decrease — a very likely outcome — caps through 2024 would be adjusted to cover some of that drop-off .
That way , the cap wouldn ’ t plummet too far .
The cap has increased exponentially since 2014 , going up by $ 10 million or so annually .
Players will also get a prorated salary for games played if any games are canceled this season .
Practice squads will be increased to 16 players @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekly from being exposed to other teams .
Actual practices in camps won ’ t begin for about three weeks .
“ The season will undoubtedly present new and additional challenges , ” Goodell said , “ but we are committed to playing a safe and complete 2020 season , culminating with the Super Bowl .
”

NFL training camps are set to open after the league and the players’ union reached agreement on several issues, including future salary cap mechanisms and how players can opt out of the upcoming season because of the coronavirus.
The NFL Players Association’s executive committee and 32 player representatives approved the offers Friday.
Players who decide they want to opt out have until Aug. 3 to do so, and they will receive a stipend from the owners. The amount of the stipend will be $350,000 for medical opt outs and $150,000 for voluntary opt outs, two people with knowledge of the decisions told The Associated Press. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the stipend amount was not made public.
That agreement eliminated one major obstacle to a full opening of training camps next week. Already, the sides had agreed to cancel all preseason games, as well as to a reduction in the number of roster spots in training camp from 90 to 80 — though teams will have until Aug. 16 to get down to 80.
The NFLPA said in a statement on Twitter that its board of representatives adopted the proposed amendments to the CBA by a vote of 29-3.
The league also offered an extended acclimation period of 18 days for players, given that the coronavirus caused the cancellation of all offseason on-field activities at team facilities. Training camps are to open Tuesday, though the Texans and Chiefs, who meet in the season opener Sept. 10, have veterans scheduled to arrive this weekend for COVID-19 testing.
“We have worked collaboratively to develop a comprehensive set of protocols designed to minimize risk for fans, players, and club and league personnel,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “These plans have been guided by the medical directors of the NFL and the NFLPA and have been reviewed and endorsed by independent medical and public health experts, including the CDC, and many state and local public health officials.”
Many economic issues were settled, including how to handle revenue losses that would result from games played without fans or even canceled games because of COVID-19. The league has proposed a minimum salary cap of $175 million for 2021; this season’s cap is $198.2 million.
Should the 2021 salary cap decrease — a very likely outcome — caps through 2024 would be adjusted to cover some of that drop-off. That way, the cap wouldn’t plummet too far.
The cap has increased exponentially since 2014, going up by $10 million or so annually.
Players will also get a prorated salary for games played if any games are canceled this season.
Practice squads will be increased to 16 players. Four such players could be protected weekly from being exposed to other teams.
Actual practices in camps won’t begin for about three weeks.
“The season will undoubtedly present new and additional challenges,” Goodell said, “but we are committed to playing a safe and complete 2020 season, culminating with the Super Bowl.”