Author: Dean Toda
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Sun awakens call of nature trails
It was a “Family ‘Mystery’ Hike,” so here’s the riddle: “I am an essential part of every ecosystem. I have a top and a bottom. I am made up of many parts. Some parts are very small and some parts are very large. If one part is removed, all the other parts are affected. What…
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Spate of setbacks has Douglas Bruce at a crossroads
An exit interview for Douglas Bruce? This city’s most famous political figure is talking about stepping away from the limelight and letting someone else fight the small-government war he has waged in Colorado for 20 years. Beaten in an August primary, Bruce is less than two weeks from completing a rocky half-term in the Legislature…
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Interior post will expand Salazar’s influence
Reports that U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., was about to be named to President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet set tongues awagging Tuesday as they weighed Salazar’s impact on the Interior Department and handicapped the race for an open Senate seat in Colorado. Obama announced today that Salazar indeed will take the post. Salazar is the second…
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State to expedite audit on corrections HQ decision
The state Legislative Audit Committee has declined to request an independent review of a decision by the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to keep its headquarters in Colorado Springs. But the decision isn’t out of the woods yet. In November, a bipartisan group of legislators from the Pueblo area asked the Audit Committee to investigate…
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Buy 1 Hyundai, get 1 for $1, in Phil Long promotion
Two-for-one avocados? Two-for-one restaurant meals? Sure. Now, with the economy tumbling, the concept has spread to automobiles. Phil Long Hyundai has twofers, right here in the Chapel Hills Auto Mall. Strictly speaking, it’s not a two-for-one offer. The second vehicle costs a dollar. More important, you have to buy the top-of-the-line, $35,000 Veracruz, or the…
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Newest El Paso County lawmaker credits hard work with unlikely victory
Dennis Apuan may be best known in Colorado Springs as an organizer of demonstrations against the Iraq war, but he isn’t fond of labels, especially ones he doesn’t think truly describe the scope of his activities.”There’s more to my existence than being an anti-war protester,” El Paso County’s newest state lawmaker said recently. “I think…
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Pueblo lawmakers want headquarters decision reviewed
A bipartisan group of state legislators from the Pueblo area is calling for a review of the state’s decision to keep the Department of Corrections’ headquarters in Colorado Springs. In a letter dated Thursday and addressed to Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton, chairman of the state Legislative Audit Committee, the legislators assert that competing bids from…
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40-foot chunk of brick falls off Michael Garman Galleries
A 40-foot strip of the brick facade along the roof of the building housing sculptor Michael Garman’s galleries in Old Colorado City collapsed into the street Friday, narrowly missing shoppers strolling through the historic district on the mild, sunny afternoon. The bricks peeled off from the parapet atop the 105-year-old building at 2418 W. Colorado…
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County GOP no longer holds key roles in state legislature
Time was, the go-to guys in the state Legislature were Republicans from El Paso County. Just eight years ago, Ray Powers was Senate president and Doug Dean was speaker of the House. It wasn’t a one-time fluke. Reps. Bill Cadman, Keith King, Ron May and Bill Sinclair all held leadership positions even more recently, and…
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Roupe pins hopes on provisional ballots
For most local candidates in the Nov. 4 elections, it will be a mere formality when results are certified this week.But one candidate is hoping to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.Catherine “Kit” Roupe, the Republican candidate for Colorado House District 17, is still hoping for a reversal of Democrat Dennis Apuan’s apparent victory.Roupe…