Author: Dean Toda
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Fire union chief touches on legislation
Lt. Mike Smaldino has 11 years in the Colorado Springs Fire Department and has been president of the 325-member Colorado Springs firefighters union, Local 5 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, for five years. His union job may soon get much more interesting. A bill approved by the 2009 Legislature grants collective bargaining rights…
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Opposition rising to possibility of Guantanamo prisoners at Supermax
You can hit a golf ball from the Bear Paw Golf Course into the federal prison complex outside Florence, state Rep. Buffie McFadyen says.It’d be a heckuva poke, maybe 400 yards. But McFadyen’s point is made: the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, 40 miles down the road from Colorado Springs, is not in the middle of…
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Gitmo prisoners at Supermax? Chief concern is space
You can hit a golf ball from the Bear Paw Golf Course into the federal prison complex outside Florence, state Rep. Buffie McFadyen says. It’d be a heckuva poke, maybe 400 yards. But McFadyen’s point is made: the Florence Federal Correctional Complex, 40 miles down the road from Colorado Springs, is not in the middle…
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Ritter quietly OKs same-sex benefits
Gov. Bill Ritter has signed into law a bill granting health insurance and other benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. Monday’s signing of Senate Bill 88 means benefits normally accorded to the legal spouses of state employees will become available to same-sex partners “with whom the employee has shared an exclusive, committed relationship for…
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UCCS student president will run for county commission
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student body president who caused a furor this school year when he refused to sign off on allocating student-fee dollars to a campus gay organization, said Wednesday he’ll seek a seat on the El Paso County Commission. David Williams, a 22-year-old political science major who said he anticipates…
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Ritter’s stand against Army’s plan besieged
FOUNTAIN • Fresh from announcing his support of an effort to thwart the Army’s push to expand a Fort Carson training site, Gov. Bill Ritter came here Monday for a public appearance in the place that might feel the biggest fallout if the Army scales back its commitment of money and troops in the area.…
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‘Something’s got to give’ with prison reform
GOLDEN • David Michaud, chairman of the state Parole Board, said the guys he meets on the golf course tell him, “‘You’re on the Parole Board? Good for you! Keep all those sons of bitches locked up!’” “That’s one attitude,” said Michaud, a former Denver police chief. “But on the other hand, when I first…
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Debate just beginning on sentencing reform
GOLDEN • David Michaud, chairman of the state Parole Board, said the guys he meets on the golf course tell him, “‘You’re on the Parole Board? Good for you! Keep all those sons of bitches locked up!’”“That’s one attitude,” said Michaud, a former Denver police chief. “But on the other hand, when I first started…
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Lamborn seeks to bolster support for Piñon Canyon expansion
Lamborn seeks to bolster support for Piñon Canyon expansionDEAN TODAdean.toda@gazettedev.gazette.comSeeking to bolster the waning prospects of the Army’s campaign to expand a Fort Carson training ground in southern Colorado, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn strategized on Monday in a meeting with a group of county and state officeholders.No grand plan emerged, according to several of the participants.Lamborn,…
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Lamborn corners Ritter in hopes of getting veto
Seeking to bolster the waning prospects of the Army’s campaign to expand a Fort Carson training ground in southern Colorado, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn strategized on Monday in a meeting with a group of county and state officeholders. No grand plan emerged, according to several of the participants. Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, said the immediate objective…