Author: Pam Zubeck
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County officials breathe new life into land-ownership records
Allan Carlson climbs a ladder, peers through a lens aimed at the pages of an oversize book and zeros in. After turning on four hot, glaring lights pointed at the page, he’s ready to preserve history. The strange contraption that photographs the pages and converts them into electronic images is the brainchild of county officials…
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Sheriff uses new jail phones to fight crime
Sheriff Terry Maketa’s latest crime-fighting weapon is nothing more than a telephone, or rather, 172 phones.Calls made by inmates at the Criminal Justice Center now are recorded after inmates register a fingerprint for identification and enter a personal identification number (PIN).Believe it or not, despite a message warning that calls are recorded, inmates use phones…
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County gets creative to save old records
Allan Carlson climbs a ladder, peers through a lens aimed at the pages of an oversized book and zeros in.After flipping on four hot, glaring lights pointed at the page, he’s ready to preserve history.The strange contraption that snaps the pages and converts them to electronic images is the brainchild of county officials looking to…
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Bruce alleges city broke finance laws
Douglas Bruce claims the city of Colorado Springs illegally promoted its April 7 ballot measures by telling citizens it’s strapped for cash. The anti-tax protester filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office Friday, alleging violations of campaign-finance laws which bar the city from spending public money to promote or oppose a ballot measure.…
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Maketa turns jail phones into crime-fighting tools
Sheriff Terry Maketa’s latest crime-fighting weapon is nothing more than a telephone, or rather, 172 phones. Calls made by inmates at the Criminal Justice Center now are recorded after inmates register a fingerprint for identification and enter a personal identification number (PIN). Believe it or not, despite a message warning that calls are recorded, inmates…
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Q & A: Agent helps local inventors patent their ideas
Ever thought you might need a “media cartridge autoloader?” How about a “quick release coilmaking machine” or a “holographic adaptive optic system”? These are among the nearly 5,000 patents issued in the last 30 years to inventors in Colorado Springs. But having a great idea is only the first step toward getting a patent to…
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Redrawn districts confuse voters
Carol Thompson attended a Colorado Springs City Council candidates’ forum Monday to hear from the District 3 contenders, Councilman Jerry Heimlicher and challenger Dave Gardner. She thought she lived in that district. To her surprise, she received what she thought was the wrong mail-in ballot for the April 7 city election. It had one name…
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NorthCom chief: Border violence threatens U.S. security
The Mexican drug cartels, which have set up shop in hundreds of U.S. cities, pose a “real security concern,” the nation’s commander of homeland defense told a congressional committee Tuesday Gen. Gene Renuart testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee with three other unified command chiefs who addressed issues ranging from piracy off the Somalian…
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County, Springs try to be partners
City and county governments want to find out how much cash they can save by working together in delivering services, elected officials decided Monday. During a quarterly joint meeting of the Colorado Springs City Council and El Paso County commissioners, officials launched a task force to explore how the city and county can combine operations…
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Tire disposal fees could double if bill passes
Tire disposal fees would more than double under a state proposal that would direct the money to be spent on clean technology research instead of getting rid of discarded tires.The bill, passed by the Senate and assigned to the House Transportation Committee, would raise fees to $3.25 per tire from $1.50.Because El Paso County has…