Author: Pam Zubeck

Taking his cue from a Colorado Springs auto dealership executive, Rep. Doug Lamborn is proposing giving consumers incentives to buy American instead of giving Detroit’s Big Three automakers a bailout to stave off bankruptcy.”Automakers aren’t selling cars,” the Republican lawmaker said Thursday in a statement. ” Instead of writing them a check, my bill could…

A compromise changing how builders pay El Paso County’s use tax might give builders struggling in the weak housing market a break beginning in April. Approved Thursday by county commissioners, the change puts the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department in charge of collections and cuts the original amount on which builders would be taxed by…

The final canvas of the Nov. 4 election confirmed Democrat Dennis Apuan captured the House District 17 seat, the Clerk and Recorder’s Office reported Wednesday. Posting results two days before the deadline, the clerk’s office reported that 274,681 people voted, a record for El Paso County. The 2004 presidential election drew 242,888 voters. Voters set…

Patients won’t have to wait as long for an ambulance, and the ride will be in newer and better-equipped vehicles under a new contract with longtime ambulance provider American Medical Response approved by a government panel Friday. Greenwood Village-based AMR, the only bidder for the five-year deal, will step up service to comply with stricter…

Commercial construction in El Paso County will sink by a third next year while new-home starts will stablize at one of their lowest levels in years, according to forecasts by Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.The projections are important because they serve as a barometer of the local economy, which is heavily dependent on the construction…

Colorado Springs police arrested a 24-year-old on Tuesday after a shooting at a Family Dollar Store left a man with two gunshot wounds. Billy Ray Rodriguez was arrested Tuesday at the Criminal Justice Center on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder. Hector Contreras, 25, was walking in the area of the Family Dollar, 2325 E. Boulder…

Former Colorado Springs Fire Chief Manny Navarro didn’t waste any time in a rocking chair when he retired from his job of 14 years on Oct. 10. Ten days later, he was named vice president of EMS systems development at Greenwood Village-based American Medical Response, El Paso County’s longtime emergency ambulance contractor. “We’re excited to…

A Veterans Affairs official took a tour Tuesday of land east of Fountain that is being offered as a site for Colorado’s newest veterans cemetery. “It’s a signal that the VA is aware, the National Cemetery Administration is aware of the veterans’ concerns in this area, and we’re looking at ways those concerns might be…

The inmate who died while in custody of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has been identified as Bruce Howard, 67. Howard collapsed in a holding cell at the courthouse about 12:40 p.m. Monday while awaiting a court appearance, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. He was taken to a hospital where he was…