Fort Carson

Ten unsolved Colorado murders: Read personal stories of the victims

The Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons website draws attention to unsolved murders, and we tried to do likewise in three posts last year -- in May, September and November. The ten crimes featured in this installment include two of the most famous unsolved crimes in Boulder history: the ... More >>

Video: Joel Hunt, vet-turned-Paralympic hopeful, during pre-skiing slump

In this week's cover story, "Competitive skiing kept Army veteran Joel Hunt from going downhill," I profile Hunt, an Iraq war vet who's one of the country's most promising skiers with disabilities; he's in the running for the Paralympic Games in Russia next year. But when I first met Hunt while work ... More >>

Pinon Canyon expansion battle: Will troop reductions help or hurt?

As the Pentagon contemplates different ways to achieve reductions in force in the ramp-down from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, business leaders in Colorado Springs are pushing for a plan that would actually bring more troops to Fort Carson -- while ranchers battling expansion of a maneuver site in s ... More >>

Cavemen didn't have trucks, but that's not stopping the Caveman Cafeteria

It sounds like a spoof, but the Caveman Cafeteria -- Denver's newest (and only) food truck specializing in paleo diet dishes -- is no joke. Even though its owner, Will White, is a comedian.

Terrorists setting wildfires? Rumors heating up with Obama's visit

This has been one hot summer -- and it's bound to get even hotter. Tempers are flaring over the handling of the wildfires, and rumors are heating up over their possible cause: terrorists are setting the fires. And President Barack Obama's visit to the Waldo Canyon fire today is fanning the conspirac ... More >>

DIA conspiracy theorists "continually surprise and delight us," says airport spokeswoman

John Severe latest biker with military background busted in Virgil Means homicide

Update: "For all those who are worried.... I'm ok. Just dealing with some shit but I will be fine." That's a Facebook message posted a short time ago by John Severe, a Colorado Springs resident who's worked for the military. And he is indeed dealing with some shit: He's one of five people arrested t ... More >>

John Burrell second soldier busted in Virgil Means killing near motorcycle club

Update: In recent days, Fort Carson-based Sergeant Christopher Mountjoy was arrested in the death of Virgil Means outside the Sin City Disciples motorcycle club. Now, a second soldier, John Burrell, has been arrested in the incident. He's being held on the charge of murder in the first degree.

Pinon Canyon foes blast Army's plans for helicopter missions

Lately, ranchers and community leaders in southeastern Colorado are feeling a bit like the battle-weary Michael Corleone of The Godfather Part III. Every time you think you're out, they pull you back in -- "they" being the Pentagon planners seeking more intense use of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, ... More >>

Pinon Canyon: Scott Tipton blasts Army effort to rename site

Scott Tipton.​No question, rebranding can be a bitch. Is that Slinky in the CenturyLink commercials really an improvement over the Qwest lightbeam? But nothing quite spells "public relations fiasco" like the U.S. Army's clueless attempt to change the name of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site to " ... More >>

Medical marijuana: Three-peat of attempted dispensary burglaries baffle owner

Verde Wellness.​Verde Wellness's Chuck Blackton locks up his medical marijuana buds, edibles, hash and tinctures in a Volkswagen-sized, all-but-dynamite-proof safe each night. So does every dispensary owner who follows the law (or has any sense) -- which makes the three after-hours break-ins V ... More >>

Anthony Silva, Army sergeant, ID'd as man killed walking his dog on Paris Street (12)

Big pics below.​Update: The man found murdered near a Motel Six on the 3800 block of Paris Street early Saturday morning has been ID'd as Anthony Silva, an army sergeant stationed at Fort Carson. He was due for discharge soon and was headed back to Illinois to visit with his family. Denver Po ... More >>

Plastic army men struggle with PTSD in British artists' ode to Colorado Springs soldiers

​We've all seen those molded green plastic soldiers; they're a staple of every kid's childhood and, thanks to the Toy Story series, heroes of the big screen. But we've never seen plastic soldiers like this -- begging for money, assaulting women, placing a rifle under their chin. It's the arr ... More >>

Dog shooting: Owner of bull mastiff shot after attacking greyhound gets banned-dog summons

Big pic below.​Update: As we noted yesterday, no charges were filed in the immediate aftermath of an incident in which a man shot a 140-pound dog after it attacked his greyhound -- and that remains the case at this writing. However, the owner of the dead pet -- a bullmastiff named Flato -- has ... More >>

The War Next Door

Rich in history and imperiled species, Pinon Canyon isn't like any other place on earth. Locals fear that the Army wants to tear the hell out of it.

Leaked documents show Army's bold plan to acquire 10,000 square miles of Colorado

​Artillery ranges and tank maneuvers on fragile grasslands. Depopulated farm towns, suitable for urban warfare exercises for thousands of troops. A military installation the size of Massachusetts, sprawling across southern Colorado from Trinidad to the Kansas border. If you're going to plan, p ... More >>

Parris Mathis: Weed apparently didn't mellow man accused of beating couple with spirit stick

Big pic below.​Was Parris Mathis immune to marijuana's well-known calming effects? You've gotta wonder given the police release about his arrest. Seems he got into an argument with a woman for "sitting on the stairwell" (!), and when a man tried to intervene, he allegedly pummeled both of them ... More >>

Ronald Eugene Beach gets 20 years for abusing granddaughters, ages 3 and 5, at Fort Carson

​Ronald Eugene Beach, 63, has been sentenced to twenty years in federal prison for sexual abuse of minors, and the stipulated facts included in his plea agreement on view below certainly present a strong, and disturbing, case for the sentence's length. The targets? His own granddaughters, who ... More >>

Shawn Lynch's Fort Carson controversy: KUNC tracks soldier's brain-injury-diagnosis struggles

​The signature battle wounds for Iraq and Afghanistan vets are post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) -- ailments that are difficult to diagnose and easy for officials to ignore. While vet advocates like Andrew Pogany and innovative treatment programs like El ... More >>

Reader: Soldier who said he robbed MMJ center to destroy pot did want to burn it, all right

Ramone Hollins.​Did you catch our story about Ramone Hollins, one of three Fort Carson soldiers caught breaking into a Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary who claimed his goal had been to destroy the weed, not to steal it? One reader who did had a funny response to this excuse.

Ramone Hollins: Fort Carson soldier busted for MMJ burglary says he wanted to destroy the pot

Large photos below.​As we noted on Monday, the bust of three men trying to burglarize a Colorado Springs dispensary was an example of clever police work -- but the excuse used by arrestee Ramone Hollins was even more inventive. Hollins -- a Fort Carson soldier, as were his alleged accomplices ... More >>

Fort Carson revelations: 40 percent of soldiers may have undiagnosed brain injuries

A Flickr photo​Here's possibly the best evidence yet that something very, very wrong is occurring at Fort Carson, the giant Army base in Colorado Springs: A joint NPR and ProPublica investigation into how the military handles brain injuries has found that as many as 40 percent of Fort Carson ... More >>

Westboro Baptist Church haters threaten to picket funeral of Golden's Sgt. Grant Wichmann

Fred Phelps's evil flock is at it again.​The appalling Bible-twisters at the Westboro Baptist Church are at it again. Less than two weeks ago, the WBC horror show rolled into Colorado, targeting a variety of schools, synagogues and more. While here, they spread their usual brand of ignorance: ... More >>

Roll On

Westboro Baptist Church's latest target: Late Aurora soldier Sean Durkin

Courtesy of Fort CarsonSgt. Sean Durkin: Hasn't his family suffered enough?​The virulent homophobes (and anti-semites) of Westboro Baptist Church will supposedly begin protesting at various locations around our area on Thursday -- if they actually turn up, that is. They were no-shows at a Boul ... More >>

Sgt. Brian Kelly Wells: Fort Carson soldier makes long drive to get busted for Internet luring

Presumably, Sgt. Brian Kelly Wells thought it would be worth the commute.​If charges against him are true, Sgt. Brian Kelly Wells, who's stationed at Fort Carson, wanted to have sex with an underage girl so badly that he was willing to drive all the way from Colorado Springs to Adams County to ... More >>

Can a veterans court help former GIs find justice here at home?

Wake-Up Call: Meanwhile, back at the ranch... and Pinon Canyon

​Representative Wes McKinley is sitting in a bar in Denver, but his mind is hundreds of miles away -- on the rangeland of southeastern Colorado, that stunning swathe of cactus and canyons and ranches that have been in families for generations. The land that the U.S. Army would like to conquer ... More >>

From the week of October 15, 2009

Wake-Up Call: Hold your horses!

​Twenty-five years ago, the Department of Defense took over 235,000 acres of ranchland in southeastern Colorado -- the largest condemnation of private property in the country. And the Army's not done yet. Six years ago, word surfaced that the feds would try to add another 400,000 acres to the ... More >>

Fort Carson: Those aren't our black helicopters!

Mystery choppers over the Kirby ranch.​A recent blog item featured several photos of the black helicopters of Yoder, which have been buzzing Shellie Kirby's ranch in the southeast corner of El Paso County for the past three years. Kirby has filed several complaints with Fort Carson, the Nation ... More >>

They're baaaack: the black helicopters of Yoder

Cue the Wagner: Blackhawks buzz the Kirby ranch.​All Shellie Kirby wants is a place where she and her husband Mark can live in peace with their Spanish mustang, Rebel, and their other horses and burros. But their seventy-acre ranch in the southeast corner of El Paso County, where the couple ha ... More >>

New website charts what parts of Colorado are being stimulated

A photo from the StimulusColorado.org website. StimulusColorado.org, a new website co-sponsored by Associated General Contractors of Colorado, the Colorado Association of Mechanical and Plumbing Contractors, Colorado Contractors Association, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the Metro Denver ... More >>

Fort Carson and brigade politics

The public-affairs office at Fort Carson hasn't issued a press release about the Army's decision not to base an additional brigade there -- a move that calls into doubt millions in additional contracts, not to mention even more money in long-term economic impact. The most recent news items on its ... More >>

Impressive Salon.com series looks at the dark side of Fort Carson soldiers returning from Iraq

A colorful view of journalist Michael de Yoanna. Every nanosecond of every day, new writing appears on the Internet -- and for the most part, that's a good thing. All too often, however, important reportage gets lost in the flood. Today's, for instance: "Coming Home," a series of investigative repo ... More >>

Hometown Boy

An artist springs from Colorado Springs

Letters to the Editor

Letters from the week of 4/3/2008

The Good Soldier

When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, it messed with the wrong coward.

Delegating Denver #14 of 56: Guam

Rocky columnist Bill Johnson's Error Jackpot

More Messages: Tuned In

The Message

Pucked Up

Pop Quiz

Primary Colors
January 29, 2004

Red, White, Orange and Blue

The Broncos call in a $20,000 air strike for patriotism.

Best Olympic Hopeful

Dremiel Byers

The Message

The media's massive buildup to battle makes war seem almost anti-climactic.

Rescue Me

An appreciation of fireguys, and one rogue amazon.

Strange but True

Strange but True

UNDER THE GUN

AFTER LISTENING TO COLORADO'S PATRIOTS, FRANCISCO DURAN SHOT OFF MORE THAN HIS MOUTH.