Month: March 2026

Mackenzie Stafford

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – A new report released in March ranks Colorado Springs as the number 15 allergy capital in the United States. In 2025, Colorado Springs held #84. The research released by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) details how climate change is leading to longer and more intense allergy seasons.

Experts say warmer temperatures mean plants start growing sooner, and they produce more highly allergenic pollen. They say the extreme weather driven by climate change may also prompt more pollen production or longer pollen seasons.

According to AAFA, specifically in Colorado Springs, tree pollen peaked earlier and higher, grass pollen lasted longer and weed pollen started earlier and peaked higher, meaning there were more days with weed pollen.

KRDO13 spoke with a local allergist who said this has been one of the busiest years yet.

“Now that we’re in the tree pollen season, it’s just exploded. So it’s been extremely busy the last several weeks, especially as the pollen counts have gone up. So, it’s going to be, I think, an unfortunate year for allergy sufferers,” explained Dr. Jill Hanson.

If over-the-counter medicine isn’t working, Dr. Hanson recommends coming in to Colorado ENT & Allergy. She says they can provide allergy shots or drops that can be personalized to your needs.

“That’s a treatment where we can take exactly what you’re allergic to and customize your vials essentially to what your allergies are and give you what you’re allergic to to try to build up your immunity. So it’s a really awesome treatment, especially if medications are not working. It gives long-lasting results to you. So instead of having to rely on medications long term, eventually a lot of people do see a big reduction in that,” explained Dr. Hanson.

She also detailed a treatment for patients who are not as receptive to over-the-counter medication and would prefer not to get shots.

“I mentioned allergy shots. Those are actually a very effective treatment option, but they do require that you come into the office, which is not always an option for people with busy schedules, busy lives. So we also offer sublingual, meaning under the tongue, allergy treatment. So, it’s a recipe of drops essentially, that we can make based on your allergy test. And that’s just done at home, with drops under the tongue every day. So that can also be an option, even if shots are not something that you can fit into your schedule,” offered Dr. Hanson.

Dr. Hanson tells KRDO13 that the increase in pollen can also cause difficulties day-to-day for those with respiratory disorders.

“Most people with asthma are triggered by allergies, amongst other things. But that’s another issue. I think in this area that’s a little unique because not only do we have the high pollen counts, we also have the wildfire smoke and the dryness, and those can all compound to make asthma more difficult to control. So making sure we’re attacking the allergy part of that is important,” shared Dr. Hanson.

Overall, she said she doesn’t anticipate allergy season getting much better anytime soon, since the pollen count continues to increase year after year. 

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Julia Donovan

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – This week’s Restaurant Roundup is an investigation into a cockroach problem that has neighboring restaurants in one plaza off Barnes Road begging for change.

“No roaches, no nothing, no bugs of any sort when I first started – then they moved in, and it was just Armageddon,” said the manager of the Cheba Hut, which shares a wall with this week’s low-scoring restaurant: Pho Express #1.

Pho Express #1 was caught with 18 violations, including a cockroach infestation, back in April.

The owner, Duy Nguyen, had told us he thought they were coming from shipments and said they couldn’t get things under control.

Well… apparently they never did!

Pho Express #1 recently failed its routine health inspection again – this time with 23 violations! 

Those violations include – you guessed it – cockroaches. 

“It’s on and off,” owner Duy Nguyen told us when we stopped by.

The inspector also noted a gap under the back door, employees not using soap when washing their hands and some dishes, and one employee wiping their nose and not changing gloves afterward. There were also no thermometers in the entire restaurant! 

The inspector decided that all of this was enough to warrant a temporary closure.

But Duy seems to deny any wrongdoing when it comes to the roaches; he says pest control can confirm that.

“They’re saying it’s actually the whole building,” Duy argued.

After Duy made that claim, we checked in with the Cheba Hut next door.

While the problem might be building-wide now, Cheba Hut Manager Emily Render says Pho Express started it!

“They like burrowed a hole from them to over here,” Emily said.

Now, Emily and her crew are working overtime to combat the catastrophe!

“We have people come out once per month to spray everywhere. Every time we get a sighting, we immediately take care of it,” Emily explained. “We constantly have to clean up their mess in our shared dumpster area, same with Parry’s.”

Parry’s GM, David Garcia, corroborated Emily’s story. 

Note: there’s a small alleyway between Pho Express #1 and Parry’s.

“We end up having to pick up some items for them just so we don’t have any of those issues coming into our building,” Dave said in an interview with KRDO13.

“I’ve literally scooped up maggots off the ground in a trash bag before that they threw out, and they would leave animal bones outside,” Emily added.

We asked health department officials if they’re looking into these allegations of ongoing negligence.

They reiterated what we already knew from inspection reports: all the neighbors passed recent inspections with no roach notes.

Cheba Hut

Parry’s Sliceria & Taps

Tokyo Joe’s

The El Paso County Public Health Department also said Pho Express #1 passed its re-opening inspection with no cockroaches.

“Instead of [being] open seven days per week, we’ll close Wednesday now so we do a deep clean every week,” Duy explained some new changes.

Duy admitted the handwashing violations came from a quote, “lack of supervision,” and said they’re doing more training.

He also said they’ve remodeled the kitchen and installed a metal baseboard.

Still, managers at Cheba Hut, Parry’s, and Tokyo Joe’s are worried this won’t be the end of the cockroach wars.

“I’m happy they’re trying to find the root cause, but I also feel like they might be the root cause and they’re just trying to play it off,” Emily worries.

We asked Pho Express if they had any response to neighbors’ claims about them disposing of their trash improperly. They said they’ll talk to their kitchen staff about that.

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