Author: KRDO

Marina Garcia

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – In three days, students won’t see the face of their teacher, but instead a substitute to fill in for one day in preparation for the anticipated strike on October 8th.

This was decided after the board ended a 56-year master agreement with the Colorado Springs Education Association in December of last year.

RELATED: Colorado Springs D11 teachers, School Board & parents react to new strike date

A teacher we spoke to says this temporary moment of interruption is worth a long-term solution.

“I think teaching has always been challenging, but now it’s getting to be impossible,” says Rebecca Kuenn, a D11 elementary teacher. “Had you said to me three years ago that I would even ponder going on strike, I would have said you were out of your mind, but I have just seen a constant increase in teacher stress levels.”

Teachers have accused the district of refusing to engage in collective bargaining, while the board maintains it has dedicated funding to raises.

But Kuenn says for her, it’s not about the money but more about the lack of support from the board.

“It’s about us wanting to provide quality education for our students. And we need the time and the support. And when you are under constant stress, constant increasing demands, it’s very difficult,” says Kuenn.

D11 tells us that they have hired substitute teachers and positions have been filled in preparation for Wednesday. They say the week will proceed like any other week of instruction.

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Michael Logerwell

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Bikers, hikers, and even some dogs came out to enjoy the last motorless morning at the Garden of the Gods this year.

If you’re unfamiliar, it’s when the road through the park is closed to cars, giving people a chance to slow down and enjoy the scenery. 

The final 2025 edition of the event went out with a bang! Sunday was the perfect day to take advantage of the lack of noisy cars and soak in the fall colors and beauty of the Garden of the Gods.

Don’t fret if you missed out; Motorless Mornings will start up again in April 2026.

For more information, click here.

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Mackenzie Stafford

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – On Saturday, October 4, just after 1 a.m., the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) got a report of a shooting in the 2400 block of N. Union Blvd.

Officers say when they arrived, they found a woman with a gunshot wound to her stomach. Police say the shooting victim was transported to a local hospital, where she was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.

CSPD officers say they got a description of the shooter, the car they were in, and what direction they were headed.

Police say they found the suspected car right around 1:20 a.m. But, officers say that when they tried to conduct a traffic stop, the shooting suspect and sole occupant of the car fled officers. CSPD says that a force stop method was authorized, so they conducted a PIT maneuver near E. Pikes Peak Ave and S. Roosevelt St.

Police say they got the car to come to a stop and took the driver/shooting suspect into custody without incident. CSPD arrested 37-year-old Steven M Vigil.

Police say the CSPD Assault Unit responded to the scene to take over the investigation.

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Celeste Springer

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — A multi-car pileup on northbound Powers Boulevard caused delays Friday afternoon.

The crash was between Barnes Road and Stetson Hills Boulevard.

A KRDO13 crew arrived and reported seeing at least seven cars. Since then, the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) has released information that 12 vehicles were involved in three different crashes.

CSPD says that, as of 1:27 p.m., there were no major injuries reported.

Police say a vehicle traveling north stalled in the left lane, resulting in three separate crashes with a total of 12 vehicles involved.

KRDO13 spoke with one man on scene who said he was driving when all of a sudden he saw so many brake lights. He says he tried to stop as fast as he could, but unfortunately, he got caught in the middle of the crash.

The cars involved in the wreck were still lined up along Powers Boulevard as of 2 p.m. By 4 p.m., all the cars had been cleared.

KRDO13 reached out to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to see if a crash such as this would prompt any changes. A spokesperson for the state agency said they’re constantly monitoring accidents but won’t look into crash mitigation unless there’s a prominent pattern. 

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Scott Harrison

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — The latest delay in the year’s street paving operation was due to an unexpected shutdown of the asphalt plant providing material.

It happened last Thursday, a day before paving on Bonforte Boulevard was scheduled to start; a member of the paving team said that the plant was hit by lightning.

Fortunately, the plant quickly resumed production in time to begin paving last Friday on 1.5 miles of Bonforte between Highway 47 to Constitution Road, just north of US 50.

As of this Friday, the paving appears to be nearly complete, with only lane markings remaining to be applied.

Paving on Bonforte had already been slowed by rainy weather and what officials described as a delay in acquiring permits from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), because both ends of Bonforte touch the highway intersections.

Neighbors and drivers said that they’re happy to see the much-needed paving happen, but also are frustrated by the slow pace of progress.

“I was hoping they’d done more paving sooner,” said neighbor Michael Perez. “We had a lot of dust around here. It was pretty bad for a while. My cars, I had to come out here and hose them off, to keep that gritty dirt off.”

Another neighbor said that because of the dust, he repainted his house and hired a professional to clean the interior.

Yet — for some residents — the benefits of the Bonforte paving far outweigh any inconveniences.

“That’s the best part, is to have the nice road where you’re not bouncing around, you don’t have to dodge potholes or dips in the road,” said neighbor Kellie Saylor. “And when it’s not paved, you don’t have to dodge the water holes.”

Other projects on the paving list were delayed by planned and unexpected utility projects that must be finished before paving starts.

Officials remain confident that they’ll complete this year’s paving before the arrival of winter weather, and the area’s warmer climate should help in that regard.

The next stops for paving crews are Saratoga and Lexington roads — slightly east of Bonforte — where the city removed 40 trees that had damaged the concrete infrastructure and would have undermined a repaving job.

Paving began on Friday on Lexington.

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Celeste Springer

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — A spokesperson with D60 says Central High School was briefly put on lockdown Thursday afternoon.

According to the Pueblo Police Department, there was a report of a man with a weapon near the school, but he got into a vehicle and drove away.

A spokesperson with D60 said that there are police in the area as a precautionary measure, but there is not a threat to the school, or a threat inside the school.

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Bradley Davis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Honor Flights of Colorado Springs will send 58 more war veterans to Washington, D.C. for free on Thursday.

The three-day trip will take 51 Vietnam Veterans, six Korean Veterans, and one WWII Veteran to different monuments and memorials honoring their service across the area.

The Vietnam Memorial carries a distinctive weight for the war veterans, bearing the names of almost 60,000 servicemen and women who died in the war. Vietnam War Veteran Harry King saw the monument for the second time during his honor flight to D.C. a few years ago.

“We had driven by the wall several times after it was built in our travels,” King said while recalling his first time seeing the wall. “I wasn’t ready to start searching the names. And then in 2017, I did a name search. I did the rubbings just like a lot of people do. A lot of the friends that I made on the trip, on the flight, they had a hard time.”

King said it was too hard for him to choose his favorite part of the trip. One memory he said stood out was the on-flight “mail call.” King said he and the other soldiers always looked forward to getting mail while away, but it was something he rarely received because of his position and remote location. He had better luck on his honor flight.

“The mail, we look forward to it, if it could ever catch up to us,” King said. “They had mail call on the plane, and I did not realize that they had solicited friends and relatives and other people that we didn’t even know for cards. When we got the cards, I couldn’t make it all the way through them because I kind of broke down, and I wasn’t the only one.”

King had a send-off just like the one the 58 war veterans will get today before their flight to the nation’s capital. It starts at 9:30 a.m. at the Colorado Springs Christian School. The public is encouraged to come out and cheer on the veterans.

Honor Flights will also host a return home ceremony at 4:30 p.m. at the school, also open to the public.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Wednesday was the first opportunity to see one of the city’s dozen new public works employees recently hired to help in the never-ending battle against pesky potholes.

KRDO 13 went to the intersection of Woodmen Road and Union Boulevard on the city’s northeast side to meet Steve, one of the new arrivals.

He was already busy working with a crew, receiving on-the-job training in pothole repair. KRDO 13 wasn’t allowed to interview him, but an official spoke on his behalf and that of other pothole workers.

“They’re on main roads in high traffic volumes,” said Clint Brown, street operations manager. This is dangerous work. “It’s not for the faint of heart. These guys are doing a great job, and I just don’t think people realize it’s more than just throwing asphalt in a hole.”

He said that in good weather, crews use hot-mix asphalt — a more extensive but longer-lasting process that includes cutting out the area around a pothole, blowing out loose debris, sealing it with a tar-like material, placing fresh asphalt into it, and rolling it flat.

That process differs from cold-mix asphalt, in which the material is placed into a pothole as a short-term fix in colder or wetter weather.

“We hope to get a few years out of it,” Brown explained, before a street or road can receive other surface treatments such as crack-sealing, chip-sealing, or repaving.

The pothole Steve worked on was beside a stretch of cracking asphalt that would eventually become a pothole from the wear and tear of traffic and freeze-thaw cycles from ice and snow.

“That’s why we’re trying to fill as many potholes now, while the weather is good,” Brown said. “When the weather is not so good, we can switch to snow removal, drainage work, or other tasks.”

What may disappoint drivers is that the new hires won’t mean faster pothole-filling.

“Really, our goal is five business days,” said Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director. “We almost always meet that goal. The number of these folks isn’t necessarily going to make it any quicker. We’re already doing our rapid basis, but it gives us the ability to do more as people identify more. And we’re asking people to identify more.”

When Mayor Yemi Mobolade announced the new employees at his “State of the City” address a week ago, he also revealed that the city has updated its GoCOS smartphone app to make it easier for citizens to report pothole locations, fallen trees, and other issues.

The app can alert crews to issues they may be unaware of.

Some citizens were hoping that a pothole near the entrance to Fire Station 18 qualified as one such issue; they said that the pothole existed all summer and wasn’t repaired.

“I think the fire guys just put an orange cone in the middle of it, so that they could avoid it,” a viewer texted to The Road Warrior.

A contractor at the scene on Thursday explained that the pothole is on a private road and was caused by a leaking water main.

“We made (temporary) repairs and will pave over the excavated area with asphalt, later today,” he said. “We’ll finish the job after we determine who’s responsible for paying for it.”

Mulledy also addressed the question of how the city can hire new employees while it prepares to make significant budget cuts for next year.

“We looked at other functions within public works and decided to slow down some other operation,” he said. “Maybe we’re not going to do as many large capital projects next year, and we’re going to shift those resources over to the other side of the house and the maintenance to really focus on that.”

Ten of the 12 new hires are currently receiving training, Mulledy said.

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Sadie Buggle

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Colorado Springs fire crews have confirmed no one was injured after a small plane made an emergency landing on the southbound side of Powers Boulevard early Wednesday morning.

The crash landing was reported at around 4:15 a.m. on Oct. 1 on Powers Boulevard, just north of Barnes Road. According to the Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD), three individuals were on board the aircraft – remarkably, none were injured in the crash.

The photo below, provided by CSFD, shows a small, damaged plane lying on the west side of Powers.

Courtesy: CSFD

The department reported that fuel was leaking from the plane, but the leak was stopped and cleaned up.

Colorado Springs police closed the right lane of southbound Powers, approaching Barnes, for several hours as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated the crash.

Courtesy: Colorado Springs Police Department

Police confirmed that the plane took off from the Colorado Springs Airport before the crash.

In audio from LiveATC of air traffic audio, the pilot can be heard repeating, “Mayday, mayday, mayday.”

Shortly after, air traffic control is heard saying, “Yeah, I was on the phone with the police. Yeah, I had an aircraft go down.”

This audio is provided above.

The events that led to the emergency landing are currently unclear.

KRDO13 spoke with the owner of the company that owns the plane, who said he rents planes out of the airport and told us the pilot reported trouble five minutes after take-off.

“Well, it’s not every day that you see a plane crash on Powers. I’m just really glad that they were able to crash safely with nobody getting injured,” said Stephanie Winther, who stopped to look at the aftermath of the crash.

A tow truck arrived shortly after 1 p.m. to begin removing the wreckage.

The FAA says it is still investigating what went wrong to cause the plane to crash-land on such a busy road in Colorado Springs. However, the FAA notes that pilots have wide discretion during an emergency and are trained to find the safest possible landing spot.

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Celeste Springer

PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is on scene in the 1000 block of Alexander Circle.

A KRDO13 photojournalist at the scene says SWAT vehicles have been dispatched. Our photojournalist also reported seeing dogs being taken out of the home; however, he did not report seeing anyone else taken out of the home.

We have reached out to the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office for more information and are waiting to hear back. Details are limited at this time, but this article may be updated.

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