Category: krdo-local-news

Michael Logerwell

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) – Drivers heading south on I-25 are seeing major slowdowns for a second day in a row. This time, the culprit is a crash near Fountain.

The Colorado State Patrol (CSP) tells KRDO13 that they got a call just after 6:00 p.m., reporting a vehicle with heavy front damage completely blocking a southbound lane of I-25 near mile marker 129.

Troopers arrived on scene to find the crash was between a semi-truck and a Ford Focus. The crash is still under active investigation. No injuries are known at this time.

For up-to-date information about road closures, visit COTrip.

KRDO13 will provide any further updates.

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Marina Garcia

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Many in Jamaica still have limited access to food and power, almost a month after Hurricane Melissa rocked the Caribbean island.

At a time when many are leaving, one Colorado Springs veteran went to the island to help his family and others rebuild.

Somehow, with no electricity, KRDO13 was able to speak to Horace Brown, who is also the president of Elected United, a non-profit organization.

He tells us a family member was holding a cordless light above his head, so that we could see him during the interview.

“One of the reasons why I decided to fly out to Jamaica was to see how I could assist using my nonprofit organization, by helping the victims out here by providing some kind of relief,” says Brown. 

Brown tells us he led his non-profit team to tackle some of the big issues that people are currently facing.

“The first thing that we initially tackled was the food shortage, because everything was cut off for different parts of the island, cut off from the main stream. We were able to bring in food such as rice and items from Kingston, where it wasn’t devastated as badly as the western part of the island,” says Brown. 

Horace tells us he and his brother helped remove trees from homes, helped a hospital save important documents by drying them in the sun, and helped repair the roof of that same hospital.

“It’s different when you see it on the ground. And, people have been devastated out here in Jamaica. They lost their entire savings, their entire houses, and everything that they worked for. So anything that a person can do to help any one of these affected people, that would be much appreciated,” says Brown.

If you would like to donate to the cause, you can do so here.

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Michael Logerwell

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The Colorado State Patrol says it started with the report of a suspected drunk driver at 7:30 p.m. and ended with a police stand-off on I-25.

The State Patrol says it received a call on a REDDI (Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately) at 7:31 p.m., reporting a red Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck on I-25 just north of Second Street.

State Patrol then says its troopers started pursuing the vehicle after the driver refused to stop. CSP says that during the pursuit, the suspect rammed two patrol vehicles. It was after that when troopers performed what the State Patrol is calling a tactical vehicle intervention.

Once the vehicle stopped, a short standoff ensued. Dean Moore, age 60, of Colorado Springs, was taken into custody by law enforcement and taken to a local area hospital to be checked for injuries.

For updates on the road closure, visit COTrip.

Original Report:

The major highway connecting Colorado Springs to the rest of the Front Range is seeing a major delay due to police activity.

The Colorado Springs Police Department is asking drivers to find another route. In a post made on social media at 8:10 p.m., the police department said I-25 is closed due to police activity near the Rockrimmon Blvd exit. It’s not clear what triggered the closure; however, a viewer called into the KRDO13 News Station and said she saw at least eight police cars in the area.

KRDO13 is sending a team to the site of the closure to learn more. For updates on the road closure visit COTrip.

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Michael Logerwell

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – It’s an Absolutely Colorado mission to help hundreds of military families breathe a little easier during the holidays. This weekend, Operation Homefront was hosting its annual Holiday Meals for Military Program.

Organizers tell KRDO13 that 500 families signed up this year to receive Thanksgiving essentials and gift cards to make their holiday a success.

Bridgette Sanchez, a program manager with Operation Homefront, said the event is a huge help for families who are still trying to find their footing in the community.

“This is so big on making our military members and their families feel welcome. in the community as i was a military spouse, we moved around a lot and you move to a new location, you don’t have family, you don’t have friends, and just them coming here, that is the number one comment we hear is that they’re supportive and they’re so thankful that their community is here for them,” Sanchez said.

Saturday’s operation didn’t just focus on the Thanksgiving Day meal. Organizers tell us they know kids are off for the week, so they’re also hooking families up with a bag of essentials to get them through the break.

Learn more about Operation Homefront here.   

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Effrage Davis

Today we will have sunny and dry skies across Southern Colorado. We will have our highs in the 50s to 60s across the region.

We will continue have clear skies as we into the night. It will be chilly with lows in the 30s for the I-25 corridor and Eastern Plains while the High Country will have lows in the teens to 20s.

Snow and rain return to the forecast for your Sunday Funday. Snow will be in the High Country with some snow possible in portions of Northern El Paso County Sunday night. Along the I-25 corridor and Eastern Plains we can expect rain. Highs will be in the 40s to 50s across Southern Colorado.

We will dry out by the early hours Monday then our skies will become clear and sunny. Highs will increase back into the 50s to 60s along the Front Range and Eastern Plains with the High Country having highs in the 40s.

We will continue to have sunny skies Tuesday with temperatures falling down into the upper 30s to 40s for Southern Colorado.

We will continue have cool temperatures and sunny skies Wednesday.

Thanksgiving will be dry but cool with highs in the 40s to 50s. If you are doing the Turkey Trot make sure to bundle as we will start the day with temperatures in the 20s to 30s. It will also be in the 20s to 30s if you decided to go out shopping late Thanksgiving night into early Black Friday.

Black Friday we will continue to have highs in the 40s to 50s with dry and sunny skies.

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Michael Logerwell

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Soon, players of the Colorado Lottery won’t need to carry cash to have their chance of winning big. This week, the Colorado Lottery Commission announced it will allow players to purchase lotto tickets with credit cards and on their phones.

“Our whole mission is based around consumers and consumer choice. Consumers these days, as you know, carry less cash. Many of them prefer transactions with credit cards or debit cards,” the Director of the Colorado Lottery, Tom Seaver, told KRDO13.

Seaver said this week’s rule change is all about the consumer. Almost everyone has had the experience of wanting to buy a lottery ticket but then realizing they don’t have any cash. Seaver and the lottery are looking to stop that near-universal experience and make it easier to access the lottery.

The two new rules will now allow lottery tickets to be purchased with credit cards and enable the lottery to sell directly to consumers through the Colorado Lottery app.

However, one local gambling addiction counselor says that access is a double-edged sword.

“I just know that accessibility is one of the biggest triggers for people having access to funds, having access to the gambling itself. And when it’s on your phone, it’s like like we’ve seen with the sports betting, you can do it from anywhere,” Kristen Haflett has been counseling people with gambling addictions in Colorado since 2011. In that time, she’s seen a rise in clients as easier betting avenues have opened up.

KRDO13 asked Seaver and the Lottery about the safety measures that will be in place when the new rules are implemented.

“We’re encouraged by the fact that other lotteries have already crossed this bridge, and that’s really important because we can talk to them about what kind of safety measures and what kind of, you know, controls can be put on this to help make sure that we protect player health,” Seaver said. He didn’t have the specifics on what guardrails would be put in place because they just started working on implementing the new rules.

Haflett said that she’d like to see the ability for consumers to put deposit and screen time limits on the app when ticket purchases are available. Seaver did say those features would be looked at.

“The accessibility is really concerning, and just the disconnect it creates for people with money, that when you use a credit card, you’re not thinking about the connection with your finances like it’s delayed. You don’t have that automatic pain of spending that money on something,” Haflett said.

While the rule change was passed this week, consumers won’t see the change for some time. Seaver said that it will take some months for both changes to go into effect, but couldn’t provide a specific timeline.

If you or someone you know is addicted to gambling, KRDO13 has listed out several local and state resources below:

Problem Gambling Coalition of Colorado

Bet Smart Colorado

Gambler’s Anonymous

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Heather Skold

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — For the more than 44,000 civilian government employees across Colorado, as well as service members early in their careers, the government shutdown felt especially hard.

The prior, not paid on time for work done over a month’s time; the latter, with already tight budgets seeking food pantries with added demand amid frozen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. 

A total of 620,000 people in Colorado rely on SNAP benefits. 

It’s obvious: a big chunk of those populations live in Southern Colorado. 

Thankfully, the Care and Share Food Bank has “Feeding America,” a three-year-long hunger grant, specifically meant to meet needs in the military. 

“We’re recipients of that now, as we have consistent money for military and veteran hunger — active duty and veteran hunger for the next three years,” said Nate Springer, CEO and President of Care and Share Food Bank. 

Springer is uniquely qualified for the job, having served 23 years in the Army.  

“I feel like it’s my obligation, as someone who had a wonderful experience in the military for a few decades, to be able to help our young men and women that are giving their all for our nation.”

Care and Share has expanded its reach within the military community at food giveaways and pantries on various installations, to include a mobile market. 

“It’s a rolling grocery store.  We took beverage trucks and converted them into rolling grocery stores. We can drive that into a community or onto an installation, open up all the sides, pull out the shelving, and then people can just come in and shop for free at that mobile grocery store.” 

600 families were served on Patriot Day at Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center, and 1,000 veterans and their families served during the Heroes Helping Heroes event in Pueblo. 

Care and Share serves a 29-county, 47,000-square-mile region — a little under half of the state — that stretches from Monument to the New Mexico border, and from Utah to Kansas.  It provides food to 278 other nonprofits. 

Looking for food assistance?  Click here. 

Ready to give? Click here.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) clarified a KRDO 13 report on Friday regarding scheduled overnight median work on a mile-long stretch of Powers Boulevard on the east side of the city.

An alert posted on a map on CoTrip.org’s website stated that two left lanes northbound and southbound overnight Friday between the Platte Avenue overpass and Aeroplaza Drive would be closed.

CoTrip.org

The alert announced the closure times as starting at 7 p.m. Friday and ending at 4 a.m. Saturday, near the ongoing project to build a new overpass at the Powers/Airport Road intersection.

However, a CDOT representative said that the closures happened earlier this week and will not be happening this weekend.

Possibly a confusing point is that the CoTrip map shows a “21” symbol, shaped like a tear-off calendar, over the project area — which could mean the project’s supposed start date of November 21, or Powers’ official designation as Colorado Highway 21.

“We don’t know why it’s showing that,” the representative told KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior.

Meanwhile, another project in that general area — also posted on CoTrip, apparently, will happen this weekend.

Utility repair work will close the westbound shoulder of US 24, east of the Platte Avenue overpass, between Highway 94 and Valley Street, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday — a distance of 1.3 miles.

CoTrip.org

As of late Friday afternoon, CoTrip had removed the “21” from its Powers map location and replaced it with a “22,” referring to the US 24 utility work, even though that work is not on Powers.

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Bradley Davis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – 850 military personnel and their families will eat well this Thanksgiving, and they’ll do so for free thanks to Mt. Carmel and their partners.

Mt. Carmel said the North Colorado Springs Rotary club donated $10,000 for turkeys and $5000 for gift cards, while the Colorado Springs branch of Veterans United provided bags of side dishes, as well as $6500 for turkeys.

“It’s a difficult time this year with the shutdowns and everything,” said Veterans United Branch Manager Alice Schnieder. “We really felt like we had to give our support.”

New this year, Mt. Carmel was able to distribute care package bags full of sides and stuffing in addition to the Turkeys. The new initiative will help military members feed their whole families without having to spend a dime at the store, as a Chaplain on Fort Carson said wallets continue to tighten.

“I think because of the little bit of the higher cost that we’re seeing at the grocery stores right now, this is definitely a big help,” Fort Carson Chaplain Jason Heneise said.

Mt. Carmel is facilitating the meal distribution to active duty military and their families on Fort Carson, Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases, and the Air Force Academy.

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Scott Harrison

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — While many people awoke disappointed at the lack of snow in the Pikes Peak region on Friday morning, others were relieved that they had no slick roads to deal with during rush hour.

Drivers found either damp or dry pavement along Interstate 25 between Colorado Springs and Monument, with wetter conditions on Highway 105 through Monument and Palmer Lake, and on County Line Road east of Monument Hill.

Roads are still too warm on most local streets and roads to allow for ice formation or snow accumulation.

Fog, however, was fairly heavy along County Line Road, east of I-25 and north of that road, into Douglas County.

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