Hazlehurst's Blog » 2012

Firefighting decisions create minor inconveniences

28. June 2012

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For those of us who live or work along Garden of the Gods Road, the continued closure of that crucial artery seems a little like overkill. The fire appears to have moved on, and yet thousands of folks between Centennial and 30th are in limbo, unable to get to their jobs, their homes, or maybe [...]

90% of primary votes counted when election office evacuated

27. June 2012

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What might have been a night of exciting Republican primary contests quickly spiraled into irrelevance, as the Waldo Canyon fire transmogrified into “a firestorm of epic proportions” destroying a yet unknown number of homes and businesses in northwest Colorado Springs. Election officials couldn’t finish counting ballots by 7:15, when the County Clerk’s office on Garden [...]

Obeying laws today is knowing which ones to bend

22. June 2012

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“Breakin’ rocks in the hot sun/I fought the law — and the law won.” — written by Sonny Curtis, performed by the Crickets, the Bobby Fuller Four, and the Clash. Ah, the good old days! When laws were laws, criminals were caught, and punishment was certain. Do we still fight the law? Or have [...]

Mayor’s counsel meeting: transit money, shorter meetings and Drake

20. June 2012

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For anyone willing to sit through an hour and a half’s worth of elected officials talking about serious subjects, there were some unexpected rewards at the Mayor’s counsel meeting this morning. In the rarely explored arena of things that might actually make a difference, both Mayor and Council came up with worthwhile ideas. Mayor Bach [...]

City’s capital improvements backlog could reach $1 billion

20. June 2012

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Judging from Mayor Steve Bach’s remarks at a Tuesday press conference, the city’s capital improvements backlog can now be described as catastrophic, rather than merely dismal. Asked by a reporter whether the city’s backlog amounted to twice as much as the city’s annual budget, Bach shook his head. “Twice as much?” he asked. “That’d be [...]

Swiss TV crew doing story about Springs’ tax climate

18. June 2012

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What do Colorado Springs and Trenton, N.J., have in common? More than you might think. They’re both medium-sized American cities struggling to fund vital public services during a prolonged recession. One is in catastrophic decline, while the other remains reasonably prosperous. One is largely black, poor, dangerous and governed by Democrats, while the other largely [...]

Mayor, council must play nicely on this one

15. June 2012

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Last week’s media brouhaha over a nonexistent Steve Bach meltdown concerning Memorial Health System was mercifully short-lived. It endures only in the embarrassment of the perpetrators (a certain daily newspaper, unnamed to protect the guilty) and the greater embarrassment of those who were gulled by the scam (that would be yours truly). Thinking that Bach [...]

Kushner might bring surprising changes to Gazette

12. June 2012

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In February 2011, Catherine Ozment profiled Aaron Kushner in Boston Magazine. Kushner, 39, is CEO of 2100 Trust LLC, the investment group that just bought the Gazette, the Orange County Register and several other newspaperS from Freedom Communications. When Ozment interviewed Kushner, he was in the process of making an offer to buy the Boston [...]

Prepare for future pitches of progress and prosperity

11. June 2012

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It’s exciting to be back at CSBJ! I’ve missed writing about business during the past 18 months. In Colorado Springs, the biggest stories are at the nexus of politics, business and belief — religious or secular. Take the strange and scarcely believable saga of the Banning Lewis Ranch, which in 25 years has [...]

Facebook finding its place in history of investments

11. June 2012

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At the beginning of the week, Bloomberg’s website featured two stories. One noted the continuing fall of Facebook shares since the company’s initial public offering, when the investing public snapped up 421 million shares of the 8-year-old firm at $38 a share. At that price, the company was valued at 107 times trailing earnings, [...]

Archive | June, 2012