Photo: Daniel Zwerdling, NPRSix months ago, an NPR investigation found that leaders at Fort Carson, Colo., were punishing some soldiers who returned from war with serious mental health problems – and were preventing them from getting the treatment they needed. In some cases, officers kicked the soldiers out of the Army.

Those stories sparked ongoing investigations of the post, including one by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and another by Pentagon officials.

Early this year, commanders at Fort Carson responded by launching what they described as an important new program: They required every leader, from sergeants up to generals, to attend a training course on how to spot and help soldiers who potentially have post-traumatic stress disorder. Officials say more than 2,200 leaders have taken the course so far, most of them early this year.

But during a recent return trip to Fort Carson to see whether conditions for troubled soldiers had improved, the most significant changes appeared to be rhetorical.

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Coloradans will get rebates on their utility bills if they conserve energy under a new law. Governor Ritter signed the legislation earlier this week, it’s part of a package of new renewable energy measures. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.

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Boulder businessman Jared Polis has entered the race for Congress from Colorado’s 2nd district. That means the wealthy businessman will face off against state senate president Joan Fitzgerald in the Democratic primary for the seat. The two are vying for the seat that Congressman Mark Udall is leaving to run for U.S. senate. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.

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Last week we reported that a delegation of staffers from the U.S. House and Senate visited Ft. Carson to look into allegations that the Army is mistreating soldiers with mental health problems.

Today, members of Colorado’s congressional delegation who sent staffers on the visit sent a letter to the Army to follow up.

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Everyone in Colorado would have health care coverage within three years, under new proposals from the state’s blue ribbon healthcare commission. The commission will issue final recommendations to the legislature next year. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.

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It looks like Congress is taking seriously a new round of debate about immigration in the coming weeks. Democrats have advanced a new bill that observers are calling a mixed bag with something for everyone to love, or hate.

Colorado Senator Ken Salazar was a leading proponent of comprehensive immigration reform last November. A bill to overhaul immigration laws died for lack of action. The Democrat say the new bill achieves the same goals he set last time.

Republican Wayne Allard has been critical of proposals to bring the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S. into the light of citizenship ahead of a backlog of some 8 million trying to enter legally.

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In Part 1 this week, Springs Culture Cast drops in on the “Best of the Springs” party hosted by The Gazette at the Pikes Peak Center. [SpringsCultureCast.com] for more info.

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Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong, they’re some of the giants of the golden age of jazz, and Sylvester Smith has seen them all. Mr. Smith, also known as “Smitty,” is a longtime employee of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Its current exhibition is called The Golden Age of Jazz, and features photographs of some of the era’s biggest stars. KRCC’s Kate Dawson recently took a tour of the exhibit with Smitty. He talked about the golden age, which was at the same time a difficult period for African Americans.

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Photographs of jazz legends, taken by William P. Gottlieb, are on display at the Fine Arts Center Modern Gallery in downtown Colorado Springs. Catch the exhibit now through June 24th in the Plaza of the Rockies on South Tejon. [LINK TO FAC]

Aspen Public Radio’s Kirk Siegler speaks with Auden Schendler, the Aspen Skiing Company’s environmental czar. Schendler has an article in this month’s High Country News about the fight over global warming.

Looking southwest, Sand Creek or Chivington Massacre, 1864.
O. Y. Rookstool

The land where the Sand Creek Massacre took place has become a National Historic Site, 140 years later. It took the cooperation of three tribes, the state, the National Park Service, and Congress. The site–in southeastern Colorado–is where militiamen killed more than 150 members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes in a raid on November 29th, 1864. Steve Brady’s ancestors survived the massacre. He represented the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in negotiations. Alexa Roberts is Superintendent of the new site, which will open to the public next month.

Ryan Warner of KCFR in Denver recently spoke to Roberts and Brady for the KCFR program “Colorado Matters.”

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