'J6 Praying Grandma' from Colorado Springs area says she's not scared as sentencing nears

PLUS | Nearly $1 billion judgment goes against Return to Nature Funeral Home, although largely symbolic and more. [View in browser]( [Share with a friend]( Springs PM Update Good evening! Today is Monday, August 5, 2024. Catch up on everything going on in Colorado in 5 minutes. ['J6 Praying Grandma' from Colorado Springs area says she's not scared as sentencing nears]( Rebecca Lavrenz doesn’t want to go to prison, but for the past four months the 72-year-old great-grandmother, retired registered nurse and small-business owner in El Paso County has been steeling herself for that possibility. [Read More]( [‘Governor’ Camden Dempsey addresses latest criticisms of Deion Sanders, CU Buffs locker room]( The message from inside the Colorado locker room: Enough is enough. After another article was published over the weekend — this time from Athlon Sports — highlighting a reportedly “chaotic” culture inside the locker room with claims from anonymous former Buffaloes players, the new voice of this year’s team, long snapper Camden Dempsey, felt he needed to stand up for his teammates. [Read More]( [Venezuela prison gang that gave ‘green light’ to attack law enforcement operating in Colorado's Front Range]( A Venezuela-based transnational criminal organization known for targeting desperate immigrants reportedly has given “the green light” for gang members to attack or fire on law enforcement in the U.S. That group, Tren de Aragua, or TDA, has reach and influence along Colorado’s Front Range, The Gazette has learned. [Read More]( [Colorado Springs man donates nearly 100,000 aluminum tabs to charity — one beer at a time]( A Colorado Springs man recently made a sizeable, if somewhat unorthodox, donation to Ronald McDonald House. On Thursday, Roger Wertheimer drove to the temporary home for families of critically ill children and dropped off a collection that took more than a decade to build, with a little help from his friends: a haul of aluminum pull-tabs totaling nearly 80 pounds. [Read More]( [Parties hint of negotiations to remove Colorado property tax initiatives from November ballot]( Two initiatives designed to reduce property taxes for Coloradans might not appear on the November ballot if lawmakers and advocates succeed in negotiating the terms for a rare special legislative session that would tackle soaring valuations. [Read More]( [Pikes Peak's South Slope still an 'amazing gem' but with accessibility limitations]( The scene comes back to Mary Burger like a dream: crystal-clear waters tucked between stream-lined meadows and forests and Pikes Peak’s granite shoulders, rising and falling around this glacier-carved basin above 10,000 feet. This is Pikes Peak’s south slope, where Burger led volunteers a lifetime ago as a founder of nonprofit Friends of the Peak. They built a trail that would go from McReynolds Reservoir to the uppermost Boehmer Reservoir — a trail to meet the first visitors of South Slope Recreation Area in 2014. [Read More]( [Nearly $1 billion judgment goes against Return to Nature Funeral Home, although largely symbolic]( A class-action lawsuit against the Return to Nature Funeral Home resulted in a judgment of nearly $1 billion, an attorney representing the victims confirmed Monday. The funeral home about 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs came under a multiagency investigation in October after reports of a complaint about a foul odor in the area. Investigators said they found nearly 190 bodies in various states of decomposition that were not properly stored. [Read More]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [LinkedIn]( [YouTube]( Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up [here.]( Engage in the conversation in [today's eEdition]( Interested in podcasts? Check out ours [here]( Manage your email preferences or unsubscribe [here.]( 30 East Pikes Peak Avenue, Suite 100 Colorado Springs, CO 80903