The fifth annual Pedal the Plains bike ride is set to begin Friday in Ordway. The three-day 150-mile ride will take place in the Lower Arkansas River Valley this year, passing through Ordway, Fowler and La Junta.

Some blood donation centers around Colorado Springs are reporting low supplies and asking the community to donate. Carolann Books is the donor recruitment coordinator for Penrose-St. Francis. She says this is typically a challenging time of year.

A recently released survey shows community members in the Pikes Peak region have few concerns about living near military installations.  Nearly 700 community members shared feedback through the online survey from the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers gave the 145th annual “State of the City” address at the Broadmoor Thursday. Mayor Suthers called on state leaders to expand a section Interstate 25 between Denver and Colorado Springs. He also acknowledged the pain caused by two shootings that happened in the city last fall.

A new partnership aims to preserve four farms in Rocky Ford, totaling more than 660 acres. New conservation easements between farmers Bart and David Mendenhall and the Palmer Land Trust will help ensure the water from their farms can never be sold off. Rebecca Jewett directs the Palmer Land Trust.

The Colorado State Fair officially opened August 25th in Pueblo. Saturday, hundreds of high school students crowded in to perform at the annual marching band competition. KRCC’s Holly Pretsky attended the event and other traditional fair activities, and brought back this audio postcard.

The 144th Colorado State Fair officially opens Friday in Pueblo, and organizers expect more than 500,000 people to attend. Sarah Cummings stepped into the role of the Fair’s new general manager earlier this year. She says she’s spent the last seven months studying how it operates.

The Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent descend on Manitou this weekend. The race closes parking on Ruxton and Manitou Avenues during the weekend, as well as the Manitou Incline. The annual races began in 1954. Race director Ron Ilgen has run the Marathon three times, and says it’s a grueling experience.

Waiting in line at a soup kitchen or riding a bus may not be typical medical school curriculum, but that’s exactly what some med students did last week. More than 20 medical students from the University of Colorado School of Medicine gather in the kitchen of the RJ Montgomery homeless shelter on Sierra Madre.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s canine officer, Sci, will soon be getting a protective vest thanks to a donation. The vest will come from nonprofit Vested Interest in K9s. District Wildlife Manager, Phillip Gurule, directs the new canine program and is based in Colorado Springs.

The year after the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Congress authorized the creation of six segregated African American army regiments. They were placed in the largely unsettled Rocky Mountain West, far from the southern states where many of them had been enslaved.

More than 100 Colorado Springs community members gathered together Saturday night in Memorial Park for a vigil following the recent deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and five Dallas police officers. As the sun set over Pikes Peak, members of the African American community took turns addressing the crowd from a microphone.

Colorado Springs PrideFest takes place this weekend in America the Beautiful Park.  This will be the 26th annual Colorado Springs PrideFest to celebrate the LGBT community. Event organizer, Nic Grzecka, says there will be increased security in light of the June mass shooting at an Orlando gay night club.

Law enforcement leaders and others in Colorado Springs and El Paso County held a press conference today in response to incidents of violence across the country this week and in the past, including the shootings in Dallas last night that left five officers dead.

A handful of Colorado Springs bus stops stirred up controversy recently after Mountain Metro Transit almost banned certain advertising on the bus stop benches. The benches in question say “Jesus is Lord” in large white letters.

Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District Democrats chose Army veteran Misty Plowright to represent the their party in the race against incumbent Doug Lamborn (R) in November.