By Ed Duffy

Kum & Go convenience store is now open at 8050 Fountain Mesa Rd in Fountain, Colorado.

The 5,000 square foot store features 16 pumping stations, a large product section, center checkout area and a Go Fresh Market that offers made-to-order pizza, breakfast and deli sandwiches. 

The Fountain store is one of up to 25 stores the company has opened or plans to open in the Pikes Peak region over the next few years, including one at Vickers and Academy, and one nearly completed at Hancock and Academy. 

For more information about Kum & Go visit Kumandgo.com. 

Is there a new business in your Colorado Springs, Security, Widefield or Fountain neighborhood? Let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

A man was shot dead today at the Seven Eleven at 5 Widefield Blvd.

According to reporters and people at the scene, law enforcement had the man in question under surveillance for at least the last several days. Earlier today, they were following him on Hwy 85 when he took evasive action, turning on to Fontaine and driving behind the Aamco and New Generations Homes buildings.

At that point law enforcement officers decided they needed to move in and blocked the vehicle as it pulled out along side the Seven Eleven. The driver rammed their vehicle. They opened fire, killing the man, whose name has not yet been released. Police believed the man was armed, but it is not yet clear if the suspect fired at officers.

note: edited 7:59 Friday 12/21

The VFW is offering 2013 calendars that enter you in a drawing for every day of the year. The fundraiser calendars, which benefit the VFW, are $20 each.

The smallest prize on any given day is $40. There will also be 2 drawing for $1,000 and 8 drawings for $100 each. If you win a prize, your name remains in play for all future drawings throughout the year.

A total of 6,000 calendars have been printed for this program. If you'd like to get in on it, call Dave Stone at 719-391-9470,

By Ed Duffy

As labor costs rose and foreign competition heated up, many large manufacturers turned to robots to stay competitive. Robots don't take breaks, ask for raises,  go on strike or threaten to sue you. The initial investment can be quite hefty though, at hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

Now it seems the stars are aligning for a revolution in robotic employment for even the small business world. A company called 'rethink robotics' has produced a worker robot called Baxter which it sells for just $22,000. Its abilities are a bit limited. It can pick things off a conveyor belt and put them in a box or on another belt, so long as they don't weigh more than about 10 pounds. It doesn't require a technician to program or run it. It even has a facial display screen which indicates whether your instructions are clear or not. It's small enough to fit at a normal person's workstation and it's easily portable. Competitors are getting into the game as well. Yaskawa Electric and ABB ltd are working on their own small commercial robots.

Again, the first wave may have limited capability, but there's already been good response from companies that want to use them for picking and packing jobs. If these robots show promise, you'll see faster, better, perhaps even cheaper models on the market before long.

With even minimum wage employees costing around $17,000/year, not including any mandatory health benefits, it doesn't take a CPA to figure out a $22,000 one-time investment in an automated replacement could be a real cost saver. If companies are able to market these successfully, the race will be on to replace more and more human jobs with robot jobs. At least in the case of 'rethink robotics' the robots are assembled in the U.S.. But, I suppose it's only a matter of time before robots are making the robots. That doesn't mean the human worker goes away. It does mean they may have to be more imaginative and self-sufficient however. If you're job can be done by a machine, it probably will be. So start thinking about developing a skill, product or service that can't.