Boulder-Springs, special to the Journal  Last night, it an eight to one decision, the Boulder-Springs county commissioners fired the county's entire internal audit staff of five people.

"They were digging into things that were none of their business," said an unnamed commissioner (who by the way is under indictment for real estate fraud involving land around the new airport.) "They were looking at policies and procedures. We hired them to look for people who were stealing from us, not to dig around in management affairs."

When asked what expectations the commission had of the audit staff, the same source replied, "They were supposed to look into stuff like employees stealing pens, and using county vehicles for personal business. They didn't find any of that, and what they did find is much better kept under the rug."

When asked for clarification, our source simply replied, "no comment."

The Journal has not been allowed to talk to any of the fired staff members under the guise of "county security," but we have unearthed allegations of a number of improprieties by commissioners and staff.

This reporter was contacted this morning at 3 am by a gruff voiced woman (whom we immediately recognized as a long-term commissioner) who stated, "I don't care what they think they've got on paper, that trip to the Cayman Islands last December was county business."

We think she might be referring to $100,000 in federal grant money that never seemed to hit the county coffers.

More on this story as it develops.

Boulder-Springs (ANS) With the season's first heavy snow upon us, the Journal is closely monitoring Damien Holdings with regard to a story we ran last October about hotel kickbacks.  The State Attorney's office is also interested in the Damien Grade policy requiring employees of Damien Holdings and BeriCraft Aviation to book hotel rooms at their own expense to ensure that they are on time for work.

A major question around this tough policy is speculation that Damien Holdings receives a kickback in the form of a percentage of each room booked by an employee complying with the policy.  We'll have more news as we follow the incoming snow.

Boulder-Springs (ANS) - Damien Grade, chairman of Damien Holdings, and ranked in the world's top twenty wealthiest people, was accused this morning of a hotel kickback scheme that affects more than 1,000 employees of Damien Holdings and Bericraft Aviation.  This comes just two weeks after an internal BeriCraft memorandum on winter attendance policy was leaked to the media.
The policy requires BeriCraft employees to acquire hotel rooms near either BeriCraft's Solace Creek facitilies or Damien Holdings' downtown offices to ensure attendence during severe winter weather.  Initially, the directive, although harsh on the surface, was somewhat mitigated by Damien Holdings' tough negotiations with surrounding hotels for employee discounts.
This morning, an unnamed operations manager of one of the hotels, provided the Journal with a copy of a memorandum which instructs the hotel's accounting department to issue a "rebate" to Damien Holdings in the amount of 7% of the total hotel bill.  Colorado hospitality insiders are calling it the "Damien's wife needs a new Maybach" tax.