"Dakota Stonehouse's first game at quarterback ended with him walking off the field crying and screaming as only a grade-schooler can," wrtites Brian Forbes. "When Stonehouse and the rest of the Glenwood Springs Demons walk off the field nowadays, it's the other team that often feels like that. Accurate, at times unstoppable, and blessed with an innate sense of calm in the clutch, Stonehouse has led the top-seeded Demons (12-0) to the Class 3A state semifinals by leaving a trail of stunned coaches and opponents in his wake."
Looks like Garfield County taxpayers are in big for 570K defending against the ACLU's charges of excessive force. "The ACLU’s complaint in U.S. District Court alleges prisoners at the jail have been subjected to patterns of excessive force with things like Tasers, pepper-ball guns, restraint chairs, pepper spray and electroshock belts. It also claims the jail has failed to provide mental health treatment and punishes prisoners without due process." Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario said the claims are "ridiculous" and "frivolous'. “We’ve booked about 30,000 people into the jail in the six years I’ve been sheriff, and we’ve used a Taser on maybe eight different individuals so I hardly think we’re out of control and using it against the entire class of inmates..."
From: Scott Chaplin
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 10:25:03 -0700
Hello Friends and Neighbors,
I am strongly urging all of you who live in Garfield County (as well as those of you in neighboring counties who care about the future of the region) to come the the River Valley Ranch House in Carbondale this Friday at 5:30 pm. County Commissioner candidates Steve Carter and Steve Bershenyi will be on hand to introduce their platforms and answer questions.
I would consider this race to be one of the most important local political races in recent history in Western Colorado. It is also one of the most exciting because we have the potential to bring about one of the most profound political changes in over 30 years for our area. Garfield County politics has been dominated by a variety of Republicans who have almost blindly supported any and all demands from the gas industry. This has resulting in a great deal of environmental degradation that will continue haunting the County for years to come. The County leaders have also done little to support intelligent growth management, affordable housing or public transportation; just to name a few important causes.
The Con Man gets a visit from Lt. Colonel Dick Merrit and Seaman Dan Glidden, two retired veterans who stand for all that's good about those who have served the country. Also: a bit of a rant of flag lapel pins and taking back the lapel flag pin--and the flags--from those who desecrate it with faux patriotism.
You may take this as a challenge and/or invitation to change the future toward a sustainable civilization! The USA grows by 3.1 million annually on its way to adding 100 million people in 30 years. What drives that population overload? Legal and illegal immigration! Water shortages, energy costs, gridlock, crowding, air pollution and quality of life hang in the balance and can only worsen with added population.
I opened this morning’s edition of the GSPI to learn that we’re being overrun by wildlife. That’s right, wring your hands and run screaming into the night, there’s beavers eating trees in Noname and Grizzly Creek, and bears are eating llamas in Rifle. I tell you, I’ve lived here a long time, but I can’t remember the last time life here seemed so tenuous, so
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
The creation of Israel 60 years ago as a sanctuary for the Jewish people is cause for celebration. Israel is a successful nation, which has contributed much to science and technology. It’s fully capable of defending itself with the fourth strongest military in the world. But Israel is still in jeopardy.
My mom was born in a tent (some accounts I’ve heard say it was a cabin) near Estes Park, Colorado on an August night in 1936. My grandfather was a laborer during what must have been the construction of Trail Ridge Road from the Alpine Visitor Center to Grand Lake. It is one of the cruel realities of surviving your elders that you come up with questions you can never have answered.
When I was a much younger man, in that netherworld between high school and life, I went to work in the coal mines. Yes, back in the day, there were coal mines, and some of them were in Pitkin County. But I digress.
“Incredibly disrespectful.” That’s how the Con Man describes the conservative’s penchant for mislabeling the Democratic Party. But after learning of the Democrats’ primary electoral process, I’m inclined to agree with the assessment that the Democratic Party is decidedly undemocratic.
Many summers ago, I joined a party of favorites—me, my life-long friend Carmine, his son Andrew, and the three Dons: Carmine’s father, older brother, and nephew—for some high-country fly fishing on the Cimarron. It was no major adventure. A left turn off the two lane highway just North of Ridgeway and another fifteen or so miles uphill and we were there.
It had been a few years since I’d last guided a fly fishing trip, but my piscatorial reputation was fairly well known, if not as unwarranted as a Modonnna grammy. Still, among people who were near enough my own kin, my angling abilities were honored.
Several times in the past few weeks, Michael Conniff has publicly accused me of being a conspiracy theorist on his show Con Games. I cringe every time I hear that, mainly because I have spent the last several years trying to distance myself from the conspiracy theories of 9/11, in order to preserve what shred of credibility I have left in this community.
The accusation stems from my call-in statement regarding the Iraq war. My assertion is that the Bush administration, or more accurately the Neocon cabal involved in among other things, the Project for a New American Century (or as Aaron from Eagle calls it; PeeNAC), never intended to go into Iraq, kick out Saddam, neatly set up a democratic system of government, and leave. I contend that their intention all along was to get their foot in the door, and make certain that things went so horribly wrong that we’d have an excuse to stay indefinitely. There is a trail of evidence five miles long on this one.
Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (CAIR) co-founder Mike McGarry is in fine form, followed by someone from the other side of the spectru, Tom Ziemann, Western Slope director of Catholic Charities.
Also: the Con Man is joined by Dr. Pamela Zuker, who talks about the wonders of the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork.
In the final half-hour, Michael Conniff returns to the implications of what he calls "The Permanent War" in Iraq.
