Jim Blanning, who shot himself last week after planting bombs in downtown Aspen, was continuously involved in the buying and selling of mining claims----even up to the day he died.
The investigation into how carbon monoxide leaked from a snowmelt system and killed a Denver Family ------continues this morning.
The four members of the Lofgren family, who had won a trip to Aspen, were staying in a luxury home just east of town over Thanksgiving, when somehow the deadly and silent gas filled the house.
Continuing the quest for a way to induce Sirius to create an All Beatles channel, Irish Kit comments, “Since Michael Jackson holds ownership…over Lennon-McCartney tunes, I’m sure that Sirius would have to do some negotiating with Jackson. Egos being what they are, Jackson would first want to discuss a Michael Jackson channel before thinking about a Beatles channel. I don’t think the idea of 24 hours of Michael Jackson would be that appealing to Sirius.”
KUUR news, along with our sister station---TV Aspen ---spent a great deal of time on Tuesday---trying to determine whether any codes or regulations exist in the city of Aspen ---that require the installation of carbon monoxide detectors in new home construction.
It was that deadly gas that killed a family of four on Thanksgiving.
Parker Lofgren, his wife Caroline, and their two children—died after being asphyxiated by the gas ---which is believed to have come from a faulty snowmelt system at the house in which they were staying---located at #10 Popcorn Lane .
The family, from Denver , had won the trip to aspen and stay in the home in a silent auction. They apparently died in their sleep on last Thursday night-------the deaths not discovered until Friday afternoon.
In a press release this morning from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office---there was also almost no information regarding what’s been turned up so far in the investigation---if anything; only saying that as the investigation continues into the deaths-----more details would be forthcoming.
A key question is whether the home had a device to detect the deadly gas (that is likely but not verified yet), since Pitkin County building plans required the installation of such a warning system -----and in fact approved the certificate of occupancy two years ago.
The city of Aspen , in response to the deaths, issued a separate press release stating the intention to require carbon monoxide warning devices on new construction.
Carbon monoxide is odorless---and is not seen.
The weak economy has caused planners with the city of Aspen to back off---for now----from what’s known as the “ZG” Master Plan----a blueprint for more city and county buildings in the downtown core.
The plan also has participation from the Pitkin County Library and the Aspen Chamber Resort Association----and has received a lot of press for its ambitious expansion of government facilities.
The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department has placed patrol director Ann Stephenson on administrative leave------no reasons given for the action against the 23 year veteran of the department. Sheriff Bob Braudis is out of town. Undersheriff Joe Di Salvo told reporters he can’t talk about the suspension yet.
After mulling the absurdity of Curtis Wackerle, the Aspen Daily News reporter covering City Hall, writing a story about a news organization that is a direct competitor on his beat, I wrote the following email to Daily editor Troy Hooper, no stranger to the Aspen Post audience, and copied Daily owner Dave Danforth and publisher David Cook; and also copied were the three Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR) board members.
As you will read, the Hoopster made up a lame excuse to explain away the conflict-of-interest and then went down in flames.
In typical fashion, an inexperienced reporter at the Aspen Daily News called me up twice in the last two days to let me know I was in “hot water”—that’s a direct quote—for the investigative reporting undertaken by Post Time News for the new nonprofit, Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR).
As this story unfolds, you need to understand a couple of things about the reporter in question—Curtis Wackerle, part of the hack Wack a’ Sack tag team covering Aspen City Hall with kid gloves. I know for a fact from inside the newsroom that Wackerle, in direct competition at City Hall with Post Time News, is feeling the heat from our coverage.
Let me put it more directly: we’re making him look bad because we’re covering the stories that he and Sack are missing.
All that would be well and good if the story in any way backed up the twin contentions. Yes, in the story City Attorney John Worcester says it will come to a vote but no other evidence is presented to confirm the story’s premise or to indicate that getting by without a vote is “not likely.” As for those dissatisfied residents, one can eventually find “Aspenite Phyllis Bronson” as the one resident (singular) who remains unconvinced on the record that the museum on the Z-G property may not be a great idea.
With the fighting in Georgia, the Con Man makes the intellectual journey from the Cold War to what he calls the Carbon Wars beginning with Gulf War I. Also: A visit from Charlie Firestone, head of the Aspen Institute's Communications and Society program.
The Con Man welcomes the premier rock 'n' roll photographer Lynn Goldsmith, then segues into a discussion of Thomas Friedman, and a visit by the Cancer Babes from the Pathfinders survivors group.
Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The New York Times, was officially christened as king of the world over the weekend in Aspen—and why the hell not?
He wore the mantle lightly at the Aspen Ideas Festival, in part because he married into the gazillionaire Buxbaum family, who have so far given tens of millions of dollars to the town, with the latest dollop a $25 million downpayment for a spanky campus at the Aspen Music Festival and School. But Friedman’s wallop at the podium has all but nothing to do with Bucksbaum bucks, and everything to do with his prescient ability to package the zeitgeist with the tidiness of a juice box—the kind that comes with its own self-piercing straw.
The Con Man and his callers absorb the news of the death of NBC newsman Tim Russert--and what his career says about the practice of journalism today. Also: an interview with Jonathan Dorfman, who worked with Russert for the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynhihan.
Tim Russert's untimely demise has down-shifted every serious journalist in captivity into a 24-7 coverage of their own grief. No doubt Russert's death warrants attention. He was damn good at what he did, no matter what his critics said. But please let us seek some perspective here. If you have a pulpit on a TV network, what compels you to thrust a colleague's tragic death into the news cycle? I've seen too many red-nosed, blood-shot-eyed news types since Russert's unfortunate passing. It's great that Russert lived well, so well that his circle of friendship eclipsed mere acquaintance. I'm certain I'm not the only one who yearns for letting the Russert family grieve in peace...
But, since that's not the way it's going to be, my favorite Russert clip is when he interviewed Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan lost his train of thought and Hitchens turned to him and said, "Oh, don't be such a lesbian." Or something like that. I can't find the clip on youtube, but I'm fairly certain there's a reason why the camera focused on Hitchens and Sullivan rather than Russert. I believe the gaff occurred in this interview:
ASPEN, COLORADO—In a great leap across The Pond, the world’s leading classical music magazine Gramophone, based in London , is producing a special edition devoted entirely to the 2008 season of the Aspen Music Festival and School. The 104-page guide was overseen directly by Gramophone editor James Inverne and Gramophone North American section editor Anastasia Tsioulcas and illuminates this premier American music festival’s 2008 season with articles on the festival’s programming, artists and history. The relationship is expected to lead to further editions in 2009 and 2010. The inaugural issue is due out on June 17.
