"By contrast," Rick Carroll reports on bad ratings for 'Secrets,' "cable television's most popular program in February, the USA Network's 'Burn Notice,' drew 6.32 million viewers on Feb. 11."'
"Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a Highlands Ranch home on Friday and arrested a medical marijuana grower who was part of a 9Wants to Know story about suburban medical marijuana growing operations," reports the Associated Press. ""Whether it's a small grow or a big grow, I don't think the average person realizes how close to their front door it is," Chris Bartkowicz said two weeks ago when he gave 9Wants to Know a tour of his operation.
He operated a large medical marijuana grow facility in the basement of his $637,000 Highlands Ranch home.... After 9NEWS showed a tease for a story about Bartkowicz and his operation Thursday night, DEA agents decided he needed a visit. By Friday afternoon DEA agents were at the house carrying away moving boxes and leaf-size trash bags from his home, all filled with marijuana plants."
"Find this ritzy ski resort a little snobby? Aspenites are working on it," reports the Associated Press. "A city tourism initiative announced this week seeks to shake off Aspen's unfriendly reputation, according to the Aspen Daily News. The "Adopt a Tourist" promotion has city officials asking residents to volunteer to play host for visiting tourists. City promoters say the effort aims to put a more welcoming face on a town sometimes hostile to visitors. A sign behind the bar at one popular watering hole asks, 'If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?' The adoption program was the idea of Paul MacFarlane, a St. Louis native who moved to Aspen two years ago. He was inspired by seeing locals stop to help tourists read a local map on a downtown street corner."
Posts filed under 'The West'
Within one hour of skiing Powderhorn in Grand Mesa, Colorado, my wife said: “I love this place.”
This revelation is no small thing in our little world because my new bride—we married in May 2009—had lost her mojo when it came to skiing and I’m the one to blame. She had learned in Ohio before skiing Vermont, and she used to love it, and do it better than well, but as I grew slightly better and much more aggressive I would take her through ungroomed terrain that became the height of her misery and perhaps even a metaphor for our marriage.
After a year or two in Colorado, she stopped getting a pass and literally stopped skiing, with me shouldering plenty of blame for same.
Continue Reading January 30th, 2010
Two stories days apart in major newspapers--the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times--detail the growing concerns over Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD):
Wall Street Journal. The New York Times.
October 15th, 2009
Thursday July 9, 2009
Jobless claims fell for the first time since January this week---and the current nationwide unemployment rate of 9.5 percent could be dropping soon---
It will probably take at least six months before that happens---and only if economic stimulus plans succeed. In Colorado the rate of unemployment is about 7.5 percent right now---- tough economy—but great opportunity for the investor---buy a home if you can now in the roaring fork valley: there’s more inventory than ever before ….and prices have dropped.
Culix Tarsalis: the only species of mosquito that carries the dreaded West Nile Virus----will be making its appearance soon in the Roaring Fork Valley=---it’s been more than three years since the insect was discovered near Woody Creek----higher elevations possible now for the Culix to survive because of warmer overall temperatures.
The rates for riding the bus will be discussed this afternoon at Carbondale town hall as RFTA chiefs determine how they’ll raise the rates to ride ---increases are expected to go up by about 20 percent for the bus rides---some routes may be cut as well----------Vail is also increasing its charges to ride its public bus system.
July 9th, 2009
Wednesday July 8, 2009
It’s a mess! An attack that started over Independence Day weekend on several government websites---has disabled portions of the department charged with preventing just those kinds of assaults on the internet. The attacks are suspected of originating in North Korea—as retaliation of sorts against policies by the west against that country. Websites in South Korea have also been affected.
So far---no significant problems locally-----although a warning was issued on Monday to users of the Windows XP operating system----as a persistent bug allows havoc as cyber thieves use the playing of a video to open a door to hard drive data-----best advice: never open an email you suspect might not be authentic.
Aspen voters may be asked this fall whether or not to empty the real estate transfer tax bank account==all 26 million dollars of it=----to help pay for an expansion of the Wheeler Opera House.
Entrepreneurs arise! Goes the cry of those unwilling to bend to the recession---tomorrow we’ll be hearing from Dave Storm---an enterprising keeper of bees in the mid-valley----==don’t get stung with the economic downturn---learn how to succeed in business by really trying!!! Listen to KUUR local news, and local news on our sister station: KSNO!
July 8th, 2009
On Friday, at the end of the News cycle, just as most of America’s premier journalists had sunk their toes into east coast beach sand, Sarah Palin announced that she would resign the office of Alaska Governor effective July, 26, 2009...
Palin’s unexpected announcement sent the few left-wing media denizens not already on vacation into uncontrollable spasms of ecstasy. One radio news report by a guy who sounded to me like Alan Colmes dispensed with any form of journalistic objectivity, gleefully declaring that Governor Palin had simply “quit.” I didn’t pay this much attention. I figured the July 4th holiday weekend constituted enough of a diversion for the media to experience their leg tingles and get their journalistic shit together.
Continue Reading July 5th, 2009
LAS VEGAS—From the balcony of our honeymoon suite here at The Platinum Hotel, you can see the backside of The Strip—Mandalay Bay on the far left to the Wynn and Encore on the way right—and you can almost convince yourself that you live at some remove from the vacationing hoi polloi who decamp from the fruited plain to Sin City.
Even on a honeymoon in Vegas, The Platinum’s status as one of the few classy no-smoke, no-gamble hotels within proximity of the Strip—and my own inclination not to drink—might put us at a psychic distance from the action…but not so fast. No matter how much distance there might be in Vegas between one and the Strip one block away, there’s no escaping what this place means to these United States.
Continue Reading June 9th, 2009
Tom Sawyer and Colorado Senator Chris Romer share something in common: both know how to white-wash the facts. Both know how to get someone else to work or pay for their responsibilities. Both know how to make sure they are not responsible for their actions.
Continue Reading March 6th, 2009
Colorado citizens that voted for State Senator Chris Romer to represent them and their interests committed an egregious error. Today, Chris Romer, pushing for in-state tuition for illegal alien students--represents criminal alien parents and their children over the interests of Coloradan taxpayers and their families.
Continue Reading March 3rd, 2009
Ever strap on a 45 pound pack, step into skinny skis and trudge off into the wilderness like Jeremiah Johnson? Have you ever made a winter ascent of a 13,208 foot peak on skis with screaming winds and frigid temperatures tearing at your body? No? Don’t feel like the lone ranger! You’d have to be nuts to go on a ‘hut to hut’ mountaineering ski trip in the middle of February!
Enter wing nuts named Greg, Nick and Frosty! Intrepid travelers? Or crazy guys that don’t have the common sense that God gave a goose? Maybe they saw one too many Clint Eastwood movies like, “Where Eagles Dare!” or perhaps “The Iceman Cometh” with Lloyd Bridges, or, maybe they thought reenacting Ernest Shackleton’s “Endurance” saga in Antarctica by trying a similar stunt in Colorado might bring a similar sense of adventure. Who knows what kind of glue those Colorado boys sniffed before they drove happily into the mountains for a most amazing adventure?
Continue Reading March 2nd, 2009
In a moment of weakness or heretofore invisible inner strength, I was coaxed into going on a hut trip in the backcountry of Aspen this weekend without having any idea what in the name of Davy Crockett I was getting myself into.
Full disclosure: I’m a city boy, bred and buttered on the streets of Manhattan.
Here’s what that means: the country is great, but after a couple of hours it gets on your nerves. Oh and by the way, I’m scared shitless.
Continue Reading January 30th, 2009
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