Real estate market slips

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

After bucking national downward trends for most of last year, the local real estate market has come down, and home prices are following.

“The frenzy of last summer established very high prices,” said Greg Hunter, managing broker of Morris & Fyrwald. “Now, sellers that have adjusted and lowered prices are still seeing a lot of activity. Those that have held fast to the high prices aren’t making deals.”

Zoning decision left untapped

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The fate of the Aspen Brewing Company’s tasting room beer sales hangs in the balance, while some doctors’ offices have a better chance of finding a home in the city’s lower-cost business district, after a three-hour discussion of proposed changes to that district at Monday’s Aspen City Council meeting.

City Council members all spoke in support of finding a way to get primary care physicians’ offices into the city’s Service/Commercial/Industrial zone district, which currently doesn’t allow doctors’ offices. But they were more lukewarm about allowing the Aspen Brewing Company, which opened last week, to serve more than the one pint they are allowed to now.

Shorter hours, smaller guns to be required at Basalt shooting range

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
The Colorado Division of Wildlife is considering reducing the hours of operations and limiting the size and type of guns that can be fired at the shooting range near Lake Christine in Basalt.

At its meeting on March 13 and 14, the division’s governing board, known as the Wildlife Commission, reviewed proposed new draft regulations for the shooting range, which is well within hearing range of downtown Basalt.

Colorado River gunman gets 30 days in jail, four years probation and fines

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

A Colorado man who threatened six boaters with a loaded gun when they stopped at a campsite for lunch along a popular stretch of the Colorado River on Aug. 11 was sentenced Friday to 30 days in Grand County Jail in Hot Sulpher Springs.

Kenneth P. Jones, 50, of Peyton, was charged with six counts of felony menacing in the incident, which took place on a busy summer weekend along the stretch of the Colorado River between the Pumphouse put in and the Rancho Del Rio take out, which are downriver from Gore Canyon and upriver from State Bridge.

Housing fee increase on hold — for now

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Aspen City Council failed to pass an ordinance last night that would have increased the fee developers have to pay in lieu of building affordable housing by 80 percent. But it wasn’t because the council felt the current fee was adequate; in fact, all agreed that it would likely need to be raised from the current $69.53 per square foot for new development.

Instead, the council was split 2-2 (Councilman Dwayne Romero was absent) on whether or not to raise the fees immediately or hold off for a few weeks to study the matter. Since both proposals failed because of the deadlock, by default housing staff will likely bring the proposal back to the council with more information at some point soon.

Glenwood Springs man proposes camper park for energy workers

From the From the Associated Press
RIFLE — A Glenwood Springs man has proposed building a 100-unit camper park near here to house energy workers after hearing about the growing number of requests from natural gas companies for temporary workers’ camps.

The county is considering giving blanket permission for small numbers of essential personnel to live at such sites. Critics say that could infringe on landowners’ rights.

A slow shuffle

by Christine Benedetti, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
While off-season is known for its musical chairs of trading business spaces, this spring could see less movement than ever. Some brokers say it’s the tightest market they’ve seen in terms of leasing commercial space, and as a result business owners — when given the chance — are staying put.

    In previous years, vacant storefronts and going-out-of-business signs peppered the downtown core, but this year finding more than a half dozen examples is a challenge.

Glenwood textile company weaves success with hemp

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
GLENWOOD SPRINGS — It might be Glenwood Springs’ biggest, but smallest business that many locals may not be aware exists.

Inside the old Immanuel Baptist Church is EnviroTextiles, a sustainable and biodegradable textile business. The company counts clothing designer Ralph Lauren as one of its clients. Singer Jack Johnson wears their T-shirts.

FACE TIME

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Our weekly profile of a local business community member
Andrew M. Israel

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
GLEASON AWARDED SCHOLARSHIP

    Aspen resident Gary Gleason was recently named a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, a grant which he will use to teach and study civil protection at the Polytechnic Institute in Leiria, Portugal this fall.

RESORT REPORT

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
What’s happening in other resort communities
COLORADO: SPRING SEASON DISCOUNTS

Investors retreat from stocks, seek safer havens

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
While many investors are on edge about the health of the economy and their investments, Dave Allen says he’s now sleeping better at night.

    Allen, an executive nearing retirement, shares many of Wall Street’s concerns but in recent months shifted most of the money in his 401(k) from mutual funds into conservative investments like CDs and money market accounts.

How to design a light, big, safe car

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
One of the keys to making vehicles more fuel efficient (and thereby less polluting) while making them safer could come in the form of “lightweighting” while keeping cars large.

    This idea might sound counterintuitive, since historically the weight and size of a car have gone pretty much hand in hand. So, to unpack this thinking, here are some tactics that automakers are trying as well as some observations on which carmakers are making important strides.

Employers are nervous, April Fools’ is no joke at work, and health insurance needs help

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
FINDING A JOB IN AMERICA: Employers are antsy this year. Graduating students, however, remain optimistic.

    Employment data nationwide may be flagging, but 73 percent of job-seeking students expect two or more job offers after finishing school, according to a recent survey by MonsterTRAK, a subsidiary of job search company Monster Worldwide Inc.

Many think evil doesn’t work as well without a ’net

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
In early March a Kentucky lawmaker introduced a bill that would make all anonymous Web comments illegal, punishable by fines of up to $1,000 for each offense.

     Two weeks ago a 17-year-old girl in Connecticut filed a federal lawsuit after she was disciplined by her school for using off-color words to describe administrators on her own blog written on her own time from her own home.

What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?

by Steve Skinner, Aspen Daily News Columnist

Quiz time! True or false:

1. The majority of Iraqis are Shiite.

2. The majority of Muslims are Shiite.

3. Kurds are not Muslims.

4. Osama bin Laden was born in New York.

5. Osama bin Laden is a Shiite Muslim.

6. Iraq was established in 2,750 B.C.

Bonus question:

For the Bush administration, Abu Ghraib photos are mirrors

by Richard Cohen, Aspen Daily News Columnist
You know him well. His nickname was Gilligan and he was a prisoner at Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein’s vast prison transformed into a vast American one and then transformed again by the Bush administration into a vast national disgrace. Gilligan was deprived of sleep, forced to stand on a small box, hooded like some medieval apparition, wired like a makeshift lamp and told (falsely) that if he fell he would be electrocuted. He was later released. Wrong man. Sorry.

The story of Gilligan is recounted in a book and a movie, both titled “Standard Operating Procedure” because that is precisely what the abuse of prisoners was at Abu Ghraib. Much of the book, excerpted in last week’s The New Yorker and written by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris (he made the documentary), relies on the verbatim testimony of the Americans who staffed Abu Ghraib. Some of them were the very ones who took the revolting pictures that stunned the world — including the iconic one of Gilligan.

Candidates replaceable parts of status quo

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

John Correia, did you even read my letter or did you just naturally jump to the conclusions you been trained to spout, by Pavlov’s political trainers, once you heard the command Obama?

Beware Boo

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Reading from afar, I could not help but put my foot into this one. Boo the pit bull (as in, boo!, ha-ha, now your face is a rare strip steak) was saved from extermination thanks to intervening staff members. This despite his “aggressiveness” at his original home, and now his adoptive shelter. Dr. Roeber is now on the hook for the future behavior of this dog, after “jumping through a lot more hoops (with Boo) than with your average dog out there,” partly at the insistence of his staff and partly because Boo “just doesn’t seem that bad.”

Make your voice heard

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Basalt is holding an important election on April 1. Voters will elect three new council members and approve or disapprove a plan to buy the Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park.

Carbondale trustee talk

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor’s note: This letter was originally addressed to the people of Carbondale.
Editor:

Colorado’s farms need help

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Farmers have a problem. The state has been diverting agricultural water for new housing growth while cities and counties have been buying it up, even drying out farms using nearby wells. As a result, farms are disappearing at an astonishing rate and that means both higher food prices and more dangerous food products from China.