Update: Basalt crash injures three, kills dog

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

Accident one of two on Two Rivers Road in 24-hour period

A two-vehicle collision late Thursday night seriously injured three people and temporarily shut down the western leg of Two Rivers Road in Basalt.

When police arrived, they found a Latino man lying on the ground and a white man and woman trapped inside a mangled black Jeep Cherokee, which was allegedly hit head-on by the Latino man in the Chevy Blazer.

UPDATE: Plane crash kills C’dale pilot

by Lynn Burton and Catherine Lutz

Carbondale resident Barry Maggert died piloting his single-engine plane after it crashed near Black Hawk on Thursday afternoon.

The Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office reported the fatality and an injured passenger as a result of the crash, which occurred in a mountainous, wooded area at approximately 10,300 feet.

The 1965 Cessna 182 is co-owned by Maggert and Carroll Winkler of Glenwood Springs, who said that Maggert was piloting the plane and was on his way to his son’s college graduation in Boulder.

Winkler said Maggert had been a pilot for “a fair amount of time,” and was instrument rated and “a good pilot.”

Subcontractor at Residences at Little Nell sued for alleged trafficking

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

 A Texas company accused of human trafficking in a federal lawsuit has been working as a subcontractor on the Residences at Little Nell construction project in Aspen.

Leno and Company, which is registered as an LLC in Denton, Texas, has been operating as a labor broker at several construction sites in Colorado, according to a carpenters’ union representative, despite the fact that it is not registered to do business in the state of Colorado.

Frommer buys time, lawyer

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Less than three weeks before the start of his Aspen trial on 30 fraud-related charges, alleged scam artist Peter Frommer has gotten some breathing room — and, he says, a new lawyer.

At an all-day hearing yesterday, Judge James Boyd agreed to postpone Frommer’s May 27 trial date. Frommer’s current lawyer, public defender Garth McCarty, said Frommer had reached an agreement with a private defense lawyer who would represent him only if given enough time to prepare for the trial. That means no trial on May 27, no trial this summer, and probably no trial until October or November.

Surf legend appears in Carbondale for film fest

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Mr. Pipeline is dropping into Carbondale.

Gerry Lopez, who dominated the premiere surf break on Oahu’s North Shore in the 1970s with his elegant tube riding, will appear in the Roaring Fork Valley for the first time during the Five Point Film Festival, which started yesterday in Carbondale.

Prom nightmare

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
As the hour inched toward midnight at Belly Up Aspen’s campy “’80s Prom Night” Saturday, not everyone was making out and slow dancing to Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” on the club’s sunken dance floor.

Police say that owner Michael Goldberg and patron Daniel Wettstein had taken it outside and were in a “heated argument” on Galena Street when they arrived. When police told Wettstein, 23, to step away from the fight, he allegedly clenched his fists and charged toward an Aspen police officer. He was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct.

Deputies respond to suicide

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies responded to an apparent suicide in Crystal River Estates south of Carbondale on Thursday night.

Pitkin County Patrol Director Mario Strobl said dispatch received a call at 6:56 p.m. that a 56-year-old man had apparently killed himself. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

How to fake a green thumb

by Kristine Crandall, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Official ski season has come to a close, meaning it is now time to put the finely woven designer parka and pants in storage, along with the cutesy-named shaped skis embossed with orange flames. Image is as embroidered into Aspen’s culture as the glittering gold on the parka. Sometimes image matches ability on the slopes, or it may serve primarily for après-ski success, or both. But now that the oh-so-important cell-phone conversations on the mountain to arrange social encounters have dried up, what’s one to do?

One obvious alternative is to get tricked out in Jackson Pollock-inspired lycra for the coast down to the Woody Creek Tavern on the newest carbon fiber bike. Another is displaying ounces of jewelry while walking up Smuggler with several designer dogs in tow, absorbed in iPod-land (the jewelry and music must somehow enhance the experience of walking uphill in the outdoors, I’m just not sure how).

The U.S. war on journalists

by Amy Goodman
Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: Journalism.

Targeting journalists, the Bush administration has engaged in direct assault, intimidation, imprisonment and information blackouts to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. The principal target these past seven years has been Al-Jazeera, the Arabic television network based in Doha, Qatar.

Throttle down in town

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

In Response to the article “Aspen set to approve motorcycle noise campaign” (April 25): Located in Glenwood Springs, Aspen Valley Harley-Davidson is the local Harley-Davidson dealership for all of the Roaring Fork Valley.

Cutting taxes increases revenues

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

I agree with Andrew Davis (his article on reducing taxes) that government spending must also be reduced. However, if McCain is elected president and reduces taxes, history has shown that such a move actually increases tax revenue dollars. Even President Kennedy had that figured out in the early 1960s.

Fox News distorts

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

Fox (lying) News and its right-wing reporters, starting with Bill O’Reilly and ending with hate and distortions, commends McCain and trashes the Democrats. They have the gall to call their reporting “fair and balanced.”

Wright’s right on

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

It has been interesting to watch the unfolding story of Barack Obama and his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright. Here are two men doing their jobs and demonstrating that we are far from “one nation under God.”