SkiCo outlines problems with moving Lift 1A

by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Building a chairlift into town on the Lift 1A side of Aspen Mountain is a notion ridden with constraints, but is not completely out of the cards, Aspen Skiing Co. brass told the Lift One COWOP task force.

The problem is one of space constraints and opportunity cost, SkiCo Vice President for Planning and Development Dave Corbin told the city-sponsored group charged with plotting out the future of the Lift 1A neighborhood. The group is in the midst of six months of weekly meetings that began after two separate hotel development projects in the area ran aground.

Glenwood newspaper accused of discrimination

by Troy Hooper, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled there is reasonable cause to believe a top Glenwood Springs Post Independent advertising representative was wrongfully fired for discriminatory reasons in September 2005.

The fired ad rep, Mary Proctor, claims she was treated differently because she is a woman, and that her employment at the newspaper began to suffer when the publication’s then-advertising director, Clifford Fewel, tried to force his religion on her and the staff.

Jazz fest sticks to its name, but doesn’t fill the house

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Truer to its roots than festivals past, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Festival that wrapped up last night failed to attract the record crowds of the past two years.

Total attendance for the four-day festival was approximately 8,100, about 3,000 people fewer than last-year’s record-setting festival, which included big draws such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Steve Winwood and the Black Crowes.

New airport emissions study differs from city’s

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

A new study of greenhouse gas emissions at the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport arrived at a much lower number than a 2005 city of Aspen study did, primarily because it had a narrower focus.

The new study, recently presented to the Pitkin County commissioners, concluded that air travel associated with the Aspen airport produced 56,421 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2006. That’s about one-sixth of the 344,487 tons of CO2 emitted by commercial and general aviation flights the city’s Canary Initiative attributed to the airport. The city’s calculation amounts to 44 percent of the total emissions being produced in Aspen.

THE SCORE — Summer highlights galore at AMFS

by John O'Conor
I was born in Dublin, Ireland, the youngest of four children, and my mother was the type who sent us to everything to see if we were good at anything. Both my elder sisters played piano well, and they started me off and made it fun, and I had lovely teachers all through my life.

I was invited to join the faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School three years ago. For the first two years, I could only come for the second session, but last summer Alan Fletcher, Joan Gordon and Asadour Santourian put serious pressure (i.e. two delicious lunches) on me to come for the whole summer. So here I am. I even canceled a three-week trip to Australia, where I was supposed to go next week.

NEWS BRIEFS

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Fire benefit raises $18K

Wednesday’s fundraiser for the Castle Ridge fire victims raised more than $18,000, according to Wheeler Opera House and Aspen Music Festival and School officials.

BREAKING NEWS: Paraglide pilot OK after crash

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

A paraglide pilot who crashed in the North Star Preserve on Monday was released from Aspen Valley Hospital without injury.

The pilot, Thomas Brinkmeyer, is a member of a local paraglider club called Parapente Aspen. Wind was blamed for the crash.

His fellow paraglide pilots said they had been in contact with the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport and were attempting to land after they were alerted that the wind was picking up. The pilot was about 40 to 50 feet from the ground when the wing on his paraglider collapsed and he crashed onto the ground, just feet from the Roaring Fork River.

Hanging by a string in a brutal heat wave

by Corby Anderson, Roaring Sports Columnist
Well, darn it; this column is not going as was planned, and, unfortunately, is going to have very little to do with actual sports. I had envisioned a nice quiet Sunday afternoon, stowed away in a forgotten storeroom of the motel that I work at, slowly crafting a modern sports classic — an in depth examination of the art and peril that comes with flying as a paragliding camera operator.

Instead, I am here — sitting on a shoehorned scissor lift, stuck like a flooded cow on the third floor in a broken elevator. I have been here for at least an hour, enduring the worst of a heat wave that is the talk of the coast now. Normally, temperatures are consistently in the 60's here in the “California's Refrigerator,” but this week things have turned drastically hot, with today's high expected in the high 70's. It has been enough of a shock that folks here are discussing the danger of sleeping with open windows, and one of my co-workers had to go out and buy a fan for the first time in her 25 years here.

Athlete profile: Dylan Johns

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

Editor's pick: New approach to yoga

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Tired of having to sign up for yoga classes around town? Sick of paying premium prices for a class with 30 other people? Wish you could start from the beginning, getting a full explanation of what yoga is all about?

You're in luck. Two local yoga masters in town are bringing a new approach to an old system of perfecting the body.

High gear: Titleist ZM Forged Iron Set

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

Peak Performance

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
It has been a rough year for the Rockies. Between some injuries, poor pitching and paltry battering averages, the purple and black team from Denver just hasn't really been able to get anything going.

But, after a strong week, there are whispers that the Rockies might back. Is this true?

Eye on the ball

by Jonathan Bastian, Roaring Sports Staff Writer
On Friday afternoon on the Aspen Municipal Golf Course, Kristin Walla, 21, stepped up to the first tee and peered down toward the green, deciphering exactly where she wanted to play the ball.

She then grabbed a wood, set her stance, and without one hint of effort, smashed the ball crisply into the warm summer air with one powerful yet controlled motion.

Getting a grip on the tip

by Sheldon Fingerman, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Tipping has always baffled me.

I mean, how much is enough? How much is too much? How much is too little? Do you tip based on performance, or do you tip just because?

We’re starting to see the cracks

by Dan Rather
Worldwide, the prices of commodities — uniform, raw materials for manufacturing, the processing of foods and the refining of fuels — are climbing through the roof. The rise in prices of certain commodities can be attributed to rational or near-rational perceptions of supply and demand, but, increasingly, economists are beginning to ask if we are in the midst of a “bubble,” not unlike the tech-stock bubble of the late 1990s.

Whether bubble or just the beginning of a long, upward trajectory in pricing, this spike in the cost of what one could think of as the building blocks of our modern civilization is beginning to expose some telling fault lines in that civilization itself. As history continues its tectonic shifts and realignments in the post-Cold War world, to ignore these fault lines is to risk tremors that could shake our global society and its institutions at the foundations.

Ireland’s behavior is a concern

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

I have been reading the marvelous soap opera that has unfolded in the  last week between Mick Ireland and Marilyn Marks, but I must admit that Mayor Ireland’s behavior is quite concerning.

Fox killing not necessary

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

To the person who shot the female fox, and perhaps the male: We have had the privilege of living near the fox den on Upper Cattle Creek Road in Missouri Heights, which has produced so much viewing pleasure for everyone driving up and down the El Jebel hill for the past five years.

Please save Roaring Fork Hospice

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

“You matter because of who you are. You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.” — Dame Cicely Saunders.

‘Pledge a Pet’ today

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Editor:

The Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) is pleased to announce that they have recently adopted out their 500th animal.