Three cited by USFS for illegal filming

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The U.S. Forest Service has fined two filmmakers and a senior marketing executive at Aspen Skiing Co. $500 each for “conducting an unauthorized commercial activity” on Forest Service land last winter while shooting promotional film footage.

The fines resulted from a federal investigation that began after 22-year-old Wallace Westfeldt of Aspen died in an April 4 snowboarding accident in Tonar Bowl outside of the Aspen Highlands ski area while being filmed by a company hired by SkiCo.

Thanks to cool spring, flood threat mostly over

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

Call it the flood that wasn’t.

In Basalt, homeowners were stacking up sandbags. In Glenwood Springs, a trailer park owner hacked down trees along the Roaring Fork River. After a winter of heavy snows, valley residents were preparing for an onslaught of runoff from the high country.

Nunn for VP in a ‘hot, flat and crowded’ world?

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia said he’d consider being Barack Obama’s vice president. Columnist Tom Friedman previewed his forthcoming book titled “Hot, Flat and Crowded.” And journalist Jeffrey Goldberg turned an interview with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff into a comic affair.

So went an “Afternoon of Conversation” at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Thursday, which served as the close of the first half of the week-long conference and the opening of the second half.

Truck surfer runs free; 1 arrested for brawl

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
A report of a man surfing in the back of a white Chevy pickup truck on Highway 82 led Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies on the lookout for the rogue thrill-seeker last Thursday night.

The truck reportedly pulled into the Buttermilk parking lot, and authorities never caught up with it.

Bridge construction complete

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Construction of the new Maroon Creek Bridge is complete, aside from work on lighting and landscaping.

On Tuesday afternoon, July 8, all eastbound and westbound traffic will be directed off the old structure and onto the new bridge, so that bus lanes contractor Castle Rock Construction can complete the upvalley lanes of the bus lane extension project.

Winners of ‘poo poetry’ contest announced

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The city of Aspen has chosen its favorite poems, limericks and haikus for its first-ever “Dog Poo Poetry Competition.”

The competition was held in response to Aspen’s number-one summer complaint: Dog poo in parks, open space and on city sidewalks. According to a press release, the city wanted to emphasize the importance of picking up after pets “in a fun and creative way,” and received “tons of poetry submissions, with some from as far away as Seattle.”

THE SCORE — Musicians serve with pride and conviction

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Editor’s note: The following is the last of three columns adapted from remarks given at the Aspen Music Festival and School’s opening convocation on June 16.

Community Briefs

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Construction on Highway 82 and Highway 133

The Colorado Department of Transportation started a resurfacing project on Highway 82 between mile markers 17.5 and 21 in the El Jebel and Willits area this week that should be completed this fall.

The Burlingame blame game

by By Tim Semrau
If you, too, want to play the Burlingame blame game, here is the set up: The cost of the Burlingame Phase I housing project doubled due to Aspen City Council discretionary decisions and a terrible cost estimate of infrastructure by city staff. It was NOT due to construction inflation, since it was a fixed bid. It was not due to a delay in starting Burlingame in 2005 instead of 2002, since the city’s cost to produce housing per square foot was less in 2005 than what the city paid in 2002.

In 2005 City Council got a fixed bid to build Burlingame Phase I for $150 a square foot, which included infrastructure inside the site. This contract got executed successfully with minor changes. At the time, city staff were responsible for estimating additional external infrastructure and future changes to the project.

It’s not the man, it’s the movement

by Amy Goodman, Aspen Daily News Columnist
I was on a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado this week when Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter asked me, “Is Obama a sellout?”

The question isn’t whether he is a sellout or not — it’s about what demands are made by grass-roots social movements of those who would represent them. The question is, Who are these candidates responding to, answering to?

We deserve better

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

A rocket scientist I’m not. I’m a “beer guy from Cleveland” who has enjoyed and been so welcomed into this wonderful valley we all get to call home.

Terrorism and sabotage

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

There is an important distinction between terrorism and sabotage. Terrorists aspire to have their victims make emotionally-based decisions that result in more self-inflicted damage than possible by simple sabotage. The goal of the terrorist is to induce governments to make policy decisions which are the equivalent of a mob stampede in self-destructiveness. In that regard, the 9/11 terrorists have won the “war on terrorism” hands-down.

Poetry Night moves

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

Live Poetry Night, co-sponsored by aspenpoetsociety.com and The Hudson Reed Ensemble, has relocated to the Hotel Lenado.