Citizens question Ryan land exchange

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Complex sale tied to ballot issue

Why is Pitkin County asking voters to approve a land swap that includes selling 8.6 acres of Forest Service land along the river east of Aspen to a wealthy retired attorney for the relatively low price of $2 million?

Aspen Walk might end up on the rocks

by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The outlook is not good for a proposed Aspen housing project funded by private out-of-state developers, after the company’s assets were frozen this week.

Late last month, federal agents raided the offices of Petters Group Worldwide, a multi-billion-dollar Minnetonka, Minn., private holding company that is seeking to partner with the Aspen/Pitkin County Housing Authority to redevelop two properties in Aspen’s East End.

Democrats overtake GOP in Eagle County

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

For the first time in memory, and maybe for the first time ever, Democrats outnumber Republicans on the active voter rolls in Eagle County.

Democrats are chalking up the numbers to an intense get-out-the-vote effort by volunteers for the Barack Obama campaign, and to excitement for Obama that has lured unaffiliated and Republican voters to the party.

Powder Pandas building gets another four years

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Pitkin County commissioners on Wednesday gave the Aspen Skiing Co. permission to keep the Powder Pandas ski school facility at Buttermilk Mountain in a temporary structure for the next three to four years.

SkiCo executives told the county board it now plans to submit a base area redevelopment plan for Buttermilk by May 1, and that it could take three or four years before the plan is approved and a new base area is built.

Publisher’s note

by David Cook

Bringing a newspaper to market every morning is an exciting, entertaining and sometimes challenging task. Yesterday was one of the challenging days. A printing error resulted in some missing and some duplicated pages in Wednesday’s paper.

On Tuesday night, a glitch in one of the more complex processes kept us from putting out a paper that was up to our — and I’m sure your — standards. The digital delivery of the paper from the production office to the pressroom must be spot on in order to ensure that the paper reads properly, but because we print 365 days per year, mistakes can, and unfortunately do, happen.

World Cup schedule shifts slightly

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
A slight schedule shift has been announced for the Aspen Winternational women’s World Cup ski races to accommodate the European TV audience.

Originally slated to begin the Friday after Thanksgiving and conclude on Saturday, the event will now open on Saturday, Nov. 29, with a giant slalom, followed by a slalom on Sunday. Both races will air live on primetime in European markets and on Sunday, Nov. 30, at 11 a.m. on NBC, the Olympic network, in the United States.

OBITUARY — Ernie Meissner

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Ernie Meissner passed away unexpectedly on Sept. 26, 2008.

Ernie touched many lives on the slopes of Aspen and on the waters of Georgian Bay, Canada. He will be remembered by his ski buddies and boating friends, and greatly missed by his wife, Christine.

Welcome to the Wheeler

by Christine Benedetti, Time Out Staff Writer

On a recent Saturday night at the Wheeler Opera House, twenty-somethings mobbed the bar like savanna animals at a watering hole before the dry season. After waving money in the bartenders' faces, they walked away double-fisting pre-made Red Bull vodkas and carrying six-packs of Bud Light - stockpiling.

That was The Meeting, which is unarguably one of the more raucous and rowdy events hosted by the Wheeler.

AAM Hosts a Different Kind of Voting Drive

by Damien Williamson, Time Out Staff Writer
Could you, literally, wear your politics on your sleeve?

That's just one of the questions being asked by a new exhibit running at the Aspen Art Museum - and 19 other locations around town - that takes a unique approach to getting people to vote.

Souls Marching On

by Jason Hood, Time Out Music Columnist
The once famous son of Connecticut, John Brown is now - 208 years after his birth - a footnote in history books. Indeed, he is legend to only a relative few societal historians. Even so, John Brown's impact on interracial relations is felt a century and half after his death.

Approximately 100 years before Dr. Martin Luther King brought the civil rights movement to the doorsteps of a vast majority of Americans, a courageous white abolitionist by the name of John Brown fought and died for the emancipation of slaves across the nation. He fought alongside abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass to secure the freedom of slaves.

Editor's Pick: Cultures Collide

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Time Out Music Columnist
It's an ethnic celebration in Carbondale this weekend: On Friday, Oct. 10, channel your inner Celtic side with traditional food (including hotch potch and tattie soup) and on Saturday, Oct. 11, bring on Bavaria with the 6th annual Oktoberfest. Both events feature live music, dancing, spirits and food. Kids can jump around in bounce castles, and adults can just jump around

Wine and The Great Depression

by Drew Stofflet, Time Out Wine Columnist
By most accounts, the state of our economy has hit an epic low. The ripple sent through our financial systems through bank failures, stock sell-offs and credit collapse will surely be felt by all. The picture painted by analysts is bleak, leading many to refer back to the Great Depression.

On Oct. 29 1929, referred to as "Black Tuesday," stock markets crashed, banks collapsed and people all over the developing world were faced with work stoppages and cash shortfalls: economic hard times that led to skyrocketing unemployment and food shortages that would last for 10 years, until the economy was rushed together with the advent of World War II in 1939.

Aspen needs a contingency plan

by Philip K. Verleger Jr.
We are here for another six weeks. We then take up residence in Denver and Calgary, where I am the David Mitchell EnCana Professor of Strategy at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. My assignment is to help the government of Canada, and perhaps the U.S. government, create a business environment that allows us to maintain a steady expansion of oil-sand production in Canada and probably oil shale development in the United States.

I suspect I will not be welcome here in a few years. In the meantime, I have been working on a bigger issue: the coming economic collapse.

Open the debates

by Amy Goodman, Aspen Daily News Columnist
The reviews are in, and the latest U.S. presidential debate, the “town hall” from Nashville, Tenn., was a snore.

One problem is that in a debate, it is important for the debaters to actually disagree. Yet Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain substantively agree on many issues. That is one major reason that the debates should be open, and that major third-party or independent candidates should be included.

Get out the vote

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

On a Navy ship there is a signal that goes off and awakens everyone into action. General quarters is the clarion call on a ship meaning to get it on.

Force-fed housing not good

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

The debate about the Burlingame affordable housing program has been one of the most unusual in Aspen’s history. Several years ago during the Burlingame debate, I wrote a letter to the Aspen newspapers expressing alarm and concern about destroying this ranch and about the growing traffic, pollution and congestion in our small town. I also said that we will never be able to build enough affordable housing to serve every person who wants to live in Aspen.

Obama house party on Friday

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

We know Colorado is a battleground state in this presidential race.

Setting the record straight

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

On Friday, Oct. 3, the Aspen Daily News published my letter to the editor. I realize that all letters are subject to “editing for space and content,” but I don’t believe you should feel free to change the meaning of any letter.

Incident not reported to DOW

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

While the Colorado Division of Wildlife typically refrains from public discourse via the editorial pages of local papers (we prefer in-person communication), I felt it was necessary to add some clarity to recent stories and letters regarding a reported incident involving a motorcyclist on a mountain trail near Basalt Mountain.

Roy replies

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

My opponent for Pitkin County commissioner, Michael Owsley, in his letter on Oct. 7 tried to hit me, but his swing missed.

Win-win for the big wigs

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

So our government is nationalizing the banking system and insurance industry, and rewarding the glutinous, well-connected apparatchiks who run them with millions in departing bonuses (Lehman Brothers) and weeklong holidays at the sea (AIG).