February 17, 2012

SandBox Comments: Stars and Stripes "For visiting Marines, an 'incredibly powerful, healing measure'"

Carlos Bongioanni:
"ARLINGTON, Va. — It wasn’t easy to talk about. Four Marines awarded Purple Hearts Thursday in front of the national Marine Corps Memorial found it difficult to open up about their recent deployment to Afghanistan.

“We had a job to do. We went over there and did our job, and now we’re home,” said Sgt. Curt Bartz, who was awarded two purple hearts at the ceremony. “Everybody is proud of us. We know that we did a good job. That’s all we can do.”

The four Marines, wounded at different times during their deployment, said they still don’t know for sure what hit them. They could have been hit with improvised explosive devices or rocket-propelled grenades, they said.

Lance Cpl. Robert Henry was the only one of the four willing to talk about his injuries. “Mainly a concussion,” he said. “I got medevaced for it. Have some lingering symptoms. It’s a lot better, but some things ain’t the same. My left eye is a little blurry.”

None of the Purple Heart recipients -- including Bartz, Henry, Cpl. Efren Garcia and Lance Cpl. Andrew Walker -- wanted to talk about the Marines their company lost...." (Read more?  Click title)



SandBox Comments: Power Line "Cronyism 101"

"Corporate Cronyism in the  Age of Obama" by John Hinderaker:
"I wrote about my participation in the Koch brothers’ semi-annual seminar in Palm Springs two weekends ago here. Along with Peter Schweizer, I did a presentation on cronyism. My speech focused on corporate cronyism, while Peter’s centered on the sort of political cronyism that he detailed in his book Throw Them All Out. I included in that post a couple of the Power Point slides that accompanied my speech, and several readers wondered whether they could see the whole thing. So I fleshed out my outline into a complete text, and have interspersed the slides where I showed them in Palm Springs. Here it is, a pretty good introduction, I think, to the subject of corporatism in the Age of Obama...." 
(Read and watch the rest?  Click title)


"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Power Line "Geithner's gabble"

Scott Johnson:
"Below John writes about the testimony of Treasury Secretary TurboTax Tim Geithner before the Senate Budget Committee yesterday. As he had previously with Acting OMB Director Jeff Zients, Senator Sessions sought to elicit a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. Does Obama’s FY 2013 budget increase spending over the levels provided under current law? Geithner evades the question. For some mysterious reason, he prefers to talk around it...." (Watch the video?  Read the rest?  Click title)


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SandBox Comments: Sister toldjah "#Fauxtrage Alert: Liberal feminista politicos stage whiny “walkout” over “no women on panel”"

ST:
"But hopefully nothing related to the brain, because clearly you aren’t using yours, hon.

Don’t you love the way these witches deliberately lie in order to manipulate The Faithful?  As Issa clearly noted, there WERE two women on the panel – but they were women opposed to the HHS mandate, so in the eyes of elite feministas like  Pelosi, Richards, and others, they are not “real women” and thus could hardly be “representative” of women across America because they don’t agree with liberal “feminists” on the issue of birth control trumping religious freedoms as guaranteed by the US Constitution.

And speaking of, you have to give it to these Democrat women on one thing: They’re openly against religious freedom and are not shy about expressing it.  Even if they had been shy about it, today’s shenanigans would have outed them like nothing else as being proponents of burning any part of the Constitution they believe conflicts with their “right” to terminate a developing unborn life.   This is evidenced especially by the fact that they wanted to change the subject of Issa’s panel on religious freedom to the topic of a “woman’s right to birth control.”   It’s the same thing they do on the issue of abortion itself: They never want to talk about the stages of development for an unborn child; in fact, they don’t want to talk  about the fact there is an unborn child at all. Their MO is to try to frame it as a “women’s rights” issue because they know if the central focus of the debate was on the child itself, they would never win on this issue.

Funny how “women’s rights” trump “religious rights”, eh? This would be insanely funny if not for the fact that these “womyn” were absolutely serious.  Those of you who think we ought to focus more on fiscal issues and leave the social issues for another day should always, always remember this....."
(Read more of this great piece from Sister?  Click title)

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SandBox Comments; Craig Daily Press "Craig Police Chief: ACET essential for fighting local drug trade"

A special thank you goes out to Chief Walt Vanatta of the Craig Police Dept. for standing up publicly on behalf of the All Crimes Enforcement Team.

Walt Vanatta, Craig Police Department chief, about the importance of the All Crimes Enforcement Team:
“I don’t see how individually any of us could accomplish what the task force can. … A multi-agency task force breaks down jurisdictional boundaries. Officers are free to work wherever the investigation takes them, and if necessary, get additional support from those (partnering) agencies.”
(Read the article?  Click title)

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SandBox Comments: Steamboat Today "Flight for Life adds a Learjet"

"People who spy a brightly painted jet on the tarmac at Craig-Moffat Airport in Craig or Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden might wonder about the wealthy person with flamboyant taste who painted a private aircraft the color of a tangerine.

But what they are seeing is the Learjet 35 that was just added to the fleet of Flight for Life Colorado in mid-January.

The orange jet with its yellow stripe matches the color scheme on the turboprop airplane and helicopters that already fly into the Yampa Valley as part of the Flight for Life air ambulance service.

Flight for Life Colorado Director Kathy Mayer said the Cessna King Air 200 turboprop airplane operated by Mayo Aviation in Englewood would remain her agency’s primary fixed-wing aircraft. But the Learjet was added to provide better service on flights longer than 400 miles from Centennial Airport south of Denver.

Flight for Life Colorado routinely serves cities in Montana, for example. The jet will back up the King Air on shorter flights, but it won’t come to Steamboat Springs Airport because of the short runway...."
(Read more?  Click title)

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SandBox Comments: Fox News "1 Dead, 1 Wounded after ICE Agent opens fire at Federal Building in California"

"The gunman died at the scene and the wounded man was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition.

Authorities released no details about what led to the initial shooting or the names of the dead gunman, the victim or the agent who fired the final rounds.

The Los Angeles Times, citing multiple law enforcement sources, said the initial shots were fired by an agent at his supervisor during an unspecified dispute.

There were conflicting early reports about the number of people shot, with local authorities saying two were dead and one wounded, while ICE said one was dead and one wounded.

The shooting happened on the seventh floor of the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building in downtown Long Beach that houses ICE, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Probation and Parole Office.

The wounded agent is hospitalized in stable condition, said ICE Special Agent in Charge Claude Arnold.

"At times like this words honestly seem inadequate. When something like this happens in our offices, it's incomprehensible, Arnold said.

Along with the FBI, the shooting was being investigated by ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility and Long Beach police...."  (Read more?  Click title)

SandBox Comments: Citizen Telegram "2011 city sales tax up 11 percent"

Congrats to Rifle, Colorado!

SandBox thinks this might be the biggest jump of any community around.

Jenny Lavey:
"The sales tax numbers for 2011 are in, and things are looking up.

The city of Rifle released its 2011 year-end sales tax report, showing a healthy uptick in Rifle's general economy since the recession.

Rounding out 2011, the city's overall sales tax revenue was 11 percent higher than in 2010, although the city lodging tax fell by 2 percent.

Sales tax revenue grew from a total of $5.8 million in 2010 to $6.5 million in 2011. That puts the city's revenues a bit higher than 2009's revenue total of $6.4 million. They are all considerably lower than the city's record high revenues of $8.4 million in 2008.

Rifle Finance Director Charles Kelty said he's glad to see the increase.

“I think the numbers may point to people getting more comfortable in the current economic climate, because they're spending more money,” Kelty said..."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "State official: Produced water spill was handled correctly"

John Colson:
"PARACHUTE, Colorado — An environmental specialist for the state's gas regulatory agency said Thursday the agency was properly notified concerning a Feb. 11 spill of gas well “produced water” west of here.

“Williams did make the proper verbal notification,” said Chris Canfield of the Rifle office of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). He was referring to WPX Energy, formerly part of Williams Production RMP.

A tanker truck belonging to Summit Energy Services slid out of control on Garfield County Road 300 (the Parachute-Una Road) on Feb. 11, spilling an estimated 500 gallons of liquid into a nearby ditch, according to Colorado State Patrol Trooper Kevin Rae.

Under the rules, the company was required to submit a verbal report of the spill within 24 or 48 hours of the incident, Canfield said, speaking from an office in Denver..."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News "Roll back the code"

But Bert, that would be way, way too easy and besides, it makes sense!  They'll never do it, something like this is way, way too confusing for Aspen's city council.

Bert Myrin:
"(This letter was originally addressed to Aspen City Council)
Editor:

Your recent laments about having a weak starting position when negotiating with developers does not resonate since you alone, as our elected officials, hold the power to change the starting point from which you negotiate simply by rolling back the land-use code to pre-infill requirements prior to receiving the next application.

The Klanderud administration weakened your starting position by voting for the infill code. The infill code promotes development. The infill code reduced open space requirements, reduced parking requirements, increased height, and increased the FAR, among other development incentives.

Certainly your goal should be to write code that will establish a clear baseline to avoid making every development a “shoot the puppy” or “get our butts kicked” negotiation. Before you begin the lengthy process of writing concise code, I urge you to simply roll back the land-use code to pre-infill requirements in all the areas identified above. In the interim this will provide you (and the community) a stronger starting position from which to negotiate and avoid irreversible “monstrous” and “humongous” mistakes.

Roll the code back to pre-infill requirements ASAP and promise the community you will work quickly to write code with a happy middle ground if you find the pre-infill numbers too restrictive...."
(Read the orig. letter?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Summit County Citizens Voice "Op-ed: Keystone plan a golden opportunity for restoration"

By Bob Berwyn:
"SUMMIT COUNTY — At first glance, plans to revamp the summit of Keystone’s Dercum Mountain and make other improvements to existing terrain and facilities appears to be a laudable step away from the normal ski resort expansion race, marked most recently by Breckenridge’s quest to add lift-served terrain on Peak 6.

Keystone’s proposal is to work within the resort’s existing development footprint, which already sprawls three mountains deep from the Highway 6 base area into the surrounding national forest. Improvements to existing trails, the addition of a few new mountain bike trails and enhanced visitor facilities at the summit of Dercum Mountain all make sense for one of the state’s busiest ski areas. Replacing the aging mountain-top lodge, cozy as it may be, with a new energy efficient structure is also a good move, both from a business and environmental standpoint.

But there are a couple of glaring questions that come to mind immediately. As part of its review, the Forest Service should look at how the new facility will affect the operation of the Outpost, built at great expense and with a lot of environmental fanfare. I’m not sure how, but Keystone earned green accolades for construction of that remote lodge, which could become a white elephant for the resort and the Forest Service...."  (Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: KJCT News 8 "Western Slope Cow Gives Birth to Rare Triplets"

Megan Terlecky:
"MONTROSE, Colo. -- Some are calling it a miracle, a Western Slope cow gave birth to triplets. The rare event happens only one time in 8 million births. Our cameras got a look at these new calves just hours after they were born.

Not even a day old, these three are still a little shaky on their feet, but eager for mom's milk.

Kim Lechleiter, the owner of the calves, says, “It's really a historical deal to have triplets.”

Lechleiter has been raising Simmental cows since 1977.

“Out of all the years of calving, I’ve never had a set of triplets,” he said...."
 (Read more?  Watch the video?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "New Castle fourth-grader wins Colorado writing award"

Heather Mcgregor:

"NEW CASTLE, Colorado — It takes a curious boy to write about a curious boy.

Erik Krauth's short story, “The Curious Boy's Adventure,” has just won first prize for his grade level in the Young Writer's Award contest hosted by the Colorado Council of the International Reading Association.

“I like to learn,” said Erik, a fourth-grader at Elk Creek Elementary in New Castle.

“I got the inspiration to write because my teacher, Miss Hesse, has been teaching us about Native Americans. I've been learning a lot of new things that I never knew about,” Erik said..."
(Read more?  Click title)

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBox Comments: Summit County Citizens Voice "Biodiversity: Great Backyard Bird Count starts today"

Bob Berwyn with photo credit to MiaMPhotography:




"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."