February 27, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: Union Leader "The ghosts of Watergate"

George Will:
"IN 1960, when Thomas Mallon was in the fourth grade, he wore his Nixon-Lodge button to school and warned classmates that John Kennedy was too inexperienced to be President. Mallon was crushed when Richard Nixon lost, but things worked out well. He is a novelist for whom Nixon eventually provided interesting characters.

They're back. Howard Hunt, Bernard Barker, James McCord, John Dean, Bob Haldeman, Fred LaRue, Gordon Liddy, John and Martha Mitchell, Jeb Magruder, Charles Colson, Herbert Kalmbach, Gordon Strachan, Rose Mary Woods, Anthony (“Tough Tony”) Ulasewicz and others. These were the dramatis personae of the scandal — actually a mare's nest of scandals — that began to become public 40 years ago this coming June 17..."  (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Iowa Republican "Latham: Debt is Our Greatest National Security Issue"

Kevin Hall:
"Iowa Congressman Tom Latham did not provide a rosy prognosis for the country’s massive debt problems when he met with a group of 25 Des Moines area business leaders on Friday. Latham says the current makeup of Congress prevents serious problems from being addressed.

“Dealing with the Senate today is virtually impossible,” Latham said. “They won’t even pass a budget this year for the third year in a row because they would have to take tough votes. I’m sorry, but that’s what the hell we get paid for. It’s all politics. They don’t want to have to be held accountable for anything.”

The roundtable discussion with Tom Latham was sponsored by Americans for a Balanced Budget. ABB is a national organization of 20,000 members that advocates for a budget amendment, modernized tax code and solutions to the country’s deficit. Latham told the attendees that he agrees with the assessment of Admiral Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen testified to Congress that the national debt is America’s greatest national security issue...."  (Read more? Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Why spend against the vote?"

Hear, Hear!!

Nowhere in the USA are there better examples of 'why' people feel they need anonymity for protection than right here in the Roaring Fork Valley, the 5th, 9th, 10th and 21st Judicial Districts and both  Garfield and Pitkin counties.

When they are met with nowhere to turn (and) complete and total quashing of  their voices and lives; the people have no other recall than to do the best they can to stand on their own.

Another special thank you goes out to Maurice Emmer.  Sometimes, it does pay off to get a lawyer thoroughly motivated.  They do have a way with words, don't they? 

Maurice Emmer:
"Editor:

A Feb. 24 article in the Aspen Daily News reported about the city’s spending on newspaper advertising relating to its proposed Castle Creek hydro project. The article reports that the city spent $5,255 in January and February on such ads. The article further indicates that the city did this to react to “misinformation.” As the Aspen Daily News recently seems to have been feeling its Cheerios as an investigative journal, it is surprising that the reporter did not press the city to specify even a single example of “misinformation” that has been disseminated against the project. Or perhaps there just didn’t happen to be any misinformation against which the city actually felt a need to react. Perhaps what the city was reacting to was a genuine and unexpected grass roots effort by residents to have their voices heard...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Times "District will help Aspen Community School shoot for $4.6M state grant"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the RE-1 School District would lend their strength and power to helping our charter schools? Maybe with a new superintendent, we can.

Jeanne McGovern:
"ASPEN — The Aspen Board of Education once again will contribute half of its land-dedication fees for the year to the Aspen Community School's effort to secure a multimillion-dollar BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) grant from the Colorado Department of Education.

“The Aspen School District has enjoyed its relationship with the Community School and is continuously discussing ways to support the school and assist the teachers and staff in meeting the needs of the children they serve,” said Aspen Superintendent John Maloy, noting the district made the same commitment last year. “The district is committed in helping the Community School secure a BEST grant in order to improve its aging facilities and create a safer, more flexible learning environment....”  (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: SkyHi Daily "East Grand committee recommends starting school after Labor Day"

Both are excellent ideas.  There are so many things that could be done to make our public schools more efficient and self-sustaining.  Without a dime spent to accomplish them.

The East Grand School District shows us two of them.

Tonya Bina:
"A calendar committee of the East Grand School Board Accountability Committee has recommended changing the East Grand school calendar to start the day after Labor Day.

From a community survey the committee conducted during the last three weeks of January, committee members found that a calendar starting school on Sept. 4 and ending on June 6 was the clear winner among 365 survey respondents. The survey takers chose from four different school calendars.

In order to start school after Labor Day, the calendar sacrifices vacation time leading up to Thanksgiving, with just Thanksgiving on Nov. 22 off, and shows no day in February off as a substitute for President's Day. The calendar shows the 2012-2013 winter break from Dec. 21 to Jan. 4.....

......After the presentation of the committee's recommendation, Dick Romshek, a retired high school teacher and past accountability committee member who sat in the audience, asked the committee to review next year changing the school week back to Tuesday through Friday.

Romshek said because of the amount of school-related extra-curricular activities on Thursdays-Saturdays, many times children would benefit from a Monday off to focus on getting ready for the school week...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Business looking up for resort"

Carolyn Sackariason:
"After 11 consecutive months of increased sales tax revenue over 2010, the city of Aspen fared better than most of its ski resort counterparts in Colorado last year.

Aspen came in third for the largest increase in sales tax revenue in 2011 in a field of eight mountain towns, according to statistics provided by city finance director Don Taylor. Vail had the largest increase of nearly 10.6 percent in 2011 while Snowmass logged an 8.5 percent gain. The rest of the towns — Breckenridge, Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Glenwood Springs and Crested Butte — all had gains but not as large as Aspen and Snowmass.

The city of Aspen last year posted a 7 percent gain over 2010, with a total of nearly $503 million in taxable sales generated across 12 retail sectors. A 4 percent increase in sales tax revenue was realized in 2010 over 2009, when the national recession took hold. Aspen’s sales tax revenue was down 14 percent in 2009 from the year prior.

In 2011, the city of Aspen reported that every month except January — which was down 1 percent — saw an increase over 2010. However, Aspen is still nowhere near pre-recession figures...."
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"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Pueblo Chieftain "Celebrating with leaps and bounds "

 GIANNA LISAC:
"Approximately 1 in 1,500 people are born on Feb. 29, or leap day.
 
With such a rare birthday, the few people who are able to celebrate their actual birthday only once every four years are as unique in life as their special day.
 
Erin McConnell has the special treat of celebrating her real birthday for the second time this year, as she was born on leap day, eight years ago.
 
“I think it's cool having this birthday because I am the only kid at school that was born on leap day,” said the second-grader who attends St. Therese Catholic School.
 
Erin’s mom, Lisa Jagger, finds her daughter’s unique birthday to be quite special, saying, “It took us 10 years to have a child, and as if she wasn’t already a blessing, she was born on the most rare birthday of the year.”
 
When Erin was born, her family received a hand-addressed, hand-written congratulatory note from President George W. Bush and the first lady, who addressed leap year babies as a special occurrence. With only about 187,000 people in the United States born on this day, special notice is taken.
 
This year, Erin will celebrate among 15 of her friends at a birthday celebration at the YMCA..."
(Read more?  Click title)
 
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Summit County Citizens Voice "Morning photo: Wilderness"

All credit:  Bob Berwyn:
"SUMMIT COUNTY — Sen. Mark Udall visited Frisco this weekend to advance a new plan for wilderness additions in Colorado, including many of the parcels that have long been part of the controversial hidden gems proposal. For me, looking at pictures like this is more than enough reason to advocate for as much wilderness preservation as possible. I know there are people who like to quibble over technicalities and semantics of wilderness designations, all while environmental degradation continues around us. I’m not OK with that. I say protect as much as we can, now. Later, if for some reason we decide we don’t want it to be wilderness, we can always change our minds, but once the land is committed to other uses, it’s almost impossible to get it back..."  (Read more?  Click title)