April 5, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: MSNBC PowerWall "The Truth About Google CEO Larry Page: He's Just A Big Nerd Who Loves Technology And Wants To Change The World"

Matt Rosoff:
"Larry Page talked to Bloomberg BusinessWeek on his one-year anniversary of taking over Google's CEO, and darned if we don't like the guy a lot better after reading it...." (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Hot Air Blog "Jay Carney on Obama’s Court remarks: It’s the “reverse of intimidation”"

SandBoxBlogs: Town Hall "Sandra Day O'Connor's Quest for State Judiciary Reform"

Ryan James Girdusky:
"While the nation is engulfed in the Supreme Court hearings on Obamacare, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has been touring the country – most recently in Greenville, SC – to continue campaigning for her favorite pet issue: abolishing elections for state judges. Her quest, simply put, is to eliminate the right of the voters to decide their judges. She will not sleep, nor apparently let you; as evidenced by her 1am robocall to Nevada voters to gain support on this issue, until the most common method for selecting state judges is replaced by a method that is dominated by liberal trial lawyers.
Currently, 22 states use elections to choose judges, 13 states use the Missouri Plan, 5 use Democratic appointment, and 10 use a hybrid method.

O’Connor bemoans judicial elections, complaining that the amount of money spent campaigning for judicial races is "an embarrassment" to the country. However an empirical study conducted Professor Christopher Bonneau, a respected expert on judicial elections, demonstrates that despite O’Connor’s rhetoric against campaign spending, it is quite valuable to voters. Bonneau's study shows that campaign spending engages and mobilizes voters, and these voters are educated about the candidates and their records. The research rebuts all of O'Connor's bombastic language.

O’Connor prefers a method she refers to as a “merit system” – which many refer to as the Missouri Plan – for choosing judges. She boasts that she helped bring this "merit system" to Arizona as a state legislator. By using this terminology, O’Connor demonstrates her 26 year Washington D.C. pedigree. Naturally, use of the word “merit” invokes good feelings, and one may assume (erroneously) that this method permits those most qualified and deserving a place on the bench. However, nothing could be further than the truth. Just as The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would be more aptly titled the Destroy Healthcare, Destroy Small Businesses, and Raise Premiums Act, “merit system” would be more aptly titled “guaranty that liberal judges are on the bench and trial lawyers get their way system.”...." (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Pueblo Chieftain " First female Pueblo chief judge named "

Jeff Tucker:
"With the impeding departure of Chief Judge Dennis Maes from the 10th Judicial District, Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Bender made two appointments to fill roles Maes is vacating in June.Gov. John Hickenlooper also will have 15 days to choose a new district court judge to fill Maes' vacancy.Maes is retiring at the end of May.

The Colorado Judicial Branch announced Wednesday that District Judge Deborah Eyler has been appointed to serve as chief judge in Pueblo's judicial district. It is believed that Eyler is the first woman named to the post in Pueblo history. That job will commence June 1.

Eyler was appointed to the bench by Gov. Bill Ritter in August 2008 and has served since December of that year.

Eyler had presided over dependency and neglect cases as well as domestic relations and truancy cases...."
(Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Denver Post "Colorado lawmaker soon will air issue of school resource officers doubling as immigration police"

State Rep. Roger Wilson  (D-Glenwood Springs) has not accomplished a single thing while in office.

Elected at mid-terms by a very small margin, he was the hope of liberals in the Glenwood Springs area who had just lost Tresi Houpt and Tom Dalessandri at mid-terms 2010.

The sudden interest from Rep. Wilson in the 'Strawberry Days Massacre' story, that led to the war being waged by CIRC and AYUA against regional law enforcement, is transparent at best.

Here's a news flash to Rep. Wilson:

Our SRO's are trusted by the majority of  the latino population of the RE1 School District.  Interestingly enough,  they are mostly all legal immigrants.

Nancy Lofholm:"ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said he views the issue as more of a local one that doesn't involve his agency.

"This issue exclusively belongs to individual school districts," Rusnok said. "These (school resource officers) are not ICE employees."

"Wilson said he views the underlying issue as one of trust and he thinks there needs to be "a firewall" between immigration enforcement and school resource officers.

"There is a general principle here and it has to do with the trust of school resource officers...They need to be trusted," Wilson said.

Wilson said the earliest he might propose any legislation would be next year. He has not yet set a date for Roaring Fork representatives to come to Denver to lay out their problems before legislators...."
(Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Times "Paradise doomed"

lol.

Michael Galvis, Woody Creek:
"David, this “paradise” has been on the road to “doomed and forever cursed” for the past 40-plus years!..."
(Read more?  Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Times "Group's work brings lucky days to some dogs"

Scott Condon:
"ASPEN — A new animal-rescue organization based in the Roaring Fork Valley is following a lean operations model that is proving effective — it's already found homes for 30 dogs this year.

Lucky Day Animal Rescue Colorado relies on volunteers and foster families to take care of pets it saves and to find them good, permanent homes. The tax-exempt nonprofit doesn't have a facility or staff. So the organizers are always on the lookout for donations and in constant need of additional people from Aspen to Glenwood Springs to temporarily take care of the animals..." (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: KREX News 5 "Brighter Future Ahead for Horses Involved in Animal Cruelty Case"

(See related stories here and here.)

Danielle Kreutter:
"...In light of this incident and other animal cruelty reports, the sheriff's office has taken a step toward bettering its animal services.

"The sheriff's office sent a second deputy to specialized training in recognizing animal abuse through the State of Colorado Department of Agriculture," Taylor said.

The state veterinarian ranked the horses' health on a scale of zero to 10. He found them to be in the one to two range. These horses were sent to the Spirit Wind Horse Rescue.

"They've been doing really well. They've been putting on weight slowly," said Vendla Stockdale, president of Spirit Wind Horse Rescue.

The rescue will be restoring the horses to good health and will be putting them up for adoption at the end of the summer.

To request to adopt any of the rescued horses, call Beth Keenan at Spirit Wind Horse Rescue at 970-921-5646...."  (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Outdoor bars get approval for middle of Hyman Avenue mall"

Carolyn Sackariason:
"The outdoor bar and restaurant that has been in the middle of the Hyman Avenue mall for the past two summers will be expanded to accommodate two establishments, the city’s Commercial Core and Lodging Commission decided Wednesday.

The entire seating area will be 90 feet long, and will be occupied by Finbarr’s Irish Pub and Escobar, both of which have indoor spaces on the mall to the south and north, respectively. Each establishment will have roughly 45 seats in a 12-by-46-square-foot space side by side.

Last summer, the designated area was smaller and featured Escobar, which shared the space with the now-defunct Parallel 15 coffee shop.

The mall is owned by the city and technically doesn’t allow an outdoor bar in the middle of it, but that was amended a few years ago to try the experiment, said Kathy Strickland, the city’s chief deputy clerk...."
(Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Summit Daily News "Lawmakers salvage state tourism budget"

Caddie Nath:
"Despite a multi-million dollar dip in revenue, lawmakers proposed a slight increase in the state's tourism budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. The bump would bring the budget up to more than $13 million.

An initial proposal from the state Joint Budget Committee will supplement the normal tourism budget with an additional $3.7 million. Without the extra cash, the gaming-tax funded tourism budget will fall to $9.6 million next year from just over $12 million this year and $20 million a few years ago.

“Tourism is such a huge share of our Western Slope economy,” said Rep. Millie Hamner (D-Dillon). “It's critical for us to continue to invest in it.”...."  (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "Another strong month for retail sales in February"

Now these numbers.....are finally some numbers everyone should be able to work with!

Nearly double  the new norm.  Surely commentators can express some positive views...at least for February.

John Stroud:
"GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The city saw its largest sales tax increase in four years in February, based on month-over-month comparisons.

Retail sales were up nearly 7.3 percent in February, compared to collections for the same month last year, according to the city's February sales tax report issued this week.

“That's certainly a number we haven't seen in a while,” Glenwood Springs City Manager Jeff Hecksel said. “February is typically one of our lower months.”

“To see that kind of increase was a big surprise,” he said, especially with the lack of snow this winter for skiing.

Glenwood Springs' accommodations (lodging) tax continues on the plus side as well, up a little more than 16 percent for February. That follows an 8.38 percent lodging tax increase in January....."
(Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Times "Coal mine is key to utility's 'green' goals"

Must be all those Koch campaign donations through Oxbow to environmental activist and 'Fracking is inherently safe' Senator Mark Udall (D-Colorado) that are prompting his brother to support Clean Coal Energy and Methane Capture...

According to Scott Condon, the "unlikely source of a coal mine near Somerset" has his beloved Senator stepping back from his campaign donations scandal with Jon Corzine and taking a second look at what benies the Republicans bring to the table that he can get talked up through Randy Udall.

'That's two scandalous campaign donors for Senator Mark Udall (D-Colorado)', Mr. Condon. 

Who cares?  Is the message Scott Condon needs to hear from the folks today.  Conservatives are for "all of the above" when it comes to energy sources.  "All of the above" includes environmentally conscious.

'EcoTerror-pen' journalists are just so stuck in the past trying to wordsmith disinformation they can't see that undeniable fact.

Congratulations and a special thank you to Bill Koch.

For once again bringing a win-win to the energy (and political) table. 

Nice job, Holy Cross!

Scott Condon:
"Producing power from methane offsets a substantially greater amount of greenhouse gases than production of the same amount of power from wind or solar.

“Holy Cross' methane project, with a capital cost of $5 million, will offer as much climate benefit as $500 million worth of solar,” Udall said. “In other words, it will displace nearly as much carbon as all the solar we have installed statewide to date.”

Worley said Holy Cross officials saw tremendous climate benefits from the project.

“It clearly seemed to us to be a good thing,” he said......

......Holy Cross has signed a second contract recently to fatten its portfolio of renewable energy. It has a deal to buy power produced by a biomass plant proposed in Gypsum by Eagle Valley Clean Energy LLC. The 10 megawatt plant would burn dead trees, construction material and other wood supplies to boil water and produce steam, which spins turbines that produce electricity.

The plant would create a good use for the beetle-kill trees prevalent in the Interstate 70 corridor, Worley said. It would also create up to 40 jobs at the plant while producing reliable, renewable energy, he said. The biomass plant could run 90-some percent of the time and wouldn't be subject to weather conditions, like wind and solar farms...." (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Too true to be too funny"

While we most certainly do not agree with Mr. Stude regarding Congressman Tipton (R-Colorado); he certainly does hit the mark on a number of his points elsewhere.

Imagine a world of balance when it comes to all aspects of the environment.  Including politics.

Carl Ted Stude:
"What these disciples of unregulated resource exploitation have in common is their failure to understand that moderation in the exploitation of limited natural resources is necessary to sustain the prosperity that they enjoy, and equally necessary to enhance and sustain other people’s quality of life.

The solution to extremism is a combination of ideological balance and understanding of basic principles of natural science and economics. Sadly, the people who have these qualities do not very often stand up in public to make specific proposals for balancing economic development with environmental quality, in a way that benefits the majority of Americans without undue harm to the minority...." (Read more?  Click title)

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

SandBoxBlogs: Summit County Citizens Voice "Morning photo: Vanishing ice"

Oh, Happy Day!

The news agg roundup is soooo..much 'lighter' today than it has been over the past few weeks.  President Barack Obama is (somewhat) quietly contemplating court orders, the Feds have left Aspen, Sheriff Joe has put his foot down, boots on the ground everywhere are on mission and on point, municipal elections are over and thank heaven for brokered convention ability.

(rolls eyes....pours herself a fresh cuppa...pushes her tri-focals up and gets down to the daily news..)

Let's start the morning off with a word to the wise from Bob Berwyn and a glimpse of some of our favorite bathing beauties and the ice flows in their backyards.  Up and over on the Summit County Citizens Voice. 

Bob Berwyn:
"SUMMIT COUNTY — A major new review of scientific studies from the Arctic and Antarctic suggests that the polar regions of the world are changing even faster than expected, as major ice sheets melt away. There’s a lot at stake …"  (Read more?  See more?  Click title and all links within posts)