Given my last post, and in general the coverage of the Sheriff election in the Daily News–I thought I’d post the SPJ’s code of ethics. I can give a blow-by-blow of how the paper violated at least a dozen parts of this code in this election, but I think it’s just too obvious, for... Read more →
A Tale of Two Endorsements
By now, it’s no secret of the Aspen Daily News’ pro-Braudis Bias–a bias, in fact, so extreme that it is compromising the paper’s integrity as a so-called news source. During this election, the paper has eliminated the firewall between news and editorial in relentlessly attacking... Read more →
The Hard Stats on Hard Drugs in Pitkin County
In the hard drug debate now raging around the Sheriff’s race (despite the Daily News attempt to divert it with non-news), one thing missing so far is hard data. Hard drugs, and the lack of policies to deal with them in the Sheriff’s office, has had consequences for our public safety. The... Read more →
“If you don’t want it printed, make it substantive and actually newsworthy”
Apologies for not blogging in a while, I have a day job. Although I wish I could have a day job where I could lazily relay old pieces of “news,” couch my opinions and philosophies in “journalistic articles,” and serve up propaganda for my preferred candidates… … I... Read more →
In His DUI Platform, Magnuson Shows Correlation Does Imply Causation
In Rick Magnuson’s latest post on Pitkin County DUIs, an ad he posted in the Aspen Times (a four-year graph of the fatality rates of Pitkin v. CO), all along with a very balanced article in the Daily News, Magnuson digs into the statistics on Pitkin County DUIs and cites some unpleasant facts: Since... Read more →
Basalt Study Fails “Business Plan Test”
The Aspen Times article “Study: Basalt economy scores big with Roaring Fork Club expansion” set off some alarm bells for me, and not just due to a title that solidly falls into the Aspen paper “spin zone”. (Again, the ‘mainstream’ papers don’t fail in putting... Read more →
California Has Set a Goal–Now Let’s Step Up to the Plate
Last week, the California Global Warming Solutions Act mandated emissions reductions of 25% by 2020 for the state. It will achieve it through a “cap n’ trade,” a combination of creating hard “caps” of greenhouse gasses with innovative, market-based trading mechanisms that... Read more →
A Code Green Initiative: Tax Private Air Travel
Following up to AREDAY and some good recent environmentally themed blogs by Michael Conniff (who coined “Code Green”) and alpha 6, I wanted to put forward an initiative. It’s so simple and logical, I apologize if someone has proposed this before. Regardless, when you look at the data... Read more →
Magnuson’s Green Platform Addresses Big Threat With Small But Powerful Action
After my quick web investigation into Westpac (I promised I’d blog on other topics), back to the Sheriff’s race. One reason why I said I supported Rick for Sheriff is that–despite his underdog status–he brings competition, and ultimately, change to an office that is basically... Read more →
Who is Pat Smith? Look to San Luis Obispo…
I saw with great interest the story regarding SkiCo’s and Intrawest’s pending sale of the Snowmass Base Village to Pat Smith and WestPac Investments, LLC. First, let me say that I come to the Base Village discussion very late–I was on my hiatus from the Valley when it was being debated.... Read more →