Gov. Bill Ritter will testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today, to urge a slowdown of plans to lease 2 million acres of public land for oil-shale development. Colorado has 360,000 acres of public lands, mostly on the Western Slope, that contain 500 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, more than double the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
-Rocky Mountain News, 05.15.08
Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, and a former student at the Aspen Music Festival and School, will perform as a pianist and speaker at a Words & Music event at 3 p.m. Aug. 2 at this summer’s Aspen Music Festival. She will perform a Dvorak piano quintet with students from the Aspen Music Festival.
The city of Glenwood Springs is offering a variety of items for sale in its Surplus Sale, an annual spring-cleaning event, which also includes vehicles from the impound lot and vehicles retired from the city’s fleet. Items may be viewed at: www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us/SurpSale2008.pdf, and will be sold to the highest bidder through mail-in bids.
-GS Post-Independent, 05.15.08
One in every 349 Colorado households had a foreclosure filing in April, nearly 1.5 times the national average, according to Realty Trac, which tracks foreclosure data nationwide. Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, one in every 146 households.
-Rocky Mountain News, 05.15.08
New Belgium Brewing Co., the Fort Collins-based brewery that is the ninth-largest in the nation, will introduce its flagship Fat Tire ale in 12-ounce cans next month. The brewer plans to produce 4,000 cases a month of canned Fat Tire, still only about 1% of its total production.
Broomfield-based WhiteWave Foods will launch its Rachel's Wickedly Delicious Yogurt, a longtime U.K. favorite, to mainstream U.S. grocery stores this month. Rachel’s will be in Super Target and Safeway’s Lifestyle stores in Colorado.
-Rocky Mountain News, 05.15.08
Earlier this month, Montrose resident Ken Emory was honored in Washington, D.C. with the 2008 “Making a Difference” National Volunteer Award from the Bureau of Land Management. Emory was the only recipient from Colorado. Emory currently volunteers one day a week at the BLM Uncompahgre Field Office and has worked for years on volunteer clean-up programs and maintaining public trails.
-Montrose Daily Press, 05.15.08
Saturday is the second annual Highway Clean-Up Day sponsored by the Routt County commissioners. Crews will clean up U.S. Highway 40, Colorado Highway 131 and Routt County Road 129. Volunteers can sign up Saturday at the Routt County Courthouse, where shuttles will transfer people to clean-up areas.
-Steamboat Pilot, 05.15.08
The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Administration has granted $110,000 to the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, to be matched by the airport, to get Federal Aviation Administration funds for a new fire truck and repairs to one taxiway. Total upgrades at the airport will cost about $4.4 million.
-Steamboat Pilot, 05.15.08
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The Western Convenience store at 2998 North Avenue became the first station to pump ethanol in Grand Junction Wednesday. Western Convenience offered E85 fuel for 85 cents a gallon for two hours Wednesday before switching to the normal $2.65 a gallon. E85 is made from 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded gasoline, and for a listing of vehicles that can use E85, go to: www.E85fuel.com.
-GJ Daily Sentinel, 05.15.08
Boaters at Dillon Reservoir will face mandatory inspections this summer for zebra mussels, joining other Colorado reservoirs: Chatfield, Cherry Creek, Pueblo, John Martin and Navajo. The mussel was discovered at Pueblo Reservoir this spring. Boat inspections at Dillon will include non-motorized kayaks and canoes, as well as motorized boats and trailers.
-Rocky Mountain News, 05.15.08
Crews, this summer, will cut trees on more than 200 acres around Vail to create a ribbon of “defensible space” around the town to prevent the spread of fire. The town will allocate about $530,000 to the project, with Eagle County and the U.S. Forest Service providing another $100,000 each. Work will begin May 19 and continue through October.
-www.vaildaily.com, 05.15.08
Silver Mountain Industries, owners of some 800 acres in the Alta Lakes basin, pulled their proposed annexation from Mountain Village, but are ready to develop 28 homes on 540 at Alta Lakes in a use-by-right plan, or one house per 35 acres. Uncertain in the proposal is the fate of the number of trails that cover the area.
-Telluride Daily Press, 05.15.08
A landslide on East Fork Road about two miles east of U.S. Highway 160 on Forest Service land was discovered May 2 after it sheared an Xcel Energy gas pipeline and triggered an automatic shutoff. Officials from Archuleta County and the U.S. Forest Service are continuing to monitor the slide, which moved another 50 feet last week, to avoid damming the east fork of the San Juan River.
-Durango Herald, 05.15.08
The Environmental Protection Agency has started drilling a well designed to remove water behind a blocked mine-drainage tunnel in Leadville. The EPA plans to remove the large volumes of contaminated water to a nearby Bureau of Reclamation facility for treatment before releasing it into the Arkansas River.
-Rocky Mountain News, 05.15.08
You may have never heard of Asus, but the laptop computer manufacturer, based in Taipei, Taiwan, is the No. 9 PC maker in the world. Its real mark, however, is the company made 81% of the laptops that sold for less than $500 last year. It’s EEE PC, which is slightly larger than a tissue box and weighs just 2 pounds, sells for $299 and is available at Best Buy, Amazon and other American retailers. This week, Asus launches a $549 version with a larger screen and more features.
The mainstay of Japanese diets, tofu, is suffering from a price crunch. The reason? Japan relies on imports for 95% of its soybeans, tofu’s main ingredient and the retail price of U.S. soybeans has soared more than 60% in the past year. Adding to the cost dilemma is the tiny scale of most businesses making tofu in Japan. More than half of all tofu manufacturers in Japan employed three or fewer people. More than 500 tofu makers went out of business in 2006, bringing the number down to 12,500.
-Wall Street Journal, 05.15.08
Bicycles are a US$61billion global industry, with 100 million units produced annually:
-China produces almost 75% of those made
-Taiwan makes 6 million bikes, selling for US$222 domestic, wholesale
-European Union nations buy 79% of the bikes worldwide
-In the U.S. bike sales have increased 9% in the past 5 years
-International Herald Tribune, 05.14.08
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