ASPEN - Forget Wilco. The Aspen football team delivered Friday night's best performance.
Many expected the Skiers to be tested against visiting Moffat County. They were breaking in a new quarterback, playing in front of a packed house for the first time since November and squaring off with a squad that went 6-4 at the 3A level last fall.
Little could slow high-powered Aspen on this night, however. The Skiers scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions - two on passes from signal caller Rex Christensen - erupted for 37...

ASPEN - It's hard to imagine the Eagles having taken flight without Southern California. The band's first hits - "Take It Easy," "Peaceful Easy Feeling" - come directly from an idealized version of blissful, sun-soaked early '70s SoCal. The band's sound wasn't just their own, but part of the movement that made Los Angeles the epicenter of country-rock, thanks to Jackson Browne (who co-wrote "Take It Easy"), Linda Ronstadt (whose debut album featured the four musicians who would soon become the Eagles), Poco (which featured several future Eagles) and the Gram Parsons-era...

GLENWOOD SPRINGS - Drew Halsch gave football a try his freshman year and didn't stick with it. His return to the gridiron as a senior couldn't have gone any better.
Rushing for 179 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries, Halsch helped Glenwood Springs to a 35-7 win over visiting Basalt in Friday's season opener.
The senior running back isn't quite sure why he gave up football in the first place.
"My sophomore and junior year, I don't really know, exactly, the reason why. I just didn't play," he said. "I don't know. It just wasn't for...

Aspen Times staff report
ASPEN - Aspen's commercial air service got a lift Friday when it was announced United Airlines will offer nonstop flights between here and Houston starting in January.
It's the first time Aspen has had direct, commercial air service to and from a major Texas market since 1995-98, when the now-defunct Lone Star Airlines and Aspen Mountain Air flew here from Dallas.
"This is very exciting news," said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass, a central reservations firm. "It will facilitate brilliant connections from Texas, Florida and all across South America.

CARBONDALE - A dietary-based concern for her daughter's health in early childhood ended up saving Kimberly Williams' life.
Now, Williams is out to spread the word about the benefits of a raw food diet, and share some of what she has discovered through her new Carbondale food store, Nur-ish - Raw Living Foods.
Located in the Sopris Shopping Center on Highway 133, Nur-ish had a soft opening for the past few weeks, but has its grand opening this weekend, including the start of a series of free Saturday nutrition lectures.
The store...

ASPEN - Second-home owners in Pitkin County would be able to vote on property tax increases if voters approve the controversial Amendment 60 in November.
Currently, people who own second homes in Colorado can't vote on property tax increases that are imposed on the district their home is in unless they consider it their primary residence.
Aspen City Manager Steve Barwick said the intent of the measure is strictly to allow second-home owners a say in tax increases, although there has been chatter that, depending on the way the ballot language is...

ASPEN - The Aspen Skiing Co. faces a "viciously difficult" challenge to achieve a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 10 percent by 2012 from its 2000-base line level, Auden Schendler, the company's executive director of sustainability, said Wednesday.
The Skico reduced its total emissions from 30,639 tons in 2008 to 30,295 last year, according to the Aspen Snowmass 2010 Sustainability Report, which was released Wednesday.
The report measures how much fossil fuel is burned and, therefore, how much carbon is emitted, by Skico activities. Everything from making snow to operating the...

Basalt golfer Dylan Rakowski opened Thursday's round at the Links at Cobble Creek in Montrose with 12 pars and a birdie in his first 13 holes.
Then, he hit a snag. Make that three.
The sophomore double bogeyed his 14th and 15th holes, then a triple bogey on his 17th. He still managed to finish with a 5-over-par 77 - his first sub-80 round of the season.
Teammates Tristan Rohrbaugh and Robert Pettit finished with 87 and 94, respectively, on a course that will host the regional tournament later this month.
Jesse...

ASPEN - The Aspen Election Commission wants the City Council to allow voters who plan to leave town before the 12-day early voting period in May elections to have a chance to cast their ballots beforehand.
People who wish to do so would have to provide proof that they will leave before the voting period starts.
The Election Commission, which is taking a more active role this year in designing election processes, said the measure would enable voters who could have been "disenfranchised" otherwise.
"I've always been big on enfranchisement," said City...

ASPEN - United Express might not be finished adding flights to Aspen, a senior vice president with the airline suggested Thursday.
Tom O'Toole, chief marketing officer for United Airlines, assured more than 200 members of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association at an annual luncheon that the carrier has a "strong commitment" to Aspen despite turbulence in the airline industry.
"I'm here to tell you, Aspen matters to United Airlines and will continue to do so," O'Toole said.
He noted that other airlines appear to have an "ambivalent" approach to serving Aspen. It was a thinly veiled reference...