Two state-of-the-art greenhouses will be completed next month in the midvalley, sure signs that the slow-food movement is on a fast track.
The TCI Lane Ranch development, between the Waldorf School and Blue Creek Ranch subdivision, is building a 36-by-60 foot greenhouse before work starts on 71 single-family homes and 18 duplexes. The greenhouse's vegetable and green beds will eventually be worked by the homeowners once the subdivision is developed.
"They'll be able to have fresh produce in their backyard year-round," said Dave Marrs, an executive in developer Ace Lane's firm.
The...

ASPEN - Thirty years ago, Aspen's downtown fountain first danced to life. Since that day, the rising and falling waters of the Mill Street Mall have entertained thousands of locals and visitors alike.
"My fondest hope is that the fountain will become the standard meeting place in Aspen ... that whiling away a little time there will be entertaining," Nick DeWolf, who designed the fountain with Travis Fulton, told The Aspen Times at its 1980 unveiling.
The fountain will be a gathering place Saturday, as a coalition of individuals and organizations concerned...

ASPEN - The dollar volume of real estate sales in Pitkin County soared by 81 percent in June compared to 2009, according to a report released Friday.
The total dollar volume for the month was $115.39 million, said the report by Land Title Guarantee Co. There were 50 transactions during the month, up nearly 6.5 percent from June 2009.
For the first half of the year, dollar volume was $573.8 million, which was an increase of 22 percent from the same period last year, the report said. Transactions in the county were up 4 percent to a...

ASPEN - The Red Brick Council for the Arts is throwing its annual Art Auction Saturday, at 1 p.m., at Aspen's Red Brick Center for the Arts. Admission is free, and all are invited.
The event includes a community picnic donated by Tim Handley Catering, music by the Smuggler Mountain Boys, performances by the Hudson Reed Ensemble and Dance Progressions, art-making demonstrations, and a sacred dance by a group of visiting Tibetan monks.
Topping the event is the silent art auction, with proceeds benefiting the Red Brick Council for the Arts. More than 100 works of art...

CARBONDALE - What could be viewed as "in-your-face" marketing by some in the medical marijuana business may not be very becoming of an industry trying to gain legitimacy and earn respect, according to some who are looking to regulate medical marijuana facilities locally.

Carbondale's specially appointed Medical Marijuana Facility Advisory Group addressed the issue in its report to the Town Council on July 27.

"The group expressed dismay at some recent examples of inappropriate advertising and cautions the industry to treat the business and patients with respect and professionalism," reads one of the group's recommendations.

LEADVILLE, Colo. - As Colorado's state fish, the greenback cutthroat trout is a symbol of the Rocky Mountains' natural splendor. The strikingly speckled, red-throated native fish calls to mind the sparkling high-alpine streams and lakes where the trout makes its home along the Continental Divide.

However, just a few decades ago, few would have guessed the greenback cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki somias) would come to represent Colorado's wild landscapes. As recently as 1970, the fish was considered to have been extinct for almost half a century.

The greenback - a relatively...

SUMMIT COUNTY - Local medical marijuana dispensary owners were scrambling this week to keep their doors open.
Sunday is the deadline for the centers - as defined by new state laws - to apply for a state license. The next opportunity will be summer 2011.
"I'm getting ready to deliver a bible of paperwork," said Cory McNeill, owner of the Breckenridge Loft. "The most highly scrutinized license ever given out in American history makes it very nerve wracking."
There's a business application and a personal one. The latter requires a 10-year employment and business association history, detailed...

COOKE CITY, Mont. - The fourth grizzly bear believed involved in a triple mauling at a Montana campground has been captured, with DNA tests due Friday that could confirm the family of grizzlies killed a Michigan man and injured two other people.

A sow and two of her three cubs had been trapped by Thursday, with a year-old cub found in a trap early Friday. The bears - crying and scratching at the steel sides of traps - were taken from the Soda Butte campground in a three-truck convoy.

Their...

ASPEN - The dichotomy was palpable Thursday night between the two Pitkin County sheriff candidates who have expressed their desire to change many things in the department, Rick Magnuson and Rick Leonard, and Joe DiSalvo, who wants to maintain the status quo engineered by longtime sheriff Bob Braudis.
During the first debate of the race, Magnuson and Leonard said they would step up drug and DUI enforcement in the county, while DiSalvo defended the practices of the department under Braudis, for whom DiSalvo serves as undersheriff.
"That [Magnuson] says the Pitkin County...

ASPEN - Candidates for the District 1 Pitkin County commissioner seat managed to differentiate themselves with their views on the Entrance to Aspen and the potential for rail during a cordial forum Thursday at the Paepcke Auditorium.
Those were among the few issues on which all five candidates were asked to offer their views, though the entrance is more of a city issue than a county one, and rail isn't really on the radar screen.
For the most part, questions submitted by citizens were fired at one or two candidates at most...