Realvail

21/08/2024

My DNC take so far and what I want to hear more of going forward:

Nearly eight years ago on this site, I asked young voters to “think about [Donald] Trump picking the next Supreme Court justice, who will likely be the deciding factor in whether [President Barack] Obama’s Clean Power Plan is ultimately adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.” I...

06/08/2024

Part 2 of my Colorado Newsline interview with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (this time on Utah oil trains and the U.S. Supreme Court):

Colorado’s attorney general recently left open the possibility he will take a formal role in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to help block a proposal that would send a massive surge of oil trains along the Colorado River. Attorney General Phil Weiser last week expressed disappointment that th...

04/08/2024

My Sunday morning reading. You'll come away with a better understanding but an increased sense of hopelessness:

For Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, the devastating war sparked on October 7th is the culmination of a ruthless life’s work.

02/08/2024

My exclusive interview with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser about SCOTUS reform, Project 2025 on Colorado Newsline:

Colorado AG Phil Weiser this week endorsed President Joe Biden’s three-pronged plan for reforming the U.S. Supreme Court.

01/08/2024

Leave it to Allen Best to lead off a forward-looking overview of geothermal heat and renewable energy with some Vail history. Please support Allen's irreplaceable Big Pivots journalism project:

Holy Cross Energy President and CEO Bryan Hannegan, left, with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, center, and Vail Mayor Travis Coggin discuss the town’s new geothermal project, which received $250,000 from the state (David O. Williams photo). On Thanksgiving weekend of 1994, the first traffic roundabout ...

30/07/2024

Still enjoying the Silver Bullet these days?

Project 2025 is one of the most pernicious plans for an American presidential administration ever conceived, not just for what it is but also for how it might be implemented. Its far-right policy prescriptions could transform the federal government into a MAGA instrument of authoritarianism. Many of...

28/07/2024

How will Harris taking over top of ticket impact candidates in CD3 race? Don't ask.

Democratic 3rd Congressional District candidate Adam Frisch. Congressional candidate Adam Frisch was one of the first Democrats to call on President Joe Biden to get out of presidential race following a terrible debate performance against Donald Trump late last month. Now that Biden is out and Vic...

27/07/2024

Checked out of the election? Well check this out. Trump actually says this may be the last one you need to vote in:

"When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill" ... buy the new book here:https://www.whenrabbisblesscongress.comht...

26/07/2024

My latest on Colorado Times Recorder:

VAIL, Colo. -- Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday, following the launch of a state-funded geothermal project here, took on the Trump-aligned Project 2025 plans for rolling back renewables and exploiting public lands with a massive surge in fossil fuels. “Project 2025 is worrisome for many, m...

19/07/2024

Mount Baker looming over Lake Terrell near Birch Bay, Wash., and more paddle boarding on the bay. Perfect antidote to a giant orange jackass braying on the TV.

18/07/2024

The Real Vail endorsement (time for a change):

Joe must go. I’ve fully evolved since the June 27 Debate Debacle from thinking President Joe Biden should stay in the race at this late date, given the passage of the primaries and campaign donations, to thinking the 81-year-old longtime denizen of the Senate needs to pass the baton to his veep. K...

18/07/2024

Terrified yet?

Rep. Lauren Boebert, left, speaks with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland during Haaland’s visit to Grand Junction on July 23, 2021 (Sharon Sullivan for Colorado Newsline). MILWAUKEE — If U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) gets her way, she will be the next Interior Department secretary in...

18/07/2024

Nothing like sunset in Birch Bay, Wash., hanging out with my mom, sister and brother in law, paddle boarding with the dogs, beach to ourselves, San Juans and Canadian mountains as a backdrop. Almost makes you forget what's going on in the world.

13/07/2024

What a day Friday in a very toasty Salt Lake City, where I attended the National Governors Association meeting hosted by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who passed the NGA chair baton to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. But the big stars were Matthew McConaughey and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. My story in the Colorado Springs Gazette:

Everything is not all right, all right, all right in America, Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey told a rapt crowd at the National Governors Association (NGA) meeting in Salt Lake City. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy followed him on stage and explained how things could be so much worse...

12/07/2024

Results certified and no unaffiliated candidate petition by the deadline. Last chance is a write-in by next week:

Eagle County Clerk & Recorder Regina O’Brien on Thursday issued the following press release on the certification of last month’s Democratic Primary Election: The post-election Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) was completed with a perfect score (zero discrepancies) on Tuesday, June 9th, and all 64 count...

10/07/2024

Everyone should read through the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 proposals, crafted by former Trump administration officials to be executed in the event Trump returns to the White House. It's the real Republican Party platform. In it, the framers propose massive development of our public lands:

In his book “Rifle In Hand: How Wild America Was Saved,” renowned hunter-conservationist Jim Posewitz wrote, “In 1776 freedom and equality were radical thoughts. It took a Declaration of Independence, a Revolutionary War, a United States Constitution, and a Bill of Rights to validate these i...

24/06/2024

Little old Eagle County headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where no doubt the Trump-stacked majority will order as many Utah oil trains as possible to come our way, with every tanker car of heated waxy crude flying an upside-down U.S. flag:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday accepted a last-ditch appeal from the backers of a controversial oil-by-rail project in eastern Utah, agreeing to review a lower-court ruling that sided with Eagle County and environmental groups who accused federal regulators of failing to adequately analyze the pro...

20/06/2024

Excuse the profanity ... I guess:

Sometime back in 2015, Ernest Luning, my former colleague at the Colorado Independent and Colorado Statesman, forwarded me a press release from Dave Williams, a young conservative in Colorado Springs running for state House District 15 in that reliably Republican part of the state. I nervously laugh...

14/06/2024

We don't need no stinking railway: Utah oil industry is expanding load-out facilities to get up to 75% of what the Uinta Basin Railway would have allowed onto the national rail system tracks headed right through Eagle County. They just have to truck it all the 90 miles to the tracks near Price. The EPA is quietly approving this despite air-quality violations, according to opponents:

An oil truck on U.S. Route 191 through the Uinta Basin in Utah in February of 2024 — the alternative to building the Uinta Basin Railway project (David O. Williams photo). While much of Colorado’s consternation about the flood of Utah waxy crude oil coming our way if the Uinta Basin Railway is e...

12/06/2024

This is it. Less than two weeks till we decide on a new county commissioner. Their takes on my obsession about a local rail revival:

The dormant Tennessee Pass rail line at Sage near the Eagle County Regional Airport with the Gypsum wallboard plant in the background. With no Republican running for the office in November, the District 2 seat for Eagle County commissioner being vacated by retiring Democrat Kathy Chandler-Henry will...

12/06/2024

This is good to see. No place in either of Colorado's major political parties for this kind of hate:

A growing chorus of local Republican Party officials opposed to Colorado GOP chair Dave Williams’ leadership said Monday that they had collected enough signatures to trigger a special party meeting at which they plan to vote for his removal. A press release from the Jefferson County Republicans, w...

09/06/2024

More on the faint possibility of a local rail revival:

A proposed Denver-to-Craig Northwest Rail passenger line, as state Sen. Dylan Roberts calls it, could have some significant spillover impacts on the local but long-dormant Tennessee Pass Rail line through Eagle County that Union Pacific (UP) also owns. In a phone interview last month to discuss seve...

07/06/2024

Breaking news:

Holy Cross Energy on Friday issued the following press release on its 2024 board election results: Glenwood Springs, CO, June 7, 2024—Local rural electric cooperative Holy Cross Energy (HCE) held its annual meeting and Board of Directors election on June 6. Two candidates ran for one seat in the c...

07/06/2024

Nothing like a good cry to start your Friday. This is a powerful story powerfully told of a way-too-short life lived so very well. My heart goes out today to Ruth, Evan and all of Lily's classmates and many, many friends in the Eagle River Valley and around the globe. Thanks, Nate Peterson and the Vail Daily, for taking the time to inspire us all to be more like Lily. That is the definition of bringing communities together.

Lily DeMuth was going to change the world. Everyone who knew her was sure of that.    But first, she had to see as much of it as possible. From an early age, the only child...

06/06/2024

Clearly, the D in D-Day is for Democracy:

A U.S. Army helmet atop a captured German machine gun, marking the location at Pointe du Hoc of fallen comrades on June 6, 1944 (courtesy of the National World War II Museum). On today’s 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of France (D-Day) that accelerated the defeat of Adolph Hi**er’s N**i...

22/05/2024

Huge favor, Colorado voters: Please read my blog and fill out the very quick Voter Voices 2024 survey being conducted by Colorado Newsline and more than 30 other news organizations around the state. Thanks so much in advance. Your vote and voice matter really do matter in 2024:

For nearly two years now I’ve worked with the Colorado Newsline, an award-winning, non-profit news and opinion website based on Colorado’s Front Range that allows full reposting of its excellent articles on news websites around the state, including the two I own — RealVail.com and RockyMo...

22/05/2024

This primary election is coming up fast. Some key deadlines early next month:

Eagle County on Wednesday issued the following press release on the upcoming June 25 Colorado Primary Election: May 22, 2024 – The Eagle County Primary Election is on June 25 for both the Democratic and Republican parties. Ballots will be mailed to active, eligible voters the week of June 3. Color...

15/05/2024

This could have been the new Town of Vail motto painted on our parking structures (don't call them garages): "The residents of Vail need to be reminded that they live a comfy, luxe and privileged life on STOLEN LAND!"

Danielle SeeWalker's art piece "G is for Genocide" caused Vail's Art in Public Places to cancel her residency.

09/05/2024

Gotta admit, I'm pretty psyched for this:

The International Ski Federation (FIS) recently discussed its upcoming World Cup ski racing schedule at its annual spring meeting, including back-to-back, speed-event weekends at Beaver Creek for the both the men and the women: “As usual, the teams will head to North America and Canada for downhil...

05/05/2024

Back to Cooper yesterday and it was even better spring corn snow. Such good turns. Monty and Chuck were loving the view. That's the second highest peak in the state to the left (Mount Massive).