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• The rules run contrary to the community goal of downtown vitality. Over and over, city leaders and staffers express their desire for “messy vitality” in Aspen’s commercial core. Music on the pedestrian malls, or inside establishments with doors and windows that are intentionally left open so that sound can escape and...
• The complainers have a false sense of entitlement. They bought or rented upper-floor residential properties — “penthouses,” many people call them — in a commercially zoned district of a tourism-dependent town. Why would they expect peace and quiet at all hours of the day or night? Their money might have been better s...
This is not, as some City Hall employees have contended, an “issue du jour.” It seems to pop up during each winter and summer tourism season and at other times bubbles just below the surface. It was just as relevant three years ago, when Aspen police were (unfairly) taking meter readings just outside the front door of ...
Speaking of the brewing company and its tasting room on East Hopkins, a trial is expected later this fall in Aspen Municipal Court on those two citations. The owner, Duncan Clauss, ought to be applauded for having the guts to challenge the infractions, which we liken to driving 23 mph in a 20-mph zone. That taxpayer mo...
Again, we are encouraged that the city and council members are set to take a look at this crucial matter, one that will have an effect on the vibrancy and economic sustainability of the downtown area for years to come. We also hope that the stakeholders affected by the ordinance — the club owners, musicians, even the c...
Whatever the outcome, democracy will best be served by a thorough hearing on the matter and full community involvement, much like what occurred last year during the debate on the Castle Creek hydroelectric project and earlier this week with the public hearing to gauge opinions on the USA Pro Challenge.
A temporary deal between President Trump and Democrats Friday ended a month-long partial government shutdown that affected hundreds of thousands of federal workers. Members of the Coast Guard were among those who have been working for weeks without pay, because unlike the other branches of the United States military, t...
Active-duty members have been scraping to get by. There are reports, for example, of Coast Guard families relying on food banks to make ends meet or dipping into their limited savings in the midst of this political dispute.
Meanwhile, retirees, who get paid only once a month and some of whom depend on their pension as their main source of income, were looking at missing their first pension check at the end of the month, said Stephen Flynn, founding director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University, who served in the C...
Flynn shared his insights about how the shutdown affected Coast Guard members and which ramifications it could have on the future of the agency.
What was your reaction to President Trump’s announcement Friday to temporarily end the shutdown and what might this reprieve mean for the Coast Guard?
Relief. And a sense of frustration how this has gone on so long, the level of dysfunction, and a failure to appreciate how people who are serving their country and making tremendous sacrifices to do that. Hopefully there is a commitment here to not do this ever again.
Hopefully it will happen relatively quickly so people will get what they’ve lost in wages back. The great irony of this is that the fight has been over a border wall. Much more than our land borders, America has maritime borders. The Coast Guard has been impacted, of course, by resources and funding to do its mission, ...
Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska said the shutdown has had a crippling effect on the Coast Guard. What have you heard from active duty members on the impact the shutdown had on them?
It’s a great job, but it’s not known for great pay. Coast Guard folks are usually pressed pretty hard when they’re living and working in high-[cost] places, so living paycheck to paycheck is just a cold reality. You also have a number of Coast Guard folks who are husband and wife teams. The Coast Guard has the highest ...
How did the shutdown affect retirees like yourself?
[Had the shutdown continued], a pension check that Coast Guard retirees get on Jan. 31 would not have been paid out … The other armed services, the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Army, they’re actually like a trust fund around which their pensions come out of and they would be unaffected by a government shutdown. T...
Which long-term repercussions do you anticipate this shutdown will have on the Coast Guard?
One, new people coming in. You always want to try to recruit the best and the brightest and the most capable people, and even the young people who didn’t have pause, their parents probably have some pause about encouraging them to do something where you essentially are going to have to go to work and they may not pay y...
I very much worry about the reenlistment impact this is going to have and that could be a really detrimental part, because you’re losing essentially your middle management.They have younger families, they have expenses; they went through this, and they really have to say, is this worthwhile to continue a career?
A new concert series in downtown Winnipeg will give Manitoba musicians a venue to play during the summer months.
The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ has launched the Downtown Concert Series, which will attract nine city festivals to the core area.
Beginning with ManyFest in Air Canada Park on June 4, the series will run until the end of August.
Grande said more than 90,000 people took in the over 50 festivals in downtown Winnipeg last year.
The free concerts will run every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m.
The NSA has published 12 years of quarterly reports that show the agency may have violated the law for more than a decade.
The reports were created for the President's Intelligence Oversight Board between 2001 and mid-2013.
PBS explains that the report details that the NSA continually used unauthorized signals for intelligence gathering that includes phone call metadata. Details of intentional misuse are present throughout the reports.
Most of the reports are redacted.
Bloomberg writes that the NSA's inspector general detailed 12 cases of intentional misuse by intelligence authorities in that time period. Some of its analysts deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans.
Patrick C. Toomey, staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, writes about the NSA's misuse of intelligence gathering.
“The government conducts sweeping surveillance under this authority -— surveillance that increasingly puts Americans’ data in the hands of the NSA,” Toomey writes.
“Despite that fact, this spying is conducted almost entirely in secret and without legislative or judicial oversight,” he said.
Poquoson’s Clint Gault earned “one for the thumb” at last Saturday’s Run for the Bulls 5K, which took place at his high school alma mater and was conducted by the Peninsula Track Club.
Gault, the 2017 Daily Press High School Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year, is now competing with the Virginia Tech program. He defeated 129 other runners to once again capture a race that he won during all four years he attended Poquoson High.
The Hokies freshman reached the finish line first for the fifth straight year in dominating fashion with his victorious time of 16:10, more than three minutes ahead of the next runners. Jakob Juhl, 15, and Mason Ponton, 18, both of Poquoson, finished second and third with times of 19:18 and 19:33, respectively.
Fourteen-year-old Cassidy Spakes of Newport News was the first women’s finisher with a time of 22:44, as she outkicked runner-up Tracy Hofstetter of Poquoson to the line by five seconds. Veronica Warwick of Poquoson was third in 24:45.
Craig Hymes of Yorktown posted an impressive time of 19:37 to win the men’s 50-59 age group. Dale Abrahamson, in his last year with the 60-69 men, won the division in 22:35.
Yorktown runner Barbara Biasi won the 70-and-over women’s category in 29:49. William Hodges, 65, also of Yorktown, won the 2-mile walk by more than six minutes with a 22:59 performance.
The 17th annual Ghoulish Run for the Girl Scouts, held at Governor’s Land in Williamsburg, drew almost 200 competitors, of whom 130 completed the 5K course.
Roger Hopper helped to build up his Grand Prix points for the Colonial Road Runners and Hampton Roads Super titles by winning the overall race in 16:50. Mike Colaiacovo was second in 17:30, and Williamsburg’s Jason Miller placed third in 18:07.
Emily Honeycutt won the women’s race in 21:03. Julie Myers (22:25) and Karla Havens (22:47) took the next two spots, with Havens placing as the first female master (40-plus years of age) and supermaster (50-plus) finisher.
Morgan Linkenauger (23:16) and Lauren Linkenauger (28:20) were the first male and female Governor’s Land residents to finish, while Sorenna Jean (25:00) placed first among all Girl Scouts.
Paul Pelletier (18:51) and Robert Whitaker (18:47) won the men’s 50-54 and 55-59 divisions, respectively, but the most excitement may have come from the men’s 70-and-over category.
Toano’s Ben Dyer, 75, won the class by four minutes and set an all-time Colonial Road Runners course record for his age group with his clocking of 24:03.
However, 95-year-old Robert S. White of Hampton set an all-time CRR mark for men 95-and-over with his time of 60 minutes, 32 seconds. White is the first runner ever in Virginia to complete a 5-kilometer race in that age group. White finished behind Ernest Schillinger, 87, who finished the course in 38:02.
It took 21 holes, but Williamsburg’s Dave Pulk, teaming with Skip Zobel of Virginia Beach, claimed the final match to capture the VSGA Senior Four-Ball Match Play Championship last Saturday at the Keswick Golf Club in central Virginia.
The pair, seeded third, won their second straight VSGA title but needed extra holes to defeat Neil Davis and Randy Newsome, who had built a 2-up lead through 11 holes.
In the final seven holes, two birdies by Zobel tied the match through 18 holes.
The pair reached the final by defeating 14th seeds Greg Booker (Powhatan) and Peyton Winfree (Manakin Sabot) 4 and 3 in the opening match, followed by a 2-and-1 win over Dan Hosek (Alexandria) and Harry Thomas (McLean) in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, the Pulk-Zobel duo blasted John Steele (Boyds) and Jon Zampedro (Centreville) 7 and 6.
Attacks in Baghdad and near northern city of Mosul leave more than 50 people dead.
"A minute later another bomb went off, knocking me off the roof onto the ground. I was struck unconscious by shrapnel and stones," he said.
The blast also levelled more than 30 houses in the village.
The village is home to members of the Shabak community, a Shia minority group, outside of Mosul, a predominately Sunni city with significant Christian and Shia minorities.
Focus: Awakening councils key to security?
Khanza, which is under the control of Kurdish peshmerga forces, also lies on the southern edge of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Hunain Qaddu, an Iraqi member of parliament representing the Shabak, said the peshmerga have never been able to protect his community.
"We are suffering at the hands of the peshmerga," Qaddu told Al Jazeera.
"They are probably indirectly responsible for the attacks because they have rejected the idea of establishing a security force from the inhabitant people.
"We would ask the Iraqi government to deploy the Iraqi forces in our area ... to protect all Iraqi minorities whether they are Shabak or Turkmen or Christian."
Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, has promised to protect minorities, as have the opposition Change list, which gained ground in recent elections.
But Qaddu said he does not trust these claims.
"The only party you can trust is the government security forces, the force which really is connected to the Iraqi central government and not to the political parties."
In a separate attack in the Amil district of western Baghdad on Monday, seven people were killed and 46 others injured after a bomb exploded near a gathering of day-labourers waiting on the street.
The blast was followed by a similar attack on labourers and construction workers in the nearby Shurta district of western Baghdad.
That blast left nine people dead and 40 others wounded.
The attacks come a day after Iraqi forces began dismantling a number of protective barriers around Baghdad.
The government had ordered the concrete blast walls removed in an effort to restore a sense of normalcy and assure Iraqis that the security situation was improving in the country.
It announced last week that the barriers, which were put in place to protect markets, banks, buildings and major roads from suicide bombers and other attacks, would be dismantled within 40 days.
Attacks in Iraq remain common, raising doubts about the ability of Iraqi security forces to stand alone following the pull back of US forces from the country's major cities and towns at the end of June.
Tahsin Sheikhly, the civil spokesman for Baghdad security, said Monday's attacks indicated that security remains a challenge for Iraqi authorities.
"The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, except bombs in Mosul and a few other areas," he told Al Jazeera.
"We believe that the enemy of Iraq is still trying to do something terrible to the security situation here in Iraq, especially in Baghdad, because it is the key for Iraq's security."
Sheffield United defender Tony McMahon is hopeful they will start to make progress once they can make consistent team selections.
The Blades are unbeaten in League One this season but have drawn five of their eight games to sit in sixth.
The 26-year-old told BBC Radio Sheffield: "We haven't had a settled 11 yet and we've got a lot of new players.
McMahon made his professional debut for Middlesbrough at Old Trafford in October 2004. Stewart Downing gave Boro a first-half lead but Manchester United levelled late on through Alan Smith.
"It takes time to gel but we can't be too critical because we haven't lost a game and we've got nothing to fear."
He added: "I think we've been the best team in every game we've played and if we're near the top of the table come April then everyone will be happy.
"We've got some difficult games coming up and we'll lose some, we know that, but the aim is promotion."
The Bramall Lane side have recently been missing skipper Michael Doyle and winger Ryan Flynn, who have been serving three-match suspensions, while midfielders Stephen Quinn and Nick Montgomery both moved on in the transfer window.
McMahon, a summer recruit from Middlesbrough, has been pleased with his own start to life in League One.
"It's a tough league and we've come up against some good players," he continued.
"I've really enjoyed myself and I'm pleased to be playing every week. I'm looking forward to what the season brings."
The Australian Secret Intelligence Service provided the security advice that denied one of its former spies a passport to travel to a tribunal hearing at The Hague on the grounds he could be "cultivated by a foreign power". The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation usually provides such assessments.
The security ruling comes amid allegations the current ASIS head, Nick Warner, was "aware" at the time of the infamous bugging of East Timor by the foreign spy service's agents in 2004.
Bernard Collaery, the lawyer for the former ASIS spy known as Witness K, has alleged a bipartisan "cover-up" of the infamous bugging of East Timor in 2004.
The allegation of Mr Warner's awareness of the spying came during an incendiary address on Monday when Bernard Collaery, the lawyer for the former ASIS spy known as Witness K, also alleged a bipartisan "cover-up" of the saga.
The 2004 espionage operation is the subject of binding arbitration before an international tribunal in the Hague and the former ASIS spy, who led the clandestine eavesdropping in Dili in 2004, was to appear as a star witness for East Timor.
Under the guise of an aid project, ASIS agents infiltrated East Timor's government offices and inserted listening devices that recorded the conversations of the fledgling state's negotiators when they were in talks with Australia over the huge Timor Sea oil and gas reserves.
If the Hague tribunal rules in East Timor's favour, the treaty will be annulled.
Witness K will not be able to appear at the hearing in person, although he should be able to give video evidence.
Mr Collaery, a former attorney-general of the ACT, said the reasoning behind the passport ban – issued by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on ASIS advice – was "laughable" as Witness K was a decorated officer.
While ASIO typically makes the security assessments that underpin the denial of passports, Mr Collaery said this was not the case with Witness K.
"The head of Australia's national security organisation, the Director-General of ASIO Duncan Lewis, has not intervened with respect to the passport. That says it all," Mr Collaery says in a copy of his speech delivered to protesters on Monday outside Parliament House in Canberra.
"The competent authority that is advising Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is ASIS. I can now reveal that the head of ASIS, Nicholas Warner was involved as a special adviser at the time of the mission to bug the East Timorese cabinet."
Mr Collaery later declined to specify what Mr Warner's special advisory role was, citing security laws. "In the position he occupied, he was certainly aware of the operation," he told Fairfax Media.
In 2004, Mr Warner finished his role as head of the Australian mission to the Solomon Islands and became deputy secretary of the department of Foreign Affairs.
"In any working democracy, the current position of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and her adviser Nicholas Warner could bring down a government," Mr Collaery said.

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