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Hands-free cell phones & driving OK

KETCHUM, Idaho – City councilors in Ketchum have been moving toward adoption of a law that would ban the use of cell phones while driving, unless hands-free technology is used.

Idaho bans texting while driving. Dave Kassner, the Ketchum police chief, said that ban is difficult to enforce without confessions from drivers or court orders allowing police to access text messages.

If adopted, Ketchum’s law would allow a police officer to pull over anyone seen using an electronic mobile device while driving.

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Crested Butte warming trend anomaly

CRESTED BUTTE – Seeking to localize the story about global warming, the Crested Butte News contacted a forecaster with the National Weather Service. Joe Ramey, working out of the Grand Junction office, said he had analyzed temperature and precipitation records from Crested Butte to Moab.

And what he found fit in with the global warming story.

“Maximum temperatures haven’t changed a lot over the last 100 years,” he told the News. “They’ve been up and down and somewhat inversely correlated to precipitation. Dry periods are typically hot and wet periods are cool, but minimum temperatures seem to show a marked increase, especially since the 1970s.”

Not all measurements are equally reliable, but Ramey put more stock in those taken by the National Park Service, because they are away from urban or even small-town influences.

But not every site showed the same trend. Crested Butte, for example, was an aberration. While it has been warming since the 1970s, it was even warmer in the 1950s and 1960s than it is today. Why did this happen? Ramey does not profess to know.

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Arctic sea ice at record low again

BOULDER – Arctic sea ice was at a record low for the second straight year.

“I’ve never seen such a warm, crazy winter in the Arctic,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The heat was relentless.”

Air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean for the months of December, January and February were 2 to 6 degrees Celsius (4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.

Ice extent increases through autumn and winter, and the maximum typically occurs in mid March. Sea ice then retreats through spring and summer and shrinks to its smallest or minimum extent typically by mid September.

The September Arctic minimum began drawing attention in 2005 when it first shrank to a record low extent over the period of satellite observations. It broke the record again in 2007, and then again in 2012.

The March Arctic maximum has typically received less attention. That changed last year when the maximum extent was the lowest in the satellite record.

“The Arctic is in crisis. Year by year, it’s slipping into a new state, and it’s hard to see how that won’t have an effect on weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere,” said Ted Scambos, NSIDC lead scientist.

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Aspen schools weigh naming rights

ASPEN – The school board in Aspen is weighing whether to offer naming rights, such as for buildings or even auditorium seats, as a way to rustle donation from affluent part-time residents.

A recent study found the potential of raising $15 million toward an endowment through naming rights, the Aspen Daily News reports.

“We’re interested in very large, seven-figure gifts in order to have the opportunity to do some kind of naming,” said Brooke Bedingfield, executive director of the Aspen Education Foundation, a not-for-profit fundraising arm of the public schools.

The Daily News finds evidence that Aspen would not be a first in this sort of thing. At $2,500 gift will get your name on a seat in the theater of Beverly Hills High School. The teacher’s lounge goes for $50,000. And for $10 million, a campus street can bear the name of a donor.

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Keeping kids out of the candy store

ASPEN – The Aspen community continues to have questions about the use of edibles for consumption of THC, the psychoactive agent in cannabis.

The Aspen Daily News reports that Pitkin County commissioners recently refused to grant a license for an edibles manufacturing operation on the outskirts of Aspen. The would-be proprietor had intended to manufacture lemon drops, chocolates, bubble gum and popcorn.

The Valley Marijuana Council leans against allowing candy look-alike products being sold in local dispensaries.

“Bubble gum, popcorn, candy – things that may be appealing to children, I think that’s something I’d like to start disparaging in Pitkin County,” said Sheriff Joe DiSalvo.

County Commissioner Rachel Richards said she was just as concerned with the messages that downplay the potency of the drug, as she was concerned with potential for mistake. She cited the Joe Camel cigarette advertising campaign as a precedent.

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Aspen and Park City top energy list

ASPEN – Huntsville, Ala., is at the top of this list, and Aspen second, followed by Fargo, N.D., and Park City, Utah.

And the list? These are the top-four contenders in the Georgetown Energy Prize, a national competition of 50 finalists.

Jackson Hole is also among the 50 finalists in the competition, as is Bend, Ore.

Aspen would prefer to be in the No 1 slot in this competition, which measured reductions in electrical and natural gas use in residential and municipal buildings from January 2015 - December 2016.

To that end, Pitkin County has authorized $500,000 to help improve energy efficiency in several of the community’s affordable housing projects.

The money comes from the Renewable Energy Mitigation Program, which was adopted by Aspen and Pitkin County in 1999. It requires that new homes of 5,000 square feet or more and new homes with features such as snowmelt systems and outdoor pools and spas offset their energy use with renewable energy on site. Homeowners have had the option of paying an in-lieu fee, which has yielded more than $11 million.

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Whitefish adopts gender identity law

WHITEFISH, Mont. – Whitefish councilors have made it illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Whitefish Pilot reports that about 20 people spoke out in favor of the law, and none spoke against it. Among the speakers was Annika Gordon, who said she is gay but that does not make her less of a person. “That doesn’t change my personality or my work ethic or my job performance,” she said. “There’s no reason people like me should be discriminated against in any way.”

Representatives of several religious denominations from Whitefish also spoke in favor of the law. “We will be a better, stronger, richer community if we celebrate diversity,” said Rabbi Francine Roston of the Glacier Jewish community-B’nail Shalom.

“I give you my full support as a Christian,” the Rev. Morie Adams-Griffin of the Whitefish United Methodist Church told elected officials.

Hilary Shaw, representing the Montana Human Rights Network, called the law “social change in action” and looked to the day that such conversations no longer are necessary.

While protecting the rights of gay and transgender people, the law specifically disavows abridging other rights: freedom of speech, freedom of association, and exercise of religion.

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Pine beetles on the rise in Jasper park

JASPER, Alberta – Instead of talking about individual pine trees hit by mountain bark beetles, Parks Canada is now talking about the number of hectares in Jasper National Park. The amount of affected area tripled in the last year.

Kevin Van Tighem, a former superintendent of Banff National Park, told the Jasper Fitzhugh that he rejects the idea that mountain bark beetles are a problem.

“Pine beetle outbreaks are, in essence, one of nature’s built-in mechanisms for climate change adaptation in natural forests,” he told the Fitzhugh in an e-mail.

“Besides helping forests adjust to changing climate and more frequent soil moisture deficits, pine beetle outbreaks enable more sun and rain to reach the forest floor, increasing the diversity and productivity of understory vegetation relied on by species like elk, bears, voles, etc. The dead trees become habitat for woodpeckers, flying squirrels, owls and bats.

There is often an explosion of biodiversity once a pine beetle eruption passes through an area, he added.

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Should backcountry dangers be marked?

WHISTLER, Alberta – The death of a snowmobiler who tumbled 100 feet down a crevasse on a glacier near Whistler has locals talking about whether sledders need to be warned more frequently of backcountry dangers.

“The general consensus, and after conversations with government officials as well, is that we can’t be marking hazards in the backcountry, because there are hazards that exist everywhere,” said Tyler Kraushar, of the Pemberton Snowmobile Club.

From 2004-14, Whistler Search and Rescue was called out 38 times as a result of snowmobiling accidents, a fifth of all the calls.

 

– Allen Best

For more, go to http://mountaintownnews.net