October 2016

The young man eyed me carefully as I drove up to the security gate of the Spirit Camp earlier this month. He was in his early twenties, a bandanna around his forehead. A couple of others who were also manning the entrance glanced up as well. After all, my 2007 Yukon was sporting Colorado plates, and I look nothing like a Native American. I decided to speak first:
“Hi, I am here to meet some friends from the Cheyenne River tribe,” I told him and I could see him perk up a little.
“Cheyenne River,” he said, “that’s my tribe,” and he smiled proudly.
“I’m here to meet (I told him the names of my friends) and I brought supplies,” I said.
“What kind of supplies?” he asked.
“Winter coats and warm clothes donated by my community. We support what you are doing here,” I told him as he nodded and pointed to several large tents off to my right.

Lisa Dancing-Light is going global with one of her songs, after author Dr. Kent Johnson chose it as one of two theme songs for his new VoiceAmerica.com show “The Convergence: Uniting the Tribes in the Interspiritual Age.”
The song, several years in the making, is adapted from a poem by author Anne Hillman, and is titled “The Song of Love” (an anthem for humanity). It starts:
You are loved, you are accepted
You are held in a vast embrace
You are perfect as you are
A child of God, a gift of Grace.

Approximately 40 area residents showed up on Thursday evening at a mayoral candidates’ forum in Carbondale, listening to the three candidates — Katrina Byars, Ed Cortez and Dan Richardson — as they described what they would like to do as mayor and how they are different from each other.
Prior to the start of the forum, both Cortez and Richardson were up and walking around, working the room, shaking hands and talking with attendees, while Byars sat quietly in her assigned chair at the front of the room, thinking and watching.

Carbondale (meaning residents, businesses, the town government, etc.) in 2014 spent nearly $18 million in 2014 on energy costs, about $11 million of which was associated with transportation, according to the groups that keep track of such things.
But over the past decade, changes in how the town’s energy resources are generated and used (and, more particularly, not used) are believed to have cut local energy costs considerably, according to town officials and representatives of the Clean Energy Economy for the Region (CLEER), Garfield Clean Energy (GCE) and its related organizations.

In the latest move by Democrat John Acha to topple 20-year Republican incumbent Garfield County Commissioner John Martin, the county Democrats have formally called for an investigation into Martin’s spending of taxpayer money over the course of the last several years.
Democrats have accused Martin of embezzlement concerning his expenses over three years of attendance at conferences of the National Association of Counties (NACo),

Last week I took my Glenwood Springs High School outdoor education class on a three-day adventure to Granite Lakes, located in the Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness far above Basalt. As anyone who has spent time in the outdoors knows, it takes as much work to prepare for a three-day trip as it does to prepare for a 30-day one. With the gear, the paperwork and transportation, the only things that really change are the quantity of food and number of clean T-shirts.

Three candidates — current Carbondale trustees Katrina Byars and Dan Richardson (who is acting mayor until the election) and former trustee Ed Cortez — are vying for election as mayor to replace recently retired former mayor Stacey Bernot.
The Sopris Sun, as part of its coverage of the race, has asked each candidate to respond to three questions about issues of concern to Carbondale residents.
Upcoming articles will include further questions of the candidates, in an effort to let readers know where the candidates stand on specific issues.
Following are the questions and each candidate’s replies

The race for Garfield County Commissioner Dist. 2 appears to be heating up.
Political newcomer John Acha, a Democrat from New Castle who is challenging incumbent commissioner John Martin, got an endorsement last week from former long-time county manager Ed Green, who once was a close associate of incumbent commission chair John Martin but wrote that this year he will vote for Acha instead.

We live in a cosmos of vibration. Our voice, footsteps, cars, jets, the wind are all drowned out by the music of the spheres and the universe, shaking atoms into material existence.
A gong bath is a form of sound therapy where the gong is played in a therapeutic way, to bring about healing. Richard Rudis uses a brass gong that is precisely shaped and tuned to the planet Earth’s resonant frequency. He creates the tones it makes by applying one of his 30 mallets and his hand passing in front of the gong.

A Carbondale native, who was shot in the stomach during an apparent robbery attempt in Nashville, Tenn., on the night of Sept. 26, remained in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center on Oct. 3 after reportedly undergoing several operations to repair injuries sustained in the incident.
Hospital representatives, citing “federal law” as preventing them from saying more, would only confirm that Dietrich Minor, 27, whose nickname is “Deetz,” was still in the facility. He had been listed in critical condition the day after the shooting, and a report on the Aspen Real Life website on Sept. 29 indicated that he was “stable and on a ventilator” at that time.