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Mountain News: Women most likely to have sticky fingers

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Men predominate in nearly every criminal activity. One of the few exceptions is embezzlement. There, an overwhelming number of the offenders are women.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – Men predominate in nearly every criminal activity. One of the few exceptions is embezzlement. There, an overwhelming number of the offenders are women.

That’s true nationally, and it’s also true in Wyoming’s Teton County, where women were the accused in 80 per cent of embezzlements, 75 per cent of forgeries, and in 100 per cent cases of obtaining property by false pretenses.

You might think it’s just a case of women stealing from male bosses, but the Jackson Hole News & Guide’s Amanda H. Miller cites several cases of women working for women. The experience of the thievery devastated their former employers.

“I loved Molly,” said one business owner, a woman, speaking of her embezzling former employee and seeming friend. “I really loved her as if she were my sister. She just devastated me. She ruined my life.”

In another case, a woman at a hotel had worked up from a position as housekeeper to a supervisor, and was celebrated the day she gained her U.S. citizenship. But on the sly she was filling out timecards for an employee who no longer worked at the hotel and cashing the cheques herself. Upon discovery, her employer felt betrayed.

“Victims of embezzlement, especially in small businesses, are some of the most harmed people I see, emotionally,” said Clark Allen, deputy prosecuting attorney for Teton County. Only victims of rapes, he added, feel more victimized.

Allen told the newspaper that female embezzlers often spread rumors that the owner or employer, if a female, is on drugs or crazy. When the owner is a male, they often say he sexually harassed her. He advises against pursuing charges in the interests of revenge. The process is very painful for victims, and “they’ll never get what they’re looking for.” Many victims don’t press charges, he says.

Why are embezzlers more often women? Sociologists have been asking that for years. Mark Pogrebin, a professor at the University of Colorado in Denver, says his studies suggest that embezzlement is a crime of opportunity. In other words, women are more often in positions where it’s easiest to steal from an employer. For example, most bank tellers are women. They have the lowest-paying job in the company and the most access to cash.

Another idea is that men are socialized to engage in behavior that is more overtly risky, according to Eric Wopdahl, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Wyoming.

 

Well-known wolf killed

BANFF, Alberta – A five-year-old female wolf, the alpha of the pack that loped in the Banff and Canmore area, has been killed in traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway. Although the highway has wildlife overpasses, with fencing along the highway to prevent wildlife from crossing, the fence had a hole in it.

Parks Canada says 38 wolves have been killed on the roads and railways in Banff, Yoho and Kootenay national parks since 1998, and another 12 have been killed just outside the boundaries of Banff.

The killing of the wolf was more personal than most, because it had been friendly to people, or at least curious. For that reason, the wolf was well-photographed and also well-known otherwise. Its photograph was pasted on the side of a public bus in Banff.

The wolf, named Delinda, was described by one long-time wolf watcher as “very extraordinary, very focused and very gentle and supportive,” reports the Rocky Mountain Outlook.

 

Vail hospital may go down-valley

VAIL, Colo. – In the 1990s Vail lost the headquarters for the ski company, which is now based in suburban Boulder. It also lost all of its newspapers bearing the name Vail, which are now based farther down the Eagle Valley.

Now, it may lose its hospital, or at least many functions of that hospital, which is called the Vail Valley Medical Center. Hospital officials are studying several scenarios, including the potential for building a major medical campus down-valley at Avon or Wolcott.

The Vail Daily says the current hospital has 58 hospital beds and 175,000 square feet. A new hospital could have 125 beds. Some services, such as physical therapy, might stay in Vail, but others, such as obstetrics, would move down-valley, where the broader population of the Eagle Valley is located.

 

Summit signature a mistake

LEADVILLE, Colo. – Everyone wants to leave his or her mark in life. Of late, some peak-baggers on 14,440-foot Mt. Elbert have taken to leaving notes of their conquests with felt-tip markers on summit rocks.

One of them recently made the faux pas of also leaving his e-mail address. This being the Internet age, he was quickly tracked down and also vilified in Internet bloggings.

Contacted by the Summit Daily News, Lewis Daugherty explained that he had made a mistake.

“It was my first 14er. It was a long hike. I was so happy I made it. I saw two other ones up there, and I just wanted to leave my mark. I didn’t know exactly it was wrong, and common sense-wise, I didn’t think about it.”

Other climbers, reports the newspaper’s Bob Berwyn, want to leave their marks in other ways, sometimes leaving goods on the summit. A U.S. Forest Service employee, Loretta McEllhiney, says she has removed plastic dolls, stuffed animals and even a 100-pound granite block.

Most summits have registers on which climbers can record their successful ascents. In older times, summit visitors recorded their visits in notes stashed into glass bottles or even tin cans.

Daugherty told the Summit Daily that he was amazed at how quickly he became the subject of web postings. “Within seven hours, they knew everything about me except my social security number… Somebody even sent an e-mail to my boss.”

He has now been up Mt. Elbert twice, the second time for the express purpose of scrubbing his name from the rock. But the experiences haven’t soured his enjoyment of the outdoors. He now plans more hiking — and also more acts of repentance.

“Just let me know what I can do to help,” he said. “Everybody’s done something stupid in their youth. I tried to make it good. If I have to pay any more consequences, I will, with no shame.”

 

Gone in a blink of an eye

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. – The thin space between life and death, paradise and purgatory, was writ large in a story out of Crested Butte.

A 64-year-old woman, Rosalind Jackson, was hiking on a trail in an area known as Paradise Cliffs. Her husband heard her yell “oh no,” but when he turned around, she was gone. The husband was the only witness.

Police chief Hank Smith told the Crested Butte News that the woman fell more than 200 feet. “There was no question this was an accident,” he said, and added, “I think all the rescuers had a hard time with this one. I think very quickly everyone understood they had been childhood sweethearts.”

 

A revolving door in housing

KETCHUM, Idaho – The Blaine County Housing Authority continues to flounder. The organization has been around for 12 years, and during that time has had six directors. Under its wings it has managed to build 80 units of affordable housing in Blaine County, where Ketchum and Sun Valley are located. Jim Frackell, the latest director, who has been around for two years, tells the Idaho Mountain Express that he might have remained, but for the lack of secure funding.

 

Chicago to determine Tahoe’s bid

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Squaw Valley hosted the Winter Olympics in 1960, and some people in the Truckee-Lake Tahoe-Reno area would like another shot at it — perhaps in 2018. It depends upon what happens in the summer of 2016.

Chicago and Rio de Janeiro look like the frontrunners in the 2016 Summer Olympics. But if Chicago should win, then Lake Tahoe figures it is a no-hoper for the 2018 bid.

Jon Killoran, the chief executive for Reno/Tahoe 2018, told the Sierra Sun that one consideration is getting enough people to the venues. The closest major metropolitan area is at San Francisco Bay. That area is linked by I-80, but Olympic organizers would also plan to utilize the rail connection.

 

Sledders warned

KREMMLING, Colo. – Two men will be given warnings, but no citations, for snowmobiling last winter in the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area. One reason for the restraint by federal law officials, reports the Summit Daily News, is that the two had been following a third man, who ended up dying of hypothermia in an area called Elliot Ridge, located above Green Mountain Reservoir. Wilderness protectors say that snowmobilers often ride onto Elliot Ridge, despite the ban.

 

Frisco gets first solar PV

FRISCO, Colo. – The first solar collector on a commercial building in Frisco is now operational. The array cost $80,000 to install, but with tax credits and grants, cost the property owner only $35,000. The owner, Rob Phillippe, estimates the array will pay for itself in eight to nine years. However, he told the Summit Daily News he was greatly annoyed by a county review process that he said was too troublesome. “They’ve got to make a smoother process.” The precise source of his aggravation was not explained.

 

Aspen, Vail downvalley area getting pricey

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. – For decades Glenwood Springs was the place you went to from Aspen and Vail for deals. Everything from hamburgers to gasoline was cheaper.

Burgers may still be cheaper, but in the last year gasoline at Glenwood Springs actually became more expensive than at stations in the Vail area. Glenwood Springs is having a boom of its own, mostly because of the natural gas drilling to the west.

The epicentre for that drilling is about 30 miles west in Rifle. Not long ago it was home base for many of the construction and service workers for Aspen. But the oil and gas sector is growing rapidly, offering wages that are at least comparable and often better than those in the resorts.

Scott Condon of The Aspen Times reports that the workforce in Garfield County — which includes Glenwood Springs, Rifle, and several other communities — grew 7 per cent last year. Eagle County — which includes Vail — is still bigger, but grew 4 per cent. Pitkin County was static.

These numbers are somewhat deceiving, notes Condon, as people don’t always live in the same places they work. But these numbers do jibe with the more anecdotal observation that Garfield County is growing out of its position as a stepchild to the neighbouring resort-based counties.

The natural gas boom is still expanding, with an increase of 38 per cent last year for drilling permits. More than two-thirds of all property taxes now come from the oil and gas sector.

Labor Department statistics show that the number of people employed in construction — such as cutting roads and scraping well pads — increased 12 per cent last year in Garfield County. Those more directly involved in gas extraction grew more modestly.

Wages have also been rapidly increasing. In Garfield County, the average weekly gross pay increased 9 per cent, and down-valley in Mesa County, (Grand Junction), average pay increased 11 per cent.

Those wages are still less than in Pitkin County, but now more than those in Eagle County. Plus, for a lot of workers, the commutes are shorter, meaning saved time and gasoline.

 

Cyanide ban going to Supreme Court

DENVER, Colo.   – Summit County’s ban of cyanide heap leach gold mining went before Colorado’s highest court this week.

The ban has been challenged by the Colorado Mining Association, which argues that state government, not county governments, has the expertise to regulate mining. Summit County responds that is not is attempting to regulate mining, only to establish land use.

The Denver Post notes that this is just one of a string of cases in which counties are pushing to gain some control over mining and energy development.

The broader background for these attempts was a case in the mountains of Southern Colorado in which cyanide heap-leach mining methods were used at two mines, Battle Mountain and Summitville, from 1984 to 1992. In 1993, an accident at the site poisoned 17 miles of the Alamosa River. The Vancouver-based mining company paid $30 million in cleanup costs before going bankrupt, and another $200 million has been paid by the federal government since then.

Planning Magazine, in its June issue, explains that state regulations were tightened in the wake of that disaster. Sanderson, of the state mining group, said such a problem could never happen now.

Still, in 2004, Summit County took no chances, banning the use of cyanide and other topical agents. Several other county governments in Colorado adopted similar regulations.

 

Clean energy group gets some legs

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. – A new group called Clean Energy Economy for the Region has been allocated $200,000 by Garfield County. The group has also been granted $2 million from Colorado state government.

The group is working the area from Carbondale to Parachute, all within Garfield County, hoping to seed both energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. A model is the solar collectors located on the Carbondale Recreation Center, reports the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.