The Amgen Tour of California Wheels Through San Luis Obispo

The SLO Life gets a little faster as the Amgen Tour of California wheels through Downtown San Luis Obispo in February.

For the third year in a row, the city of San Luis Obispo will serve as the finishing city for the fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California. The Tour rolls through downtown on Thursday, February 21, just in time for the weekly Farmers’ Market. As thousands of cycling fans crowd the streets waiting to catch a glimpse of their favorite riders, the city does its best to offer a little something for everyone to do and see after the race.

Fires Consume 550,000 Acres in Idaho

The National Interagency Fire Center reported Friday that "dry weather will be the rule" for most of the West. And a Red Flag Warning is in effect for, well, pretty much all of the Rocky Mountains.

On Thursday about 300,000 acres were burning in Idaho altogether. By Friday morning that number had jumped to 550,000 acres. The biggest of the 18 wildfires there is the 180,000-acre Rowland Fire along the Idaho-Nevada border near the small towns of Jarbidge, Nevada, and Murphy Hotsprings, both of which have been evacuated. Fueled by high winds, the fire grew more than 100,000 acres within a 12 hour period Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Elk Mountain Fire, also near the Idaho-Nevada border, grew from 25,000 acres Thursday to 160,000, which the fire camp attributes to "extreme fire behavior and lack of resources." Fire managers are asking the public to stay clear of the Three Creek Highway, Salmon Falls Reservoir, and Roseworth Reservoir to allow crews to safely travel roads and for the safety of the public.

Elsewhere, eight fires had blackened about 90,000 acres in Utah by sunup and a new start in Montana between Helena and Great Falls has forced the evacuation of more than 50 residences.

Utah Gets Nevada’s Drift

A Salt Lake City environmentalist is claiming Utahns are once again being used as guinea pigs to test the effects of airborne pollution.

Patty Henetz at < The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that federal researchers have found some of the highest levels of mercury in the nation in the Great Salt Lake.

Qwest Sweetens MCI Bid

Qwest has raised its offer for MCI, adding more cash and protections against a decline in Qwest stock. The offer is now 20% higher than the Verizon deal that MCI has agreed to accept. I'm sticking with my prediction that Qwest will lose this one.

Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

The Rockies lost one of its true iconoclasts and most talented writers last night when Hunter S. Thompson died of a self-inflicited gunshot wound. Thompson had become something of a self-parody over the last decade, as his personal demons took tighter hold and his once-prodigious output declined. It may be that his infatuation with drugs, booze and the outlaw life (“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone,� he once wrote, “but they've always worked for me.�) prevented him, in the end, from attaining the true literary greatness that had always been his goal.