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.

Start-up Towns and Free-Flowing Rivers

The Senate has passed an energy bill, and Mike Soraghan of the Denver Post has a nice analysis of how the House and Senate bills differ. Let's hope the Senate version - which emphasizes renewable energy incentives, in contrast to the House's all-drilling-all-the-time approach - prevails in the conference committee.

I'm all-too-familiar with start-up companies, but I'd never heard the term "start-up community" until I read today's Salt Lake Tribune feature on the new towns springing from nothing just north of Salt Lake. In the Denver area, meanwhile, the new boom towns are also up north, in Weld County, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

Pop quiz: what's the second-longest free-flowing river in the U.S., behind Idaho's Salmon? It's the John Day, in Oregon, and Roger Phillips offers a nice tour in the Idaho Statesman. Bonus points: how long (or short) is it? Just 284 miles. (I'd actually thought the Yellowstone River was longer than that.)

In tourism news, an unsual battle is underway north of Missoula between a new super-luxury resort, the Paws Up Ranch, and the county of Missoula. As the Missoulian reports, the county has ordered the resort closed because it doesn't have an approved water system. But the resort, owned by Las Vegas businessman David Lipson, is refusing to comply.

Montana officials are celebrating a surprise House vote that will restore Amtrak funding and save the Empire Builder train serving northern Montana and Glacier Park.

Finally, Wyoming officials are continuing their battle to do what they want with their growing wolf population, i.e. start shooting them. Wyoming's refusal to develop a reasonable wolf management plan - as Montana and Idaho have done - becomes more incomprehensible every day.

Update: As Matt Singer points out in the comments, it does indeed appear that the Yellowstone River, and not the Salmon or the John Day, is the longest free-flowing river in the continental U.S. I've pinged Roger Phillips at the Statesman about the error but no word back yet.