People
The Rich Aren't Like Us
Crocs Founder Reports Watch Stolen; Has Hapa Patron FriskedThere was an intriguing item in today's Business Briefing section of the Rocky Mountain News: "Crocs founder and former CEO George Boedecker reported his $85,000 watch was missing as police questioned him about allegedly harassing customers at the Hapa Sushi Grill, 1117 Pearl St. in Boulder, on Feb. 3, according to a release from Boulder police. Police said officers were called to that location on a report of a disturbance and staff there indicated that Boedecker was harassing customers. Boedecker told officers that his watch had been stolen and he believed the man he was accused of harassing was the one who took it, according to the report. Officers did not find the watch or any indication that there had been any interaction between Boedecker and the other man before the confrontation. Police said no one wanted to pursue charges against Boedecker for harassment."
This begs the question: What was Boedecker doing flashing $85,000 worth of bling at Hapa? Perhaps next time Boedecker is selecting his wardrobe for a night out on the town he should ask himself the question: What would Warren Buffet wear?
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Boulder Businesses
Interview with a Boulder Popcorn Maven
I first met the husband-and-wife popcorn team Rob Israel and Renée Rosen last spring when we were all in the same childbirth preparation class at Boulder Community Hospital. The Israels, I learned, are the entrepreneurs behind Doc Popcorn. They opened the first Doc Popcorn store in Flat Irons Crossing in Broomfield three years ago. They've since expanded, and are now selling Doc Popcorn at Northfield Stapleton in Denver, the Video Station in Boulder, the Broomfield Events Center, CU stadium during football games, and regional Whole Foods stores. I recently spoke to Renée, who handles publicity and marketing for Doc Popcorn, about how she and Rob broke into the popcorn business.
NW: It sounds like Rob decided to move to Boulder from New York City and get into the popcorn business simultaneously. Was moving to Boulder purely a business decision?
RR: It was indeed the business that brought Rob to Colorado primarily. (The fact that his two sisters migrated from the East over 20 years ago, and a calling for a change in lifestyle after 15 years in the Big Apple also helped.) The concept for the company was born when he came to Boulder to visit his sister. He and his dad visited the farmer's market, where he had his first taste of kettle corn.
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THE LOCAL YOKEL BECOMES A GIANT
Bozeman’s Community Food Co-op Wrestles With Its Own SuccessBozeman's Community Food Co-op, in its distinctive metallic-silver building that looks like a retro-grain elevator on Main Street (located, interestingly enough, across from Safeway), is in the minds of its ardent patrons the very paragon of rebellion against Big Box stores, industrialization of food commodities, and material-driven conspicuous consumption. Be a Yokel, Buy Local is the catchphrase. Yet what happens when the Co-op's own startling success forces it to grow and expand its footprint and staff? Ah, a fascinating dilemma. Only four years ago did the Co-op move into its brand new space—gargantuan, then— that is already outgrown. The Co-op now has over 150 employees spread across four buildings in 10 departments, an annual payroll of $2.6 million, and a 12 percent growth rate in which 140 new members are being added to the rolls every month. In this bit of reflection, Co-op general manager Kelly Dean Wiseman ponders the fledging from a once quaint mom and pop-sized operation to something a bit more, well, supersized. Can the Co-op remain different from the food markets that it long has stood in contrast against? Can it maintain its identity?
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Author Interview
How Republicans Lost the West
Ryan Sager is a columnist for the New York Post. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Reason, National Review, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is also the author of The Elephant in the Room, Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party. Writing before the midterm elections, Sager predicted that the Republican shift towards Southern values—religion, morality and tradition, as he sees it—would cost the party in the West where people tend to put more value on freedom, independence and privacy. I interviewed Sager, who lives in Brooklyn, on Thursday, December 21st. [more]
Missoula Festival of the Dead
Día de los Muertos Returns to MissoulaDía de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead, is a national holiday in Mexico that finds itself a centerpiece of Missoula’s Festival of the Dead. How did it come to be here, and where are we taking it? [more]
HEAD OF THE HILL
Aspen Skico Head Pat O’Donnell RetiringIt's not a surprise, exactly, but Pat O'Donnell has made it official. He's stepping down as head of the Aspen Skiing Co.
"Obviously it's with mixed emotions," he told the Aspen Times. "I'll always have a love of the business."
O'Donnell, 67, is retiring atthe end of the ski season, after 14 years with the Skico and 29 in the industry.
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Fiery Festival
Mom and Dad Dodge Red Eagle Fire, Return Home Safe From BabbfestBabb, Montana is about nine miles from St. Mary, Montana, on the eastern edge of Glacier National Park.
Every year the tiny town holds its 'Babbfest,' an outdoor music shindig boasting as much PBR, hemp t-shirts, Indian tacos and gourmet tequila shooters as any 20- or 30-something could possibly desire. Bands play all day long, local wares are sold in booths, and everyone generally has a jolly old time. Babbfesters camp at the festival, which makes sense: this year tickets were $40, and admission meant an all-you-can-drink party that reached its pinnacle of fun around 1 A.M. when the headlining band, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band out of New Orleans, began playing.
My parents love Babbfest. I've never been, so I tune in with a keen ear to their stories. They're fond of saying things like 'We were looking to win the award for the oldest people there' when they talk about it. I don't know why; they're fun. Not, you know, mosh pit fun, but they're fun.
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Bringing Bert and Ernie to Montanans
The Man Who Invented MontanaPBSI’m guessing that many NewWest readers are like me: addicted to public television. If you can’t imagine life without “Nova” or “Frontline” or “Mystery!” and “Masterpiece Theatre," I wonder if you realize that Montana was the last state in the United States to get its own public television system.
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Mystery Mogul
Denver Billionaire Anschutz and His LA DreamsThe Los Angeles Times goes deep today on Denver business tycoon Phillip Anschutz, who in addition to his extensive interests in oil and gas, railroads, telecom (Qwest), movie theatres, film (Chronicles of Narnia), sports, and newspapers is also the central figure in a major redevelopment of downtown Los Angeles. The lengthy profile by Glenn Bunting has many good tidbits (his break-out deal in the oil business was a gamble on a Wyoming well fire) and goes to great lengths to find court cases and legal documents that will reveal Anschutz's methods and character. Unfortunately, the secretive mogul, who hasn't given an interview in more than 30 years, manages to remain pretty opaque, with few clues as to his inner motivations.
The Bacon Campaign
Burns Boasts More Pork for Kalispell US 93 BypassMontana Senator Conrad Burns announced yesterday that an appropriation of another $4 million would be added to Kalispell's US 93 bypass project, making the total appropriation $8.2 million. The bypass has been at the center of mega public debate in recent years as growth on 93's west side--along with drastic population increase in the Flathead Valley--has contributed to traffic and safety issues in and around Kalispell. The addition of new Kalispell high school Glacier High, located north of Kalispell, also became a motivating factor in the appropriations request, which was submitted by County Commissioner Gary Hall last fall and again early this year.
We shan't need be reminded that it's an election year in Montana. Burns and farmer Democrat Jon Tester are in the midst of one of the hottest US senate races around. Burns-- as we've been told again and again throughout the campaign-- is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee and has quite a history as a bacon-bringer for Montana.
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