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Show The Park Record A-14 Continued From A-10 Mountain Town News SINCE 2004 A FINE CLOTHING BOUTIQUE 3210 SOUTH HIGHLAND DRIVE • SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84106 • PALETTISLC.COM predicted that Trump’s actions won’t match his rhetoric. “Building a wall and deporting everybody, when the rubber meets the road, he’s not going to be able to do that,” Pooley said. “Time will tell what he’s going to do.” Another issue is marijuana. Colorado has legalized recreational marijuana, and now, so has California. The Obama administration had signaled this would be acceptable, despite federal laws. What about the Trump administration? Mason Tvert, of the Marijuana Policy Project and a key figure in Colorado’s legalization beginning in 2014 isn’t too concerned about a potential federal crackdown after the Trump takeover. “Are they really going to roll back a bunch of voter-approved laws and get rid of thousands and thousands of jobs and give (the industry) back to Mexican drug cartels?” he told the Aspen newspaper. “That doesn’t seem to jibe with what he’s been talking about.” But others in Aspen worry that Trump will appoint Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and part of the failed war on drugs, as U.S. attorney general. Then there’s Obamacare. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to destroy it. While Republicans now control both houses of Congress, seeming to give them a hat trick of power, it’s never quite that easy. Democrats, in 2008, had control of all three bodies—but couldn’t get cap-and-trade over the finish line and delivered a compromised Obamacare only after tortured debate. In some of the ski valleys of Colorado’s Western Slope, insurance rates have continued to jump skyward. The Daily News cites the example of one 27-year-old male who had a jump of 35 percent in health Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, November 19-22, 2016 insurance premiums from last year. The average monthly premiums for the resort regions of the Western Slope are nearly double those for the same plan in the Denver area. The Daily News fingers the disproportionate costs to less competition both among insurers and health care providers. Those who pay the individual rates might be glad to see a return to the pre-Obamacare status quo, says the Daily News. However, those residents earning less than about $47,000 per year or those with pre-existing conditions have a lot to lose. Insurance costs of those making less than $47,000 a year are subsidized under Obamacare. One local insurance broker, Michael Sailor, told the Daily News that he doesn’t expect immediate drastic changes in the law, called the Affordable Health Care Act. “My guess is that 2017 will be status quo for subsidies,” he said. Will Donald Trump support transfer of federal lands? KETCHUM, Idaho – Ski towns and public lands come cheek and jowl. In Blaine County, where Sun Valley Resort is located, 78 percent of lands are federal lands, mostly U.S. Forest Service. Will the Trump presidency mean that the move by Republicans to transfer lands to state governments prevails? The Idaho Mountain Express points out that the issue got little attention during the presidential campaigns. In fact, among Republican candidates, Trump was the most protective of public lands, John Robison, public lands director for the Idaho Conservation League, told the newspaper. Judith Kohler, public lands communications manager for the National Wildlife Federation, said her organization is optimistic about Trump’s backing of continued federal landownership. But in the Aspen area, the Trump presidency might open the door more to oil and gas drilling on public lands. Locals have raised a fuss about leases on public lands called Thompson Divide, located about 30 miles west of Aspen, near the town of Carbondale. Thompson Divide, they argue, is just too wonderful to be tarnished by drilling operations. Many expect the federal agency responsible for administration to cancel existing leases before Trump takes office in January. But David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, told the Daily News that he expects a Trump presidency to “broaden our options” for fighting back against the cancellations of leases. Meanwhile, in Oregon, we have the acquittal of Ammon Bundy and others. They had forcefully occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year. Their acquittal has, according to the Idaho Mountain Express, been seen by some as validation of their claims that federal land ownership is illegal. “The jury did nothing of the sort,” says the Express. The verdict in this case only proves that prosecutors failed to provide compelling evidence of the specific charge of conspiracy. “The danger of this verdict is the overreach it could generate in the fringe movement,” the newspaper says. Why don’t the techies move to Lake Tahoe? SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The economy of the Lake Tahoe Basin is almost entirely that of tourism: skiing in winter, gambling on the Nevada side of the border at South Lake Tahoe, and then summer. But might the local economy be better if there were more Silicon Valley types? That was the question examined at a recent forum covered by the Lake Tahoe News. “This is an affordable place relative to a lot of other tech places,” said Chris McNamara, owner of Outdoor Gear Lab in South Lake Tahoe. Life in the Bay Area consists of many people with long commutes. In Tahoe, according to his alternative vision, people could continue their careers while enjoying bike rides and hikes instead of commutes. In this vision, the tech workers could also help build the local community. Whether the Tahoe-Truckee area has the housing to accommodate non-tourism workers in this alternative vision is less clear. Keller Williams Achieves ALL TIME PRODUCTION RECORDS! * * As of 9/31/2016 for Keller Williams Realty International. Keller Williams is the only national brokerage offering profit share to its associates. 15.5% 18.8% 16.4% 16.9% closed units closed volume listings taken contracts closed KELLER WILLIAMS FEATURED AGENTS LARRY MILES 801.979.8155 KRISTIN NICOLAI 435.640.5512 JAIME RUNYAN 801.358.8635 GEORGIA RUSH 435.640.0339 BRAD SABAKO 435.513.0535 BETSY SHOTWELL SMITH 435.640.3341 NADIA SKIDANOV 805.990.6859 DAN SMITH 435.714.0543 CINDY SPEERING 435.640.7494 DAYLENE STICH 435.503.4048 BECKY SUTTON 435.709.2905 JULIE TAYLOR 214.727.8089 435.649.9882 • 1750 Sun Peak Dr, Park City • 693 Main St, Park City • 2 N Main St, Heber |