Posts tagged news
Boulder Colorado: Seth Brigham restraining Order hearing moved to mid June
0
famed civil rights attorney David Lane prepares mutil-million dollar suit against city of Boulder.
The city of Boulder vs Seth Brigham restraining order hearing scheduled for Tuesday May 15 has now been moved to mid June. The city psychologist is in therapy until then and cannot be available. The city has submitted depositions from council members including Macon Cowles. Cowles has made reference to an AK 47 and it was not clear if cowles intended to shoot Brigham with an assault weapon.
councilman Macon Cowles accused of threatening Seth with an AK-47 and acts of misusing city PEG funds by Brigham
The city has also gone through of 25 years of Brighams writings and excerpted quotes from Brighams poetry, articles and fiction. Legal experts tell Boulder Channel 1 news that the city would spend $25,000 to $50,000 just collecting depositions. They could spend an additional $50,000 preparing form the Hearing. They city will spend $100,000 before it evens gets to court.
Brigham’s attorney David Lane will virgorously defend Seth. They have decided to move ahead with a law suit against the city. This will cost Boulder an additional $100,000 to defend. Their likelihood of winning according to constitutional expert is zero and the city could stand to lose 1,000,000 to 5,000, 000 million dollars in this kind of suit.
K C Becker city council woman accused of hiding funds by brigham
Since the city is financially broke this money will have to come out the city 25,000,000 emergency fund.
Both the restraining order hearing and law suit by Brigham has opened the door for other first amendment suits against the city and could produce a spate of them.
The city has a history of human rights violations with Brigham and other free speech advocates: namely the Public access TV producers group where Brigham got his start of challenging the city .
Seth Brigham has been a columnist for Boulder Channel 1 and has participated in other investigations of the city including a 2006 congressional inquiry conducted by the US congress.
Brigham said late Monday May 14th that he was not going to back off. He said he would abide by the temporary restraining order, but that it was the city and not him who was in trouble.
Meanwhile , a ground swell of support seems to be rising. Former city of boulder Human Rights chair rob Smoke plans a protest tomorrow night at city council. Boulder weekly has a cover story coming out on this situation on Thursday. Westword has been writing about it daily. the Daily Camera seems to have sided with Brigham too.
Boulder channel 1 News has covered Brigham’s travails since 2005.
Micah True (El Caballo Blanco’s) spirit is finally free
0by Ron Baird
When I first crossed paths in the early ‘80s with the man who eventually became known as Caballo Blanco, I was running down the Mount Sanitas trail and he was running up. We didn’t speak, maybe nodded.He was wearing thin nylon jogging shorts, running shoes and had a water bottle in his hand. He was tanned and lean and had unruly, long, dirty-blond hair.
In those days I was running 4-5 miles at a time and I would later learn that he was running 15-20. He had a nice-looking, tan, young woman with him. Every time I saw him in the passing years he was dressed the same. Forgive me if it gets fuzzy here because he always seemed a little ghost-like: he was there and then gone like he was barely tethered to the earth. Of course his hero and spirit guide was Geronimo of the Bedonkohe Apache tribe, who was thought to be able to appear and disappear at will. And of course, I wasn’t taking notes.
Micah True, who became known as Caballo Blanco for his running fears, as he appeared in Boulder in the 1990s.
In 1989, I had been evicted from a mine cabin in James Canyon—the one with only a wood stove for utilities. The small creek passing by was my source of water and kerosene lamps were my only light. I typed my first news story for the Colorado Daily in that cabin under the ever- weakening illumination of those lamps. Micah was moving out of a small room appendaged onto a house on Magnolia Road that was renting for $110 dollars a month. He asked if I was interested. I said I was and rented it. He said he wanted to get out of the winters and was driving to Guatemala.
After that he visited me often when he came back in the summers and told me of running through the mountains and beaches, where camposinos would wave and yell “Caballo Blanco,” due, I guess, to his base skin color and shoulder length blond hair. Micah was a vegetarian and lived frugally by any standard, sleeping in a truck with a camper parked in a north Boulder industrial area. He bought another truck and made money in the summer with an under-the-table moving business—no liability insurance or regulatory approval. Many of his customers were friends. He told me one time he was driving a load of tightly arranged furniture to Colorado Springs but when he got there, a couch that was packed in the open back of the pickup had disappeared; probably popping out somewhere along I-25. He drove back and forth looking but never found it and ultimately had to pay for a replacement.
Each summer, he made enough money to go back to Guatemala. But there was a lot of violence in Guatemala at that time and in the summer of ’93 he met a group of Tarahumara Indios in the Leadville 100 and followed them back to Copper Canyon in the Mexican State of Chihuahua–a canyon larger, deeper and more complex than the U.S.’s Grand Canyon. The Tarahumara, who rejected assimilation with Spanish culture, had migrated thousands of miles from the south over the centuries before reaching that sanctuary. There were no roads, towns or utilities, and little water through much of the canyon so the Tarahumara were spread throughout the canyon.
The rugged, remote Copper Canyon, where Micah True spent nearly 20 winters running with and living amongst the Tarahumara Indios
So a subculture of runners known as Raramuri sprung up, running hundreds of miles in a few days carrying news to the widely spaced villages, or just for fun, and Micah knew he had found his physical if not his spiritual home. He would spend the nights and eat meals in Tarahumara stone huts for as little as two dollars.
He finally built a small adobe home for himself in the canyon. For several years he returned to the U.S. and Colorado particularly. One summer, while racing in the Hardrock 100 near Telluride, he got lost in a snow storm on one of the three passes the race course covered and had to be hauled out on a burro. When found he was wearing two large garbage bags over his shorts and T shirt. One summer, he took up bicycling to give his feet a rest and somehow crashed coming down Left Hand Canyon–knocking himself out. When found, he argued and lost against the ambulance ride, costing him $1,700. At the hospital, they told him he had severely dislocated his shoulder and it would cost $800 to reset it so he checked himself out of the hospital, walked across the parking lot to the office of a chiropractor/friend who set it right there without any sedation.
A Tarahumara man living in Copper Canyon
Micah was more of a philosophical survivalist than political activist but at the request of a Native American girlfriend he went to a large protest at the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada, where he broke through a gap in the security and headed off running into the desert. Seventeen hours later he gave himself up and they escorted him off the site without filing any charges against him.
By early 2000, his moving business was waning under the threats of regulation and sanctions so Micah began to envision—as a way of making a living–guiding “gringos” into Copper Canyon for running vacations. It started slowly but somehow he hung on and more and more people came down. In 2003 Micah organized the first Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon to aid the Raramuri, and invited world-class ultramarathoners to compete. The prizes were generally large amounts of corn. With that race, Micah become somewhat a legend in the distance running community, and Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run brought Micah and the Tarahumara to the world’s attention. No longer was Micah True such a ghostly figure; connected as he was to the world by a best selling book and the internet. And the Tarahumara, their culture, their style of running and their dispossessed status in Mexico–had become a well-known topic internationally.
Scott Jurek and Raramuri runner Quimare-- two of the fastest ultramarathoners on the planet
Given this new-found notoriety, Micah became much in demand as a speaker. He took only expenses and talked mainly about the Tarahumara. On his seasonal migration back to the U.S. this year he stopped in the Gila National Forest in SW New Mexico on his way to Phoenix and took off on a planned 12-mile run. He never returned and was found dead four days later in a ravine. No cause has been determined for his death as of this writing.
But I think it was just his time. He came to Earth as an unwilling Angel and found his cause with the people of Copper Canyon. He died doing what he loved and left a legacy: The ultramarathoner world has vowed to continue the races in Copper Canyon and keep the light shining on the people there. I think Micah’s work was done and his soul is now free from the bonds of gravity.
Let there be Pot by Rob Smoke
0
Rob Smoke, columnist
The city council will vote THIS TUESDAY (April 17th) on a resolution from CU regarding their 4/20 enforcement effort.
I recommend attendance at the meeting. Friends of 4/20 (or political freedom) can sign up to speak online at bouldercolorado.gov
or in person at 5:oo pm on Tuesday at the Municipal Building, corner of Canyon and B’way in downtown Boulder.
You need to sign up early if you want to speak –
however, people can show support just by showing up at the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.
The City of Boulder, in a tough economy, has received enormous revenue from Boulder dispensaries and it shouldn’t be a stretch
to ask that they not condemn people who would like to see an end to marijuana prohibition.
If there are problems with marijuana use in Boulder, the police haven’t been able to identify them.
Meanwhile, there are reams of police reports for people taken to Boulder Community Hospital with alcohol poisoning, bar fights,
parties out of control — all related to alcohol use.
If there is some sort of “solution to the marijuana problem” needed, it’s not going to come from over-the-top law enforcement
strategies. I have personally attended more than a hundred city council meetings lifetime. Council does frequently respond to
political pressure from agencies like CU; however, they also sometimes listen to people who show up at their meetings.
There probably should be a reverse resolution against CU; however, I would just advocate the city council not
endorse this particular resolution, which flies in the face of common sense, as the 4/20 event might have had minor crowd
management issues at times, but nothing to merit a campaign of police ticketing and intimidation.
Faithfully,
Rob Smoke
720-982-2439
Rob Smoke is a columnist for Boulder Channel 1 news. He writes about city politics.
Conference on World Affairs online problems : Twitter let down Grays attend
0A search for Conference on world Affairs lands lookers on dead link for most of the day. The schedule was not there and was only recently put up. That foul-up had to render the first day useless.
The first day of the conference was nearly void of CU students once again. Most of the attendees were grays in their 40s, 50s and 
60s. This again brings into question: is the conference relevant?
The All a Twitter panel discussion in the UMC was attended not by Boulders Twitter SM startup crowd but by mostly older people who were not exactly tweeps. This session was not what one would have expected. It was not start-up Boulder week, not Ignite Boulder and it wasn’t Twitter.
The panelists were an interesting mix too: Mark Frauenfelder Ross Haenfler Andy Ihnatko Sanho Tree . Sociology professor Ross Haenfler said he stopped tweeting and compared it to drug addiction and himself to a recovering addict. He then went on to say that most people on twitter waste enormous amounts of their life on social media. Not a glowing endorsement of TWitter or SM.
Boing Boing founder and Boulderite Ross Haenfler was certainly the biggest web superstar to attend the panel. Though Boing Boing significance and contribution was lost on the audience, it was also lost on the conference. He seemed concerned about the significance of multiple uses of tweets.
Andy Ihnako Chicago Sun times Geek reporter also talked about how twitter wraps around your mind and has the potential to enslave.
Sanho Tree is a leftist Fellow and social activist. He talked about social activism on Twitter.
The tone of this session was politically leftist with continuous barbs thrown at conservatives who use twitter. So much for CU chancellors new policy of fair and balanced. All of the panelists criticized main stream media for not covering the news. None of them could explain the business side of Twitter. They also seemed oblivious to the fact that Television and News papers lost their foothold to online advertisers such as Google and Facebook
The one saving grace of this panel was to point out just what a waste of a persons life Twitter can be. They couldn’t stress how addictive Twitter and Facebook are and impossible to manage. This was a surprise, but not to the gray attendees. Seemed they seen it all before in a younger life. And the young? They were nowhere to be seen. One would have thought the room would have been packed with 18 to 34 year olds. Maybe they were studying or at work. Maybe this panel should have been held at night in a bar or coffee house.
“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” Makes the Impossible Possible
1“Making the Impossible Possible”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a love story, and I don’t mean the love that fishermen have for fishing, although there is also that.
On the other hand, Steven Wright says in his act, “There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore looking like an idiot.”
In this movie, the comment is made that the only thing that fishermen care about is fish, and that they are patient and virtuous.
The fishermen, of course, are patient and virtuous, not the fish.
No, we should remember that fish are so dumb that they can’t tell the difference between a real fly and an artificial fly with a hook in it at the end of a fishing line.
Emily Blunt plays Harriet Chetwode-Talbot, and she has a client who is an avid fisherman, Sheik Muhammed from Yemen, who wants to introduce salmon fishing in his desert country.
So, Harriet contacts the salmon expert in the British Fisheries, Dr. Alfred Jones, played by Ewan McGregor, to ask for his help in fulfilling the dream of the sheik, who naturally has enough money to make it happen.
Dr. Jones turns down Harriet’s request, telling her that the project is fundamentally infeasible.
In the meantime, however, Patricia Maxwell, who is the press secretary for the Prime Minister and who is played by Kristin Scott Thomas, tells her people, “We need a good news story from the Middle East and a big one. We need it now.”
So, with pressure from the top of the government, Dr. Jones is practically blackmailed into working with Harriet to make Sheik Muhammed’s dream come true.
And with two attractive people working closely together, romantic sparks are bound to fly, right?
Not so fast, Dear Audience, because Dr. Jones is married, and Harriet has a serious boyfriend.
Dr. Jones changes his assessment of the project’s success from fundamentally infeasible to theoretically possible, the sheik is willing to pay 50 million pounds, and so the problem now is to make it all happen.
Did I mention that there are dissidents in Yemen who believe that the sheik’s dream of building a river in the desert and stocking it with fish is insulting to Allah?
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen makes the impossible possible in so many different ways, and not just in fishing.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
CU president Bruce Benson cracks back at news media over salary debacle
0Perception and reality
CU President Bruce Benson
Public universities such as ours are subject to public scrutiny. Even though the state of Colorado provides less than 6 percent of our budget, we have an obligation to be open and accountable to our students, alumni and citizens. The close examination that comes along with that obligation is fair.
Bruce Benson
President
Boulder Chamber (of commerce) News: horrible decision to block sun from Pearl street
0Advocacy News
The Boulder Chamber’s advocacy efforts never rest. We are constantly watching, analyzing and speaking up on your behalf to create a vibrant and supportive economic environment.
Stay up to date on city, county and regional policy discussions that impact your business. Bookmark this page for updates on top advocacy issues, follow us on Twitter @boulderadvocacy and subscribe to the monthly Boulder Business Insider e-Newsletter.
Questions? Contact Angelique Espinoza, Public Affairs Manger at (303) 938-2077.
Boulder Chamber Supports Extension of Wind Production Tax Credit
The Boulder Chamber is supporting the extention of the Wind Production Tax Credit. View our letters to Senators Bennet and Udall. Both Senators have delivered speeches on the floor in support of extending this important Colorado job driver.
Senator Bennet’s on the Wind PTC
Senator Udall’s on the Wind PTC
Boulder’s Energy Future
Chamber Engages on Behalf of Members on Next Steps in Boulder’s Energy Future As Xcel Energy files with the PUC regarding renewable energy and DSM Incentives, and the City convenes business energy users to craft an ongoing input process, the Chamber is engaging with both entities to ensure the needs of our members are represented at the table. If you have input on these, or other advocacy issues, please email advocacy@boulderchamber.com.
Jan. 23, 2012 – Law firm chosen to aid city in potential condemnation proceedings with Xcel Energy read more->
The Boulder Chamber will continue to be at the table as the City evaluates options for its energy supply. With the narrow passage of Ballot Items 2B and 2C, the City Council is empowered to pursue forming a municipal utility. The Chamber supports the City Manager’s committment to caution and meaningful stakeholder input in her Press Release following the election. On December 6th, the City held a rountable with the newly seated Council and staff outlined their near term plans for exploring the feasibility of acquiring the electrical power distribution system from Xcel and forming a municipal power utility. Plans include hiring an Executive Director of Energy Strategy and Electric Utility Development, as well as additional legal and technical support staff. Staff also outlined three possible tiers for Boulder’s Energy Future, from ramping up current conservation and small renewable generation to full scall municipalization. Materials from the meeting are available on the City’s website. The Daily Camera provided this report.
Boulder Channel 1 news thinks the city and the Chamber should have worked out a deal with Xcel which would have led to a clean energy policy with Xcel. They city and chamber will now spend millions if not billions to operate this coal burning fossil.
Pinnacol Assurance Restructuring Proposal Delayed
The Board of Directors for Pinnacol Assurance announced jointly with Governor Hickenlooper that they would not pursue a restructuring proposal to privatize the state’s largest carrier of workers’ compensation insurance during the 2012 Colorado legislative session as previously intended. The Chamber has been following this issue closely since the Colorado businesses insured by Pinnacol have much at stake. Although a specially appointed Task Force spent several months reviewing and receiving input before reporting back the the Governor, many questions remain, such as how restructuring would impact service levels and rates, how to ensure availability of an insurer of last resort, and what happens to the policy holders’ dividends. It is likely that a proposal will come forward for the 2013 session after additional work. For more coverage on this issue, see Ed Sealover’s article in the Denver Business Journal.
State Legislative Update
sponsored by Jensen Public Affairs, Inc.
The opening days of the Colorado legislative session have seen the introduction of several important bills. The Boulder Chamber is currently prioritizing those with the greatest potential to impact the Boulder business community and developing a state legislative agenda for the 2012 session. Check back for ongoing reports on bills of interest to Boulder’s economy.
For the full list of bills under consideration see the following reports:
Bills of Interest->
Procedural Bills->
Tax Bills->
2012 State Legislative Session Updates from Statewide Chambers:
Colorado Competitive Council (C3)
Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry (CACI)
Boulder Chamber Against PIPA/SOPA
The Boulder Chamber has been following the growing debate over H.R. 3261 the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S. 968 Protect IP Act (PIPA).While these bills seek to address a real problem of online piracy, the methods used in these bills would undermine freedom of expression, and stifle innovation. Our future prosperity lies in our nation’s ability to remain competitive in the digital age.
The Boulder Valley is the Silicon Valley of the mountain west and the Boulder Chamber will work to defend our innovative economy and its entrepreneurs. To that end, we have asked Senator Bennet to reconsider his cosponorship of the bill. We thank Senator Udall for his opposition to PIPA, and Congressman Polis for his opposition to the House companion bill SOPA. We will follow the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) bill in the House as a way of better addressing the online piracy issue.
UPDATE: Senator Bennet withdrew as a co-sponsor on January 23rd. The Senate bill was pulled from its scheduled floor vote on the 24 and the House bill’s judiciary committee hearing has been postponed indefinitely. It’s likely these bills are dead for the 112th Congress. Thank you Senator!
Boulder Channel 1 news questions The Chamber wisdom here. The Boulder Anti sopa and anti PIPa crowd are largely criminal hackers who are under investigation by the FBI. The Chamber also heralds the questionable business practices of those involved.
Boulder City Council
The Boulder City Council identified their 2012 priorities at their annual retreat on January 20-21st. The Boulder Chamber hopes to work with this new Council to promote a strong regional economy, and sent this letter for Council’s consideration in advance of their retreat. coverage of the retreat suggests some promising common ground, but also reinforces the importance of the Chamber as an advocate for a strong local economy.
In order to identify areas of common interest between the Boulder business community and City Council, and to identify policy-based opportunities for our organization to better educate and advocate on behalf of our members, we have instituted a Boulder City Council Scorecard to track votes of interest.
City of Boulder Considers Transportation Maintenance Fee
On Tuesday, Jan 24, the Boulder City Council will have a Study Session on a potential Transportation Maintenance Fee (TMF). The Transportation Advisory Board (TAB)has identified an ongoing funding shortfall for Maintenance and Operations, as well as Transportation Enhancements for the City. Although last year’s successful Capital Improvements Project tax will provide one-time funding to address significant deferred maintenance projects, it does not address long-term transportation funding challenges. The TAB has recommended a TMF which would be collected on utility bills and would cost the average household $24 and the average employer $327 per year. We will be following this issue and providing input to the City Council as it moves forward. ->Read More
Highway 36 Commuting Solutions News
Increased Pricetag for Northwest Rail
After preliminary evaluations by BNSF Railway Company, the cost to complete the Northwest Rail from South Westminster Station to Longmont has increased from RTD’s 2011 estimate of $894.4 million to $1.4 billion. This is based on a 2020 completion date, although RTD expects schedule delays due to the significant cost increase of this line. Read full story->
Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
Can you claim the Small Business health Care Tax Credit for 2011? If you are a small employer (business or tax-exempt) that provides health insurence coverage to your employees, follow these 3 simple steps to determine if you may qualify. view full website->
500 Year Floodplain Regulations: Critical Facilities and Mobile Populations Ordinance
How will the Critical Facilities Flooplain ordinance affect you? This ordinance impacts those who use, maintain, own or operate critical faciliites in the 100- or 500- year floodplain. To see if your facility is included, visit the The City of Boulder Flooplain map. If you are in the floodplain AND your business meets any of the facility types defined as essential service, hazardous materials, at-risk populations, or mobile populations, you may be required to meet new regulations. For definitions, the latest draft of the ordinance, information on scheduled meetings, and background information, visit the project website.
First reading of the ordinance WAS SCHEDULED FOR September 20 at 6 p.m.in the City Council Chambers, BUT HAS BEEN DELAYED. CHECK BACK FOR MORE INFORMATION.
Chamber Engages on Behalf of Members on Next Steps in Boulder’s Energy FutureAs Xcel Energy files with the PUC regarding renewable energy and DSM Incentives, and the City convenes business energy users to craft an ongoing input process, the Chamber is engaging with both entities. full story->
Clif Harald (Boulder Economic Council), Sean Maher (Downtown Boulder, Inc.), and Jud Valeski (Chamber Member-Gnip) testified before Council i
n support of a third story addition to the 1600 Pearl building, which will yield 18,309 square feet of much needed Class A Office Space. The building was approved by a 6 to 2 vote.
Boulder Channel 1 News feels this was a horrible mistake. This building is too tall as it is. It was protested when it was built for Borders Books in the 1990′s. It blocks the sun on Pearl ,obscures the view of the Mountains and it was rushed through council. Cliff Harold and Sean Maher should be drummed out of Boulder supporting this horrid decision.
Chamber Recieves Recognition at Annual 10 for Change Awards for being in the top ten for reducing overall GHG emissions in 2011.
Boulder’s Valmont Bike Park to get BIG race
0
Valmont Bike Park selected as host of 2014 USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships
Boulder’s Valmont Bike Park has been selected to host the 2014 USA Cycling Cyclo-Cross National Championships. The Cyclo-Cross National Championships is held in January and is expected to bring at least 1,500 athletes and even more spectators to Boulder. According to an Economic Impact Study from the 2009 Cyclo-Cross National Championships, the host that year, Bend, OR, reaped an economic benefit of $1 million from hosting the championships.
USA Cycling made site visits to the three finalist cities of Boulder; Austin, Texas; and Asheville, N.C. earlier this year. The committee visited Valmont Bike Park on Feb. 1. Austin was selected as the host of the 2015 Cyclo-Cross National Championships, and Asheville was selected as the host of the 2016 Cyclo-Cross National Championships.
Defying gravity
“We had three outstanding bids, making the only logical choice to award all three communities,” said USA Cycling Managing Director of National Events Micah Rice. “The decision to award one-year contracts for the championships will also help foster cyclo-cross racing in three distinctively different parts of the country.”
“We are so proud that Valmont Bike Park was chosen to host the 2014 United States Cyclo-Cross National Championships,” said Kirk Kincannon, director of the Boulder Parks and Recreation Department. “This reiterates that we have a world-class park in our community, and we’re thrilled that this investment is paying off so quickly in terms of daily users, programming, events, and now as the host of a USA Cycling event. The Cyclo-Cross Championships should bring an estimated $1 million economic benefit to Boulder.”
“It is a real honor for Parks and Recreation to host this national event,” said Mike Eubank, Valmont Bike Park manager. “The Cyclo-Cross National Championships is like the Super Bowl of cycling. This is tremendous news for Boulder, and especially for all the local cyclists and bike organizations who have been involved in creating this one-of-a-kind bike park.”
“I’m incredibly proud of what our community has created at Valmont Bike Park, and hosting these championships is the next step in affirming the benefits of a dedicated bike park,” said Pete Webber, Valmont course designer and recent Masters World Champion.
For more information, visit www.usacycling.org or call Mike Eubank, Parks and Recreation, at 303-413-7226. Valmont Bike Park website: http://bouldermountainbike.org/valmontbikepark.
More trouble for Tesla
0Judge Throws Out Tesla’s Top Gear Libel Lawsuit
Amidst the Tesla battery problem, comes news of a judgment from the UK courts again dismissing Tesla Motors’ complaints and reiterating that Top Gear did nothing libelous or maliciously false in the program’s review of the Tesla Roadster.
Sometimes, life is all about timing.
This whole issue goes back to December 2008 when Top Gear aired a mixed review of the Tesla Roadster, praising it for its technological advancement and speed but critiquing it for its range and deficient brakes. Specifically, there was video of the crew pushing one of the two Tesla Roadsters they had into a hanger on the Top Gear test track as Jeremy Clarkson said this:
“This car was really shaping up to be something wonderful but then… (artificial dying motor sounds and music slowing down and stopping)… although Tesla say it was do 200 miles we have worked out that on our track it will run out after just 55 miles and if it does run out it is not a quick job to charge it up again.”
These words, and an implication that the brakes failed (which boils down to an argument over whether or not a fuse that makes the brakes harder to use counts as a brake problem), were enough to cause Tesla to run to the courts.
Of course, Top Gear admitted the car they pushed wasn’t out of batteries but that it was done for effect and that it is completely true that the car would have run out at 55 miles of track time. Producer Andy Wilman defended their actions by basically saying “Duh, it’s a television show” and accusing Tesla of trying to use them for press.
Elon Musk responded by calling the show’s actions and his investor’s response to it “Fucked up.”
In October 2011, almost two years after the show originally aired, British Justice Tugendhat tossed out the libel claim and said that Tesla’s lawyers would have to amend their malicious falsehood claim.
They changed it to this:
“There were reasonable grounds to suspect that each of the Claimants [Top Gear] had intentionally and significantly misrepresented the range of the Roadster by claiming that it had a range of about 200 miles in that its true range on the Top Gear track was only 55 miles”.
I.E. they’re saying that Top Gear they intentionally said something untrue, as opposed to intentionally misrepresenting true facts.
The judge today dismissed this as unreasonable as motorists are aware that cars will perform different under different conditions, such as being on a racing track.
Justice Tugendhat also made mention that what Tesla appears to want is a legal ruling saying Top Gear is a bunch of lying liars who lie, but that “rectification of inaccuracies is not a function of the courts unless that can be achieved in the course of proceedings properly brought to enforce a recognized course of action.”
The BBC has jumped on the ruling and released this statement:
We are pleased Mr Justice Tugendhat has ruled in favour of the BBC on both the issues before the court, first in striking out Tesla’s libel claim against the BBC; and secondly in describing Tesla’s malicious falsehood claim as so “gravely deficient” it too could not be allowed to proceed”
We’ve contacted Tesla Motors for a statement on this issue but, since they won’t return our phone calls or emails, we’re not holding our breath.
This story comes to us from Jalopnik
New CU J-school is getting ready for the (digital) revolution
0CU-Boulder symposium explores digital media impact on politics, journalism and historical preservation A University of Colorado Boulder symposium Feb. 27-29 will examine how the revolution in digital media is changing global politics, journalism and the way history is preserved. Journalism and Mass Communication at CU-Boulder is sponsoring “The Content and Context of Digital Culture” symposium, which is free and open to the public. It will be held at various sites across campus and a complete schedule is available at http://www.icjmtsymposium.org/schedule/.
“This symposium provides the CU community with an excellent opportunity to explore new political and cultural terrain opened up by digital media,” said symposium organizer Andrew Calabrese, a professor of journalism and mass communication. Among the speakers will be Columbia University Professor Todd Gitlin, who will present “Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street: Why 2011 Was Not 1968” on Feb. 27 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in room 150 of the Eaton Humanities Building. Gitlin’s upcoming e-book, “Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street,” looks at how that movement differs from the uprisings of previous eras. Mark Briggs, who coined the term “Journalism 2.0,” will talk about a new breed of ‘journopreneurs’ who are launching startups that break from traditional advertising models to find new sources of revenue for delivering news and information. Briggs is the director of digital media for KING-5 TV in Seattle and the Ford Fellow in Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Poynter Institute. His session is on Feb. 29 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in room 150 of the Eaton Humanities Building. 
Experts at the conference also will discuss new ways of archiving digital records and how these collections are being used in places such as libraries and museums. Librarians and archivists are looking for new ways to preserve such records, according to symposium organizers. The symposium runs in conjunction with an effort to create a new interdisciplinary school or college at CU-Boulder that may include studies in communication, technology, multimedia storytelling, commercial design and the digital arts and humanities. The effort is called the Information, Communication, Journalism, Media and Technology, or ICJMT, initiative. Journalism and Mass Communication is sponsoring the symposium in support of the ICJMT initiative, with additional support from CU’s Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment, the Department of Political Science, the English department, the Film Studies Program, the Center for the Humanities and the Arts, CU Libraries and the Advertising A2B certificate program. For more information including speakers and event locations visit http://www.icjmtsymposium.org/.
