Free Republic

This article originally appeared on KCRA.com. SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — When Monica Laso planned a skiing trip with her friends to Heavenly Ski Resort, she never imagined she would spend 15 hours overnight hanging in the sky on a gondola. The hours felt long as Laso said she was fighting the cold by rubbing her hands and feet. Thursday was her first time at the Lake Tahoe area resort. She spent most of the day snowboarding. Towards the end of the day, she fell behind her friends since they are more experienced than her. Laso said since it was...

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was arrested by the FBI and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 4:53 p.m. Thursday. He's been wanted for 12 years, after he was indicted in 2006 on charges of arson, conspiracy and animal enterprise terrorism. In 2008, he was believed to have been living in Syria with family members, and federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest. (FBI) A fugitive sought for more than a decade and accused of taking part in a string of eco-sabotage attacks across the West is in custody in Portland and was to make his...

Edra Denise Blixseth, age 55, is tiny, barely 5 feet 3, but she is at the center of a huge financial mess. According to personal bankruptcy papers her lawyer filed in March, she owes $500 million to $1 billion and has assets of barely half that, almost none of them liquid. Earlier this month, the court approved the sale of one of her most prized possessions - the private ski resort in Big Sky, Mont., known as the Yellowstone Club - to the private-equity firm of one of its members for $115 million. Just a year ago, that same buyer,...

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) - The two dozen FBI agents who swarmed Park City Mountain Resort weren't busting anybody Friday. They weren't even armed - unless you count the sharp ends of ski poles. With the temperature near zero, agents hit the slopes - some on challenging runs, others on bunny hills - in an unusual drive to publicize the FBI and perhaps attract a few recruits. Many skiers and Park City regulars were perplexed or even a bit unnerved. Some thought the whole effort was nutty. Jokes were flying about agents skiing on the public dime, but nobody seemed...

Luxury ski equipment at North Korean resort breaches sanctions North Korea's new ski resort is Kim Jong-un's pride and joy, but how did the country evade United Nations sanctions to buy state-of-the-art ski equipment from Canada, Sweden and Italy? By Chad O'Carroll, NK News 5:47PM GMT 02 Jan 2014 As North Korea opened its first ski resort, questions have arisen over how it managed to obtain new Canadian snowmobiles, Swedish snow-blowers and Italian and German snow ploughs despite United Nations sanctions. The resort at Masik Pass is a pet project of North Korea's young leader, who ordered the North Korean...

While North Korea displayed its military might to the world to mark the 60th anniversary of the Korean War's end, it seems the country is fighting to rescue one of its prestige projects. Seoul-based news website, Daily NK, says the plan to develop a "world-class" ski resort at Masikryeong in North Korea's east has run into major problems, with heavy rains causing landslides and the collapse of part of the building site.

Ski and snowboard season for the Northeast opens in just a few weeks. And when it does, a Vermont ski area plans to unveil a gondola powered entirely by cow manure. Killington Resort in central Vermont has partnered with Green Mountain Power to convert manure from nearby dairy farms to electricity for its K-1 Express Gondola. The so-called "Cow Power" program uses manure from 10,000 cows producing 300,000 gallons of manure per day. "Easily the coolest thing you can possibly do with cow manure," the power company's website declares. "The short version is that we take cow manure, work some...

Skiers and boarders beware: Ski areas are opening but the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) hopes to tumble one symbolic guardian from your sport's terrain. Anti-religionists aim to remove a statue of Jesus from near the top of Chair 2 at Montana's Whitefish Mountain Resort. Local Knights of Columbus erected the figure in the 1950s. Many members were World War II veterans wanting to replicate sculptures they saw while fighting in the European mountains. The U.S. Forest Service, cowed by false assertions that religious displays on public land are illegal, wants Jesus gone. And the FFRF intelligensia waves its misleading...

We need your help in locating these four fugitives. Click on their names or photographs to see their wanted posters. It has been 10 years since a group known as “The Family” torched a ski resort in Vail, Colorado, causing $26 million in damage and drawing international attention to eco-terrorists—those who break the law in the name of the environment and animal rights. Since that time, we’ve joined our federal, local, and state law enforcement partners in establishing Operation Backfire to bring these criminals to justice. Our efforts have been successful, but four individuals under indictment remain at large. At...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Federal agents have arrested two more people in the investigation into a string of Northwest arsons claimed by the shadowy radical groups Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. Criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene name the first suspect in the 1997 arson of a horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, Ore., for which ALF claimed responsibility, and another person accused of torching the offices of the Superior Lumber Co. in Glendale, now known as Swanson Group, in 2001, for which the ELF said it was responsible. Both were to appear in U.S. District Court...

MAMMOTH LAKES – The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, a longtime winter playground for Southern California residents, says it will sell a controlling interest to a private investment firm. The $365 million acquisition will be made by Starwood Capital Groups, led by luxury hotel mogul Barry S. Sternlicht. The move is expected to give the resort an upscale character, unlike the raw, unpolished style developed by founder and co-owner Dave McCoy. The deal will give Starwood 70 percent control and the right to operate 4,000 acres of ski terrain at Mammoth and June mountains and allow for some development. The land...

PARK CITY, Utah - An avalanche crashed down a slope near a ski run at the popular Canyons resort on Friday, a local television station reported. Rescue teams and dogs were searching for as many as 15 people who may have been trapped under the snow.