Jackson Hole Underground

One plane crashed in the water:

SALT LAKE CITY – Olympic wrestling champion Rulon Gardner and two Utah men were rescued by a Lake Powell fisherman Sunday after surviving a small plane crash near Good Hope Bay the day before. (more on ESPN.com …)

The other didn’t:

SINGAPORE – Vice President Dick Cheney’s plane left Singapore on Sunday after a scheduled refueling stop and repairs to a minor mechanical problem experienced on an earlier flight from Sydney, officials said. (more on MSNBC.com …)

Good company, good snow, good weather, a thermos of hot chocolate at 9,500 feet in the Tetons … what’s not to be smiling about?

The sting of the wind howling across the Whitegrass flats is bracing on the face. It’s easy to imagine a wolf beyond the swirl of the ground storm aglow in the day’s late rays.

Paul DeBoer, the mounted menace whose run-ins with users of Game Creek Canyon have had him in and out of court since 2003, faces four new criminal charges that finally may land him on the trail to jail.

In papers filed Friday in 9th Circuit Court in Jackson, DeBoer was charged with three counts of reckless endangering and one count of reckless driving for allegedly buzzing three mountain bike riders with his truck on July 1, 2006.

DeBoer was on probation at the time for a previous conflict in the Game Creek area. The charges, all misdemeanors, carry a maximum penalty of three and a half years in prison and a fine of $750.

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In his Council Chronicles column on Feb. 7, Planet Jackson Hole reporter Jake Nichols provided a few bits of keen insight on the Imagine Jackson vote before the city council.

Although the column had some tongue-in-cheek innuendo and the unfortunate title “Melissa Turley’s vote cannot be bought,” the real gem was Nichols’ observation that Meridian Group developer Mike Halpin stood to gain another contract for designing the building Imagine Jackson seeks public money to construct. Halpin is chairman of the group’s board.

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It’s dumping out again, which means skiers and snowboarders have to eat well after a day of hard charging in the hills.

For the skids, there’s no better bargain right now than the ski bum special at the Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse, beneath the Cowboy Bar on the Square. $5 gets you a burger and PBR.

And this is no ordinary burger.

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