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At least two people suffered severe injuries and several others were hurt Thursday after an explosion at a mansion under construction off McLain Flats Road, sources said Friday.

Emergency dispatchers received a call from the construction site of an 8,000-to-10,000-square-foot home on Slalom Path at 2:26 p.m. Thursday, said Jake Andersen, deputy Aspen fire chief. The home is located near the Sunnyside Trailhead off McLain Flats.

When paramedics, fire trucks and county sheriffs deputies arrived, they found one of the floors of the home had fallen through, walls were down and windows had been blown out of their frames, he said.

The floor was collapsed and multiple walls were displaced, Andersen said. This was a significant event. A lot of people were in the house at the time (of the explosion).

The source of the explosion was unclear Friday morning. Andersen said fire investigators were still trying to determine what caused it and that agents from the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives office in Denver were on scene assisting with the investigation.

An ATF-certified fire investigator is helping with the investigation, though there doesnt seem to be any federal crime involved so the agency was unlikely to take over the investigation, said Crystal McCoy, ATF spokeswoman in Denver.

Damage done to the home on Slalom Path after an explosion on Thursday.Jason Auslander/The Aspen Times

Officials inspect the damage on Friday at the home where an explosion occurred on Thursday that injured several people.Jason Auslander/The Aspen Times

Damage done to the home on Slalom Path, located near the Sunnyside Trailhead off McLain Flats, after an explosion on Thursday.Jason Auslander/The Aspen Times

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Gabe Muething, director of Aspen Ambulance, said the dispatch call was for a gas explosion and that the first two paramedics who arrived on scene encountered significant damage to the basement and first floors of the home.

One of my guys said it looked like someone picked up the home and shook it like a snow globe, he said.

The most seriously injured person on scene was still stuck under drywall, window frames and other debris on the unstable first floor when the ambulance personnel drove up. The paramedics, however, went inside the home anyway, extricated the man from the debris and were able to start triage immediately before taking him to Aspen Valley Hospital, Muething said.

That man was later flown by helicopter to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, he said. Three others who were injured on scene also were taken to AVH, with two admitted and one treated and released. Another four people on scene were treated by paramedics for less serious injuries, Muething said.

All were stable Friday, though the condition of the man taken to Denver was not available, Muething said.

Two suffered severe injuries and two suffered moderate injuries, Andersen said.

To be honest, we really lucked out, Andersen said. It could have been a lot worse.

Ashley Campbell, a spokeswoman for Black Hills Energy, said Friday that crews from the company, which runs the natural gas pipeline infrastructure in Pitkin County, responded to the site Thursday after the explosion.

We completed our onsite assessments and will work with all appropriate agencies as they look to determine a cause, she said in an email to the Times.

A message left Friday for a spokesman at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which may investigate the incident, was not returned.

The home sits on one of three lots on Slalom Path owned by Bob Hurst, vice chairman of New York-based Crestview Partners and retired vice chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Hurst and his wife, Soledad, along with Melony and Adam Lewis, and Paul and Erin Pariser, funded a Lunch for Locals program in January 2021. The program provided free meals daily from the Aspen Art Museum. In addition, Hurst co-chaired the 2020 Rescue Fund, which raised around $3.5 million from 22 Aspen locals, including himself, to help offset COVID-19 pandemic-related financial losses.

The Hursts also hosted a private fundraising dinner for Hillary Clinton when she was seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential race. The fundraiser took place on Jalanda Lane, which is in close proximity to where the home explosion occurred.

jauslander@aspentimes.com

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Aspen-area home explosion sends 4 people to the hospital, injures others - The Aspen Times

In 1933, Joseph Goebbels, chief Nazi propaganda officer, gave a speech designed to incite young students to go forward and burn books. The Nazis were incredibly successful in deceiving their people and creating a level of hysteria that would be necessary to install a fascist regime and wipe out those who were considered to be un-German.

The authors of these un-German books included people like Helen Keller and Albert Einstein. You may recall that the Nazis, who sexually tortured thousands of people, had a problem with people who were gay. They also had a real problem with Jews. As it turned out, they had a real problem with anyone who was not a fascist.

My dad, along with many other dads of people my age, couldnt wait to sign up to fight against this rising, international threat. It took many years, millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives but in the end, the nations of the world came together to defeat fascism. That was then; this is now.

Today, right now, at this very minute, its happening all over again. We are seeing the rise of authoritarianism and fascism. We are watching in real time as the worlds #1 bully, Vladimir Putin, prepares to physically attack and take over another country. It may have already happened by the time youre reading this, or he may wait until after the Olympics so as not to annoy China.

In America, we saw the rise of authoritarianism in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president. Fortunately, this man didnt have the inner strength, nor the brain power, to turn America into a fascist state. He was more concerned with amassing more money for himself. He was, however, successful in empowering many other, like-minded crazies who are more than willing to take up the torch and destroy America from within.

History is repeating itself. From a January 2022 article in The Guardian: Literature has already been removed from schools in Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Librarians and teachers warn the trend is on the increase, as groups backed by wealthy Republican donors use centrally drawn up tactics and messaging to harangue school districts into removing certain texts.

Then, last week, we witnessed the temporary closure of the Butterfly Sanctuary in Southern Texas: A South Texas butterfly conservatory said it will temporarily close after being warned that it could be a target of a nearby rally headlined by conspiracy theorists and allies of former President Donald Trump. Huffington Post.

The allegations were that the Butterfly Sanctuary was a front for human trafficking and a child-sex ring. Sound familiar? Think of the same allegations that were wagered against a pizza shop in Washington and that Hillary Clinton was operating a child-sex ring there.

And who do you think might be behind this conspiracy? The butterfly center said We Build The Wall founder Brian Kolfage and Steve Bannon, a chief strategist in the Trump White House, attempted to boost fundraising efforts by attacking the sanctuary and Trevio-Wright with defamatory and malicious lies in late 2019 and early 2020. It should be noted that Bannon went after the Butterfly Sanctuary after the sanctuary had the audacity to suggest that the building of Trumps wall was having an impact on butterflies. That was enough to set off macho-bully Bannon. Going after butterflies is right down his alley and should easily bolster his tough-guy image.

The simple fact is, these cowards are no different than the cowards who came before them. There is no difference between the disgraced Mike Flynns, Steve Bannons, Marjorie Taylor-Greens, Paul Gosars, Lauren Boeberts, Madison Cawthorns, Matt Gaetzes and Donald Trumps and the disgraced Joseph Goebbels. They all have a few things in common. They will lie, mislead and distort at the drop of a hat; and they are all power hungry.

What is happening right now in America is what has happened all around the world for many years. In the past, America was revered for being different from fascist, authoritarian countries. America was the country that stood for individual rights. It stood for freedom of, and from, religion. It was the melting pot where all who were willing to work hard and do their part, were welcome. This is what truly made America great.

America is changing fast. You either see whats happening or you don't. If you do see whats happening, you have two choices: You either fight against the rise of fascism in our country or you dont. You either support fascists who want to ban books they dont like, or you fight back. You fight to support all Americans, those who are like you and those who are different from you. You fight for a free and open society where diversity is celebrated and differences of opinion are vigorously debated without fear of bloodshed. You support those who fought and died so that we would not live under fascist authoritarian rule, or you dont.

Bob Stannard lives in Manchester Center.

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Stannard: When they come for books and butterflies - Rutland Herald

During the 2020 election cycle, presidential candidates spent nearly $3 billion on television, radio and digital ads shattering records and demonstrating how important advertising is to campaign strategy. Given the amount of resources dedicated to advertising, understanding how messages influence voter behavior is critical to campaigns.

New research from Washington University in St. Louis is shedding light on how slant the extremeness of the message and consistency with the candidates primary campaign messaging in national television advertisements affected voter behavior during the 2016 presidential election, specifically online word-of-mouth chatter and candidate preference in daily polls.

With the help of recent advancements in text analysis methods, researchers conducted an extensive review of more than 800 national television ads that ran from June through November 2016. The study results were published on Jan. 28 in Quantitative Marketing and Economics by Raphael Thomadsen, professor of marketing at Washington Universitys Olin Business School; Donggwan Kin, a PhD candidate at Olin; Beth L. Fossen, at Indiana University; and David A. Schweidel, at Emory University.

Slant and consistency are two vital dimensions related to the branding of political candidates, with slant representing what the candidate stands for, and consistency representing the extent to which the candidate creates a clear and repeated message of what they represent, which creates the branding of the candidate, Thomadsen said.

Their findings challenge conventional campaign wisdom, which suggests that candidates should moderate their positions and become more centrist after winning the partys nomination.

Looking specifically at Twitter trends, the researchers observed that both candidates, on average, experienced a 30% increase in online word-of-mouth chatter between the five-minute window before an ad was shown and the five-minute window after an ad was shown. However, political ads with messages that were extremely Republican or extremely Democratic decreased the volume of candidate-related word of mouth, especially in earlier stages of the campaign.

Theres a caveat to that finding, though: Centrist messages in political ads did generate more online word-of-mouth and higher daily poll ratings, but the benefit of centrism was lost if those same messages were inconsistent with the candidates primary election platform.

We find that consistency with the primary message, which is generally more partisan, is also important, Thomadsen said. What that means, to me, is that the branding is important and that the benefit of moving to the center can be offset or even more than offset by the loss of the consistency of the message that such a move necessitates.

It also demonstrates why candidates who have stuck with more extreme messaging have not suffered as much as political scientists focused on the median voter theories would believe they would.

The importance of both centrism and message consistency were largest in the early stages of the general election, which seems to suggest that people may be more responsive to a candidates messages in political ads early in the campaign, Thomadsen said

This goes against the advice that some consultants give, which is that no one pays attention until late in the race. Our analysis suggests the opposite the candidates brand is built early in the race, and then at the end things become more of a scrum for voters, Thomadsen said.

According to Thomadsen, slant and consistency have traditionally been difficult to study on a large scale because the research was labor intensive, but new text analytics tools make the research more efficient. In the present study, authors were able to dig deeper beyond the traditional focus on tone, source and volume of advertising for a more nuanced understanding of how political ads impact voter behavior.

This goes against the advice that some consultants give, which is that no one pays attention until late in the race. Our analysis suggests the opposite the candidates brand is built early in the race, and then at the end things become more of a scrum for voters.

This research is among the first in marketing to use text analysis to derive message-related metrics that are linked to the performance of television commercials, Thomadsen said. Similar approaches could be used outside of political marketing, by product and service marketers, to assess the importance of message consistency in an efficient and automated way.

In total, the analysis included 824 ad airings for 60 unique ad creatives aired by 11 political advertisers, including campaigns, political parties and seven PACs. National television advertising buys account for more than 25% of all campaign television spending a share that is expected to increase as the rising cost of local ad inventory in battleground markets increases, according to Thomadsen.

Slant was measured by analyzing the language used in the ad, including topics and specific word choice. Ads that featured language primarily used by one party were labeled extreme, while ads that included language used by both parties were labeled centrist. Examples of extreme messaging included ads that focused on national security, immigration, gender equality and health care. The technology also captured other dimensions, such as attack phrases frequently used by a candidate and other phases that set the tenor of their campaign.

To study message consistency, the team compared ad content to primary campaign speeches. Daily poll data on voter preferences and online chatter about the candidates on Twitter provided measures for voter behavior impact.

Altogether, Hillary Clinton had more ad airings, while ads supporting Donald Trump had larger audience sizes. Ads supporting the two candidates were comparable in tone, length and ad position.

While most of the national ads were fairly centrist, Trumps ads tended to be somewhat more centrist than Clintons ads. Some of Trumps ads leaned toward Democratic ideology, such as his promised support for gender equality, including equal pay and support for child care.

Likewise, some of Clintons leaned toward Republican ideology, including ads that discussed threats from nuclear weapons or the Islamic state. Overall, Clintons ads had a higher level of consistency than Trumps.

Trumps presidency was more conservative than his 2016 campaign, so we remember those aspects of his messaging more, Thomadsen said. His first campaign had a lot of messages for the center, or even the left, of the country. He advocated for family leave, for example.

Taken together, the results suggest that it would be advantageous for candidates to adhere close to their primary campaign messages in the early stages of the general election and emphasize moderate or time-specific messages as the election further develops, the authors wrote.

Further, the results suggest that the rising use of extremist messages in political advertising may be a flawed strategy for candidates that could decrease candidate-related word-of-mouth volume and voter preference for the candidate.

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Research demonstrates importance of consistent branding in political television ads - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis - Washington...

A winter storm that moved through Arkansas on Thursday dumped 10 inches of snow in the Northwest corner and covered much of the rest of state in sleet and freezing rain.

Sleet and snow continued to fall in parts of the state Thursday night and could add another inch of precipitation, said Justin Condry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

"The precipitation will wrap up most likely with eastern locations clearing at about 4 or 5 a.m.," he said Thursday.

[LATEST: Roads icy across Central Arkansas on Friday, officials say arkansasonline.com/24traffic]

But low temperatures this morning could leave roads treacherous.

On Thursday, tractor trailer rigs jackknifed on icy Little Rock interstates while galloping power lines left thousands of people without electricity in Poinsett County.

Galloping occurs when high winds cause ice-laden transmission lines to bounce and come into contact with other lines, said Brandi Hinkle, a spokeswoman for Entergy Arkansas. Some repairs to damaged equipment were made Thursday.

"We hope to restore power by later this evening, but the wind could continue to cause galloping and power interruptions," she said Thursday.

The National Weather Service predicted wind gusts of 35 mph Thursday in eastern Arkansas.

There were 20,410 power failures in Arkansas by late Thursday afternoon, according to https://poweroutage.us, which tracks power outages nationwide. That number included 11,031 Entergy Arkansas customers.

Arkansas ranked fifth nationally in the number of power outages in states as the storm moved across the midsection of the country. Tennessee had the most outages as of late Thursday afternoon with 145,528.

Condry said the situation in Arkansas wasn't as bad as expected because cold air aloft created sleet instead of freezing rain for much of the state.

"It changed over to sleet a lot sooner than expected," he said. "Sleet doesn't actually stick to streets and power lines necessarily, so you kind of avoid that impact of power outages. That's why we haven't seen as many of them."

At one point Thursday, more than 60% of Cleveland County's electricity customers were without power, according to https://poweroutage.us.

Stephen McClellan, Cleveland County's director of emergency management, said ice on pine tree limbs was causing the limbs to break and fall onto power lines.

"The ice just clusters up on those pine needles," he said.

By 6 p.m., 2,072 of Cleveland County's 5,017 electricity customers were still without power. Most of those without electricity were customers of C&L Electric Cooperative.

"Tomorrow mutual aid crews from Arkansas electric cooperatives that were less impacted by the winter weather will be dispatched to assist C&L Electric of Star City with outages in the hardest hit areas," Rob Roedel, a spokesman for the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, said in an email Thursday. "Crews from Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. have been assisting with outages and will also assist C&L Electric tomorrow."

The low temperature Thursday night was expected to be 24 degrees in Cleveland County, followed by a low of 19 degrees tonight.

McClellan said there weren't any designated shelters in the area.

"If need be we can open the fire departments and things like that, and the churches," he said. "If we had to, we'd come up with something."

By late Thursday afternoon, power had been restored to some Poinsett County customers, but 4,336 of the county's 14,514 electricity customers were still without power. Of that number, 3,859 were Entergy customers.

Other counties with significant power outages at 6 p.m. Thursday included Phillips with 2,276, Arkansas with 1,672 and Jefferson with 1,537.

Dave Parker, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said primary roads were "in relatively good shape" Thursday afternoon, although about 14 tractor-trailer rigs had "incidents" on icy Little Rock interstates, including some jackknifing.

"They're all serious, but I wouldn't call them major incidents that shut down the interstate," he said. "Most of them were caused by people driving a little too fast."

Parker said road crews were busy Thursday plowing sleet and snow and putting down salt.

"Overall, the main roads are passable, but we're still advising everybody to stay home," Parker said Thursday. "We've got to get through today. We've got to get through tonight."

"Tomorrow, it's going to be bitter cold. Tonight, everything we plowed and we moved is going to freeze. What is left over Friday night is going to freeze again. I won't feel comfortable until probably Saturday night."

The frigid precipitation led to the cancellation of more than 61 flights Thursday at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock.

The state's largest airport, however, remained open throughout the inclement weather, and whether a flight is canceled is a decision made by each airline, according to an email from Clinton National spokesman Shane Carter.

"Airlines decide when they fly," he said. "Check your flight status before coming to the airport."

Clinton National crews employing more than two dozen pieces of equipment began applying anti-icing material on the priority runway about 1:15 a.m. Thursday and continued clearing surfaces and adding chemicals as needed, according to the email. Areas around the airport fire station and the air carrier ramp also have been cleared.

Once the freezing precipitation ends, airport crews will continue to treat and sweep surfaces to reduce refreezing tonight, according to the email.

About half of the arrivals and departures at Northwest Arkansas National Airport were canceled Thursday, said Alex English, a spokeswoman for the airport in Highfill. That amounted to 21 departures and 17 arrivals.

"Our runway remains open and operable, so many of these cancellations are due to inclement weather at the airports we are flying to/from," she said.

The weather also led Rock Region Metro, the transit service for Pulaski County, to cancel most bus service Thursday.

Many schools, city offices, courts and businesses were closed because of the weather Thursday and were expected to remain closed today.

Condry said most of the state will be above freezing today after a cold start this morning.

Low temperatures this morning were projected to range from 11 degrees in the north to about 25 degrees in south Arkansas.

Although the temperature will struggle to get above freezing today, sunshine should help melt ice and snow, but it will refreeze as the mercury plummets again tonight.

Low temperatures Saturday morning will range from 4 degrees in north Arkansas to about 20 degrees at the Louisiana state line, according to the forecast.

High temperatures across Arkansas are projected to be in the upper 30s Saturday and the 40s Sunday. Both days will be sunny, according to the National Weather Service.

Gallery: ADG staff Snow Storm Photos

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Jackknifed trucks, galloping power lines add to Arkansas winter weather woes - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Media top headlines February 3

In media news today, Jeff Zucker resigns from his role at CNN after failing to disclose a consensual relationship, CNN insiders react to the presidents abrupt exit, and Al Franken says Whoopi Goldbergs name is proof she is not antisemitic.

Whoopi Goldberg is being held accountable for her Holocaust remarks after being suspended from her post at "The View," but CNNs Don Lemon argues she should be shown some mercy as an ally.

The "Don Lemon Tonight" anchor proposed that those on the left must continue an alliance with one another even if theres been internal wrongdoing.

"In this environment, we have to be allies to each other," he said. "Sometimes your allies say stupid things. Sometimes they say dumb things. But guess what? Theyre your allies. Theyre at least on your side and theyre trying to learn."

WHOOPI GOLDBERG SUSPENDED FROM THE VIEW FOLLOWING HOLOCAUST REMARKS

"We have to stop trying to cancel people and shouting down our allies," Lemon added.

Don Lemon attends the "Mary J Blige's My Life" New York premiere at Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center on June 23, 2021. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Lemon used the 2015 election campaign trail as an example, when Black Lives Matter protesters were "shouting down" Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders who rallied in support of the BLM movement. The host promoted having ally-to-ally conversations, now between Goldberg and the Jewish community.

"Whoopi is an ally to the Jewish community," he said. "She is. She said something that she shouldnt have said. OK, fine. But dont put her in a corner and marginalize her. Use her to the best of your ability to get the conversation and your points across about whats wrong about that kind of thinking because shes not the only one who thinks it."

Lemon considered Goldberg a "huge platform" to stimulate this kind of conversation and defended her remarks by pointing out that her show is called "The View" and not "The Facts" for a reason.

Whoopi Goldberg co-hosts ABC's "The View" on May 28, 2019. (Walt Disney Television/Lou Rocco)

"The show is called The View," he said. "Her view was wrong. OK, so, lets work with that."

Since Goldberg does not have a history of antisemitism and delivered "sincere" apologies, Lemon argued, punishing Goldberg is "heavy-handed."

WHOOPI GOLDBERG CONFRONTS HOLOCAUST REMARKS WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: DON'T WANT TO FAKE APOLOGIZE

Meanwhile, Lemon was quick to box all Trump voters as Klansmen and Nazis on-air with former CNN colleague Chris Cuomo on Jan. 13, 2021. He then defended his own remarks the following day.

"If you voted for Trump, you voted for the person who the Klan supported. You voted for the person who Nazis support," he said. "You voted for the person who incited a crowd to go into the Capitol and potentially take the lives of lawmakers ... You voted on that side, and the people in Washington are continuing to vote on that side."

CNN'S DON LEMON DOUBLES DOWN ON LUMPING TRUMP ALL TRUMP VOTERS WITH KLANSMEN, NAZIS: I BELIEVE WHAT I SAID

Other media pundits continue to make excuses for Goldberg as well, rejecting her cancellation and, instead, calling for her to be educated on the matter.

LA Times editorial writer Karin Klein wrote in an article Wednesday that even though Goldberg "blew it big time," her ignorance indicated the scale of Americans who are also ill-informed on the topic.

"One good thing about a celebrity mishap is that it prods people into new awareness of the topic in question," she said. "Goldberg learned something; the best we can do at this point is not punish her but follow her example."

ABCs "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg declared the Holocaust was "not about race." Monday, Jan. 31, 2021. (Screenshot/The View/Twitter)

A Daily Beast op-ed penned by MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen on Tuesday also agreed that Goldbergs comments were "unfathomably stupid," but still do not equate to her cancellation.

"Firing Goldberg would provide her critics with a momentary whiff of moral superiority, but it would do nothing to help American Jews or enlighten those whose views of Jews, like Goldbergs, are shrouded in misinformation," he said. "The response to stupidity does not always need to be cancellation sometimes it can and should be education."

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Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

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CNNs Don Lemon defends Whoopi Goldberg in Holocaust comment fallout: We have to be allies - Fox News