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PORTLAND, Ore. - Olympic ski champion Bill Johnson was charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest after punching a sheriff's deputy in the face during a traffic stop, police said. Johnson was stopped in his pickup truck Friday by a Multnomah County sheriff's deputy and a suburban Troutdale police officer. When the officers approached, Johnson pulled out his 1984 gold medal and taunted them by saying, "You don't have one of these," police said. Authorities said Johnson threw his keys at Deputy Jeff Cordes, reached out his window, grabbed the deputy's shirt and punched him in the face. Johnson...

Jahorina, the 1984 Olympic ski mountain, was scarred by war and reputation. It's starting to make a comeback. - Five years ago, intrepid skiers tired of Telluride could have earned bragging rights by taking on the ultimate thrillride: vacationing at this war-scarred ski resort near Sarajevo. Just making the drive along the winding mountain road from Sarajevo to Jahorina, the 1984 Olympic ski mountain now part of Bosnia's postwar Serb Republic, was an adventure in itself. Back then, the mountain was mostly deserted, attracting a small but bizarre mix of Bosnian Serb politicians, vacationing Belgraders and Montenegrins, NATO peacekeepers, and...

Homosexual activists blast man who posted warning to families ___ A promoter of tourism in a Colorado ski town has stirred up a controversy among local residents after posting a warning to potential visiting families about the city's Gay Ski Week. Al Heirich runs an online guide to Telluride, Colo., offering information about the town, its skiing, lodging and restaurants. Telluride is a world-class ski resort with a population of about 3,000. Heirich says promoters of the homosexual event, including the Telluride Ski Resort, have demanded he remove his warning to families on his website, claiming it is discriminatory. The...

Clint Eastwood's Daughter's Boyfriend Dies At Vail Dead Snowboarder Identified Dec 15, 2004 4:37 pm US/Mountain VAIL, Colo. (AP) The body of a snowboarder found near Vail Mountain was identified on Wednesday as Michael Combs, 42, the boyfriend of Clint Eastwood's daughter. Resort spokeswoman Jen Brown said Combs had been missing since Monday. His body was found late Tuesday morning in a closed area near the bottom of Vail Mountain. Combs had been snowboarding with Alison Eastwood, according to the an Eagle County sheriff's department. Ski patrol members and crews that groom the slopes at night had been looking for...

GREAT ST. BERNARD PASS, Switzerland, Oct. 27 - The only dog right now at the 950-year-old hospice of St. Bernard is a very nice golden retriever named Justy. The issue of those other dogs - the famously huge and heroic ones, who toted brandy barrels in legend, who lived here for centuries and sniffed scores of stranded travelers out of the snow - is not one that the Rev. Frédéric Gaillard is keen to talk about. "Now there are helicopters," Father Gaillard, one of four remaining monks at the St. Bernard's hospice here, said with some irritation. "And we have...

Senator John Kerry is now planning to take one last campaign stop at his Ketchum, Idaho vacation home this coming Sunday morning. The purpose of this trip is to test some newly-purchased skiing equipment. Senator Kerry remarked that "this new hat should give me a significant boost among undecided voters, prior to the vote on next Tuesday"

"I love baseball. I love football. I love sports. French skiers. Franz Klammer…" (John Kerry as quoted in Michael Hainey, “A Beer With John Kerry,” GQ, 9/04) 

<p>ARCTIC MAN: Veteran McClurg, rookie Horton hope for perfect match.</p> <p>Missy McClurg tows her partner Suki Horton during an Arctic Man training run on Prator Lake near Houston last week. Though it was Horton's first time being pulled behind a snowmachine, she's comfortable with fast runs. Horton was the top female Alaskan at the U.S. Alpine Championships at Alyeska last month.</p>

John Kerry's shoulder surgery implies one of two things: either the surgery wasn't planned until a short time ago, which STONGLY implies that it was the result of his falling while skiiing and snowboarding in Sun Valley last week OR that John Kerry has a sense of priviledge: what middle class American would take a week off to go skiing and THEN take nearly a week to have surgery. NO, Mr Kerry, that middle class that you want to fight for, but don't clearly understand would have to skip the vacation in order to have the surgery done. Does he...

.... The image-conscious candidate and his aides prevailed upon reporters and photographers to let him have a first run down the mountain solo, except for two agents and Marvin Nicholson, his omnipresent right-hand man. His next trip down, a reporter and a camera crew were allowed to follow along on skis — just in time to see Mr. Kerry taken out by one of the Secret Service men, who had inadvertently moved into his path, sending him into the snow. When asked about the mishap a moment later, he said sharply, "I don't fall down," then used an expletive to...

Seven soldiers who lost legs during incidents in Iraq will get the chance this weekend to schuss down the slopes of Vail, Colo. Vail Ski Association, with support from a broad range of local and national donors, is providing the soldiers, their wives or girlfriends and their children an all-expense-paid visit to one of the world's premier ski resorts. The Vail community and corporate sponsors will roll out the red carpet with free lodging, meals, lift tickets, ski equipment and lessons. Cheryl Jensen from the Vail Ski Association said the weekend will allow soldiers to enjoy the exhilaration of skiing...

It's All Downhill From Here DAVE BARRY Feb. 29, 2004 I haven't attempted to ski for years, but recently I decided to take another stab at it. I was hoping they'd done something about the gravity problem. Gravity is the biggest drawback to skiing. Without gravity, it would be a carefree activity: You'd put on your skis, head for the slopes and just . . . hover for a while. Then it would be time for ''aprs ski'' (French for ''no longer skiing''). Instead, you have gravity. Huge amounts of it. Ski areas are located smack dab on top of...

The communities were declaring their independence; the people of those communities were asserting that no man was born--to use the language of Mr. Jefferson--booted and spurred, to ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created equal--meaning the men of the political community; that there was no divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that there were no classes by which power and place descended to families; but that all stations were equally within the grasp of each member of the body politic. --Jefferson Davis, Farewell Speech to Congress, 1861 Grab your guns and...

TURIN, Italy — Global warming is threatening the world's ski resorts, with melting at lower altitudes forcing the sport to move higher and higher up mountains, according to a United Nations study released Tuesday. Downhill skiing could disappear altogether at some resorts, while at others, a retreating snow line will cut off base villages from their ski runs as soon as 2030, warned the report by the U.N. Environment Program. "Climate change is happening now. We can measure it," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. program. "This study shows that it is not just the developing world that...

Warming has skiing on slippery slope By Andrew Dampf Associated Press TURIN, Italy -- Global warming is threatening the world's ski resorts, with melting at lower altitudes forcing the sport to move higher and higher up mountains, according to a United Nations study released Tuesday. Downhill skiing could disappear altogether at some resorts, while at others, a retreating snow line will cut off base villages from their ski runs as soon as 2030, warned the report by the U.N. Environment Program. "Climate change is happening now. We can measure it," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. program. "This...

Following years of drought, snow storms battered Mt. Hermon this year dropping meters of white stuff to the delight of Israeli skiers and visiting children. The heavy snowfall this year resulted in an avalanche two weeks ago, the first such incident that the resort has witnessed. The Mt. Hermon Ski School reports that there is still plenty of snow remaining for both the avid Passover skier and the many non skiing visitors who cherish a sleigh ride, a friendly snow ball fight or just a relaxing glass of wine overlooking the green Golan Heights.

ALTA, Wyo. -- Pressure from uncomfortable skiers and other tourists prompted the Grand Targhee Ski and Summer Resort to blank out the second half of the name of one of its ski mountains. Mary's Nipple is now just Mary's. "Nipple" has been covered with tape until new signs arrive in about two weeks. "If things offend our guests, we try to redeem that," marketing director Susie Barnett-Bushong said. "Management was never compelled to take it away until more and more people expressed they were uncomfortable with the signs." But the sanitized signs have rankled some local skiers, who feel a...

A British skier on holiday in Colorado was today charged with manslaughter after the death of another man on the slopes. Robert Wills, 31, was arrested after a collision which left 56-yearold Richard Henrichs dead in Breckenridge on Sunday. According to the victim's son, Mr Wills ran into his father, causing him to hit a tree. In the resulting collision, Mr Henrichs suffered massive head injuries and a broken hip. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Robert Wills has been charged with manslaughter. His family have been informed and consular assistance has been made available to him." Earlier, Summit County Sheriff...

<p>The U.S. ski team Yanks, that is. Three races into the two-week, 10-event World Alpine Ski Championships, traditional skiing juggernaut Austria has three medals. Norway, another perennial power, has two. And the U.S. team has four — the latest and brightest being Bode Miller's dramatic gold medal Thursday in the men's combined.</p>