Free Republic

The leading bid for the first-of-its-kind facility in Gypsum that converted forest slash into electricity is from an Illinois real estate company.. The Eagle Valley Clean Energy biomass plant in Gypsum closed last month after its owners filed for bankruptcy protection. There are 7,000 tons of shredded forest slash at the facility. The leading bid for the biomass operation is a real estate company. The pioneering biomass plant in Gypsum — the first in the state to begin converting shredded beetle-kill trees into electricity — has shut down and its owner has filed for bankruptcy protection citing more than $40...

ODUM -- A picture of a snarling pit bull in front of a Confederate flag hangs over the desk in Dewey Barber's office in this tiny southeast Georgia town. "Protect Our Southern Heritage," it reads."I guess that's pretty appropriate," said Barber, the Dixie Outfitters dude who makes Rebel flag T-shirts.The 55-year-old Barber is bemused over his rising celebrity as an evangelist for a Southern heritage revival.CNN and People magazine have come calling, and Barber recently went to Washington to hire a publicist and an attorney."I'm a bit uncomfortable with it," he said.Five years ago, Barber's business was based in an...