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the denver post B denverpost.com • sunday, april 17, 2016
TRAVEL «9E
Travel
Hiking in wine country Napa has miles of scenic trails for those wanting a taste of the outdoors By Michelle Locke The Associated Press
napa, calif.» Here’s a wine country secret that can help you raise your glass and your heart rate. Along with the Napa Valley’s famous winetasting trails, there are miles of scenic trails of the hiking variety, beckoning visitors who want to exercise more than their palates. “There are so many great places up here,” says John Conover, partner and general manager of Odette Estate winery and an avid hiker. From the mellow stroll of the Napa Vine Trail on the valley floor to more rugged hauls into the hills, hiking options have expanded in California wine country, and so has interest in wine country walking. “It used to be people would come to Napa just asking about wine and food,” says Conover. Now, tasting-room visitors frequently ask about outdoor options as well, something he attributes to the general interest in staying fit. Wine country visitors who want a taste of the outdoors have lots of options. Free guided hikes are available from the Land Trust of Napa County. The organization, which buys and preserves land as open space, led 32 hikes in 2015 attended by more than 300 people. Many of the participants are local, but there’s also interest from visitors, says Megan Lilla, lands program assistant with the group. “I think it’s known that the landscape here is special and there are great hiking opportunities,” she says. Meanwhile, the Napa County Regional Park & Open Space District has been promoting hiking as a way to diversify valley activities. “There’s been a big push in recent years to advocate, or at least acknowledge, other things besides wine tasting,” says the district’s Chino Yip. Here’s a sampling of some wine country trails:
Valley Vine Trail Megan Lilla, left, a lands program assistant with the Land Trust of Napa Valley, walks up a trail beneath redwood trees at the Archer Taylor Preserve in Napa, Calif., last month. Along with the Napa Valley’s worldfamous wine-tasting trails, there are miles of scenic hiking trails. Eric Risberg, The Associated Press
This is a work in progress supported by the grass-roots Napa Valley Vine Trail Coalition. Ultimately, the plan is to connect the Bay Area HIKE » 10E
Alice in runner land: Disney o≠ers fun races By Anick Jesdanun The Associated Press
lake buena vista, fla.» At Walt Disney World, you might find Darth Vader, Tinker Bell or a classic Disney princess running alongside half-marathon participants. These events are no ordinary races, and the trips that participants take are no ordinary Disney visits. Few care about race times, particularly with opportunities to pose with costumed characters such as Donald Duck and Boba Fett. Racing is mostly about getting to the photo ops before lines get too long. Disney has races to honor classic Disney and Pixar characters (January and September), princesses (February), Tinker Bell (May) and superheroes from Disney’s Marvel comic books (November). There’s also one at Disneyland Paris in September. The Florida theme park recently hosted its first “Star Wars Half Marathon — The Dark Side,” following last year’s debut of “The Light Side” race at Disneyland in California. Another “Light Side” half marathon is scheduled for January, with registration opening in June. The races combine two of the world’s biggest franchises,
while capitalizing on Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012. Many runners come for the weekend or even the week, turning the trip into a “runcation” as they bring family to ride the rides and, for adults, drink the drinks at Epcot’s World Showcase. It becomes less of a test of endurance than a challenge to get up early after full days at the parks — races start before dawn to minimize disruptions. Costumes are a must for many participants. “I have a thing about princesses,” said Brooke Laing, who works at an investment bank in New York. “I wanted to dress up and have that all-girls weekend, getting to put on a tiara and have that childish experience.” You can even ride a roller coaster near the halfway point of a full marathon in January — although if you run too fast in an early-morning event, you may find the ride not yet open. “Disney usually puts on a pretty good show for anything you go to,” said Misty Hayes, a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas. “How many have the option of jumping on the roller coaster? It was pretty awesome.” RUN » 10E
People take part in a half-marathon at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. The popular half-marathons often feature runners dressed as Disney characters. Associated Press file
10E» TRAVEL
sunday, april 17, 2016 B denverpost.com B the denver post
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Greasies and goosefoot Chefs reviving local cuisine — including creasy greens and leather britches — in Appalachia By Jane Black The Washington Post
“It’s way easier to get drugs than a good greasy bean,” Travis Milton said, taking a deep drag on his cigarette. And that causes the chef a lot of headaches. For one, greasies are his favorite beans, whether you cook them old-school, stewing them within an inch of their lives, or use a more modern technique such as steaming to show off the sweet, fat kernels inside. But the elusiveness of greasies (named for their slick appearance, not their taste) is more than just a personal problem for Milton. Later this year he will open Shovel and Pick, an Appalachian restaurant, in Bristol, Tenn. To turn out elevated versions of the dishes he grew up with — mulefoot pork with candied beets, root vegetables tossed in butter-bean miso — Milton needs traditional ingredients, like greasy beans, that are not easy to come by. And so this spring, Milton is sowing 10 acres with greasies and other heirloom beans, cowpeas, creasy greens (a type of field cress), Candy Roaster squash, goosefoot (an Appalachian cousin of quinoa), blackberries, huckleberries and more. What he doesn’t use at his restaurant he will pickle and preserve, or share with other chefs who also are committed to promoting Appalachian cuisine. It’s all part of Milton’s grand plan to use food to ignite economic development in the region and end, once and for all, the pervasive stereotype of Appalachians as a bunch of toothless hillbillies. No small feat, especially when the response to the term “Appalachian cuisine” is either “huh?” or an exaggerated eye-roll at the idea of another cadre of chefs trying to cash in on a regional cooking fad. In fact, Appalachian food has at least as much of a claim on “cuisine” as California (which no one would dare challenge). The foods of central Appalachia — a region that stretches from southern Ohio and West Virginia to Tennessee — constitute America’s own cucina povera, as rich and unexplored in the American culinary scene as Tuscan food was in the 1980s. William Dissen, a native West Virginian and owner of the Market Place restaurant in Asheville, N.C., calls it the “backbone of Southern cooking.”
It’s a scrappy, intelligent way of cooking that, out of necessity, embraced preserving, canning, fermenting and using every part of the animal long before all that was trendy. There are leather britches, beans that are strung up whole to dry, then brought back to life with water and a smoky ham hock. There is vinegar pie, a mountain version of the South’s lemon chess pie, with vinegar providing the acid in place of expensive or hard-to-find citrus. “There’s real beauty in these dishes,” Milton said. “They yield amazing flavors, the flavors of a subsistence culture. A humble pole bean tastes like a pot roast. You work with what you have because you have to eat.” The idea is catching on. Last fall, scholars, chefs and activists hosted an Appalachian food summit in Abingdon, Va., to examine how the region’s food heritage can boost local economies. In February, the James Beard Foundation hosted its first-ever salon for Appalachian chefs. (Full disclosure: This reporter served as a moderator at the event.) A few weeks later, the Blind Pig, an Asheville supper club, hosted Milton and five other chefs for a dinner called Appalachian Storytellers. Milton served smoked venison, drizzled with a sauce made of malted sassafras and black birch syrup, and smoked collard greens. Edward Lee, a chef in Louisville who also owns Succotash at the National Harbor, made pork schnitzel, a nod to the German presence in the region, that he coated with salt bread, a poorman’s loaf that relies on natural leaveners in the air. The event hosted 140 people and sold out in a day.
‘An original identity’ Ask most people what they think Appalachian food is, and their answer — if they have any idea at all — will probably be cornbread and pinto beans. Food that is cheap enough to fill a belly before a day in the coal mines and bland enough to suit the tastes of the Scotch-Irish who settled the area. That, says Ronni Lundy, author of the forthcoming book “Victuals: An Appalachian Journey, With Recipes” (Clarkson Potter, August 2016), betrays a gross misapprehension about the region and its food, which is far more complex. The Cherokee originally inhabited the area. Freed slaves con-
From top: hominy porridge with creasy greens and fatback by Asheville, N.C., chef Matt Dawes; Elliott Moss' smoked and cured pork tenderloin with leather britches and pickled ramps; sorghum bread. Dhanraj Emanuel, The Washington Post gregated there because it was one of the few places they were permitted to live. The English and Germans arrived along with the Scotch-Irish in the early 1800s, and Hungarians and Italians came after the Civil War to work in the mines. Some stayed for a generation or two and moved on, while some settled permanently. “Appalachia is more of a melting pot,” says Lundy. “That’s visible in our foodways.” Take corn. It was first grown in Appalachia by the Cherokee; the tribe taught new settlers how to soak the kernels in water mixed with ash then grind it to make a dough. Leather britches, also known as shuck beans, are thought by many to be the product of an American Indian drying technique, although Lundy says the method might have been brought over by the Germans, along with their passion for fermenting. Sauerkraut is common
in many Appalachian households, but fermentation also was used on native beans and to make sour corn, a much-loved dish. “You take an old technique, add a new ingredient and you get a totally original food,” Lundy says. But Appalachian cuisine is derived as much from the culture of the mountains as from its ingredients. Perhaps here more than in any region in the United States, families carefully saved seeds, preserving heirloom varieties that vanished quickly in areas where commercial seeds were widely available. In 2011, researchers at Slow Food’s RAFT Alliance documented 1,412 distinctly named heirloom foods in the region, including more than 350 varieties of apples, 464 varieties of peas and 31 kinds of corn.
A return to salt Can food help ignite economic development in the twilight of
HIKE «FROM 9E
RUN «FROM 9E
with the entire valley through a walking/biking trail system, 47 miles from the Vallejo Ferry Terminal all the way to Calistoga. Completed sections include the Yountville Bike Trail, a paved trail running beside vineyards parallel to California 29 and known as the Yountville mile. (vinetrail.org )
The Disney races aren’t free of gripe, though. They have gotten very popular in recent years, and many sell out within an hour of registration. Spouses and friends have been shut out for waiting too long. And this year, new policies put a cramp on costumes. No more face masks such as Chewbacca. Princess Leia robes and Darth Vader capes also can’t be too long. Darrell Saria, a federal government employee in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said he understands the need for safety and believes it pushes people to be more creative. He has run as a mashup of Goofy and Darth Vader, and another time combining the Muppets’ Animal and Boba Fett. He said the races turn into a social gathering. “I’ve met a lot of people,” he said. “People who do make their own costumes give each other praises, and they intermingle. People will dress up just to have fun with it and make people smile.” And hey, if you’re going to Disney for a race, why not do two, three or even four on consecutive days? Finish multiple races for bonus medals featuring Dopey, Goofy and Dumbo (get it?). Wear them all as you visit the theme parks afterward and take pride as they clink and clank against one another. You also get bonus medals for running Disney races on multiple weekends. Those
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park At the northern tip of the Napa Valley, this is where the author of “Treasure Island” spent his honeymoon in 1880. Nothing remains of the abandoned bunkhouse where Stevenson and his bride, Fanny, stayed. But the site is identified on the trail, which begins with a moderate climb of about 1 mile and then joins a broader fire road that leads the rest of the 5 miles to the summit of Mount St. Helena. On clear days, you get sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay Area and sometimes a glimpse of the top of Mt. Shasta, nearly 200 miles away. (napaoutdoors.org/parks/robert-louis-stevenson-state-park/ )
Guided Hikes The Land Trust of Napa County offers free hikes most weeks between April and November. Most of the preserves aren’t normally open to the public, so this is a way to connect the community with their open spaces. Some hikes are themed — geology, amphibian, birding, etc. — and feature experts in those fields. Go here to register for
A map and guide is posted along the Napa Valley Vine Trail in Yountville, Calif. Eric Risberg, The Associated Press
Hiking and biking Napa visitnapavalley.com/ napa_valley_hiking_and _biking.htm
upcoming hikes: http://community.napalandtrust.org/page.
Oat Hill Mine Trail This trail near Calistoga follows about 8 miles of an old stagecoach route, and the ruts carved by heavy wagons traveling the soft, volcanic rock can still be seen along parts of the middle and upper trail. Rough and rocky in places, the trail has great views of the Napa Valley. A good time to visit is spring when wildflowers burst into bloom. (http://napaoutdoors.org/parks/ oat-hill-mine-trail/ )
Moore Creek Park This a relatively new addition to Napa hiking and includes trails that wind past oaks, Douglas firs and madrone trees. (http://napaoutdoors.org/parks/ moore-creek-park) The park also includes one of Conover’s favorite spots, a trail that runs alongside Lake Hennessey, source of Napa’s drinking water. Pristine and hidden away from the main thoroughfares, “it makes you think you’re a million miles away from the Napa Valley.”
Sonoma Headed for Sonoma wine country? There’s ample hiking there, too. Follow this link for some ideas http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Activities/Hiking.aspx . And if you’d like to combine your sipping and stepping, try Seghesio Family Vineyards, which has guided hikes a few times a year near the winery’s Home Ranch property, followed by lunch. (seghesio.com )
coal? There are hopeful signs. Milton’s restaurant, which he hopes to open this year, is one. There also are efforts to bring back authentic Appalachian products: heirloom apple orchards, which were razed for strip mining, to make cider; “Virginia-style” whiskey; and salt. Yes, salt. Before timber, before coal, salt was the major industry in central Appalachia. Brine was drawn up from deep within the ground, the remnants of the Iapetus Ocean, which covered the region 470 million years ago. In 1846, Virginia had more than 50 saltworks and was the largest saltproducing area in the country. One producer was J.Q. Dickinson. Founded in 1817, it was the last to close its doors, in 1945. Three years ago, seventh-generation members of the family Nancy Bruns and brother Lewis Payne reopened the saltworks along the Kanawha River, southeast of Charleston. They draw the brine from the same spots but have committed to a more eco-friendly, if less efficient, way of drying it. Instead of heating it with wood or coal fires, they place the brine in trays in a glass sunhouse and let it evaporate naturally. The result is a chunky, clean crystal that makes food pop. When Brock tasted it for the first time, he called Bruns and asked whether he could buy it by the truckload. But production remains limited. In its first year, J.Q. Dickinson turned out just 400 pounds of salt. This year, the company aims to make 14,000 pounds. But that’s still a fraction of the 8,000 pounds per day that once was produced. The revival of local salt was the focus of a film shown last month at the Appalachian Storytellers dinner. The crowd was a mix of pedigreed Appalachians and culinary thrill-seekers — two necessary ingredients in Milton’s recipe to revive the region and its food. Treva Johnson, 78, grew up eating leather britches and creasy greens that she foraged with her grandmother. The dinner was an opportunity to taste them again. (The creasy greens, served as a puree on heirloom grits, didn’t quite match her memories. “It was wrong but also exciting,” she said.) Lisa Gamble, 35, had never heard of leather britches before the dinner. “Now,” she said, “I want to eat them every day.”
doing the “Star Wars” races on both coasts this year get a Millennium Falcon medal. “(Disney) figured out that if you’re going to come down, especially if you’re traveling from out of town, you might as well maximize your time out there and maximize your fun,” said Mike Czernec, a software engineer who lives about an hour away in Melbourne, Fla., yet stays at a Disney World hotel for the weekend. Mark Wietbrock, a securitytechnology salesman in Lake St. Louis, Mo., does a Disney World race — or consecutive races — every other year. His wife and two younger kids, 6 and 8, have done various races with him. He said the trips are also a chance for him and his wife to return to where they started dating in 2000. “It’s the best of both worlds to get to run and get to enjoy the parks,” he said. For many runners, vacation time and money are the limiting factors. Disney races tend to be more expensive than hometown races, and multirace challenges are even more so — pricier than signing up for the races individually. Collecting 11 medals from seven races in January cost more than $1,000 in registration fees, not to mention airfare and hotels. Although there’s no admission fee to run through the parks, the finish is in the parking lot, so you have to pay to re-enter. Rob Biggar, a software programmer in Setauket, N.Y., said Disney’s multirace challenges become “much more a test of your wallet than your stamina.”
2K» BUSINESS
sunday, may 29, 2016 B denverpost.com B the denver post
Getting more from your tweets Twitter will let users fit more text into their 140-character tweets, and that might make Twitter more inviting to new users. (That would have fit in one tweet.) The social media company said that in a few months, video, links, photos and other media won’t count toward the character limit – a holdover from when tweets were mainly sent by text messaging. Twitter has about 310 million users and wants that total to start growing faster. Some users and experts thought Twitter would get rid of the character limit entirely.
Airfares get cheaper ... for now
France searches Google
If you’re traveling this summer, you may have noticed that flying isn’t as expensive as it used to be. Airlines say that round-trip tickets in the U.S. in late 2015 were the cheapest since 2010, and prices have continued to slip this year as the price of oil continued to retreat. But airlines are reining in overcapacity, and that could get fares rising again by next summer. Cheaper fares have led to another downside: as more people travel, it’s contributing to long lines in airports around the country.
Financial Planning
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Police raided Google’s French headquarters looking for evidence of tax fraud. European authorities are looking into several U.S. technology companies that are keeping large amounts of cash outside the U.S. in order to reduce their tax liabilities. Combined, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Oracle have more than $400 billion in overseas accounts. U.S. legislators also want the companies to bring the cash back to the country so it can be taxed at U.S. rates.
CAFFEINE ON ICE
College grads lack education in money matters By Andrea Blackwelder Wisdom Wealth Strategies
D
egree in hand, college graduates are marching proudly into the adult world. Behind those confident smiles, however, are worries about debt, credit scores and money. According to a recent Experian survey, the majority of college graduates do not feel adequately educated about personal finance topics. The blame, according to students, lies with their institutions of higher learning, which did not prepare them to manage the student loan debt and credit card debt that many face upon graduation. The survey results also highlight that graduates report feeling stressed, overwhelmed and worried about money. Among the chief concerns were not having enough in savings, not earning enough money, and carrying too much debt. Teaching personal financial literacy in high schools has a lackluster history in the U.S. Unfortunately, the Council for Economic Education’s 2016 Survey of the States “shows that there has been slow growth in personal finance education in recent years and no improvement in economic education.” While it is true that some colleges are beginning to provide personal finance courses for credit, few are requiring it for graduation. The concerned graduates in the Experian survey are joining a culture of adults fretting about money. A quick internet search for “Americans worry about money” returns countless articles and studies about the degree to which we agonize over personal finances, even to the point of physical, mental or emotional illness. While there isn’t a quick fix or a magic solution, there are actions that can be taken to regain a degree of comfort with and control over one’s financial situation. Consider the following suggestions: • Accept personal responsibility for your own education about money and personal finances. Adults and students alike must come to the realization that, to a large extent, they’re going to have to seek out educational resources and commit to obtaining the knowledge they’ll need to succeed financially without the help of formal education. • Find community resources. Organizations committed to financial literacy are begging Americans to let them help. The cost of financial illiteracy on our society is staggering, and nonprofit organizations are stepping up to provide resources at little or no cost to those who wish to improve their financial knowledge. For example, a powerful coalition of organizations that includes the Financial Planning Association, the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., the Foundation for Financial Planning, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors hosts Financial Planning Days in cities across
the country. At the annual events, CFP professionals provide one-on-one counseling and classroom-style educational presentations at no cost and with no obligation. In April, organizations across the country participated in Money Smart Week, a week-long event during which “community groups, financial institutions, government agencies, educational organizations and financial experts” work together to “help consumers learn to better manage their personal finances.” Start locating and attending events like these in your local community that will help address your specific financial concerns.
“The concerned graduates in the Experian survey are joining a culture of adults fretting about money.” • Make a plan. One of the fastest ways to come to peace with your financial situation is to have a plan in place for improving it. In fact, studies have shown that making a plan measurably reduces stress. Plans don’t have to be fancy or lengthy. Start by putting the basic building blocks in place, like a spending plan. Budgeting tools are endlessly and freely available online. With a little effort, the process can be relatively quick to complete. • If you need professional help, get it. You wouldn’t self-treat a serious medical problem, perform substantial maintenance work on your car without expertise or defend yourself without an attorney in a serious court matter, would you? A healthy (or unhealthy) financial condition permeates every facet of our lives, both in the near term and in the long term. Financial health impacts our relationships, our physical health and our ability to live a fulfilled, quality life. The right professional, providing the right service, can make a lasting impact on your life and on the lives of those you love. Pair your need with the right professional, whether the need is debt consolidation, credit management and improvement, investing help, or any other financial issue. While the lack of personal financial literacy education in high schools and colleges is discouraging, everyone has the opportunity to improve their financial health by accepting personal responsibility and taking action to choose their own financial future. Andrea L. Blackwelder is a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner and the president and co-founder of Wisdom Wealth Strategies, a wealth management and financial planning firm located in Denver.
Larenda Myres holds an iced-coffee drink at a Starbucks store in Seattle last year. For the fourth quarter of 2015, Starbucks reported a 20 percent increase in iced drink sales nationwide following its introduction of a new cold brew coffee in its retail stores. Associated Press file
More and more people opt for a co≠ee brrreak Cafes see an increasing demand on cool concoctions By Jennifer Kaplan Bloomberg News
The coffee industry is getting ready for its very own big chill. Coffee makers from global giants JAB and Illy to smaller upstarts such as High Brew, La Colombe and Chameleon ColdBrew are putting their brews on ice. They’re introducing highend ready-made chilled bottled and canned coffee, betting U.S. grocery shoppers will embrace yet one more way to get their caffeine jolt. Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and other beverage makers are jumping in. And a Starbucks-PepsiCo partnership, which has long dominated packaged cold coffee, is also introducing new chilled brews. While sugary iced-coffee concoctions, such as Starbucks’ Frappucinos, have been popular for years, baristas and coffee bars are seeing an increasing demand for more sophisticated iced espressos and lattes. Many now say they serve more cold coffee than hot — even during winter. For the fourth quarter of 2015, Starbucks reported a 20 percent increase in iced-drink sales nationwide following its introduction of a new cold-brew coffee in its retail stores. Now, coffee makers are making a push for getting more of those highend, lower-calorie and lesssugary cold brews and lattes on the shelves of stores such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. “When given a choice, people tend to make the healthier, better-for-you choice as long as it’s within a reasonable cost premium,” said Chris Campbell, founder and CEO of Chameleon Cold-Brew, an Austin, Texas-based company with sales
growing at triple-digit rates. Canned or bottled ready-todrink coffee is a natural evolution flowing from a consumer landscape awash with premium coffee at ubiquitous Starbucks and countless independent coffee bistros. The U.S. ready-todrink coffee market has been growing by double digits annually since 2011, and Euromonitor International expects the market to reach nearly $3.6 billion by 2020. The global market stood at $18 billion in 2015, according to Euromonitor. Michael Butterworth, co-creator of the Coffee Compass blog, says the cold coffees on U.S. grocery shelves now “have a long way to go” in terms of quality and taste, “but there’s a proven market for these products, and you’re going to see more and more of them.” When the beverage industry looks to the future, it sees U.S. consumers craving ready-todrink coffee at levels approaching those in Japan. That country boasts the largest such market in the world, according to Andrea Illy, chairman and chief executive of Illycaffè SpA. There’s been a recent burst of ready-to-drink-coffee deal making and product launches. Starbucks, which teams with PepsiCo for its grocery store coffee drink offerings, is introducing new sweetened and unsweetened bottled black coffee and cold brews this summer. The Starbucks-PepsiCo partnership, which makes up about 75 percent of the ready-to-drink U.S. coffee market, “can do more consumer education in a week than we’ll have in a year,” said Campbell. Peet’s Coffee & Tea, owned by JAB Holdings, now sells cold brew canned coffee since agree-
ing to acquire Stumptown Coffee in October 2015. La Colombe, backed with funding from Chobani yogurt founder Hamdi Ulukaya, will release its canned latte later this year in grocery stores across the country. The drink, which foams like a hot latte when poured, sold briskly — 10,000 cans in its first hour — when offered online in March. Last month, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, entered into a distribution deal with High Brew Coffee, an independent beverage company started by David Smith. For Smith, who is counting on Dr Pepper for its “merchandising muscle,” coffee is a second act. He co-founded Sweet Leaf Tea Co., which was sold to Nestle Waters North America in 2011. Smith discovered the virtues of cold-brew coffee while on a seven-month sailing trip with his wife and two young children a few years ago. Crossing from island to island in the Caribbean, often at night, Smith found that standard coffee wasn’t giving him the jolt he needed to stay alert. So he bought a cold-brew kit on Amazon. Though it takes 12 hours to make cold brew, it delivers twice the caffeine punch of traditional brewing, and Smith could brew enough in his boat’s galley to last four or five days. “A light bulb went off,” he said. “If somebody came up with a ready-to-drink, shelf-stable, coldbrew coffee that was conveniently packaged, it would really be a great addition to what is available to consumers out there today.” The resulting product, High Brew Coffee, hit grocery store shelves in 2014. Sales grew 270 percent in 2015, said Smith, though he declined to provide dollar sales.
Week Ahead • Recruiting National career fair, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center, 15500 E. 40th St., Denver. recruitingnational.com
• HireLive career fair, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, 3203 Quebec St., Denver. hirelive.com
BUSINESS: Dana Coffield, business editor; Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, deputy business editor Phone: 303-954-1954 Fax: 303-954-1334 E-mail:
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the denver post B denverpost.com • wednesday, june 15, 2016
NEWS «13A
NATION & WORLD Briefs
CYBERS ECU RI T Y
NATO REINFORCES DEFENSE VS. RUSSIA
Russian hackers access Democrats’ database
brussels» NATO has reinforced its defenses against Russia from the Baltic to the Black Sea, delivering what the alliance’s chief called a clear message to Moscow that “if any of our allies is attacked the whole alliance will respond as one.” Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary-general, said Tuesday that NATO defense ministers agreed to deploy four multinational battalions on a rotational basis to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. He said: “NATO is an alliance that delivers.”
No disclosure of e-mail immunity agreement
B washington» A federal judge ruled Tuesday that he will not publicly disclose details of an immunity agreement between a former aide to Hillary Clinton and Justice Department prosecutors that had been sought by a conservative legal advocacy group in a lawsuit against the State Department. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sided with prosecutors who had sought to seal details of their immunity deal with Bryan Pagliano, a former State Department staffer and private computer security consultant who oversaw the operations of Clinton’s private e-mail server. Sullivan also ruled Tuesday that an upcoming deposition of Pagliano by lawyers for the conservative legal group Judicial Watch would be videotaped but remain temporarily sealed.
Device drains calories from stomach B washington » The FDA is approving a new weightloss device that offers a novel approach to cutting calories: draining them from the stomach before they are digested. The AspireAssist system consists of a thin tube implanted in the stomach, connecting to an outside port on the skin of the belly. About 30 minutes after finishing a meal, users connect the port to an external device, which drains some of the recently consumed food into the toilet. The manufacturer says its system removes about 30 percent of food stored in the stomach before it causes weight gain.
DNC’s network breached; opposition research on Trump is stolen By Ellen Nakashima The Washington Post
Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach. The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system they also were able to read all e-mail and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts. The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies,
as were the computers of some GOP political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available. A Russian Embassy spokesman said he had no knowledge of such intrusions. Some of the hackers had access to the network for about a year, but all were expelled over the past weekend in a computer cleanup campaign, the committee officials and experts said. The DNC said that no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed, suggesting that the breach was traditional espionage. The intrusions are an example of Russia’s interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, strengths and weaknesses of a potential future president — much as American spies gather similar information on foreign candidates and leaders.
The depth of the penetration reflects the skill and determination of the United States’ top cyber adversary as Russia goes after strategic targets from the White House and State Department to political campaign organizations. “It’s the job of every foreign intelligence service to collect intelligence against their adversaries,” said Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike, the cyber firm called in to handle the DNC breach and a former head of the FBI’s cyber division. He noted that it is extremely difficult for a civilian organization to protect itself from a skilled and determined state such as Russia. “We’re perceived as an adversary of Russia,” he said. “Their job when they wake up every day is to gather intelligence against the policies, practices and strategies of the U.S. government. ”
The house folds
The Riviera Hotel and Casino — Las Vegas Strip’s first high-rise, which was as famous for its ties to organized crime as its Hollywood personification of Sin City’s mobster past — exited the scene early Tuesday with a cinematic implosion, complete with fireworks.
Toddler snatched by alligator at Disney resort B orlando, fla.» Authorities are searching for a child who was dragged into the water by an alligator near Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando. Multiple news outlets report that Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Rose Silva says the 2-year-old child was dragged into the Seven Seas Lagoon about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Deputies were continuing to search the waters more than two hours later, but the child had not been found. Denver Post wire services
BBB
THIS DAY I N H ISTO RY Today is Wednesday, June 15, the 167th day of 2016. There are 199 days left in the year.
end of an era. The Monaco Tower at the Riviera Hotel and Casino crumbles to the ground during a controlled demolition early Tuesday. The casino, which opened in 1955, was closed last year to make room to expand the Las Vegas Convention Center. John Locher, The Associated Press
IN THE NATION
1904: More than 1,000 people died when fire erupted aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York’s East River.
IN THE WORLD
1215: England’s King John put his seal to Magna Carta (“the Great Charter”) at Runnymede.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU Rhythm-and-blues singer Ruby Nash Garnett (Ruby and the Romantics) is 82. Comedian-actor Jim Belushi is 62. Actress Julie Hagerty is 61. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Wade Boggs is 58. Actress Helen Hunt is 53. Actress Courteney Cox is 52. Actor-rapper Ice Cube is 47. Actor Neil Patrick Harris is 43. Rock musician Wayne Sermon (Imagine Dragons) is 32. The Associated Press
may 2015. The Rat Pack’s original 1960 “Ocean’s 11,” the James Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Casino” and “The Hangover” were filmed at the Riviera. Steve Marcus, Las Vegas Sun
may 1955. The Hotel Riviera reached nine stories high during its construction. Harold P. Matosian, Associated Press file
Reward Yourself Today
Win tickets to Killer Queen’s show at Red Rocks on July 26! Denver Post Members – enter to win at DenverPostMemberServices.com* For more information about the show and to purchase tickets, visit www.cpt12.org/killerqueen *Limited ticket availabilty, register to win today.
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the denver post B denverpost.com • wednesday, august 31, 2016
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Market Roundup Dow Jones Close: 18,454.30 Change:-48.69
Major Indexes
20 Transport 15 Utilities Wilshire 5000 Russell 2000
NYSE Close: 10,797.54 Change:-13.81
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NASDAQ Close:5,222.99 Change:-9.34
Bonds & Commodities
CLOSE
CHANGE
7,910.12 665.22 22,619.68 1,246.02
+49.82 -7.10 -37.34 +1.08
10-Year Note 30-Year Bond Crude Oil Natural Gas Gold Silver Corn Wheat
1.57% 2.23% $46.35 $2.83 $1,311.20 $18.58 $3.04 $3.63
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S&P 500 Close: 2,176.12 Change:-4.26
NYSE Winners +0.01 +0.01 -0.63 -0.02 -11.40 -0.18 -0.08 -0.08
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3.22 35.71 7.23 17.79 5.67
Bloomberg, CO Close: 513.25 Change:-2.94
NYSE Losers
CLOSE CHANGE PERCENT
PtroqstE rs RitchieBr Constellm Potash Jumei Intl
BUSINESS «13A
+0.86 +6.82 +1.07 +1.74 +0.47
+36.4 +23.6 +17.4 +10.8 +9.0
CLOSE
ChrisBnk AberFitc DrGMBll s DxGBull s PrUJMin rs
1.62 18.29 17.28 18.76 98.00
CHANGE PERCENT
-0.44 -4.66 -3.32 -3.16 -14.58
-21.4 -20.3 -16.1 -14.4 -13.0
Souring on Hershey-dipped Apple News involving the candy company and tech firm spoils investors’ appetites, adding to a slight drop. By Ken Sweet The Associated Press
Stocks on Tuesday fell slightly in another quiet day on Wall Street as hesitant investors remained on the sidelines as a slow summer winds down. Shares of the candy company Hershey plunged after it walked away from a merger proposal, and Apple slipped after the company was hit with a large tax bill in Europe. Investors continue to wait to see whether the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year. The next key piece of data is coming on Friday with the August jobs report. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.69 points, or 0.3 percent, to 18,454.30. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 4.26 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,176.12 and the
Nasdaq composite fell 9.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,222.99. Trading was extremely light once again, with roughly 2.95 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the seventh-slowest day of the year. Monday was the slowest trading day of 2016. Bank stocks were among the few gainers as investors continued to interpret comments from Federal Reserve chair Yellen and vice chair Stanley Fisher at a conference in Wyoming last week as signs the Fed is ready to raise interest rates later this year. In her comments, Yellen said “the case for an increase (in interest rates) has strengthened in recent months.” Banks are a major beneficiary of rising interest rates since they can charge more for loans when interest rates rise. Bank of America rose 35 cents, or 2 percent, to $16.19, Wells Fargo rose $1.06, or 2 percent, to $50.62 and Morgan Stanley rose 78 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $32.19. Investors are waiting to see if the Labor
Department’s monthly jobs survey this week indicates whether the U.S. economy remains on solid footing. Economists expect employers added 182,500 jobs in August and that the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.8 percent. A strong jobs report would give the Federal Reserve additional ammunition to raise interest rates either at its September meeting or later this year. “After Yellen’s comments at Jackson Hole, there are some investors who think higher interest rates could hinge on this jobs report,” said Scott Wren, a senior global equity strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. In other company news, Hershey fell $12.02, or 11 percent, to $99.65 after snack food company Mondelez International said it was walking away from its proposal to buy Hershey for roughly $25 billion. Mondelez, which makes Oreo cookies and other snack foods, initially proposed to buy the company earlier this summer, but
Hershey is a notoriously difficult company to propose mergers with since the majority of the shares are controlled by a non-profit. Apple fell 82 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $106 after the European Union ruled that it has to pay $14.5 billion in back taxes. Both Apple and Ireland said they would appeal the decision, which is the EU’s latest and most aggressive move in its campaign to have multinationals pay a fair tax rate. United Continental rose $4.04, or 8.6 percent, to $50.99 after the company announced it was hiring a former American Airlines executive, Scott Kirby, to become president and take over day-to-day operations. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 63 cents to $46.35 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price oil internationally, fell 89 cents to $48.37 a barrel. In other energy commodities, heating oil fell 1.5 cents to $1.471 a gallon, wholesale gasoline fell 1.9 cents to $1.448 a gallon and natural gas fell 7 cents to $2.827 per thousand cubic feet.
Novartis gains United States’ OK A lower-cost version of Enbrel gets cleared. By Linda A. Johnson and Matthew Perrone The Associated Press
U.S. regulators on Tuesday approved the first lower-cost version of Enbrel, a blockbuster anti-inflammatory drug from Amgen that is among the top-selling drugs in the world. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the near-copy of the drug, dubbed Erelzi, developed by Swiss drug giant Novartis, which would not disclose the planned list price for the drug. A month’s supply of Enbrel costs about $4,000 or more in the U.S., according to figures from GoodRx, a drug pricing website. Enbrel was the fourth-bestselling prescription drug in the world for 2015, according to health data firm IMS Health. The FDA approved No-
vartis’ drug for the same diseases listed on Enbrel’s label, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and other immune system disorders. The announcement marks the third FDA approval of a so-called biosimilar drug, the industry term for generic biotech medicines, used to indicate they are not exact copies of the original products. Already available in Europe, the drugs have the potential to generate billions in savings for insurers, doctors and patients. But savings from Enbrel could be delayed for years due to an ongoing legal dispute over the drug, according to analyst reports. Under a court order dated Aug. 11, Amgen Inc. and Sandoz, a unit of Novartis, agreed to a preliminary injunction blocking the launch of Erelzi. Both companies refused to discuss how long that injunction will last. Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison said the agreement indicates that a trial would not begin until April 2018. Under that time-
line, a near-term launch of lower-cost Enbrel “is off the table,” he states in a recent note to investors. Erelzi is Novartis’ second competitor to an Amgen drug. Last March Novartis won approval for a biosimilar version of Amgen’s drug Neupogen — the first biosimilar approved in the U.S. Pfizer won approval to market a second biosimilar in April, a version of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade. Enbrel was Amgen’s topselling drug last year with $5.1 billion in U.S. sales and $5.4 billion worldwide. The injectable medicine was first approved in 1998, part of a class of multi-billion dollar drugs that reduce inflammation and help control the immune system. The class also includes Remicade and AbbVie’s Humira, which is also facing potential competition from biologic versions in development. Biotech drugs are powerful, injected medicines produced in living cells that are typically much more expensive than traditional,
T R I A L N OW LIMITE D
Beats wins as suit is dismissed By The Associated Press
A judge has dismissed the key claims in a lawsuit alleging that headphone maker Beats Electronics duped one of its early partners before negotiating its $3 billion sale to Apple two years ago. The summary judgment issued late Monday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Fahey resolves the heart of a case that accused Beats cofounders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine of double-crossing former partner Noel Lee, founder of video and audio cable maker Monster LLC. The allegations, made in a lawsuit filed last year, had been scheduled to go to trial next week. Now the trial will be limited to Beats’ effort to force Monster to pay its attorney fees and other costs. Apple declined to comment on the ruling, but Beats has always maintained Monster’s lawsuit
A judge has dismissed the key claims in a lawsuit for Beats headphones. Associated Press
was frivolous. Monster attorney Philip Gregory didn’t respond to requests for comment. Lee once held a 5 percent stake in Beats as part of a partnership between the headphone maker and Monster that ended in 2012. The lawsuit alleged Dre, a
former rap singer whose real name is Andre Young, and Iovine, a former record producer, orchestrated a “sham” deal with smartphone maker HTC in 2011 that led to the termination of the Monster alliance. But Fahey concluded that Beats’ actions were allowed under the contracts that Lee and Monster had entered into as sophisticated investors. The lawsuit had alleged Beats’ misrepresentations had caused Lee to sell his remaining 1.25 percent stake for $5.5 million in 2013. That would have been worth more than $30 million had he owned it at the time of Beat’s sale to Apple Inc. Lee’s original stake would have landed him roughly $150 million. Fahey also dismissed Monster’s claims alleging misconduct by HTC America and Paul Wachter, a Beats investor and board member.
chemical-based drugs. In 2015, six of the 10 top-selling medicines globally were biotech drugs, with more than $56 billion in combined sales.
Destruction of Chiropractic Records and x-rays by Dr. Dale Retzer, D.C., 89 W. Littleton Blvd., Suite B, Littleton, CO 80120 will occur on November 7, 2016 for former patients from 1987 through 2006. Call 303730-2414 during September 2016 to arrange to pick up your records.
The Petition requests that the name of Payman Nazaralizadehfard be changed to Payman Nazari, case# 16C02181.
14A» BUSINESS
friday, november 4, 2016 B denverpost.com B the denver post
BUSINESS STARZ CUTS 50 JOBS AFTER REBRAND WITH ENCORE By Tamara Chuang The Denver Post
Starz Entertainment confirmed Thursday that it laid off about 50 workers because of a reorganization that began last spring. But the job cuts have nothing to do with the Douglas County-based cable channel’s pending $4.4 billion merger with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Instead, the cuts stem from Starz rebranding the Encore channels into Starz Encore in April. The jobs affected were in creative departments. “Due to significant changes and reduced needs precipitated from a rebrand the company underwent in April 2016, Starz notified 50 employees in the marketing and creative services teams that their jobs have been restructured and eliminated. While a difficult decision, the Company is doing this with the utmost respect for each and every person,” a Starz spokesman shared in an e-mail statement. The cuts came the same day Starz encouraged shareholders to vote for the merger, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. Lions Gate will be merged into Starz and afterward, the combined company will have 90 television series on 40 networks and a film business that generated $7 billion at the global box office for the past four years. Starz employs 700 people, including 480 in the Denver area. BBB
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top workplaces: Nominations will be accepted until Nov. 18 online at denverpost.com/nominate or by telephone at 303-261-8253.
CNL is ski-daddling Sale of 14 resorts, including Crested Butte, part of trust’s exit strategy By David Sharp The Associated Press
A Florida-based real estate investment trust has reached an agreement to sell more than a dozen major ski resorts and other properties from Maine to California. Under the deal, New York hedge fund manager Och-Ziff will assume ownership of 14 properties currently held by CNL Lifestyle Properties, including Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine, Crested Butte in Colorado, Brighton in Utah and Sierra-atTahoe in California. Missouri-based EPR Properties will retain the rest of CNL’s holdings, including Northstar California ski resort and 15 waterparks and amusement parks. CNL will receive about $830 million in cash and stock under the purchase and sale agreement. When the deal closes, it will be
the largest ski resort transaction in the history of the sport. Long-term leases will remain in place, so mountain operators will remain unchanged after the properties change hands. CNL and EPR are real estate investment trusts, which are investment vehicles for a variety of properties including hotels, office buildings and malls. CNL Lifestyle Properties was valued at as much as $3 billion in 2012 with ownership of more than 100 water parks, ski resorts, marinas and senior housing developments. As part of its anticipated exit strategy, CNL has been selling off assets in the real estate investment trust. Under the deal, an Och-Ziff subsidiary will assume ownership of its share through cash and a $244 million loan. Steve Kircher, an executive from Michi-
gan-based Boyne Resorts, which has leases to operate seven of the ski resorts, said it’s his understanding that Och-Ziff was brought into the transaction to diversify EPR’s exposure to ski holdings. Other ski resorts are Cypress Mountain in British Columbia; Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts; Loon Mountain and Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire; Okemo Mountain in Vermont; Mountain High in California; Summit-at-Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass in Washington state; and Gatlinburg Sky Lift in Tennessee. Kircher said skiers shouldn’t be alarmed. Current lease holders will continue to operate the resorts as they have in the past, he said. From a skier’s perspective, it’s akin to a home mortgage being sold between banks, he said. “It’s not an event from a skier’s perspective.”
Baking Up a Storm
Louisville-based Izzio’s bread sold in 25 states
The Welton Park housing complex is open at 2300 Welton St. Joe Vaccarelli, The Denver Post
NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPENS IN FIVE POINTS By Joe Vaccarelli The Denver Post
Bouncing between friends’ houses had become an unsustainable way for Connally Cotton to live. He was looking at living on the street until he heard about some new affordable housing coming to Five Points. Cotton moved into his new studio apartment at Welton Park last month after hearing about the development from a case worker. “I was so happy to move,” he said. “I slept on the floor the first night.” All 223 apartments at 2300 Welton St. are income restricted. Tenants can only earn up to 60 percent of the area median income, which comes out to $33,660 for one person or $43,260 for a family of three. Rents range from as low as $420 per month for a studio up to $1,250 for a three-bedroom apartment. The $43 million project was led by Century Development, which received financial help from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Colorado Division of Housing and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority. Denver’s Office of Economic Development also chipped in $1.1 million through the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance special revenue fund. The two-building complex includes 205 parking spaces and is within three blocks of two different light rail stops along RTD’s D Line. Century Development managing member Brent Snyder said the project goes back nearly 13 years when his firm first acquired a lot on the block. After 10 contracts to purchase 17 lots on the property and a recession, the project finally got underway about two years ago. More information about renting in the complex is available at weltonpark.com. “We’re receiving lots of interest,” Snyder said.
Edgar Leon of Izzio Artisan Bakery carries loaves of French Boule bread to a machine that will load the bread into the ovens at the Louisville facility. Paul Aiken, Daily Camera By Cindy Sutter Daily Camera
Can bread be artisan and produced in large enough quantities to be sold across the country? If you’re asking the bread-making Bar-on family, the answer would be an emphatic yes, it can, and yes, it is. “The two are in the same room together,” said Etai Bar-on, who works with his father, Udi, and his sister, Robin, in the company that includes Izzio Artisan Bakery in Louisville and the Izzio Cafe at Denver Central Market. “We have a great deal of mechanization, and we also have a really old-style bakery where everything is made by hand.” By that he means each loaf of bread is hand-shaped by bakers in the same space in which the loaves are then conveyed by machine into the oven that stands 18 feet high. “It’s very unique among bakeries,” Etai said. “We are doing the same
thing as a very small artisanal bakery and a huge wholesale bakery.” It all starts with local flour — about 160,000 pounds a week, milled in Platteville from five varieties of hard red winter wheat grown on 26 Colorado farms — and a French sourdough starter the company has been “feeding” since 1998. The Colorado flour forms the backbone of most loaves, with only 10 percent of flour the company uses — speciality varieties — coming from other sources. “It’s pure flour with no enrichments in it, milled to our specs,” Etai said of the Colorado wheat. “We
wanted a very clean label.” The company doesn’t enrich its flour with iron and B vitamins, nor does it use ascorbic acid to neutralize the enzymes to control the starter’s fermentation process, as some commercial bakers do. “If we execute properly, the systems and processes we follow will control about 90 percent of how the bread is made,” Etai said. “The final 5 to 10 percent of the process is the bakers adjusting in real time to what they see in front of them.” That can mean throwing the timing off a bit. “If the schedule says 9:30, but the dough doesn’t look ready, we wait till 9:45 or 10,” Etai said. “That’s the artistry part.” The loaves that come out of the oven — from the company’s rustico to rye to challah — are then shipped to grocers and farmers markets, including the Boulder and Longmont Farmers Markets. The company currently sells bread in 25 states; it is ofIZZIO » 16A
Investors’ picks depend on model used By Aldo Svaldi The Denver Post
Investors are increasingly hedging their bets as the presidential race tightens in an unexpected way. “The market wants certainty, and a Donald Trump win will be a surprise,” Burt White, chief investment officer with LPL Financial, told clients of Brown & Tedstrom, a Denver wealth manager, on Thursday morning.
White said a Trump win on Tuesday could send markets down another 8 percent, similar to the hit U.S. markets suffered in June when the British voted in favor of exiting the European Union, stunning the pundits. A win by Hillary Clinton could trigger a relief rally, reversing the losses of recent weeks, while a contested election represents the most chaotic scenario. Although Trump is expected to pur-
sue tax and regulatory policies more favorable to business, investors don’t understand the details behind his broader policy initiatives, White said. Trump’s stance on trade, an area he has given details on, would damage the economy and actually subtract from corporate earnings and economic growth, he said. LPL Financial is studying two barometers as it tries to measure where the race ELECTION » 15A
