Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/648900
ByJohnRogers TheAssociatedPress LOS ANGELES Thrill-seek- ers looking to take their fear of heights to a new level can come to downtown Los Angeles this summer and careen down a clear glass slide atop the tallest build- ing west of the Mississippi. The "Skyslide" is sched- uled to begin sending ur- ban adventurers down the relatively brief ride 1,000 feet above the ground in June. It will span 45 feet from the 70th to the 69th floor of the U.S. Bank Tower downtown. Nothing but 1¼-inch glass separates riders from the ground, promising to provide both a thrill and quite the view for anyone willing to open their eyes along the way. On a clear day, the 72-story tower provides pan- oramic views that extend to Catalina Island 22 miles off the Pacific Coast and over the Santa Monica Moun- tains to the city's sprawling San Fernando Valley. "There will be nothing like it in the U.S.," said Lucy Rumantir, head of U.S. op- erations for the building owner OUE Limited of Sin- gapore. Andthatis justthereason for building a giant slide in the sky, Rumantir said. "When you do something new in LA you've got to be creative," she said, adding there are already plenty of things to see here. But the building owners' think- ing goes that a wild slide through the sky might drive more thrill-seekers down- town rather than to the beaches, Disneyland and othertraditionalattractions. Downtown nightlife has exploded in recent years with the addition of upscale hotels, The Broad museum, the LA Live entertainment district and trendy bars and restaurants. Skyslide also continues a trend of creating attrac- tions designed for urban thrill-seekers who for some reason seem eager to laugh in the face of acrophobia. Grand Canyon Skywalk, the horseshoe-shaped bridge that opened nine years ago, allows visitors to stroll right off the edge of the canyon's north rim and stare through 2,000 feet of nothingness to the canyon floor. The Las Ve- gas Strip's X-Scream roller- coaster sends riders on a wild plunge off the top of the 1,100-foot Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. Chicago's Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) renovated its 103rd floor observation deck in 2009 to add all-glass balconies, allowing people to actu- ally step several feet off the ledge. Skyslide is part of a $50 million renovation that will also put an open-air obser- vation deck and bar on the tower's top floors. Admission to the Sky- space observation deck will be $25, with tickets to Sky- slide costing $8. Tickets go on sale March 18, and Rumantir said the building is already receiv- ing hundreds of calls from people who want to slide. Asked if she'll actually slide down the thing when it opens, she laughed:. "Oh yeah, of course. We're going to be the ones who actually test the whole thing before it goes public. The risk is on us." THRILLS The45-foot-longattractionispartofa$50million renovation that will also put a bar and open-air observation deck on the top floors of the 72-story building. PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LUDVIK — OUE LTD This undated artist's rendering provided by Overseas Union Enterprise Limited shows a glass slide 1,000feet above the ground off the side of the U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Ride the sky on a 70-story glass slide By Dan Elliott The Associated Press DENVER Environmen- tal protection for the Colo- rado River — the lifeblood of the Southwest — is dis- jointed and too often gets a low priority in the manage- ment of the waterway, inde- pendent researchers said in a new report. Four, multimillion-dol- lar conservation programs do valuable work but would have more impact if they treated the entire 1,450-mile river as a single, integrated system, the report said. "We can have something different and better than the existing patchwork of programs," it said. The research group is an independent organization of academics with exper- tise in water, agriculture, law and other fields. Their report said the river is managed primar- ily as a "plumbing system" to provide water for cities and agriculture and not as an ecosystem. "I would assert that we can meet water sup- ply needs and have a much healthier and restored river," Jack Schmidt, a pro- fessor of watershed sci- ences at Utah State Univer- sity and a member of the research group, said in an interview. The river supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland in Arizona, Cal- ifornia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wy- oming. The river basin — all the areas that eventually drain into the river — covers about 246,000 square miles. The river starts in the Rocky Mountains and flows southwest through the Grand Canyon toward the Gulf of California in Mex- ico. It's so heavily used that it usually dries up before reaching the ocean. The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Re- covery program, the Lower Colorado River Multi-Spe- cies Conservation Program and the San Juan River Re- covery Implementation Pro- gram focus on saving en- dangered species and re- storing habitat along the river and its tributaries. The Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Pro- gram concentrates on mit- igating environmental im- pacts in the Grand Canyon and other areas down- stream from Lake Powell in Utah. Combined, the pro- grams spend about $54 million a year. The money comes from federal, tribal and state governments and from conservation groups. LIFEBLOOD OF THE SOUTHWEST MATT YORK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Boats skirt the shore at the Colorado River's Horseshoe Bend, downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, in Page, Ariz. Environmental protection of Co lor ad o Ri ve r ca ll ed d is joi nt ed By Tracy Seipel Bay Area News Group In what could be the first confirmed Zika case in the Bay Area, a preg- nant Napa County woman has tested positive for the virus, county public health officials said Wednesday. The Napa County Pub- lic Health Department said the woman had traveled to Central America and is not showing symptoms of Zika virus infection. Citing privacy laws, the department declined to provide any more details about the woman. "This Zika virus case is not a threat to public health. There is no active transmission of Zika vi- rus in Napa County, and the two kinds of mosqui- toes that transmit the vi- rus have not been found here," Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County's health of- ficer, said in a statement. She said that anyone who is planning to travel to a country with active Zika virus transmission should consult with their health care provider before leaving, especially if they are pregnant or are consid- ering becoming pregnant. The mosquito-borne vi- rus is prevalent in coun- tries throughout South America, Central Amer- ica, Mexico and the Carib- bean. Zika has been linked to a rare birth defect that results in an abnormally small head. The U.S. Centers for Dis- ease Control and Preven- tionsaidBrazilhasreported thatanincreasednumberof people infected with the vi- rusalsohaveGuillain-Barré Syndrome, an immune sys- tem disorder. State and local public health officials say women who are pregnant and have sexual partners who have traveled to areas with Zika are advised to abstain from sex, or use condoms consistently for the dura- tion of their pregnancies. In addition, pregnant women or sexual partners of pregnant women who cannot avoid travel to areas with the Zika virus are ad- vised to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites. California public health officials have reported that six people in the state have tested positive for the vi- rus, including a resident from Yolo County. State officials have not disclosed where the Zika victims live. But Napa and Yolo county health officials chose to release the infor- mation about their cases. All of the Californians who contracted the virus did so while traveling out- side of the U.S. FIRST BAY AREA CASE Pregnant Napa woman tests positive for Zika "This Zika virus case is not a threat to public health. There is no active transmission of Zika virus in Napa County ..." — Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa County's health officer | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016 8 A