Hasta La Gadget!

Hotels can be aspirational: you can actually aspire to a hotel in the same way that you might covet a car, or a bracelet, or a house on the beach.

There was a time — in a galaxy far, far away — when a person could live in such a hotel. I know it’s so because my very own father used to live in a very fine hotel in New York City known as The Hotel Elysee, home to the famous Monkey Bar. Back in the day — the 1940s — my paternal ink-stained wretch could share said hotel with the likes of Joe DiMaggio and the actress Tallulah Bankhead, may they rest. You didn’t have to be a millionaire to live like one.

Nowadays very rich folk live in hotels like The Plaza and The Carlysle in New York, and very poor folk live in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels. There’s really nothing in between the rich and the poor when it comes to hotel living — and please spare me any edifice that begins with the words “extended stay.”

Sorry Cholly Knickerbocker: nobody aspires to an extended stay in an extended-stay hotel.

Which brings us to the hotel in Beaver Creek that I’m more than happy to aspire to, The Westin Riverfront Resort and Spa at Beaver Creek in Avon, Colorado. Here’s what I mean: first of all, you actually can live there, in one of the condominiums with all the amenities that implies, starting with room service and Starbucks in the lobby; living there also means fresh laundry, fluffy bathrobes, and a staff that caters to your whims and wishes without becoming cloying or obsequious. If you lived there, you would have access to a great workout room, a heated swimming pool, hot tubs with mountain views, and a spa that can leave your mind, body, and spirit spic and span.

But let’s not forget the obvious: by living in The Westin Riverfront, you would also have direct gondola access to the aforesaid Beaver Creek resort, home of the Birds of Prey run and some of the best skiing in Colorado.

So there’s that — but that ain’t the half of it.

The Westin Riverfront is way cool in a way that makes the demonstrably uncool (moi) feel like at least there’s hope in the slip-and-slide slipstream of popular culture. I’m not sure that I can put my finger on the whys and wherefores, but I think my comfort level has something to do with the bang-zoom combination of old world comfort and new world taste. The lobby, for example, has just the right level of lushness and plushness without feeling like your grandfather’s Oldsmobile, and the fireplaces and fire pits bring in the warm far beyond the creature comforts a thermostat might imply.

The hotel is LEEDS-certified and almost belligerently green in its maintenance and operations, but that’s not what I’m talking about, though that does give the patron the sense that the moral tax on consumption is being paid off elsewhere.

At the end of the day — and every year that we go — The Westin Riverfront provides the ultimate feeling that any hotel can aspire to: that we’ve finally come home to the place where we were meant to be. And that’s something worth coveting.

A pizzeria in St. Paul, Minnesota, allegedly went to pot as a front for an alleged marijuana dealing family. Now police have weeded out four suspects, including the owner, his mother and grandmother.

On Friday, authorities arrested Ryan Dimitri Brooks Sr., 27, the owner of Papa Dimitri’s Classic Pizza and Ice Cream; his mother, Rosalyn Mary Brooks, 61; grandmother Joyce Elaine Merkley, 82, and a woman he lived with, Lena Shalay Kirk, 24, according to TwinCities.com.

They were each charged with multiple felonies including conspiracy to sell marijuana; cocaine possession; engaging in business of concealing criminal proceeds; and illegal possession of a handgun by a felon.

Authorities began investigating Papa Dimitri’s Pizza last August after getting a tip that the restaurant was rarely open and didn’t seem to do a lot of business, KARE TV reports.

According to the criminal complaint obtained by the station, Papa Dimitri’s employees complained about a lack of heat despite the presence of pizza ovens. The workers also chose to eat at a nearby burger restaurant rather than the pizzeria.

Yelp reviews weren’t very positive either. One customer griped, “I’ve defrosted better pizza on my engine block. A cracker thin crust with greasy cheese. Overpriced and slow as heck.”

During a six days in November, investigators said the restaurant counted five customers and and four deliveries, KARE TV reports.

“My initial thought was how does this business stay afloat when I first saw it,” Franz Rauch, manager of a neighboring computer store, told the station.

Ryan Brooks took over the pizza parlor in 2010 and deposited $189,891.82 in cash in bank accounts between Jan. 1, 2013 and Oct. 31, 2014, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

In October, a U.S. Postal Inspector told police that the Postal Service had intercepted three packages sent to Merkley’s home and one to the pizzeria containing more than 37 pounds of marijuana.

In November, another package addressed to Merkley containing five pounds of marijuana had been intercepted before reaching her home, the newspaper reports.

A correctional officer who knew Brooks when he was in jail several years ago said that the suspect allegedly admitted he had previous used a pizza parlor to launder drug money. The officer also alleged that Brooks had “utilized pizza boxes and bags to deliver marijuana under the guise of making pizza deliveries,” according to the Duluth News Tribune.

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Kamalame Cay (Courtesy Kamalame Cay)

A family vacation in the Bahamas has a certain dreamy ring to it and the good news is that thanks to these family-friendly all-inclusive resorts, it needn’t be complicated or expensive. By booking with a family-friendly resort or hotel that offers an all-inclusive rate with all the amenities you and your kids will need for a relaxing and fun Bahamian vacation, you can escape to the sunny Caribbean totally stress free.

We’ve handpicked the best all-inclusives for families in the Bahamas for you, so all you really have to do is relax with sand between your toes.

Kamalame Cay, Andros

For an exclusive yet understated experience without compromising on style, Kamalame Cay is a chic 96-acre private hideout with all the trimmings and extraordinarily friendly staff. Pristine pastel-coloured Bahamian cottages nestle amongst the coconut palms, hibiscus and bougainvillea. Inside the rooms, rustic meets colonial chic. There’s a three-mile private beach and surrounding water where one can try bone-fishing, fly-fishing, kayaking, snorkelling or even go diving along the world’s 3rd longest barrier reef. Although there is no kids club, there’s a $15/hour for two kids babysitting option and the island is super kid-friendly as it’s totally safe and offers plenty of kid-friendly entertainment from hermit crab races to sand castle making, nature walks and scavenger hunts. Each guest has his own villa offering great independence and privacy, the beach, their very own golf buggy to get around and even better, a daily delivery of fresh cookies to the room!

(MORE: Look for money-saving family-friendly deals in the Caribbean.)

Small Hope Bay Lodge Andros Town, Andros Town

Small Hope Bay Lodge Andros Town (Courtesy Small Hope Bay Lodge)

With just 21 beachfront cottages, Small Hope is the perfect, cozy family-friendly hotel in the Bahamas. With two beaches to choose from, it’s just the place for shell collectors or simply lounging in the sun… The all-inclusive package covers all meals, drinks, bar drinks, hotel taxes, use of bicycles, sea kayaks, windsurf, sailboat, access to a beachfront hot tub, self-guided nature walks and introductory dive or snorkel lesson! What’s not to love? You’ll even get free WIFI in the lounge and free VOI calls to the US and Canada! This is the ideal place to try diving, snorkelling or bone-fishing with daily trips organised the night before by the friendly staff. The cute cottages are rustic yet clean and comfortable, made of native Andros pine and decorated in Androsia batik fabric. Each comes with a private bathroom with stand up shower, a safe, complimentary sports bottle, filtered drinking water and daily maid service. In the evenings, you can enjoy board games, ping-pong, a few drinks by the bar or impromptu live music! Rollaway beds, cribs and babysitting are other kid-friendly amenities available for families.

Riu Palace Paradise Island

Some say this all-inclusive hotel is set on Paradise Islands’ best beach! The kid-friendly hotel has all the necessary luxuries on a budget. There’s a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, solarium-terrace and the Renova Spa & Beauty Center and several restaurants: Atlantic with its terrace, Krystal for a fusion menu, Tengoku for Japanese, Sir Alexander for a gourmet meal and the Bahamas grill and steakhouse. As well as the food outlets, there are several bars and lounges, from the Colony lobby bar to the Calypso lounge terrace, the poolside Soca with its swim up bar and the Sports bar open 24 hours. Did we mention there is also 24-hour room service? The 379 rooms feature air-conditioning, free WIFI, minibars, coffee makers, satellite tv, in room safes and ironing equipment as well as balconies and most, have a partial sea view. Great family-friendly local activities include swimming with dolphins, hitting the waterparks or visting the old colonial city, its museums or the zoo!

Andros Beach Club

South Andros Island, the Nature Island of the Bahamas is a dream escape with 4 miles of private, secluded white sand just steps away from your room. There are all the usual Bahamas-family friendly activities like diving, fishing, collecting shells and bone-fishing or even kayaking and bird watching, as well as beach sports, or simply lying in a hammock! The family-run hotel also provides childcare and activities while Mum and Dad take some time out. Other useful services include massage, manicures and pedicures or facials, as well as a local taxi or scooter hire. You can get self-catering too but the all-inclusive package includes accommodations, all meals, soft drinks, airport transfers, housekeeping, bicycles, kayaks, sunfish sailboat, snorkel gear, WiFi, satellite TV and a bottle of wine nightly. What more could you ask for?

(MORE: Find family-friendly attractions to see in the Bahamas.)

Grand Lucayan Resort, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas

Grand Lucayan Resort (Courtesy Grand Lucayan)

Although not an all inclusive resort per se, this family-friendly hotel offers all inclusive packages so you can get the best of both worlds. On the fourth largest island in the Bahamas, it’s an elegant resort with a clean, modern look, all light wood tones and a floral palette in the main building, while the two-story villas have a distinct Bahamian flavor with darker woods and fabrics in shades of blue. The 372-acre resort is set right on the Bahamian water with a 7.5-acre pristine white sandy beach to play on! In the 740 guest rooms, families will be glad to find kitchenettes, including a microwave and rollaway beds or cribs available on request, as well as babysitting! There are two championship golf courses, a senses spa, fitness center, 8 restaurants and lounges, 4 grand slam tennis courts, casino, kid’s club and four pools (one for kids) to keep you busy. Just the place for a family vacation in the Bahamas!

Rowena Carr-Allinson contributed this to MiniTime. Since the arrival of her son in 2011, she has taken him everywhere from Bangkok to NYC, writing family friendly articles en route.

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WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopefuls are lining up in defense of Indiana’s controversial “religious freedom” law, which critics warn will open the door to legal discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals by businesses in the state.

“I think Gov. [Mike] Pence has done the right thing,” former Florida governor and likely 2016 contender Jeb Bush said in a Monday interview. “I think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all.”

As a reason why such laws are necessary, Bush pointed to the case of a Washington state florist who was fined for refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.

“There are many cases where people acting on their conscience have been cascaded by the government,” Bush told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “This law simply says the government has to have a level of burden to be able to establish there has been some kind of discrimination. We’re going to need this. This is really an important value in our country, where you can respect and be tolerant of people’s lifestyles but allow for people of faith to exercise theirs.”

Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Pence signed into law last week, differs from similar laws passed by 19 other states because it can be raised in disputes between private citizens. Unlike those laws and even the federal version, which President Bill Clinton signed in 1993, the Indiana legislation allows businesses to cite religious beliefs as a legal defense.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is expected to announce his bid for the White House next month, dodged a question Monday as to whether gay Americans should be legally protected against discrimination. But appearing on Fox News’ “The Five,” he argued that religious freedom laws do make some sense.

“Obviously, it’s raised a lot of debate in America about how far these laws go and what implications they would have, and it’s a difficult debate to have for a lot of people,” Rubio said. “But I think the flip side of all of this debate is what about the religious liberties of Americans who do not want to feel compelled by law to provide a catering service or photography service to a same-sex marriage that their faith teaches is wrong?”

He added, “No one here is saying it should be legal to deny someone services at a hotel or at a restaurant because of their sexual orientation. I think that is a consensus view in America.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), another likely presidential contender, said in a statement that he supports Indiana’s new law because he supports “religious liberty as granted to us in our Constitution.” He joined his fellow White House hopefuls in rejecting the notion that the law is discriminatory.

Famed neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a darling of the conservative movement and star of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, told Breitbart News that it was “absolutely vital that we do all we can to allow Americans to practice their religious ways.”

Asked about the prospect of a religious freedom law in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R), an early frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, sounded noncommittal.

“Well again, in our state, there’s a balance between wanting to make sure there is not discrimination, but at the same time respecting religious freedoms,” Walker said, according to WisPolitics. “We do that different ways than what they’ve done in the state of Indiana, and certainly that’s going to be part of the debate here and across the country.”

But the governor’s spokeswoman told Breitbart that Walker broadly supports religious freedom as “a matter of principle.”

The national backlash against Indiana’s law has shown no sign of abating. On Monday, Connecticut became the first state to boycott Indiana, when Gov. Dan Malloy (D), himself a possible 2016 contender, signed an executive order barring state-funded travel to Indiana. Two major cities, San Francisco and Seattle, have imposed similar bans.

Several large businesses, including Angie’s List and Salesforce, have also pulled or delayed spending in the state. And Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote a Washington Post op-ed on Sunday night, denouncing Indiana’s law and putting Arkansas on notice over a similar bill making its way through the legislature there.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a highly anticipated announcement, the United States will offer a roughly 28 percent emissions cut as its contribution to a major global climate treaty nearing the final stages of negotiation, according to people briefed on the White House’s plans.

The U.S. plans to announce its commitment Tuesday, the informal deadline for nations to submit their contributions to the United Nations. Although the goal of 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025 isn’t new — President Barack Obama first unveiled it last year during a trip to Beijing — the U.S. proposal has drawn intense interest from the vast majority of countries that have yet to announce how deeply they’ll pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the treaty.

Obama’s pledge constitutes the opening offer by the U.S. as world leaders strive to reach a climate deal powerful and ambitious enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change. In the works for years, the treaty is set to be finalized in Paris in December. If it’s successful, it will mark the first time all nations — not just wealthier ones like the U.S. — will have agreed to do something about climate change.

As part of its proposal, known to climate negotiators as an Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, the U.S. will also assert that its contribution is both ambitious and fair, said the individuals briefed on the U.S. proposal, who requested anonymity because the proposal hasn’t been announced.

What metrics the U.S. will use to back up that claim is not yet clear. The European Union, one of the first parties to submit its contribution, pointed to per capita reductions in emissions to show how it is cutting its carbon footprint. But emissions per capita are far higher in the U.S., making it an inconvenient measure for the U.S. to use to show progress.

Instead, the U.S. is expected to focus on the fact that the Obama administration has ramped up the rate of emissions reductions nearly twofold. Early in his presidency, Obama committed to cut U.S. emissions 17 percent by 2020; his subsequent goal for 2025 pushes it to 28 percent.

The White House declined to comment.

The U.S. and other developed countries have been aggressively pressing developing nations to step up on climate change — especially those like China and India that are heavily reliant on dirtier sources of energy. Obama has described his strategy as “leading by example” and has sought to use the steps he’s already taken to cut emissions to ramp up pressure on other countries to do the same.

But poorer countries have traditionally balked, arguing their more modest means make reductions more of an imposition and pointing out that historically, they’re responsible for just a small fraction of the heat-trapping gases that industrialized countries have been pumping into the atmosphere for decades. So when Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping both committed to curbing emissions in a joint announcement in November, environmentalists hailed it as a sign that reluctant nations like China were finally getting on board.

“People know that domestically, we’re moving forward,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said Monday at a luncheon hosted by Politico. She pointed to the U.S.-China pact as Exhibit A. “If the two biggest polluters and the two biggest greenhouse gas polluters can get together, and two biggest economies, then we’re going to be OK moving into Paris, and we should have momentum behind our backs.”

Although all nations were asked to submit their climate targets by the end-of-March target date, only a handful of countries are expected to meet it. In addition to the U.S., the EU and Switzerland, Mexico unveiled a pledge last week to cut greenhouse gases and short-lived climate pollutants 25 percent by 2030, drawing praise from the White House and from environmental advocates.

How will the U.S. meet its goal? The Obama administration has avoided putting hard numbers on the size of emissions reductions it expects from specific steps the U.S. is taking. In its submission, the EU listed specific economic sectors — such as transportation, energy and manufacturing — where it expects major reductions, and named the specific greenhouse gases it plans to cut.

In contrast, the U.S. is expected to point broadly to the steps it is taking under the climate action plan Obama announced in 2013, such as new rules requiring sweeping cuts from new and existing power plants, stricter emissions limits for cars and trucks, and initiatives targeting specific greenhouse gases like methane and hydrofluorocarbons.

Many of those steps ordered by Obama face major legal challenges and intense political opposition, raising the risk that they could be undermined or even discarded once Obama leaves office in 2017. Contrast that with the EU, where lawmakers have approved a cap-and-trade emissions scheme that U.S. lawmakers have declined to enact.

“Just like every other country, this is a goal — it’s aspirational,” said Alden Meyer, policy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s a fairly ambitious objective, especially if you assume that they’re not going to get any help from Congress.”

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Associates Press writers Matthew Daly and Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP