A school board candidate forum that was planned for last evening, Monday, October 16, was cancelled abruptly the day of the event after the venue hosting the event, Good Judy’s Bar & Club downtown, received a violent threat on Facebook.
Category: Harassment
Conservatives, Conspiracy theories, Dangerous Republicans, Extremism, Harassment, Health, Janet Rowland, Local concerns, Pandemic, Public health, Religion, Republican incompetence, Republican lies, Safety
Why we need to worry about County Commissioner Janet Rowland’s takeover of Mesa County Public Health Dept.
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A Facebook post by Janet Rowland during her 2020 campaign. The Washington Times is owned by the Unification Church and is noted for spreading misinformation about Coronavirus, climate change, the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and other issues. As of May, 2023, there have been 1.13 million deaths from Covid in the U.S., a number far from “ridiculously low”
In the wake of Commissioner Janet Rowland’s recent coup over the Mesa County Public Health Department, if the the past is a predictor of future behavior, under Rowland the Health Department is likely in for a significant reduction in its ability to respond to public health threats, and area residents will likely face more danger from emerging health threats.
Corruption, Dangerous Republicans, Ethics, Harassment, Janet Rowland, Public health, Republican incompetence, Republicans violating rules
Mesa County Commissioners violate County policy to appoint Janet Rowland to Board of Public Health
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Last page of the intergovernmental agreement MCA 2012-079, laying out the relationship between Mesa County and the Board of Public Health (BOH). The appointment of Janet Rowland to the BOH was highly controversial at the time Commissioners made it, but the Commissioners skipped holding the required meeting with the BOH about it first.
The relationship between Mesa County and the Health Department is governed by the 2012 “Agreement, MCA 2012-079” (pdf), dated June 25, 2012.
The Agreement discusses financing, budgeting, purchasing and personnel policies, and it lays out the overall relationship between the two agencies.
Item #2 of the Agreement says a county commissioner may be appointed to the Board of Health, but Item #10 says:
“10. Points of controversy hereunder will be addressed by a meeting between the Mesa County Board of Health and the Board of County Commissioners.”
Janet Rowland
Janet Rowland was appointed to the Board of Health on April 25th.
It was a highly controversial appointment at the time.
Crazy Republicans, Cringeworthy, Election deniers, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Harassment, Hate, Public health
The Commissioners’ glaring double standard: Jeff Kuhr vs. Tina Peters
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Daily Sentinel editorial from Thursday, August 26, 2021, questioning why the Commissioners have not demanded Tina Peters resign as County Clerk
Janet Rowland and the County Commissioners have been working hard and spending tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds to try to push Mesa County Public Health Department Director Dr. Jeff Kuhr out of his position, even though District Attorney Dan Rubinstein found insufficient evidence Kuhr had engaged in any financial impropriety and Kuhr had committed no prosecutable offense.
But where were Janet and the County Commissioners during the Tina Peters debacle?
Why didn’t the Commissioners demand Peters resign at any time during her term as Clerk, in light of all her horrific incompetence, the crimes to which she admitted, her blatant ethics violations and her extreme cost to County taxpayers?
Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Harassment, Health care, Janet Rowland, Public health, Scams
The Mesa County employee behind the effort to fire Public Health Department Director Jeff Kuhr
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Lisa Rickerd Mills (Photo: Facebook)
Lisa Mills is a behavioral health strategies manager for Mesa County’s Department of Health and Human Services and by all indications seems to be a key figure in the County’s recent ongoing, unhinged efforts to take down Dr. Jeff Kuhr as longtime Director of the Mesa County Public Health Department (MCPHD).
Bobbie Daniel, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Harassment, Janet Rowland, Public health, Scams
Can the Board of Mesa County Commissioners sink any lower?
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The Board of Mesa County Commissioners (BOCC) have been in full attack mode against Mesa County Public Health Department Director Dr. Jeff Kuhr for months. All their efforts to remove him have been shown to be without foundation. (L-R: Bobbie Daniel, Cody Davis and Janet Rowland). Photo: Mesa County
EDITORIAL from the June 1, 2023 edition of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Reprinted in full, with permission. Link to original editorial is here.
This editorial explains what’s been going on with the Commissioners’ months-long, defamatory attack on Mesa County Public Health Director Jeff Kuhr.
Can the BOCC sink any lower?
“Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”
— Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, to Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy during hearings in 1954 on whether communism infiltrated the U.S. armed forces.
Mesa County commissioners are in the midst of a relentless campaign to remove Dr. Jeff Kuhr from his position as executive director of Mesa County Public Health.
They’ve tried every trick in the book, some a little more unseemly than others, but none as low as the character assassination they’ve planted in the public record that unfairly swipes at Kuhr’s reputation without giving him an opportunity to defend himself.
Commissioners are acting much like the disgraced Sen. McCarthy, whose role in the Army-McCarthy hearings was described as “judge, jury, prosecutor, castigator, and press agent, all in one,” by Harvard law dean Ervin Griswold.
Ethics, Harassment, Safety, Security, Worker advocacy
Basalt Post Office employee attacked by co-worker
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A frightened employee in the Basalt, Colorado Post Office managed to video the last minute of a vicious assault she endured by a co-worker while at work early in the morning on January 26, 2023.
Anti-semitism, City of Grand Junction, Conspiracy theories, Dangerous Republicans, Extremism, Harassment, Intolerance, Propaganda
Redlands residents get Jew-hatred propaganda on Christmas morning
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Facebook message about anti-semitic, anti-LGBTQ fliers being left at homes on the Redlands on Christmas morning, 2022
Think anti-semitism (Jew hatred) and anti-gay sentiment doesn’t exist in Grand Junction?
Think again.
Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Embarrassing Republicans, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Harassment, Homophobia, Hompphobia, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Racism, Transphobia
D-51 School Board members attend seminar in how to fight equity and inclusion policies
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“Stand for the Constitution,” the right wing extremist Mesa County group that endorsed and defended Tina Peters, also endorsed and promoted Angela Lema, Andrea Haitz and Will Jones for School Board. All three candidates ran as a far right wing extremist slate. Now two of them are getting training in how to battle policies that aim to help all children feel welcome and accepted at D-51 schools.
The Colorado Times Recorder is reporting that D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz and D-51 Board Member Angela Lema attended a seminar at a Grand Junction hotel on August 26 called “Save Our Schools,” put on by Heritage Action for America, an affiliate of the right wing Heritage Foundation. The seminar taught people how to fight equity and inclusion policies in schools and provided resources to help them.
What are equity and inclusion policies, anyway?
Conservatives, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Deplorables, Ethics, Harassment, Lauren Boebert, Religious hypocrisy, Republicans violating laws, Vile Republicans
Audio of 911 calls about Rep. Lauren Boebert’s family harassing neighbors
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Five Garfield County Sheriff’s responded to multiple 911 calls on August 4 from neighbors of Lauren and Jayson Boebert about children harassing a residential neighborhood in Silt by driving ATVs up and down a residential street at high speeds of around 50 MPH. Two callers reported the children driving the ATVs were the kids of Jayson and Lauren Boebert. The first told the 911 operator that he stopped one of the children going 50 MPH in a RZR off-road vehicle and asked him to slow down. The child said “fuck off” to the neighbor, went home and got his dad, Jayson. Jayson Boebert then returned in charcoal-gray Ford F150 truck with the child in the passenger seat and started threatening “everybody in the neighborhood,” according the caller. Jayson drove over a caller’s mailbox, destroying it, while the caller was on the phone with the 911 operator. The caller reported Jayson was “dumb as a post,” “looking to fight with everyone in the neighborhood” and was “so irrational.” “When 911 operator asked if there were any weapons, the caller responded that the whole family has guns.
CMU, Crime, Ethics, Fake Religiosity, Harassment, Racism, Religion, Religious hypocrisy, Safety
Einstein Bagels is rounding up change to support a group that is facing multiple sexual assault and EEOC claims
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Einstein Bagels asks people to round up their purchase to the next dollar to donate to a Christian missionary youth group that has been charged with widespread sexual assault, misconduct and harassment.
Einstein Bagels in Grand Junction is asking customers to round up their change to support Young Life, an evangelical Christian missionary youth group that is currently facing a slew of sexual misconduct lawsuits by former club participants across the country and at least four Equal Employment Opportunity Complaints for racial discrimination, improper termination and other sordid allegations.
Young Life came under federal investigation in 2021 after students, members and volunteers across the country reported they had experienced unwanted sexual advances and solicitations, racially discriminatory comments and treatment, and verbal harassment consisting of sexual innuendoes, comments, jokes, inappropriate texts and social media messages, grooming, inappropriate physical touching, sexual assault, racially discriminatory treatment and retaliation against volunteers who reported such events.
Conservatives, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Harassment, Inept Republicans, Lauren Boebert, politics, Stupid Republicans, Vile Republicans
Rep. Boebert embarrasses western Colorado again with shocking outburst at State of the Union
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Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert once again roundly embarrassed her western Colorado constituents nationally with her continuing over-the-top bad behavior, this time by shouting at President Biden during his first State of the Union speech on March 1 as he began to talk about his deceased son, Beau, who died at age 46 from brain cancer in 2015. Biden raised the issue of members of the military who, like his son, had “ended up in flag-draped coffins” after being exposed to toxic burn pits in the military. As Biden mentioned the soldiers who had died, Boebert yelled out “You put them there. Thirteen of them!” apparently referencing the explosion carried out by an Isis bomber at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan last August that killed 13 American service members.
Anti-semitism, Cringeworthy, Deplorables, Diversity, Domestic terrorism, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Harassment, Hate, Inept Republicans, Lauren Boebert, politics, Racism, Vile Republicans
Rep. Boebert openly insults Jews visiting the U.S. Capitol
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Boebert, grinning while wearing a T-shirt that makes fun of the tragic death of 41 year old cinematographer Halayna Hutchins, who was accidentally shot by a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin, who was rehearsing a scene that required the gun. Baldwin called Boebert’s wearing of this shirt “unconscionable.”
News outlets are reporting on an incident that occurred at the U.S. Capitol in which Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert, while exiting an elevator, saw a group of Jews who were visiting the Capitol. The person leading the group was an orthodox Jew with a traditional beard, the others were wearing yarmulkes and some were rabbis. The group was there to meet with Rep. Thomas Suozzi (D-NY).
Reports say that upon seeing the group, Boebert looked them up and down and asked aloud if they were there to “do reconnaissance.”
The question left the group confused.
When news outlets questioned Rep. Boebert about the incident, she responded by text that she was making a joke:
“I saw a large group and made a joke. Sadly when Democrats see the same they demonize my family for a year straight.”
She added that she was too short to see yarmulkes on people’s heads.
Conservatives, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Deplorables, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Harassment, Homophobia, Intolerance, Lauren Boebert, politics, Stupid Republicans, Vile Republicans
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) makes homophobic comments about Transportation Secretary Pete Butigieg taking parental leave to care for prematurely-born newborn twins
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Colorado Republican House Rep. Lauren Boebert, has been lobbing homophobic comments at U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Butigieg at fundraisers, on television shows, and in a YouTube video of her own making that she calls “Bullet Points.”
Boebert berated Butigieg, the first openly gay person ever appointed to a cabinet-level position in the federal government, for taking parental leave to help care for his and his partners’ prematurely-born adopted twin babies.
Activism, Children, Education, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Grassroots advocacy, Harassment, Homophobia, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Racism, Safety, Security, Weird western slope stuff, Xenophobia
Former Delta County School District students pressure district to end racism in schools
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Jordan Evans (L) and Marisa Edmondson (R) are graduates of Paonia High School and are pushing the Delta County School District to actively work to end what they see as pervasive racism in Delta County Schools
Two alumni of the Delta County School District (DCSD) began an all-out effort last year to pressure the Delta County School District to address the pervasive racism and discrimination they and others say they have experienced in Delta County Schools. Edmondson says while they have made some progress, the School District and School Board have largely stonewalled them and resisted the change.
Corruption, Cronyism, Dangerous Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Harassment, Inept Republicans, Janet Rowland, Mesa County Republican Party, OGREs, Pandemic, politics, Public health, Republican incompetence, Republicans violating laws, Separation of Church and State
Why installing Rose Pugliese as County Attorney is a crazy mistake
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Rose Pugliese is the sole finalist being considered for County Attorney.
A top headline in yesterday’s Daily Sentinel announced that former Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese is the sole finalist for the job of Mesa County Attorney, which, as of 2019 was the highest-paid job in the County.
Based on Pugliese’s qualifications, or lack thereof, this is nothing short of crazy, and it smacks loudly of cronyism by Mesa County’s Old Guard Republican Establishment (OGREs).
Pugliese won consideration as sole contender for the job despite having a track record that would probably get the rest of us fired.
Oh, where to begin?
Crime, Harassment, Security
Car singled out for vandalism in Clifton Dollar Tree parking lot
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A friend drove a car belonging to her now legally-blind housemate to Dollar Tree in Clifton, bringing her 90+ year old mother, who uses a walker, for a short shopping trip. It was late morning on Wednesday, March 31, and they parked in a handicapped spot in front of the store. They were in the store less than an hour, and when they came out, they found someone had vandalized their car with black spray paint.
No other cars in the parking lot were targeted.
Consumer advocacy, Cronyism, Equal rights, Ethics, Harassment
CO homeowners helpless against rogue homeowner associations
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The Moonridge Falls subdivision HOA in Grand Junction suddenly locked homeowners out of their own common space this winter, nominally for safety, even though no accidents had occurred in the park and no one has ever been hurt there. The HOA effectively treated all homeowners as though they were trespassers in their own common space. Across the state, subdivisions that lock off commonly-owned amenities, like swimming pools or tennis courts — whether for safety or to eliminate vandalism — provide all homeowners keys to the locks on the amenities because the homeowners own the amenities and pay the substantial costs of maintaining them.
Homeowners in the Moonridge Falls subdivision in Grand Junction woke up last December 21 to find their homeowners association (HOA) had suddenly locked them out of their own common space park.
Residents couldn’t remember a time when the gates to the park had ever been locked. No one had been hurt in the park. No accidents had occurred in the park recently, not even a close call, but for some reason the HOA suddenly decided to lock the park and keep everyone out, even homeowners, as though it was a crime scene or a grave emergency had just occurred. The HOA put up a sign saying the park would stay locked as long as there was ice on the pond. Yet long after the ice had melted, the locks remained, leading residents o wonder what was really up, and what they could do about it.