A blockbuster CBS News/60 Minutes and Washington Post investigation reveals that after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) cracked down on big pharmaceutical distributors who were knowingly pumping millions of addictive opioid drugs into the black market in cities and towns across the country, the U.S. Congress passed a law to block DEA from freezing such highly suspicious drug shipments to keep them from getting to the streets.
Category: politics
Activism, Democracy, Diversity, Elections, Grassroots advocacy, Lobbying, politics, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
CMU 20000 Steering Committee asks City Council to reconsider changing name of North Ave. to “University Blvd.”
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• •The CMU 20000 Steering Committee has formally asked the Grand Junction City Council to reconsider it’s decision to change the name of North Avenue to “University Boulevard,” saying the matter has “become an inadvertent distraction” from the overall goals of the CMU 20000 effort. The steering committee sent a letter to City Council on October 13 asking them to reverse their decision, and City Council has added the item to the agenda for it’s next meeting.
Children, Education, Elections, Grand Junction Chamber, politics, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Grand Junction Chamber backs scary candidates for the contested seats in School Board election
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• •It’s no surprise that in the contested District 51 School Board races, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce is endorsing candidates who are demonstrably the worst of the pack. That’s par for the course.
What IS surprising is that you can figure this out from reading the Chamber’s very own “Mesa County Valley School District 51 Voter Guide,” (pdf) in which the chamber endorses Thomas Keenan for District E and Dusti Reimer for District D.
For the voter guide, the chamber asked each candidate to answer four questions. Apparently the chamber printed the candidates’ responses verbatim, without editing.
The results are pretty damn scary for the two candidates they endorsed.
Thomas Keenan, the District E candidate, had a hard time putting together a coherent sentence. Below is a screenshot of Mr. Keenan’s answer to the chamber’s Question #4: “Why should members of the Grand Junction Area Chamber vote for you?” Immediately beneath his barely-comprehensible answer, the chamber endorses Mr. Keenan:
Consumer advocacy, Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Economics, Ethics, politics, Stupid Republicans
Republican Colorado State Senator Ray Scott can’t even fix a typo
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• •Governor Hickenlooper called a special session in early October so legislators could fix a mistake in Senate Bill 17-267, passed last spring, that is costing public entities across the state millions of dollars in lost pot tax revenues.
Legislators passed the bill with an error in it that keeps voter-approved special districts across the state from collecting marijuana sales taxes to fund their services. Many of the affected districts, like the Denver Regional Transportation District, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Botanic Gardens and Museum of Nature and Science are on the front range, but western slope entities are losing critical funding as well. Western slope districts losing funds because of the error include the Gunnison Valley Regional Transportation Authority, the Summit Combined Housing Authority, the Roaring Fork Regional Transportation Authority, the San Miguel Regional Transportation Authority and the Edwards Metropolitan District.
At a special session convened to address the problem during the first week of October, a bill to fix the error that originated in the Democratic-controlled House passed by a 37-25 vote, mostly along party lines. Our very own Rep. Dan Thurlow (R-Mesa County), was the only Republican House Representative who voted for the fix. In arguing to pass it, Thurlow said, “We’re here. We spent the money [for the special session]…I think we should just go ahead and fix it.”
Activism, Democracy, Lobbying, politics
Make a Difference with this Little-Known Way to Give Powerful Feedback to City Council
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• •Are you irritated that the Grand Junction City Council voted to change the name of North Ave. to “University Boulevard” without asking people what they thought about it first? Are you tired of tourists getting killed on Horizon Drive while the City pleads it has no money for pedestrian safety, while at the same time the City gives away half a million taxpayer dollars every year to Colorado Mesa University, and almost $6,400/year to the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce?
What would you say to City Council if only you could?
Crazy Republicans, Economics, Ethics, Fake patriotism, politics, Stupid Republicans
Sen. Ray Scott Doesn’t Want to Do His Job
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• •State Senator Ray Scott doesn’t want to be bothered with having to fix a huge mistake the Colorado legislature made in 2017 that is blocking dozens of entities from getting crucial funds they need to function.
Activism, Consumer advocacy, Economics, Ethics, Human rights, politics, Safety, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Businesses beg city to fix Horizon Drive Deathtrap; City claims “Sorry, no funds”
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• •The headline article in today’s Daily Sentinel, “No quick fix on Horizon,” tells how for years businesses along Horizon Drive have been begging the City of Grand Junction to make the street safer for pedestrians.
Three pedestrians, all tourists, have been killed by vehicles on Horizon Drive in the last seven years trying to cross the street between the hotels and restaurant establishments. The three victims were all killed within 700 feet of each other. These people lost their lives merely because they visited our town. Many others have been very badly injured crossing Horizon Drive, but lived. The safety problem on Horizon has been well known to the City for a long time, but nothing has been done during all this time to make the street any safer for pedestrians.
Education, Ethics, politics, Worker advocacy
CMU Staff and Students Unhappy with School’s Odd, Oppressive Administrative Structure
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• •Colorado Mesa University staff members are expressing frustration with the school’s unusual, flat administrative structure, which seems strategically designed to eliminate staff input into school operations, and prevent empowerment of the staff on campus.
CMU President Tim Foster over the years has reshaped CMU’s administration to eliminate the normal avenues of communication between staff and administration that most other universities have, employees say. Instead Foster has substituted an odd, flat administrative structure that eliminates staff’s input into school operations and serves as a firewall against opposition to the administration.
Activism, Crazy Republicans, Economics, Elections, politics, Women
Hyper-conservative “ReaganGirl” Marjorie Haun backs tax increase
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• •The worm turns.
However uncharacteristic, prominent local conservative Marjorie Haun, who bills herself as “ReaganGirl,” has found a tax she likes, and she’s urging others to like it, too — and vote for it.
Haun backs a proposed sales tax increase on the next local ballot that will help support the Mesa County District Attorney’s office and the Mesa County Sheriff Department.
Consumer advocacy, Crazy Republicans, Elections, Ethics, Intolerance, politics, Weird Grand Junction Stuff, Women
More Social Media Insight Into CO State Senator Ray Scott’s Attitude Toward Constituents
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• •Mesa County resident Claudette Konola ran against Ray Scott for the State Senate District 7 seat in 2014, to keep him from running unopposed. We’ve already seen some of Scott’s contemptuous Facebook and email responses to citizens who disagree with his views. Following are tweets Claudette Konola received from Ray Scott between 2014 and 2016, starting around the time she announced she would be running against him, and ending just after the 2016 election. The tweets are all verbatim. All spelling and grammatical errors are in the originals.
Consumer advocacy, Equal rights, Ethics, Fake patriotism, Intolerance, Lies, politics
Mesa County citizens submit formal ethics complaint against State Sen. Ray Scott
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• •Three Grand Junction residents submitted a formal ethics complaint (pdf) to the state legislature August 15 about Colorado State Senator Ray Scott (R-District 7) for blocking them from his official social media accounts after they criticized his views.
Crazy Republicans, Elections, Ethics, Fake patriotism, Human rights, politics
Donald Trump’s Tweet from Early This Morning (which he quickly deleted)
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• •Early this morning, just days after a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing a woman, President Trump retweeted an image of a Trump train running over a CNN reporter. The image was originally posted by an “alt-right” conspiracy theorist and Trump fan. Trump quickly deleted the post after it sparked criticism as being highly inappropriate just days after the Charlottesville violence.
Here is the tweet Trump sent to his nearly 36 million followers:
Crazy Republicans, Elections, Equal rights, Ethics, Fake patriotism, Intolerance, politics
Screencaps of Senator Ray Scott’s Rude Responses on Facebook
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• •Not only has Colorado State Senator Ray Scott shocked participants on his social media accounts with consistent grammatical and spelling errors and frighteningly superficial knowledge of environmental issues, but he is particularly nasty toward constituents with whom he disagrees politically. That is, before he blocks them from his social media completely, which, according to a federal court, is against the law.
Scott also often deletes his rudest comments, perhaps realizing too late he’s gone beyond the pale. But this, too, is impermissible because all entries on Senator Scott’s social media — whether they are his own or from citizens — are part of his official public record and as such must be preserved.
Atheism, Diversity, Equal rights, Ethnic/Minority, Fake patriotism, Human rights, politics, Religious hypocrisy, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Grand Junction’s Satanic Invocation a Success, More Diversity Likely Coming Soon
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• •Grand Junction, Colorado’s first Satanic invocation went off without a hitch yesterday evening, with an audience of about 50 interested onlookers and five out of seven city council members present.
The audience and was quiet and respectful as the speaker made the following statement to Council:
Activism, Atheism, Equal rights, politics, Religion, Secularism
Grand Junction City Council to Host Satanic Invocation Wed., August 2 at 6:00 p.m.
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• •Grand Junction, Colorado will host the state’s first Satanic invocation at their regular City Council meeting on Wednesday, August 2 at 6:00 p.m. The meeting is at City Hall Auditorium, 250 N. 5th Street. It will be only the second Satanic invocation ever to occur in the continental United States.
Grand Junction became a national trailblazer in alternative invocations after the city crafted an invocation policy in 2008 that welcomes all comers. City Council agreed to open up the invocation opportunity to anyone who wants to say it (rather than just religious groups), refused to censor what is said at the invocation or place a time limit on speakers. The policy led to the City hosting the state’s first-ever atheist invocation (video) on January 5, 2011.
Children, Economics, Education, Elections, Grand Junction Chamber, politics
Now’s Our Chance to Help School District 51 — Finally!
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• •First the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce and downtown business owners like Doug Simons of Enstrom Candies told city residents they needed to pay an extra sales tax to fund an event center downtown. People panned the idea and voted it down by a huge margin. A common criticism was, “A tax to build an event center? But what about our crumbling schools?” Then the chamber, Simons and CMU proposed waving a magic wand and changing the names of North Avenue to “University Boulevard,” and 12th Street to “Maverick Way,” saying this will be really great. People again panned the idea for the cost and inconvenience. A widely-expressed sentiment about the proposed name change has been ”Change the name of North Avenue? But what about our crumbling schools?”
Consumer advocacy, Corporations, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Economics, Ethics, politics
Tipton Votes to Block Consumers’ Right to Sue Big Banks
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• •Pay attention! One of your elected officials voted to take away your right to access the court system.
Your House Representative, Scott Tipton (R-CO), voted today to block Americans from suing big banks that defraud or abuse them. Tipton voted to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that keeps banks from forcing customers to give up their right to access the courts whenever they sign a contract to open a bank account. The banks seek to force customers into arbitration as the only way to deal with disputes. Arbitration typically results in fewer decisions in customers’ favor and in lower payouts. Rep. Tipton’s vote sided with the big banks.
Consumer advocacy, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Economics, Environment, Ethics, Health, politics, Pollution, Public health, Safety, Worker advocacy
Rep. Scott Tipton: A One-Man Wrecking Ball for Coloradans
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• •Think House Representative Scott Tipton is on your side? Think again.
In the last couple of weeks, Rep. Tipton has voted against cleaner air, against creating more American jobs, and in favor of keeping financial information secret that would allow Congress to tell if changes President Trump proposes in the U.S. tax code would benefit his family’s income.