Category: Conspiracy theories

County teeing up new Public Health Board members to fire Dr. Jeff Kuhr as longtime Director of Mesa County Public Health Dept., despite being told there is “insufficient evidence” of wrongdoing

Jeff Kuhr won plaudits for helping Mesa County get through the Covid-19 pandemic.

If Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland gets her way, the new, temporary members recently intstalled on the Mesa County Board of Public Health (BOPH) will do the Commissioners’ bidding and fire longtime Mesa County Health Department Director Dr. Jeff Kuhr, even though there is insufficient evidence of any financial wrongdoing by Kuhr and even though a large majority of the local public thinks the county commissioners are engaging in a blatant overreach of their authority.

Results of Daily Sentinel survey about the County Commissioners’ multi-pronged attacks on the Board of Public Health and Jeff Kuhr, as of 6/3/2023

The BOPH is scheduled to meet this Monday, June 5, at 1:00 p.m. at the Workforce Center in Business Center D. Item #9 on their agenda is to “Consider appointment of interim director” of the Health Department.

This portends the firing Jeff Kuhr after 12 years of public service as an effective Director of the Mesa County Public Health Department and a person who won Citizen of the Year in 2021 for helping get our community through the pandemic, and all for no substantiated reason.

Firing Kuhr will likely cost taxpayers even more — in the hundreds of thousands of dollars more than this fight has already cost — in severance money that will be paid to Kuhr as well as for the County to fight threatened lawsuit. Kuhr has retained Tim Foster as his attorney and has said if he is fired he will likely sue the county for defamation of character, harassment and hostile workplace, at a minimum.

The Monday, June 5 meeting is open to the public. It will be at the Workforce Center at located at 519 29 1/2 Road, on the north side of the Health and Human Services building, which is on the corner of North and 29 1/2. To get to Business Center D, it would be best to enter on the north side of the Workforce Center. However, there are people who will guide folks to the room from the south entrance as well.

District Attorney: “insufficient evidence” of wrongdoing by Kuhr

The County Commissioners spent $49,000 of taxpayer money on a financial audit of Kuhr that showed the Health Department has failed to follow the County’s procurement procedures to the letter. They also found Kuhr spent $219 in government funds on alcohol at a team-building dinner held for his employees as the pandemic was resolving. Buying alcohol with government funds is not allowed. Kuhr admitted the error and has long since paid back the $219. After these items were discovered, on May 12 the Commissioners and BOPH agreed in writing to a set of measures that would assure procurements by the Health Department would follow County policy more closely in the future, but the commissioners have refused to give that agreement a chance and resumed working to push Kuhr out.

Janet Rowland probably did the most damage to  efforts to control Covid-19 through her campaign in 2020, where she denigrated masking and embraced Q-Anon conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who investigated the Commissioners’ claims of financial wrongdoing by Kuhr, announced on May 27th that he found insufficient evidence of any financial wrongdoing by Kuhr, and had officially closed the case against him.

Rowland got herself appointed as the 5th member of the BOPH, as a way to put even more pressure on the BOPH to fire Kuhr.

Four former members of the BOPH — Will Hays, Errol Snider, Gretchen Gore and Deborah Monaghan — all resigned on May 24, 2023 en masse to protest the  Commissioners’ threat to fire them if they refused to fire Kuhr — a move that would likely have been illegal under Colorado law. They all believed there was insufficient evidence to fire Kuhr.

Why is Janet Rowland working so hard to fire Kuhr?

We can only speculate, but after taking office in 2021, Rowland announced in an article in the Daily Sentinel that she was going to populate her “cabinet” with people who agree with her personal ideology. Rowland campaigned for office in 2020 in large part by showcasing her antipathy towards public health. During her campaign, and before Covid vaccines were available, Rowland railed against Covid-19 precautions like masking and social distancing, and spread disinformation about Covid-19 on her social media accounts that was linked to QAnon.

 Janet Rowland played down the death rate from Covid-19 during her 2020 campaign for Commissioner, without considering the crushing effects of the virus on overrun medical systems, the suffering and expense to society of long-haul Covid survivors, or the suffering and devastating losses to family members left behind after their loved ones died from Covid. As of April 26, 2023, Covid has killed more than 1.1 million Americans. 

Rowland’s Facebook posts claimed Covid-19 was no more deadly than the flu. She agitated against the temporary shutdown of non-essential businesses, one of the only tools available at the time to limit the spread of what then was a highly communicable and deadly virus. Rowland also promoted Alex Jones’ “InfoWars” conspiracy theory that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control was intentionally inflating the number of Covid deaths, claiming hospitals got more funding if people died of Covid. 

Now Rowland is dead-set on taking over the Mesa County Public Health Department in order to install someone as Director who thinks like she does. Her previous terms as county commissioner were also marked by a high churn in department heads. During Janet Rowland’s previous time as county commissioner (2005-2015), the county had three different administrators and four different DHS directors.

The Monday, June 5 BOPH meeting is open to the public. The Workforce Center is at 519 29 1/2 Road, on the north side of the Health and Human Services building, which is on the corner of North and 29 1/2. To get to that conference room it would be best to enter on the north side of the Workforce Center. However, people will guide folks to the room from the south entrance as well.  Here’s the agenda:

Item #9 on the agenda represents the firing of Jeff Kuhr. To protest it, show up at the meeting and tell the new BOPH members you oppose it. 

 

Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland has used county agencies to advance her personal ideology and interfere in personnel decisions before

Board of Mesa County Commissioners. (L-R: Bobbie Daniel, Cody Davis and Janet Rowland). Photo: Mesa County

District Attorney Dan Rubinstein announced he’s closed the investigation into the Mesa County Commissioners’ allegations of financial wrongdoing by Mesa County Public Health Director Dr. Jeff Kuhr, saying,

“We lack sufficient evidence of anything criminal…” and “…[We] lack sufficient evidence that Mr. Kuhr was personally involved in, or personally directed, any level of reporting that would make him criminally culpable for material misstatements.”

With Janet Rowland at the helm, so far the Commissioners have spent $49,000 in taxpayer funds on a financial audit of Kuhr in an attempt to try find some reason to fire him, in addition digging up and spreading around negative personnel comments about Kuhr from as far back as 2011. So far, everything they’ve found, including a $219 alcohol purchase that has since been reimbursed, have fallen flat. Even four members of the Mesa County Board of Health have said nothing they’ve seen about Kuhr so far rises to the level of a fireable offense. Then they all resigned in protest after learning the Commissioners were going to fire them if they didn’t agree to fire Kuhr.

Mesa County Commissioners working to seize control of Mesa County Board of Public Health

MCPHD Director Jeff Kuhr, Ph.D. won plaudits for helping Mesa County get through the Covid-19 pandemic

Mesa County Public Health Department (MCPHD) Director Dr. Jeff Kuhr has been under attack by the Mesa County Commissioners, who for some reason have been working for months to generate credible reasons to fire him. Commissioner Janet Rowland in particular has targeted Kuhr, accusing him of financial impropriety and grievous errors in MCPHD’s procurement processes. The Commissioners have ordered the Mesa County Board of Public Health to fire Kuhr, but they refused, saying there is no actual evidence that he’s intentionally done anything wrong. Not only that, but the State of Colorado rates MCPHD as having the lowest possible financial risk (pdf) in its compliance with federal and state contracts, making it clear that the state trusts MCPHD, but our right wing commissioners don’t. (This financial risk rating is done every three years, but the state skipped it during the pandemic. The MCPHD is currently undergoing this analysis again.)

Red Alert: Janet Rowland appointed to the Mesa County Board of Public Health

Janet Rowland probably did the most damage to current vaccination efforts through her campaign last year where she denigrated masking and embraced Q-Anon conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

Updated 5/6/23 to reflect support for the REOPEN movement by the violent, seditious hate group The Proud Boys, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, and the homophobic comments Rowland made on a statewide political TV show in 2006. 

In a move akin to appointing an arsonist as fire chief, Mesa County Commissioners Cody Davis and Bobbie Daniel appointed Commissioner Janet Rowland to the Mesa County Board of Public Health yesterday, Tuesday, April 25.

Rowland has been an outspoken enemy of public health for years.

She fought Covid-19 precautions before vaccines were available and disseminated disinformation about the virus that was linked to QAnon.  Her social media posts promoted the notion that Covid-19 was no more deadly than the flu. She said things on social media about the virus that contradicted public health messages instructing people in how to stay safe and reduce spread of what was then a largely deadly virus.

501(c)(4) social welfare group circulates information on the Haitzs

The above mailer was recently sent to homes of prospective Grand Junction voters by the Best Slope Leadership Project, a 501 (c) (4) social welfare group based in Grand Junction.

Andrea Haitz and Greg Haitz are a married couple who over the last few years have been seeking more power in Grand Junction. Andrea is currently District 51 School Board President and Greg is trying to get onto Grand Junction City Council in the upcoming election.

New info about “Tammy Bailey” emerges during Tina Peters’ obstruction trial

Cory Anderson (center) helped Tina Peters (L) set up a cell phone under Tina’s alias, “Tammy Bailey,” the person Tina told police was the actual owner of her IPad. The woman on the right is Cory Anderson’s wife, Jacqueline Anderson, who is the former First Vice Chair of the Mesa County Republican Party. (Photo: YouTube)

New information was revealed about “Tammy Bailey” during Tina Peters’ obstruction trial, which just concluded yesterday afternoon.

Tina Peters is back begging people for money, this time on a Christian crowdfunding website

Tina’s new crowdfunding campaign on GiveSendGo, which has become a favorite fundraising site for far-right extremist groups like QAnon, the Proud Boys and anti-vaccine groups, which have been banned from GoFund Me.

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is at it again, begging people to send her money while she awaits trials in March on obstruction charges (for recording in a courtroom and kicking a cop) and on multiple felony charges related to her election tampering.

Now Tina is using a free Christian crowdfunding website called GiveSendGo.com, that was originally created with the idea of helping religious people raise money for missions. GiveSendGo’s website says the “reason we started GiveSendGo” was “to share the Hope of Jesus through crowdfunding with everyone who comes to our platform.”

Tina Peters still lying on the only media outlet still remotely interested in her

Excerpt of an interview with Tina Peters from a 1 hour, 8 minute show.

With her flame rapidly burning out, Tina Peters continues to seek what little spotlight she can still garner, and on November 21 she gave an extended interview on the little-known “Patriots with Grit” show on Rumble.com, a Donald Trump-backed video streaming platform that has become a haven for far right wing content creators.

Anti-transgender, racist hate mail sent to 92 year old School District 51 retiree; Local Republican political leaders may be contributing to undercurrent of hatred in Mesa County

“Citizens District 51 Defund Vote” sent hate mail postmarked Oct. 11, 2022 to a 92 year old School District 51 retiree in Grand Junction

My 92 year old neighbor, who worked for School District 51 over forty years ago, received this hate mail yesterday, with the following computer-printed in screaming all-caps, racist, anti-transgender hate letter glued to the back of the picture with the child at the chalkboard:

My neighbor is pretty tough, but the line that said “OL’ BITCH” really saddened her.

In addition to showing that racism and homophobia in Grand Junction are alive and thriving, this rude correspondence raises several questions:

— How did the sender get the address of this person?

Mesa County Commissioners give Republican commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel a huge advantage using taxpayer-funded resources

Election denier Bobbie Daniel (R), Republican running for County Commissioner, with her friend Tina Peters in 2018, before Tina was elected Clerk and was indicted on multiple felonies related to election tampering.

On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, in its opinion section the Daily Sentinel endorsed Republican election denier Bobbie Daniel for County Commissioner, saying she was “prepared to step in ready to work on day one.” But the Sentinel failed to ask the big question of how it happened that Daniel had become so prepped for the position.

It happened because Daniel has been groomed for months, maybe years, for the job by sitting Republican Mesa County commissioners, who have been using taxpayer-funded resources and taxpayer-funded County time to make sure Daniel gets a huge leg-up over her opponent in the race.

Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel cares about “overburdening taxpayers.” So what does she think of the massive expenditure her pal Tina Peters has cost Mesa County taxpayers?

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, now indicted on multiple felonies related to election tampering, with her friend Bobbie Daniel, who endorsed Tina for Clerk in 2018. Daniel is now is running for Mesa County Commissioner. More of the same GOP insanity in County government?

Republican Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel says on Instagram that she’ll be fiscally responsible, that she cares about “overburdening taxpayers” and keeping local government stable.

Well if all that’s true, Daniel owes it to county taxpayers to say what she thinks of the $1.5 million and counting that County taxpayers have been forced to pay for the antics of her pal Tina Peters, whom Daniel endorsed for Clerk back in 2018. Why hasn’t Daniel condemned Peters’ antics and the massive expenditure Peters has cost county taxpayers so far? And why hasn’t Daniel apologized for her grievous mistake of endorsing Tina?

Daniel has been mum on the subject so far.

Maybe that’s because Daniel assured voters in 2018 Tina had lots of experience and “we’d be in really good hands” if she was elected Clerk and Recorder. Well we trusted Daniel and now we’ve see how THAT turned out. And we won’t even mention the 574 legitimately-cast ballots that Tina lost in 2019 and never counted, that kicked off her nightmarish term as clerk.

Despite proof there was no fraud in the 2020 election, Bobbie Daniel remains an election denier. Does someone who believes a lie like this deserve a seat on the County Commission?

Maybe it’s because Daniel herself is an election denier who is trying hard to keep it under wraps before the election this November. Word is also out ***Rumor-ALERT***Rumor-ALERT*** that sitting County Commissioner Janet Rowland ordered Daniel to keep her crazy election denialist beliefs out of her campaign for commissioner, since election deniers have been harassing the sitting commissioners for over a year now.

Maybe it’s because Tina alleged that “a county commissioner candidate” — whom we all know could ONLY have been Bobbie Daniel — was among those who attended a post-Mesa County election-equipment breach dinner with Conan Hayes, the professional election denier Tina smuggled into the Clerk’s office to make copies of the voting machines’ hard drives. Other attendees Tina alleged were at that dinner were Sherronna Bishop, who may have helped engineer the whole Mesa County election breach, and House Rep. Lauren Boebert, a strong supporter of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Whatever the reason Daniel has been quiet about the amount of money taxpayers have been forced to spend on her pal Tina’s behavior, Daniel needs to come out and acknowledge she was wrong in endorsing Tina and apologize for helping put County voters through hell as a result of her terrible judgment.

Daniel’s Instagram post where she claims to be fiscally responsible and care about the stability of County government. So what does Daniel think of what her friend Tina has cost taxpayers so far? Voters deserve an answer to that question.

Sherronna Bishop, friend of Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel, joined Nazi sympathizers and white supremacist groups in protesting church’s drag bingo fundraiser in Katy, Tx

White supremacist, anti-LGBT, and anti-semitic hate groups came together to protest a church-sponsored drag bingo fundraiser in Katy, TX on 9/26. The church is friendly to all people, including gay and transgender people. Sherronna Bishop and her husband, Neil Bishop, both attended to protest the event, and in an appearance on Steve Bannon’s show, Sherronna called the church “a demonic stronghold” and said she was engaging in “a spiritual battle” against LGBT people

Right wing extremist Sherronna Bishop, a good friend of Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel, joined the hate group the Proud Boys, the white supremacist group The Patriot Front and the Nazi sympathizer group Aryan Freedom Network, in Katy, Texas, on September 26 in protesting an all-ages-welcome drag bingo fundraiser put on by the First Christian Church of Katy, Texas, to raise money for “The Transparent Closet,” a church-sponsored boutique that provides free clothing to teens and trans youth in the community.

Steve Bannon amplified the call to protest the event on his internet TV show “War Room” in the days preceding the event.

Next Jan. 6 Committee hearing is this Wednesday., Sept. 28 @ 1:00 p.m. Eastern, 11:00 a.m. Mountain (local) Time –UPDATE 9/27@10p.m.: The 9/28 hearing was just cancelled due to Hurricane Ian. It will be rescheduled for a later date.

The topic of this hearing, the Committee’s 9th, has not been provided, but the Committee is expected to reveal additional unseen footage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol and more key witness testimony.

The hearing will be broadcast on the Select Committee’s website, the three major television broadcast networks, and many cable channels like CNN, CSPAN, and MSNBC.

FOX News channel has not been showing the Committee’s hearings, in an apparent attempt to keep their viewers from learning about their content.

FBI siezes Mike Lindell’s phone in connection with Tina Peters’ election tampering case; search warrant says Sherronna Bishop is a co-conspirator/subject of investigation

Screen shot of Lindell (L) complaining on FrankSpeech.com TV about the search warrant the FBI executed for his phone, looking for information on the Tina Peters election tampering co-conspirators

Mike Lindell complained on his internet TV channel September 13 (video, 6 min.) that the FBI surrounded and blockaded his car as he was coming out of a Hardee’s drive-through in Mankato, Minnesota and handed him a search warrant for his phone. An article in the September 14 issue of the New York Times says the phone was seized in connection with the Tina Peters election tampering scandal.

Celebrity election denier/pro surfer Conan James Hayes (Photo: BeachGrit/Twitter)

The search warrant names Tina Peters, Conan James Hayes, Belinda Knisley, Sandra Brown, Sherronna Bishop, Michael Lindell, and/or Douglas Frank as co-conspirators and subjects in the case.

Red flags indicate Daniel is a Tina Peters-linked choice for Mesa County Commissioner

Left to right: activist Sherronna Bishop, “No-Work-Clerk” Tina Peters and Bobbie Daniel, from a 2018 YouTube video Daniel made to endorse Tina Peters for County Clerk. Daniel said Tina had “a wealth of knowledge” and assured us we’d be “in really good hands ” if Tina became our Clerk and Recorder. We know how that turned out, and Daniel hasn’t yet apologized to Mesa County citizens for her disastrous endorsement.

Republican Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel is showing all the signs that she’ll be yet another potentially disastrous elected official in the vein of Tina Peters if she gets elected as county commissioner.

There are a number of reasons why. The first is her remarkably poor judgment:

Bobbie Daniel endorsed Tina Peters for Clerk.

Tina Peters on Lindell TV: “They tried to frame me with ballot stuffing [in 2019],” “Why aren’t they arresting the REAL felons: Jena Griswold, the A.G., Rubinstein, Judge Barrett, the Commissioners?”

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters gave an unhinged interview September 1 on LindellTV.com in which she claimed she is still a candidate even though she lost her primary election for Secretary of State by a wide margin over two months ago, and lost a second time by the same margin in a recount that cost over a quarter of a million dollars raised through donations from people who continue to believe her wild and completely unproven claims of election fraud.

Peters claims she hasn’t broken any laws and says that letting someone into the secure area of the Elections Department to make copies of voting machine hard drives was not a security breach because “I can have anybody I want in there.”

Tina Peters at movie debut: “We have taken the world stage”


Tina Peters recorded an 11-minute long message August 29 for the premier of the movie “Selection Code” at Mike Lindell’s “Moment of Truth Summit.”

The “Summit” was a two-day re-hash of Lindell’s failed “cyber symposium” in South Dakota last year, in which he tried once again to convince Americans that electronic voting machines must be eliminated.

Peters wore a long, dark evening gown with pearls sewn onto the sleeves, like one might wear to the Emmys. She was in a home living room backed by about 20 clapping, cheering people who were whooping and chanting “Tina, Tina, Tina!” One person held a red and white “Tina Peters for Secretary of State” campaign sign.