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.
Category: Ethics
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.
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.
Activism, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Grassroots advocacy, Human rights
Local Public Discussion Tonight about Charlottesville, Racism and the Difficulties Local Minorities Face, Hosted by Black Lives Matter GJ
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• •Are you disgusted and distressed with Donald Trump putting neo-Nazi hate groups on the same moral footing as the people opposing them? Disgusted with the outright bigotry being manifested in our country?
Many local residents are.
As more fliers promoting the KKK turn up around the Grand Valley, racist supremacists cause violence and death in Charlottesville and hate is increasingly manifested more freely even right here in Mesa County, Black Lives Matter-Grand Junction is opening up its monthly meeting to everyone tonight so citizens can air their thoughts on the recent acts of hatred being displayed in Charlottesville and even in our own town.
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.
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.
Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Human rights, Magical thinking, politics, Propaganda, Stupid Republicans
One Day Left to Keep Trump from Getting Your Voting Information
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• •The Trump administration has made a breathtaking and invasive demand to all 50 states demanding they turn over personal information on every individual registered voter in the country. The administration wants names, addresses, birth dates, political party affiliations, records of elections in which people have voted and the last four digits of people’s social security numbers.
Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, plans to turn the information right over on July 16 without any argument.
But there is one thing you can do to stop the Trump administration from getting your personal information: ask the Mesa County Clerk to make your voter information confidential.
Ethics, Gun violence, Safety, Violence
Merely Carrying a Permitted Gun Can Get You Killed
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• •Think carrying a legally permitted gun keeps you safe?
Not in the least. In fact, just having it can get you killed.
Philando Castile was an innocent man who was shot dead in his own car by a policeman after Castile was forthright during a traffic stop about having a permitted firearm with him.
Activism, Atheism, Equal rights, Ethics, Religion, Secularism
No Prayers Permitted at D-51 Graduation Ceremonies, and Schools Cannot Participate in Religious Baccalaureates. Period.
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There is no doubt left on the matter of prayer at School District 51 graduation ceremonies: School-sponsored prayers are not permitted at District 51 graduation ceremonies.
Some parents this year objected to prayers being included in Palisade High Schools’ graduation ceremony, and rightly so.
It violated federal law, and school district policy.
Children, Ethics, Health care, politics, Stupid Republicans
Tipton Hates Infants
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• •Republican House Representative Scott Tipton, who represents Colorado’s western slope, voted “NO” on a measure to assure that newborn babies are covered with health insurance immediately after birth for up to one year to give parents time to verify their baby’s citizenship status.
Children, Ethics, Gun violence, Public health, Safety, Security, Violence, Women
Buy a gun for Father’s Day? Think again.
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• •Sportsmans’ Warehouse ran a big ad in today’s Daily Sentinel touting a big sale on guns and ammo for Father’s Day.
This does our area a big disservice.
There is a huge intersection between fatal domestic violence killings and guns, and keeping guns in the home raises the risk of homicide, suicide and accidental shootings tremendously.
In Colorado alone, there have been 105 domestic violence homicides by gun since 2006.
Activism, Corruption, Crazy Republicans, Democracy, Elections, Ethics, Grassroots advocacy, politics
Grand Junction Progressives Turn out for March for Truth June 3
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• •Many remembered the days in the not-so-distant past, though, when a turnout of 10 or 12 people backing a progressive cause in our area was considered a successful turnout.
How times have changed on the western slope!
Crazy Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Human rights, politics, Stupid Republicans, Trump Insanity
Trump tells murderous Filipino President Duterte he’s “doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem” in his country
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A recently-released confidential transcript of an April, 2017 phone call from President Donald Trump to Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte reveals Trump praised Duterte, telling him he’s been “doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem” in his country.
President Duterte has had death squads gun down approximately 7,000 Filipino citizens in the streets of his country since June, 2016, in a systematic program of extrajudicial killings. Often the killers, many of whom reportedly received compensation for each person they killed, plant evidence to try to justify the killings.
Activism, Aesthetics, Corporations, Economics, Ethics, politics, Public health, Safety
Cell Tower to be Built in North Grand Junction Neighborhood Without Public Hearings
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If you live in the area of 26 1/2 and H Roads, a big change is coming to your neighborhood, and it may not be a change you’re going to like.
Verizon Wireless has submitted plans to the Grand Junction Planning Department to build a cell phone tower in a field right near the corner of 26 1/2 and H Roads, in the city-owned cornfield known as “Saccomano Park.”