Category: Media

Consumer advocacy, Local business, Media, Mesa County, Tech

High speed fiber optic internet lines getting installed throughout the Grand Valley

by Anne Landman • May 24, 2024 • 5 Comments

A roll of fiber optic conduit awaits installation underground in northwest Grand Junction. If you’ve seen construction scenes like this in your area, it means high speed fiber optic internet will be coming to your neighborhood in the not-too-distant future. This is a photo of Clearnetworx operations ongoing in northwest Grand Junction, near the Foresight Circle area.

Two companies are currently racing to install high speed fiber optic internet lines throughout the Grand Valley, particularly in areas that have been underserved with high speed internet.

The two companies are ClearNetworx and Highline.

Clearnetworx is based in Montrose. It is a local company privately owned by Doug Seacat, who was born and raised in Montrose. Clearnetworx has already installed high speed fiber lines in Palisade, and their system went live on December 21, 2023. Clearnetworx started installing fiber lines in Fruita in May of 2023, and have made significant progress in bringing fiber to the west central area of downtown Fruita. You can see a map of their progress for installation in the Grand Junction area here.

News anchor Bernie Lange leaves KKCO, moves to KREX

by Anne Landman • March 22, 2024 • 24 Comments

Welcome to KREX, Bernie Lange

Award-winning, long time local news anchor Bernie Lange has left KKCO and will start working at KREX-TV Channel 5 on Monday, March 25 as the station’s main anchor for their 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts. He has more than 20 years experience in broadcast journalism.

Kremlin state TV praises House Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for refusing to stand and applaud Ukrainian President Zelenskyy

by Anne Landman • December 26, 2022 • 10 Comments

Tucker Carlson and Lauren Boebert praised by Russian state TV

Western Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert has a new fan — the Kremlin in Russia.

What does “freedom” really mean to Rep. Lauren Boebert?

by Anne Landman • September 7, 2022 • 1 Comment

Lauren Boebert

The following letter is reprinted with permission from The Daily Sentinel. It appeared on their editorial page on 9/6/2022:

There are a several billboards around town that have a photo of Representative Boebert highlighting the word FREEDOM. Exactly what does she mean? Does she mean President Roosevelt’s four freedoms – – freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom from want, and freedom from fear? Does she mean that we are free to worship or not worship as we see fit, without the government using our tax dollars to support a church or forcing us to believe a specific religious doctrine? Does she mean that we are free to speak in the public square without threats of violence? Does she want Americans to earn a living wage? Does she want her fellow citizens to be able to afford healthcare, housing, clean water, and healthy food? Does she believe that medications should be affordable, and that Big Pharma should not gouge diabetics for insulin? Finally, does she believe school kids should not live in fear of a mass murderer entering their school?

Bonsai Design sued over injuries incurred on Vail’s Game Creek Zipline

by Anne Landman • November 29, 2019 • 2 Comments

A platform at Vail Resort’s Game Creek Canopy Tour zipline attraction.

A lawsuit** (pdf) was filed in District Court last July against Las Colonias Business Park anchor tenant Bonsai Design and Vail Resorts for injuries a guest incurred on Vail Resort’s Game Creek Zipline Tour on July 7, 2017.

Lisa Cowles of Wisconsin filed the lawsuit (pdf) on July 22, 2019, challenging the “unreasonably dangerous and defective design, manufacture, installation, and maintenance of the ‘Game Creek’ zip-line course in Vail, Colorado.” Bonsai manufactured and installed the zipline course in 2015, and Vail Resorts operates it.

The 5 Minute Mueller Report

by Anne Landman • June 2, 2019 • 18 Comments

Special Counsel Robert Mueller stated that after two years of investigation, his team was unable to exonerate President Donald J. Trump of committing crimes.

Don’t have time to read the whole 420-page Mueller Report (pdf)? That’s understandable.

You can download an audio recording of it for FREE and listen to the whole thing while you’re driving, doing housework or exercising. A free recording of it available here, on Audible.

If you don’t have time to read or listen to the whole thing, but still want to know why it’s such a big deal and why everyone is talking about it, here’s a quick summary:

New form of harassment: weaponization of classified ads

by Anne Landman • January 5, 2019 • 13 Comments

Online version of the malicious Nickel ad

Utilizing a novel form of harassment, someone put a malicious classified ad in the January 3 edition of The Nickel Classified Ads saying our house was for sale “by owner” at a lowball price, and that there will be an open house Jan 11-13. Whoever placed the ad used our numeric street address and included a verbal description of our home. They did not include a phone number in the ad.

We found out about it after a realtor came to our house with the hard copy of the ad in The Nickel in hand and showed it to us.

What’s Up With That Pervasive, “Too Much Big Government” Theme?

by Anne Landman • November 26, 2018 • 1 Comment

An example of pictorial anti-government propaganda. Corporations have applied the anti-big-government theme for decades to avoid government regulation.

This column was originally published August 26, 2012. It was revised on 12-30-2016 and again on 11-26-2018 to include some new graphics. It’s explains how Americans came to hate our own government, and is still as true as ever.

We hear it everywhere, all the time, like a mantra.

Candidates, TV pundits and political ads tell us we have “too much big government!” Candidates portray virtually any attempt to regulate or tax any industry as a government intrusion into our lives. Candidates are always for “less government.”

What’s up with this pervasive, anti-government theme? How and why did so many self-professed “patriotic,” flag-waving, red-blooded Americans start hating their own government?

“Government intrusion” is a powerful propaganda theme that has been around for a long time, and it’s an argument big businesses often use to subtly manipulate public opinion. As with so many other corporate-derived propaganda tools, the anti-government theme originated largely with the tobacco industry, which has relied on it for decades to get its way in public policy.

“Impeachment Now” banner to fly over the Grand Valley Wednesday, 10/17

by Anne Landman • October 14, 2018 • 6 Comments

The “Impeachment Now” banner flying over Denver yesterday

A wet, snowy early October changed the planned date for the western slope flyover of Mad Dog PAC’s “Impeachment Now” banner. It was originally scheduled to fly here on Saturday, 10/13 and then over Denver on 10/14, but due to bad weather, the 100 foot by 30 foot banner flew over Denver on 10/13 and will appear over the western slope this coming Wednesday, October 17. The weather is expected to be clear and dry. The pilot needs two consecutive days of clear weather to fly here and back safely over the Rockies. The plane has a top speed of 105 m.p.h. The banner-flying company, Drag ‘n’ Fly, is based in Ft. Lupton, CO, about 30 miles east of Boulder.

Western slope liberal progressives frustrated with the GOP’s offensive, misogynistic, bullying, chaotic, lying, Kremlin-backed, tax-cheating President Trump easily crowd-funded the cost of the flights over both slopes of the Rockies. Mad Dog PAC supplied the banner and the cost of shipping it here for the flight.

Western slope liberal “snowflakes” hope to make history with the area’s first flying banner

by Anne Landman • October 2, 2018 • 6 Comments

Energy against Trump is growing stronger throughout the country, including on the western slope.

Progressives and liberals in the Grand Valley who were thrilled by the anti-G@P billboards currently up on Broadway/Highway 340 just west of Grand Avenue will get yet another boost of support on Saturday, October 13 when, weather permitting, a huge flying banner that says “IMPEACHMENT NOW” will grace the clear blue skies over western Colorado It will be the first time in local history that anyone can remember a banner being flown over the area.

It’s time to stop advertising guns.

by Anne Landman • May 21, 2018 • 52 Comments

In keeping with the culture of linking of firearms to masculinity, Daily Sentinel ran a Sportsman’s Warehouse’s ad promoting guns as gifts for Father’s Day, 2018

It’s time for our local paper, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, and other publications to stop advertising guns. This is the rock-bottom minimum that can be done to end the glorification of guns and senseless proliferation of gun violence in society. It is the metaphorical lifting a pinky finger to take action against a problem, but it is necessary.

Given the rate at which gun massacres are happening in our country, as a matter of health and safety, it’s time to just stop promoting guns in any way, and nowhere is this more true than in Mesa County.

The dangers of June Fellhauer’s 2018 talk by Caroline Leaf, promoted by District 51

by Anne Landman • January 13, 2018 • 8 Comments

WakeUp Ministries’ promotion of Caroline Leaf’s talk

Local self-styled Christian missionary June Fellhauer is back in 2018 and this time, her unregistered nonprofit Wake Up Ministries sponsored a talk at Two Rivers Convention Center on January 12 by Dr. Caroline Leaf, another Christian missionary.

Caroline Leaf labels herself a “cognitive neuroscientist.” Her teachings are aimed at helping people “see the link between science and God as a tangible way of controlling their thoughts and emotions.” Dr. Leaf’s talked are based on her own idea that “the mind controls the brain.” She teaches that thoughts are the sole controller of our physical and mental health, that “toxic thinking is the root cause disease” and that thoughts can change our DNA.

The problem is, most of Leaf’s teachings are debunked by science.

People entering Grand Junction greeted by atheist billboard

by Anne Landman • December 18, 2017 • 2 Comments

Digital billboard currently on I-70B in front of Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A

In another sign of how Mesa County’s culture becoming more diverse and welcoming, a bright digital billboard is greeting people entering downtown Grand Junction and reassuring them it’s okay if you don’t believe in God.

The billboard, located on a busy section of I70-B by Rimrock Marketplace in front of Hobby Lobby and Chick-Fil-A, was put up by Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers (WCAF) as a big a “thank you” gift to all the people in western Colorado who have had the courage to come out as atheists in the last year. It’s also a celebration of the progress made by western Colorado’s growing secular movement in advancing rational thought and reason in all our endeavors.

Daily Sentinel Completely Omits Coverage of G.J. Tax Day March

by Anne Landman • April 16, 2017 • 1 Comment

The small article to the left of the photo is the only “coverage” the Sentinel gave to a Tax Day march against President Trump keeping his tax returns secret from the American people, and it doesn’t even mention Grand Junction. The photo right is of a child at the Easter egg hunt at the Botanical Gardens. Almost 300 people marched through downtown in Grand Junction.

Sometimes, what newspapers don’t cover is as important than what they do cover.

Today’s Daily Sentinel is a case in point.

Hundreds of people marched in the streets of downtown Grand Junction on Saturday, April 15 yelling and protesting President Trump keeping his tax returns secret from the American people and claiming they don’t care, and the Sunday April 16 issue of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel carried no coverage of it at all. Zip. The only article in Sunday’s Sentinel about any Tax March at all was on page 3 of the first section, right below the “You Said It” column, and it mentioned Tax Marches held in Denver and Colorado Springs, but contained nothing at all about the big march in Grand Junction.

Activism, Consumer advocacy, Democracy, Ethics, Lies, Media, politics, Propaganda, Stupid Republicans

Daily Sentinel Threatens CO Sen. Ray Scott with Defamation Lawsuit

by Anne Landman • February 14, 2017 • 6 Comments

Publisher of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Jay Seaton, publisher of the Grand Junction, Colorado Daily Sentinel, publicly threatened Colorado State Senator Ray Scott with a defamation lawsuit in his editorial column Sunday, February 12, after Scott, in a tweet, charged the Sentinel with publishing “fake news.”

Long Ballot? Don’t Worry. Use AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide!

by Anne Landman • October 17, 2016 • 3 Comments

The entire November ballot is in today’s Daily Sentinel, and it takes up 6 pages of fine print, like these two.

Ballots were mailed today in Mesa County, and it’s a long one. The Daily Sentinel has published the entire November ballot in today’s paper, and it takes up six full pages of the paper, in fine print.

If you are worried about all the time it’s going to take to figure out how to vote on all this stuff, worry no more. We’ve done the research for you! We’ve looked into where the big money and corporate influence are coming from on all the issues, and how wealthy corporations are using ballot initiatives to try to trick you out of your rights, and weaken your influence and your ability to protect yourself and your families from their activities. We’ve looked at the ins and outs of all the issues, what’s fair and what’s not, and figured out how people can cast votes in their own interest.

Just go to AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide 2016 to see the recommended votes on the local, state and federal candidates and ballot issues. The rationale for the votes is toward the bottom of the post.

Happy voting, and remember, after this you can mute all those annoying election TV ads!

Advertising, Atheism, Education, Media, Secularism

WCAF Hoping to Run 2016 Winter Holiday Billboard

by Anne Landman • September 4, 2016 • 0 Comments

The billboard WCAF hopes to run this December in Grand Junction. To donate to help make this board happen, go to WesternColoradoAtheists.org and click on "Donate."

WCAF members hope to run this billboard in December in Grand Junction. To donate to help make this billboard a reality, go to WesternColoradoAtheists.org and click on “Donate.”

Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers, the western slope’s longest-established secular advocacy group, is hoping (NOT praying) to run a winter solstice billboard on Grand Junction’s I-70 Business Loop this holiday season. The group voted unanimously to gather enough funds to make the board happen. They need only $265 to run it for one week, and they hope to run the board from December 18-24, 2016. One donor has already pledged $100 to make it happen, so the group is quickly moving towards making its goal a reality.

WCAF was established in 2007, and will be ten years old next February. The group now has hundreds of Facebook followers.

People wanting to donate towards the billboard can go to WCAF’s “Donate” page and donate through PayPal. There is no minimum donation, all donations are tax deductible and 100% of donations go to WCAF. You can use a credit or debit card, and you don’t need a PayPal account to donate.

Pope Toaster Marketed to Celebrate Pope Francis’ Upcoming U.S. Visit

by Anne Landman • September 7, 2015 • 0 Comments

The Pope Francis Toaster sells for $48.95

A Pennsylvania company called Fireworks is celebrating Pope Francis’ upcoming U.S. visit by marketing a specially-designed toaster that burns the image of Pope Francis onto your sliced bread. The Toaster comes with and an additional insert that toasts the words “Spread the Love” in English onto your toast. The toaster has seven shade settings and a removable crumb tray and sells for $48.95 online at ToastThePope.com.

Pope Francis is scheduled to arrive in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 22 from Cuba and will be in the U.S. until Sunday, September 27.

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