Category: Weird Grand Junction Stuff

Firearms, Grand Junction City Council, Gun violence, politics, Safety, Security, Violence, Weird Grand Junction Stuff

G.J. City Councilor Pe’a stuns with statement that he thought to bring a loaded Glock to a public meeting

by Anne Landman • June 17, 2020 • 5 Comments

In this video clip taken at a recent City Council meeting, Grand Junction City Councilor Phil Pe’a complains that he wasn’t given enough notice that there might be protesters at a public meeting. He said he was alarmed when he got to City Hall and saw a police presence along with protesters. When City Councilor Anna Stout told Mr. Pe’a that City Manager Greg Caton had emailed all Council members to let them know protesters were expected at that evening’s meeting, Mr. Pe’a said “I have a full time job. I don’t have time to visit my email constantly.” He said he would have preferred a phone call, and continued, saying

“I didn’t know whether I had to bring my Glock into the meeting or not. That’s how serious it was, Anna.”

More about Janet Rowland when she was county commissioner the last time

by Anne Landman • June 13, 2020 • 0 Comments

First part of 2008 Daily Sentinel article showing how then-County Commissioner Janet Rowland used her religion to grandstand, portray herself as a martyr prior to an election and bring threats of lawsuits against the county.

Janet Rowland is running for Mesa County commissioner again, after having been a two-term Commissioner already from 2004-2012. Because of her past in that elected office, we have a historic record showing what she will be like in office if she gets elected again.

For the sake of the county and its taxpayers, it’s probably not something we want to go through again.

Petition wording approved in recall of Mesa County Clerk; campaign moves to signature-gathering phase

by Anne Landman • June 6, 2020 • 0 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) is facing a recall election due to gross incompetence and failure to carry out her duties. (Photo: YouTube)

Eagle County Treasurer Teak Simonton has approved the wording of the petition submitted by the RecallClerkTina campaign to recall Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R), allowing the recall effort to move to the signature-gathering phase.

The Mesa County Commissioners approved Simonton to serve as the designated election official to oversee the recall effort, since by law Peters can’t oversee her own recall effort.

Mesa County Republican Party removes Facebook post suggesting George Floyd’s death was a hoax

by Anne Landman • June 4, 2020 • 4 Comments

Screen shot provided by the Colorado Times Recorder of the post deleted from the Mesa County GOP’s Facebook page

The Colorado Times Recorder reported June 3 that the Mesa County Republican Party removed a post from its official Facebook page that suggested George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police on May 25, 2020 was faked.

The post contained a list of questions about the incident meant to imply it was staged, including:

“Why does one photo from behind show the man on the road is not handcuffed and the video from the front that he is handcuffed?”

“Why does the video show the diesel fuel price as 99 cents instead of the regular price in the area of $2.49?”

“Why does the police car have a non-municipal license plate with “Police” on it?”

(NOTE: The police car has a license plate that says “Police” because many Minneapolis Police cars have license plates on them that say “Police.”)

When asked why he removed the post from the page, Kevin McCarney, Chair of the Mesa County Republican Party, told the Times Recorder, “It’s not the position of the Party.”

Trumpers erect massive, likely illegal, sign display along I-70 at go cart track

by Anne Landman • May 17, 2020 • 17 Comments

Trump supporters have laboriously erected a huge and impressive pro-Trump signage display along I-70 on the property of the go-cart track.

Problem is, it appears to be illegal.

The display consists of forty one 4 ft. x 8 ft. signs totaling 1,312 square feet of signage.

The go-cart parcel is zoned “AFT” (Agricultural/Forestry Transition), and is non-residential.

Rowland promotes InfoWars conspiracy theory that CDC intentionally inflated Covid deaths

by Anne Landman • May 15, 2020 • 3 Comments

Janet Rowland’s recent Facebook post casting doubt on the CDC’s count of U.S. Coronavirus deaths.

Republican county commissioner candidate Janet Rowland’s most chilling flaw is her inability to tell authoritative sources of information from information promoted by extremist wacko conspiracy theorists.

Most recently Rowland has been promoting the theory that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is intentionally inflating the number of Covid-19 deaths and infection rates, and that the death count is actually far lower than the government claims. One reason she gives for this is that it allows hospitals to make more money. In truth, anyone who has ever worked in a hospital knows that hospitals get paid for TREATING Covid patients, not for listing a certain cause of death on the death certificate. Claims that hospitals are deliberately miscoding patients as having Covid-19 are not supported by any evidence.

Mesa County commissioners woefully silent during this pandemic

by Anne Landman • April 21, 2020 • 0 Comments

Op-ed by Kathryn Bedell, candidate for Mesa County Commissioner, District 1 – from the 4/21/20 Daily Sentinel (Please support our local paper)

Kathryn Bedell, DVM, veterinarian and Fruita rancher running for county commissioner in District 1 (Fruita/Loma/Mack and west end of the valley)

As a Western Slope appointee to the State of Colorado Agriculture Commission, I continue to address issues related to our local farm economy and food security. As I was isolating at home, reaching out to fellow farms and ranchers to see what they are thinking and what kind of help they might need, it occurred to me I haven’t heard a peep from our Mesa County commissioners.

I searched for recent comments from them and only found one advocating against a national popular vote, which has absolutely nothing to do with the current state of the county. I looked on the county’s Facebook page and saw nothing from our commissioners but noticed that Mesa County Public Health is keeping the county informed. I looked at the county website and the last update was 19 days ago and that was a link to Mesa County Public Health and Human Services.

Need an abortion in Grand Junction? Here is information.

by Anne Landman • April 17, 2020 • 14 Comments

If you are pregnant and looking for an abortion in Mesa County, you may find information about abortion services is very hard to find here. Local obstetrical practices don’t mention abortion on their websites and may not even offer abortion services. “Pregnancy Centers” are fake health clinics in the area that lure in scared and worried women by promising free services, like pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and “counseling,” but they are really Christian ministries whose real purpose is to shame and guilt women out of getting abortions.

The closest provider of safe medical abortions is 90 miles away in Glenwood Springs, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Their slogan is “Care no matter what.”

But don’t despair. You may not have to leave town to obtain a safe abortion.

Thanks to the internet, there are now options for women to access abortion services no matter where they are, and you may even not have to leave home to get an abortion if you live in Grand Junction.

UPDATE: On December 16, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permanently lifted restrictions on access to abortion medications by mail, making them more widely and easily available for use by women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant. The move allows women to obtain the pills by mail instead of having to appear in person at a clinic.

County Commissioner Candidate Janet Rowland endangers public health with misleading, Q-Anon-linked posts on social media

by Anne Landman • April 14, 2020 • 4 Comments

Rowland posted this article from a media outlet based in Luxembourg to support her view that there is no significant risk of catching Coronavirus from grocery shopping. The findings of the German doctor cited in this article have not been published in any peer-reviewed journal. Meanwhile, least 30 grocery workers in the U.S. have died from Coronavirus so far. 3,000 more are out sick with coronavirus symptoms.

Mesa County Commissioner candidate Janet Rowland (R) has been posting misleading information about Coronavirus on her campaign Facebook page that is linked to the nutty beliefs of the conspiracy theory QAnon, and that contradict the messaging of public health authorities telling people what they need to do to stay safe and minimize spread of the deadly Coronavirus.

Western slopers who fail to grasp danger of Coronavirus are threatening public health

by Anne Landman • April 10, 2020 • 11 Comments

Post on the Grand Junction Community Message Board on Facebook yesterday by Anita Heffalump, who has since changed her name on Facebook to “Anita Hippogriff”

Local resident Anita Heffalump alarmed members of the community yesterday by posting an event on the Grand Junction Community Message Board Facebook page that urged people to physically gather to protest public health authorities’ stay-at-home order aimed at protecting people from the pandemic spread of COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by Coronavirus.

Coronavirus currently has no no treatment, no cure, no immunization available to prevent it, and is killing people throughout the globe at an alarming rate. The only tool available to reduce transmission of the new virus and save lives during the pandemic is to distance ourselves from each other by staying home as much as possible.

As many as a third of responders to Daily Sentinel survey fail to grasp the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic

by Anne Landman • April 1, 2020 • 4 Comments

Daily Sentinel poll

The Daily Sentinel published results of a non-scientific online poll today asking readers for their opinions of the ongoing stay-at-home order due to the Coronavirus pandemic. About 72 percent of people said they agree with the order and are obeying it. Twenty one percent say they’re following the stay-at-home order even though they think it’s “over the top,” and 7 percent say they are not following the order at all because they think it’s “too extreme” or “unnecessary.”

This means about a third of people in our area aren’t really grasping the seriousness of this pandemic.

That’s scary.

It took a pandemic to stop open burning in Mesa County, as public officials finally recognize it as a public health threat

by Anne Landman • March 27, 2020 • 3 Comments

A “controlled burn,” started by a person with a permit, got out of control on March 5, causing $5,000 worth of damage and endangering nearby residents

The Mesa County Health Department suspended residential open burning in the county indefinitely on March 18 in response to the Coronavirus pandemic.

No doubt tens of thousands of valley residents are greatly relieved.

The Health Department explained the ban by saying:

COVID-19 is a lower respiratory illness impacting residents with underlying medical conditions, more severely than other groups. This decision was made to ensure the best possible air quality for residents in high-risk categories, and to ensure our medical community has enough resources to care for the patients impacted by COVID-19.

The last-century scourge of open burning is halted at last, at least for awhile

Mesa County’s spring burn season — a throwback to a time when this area was predominantly agricultural — runs from March 1 through May 31. Every year like clockwork, as soon as the weather warms up and people start getting outdoors, they find their springtime ruined by plumes of smoke that give them sore throats, burning eyes, runny noses, headaches, asthma attacks, and exacerbate their lung conditions. Beautiful spring mornings are soon fouled by smoke drifting across the valley, forcing people to close doors and windows and grab their inhalers.

Dennis Simpson recommends ways County Commissioners can handle COVID-19 pandemic

by Anne Landman • March 21, 2020 • 4 Comments

Dennis Simpson, CPA

Certified Public Accountant Dennis Simpson, a long-time advocate for transparency in Grand Junction City and Mesa County government, discovered that in 2019 Mesa County purchased two new late model SUVs at a cost of $45,000 each, for the exclusive use of Commissioners Scott McInnis and John Justman. Before that time, Simpson noted, the County had provided a single passenger car for all three commissioners to share. He also noted that the decision to greatly increase this transportation expense for taxpayers was not made in public, and that while Commissioner Rose Pugliese tried to distance herself from the purchase, she failed to protest it publicly.

When Simpson raised these issues to Scott McInnis, McInnis deflected attention from the matter by asking Simpson to instead focus on coming up with financial suggestions for ways the County can cope with the COVID-19 pandemic rather than concerning himself with the purchase of the vehicles, which McInnis dismissed as unimportant.

Simpson obliged and produced the following suggestions, which he submitted to all three county commissioners on March 19, 2020.

Mesa County Clerk ignoring qualified applicants for vacant positions

by Anne Landman • March 2, 2020 • 6 Comments

Tina Peters’ own qualification to be County Clerk were that she was a retired flight attendant who had worked for a construction business for a number of years and home-schooled her kids. [Photo: Facebook]

Over 24 employees have quit the Mesa County Clerk’s office since Tina Peters took over the office just 15 months ago.

All these vacant positions must put the Clerk’s office in a pretty dire situation, considering that it’s fully staffed at 32 employees.

You’d think the Clerk would be scrambling to hire qualified people to fill these open positions, especially in an election year, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Job Openings web page for Mesa County lists vacancies in the Clerk’s office for Customer Service, Motor Vehicle and Elections Managers. Some of these positions have been unfilled for months.

But it doesn’t seem to be due to a lack of qualified applicants.

Petition demands Tina Peters resign as County Clerk

by Anne Landman • February 25, 2020 • 4 Comments

Tina Peters, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, neglected to collect and count 574 ballots in the 2018 general election. Mesa County residents have started a petition demanding she resign.

An online petition is up at Change.org demanding Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters resign her office in the wake of her shocking lost ballot scandal.

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the County Clerk’s office found 574 ballots cast in the 2018 general election still sitting in the stainless steel ballot collection box in front of the Clerk’s Elections Division office at 200 S. Spruce Street in downtown Grand Junction.

At first Peters took full responsibility for having forgotten to collect the ballots, which earned her some good will, but in a day or two she was blaming an unnamed former Clerk’s office employee for the error, enraging the public and flushing any good will she had gleaned by taking full responsibility.

The Daily Sentinel published an editorial February 22 demanding Peters resign.

Peters claimed the missing ballots wouldn’t have changed the outcome of any of the elections, but did not demonstrate this to the public.

Mesa County Clerk stumbles onto 500+ uncounted ballots from 2019 city/county election

by Anne Landman • February 20, 2020 • 6 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was elected despite having zero experience as a government clerk.

The Daily Sentinel reports that when Mesa County Clerk employees went out to collect the early Democratic primary election ballots from the silver box in front of the County building downtown, they found more than 500 ballots from last year’s election sitting inside, unopened and uncounted.

I hate to say it, but…

I told you so.

Back in June, 2018 I wrote a blog about the candidates running for County Clerk that year. I pointed out that Tina Peters had absolutely zero experience in the clerk’s office, while the other candidate, Bobbie Gross, was a ten year veteran of the County Clerk’s office in charge of the entire DMV and its employees, had co-directed the 2016 presidential election in Mesa County, was a Certified Elections Official and was about to become a Certified National Elections Administrator by the end of 2018.

The choice was clear.

The Daily Sentinel abdicates its mission, caves to Trumpism

by Anne Landman • January 27, 2020 • 7 Comments

In an editorial January 23 the Daily Sentinel announced it is giving up reporting on Donald Trump’s impeachment. The Sentinel says since they’re not going to change any minds, they’re just going to throw up their hands and give up reporting on it entirely. The paper blames readers, saying “There’s nothing rational about the way people feel about the president.” The shocker here is that the Daily Sentinel is openly abdicating its mission of disseminating information because of Trump supporters.

But it’s also a major false equivalency to say that Trumpers and those who support his impeachment and removal from office are all equally irrational.

They are not equivalent, and the Sentinel knows it.

State House Rep. Janice Rich (R) attended 12/17 rally held to support President Trump’s impeachment

by Anne Landman • December 26, 2019 • 1 Comment

State Rep. Janice Rich (R-Mesa County), left, at the rally on Rood Ave. and 4th Street on 12/17 held to support Congress impeaching President Trump.(Photo credit: YouTube)

State Representative Janice Rich (R-Mesa County) attended the “No One is Above the Law” pro-impeachment rally at the federal building on Rood Ave. December 17, 2019. The rally was held to demand Congress impeach President Trump for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. The President was formally impeached by Congress the next day.

Congressman Scott Tipton’s Constituent Services Representative Brandon Bainer also attended the rally in support of impeachment.

Page 5 of 10

« 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 10 »