Author: Gr

Last night, RBTheatre – formerly Russian Ballet Theatre – was scheduled to perform “Swan Lake” at the Avalon Theatre. We’re sure it was a great show for western Colorado’s ballet fans and we’re glad recent calls for the show to be canceled weren’t heeded. Over the past few weeks we’ve heard from readers who wanted…

The entire country is facing a teacher shortage and Mesa County is no different, but some recent discussions around increasing teacher pay and providing affordable housing could help. Low teacher salaries and retention of qualified teachers featured prominently in the conversation at the Mesa County Valley School District 51 board coffee meeting last weekend, according…

It’s fitting that just days before the start of Sunshine Week, a national event celebrating access to public information, a judge ordered members of Douglas County School District’s Board of Education to follow Colorado’s open meetings laws. This injunction is the result of a lawsuit, which alleges that that school board violated state statute by…

Tina Peters, after a months-long investigation, was indicted by a Mesa County grand jury Wednesday for the crimes she allegedly committed when she orchestrated a scheme to tamper with election equipment last May. Belinda Knisley, her one-time chief deputy, was also indicted. Since the tampering allegations first surfaced, we’ve heard from countless Mesa County citizens…

A 2019 Colorado law that made possession of up to 4 grams of almost all drugs for personal use a misdemeanor needs to be changed to allow prosecutors to pursue harsher penalties for possession of the deadly drug fentanyl. House Bill 1263 changed the penalties for drug possession with broad bipartisan support. The idea behind…

Mesa County is rolling out the first of several new policies and programs it is implementing to provide better access to mental health services, starting with two “navigation hubs” that will help people get the treatment they need. This is the start of a multifaceted plan that will include finding new ways to treat those…

With new plans and guidance from state and federal officials and COVID-19 cases way down from the peak in late January, it’s starting to feel like this pandemic has turned the corner. Finally. Last Friday, Gov. Jared Polis and his public health team unveiled Colorado’s plan to deal with the ongoing presence of COVID-19 in…

Over the last week, seeing the Ukrainian people come together to fight for their lives, their homes, their democracy and their freedom, it has us thinking about the discourse in our own country and community. We don’t treat each other as countrymen trying to do what’s best for the country, even when we disagree on…

With the Elections Division in the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office suing District 51 school board member Will Jones for some small-ball mistakes in his campaign finance filings, we think the legislature should look at simplifying the rules for candidates to volunteer offices. Jones is being sued for not reporting a $3,000 contribution from the…

The bald eagle, a soaring symbol of America, is in trouble. A study in the journal “Science” shows that nearly half of the eagles tested across the country have harmful levels of toxic lead in their bodies. Similar rates of lead exposure were found in golden eagles, which scientists say means the raptors likely consumed…