GJ Sentinel Daily REWiND Podcast

This week, we look at the results of the state’s June primary, which included several upsets, including GOP nominee Victor Marx’s win over seasoned politician Barbara Kirkmeyer in the GOP gubernatorial race; the tragic loss of three firefighters in what eventually blew up into the Snyder Fire, and the unfortunate, incorrect reporting by The Sentinel of the circumstances in the early hours of the blaze; and the irony of Governor Polis sacking two members of the clemency board after they exercised their free speech defending their votes against grant ing Tina Peters clemency in New York Times comments and a Denver Post op-ed.

This week, we discuss the smoky air in the valley and the various fires that blew up this past week amid lingering severe drought, and reminisce about the Pine Gulch Fire of 2020, discuss the running editorial series celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the unfortunate politicization of America 250 events, the positive cultural interactions taking place around the World Cup, events planned for Colorado’s sesquicentennial, and the podcast’s future focus on Stoicism.

From traffic jams and poor drivers to malapropisms and the terms of Tina Peters’ parole, in this week’s edition, we wander among several topics of particular personal annoyance.

This week, we get behind-the-scenes insight into the birth and mission of The Western Colorado Journalism Foundation, announced on Wednesday, with hopes of bolstering local, independent newsrooms across the region, and prognosticate about what we might expect from Tina Peters, who shows no sign of taming down rhetoric about the 2020 election, after she walked out of the La Vista Correctional Facility on Monday.  

This week, we explore the suspicious release of more water project funding for Colorado - this time for the critical Shoshone water rights purchase - after Gov. Jared Polis granted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters clemency, the pros and cons of the editorial board endorsing political candidates and the possibility the Sentinel could make a negative endorsement in the Republican primary in Colorado’s gubernatorial race, and the increasing extremism on both ends of the political spectrum and its connection to the “law of group polarization,” as introduced to us by NY Times columnis David French, who addressed a local audience in an event last week hosted by Restore the Balance.

An examination of Gov. Jared Polis’ decision to commute former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ nine-year sentence, discussing possible reasons for the decision - which many people livid and perplexed - and the ramifications of both the commutation and the act of intercepting a judicial process already in motion, along with the possibility that Peters could ostensibly receive money from the president’s so-called $1.8B “slush fund.”

This week, we discuss the Grand Junction City Council’s move to ban fireworks sales due to this year’s extreme drought conditions in a disquieting 4-3 vote, despite the fire chief’s recommendation in favor of a ban, the mechanisms behind the Opportunity Zone program that invests in depressed areas across the nation, and the major drawbacks of popular prediction markets, which are fueling gambling addictions among young men, denying states a reliable funding source, and leading to questions about how these markets could detrimentally mold public policy and government actions.

This week, we discuss the importance of legal notices remaining in the printed newspaper, despite Commissioner Cody Davis’ claim that being forced to do so is an “unfunded mandate”, the Colorado Democratic governor candidates’ recent debate, and how each appointed himself, possible explanations for a significant uptick in Grand Junction Q1 sales tax revenue, and how our readers feel about the possibility of legislation that would prohibit mid-decade redistricting and require all states to appoint independent commissions to do so.