Western Colorado

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More brewers 
help beer fest, scholarship fund

Hundreds of beer enthusiasts gathered Saturday afternoon at the Colorado Mesa University Center to partake in beers, ciders and a little wine at the third-annual Grand Valley Beer Festival. The festival grew from 20 breweries and distributors ...

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CMU graduates 967 in rain and shine

If it’s good luck on your wedding day, rain is probably a sign of good things to come on graduation day, too. At least that was Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster’s reasoning near the close of a two-and-a-half hour ...

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2 Sentinel veterans 
to lead newsroom

A new but familiar management team is now leading The Daily Sentinel newsroom. Mike Wiggins, 37, who has run newsgathering operations for the past year as city editor, is now the Sentinel’s managing editor. Duffy Hayes, 41, who has run ...

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‘No contest’ bid nixed; Brainard guilty

Grand Junction City Councilor Rick Brainard pleaded guilty Friday after a thwarted bid to end his domestic-violence case with something less than a guilty plea. Brainard, 51, tried to plead “no contest” under a deal with the Mesa ...

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2 indicted in attempted Palisade bank robbery

Two men are accused in an aborted armed robbery at a Palisade bank in 2011 — possibly the first of its kind in the town’s 109-year history ­— when a police officer was disarmed at gunpoint. Jose O. Jimenez, 27, of San ...

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4 sheriffs join suit against new gun laws

Four local sheriffs joined 50 others from around the state Friday in a federal lawsuit against the state challenging two gun-control measures approved by the Colorado Legislature earlier this year. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in ...

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Obama should OK Keystone pipeline, Tipton says at hearing

When President Barack Obama announced Friday he was cutting red tape on federal construction projects, he was framed by heavy equipment owned by a man who testified Thursday in Congress that presidential delays on the Keystone XL pipeline hurt ...

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Park status won’t harm landowners, backers say

Upgrading Colorado National Monument to a national park won’t jeopardize property owners along its border, proponents of park status said. There will be no “buffer zone” around the park because it’s already surrounded ...

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Mesa County has best employment 
month in 4 years

Mesa County’s unemployment rate hit its lowest point in more than four years last month, reaching 8.2 percent, according to data released Friday by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. Colorado’s unemployment rate also ...

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Ready to make their mark

It was her voice, her singing, but the CD was stuttering, made worse in the reverberations around an otherwise silent Brownson Arena Friday morning. Finally, Ashley Moore turned and asked for the CD to be stopped. “I wasn’t ...

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