Despite varied media career, writer has ink in the blood

This is my last regular column with The Daily Sentinel. Writing a weekly column and publishing a high-quality magazine at the same time is, well, quite unrealistic. Yes, it’s time to bring back Grand Valley Magazine. I’ve worked in media, directly and indirectly, since high school. Our cheerleading squad did a fund-raising promotion at a local radio station one weekend, and by the end of it, I practically begged the station manager to hire me. I was fascinated. He gave in, and ...

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World-renowned innovator got a boost at Mesa College

The opportunity to gain firsthand insight from a world-renowned innovator is honor enough, but to find out that innovator got his start at Colorado Mesa University (then Mesa College) is downright exciting. Thomas W. Osborn, a virtual rock star in the world of innovators as featured in a new book from Stanford University Press titled “Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations,” entered Mesa College as a struggling student with attention ...

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Did ancient aliens or unfettered 
 human ingenuity create change?

A series of TV programs called “Ancient Aliens” aired recently on History’s H2 channel. I listened as countless self-proclaimed alien experts pointed to all kinds of ancient artifacts that defy their idea of our ancestors’ capabilities, and most concluded that they must therefore be the work of advanced extraterrestrial visitors. Entertaining though it was, there was no doubt in my mind that the marvels they pointed to were the work of humans. Contemplate, if you ...

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Leading indicator for nation’s economic recovery? Chicken

The whole Chick-fil-A kerfuffle this past week was downright inspiring. All that passion from consumers ready to support or not support a business based solely on what that business stands for! That could be the spark needed to rebuild our stagnant economy. No government assistance needed. What if all businesses actively touted the causes and values they stand for so that customers and prospective customers could make informed choices to spend their dollars with companies aligned with ...

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The Olympic Games: Moments of peace in troubled times

I love the Olympics. Summer. Winter. Doesn’t matter. I love the games as a celebration of our shared humanity. The grace, the balance, the beauty, the rhythm and precision, the teamwork, the intensity expressed on human faces — unique faces from all over the world. It’s a showcase for the best of the best in human performance. It’s a time when I can imagine that even the birds in the sky stop pitying our wingless disability long enough to actually grant us a little ...

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This community doesn’t care about education? Hogwash.

I have heard several people say the same thing recently: “This community just doesn’t care about education.” And why? Because last November a majority of voters elected not to support a mill levy override for District 51 funding. I bristled the first time I heard that remark the day after the election, and it still bugs me to hear it nine months later. First of all, the population of Mesa County is about 147,000 and it has about 102,000 registered voters. A mere 21,951 ...

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Why is so much national political attention on Mesa County?

How is it that Mesa County continues to garner so much national attention? From the nation’s number-one ranking in quality health care at the lowest cost to world-class outdoor recreation to a steady stream of presidential candidates, Mesa County is of obvious national importance. For example, in the past four years alone, we’ve had visits from Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Kathleen Sibelius and Mitt Romney. But when I learned this week that three of the top four ...

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Avalon Theatre is the ballpark of our cultural community

Colorado ranks fifth in the nation for concentration of creative talent. Only New York, California, Massachusetts and Vermont place higher, according to a “State of Colorado’s Creative Economy” report by the Alliance for Creative Advantage (based in South Carolina). So significant are the creative enterprises that they make up the fifth-largest employment sector in Colorado’s economy. Our cultural amenities are increasingly attracting innovators, businesses and ...

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Semper fi, Grandpa — and thanks for all the stories

Recently, I received the most extraordinary and unexpected gift. My mother and my uncle handed me an old book, the binding long gone, titled Columbia Standard Illustrated World Atlas. I was touched because they know I adore and collect interesting maps. But my delight at first seeing it paled in comparison to the emotions I felt when I opened the cover. Their full given names were handwritten on the first page in a script I recognized before my eyes moved to my grandpa’s signature ...

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People-friendly communities require more than sidewalks

I was saddened by the death of the tourist hit by a car while crossing Horizon Drive last week. Welcome to Grand Junction. Anyone who has walked or cycled along Horizon, Patterson, North Avenue, Broadway or 12th Street through Colorado Mesa University knows how scary it is to travel those corridors by any means other than by car — and even that’s risky, thanks to speeders, texters and multi-taskers. We’re justifiably proud of our beautiful downtowns, but like most cities ...

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What can be done with those empty big-box stores?

I was so happy to hear about enthusiasm for revitalizing North Avenue. Intended efforts are clearly under way, as reported in last Sunday’s Daily Sentinel. The extraordinary transformations of downtown and the Horizon Drive corridors over the past decades were made possible with a lot of foresight and commitment by dedicated members of our community, so the North Avenue project looks promising. But it has three major challenges the other revitalized areas didn’t have. North ...

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Where’s the pill to treat our political psychosis?

Is it time for a national chill pill? What has happened to get folks so darned mad at one another? Schoolyard bullying seems to have replaced civil discourse. When did we start fearing rather than celebrating the richness of our diverse citizenry and differing points of view? I’ve heard way too many vicious, hateful statements over the past few months — in the news, from lawmakers, from acquaintances, some subtle, some in the form of crude jokes and some just plain ignorant. ...

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It’s good not to have Internet tracking you for a while

I just spent a glorious week camping and hiking on a remote mountain, home to 3,000-year-old trees living 10,000 feet above sea level. Oh, and by “remote,” I mean no cell phone or internet coverage for miles and miles in all directions. The first day was a little weird without the constant stream of online updates and messages tailored just for me (thanks to sophisticated algorithms and media quants), nothing but the sound of rustling leaves, babbling brooks and birds singing ...

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Ignorance of the law is no defense – but should it be?

About 40,000 new state laws went into effect the first of this year throughout the United States, according to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures. With a total of about 16 million laws in the United States, I can’t help but wonder how ignorance of the law is not a valid defense in today’s world. For a nation that prides itself on being the most free country in the known universe, how is it that we have more laws than any other nation on Earth? No wonder ...

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Creativity is crucial, not only for culture, but for our survival

This weekend is all about celebrating the arts here in the Grand Valley, marked by our wonderful annual Art & Jazz Festival. There’s live music and dance and fine arts everywhere you look. Eager to get a sneak peek at this year’s new sculptures in Grand Junction’s nationally acclaimed Art on the Corner program, traditionally installed just before the festival, I called on Downtown Development Authority director Harry Weiss last week. “We’re not installing ...

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Could the driving-while-high bill cause a case of moral panic?

Grand Junction Sen. Steve King claims there has been “a drastic increase” in fatal accidents involving people under the influence of marijuana. “We are well on our way to an adult driving epidemic that will match the DUI epidemic that we had 15 and 20 years ago,” King told his fellow legislators as he argued in support of Senate Bill 117, which proposes a blood test for drivers that can determine marijuana-induced impairment. When I read that in The Daily Sentinel ...

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Recent political news can leave one lost in the fifties (again)

Over the course of a normal week, there are almost always two or three overriding battles on the economic and political fronts that I can’t wait to research and write about. But this week? The vast number of seemingly unresolvable conflicts in the headlines just sapped my energy and resolve. Consider: Who should and should not have nuclear weapons, TSA employees busted in drug rings, racial profiling in immigration debates, accusations of communism and socialist hypocrisy, oil and ...

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Go make something: The tools are everywhere

The Aspen ShortsFest film festival was last weekend. As the name implies, the event is devoted to short films. I’d never been to anything like it and discovered it to be a delightful and profound experience. The festival featured about 55 short films, one to 20 minutes long, grouped in 90-minute programs with filmmaker question-and-answer sessions afterward. The pieces covered a wide range: high art, comedy, irony, dark and moody, bizarre animation, cleverness, documentary. Some were ...

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Flying the friendly skies with Frankenstein and his monster

After mourning the death of his loved ones, Victor Frankenstein, using chemistry, electricity and the latest technology, brings a dead body back to life. The frightened villagers reject the creature as a monster that then wreaks havoc. Frankenstein feels guilty for having created it. The monster vows revenge on Frankenstein and his family. They pursue each other across Europe, right to the end. After the tragic loss of thousands of our loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Aviation ...

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How about putting transportation back in the transportation bill?

Well, well, well, what a surprise. Our diligent U.S. House and Senate failed to agree on a transportation bill by the April 1 deadline, opting for yet another — as in ninth — extension of the 2005 bill. The extension, or Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, buys them another 90 days to come up with something they can agree upon. (The Federal Aviation Administration had 22 extensions before Congress finally approved a multi-year bill this year.) The House passed its ...

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It really is a man’s world, and it’s becoming more that way

If the state of world affairs seems a little heavy on the testosterone, it’s not just a figment of our imaginations. According to a United Nations Statistics Division report, there are 57 million more men than women in the world today. And most of that ratio imbalance is in the under-50 age groups. Women, now, still outnumber men in the over-70 age group, although by less than they used to. Those facts and figures led to a flurry of zippy one-liners in my mind, not all of them what ...

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Despite troubling international news, civility shines through

Three very different world events these past few weeks left me baffled, disturbed and inspired. And it wasn’t until I sat down to write that I realized their strange connection. The United States and a number of its United Nations allies agreed to impose economic sanctions on Iran: nothing new or surprising about that. Baffling, however, was the U.S. State Department’s decision last week to grant “exemptions” from the sanctions to Belgium, Czech Republic, France, ...

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Getting to the facts: How do we know what to believe?

A respected acquaintance recently expressed a startling opinion: “Real journalism is dead.” “It is?” I replied. And his rationale followed: “How do I know the facts the journalists are reporting are actually true and not just used to support their opinions?” Ah, a critical question for the information age. Journalists, like everyone else, are constantly faced with dubious “facts” from their sources. And because everyone and their mother ...

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It’s your digital legacy and virtual wealth. Or is it?

Every single time we engage in Internet activity, we add to our individual digital legacy. And most of us do so with little thought about it. Who owns that legacy? And what happens to it when we depart this world? What about our collections of music, movies and eBooks? Our active eBay auction bids? Our photos and email accounts? And then there are those websites we’d just as soon nobody knows about. Planning to leave your iTunes collections to cousin Sarah? Not going to happen. You ...

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Despite their purchasing practices, the poor have many innovative ideas

The latest Mendelsohn Affluent Report, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey was released on Thursday. So? I’m a statistics geek. I was excited. The Mendelsohn report analyzes the “role of Affluents as the spending engine that drives today’s consumer economy.” This is good news for our economy. The 58.6 million adults with annual household incomes of $100,000-plus have nearly 60 percent of total household income and 70 percent of ...

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Mesa County’s drug treatment programs don’t meet current standards

If there are proven drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs that work, why would the community with the highest quality, lowest cost health care in the nation — Mesa County, Colorado — not also have the highest recovery rate in the nation? We seem to have all the resources and know-how to develop and successfully implement such programs. Why are we not motivated to move from a 3 to 7 percent recovery rate ­— which is typical for traditional programs — to a ...

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Hydraulic fracturing: Reality, history and a little attitude

I want to like hydraulic fracturing technology in oil and gas drilling. Why? Well, because I enjoy driving my car, living in a warm house, cooking on a gas stove, watching Top Shot, Project Runway and just about anything on the Science Channel on my HDTV and checking emails on my smartphone. The increased success in drilling allowed by modern fracking technology means jobs, but it should also mean lower natural gas prices for consumers across our nation. On a global scale, the technology ...

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Planting the seeds of independence: It’s all in the dirt

Why aren’t fundamental life skills a standard part of secondary school education — tools young people need to ensure their independence as adults? If they can feed, clothe and provide shelter for themselves and their families, they’ll be prepared to weather almost any future storm, both literally and metaphorically. Why are initiatives that teach those skills relegated to extracurricular, after-hours off-campus programs led by volunteers instead of being part of the ...

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Taking STOCK of pipelines, politicians, energy ownership

The proposed STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge), passed by the U.S. Senate Thursday, appears to be little more than an election-year ploy. The proposed act has been introduced and reintroduced over the past six years, and it’s now on its way to the House. There’s been a ban on insider trading by members of Congress in place since 1934, thanks to the creation of the Securities Exchange Act. The STOCK Act, with a projected cost of $9 million over five years, ...

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A beautiful day in the ‘nuclear’ neighborhood?

Editor’s note: Krystyn Hartman, the former publisher of Grand Valley Magazine, will be writing a weekly column for The Daily Sentinel, covering topics ranging from energy to the arts. Let’s talk about Blue Castle Holdings’ Green River $18 billion nuclear power plant project. The timing’s right: We just celebrated National Nuclear Energy Week. Until the past few years, Utah was a net exporter of electricity, but no longer. Utah’s power generating mix is ...

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