GJ Sentinel Daily REWiND Podcast

Long-time Sentinel employee Darrel Allen shares memories of 35 years working behind the scenes at the newspaper as he prepares to move on to new career horizons. From a long history of creative Halloween costumes to the coworker who triggered his fear of potlucks, the guy who’s consistently taken on the duties no one wants to tackle has collected a treasure trove of stories during his time in an industry that’s drastically changed since he first came on board.

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This week, we discuss City Manager Mike Bennett’s sudden reversal on the potential closure of the Senior Center following significant blowback, the long-term ramifications of John Madden’s public diss of Grand Junction, the Cedaredge police chief who’s been banned from school district grounds after exhibiting bad behavior at a football game, and the dangers of putting policy into the state’s constitution via ballot measures.

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This week, we discuss The Daily Sentinel’s struggles to produce print editions this week due to compounding issues in our Montrose pressroom, the closure of the Dos Rios Starbucks and the implications for the city budget in a development that’s been slow to flourish, Gretchen’s incredible concept of a fast-food version of Cracker Barrel moving into the now-empty building, and examine the myriad of proposed amendments and initiatives on this November’s ballot.

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On this week's award-winning show, we discuss the abrupt resignation of former Mesa County Attorney Todd Starr and posit theories on what might have prompted his sudden disappearance, explore what former employees are calling a “mass exodus” from the city’s Community Development Department and the journalistic use of anonymous sources, proposed cuts to the city budget which could provoke backlash, and the promise versus the reality of the Palisade Plunge, now in its fifth year of existence, and the tricky business of newspapers making political endorsements.

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As the Blue Angels take to the skies above Grand Junction in preparation for this weekend’s air show, Jay and Andy recall their own flight experiences from years past, dive into the painful reality of federal funds set aside for rural healthcare that will do little to help hospitals survive the Medicaid cuts that were part of last year’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” and progress on the D51 Outdoor Wilderness Program’s relocation to the Wildwood neighborhood, whose residents have become disillusioned by an apparent lack of transparency as to the ultimate plans for the property.

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Daily Sentinel Publisher Jay Seaton and Audience Engagement Director Gretchen Reist interview Restore the Balance board members Tim Sarmo and Dave Murphy about their efforts this election season to counter the flood of disinformation related to the integrity of our election system that aims to cast doubt on the voting process.

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This week, we turn our attention to the “Digital Delusion,” and how it relates to District 51’s push to remove technology from the classroom and go back to more traditional means of education, Colorado’s “J-Curve” education funding and how it puts our local schools near the bottom funding nationwide, the deluge of ballot measures facing voters this November and The Daily Sentinel’s commitment to in-depth analyses of their potential impacts, and what our readers think Colorado’s Initiative 302, which would enshrine the right to hunt and fish in the state's constitution.

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We go a little rogue this week, looking at Meta’s $18 billion multistate settlement in a lawsuit alleging the platform intentionally hooked children, the safeguards it has agreed to implement and the likelihood that Colorado will get a sizeable chunk of that money, the AI bubble underpinning the economy amid an increasing pushback against data centers and a technology that’s increasingly crossing its manmade boundaries, adjacent neighbors to a proposed D51 OWL camp who are rising in opposition to the plan and the district’s lack of transparency, accusations of rural discrimination against the USPS imposing higher fees on outlying areas, and reader input on whether Colorado should tighten laws and regulations on the operation of motorcycles on state roadways.

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This week, we reflect on recent revelations detailing the Trump administration’s apparent efforts to punish the state of Colorado over Tina Peters’ incarceration, the latest updates on a case from 2024 in which a woman allegedly mutilated her boyfriend’s penis in the course of stabbing him, resulting in his death, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office defending the use of Flock cameras by local law enforcement, the editorial board’s view of looming DHS layoffs in the face of imminent cuts to federal funding, and the likelihood of a D51 mill levy override appearing on this November’s ballot that would result in a property tax increase for the first time since 2017.

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In this week’s episode, we discuss the rise in childhood hunger striking Mesa County, which has 64% SNAP eligibility, and the reasons for continued low wages across the region, the lives of five local teens that ended tragically in a crash in Orchard Mesa, mini-bike mayhem that broke out downtown amid increasing problems with e-motorcycles on roadways, Republican gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx’s odd claims and his refusal to participate in a moderated debate, and what our online readers think about the use of Flock cameras by local law enforcement.

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