Posted inEnvironment, News

Bureau of Land Management to give land to Colorado to settle debt dating back to 1876

GRAND JUNCTION — A federal land agency has proposed transferring federal lands to the state of Colorado to pay off a government debt dating back more than a century and is now seeking comment on the proposal. The Daily Sentinel reports that the Bureau of Land Management has proposed giving 28 square miles of federal lands and […]

Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government

Grand Junction weapons company to pay $1 million for selling Army subpar grenade launchers

A Colorado weapons manufacturer has agreed to a $1 million settlement for allegedly shipping subpar grenade launchers to the U.S. Army, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Capco LLC supplied the Army with M320 grenade launchers between July 2016 and March 2018 even though company officials knew the launchers’ barrels did not meet specifications, U.S. […]

Posted inBusiness, Growth, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government

The Western Slope economy was already improving. Then Opportunity Zones added a power boost.

MONTROSE — David Dragoo leans over a balcony of the new headquarters for his Mayfly Outdoors. Inside, workers are forging high-end fly-fishing equipment. Outside, earth movers crawl across a dusty tract near cyclists leisurely pedaling along the lush banks of the Uncompahgre River.  “Ten years ago, it just wasn’t cool to be here. It didn’t […]

Posted inColoradans, Energy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government

Scattering BLM will be good for policy, boss William Pendley says. Not with him at the helm, advocacy groups argue.

Colorado will get more of the Bureau of Land Management’s Washington staff under the Trump administration’s proposed agency reorganization than any other Western state — but whether those employees will have decision-making authority is a hotly contested point. The plan involves scattering almost 300 positions, some currently unfilled, across 11 Western states. Of the 222 […]

Posted inBusiness, Education, Growth, News, Politics and Government, Technology

Lockheed Martin sniffs around for space in Grand Junction

An oh-by-the-way comment dropped into a recent Club 20 address by Gov. Jared Polis may—or may not — signal a significant economic development win for the Western Slope city of Grand Junction that has been wooing the aerospace industry. Polis was speaking to the Western Slope coalition of counties at their annual fall meeting Saturday […]

Posted inColoradans, Environment, News

A Western Colorado professor’s mosquito book created so much buzz that it brought him to tears

GRAND JUNCTION — Timothy Winegard has plastic mosquitoes stuck on his office door. Books about mosquitoes are packed onto more than one shelf above his desk. A file box, Sharpie-marked “mosquitoes,” sits beside his desk. Mosquito-related events crowd his computer calendar. And mosquito messages clog his email. So, is this Colorado Mesa University assistant history […]

Posted inNews, Politics and Government

BLM signs lease for its headquarters in Grand Junction, stoking concern

GRAND JUNCTION — The Bureau of Land Management has signed a lease agreement in Colorado to solidify relocation of its headquarters from the District of Columbia. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported Friday that U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner announced the decision Friday saying it would bring at least 27 positions to Grand Junction. Colorado Public Radio reports […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government, Technology

Why the head of the U.S. Patent Office is interested in artificial intelligence, false trademarks and the Western Slope

In the last five years, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has hired more lawyers in the Front Range region than ever before. The Colorado hiring frenzy, of course, had everything to do with the agency opening a satellite office in Denver in 2014 as part of a move to expand outside of Washington, D.C. […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors

Colorado liftmaker Leitner-Poma entering boom as ski industry battles heat up and cities seek to innovate

GRAND JUNCTION — Cody Wells lifts his welding helmet and takes a step back from the massive steel wheels dangling from the girders of the Leitner-Poma of America warehouse.  “It’s like a mad-scientist piece. There’s not another one like this anywhere,” he says. Wells is welding together two bullwheels — one on top of the […]

Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors

The Palisade Plunge (and its 6,000-foot descent) will be one of Colorado’s crown jewels

GRAND JUNCTION — Perched on basalt boulders at the end of a path freshly carved through a jungle of scrub oak, Scott Winans is as close as ever to a 10-year goal that promises to highlight the recreational assets of his Grand Valley home turf.   “It’s been a lot of work to get here. A […]