In our 24/7 news world, it now seems as though we also have a 365/52 political season. We went through our county, state and national elections in November and just got done with our city elections this month. Now contenders are already lining up to become the next president of the United States. It never […]
With only a little more than a year and a half until the presidential election, I reckon it’s well past time for me to weigh in on the race. I don’t suppose it will help to point out that at this point prior to the 2004 election it looked like Hollerin’ Howard Dean would be […]
Most people of a certain age can recall the summer jobs of their youth. Washing dishes in a restaurant. Waiting on customers in a retail shop. Cleaning up on a construction site. It wasn’t so much the specific skills people learned that were necessarily valuable, but the more general lessons that were so important. Showing […]
Eight times a year, the Federal Reserve releases its “Beige Book,” an assessment of economic activity in each of its 12 districts based on anecdotal evidence. While the report helps Fed policymakers make decisions on monetary policy, the report also offers a tool for small businesses. So what does the latest report communicate to those […]
And then we’d never have another problem in our society, what with all of the know-it-alls running around. Nirvana in a nutshell. Maybe we could skip the elections and declare everyone a winner in the same way we give out trophies for participation and every problem would then be solved. Hey, it’s a better alternative […]
Now and then I feel a twinge of guilt criticizing the Barack Obama administration’s foreign policy, or what passes for it. It feels like cheating. I mean, it can’t really be as bad as it seems, can it? At some point, you have to think a viable plan will emerge, lessons will be learned, some […]
The new year brings more good economic news in the Grand Valley in the form of increasing sales tax collections and real estate activity. The City of Grand Junction and Mesa County both reported year-over-year gains in January sales tax collections based on December sales. The latest numbers are doubly important not only in quantifying […]
The Business Incubator Center in Grand Junction is deservedly famous for the resources offered there to entrepreneurs: low-cost space, counseling and even financing. Add to that entrepreneurial cornucopia the GJ Makerspace, a place where entrepreneurs, engineers and other inventive people can develop and test their ideas and, eventually, turn them into new businesses. The GJ […]
For some unknown reason over the past several weeks, I’ve been bombarded with the topic of parenting. I’ve been in the role of single parent for 2 1/2 years and think I’ve done a pretty good job. But I must admit, the long breath I sometimes take when the kiddos go back to their mom’s […]
In his latest State of the Union address, President Barack Obama painted a rosy portrait of the United States economy. According to the president, the U.S. economy experienced a “breakthrough year” in 2014. Well, with fourth-quarter data out on gross domestic product, it turns out that 2014 was just another under-performing year in terms of […]