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April 28, 2015 11:37 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (April 28)

  • 3 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Hey, there it is! Welcome back, Sun. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

 

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Prosecutors are scheduled to call their first witness today in the Aurora Theater Shooting trial. The Aurora Sentinel provides a handy update for Day Two.

► As the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments over same-sex marriage, experts on both sides of the argument seem to think equality is a foregone conclusion. Or…maybe not?

► So-called fetal homicide Personhood legislation limped out of the State Senate yesterday. Senate Bill 268 is unlikely to make it through the State House, especially after running into all manner of political problems in the Senate. 

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

 

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

Three pieces of legislation dealing with police oversight are moving through the State Senate.

► “Construction defects” legislation came to a predictable end in the State House, as Ed Sealover of The Denver Business Journal sums up well:

Construction-defects reform is dead.

A two-year effort in the Colorado Legislature to jump-start stalled condominium construction fell Monday on party lines in a state House of Representatives committee.

Senate Bill 177 — an idea of one senator which had gained the backing of a 55-organization business/nonprofit coalition — died because backers could not convince six Democrats that increasing the difficulty in filing a class-action defects lawsuit also would increase the portfolio of affordable housing in the Denver area. [Pols emphasis]

House Democrat Joe Salazar voiced a common concern: That homebuilders would gain further protection from shoddy work at the expense of homeowners.

► The runoff election for Mayor of Colorado Springs is underway, with ballots due by May 19th (the runoff is an all-mail ballot election). Former Attorney General John Suthers is the overwhelming favorite against former Mayor Mary Lou Makepeace

► The State House approved a proposed ballot measure for November that is necessary because TABOR is dumb. As Charles Ashby explains in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

The Colorado House on Monday approved a proposed measure to this year’s ballot asking voters if all of the retail marijuana taxes they approved in 2013 should go only to those things they approved in that ballot question two years ago.

Lawmakers said they need to ask voters that question because that’s not what’s happening now.

Under that 2013 ballot question, Proposition AA, excise and sales taxes from retail marijuana were to go to fund crumbling schools and marijuana impact grants and to regulate retail marijuana stores. But because of a quirk in the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, some of that money will end up being included in TABOR refunds because the state collected far more in marijuana taxes than it had anticipated.

► Cleanup has begun after a day of riots, looting, fires, and injuries in Baltimore. Meanwhile, the Monday-morning quarterbacking of the city and police department has begun.

 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Some marketing genius at the Colorado Springs Gazette deserves a raise. As the Colorado Springs Independent reports, the Gazette ran a Sunday advertisement that refutes a previous full-page ad condemning LGBT residents and visitors.

► Republican Presidential candidates are making their sacrifices at the altar of billionaires, as Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post:

GOP leaders exulted a few years ago when the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and other decisions invited the rich to pour unlimited sums into political campaigns — and they are, by the billions of dollars.

But the Law of Unintended Consequences frequently rules the practice of politics, and it has once again. Republican candidates are hauling in so much money that the flood of cash has washed away the Darwinian system of natural selection that previously allowed parties to pick their nominees.

In the past, there was a money primary: If candidates polled poorly, their fundraising would dry up and they’d have to drop out of the race. But such market principles no longer apply, because a large number of inviable candidates are artificially subsidized — kept in the race by a beneficent billionaire, or even a friendly multimillionaire or two. With no easy way to push weak candidates from the race, Republicans are being hoist by their own gilded petard. 

 ► The U.S. Department of Education is warning Colorado lawmakers that the state could lose $400 million in federal funding if they are too hasty in allowing parents to opt-out of standardized tests.

 

ICYMI

► The Denver Broncos are back on the practice field for the first time since not winning the Super Bowl last season.

At least we’re not in Ireland.

 

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Comments

3 thoughts on “Get More Smarter on Tuesday (April 28)

  1. I’m failing to see either (a) the shortage of condo construction or (b) the means by which condo construction results in affordable housing…

    Construction since the recovery has kicked in here has been robust by all means I can see. We’re behind the 8-ball with population growth, but if there’s a shortage of construction it’s lost on my eyes as I move about the city and suburbs.

    And new condos aren’t generally targeted at the affordable housing market in my experience – unless advertised condo prices really should average more than the value of my house.

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