July 30, 2015 10:14 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (July 30)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Marter Day. Let’s 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…

► Colorado Springs legislator Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt has said plenty of disgusting and ridiculous things on his “Pray in Jesus’ Name” YouTube channel, but he pole-vaulted over the line with recent comments that gay Boy Scout leaders should be drowned. Calls for his resignation are growing louder by the hour, and the Colorado Republican Party quickly condemned Dr. Chaps.

► Numerous domain names have been snapped up in relation to the controversy surrounding the embattled right-wing school board members in Jefferson County. You’ll never guess who owns domain names such as RecallNewkirk.com.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is adamant that it has not broken the law as a series of “gotcha” videos continue to pop up online. From the Denver Post:

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is “certain” it has done nothing illegal and that the accusations made against it by an anti-abortion group that posted an undercover, edited video of a PPRM physician seemingly talking about the sale of fetal parts is false.

The video — the third released by the Center for Medical Progress in recent days — shows local Planned Parenthood Dr. Savita Ginde looking at specimens with an alleged fetal tissue buyer.

Fetal tissue cannot be sold for profit but can be donated for research with permission of a donor, and providers can be reimbursed for the cost of the procedure.

► We assume that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a strategy for winning the Presidential election in 2016, but that strategy apparently does not include capturing Colorado’s electoral votes. During a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Christie said that he would enforce federal laws on marijuana if elected President:

“If you’re getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it. As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws.”

►According to Forbes magazine, Denver is the best city in the United States “for business and careers.”

► Have you picked a side in the great Colorado fluoride debate? According to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Governor’s office is pro-fluoride:

Communities across Colorado, including Snowmass Village and now Denver, are re-evaluating their policies on drinking water fluoridation, prompting the governor’s office to throw its support behind the practice Wednesday.

After the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lowered the dosage it recommends for public water systems this spring, communities throughout the state began to reconsider their policies. The Snowmass Water and Sanitation District voted July 17 to discontinue the practice entirely, and on Wednesday, Denver Water was set to hold a public information session on fluoridation for its board.

Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment made their stance known in a statement released Wednesday morning.

Bonus points for you if you can spell “fluoride” correctly on the first try.

► Grand Junction needs a new “city management and legislative liaison” after Elizabeth Tice
resigned on Wednesday. Tice reached a settlement with the Grand Junction City Council following revelations that her salary had somehow doubled over the course of the last couple of years.

► Nick Coltrain of the Ft. Collins Coloradoan updates a different VA scandal in Colorado:

The findings in a 2014 Department of Veterans Affairs investigation into the Fort Collins clinic’s appointment fixing scandal are “unsupported” and “not reasonable,” according to the federal agency charged with reviewing the investigation.

The Fort Collins VA Clinic and the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, which oversees the clinic, were embroiled in an appointment fixing scandal last spring when an inspector general’s report found patients were “blind scheduled” and had appointments set in ways that did not follow agency policy.

► Famous person Donald Trump has hired a national political director for his Presidential campaign. Trump hired Michael Glassner, a former aide to Sarah Palin when the latter was John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has approved the sale of recreational marijuana starting in October, about a year ahead of schedule (Oregon voters approved legal marijuana last November).

► Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry wonders why parents should not be held negligent for leaving children home with access to guns and ammunition.

ICYMI

► State Sen. Morgan Carroll will kick-off her “grassroots campaign” for Congress in CD-6 at an event on Aug. 11.

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