July 19, 2023 12:02 PM UTC
Get More Smarter on Wednesday (July 19)
2 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
It’s hot out there, but it’s going to get a LOT hotter next week. Let’s Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.
FIRST UP…
► Denver Mayor Mike Johnston wasted little time making his first big announcement after being sworn-in to office on Monday. As Elliott Wenzler reports for The Colorado Sun:
In his first full day as Denver’s new mayor, Mike Johnston on Tuesday morning declared a state of emergency around homelessness and announced that he plans to house 1,000 unsheltered people by the end of the year.
Johnston said he will tour 78 neighborhoods across the city to accomplish his goal and that his staff will work with landlords, property owners and hotels to find housing availability. His administration is also looking at nearly 200 public plots to place tiny home communities where people experiencing homelessness can be housed.
“This is what we think is the most important crisis the city is facing,” Johnston said at a news conference at the Denver’s City and County Building. “We took the oath yesterday to commit to taking on this problem.”…
…Johnston said the state of emergency declaration will help the city access state and “possibly” federal funding. He also said it would allow the city to more quickly work through construction, renovation and permitting processes for new housing units.
“I think it also sends a real message to all the rest of the state that we are deeply focused on this,” he said.
► As Seth Klamann reports for The Denver Post, new polling data shows that Coloradans are very concerned about the cost of living:
Nearly half of Colorado renters surveyed in a recent statewide poll reported anxiety about losing their housing because of increasing rents, part of a broader finding that communities of color and tenants have more housing and economic anxiety than the rest of the state.
Coloradans identified the cost of living and housing affordability as their top two concerns this year, according to the annual poll commissioned by the Colorado Health Foundation, and more than 80% of respondents said both were serious problems. Black, Latino and Native Americans in the state were even more worried about housing and the cost of living in Colorado than their white peers, and the survey showed that a majority of middle and lower-income residents and renters were either struggling financially or were just keeping their heads above water.
It’s the fourth straight year that the foundation’s poll has identified housing as a leading concern of Coloradans, and the second straight year that housing and the cost of living have topped the list. The share of respondents who listed housing and affordability as their top worries is down slightly from last year, though both remain a more pressing concern than they were in 2020 or 2021.
It’s worth noting that this survey was conducted in April and May, so the results are not indicative of anything that has happened in recent months.
► State health authorities are warning about an increase in heat-related illnesses. As Bruce Finley writes for The Denver Post:
“Heat waves are becoming more common,” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials warn in their latest public guidance on risks of heat exhaustion and stroke. “Heat-related illnesses can damage the brain and other vital organs.”
State health authorities recommend that, when temperatures exceed 90 degrees for several days, residents “stay in an air-conditioned area” — difficult for workers whose jobs require outdoor activity and thousands of people living on the streets. Health officials also point to shopping malls, libraries, and other places with AC as options. “Even a few hours in air-conditioning can keep the body cool.”
Drink water often, and avoid sugary drinks and alcohol, which lead to loss of body fluid, they advise.
CDPHE data released this week show that 494 residents of the state went to emergency rooms with heat-related illnesses in 2022 — above the 2011-2022 average of 368. Of those patients, 60 had to be hospitalized (above the 2004-2022 average of 38), the data show. Ten people died in Colorado due to heat (above the 2004-2022 average of 6).
Heat now ranks as the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. As sizzling temperatures and heat waves become more common — linked by scientists to climate change — health authorities anticipate heat-related illness will increase. [Pols emphasis]
Temperatures along the Front Range in Colorado are forecasted to get close to 100 degrees in the next week. Nearly 100 million Americans are under heat alerts as areas across the Southern United States reach record temperatures.
But at least we’re not in the Middle East, as The Washington Post reported on Tuesday:
In recent days, China set an all-time high of nearly 126 degrees Fahrenheit, while Death Valley hit 128 degrees, two shy of the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth. Phoenix experienced a record-breaking 19th consecutive day at or above 110 degrees Tuesday. And in the Middle East, the heat index reached 152 degrees, nearing — or surpassing — levels thought to be the most intense the human body can withstand.
You read that correctly: 152 degrees.
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Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…
► The Colorado Springs Independent looks at the amount of money paid to the former Chief of Staff for former Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers. Jeff Greene was replaced by new Mayor Yemi Mobolade when he was sworn-in to office on June 6.
► Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) is joining with Nebraska Republican Rep. Mike Flood on the Sustainable Agriculture Research Act in an effort to improve sustainable agriculture practices throughout the country.
► Colorado voters are, unsurprisingly, not familiar with Proposition HH, which will be on the ballot this November. As Sara Wilson writes for Colorado Newsline:
Proposition HH is going before voters this November after lawmakers agreed to refer it to the ballot and Gov. Jared Polis signed off on it. If passed, it would change how property taxes are calculated for homeowners in an attempt to lessen an expected increase in what property owners will owe. It would raise the amount of tax revenue the state can keep under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for the next decade in order to backfill some of local governments’ reduction in property tax revenue.
It would also set aside money for a rental assistance program and expand the senior homestead exemption. If Proposition HH passes, taxpayers would also receive a flat TABOR refund next year of $873 for single filers and $1,746 for joint filers, instead of a refund depending on income level.
“Although the Proposition HH ballot language is relatively easy to understand, its approval would have far-reaching policy and funding implications for every local government, school district, property owner, and taxpayer in Colorado,” the survey summary, paid for and conducted by Magellan Strategies, reads…
…Among all the respondents, 41% said they were not familiar at all with the ballot measure. Ten percent said they were very familiar and 25% said they were somewhat familiar with it. [Pols emphasis]
It’s pretty early in an off-year election cycle to ask Colorado voters about anything, so it’s hard to put too much stock into these results.
► Erik Maulbetsch of the Colorado Times Recorder notes that Colorado Republicans just can’t quit the election conspiracy nonsense.
► If you know a teenager who has recently graduated from high school, maybe give them some time before getting on their case about finding a job. An 18-year-old Colorado man was arrested at Denver International Airport attempting to fly to Turkey in order to join fighters from ISIS.
► Colorado Public Radio reports on the looming loss of health care coverage for 30,000 Coloradans:
Friday Health Plans started in Colorado in 2015 with hopes of revolutionizing the health insurance market. Nearly a decade later, the company has imploded, leaving tens of thousands of people scrambling to find new health insurance in Colorado and beyond.
State regulators in Colorado are moving to “liquidate” the company, meaning its assets will be divided up and the business closed. As a result, all of Friday Health’s plans in Colorado will end on Aug. 31 — affecting roughly 30,000 customers here.
The company was already set to close, seeming to collapse after an over-aggressive expansion. But state regulators decided to speed up the shutdown amid growing concerns about the company’s financial health, including from doctors who were refusing to honor its health plans.
“We encourage people to act as soon as possible because if they don’t take action, they will become uninsured, which is, not great for people, obviously,” said Vincent Plymell, spokesperson for the state Division of Insurance.
► Two members of the Englewood City Council are facing recall elections on Oct. 3 because local residents are upset about what they claim is an overly-aggressive development strategy.
► Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann was granted a protective order against a man who had been trolling her online and in person. Kulmann, a 2022 candidate for Congress in CO-08, is running for re-election this fall.
► The Mesa County Clerk’s office will get back to conducting elections in Grand Junction in 2025, as the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel explains:
The Mesa County Clerk’s Office will return to conducting the city of Grand Junction’s elections in 2025, the city’s next scheduled April municipal election…
…The city ran its own election in April, after former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters said in 2021 her office would not conduct the city’s elections, as it had for the previous two decades, unless they were held in November.
County Clerk Bobbie Gross, who was elected in November 2022, said during her campaign there was no reason the clerk’s office wouldn’t be able to conduct municipal elections.
For Fruita and Palisade, at least, that will require moving their elections to November because the County Clerk’s office doesn’t have enough bandwidth to conduct their scheduled April 2024 elections.
► Republicans in Congress and in Colorado are perplexed by Rep. Lauren Boebert’s continued refusal to change her political ways in advance of a tough 2024 re-election battle.
► The Durango Herald reports on a weird story involving a recently-elected official:
La Plata County Treasurer Allison Aichele submitted a letter of resignation to the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, announcing that her last day on the job would be Nov. 4.
She did not provide any reason for her resignation in her letter. Her four-year term was set to expire in January 2027.
“(It is) time for a new chapter in my life,” Aichele said by way of an explanation in a brief interview with The Durango Herald.
County commissioners will meet at noon Wednesday to vote on whether to accept Aichele’s resignation and to provide direction to staff on how to proceed. Under Colorado law, the BOCC will appoint a qualified individual to the position who will serve in the role until the next general election, in November 2024.
► Paging former Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton…
► Colorado Public Radio reports on a new program aimed at developing the state’s workforce:
Colorado has such dire workforce shortages in early childhood education, education, firefighting, law enforcement, construction and forestry that if you want a job in those fields, the state will pay for your college education to get a job.
Gov. Jared Polis officially launched the program “Career Advance Colorado” on Tuesday. It will provide tuition, fees and course materials to students on those specific career training paths.
“We’re excited to save Coloradans money and train people for good-paying jobs by offering free community college education for in-demand positions at the state’s 19 community and technical colleges,” Polis said.
Most of those fields pay more — some significantly more — than unskilled jobs, and officials say one big advantage would be graduating work-ready with little or no debt.
The goal of the program is to help fill significant shortages in certain areas of the state’s economy. The state currently has two job openings for every available worker. Colorado sees 3,700 openings for elementary and secondary educators every year. Construction jobs are also projected to increase by 20 percent over the next decade.
► As The New York Times reports, wheat prices are spiking as Russia escalates a blockade of any ships leaving ports in Ukraine.
► The Denver School Board wants more time before it releases the audio recording that probably violated Open Meetings laws.
Say What, Now?
This is probably not the best thing to put on your online dating profile:
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Good news? As The Associated Press reports:
The head of Cyprus’ veterinarians’ association on Wednesday dismissed as groundless claims that a lethal mutation of a virus has taken the lives of some 300,000 cats, saying they misleadingly depicted the small island nation abroad as a “feline cemetery.”
The director of the Pancyprian Veterinary Association, Nektaria Ioannou Arsenoglou, says the numbers presented by local animal activists and amplified by foreign media outlets “simply don’t add up” since a survey of 35 veterinary clinics conducted by the Association only indicate an island-wide total of around 8,000 such deaths.
Arsenoglou told the Associated Press Wednesday the local mutation of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), caused by the feline version of the coronavirus, is nearly always lethal if left untreated, but medication can nurse cats back to health in approximately 85% of cases. Spread through contact with cat feces, neither the virus or its mutation can be passed on to humans.
“Pancyprian Veterinary Association.” Say that three times fast. Or even once, really.
► Dark Brandon for the win:
ICYMI
► The Presidential hopes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continue to flounder. As The Washington Post reports, employing paid canvassers instead of volunteers turned out to be not a great idea:
With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.
Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him. “And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potential risk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
Meanwhile, POLITICO reports that there is little reason to expect a new version of DeSantis as he tries to fix his flailing Presidential campaign.
► Don’t miss the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with new Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib:
Don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter. Check out The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.
Thank you, Colorado progressives (and CHB). Twenty years after passage of historic Amendment 37 our collective work is still bearing fruit.
Vestas to expand Windsor plant for new line of wind turbines
Good information. Thanks for sharing, Michael.