April 27, 2018 10:43 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (April 27)

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Broncos did not select a quarterback with their first round pick on Thursday, but that might be a good thing. It’s time to 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY… 

► Teachers from across Colorado are rallying at the State Capitol for a second day. As the Denver Post reports:

Hundreds of thousands of Colorado students stayed home from school on Friday while teachers from dozens of districts — including Denver, Aurora and Cherry Creek — descended on the state Capitol to demand an increase in state funding for public education.

Teachers and their supporters — many of them decked out in red — began streaming toward the Capitol before 9 a.m. Friday, carrying signs, banners and a message. Bands were playing to show support for the teachers.

Retired teacher Marianne Scott said she’s proud that teachers are finally standing up and fighting for better funding.

“Is Colorado a ‘backwater’ state or a state focused on prosperity for all?” he asked.

Teacher walkouts are bringing new attention to the issue of poor education funding and dismal salaries. Proponents of a ballot measure to increase school funding in Colorado are using the momentum to push for change in November.

► The New York Times reports on encouraging news about easing tensions between North and South Korea:

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed on Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and, within the year, pursue talks with the United States to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953.

At a historic summit meeting, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula for more than six decades, while ridding it of nuclear weapons. A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.

“South and North Korea confirmed the common goal of realizing, through complete denuclearization, a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” read a statement signed by North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, after their meeting at the border village of Panmunjom.

► Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) may be finishing out his political career in 2018 after a Colorado State Supreme Court ruling tossed his name off of the June Primary ballot this week. Lamborn may find out on Monday if his lawsuit in federal court will be successful in allowing him to officially run for re-election. State Sen. Owen Hill, who is running for Lamborn’s seat in CD-5, is getting more involved in the federal case.

► Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee insist that everything is fine regarding allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. From the Washington Post:

House Intelligence Committee Republicans released a redacted version of their final reportfrom a year-long probe into Russia’s “multifaceted” influence operation, generally clearing President Trump and his associates of wrongdoing while accusing the intelligence community and the FBI of failures in how they assessed and responded to the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.

The report accuses the intelligence community of “significant intelligence tradecraft failings,” suggesting that Russia’s main goal was to sow discord in the United States and not to help Trump win the election. It says investigators found “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government” — even as it details contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians or Russian intermediaries.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Democrats in the State House passed a measure on Thursday that would allow local governments to raise minimum wages at their discretion. As Ed Sealover reports for the Denver Business Journal, debate over the bill had plenty of odd moments:

Colorado House Democrats pushed a measure through their legislative chamber Thursday that would allow cities and counties to raise their minimum wage above the level of the state’s — despite warnings about job loss to automation, claims of socialism and a party-line vote that seems likely to doom the bill in the Republican-controlled Senate…

…Several Republican representatives said that the people who would be hurt most by HB 1368 would be the lowest-wage workers, who would see their hours cut or their jobs eliminated as companies sought to balance the higher costs of business with revenues that aren’t likely to rise with the increase in minimum wage. And they warned that companies also would look to compensate for higher labor costs by replacing people with machines, much like some fast-food restaurants are doing by adding kiosks to take orders in place of employees.

“They’ll find out these positions can be done automatically,” said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, of the lowest-paid workers. “(The machines) don’t go on strike or get sick. They don’t come in hungover. They don’t go to 4/20 rallies.” [Pols emphasis]

In other words — according to Republican Rep. Larry Liston, anyway — raising the minimum wage is a slippery slope that leads to the machines to taking over.

► Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton isn’t out of the woods yet when it comes to fraud perpetuated by signature gatherers working on petitions for ballot access. 

► EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt continues to get hammered over a long list of questionable decisions and expenditures. As Blair Miller reports for Denver7:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was grilled Thursday in two U.S. House committees over a host of ethical questions related to his spending of taxpayer money and ties to lobbyists, including tough questions from Rep. Diana DeGette.

Pruitt maintained during the hearings in the House Energy and Commerce and House Appropriations committees, which were meant to discuss the EPA’s budget requests, that many of the allegations against him have been made by people opposed to his agenda, and he dodged questions about which instances of questionable spending by his office he knew about beforehand.

One of the more notable moments of Pruitt’s Thursday testimony came when he flat-out lied about massive pay raises for two subordinates. From CNN:

The bombshell — first reported by The Atlantic — was denied by Pruitt. He added that he didn’t know who had signed off on the raises despite the fact that his chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, had signed off on them with Pruitt’s proxy. And that, in an email, one of the two people who received the raises said she had gotten approval from the administrator himself.

Then came Pruitt’s testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday. Under questioning from New York Rep. Paul Tonko, Pruitt acknowledged that he did have some knowledge of the raises.

“I was not aware of the amount,” said Pruitt, trying to find some way that he hadn’t lied to Ed Henry in that Fox interview. “Nor was I aware of the bypassing or the [Presidential Personnel Office] process not being respected.”

Don’t bother trying to square that circle. Because it doesn’t make any sense.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is getting blasted in television ads over his support for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) is working to cut federal funding for law enforcement agencies operating in mythical “sanctuary cities.”

► Candidates for Governor talked water policy on Thursday at the first “Water in the West Symposium” in Denver. 

► Republican lawmakers have nearly succeeded in killing off legislation intended to modernize and improve sexual assault reporting on college campuses. From the Colorado Independent:

The original bill set a statewide standard for how colleges should adjudicate campus sexual assault. It originally required colleges to use a relatively low burden of proof, the preponderance-of-evidence standard, which generally determines if allegations are credible if they “more likely than not” occurred. But the bill, as amended, now allows colleges to opt for a higher burden of proof by requiring clear and convincing evidence, which is not specifically defined in the bill.

The original bill also protected participants in investigations from facing any punishment. The amended bill requires that participation be truthful, which means participants considered to not be telling the truth could be disciplined.

► Another day, another new problem for Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

► President Trump is now threatening other countries over a bid from the United States (and North America, really) to host a future World Cup soccer tournament.

► Members of Congress are demanding answers about why House Speaker Paul Ryan suddenly fired Rev. Patrick Conroy, the chaplain of the House of Representatives.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump called into “Fox and Friends” on Thursday and sounded like a complete lunatic on live television.

► El Paso County Republicans are flirting with Hip Hop artist Kanye West in hopes that he might help them raise money.

ICYMI

► Alden Global Capital and Digital First Media can suck an egg. 

► Republican Attorney General candidate George Brauchler is a magnificent putz.

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