February 15, 2022 10:02 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Feb. 15)

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Day After Valentine’s Day. 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. 

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

► Colorado lawmakers are one step closer to banning the open carry of firearms at polling places, which is a law that seems like it should already exist. From Nick Coltrain of The Denver Post:

Openly carried firearms, while legal in much of Colorado, are closer to being prohibited at ballot drop box and voting locations as lawmakers try to ease the minds of voters who may feel menaced by armed people while casting their votes.

Under the Democrat-led Vote Without Fear Act, it would be a misdemeanor to openly carry a firearm at or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box, building with a polling location, central counting facility or other places where election administration is happening.

It would exempt private property owners openly carrying firearms on their property and law enforcement officers. The prohibition also does not include concealed firearms.

The bill, HB22-1086, passed its first committee Monday on a party-line vote. The House State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee sent the bill to the full House of Representatives for consideration, with seven Democrats in favor and four Republicans opposed.

► Families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre reached a settlement with a gun manufacturer, as The Washington Post reports:

Remington Arms has agreed to a settlement with several families of children killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, marking the first instance in the United States of a gun manufacturer accepting liability for a mass shooting. [Pols emphasis]

The settlement marks the end of a protracted court battle between Remington and the Sandy Hook families that sued the company for how it marketed its Bushmaster AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle. Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza was armed with the high-powered rifle during his rampage in Newtown, Conn., that killed 28 people, including 20 young children.

“The plaintiffs in this action hereby give Notice that a settlement agreement has been executed between the parties,” the filing said.

The amount of the settlement was not disclosed in the court filing posted to Waterbury Superior Court. The Associated Press reported the settlement is for $73 million. Remington, which has filed for bankruptcy, offered to pay nearly $33 million to the nine families last July.

► Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters is taking time away from her various legal troubles to launch a campaign for Secretary of State. Because of course she is. 

► According to the NY Magazine’s Intelligencer, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is being held up as a shining example of how to correctly battle a pandemic:

► Meanwhile, Polis is officially launching his re-election campaign today in Pueblo. This is actually one of the better launch videos we’ve seen in some time:

Click below to keep learning things…

Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…

► As The Washington Post reports, former President Donald Trump’s financial records are little more than scribbles on napkins:

Former president Donald Trump’s longtime accounting firm informed his company last week that a decade’s worth of Trump’s financial statements “should no longer be relied upon” and suggested that any recipient of the documents be alerted, according to a copy of the letter filed in New York court filings.

In the letter, Mazars executive William J. Kelly voiced new concerns about the statements, which the firm helped Trump prepare and which have come under scrutiny recently by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D).

James has alleged in civil filings that Trump used the statements to inflate the value of his properties and misstated his personal worth in representations to lenders.

Kelly said Mazars reconsidered its work on the documents following questions raised by James’s office in a January filing.

“We have come to this conclusion based, in part, upon the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources,” Kelly wrote in the Wednesday letter, addressed to Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten. “While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate.”

► Journalists are breathing a small sigh of relief after a judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit against The New York Times brought by former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. 

► Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee was holding up an historic designation for Colorado’s Amache internment camp, but the measure finally passed on Monday evening.

► As The Associated Press reports, you can track many upticks in violence recently directly to right-wing extremism:

Newer strains of far-right movements fueled by conspiracy theories, misogyny and anti-vaccine proponents contributed to a modest rise in killings by domestic extremists in the United States last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a Jewish civil rights group.

Killings by domestic extremists increased from 23 in 2020 to at least 29 last year, with right-wing extremists killing 26 of those people in 2021, the Anti-Defamation League said in a report first provided to The Associated Press.

The ADL’s report says white supremacists, antigovernment sovereign citizens and other adherents of long-standing movements were responsible for most of the 19 deadly attacks it counted in 2021. The New York City-based organization’s list also included killings linked to newer right-wing movements that spread online during the coronavirus pandemic and former President Donald Trump’s presidency.

► Megan Verlee of Colorado Public Radio looks at the candidates seeking to become the first Congressperson from Colorado’s new eighth district.

► Colorado’s largest oil and gas producer is seeking permission to be allowed to drill much closer to residential areas than currently allowed. From The Colorado Sun:

buffer between homes and oil and gas drilling in Colorado is by rule 2,000 feet, except when it isn’t, and a move to drill in the middle of a residential area in Firestone is raising questions about how secure that buffer will be.

The state’s biggest operator, Occidental Petroleum, through its Colorado subsidiary Kerr-McGee, is seeking to drill 26 wells within 2,000 feet of 87 homes, with the closest residence 763 feet away.The site, part of Kerr-McGee’s Longs Peak drilling plan, is also adjacent to a wetland, the Saddleback golf course and the Firestone Trail.

The 2,000-foot setback was the product of the 2019 law, Senate Bill 181, that reoriented state oversight from promoting oil and gas development to protecting public health, safety, welfare and the environment.

“This is the kind of neighborhood drilling that brought about Senate Bill 181 and that it was designed to prevent,” said Mike Foote, an environmental lawyer and former state legislator who sponsored Senate Bill 181.

 

► We noted a couple of interesting updates to some key State Senate races in Colorado. 

► As The New York Times reports, there is a lot of conflicting information right now about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

► Colorado Public Radio reports that the Omicron spread of COVID-19 in Colorado appears to be starting to wane at last.

► Meet the guy who former House Minority Leader Pat Neville is backing to succeed him in the state legislature.

► Congress is facing increased pressure to ban stock sales by serving Members.

► Boulder County voted to end its indoor mask mandate.

Say What, Now?

Except for 2020, amirite?

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► As The Huffington Post reports, not all Republicans are happy with the current direction of the RNC:

Former Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot has a warning for the current chair, Ronna McDaniel, over the party’s “search for power for its own sake and its obsession with winning at any cost.”

“Regrettably, it appears, ‘you have hitched your wagon to the wrong star,’” Racicot, who was RNC chair from 2002 to 2003 and Montana governor from 1993 to 2001, wrote in a four-page letter published in the Billings Gazette.

The wrong star is Donald Trump, and under McDaniel, the party has moved to embrace his election lies and conspiracy theories, and cast out anyone who dares to question the former president. That includes two Republican members of Congress ― Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) ― who were censured by the party for participating in a bipartisan committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.

► “Hoser-extremism.”

ICYMI

► The seeds of political violence are being planted at churches near you. 

► The City of Fort Collins is considering a move to ranked-choice voting.

► Enjoy the body cam footage of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters’ detainment last week.

► Absolutely, positively, do NOT miss the latest episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an hilarious and informative interview with House Speaker Alec Garnett:

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