March 23, 2022 10:16 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (March 23)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Day of the Sea. Please celebrate responsibly. 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 

► Senator Dick Durbin, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is calling out Republican Senators for focusing on conspiracy theories and political posturing on day three of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. For many Republican Senators, the hearings have been more of a trial balloon for the 2024 Presidential race than an actual confirmation process.

And if Republicans tell you this is not about race…you can just go ahead and ignore them.

► NATO is increasing its forces in support of Ukraine as Russian forces continue to get bogged down in their invasion. From The New York Times:

NATO is doubling its battlegroups on the alliance’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine, the group’s secretary general said on Wednesday before a major summit in which President Biden will meet with European allies in Brussels in the coming days.

The secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, also focused on what import Russia’s potential use of any chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine could hold for NATO, saying that such use would “fundamentally change the nature of the conflict.” And he upped the rhetoric on China’s role in bringing the conflict to an end, cautioning Beijing not to provide material support to Moscow.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports that Russian casualties from the war in Ukraine have surpassed 15,000.

► Which Colorado campaigns should be considered the worst of the century (thus far)? We worked out a bracket format to consider the question:

► Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting at a Boulder King Soopers store that killed 10 people. Denver7 reports on how Colorado officials commemorated the anniversary. Westword looks at when (or if) the alleged shooter might go on trial. 

Click below to keep learning things…

Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…

► Last weekend’s county assemblies were pretty much a disaster for Colorado Republicans, from leadership challenges to a completely new slate of candidates in El Paso County. Yet Republicans still seem mystified by the idea that the leading GOP candidates are “Big Lie” believers. They shouldn’t be so surprised.

► As Nick Coltrain reports for The Denver Post, state lawmakers are discussing fixing an odd problem involving parents adopting their own children:

The issue isn’t unique to same-sex couples, and can affect any family that has kids through assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization. And while it could be “catastrophic” for families that are caught in the legal paradoxes of it, as Colorado House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, put it, it hadn’t garnered much attention at the policy making level until recently — when Esgar and her wife, Heather Palm, encountered it first hand.

Esgar carried their daughter, though she was conceived with Palm’s genetic material. Which, in the eyes of the law, meant Palm would need to go through a step-parent adoption for her own flesh-and-blood.

“I couldn’t wrap my head around it,” Esgar said of her initial reaction. Then, she was floored by the implications for legal protections for their family.

Esgar, however, is in a place where she could act. Near the beginning of the legislative session, she introduced House Bill 1153, which is aimed at streamlining the adoption process for parents of children born through assisted reproduction. It passed the House at the end of February on a bipartisan vote. It is scheduled for its first hearing in the Senate on Wednesday

► First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will visit Denver on Friday and Saturday for some fundraising and some speechifying.

► The ENTIRE City Council in Florence, Colorado has resigned. As Chelsea Brentzel reports for KRDO Channel 13:

Three Florence City Council members submitted their resignation [Monday night] amid a growing corruption scandal. The remaining three submitted theirs throughout Tuesday.

Councilwoman Melissa Hardy, Councilman Brian Allen, Councilwoman Kristal Wood, Councilman Anthony Esquibel, Councilman Mike Vendetti, and Councilman Allen Knisley all resigned.

These resignations come after Monday night’s council meeting where a citizen called for the Florence Mayor’s resignation. During the meeting, Mayor Paul Villagrana said he won’t resign because 500 people elected him in.

The six resigned members all tell 13 Investigates they quit their jobs because they did everything they could to find the truth and address corruption and were rejected.

The issues surrounding the City Council member’s resignations are not entirely clear, though the primary allegations seem to be about misspent taxpayer money and questionable actions taken by a former city manager.

► Republicans in one El Paso County House District appear poised to select a new Representative who has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement. Click here to read more about Karl Dent’s felonious past.

► You can’t throw a rock in any direction and not hit embattled Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters, now a Republican candidate for Secretary of State. Peters was at the State Capitol on Tuesday to spread her victimhood narrative.

► State Rep. Ron Hanks, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, does not believe in Climate Change. He thinks it should just be called “weather.”

► Republican Erik Aadland was a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2021, then he switched over to running for Congress in CO-07. Now he’s suing the Colorado Secretary of State’s office because he couldn’t figure out how to gather 1,500 valid signatures to get his name on the June Primary ballot.

► The Colorado Springs Independent reminds readers, again, that DEAD PEOPLE CAN’T CAST BALLOTS. 

► Colorado lawmakers are discussing legislation to crack down on abusive towing companies.

► Democratic State Rep. David Ortiz is pushing legislation to make it easier for people with wheelchairs to get quick repairs when needed.

► As Axios Denver reports, don’t start thinking that the COVID-19 pandemic is over:

Some of Colorado’s most populated areas are seeing an increasing prevalence of COVID-19, a signal that the pandemic is not done with the state…

..The trend is evident in wastewater samples reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And it coincides with a small uptick in positive case rates.

► The Associated Press has some disturbing updates on the case of a group of militia members who plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer:

A man who pleaded guilty to planning a kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told jurors Wednesday that he and his allies wanted to act before the 2020 election to prevent Joe Biden from winning the presidency.

Ty Garbin, 26, didn’t say why they thought a kidnapping that fall would stop Biden from defeating then-President Donald Trump.

“We wanted to cause as much a disruption as possible to prevent Joe Biden from getting into office. It didn’t have to be,” Garbin said of striking before the election. “It was just preferred.”

► The Douglas County School Board selected a new superintendent to replace Corey Wise, who was fired in a controversial manner back in February.

Say What, Now?

Wait, Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) can read this?

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► If there is ever a nuclear holocaust, only two species are likely to remain: cockroaches and former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

► Former President Trump rescinded his endorsement of Mo Brooks’s Senate campaign in Alabama. We honestly didn’t know you could do that.

ICYMI

► So, um, where is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?

► Don’t miss our discussion about the worst campaigns in Colorado, as well as an entertaining interview with Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Charles Ashby on the latest episode of The Get More Smarter Podcast:

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