February 05, 2015 12:23 PM UTC

Get More Smarter (Thursday, Feb. 5)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

It's time for the first Get More Smarter in Colorado Pols history. We're more excited than Tim Neville in a room full of men (no, not like that).
 

TODAY IS THE DAY…

► State Sen. Tim Neville (R-Littleton) will try to explain his "Parent's Bill of Rights/No Rights for Children" (SB15-077) legislation in the Senate Education Committee today. Republicans will likely let this train wreck of a bill make it out of committee so that the full State Senate can continue to ruminate on why SB-077 is a political disaster for 2016.

► Speaking of really terrible ideas, Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud) is in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee today to discuss SB15-070, which would drastically reduce regulations on small child care facilties and operations. Child welfare advocates are baffled by Lundberg's bill and say it would present a serious safety risk to children. Lundberg says that parents should figure out on their own whether or not a child care facility is safe; you know, because pedophiles readily identify themselves and all.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Sen. Tim Neville would prefer to discuss the people's business only in the presence of dudes. Now you understand the joke at the beginning!

► Former Republican Attorney General John Suthers has built a huge fundraising lead in his bid to become the next Mayor of Colorado Springs. Suthers has raised more than $190k. El Paso County Commissioner Amy Lathen is (not) right behind Suthers at $65,409.

► It could be worse? Veterans seeking VA medical appointments wait longer in Colorado, on average, than almost anywhere else in the country.

► Legislation to roll back protections for transgender people failed in a House committee yesterday. State Rep. Kim Ransom (R-Littleton) worries that transgender people are traveling through locker rooms assaulting children and members of the opposite sex, though she can't point to any actual example of this happening somewhere; Don Stensrud, the principal at Fairview High School, says he has never enountered such an issue in 19 years as a school principal. Ransom will now turn her attention to outlawing unicorns.

► "Did you know in the Bible there were gun-free zones?" Well, you do now! State Rep. Gordon "Dr. Chaps" Klingenshmitt is pretty sure that's what it says in 1 Samuel 13:19. Dr. Chaps believes that the best way to prevent mass shootings is to make sure that everybody is carrying a concealed weapon so that "nobody is a sitting duck." Jesus died because he ran out of bullets.  

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Relevant to today's discussion about SB-077 and a parent's right to not do things to help their children, here's a great 90-second video with comedians Penn & Teller on why it's a good idea to vaccinate your children (and yourself).

► Later this year Colorado Springs will host the "first ever" summit of governors and premiers from across North America. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, the Chair of the National Governor's Association, is getting much of the credit for putting the October 30 meeting in motion; and here you were, wondering what it would take to bring Canada and Mexico together.

ICYMI

► Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Jefferson County) spoke on the House floor Tuesday and told colleagues how the Affordable Care Act made it possible for his wife to undergo cancer surgery. Meanwhile, freshman Rep. Ken Buck (R-Weld County) is really excited about pressing buttons.

► Republican Rep. Lang Sias (HD-27) was formally sworn-in to office on Wednesday. Sias has lost three consecutive bids for elected office (once for Congress and twice for State Senate), but he finally found his winning margin thanks to a 15-person Republican vacancy committee. Sias replaces Libby Szabo, who abruptly resigned from her seat last month because she convinced a different GOP vacancy committee to appoint her as a Jefferson County Commissioner.

► Minnesota Sen. Al Franken is headlining the Colorado Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Dinner on Feb. 28.

► Broomfield attorney Matt Gray announced that he will seek the Democratic nomination in HD-33 (Democratic Rep. Dianne Primavera is term-limited).