May 19, 2015 11:24 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (May 19)

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

It only looks like Seattle out there. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The clock is ticking on a congressional agreement to prevent another halting of construction at the troubled VA Medical Center in Aurora. The Denver Business Journal reports:

VA Secretary Robert McDonald submitted a memo identifying $150 million that it could move to the Aurora project from various other budget items, but only if Congress raises the project’s spending cap by $200 million to $1 billion…

“I couldn’t be more disgusted at the gross mismanagement by the VA on this project,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora. “However, their proposal is a first step in the right direction to keep this project moving forward.”

Just a reminder that Rep. Mike Coffman has been chair of the relevant oversight subcommittee for over two years now, so his claims of shock and disgust are…well, a couple of years late.

► President Barack Obama is threatening a veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2016 over a provision stopping the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the greater sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species. Republicans want the sage grouse shoehorned into the defense bill to make it a less politically palatable veto:

Vetoing the legislation because of the sage-grouse provision would be irresponsible and harm national defense, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo.

Or maybe using the NDAA as a hostage to get your way on the sage grouse is what’s irresponsible? Readers, weigh in here.

► Speaking of President Obama, his new Twitter account set a world record for the fastest growth to 1 million followers ever.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Jefferson County Public Schools conservative upper management has serious egg on its face today after excuses for rejecting Gov. John Hickenlooper’s bill signing ceremony fell flat. Could they be any more politically clueless if they tried?

► With the people who don’t need medical marijuana buying theirs legally on the retail market, Gov. Hickenlooper signed legislation tightening the “severe pain loophole” that allowed twentysomethings to get a medical pot card with little actual justification.

► Hickenlooper also signed legislation adding a fiscal impact statement to petitions for ballot measures–which backers say won’t be used to scare potential signers away, but of course that’s the whole point.

► Note to conservative bloggers: make sure Republicans didn’t do the same thing before you click ‘Publish.’

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Doug Bruce escapes charges over ripping a camera phone out of Dede Laugesen’s hands in a Denver court building.

► Toxic vapors kill gaspatch workers in Colorado and elsewhere.

ICYMI

The Colorado Rockies’ May Choketopia is in full swing. And a miss.

It’s going to stop raining…someday.

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