June 19, 2015 12:01 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (June 19)

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s hotter than a stolen tamale out there. 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…

► Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton smacked Donald Trump hard over Trump’s campaign announcement speech yesterday, in which The Donald made some typically outrageous statements about [insert ethnic group here]. Politico:

“We have to have a candid national conversation about race and about discrimination, prejudice, hatred,” Clinton said in an interview with KNPB’s Jon Ralston. “But unfortunately the public discourse is sometimes hotter and more negative than it should be, which can, in my opinion, trigger people who are less than stable.” [Pols emphasis]

“For example,” the former secretary of state added, “a recent entry into the Republican presidential campaign said some very inflammatory things about Mexicans. Everybody should stand up and say that’s not acceptable. You don’t talk like that on talk radio. You don’t talk like that on the kind of political campaigns…”

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump told the audience. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.”

► Cynthia Coffman is not running for the U.S. Senate, and she really wants you to know she decided that before she started blackmailing people. Meanwhile, Steve House remains chair of the Colorado Republican Party, and rank-and-file Republicans are trying to figure out what the hell is going on since no one in the know will tell them. Like Dick Wadhams says, it’s time to “put up or shut up.”

► The controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement is moving again through Congress after a close House vote. Rep. Jared Polis joined with most Republicans in the Colorado delegation to pass the legislation, with Reps. Diana DeGette, Ed Perlmutter, and Ken Buck voting against.

► State Sen. Mike Johnston’s letter to a local African Methodist Episcopal church in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting is getting lots of attention today:

“By Sunday morning America could blanket these churches with such overwhelming expressions of love that no one could walk through the doors of an AME church without feeling a flood of love and support from white men whose names they don’t know, whose faces they can’t place, but whose love they can’t ignore,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, it’s increasingly clear that the Charleston shooter, described as a “strong conservative,” was motivated by racial hatred–making it harder to downplay his actions as simple insanity.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved the first regular spending legislation for the Interior Department since 2009–while blocking the EPA from take action on climate change, naturally.

► Stakeholders on both sides nervously await the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions on marriage equality and Obamacare subsidies.

► The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) is taking action to implement a couple of minor recommendations from the local control task force that disbanded earlier this year. DBJ:

Recommendation No. 17 focused on oil and gas companies working more closely with local governments on where to put “Large Scale Oil and Gas Facilities” in urban areas.

No. 20 would require energy companies registered with the COGCC to also register with local jurisdictions where they operate, and “at the request of the municipality, provide certain information about current and planned drilling operations in the municipality,” the letter said.

Those two recommendations were hailed by some on the oil and gas task force for requiring more communication between companies and local officials, and hopefully avoid controversy over new wells near homes and schools. But others on the task force said the recommendations didn’t go far enough because the final decision on where to put a well or support facility still rests with the state — not the local officials.

► Unfortunately, COGCC appears to be trying to shut opponents out of contentious drilling decisions while they’re at it.

► Colorado continues to add jobs, but not quite enough to prevent a small increase in the unemployment rate–and not enough with salaries that provide a living income. On a related note, Vail Resorts is increasing their minimum starting wage to $10 an hour.

► A senior accountant at Denver International Airport lost her job this year after longstanding embellishments in her resume were uncovered by investigators.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The Boulder Turnpike’s new toll lanes are almost ready! Try to contain your enthusiasm.

► Yes, you have the First Amendment right to hold an “anti-Islam pig roast” during Ramadan, but that doesn’t mean you’re not a dick for doing so.

ICYMI

► A reader’s excellent write-up on Pope Francis, climate change, and the bees.

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