Only seven more days until we can stop pretending to care about Iowa’s opinion. 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).
► Transportation funding is quickly rising to the top of the to-do list in the state legislature. As John Frank reports for the Denver Post:
Gov. John Hickenlooper and lawmakers are mostly united this session in a mission to find more money for road building and maintenance, but what is less universal is the solution.
Democrats and Republicans are moving in opposite directions and struggling to reach consensus on how to find more money — an impasse that is complicated by a state budget crunch.
Half of Colorado’s $1.28 billion transportation budget is spent on maintaining existing roads, according to state officials, which leaves little room for expansion projects demanded by a booming population. Colorado Department of Transportation officials estimate that revenues fall short of demand by about $1 billion a year.
The magnitude of the situation is even renewing interest in options once deemed off-limits, such as an increase in motor vehicle fees or a sales or gas tax hike. Another proposal is a $3.5 billion debt package for road bonds.
Frank is being pretty generous in the opening paragraphs here. Republicans in the legislature aren’t actually proposing a solution of their own — they’re just balking at everything suggested by Democrats while they stammer on with the traditional nothing burger talking point about “cutting spending.”
► Republicans appear to be making peace with the idea of Donald Trump as their Presidential nominee in 2016. From the Washington Post:
One week before the first votes of the 2016 campaign are cast, Donald Trump has solidified his standing nationally, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Republicans see Trump as strongest candidate on major issues and by far the most electable in the large field of GOP hopefuls…
…Amid this political climate, Trump has maintained his place atop the Republican field for six months. He currently receives the support of 37 percent of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, almost identical to the 38 percent support he enjoyed a month ago.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas runs second in the national survey with 21 percent, surpassing his previous high of 15 percent in December. Third place belongs to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 11 percent, virtually unchanged from 12 percent a month ago.
Forget “Making American Great”; Donald Trump’s new campaign slogan should be “Eh, Fine, Whatever.”
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► One of these news reports is not like the other.
► Former Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey has a new gig with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
► State Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt had former GOP Presidential candidate Alan Keyes on his YouTube ministry show thing, and both men agreed that 2016 Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump might not really ban Muslims like he has proposed.
► Republican Senate candidate Ryan Frazier can officially start collecting signatures in order to get his name on the June Primary ballot. Frazier appears to be forgoing the insider route to the GOP nomination, which makes sense; State Sen. Tim Neville should cruise through the caucus and convention process to make it onto the ballot.
► Meanwhile, Neville has been busy at the State Capitol trying to prove his super-duper-conservative bonafides. Neville is trying — again — to get rid of a 2013 law that limits the size of gun magazines to 15 bullets.
► The Colorado Independent takes a look at why efforts to abolish the death penalty in Colorado didn’t get moving in time for the 2016 legislative session.
► Officials in the town of Silverton aren’t so good at making decisions on things. Town leaders have cancelled a planned Thursday vote on a federal Superfund designation to help clean up abandoned mines in the area, potentially kicking the can all the way down the road until next fall. From the Durango Herald:
The deadline for polluting sites to be considered in March for the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List is Sunday. If the town of Silverton doesn’t receive an extension from the EPA to be listed this spring, officials must wait for the next review period in September.
► As Cathy Proctor reports for the Denver Business Journal, new proposals for oil and gas drilling in Colorado may not prevent a ballot measure battle in November:
The nine-member Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in a series of votes late Monday approved new rules aimed at increasing communication between energy companies and local governments to mitigate the effects of large-scale oil and gas operations in and around neighborhoods.
Monday’s votes ended nearly 18 months of public meetings on the impacts of oil and gas operations in communities, months that included the 21 members of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s oil and gas task force hammering out hard-fought compromises and putting forward recommendations in February 2015 aimed at smoothing the conflict…
…Few believe that the months of debate on the issue, or the final rules, will end conflict between drilling rigs and homeowners.
Eleven ballot proposals aimed at the industry, which if approved by voters could shut down Colorado’s oil and gas industry, are already working their way through the state’s review process and could be on the 2016 ballot.
Well, that was fun.
► A peace demonstrator who held vigil outside the White House for three decades has died. Concepcion Picciotto is believed to have conducted the longest-running political protest in U.S. history.
► Democratic Presidential candidates participated in a largely-pointless candidate forum at Drake University in Iowa on Monday. Politico reports on the two-hour event with a handful of takeaway moments.
► Republican State Sen. Vicki Marble has coined a new, less-than-flattering term for herself and seven other GOP Senators: The Hateful Eight.
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It's that lawyerly Clinton parsing that we all love so much. Like the meaning of "is". Lawyers always tell their clients never to say they're sorry because it implies guilt or liability. But this isn't a suit or trial and there's no reason to believe it's ever going to result in a prosecution so she doesn’t have to stick with the no apology thing for her own protection. HRC could easily say she’s sorry, that she realizes the decision to use her private server wasn't a good one even though it was legal and not wrong in that sense. Nobody's perfect and and a presidential candidate admitting a mistake isn't a deal breaker. In fact it can actually be more of a humanizer. Benghazi has been wall paper wth any but righties who aren’t voting for her anyway for a long time now. But nothing sticks in a Clinton craw like "sorry".
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/5-takeaways-from-the-democratic-forum-218217#ixzz3yMzPBET1
We know what Andrew Carnegie and his minions have been up to.
Gazette:
Hey, a rich person who cares about the locals and the least among us.Though I'd guess the $250K is chump change for Lyda.
Perhaps it's time to remake the electric grid. Research from our very own CU Boulder Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies
Making a single US electrical system boosts renewables, lowers costs
A nation-wide web of high-voltage DC lines could drop carbon emissions by 75%
And once again we come back to the fact that we have an antiquated, parochial and protected electrical infrastructure holding us back from truly improving our country.
One which the Republucan caucus will defend to their dying breath.
Well, we certainly can't allow this to happen, now can we?
NY Times is Getting More Smarter about George W. Bush:
(why the heck you guys still micromanaging the comments under the covers?)
Most Repugs and conservatives hate GW Bush. So, I wonder if they believe that Al Gore would have been a better choice. I mean, how could he have possibly been worse?
I wish we could institute a 25 cent per gallon gas tax that would be phased out if/when gas prices go back up to $3 per gallon. Just like low interest rates, we should be taking advantage of low prices/rates to repair and improve our crumbling infrastructure.
But, I know that would require a rational political system. Not one run by "The Stupid Party".
More signs of Colorado's economic success, courtesy of the New York Times:
Scuse' me, but Isn't that more evidence of Colorado's, and the nation's, ever growing inequality ???