Happy post-Presidents Day. Lawmakers today embark on their seventh week of the session. Ten weeks to go.

Tuesday

SB 63, the bipartisan marijuana club license bill, sponsored by Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, and Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, is back. Sponsors say they’ve been working to address opponent concerns. The basic question: What kind of rules and regulations should a pot club be subjected to? Colorado just can’t stop pathbreaking. In the era of the anti-weed Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions justice department, this is a bill to watch.

Senate Bill 158  is one of what you might call this year’s “Treasurer Walker Stapleton Let’s Rework PERA” bills. Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, will present his addition to the category to the Senate Finance Committee. The bill would modify the make up of the PERA board, replacing state and school division members with members appointed by the governor who are not PERA members or retirees and who have experience in finance.

** Gun bill alert **: Senate Finance will also hear SB 116, which would lift the state requirement that residents need a license to carry a concealed handgun. The bill is sponsored by Second Amendment champion Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton.

Wednesday

The action is in State Affairs:

The committee will hear the much-anticipated bipartisan “ballot selfie bill,” HB 1014, which aims to modify the state prohibition on taking photos of a completed ballot. The prohibition was put in place to guard the secrecy of the ballot – and so protect against voter intimidation or vote buying schemes – where a photo would serve as evidence that the intimidated or the paid voted as they said they would. But we live in the selfie age. We take photos of ourselves committing crimes. We take photos of ourselves with wild animals in the minutes before they eat us. Ballot selfies are a thing.

The committee will also consider two election administration bills sponsored by Sen. Tate:

SB 71 looks to save county clerk offices time and money. The bill would limit the number of voter service and polling centers required in counties with at least 25,000 active voters. It would also trim back the number of days centers are required to be open during the state’s early voting period.

SB 138 concerns the rules governing citizen election watchers. Watchers play a critical oversight role on the mechanics of collecting and counting and verifying ballots. They watch election officials do their job on behalf of the political parties and the public. Their task and the challenges to doing it well have changed as technology has advanced in recent years.

These two bills to be heard in the Senate judiciary committee may well draw attention, too:

Sen. Irene Aguilar, a medical doctor and a Denver Democrat, will be presenting proposals that re-examine policies regarding sex offenders, not a constituency boasting a lot of champions at the Capitol.

SB 87 seeks to add more flexibility to sentencing.

The officials summary reads: “Currently, a court is required to sentence certain sex offenders to an indeterminate sentence that is a maximum of the sex offender’s life. The bill allows the court to choose either the indeterminate sentence or a determinate sentence in those cases. The bill addresses the factors related to punishment and treatment that a court must consider when deciding between an indeterminate or a determinate sentence. The court must specify its reasons on the record for choosing either a determinate or an indeterminate sentence.”

SB 141, would “require the department of corrections to allow a low-risk sex offender to complete his or her required treatment in a community-based program if the department does not have sufficient prison-based treatment for the offender. The bill prohibits the parole board from denying parole to a low-risk sex offender because the offender did not complete treatment if the offender is seeking release to complete treatment in a community-based program.”

Thursday

HB 1094, a bill that would stiffen consumer protections tied to telehealth services, will be heard in the Senate health committee. It is sponsored in the Senate by Vail Democrat Kerry Donovan and Alamosa Republican Larry Crowder. “Virtual” health services matter in the mountains and valleys of Donovan’s district as they do in the vast stretches of Colorado’s southeastern plains that Crowder serves.

Friday

There will be cocktails. But will there be snow?

– john@coloradostatesman.com