Today is April 20, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Legislation that sought to ban so-called “assault weapons” died early Thursday morning after four Democrats joined the Colorado House Judiciary Committee’s Republicans to indefinitely postpone the bill on a 8-5 vote.

Shortly after midnight, Democrat Reps. Lindsey Daugherty, Bob Marshall, Said Sharbini and Marc Snyder voted down the legislation along with their Republican colleagues after a pair of amendments on bump stocks and rapid-fire trigger activators were lost.

The hearing, which kicked off Wednesday morning, drew a record 522 witnesses seeking to testify. 

The bill – sponsored by Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver – has divided the Democrats’ Gun Violence Prevention Caucus, with leading members, such as Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, believing other measures, such as his proposal to improve the red flag law, are better solutions to gun violence.

When Democratic lawmakers unveiled a package of four gun control bills on Feb. 23, the assault weapons ban was notably not among them. Nor did lawmakers mention it.

In addition, Gov. Jared Polis is also believed to be opposed to an assault weapons ban.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock isn’t mincing words when it comes to his beef with the Denver Public Schools board.

The term-limited outgoing mayor Tuesday took the gloves off during an appearance on the Mandy Connell Show on 850 KOA.

“This is a very dysfunctional board and it needs to be corrected,” Hancock said. “And the only people who can correct it are the voters.”

Hancock has sparred publicly in recent weeks with Denver Public Schools Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson over the issue of school resource officers in Denver schools. Anderson in 2020 led a push to remove SROs from Denver schools. The board recently reversed that position after the shooting of two administrators at East High School.

“I’m disappointed that the mayor is criticizing the duly elected school board without having any conversations about how we can work together,” Anderson told The Denver Gazette in a phone interview Wednesday, speaking on behalf of himself and not the Denver Public School board.

A potential security issue at a Colorado Springs middle school on Wednesday led to the last-minute postponement of a scheduled visit from the lieutenant governor of Colorado, according to a news release from Academy School District 20.

About 20 military-affiliated Eagleview Middle School students and their families were set to hold a small group discussion with Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers when Principal Jamie Lester announced the rescheduling for Monday.

“Thirty minutes before this afternoon’s scheduled visit from the Lieutenant Governor and the Mayor, several Eagleview students came forward with information about a potential security concern,” Lester said in a message to Eagleview families.

“Academy District 20 Security worked closely with the Lieutenant Governor’s office, her Executive Protection Team, the Mayor’s office, and the Colorado Springs Police Department.  It was determined that the best course of action was to reschedule the event for Monday morning.”

Officials concluded that there was no immediate threat to students and staff, and classes proceeded on schedule, Lester said. 

The U.S. needs to work faster to deter and detect threats in space, the secretary of the Air Force said Wednesday in Colorado Springs as he announced plans to speed up research and development efforts. 

“Space isn’t just a warfighting domain, it is the warfighting domain,” said Secretary Frank Kendall to an international audience gathered at Space Symposium. 

Kendall said he planned to back legislation that would allow the research and development of projects for space defense to start without waiting for Congressional budgetary approval. He noted the early phases of projects are not very expensive and could help the U.S. stay competitive as China invests heavily in space. For example, a Chinese satellite has successfully moved another satellite out of its orbit. 

“We live in both dynamic and dangerous times,” Kendall said. 

Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman also called for speedy innovation and greater investment into training, saying he asked for $300 million in the 2024 Department of Defense budget to improve training and testing infrastructure, including better simulations. Some of that investment could be seen in Colorado Springs, home to Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases.

Michael Crowder stands nervously at the front of his third grade classroom, his mustard-yellow polo shirt buttoned to the top.

“Give us some vowels,” says his teacher, La’Neeka Gilbert-Jackson. His eyes search a chart that lists vowels, consonant pairs and word endings, but he doesn’t land on an answer. “Let’s help him out,” Gilbert-Jackson says.

“A-E-I-O-U,” she and the students say in unison.

Michael missed most of first grade, the foundational year for learning to read. It was the first fall of the pandemic, and for months Atlanta only offered school online. Michael’s mom had just had a baby, and there was no quiet place to study in their small apartment. He missed a good part of second grade, too. So, like most of his classmates at his Atlanta school, he isn’t reading at the level expected for a third grader.

And that poses an urgent problem.