Today is Sept. 21, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

The Colorado Nursing Board disagreed with the state Medical Board on Wednesday, refusing to classify so-called “abortion reversal” treatment as unprofessional conduct. 

The nursing board passed a rule declaring it will not treat abortion reversal as a “per se act subjecting a licensee to discipline” for providing the treatment, but will instead review individual complaints of abortion reversal treatment on a case-by-case basis. 

This comes after, last month, the medical board unanimously classified a specific method of abortion reversal as unprofessional conduct: when a medical provider uses the hormone progesterone to try to stop a medication-based abortion after a patient has completed the first part of the two-step process. The medical board ruled that this treatment is outside of generally accepted standards of practice. 

“The (nursing) board, historically, has pretty much treated everything case-by-case for review and discipline,” said Joe Franta, president of the nursing board, during Wednesday’s vote. “We don’t make general standards of care. We don’t create those. … I don’t think we have the basis to do that.” 

State legislators passed a new law in April to classify abortion reversal treatment as unprofessional conduct, subjecting medical workers who provide the treatment to professional discipline. But the law allowed abortion reversal to be reclassified as professional conduct if the state medical, nursing and pharmacy boards all agree that it’s a valid medical practice. 

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Faith Winter of Westminster is recovering in a Denver hospital after a bicycle accident Wednesday.

According to a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Winter was riding her bicycle to the state Capitol when she tried to avoid being hit by a large truck and hit a curb. 

While she was wearing a helmet, she sustained a head injury and was taken to the University of Colorado Hospital, where she underwent surgery to relieve pressure on her brain.

She is now resting and recovering, according to the post.

Denver’s educations officials are weighing joining a national class action lawsuit against social media companies, claiming their platforms have hurt students’ mental health and caused adverse effects on schools.

The Denver Public Schools board is set to consider a contract for legal services with attorneys involved in the lawsuit – among them Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles P.C. – at its Thursday meeting.

Joseph VanZandt – a Montgomery, Alabama attorney with Beasley Allen – did not return a phone call and email seeking comment Wednesday.

“I believe what our board is looking at is joining the lawsuit,” said Bill Good, a district spokesperson.

Thursday’s meeting will include a presentation on the national litigation.

The quarterly revenue forecast released by state economists Wednesday shows Colorado lawmakers may have more breathing room than expected for the 2024-25 budget year, despite a projected decline in tax collections. 

Additional general fund revenues available to spend in 2024-25 are estimated at $1.195 billion, about $23 million more than anticipated expenses, the report said. That’s an improvement over the June forecast, Chief Economist Greg Sobetski of the Legislative Council staff told lawmakers, which projected a slight deficit heading into 2024-25.

General fund revenues, which are the state’s most flexible form of revenue and used to pay operating expenses, are expected to head downward in the next year, economists reported.

Revenues came in stronger at the end of the current budget year, revised upward from June by $306 million. But the situation could take a 180-degree turn the nest year, with revenues projected to drop by $304 million in 2023-24, and by $82 million the following year.

A 96-year-old U.S. federal appeals court judge was barred Wednesday from hearing cases for a year after a panel said she refused to undergo medical testing amid concerns that she is no longer mentally fit to serve on the bench.

It’s the latest development in an unusually public and bitter fight over whether Judge Pauline Newman should continue to serve on the Washington-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that has sparked a lawsuit and turned judges against one another.

Newman, a President Ronald Reagan appointee who has been on the court for nearly four decades, insists that she remains physically and mentally fit to decide matters of the law, and has accused her colleagues of making baseless claims in an effort to push her out because of her age.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is one of 13 U.S. appellate courts. It hears cases on issues like government contracts, patents and trademarks. Federal judges chosen by presidents and confirmed by the U.S. Senate are appointed for life, and there’s no mandatory retirement age.