Today is Nov. 28, 2023, and here’s what you need to know:

As we reported earlier, President Joe Biden plans to appear in Pueblo on Wednesday. He had rescheduled the trip, which the White House canceled a month ago amid the mounting conflict in the Middle East.

Biden is again expected to pitch his administration’s economic accomplishments at Pueblo’s CS Wind factory, the largest wind turbine tower manufacturing plant in the world, which is in Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s district.

The rescheduled presidential visit is also expected to include a fundraiser in the Denver area tonight, featuring Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

Proposals for the 2024 session are on their way to the Colorado General Assembly, including measures that would cost the state nearly $2 billion. 

A recent forecast said lawmakers only have about $23 million to spend for new programs.  

The Legislative Council, the bipartisan body that works on bills before the House and the Senate chambers formally consider them, advanced 54 bills sent by a dozen interim and statutory committees.

The largest cost comes from a packet of five bills from the Child Welfare System Interim Study Committee. The bills, if approved, would spend more than $1.8 billion over the next three years, including $64 million in the 2024-25 budget year.

Does the state have the money for those measures?

That’s not a question the Legislative Council addressed during its Nov. 15 review of those measures.

A federal judge last month dismissed an incarcerated man’s lawsuit against two corrections officers who allegedly left him in a cell with a gay inmate, despite knowing other prisoners would attack him for rooming with a “known homosexual.”

Although judges have analyzed other cases involving prisoners’ claims that their sexual orientation posed a risk of harm behind bars, Tyron Duante Small alleged another person’s sexual orientation was the factor that put him in danger. 

Small was residing at Fremont Correctional Facility on May 24, 2022 when a group of inmates allegedly attacked him. Small attributed the assault to being placed into a cell with a “known homosexual” days earlier. Small was a member of a “security threat group” through his affiliation with the Bloods gang. According to Small, “it is known” that no security threat group members can be housed with gay cellmates, or else they will be assaulted.

A federal judge last month refused to dismiss a retaliation claim against the city of Florence, filed by a former employee who alleged she was pushed out for reporting malfeasance and discrimination at the water treatment plant.

Sarah Glenn worked for the city for 1.5 years and was the only female employee at the plant. During her tenure, she reportedly spoke out on numerous occasions about being treated differently than male workers, about safety concerns within her department and about the alleged misuse of city resources by her supervisor, Brandon Harris.

Glenn filed suit against Florence for violations of state and federal civil rights law, and also for retaliating against her when she exercised her First Amendment right to speak out against public corruption.