legislative news
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CHATTER: Thurlow votes excite recall talk
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Our sources tell us rookie GOP Rep. Dan Thurlow’s recent votes have already incited talk of a recall among the hard-cores, a full three months before the move can start up. Seems the Mesa County lawmaker has been throwing in with — gasp! — Democrats on some House votes lately, raising the ire of rock-ribbeds…
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Hullinghorst: construction defects bill ‘non-starter’
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This week marks the halfway point of the 120-day legislative session, and House and Senate leadership called upon the press to show off their accomplishments and talk agendas for the next 60 days. Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, kicked off two days worth of meetings with reporters on Wednesday morning, discussing the…
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Bipartisanship makes appearance
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In the most bipartisan manner since the start of session, legislators Thursday announced a package of 10 bills on workforce development, ranging from internships to assistance with student loan payments and helping the unemployed find jobs. More than two dozen legislators from both chambers and both sides of the aisle were on hand to announce…
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House blinks on public safety supplemental fight
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The House blinked on Wednesday and decided to save their fight over background check funds for the Department of Public Safety for another day, and another budget. Senate Bill 15-159 got unanimous support Wednesday from the House and is now on its way to the governor’s desk. As introduced, SB 159 was to provide $3…
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Credit card bill watered down to study, then killed
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An effort to provide relief to small businesses from fees they pay to banks for the authority to use credit cards has been watered down from “relief” to a study, but even as a study it turned into a big fight on Wednesday. In the end, members of the House Finance Committee voted the bill…
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‘Hullabaloo’ raised over Costilla GOP revival
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Some Colorado Republicans are hopping mad over an organizational meeting that took place in the small town of Fort Garland last Sunday. Others, however, counter that it’s much ado over simply following proper procedures. The dispute centers around the Republican Party of Costilla County, an organization that didn’t exist for most of the last year,…
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Clinton’s proven middle class vision
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I served as Mayor of Denver from 1991 to 2003 and was the only mayor in U.S. history to serve as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Conference of Democratic Mayors and the National Conference of Black Mayors. Through my experiences, I have seen Americans go through hard times, but I have…
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Reasons Colo. should join lawsuit to hault Pres. Obama’s unconstitutional ‘executive amnesty’
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Twenty-six states including 22 state Attorneys General and three governors have joined the Governor of Texas — that’s 26 states in total — in suing the United States government to halt the Obama administration’s 2014 “DAPA” amnesty program, which aims to award legal status and work permits to an estimated 4.4 million illegal immigrants. Colorado…
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JBC votes to dramatically reduce scholarship initiative
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The Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday voted to dramatically scale back a request from the Governor for a state scholarship program that he mentioned in the 2015 State of the State address. The JBC is in figure-setting this week for the 2015-16 budget. On Tuesday, the committee took up the budget for the Department of…
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Sen. Owen Hill: Yoga master
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State Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, demonstrates his yoga expertise with a particularly difficult position called “the crow”. Hill struck the pose after a hearing last Wednesday on Senate Bill 186, which would exempt yoga teachers from the authority of the Division of Private Occupational Education. Hill, who chairs the Senate Education Committee where…