June 14, 2017 01:09 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (June 14)

• 2 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Flag Day, America! It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The news from Washington, D.C. today is mostly about a shooting at a congressional baseball practice, in which House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was injured along with a congressional aide and several police officers. The deceased shooter is a former Bernie Sanders volunteer whose social media is full of anti-Donald Trump content:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said both in a statement and on the Senate floor that he had learned the shooter volunteered on his presidential campaign — and that he condemned the shooting “in the strongest possible terms.”

“I have just been informed that the alleged shooter at the Republican baseball practice is someone who apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign,” Sanders said.

“I am sickened by this despicable act. Let me be as clear as I can be. Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “Real change can only come about through nonviolent action, and anything else runs against our most deeply held American values.”

Denver7 has reactions from the Colorado delegation.

► In other inside-the-Beltway news, what seems to have been the beginnings of a move to fire Russia special counsel Robert Mueller is fizzling out:

Last month’s appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia enraged President Trump. Yet, at least initially, he holstered his Twitter finger and publicly said nothing.

But behind the scenes, the president soon began entertaining the idea of firing Mr. Mueller even as his staff tried to discourage him from something they believed would turn a bad situation into a catastrophe, according to several people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s interactions. A longtime friend, Christopher Ruddy, surfaced the president’s thinking in a television interview Monday night, setting off a frenzied day of speculation that he would go through with it.

For now, the staff has prevailed. “While the president has every right to” fire Mr. Mueller, “he has no intention to do so,” the White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters late Tuesday.

It’s tough to imagine how that might have happened here–or still might, if Trump decides to override the opinions of his staff and pull another James Comey. But it’s a brink we’re glad to see Trump being pulled back from, at least for now.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Sen. Michael Bennet joins revolt in the Senate against restrictions on media access to Senators in the hallways outside hearing rooms. Hopefully today’s events don’t undo his efforts.

► The Boulder City Council voted last night to support the Paris climate agreement, which makes obvious sense given all the climate science that happens in Boulder.

► Joe Neguse resigns from Gov. John Hickenlooper’s Cabinet to run for Congress, announcing a ton of endorsements right out of the gate.

► Clean power for everybody: Jared Polis and Michael Johnston both announce ambitious goals for renewable energy in Colorado as campaign platform planks.

► Speaking of the Russians, it appears there were attempts to hack into election systems in many U.S. states last year–but not in Colorado, thankfully.

► Town halls taking place across the state are looking at Colorado’s acute shortage of teachers.

► After pleasantly surprising the ACLU of Colorado and other civil liberties proponents last week by signing a bill starting the process of reforming civil asset forfeiture, Gov. Hickenlooper is asking for a task force to convene to recommend the next steps on the issue.

► Controversy continues in Longmont after “voluntary” police K-9 searches of public housing units during mandatory inspections raise big fat constitutional red flags.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The EPA Inspector General has formally cleared the work crew present during the Gold King Mine flood of wrongdoing, although the agency should have had better procedures for investigating flooded-out old mines. But obviously, EPA didn’t put the mines or the water there.

ICYMI

► Vice President Mike Pence is coming to Colorado Springs to party with Focus on the Family–as much of a party as they ever have at Focus on the Family, that is.

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