March 13, 2015 11:32 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (March 13)

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

For the second month in a row, the 13th falls on a Friday. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Colorado Republicans will meet tomorrow to select their State Party Leaders for the next two years. As first reported at Colorado Pols yesterday, incumbent Chair Ryan Call is expected to lose his job to challenger Steve House. Click here for more on tomorrow’s election.

► Excuse me, but is that an IUD you are wearing? John Frank of the Denver Post reports on the newest “aborti-fashion,” as Republicans might call it, taking place at the State Capitol.

 
Get even more smarter after the jump…

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Sad trombone for former Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler, as the Aurora Sentinel reports:

An Arapahoe County judge last month sentenced an Aurora man to probation for falsely registering to vote — marking the lone conviction in a 2013 voter fraud investigation that identified more than 100 suspects…

…Gessler had identified more than 100 people he said illegally voted, but the four charged in Arapahoe County were the only people in Colorado to face charges.

Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler later dropped charges against two of the defendants. A fourth man, Carl Blocker, was supposed to go on trial last fall on voter fraud charges but he failed to appear in court and remains a fugitive, said Michelle Yi, a spokeswoman for Brauchler.

It’s a good thing we spent so much time and money on this big voting scandal. Great work, Scotty!

► TABOR daddy Doug Bruce: Cheating Colorado taxpayers is long, hard work.

► Construction at the new VA Medical Center in Aurora will continue “at least through March,” according to the office of Republican Rep. Mike Coffman (which is a really strange thing to announce). But as Molly Armbrister of the Denver Business Journal reports, the project could still grind to a halt in April.

► Lynn Bartels of the Denver Post reports on new legislation expected to be introduced in Colorado today:

In what would mark a stunning turnaround in Colorado law, a bill to be introduced Friday in the legislature would allow the victims of school violence to sue for damages to force districts to provide information about what led to the mayhem.

The bill was drafted with input from the parents of Claire Davis, a 17-year-old Arapahoe High School senior killed Dec. 13, 2013, by a fellow student who then killed himself.

► It is still unclear whether there are enough votes in the Senate to confirm Loretta Lynch as the next U.S. Attorney General.

► State Rep. Daniel Kagan is pushing legislation to expand the use of body cameras on police officers.

► Colorado’s State Board of Education ended yesterday’s meeting without a decision on how to deal with health surveys of students.

► Candidates for Denver Municipal races finished their first comparable fundraising period in February. Here’s how things are shaking out in advance of the May election.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Ed Sealover of the Denver Business Journal looks at a handful of key legislators to watch at the halfway point of the Colorado legislative session.

► Perhaps everyone involved in the Aurora Theater Shooting trial should write a list of phrases to avoid for the foreseeable future.

► Need more reason to oppose the so-called “Parent’s Bill of Rights” being pushed by the Neville Nutters? Senate Bill 77 essentially treats children as private property; an Arkansas lawmaker actually “returned” his adopted children, with horrifying results.

► Retired Major Gen. Paul Eaton doesn’t use the “T” word in reaction to the infamous “Dear Iran” letter; he prefers “mutinous.”

► The federal government has given initial approval for the sale of “palchohol.” Colorado lawmakers are considering a ban on powdered alcohol anyway. We’re just happy that someone finally invented a way to make cocktails more chalky.

ICYMI

► Colorado voters are not happy with Sen. Cory Gardner, and they’re giving him the business on his Facebook page.

► The Colorado Rockies are still undefeated. Too bad Opening Day is just three weeks away.

► Democrat Hillary Clinton is not going to have a serious Primary challenge in her inevitable run for President in 2016.

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!