July 31, 2015 01:32 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (July 31!)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Colorado Pols has a new (server) home — enjoy the room and stretch your legs. Let’s 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…

► The U.S. Senate went down to the wire — today is the deadline — to come up with legislation to keep the Federal Highway Trust Fund from expiring. From the Ft. Collins Coloradoan:

A six-year highway bill passed by the Senate Thursday includes provisions that would aid the widening of Interstate 25 from Longmont to Fort Collins…

…The Senate also voted Thursday to keep the Highway Trust Fund running for another three months, preventing an abrupt halt to road and bridge construction at midnight Friday. Bennet and Gardner also voted for the temporary extension.

The House passed the three-month bill on Wednesday. President Barack Obama has promised to sign the legislation, which ensures that states continue to receive reimbursement from the federal government for highway and mass transit projects.

The six-year Senate highway bill will be used in negotiations with the House when Congress returns from its August recess. Some states have complained they can’t plan or break ground on major transportation projects because Congress keeps passing bills that fund such projects for only a few months at a time.

Perhaps Congress will come up with another strategy aside from “kick the can” when lawmakers return to Washington D.C. following the August recess.

Yeah, probably not.

► Republican Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has put together her leadership team in Colorado…as far as she knows, anyway. In making the announcement, Fiorina’s National Political Director referred to Colorado as “The Boulder State.”

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► ProgressNow Colorado and several other statewide interest groups are calling on Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt to resign from office following his comments that suggest drowning gay Boy Scout leaders.

► Planned Parenthood is aggressively pushing back against critics after a series of “gotcha” videos rolled out over the last week or so. Elsewhere, Salon discusses “the Planned Parenthood hoax” as a “trojan horse” for Republicans hoping to shift attention away from their inability to govern.

► The State of Indiana on Thursday cleared Planned Parenthood of any alleged wrongdoing in the handling of fetal tissue.

► Investors can move ahead with a new equity fundraising program on Wednesday when the Colorado Crowdfunding Act takes effect, as the Denver Post reports:

Selling stock to ordinary people in exchange for equity in a business starts Wednesday after the state approved the rules for the Colorado Crowdfunding Act.

The act, passed on April 13, allows almost anyone to get equity by investing their money in a local business, be it a neighborhood restaurant needing to renovate or a tinkerer hoping to build the next great Internet of Things device.

► No less than nine different energy plans were presented Thursday at a Colorado Springs meeting featuring various Colorado utility companies.

► Hillary Clinton threw a rare jab at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his “Right to Rise” PAC while speaking to the National Urban League.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A Denver-based credit union for the marijuana industry has run into a few hurdles, as the Denver Post reports:

The Fourth Corner Credit Union’s application for a “master account” has been denied by the Federal Reserve Bank. Approval would have paved the way for a new era for the state’s cannabis industry, which has been forced to rely on cash because it is still illegal under federal law, a fact that has led almost all banks to refuse to open accounts.

Attorneys for the credit union have already filed a lawsuit in response.

► Famous person Donald Trump, also a Republican candidate for President in 2016, gets debunked by PolitiFact for complaining about an Obamacare website that Trump says cost “$5 billion.”

ICYMI

► Today is the trade deadline for Major League Baseball.

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