August 18, 2015 10:52 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Aug. 18)

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• by: Colorado Pols

At least we’re not in Virginia. 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…

► Discussion over the Gold King mine spill into the Animas River continues to generate an overflow of nonsense political rhetoric. Make room on the grandstand!

Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) promised a congressional investigation into the minewater spill during an editorial board meeting with the Durango Herald. Elsewhere, Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson is scheduled to visit Durango today to shake his fist at the EPA and the federal government in general. Carson will tour the Animas River by helicopter before holding a “town hall” meeting at 2:00 pm. Perhaps someone can convince Carson to explain his position on abortion in some sort of logical answer.

► School is back in session in Jefferson County, and so is the awful management of the school district that prompted a November recall of three right-wing school board members.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Fracking’s back for the 2016 election season. As the Denver Post reports:

After failing to gather enough signatures last summer, Coloradans for Community Rights said Monday it will try again to get a statewide initiative giving communities control over oil and gas exploration on the ballot.

Spokesman Anthony Maine said the group will begin circulating petitions early next year to get the Colorado Community Rights Amendment to the state Constitution on the November 2016 ballot.

“This is about communities being allowed to decide for themselves,” Maine said at a press conference in Denver.

He said the oil and gas industry and their supporters are expected to pump in millions of dollars to fight the proposed amendment.

The Colorado Supreme Court may soon hear arguments on the a couple of local fracking bans in Colorado as debate continues over local control.

► As Bernie Sanders continues to generate big crowds for his campaign for President, Democrats are beginning to wonder whether or not Hillary Clinton just isn’t a very good candidate. This storyline was inevitable at some point, of course.

► Colorado Springs has plummeted in a survey of cities ranked according to their friendliness to small businesses. People who own and operate small businesses don’t like potholes, apparently.

Woods/Zenginger, the Rematch: Democrat Rachel Zenzinger will run again for the Arvada senate seat (SD-19) that she lost in 2014 to Republican Laura Waters Woods.

► Former Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler continues to spend taxpayer money — even though he’s been out of office since January. From the Colorado Independent:

Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s fight with the Independent Ethics Commission over how he spent $1396.89 in office has already cost Coloradans $343,473, and the bills keep racking up.

The public first paid his legal bills in 2012 when the commission reviewed the case, then the next year when he appealed that ruling in Denver District Court, and then again when that failed and he took it to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

He lost both appeals. Now, Gessler is asking the state Supreme Court to take up his case. And a spokesperson from his former office has told The Colorado Independent that state funds will continue to support him even though he has been out of office since 2014.

► As John Frank reports for the Denver Post, it remains unclear as to who is behind a $3 million TV ad campaign in Colorado and Ohio that seeks to convince people that Republicans aren’t as bad as they think.

► Colorado Campaign for Life is refusing to file campaign finance reports in Colorado and has racked up $8,450 in fines.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Famous rich person Donald Trump maintains a hefty lead over the rest of the field in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. A new CNN/ORC poll of Republicans and right-leaning Independents shows Trump with the support of 24% of respondents; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is a distant second with 13 percent. 

► Here’s a neat map that offers a state-by-state look at the most common jobs held by immigrants. If you guessed “middle management” as the top job in Colorado…guess again.

ICYMI

► This is stupid: The City of Aurora has a poet laureate, apparently, and there is a brewing controversy about some of his poetry. 

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