Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Jan. 26)

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► One of these news reports is not like the other.

► Former Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey has a new gig with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

► State Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt had former GOP Presidential candidate Alan Keyes on his YouTube ministry show thing, and both men agreed that 2016 Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump might not really ban Muslims like he has proposed.

► Republican Senate candidate Ryan Frazier can officially start collecting signatures in order to get his name on the June Primary ballot. Frazier appears to be forgoing the insider route to the GOP nomination, which makes sense; State Sen. Tim Neville should cruise through the caucus and convention process to make it onto the ballot.

► The Colorado Independent takes a look at why efforts to abolish the death penalty in Colorado didn’t get moving in time for the 2016 legislative session.

► Officials in the town of Silverton aren’t so good at making decisions on things. Town leaders have cancelled a planned Thursday vote on a federal Superfund designation to help clean up abandoned mines in the area, potentially kicking the can all the way down the road until next fall. From the Durango Herald:

The deadline for polluting sites to be considered in March for the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List is Sunday. If the town of Silverton doesn’t receive an extension from the EPA to be listed this spring, officials must wait for the next review period in September.

► As Cathy Proctor reports for the Denver Business Journal, new proposals for oil and gas drilling in Colorado may not prevent a ballot measure battle in November:

The nine-member Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in a series of votes late Monday approved new rules aimed at increasing communication between energy companies and local governments to mitigate the effects of large-scale oil and gas operations in and around neighborhoods.

Monday’s votes ended nearly 18 months of public meetings on the impacts of oil and gas operations in communities, months that included the 21 members of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s oil and gas task force hammering out hard-fought compromises and putting forward recommendations in February 2015 aimed at smoothing the conflict…

…Few believe that the months of debate on the issue, or the final rules, will end conflict between drilling rigs and homeowners.

Eleven ballot proposals aimed at the industry, which if approved by voters could shut down Colorado’s oil and gas industry, are already working their way through the state’s review process and could be on the 2016 ballot.

Well, that was fun.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A peace demonstrator who held vigil outside the White House for three decades has died. Concepcion Picciotto is believed to have conducted the longest-running political protest in U.S. history.

► Democratic Presidential candidates participated in a largely-pointless candidate forum at Drake University in Iowa on Monday. Politico reports on the two-hour event with a handful of takeaway moments.

ICYMI

► Republican State Sen. Vicki Marble has coined a new, less-than-flattering term for herself and seven other GOP Senators: The Hateful Eight.

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