June 10, 2015 11:37 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (June 10)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Ugh. The new season of The Simpsons looks poised to jump the shark. 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…

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) joined Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) in sponsoring legislation to create over-the-counter birth control options that would still be covered by insurance. Supporters say that “The Affordability IS Access Act” offers more realistic and affordable OTC birth control than legislation introduced last month by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma). Gardner, meanwhile, says opponents of his OTC legislation are acting “hysterical.”

► Another top Veterans Administration official is retiring as questions continue about construction problems at the VA Hospital in Aurora. The Denver Post has more on the story, including quotes from Sen. Bennet and Rep. Ed Perlmutter. Conspicuously absent from the story is a comment from Rep. Mike Coffman, the Republican who represents CD-6 and also serves as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Local and federal officials are asking Congress to act on wildfire prevention measures. As Peter Marcus reports for the Durango Herald:

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell spoke at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, flanked by U.S. Forest Service officials and a long line of yellow-clad firefighters with helmets on their heads and shovels in their hands. “

We can’t do the remediation efforts like we need to do in Colorado when you have a big fire and then you get big floods after it,” Jewell said, surrounded by a vast open range in the background. “When we haven’t remediated those landscapes, we’re in trouble, and when we have to rob our budgets to do that, it’s a problem.”…

…President Barack Obama’s cabinet members pointed out that over the last several years, there has been a sharp increase in the Forest Service’s budget for fire suppression, jumping to 50 percent from as little as 15 percent 25 years ago. They said the agency is forced to borrow from programs that would reduce fire risk and aid prevention in order to fund suppression efforts. Even though Colorado has had a wet spring, land management will be key to preventing devastating summer fires.

Republican members of the Colorado congressional delegation are skeptical of the cabinet members’ message. U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton of Cortez worries the Forest Service is more focused on land acquisition than managing lands they already have. [Pols emphasis]

Yeah, okay Congressman Tipton. Can you pay attention to the topic, please?

► Generic Democrats hold a 10-point lead over generic Republicans according to a new poll asking voters about their preference for Congressional candidates in 2016.

► Former President Bill Clinton kicked off Day One of the Clinton Global Initiative in Denver on Tuesday.

► Three jurors were kicked off of the Aurora Theater Shooting Trial on Tuesday for reading about the trial and discussing it with others in violation of a judge’s orders. But as the Denver Post reports, the repercussions could be significant for Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler:

Compounding that tension, one of the news reports the dismissed jurors discussed involved a Twitter message about the case that Samour scolded Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler for sending from the courtroom…

…Last came [Juror] No. 872, who said she took a call from her husband during a break last week and put it on speaker phone. She said her husband began asking her about Brauchler and telling her about his tweet.

“That idiot’s tweeting,” she quoted her husband as saying.

And that, dear readers, is just one more reason why you should never “Tweet and prosecute” at the same time.

► Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers is proposing a sales tax increase in order to pay for road repairs in the city. Apparently the Free Market Fairy doesn’t just fix stuff without the government.

► June 11 is the deadline for public comment regarding redistricting proposals for El Paso County Commissioner districts.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Can you smoke fried crayfish? Or should you fry smoked crayfish?

► The Denver Police Department says its officers are no longer allowed to fire their weapons at moving cars unless they are first fired upon. Can they still fire at parked cars?

►  Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, one of dozens of Republicans running for President in 2016, is really, really bad at managing his finances.

ICYMI

► Forget for a moment whether Twin Peaks Charter Academy will still be able to operate next year; why on earth would you send your child to this school after what we know now?

► Problems continue to pile up for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as he prepares to formally announce a bid for President in 2016.

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