June 11, 2015 11:29 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (June 11)

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

At least we’re not in Kansas. 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…

► PUNT! That seems to be the play call — again — when it comes to Congressional action on funding the VA Hospital in Aurora. As the Denver Post reports:

According to lawmakers and aides involved in the talks, the expectation this week is that Congress will seek another short-term deal to avoid a shutdown at the construction site.

The length of the punt is still unclear, although negotiators said it probably would run through the end of July to give Congress and the administration more time to reach agreement on long-term funding for the $1.73 billion facility…

…Kiewit-Turner, the contractor at the Aurora hospital, said it would begin shutting down the site Monday if there was not an indication this week that Congress and the administration were readying some kind of funding deal.

In what has become something of a trend lately, the Post story from Mark Matthews does not include a quote 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. Where’s Mike Coffman?

► “That Idiot’s Tweeting!” Lynn Bartels of the Denver Post has more on Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler and his courtroom Twitter antics:

ProgressNow — and, privately, some Republicans — have jumped on the mistake Brauchler made last week when he tweeted during the trial, although the judge had been clear not to do so. Three jurors have been replaced in connection with news stories regarding the judge’s admonishment about the tweet.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) and Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) are in agreement that Colorado should get some money back from the federal government because of the 2013 government shutdown. As the Durango Herald reports:

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said during the shutdown, while the federal government wasn’t paying for operations, the U.S. National Park Service still was collecting revenue from parks that stayed open thanks to states’ intervention, and the federal government now has a “windfall” from the 16-day period, Oct. 1-16, 2013.

Colorado spent about $367,000 keeping Rocky Mountain National Park open. Colorado would receive its share of the $2 million Flake is proposing the Department of Interior return to the states that gave money to the agency to keep national parks open.

► If state Sen. Ellen Roberts (R-Durango) really does end up as a candidate for U.S. Senate, she’ll have to face off against her arch-nemesis: Ellen Roberts.

► Colorado is down to three finalists for an upcoming vacancy on the Colorado Supreme Court. From the Boulder Daily Camera:

Melissa Hart, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Law School, was named one of three finalists Wednesday for an upcoming vacancy on the Colorado Supreme Court.

The state’s Supreme Court Nominating Commission selected Hart along with Richard L. Gabriel and David S. Prince as finalists to succeed Justice Gregory J. Hobbs Jr…

…Hickenlooper must decide who will succeed Hobbs by June 25. The justice is stepping down Sept. 1.

► Former President Bill Clinton is in Denver for the Clinton Global Initiative, and he’s working hard to defend the Clinton Family Foundation from political attacks.

► Seriously? A few activist groups in Denver are moving forward with a cockamamie plan to try to recall Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who is term-limited in 2016. The group needs to collect more than 54,000 petition signatures by Aug. 4 in order to start the process of a recall election. This is so stupid.

► Colorado ranks #5 in the nation in economic growth, according to another ranking of states and economic growth.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Quick! Somebody call Rep. J. Paul Brown — there’s a bear that needs to be punched in Durango.

► The Presidential campaign of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush seems to have gone off the rails — but that would imply that the campaign was ever on track to begin with. As the Washington Post explains:

In interviews this week, dozens of Bush backers and informed Republicans — most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to comment candidly — described an overly optimistic, even haughty exploratory operation. Strategic errors were exacerbated by unexpected stumbles by the would-be candidate and internal strife within his team, culminating in a staff shake-up this week.

►  Infighting in the Republican Party has reached a new landmark: now the GOP is openly fighting with the Koch Brothers.

ICYMI

► The Aurora Theater Shooting Trial is about to enter day #30.

► Religion and politics continue their inevitable march toward divorce. 

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!