June 12, 2015 10:44 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (June 12)

by: Colorado Pols

MoreSmarterLogounderwater If Kansas were a sovereign nation, there would have already been a coup attempt against Gov. Sam Brownback. 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…

► On Thursday the Senate approved funding — all the way until October! — for construction on the VA Hospital in Aurora. The House will soon vote on the measure, which will prevent construction from (again) coming to a halt. As the Denver Post reports:

With the future of Aurora’s Veterans Affairs hospital again in doubt, the U.S. Senate on Thursday passed another short-term funding bill that would keep work going on the site until at least October.

The $150 million measure, which passed by unanimous consent, comes just days before the troubled Colorado project was set to shut down because of a lack of money.

Now the bill heads to the House, which had not voted on the bill as of 7 p.m. Thursday — although the lower chamber is expected to take up the measure by Saturday.

We realize that we are starting to sound like a broken record here, but the Post story from Mark Matthews once more 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. This would be like covering a Broncos’ game and not interviewing Peyton Manning afterward.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has gone too far in his pretend attempt to make birth control available over-the-counter.

► Marcia Neal resigned her seat on the Colorado Board of Education about six months after she was re-elected to the post. As Eric Gorski reports for the Denver Post, the State Board of Education sounds like a really horrible place to be right now:

Colorado Board of Education chairwoman Marcia Neal announced her resignation Thursday in a blistering letter blaming board dysfunction and baffling decisions, behavior she speculated is driving an exodus of top talent from the state education department.

Neal, a Republican and retired teacher from Grand Junction, was re-elected in November.

In her resignation letter, Neal cited her frustrations with the board overreaching, sowing confusion and failing to communicate. “Sadly, our current board has become dysfunctional,” she wrote.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Governor John Hickenlooper wants to do more to encourage Coloradans to play in the outdoors. Jason Blevins reports for the Denver Post:

The first step in Hickenlooper’s “Colorado Beautiful” plan calls for development of a comprehensive map that would detail every trail in Colorado. That interactive, GIS-created map, identifying all the state’s open spaces and the trails that both explore and access those natural landscapes, will be ready by this time next year, he said.

The state Department of Natural Resources, working with GOCO and other non-profits and state agencies, by next year will identify the state’s 16 most critical gaps in trails — like the 30 miles of missing trail that prevents bicyclists from pedaling from Wyoming to New Mexico without riding on a road.

GOCO funds and support from foundations like the Nature Conservancy and corporations like DaVita will help secure either the land to develop those trails or easements allowing trail access.

► The Iowa Straw Poll is no more.

► The ongoing battle over state control over federal lands continues, as the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports:

A measure approved Thursday by the House Natural Resources Committee includes provisions that would give states more control over forest management decisions on federal lands and speed response to infestations and diseases, such as those affecting forest lands in western Colorado.

Included in the bill are provisions sought by U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., that would expedite environmental reviews for smaller projects, possibly speeding the response to the spruce beetle and aspen decline on Grand Mesa.

The Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison national forests are considering treating 120,000 acres affected by the spruce beetle or aspen demise through the next decade.

► A third Democrat is preparing to enter the race for SD-31 in Denver (Sen. Pat Steadman is term-limited). Steve Sherick will soon join Erin Bennett and Rep. Lois Court in what is shaping up to be a very competitive Democratic Primary.

► Officials in Fort Collins are considering making it legal to sleep in public. What if you just want to “rest your eyes” in public?

► President Obama made a surprise visit to the Capitol in an effort to convince House Democrats to support his trade bill.