July 02, 2015 10:59 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (July 2)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy day after Canada Day! 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…

► Republican presidential primary campaigns in Colorado are setting up shop:

Campaign season, no doubt, is officially here, as Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul announced state campaign leaders to oversee their quest for votes for president in what’s likely to be a key swing state next year.

Fiorina’s picks are state Rep. Perry Buck of Windsor and businesswoman Heidi Ganahl of Boulder. Paul chose former state Sen. Scott Renfroe from Greeley and state Sen. Owen Hill from Colorado Springs.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is in Aspen mouthing scary foreign policy slogans:

“I think [Iran’s leaders] are religious Nazis with an end-of-days view of their religion, and they’re dangerous as hell,” Graham said, adding a nuclear-armed Iran is far more dangerous than the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, although he has a plan for dealing with ISIS as well.

Rawr!

► Department of Veterans Affairs officials are now saying there may never be a detailed account of why the troubled Aurora VA hospital project is more than a billion dollars over budget. You’d think we could ask the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, Mike Coffman about this, but he was apparently unavailable to grandstand comment for today’s story.

► The U.S. Supreme Court has sent a lawsuit challenging the 1992 Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights back to district court for reconsideration–the latest maneuver in a long fight to determine if the constitutional requirement to establish a small-r republican form of government has been usurped by convicted felon tax evader Doug Bruce’s labyrinthine creation.

► Former GOP congressional candidate and radio host Jeff Crank says it’s time to investigate Cynthia Coffman’s role in the alleged blackmailing of state GOP chairman Steve House:

Now, I just say this. If this happened, Cynthia Coffman, the Attorney General, needs to resign. She’s a Republican, and she needs to resign. Because if this happened, she either at worst, participated in it, and at best, was a witness to it, in her office – in your office, in the Attorney General’s office of the state of Colorado. It’s uh — this is what needs to be investigated. Not whether Steve House did this, that, or the other thing.

► Almost everyone agrees that Colorado needs more federal judges, and sooner not later.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► 19 new laws from this year’s legislative session took effect yesterday, including a law making it a felony to process hash oil in your home with explosive chemicals. Sounds pretty straightforward to us.

► A report this week from Environment Colorado says our state is well-positioned to take on climate change….

► …Unless we start growing so much weed indoors that we use up all our electricity.

► A CU Boulder study says some chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas pose a risk for groundwater contamination. And you probably shouldn’t drink shots of it either.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock shakes up his administration heading into his second term–but the Colorado Independent’s Susan Greene says not in the one place that matters:

The bubble in which Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration operates became all too apparent at a forum Tuesday when a member of the public wanted to know if the city has put anyone from the community on its team to implement hundreds of much-needed reforms to its woefully dysfunctional sheriff’s department.

► The mayor of the small town of Calhan has resigned as an investigation into the alleged theft of millions of gallons of water from the town’s municipal wells continues.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Student groups at CU-Boulder are facing big cuts in funding.

► Colorado Bureau of Investigation director Ron Sloan, a strong voice in defense of the 2013 gun safety bills, is retiring.

ICYMI

► Rep. Jared Polis finally gets his celebrity makeover, and GQ announces he is no longer the worst-dressed member of Congress in history. We’re glad that’s over.

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