August 03, 2015 12:01 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (Aug. 3)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy “Civic Holiday” to our friends in Canada; don’t gorge yourselves on that big traditional Canadian meal. Let’s 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…

► Fox News has long scheduled the first major debate among Republican Presidential candidates for Thursday, Aug. 6, but they might get leapfrogged in the history books. From The Hill:

C-SPAN is partnering with a handful of regional newspapers in early-voting states for a nationally televised forum with the Republican presidential candidates just days before Fox News Channel’s first scheduled debate.

The network has invited all 17 of the GOP presidential hopefuls to the Aug. 3 Voters First Forum in New Hampshire.

Publishers at the New Hampshire Union Leader, The Post and Courier of South Carolina, and Iowa’s The Gazette say the forum was  prompted in part by Fox’s controversial decision to cap the number of candidates in its Aug. 6 debate at 10.

“Fox says only the ‘top’ 10 candidates, as judged solely by national polling, will be allowed on its stage,” the publishers said in a joint statement. “That may be understandable later, but the first votes are half a year away and there are a lot more than 10 viable candidates.”

► Governor John Hickenlooper is promoting a change to TABOR — the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights — that would allow Colorado to retain funds from the “hospital provider fee” that would free up millions of dollars for much-needed infrastructure projects.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will make her first official 2016 campaign stop in Denver on Tuesday, as the Denver Business Journal reports:

The Democrat is slated to attend an organizing event at 6 p.m. at Denver’s La Rumba nightclub, 99 W. Ninth Avenue.

Clinton will be asking supporters to pledge to vote for her at Colorado’s presidential caucuses early next year, her campaign said.

Clinton has spent much of her time lately courting voters in early-primary-and-caucus states; her campaign calls the Denver stop her first non-early state organizing event of the presidential campaign.

Colorado rules!!! We get the first “non-early state organizing event” of Hillary’s campaign!!!

► The Greeley Tribune takes a look at Congressional legislation — sponsored by Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner — that seeks to loosen federal regulations that otherwise prohibit marijuana businesses from having access to banking services.

► Many new Colorado laws and regulations take effect on Aug. 5, as Ivan Moreno reports for the Associated Press:

Colorado will begin punishing habitual drunken drivers with felonies and longer prison sentences, one of dozens of new laws taking effect next week.

Law enforcement agencies will also have access to records of misconduct for officers they want to hire, part of a package of measures in response to allegations of wrongdoing by police nationally and in the state. Sometimes disciplinary records are sealed as part of resignation agreements and hiring agencies may never know when a prospective employee has a history of misbehavior.

Another measure begins phasing out microbeads by 2020. The tiny plastic particles found in soaps and cosmetic products are too fine to be caught in wastewater treatment plants and can pollute lakes and rivers.

► Colorado’s Congressional delegation is split on whether to support a proposal to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Plans to cut funding could run into trouble, however, over complications with Medicaid laws.

► John Frank of the Denver Post circles back to take a look at the impact from a decision by Colorado Republican lawmakers to stop funding the incredibly successful Colorado Family Planning Initiative:

A push to use state taxpayer dollars to continue the program failed in the Republican-led state Senate earlier this year, killed by ideological and fiscal objections.

Now, a month after the money ceased, the county clinics that administer the program are starting to see the effects, as limited federal and state funding fail to meet high demand in some areas.

► Restaurant inspections in Colorado are declining significantly due to a lack of state funding.

► President Obama’s clean power plan is being hailed by corporations around the world as the strongest in U.S. History.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Things just keep getting worser and worser for Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) was among many prominent Republicans who attended Summer Camp with the Koch Brothers over the weekend.

ICYMI

► Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of 16 Republican candidates for President, says that “the data and facts” don’t support claims of Global Warming. Science is for Communists!

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