August 13, 2015 11:27 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Aug. 13)

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• by: Colorado Pols

You’re not the only one who fell asleep before the meteor shower last night. 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…

► Gina McCarthy, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), visited Durango on Wednesday to take arrows over a massive minewater spill in the Animas River. Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, joined by her counterparts from New Mexico and Utah, is making not-so-subtle threats to sue the EPA over the the spill.

The river seems to be returning to pre-contamination levels, however. Colorado’s top gross-water tester, Gov. John Hickenlooper, drank directly from the Animas River on Wednesday to prove that the water is safe, contacting the Durango Herald 24 hours later to prove that he wasn’t dead.

► The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled — unanimously — that business owners do not have the right to discriminate at will. The court says that a Lakewood bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple violated state anti-discrimination laws. We still need a court to make it illegal to put disgusting fruit filling between cake layers.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► A U.S. District Court judge tossed a lawsuit from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), which was attempting to sue Colorado Ethics Watch for pointing out RMGO’s own ethics violations. From the Denver Post:

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and Colorado Campaign for Life won’t be able to sue watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch in a fight over campaign spending during the 2014 Republican primary. In a decision dated Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Blackburn tossed out the groups’ lawsuit that alleged Ethics Watch violated the their First Amendment rights and had a pattern of targeting conservative groups.

Ethics Watch’s complaint against the two nonprofits can’t be labeled as frivolous because they succeeded, Blackburn said. In December both groups were fined $8,500 each for failing to disclose spending on campaign mailers sent to voters in two state Senate races during the Republican primary last year.

Colorado Campaign for Life and RMGO tried to claim that Ethics Watch was infringing on their free speech rights when it filed a complaint that the groups had violated campaign finance laws.

► The Longmont City Council can’t seem to locate the homeless man who was appointed to the city’s housing authority board. With no hint of irony, Longmont officials say they don’t know how to get in touch with Josh Canvasser.

► Former lobbyist Steve Durham was elected chairman of the State Board of Education on Wednesday. As the Denver Post reports, Durham also led a discussion about lowering graduation standards:

Discussions this year had sparked controversy that the revised set of requirements — including eliminating the need to prove competency in two subject areas, lowering the necessary score on certain tests and providing more local control on others — would be lowering the bar.

“How does that line up with what we are telling students?” asked board member Jane Goff. She was concerned the revisions were a lowering of expectations and asked to clarify just how much each student would do to earn the diploma.

► The editorial board of the Denver Post decries stonewalling on public records requests in Adams County. We can’t say we disagree.

► Will Vice President Joe Biden seek the Democratic Presidential nomination? The rumor mill is heating up.

► Another public poll conducted in Iowa shows that famous rich person Donald Trump
remains comfortably ahead in the Republican field for President.

► Crazy person Ted Nugent is helping to raise money for Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley).

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► There is a new gold standard for campaign advertisements, and it’s Canadian.

► Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson has reportedly conducted his own research on fetal tissue.

ICYMI

► The Perseid Meteor Shower.

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