Move over, Peyton, and make room for the Brockweiler. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missedsomething important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).
► Robert Lewis Dear will make his first scheduled court appearance today. Dear is the domestic terrorist accused of killing three people and wounding nine others at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs on Friday.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper called the Planned Parenthood attacks “an act of terrorism” during a media appearance on Sunday, and his call for ending dangerous rhetoric is being widely repeated. From the New York Times:
Several other guests on Sunday talk shows called the shootings domestic terrorism, including Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who is a Republican presidential candidate; the mayor of Colorado Springs; and the head of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
Many, including Hickenlooper, also suggested that it was time to begin discussing how to tone down rhetoric that “is inflaming people to the point where they can’t stand it, and they go out and they lose connection with reality in some way and commit these acts of unthinkable violence.”…
…Mayor John Suthers of Colorado Springs, on ABC’s “This Week,” said the Planned Parenthood clinic appeared to be the target of the attack. In comments similar to Hickenlooper’s, Suthers, a Republican, said the country needed to better identify people with “mental health problems and prevent their access to weapons.”
► There’s a new effort to change how Colorado deals with its annual redistricting and reapportionment process, and as Colorado Pols reported last week, the proposed ballot language would probably end up making the process worse. Marianne Goodland of the Colorado Independent has more on “Initiative 55,” which critics say could “destroy the Latino vote in Colorado”:
Under the proposed Initiative 55, a commission made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and four unaffiliated members would oversee the General Assembly’s nonpartisan staff in redrawing boundaries for both legislative and congressional districts.
It’s neither the composition of the committee nor the nonpartisan staff assigned to do the redrawing that most concerns critics. It’s that the initiative, as written, would prohibit the staff from mapping districts to augment or dilute the voting strength “of a language or racial minority group.”
Some say the priorities Initiative 55 sets for redrawing districts would violate the Voting Rights Act.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► Jason Salzman takes a look at how anti-choice activists are choosing to respond to the terrorist attack on Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.
► The Denver Post runs down “what we know” about the Planned Parenthood attack.
► The Koch Brothers spent a lot of money in Colorado in 2014.
► If you were flying over the holiday weekend, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that Denver International Airport set a new mark for its busiest travel day on record.
► Colorado lawmakers are already considering making early cuts in order to deal with a looming budget deficit. As John Frank reports for the Denver Post:
A potential $160 million deficit in the current budget is prompting Colorado lawmakers to consider spending cuts in the middle of the fiscal year, despite objections from Gov. John Hickenlooper.
The state’s top budget writers put the option in play earlier this month at the first Joint Budget Committee meeting, a move that serves as a notice to state agencies that early budget reductions are a possibility…
…The state’s deficit in the current 2015-16 fiscal year is projected to range between $34 million, or 0.4 percent, and $220 million, or 2 percent, according to competing September economic forecasts. The numbers may shift in the December outlook.
The governor’s office, which is forecasting the lower shortfall, presented a number between the two estimates in its $27 billion state budget proposal — $160 million.
► The owner of the Gold King Mine in Silverton, which spilled millions of gallons of wastewater into the Animas River in August, says he is a victim of the Environmental Protection Agency. Whatever makes you sleep better at night, Todd Hennis.
► Politico is keeping a running blog for updates on the world Climate Change conferences being held in Paris. President Obama warned other world leaders to take aggressive action by quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., when he said, “There is such a thing as being too late.”
Meanwhile, a vast majority of Americans say that the United States should join other countries on an international treaty to combat global warming.
► Chris Cillizza of “The Fix” looks at changing voter demographics and concludes that Republicans may be unable to retake the White House for decades to come. Cillizza’s story is a follow-up to a weekend piece in the Washington Post about the Republican Party’s “diversity quandary.”
► The University of Chicago cancelled all classes for Monday in response to an FBI warning of potential “gun violence” on campus.
► Florida Senator Marco Rubio, among the top Republican candidates for President in 2016, says the United States is governed by “God’s rule” and not the Constitution.
► Don’t like Rubio? Well, how about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who said Sunday that the terrorist attack in Colorado Springs was the act of a “transgendered leftist activist.” What an asshole.
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