Good News! June 23-30, 2017

Healthcare, the ACA, and the Senate Wealthcare bill

The Senate Democrats fought hard to keep the BCRA, aka Trump’s Wealthcare bill, from being voted on without hearings or public input. It was good to see some Senate backbone on display.

Hawaii’s Maisie Hirono led  filibustering on the Senate floor.

Our own Senator Bennet spoke at length,  outlining what’s at stake in this health care bill.

But – we don’t know what Cory Gardner really thinks about the Senate healthcare bill he supposedly helped to draft. Right now, he looks to be in the “Yes on BCRA” camp, because he pretends that insurance costs will go down with the Senate bill.  However, Cowardly Cory will not give his constituents the courtesy of in-person meetings or town halls to discuss his position. Even when said constituents try really, really hard.

To keep the heat on, keep contacting

Senator Bennet: Contact Us

Senator Gardner: Contact Cory*

More good news about healthcare in Colorado: we get to keep all of our insurance brokers next year, said Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar. No Colorado counties will be without an insurance provider, according to the Summit Daily News.

Environment and Energy

New renewable energy use record set in China’s Qinghai  province.   Quanghai province is bigger than Texas, has 5.8 million people, and 535K tons of coal were replaced entirely by renewable energy sources for one week.

Chinese officials visited Fort Morgan dairies to see how an agricultural extension program (like CSU’s) works with agricultural producers in the field. Chinese agriculture scientists and bureaucrats want to learn new ways to increase food  production while saving energy.

For farmers and ranchers who want to conserve energy, $500,000 in grant funds is available. Contact Colorado Agriculture Today for more information.

Colorado’s  fractious Public Utilities Commission (PUC) decided to allow Xcel Energy to study and build a smart grid and “smart meters”.  They also resolved to study and plan for  “decoupling revenue“. Revenue decoupling takes away the utility’s incentive to increase revenue by increasing demand for energy. This should help boost energy conservation and distributed grid energy systems, i.e. rooftop solar installations.  From COSEIA

Lady Parts News

A comedy tour is helping to educate and to inspire women to activism around reproductive rights.

Fewer women are bleeding to death in childbirth in California.

How? By doing fewer C sections, mostly. US maternal mortality is going up, while that of every other developed nation is  going down.

Some c-sections are medically necessary for the health of mother and/or baby. But they tend to scar, allowing placentae to adhere internally, thus causing excessive bleeding in childbirth.

The US does way more c-sections than any other country, and it turns out that this may have disastrous consequences for a mother’s ability to deliver naturally down the line.

Teen births are way down across the United States – a decrease of 67% since 1991. What’s behind it? Access to contraceptives. Whoda thunk it?

Progressive Candidates to watch in Colorado in 2018

We will have some great choices of progressive candidates for local offices in 2018. This is the year when the Democratic party must embrace its progressive side, its outsiders, its idealists, because everything we think we know about politics is wrong.
Faith Winter, former HD35 Representative, is now running for SD24. She kicked off her campaign with  sparklers on June 28.

Brianna Buontello  is one of the new “Emerge” class of candidates, and is running to represent Pueblo’s HD47. Trump-stumper Clarice Navarro better watch out!

Zach Neumann is a candidate for SD32 (SW Denver).

Representative Joe Salazar is running for Attorney General. He intends to be the “People’s Lawyer”. Mr. Salazar has been a scrappy and reliable fighter for working people in Colorado.

Rep. Salazar has said that, as Attorney General, he would be the only candidate to defy the oil and gas lobby by canceling the appeal of the Martinez ruling. Rep. Salazar’s campaign kicked off last week in Greeley.

He is opposed by two well-funded Democratic candidates in the primary, but believes that he can win with grassroots support. You can contribute to his campaign at salazarforcoag.com.

If it’s Colorado, we must have a
Cannabis story

Cannabis tourists are coming here – and Colorado ideas are spreading across the country.

We all know that Colorado has had an influx of “cannabis refugees” – those who came here to have access to medical marijuana treatments which they could not access in their own states.   Addyson’s family came from Ohio originally, but came to Colorado to get treatment for an epileptic disorder that wracked  the 5 year old Addyson with up to 1,000 seizures a day. After two years of treatment, the family is returning to Ohio, because Governor Kasich just signed a law permitting medical marjjuana use.

Vive l’ resistance

Many Colorado organizations are resisting the Senate’s jamming its flawed wealthcare bill down the throats of Americans. Organizing for America, Indivisible, Ultraviolet, BLM5280 ProgressNowColorado,  NARAL, CIRC, and many more are perfecting the art of the instant demonstration and working in coalitions.  It looks as though the resistance will get lots more practice – won’t we, Senator Gardner?

My nominees for most inspiring resisters are the activists of Colorado ADAPT, who occupied the Denver office of Senator Cory Gardner for three days, demanding that he vote “No” on Senate BCRA Wealthcare bill. Senator Gardner declined to meet with the activists, although he allowed them to stay for two days.

The occupiers kept up a live feed on social media, with thousands of views over the 3 days.

Finally, Gardner had them forcibly removed and arrested for trespassing and other charges, and then lied about it, blaming the building management and/or Denver Police.

The activists are the heroes, and Gardner is an uncaring, opportunistic double-talker. But we knew that.

LGBT news

New York’s future art installation honoring LGBT history will literally make rainbows from prismatic glass in rocks.

The Supreme Court struck down an Arkansas law which treated same-sex parents differently than opposite sex parents as far as listing on children’s birth certificates. Gorsuch, Colorado’s latest contribution to the Supremes, wrote a really baffling dissent.

Jesuit priest advocates “building a bridge” between gays and the Catholic church, and, oh, yeah, the church shoud stop firing its LGBT employees.

Pop culture is getting queerer all the time, and America  tuning in, watching, listening, and loving it.

Nashville companies find that being LGBT friendly is good business.

Housing and Human Services will once again ask older people about sexual preference. The Trump administration had “scrubbed” this question, but public outcry brought it back.

Trump Stinks Department

Nice comeback – by now, everyone’s been disgusted at our “President” using his morning to insult MSNBC journalist Mika Brezinski’s face (inaccurately, from six months ago) . Mika’s response, however, was classy and perfect.

In reply to Trump, she tweeted:

Keep those tiny hands off the red button!

Apparently, the House of Representatives is having second thoughts about allowing the Trumpster to play Commander in Chief.

After decades, Representative Barbara Lee finally got the Bush -era Authorization for Use of Military Force sunsetted.  The Senate will have to weigh in.

If Donald Trump wants to commit American troops to war, he’s going to have to go through Congress, and Congress will have to put themselves on the record for or against it. That’s good news for democracy, and probably for the planet.

You can’t have good Colorado news without some

Animal stories

They’re building animal crossings in Summit County to cut down on the number of wildlife-involved car accidents. There were 7,000 wildlife vs. vehicle accidents in CO last year, 2100 in Summit County alone.

A Longmont prairie dog colony may be relocated to Rocky Flats insteadof becoming eagle food or being exterminated.

Random Rocks of Kindness

A Colorado Springs area family has started a new fad of finding rocks, painting inspiring messages on them, and leaving them in random places for others to find. 719rocks! started out with 25 people, and now has thousands of folks involved in collecting, painting, and hiding cute rocks.

What the heck, it gets people outside and it’s not as weird as Pokemon Go.