Month: July 2017
Mike Coffman presents proposal to fix Obamacare to House GOP, Gardner; will hinge on Senate bill
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman presented his new plan to alter the Affordable Care Act to House Republicans and also discussed it with Sen. Cory Gardner, who told his fellow Republican he’d pass the plan onto Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Coffman says he spoke with House Speaker Paul Ryan one-on-one about the proposal last night, and again today in front of the House Republican Conference at a 9 a.m. ET meeting. Continue reading
Sen. Michael Bennet slams Republicans, Trump and their ‘terrible’ health care bills
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, slamming the Republicans’ “terrible” health care bills and chiding President Donald Trump for not holding up his campaign promises on health care.
The speech from the Colorado Democrat came shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that he would knock off the first two weeks of the Senate’s August recess in order to try and pass a health care bill and work on other GOP priorities. Continue reading
Colorado woman charged with voter fraud, accused of forging dead parents’ signatures
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. – A Colorado woman has been charged with six counts of voter fraud for allegedly writing her dead parents’ names on their mail-in ballots multiple times in elections between 2009 and 2013.
Sarilu Sosa-Sanchez, 59, was charged in late May in El Paso County with six counts of forgery of a government-issued document, a class 5 felony. A DNA collection was also ordered in the case. Continue reading
Republican Congressman Mike Coffman proposes new approach to address Medicaid, health care bills
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, is offering up a three-pronged approach to break up the provisions of the health care and tax-related measures in the GOP versions of the bills aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in order to try and garner more bipartisan support to fix some provisions of the ACA.
Coffman voted against the House version of the bill, the American Health Care Act, when the lower chamber of Congress passed the bill onto the Senate by a narrow vote in early May. Continue reading
Pilot who cut off transgender woman’s testicles in Denver apartment pleads guilty, sentenced
DENVER – The commercial airline pilot who cut off a transgender woman’s testicles at a Denver apartment in May has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor practicing medicine without a license charge in exchange for felony assault charges being dropped by the Denver district attorney.
James Pennington, 57, originally faced second-degree reckless assault and unauthorized practice of medicine charges, though the victim had asked that Pennington not be charged.
The plea deal between Pennington and prosecutors was reached Monday.
Per his plea agreement, he was sentenced to court supervised probation, according to Colorado court records.
Police reports suggest Pennington removed the transgender woman’s testicles using an Army surgical kit inside her apartment. The procedure reportedly took 90 minutes, but the suturing failed to stop a “large amount of blood” pouring from the incision.
Pennington was a captain for ExpressJet Airlines. ABC7 in Chicago reports that co-workers said Pennington flew for United Express and was based out of Chicago O’Hare.
He was placed on leave after his arrest, and remains on leave Tuesday, according to ABC7. But Pennington told the station that he was “planning to go back to work.”
Pennington’s attorney, Douglas Richards, told ABC7 that Pennington was “pleased that this has brought attention to the daily struggles of the transgender community.”
“It’s not every day that someone, like my client, risks their own liberty to help a stranger who is a victim of her own body,” Richards told the station.
The attorney of the woman who underwent the procedure says the woman has recovered fully and “is happy in her new body,” according to ABC7.
Practicing medicine without an authorized physician license is a class 2 misdemeanor in Colorado for the first offense.
Hancock lays out ambitious transportation, housing plans in State of City address, slams Washington
DENVER –Mayor Michael Hancock laid out an ambitious plan to cut the number of drivers on city roads, increase transit ridership and cycling, while cutting traffic deaths and adding more affordable housing to the city in his 2017 State of the City address, while also taking several shots against the current administration in Washington. Continue reading
Source: Ed Perlmutter to drop out of governor’s race, won’t run for re-election in Congress
DENVER – Ed Perlmutter will pull out of the race for Colorado’s governorship in 2018 just three months after he entered the race, and won’t run for re-election in Congress either.
The Denver Post was the first to report that Perlmutter was pulling out of the race early. A source close to the campaign has since confirmed to Denver7 that will be the case. Continue reading
Feds ask states not to send over controversial voter roll information until court settles suit
DENVER – There’s a chance that Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams won’t be sending over Colorado voter roll information on Friday, as the Election Integrity Commission on Monday asked Williams and other secretaries of state not to send the information over until a judge settles a court case over the commission’s intentions.
Last week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center was among several organizations that sued in federal court seeking to block the commission’s quest to gather voter data from each state in the U.S. Continue reading
Darryl Glenn joins pool of Republicans challenging Doug Lamborn for Congress in 2018
DENVER – Darryl Glenn, the Republican El Paso County Commissioner who was defeated by Michael Bennet in last year’s U.S. Senate election, will try again for a congressional seat in 2018—this time challenging Rep. Doug Lamborn in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
Glenn confirmed to Denver7 over the weekend he would be running for the seat against Lamborn, who is in his sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Glenn said he would be issue a formal statement about his campaign when he announces officially at an upcoming campaign launch. News of his latest bid was first reported last week by ColoradoPolitics.
Glenn becomes the second high-profile Republican to throw his name into the hat to challenge Lamborn.
State Sen. Owen Hill, a conservative Republican also from Colorado Springs, announced he’d be running in April and has done well raising money over the past few months.
Hill’s profile has been raised since he first won a seat in the state Senate, as he chaired the Senate’s education committee and was the vice chair of its finance committee. He started a bid to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, but backed out after Cory Gardner, who eventually won the seat, announced he was running.
Glenn ran away with the primary for the Republican Senate bid last year, getting nearly 50,000 more votes than the second-place finisher.
And though he garnered 1.2 million votes in the general election, he lost his bid to unseat Sen. Bennet, a Democrat, by more than 150,000 votes.
Last year, Glenn ran on a conservative platform that pushed for fewer government regulations and spending, the easing of business regulations, and increased spending in defense and border security.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, endorsed Glenn during his Senate campaign, saying Glenn had “the experience to understand what it takes to bring back economic growth and preserve our individual liberties.”
It’s unclear when Glenn will make his campaign official. His announcement comes amid the close of second-quarter fundraising, whose figures are expected to be released next week, and as a slew of other people declare their candidacy for various congressional districts in Colorado—some as challengers and some aiming to replace seats that will be vacated in 2018 over the governorship or retirement.
Diane Mitsch Bush, a Democratic state House member, announced last week she’d be challenging Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
And The Denver Post reported Monday that Levi Tillemann, an area technology entrepreneur and former member of the Obama administration, would be among a growing list of Democrats, including Jason Crow and Gabriel McArthur, who will be challenging for the Democratic nomination to try and unseat Rep. Mike Coffman in the state’s 6th Congressional District. ColoradoPolitics also reported that story first in late June.
Hundreds withdraw Colorado voter registrations in response to compliance with commission request
DENVER – At least two Colorado county clerks say they’ve seen a large increase in the number of people who have withdrawn their state voter registration since Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said he would send the Trump administration’s election integrity commission some voter-roll information in accordance with state law.
Alton Dillard, a spokesperson for the Denver Elections Division, said 180 people have withdrawn their registration in the county since July 3. When compared to the eight people who withdrew their registration from June 26-29, it marks a 2,150 percent increase, according to Dillard. Continue reading