Colorado
New poll finds large increase in support for government-backed health care coverage over past year
DENVER – A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows increased nationwide support for government-supported health care and that low-income Republicans have increasingly warmed to the idea of health care coverage for all Americans over the past year.
The report, published Friday, found that 60 percent of Americans support government-backed health care coverage for all Americans – a 9 percent increase from a poll last year and the highest percentage Pew has found since a 2006 Gallup survey.
But the numbers are still widely split between Democrats, 85 percent of whom polled support federal health care coverage, and Republicans, of whom only 32 percent said they supported government-backed health care.
The report also found that 52 percent of Republicans with household incomes of less than $30,000 per year support government-backed health care for all – up from 31 percent nine months ago.
The near-20 percentage point increase was also seen among “middle class” Republicans earning between $20,000 and $74,999 per household each year. Thirty-four percent of those polled said they supported government-backed health care coverage, compared to 14 percent last year.
Just 18 percent of Republicans making more than $75,000 a year said they supported government-backed health care coverage.
The splits in the report mostly boiled down to a family’s income level. Seventy-four percent of households making less than $30,000 a year support the government backing health care coverage, but only 53 percent of households making above $75,000 a year agreed.
But there were also splits when those surveyed were asked whether they supported a single-payer system or one like the current system set up under the Affordable Care Act in which the government subsidizes people’s plans that they buy through private insurance companies operating on national or state exchanges.
Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed said they supported a single-payer, government program; 29 percent said they wanted a mix of government and private programs; 32 percent said the government should not be responsible for ensuring nationwide health care but wanted the government to continue Medicare and Medicaid coverage; and just 5 percent said there should not be any government involvement in health care coverage of any kind.
Congressional Republicans have already passed the initial steps to repealing the ACA, though there is no replacement plan in place despite promises from President-elect Donald Trump and others that they would “repeal and replace” the ACA.
There were rallies held across the country Sunday, including in Denver, to ask that Congress not repeal the ACA, often referred to as Obamacare.
Sunday, Trump said he wanted “health insurance for all” but his spokesman, Sean Spicer, walked those comments back.
Gallup data from December found that some of the counties and states that voted for Trump in November also saw the highest enrollments in the Affordable Care Act coverage last month.
The Pew Research Center poll was based on telephone interviews of 1,502 adults in all 50 states and was conducted Jan. 4-9.
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All four of Colorado’s Congressional Democrats say they will attend Trump’s inauguration
DENVER – As handfuls of Democratic Congressional representatives say they plan to boycott Donald Trump’s inauguration, Colorado’s all say they will be attending.
Many Democratic members of Congress started saying over the weekend that they wouldn’t attend the inaugural ceremony, which is a tradition but not a requirement, after a spat between Georgia Rep. John Lewis and the president-elect.
Rep. Lewis said in an interview late last week he wouldn’t attend the inauguration after he questioned Trump’s legitimacy as president in an interview with NBC News. He said in the interview that he doesn’t believe Trump is a “legitimate” president because of the allegations Russia intervened in the General Election.
After Trump saw the interview, he tweeted out that Lewis was “all talk” and “no action,” saying Lewis should instead focus on his own district, which Trump called “crime infested” and “burning.”
Many Congressional Democrats took issue with Trump’s words, calling it an attack on Lewis, who had a large part in the civil rights actions in the 1960s. He marched in Selma and was an ally of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s.
The Congressional Black Caucus led the boycott of the inauguration, but many Democrats followed suit Monday in saying they would also boycott the event.
However, when asked Monday if they would attend, Colorado’s four Congressional Democrats all said they would be there.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Rep. Diana DeGette and Rep. Jared Polis all confirmed with Denver7’s Marc Stewart that they would attend Trump’s inauguration. The state’s Republican members of Congress all said they plan to attend as well.
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State Sen. Mike Johnston to announce candidacy for Colorado governorship Tuesday
DENVER – Democratic State Sen. Mike Johnston will be the first Democrat to throw his hat into the ring for the 2018 primary for his party’s bid for the governorship Tuesday.
His campaign announced Monday that Johnston, a Vail native whose term as a state senator ended earlier this month because of term limits, will run. He is among the younger and more high-profile Democrats in Colorado’s political landscape.
He has represented Colorado’s 33rd district, which covers northeastern Denver, since he won appointment to replace Peter Groff in 2009 when Groff took a job in the Department of Education.
He won re-election in 2010 and again in 2012 with a large majority of the vote.
In his time in office, Johnston has said he’s most proud of several education bills he backed that were eventually signed into law, including the Colorado READ Act and ASSET Bill, which allowed undocumented students who attend and graduate from Colorado high schools to pay instate tuition at state colleges and universities.
A two-time graduate of Yale (B.A. and J.D.) who also got his Master’s in education policy at Harvard, Johnston had spent much of his time before becoming a senator in education as well.
He worked under John Schnur and Tom Strickland on their education policy, and eventually became principal at the Joan Farley Academy and Marvin Foote Detention Center.
He moved on to teach education law at the University of Denver Law School and founded Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Thornton, which was highlighted by Barack Obama during his first campaign.
He then joined Obama’s campaign as an informal advisor, but eventually became among the top advisor’s on education
He has also been named to Forbes’ “7 Most Powerful Educators” list and Time’s “40 under 40” list.
Current Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s term is up in 2018, and the Democratic primary will be among the first open Democratic primaries for the governorship in more than a decade.
Denver businessman Noel Ginsburg has already announced his candidacy, and former interior secretary Ken Salazar, Rep. Ed Perlmutter and former state treasurer Cary Kennedy all have had their names floated as possibly running as well.
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Man shot by Colorado Springs police in gunfire exchange at fast food restaurant
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A man was hospitalized Thursday night after being shot by at least two Colorado Springs Police Department officers when he allegedly opened fire on them at a fast food restaurant on the city’s northwest side.
The shooting happened around 9:15 p.m. Thursday in the parking lot of the Arby’s restaurant in the 600 block of W. Garden of the Gods Road.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the shooting, said only that officers “made contact with a suspicious individual” in the restaurant’s parking lot, and that the suspect shot at officers, who returned fire.
The suspect, identified as Shawn Michael Oliver, 39, was hit and taken to an area hospital with unspecified injuries. The sheriff’s office says the Colorado Springs officers were all uninjured and have been put on standard administrative leave.
Oliver was wanted on two felony arrest warrants out of Adams County.
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2 different Republican-backed bills aim to expand concealed-carry handgun rights on Colo. campuses
DENVER – Two Republican-backed bills in the Colorado Legislature aim to expand concealed-carry handgun rights at schools across the state.
One bill, House Bill 1036, would completely strip from state statute that currently forbids people from carrying concealed handguns on public school grounds – even if the holder has a permit.
It strikes most of the language in Colorado Revised Statute 18-12-214, but upholds language in 18-12-105.5 that says it “shall not be an offense” if a person with a valid permit to carry a concealed handgun brings it on campus.
The bill also has language that says the enactment of the bill “is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.”
The bill in sponsored by Rep. Patrick Neville, Rep. Kim Ransom and Sen. Tim Neville – all Republicans.
The other bill filed relating to concealed-carry weapons in schools is also sponsored by Rep. Patrick Neville, along with Sen. Chris Holbert.
Senate Bill 5 also allows some school employees to carry concealed handguns on campus, but carries more stringent requirements than HB 1036.
If passed and signed by the governor, the bill would allow school districts to work with county sheriffs to establish a training course and curriculum that would be taught to teachers with concealed-carry permits who would then be able to carry the weapons on campus, with some restrictions and parameters.
The bill would also apply not only to public schools, but also to charter schools and institute charter schools.
The first step in the process the bill creates would require the district board of education or charter board to work with the sheriff’s office to establish a handgun safety training course that includes any of the district’s or charter school’s existing emergency response methods. The teacher would already have to have a concealed-carry handgun permit.
Then, that person would have to meet a series of thresholds in order to be able to carry the gun while it is concealed while they are on campus.
The board of education or charter institute would first have to approve the curriculum for the training; the employee would have to complete the training; the employee would have to get permission from the board or charter institute to carry the concealed handgun on campus and would then have to notify said board or charter institute.
Also, the bill would allow each school board or charter institute to establish a maximum number of employees allowed to carry concealed handguns on campus and allow them to deny permission to an employee if that would put the school over the limit.
Concealed-carry handguns are allowed on many of Colorado’s college campuses.
Last month, the Hanover School District, southeast of Colorado Springs, voted to allow “qualified teachers’ to carry guns while on campus. District board members who supported the measure cited mass shootings and illegal marijuana grows nearby as reasons for enacting the policy. The district also cited its few school resource officers as reasons for allowing the program.
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Colorado GOP pushes bill to repeal state health care exchange, but governor will fight
DENVER – Two of the first bills filed in the Republican-controlled Colorado Senate aim to make huge changes in state health care – one that would repeal the state’s health exchange and one that would require state Medicaid recipients to enter into a written agreement if they use a non-enrolled provider.
Both bills are being pushed by new Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City. Senate Republican Leader Chris Holbert, R-Parker, affirmed the party’s opposition to the state exchange Thursday. Continue reading
Declassified intel report finds Putin, Russia meddled in US election to undermine faith, help Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A declassified version of a report by the three top U.S. intelligence agencies on possible Russian meddling into the 2016 General Election says Russia and President Vladimir Putin aimed specifically to undermine faith in the American electoral process and discredit Hillary Clinton in favor of Donald Trump.
The report (click to read in full) from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and national Security Agency (NSA) “is a declassified version of a highly classified assessment,” according to the document, but its findings are “identical” to the classified version. Continue reading
Colorado business, entertainment mogul Philip Anschutz denies being ‘anti-LGBTQ’
DENVER – Philip Anschutz, the Denver-based conservative entrepreneur and son of Frederick Anschutz, called reports he is an opponent of the LGBTQ community “fake news” and “garbage” in a statement released Thursday.
Anschutz owns the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), a sports and music entertainment group that runs a slew of venues and is among the country’s largest presenters of live music.
He came under fire in a story published Wednesday by viral media site Uproxx, which, citing a Washington Post report, claimed Anschutz was “anti-LGBT” because he had donated to conservative groups Alliance Defending Freedom, the National Christian Foundation and Family Research Council – all groups that have lobbied against LGBTQ law and social strides.
Political money tracking group Open Secrets records show Anschutz and his wife donated a little more than $1 million this political cycle – all to Republican groups.
Anschutz’s AEG is the entertainment group putting on famed California music festival Coachella, and Uproxx wrote that “heading out to Indio [California] puts money in the pockets of a man who is definitely un-chill” adding that “Anschutz uses the money he makes from his various properties…to support some troubling causes.”
“If the price tag isn’t keeping you out of Indio this year, maybe your conscience should,” Uproxx author Alex Galbraith wrote.
The story was picked up across various other websites, including Rolling Stone and The Fader.
But Anschutz hit back in a statement Thursday.
“Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news – it is all garbage,” he said in a statement. “I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation.”
He said the Anschutz Foundation and he himself “contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes” and that “when it has come to my attention or the attention of The Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations…have been supporting [anti-LGBTQ] causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”
His full statement can be read below:
“Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news – it is all garbage. I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We are fortunate to employ a wealth of diverse individuals throughout our family of companies, all of whom are important to us – the only criteria on which they are judged is the quality of their job performance; we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.
“Both The Anschutz Foundation and I contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes. Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of The Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”
ProgressNow Colorado and One Colorado, which first called on Anschutz to stop funding the groups after the Washington Post story was published, issued another statement Friday to follow up on Anschutz’s comments.
“It is heartening to see Phil Anschutz give his unequivocal support of everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, and we appreciate that the Anschutz Foundation has stopped funding anti-LGBTQ hate groups after the Washington Post revealed the funding in their July article,” said One Colorado Executive Director, Daniel Ramos, in a statement. “We are grateful that Phil Anschutz looked at the facts and did the right thing after our organization and others asked him to cease funding these groups.”
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‘Hero’ slackliner Mickey Wilson, who saved man at Arapahoe Basin, recounts rescue in own words
ARAPAHOE BASIN, Colo. – Mickey Wilson was so busy skiing more than two feet of fresh powder Thursday that he didn’t know the man whose life he saved a day earlier had been released from the hospital.
And late Wednesday morning — as he was being called a hero just after cutting a fellow skier from a backpack strap that had caught the skier around his neck, leaving him dangling unconscious a story above the snow — Wilson didn’t even know whether or not the man had survived. Continue reading
Man hanging by neck from Arapahoe Basin chairlift rescued by quick-thinking slackliner who cut strap
DENVER – A man who was dangling unconscious by his neck from a chairlift at Arapahoe Basin Wednesday likely had his life saved by a professional slackliner from Golden who was able to scale the lift and cut the man down.
Mickey Wilson, a professional slackliner who has won Red Bull competitions, among others, posted the tale of his rescue of the man to Instagram and Facebook Wednesday evening. Continue reading