Donald Trump
ICE picks up man involved in Denver jail inmate’s death, says sheriff didn’t notify of release
DENVER – The Denver jail inmate whose fight with another inmate ended in the other inmate’s death is now being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending an immigration hearing.
Ricardo Daniel Lopez-Vera, 19, had an immigration detainer placed on him by ICE on July 11—a day after he was involved in a fight that left another inmate, 42-year-old William Anderson, dead.
Denver7 had not previously named Lopez-Vera as the man involved in the fight because he was not charged in Anderson’s death.
ICE says Lopez-Vera was released from the Denver jail without the Denver Sheriff Department, which runs the jail, notifying ICE he had been released.
ICE says Lopez-Vera had previous convictions for driving while ability impaired and another misdemeanor, but said it had not previously contacted him before the July 11 detainer.
He will remain in ICE custody pending his immigration hearing. ICE hasn’t said when Lopez-Vera entered the country illegally.
88 percent of Colorado voter registration withdrawals are from Democrats, unaffiliated voters
DENVER – Democrats and unaffiliated voters in Colorado have made up the overwhelming majority of the people who have withdrawn their voter registrations or become confidential voters in the state in response to the Trump administration’s request for voter roll information on behalf of its controversial election integrity commission.
By the end of day Friday, 3,738 Colorado voters had withdrawn their registration, and 200 had become confidential voters—something people in Colorado can do by signing a sworn affidavit at their county clerk’s office saying they could be in danger by having their addresses made public. Continue reading
Gardner, Buck among speakers advertised for Western Conservative Summit; will Trump attend?
DENVER – The Western Conservative Summit is coming to Denver again this year, and the gathering of major conservative players is again hoping to bring out some big names for this year’s three-day event.
Though he hasn’t been confirmed to be attending yet, the summit’s organizers have been touting the possibility that President Donald Trump may appear at this year’s gathering. He spoke at last year’s event while he was still a candidate, as did Sarah Palin and a host of other Republicans.
High-profile people who “might” also show up and who have been invited include HUD Secretary Ben Carson, EPA head Scott Pruitt, the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, according to the event’s website. It’s unclear at this point if any will actually attend the conference.
But some high-profile Republicans from Colorado are certain to attend, according to the event’s planners: Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Ken Buck will be there.
The summit, hosted by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University, will also host a roundtable interview involving three of the Republican candidates who have already declared their candidacy for Colorado’s governorship in 2018: Doug Robinson, George Brauchler and Victor Mitchell.
On that panel, each will get five minutes to speak about the ideas for Colorado, then will be interviewed by Colorado Politics’ Joey Bunch.
Online ads for the summit have touted Gardner as being one of the speakers, and have drawn even more questions from those on the left, as Gardner will again visit an event full of wealthy donors and political players weeks after he attended the Koch Industries convention in Colorado Springs.
The Republican senator has been chastised by Colorado Democrats since he hasn’t held an in-person town hall meeting in months and has been part of the Republican team crafting a new health care bill in the Senate.
Those calls for a town hall are unlikely to wane, nor is criticism, as weekend passes will cost $200, and daily passes will be $120 apiece. Discounts are available for some parties of 10 or more people, as well as for people under 30, veterans, active duty military, clergy, educators and CCU alumni.
More information on the event, the speakers expected to attend, and ticketing can be found here.
Colo. Sec. of State: Election integrity commission’s data request can’t verify voter roll accuracy
DENVER – A day after the White House released voter comments with unredacted personal information sent to the president’s newly-created, controversial election integrity commission, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams sent a letter to the commission touting the integrity of Colorado’s elections and addressing a series of questions the commission asked in its request for voter roll information from U.S. states.
Williams said that though he is complying with the commission’s request, since he can’t lawfully provide confidential voter information, the data “can’t be used to effectively assess the accuracy of voter rolls.” Continue reading
Colorado insurance commissioner blames Trump administration for uncertainty, 27% rate hike requests
DENVER – Colorado’s insurance commissioner is blaming the Trump administration for playing games with the health care market and saying it is causing instability in the insurance marketplace that might be to blame for large premium hike requests for operators in the state for 2018.
The Colorado Division of Insurance on Friday released the premium rate request hikes for individual and small group markets operating on Colorado’s health insurance exchange, Connect for Health Colorado, for 2018. Continue reading
More than 3,000 Colorado voters withdraw registration in response to Trump commission’s request
DENVER – More than 3,000 people in Colorado have withdrawn their voter registration and 182 people have become confidential voters over the past two weeks in response to the request from President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission for voter roll information from each U.S. state.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday said 3,394 people withdrew their voter registrations from June 28 through July 13, and 182 people had become confidential voters. People can become confidential voters in Colorado by paying a fee and swearing under oath that they could be in danger if their personal information is public. Continue reading
Cory Gardner ‘carefully reviewing’ new Senate health care bill; Bennet wants to start over
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner says he’s “carefully reviewing” the revised Senate health care draft discussion bill released Thursday as several of his fellow Senate Republican colleagues sit on the fence on the revisions, putting in question whether or not the bill will make it to a floor vote next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took the Senate’s version of the bill aimed at “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, back to the drawing board after a handful of Republicans said they wouldn’t even support bringing the Senate’s initial bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, to the floor for debate. Continue reading
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
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