Politics
After years-long fight, Colorado approves medical marijuana treatment for PTSD
DENVER – Coloradans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will now be able to treat their conditions with doctor-approved medical marijuana, bringing a close to a years-long fight.
Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 17 Monday, which will allow physicians, after consultation and a medical background review, to prescribe patients suffering from doctor-diagnosed PTSD with medical marijuana treatments. Continue reading
Criminal justice bills will become law without Hickenlooper’s signature; ‘budget transparency’ cited
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper will allow two criminal justice reform bills passed by the state Legislature to become law without his signature, saying he had “concerns that the bill’s full and true impact on the state budget was not fully transparent.”
Hickenlooper sent letters to the Republican-controlled Senate Tuesday informing them Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 19 would become law on June 10 without his signature. Friday, June 9 is the last day for Hickenlooper to sign or veto bills lest they become law without his signature. Continue reading
Colorado governor signs bill allowing women to get 12-month birth control prescriptions
DENVER – Colorado women will now be able to get a year’s supply of birth control all at once after Gov. John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 1186 Monday.
The bill passed through Colorado’s Legislature with bipartisan support. Its supporters say the new law will be a boon to women since it will mean they’ll have to make fewer trips to the pharmacy and will be less likely to disrupt their prescription cycle.
Hickenlooper also praised the bill as a win for women in rural Colorado who may have to drive a long distance to their nearest pharmacy or to get their prescriptions renewed.
Under previous rules, women were only able to get one- or three-month prescriptions.
The bill’s authors pointed to a 2011 National Institutes of Health study that showed unintended pregnancies fell by one-third in places that allowed 12-month prescriptions.
“Women in rural Colorado will see great benefits from this bill. They will be able to access the birth control they rely on, exactly when they need it. This means more time left in their busy days and less likelihood of unintended pregnancies,” said Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Gunnison.
The Republican co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Lois Landgraf and Sen. Don Coram, said the bill’s aim of reducing unintended pregnancies was “common sense.”
“Nine out of ten women in this country use birth control at some point in their lives. This bill breaks down a barrier to care that will have an incredible impact on women’s lives,” said Sarah Taylor-Nanista, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.
Supporters of the bill wore pink to its signing at the state Capitol Monday.
SCOTUS again declines to take up Colorado cake store discrimination case
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court again failed to act on the case involving the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood after being listed for consideration for an 11th time.
The judges could still decide to take up the case, despite it being distributed for conference each week since Feb. 21 and still not being taken up.
Jack Phillips, who owns the cake store, has petitioned the court after a lower court ruled he discriminated against a gay couple who wanted him to make them a wedding cake in 2012. Phillips has long claimed that as a Christian, he has the religious freedom to deny business to same-sex couples.
The Colorado Supreme Court last August declined to review the case, agreeing with a Colorado Court of Appeals decision that said the shop could continue to enforce its religious beliefs, but not while operating as a business in Colorado.
The Supreme Court declined to take up a similar case involving a New Mexico photographer after multiple conferences in 2014.
Report: Oil and gas explosions, fires may be underreported due to Colorado’s ‘lenient’ guidelines
DENVER – A new research report by Colorado scientists published last month says that statistics on oil and gas explosions and fires in the state may be lacking or underreported because of “lenient” self-reporting guidelines in Colorado.
The study will be published in the July edition of Energy Research & Social Sciences by researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Continue reading
What does the Paris climate pullout mean for US, and why do Republicans insist it’s a treaty?
DENVER – When President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accords, his plan was widely met with blowback from most business owners, Democrats, America’s closest allies, and even energy company executives.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, including some from Colorado, said little of the ramifications of Trump’s decision, instead deriding the previous administration for not taking the accord—an executive agreement—to the U.S. Senate for approval. Continue reading
Colorado oil, gas regulators say operators ‘appear’ to be taking mandatory review seriously
DENVER – Colorado regulators have received most of the reports detailing the location of above-ground vertical oil and gas well pipes that was required in an order from Gov. John Hickenlooper last month, but it “appears” some small operators have yet to submit their reports, the state oil and gas commission said Friday.
On May 2, Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ordered every oil and gas operator in the state to inspect every existing flowline not in active use and to document the location of any active flowline within 1,000 feet of a building.
The notice to report required the companies to map the locations of the lines and report back to the oil and gas commission. The companies also had to be sure that any of their abandoned wells or flowlines had been properly capped and noted. The reports for the active wells were due back to the state by May 30, and integrity tests for active flowlines and compliance with proper abandonment procedures have a June 30 deadline to be completed.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Commission had received 129 reports from the various operators by the May 30 deadline, Department of Natural Resources communications director Todd Hartman said Friday.
Hartman noted that the 129 reports were actually beyond the 116 COGCC had expected, but said that some of the reports might be duplicates or corrected reports.
He said COGCC has so far processed 80 of the reports, including those from the state’s largest operators, but that the work was time and labor-intensive.
But Hartman also said that “it appears there may be a small number of operators that have yet to submit the required information,” and said COGCC was contacting those operators to be sure they complete the required work.
He also said that it’s possible some of the operators have over-reported, noting that at least one large operator gave information for each well and flowline within 1,500 feet of buildings—beyond the 1,000-foot limit.
The reports received so far include data for flowlines connected with 16,514 wells, Hartman said.
But he added that the “voluminous” data would take time to compile and release, as the state has to cross-check the provided data with existing well information in state databases.
“At this initial stage, the COGCC believes that industry is taking compliance with the order seriously,” Hartman said. “It will take further review, however, to develop firmer details about overall compliance.”
Hickenlooper ordered the mapping of Colorado’s approximately 54,00 wells and their associated flowlines days after Anadarko Petroleum, the company responsible for a leaking flowline that led to a deadly explosion in Firestone, announced it was shutting in thousands of its wells in the state to review and inspect them.
The industry has been even further scrutinized since Hickenlooper’s order after another Anadarko crew suffered casualties in an oil tank battery explosion in Mead, and a Logan County natural gas storage well suffered a blow-out, forcing nearby residents to evacuate before crews could cap it again.
More updates from the DNR and COGCC on the progress of the review are expected in coming weeks.
Why is Sen. Cory Gardner touring Asia and shaking hands with Rodrigo Duterte?
DENVER – What exactly is Sen. Cory Gardner doing in the Philippines shaking hands with under-fire president Rodrigo Duterte?
That was the question many in Colorado asked Thursday when Filipino president’s press office put out photos of the two shaking hands in a meeting that happened Wednesday. Continue reading
Adams County agrees to pay $25K to Muslim inmate denied Quran
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. – Adams County will pay a Muslim inmate denied a Quran during the 2015 Ramadan holy days $25,000 to settle a lawsuit filed last year, and the jail has agreed to change its policies to protect the religious rights of jailed Muslims.
Though the jail denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement, its payment to the former inmate, Marquis Harris, came with an agreement from Harris that he would drop the civil suit.
The $25,000 payment will go to Harris’s attorney, Denver-based David Lane, which will cover attorneys’ fees and other costs associated with the suit, as well as payment to Harris.
The jail also agreed in the settlement to provide Muslim inmates with any requested religious materials in a timely fashion; to provide Muslim inmates with their morning meals the night before during the Ramadan period; to allow (consistent with current policy) Muslim inmates to gather for prayer when Muslim leaders come to the facility to supervise; and to consider giving Muslim inmates Halal meals “if an option for providing those meals is financially and logistically feasible.”
The suit stemmed from a complaint that Harris’s Quran had been seized and placed with his personal belongings when he was transferred to the Adams County jail in June 2015. A request for Halal meals and a Quran during Ramadan was also denied, according to the original suit.
The settlement means that Harris won’t be able to bring further damage complaints against the alleged defendants in the lawsuit.
“It is encouraging to see courageous Muslims in our society fight the discrimination Donald Trump has loosed in America,” Lane said in a statement regarding the settlement, though the alleged improprieties by the jail occurred only around the time that Trump was announcing his presidential candidacy.
Denver Post fires sportswriter Terry Frei after racially insensitive tweet about Indy 500 winner
DENVER – The Denver Post announced Monday it had fired its sportswriter, Terry Frei, a day after he made a racially-insensitive remark about Japanese driver Takuma Sato winning the Indianapolis 500 Sunday.
“Nothing specifically personal, but I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during a Memorial Day weekend,” Frei tweeted out Sunday afternoon.
His tweet immediately set off a storm online, leading to Frei quickly deleting the tweet and sending out another message: “I apologize.”
I apologize.
— Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 29, 2017
About three hours later, Frei sent out a lengthier explanation for the original tweet, saying he had been visiting his father’s grave site at the Fort Logan National Cemetery. Frei said his father spent four years flying reconnaissance missions over Japan.
OK, I took out the name of a book. pic.twitter.com/b953FbqMEh
— Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 29, 2017
“I am sorry, I made a mistake, and I understand 72 years have passed since the end of World War II and I do regret people with whom I probably am very closely aligned with politically and philosophically have been so offended. To those people, I apologize,” he wrote.
But the damage had apparently been done, as The Post’s publisher, Mac Tully, and editor, Lee Ann Colacioppo, announced Monday that Frei was no longer employed by the Post.
“We apologize for the disrespectful and unacceptable tweet that was sent by one of our reporters. Terry Frei is no longer an employee of The Denver Post. It’s our policy not to comment further on personnel issues,” they wrote in a statement posted to the Post’s website. “The tweet doesn’t represent what we believe nor what we stand for. We hope you will accept our profound apologies.”
Frei is also an author. He wrote a book about the 1942 Wisconsin Badgers football team, many of whom went on to fight for the U.S. in World War II.