Politics
Coffman, Polis bill would force VA study of veteran suicide, overmedication for behavioral disorders
DENVER – As we honor the American service men and women who have lost their lives in combat on Memorial Day, two Colorado congressmen are working to help stop veterans from dying in the war against drug addiction and suicide back home.
A bill introduced last week, which is co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Coffman (R-CO06) and Jared Polis (D-CO02), along with other House Democrats and Republicans, aims to put the Veterans Affairs Secretary into an agreement with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a full review of veterans’ suicides and drug use over the past 5 years.
The House version of the bill is called the “Veteran Overmedication Prevention Act of 2017.”
If passed and signed by President Donald Trump, the VA and national academies would, within 90 days of the bill’s enactment, undertake a full review of every suicide, violent death, or accidental death of a VA-covered veteran over the past 5 years—regardless of whether the death was covered by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting methodology.
The team would create a list of every medication prescribed to the veteran, as well as any legal or illegal drug the veteran was taking prior to their death.
It would also review every VA diagnosis that led to a doctor describing medication for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, traumatic brain injuries, sexual abuse and other anxiety and depression-related disorders.
The review would also be tasked with covering the number of times a veteran was concurrently put on different medications and why, as well as the number of veterans who died after not being prescribed with any medications.
The review would have to make a distinction between whether or not a veteran was also given behavioral health treatments, in addition to prescription drugs, and review protocols in plays in the VA system for pain scoring and prescribing painkillers.
The VA’s staffing levels for mental health professionals would also be reviewed, and an analysis of the VA locations prescribing the highest number of painkillers would also be done.
The program the bill aims to create is similar to a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., introduced in that chamber.
Both hope to address an alarming increase in the number of veterans’ suicides, which has jumped to around 20 per day in the U.S.
“This bill will enable us to better identify the links between prescription drugs overdoses and veterans’ suicide,” Coffman said. “The VA’s drug-centric culture is not only something we are looking to change, but also we seek to better understand this growing epidemic of opioid use. Our goal is to ultimately avoid veterans’ and their families’ unnecessary suffering.”
“I’ve long believed that we owe our nation’s heroes alternatives for pain management and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment other than narcotic and opioid pain medications. This study is a step in a positive direction toward heading off the tragic epidemic of veterans’ suicide by understanding how traditional systems of treatment may be undermining some veterans’ ability to pursue healthy, happy lives,” Rep. Polis said.
Questions mount after host of Colorado oil and gas incidents; safety investigations continue
WELD COUNTY, Colo. – Gov. John Hickenlooper says there is currently “no reason to believe” that the circumstances behind Thursday’s deadly explosion at an oil tank battery in Weld County are similar to those that caused a home in Firestone to explode last month, killing two.
The name of the worker who died at the scene of Thursday’s incident at the Anadarko-owned battery is expected to be released later Friday. The death was the third linked to Anadarko-owned oil and gas properties in Colorado in the past two months. Continue reading
Lawsuit: Anadarko defrauded investors with ‘materially false’ info about Firestone explosion risk
DENVER – Anadarko Petroleum, the company responsible for two oil and gas sites whose explosions have killed three people and severely injured four others in Colorado over the past five weeks, now faces accusations that it made “materially false and misleading statements” about the Firestone home explosion that defrauded investors out of money.
An investor named Robert Edgar filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Anadarko Petroleum Company, its CEO, president and chairman, R.A. Walker, and its CFO, Robert Gwin earlier this month in federal court in Texas. Anadarko is based in The Woodlands, Texas—a Houston suburb. Continue reading
DA: Denver PD ‘careless’ in responding to union’s open records request, but no charges filed
DENVER – Denver District Attorney Beth McCann won’t file charges against the Denver Police Department’s chief or deputy chief after the department allegedly violated the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) when it initially kept secret a letter from the former district attorney concerning a controversial arrest last year.
McCann’s decision comes after a months-long investigation by Denver7 Investigates into the letter, which was obtained by the investigative team in January.
In the letter, then-District Attorney Mitch Morrissey wrote to Police Chief Robert White about his concerns over an investigation into an alleged rape committed by a DPD officer and another woman who were arrested but never charged.
In the letter, Morrissey took issue with DPD Deputy Chief Matthew Murray’s discretion and actions during the investigation, particularly with Murray’s decision to “rush to judgment” in arresting the people involved in the case, and bypassing what Morrissey says were long-engrained rules about consulting with the district attorney’s office about “serious investigations.”
Though White responded with a two-sentence letter to Morrissey in June 2016—a month after Morrissey originally sent the letter.
The Denver Police Department’s rank-and-file union, the Denver Police Protective Association (DPPA) had made formal CORA requests to DPD on December 28 of last year and Jan. 3 of this year for Morrissey’s letter and White’s response, but didn’t receive Morrissey’s letter to the department until Jan. 30—more than a month after the original request, days after Denver7 asked police about the letters and the records denials.
By then, DPPA had already received both Morrissey and White’s letters from the district attorney’s office three weeks earlier via a separate CORA request.
“They lied and said that the letter didn’t exist, that there were no records responsive to our request,” union president Nick Rogers told Denver7 Investigates in January. “It was nothing but an out-and-out lie.”
In March, McCann’s office opened an investigation as to whether DPD violated CORA laws, and Denver’s Department of Public Safety opened an independent investigation into both the original case and the open records spat.
Now that the district attorney’s decision has been made, the city’s investigation will continue.
“We have engaged a third party to handle the administrative investigation into this matter,” said Denver Department of Public Safety Communications Director Daelene Mix. “Now that the District Attorney’s office has concluded its work, we will advance the findings to the third party and the administrative investigation will commence.”
First Amendment attorney Steve Zansberg said DPD’s open records denials raised “significant suspicion” when he talked to Denver7 Investigates about the case in March.
“It raises significant suspicion that they were unable to find a letter until you told them you had a copy of it,” Zansberg told Denver7’s chief investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski.
But McCann said Thursday that there was not “sufficient evidence…to find a knowing and willful violation of CORA beyond a reasonable doubt.”
She did not fully exonerate White and Murray’s handling of the records, however, despite saying no one will face charges.
“The CORA requests in question were handled carelessly by DPD, particularly by Chief White and Deputy Chief Murray,” McCann said. “The public has the right to expect a quick and thoughtful response to CORA requests by city officials, particularly by its police leadership.”
She also urged the Denver Department of Safety and DPD to “examine and improve” its process for responding to CORA requests.
“These requests provide the public with important access to government documents. Immediate and thorough responses are critical to provide transparency and accountability in government operations,” McCann said.
Denver sergeant accused of revealing trafficking victim’s name joins Brauchler’s trafficking unit
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. – A Denver Police Department sergeant who had previously been named in a lawsuit as having identified the victim of a child sex trafficking case in a film will join the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office’s special human trafficking team.
District Attorney George Brauchler announced Daniel Steele’s hiring as a criminal investigator in the office’s human trafficking team Wednesday.
Steele, most-recently a sergeant working for the Denver Police Department’s Special Investigations Division, has worked in law enforcement for more than 22 years and is widely considered an expert in combatting sex trafficking.
He was one of the investigators who helped found the Rock Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force and supervised it for five years.
But he was also named in a lawsuit filed late last year, in which he was accused of disclosing personal details, including the name and photograph, of a child sex trafficking victim from Denver in a movie that ran on Netflix called “Tricked.”
Though he was not a defendant in the lawsuit, Steele’s actions were the crux of it. The defendant in the suit, film company Three Generations Inc., settled for an undisclosed amount with the plaintiff in February.
Brauchler’s human trafficking unit was founded after his office received funding from the four counties his district represents in 2015.
“These cases are frequently difficult to prosecute,” said Brauchler. “Victims can be reluctant to testify, and witnesses frequently come from troubled backgrounds and tough circumstances. Our team understands the complexities and works to hold traffickers accountable and help vulnerable victims. I’m pleased to be able to add Dan Steele’s expertise to our efforts.”
CBO: GOP’s AHCA leaves 23M fewer insured; dangerous risk for those with preexisting conditions
WASHINGTON – The House-passed GOP health care bill would leave 23 million fewer people insured by 2026 than would have been under Obamacare, and costs could soar for older Americans and people with pre-existing medical conditions in some states, according to new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday.
House Republicans forced a vote on the revised American Health Care Act late last month before the CBO could re-score the bill with its added amendments. It passed by a 217-213 vote. Continue reading
Colorado Springs Airport to be used to test new TSA screening procedures for large electronics
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will use the Colorado Springs Airport to test new screening procedures aimed at combating new terror threats at airports.
TSA announced Tuesday that it will test the new procedures, which will force passengers to screen electronics bigger than a cell phone in their own separate bins, at 10 airports across the country over the next few months.
The new procedures come as U.S. authorities warn that terrorists may be working to place explosives inside of laptop computers—information that has led to laptops being banned on all flights from Middle Eastern airlines, and to a laptop ban being considered on European airlines.
It’s also the same information that President Donald Trump allegedly discussed with two Russian officials.
TSA says it will test the new protocols at airports in Boise, Colorado Springs, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, Los Angeles, Lubbock, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
“At these airports, travelers will be asked to place electronics larger than a cell phone in a bin separately for X-ray screening,” the agency said in a statement. “TSA officers may also advise travelers to place other carry-on items separately in a bin. Although, passengers may experience more bag checks, we are testing quicker and more targeted procedures at these locations.
TSA says that separating the large electronics will agents to get a clearer picture of the devices to be sure they aren’t suspicious. The agency says that the plan has the potential to be rolled out nationwide later this year.
Colorado set to use marijuana money to implement opioid treatment program in worst-hit counties
UPDATE: The governor signed this bill into law on Wednesday, a day after this story was originally published.
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DENVER – Colorado is set to use a half-million dollars of its marijuana sales money each year for at least the next two years to implement an opioid addiction treatment program for two of the state’s counties hit hardest by the surging opioid crisis. Continue reading
Colorado to start fining people caught ‘rolling coal’: what you need to know
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is set this week to sign a bill that will up the fines for so-called “coal rollers” who use modified diesel trucks to smoke out unwitting bystanders.
But what exactly is “rolling coal,” and why did Colorado’s Legislature spend time on two separate bills this session to punish those who do it?
What is coal rolling?
“Coal rolling” has roots in diesel truck pulls, competitions in which drivers modify their diesel engines to pull sleds or other trailers loaded with weight.
But in recent years, people have started to modify their trucks with switches or other fuel or computer modifications that allow more fuel into the engine, creating more diesel exhaust.
The thick clouds of black smoke are evident to those who have seen them, as they are much larger and thicker than a typical diesel exhaust.
Some online retailers started selling kits for people to easily modify their trucks, though regulators have cracked down on them in recent years. But many environmental activists say that the fad is polluting the atmosphere, and others who have been choked by the excess exhaust say it’s simply a nuisance.
Colorado’s past tries at outlawing rolling coal fail
Hickenlooper told the Denver Post he plans to sign Senate Bill 278, saying Colorado would be “well to be rid” of the “cruel” practice.
But SB 278 is the first bill upping the fines for coal rolling that has passed in Colorado after several attempts.
House Bill 1102, which similarly would have added fines to those caught rolling coal, died in the Senate earlier in the session.
In the 2016 session, Larimer County Democrat Rep. Joann Ginal introduced a bill that would have hit people caught rolling coal with a $35 fine and points against their license, but it died before reaching the governor’s desk.
What does Senate Bill 278 do?
But Ginal’s final attempt this session succeeded. She and Sen. Don Coram, a southwest Colorado Republican, cosponsored Senate Bill 278 after House Bill 1102 failed over concerns involving work and agricultural trucks.
The final version calls for a $100 fine for anyone caught rolling coal in a vehicle under 14,000 pounds, but carries exclusions for commercial vehicles and carriers, agricultural vehicles and other commercial vehicles and motor carriers.
Cyclists and police were among those who have voiced concerns about being hit by “coal rollers.”
Fort Collins police in past years have said they were responding to more complaints of coal rolling, and the New York Times reported last year that the state had seen a 5 percent increase in complaints.
What have feds, other states done?
The EPA has said that the modifications being done to diesel trucks violated the Clear Air Act, which has caused some manufacturers of the kits, as well as auto shops, to stop selling the kits or performing the modifications.
But it hasn’t stopped everyone, as police departments say it is a hard rule to enforce in certain situations.
New Jersey banned rolling coal in 2015 (it now could lead to a fine of up to $5,000), and both Maryland and Illinois have introduced bills to put a stop to the practice.
Illinois’ bill has yet to become law, while Maryland’s sits on the governor’s desk, awaiting a signature.
But should Hickenlooper sign the bill this week, Colorado’s law would be just the second of its kind in the U.S.
3 Colorado district attorneys join U.S. prosecutors in opposition to Sessions’ maximum sentence memo
DENVER – Three of Colorado’s district attorneys are among dozens of local and state prosecutors from across the country who have signed on to a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussing their concerns over a new directive calling for maximum sentences for low-level offenders.
Last week, Sessions sent a memo to U.S. attorneys requiring them to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” that alleged criminals are accused of, and to pursue cases that “carry the most substantial guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences.”
His directive immediately set off a storm in the criminal justice world, as it stands in direct contradiction of Obama-era policies aimed at reducing prison populations by exonerating low-level drug offenders. Some said Sessions was trying to bring the U.S. back to the “war on drugs” policies of the Reagan and George W. Bush presidencies.
Sessions had said numerous times as a U.S. senator that getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences harmed law enforcement efforts, which defense attorneys and other members of Congress disagreed with.
But Friday, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, Breckenridge District Attorney Bruce Brown and Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett signed on to the letter opposing Sessions’ directives, along with 28 other current or former district attorneys, city attorneys and attorneys general.
They wrote that the directive “marks an unnecessary and unfortunate return to past ‘tough on crime’ practices that we now know simply don’t enhance or promote the safety of our communities.”
“There is no empirical evidence to suggest that increases in sentences, particularly for low-level offenses, decrease the crime rate,” they wrote, adding that the idea that long-term sentences served as a deterrent for future criminal action was “questionable at best.”
The letter says that not only will there be “definitive and significant” actual costs to imprisoning more people, the “reinvigorated…failed ‘war on drugs’” would have a “human cost as well.”
“Instead of providing people who commit low-level drug offenses or who are struggling with mental illness with treatment, support and rehabilitation programs, the policy will subject them to decades of incarceration,” the letter says.
The prosecutors also pointed out that a February paper by Law Enforcement Leaders says that officers “need not use arrest, conviction and prison as the default response for every broken law.”
The prosecutors wrote that they would continue to use “innovative approaches” to prosecuting crimes in their respective jurisdictions.
“It is through these priorities that prosecutors can best advance public safety and fortify trust in the legitimacy of our criminal justice system,” they wrote.
Sessions’ directive puts no exact timeline in place for the changes to happen. A bipartisan group of congressmen have introduced a bill seeking to counteract Sessions’ directive.