Politics
Woman convicted of forging ballot signatures for Senate candidate sentenced to probation
DENVER – The Colorado signature collector who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of forgery last November for turning in dozens of forged signatures on a petition for a U.S. Senate candidate was sentenced to probation and community service Friday in Denver.
Maureen Moss, 45, will be on probation for four years and will have to perform 250 hours of community service, a Denver District Court judge ruled Friday morning.
Moss was originally charged with 34 felony forgery counts after Denver7 uncovered 10 forged signatures and investigators at district attorney’s offices in Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties confirmed there were 24 further instances.
The forged signatures were all put on a petition drive to get Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser on June’s primary election ballot. He made the primary ballot, but took fourth in the primary, which was won by Darryl Glenn.
Court documents also revealed that Moss had an extensive criminal history regarding fraudulent and forged credit card usage.
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Thousands expected at Women’s March on Denver Saturday; some Coloradans head to D.C. march
DENVER – Thousands of people are expected to take part in the Women’s March on Denver this Saturday in a local event that mirrors a larger march scheduled in Washington D.C. and other cities across the country.
The national women’s march was organized as a quasi-protest to follow President-Elect Donald Trump’s inauguration after Trump made lewd comments about grabbing women came to light during the campaign.
But the organizers for the Women’s March on Denver say their event is not only about women’s rights, but also an effort to support all human rights, minorities and other marginalized communities.
Organizers Jessica Rogers, Cheetah McClellan and Karen Hinkel told Denver7 Wednesday that the event “is sponsored by women for everyone” and that they hope to give women from across the west a platform to express themselves.
Rogers and McClellan both stressed that the march was not a protest and “not against anything,” saying the event plans more of a focus on propping up and empowering women and other marginalized people, as well as focusing on progressive social issues.
“We hope the march helps inspire women and all participants to take action and do whatever they can to participate in our democracy,” McClellan said.
There are also marches planned in Aspen, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Durango, Grand Junction and Steamboat Springs.
More than a dozen women, including state legislators, city council members, educators, human rights advocates and other professionals plan to speak during the march, which will start and end at Civic Center Park.
Denver’s march begins Saturday at 9:30 a.m., and the rally starts at 11:15 a.m. The event is set to run through 3 p.m.
SOME COLORADANS HEADED TO WASHINGTON FOR MARCH
The march in Washington, D.C. is expected to draw tens of thousands of people.
Among those from Colorado attending the Washington, D.C., march will be Boulder resident Lilavati Sinclair.
“What we’re there for is to say we are a large constituency, we are a large body of women who are alert, awake and willing to what it takes to defend the rights we already have — protect them going forward and to keep fighting for the ones that have historically been of issue for women,” she said.
Sinclair won’t be alone. Her daughters will also be attending.
“I don’t want to be Pollyannaish and say, ‘Oh, yes, you know, all of us going out there, we’re automatically going to heal all of the divisive speech that has gone on.’ But I do think that there’s a potential of people to bind together and say, this is a time to respect our differences,” said her oldest daughter, Chenoah.
For more information on the Women’s March on Denver, click here.
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Colorado lawmakers again trying to repeal ban on large-capacity magazines for guns
DENVER – Two bills introduced in the Colorado Legislature aim to again allow high-capacity magazines in the state and to eliminate a state ban on so-called “gravity knives” and switchblades.
Senate Bill 7, which is sponsored by Sen. Vicki Marble, Rep. Stephen Humphrey and Rep. Lori Saine – all Republicans – would eliminate a section of state statute that bars “large-capacity magazines.”
Statute written in 2013 banned any weapon magazine that could hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition, and in the case of shotguns, any magazine that could hold more than 28 inches of shells. It also banned any magazine that could hold more than eight shotgun shells when combined with a fixed magazine.
The statute also banned the possession, sale or transfer of any large-capacity magazines after July 1, 2013, and required any person in possession of or manufacturer who was making such magazines at the time to have a stamp or marking noting it was made after that date.
The bill, which was assigned to the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, would repeal that entire section of state statute.
The bill also contains a so-called “safety clause” that declares that the Legislature finds the bill “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety.”
The Senate voted to repeal the magazine limit last year, but that bill died before reaching the governor’s desk.
The issue has gone to court several times since Gov. Hickenlooper first signed the high-capacity magazine ban in 2013 but has never been overturned.
OTHER BILL WOULD ALLOW ‘GRAVITY KNIVES’ AND SWITCHBLADES
Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Sen. Owen Hill, R-El Paso, and Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Adams, would repeal portions of state statute that ban gravity knives and switchblades.
Gravity knives are currently defined as “any knife that has a blade released from the handle or sheath thereof by the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force.” Switchblades are defined as “any knife, the blade of which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, springs, or other device in its handle.”
The proposed bill would remove those two types of weapons from a section detailing the possession of “a dangerous or illegal weapon,” but would leave in place bans on metallic knuckles, blackjacks and gas guns.
CDOT auditor fired at end of December over possible credit card misuse
DENVER – The Colorado Department of Transportation’s director of audits was fired at the end of December amid an ongoing investigation into his use of a state-owned credit card.
CDOT Communications Director Amy Ford confirmed Chris Wedor was fired Dec. 29. He was hired in April 2016, Ford said.
“We were going through reviews and discovered irregularities,” Ford told Denver7. “When we discovered them, we immediately forwarded the investigation to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and terminated Chris Wedor.”
Ford said she could not provide further details since the case is still active with CBI.
The Associated Press reports that Wedor’s job paid $112,000 each year.
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Denver law group suing DEA over its blanket classification of cannabinoids
DENVER – A Denver-based law firm specializing in cannabis law is suing the Drug Enforcement Agency over its December announcement that it would be applying a Schedule-I classification to extracts with any cannabinoids derived from the cannabis plant.
The Hoban Law Group filed the lawsuit Jan. 13 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in California, on behalf of three of its clients: the Hemp Industries Association, RMH Holdings, LLC and Centuria Natural Foods, Inc. Continue reading
Proposal to fix K-12 funding shortfall calls for higher pot tax, less in senior property tax breaks
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper wants the state Legislature to cut a property tax exemption for senior homeowners and to increase the state special sales tax on marijuana for the upcoming fiscal year in order to bridge a state budget gap that hits K-12 education the hardest.
The request, made by the governor and the Office of State Planning and Budgeting and submitted Tuesday to the Joint Budget Committee, seeks to address a projected $106.2 million shortfall in the budget first submitted last November. Continue reading
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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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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