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TexasTowelie's JournalColorado web designer who didn't want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples loses
Colorado web designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples loses challenge to anti-discrimination lawA U.S. appeals court has ruled against a web designer who didn’t want to create wedding websites for same-sex couples and sued to challenge Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, another twist in a series of court rulings nationwide about whether businesses denying services to LGBTQ people amounts to bias or freedom of speech.
A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Monday denied Lorie Smith’s attempt to overturn a lower court ruling throwing out her legal challenge.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Smith, argued that the law forced her to violate her Christian beliefs.
In the 2-1 ruling, the panel said Colorado had a compelling interest in protecting the “dignity interests” of members of marginalized groups through its law.
Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2021/07/27/lorie-smith-wedding-websites-lgbtq-loses-appeal/
Billionaire Phil Anschutz and his wife are suing Colorado for a tax refund. How much they want is a
Billionaire Phil Anschutz and his wife are suing Colorado for a tax refund. How much they want is a secret.Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz and his wife, Nancy, are suing the Colorado Department of Revenue for a tax refund in a case that could have big financial consequences for the state.
The couple argue that due to changes to federal tax law made as part of Congress’ 2020 pandemic response bill, the CARES Act, Colorado’s tax law was changed as well, allowing him and his wife to claim a refund on their 2018 state income tax bill.
But lawyers with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the Department of Revenue in the case, argue the Anschutzes are pushing an unreasonable interpretation of Colorado’s tax laws, and are asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. The state’s lawyers also argue that if the court sides with the Anschutzes, it could sow fiscal chaos in how the state collects and refunds tax revenue.
Both the Colorado Department of Revenue and the Colorado Attorney General’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation. Lawyers for the Anschutzes did not respond to requests for comment.
Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2021/07/14/anschutz-tax-lawsuit/
Adams County adopts new oil and gas regulations that critics say will effectively ban drilling
The Adams County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 to adopt new oil and gas regulations at a public hearing on Tuesday, making the county one of the first in Colorado to revise its policies since new statewide regulations took effect in January.
The regulations increase setback distances for new drilling to 2,000 feet from homes, schools, daycares, environmentally sensitive areas, and parks and open spaces. They also expand the definition of environmentally sensitive areas and require closer monitoring of nuisance impacts.
The oil and gas industry says the new regulations effectively ban drilling in the county, while county commissioners argue the changes were necessary to address the growing concern over air quality and pollution.
“Frankly, the time is now. We are looking at the longest streak of poor air quality in the Denver metro in a number of years,” said Adams County Commissioner Emma Pinter. “There is widespread concern in the community, both about climate change, air quality, air pollution, water pollution, all the things that are really centered around these regulations. This is the best that we can do at this time.”
Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2021/07/28/adams-county-drilling-regulations/
Two more hospital systems in Colorado will require workers to get vaccinated against coronavirus
Two more major health systems announced Wednesday that they will require their employees to be vaccinated against coronavirus by the fall.
UCHealth, which operates the University of Colorado Hospital and 11 others, will require staff to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1. Denver Health will require its employees to be vaccinated by Nov. 1. UCHealth has about 24,000 employees.
“After fighting COVID-19 for more than a year, and as the dangerous delta variant has become the dominant strain in Colorado and elsewhere, it is clear that vaccination against this disease is essential to protect our employees, along with our patients and visitors,” Elizabeth Concordia, president and CEO of UCHealth, said in a statement. “We know that vaccination will also improve health and safety within the communities UCHealth serves, and we want to set an example and help bring an end to this pandemic.”
The move comes a little more than a week after Arizona-based Banner Health, which operates four hospitals in Colorado, announced a vaccine mandate for its staff by Nov. 1.
Read more: https://coloradosun.com/2021/07/28/uchealth-denver-health-covid-vaccine-requirements-employees/
Amache national historic site bill passes U.S. House, heads to Senate
Camp Amache, a Japanese American incarceration camp that imprisoned over 7,000 in southeast Colorado, took one step closer to becoming a national park Thursday.
The Amache National Historic Site Act, a bipartisan effort to preserve and learn from the legacy of the notorious incarceration camp, was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. The bill will now go on to the Senate, where its sponsors hope for swift passage.
The bill was led by Colorado's Reps. Joe Neguse and Ken Buck, who introduced the bill three months ago.
"Our nation is better today because of the lessons we have learned from our past," Buck said. "The Amache National Historic Site Act is important because it recognizes the horrible injustices committed against Japanese Americans and preserves the site for people throughout Colorado and the United States."
Read more: https://gazette.com/news/local/amache-national-historic-site-bill-passes-u-s-house-heads-to-senate/article_b4d52970-f0c1-11eb-bfdd-5371f5706df4.html
(Colorado Springs Gazette)
Police Reform is Working in Colorado
In June 2020, Democrats in the state legislature pushed through new police reform measures aimed at increasing transparency and accountability for law enforcement. That legislation was prompted, in part, by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Elijah McClain in Aurora, Colorado. The bill in the legislature was followed by policy changes in some municipalities, including Aurora.
This week, a graphic new case of police brutality in Aurora is putting those reforms to the test…and so far, they seem to be working.
As Fox 31 News reports:
…Body-camera video from the incident has already been made public. It’s an action Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, is praising.
“The body camera footage was released right away,” Herod said. “That shows that our law is working, and it is quite frankly doing more than I thought it would be doing, which is changing the culture in some of these departments.”
Westword has more on Tuesday’s release of body-camera footage from last week’s arrest of Kyle Vinson:
In the video, Vinson is choked, pistol-whipped and more by Haubert, gasping out repeated cries of “Help!,” “Don’t shoot me!” and “I can’t breathe!”
Read more: https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/161478/police-reform-is-working-in-colorado
So Much For "Needle Nazis"-Who's Going Door To Door Now?
As The Dispatch in York, Pennsylvania reports, local police are on alert for activists going door to door as part of a so-called “Election Integrity Project,” approaching voters to question them about how they voted in 2020 and who they voted for:
“There is an intimidation factor, and that’s what their intent is,” said Chad Baker, chair of the Democratic Party of York County. “The timing of this doesn’t seem suspect given the recent request of the audit by Sen. Mastriano.”
The individuals claiming to be a part of the committee seem to be targeting Democrats in an attempt to seek out voter fraud, a baseless claim that has cemented itself as a rallying cry for supporters of former President Donald Trump, Baker said.
Despite the thorough process of counting, auditing, and in several swing state recounting the 2020 vote which found no irregularities on a scale that could change the outcome of the election, Republicans continue to pursue baseless theories of election fraud in multiple states. In Arizona, the GOP-controlled State Senate authorized an open-ended fishing expedition by a dubious private contractor which months later has produced nothing but easily-debunked misinformation. Undeterred, other states with dead-ender Trump contingents holding the power to do so are preparing their own so-called audits, because, well, they can.
Going from endlessly recounting the same ballots over and over to accosting Democratic voters in their homes about their vote, however, represents a significant and disturbing escalation–not to mention hypocritical after Republicans lost their minds over misinformation regarding door to door promotion of COVID vaccines. In Pennsylvania, voters targeted were confused, perhaps by design, about whether the “election integrity committee” they claim to work for was in some way official.
Read more: https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/161554/so-much-for-needle-nazis-whos-going-door-to-door-now
Hugely Popular Paid Leave Program Makes Up Most of Heidi Ganahl's Favorite 'Whopping' Public
Hugely Popular Paid Leave Program Makes Up Most of Heidi Ganahl’s Favorite ‘Whopping’ Public Spending Amount“1.8 Billion!”
University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, the only Republican elected to a statewide office in Colorado and a rumored 2022 governor candidate, has been metaphorically shouting that figure from the rooftops recently.
In recent newspaper columns, Ganahl has repeatedly cited a report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI), a business-oriented research organization in Denver, that tallied the cost of new taxes and fees resulting from state policy changes over the last few years on individuals and businesses.
The report, titled “Colorado’s Competitiveness: The Challenge of Economic Recovery Under More than $1.8 Billion in New Regulations, Taxes and Fees,” adds up fiscal notes for a wide variety of ballot measures and laws passed since 2018, including measures related to affordable housing, health care, and, notably, the paid family and medical leave program that Colorado voters approved in 2020.
In a column penned for the Colorado Springs Gazette earlier this month titled “Colorado Drops Out of the Jobs Race,” Ganahl writes that “every onerous regulation comes with a cost — lost jobs, more red tape and money taken from the family budget. The costs are taking a toll. In fact, earlier this year, Common Sense Institute estimated the cumulative cost of new taxes and fees will reach a whopping $1.8 billion in the next three to five years.”
Read more: https://www.coloradopols.com/diary/161559/hugely-popular-paid-leave-program-makes-up-most-of-heidi-ganahls-favorite-whopping-public-spending-amount#more-161559
More than half of aspiring Colorado elementary teachers fail licensure exam on first try
More than half of prospective elementary teachers in Colorado fail their licensure exams on the first try, and of those who fail, 40% don’t try again, according to new data from the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Only 46% of state elementary teacher candidates pass their exam on the first try, similar to the national average.
Teacher candidates of color are more likely to fail on a first attempt than their white counterparts — and slightly more likely to not try again, derailing those students’ aspirations, and hindering efforts to build a more diverse teacher workforce that would benefit all students.
For example, at the University of Northern Colorado, the state’s largest teacher prep program, 45% of elementary test-takers passed on their first try, compared with 33% of test-takers of color at the school.
Read more: https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/07/26/report-more-than-half-of-aspiring-colorado-elementary-teachers-fail-licensure-exam-on-first-try/
Literacy rates are falling, and Democrats could lose big
Twenty-five years ago Republicans were more educated than Democrats.
Today, the inverse is true.
The education gap is readily apparent. Facts have become partisan, and Republicans have tossed whole science books out the window. It’s a strategy that appears ill-considered at first glance — after all, what good is letting a virus ransack your base?
But what if it’s not unintended, and Republicans are merely catering to a long-term dwindling literacy rate?
According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of Americans ages 16 to 74 now rank below a sixth grade reading level. The youngest generations are showing further declines, and numeracy scores are similarly dismal. If America continues at this pace, and power is your only goal, solidifying your base among the poorly educated might actually make a lot of sense — consequences be damned.
Certainly, the practiced con man and former President Donald Trump knew exactly who he was targeting. He didn’t even try to hide it, at one point outright exclaiming, “I love the poorly educated.” Scholars also noted he consistently spoke below a sixth grade level — a sharp contrast to his predecessor and the lowest of all presidents to date.
Read more: https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/07/28/literacy-rates-are-falling-and-democrats-could-lose-big/
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
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