demmiblue
demmiblue's JournalColorado Gov. Jared Polis commutes Tina Peters' prison sentence
The former Republican Mesa County Clerk was serving a nearly nine-year sentence for her role in allowing unauthorized access to her county's election equipment in an attempt to uncover election fraud.
Polis commuted her sentence to four-and-a-half years and said she would be eligible for parole next month. Before Polis' commutation, Peters' earliest parole date would have been March 2028.
Peters has been at La Vista Correctional Facility since April 16, 2025. She served six months in Mesa County jail before that. She has served about 17 months so far.
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/local-politics/jared-polis-tina-peters-prison-sentence/73-a289e9ba-7cd0-47d0-8d68-bdabc3f87847
JFC.
Will just reiterate that in the many years I covered Polis closely, he never showed particular interest in the topic of over-sentencing, nor in criminal justice reform generally. This decision would read a lot differently if Polis had any sort of record as an advocate for clemency.
— Alex Burness (@burness.bsky.social) 2026-05-15T20:57:54.362Z
Week from hell now sees CBS anchor booted by hotel boss 'appalled' by China coverage
Dokoupil had already been forced to report on Trump's Beijing summit from Taipei — more than 1,000 miles away from where Trump and Chinese President Xi Jingping were meeting — after failing to secure a broadcast visa to enter mainland China. But according to Status, the setbacks didn't stop there.
A Status source that the hotel's manager that "was appalled" by the way which Dokoupil discussed Taiwan on air while Trump was sitting across from the Chinese president. The hotel subsequently barred him from using his room as a broadcast studio.
Dokoupil then moved his operation to Taipei's Liberty Square — and addressed the debacle directly on Thursday night's broadcast while reporting on the broader climate of fear surrounding China's territorial claims over that nation.
https://www.rawstory.com/cbs-dokoupil/
White House planned to start Triumphal Arch work under unrelated contract
Source: WaPo
The Trump administration planned to start work at the site of the president’s proposed Triumphal Arch by piggybacking on an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, emails obtained by The Washington Post show.
The move would allow the administration to bypass a potentially lengthy public bidding process, and experts said it was unusual because the arch site is on National Park Service land across the Potomac River and is not part of the White House complex.
Park Service acting director Jessica Bowron wrote to White House officials last month asking whether the agency could extend a contract between the White House and engineering firm AECOM Services for an environmental assessment for the proposed 250-foot arch.
In her email, Bowron acknowledged that the proposed arch isn’t adjacent to the White House like Lafayette Square, another site AECOM has worked on under the same agreement, but she wrote that using the existing contract would allow work to “align with the Administration’s timeline.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/05/14/trump-officials-okd-use-white-house-contract-begin-triumphal-arch-work
President Obama: "We pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out.
President Obama: “We pulled it off without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out. There’s no dispute that it worked and we didn’t have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz.â€
— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) 2026-05-13T23:04:24.998Z
“Because I did it.” Facts. 👏
Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies...
Speak your truth, fight and believe.
Feeling overwhelmed with all of this. LISTEN. Another Louisiana resident (Marshawn is the only name we have) testifies against the state’s racial gerrymander, speaking truth to power up and down the hearing room and predicts how this story will end.
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T01:02:24.743Z
Speak your truth, fight and believe.
Powerful!
BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing
HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of -- it's a battery
BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-13T15:05:00.011Z
HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of -- it's a battery
Private businessman Eric Trump and his wife Lara are accompanying the president as he departs for China:
private businessman Eric Trump and his wife Lara are accompanying the president as he departs for China
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-12T18:16:03.773Z
We are so screwed.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2026-05-12T22:55:26.215Z
Reflecting Pool Repairs to Cost $13.1 Million. Trump Had Promised $1.8 Million.
Source: NYT
President Trump said that his handpicked contractor would charge only $1.8 million to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint it blue.
The actual cost is now more than seven times that, after the Interior Department nearly doubled the size of the contract late last week, federal records show.
On Friday, the Interior Department added $6.2 million to the contract’s previous cost, saying it now planned to pay $13.1 million to a Virginia firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings. President Trump said he chose that company to repair the landmark because the firm had worked on the swimming pools at his golf club in Sterling, Va.
The government awarded that firm a no-bid contract last month, bypassing the requirement to seek competing offers by saying that the situation was so urgent that any delay would cause “serious injury” to the government. The government has not publicly said what that injury would have been.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/us/politics/reflecting-pool-paint-contract-trump.html
Trump hired a company that had previously worked on his private golf club for this job repainting the Reflecting Pool in DC.
— Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) 2026-05-11T21:19:11.310Z
The company was given a no-bid contract that, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times, included a 20 percent profit margin
Remember DOGE?
AIPAC pairs Haley Stevens with Republican in joint Senate fundraising email, attacks El-Sayed
Earlier this week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) launched the joint fundraising page, which urged donors to “Contribute to pro-Israel Candidates for U.S. Senate,” displaying Stevens and Collins together with preset donation amounts. The joint fundraiser was “paid for and authorized” by both candidates, according to AIPAC.
The fundraising campaign, which included an email blast, also attacked one of Stevens’s Democratic rivals, Abdul El-Sayed, the race’s most outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. He also was the only candidate endorsed by Track AIPAC, a grassroots group that documents and opposes the influence of AIPAC and pro-Israel political spending. The fundraiser accused El-Sayed and Graham Platner, the Democrat running against Collins in Maine, of “embracing extreme rhetoric,” pushing “false accusations of genocide,” and supporting cuts to aid for Israel.
“There is a coordinated, well-funded effort to punish anyone who stands with Israel and it’s gaining ground fast,” the email said. “It’s being driven by the far-left fringe of American politics, pushed by Bernie Sanders and amplified by voices like Hasan Piker, who are normalizing hostility toward Israel and turning it into a political weapon.”
https://www.metrotimes.com/news/politics-elections/aipac-pairs-haley-stevens-with-republican-in-joint-senate-fundraiser-attacks-el-sayed/
Sean Duffy on Fox & Friends this morning announced that he spent parts of *7 MONTHS* on a roadtrip.
oh my god -- Sean Duffy on Fox & Friends this morning announced that he spent parts of *7 MONTHS* (more than half a year!) on a roadtrip with his family to celebrate America's 250th anniversary
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-08T16:02:08.327Z
Pete Buttigieg took a brief leave when his son was in the ICU and Republicans still attack him for it to this day. But Duffy goes on an extended vacation to shoot a reality show while there are all sorts of pressing problems with air travel and Fox News thinks it's awesome. Beyond parody.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-08T16:15:40.595Z
O.M.G., a fucking reality show.
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