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Colorado News Miner: April 13, 2025

Proxy Voting for New Parents: Colorado Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who recently gave birth to her second child, has been pushing Congress to allow proxy voting for new parents. This is obviously a good idea, yet House Speaker Mike Johnson has opposed the move. Even Donald Trump endorsed proxy voting. The New York Times reports: "A majority of House members backed changing the rules to allow new parents to vote remotely. But in a Congress dominated by far-right Republicans, parental leave was a bridge too far." CPR reports updates about the failed proposal. Try to remember Republicans compose the "pro-family party."

Vacancy Committees: Seth Klamann: "House Bill 1315 would allow lawmakers appointed via a vacancy committee to serve no more than a full session in the Capitol before standing for an election, while House Bill 1319 would enact similar election parameters for vacancy-appointed commissioners in large counties." I don't think this is a good idea. For starters, sometimes it requires a special odd-year election, which costs money. It also fails to address the fundamental problem that vacancy committees are defined in terms of parties. I much prefer my alternative proposal: Require a candidate to publicly announce, by individual names, the vacancy committee.

Deportation: The United States has sent Nixon Azuaje-Perez of Venezuela to the torture prison in El Salvador. "Advocates dispute the gang ties of Azuaje-Perez and some of the other detained men," the Denver Post reports. Where's the due process? Sending people never convicted of any crime to a horrific foreign prison is grotesquely immoral. In a functional country Trump would be impeached and removed from office over this.

Deportation II: Denverite: "Attorneys for Jeanette Vizguerra are now arguing that she is being unfairly targeted for deportation by government agents frustrated by their inability to remove her from the U.S." What has Vizguerra ever done to hurt anyone? She once had a fake Social Security card, but I haven't heard any evidence that she used this card to try to defraud anyone. I suspect she used it to work. What are we doing here, people?

'Libertarian' Polis on Liquor: Jesse Paul: "Polis signed a bill Thursday that halts the expansion of hard liquor sales in grocery and big-box stores."

'Libertarian' Polis on Guns: Jesse Paul: "Polis . . . signed into law one of the most restrictive gun regulations ever adopted in Colorado." Senate Bill 3 bans most semiautomatic guns for civilians, unless someone gets permission from the government and takes a class. Dave Kopel and Matt Larosiere write: "Legislators and the public should understand that the bill would apply to all semiautomatic centerfire handguns. The kinds of handguns that Coloradans typically choose—from companies such as Glock, Ruger, or Smith & Wesson—would become much more onerous to purchase."

Gun Taxes: Sherrie Peif: Various parties have joined a suit "to halt a new state excise tax on guns and ammunition."

Tariffs: Ernest Luning: "U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd . . . is sponsoring legislation amid President Donald Trump's rapidly shifting trade war to set guardrails around the president's ability to impose tariffs unilaterally."

Subsidizing Gender-Affirming Care: Bill 1309 would expand legal requirements that insurance companies cover gender-affirming care. What this does is force people who do not need such care to pay for the care of people who want it. This is comparable to a tax, only the legislature doesn't wish to accept responsibility for directly raising and spending the funds. If you want to know why the costs of health insurance are consuming your family's finances, such mandates are a big part of the reason.

Non-Carbon Electricity: Can Colorado phase out carbon-based electricity generation by 2040? I doubt it, but Jared Polis wants to push the state to try. The only thing that makes this remotely feasible is the falling price of solar panels. But solar requires battery backup. Geothermal and nuclear plants remain possibilities, but I don't think those are ready. Regardless, promising future changes, once the current crop of politicians is out of office, is not too impressive.

School Library Books: The legislature wants to put up some guardrails regarding when books can be removed from school libraries. CPR reports about 19 books removed in the Elizabeth School District, "A judge ordered the books returned last month, but the school board is refusing to do so." In a recent conversation with Jon Caldara, Elizabeth superintendent Dan Snowberger defended his district's policies. My general position is that we should not infantilize children and generally it's good if children read more books, even ones with difficult themes and content. At the same time, money is limited, and schools should spend their scarce resources to best support their students. There's a big difference between declining to buy some book and removing a book a school already has purchased!

Charter Schools: Chalkbeat: Even as public-school enrollment is declining in Colorado, enrollment in charter schools is up.

DEI in Schools: Melanie Asmar: "Colorado will refuse a demand from the Trump administration to certify that its schools have eliminated what the federal government says are illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, state Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova said." Good for her. Although sometimes an anti-American, race-obsessed perspective sneaks through under the guise of DEI, in general it is a good thing for schools to seek to include all students and to teach unpleasant aspects of American history.

Preschool Rules: Ann Schimke: "Colorado officials are again putting off rules meant to ensure the state's universal preschool program . . . offers high-quality classes. The latest delay . . . represents the third time the rules have been postponed and means new requirements on class size, curriculum, and teacher training won't start phasing in until July 2026." State involvement in preschool funding has been a disaster from the outset. If legislators wanted to further help less-wealthy parents of preschoolers, they should have just transferred more funds to them. As anyone could have predicted, state funding of nominally "private" preschools means the state substantially controls those preschools.

Dyslexia: Some legislators want to screen all elementary kids in public schools for dyslexia.

Creationists: Christian Home Educators of Colorado has a "position statement concerning creation" on its web site. CHEC claims: "The world did not evolve over a period of millions or billions of years, but rather GOD created everything functionally mature. . . . When the Bible says that GOD created the heavens and the earth in six days, we believe these were six, twenty-four hour days (Exodus 20:11.) . . . [W]e believe GOD did not use any evolutionary mechanisms in the origins of the various species, but rather GOD created specific kinds with the ability to vary within the kind." This is just spectacular ignorance masquerading as "education."

Birchers: Logan Davis: "In 2022, high-profile Colorado Republicans like gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, U.S. Senate candidate Deborah Flora, and state Senator Mark Baisley attended an event hosted by the" John Birch Society. Stupid is as stupid does. (But it seems Davis has not spent much time wondering why public-school test scores are so bad.)

Worldschooling: A Colorado family spent a year "worldschooling" (homeschooling) their children while traveling the world. Good Morning America carried the story.

TABOR: Colorado Politics: "Democratic lawmakers prepare to sue over constitutionality of Colorado's TABOR." Sigh.

Butterflies: Science: "The authors found declines in overall butterfly abundance over the past 20 years across almost all major regions. Two-thirds of studied species showed declines of more than 10%. Many insects have the potential for rapid population growth and recovery, but habitat restoration, species-specific interventions, and reducing pesticide use are all likely needed to curb population declines."

Birds: Axios: "Birds that call Colorado's high plains and deserts home are in serious decline, according to a sweeping new conservation report."

Odd News Scrub: Jason Salzman and Erik Maulbetsch: "Five news outlets have quietly removed a years-old news story from their websites about the 2019 arrest of a prominent former Colorado Springs City Council member, who ran in a Republican primary for a state House seat in 2023." Apparently a judge sealed the records.

White Supremacist: A student group at Colorado Mesa University invited an outright white supremacist to speak on campus. CPR has the story.

Political Cushion: Sherrie Peif: "Biden appointee makes $360K soft landing at University of Colorado." Rob Natelson is not amused.

Coalition against Records Discrimination: Jon Caldara and Jason Salzman, sorta-kinda my two bosses, joined forces to oppose a bill that would make it harder to obtain government records, unless you're a member of the favored journalism category. Via Corey Hutchins.

House Insurance: The state is getting into the house insurance business, albeit in a limited way. I think this is a bad idea, and largely it is a subsidy for wealthy people who build swanky houses in fire zones.

House Insurance Fees: Noelle Phillips: House Bill 1302 would impose a one-percent fee on house insurance to pay for state programs "to pay for a reinsurance program to help offset insurers' wildfire losses" and "to manage a grant program to help homeowners buy hail-resistant roofs." And "House Bill 1182, would regulate how property insurance companies use computer models to predict risk and then use that information to set rates." This will immediately raise insurance costs and, I suspect, will further bog down insurance companies in bureaucratic red tape, further increasing costs or reducing the quality of service. The state's main responsibility here is to mitigate wildfire risks on state-owned land.

CBI Turmoil: Noelle Phillips: "A judge overturned the conviction in a 1994 Boulder murder case Friday because of flawed DNA testing by disgraced Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne 'Missy' Woods." Victims of crimes deserve far better than what they're getting from the CBI. And now legislators will spread CBI resources even thinner with its onerous gun bill.

State Patrol Theft: Colorado Sun: "600 pounds of marijuana stolen from Colorado State Patrol evidence storage lot." Really fills you with confidence, doesn't it?

Police Arrest Burglars: On the plus side, police arrested "Columbian nationals" accused of burglarizing 21 Aurora homes. Good!

Fossil Discoveries: New fossil discoveries involving Colorado-based scientists and Colorado sites add more evidence that the asteroid collision, not volcanic activity, drove the (non-avian) dinosaurs to extinction.

Transgender: 5280: "For decades, thousands of people came to Trinidad, Colorado, to have gender confirmation surgery done by Dr. Stanley Biber."

Flavored Tobacco Ban Bucking: Spencer Soicher: "Denver's new ban on flavored tobacco products officially took effect . . . but retailers across the city are openly defying the law by keeping products on their shelves. The city has been delaying enforcement for months." It's a stupid ban.

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