rssPosts by Becca Blond
Colorado bill to end insurance-industry gender discrimination advances
DENVER– Colorado members of the House overwhelming supported a bill that would mandate gender equity in the Colorado individual health insurance market. The bill passed by voice vote after just ten minutes of debate Wednesday, a remarkable feat in this contentious, budget strapped, elction year session. . The bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, and Rep Beth McCann, D-Denver, underwent a final perfunctory reading Thursday.
Validity of Bartkowicz pot bust to undergo first review
Colorado’s medical marijuana chronicles went federal this weekend when the state’s top drug cop, DEA special agent Jeff Sweetin, seemed to directly defy the Attorney General and the Obama administration by raiding a Highlands Ranch home a day after owner Chris Bartkowicz spoke to KUSA-TV 9News about his major basement marijuana grow operation. Bartkowicz showed 9News his medical-marijuana license and the documentation for the people to whom he serves as a caregiver. He said he was “living the dream.”
Sweetin and his agents were apparently embarrassed.
Friday’s Colorado pot-raiding DEA agent Sweetin sweetened up by Sunday
Has someone spoken with Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Jeff Sweetin, the man behind Friday’s high profile pot raid in Highlands Ranch? Someone like maybe Attorney General Eric Holder, who sets the policy for federal police agencies? Somebody…
End of an era: Colorado moves to tax online purchases
DENVER– Colorado joined Virginia this week in edging closer to charging out-of-state internet sales tax following a final vote on HB 1193 in the Senate Wednesday. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, and Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, would require retailers to either collect the tax or send notices to Colorado customers informing them that they need to pay the taxes.
As politicians waffle on climate change, glaciers exit Glacier National Park
DENVER– As Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper waffles on climate change, the U.S. Geological Society is reporting that Montana’s Glacier National Park will be glacier-less in a decade. Scientists had previously estimated that the park’s signature glacier-grade ice fields would last until 2030.
Swalm, done offending poor on the House floor, takes to the Twitter
State Rep. Spencer Swalm seems intent to inflame these days, tossing out provocative bon mots on the House floor, in committee hearings and on the Twitter. The Centennial Republican on Monday railed against a bill aimed at easing tax…
Tea Partiers of the Caribbean: Keyes leads merry band to the Virgin Islands
Former GOP presidential candidate and Tea Party activist Alan Keyes and more than 100 members of America’s fastest-growing political movement are heading out on a seven-day float to the U.S. Virgin Islands. They’re calling their adventure a “cruise for liberty.”…
Swalm leads defense of men at health insurance hearing
Rep. Spencer Swalm, R-Centennial, led the charge Thursday defending the rights of men to continue to pay less as a group on the individual health-insurance market in Colorado. Swalm is a member of the Health and Human Services committee that…
Lawmakers tussle over bill that would ease health insurance gender discrimination
DENVER– A packed hearing Thursday for a bill that seeks to address wide differences in cost based on gender in the individual health insurance market in Colorado saw clashes erupt between male and female members of the committee. House Bill 1008, sponsored by Reps Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, seeks to distribute and lower those costs for women who don’t have employer or state health plans. The motion ultimately passed out of committee on an 8 to 2 vote.
El Paso County sheriff’s office leans on volunteers, saves millions
Cash-strapped El Paso County is leaning heavily on volunteerism, a trend bound to grow as recession-era budget wranglers continue to cut into services. Sheriff Terry Maketa’s Office announced that volunteers logged 91,294 hours last year to save his department $1.2…
