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Colorado gets good news on budget today
The Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) announced today that the state general fund revenue is projected to be $164.5 million higher in the next fiscal year than was forecast in December. The net increase to the general fund will be $149 million because of declining severance tax revenue.
Gardner attack on Obama energy policy draws fast fact-check blast from Shaffer
Colorado Congressman Cory Gardner, like many Republicans this week, took aim at President Obama over gas prices. He dismissed the president’s proposal to tap national oil and gas reserves as an election-year political fix and called instead for more oil and gas drilling on federal lands. But Gardner’s proposal drew a swift fact-check rebuttal from his Fourth District Democratic opponent, Senate President Brandon Shaffer, who said it was Gardner who was playing politics.
VIDEO: Tomasic and Resnick discuss personhood in Colorado and around the nation
On Tuesday, the Virginia House passed a bill that would declare unborn fetuses people, thus banning abortion and potentially certain forms of contraception and some fertility treatments. This positions Virginia — which now has a Republican super-majority — to become the first state to enact a fetal personhood measure, which supporters hope will lead the Supreme Court to revisit the constitutionality of abortion rights.
What to do today: Bolster online independent politics journalism
You value politics journalism, which is why you read the Colorado Independent. Over the course of the last decade, you’ve watched the number of news outlets delivering real politics journalism in Colorado dwindle, even as the larger digital news media universe has expanded and the public desire for more and more better politics information has exploded. You’ve seen how the Colorado Independent over the last six years has become an integral and bold contributor to coverage of the legislative policies and election campaigns that affect your life. Today is a very good day to bolster the Colorado Independent project and help fire up its resources for the election year ahead.
Udall statement on death of Kim Jong Il
Senator Mark Udall released this statement today, on the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il: “Kim Jong Il was a tyrant who severely oppressed his own people and threatened the world with his pursuit of nuclear weapons. North Korea was never going to change radically under his rule, and so the isolated country now has an opportunity to re-engage with the world. However, we’re entering a dangerous phase, in which one tyrant may well be replaced by another.
AINN to continue operating Colorado, Florida, Texas Independent websites
The Colorado Independent, an online-only investigative news organization that began as Colorado Confidential in 2006, will continue operating with its current three-person staff for the foreseeable future, according to officials at its parent nonprofit corporation.
Ron Paul leads Herman Cain in Iowa
For the past eight months, a group of volunteer Iowa activists have been contributing to these Power Rankings and attempting to answer what GOP candidate is positioned to capture caucus gold if the event was tonight.
Free Speech TV explores Gessler story in light of national trend
Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler garnered national headlines recently when he ordered county clerks in Colorado not to send ballots to registered but inactive voters– and in Colorado that means voters who missed just one election. Detractors called the effort attempted voter suppression and pointed to a host of similar Republican efforts launched nationwide in the wake of the Tea Party-wave election last November that swept Republicans into office across the country. Denver-based Free Speech TV explored the topic this week and asked Colorado Independent reporter John Tomasic, who has reported the story in-depth, to join the discussion.
Live-blogging the GOP Vegas debate
Tonight the Republican presidential candidates are meeting in Las Vegas for another in what already seems a long string of debates. There were two in Florida, one in California and another in New Hampshire. You could also make the argument that anything that has transpired in Iowa over the past ten months could one way or another qualify as a primary election debate. CNN is broadcasting the two-hour session from Vegas beginning at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time and we’ll be live blogging the debate here.
Iowa Power Rankings: Ron Paul leading
A major disconnect is underway that makes it difficult to know exactly how the caucuses would play out if they were held tonight. That is, the candidates who are surging in polling are those who aren’t spending time in Iowa, a state that values its grassroots, retail politics.
