Tag: Morgan Carroll

Amendments to strip off an expected fiscal note are on the way for a bill sponsors say would protect those with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities from being placed in solitary confinement while incarcerated.

Senators Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, and Linda Newell, D-Denver, voiced their concern today that children's lives are being destroyed by zero-tolerance policies in Colorado schools. While Senate Judiciary committee members had no tolerance for increasingly heavy handed punishment of student's playground pranks, some reform advocates testified the bill may serve to shackle reforms already in the works.

DENVER-- Durango Republican Senator Ellen Roberts has received awards for championing youth causes and praise from capitol watchers for taking non-partisan problem-solving stands on critical issues. So it was both remarkable and unsurprising that she voted Monday with five Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor same-sex civil unions legislation.

Laura Latimer and Professor Ellen Paul attend college events in Durango with their 8-month-old son Alexander strapped to one of their chests. They wear Ernie and Burt hats around the house for comic relief. They own four dogs. They plan their days around their son's nap time, just like all new parents do, and they want to be there for each other for the long haul, come what may. They work. They vote. They pay their taxes. Whether they realize it or not or even care, Laura and Ellen and Alexander are an apple pie American family. Because Laura and Ellen are lesbians, however, they pay more money for less civil rights than straight couples do, a fact that could change this year in Colorado as Senate Bill 172 makes its way though the legislature in Denver. The bill, sponsored by Senator Pat Steadman, would create legal domestic-partner civil unions in the state, and it meets its first test at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the Old Supreme Court Chambers under the dome this afternoon.

State Senator Morgan Carroll and Representative Lois Court's ballot-initiative transparency bill, HB 1035, passed Monday unanimously out of the Senate and with a wide majority in the House. The deep support for the bill is notably rare when it comes to legislation that seeks to tweak Colorado's ballot initiative process, an intentionally loose process loved by citizens and special interests alike.

DENVER-- Democratic state lawmakers Rep. Lois Court and Sen. Morgan Carroll have taken another step in their move to head off would-be anonymous Colorado ballot-initiative authors and financiers. A bill they introduced this legislative session comes in response to the farce Colorado Springs anti-tax crusader Doug Bruce made of the initiative process last year, when as "Mr X" he sent detailed emails of instruction to the initiative proponents, failed to report he was housing petition-signature gatherers and dodged subpoena servers for more than three months.

A bill to reduce the numbers of mentally ill and developmentally disabled prisoners in solitary confinement was introduced Monday by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder.

A Senate bill that would give sharper teeth to Colorado anti-discrimination laws passed out of committee on a party line vote Monday.

A bill to allow undocumented high school graduates to pay in-state tuition may have enough votes to pass the Senate, says bill's sponsor.

Colorado State Senator Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said she missed an opportunity to head off the controversy now surrounding newly elected Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Carroll had been weighing whether or not to introduce legislation that would have set strict disclosure laws for the secretary of state's office in particular and tightened state worker conflict-of-interest laws in general. She didn't introduce that bill but that doesn't mean a legislative response to the Gessler controversy is off the table, she said.