Author: Blair Miller
Bennet, Gardner back legislation to separate wildfire prevention, suppression money
DENVER – Both of Colorado’s U.S. senators are calling for changes to the system that funds firefighting efforts as we reach the end of what has already been the costliest fire season in U.S. history.
Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and Cory Gardner (R) are cosponsoring a bill with senators from several other western states that would move funding to fight wildfires into a natural disaster fund and separate the money from the fire prevention fund.
The U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department currently have to take money from fire prevention programs in order to pay for the services to fight active wildfires.
The firefighting budgets for each year are currently based on the average cost of suppression over the past 10 years, and the senators say that Congress often has to appropriate more money after the initial budget is finalized because firefighting costs are underestimated.
The bill Bennet and Gardner are cosponsoring would keep the prevention and suppression funds separate. The renewed legislation comes after pushes by both senators to have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revamp wildfire funding.
The Forest Service and Interior Department said last week that more than $2.3 billion had already been spent fighting wildfires this year, and 64 fires were still burning across 10 states.
“This bill would end the practice of fire borrowing—a necessary step that will enable the Forest Service to make responsible investments on the front end to restore our forests and safeguard our watersheds,” Bennet said.
“I’ve been working to advance this legislation to stop fire borrowing for several years, and I appreciate the strong bipartisan support to ensure the Forest Service has the funds it needs for clean-up and prevention efforts while also finally requiring the government to treat wildfires like it does other natural disasters,” Gardner said.
This year’s fires have burned more than 13,000 square miles—the fourth-highest total in a decade.
Graham-Cassidy analysis shows billions in federal funding losses for Colorado’s health care programs
DENVER – Senate Republicans’ latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would quickly cost Colorado at least $6 billion in federal funds, and could end up taking $78 billion from the state in the long-term, according to new analysis out Wednesday.
The Graham-Cassidy amendment, named after its writers, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has until Sept. 30 to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote.
Afterward, due to parliamentary rules, the Senate would need 60 votes to pass a repeal-and-replace measure. Continue reading
Colorado universities host DACA renewal sessions as members of Congress push DREAM Act
DENVER – Staffers and students at the University of Colorado Law School hosted the first of two workshops Wednesday helping DACA recipients renew their eligibility on the same day that Rep. Diana DeGette again pushed for Congress to put the DREAM Act into law.
Only a handful of Dreamers showed up to the first session, which is aimed at helping those whose status is expiring before next March renew their status.
The session will run through 4 p.m. Wednesday. But there will be another session held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. next Wednesday, Sept. 27, as well.
Those eligible for renewal will have their DACA permits expire between Sept. 5 and March 5, 2018, and must apply to renew the permits before Oct. 5.
There are also events being held on the CSU campus in Fort Collins and in Greeley on the UNC campus on Wednesday. Both run until 6 p.m.
The renewal sessions came as DeGette continued her push to get the DREAM Act onto the House floor in a Denver news conference.
The legislation, which is supported by Colorado’s Democrats and several of its Republican members of Congress, would grant lawful permanent resident status to Dreamers.
Several Dreamers who have benefited from DACA were also in attendance with DeGette Wednesday.
To sign up for the Sept. 27 renewal session at CU’s Law School, click here.
Rep. Mike Coffman asks feds to consider fixes for DACA wind-down
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman and one of his Democratic fellow members of Congress are asking the Department of Homeland Security to give some Dreamers leeway to get their immigration statuses in order as DACA is wound-down over the next six months.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Sept. 5 that he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by next March, and gave only some DACA recipients only a month to apply to renew their status. Continue reading
Excavation of triceratops fossil discovered in Thornton complete; largest Cretaceous find in Colo.
DENVER – The excavation of a triceratops skeleton discovered last month is complete, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science says the find is the most-complete Cretaceous-period fossil ever unearthed in Colorado.
The museum says it recovered 80 percent of the dinosaur’s skull and 15 percent of its skeleton. On Monday, excavators discovered part of the triceratops’ sacrum around 15 feet from where its horn and shoulder blade were first found.
“I’m excited to start preparing everything we collected from the Thornton site and to get started on the science,” Joe Sertich, Denver Museum of Nature & Science curator of dinosaurs, said. “The fossils we’ve collected will help us build on our understanding of what the Thornton area was like 66 million years ago.”
The museum and city of Thornton postponed its excavation last week when the museum’s chief fossil preparatory, Mike Getty, died suddenly during the excavation.
The fossil was first discovered on Aug. 28 during construction on Thornton’s new city building. The museum, city and School District 27J will continue to raise awareness about the fossil as the museum continues its work.
Tap the image below or click here for a gallery of the fossil excavation.
Colorado authorities try to find ‘serial pooper’ caught defecating in people’s yards
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The “Mad Pooper” of Bob’s Burgers lore might be more than cartoon fiction, according to Colorado Springs police who say a woman has repeatedly done her businesses in people’s yards over the past several weeks.
A witness snapped photos of the female runner, who has apparently been caught treating people’s yards as toilets on several occasions since July. Continue reading
Record low uninsured rates prop up Obamacare in Colorado as Senate GOP tries another repeal
DENVER – Colorado continues to have record-low percentages in the number of uninsured people, and programs under the Affordable Care Act have led to more Coloradans being insured than ever, according to a new biannual study released Tuesday.
The report comes in the midst of a last-minute push by Senate Republicans to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act, which the survey shows has benefited Colorado across much of the state. Continue reading
Documents reveal police told Grandview HS of sex allegations involving guard year before his arrest
AURORA, Colo. — A newly released report shows Aurora police had received a complaint alleging a Grandview High School security guard was having sex with students more than a year before he was arrested on sexual assault charges, and that the school was made aware of the allegations at the time but didn’t act.
Officials at the school, which is part of the Cherry Creek School District, maintain they didn’t know about the allegations from March 2016 when they made the controversial decision not to tell parents about the May 2017 arrest of the guard, Broderick Lundie, citing a belief that the alleged abuse was not widespread. Continue reading
2 elderly people, including former state senator and judge, found dead inside Denver home
DENVER – Two people were found dead inside a home in southwest Denver Monday afternoon as authorities investigated a gas leak, and family members have identified one of them as a former state senator and judge.
The two people’s bodies were found inside a home in the 4700 block of West Yale Avenue around 3 p.m.
A spokesperson with the Denver Fire Department told Denver7 the two elderly people were already dead when they were discovered, and that companies were at the home Monday afternoon investigating possible carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Denver Fire spokesperson said the carbon monoxide levels inside the home were “fairly high,” and said there was no one else in the home when first responders arrived.
Xcel “Emergency Gas Response” is now here. Neighbor says the elderly couple that lived next door were each in their 90s pic.twitter.com/9lqHzuyrpb
— Jason Gruenauer (@JGonTV) September 18, 2017
Later Monday, family members confirmed to Denver7 that the victims are Roger Cisneros, 93, and his wife, Adelia Cisneros, 89.
Roger Cisneros was a former state senator, the founder of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and a former District Judge.
He retired in 1989, but then started his own private practice, and has been honored by several Hispanic and Latino law organizations over the years.
Cisneros was born in Questa, New Mexico and attended the Menaul School in Albuquerque before enlisting in the Army Air Corp, where he served from 1943 to 1946.
Study uncovers 48 cases of possible improper voting in Colorado in 2016, just 0.001% of total vote
DENVER – A five-state study that included Colorado, which looked at possible improper voting in 11.5 million voter records, uncovered 112 possible instances—48 of which happened in Colorado.
The study looked at 11.5 million voter records from Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Delaware and Maryland. The first three states are mail-in ballot states, while Delaware and Maryland voting is conducted at polling places. Continue reading