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Bennet, other Dems ‘very concerned’ about administration’s stances on opioids, marijuana
DENVER – U.S. Sen Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and five other Senate Democrats sent a letter this week to the acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy saying they are concerned about the administration’s “open hostility” to states with legal marijuana and possible budget cuts that they say could exacerbate the opioid crisis.
The letter was signed by six Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and sent to Office of National Drug Control Policy Acting Director Richard Baum on Monday.
Baum had previously asked the committee for input on the administration’s new drug control policy, and Monday’s letter was the Democrats’ response.
“We appreciate any sincere efforts to combat substance use disorders. We are concerned that this administration may revert to a policy that focuses on the criminal justice system over public health efforts,” the letter reads.
The senators say proposed 95 percent budget cuts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the repeal of several Obama-era policies aimed at responding to the opioid epidemic and other illicit drug use would have far-reaching negative effects on addressing drug abuse.
“A meaningful effort to combat substance use disorders must focus on the full implementation of [the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act], adequate funding for [the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration], and improving the Affordable Care Act by expanding access to mental health and substance use disorder services and health insurance,” the letter says.
The senators called the Republican replacement for Obamacare, the American Health Care Act, a “major step backwards in the prevention and treatment of drug addiction.”
“We are very concerned that this administration will exacerbate the opioid epidemic rather than alleviate it,” the letter said.
But the senators said they were also worried about the administration’s stance on how it might enforce federal laws regarding legal marijuana.
“We are also concerned by the administration’s open hostility to state policies legalizing or decriminalizing the possession and use of medical or recreational marijuana,” the senators wrote.
They suggested that the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Agency target deadly drugs instead of focusing any efforts on legal marijuana, which has never itself killed anyone.
“Particularly given the severity of the ongoing opioid use epidemic, federal resources should be targeted at providing comprehensive substance use disorder programs and cutting off the flow of deadly drugs rather than interfering with state regulatory regimes for marijuana,” the letter said.
The administration and Jeff Sessions-led Justice Department are still reviewing their policies.
Some Colo. GOP congressmen want Russia probe to continue, but few call for independent investigators
DENVER – Reaction from Colorado’s Republican members of Congress to FBI Director James Comey’s firing started rolling in Wednesday morning more than half a day after he was fired.
Sen. Cory Gardner, Rep. Scott Tipton and Rep. Mike Coffman all sent out statements Wednesday morning, though none called for the appointment of an independent investigator or counsel to oversee the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, as did Colorado’s Democratic members of Congress and several other congressional Republicans on Tuesday. Continue reading
Colorado’s Republican members of Congress silent after Comey fired
DENVER – Colorado’s Republican members of Congress sat silent Tuesday after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been in charge of the investigation into whether Russia colluded with administration and campaign members to influence the U.S. election.
The state’s Democrats all called for an independent investigator or commission to be appointed to continue the investigation, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from, then was part of the decision-making team that worked to fire Comey. Continue reading
Denver Post will move most of news, ad staff out of downtown Denver to Adams Co.
DENVER – Most of the Denver Post’s news and advertising staff will move to offices at the paper’s printing plant on Washington Street in Adams County, the paper’s president and CEO confirmed Monday.
The possible move was noted by The Post last Friday after reporters found out about it during a court hearing regarding the paper’s lawsuit against three former employees.
But it was confirmed by The Post’s President and CEO, Mac Tully, at an employee meeting Monday.
The printing facility already housed all of the paper’s printing operations, as well as several other departments, including some of the business department. But the news and advertising divisions had all been housed at the building rented by The Post across from Civic Center Park.
“While we would like to stay in our current building, the move offers a considerable cost savings during this difficult period in the newspaper industry, and allows us to keep the most important part of our newsroom and advertising: The people,” Tully said in a statement to Denver7 regarding the move.
According to Post reporter Jon Murray, Tully told staffers Monday that most of the offices would move by the end of the year.
The Post will maintain some offices in downtown Denver “so that our reporters and photographers can respond quickly to the news,” Tully said in a statement.
Murray tweeted that Tully said no big layoffs were planned at the paper, which has been among many in Colorado hit by layoffs amid falling advertising revenue in recent years. But Tully apparently told staffers there might be some “small targeted cuts,” according to Murray’s tweets.
But he also said that Tully told staffers there would be some “investments” in areas such as political coverage.
The ongoing court case involves a lawsuit filed by The Post against former employees of the paper’s advertising department, who The Post accused of conspiring to use their knowledge to set up their own competing advertising agency.
Judge dismisses Colo. AG’s suit against Boulder Co. oil and gas moratorium after it expires
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. – A Boulder District Court judge last week dismissed a lawsuit by the Colorado attorney general and two oil and gas organizations that sought to block the county’s moratorium on oil and gas development.
Judge Norma Sierra granted the motion to dismiss last Tuesday, though the motion was unopposed by the attorney general’s office and the two other plaintiff interveners in the suit: the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and American Petroleum Institute.
The dismissal came after attorneys for both sides agreed not to pursue the suit further because the moratorium, which bans the county from accepting and processing new attempts by companies to develop oil and gas properties in unincorporated part of the county, expired on May 1.
Each party to the suit has been directed to pay their own court costs and attorneys’ fees in the case.
Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman filed the suit in February after the county failed to repeal its moratorium by the imposed deadline of Feb. 10.
Boulder County put the moratorium in place in 2012 and has extended it eight times, most recently in December, when county commissioners voted to extend it to May 1.
The now-dismissed suit pointed to a 2015 Colorado Supreme Court case that went against Fort Collins’ moratorium on fracking and a Longmont moratorium, and said that local governments cannot regulate the oil and gas industry.
The 2015 case’s ruling said that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Act gives the state sole power to regulate oil and gas development and operations within the state.
In both rulings, the court said that even temporary moratoriums, which Boulder has argued its is, “deleteriously affects what is intended to be a state-wide program of regulation.”
Coffman on Monday praised the county’s decision to lift its moratorium.
“Boulder County took a positive step by finally lifting its unlawful moratorium, and I strongly believe that would not have happened without my office taking action to enforce state law,” she said. “While my office will be watching how Boulder’s new rules are implemented, we have agreed to the dismissal of our court case since there no longer is a moratorium in place.”
A Boulder County spokesman told the Daily Camera Monday that the county had so far not received any new development applications since the moratorium expired May 1.
The county has since implemented new rules regarding oil and gas development.
The suit’s dismissal comes amid a heightened focus on oil and gas development in populated areas of Colorado, as Gov. John Hickenlooper has ordered all oil and gas wells within 1,000 feet of occupied buildings to be inspected after a home in Firestone blew up because of leaking gases from an abandoned well.
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Kim Jong Un calls Sen. Cory Gardner a ‘psychopath’ who is ‘mixed in with human dirt’
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner has drawn the attention and ire of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after calling the volatile leader a “whack job” in a TV interview last week.
Gardner made the comments last week on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when he said “most people agree” that Kim is a “whack job.” Continue reading
In response to Firestone explosion, bill filed to map and track oil and gas facilities in Colorado
DENVER – Two Colorado Democrats on Friday filed a bill aimed at bringing more transparency and state oversight to the oil and gas industry, in light of a recent deadly home explosion caused by an abandoned, uncapped well.
The push comes toward the end of Colorado’s legislative session, which is set to end next Wednesday.
Gov. John Hickenlooper called for more oversight over the industry in a news conference Wednesday, saying the location of the 54,000 Colorado oil and gas wells and lines “should be a matter of public record.” Continue reading
What pre-existing conditions might not the AHCA protect?
DENVER – Perhaps the biggest question most people have after the House on Thursday passed its version of the American Health Care Act is if they have a pre-existing condition, and if it will be covered under the new health care plan, should it pass.
Though the MacArthur amendment to the AHCA explicitly says that “nothing in [the AHCA] shall be construed as permitting health insurance issuers to limit access to health coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions,” most medical organizations and opponents to the bill say that’s really not the case.
Instead, they say that pre-existing condition coverage will be limited by the House’s version of the bill, which would allow insurance companies to sell plans with higher deductibles and once again open up high-risk pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions, which the bill’s opponents say could lead to those people to being priced out of coverage.
Though there is no national standard for pre-existing conditions, as they are usually set by insurance companies, the number is vast. Some in Washington have said the AHCA will leave it up to the states to determine which pre-existing conditions might be covered.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found in a January report that at least 61 million non-elderly Americans (23 percent of the population) have a pre-existing condition based on the narrow definition of them using state standards for high-risk pools before the Affordable Care Act was implemented.
But when HHS expanded that to a broader definition used by insurers before the ACA, that number ballooned to as many as 133 million non-elderly Americans – just over half the nation’s population under age 65, the age at which Medicare kicks in.
The report also found that about one-quarter of Americans with pre-existing conditions went without insurance for at least a month in 2014, and about one-third went without insurance for at least a month in 2013 and 2014. Lapses in coverage lead to penalties for Medicaid recipients and those trying to get pre-existing conditions covered under the AHCA as it currently stands.
“Any of these 133 million Americans could have been denied coverage, or offered coverage only at an exorbitant price, had they needed individual market health insurance before 2014 [when the ACA was implemented],” HHS wrote in its analysis.
It found that as states wound down high-risk pools and insurance companies prepared for the implementation of the ACA between 2010 and 2014, 3.6 million people with pre-existing conditions gained insurance. The uninsured rate for non-elderly Americans fell an additional 22 percent from 2014 through the first half of 2016.
So exactly what is a pre-existing condition?
The narrow definition, called the “objective definition,” included only conditions that a person received medical advice, a diagnosis, care or treatment for before they enrolled in a plan. That’s what Colorado used, according to analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Insurers were able to look back 12 months for pre-existing conditions and were able to exclude coverage for people for 12 months as well under the rules at the time. Some insurance companies would waive the exclusion period if a person hadn’t had a lapse in coverage or had the pre-existing condition covered before the lapse.
But some various insurance companies that operated in Colorado before the AHCA had more exclusions for people with pre-existing conditions on individual plans.
Per the Kaiser Family Foundation, this partial list of pre-existing conditions could be declined under the expanded definitions and were not covered before the ACA (there could be more):
- AIDS/HIV
- Alcohol and drug abuse within a certain time period
- Alzheimer’s/dementia
- Arthritis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory joint diseases
- Cancer within a certain time period
- Cerebral palsy
- Congestive heart failure
- Coronary artery/heart disease, bypass surgery
- Crohn’s disease/ulcerative colitis
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema
- Diabetes mellitus
- Epilepsy
- Hemophilia
- Hepatitis
- Kidney disease/renal failure
- Lupus
- Mental disorders, including bipolar disorder and eating disorders
- Multiple sclerosis
- Muscular dystrophy
- Obesity
- Organ transplant
- Paraplegia
- Paralysis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Pending surgery or hospitalization
- Pregnancy (current or expectant)
- Pneumocystic pneumonia
- Sleep apnea
- Stroke
- Transsexualism
In the January report, HHS found that people with hypertension, high cholesterol, behavioral health disorders, osteoarthritis and asthma or chronic lung disease pre-existing conditions were among those with the highest uninsured rates in the country in 2010. The percentage of those uninsured fell by 22 percent by 2014 with the ACA’s implementation.
For more estimates on how pre-existing condition coverage and Medicaid coverage in Colorado may be affected, click the links in this sentence.
The House narrowly voted to pass the AHCA on to the Senate on Thursday. But it is expected to draft its own version of the bill, which Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., is part of the team working on it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would wait for the Congressional Budget Office to score the revised bill before it votes again.
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After slew of anti-Muslim incidents, Council on American-Islamic Relations opening Colorado chapter
DENVER – The Council on American-Islamic Relations will open a new chapter in Colorado as it expands its operation nationwide to include more local chapters.
The Colorado chapter is one of three new ones the organization is opening, bringing its total number of regional office to 30. CAIR is the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.
CAIR says its new Colorado chapter will work on civil rights cases, increase community participation within the Muslim community, and build relationships with lawmakers and law enforcement on civil rights.
The chapter will open amid a slew of possible hate crimes against Muslims in Colorado over the past few months.
In January, the FBI joined an investigation into signs left at an Aurora immigrant and refugee center that threatened to “blow up” refugees.
Also in January, a self-proclaimed radicalized Muslim shot and killed a security officer working as an RTD guard at Union Station, though officials have not linked that shooting to being a hate crime.
In early January, an 83-year-old Longmont man was pressured by neighbors and the city to take a sign down that read, “Muslim’s kill Muslim’s [sic] if they don’t agree. Where does that leave you, ‘infidel.’”
On Feb. 7, the FBI was also called in to help El Paso County Sheriff’s Office investigators work to find out whether or not an Indian family in Peyton, Colo. was the victim of a hate crime. Their home was vandalized with eggs, dog feces, bath tissue, and papers scrawled with messages regarding their racial and ethnic background.
In March, CAIR called for a federal and state investigation into a man who was eventually arrested for vandalizing the Islamic Center of Fort Collins, destroying windows with rocks and throwing a Bible through glass doors.
And a lawsuit was filed last month accused three guards at the Sterling Correctional Facility of deliberately letting off a pepper spray bomb into a room a group of Muslims were about to pray in.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 16 “hate groups” in Colorado that were operating in 2015, including several anti-Muslim and neo-Nazi groups. More on those groups can be found here.
“The addition of these new chapters reflects the tremendous support CAIR is receiving from the American Muslim community and from the larger society in the post-election period, and demonstrates the necessity to challenge growing bigotry targeting American Muslims and members of other minority communities,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.
It’s unclear at this time exactly where Colorado’s chapter will be based. Requests for clarification have been made to CAIR-Colorado chapter members.
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US House passes American Health Care Act onto Senate, 217-213; see how Colorado reps voted
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass the American Health Care Act, the bill concocted by House Republicans and President Donald Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act passed under President Barack Obama.
The bill passed narrowly, 217-213, after extensive debate Thursday morning over how the recently-revived and revised bill would affect people with pre-existing conditions. Continue reading