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Colorado Tag

In Denver this past weekend, some soulless busybody called the cops on three little boys working their own lemonade stand. Aged 6, 5, and 4, the Knowles boys set up a lemonade stand to raise money for Compassion International. All proceeds made from their entrepreneurial endeavor would have been sent to "a little 5-year-old boy from Indonesia with siblings, two siblings, kind of like them,” said their mother.

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) has represented Colorado's 5th district for six years, but it looks like that may come to an end. The Colorado Supreme Court kicked him off the GOP primary ballot after the justices "ruled that a petition gatherer working for Lamborn's campaign did not live in the state at the time." That made the signatures invalid and placed Lamborn "below the threshold for ballot access."

We have been following the efforts to contain the outbreak of Hepatitis A in California. Hepatitis A virus attacks the liver, causing yellowing of the skin or eyes, diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain and fatigue. It extreme cases, it can be fatal. The pathogen is often spread through person-to-person contact and consumption of food or water contaminated with fecal matter. The fears of public health officials that the disease would spread to other states seem to have been realized, as 2 cases linked to the San Diego outbreak have been treated in Colorado.
An outbreak of hepatitis A in Southern California raised concern among Colorado health officials after two homeless people who apparently contracted the disease in San Diego were treated here.

Last Sunday, Ohio Governor and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said that he does not have plans to run against President Donald Trump in 2020 and is "rooting for him to get it together." Less than a week later, reports have emerged that Kasich may team up with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper in 2020 as independents with Kasich taking the top spot.

While the American press focused on a supposed Russia-Trump connection, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently reminded the country about a real domestic disaster caused by the Obama Administration: The Animas River Spill. Scott Pruitt visited the Animas River site last week, where over 3 million gallons of acidic, heavy-metal-laden waste water was accidentally released into the environment, and had some harsh words for Team Obama.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt marked the two-year anniversary of the Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado on Friday by pointing out how the Obama administration erred in causing the massive 3 million gallons toxic spill.

The Supreme Court has decided to hear a challenge from a Colorado baker, after the state charged him with violating the state's anti-discrimination law when he declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. From the LA Times:
Jack Phillips, the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., was charged with violating the state’s anti-discrimination law, which says businesses open to the public may not deny service to customers based on their race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. The state commission held that his refusal to make the wedding cake amounted to discriminatory conduct, and the state courts upheld that decision.

Now former Denver Post sportswriter Terry Frei faced massive criticism after he tweeted he felt "very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 during Memorial Day weekend."  Takumo Sato became the first Japanese winner of the famous car race. The social media pile on led him to apologize and delete his tweet. Later Monday, The Denver Post released a statement that condemned Frei's views and announced he no longer worked at the publication.

Colorado and Washington, two states that sell marijuana legally, enjoyed hefty sales on the drug in 2016. Colorado sold more than $1.3 billion worth of marijuana and marijuana products while Washington saw $972 million during its 2016 fiscal year. The legal sales meant more tax revenue for the states, which brought in $200 million for Colorado.

Well, look at this! Politico has revealed that those in the electoral college who wanted to cause a ruckus on Monday kept in close contact with Hillary Clinton's top aides Jake Sullivan and Jennifer Palmieri. Politico reported:
The first conversation appears to have occurred on Nov. 29, when Sullivan and other aides joined a conference call that included Colorado elector Micheal Baca, a member of a group working to persuade Republicans in the Electoral College to abandon Trump. Baca relayed the group’s long-shot strategy: to persuade Democratic and Republican electors to unite behind an alternative candidate to Trump. In an email after the call, Baca apologized to Sullivan for his urgent tone.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not prosecute an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee who had a hand in last year’s massive spill of toxic mine waste that contaminated Colorado's Animas River.
A year-long investigation by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the unnamed employee may have broken federal water pollution law and may have made false statements to law enforcement officials regarding the Gold King Mine spill. But after the OIG referred its findings for potential prosecution, the United States Attorney for Colorado, headed by acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, declined last week to pursue the charges, OIG spokesman Jeffrey Lagda said Wednesday. The decision by the Troyer’s office means that no one will be prosecuted as a result of the OIG’s investigation into the incident.

Donald J. Trump got crushed at the Colorado Republican state convention, where Ted Cruz swept the national delegate selection. This sweep happened not because the convention was rigged, but because Trump did a horrible job of working the caucus process that led to the convention. Trump all but ignored the electoral process leading up to the convention, and didn't even bother to go make a pitch himself at the convention, unlike Cruz who gave a speech on stage as Trump surrogates were furiously working to convince delegates to vote for Trump. Throughout the process, there was no discernible complaint by Trump and his supporters so long as they thought they had a shot at winning, or at least eating into Cruz's likely win. Only after it was over, and Colorado together with Wisconsin created momentum for Cruz, did Trump and his supporters start alleging fraud and deceit. This was a classic "change the narrative" Trump ploy, much as he would roll out high-profile endorsements that morning after a debate. Had Trump done better, there would not have been a peep. This controversy is not about principle, fairness or anything other than Trump losing and fearing his chance to win on a first ballot is slipping away.

As we await final results from Colorado, it appears that Ted Cruz will obtain more delegates in addition to the 17 he already has. ABC News reports:
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has locked up the support of 21 Colorado delegates and may scoop up even more Saturday. Slates loyal to Cruz won every assembly in the state's seven congressional districts, which began April 2 and culminated Friday with 12 delegates selected. The Texas senator is well-positioned to pad his total Saturday, when 13 more delegates were to be chosen at the party's state convention. According to an Associated Press count, Trump has 743 delegates, Cruz has 532 and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143. It takes 1,237 to clinch the nomination, though there's a real chance no candidate will reach that mark by the national convention in Cleveland in July. Of Cruz's Colorado delegates so far, only 17 were formally pledged to him, and in theory the other four could change their vote in Cleveland. But they were all included on the senator's slates and are largely state party officials who said they were barred from signing a formal pledge for Cruz but have promised to back him in balloting at the convention.
ABC goes on to note that Cruz's "superior organization" has helped him substantially in Colorado, and NBC News is reporting that Trump's performance in Colorado reveals a "chaotic, overwhelmed Trump campaign."

Citizens of the Centennial State are poised to make a historic vote that could impact the next 100 years:
Colorado voters could be asked to weigh in on a far-reaching, first-in-the-nation plan to scrap ObamaCare and replace it with a single-payer-style health care system. A single-payer system is one where a single agency administers health care fees and costs, while medical care itself is handled by the private sector. Vermont leaders backed off a similar plan a year ago, but activists in Colorado are pushing their own version in the form of a November 2016 ballot question. Supporters appear poised to get that question on the ballot. According to The Denver Post, supporters turned in more than 156,000 signatures for the measure, well over the 98,492 needed. As a last step, the signatures will still need to be verified.
The program would be called "ColoradoCare" and would cost billions to run.