Is there any way a public agency can meet its obligation to its constituents while trying to fulfill a conflicting set of commitments for a private partner? No, of course not.
Yet, that is precisely what is happening in Colorado and many of its public health agencies. Public health partnerships are working to promote private interests while neglecting or outright ignoring their duties to the public.
Long and Kim discuss this conflict of interest and many recent overreaches by Colorado public health agencies. Read the full op-ed here.
Douglas County School Board
The Douglas County school board made national news last Friday with the firing of Douglas County Schools Superintendent Corey Wise. The fallout continued over the weekend, with multiple news outlets writing editorials against the situation.
A petition signed by thousands asks for the resignation of the school board members who voted for Wise’s termination. Students across Douglas County staged a walkout from schools in protest.
Kim and Producer Steve discuss what led to the dramatic firing last week and the motives of the school board members who now find themselves mired in controversy.
The Freedom Convoy vaccination mandate protest and GoFundMe fallout
The anti-vaccination mandate protests in Canada, started by truckers who shut down the heart of Ottawa on January 29th, have entered their second week. Justin Trudeau and his family have disappeared from public view. Millions of freedom-supporting people across North America have cheered on the pushback against government overreach in the name of Covid-19.
Some people have done more than cheer; they have actively supported the truckers and protestors with cash donations. On Friday, February 4th, crowd-sourced fundraising platform GoFundMe decided to block access to over $10 million in funds raised for the Freedom Convoy. The company claimed that the protest had become a violent occupation.
Swift reactions from celebrities like Elon Musk and a vow of a sweeping fraud investigation from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis quickly turned the tables. The company stated it would automatically return all funds to donors.
Kim discusses the hypocrisy of the platform’s actions (GoFundMe has vocally supported violent occupation protests, such as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protests of 2020) and Facebook’s heavy-handed move to deplatform the page of U.S. truckers planning a vaccine mandate protest.
Bill of the Day: HB22-1084 Ineligible Jurors Voter Registration
Kim and Producer Steve discuss HB22-1084, Ineligible Jurors Voter Registration. The bill’s summary is as follows”
The bill requires the state court administrator to provide the secretary of state with a report of all persons who report as ineligible to serve as a trial or grand juror because they are either not a citizen or do not reside in the county in which they are summoned for juror service. The bill also requires the secretary of state to forward this report to each county clerk and recorder.
The bill then requires county clerk and recorders to cancel the voter registration of any elector who is either not a citizen or does not reside in the county and who the county clerk and recorders have received notice of from the state court administrator’s report. The secretary of state may cancel the voter registration of any elector who is not a citizen and who the secretary of state has received notice of from the state court administrator’s report.
Nothing in the bill allows a county clerk and recorder or the secretary of state to cancel the registration of a uniformed-service voter who is absent from the county in which he or she is registered to vote by reason of active duty.
The bill is sponsored by Colorado State Representative Andres Pico (Republican, District 16, El Paso county) and Colorado State Representative Dennis Hisey (Republican, District 2, Clear Creek, El Paso, Fremont, Park, and Teller counties).
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