Death Penalty Repeal Clears Senate Committee
Colorado’s death penalty is one step closer to being done away with. Members of the state veterans and military affairs committee passed a bill yesterday to eliminate the death penalty on a party line vote. The measure must still pass the appropriations committee before it could go to the full senate for further debate. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Filed under: Bente Birkeland,Capitol Coverage,Crime,KRCC News,Prisons — Andrea Chalfin News Dir. @ 5:45 pm
State health officials have confirmed two swine flu cases in Colorado: a woman in her 30s from Arapahoe County who’d taken a cruise in Mexico, and a man in his 40s who works as a baggage handler at Denver International Airport. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.
Jerry Carle is known to many simply as “Coach.” Carle led the Colorado College football team for 33 years, and when the school recently made the economic decision to shut down its football program, President Dick Celeste and Athletic Director Ken Ralph visited Carle to break the news personally. In this week’s “Citizen Report,” Carle talks about some of the lessons learned and characters met in the early days of his coaching career. (Colorado College is KRCC’s licensee.)
North America’s largest bottled water producer, Nestle Waters, is eyeing springs in Chaffee County as a new source for their product. The corporate giant has applied for the necessary permits to develop these springs. Some two hundred people gathered in Salida last night for the third public hearing on the matter. KRCC’s Shanna Lewis attended the meeting and filed this report.
Drivers and front seat passengers could face a 75-dollar fine for not wearing a seat belt under a new bill that cleared the senate transportation committee on Tuesday. It passed on a party line vote with all the Republicans on the committee voting against it. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.
Elementary school students at he Classical Academy in northern Colorado Springs got a visit yesterday from former astronaut Jim Reilly, as part of the Space Foundation’s outreach to local schools to stress the importance of space-based science and math education. KRCC’s Aaron Retka spoke with Brian DeBates of the Space Foundation and attended the event. He files this audio postcard.
A bill that would require anyone arrested or charged with a felony to give a DNA sample to law enforcement cleared the state senate yesterday. The measure passed with wide support despite objections from several lawmakers who say it would violate protections guaranteed in the 4th amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.
The state legislature has less than two weeks left before it adjourns, but there’s still a lot of bills that are making their way through the house and senate chambers. Bente Birkeland talks about what’s left to do as part of our Capitol Conversation series.
Colorado Democrats are touting a climate change plan in Congress as a force for economic growth and job creation back home. Republicans say it’s a formula for deeper recession. Yanmei Xie has more from Capitol Hill.