Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters will not be allowed to oversee elections for a second year in a row, a district court judge ruled yesterday. Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County Commissioners sued to prohibit her involvement. Peters, running in the June Republican primary for secretary of state, is accused in a security breach of Mesa County elections systems from May 2021. She was indicted by a grand jury earlier this year on 10 felony and misdemeanor counts. Colorado Sun reports the new order also bars Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley and Julie Fisher, second deputy clerk, from involvement in the 2022 elections. Knisley was indicted by the grand jury, and was charged separately with felony burglary on suspicion of entering county offices after the county suspended her. Brandi Bantz, county elections director, will oversee the election.
John Eastman, a lawyer who represented Donald Trump, used his University of Colorado email account to advise a Pennsylvania lawmaker on how to challenge that state’s electors, according to records obtained by the Denver Post. CU Boulder’s visiting professor of conservative thought is being scrutinized for his role in advising Trump on how to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. A federal judge ruled in March they likely committed crimes in their efforts to overturn the election. Eastman, who spoke at Trump’s rally before the Capitol attack, was relieved of his public-facing duties at CU following the January 6th insurrection. He’s no longer affiliated with the university.
U.S. Senator Michael Bennet is introducing a bill today called the National Energy Community Transition Act to establish a new permanent endowment fund and federally chartered corporation to support economic development and diversification, capacity building, transition planning, and public services in communities historically reliant on fossil fuel energy generation or extraction.
Next, Kate Redmond speaks with one of the Paonia Town Trustees, seated since the recent election.
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Colorado is poised to take an unusual step in granting state lawmakers paid parental leave. Robyn Vincent reports the move highlights a legacy of female political representation in the West.
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