Don't make Governor John Hickenlooper (D. CO) angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) hammered the "knuckleheads" in Congress over the federal government shutdown on Thursday, citing the devastating effects it is having on the state's flood victims who are still trying to get their lives back together.
“We just had the worst floods we’ve had in the history of the state, so we’ve had issues like 20 million gallons of raw sewage got dumped into our river systems," Hickenlooper said to ABC News' Rick Klein. "And so we’ve had flood water -- we have E. coli at high, dangerously high levels in many, many places,” said Hickenlooper. “In many ways you couldn’t have a worse time to have a shutdown. I mean it really is a tragic failing on many, many levels.”
After Colorado's historic flooding which resulted in the deaths of nine people and over $2 billion in damages, much attention was focused on spills from the state's oil and gas operations -- one of the most densely drilled regions of the U.S. -- which were inundated by floodwaters last month. But a recent report from the state health department found no evidence of oil pollutants in some of Colorado's rivers and streams. Instead, they found a tremendous amount of E. coli.
State officials from the Water Quality Control Division of the Department of Public Health estimate that about 20 million gallons of raw sewage and about 150-270 million gallons of partially treated sewage mixed with Colorado's floodwaters, The Denver Post reported. - Huffington Post, 10/11/13
Here's a little more info:
http://abcnews.go.com/...
While workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency remain on the job helping victims in Colorado, the flooding has demonstrated the vast range of federal services that ordinary Americans rely on when tragedy strikes, Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said.
“It’s amazing. You want to start appreciating all the things that the federal government does for those people who are most at risk, have a major disaster and then take away all those services, and you’d begin to see,” he said. “Just shelter — forget about housing, but just a place for people to stay while they’re trying to get their lives together after the worst thing that ever happened to them and every level. The scientific measuring of water quality — making sure that E. coli isn’t on the grass where little kids are playing.”
“We’re going to have some sick kids almost for sure just because of the shutdown,” he said. “My question to the knuckleheads in Congress, you know, where is the — if you’re going to represent people, you’ve got to have a certain level of empathy.” - ABC News, 10/10/13
Hickelooper is fighting get federal workers in Colorado back to work:
http://www.denverpost.com/...
In town appealing to federal agencies to allow some furloughed Coloradans to go back to work, Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday he worries about E. coli outbreaks and housing assistance being affected in the flood recovery if the federal government shutdown continues.
"These are people who are going through the worst experience of their lives," Hickenlooper said in an interview after moderating a conference for war heroes. "People think you shut down the federal government and you wouldn't miss it. But for a lot of people who are going through this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophic experience, they do miss it."
Hickenlooper said Colorado-based federal workers who would normally help with water-safety testing and housing assistance are not able to work. There isn't any support from Washington, D.C., either, he said.
While state officials have largely picked up the slack, he said, a prolonged shutdown is slowing down flood-relief efforts.
Frustrated by the shutdown, Hickenlooper has already offered to pay out of Colorado's state revenues to help the flood effort along. - Denver Post, 10/10/13
I applaud Hickenlooper for being a responsible governor and looking out for his constituents in thee hard times. Off topic, I'd also like to applaud Hickenlooper for this:
http://blogs.westword.com/...
John Hickenlooper was one of the most visible opponents of Amendment 64, a measure to allow adults 21 and over to use and possess small amounts of marijuana. But since A64's passage, he's done a major turnaround, agreeing to appear at a fundraiser for Proposition AA, which would set tax rates for recreational pot sales. And he's also co-authored a letter with Washington Governor Jay Inslee asking federal officials to adjust regulations that currently prevent weed businesses from using the banking system.
Because marijuana remains against U.S. law, dispensaries and other affiliated businesses are forbidden from using the federally regulated banks due to rules put in place to prevent money laundering by drug dealers, among others. But apparent movement on the issue took a step forward during a September hearing at which Deputy Attorney General James Cole revealed that the Justice Department was working on a possible solution with other agencies.
That was good news to the Denver Auditor's office, which had sent a letter in advance of the hearing arguing that forcing marijuana businesses to operate strictly on a cash basis created a range of problems.
The Yes on Proposition AA campaign also underscores the need for banking reform when it comes to marijuana businesses -- and argues that voting in favor of the measure will help inspire the feds to set things right. In an interview earlier this week, Yes on Prop AA spokesman Joe Megyesy argued that "passing a tax and demonstrating to the government that we can create revenue for them will make the government much more apt to create a fix for the marijuana industry's problems with banking and financial services," which he identifies as "one of the key struggles the industry in Colorado is facing right now."
Hickenlooper and Washington Governor Jay Inslee make the same point in their letter, addressed to a slew of officials, including Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Martin Gruenberg. - Denver Westword, 10/4/13
The NRA and right-wing Super PACs are going to return next year to finish the job from the Colorado recalls and try and take out Hickenlooper and help Tea Party nut job Tom Tancredo (R. CO) win. If you want to donate or get involved with Hickenlooper's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.hickenlooperforcolorado.com/