POLITICS
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FLEURISH
Cory Gardner announces run for senate
Popular Saturday Night Alive a fantastic, fun affair
U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner announced his bid for senatorial campaign to supporters at the Denver Lumber Company, March 1.
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Denver’s Benihana has new ‘Express Lunch’
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Benihana Express Lunch – a fastservice menu available Monday through Friday until 4 p.m. designed specifically for timecrunched lunch guests.
The Saturday Night Alive Alliance benefit lived up to its reputation, filling the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex Lobby with supporters and new faces.
Volume 32 • Number 15 • March 6, 2014
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BUSINESS
303-773-8313 • Published every Thursday
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Pages 5-6................................... Opinion Page 8................................... Classifieds Pages 10-19...............................Fleurish Pages 23-25.................................Legals TheVillagerNewspaper
@VillagerDenver
Hickenlooper pledges better ‘listening’ in future Governor talks guns and oil with South Metro Denver Chamber
I did a crummy job last year of really opening the doors and listening and getting all the facts. - Gov. John Hickenlooper
By Peter Jones
After a year that saw Gov. John Hickenlooper take flak for his reprieve of a death sentence and controversial Democratic-passed gun laws, Colorado’s chief executive began his talk to the South Metro Denver Chamber with a mea culpa. “The problem today is we don’t all have the same facts and we don’t spend enough time trying to make sure we have a discussion around the facts before making a decision. I take full blame for that,” the governor said. While Hickenlooper did not express regret for any decisions, he said he could have done a better job communicating, back and forth, with those on the other side. “I did a crummy job last year of really opening the doors and listening and getting all the facts,” he said. The governor was one of more than 10 elected leaders to participate in the Chamber’s Day at the Capitol on Feb. 26, when about 200 local business leaders interacted with Hickenlooper, House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, Senate President Morgan Carroll and other Democratic and Republican legislators from the south metro area and beyond. Despite the governor’s acknowledgement of an inadequate give and take, he staunchly defended the crux of gun legislation approved last year in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. The new laws, passed in the wake of the Aurora theater
Gov. John Hickenlooper speaks to members of the South Metro Denver Chamber on Feb. 26 in the former Colorado Supreme Court Chambers in the state Capitol as part of the chamber’s Day at the Capitol. Photo by Peter Jones shootings, included expanded background checks and limitations on high-capacity ammunition magazines. “Just in case you think criminals really aren’t that stupid, 236 people, when they picked up their gun, were arrested for an outstanding warrant for violent crime,” Hickenlooper said. “… That’s not a partisan issue. That’s a shared responsibility. We’re not trying to take guns away from anyone. We’re trying to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.” The governor found more im-
mediate common ground with the business-driven chamber on issues relevant to the oil and gas industry – and in particular, the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Hickenlooper – like the chamber’s board of directors – has favored the process in principal. The chamber also backs a state Senate bill that would allow oil and gas companies to use eminent domain to acquire rights-of-way for pipes. The governor stressed the importance of oil and gas to Colorado’s economy, saying the industry pulls
$39 billion a year into the state and employs 110,000 people who on average make $80,000 a year. “That’s a huge deal in Colorado,” Hickenlooper said. The geologist-turned-governor went on to call fracking an industrial process that needs to be done the right way. “If it’s done poorly, there will be problems that can be serious,” he said. “Let’s be honest. This is something that can be done safely, especially in Colorado.” The governor praised Colorado’s new air-pollution rules for the indus-
try, even though some community leaders have stressed the need for local, stricter control. Hickenlooper said the statewide regulations were the result of serious discussion and compromise from the industry and environmentalists alike. “We went back and forth for eight months. In the end, no one was happy,” he said. “That’s how progress happens. You sit down and you make compromises.” On another matter, the governor praised Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s health-insurance exchange, which is tied to the Affordable Care Act. “We will ultimately cap the cost of health care in the state. I guarantee it,” he said. “… I understand that 90 percent of you don’t even want to hear the word Obamacare, and neither do I.” In closing, Hickenlooper admitted that not all of his views were necessarily in step with many in the chamber of commerce. “During the last session, I lost probably half of you. I accept that,” he said.
Colorado’s suicide rate on the rise Newell sponsors bill to create expert commission
By Peter Jones Despite its mountains, sunshine and a reputation for biking, skiing and healthy lifestyles, Colorado paradoxically has the eighth highest suicide rate in the United States. Residents are statistically more likely to deliberately kill themselves than they are to die from a car crash or cancer. It was a sobering revelation for state Sen. Linda Newell. The Littleton Democrat is the Senate sponsor for a bill that would create
a blue-ribbon panel to find out why and develop a plan to do something about it. At a cost of about $80,000, the Suicide Prevention Commission would comprise about 20 experts in such fields as mental health, education and social services. The group would boost efforts of Colorado’s understaffed Office of Suicide Prevention and make annual reports to the governor. Newell’s proposed commission would constitute a mix of government and private-sector members to avoid creation of what some Republicans fear would be an ineffective Continued on page 4
State Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, discusses her proposed legislation to create a state suicide commission in the former Colorado Supreme Court chambers, as state Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Castle Rock, looks on.
Photo by Terry McElhaney