​Introduction
 
Happy Sunday. The final day of April 2023 ended up being a day of rest after the House worked late into Saturday night. The Senate kept up its tradition of not working on the weekend, but as the 2023 legislative session is nearing its end the days are getting longer at the Capitol.
 
When the sun rises on Monday morning, it will be May, and there will only be eight days until the end of session. You could say, Eight Days A Week…
 
This session has certainly been a Long And Winding Road and there are many A Hard Day’s Night still to come in the final week. In the end hopefully everyone will Come Together, but the majority will probably be saying All Things Must Pass while the minority is screaming Help! 
 
Some might say this session has been a Magical Mystery Tour or full of Misery, depending on the issue. There have definitely been a few instances of A Fool On The Hill with some speeches in the well this year. But in The End, With A Little Help From My Friends, We Can Work It Out.
 
However, Yesterday the House was a Day Tripper all Saturday Because the Republicans tried to say You Can’t Do That. The Democrats wanted to just Let It Be, but things are not Getting Better between the two parties in the House. More on all of that drama at the end. 
 
After these eight days there will be Golden Slumbers again, but until then we will Carry That Weight. Anyone at the Capitol should probably tell their family You Won’t See Me. Tomorrow Never Knows because things will be moving so fast, and yet so slow at the same time. 
 
It’s the final countdown until we can say Good Night and Goodbye to this session. So enough with the Beatles for now and here’s the big news from the Capitol this (Long, Long, Long) week.

​Introduction
 
Happy Earth Day. The 104th day of the legislative session turned out to be a day off for the legislators despite all indications that the House would work over the weekend. Instead, the House worked late into the night on Friday and chose to not come in this weekend. 
 
There are now just over two weeks, 15 potential work days to be exact, until the end of session. If they don’t work the next two weekends like this weekend then there are only 11 days left!  
 
However, instead of a bright and sunny Earth Day filled with tree-planting events and community clean-ups, most of Colorado awoke today to a cloudy Earth Day with a few inches of snow. For the Denver area, this is later than the latest snowfall in two of the last three years, but on average the latest snow usually falls around early May (last 10 years ranged April 16-May 21).
 
Instead of today, Earth Day could have been celebrated a month earlier, on March 21, like it is in many other countries. After March 21 was proposed at a United Nations conference in 1969, a senator from Wisconsin proposed the inaugural Earth Day in the US. According to the history, the senator’s office worked with a grassroots team of college students, who picked April 22, 1970 because they thought it was the perfect intersection of fair springtime weather and suitability for a college student’s semester schedule. 
 
Now that you have some fun facts about late snowfall and Earth Day to dazzle your family and friends, here’s a roundup of the big news from the Capitol this week you can boreenlighten them with too.

​Introduction
 
Happy Saturday. After a reprieve last weekend, the House returned to working on Saturday today. The Senate, of course, kept up their tradition of not working on the weekend. 
 
Today marks the 97th day of the 120-day legislative session. There are just over three weeks, or three Saturdays the House will probably be working, left before the end of session. With so few days left and the clock ticking down, it’s icy waters between the two parties. 
 
Before we dive into the tension and the delays, today also marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. On this date in 1912, the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. The “unsinkable” ship was traveling at a high rate of speed in an area with a high concentration of icebergs, despite warnings from other ships. But like the majority in the legislature sometimes, the ship pressed on.
 
The Titanic's crew attempted to slow the ship down and steer away from the iceberg, but it was too late. The lack of enough lifeboats and many lifeboats not even being filled to capacity resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 passengers and crew members. 
 
The sinking of the Titanic remains a symbol of the dangers of overconfidence and the importance of taking precautions in the face of potential risks. 
 
In addition to the anniversary today, the Titanic has another connection to the Colorado legislature. “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” gained national fame for her bravery and leadership during the sinking of the Titanic. Molly Brown was married to James Joseph Brown, a businessman that played a key role in the construction of the Colorado Capitol building. 
 
Now here’s a roundup of news from that very same Capitol building this week.

​Introduction
 
Grab your peanuts and Cracker Jack because it’s time to root, root, root for the home team. Today is the Colorado Rockies home opener – a time of hope and optimism for all baseball fans, well most baseball fans. You probably have a better shot on a bet that Republicans will take over power under the Gold Dome next election than you have betting the Rockies to win the World Series, although neither is a solid bet at the moment. 
 
While opening day for the Rockies is an unofficial holiday in Denver, there are also several other holidays to mention. Passover started yesterday, Good Friday is tomorrow, and Easter is on Sunday. The prospect of working on these holidays had a big impact on what happened this week. More on all that when we get into what happened with House budget week. 
 
The fact that you’re getting this newsletter on Thursday gives away that there was a deal reached between Republicans and Democrats to not grind all business to a halt. Because of this deal, the House will be able to join the Senate in having Good Friday off tomorrow. 
 
After the long weekend off, the legislature will return on Monday for the home-stretch of the legislative session – just one month left. Like a runner rounding third base, we have come a long way and are getting close but there’s still a tough final sprint until we are safe. 
 
Now before you start your holiday weekend, here’s a rundown of the big news from the Capitol this week and a deeper dive into the House budget week and the deal that secured this weekend being a much needed break. 

​Introduction
 
Happy Saturday. The House once again worked over the weekend; last weekend it was because of long debates over gun bills and this weekend it was because of long debates over abortion bills. It’s all causing tensions to start to boil over under the Gold Dome. 
 
And today all hell broke loose. The Republicans were so upset that they couldn't stop any of these bills with their long “debates” and they decided to all leave so there wouldn’t be a quorum to conduct legislative business. The problem was that there only needs to be a majority for quorum and the Republicans represent less than one-third of the chamber. So the Democrats planned to just proceed and pass the bills without any Republicans there, but ultimately they ordered the Sergeants at Arms to forcibly bring the Republicans back. And so the Sergeants went after the absent members with the same vigor as stopping people with coffee from going into the committee rooms. Once all the members were back, everything was smoothed over by leaders in both parties coming together to host a pizza and ice cream party for everyone. After that, regular business was able to resume and the majority passed their bills. 
 
It’s ironic that this gigantic, unprecedented, historic (and obviously fake) news happened on Saturday, April 1… Happy April Fool’s Day, by the way. 
 
The reality this week wasn’t quite that exciting, but it did involve long debates and the majority ultimately passing their bills. More on that with guns and abortion, and other big news from this week. Plus we’ll dive into the state budget as introduced and amendments in the Senate, and lastly we’ll touch on the Denver Mayor race that has a big vote coming up in just a few days.