Thurs Blogcast: SROs back to Denver high schools; Ice-T; Shannon Bream

A Correction re HB23-1190 "Right of First Refusal" bill

Economorons Rep Emily Sirota and Sen Faith Winter are sponsoring a bill that would give the state, or another governmental authority to which it delegates the right, a right of first refusal to intercede in a valid real estate sale to buy (at the price agreed upon between the seller and the willing private buyer) any multi-family or mixed-use property that includes rental residences, aka apartments. I used an example of a single-family home but the bill does not include those. (I wish they'd made that clearer in the bill's very long summary; I found it later well into the text of the bill.) I apologize for the error but my objection is otherwise unchanged.

If the state wants to buy a property that someone is selling, they can put in an offer just like anyone else.

HB 1190 would stifle affordable housing | OPINION | Opinion | coloradopolitics.com

More broadly, don't forget that Democrats don't believe in property rights, to wit: Just Cause Requirement Eviction Of Residential Tenant | Colorado General Assembly

Just One Thing: The Tay Effect

UPDATE: The 17-year-old student who shot two deans at East High School in Denver on Wednesday has been found dead in rural Park County of an apparent suicide: East High School shooting suspect found dead near car in Park County (KDVR via msn.com)

When Tay Anderson, who goes by Auon'tai now, first got on to the Denver school board at the age of 22 or thereabouts, he somehow got the adults to go along with his half-baked idea of taking all police officers out of Denver Public Schools. Yesterday, a student shot two deans at Denver East High School (apparently while they were searching him for weapons) and the police department said that they’ll have officers at the school for the rest of the year. Mayor Hancock is also in favor of returning cops to schools. And now we've learned that the superintendent is going to order SROs stationed at DPS's "comprehensive" high schools regardless of school board policy. But here’s a question: The 17-yr old shooter is subject to a so-called safety plan which means he’s searched for weapons every day when he comes to school. Why is someone who needs to be searched for a gun every day in school rather than in jail? Let’s ask Tay, shall we?

Also, especially because (at least to this point it appears that) nobody died in this incident, it's somewhat easier to focus on other key issues, like the frustration and anger of East HS students' parents. I told my boss at the radio station that I thought this was the most interesting and arguably most important part of what happened yesterday, after the obvious importance of the injury to the two East deans (video immediately below): Upset parents confront Denver mayor, police chief after shooting at school | FOX31 (kdvr.com)

Update: The shooter had previously been expelled from Overland High School: (17) Rob Harris on Twitter: "Just confirmed with Cherry Creek Public Schools that Austin Lyle was expelled from Overland High School for “violations of board policy”" / Twitter

Today's Guests

Ice-T is an original West Coast "gangsta rap" star and TV star with over 20 years playing (now-Sergeant) Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit". (His character first appeared in the first episode of the 2nd season.)

His new podcast is "Ice-T's Daily Game." It's about words and wisdom, and it's really interesting (and most episodes are fairly short, which I like.)

Ice-T, Musician, Rapper, Songwriter, Actor, Record Executive, Record Producer, and Author. (icet.com)

Ice-T - Wife, Movies & Age (biography.com)

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In quite the juxtaposition to our first guest, Shannon Bream is: female, blonde, an actual attorney, lives on the East Coast, and has a dog named Biscuit. I don't know if she was ever a rapper but she is, like Ice-T, quite well-known on television which may be the only thing they have in common. But seriously, Shannon has what might be the single best job on cable news: she's the host of Fox News Sunday. She's also Fox's senior Supreme Court reporter (it helps that she has a law degree.)

Shannon is a best-selling author of a series of bible-based books, the newest of which is "The Love Stories of the Bible Speak" which will be released next Tuesday but you can pre-order now.

Fox News Sunday | Fox News

Other Stuff

IF YOU HAVE EZRICARE ARTIFICIAL TEARS EYEDROPS, RETURN THEM OR DISPOSE OF THEM IMMEDIATELY: CDC Warns Against These Eye Drops After 3 Deaths, 4 Surgical Eyeball Removals (today.com)

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Time to go to Dunkin': Colorado Starbucks workers join nationwide strike as contract negotiations drag on | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

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I don't have a strong opinion as to whether this is a good idea or a bad idea because I haven't thought about it much, but one thing is for sure: don't ever let Jared Polis tell you that he cares about "local control" as a matter of principle: Colorado governor, Democrats unveil major effort to boost housing by directing local land-use policy. Here’s what it would do. (coloradosun.com)

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I'm REALLY struggling with this one: On the one hand it feels close to "cruel and unusual" and on the other hand it seems like it should be a huge deterrent to committing felonies. That said, I don't think it's too insane to argue that it could actually incentivize a police officer to kill one of a group of criminals even if he doesn't necessarily think that they pose a significant risk to life and limb.

Specifically: In Alabama, if you commit a felony during which anyone dies, you can be charged with murder. In this case, these guys were burglarizing a house and a police officer showed up and killed one of the crooks (a 16-yr old). Another teen (15 at the time) who was with the now-dead teen was charged with, and convicted of, murder.

Man sentenced to 30 years after police officer shot friend | The Independent

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Speaking of the police, another confidence-inspiring story: South Carolina deputies disciplined after 1 shot during ‘horseplay’ while training | WBTW

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Congress is in a fairly tough spot here: They rightly believe that the Chinese-owned TikTok video sharing platform represents a national security risk but it's also non-trivial to move toward an outright ban of one of the most popular apps in the world. (This article says 150 million Americans use TikTok.) Today's grilling of TikTok CEO should be quite a spectacle, with some good and useful questions and many politicians preening for the camera:

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress. Here's what to know - The Washington Post

This will give you a sense of how insanely popular the app is: https://www.omnicoreagency.com/tiktok-statistics

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"Our buffalo wings are 0% buffalo." Beer, Wings, Sports and Plaintiff Attorneys (WSJ)

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Is there a risk that just a few companies come to dominate AI, and if so what would that mean? Risk of ‘industrial capture’ looms over AI revolution | Financial Times (ft.com)

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Well then, maybe don't do it? 78% of Americans find hosting Easter dinner stressful: poll (nypost.com)

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I like the bit about the violation letter: Stellantis Media - The Most Powerful Muscle Car in the World: 1,025-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 Sets New Performance Benchmarks (stellantisnorthamerica.com)

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I love these stories: Fisherman finds photos on stranger's lost camera after it sat 13 years in water | Fox News