House Bill 1260, the Designated Beneficiaries bill, just passed second reading on the floor in the Colorado House. It has one more final vote in the House before it heads to the Senate.

This bill will make it easier for unmarried people to designate whom they want to make medical and end-of-life decisions on their behalf. It gives these basic legal rights to any two people (two dudes, two gals, a dude and gal, a bro and sis, what-have-you) who go into their local County Clerk's office, fill out a form, and pay a small fee.

We still need your help on the final vote. Click here to send a pre-written letter to your Representative urging a yes vote!

Press release below the jump.

Is it possible for a group of high school students to get a bill passed? I kid you not, a small group of high school students from Kent Denver School researched on the dangers of plastic bags, and were able to get a bill banning plastic bags proposed and passed in its first congressional hearing.  The students helped craft Senate  Bill 156, that will ban all plastic bags from large retail stores starting July 1, 2012. According to Kent students, "the bill is needed to reduce the bags, which consume oil, fill landfills, clog streams, choke animals and generally clutter the planet."  Plastic Bags have been banned in numerous states, in fact San Fransisco banned the usage of plastic bags from retail stores in 2007.  Last Wednesday, Kent students testified in front of the Labor and Technology Committee on the need for Colorado to be an active participant in environmental protection.  With persistent research, Kent students effectively answered all concerns from committee members, and SB 156 passed with a 4-3 party line vote.  The work is not done yet, stay tuned to track the progress of SB 156.  Please take a few minutes and watch the following YouTube video that will describe the effects of plastic bags in our environment.

The age-old debate continues to rage between dogs and cats... I personally am a "cats rule, dogs drool" person. Hopefully, there is one issue that we can all agree upon as loving pet owners. Many Colorado cities such as Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder all require that dogs have some form of identification (microchip or identification tag). The same does not hold for cats. HB 1019 is a bill that is trying to match the existing requirements for all cats over the age of 4 months. The bill stipulates that cats are either microchipped or wear an identification tag, outlaws individuals from removing cat identification tags and requires compliance by owner before an impounded cat can be released. It should also be noted that this bill only affects cats living within cities of a certain size.

To some, this may seem like a "no-brainer" or "dumb" bill.

 Join us for any of the following!

TUESDAY Feb 10
Committee Hearing for the Renewable Energy Finance Act, SB-51 at the Capitol
2pm-5pm
2pm Carpool, meet at New Era Office, 2025 16th St. Boulder CO 80302
Come show your support and drop off all the signatures we get on Friday.

Open Office Happy Hour
6-7pm
New Era Office, 2025 16th St. Boulder CO 80302
Come by to hang out with the New Era family, hear updates on all this legislation and sign-up for other activities we have planned in the weeks to come.

THURSDAY Feb 12th
Committee Hearing for our Online Voter Registration Bill at the Capitol
10:00am (ish)
8:30am Carpool, meet at New Era Office, 2025 16th St. Boulder CO 80302 It would be great if you could show your support for this bill by hangin at the capitol with us.

Roll Call!
9pm-10:30pm
9pm, meet at New Era Office, 2025 16th St. Boulder CO 80302
Join our roller skate team's pub crawl to drum up some support for Online Voter Registration and other legislation!

It seems like a no-brainer, but believe it or not, this bill narrowly failed last year. After County Clerk's offices were swarmed with tens of thousands of new voter registration forms to deal with in this past election, we think we've got a better shot this time. New Era Colorado is bringing the online voter registration bill back to the Colorado Legislature and it's being championed by newly elected State Representative Joe Miklosi.

The Online Voter Registration Bill, HB09-1160, makes its first stop in the House State Affairs Committee this Thursday!

Click here to send a quick note to the Committee Members asking them to support New Era's Online Voter Registration bill! We think it's going to be a close vote, so take 2 minutes and help us get it passed!

Robert Ford, a Senator in the South Carolina State Assembly recently introduced Bill S.56. Which would "Amend the code of laws of South Carolina, 1976, by adding section 16-15-370 so as to make it unlawful to communicate profanity in a public forum or place of public accommodation; by adding section 16-15-430 so as to create the offense of disseminating profanity to a minor and provide a penalty for the offense; to amend section 16-15-305, relating to disseminating obscenity, so as to specify both oral and written publications; and to amend section 16-15-375,relating to definitions for purposes of morality and decency offenses against minors, so as to include the offense of disseminating profanity to a minor."

Essentially it would ban anyone one from swearing publicly, selling parental advisory cd's to anyone under the age of 18 with or without parental consent. And even ban movies like Good Will Hunting, or anything seemingly rated higher than G from the theaters, as they are a place of public accommodations. Furthermore ban comics, musicians, or anyone else providing live entertainment to the public from using foul language.

We're producing a documentary on New Era Colorado's work during the 2008 Election. Here's a sneak peak in pictures. Information on the movie and movie premier coming soon. Seriously.

Building a more hands-on democracy

New Era is now accepting applications for our 2009 internship program. Let us know if you are interested by filling out the super short application here. This isn't your average college internship. You won't be fetching coffee or alphabetizing any files.

Our 2009 internship program is one where you'll learn by doing and will come out with real skills on how to gain power in our political system.  Here's a taste:

• Gain skills through a mix of both classroom setting and on the ground action
  

• Obtain a thorough understanding of the mechanics of the legislative and political system

• Utilize both online and offline forms of outreach for grassroots action

• Organize lobby days at the Colorado Capitol

• Build community organizing campaigns to impact top-level policies
  

• Learn from guest speakers and seasoned politicos on how to lobby, run grassroots campaigns, and enact progressive change on a state-level
  

 Fill out the 2009 intern application here.