WEEK OF MAY 25, 2023
VOLUME 36 | ISSUE 25
FREE
Marshall highlights his top bills in freshman session BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Thinking her active life was over, Fuller gained 50 pounds and in her words, “lost myself.” During her second pregnancy, two disks in her back herniated and she was put on disability. “At one point I was crawling, it was pretty awful,” said Fuller. “I hit rock bottom and suffered from postpartum depression.” Soon, Fuller started to move again after a friend recommended a Zumba class. But the moment that changed
State Rep. Robert Marshall, D-Highlands Ranch, hosted a couple postsession town halls last week, specifically highlighting five bills that he brought to the Colorado General Assembly. With lawmakers introducing over 600 bills in the 2023 session, Marshall was the prime sponsor for a handful of them. “Once you see how the sausage is made, the stuff I was able to get was actually, I think, pretty impressive,” said Marshall. One of the bills was HB23-1208 Income Tax Credit for Eligible Teachers, which made it out of the education and finance committees but died in appropriation as he was told there was not enough money, according to Marshall. Rep. Matt Soper, R-Mesa County, and Sen. Janice Rich, R-Mesa County, joined Marshall in sponsoring the bill. If passed, the bill would have given state income tax credit for a licensed teacher who is employed as a full-time public school teacher for at least half of an academic year. Marshall also talked about HB23-1180 County Commissioner Elections. The bill failed but would have modified county commissioner elections in counties with a population of over 70,000, requiring boards to have five instead of three members. If passed, the Douglas County Commission would have been impacted by the bill, along with six other counties “To me it was a pure good governance bill on its merits,” said Marshall. “It would not have affected the overall power structure, there might have been an additional voice brought in the government.” What Marshall called “three bills wrapped in one” was HB23-1206 County Sheriffs and District Attorney’s, which proposed prohibiting certain political activities by county sheriff ’s office employees. “I was trying to import the DOD regulation on extremism into Colorado law to apply to law enforcement,” said Marshall. According to Marshall, it would require the district attorney’s and sheriff ’s to run as non-partisan positions as well as apply the federal Hatch Act in counties. The Hatch Act is a federal law passed
SEE NINJA, P8
SEE MARSHALL, P6
Angela Fuller on the American Ninja Warrior course at Universal Studios Hollywood.
COURTESY ANGELA FULLER
Local mom to compete on American Ninja Warrior Overcomes obstacles to succeed BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Once a competitive gymnast and cheerleader, Angela Fuller thought her active life was over after suffering a debilitating back injury. Now, the Highlands Ranch mom was selected out of thousands to compete on the upcoming season
of American Ninja Warrior. In the early morning of St. Patrick’s Day, Fuller, a 42-year-old married mom of two children, stood on the stage at Universal Studios Hollywood, preparing to run the course, when memories flooded back to how she got to this point. Fuller grew up in Littleton and was a competitive gymnast and cheerleader. She cheered at Colorado State University. Not long after graduating from college, Fuller broke her back in a car accident.
CALENDAR: 11 | VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 14 | SPORTS: 22
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