President Obama will be in Grand Junction, CO today to talk about the health care reform bill. Right-wing activists are calling out their troops:

Organizers of what’s now known as a “Hands Off My Health Care” rally are expecting 3,500 to 4,000 people in Lincoln Park at 10 a.m., including tea-party and other activists from the Front Range and Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico.

“We are asking everyone to wear a solid red, white or blue shirt, show our patriotism and to contrast the purple shirts worn by SEIU activists,” Nancy Rumelt of Loveland said in an e-mail, referring to the Change for America campaign of the Service Employees International Union.

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The FBI was busy in Denver today, raiding medical marijuana businesses, but, the U.S. Attorneys' office says they weren't after the pot -- even though they seized it.

FBI has busted an operation run by Russians who they say came up with an elaborate scheme to steal from credit card companies that somehow involves a local medical marijuana business and a local car dealership, according to sources and the U.S. Attorney's office.

Law enforcement officers arrested four people Friday morning across the metro area who were allegedly part of the bank fraud operation. FBI agents also served search warrants at more than a dozen locations, including personal residences, auto dealerships and the medical marijuana business called Alternative Medicine of Southeast Denver (AMSD), a company that is the same building as CannaMed, on Leetsdale Drive in Denver. CannaMed is where people can apply to get medical marijuana.

Four persons of Russian nationality were arrested and charged with bank fraud and making false statements on loan applications. [More...]

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), a first-term Congressman I like very much, held a townhall meeting on health care today outside a King Soopers grocery store in Brighton, CO, which is about 1/2 hour northeast of Denver.

Some of the signs these protesters carry are just nuts. Like, "Jesus is My Single Payer" and "Seniors, Get Your Death Pill here" (photos from Complete Colorado, whose coverage of the event is here.)

To his credit, Rep. Perlmutter actually sat down and listened to folks discuss health care.

Mike Ditto (Progress Now, former online communications director for Mark Udall and many others and former TalkLeft webmaster) had his car vandalized . His twitter feed of the event is here. You Tube video of damage here -- they got almost every panel of the car. Photo's below:

I just got back from the health care event at the Stout St. medical clinic for the homeless, sponsored by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and attended by Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I got lots of pictures outside and was allowed inside for the press conference. I got right up front with the network camera crews and took lots of video. I also interviewed a 16 year old protester on why he objected to the health care bill. It will take me a while to upload, so check back.

There was no disruption of anything by the protesters. They were outside the clinic. Only 70 people, mostly press, were allowed inside the clinic. When I left at the end of the press conference, the street was empty. They had no effect on what went on inside. A total waste of their time.

Update: Videos and Photos below (all uploaded now.)

Via Firedoglake, I see the "teabaggers" will be out in force tomorrow at a health care event being conducted at a medical clinic for the homeless by Colorado Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. More details here.

I'll be attending, so if you're in the neighborhood, come on down.

Nancy Pelosi, Jared Polis and Diana DeGette will be at Denver’s Stout Street Clinic Tomorrow.

When: August 6, 2009, Time: 2:00 PM
Where: Stout Street Clinic
2100 Broadway, Denver, CO

Speaker Pelosi and Members of the Colorado Delegation will see firsthand how the economic recovery funds are being used to offer vital health care services, create jobs, and lay the foundation for health insurance reform,” DeGette’s office said Wednesday in a statement.

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While waiting for Weeds to start, my TV remote landed on ABC and a concert by Sugarland, who I think are great. They were singing Genevieve,the song in the video above, and I couldn't believe how much it sounded like Long Black Veil. The chords, the tempo, everything. The singing starts at 35 seconds in. Check out the three versions of Long Black Veil below, one with Johnny Cash, one with The Band, and one with Bruce Springsteen: [More...]

Huffington Post is expanding to several cities to focus on local news. Denver is one of the cities. The Washington Post reports that Ethan Axelrod, the 22 year old son of Obama advisor David Axlerod, will be running the Denver edition. David Axlerod was a reporter for the Chicago Tribune before beoming a political advisor.

The younger Axelrod started yesterday as editor of the Huffington Post's new local edition in Denver, the third of a dozen planned sites that have already launched in New York and Chicago and will next target Los Angeles. He applied for the job, was interviewed by Arianna Huffington along with other candidates, and was tapped after submitting a mockup of the Denver home page. The site goes live in September.

Welcome to Denver, Ethan. I think it's great we'll be getting a new quality news site, especially now that we're down to one local paper.

Ms. Hepatitis C, Kristen Diane Parker, faces an additional 42 charges in the Indictment (pdf) against her that was returned today.

All of the new charges only cover Parker's alleged conduct at Rose and not her last employer, Audubon. Testing on patients continues, and more charges could come in later indictments.

Parker could spend the rest of her life in prison if she is convicted.

Background here.

Colorado has had a medical marijuana law, passed by voters as an amendment to the state constitution, since 2000. Recently, someone got the idea to have the Colorado State Board of Health try and limit dispensaries from supplying more than five patients.

Monday, there was a hearing. 500 activists, from police officers who support medical marijuana to those in wheelchairs and Iraq vets with PTSD, showed up to try and defeat the proposal. It worked.

For starters, they motivated off their couches and packed the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus to protest a proposal to limit medical marijuana providers to five patients each. The audience was made up of persons in wheelchairs and crutches, reefer-promoting police officers, AIDS and cancer patients, and a woman who described herself as a “pro-life Republican mother.”

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Last week I wrote about Kristin Diane Parker, a lab tech in Colorado who may have infected up to 5,700 with the Hepatitis C virus. Parker confessed to police that she stole syringes filled with the pain-killer Fentanyl from the OR, shot herself up, put saline in the used syringes and replaced them on the rack in the OR. After getting fired, she admitted she went to work in Colorado Springs where she did the same thing.

Parker was denied bail yesterday. Her parents were in court and offered to have her live with them. But, the Magistrate said, she was living with them when she diverted drugs. He said she was a danger to the community. And did not believe her or her lawyer who tried to say she didn't know she carried the virus. A nurse said she knew.

I think there probably were conditions that would have reasonably assured the safety of the community and her appearance at further proceedings -- like bail conditioned upon her admission to an in-patient drug treatment program.

And while it doesn't bear on bond, my sympathies lie with the patients in the OR who needed pain medication and might have gotten saline instead. [More..]

This is a gruesome story. Kristen Diane Parker, a lab/surgery tech at Rose Hospital in Denver (one of our most prominent medical centers) who was infected with Hepatitis C, stole syringes filled with the pain-killer Fentanyl from the OR, shot herself up, put saline in the used syringes and replaced them on the rack in the OR. She got fired and went to work in Colorado Springs where she did the same thing.

Rose Hospital is sending out letters to everyone who had surgery during the months she worked there to advise them they may be exposed to Hepatitis C.

Authorities say Parker admitted to changing out syringes containing a saline solution with ones filled with the painkiller Fentanyl. Parker injected herself with the drug, according to a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver.

An affidavit by Mary F. LaFrance, an investigator for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says at least nine surgery patients at Rose have tested positive for hepatitis C, which is incurable. About 6,000 patients are being advised they may have been exposed and need to be tested.

The affidavit supporting the federal criminal charges against her is here (pdf). [More...]