Colorado law bans commercial misuse of people's brain data and thoughts

brainwave data privacy

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill on Wednesday that gives people protection from having the content of their brainwaves misued.

House Bill 24-1058 expands the existing "Colorado Privacy Act" by including biological and neural data. With advances in technology and the increasing collection and analysis of personal information, the bill recognizes the need for enhanced privacy safeguards. — Read the rest

Colorado eliminates sales tax on incontinence products, diapers, period products, corrective glasses, contact lenses, and more

Following up on Colorado Governor Jared Polis' June 9, 2022 "100 ways" to save you money initiative, a new landmark bipartisan law (House Bill 22-1055) was signed on August 8, 2022. The effective start date is unclear, but Feminine hygiene/period products and diapers will be indefinitely exempt from state sales and use tax on either August 10, 2022 or January 1, 2023. — Read the rest

Colorado governor pardons "Balloon Boy" parents

Colorado governor Jared Polis (seen here wearing a Boing Boing T-shirt) granted a pardon to the parents who pleaded guilty for staging the infamous "Balloon Boy" hoax of 2009.

From The Guardian:

In granting executive clemency to Richard and Mayumi Heene, Governor Jared Polis said the couple, now 59 and 56, had paid their debt to society for a "spectacle" that wasted law enforcement time and resources.

Read the rest

Colorado's net neutrality law will deny grant money to ISPs that engage in network discrimination

ISPs want it both ways: they want to be receive billions in indirect public subsidies (access to rights of ways that would cost unimaginable sums to clear) and direct public subsidies (grant money) but still be able to run their businesses without regard to what the public actually wants (a neutral internet, supported by 87% of Americans, in which your ISP sends you the bits you request, as quickly and efficiently as it can).

"Bomb cyclone" snowstorm hits Denver

Denver experienced a "bomb cyclone" snowstorm on Wednesday, with hurricane winds that shut down the runways at Denver International Airport, and parts of the freeway system. CBS news is calling it "the strongest storm in decades." Areas around the city received between 6 and 8 inches of heavy snow. — Read the rest

Colorado congressman to Louisiana colleague: hands off our weed or we will go after your smoked crawfish

US Congressman from Colorado Jared Polis, show here wearing a Boing Boing T-shirt, is a champion of his state's right to use weed both recreationally and medicinally. Recently Rep Polis got into with U.S. Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana, who advocates for states' rights unless its for something he disagrees with such as ending marijuana prohibition. — Read the rest

Happy Mutant congressman: if Bitcoin should be banned, why not dollar bills?


Senator Joe Manchin delivered a grandstanding, technologically clueless, facepalm-inducing request to the Treasury Department to ban Bitcoin. In response, Rep Jared Polis (who proudly wears Boing Boing tee-shirts in his spare time, and rocks some snazzy duds on the floor of Congress) wrote a mock-serious request for dollar bills to be removed from circulation, pointing out that practically every objection that Manchin raised over Bitcoin applies equally well to paper money. — Read the rest

This Day in Blogging History: Happy Mutant Congressman; Kafka's porn stash; WiFi in a camera!

One year ago today

Happy Mutant Congressman has at least two Boing Boing T-shirts in his wardrobe: It was great to see US Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) wearing my "Critter" Boing Boing T-shirt.

Five years ago today

Kafka's porn stash goes public: ​​​​​Excavating Kafka, a new book by James Hawes, includes (for the first time) material gleaned from Kafka's hardcore porn stash, booklets that were published by the same publisher who published Kafka's own work. — Read the rest

New law will fix the DMCA, make jailbreaking, unlocking and interoperability legal – your help needed!

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) have introduced a landmark technology bill called The Unlocking Technology Act of 2013 [PDF] that reforms the way our devices our regulated. It fixes a glaring hole in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), changing the rules so that you are allowed to remove restrictions and locks from your devices provided that you don't violate other laws (as it stands, removing a lock, even to do something legal, like installing unapproved software on your iPhone or change carriers, is banned by the DMCA). — Read the rest