University of Denver Sturm College of Law students suing Colorado prison officials will get their week in court starting April 30, representing a mentally ill inmate who has been held in solitary confinement and denied medical treatment for more than a decade.

The mountain pine and spruce beetles are devastating forests in much of Colorado. Aside from remaking landscapes, altering wildlife habitats and increasing the danger of wildfire, avalanche and erosion, they have left Coloradans with the vexing question of what to do with all that dead timber.

DENVER — Like a broken record, House Speaker Frank McNulty, when asked about a proposal to reduce college tuition for qualifying undocumented students, has said again and again that the bill would get “a fair hearing.”

But sponsors of Senate Bill 15, dubbed “Colorado ASSET” by supporters, believe the bill never had a chance following Wednesday’s vote by the House Finance Committee, with all seven Republican members holding the line and voting no, killing the proposal.

Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, who sponsored the bill and ushered it through the Senate, told FOX31 that, after lobbying Republicans on the House Finance Committee, it seemed to him that they were “locked down”, that McNulty may have even demanded no votes on ASSET in exchange for plum committee assignments.

House Republicans, however, take issue with that assertion.