Significant Digits For Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016

Gov. Jared Polis this week signed a bill into law that allows students to wear objects of cultural or religious significance during graduation ceremonies. HB24-1323 prohibits preschools, public K-12 schools and higher education institutions from restricting what students may wear under their graduation attire. However, schools are still allowed to prevent students from wearing an adornment that is likely to disrupt or interfere with a graduation ceremony, according to the bill. Last year, a Mexican-American student at Grand Valley High School in Parachute was told by officials from the school and Garfield County School District 16 that she couldn’t wear a stole decorated with both the American flag and Mexican flag during her graduation ceremony. Related Articles Politics | New law requires Colorado middle and high schools to provide free period products in bathrooms Politics | Colorado to use $20 million from Juul vaping settlement to fund youth mental health services Politics | Why is it so hard for Colorado’s new graduates to find jobs? Politics | Dinosaur footprints, fossils discovered “in our own backyard” in Broomfield Politics | Denver Public Schools to consider placing nearly $1 billion bond measure on November ballot While the governor said he supported what he called the bill sponsors’ “reinforcement of cultural and religious freedom,” Polis raised concerns about the legislation, which he said mirrored a broader trend this session of bills that included language preventing schools from seeking a waiver from the state Board of Education related to the legislation. “As someone who believes strongly in innovation and local control in education, I do not feel it is wise to statutorily prohibit alternative approaches that schools may use for accomplishing any piece of legislation’s core objectives,” Polis said in a signing statement addressed to the Colorado General Assembly.

This article is part of The D. C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. For about half of this country, former President Donald Trump’s boorish behavior is reason enough to pass on signing up for another four years of his bombast in the White House.

Officials overseeing Denver’s sprawling National Western Center say they have found a development team that can bring a hotel, a parking garage and an equestrian center to the campus that’s been undergoing massive redevelopment since 2019. Thursday’s announcement marks a tentative step forward for a critical missing piece of the National Western Center landscape.

Hunter Biden, the second son of U. S. President Joe Biden, is currently on trial for charges of lying about his drug use on background check documents when purchasing a handgun in 2018. The President’s son has struggled with addiction for much of his adult life, and went through a particularly intense period after his brother, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] In 1972, when they were just toddlers, Hunter and Beau survived a tragic car accident that left their mother, President Biden’s first wife Neilia Hunter Biden, and their younger sister Naomi Christina Biden dead.

Donald Trump's former campaign manager and advisor Steve Bannon cried crocodile tears at the courthouse today after being ordered to begin his prison sentence on July 1 for his conviction for contempt of Congress. The scurrilous Real America's Voice host was sentenced to four months in prison, but was out on appeal. Bannon whined that the Justice Department and Merrick Garland were putting him behind bars to silence him, which is a lie. Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, the entire Justice Department, they're not going to shut up Trump, they're not going to shut up Navarro, they're not going to shut up Bannon, and they're certainly not going to shut up MAGA. Bannon had refused to provide "documents and testimony to the House Select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.

Our judicial system is structurally good and can be repaired if we pay attention and avoid another round of presidential election fraud.