Hello, I'm Kyle Dyer and welcome to Colorado Inside out on this Friday, the 27th of December.

It is our last show of the year.

So let me offer a big welcome to this week's insider panel.

We have Patti Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Krista Kafer, columnist with The Denver Post.

Along with Eric Sandra, columnist with Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette, and Alton Dillard, political analyst and media and public affairs consultant with the dealer group and former election spokesperson for the city and county of Denver.

You all look fabulous.

Very festive.

All right.

Right at the top of the show, I want to mention that this time last year, the things we were talking about, the predictions we were making, the big stories that we thought we would see in this year.

Eric, you mentioned, of course, the election, but we're talking about how Lauren Boebert her, what her chances of being CD four because Ken Buck had just announced he was going to retire.

That's before he left.

Patty, you were talking about how transgender rights were going to be a big issue this year, and that is the case.

And then Krista was talking about a sea change she saw coming and that people were going to go back to normal, wanted to go back to normal, whatever normal is.

Right.

Let's start with you, Patty.

What do you project as being a big story or something that's going to happen in Colorado?

Well, first, I have to say, if this is normal, Krista, thanks a lot.

Obviously waiting to see what is going to happen with Trump when he takes office.

Will Operation Aurora come in?

Will the highland mommies, you know, be set up on the border?

Will journalist arts and Public Broadcasting lose their licenses or their funding?

That's what funding is provided by the government, which isn't that much for and is zero for some.

I'm also concerned about Western land.

So if you looked at Project 2025, William Perry Pedley, who is from here, who was working with the BLM for a while, wrote the chapter and there's a lot of suggested action about selling off public lands, making them less accessible, drilling the hell out of them.

So I think in Colorado, we're going to be watching to make sure that the six people who filed the lawsuit to keep Trump off the ballot aren't thrown in jail.

Enjoy it, Krista, to see what else is going to happen in Aurora and to see what's going to happen to our public land.

All right, Chris, you've been thinking about that.

Well, you know, at first sight, predictions for the new year are going to go with death and taxes.

I think that's a, you know, a good bet.

You know, last night I got another threat letter saying we're coming for you.

This is from Trump's tours.

Obviously, my involvement in that lawsuit has left a lingering bad taste in some people.

That and I think Patty's right.

It could be there could be journalists and others that are targeted.

Maybe, maybe not.

I don't know.

The new normal is interesting.

And on one hand, we've got some balance.

We've got four, four, four Republicans, four Democrats coming from Colorado to the US Congress.

I think that's good.

There's no longer a Democratic supermajority in the state House, so we're going to see some more balance there.

Democrats still have the upper hand, obviously, the person who's probably breathing the biggest sigh of relief is Governor Polis.

I think he'd rather work with a more balanced, less left leaning legislature.

So I think there's a good normal there I'd like to see Lauren Boebert back in the gold dress, back at the theater.

We shall see next year.

You'll have to bring that up again.

Okay.

All right.

Eric, I think the budget, whether it's at the state level or at local levels, Denver and other municipalities around the state, is going to be a big issue.

And there are two reasons for that.

One is economic growth has slowed down distinctly in Colorado and maybe lawmakers and others ought to keep that in mind in evaluating some proposals coming before them.

Secondly, all the COVID relief money has finally gone away four or five years later, and to many entities, the state included built it into their base and now they're going to cry poverty when that money predictably went away.

A couple of other ones, I think the Broncos, it's going to cost me a steak dinner bet.

But yes, the Broncos will make the playoffs and play a playoff game in January.

They'll go to Buffalo and get blown out and that will be the end of that fairly quickly.

And if the last month or so is any Prolog, it's going to be a great ski season in Colorado because there is a bunch of snow up there and let's hope it keeps snowing.

That's hope.

All right.

Alton Well, if anyone ever follows my Facebook, I'm a bit of a foodie, so I'm concerned about the restaurant scene going into 2025 for a variety of reasons.

The number one one is the ones who are citing the need to either close or move out of Denver due to the high minimum wage.

And I was always a back house guy.

I was always the dishwasher.

I was always, you know, doing short order.

And so I understand that that is hard work and restaurants have tight margins.

But the I also remember my first job, the minimum wage was 265.

And so we always talk about on the show various affordability issues.

So that's one thing I'm going to be watching.

And then the other thing I'm thinking about is 20, 25 is going to be the year of the cone.

I was thinking that I'm going to open up a restaurant on Colfax that's going to do both ice cream and have bourbon tasting and called it cone in barrel in honor of Denver, because you're not going to be able to get down Colfax.

You cannot get through Green Valley Ranch.

You can't get up and down Quebec.

So 2025 year the cone.

that's a good one.

All right.

Okay.

Speaking of a minimum wage, it's only going up more in the new year.

Let's talk about some of the new laws that are going to be taking effect come January the first.

Christi, I'll start with you.

Well, first I got to say, I think the cone and barrel option is great.

I no excuse for for day drinking.

And I you know, I'm into it.

But as far as the new laws, the one I find the most perplexing is the cell phone one.

And here's why.

I just read an article that said that Denver police are not doing so many moving violations.

They're not pulling over drivers for things like changing lanes improperly or having a head lighter out or whatever.

They've they've they've backed off on that.

And for those of us who are terrible drivers, that's a good thing.

The reason that they did that, though, is I think there was a concern that certain individuals and communities were being targeted for low level violations in order is kind of an excuse to pull people over.

So I understand why they put that into effect.

But then the legislature comes along and says, we're not going to allow people to drive and have a cell phone.

You can have it on your mantel, you can have earplugs, which you can't have it like this.

And somebody who drives a stick shift and can probably eat hamburger and ice cream cone, use my cell phone and drive, I it's definitely doable to drive carefully being facetious with your cell phone.

Are they going to start pulling people over for these small level things when they've made a commitment not to do that?

And is it going to be used as a pretext to pull over certain drivers that may be off of communities that could be marginalized?

And so I'm curious as to how that's going to come about, given that there is some tension between what's being done and what the law says.

Eric.

I'm going to have a different take on the hands free driving law.

Yes, maybe it smacks of a little bit of nanny ism or Big Brother ism, but I'm okay with that.

There is so much distracted driver driving going on out there a few years ago when the notion of driverless cars was all the rage.

It's been slower to happen and I think some people predicted, though, it is still coming.

And at first I was sort of shocked by the whole notion because I'm one of those people who actually likes driving.

And then I looked around me on the road and I realized, yeah, I'm driving, but most people aren't driving.

Most people are texting.

And given that most people are texting with that as their primary focus, not driving, bring on the driverless cars as fast as you can just for pure safety.

And so people can go about their texting and all their so much more important business than actually paying attention to the road.

I think the minimum wage, you know, Alton mentioned it in the first go round continues to be an issue.

Obviously, we just heard news of what it's going up to in 2025 at the state level.

Our friend, who I often don't agree with but sometimes do, John Caldera, had a recent column about it, which I found very interesting and provocative.

His son Chance is disabled, born with Down syndrome, and just wants a job.

And you know, at 15 some dollars an hour, there's no employer that's going to hire a disabled person like John's son.

But at some lower number, that would be the case.

I know that there are a whole lot of people out there who depend on that minimum wage, But at the end of the day, the market can sort some of this out.

And these are not intended to be career jobs.

They're intended to be starter jobs.

So the state wage is going up to 1481, but every local municipality has a different wage.

Denver It's going up to 1881 an hour.

Wow.

Yeah.

And that again, I think that's going to have impacts, though, as far as the new laws go.

There's a couple you know, back to the one about the cell phone use in the cars.

Yeah, you see people sort of weaving all over the place.

If people were like you good at it.

That be a whole different story.

But people get in and out of their lanes and, you know, you see it all the time.

So I'm with Eric.

I'm for that law.

The one I'm really paying attention to is, you know, we have our gold standard election system here in Colorado.

Now.

There's an expansion of a couple of areas of it.

So now under the new law, preregistration for young people now will start at 15 instead of 16.

So that's interesting.

And then we have currently a 22 day state residency to be able to register to vote.

But one of the things they're doing now is they're going to have the 22 day state residency.

But if you don't have that, you will still be able to vote a provisional ballot for president and vice president.

So that's universal.

So it doesn't make any difference what state you move from.

And so that's another expansion in there.

But the one part that really jumps out at me is what I'm calling the core question.

Election officials really had to deal these past two years with open Records Act requests being weaponized, weaponized in the way that they were just said in they were cut and paste and high volume.

How are you going to conduct an election when you're getting these cut and paste core requests from people all over the country?

So now with the law is going to do is gives election officials more time than the three day turnaround to be able to respond to those.

Okay.

All right, Patti.

Well, some of us do have a lot of career requests and we appreciate the three day and we are not cut and paste hours.

I have to argue with Kristen because you called me on my cell phone as I was coming here today and I should not have answered that telephone because I probably crashed into about five calls to respond to Alton.

I think it's a good law to have at it in, partly because texting is so much worse.

I didn't do that, but I was trying to look for my email to see what time the show started.

I think it is a good thing to do anything we can to make drivers better on the road because it has gotten extremely hazardous on the highways, highway and traffic deaths are up.

Anything that will keep people from being distracted is good and that includes all the crazy road work not just in Denver but around Colorado.

And it pops up without warning.

It would be nice to have warning a block ahead, a quarter mile ahead if you're on I-25.

So we will put our phones down if the government does its bit, too.

Coming up on Tuesday, the 31st, the Natural Medicine Division, a branch of Colorado's Department of Revenue, will start accepting applications for psilocybin healing centers with the plan that they could open by summer.

Eric, I'll start with you.

I just liked that juxtaposition of the horror Department of Revenue, which is essentially tax collectors and motor vehicle quirks and whatever, and a natural medicine division.

Only in Colorado do you get that kind of juxtaposition in color Me and regular viewers and those of you around the table have known this over the years.

Maybe I'm a little bit of an old fuddy or a skeptic on some of the introduction since Colorado was made, whether it's to legalize pot, which I think is very much of a mixed bag, so to speak, or are now the psilocybin, which the voters have legalized, I'm clearly out of step with the voting majority of the state in that regard.

But with regard to psilocybin, I have to say, even though my initial reactions were skeptical and there's some skepticism that remains, I know medical professionals in my personal circles who I'm who I respect, who really believe that it holds potential in many cases.

I have a number of close and dear friends who are using it and finding major relief from different forms of anxiety with psilocybin.

So I'm becoming increasingly open to that, despite all my normal instincts.

Okay.

All right.

And as always, when we're discussing substances, I do have to disclose my client relationship for the one chance to grow up who operates in the space of trying to keep kids away from these certain substances.

So one of the big concerns is the state rulemaking allows psilocybin to be dispensed in the form of chocolate and gummies.

And so we want to make sure there's no false equivalency.

We understand it's not the same direct to consumer dispensary market that cannabis is, but that is a big concern.

And we're also quibbling a little bit with the Department of Natural Medicine because our interpretation is it can be removed from these healing centers by the facilitators.

And if you look at their rules, it says it clearly in there.

But they're saying that is being misinterpreted.

But I also want to shout out the Denver Department of Excise and License.

They had a huge stakeholder ing process around that.

They're going to stick to the state guideline as far as having thousand foot setbacks.

And some places, even like down in Colorado Springs, they're set backs are pushed out to a mile.

So again, Colorado being essentially the substance capital of the world liquor delivery where marijuana mushrooms, you know, there need to be guardrails in place.

Yeah, they do.

All right, Patti.

Well, let me disclose my conflict.

We'll take every advertisement we can get from one of these healing centers, but we'll still also take Alton's calls.

Eric brings up a really important point before we get into just how messy the regulation could be, which is Sue.

Simply down in Arizona, Doctor who's been working with veterans on PTSD issues and the success she has had with psilocybin treatment is amazing.

Doctor Clarissa Pinkel Estes, who watches this show, the author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, a psychologist who has also worked with natural healing and has had incredible success.

So the stories are out there.

Of course, the horror stories are out there, too.

So people are going to have to be careful.

It's not like this stuff is cheap, kind of like gummies.

No one's giving it out for Halloween and they're trick or treat bags.

So just if you are if you are in possession, be careful with if there are children around.

We will watch the government making sure that the stores or the healing spires are careful with how they deal with it.

But I think everything is going to be okay and some people are going to be much better than they have been.

Okay.

All right.

So I guess I have to disclose my my bias during my era of poor choices.

I ended up being hospitalized because of a bad mushroom trip.

So there are risks, obviously, with these with these drugs.

And that's true for marijuana.

That's true for mushrooms.

That's true for anything.

It's, you know, think about opium as a painkiller and all of its various forms is spares a lot of people pain throughout the world.

It's a natural substance, but it also can be highly addictive, lead to death, encourage, you know, suicide for people who have addiction it.

And that's true for all of these drugs.

They all have significant could have significant side effects.

What I see in this state is that we've gone from a kind of system where you could get these things kind of on the sly.

I remember 30 years ago, if you wanted to you know, if you wanted it, you could get it.

Now it's a big business, and big business is continuously pushing this so that people who are sometimes on the margins of society struggling poor, out of work, young people are increasingly taking not just the little bit that they could have gotten in a under market.

They're doing it a lot.

And in doing it a lot are having a having a lot of problems, problems with addiction.

And so my concern is that we've gone from having one addictive substance out there that we've made from a sort of under the table thing to a big business that promotes itself very successfully to now multiple drugs that are pushing themselves on people who, you know, could end up having a hard time.

And so I if you if I were to offer a prediction, again, this is somebody who does see that there can be therapeutic value to all of these drugs, is that we're going to see more people in difficult positions ending up with addictions, ending up with bad experiences, possibly ending up in the hospital.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you all.

I would like each of you now to announce who you think gets the designation of Colorado's Person of the Year.

Earlier this month, Time magazine chose President elect Donald Trump as its person of 2024.

So if we're just thinking about Colorado, who do you think deserves that kind of recognition?

Person of the Year.

I am starting with you, Alton.

Person of the Year for me is Matt Crain, the executive director of the Colorado County Clerk's Association, just for the way that he handled the Tina Peters issue, the way that he handled the fiasco with the secretary of state's office.

Matt Crane is a conservative Republican, but he is never been an election denier and he's never been a partizan in that role.

And keep in mind that he has to play a role, along with clerk Molly Fitzpatrick, whose president of the clerk's association in cat herding 64 clerks, whether they are rural, whether they are urban.

So hats off to Matt.

That's a good one.

All right, Paddy, who do you choose?

A conservative, a Republican who probably is an election denier but has made such an impact over the last year.

Danielle Krinsky, the councilwoman in Aurora who really took the Venezuelan gaming story and ran with it, ran to the national media outlets, got the video, talked to the people, set quite the agenda for Colorado for the last half of the year and maybe going into the new year with Operation Aurora.

She listened to the tenants whether or not she was completely accurate in what she presented.

She made that a national story big time.

All right, Chris, your choice.

I'm going to give it to senior statesman, stateswoman Norma Anderson, a long time served in both houses of our General Assembly and then became the lead litigant in the 14th Amendment case of which I was involved.

She's 92.

She is still as smart, stately and and courageous as she's ever been.

Okay.

All right.

And Eric.

Well, Kristen, I did not coordinate.

I was going to go in the same direction and particularly for Norma Anderson as more of a lifetime achievement award as well.

But since did did that let me keep it a little lighter.

Time magazine also, in addition to not naming Donald Trump as person of the Year named Caitlin Clarke as Athlete of the Year, and in that same spirit of promoting women's sports, I'll give mine to the trio of Coloradans who were so dominant in leading the U.S. women's National soccer team to the gold medal in Paris.

Three Coloradans Lindsey Haran, Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith.

And hooray for them.

Absolutely.

Hooray.

You know, on a sports kind of note, too, how about Miss Peggy, Colorado's Person of the Year?

Right.

She had a big year that everybody loves.

Yeah.

Give us.

All right.

Let's talk about some of the highs and lows from this week or this year.

Let's start with the lows, Patti.

What is something that you would be saying good riddance to?

I hope in 2025 we can say good riddance to Dave Williams, because we've certainly talked about him and what he's done to the Colorado Republican Party enough this year.

All right.

I think that's genius and I'm going to ride with it.

It's time to get rid of him and his his subordinates as well, and to promote people that can really take the party to the next step, which is people who are focused on policy, on making a difference.

We've got we've seen some things in the state where the state has fallen in terms of productivity, in terms of GDP, in terms of people moving here.

And I think that Republicans can offer a really great alternative.

And the only way they're going to be able to do that is if they jettison him and bring in some really smart, really focused people to do the job.

All right, Eric, what do you saying?

So long, too.

Well, I think having Chris goes without saying this of Dave Williams, but I'm going to go to the other side of the aisle and maybe play against type a little bit here.

I'm going to say good riddance to Joe Biden.

I think regardless of all the apprehension that's out there and that I share about what comes next, Joe Biden squandered a lot.

He was he had promised to be a transitional president, a bridge president, a bridge to the new generation.

I think between staying in that race way too long to not provide Democrats with an opportunity to move on.

Now, the pardon of his son, Hunter, who clearly has issues that he probably should answer for.

I'm ready to turn the page on Joe Biden.

All right.

And you all.

Tonight and my good riddance is personal.

We've been talking about Operation Aurora.

I'm going to talk about Operation Alton Dillard.

I have been in more surgical centers and hospitals this year than I hear to even think about.

I'm blessed to have good, you know, health insurance, etc., etc..

But I would like a year with no procedures.

Absolutely.

I think that's a good one.

All right.

Let's talk about something great, something that made you happy smile this week or this year, something that gives you hope.

It is a hard time for restaurateur is, but one restaurant is really making it big in Denver and is blowing up nationally, which is I'm often the FENA in low.

Hi, Johnny, Carol and his wife Casey are doing an incredible job.

I so want to go there then.

Esquire in Bon Appetit everywhere.

Okay.

All right.

I love that Aurora jettisoned its pit bull ban.

Some of these dogs are absolutely fantastic.

And as somebody who used to volunteer at a municipal dog pound, it used to be in these places, those animals were systematically put down.

And so I love the fact that people have come to understand that breed.

It's a serious breed.

You got to do do their work.

But I'm really glad that these these dogs are no longer on death row.

Okay, Eric.

There's a lot of angst out there and there's a lot of preoccupation out there with the failings of our political system.

I share a lot of that, and I fall victim to the preoccupation too much of the time.

But at the same time, there is a lot of beauty in the world, the mountain beauty that we're privileged to spend a good chunk of our time in people's hearts, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum in most most cases are are positive and warm.

And I think we ought to celebrate that.

That brings us together and the beauty in the world.

At the same time, we pay attention to all the dysfunction around us.

I want to come give you a hug.

Lovely.

All right.

And mine is looking forward to 2025 as a calm nonpartizan election year.

There will be things like, you know, school board races, maybe some state issues, maybe some local issues that are going to pop up in November.

But nothing like the heat that we saw in 2024.

So for all my friends who are still working day to day in the elections administration business, hoping for a nice calm 2020.

Five, I think that is perfect.

All right.

My high is that we're not only looking back on 2024 and focusing on all the possibilities that await us in 2025, but as a team we have completed now are come on up 32nd year of Colorado inside out here on PBS 12.

We're going to drink to that.

By the way, it wouldn't happen.

The show wouldn't happen with all the people behind the scenes, the production team, the ones who decorated this set for the holiday.

Right.

And of course, our team of top notch insiders who come every single week ready to chat.

I appreciate you all.

I guess we could just pass this down, although it might get messy.

I appreciate you for for joining us to end the year.

I appreciate those other insiders who are at home who are not with us.

We love you and we appreciate our viewers and those who watch every week who listen to our podcast.

The show is growing.

I'm happy.

We're happy.

Happy New Year.

No, but don't mix it with your mushroom.

Enjoy your sparkling cider.

Enjoy your real cider next week.

Happy New Year.

We'll see you next year here on PBS 12 PBS's 12 believes in the power of original local programing.

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