another week.

Another lawsuit that Colorado is joining against the Trump administration.

Denver Public Schools also filed a lawsuit against the administration this week, and a judge in Colorado Springs has told the city to redo its plans to get a measure on the ballot in April.

We certainly are in litigious times.

And isn't this week supposed to be about love and harmony?

Let's get to the heart of it all on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hello, everyone, and happy Valentine's Day.

I am Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Alton Dillard, political analyst and media and public affairs consultant with The Dillard Group and former election spokesperson for the City and County of Denver.

Sage Naumann, conservative columnist, commentator and strategist, and owner of Anthem Communications.

And Alvina Vasquez, an advocacy leader here in Denver and member of the PBS 12 Community Advisory Board.

In the last three weeks since Inauguration Day, Colorado has joined in on four lawsuits against the Trump administration, the most recent suit being to halt the stop in funding to NIH will have, which will have a drastic impact on research taking place here in Colorado.

And then on Wednesday this week, Denver Public Schools filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and a restraining order to keep Ice agents off school grounds.

Another busy week.

Patty, I'll start with you.

So busy that yesterday I went to get another cup of coffee and I came back from the kitchen and Robert F Kennedy Jr had been approved by the Senate.

You can't take your eyes off things for a second or you're going to miss yet another horror.

Wednesday was a really interesting move by Denver Public Schools, although we have yet to actually hear that Ice has gone into a school.

I, I applaud them for taking that proactive stance.

You want kids to be able to get an education despite all the craziness that's out there.

We do know during the first raids that there were Ice or federal vehicles went by, school busses, school busses had to take detours, but there's been no evidence yet that they're going into schools.

Still, I like that preemptive strike.

Phil Weiser, is that one of the busiest men in town?

Because he keeps needing to file these suits.

And you don't know what judge will do.

Something next will be overturned.

You know, one of the fascinating ones is the birthright issue.

And our own John Eastman, who got us in so much trouble when he was at see you and then worked to defend Trump on the January 6th issue.

He's supposedly is leading some of the charge against the birthright issue.

So it's going to be endless.

Okay.

Walton.

Yes.

To your threshold question.

Are we in up with Tejas era?

Yes we are.

My goodness.

Because one of the things I'm looking at locally is the effect of these cuts on the medical research.

You know, a lot of our universities are really big players in that space.

And I understand that, you know, the Trump administration believes they have a quote unquote mandate.

And yes, there are ways to ferret out waste in government.

But you don't do it on the backs of the federal employees, and you definitely don't do it on the back of research facilities.

on the briefly on the Doge and treasury issue, that's yet another one of the things that's in litigation.

And this is like revenge of the Dude Bros. You've got these 18, 19, 20, 21 year old guys with access to sensitive information that definitely needs to be backstop.

So I'll be watching that one very closely.

Yeah.

When you talk about Anschutz, they're talking about $74 million of life saving, potentially life saving research could be nixed.

And all this, sage.

Clearly, the Trump administration is going to basically take a very broad approach to hacking as much of government as they can.

And with that, there's going to be collateral damage.

There's two things I want people to keep in mind.

Number one is we are at 35, $36 trillion worth of debt.

And the fact is that somebody has to do something so that we don't have to cut everything in the future.

That doesn't mean that everything that Elon Musk and Doge is doing is is correct or perfect or is going to actually be proved to be constitutional.

The second thing I want people to keep in mind is that Donald Trump and his administration still work off the same exact, currency as any other administration, and that's called political capital.

And there is only so much that they can cut that people consider to be life saving care.

Valid, you know, grants and things where money needs to go before people start saying, wait a minute, I support you going after fraud and abuse.

That wasn't fraud and abuse.

And hopefully the things that people do, like we can actually validate them, we can actually defend them and they will be refunded.

Okay.

Lina.

Well, when it comes to the debt, Republicans are again trying to get corporate welfare and do more corporate tax cuts, which would raise the debt ceiling up.

Is the budget that they propose.

So when it comes to that issue, that's what I have to say to the cuts.

I do agree with sage that there's going to be there's going to be a point when his political and social capital comes back at him.

My guess is he doesn't really care and he's going to do whatever he wants.

It's all for the interest of his wallet and the wallet of his cronies.

I think it's completely ineffective to have non elected officials running our Treasury like our Treasury office, because how do you hold that person accountable?

You know, Elon Musk was in, Trump's office saying, well, we can't have a bureaucracy where there's people making decisions.

And yet he's not elected and he's the one making decisions for our country.

Those are super scary things.

And I hope that the courts can stop it.

But then how is the court going to enforce their decisions?

I think that's another question that hasn't been answered, is if the courts disagree with Trump and say, you can't do that, as with the funding freeze, he's still doing it.

What's next?

What is next?

The question.

In Colorado Springs, there has been another twist regarding the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Voters said yes to it back in November when the city wanted to do a revote.

A judge said no.

And now it looks like there will be a new version of this repeal question coming towards voters this spring in our election expert.

I will start with you.

There is so much to unpack there.

But first of all, we'd like to disclose my client relationship with One Chance to Grow Up, the community nonprofit that works in the space of keeping kids away from today's high octane marijuana products.

So the issue of what voters do and do not understand has a very interesting history.

So all the way from the statehouse, where legislation was run, to make sure that people understand that yes means for and no means against, and then you get to Colorado Springs where they're like, oh, maybe the voters weren't 100% sure what they voting on as far as this issue.

There's also economic arguments going on down there because people are saying, okay, we already have a medical market, but if people are going to go recreational, they're going to go to, you know, say Manitou.

Are they going to go to Pueblo or somewhere like that?

So once again, like we talked about in question one, now it's back in the kicking back and forth in the courts, and now we have to see if there will be yet another appeal.

Yeah.

Okay.

So so yeah, full disclosure for me as well.

I did work on the yes campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs last year, and I have no doubt I will work on the campaign, to, to preserve it, coming up here soon.

With that being said, my, I always keep my opinions of my own.

Look at the way I see this is the voters spoke.

They had an election.

They said, we want this.

and the city council, obviously leaning more conservative Republicans, says, well, we don't like that, so we're going to try again.

The problem is that, number one, that sets a terrible precedent for anything in the future that any time the voters speak, can, you know, the legislature or another city council just simply overturn it every single time?

That's really not a great way to govern.

First and foremost, whether or not it's Constitution.

secondly, you know, I think that the city council is hoping that there's going to be a reduced turnout in a special election, and that's why they're going to win this one, because, oh, we're not going to have younger folks, folks who would be more willing to do this because we had obviously, in a presidential year, you have a lot more turnout.

Again, that's really not a great way to govern.

The fact is that the majority of voters in an election with high turnouts said, we want this, we'll see how it plays out.

Obviously, the courts have now ruled twice in, I think, a week.

but, it's it's unfortunate that the city council has decided to so quickly try to basically overturn the will of the people with a, an election that will have lower turnout.

Alvina I think the big picture, thing to think about is the Democrats, the Democrats have a trifecta.

They've been in charge for a while.

And so Republicans have been trying to legislate and do things through the ballot.

So what does this kind of precedent set?

Are they testing the market to see if they can continue to do this?

If they vote, for example, on abortion measures, and they want to take it to the courts and, you know, remove it or rephrase it and then doing it in a non, popular election when people don't know what's going on, And unfortunately, because that's the only tool that they have right now, they're probably going to be leaning that.

So I'm curious to see if this is a testing cycle for them.

Are they going to test this out and see if they can do it for bigger initiatives down the road?

Okay.

And, Patty.

As long as we're doing disclosures, our paper has been called West Weed.

Weed word.

we are the only company maybe in Colorado that doesn't do drug tests.

So with that as background, it was a it was amendment 64 was pushed by people, not by them, not by Republicans.

Back when marijuana was legalized in 2012.

And many municipal.

You've still got the option.

You can opt you can do you can make votes.

Several municipalities in the metro area don't have marijuana.

Denver, obviously, was an early adopter.

Colorado Springs has always been a mess about this issue, and has always really wanted to defy what the population in Colorado Springs wants.

They've had no trouble with their medical marijuana stores.

The problem in Colorado Springs has been people want access to other products.

So they do go to Manitou Springs.

They do go to Pueblo.

It would be nice if the government just let Colorado Springs residents do what they want to do.

That is legal.

And just one other point on that is remember the right to referendum is in state law and it's in local law.

So yes it's you know sounds like well governments overruling the will of the people.

But the people also have a chance through petition processes to overturn local legislation that they don't like.

So it's not just beat up on government on this one.

Okay.

All right.

Another long weekend is upon us.

And that means a lot of people are headed in.

The roads are hitting the roads again.

And, last week or in this last week, a lot of attention has been placed on safety issues and the amount of accidents on our roads and what can be done to make our roads safer.

We hope sage I, we'll start with you.

Yeah.

You know, roads have been.

Yeah.

When I started working in the legislature back in 2017, roads were a huge topic.

Well, how how can we put more money towards our roads and bridges?

and unfortunately, I think that we're getting to a point now where especially municipalities and counties are saying, hey, we have to do something about this, because unfortunately, roads and bridges aren't they're not sexy.

They're not the they're not the thing that captures people's attention and grabs headlines because we all acknowledge it's an issue, but it's not something that, you know, people are throwing punches over necessarily, especially in our hyperpartisan an environment we're in.

you know, I think that the legislature can only kick this can down the road for so long.

I see, especially with counties and municipalities stepping up to say, hey, something needs to be done.

They do have a powerful voice in that capital.

And so as this continues to rise to the top of their priority list.

I think they're going to be a huge driver and getting things done.

that being said, I you know, right now our our state is cutting out of its budget.

you know, and so I don't think that JBC is going to be looking to prioritize it.

I don't think the legislators can look to prioritize it this year, but it's not something that we can ignore for very much longer.

You know.

Well, we can't ignore.

It is in the headlines.

It is sexy because Trump has said that he's going to cut federal funding for Colorado because of the values, because of Colorado values, something that we're all proud about having.

And so unfortunately, it's become a Partizan issue where we have a president who, you know, doesn't like Colorado and is going to do everything he can to make it uncomfortable and unsafe for families in Colorado.

And that's just the reality of our politics right now.

Just seeing the numbers too, about how many accidents are happening in construction zones.

I mean, there's personal responsibility that people are just rushing or trucks aren't chaining up when the snow storm snow storm is coming, Patti.

And Triple H just put out a big study about how many pedestrian deaths there are, how unsafe the roads are.

and there are two things to blame.

One is the condition of the roads.

And that is an issue we really have to take up at the legislature.

And I'll be honest.

Right?

I mean, we're not going to be seeing some of that federal funding, especially if it goes to people who are having a population boom, which Colorado is not right now, but it's not just the condition of the roads, it's also the condition of the drivers.

I don't think we need to worry about people in Colorado Springs driving while high.

I think we have to worry about the people who are still on their cell phones, despite the laws, who are driving so fast by transplants who don't understand the conditions.

But a lot of it is just that distracted driving.

And it's almost like the conversations people now have.

They're not civil.

Drivers aren't civil either.

If you're on the roads now, they seem worse than they have ever been.

And to touch on what you two both said.

a couple of weeks ago, the Department of Transportation said that they will prioritize projects in communities with high birth and marriage rates, and our state's fertility rate is currently among the lowest in the nation.

Yeah.

And to the safety thing, and there's also a nomenclature issue here.

So law enforcement and more of the media is starting to use the term crash instead of accident because accident is implies accident.

Crash implies someone was doing some stupid stuff they weren't supposed to be doing behind the wheel.

So to parties point like for instance, remember, we have a new law now where handheld cell phone use is supposed to be illegal, but it's a secondary offense.

So how do you enforce that after someone gets rear ended?

Did you have your cell phone in your hand?

No.

You know, if you're going to have that kind of law, put some teeth behind it.

And if you see someone and you see the top of their head while they're driving, pull them over.

Make that a primary offense.

The other part is also, to Patty's point, unskilled drivers.

And you also mentioned the, you know, folks who don't chain up or the folks who don't have the proper tires going into the mountains.

But also remember, we have a move over law.

You are supposed to if there is something going on on the shoulder, tow truck, screw whatever you're supposed to move over.

But if you can't move over, you're supposed to slow down.

But I'm a cyclist.

No one even knows how to give cyclists the three foot buffer that we're allowed by law when we're on the roads, because people in Colorado essentially don't know how to drive.

And that's why we have the safety issues we have on the road.

Okay.

Thank you.

the last few weeks on this show, we've been talking a lot about civic leadership and it feels as though a spotlight this past week has really been on a lot of our elected political leaders.

So let's have a discussion about motivation serving communities versus serving one's own interests for all.

For all of you.

All I want to ask you, is there a leader that stands out to you for standing up, and is there a leader whose motivation you question?

I will start with you, I'll be yesterday I saw, our secretary of state, Jenna Griswold, speak.

I think she'd be be a great ag.

She, has the voice for it.

She has the ability to do that.

I think she's already been positioning herself as somebody that's going to push back on the Trump administration.

So we think about that election coming up.

I think she'd be a good role for that.

Joe Neguse in Congress has been great as we talk about the future of our state and who's going to lead it, I, I think he has great, experience in Congress.

He's already in leadership.

He's passed 105 bills.

whereas Lauren Boebert hasn't passed any bills.

And whether I agree with her bills or not, she can't get anything across the finish line.

So I don't know what she's doing there.

I don't know what we're paying her for, but whatever it is, it's not helping anybody in Colorado.

Okay?

When we were talking about the leadership the last few weeks, Daniel Richie, Dana Crawford, we have to remember they were not elected officials.

These were people who took on causes they wanted to using all their energy.

And Daniel Rich's case, his fortune.

So there still are a lot of people like that out there.

But if we're talking about elected officials.

shantell.

Lewis, who was a Denver City Council, one woman, I have been really impressed by the stances she's taken.

She communicates well with her constituency.

on Monday night, she actually said, I don't want to pass this bill up.

This plan for some of the money for the homelessness.

She's worked for the Colorado Coalition.

I need more information.

That's what our elected leaders should be asking for.

Okay.

let's see what did I mentioned?

Oh, two months ago as our person to watch.

And she's still one to watch, but I'm not sure I trust her motives.

Danielle, you're in ski out in Aurora.

Okay.

Another council woman.

Really interesting article this past weekend.

Two in the Denver Gazette all on her.

Okay.

Thank you.

And mine would be, Senator James Coleman.

He's not a big headline maker, but he is a true workhorse type who also works to build coalitions.

And I've known him from around the community even before you became an elected leader.

And I just think that he's got a very bright future also.

And then on the flip side of that, his, colleague, Senator Hockey, is Lewis.

I'm a former congressional staffer, and I understand that, you know, it can be a bit of a pressure cooker, but these allegations of mistreatment of staff that have elevated all the way to requiring the Senate Ethics Committee to look into it is very concerning.

And any time you have even allegations of aides, whether at the congressional level, the local level, the city council level, being asked to perform tasks outside of the capital or city hall or something.

I think that really needs to be cracked down.

On okay and say.

So somebody that I got a chance to actually, work for at the state Capitol and I've gotten to watch is, State Senator Barb Kirk Meyer of Weld County, in a state where Republicans really have no political power.

Barb Kirk Meyer, who's a member of the Joint Budget Committee, the most powerful committee in the state legislature, is somebody who every single day is actually doing her job.

and don't get me wrong, she's good going on camera, too.

She's a she's a fantastic politician, but she is a hard worker.

And she has had that mentality throughout her career, obviously serving as a Weld County commissioner, and has and has oh, was always fantastic to us, a staff working there.

and so just overall something I think that we need more of in politics, and somebody who just gets the job done, in regards to someone who I question the motives of, you know, I was going to give a name, but I won't I'm going to say Congress in general.

I think the majority of members of Congress, generally speaking, are not there to do their job.

Congress has for decades now ceded its authority to the presidency.

Every single time a new president comes along, we all get scared because their power has continually increased and Congress has failed completely to be the check and balance on the executive branch, because whoever's in power, oh, it's our president.

We can't question our party's leader.

And that lands us in situations where we have presidents that were scared of the fact matters that presidents were never supposed to have this much power, and Congress not doing its job.

Members of Congress now not standing up to their own party leadership when they need to, regardless of who it is, whether it was Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

I think is unfortunate, and I question the motives of the majority of them.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

Now let's go down the line and talk about some of the highs and the lows that occurred this week.

Let's start on a low note with Patty.

Just because we have a convicted felon and former TV reality star in the white House does not mean the same kind of person has to be in power in Colorado politics.

Jefferson County Republicans just elected Rich Wyatt, the former head of Gunsmoke guns.

He had his own TV reality show and then went to jail because of lying to the feds and tax evasion.

He's now head of the Colorado, the Republican Party in Jeffco.

Okay.

Milo, is the inconsistency that we see in legislative journalism.

I think we've gotten a little spoiled by our fellow panel mates like Jesse Paul and Marianne Goodland, and the way they're able to take a deep dive.

But they work for sort of niche publications where politics is a big priority.

I know that the local TV stations are doing what they can, but there's so many nuances in the hundreds of bills that are floating.

And because of the contraction in the world of journalism, the ability to take that long form deep dive seems to be going away.

So that would be my low.

That's good.

Yeah.

So one thing that, Elon Musk and Doge did bring up this, this last week that I thought was kind of fascinating.

And I had to actually put on X and ask if it was real.

Is that when a federal employee is terminated, did apparently the paperwork has to be brought down to a limestone mine in Pennsylvania with manila folders in boxes and done manually.

And at first I thought, there's just no way this is true.

And so I put it up and sure enough, I had a reporter say, look at this story from ten years ago about the same exact thing.

And apparently this has been something that's happening for decades.

And everyone said, yeah, we got to fix that.

Yeah, we got to fix that.

And it's never happened.

And it is completely true that when a federal employee is terminated, their retirement paperwork has to be brought down to a mine in Pennsylvania with hundreds of workers doing this manually.

And so there are limited to how many workers they can process in a single anyways, if that is representative of even, you know, 1% of the federal government, that's not good.

And so regardless of what you think of Elon Musk and Doge, seeing that and seeing how many presidential administrations had ignored that and not fixed it, that's that's definitely a low.

Okay.

I would say the temperatures.

Let's.

Keep it real.

These are the cold temperatures.

They lock me in the house and I not very social.

So not loving the cold.

Me neither.

Me neither.

Patty a high note.

It's going to be warmer this weekend, which makes it a good time to come down to five points right outside the studio, which is having the Jazz Roots Festival, all kinds of entertainment on Saturday, and then it's going to repeat the following Saturday.

Okay.

All right.

And I'm planning on being down for that.

My high is the work that's being done at Colorado Uplift.

I got a chance to go speak to their students.

They're a nonprofit that works in the education space and they try to cultivate leaders.

They also try to work with kids from urban environments.

The cohort that I talk to were probably 20 students present, but they probably represent blended, I would say almost a dozen schools between the Denver, Cherry Creek and, Aurora school districts.

And it just gave me, big charged to say you can look out at our future and think that it's secure.

Thank you for sharing.

That's great.

Sage.

So this week we saw the return of Mark Fogel, an American who was imprisoned in Russia for, possessing a small amount of marijuana when he traveled there and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

he was brought home to the efforts of the Trump administration.

So, you know, kudos where it belongs.

And, it was exciting to see pictures of him enjoying whether it was apple juice or whiskey, I don't know, on the airplane coming home, if it was me, it'd be Martinelli's.

But for, you know, something a little stronger.

But, seeing that is you put yourself in those situations for just a brief moment.

You just go.

I cannot imagine the feeling where you think that you're going to be stuck there for so long, and then, like, I finally get to go home.

so it was it was fantastic to see him brought back to American soil.

Yes, absolutely.

And Alvina.

going back to the things that keep me humble, I am potty training a three year old, so that's an adventure in itself.

But having a three year old is a gift that when the world's problems seem so big, I just stay focused on him.

Well, best of luck to him.

And you.

Yeah.

Take.

So while something Lisa did in my house, I should say that.

You could have brought him here like Ellen took us.

To the white House.

Next time.

Next, next time.

Okay.

All right.

Harold, I got one.

You could have two.

Yes.

All right.

My high is my gratitude for one of our coworkers.

After 19 years and four months of literally running the show at PBS.

12, this episode of Colorado Inside Out is the last one for our director, Stephen Zinn.

He is the one who says, take care, everyone, take or to that kind of stuff.

he makes sure that the camera angles just right.

The lighting is perfect.

Anything technical that goes into the broadcast of Colorado Inside Out, Steven is behind.

He is the one who, if there's any kind of questions of what's broken, what's not working, he is our tech go to, he is a jack of all trades and a leader whose commitment to excellence has what really has stood, with me.

Stephen is, going to leave us, but his family back in Tennessee and his parents are going to be so happy to see him back close.

We wish you all the best, Steven.

Thank you for everything you've done to making Colorado inside out just great, especially my last two and a half years here.

And thank you, insiders for joining us this week.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

We have a studio audience this week from North Glen in Thornton area.

We appreciate you all.

And for you all watching at home on your devices or listening to the podcast, we wish you a good week as well.

And it's Valentine's weekend and a long weekend, so enjoy and I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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