This week brought another round of cold and snow to Colorado and another round of political protests throughout the state.

Meanwhile, at the state capitol, lawmakers are now one third of the way through the seventh Colorado General Assembly and close to 500 items have been introduced so far.

We've got some sharp insight into this is happening.

So let's get started with Colorado inside out Hello, everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Jesse Paul, legislative and political reporter for the Colorado Sun, Chris Rau, consultant with ROC Media.

And Carlos Martinez, president and CEO at the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

Let's start now with two very divisive legislative items that were passed by the state Senate this week.

Senate Bill five would change the current 80 year old law on labor organizing.

And it is something that the governor has said he is not in favor of.

And then also there are Senate Bill three that passed this week.

That is the ban on certain semiautomatic weapons that was reconfigured, which allowed for it to pass out of the Senate and supporters hope that those changes will lead to narrowing the governor's support.

Patti, I'll start with you.

It was.

And every morning you wake up and when you watch the national news and contrast it with Colorado, it's like we're in Red Dawn.

And where are the Wolverines who are fighting the beat mean red invaders?

It's crazy that we have this very progressive state house which has passed now gun lobbying.

I mean, the gun rule, We'll see if it makes it out.

And also this labor act, the union Act, which is lasted for 80 years, it's made it out of the Senate.

Now, will it stay?

I mean, it is the only one of its kind in the country.

It's worked pretty well.

We already have the Independence Institute floating a ballot measure that would basically take the teeth out of this law if it passes.

You also have the courts now considering the ghost gun bill that came up in 2023.

So nothing is ever, ever over.

But at the moment, the Wolverines are still rebelling in Colorado against the wave we see coming from the rest of the country.

Jesse, what do you think?

You're in the midst of it all?

I want to know how Patty comes up with this story's analogies.

So I think the gun bill is going to be signed by the governor.

I think that the changes that were made in the Senate were specifically made to appease him.

You could see the sponsors of the bill kind of running between the governor's office and the Senate last week to try and get the changes ironed out.

And that's why everything happens so late at night.

And I didn't sleep very much, but that was specifically to get the governor on board.

As for the union, Bill, what's interesting there is that negotiations on that seem to have stalled and the governor has said, I'm not going to sign this as introduced.

And we were expecting changes to be made in the Senate.

It didn't happen.

And we know that the union community and the business community have been talking, but apparently those talks haven't been very fruitful because there's no amendments that have been offered yet.

The business community actually came out this week after the bill passed the Senate and said we made a bunch of offers to the unions and to the sponsors of the bill and they were all rejected.

I don't know where that one is going to end up, but something's going to have to change in the Senate, in the House, when the bill heads over there, because otherwise it's just going to be vetoed right away by the governor.

Okay, Chris.

Well, with that bill, Colorado is already struggling with affordability.

It's just one added thing to make it unfriendly to new business.

But as far as the gun bill goes, I was interested in how hunting and CBW was rolled into this whole thing.

There's a carve out that would allow people to purchase a certain category of guns as long as they take a certain amount of training.

And one is a 12 hour hunter safety course.

And if you've ever taken hunter safety, it's not something that you bang out in a morning.

It's it's pretty comprehensive.

I heard proponents for this gun bill saying, well, you don't really need these kinds of guns to hunt.

And this type of hunting is really curious to me because the Second Amendment isn't in regards to hunting.

It's in regards to our personal right to defend ourselves.

Gun laws.

I feel like a broken record saying this gun laws that are on the books have not stopped gun violence or mass shootings.

Jesse, you had an amazing article, article a very comprehensive and you know, the magazine ban that we have currently in Colorado did nothing to stop the club.

Q Shooter.

So I see this as we are considering more and more bills that are more restrictive.

Just a simple chipping away of our Second Amendment right.

we don't want to start pitting gun owners against each other.

And so I think for me, it's kind of like a compromise that's come out.

You know, can we go ahead and provide gun safety education, which is what the NRA also says, okay, with a lot of gun owners so that we keep guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous or who don't know how to handle a gun.

With respect to the unions.

I think it's a tough issue right now with respect to our economy and the things that are happening.

I can just say that, you know, I grew up in a union household and it increased our ability to go ahead and plan for a for our family.

Every month, my mother would say that union dues is the best investment I am making for my family.

So it's not that people are going to get rich out of becoming a union member, but it does provide some protections.

And I think what we're seeing at the federal level when we're looking at different things around labor and laws and so forth, I'm hoping we can go ahead and figure something out that helps everyone.

Okay.

Before we move on from the legislature, Jesse, I want to talk with you about your coverage of Senate State Senator Sonia Jaquez, Lewis's resignation early on Tuesday.

You wrote, I've never seen anything remotely like this in my many years of covering the legislature.

Why was that?

Well, that was specifically about the fact that she allegedly submitted a fabricated letter of support from a former aide who then wrote in and said, I didn't write this.

Why is my name on it?

My experience with with the senator was actually really negative.

And the whole saga there, the way that it ended wrapped up was just kind of astounding.

It's been playing out for about a year at the Capitol.

It's kind of had a pall over the Senate.

People have been hoping for some kind of resolution.

I just don't think you could have written this one.

It was not something that, you know, Patty, in her imagination could have used have come up with.

So any idea when the vacancy committee will start looking for a replacement?

Should be a few weeks.

But, you know, the folks in Boulder County, there's all these important bills that we're talking about right now have been unrepresented because of because of her decision to resign and everything that happened with it.

So, you know, Democrats have had to get a little creative in terms of their their numbers in the Senate, have it being a person down.

But with these kind of big ticket items, it's definitely complicated things a bit.

Okay.

Now, on Monday, the legislature was off for the Presidents Day holiday, but it was not quiet with thousands of people protesting the new administration outside the Capitol.

And there were other protests in other cities from the springs to Grand Junction and even at Rocky Mountain National Park, which was in response to the layoffs of federal workers who manage and care for our land.

Jesse, I will start with you.

I think what's interesting to see from this is that it seems to be a lot of people who are asking, you know, for Democrats to do more in terms of their push back.

I think most people recognize the Democrats are in the minority in Congress, and so there's not much they can do.

They're kind of at the will of the Republicans and the Trump administration to get this done.

But what I've heard from voters and what, you know, my colleagues have heard from voters is that, you know, we wish Democrats were doing more to stand up and push back.

you know, I think you've started to see some Democrats in our delegation and across the country try and be more proactive and get held a press conference this week to try and speak out against Medicaid cuts.

Jason Cruz doing the same thing.

He's holding a town hall expecting a lot of people out there.

And so I think Democrats are trying to highlight, you know, what's going on and at least point out that, you know, there's not much we can do, but we can we can speak out.

you know, Colorado is controlled by Democrats.

Congress is controlled by Republicans.

And I don't think Donald Trump, a second term president, cares much about what's happening at the Capitol in Colorado.

So I'm not sure that's the most effective way to get through to the folks who are in charge.

But, you know, at least Democrats are seem to be listening and trying to kind of respond and be responsive to those calls.

Okay, Chris.

Well, I'm not necessarily happy about layoffs on public lands workers.

I utilize the public lands.

I love our public lands.

However, I noticed with these protests, there's a lot of focus on Elon Musk and Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency.

Look, if doge can save some money for every penny they save, it's a penny less a taxpayer has to pay.

We have got spending that is out of control.

America has been like a teenager on a spending spree with a credit card that has a high interest rate and the only way you get out of debt is to either earn more or to cut your spending or both.

I don't think we're going to earn our way out of the debt that we have right now, but we've got to do something to cut spending.

Okay.

And Carlos.

Well, people have the right to go ahead and come together and be heard.

Let's not forget, the Boston Tea Party was not an afternoon tea.

It was a protest that led to our independence of this country.

So I think the fact that people are out there and wanting to be heard, I think they have the right to go ahead and do that.

That's the beauty of America with respect to the Rocky Mountain national parks.

You know, I think, you know, we're having protests there now.

I think people are listening and people are concerned.

I think more than ever and wanting to go ahead and show that concern by protesting and Patty.

But the protesters are focusing on Elon Musk, among other things, and with good reason.

Yes, we need to make sure the government isn't wasting money and is more economical.

But this is like ready, fire, aim.

So all of a sudden the employees are gone and now we're going to figure out what we need to replace.

And it would make a little more sense to do some more studying.

I'm not talking about long term the usual studies, but quicker just to say, hey, if we lay off the people in the Department of Energy who watch for nuclear waste, it could be a problem, which is what happened last week.

If we lay off people who are letting people interact about in park, we could have a problem in Estes Park, just even with traffic jams and nothing happening.

So you would like to see a little more thought put into it.

Beyond just looking at the numbers.

If you looked at the poll that came out this week from Colorado College, they do an annual poll and basically everyone polled in eight states is talking about we love the outside, we love our land, we want to support them.

We don't want huge cuts.

And this is Republicans and Democrats alike.

Okay.

All right.

In a week and a half from now, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston heads to Capitol Hill to testify at a congressional hearing regarding the city's immigration policies.

And this week, the Denver City Council approved a $2 million contract for legal representation with a former Biden administration White House attorney.

Chris, I will start with you on this topic.

Yeah, Mike Johnson is going to testify on immigration policy because he was very vocal about how he was our city was going to push back on federal agents coming in and trying to enforce immigration policy.

The city hired Dana Remus, who was with she was with the Biden administration.

In fact, President Biden officiated her wedding.

She was with the Biden campaign as general counsel and then went on to be White House counsel.

I think she left some time around the midterm elections in 2022, left the administration.

She herself was asked to testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding the handling of classified documents.

What There was an investigation into whether the Biden administration had mishandled classified documents.

It's interesting because $2 million is a lot of money.

And would this played out a little differently had Mike Johnston not been as vocal as he was?

Another curious part about this is Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Congressman Gabe Evans, who was new to Congress from the eighth Congressional District in Colorado, both from Colorado, will be there to question Mike Johnston.

So be ready for some fireworks.

And this.

So I know that there's rumors of a subpoenaed at a congressional hearing.

But I'll be honest with you, I think congressional hearings nowadays are political theatricals.

So am I paying too much attention to that?

I think also that, you know, they've made this a DC issue.

I mean, when Mike Johnson and our city council vote on various rights here for immigrants and so forth, that was a local issue.

We elected our elected officials to go ahead and be able to put policies and laws together and that's on a local level.

You have someone from Kentucky who is now making it, making it a national issue.

And if we need DC representation because of this now, then I think we need to go ahead and have that DC representation.

The causes a little high.

But, you know, I think it's been elevated to a DC issue.

Taken away from here at the local level.

And I think we need that representation.

Okay.

He doesn't have to bill the full $2 million.

I mean, he can stop shorter and in fact, we can offer some free advice.

Not even $1,000 an hour right now.

That will cut back on that bill.

Like, don't wear the Wrangler jacket.

We all love it, Mike Johnston.

But don't wear it.

But remind Congress that the reason there is an immigration problem in this country is largely because Congress has not dealt with the issue and hasn't passed any legislation and has thrown it to the mayors of cities to handle this rather than dealing with it federally.

So I hope Mike Johnston sticks to his guns on that point.

I don't think he needs to bring the Hyland mommies into the conversation.

But all those mayors should remind everyone that it's Congress's fault that there is no immigration law that is really working in this country.

I'm thinking about this from the political perspective, and I cannot think of a more dangerous situation for Mike Johnston to walk into.

I'm thinking about, you know, what happened to, you know, the heads of some universities around the Israel Gaza protests, and they were forced to resign, became kind of, you know, national conversation points or controversies.

So I think the $2 million is probably well spent for him personally, politically.

Obviously, they don't have to spend the entire $2 million.

But, you know, this is going to be a really heated situation.

As you mentioned, Lauren Boebert and Congressman Evans are going to be there.

And I think they're going to be trying to make some news, you know, grab some memes or headline clips on social media.

And so, you know, I just the upside for this for Mike Johnston personally, politically, I think is is really low.

I think the potential for extreme peril is very high.

And it's a guy who we all know is extremely, you know, ambitious.

And in terms of his political future, this this could be a watershed moment in whatever he wants to do next.

And didn't he at first say, I'm not coming?

And then he said, I'll think about it.

And he was very delayed.

I think they wanted the hearings this month, but now they're in March.

Well, the mayor of Boston just had a baby, so they couldn't hurry along that quickly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So all the mayors, Boston, Chicago, they're all at the same time.

All right.

Well, I just wonder what the city could do with that $2 million had he not have to go testify.

Mayor Johnson is also facing heat from local restaurateurs because they don't feel like they're getting enough attention from the city at a time when they're struggling or closing.

Because of the high cost of food.

Minimum wage increases, fewer people going out to dinner.

And there are also concerns over safety.

And it's not just a Denver restaurant issue.

So lawmakers in the state capitol are considering a bill that would roll back the increases to minimum wage for tipped workers, which really has more than triple the labor cost for some restaurants in our state.

Carlos, I want to start with you on this.

Sure.

So I know that the letter came from a lot of restaurants in the downtown area.

I love downtown.

I live in downtown and I'm always around downtown.

So I think the crime is coming to be under control and so forth.

But I think the messaging is not there about the city.

With respect to the bill, I think there's just more issues with respect to restaurants in the Denver area but there's a safety issue still that a lot of people have.

There's parking.

There's just the 16th Street Mall, just a lot of other issues.

And I think one of the things that Denver lacks downtown Denver lacks is really a vision of its soul, of what it represents and what it's supposed to be.

And I think without that kind of soul, then it's it's just another street.

It's just another restaurant.

And I think that's what's kind of like missing from from downtown Denver right now.

Okay, Patty, what do you say?

Well, I know the fellow who wrote the letter and copied way too many people.

He's a friend.

But everyone downtown has been saying we need help.

And it's different things.

They need help on.

They need help, obviously, on the perception of safety, even if it isn't necessarily any worse than West Park, where someone got shot the other day.

We talked about that.

It's the perception they definitely need help with permitting.

They need help with traffic.

Then you get into this minimum tipped wage issue where it is the highest in the country here, there.

But both sides are not being completely honest about the numbers.

So you hear that 200 restaurants closed in Denver.

You don't hear how many opened.

You hear that this could cost a worker $8,000 a year.

But that's a worker who's maxed out on tips, working 40 hours a week.

And it's that's going to be very unusual, too.

It's a long debate at the legislature that went on Thursday.

Could still be going on right now for all we know.

But the restaurants and all businesses need help right now.

And Denver could do a lot by just even getting an ombudsman, a restaurant person who can help these people through the eight months it takes to get an awning allowed the parking meter closed in front of their spots.

The the city needs to start listening and working faster.

Well listening I mean they the concerns have been going on for since I started on the show.

What's the.

They're hearing?

Are they listening?

Yeah.

Jesse story about the minimum wage issue.

Obviously, that's before the legislature right now.

It's really interesting that the legislature made the decision to let local municipalities increase their minimum wages by whatever amount they wanted to.

And that's kind of what's leading to all this.

The INS and outs of it are really complicated, but the bottom line is, if this bill passes, there's a pretty good chance that if you are a server in Denver, Boulder, you would see a decrease in your earnings.

You know how much of a decrease?

I think we can talk about that.

It depends on how good of a night you're having on tips, whether you're having a good night on tips.

But but I think big picture here is that you know, this is the reality.

And it's very hard to tell people all of a sudden that you're going to start taking away the money that they're earning and try and reduce their wages.

And so I think the legislature is going to be really hard pressed to pass this one.

And, you know, even though there are some progressive Democrats who support this bill because it is a real issue for restaurants, of course, there's a constellation of problems that they're facing right now.

This this is a big one.

I've heard it from folks that I know, too.

You know, it's it's hard to put the cat back in the bag, so to speak.

Once you start paying people more money, taking taking their wages away is not something they're going to take lightly.

Yeah, this about a year ago, Troy Gard of Garden Grace opened a new restaurant and he talked about adding vitality to the downtown area, and that was his part of giving back to the city.

I sat with him to do an article on that and wanted to know, What is this?

What is this mission that you have?

Low and behold, he unleashed on what he thought about the conditions downtown, the policies, everything that affects the restaurant business.

He also has a garden graze in Houston.

He said that with all conditions being the same, the profit that he made in Houston was far above what he made on his Denver restaurant.

And and there are huge profit margins in the restaurant business.

Lo and behold, six months later, he moved his family to Houston.

Now he still has his restaurants here that will be running and operating.

But where your attention goes, energy flows.

And I imagine he will be focused on expanding business in Houston rather than Denver.

And did you see this week, Danielle, during escape from the Aurora City Council, who announced he's going to run again for city council, wrote out, hey, Denver restaurants, if you're not happy, yeah, come to us.

Well and many of them have opened in the suburbs, too.

But you notice just this week, the tap and burger closed in Sloan's Lake.

But Stoney's, which happens to be right down the street from our office, moved right into that place because didn't want to do work in Denver anymore.

But it's going to be fine because it's already ready.

So there are things working.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

By the way, now is the time to plan ahead and make a reservation.

So support local restaurants and get some great deals during Denver Restaurant Week, which is starting up on March 7th.

So I got to give a plug for that and for the restaurants.

All right.

Really quickly, before we get to our highs and lows of the week, I want to see if you like any of the names floating around for Denver's New women's professional soccer team.

The public has until Wednesday to pick their favorite and yes, ranked choice.

Voting, which we've talked about at this table, is going to decide the next name for this new team.

Okay.

So I'm going to go through the list right now.

Listen to me.

That is Denver F.C.

Denver Peak FC F.C.

is for Football Club, Colorado Summit, Denver Gold, Denver, Elevate and Colorado, 14 or so.

Any of those jump out to you.

What do you think.

14 are our offices pro.

For trainers.

I hate to.

Differ from everything else I mean elevate and all those words are used on so many things.

I like the 14 hours and I'm from the mountains.

So what do you think.

Now I'm going read in Denver Blase.

You can do right?

Yeah.

Element marijuana elevate.

Okay.

All right.

Denver Kickers.

Really kickers.

All right.

So sports fans, you have until Wednesday to vote on the new name on the team's website which is Denver NWSL dot com.

I also have a link on my blog on PBS 12 Now let's go down the line with each of you mentioning a high and low of the week.

We'll start on the low note.

So we end on a high.

And I will start with Patty.

While we're talking about names let's not rename the 16th Street Mall.

It may have problems, but I cannot see that we're going to come up with a single name that will revitalize downtown when it is still called 16th Street.

If you don't like them all, but just let it go.

Why don't we work on improving it rather than changing its name?

Okay.

Jesse, we talked about the resignation of Senator Harkins, Louis.

And I think that's, you know, got to be the low for the week for me, just in terms of the pressure that that put on the legislature and kind of the black eye that it put on the Senate.

Okay.

There's a bill, House bill 25 1258 that's going to be in committee.

It will modify Colorado Parks and Wildlife ability to manage wildlife.

It's going to change language that says that CBW shall utilize hunting and fishing to manage populations to may authorize.

It's a subtle language change, but it will change whether or not hunting and fishing will be the gold standard for managing wildlife.

Okay.

All right.

This weekend I got to go to the nineties exhibit at the History Colorado.

I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was amazing exhibit And so I really recommend folks that they have the time to go ahead and visited.

It really gives us a historical perspective of what happened 25 to 35 years ago with clips from movies, just posters of what happened here in Colorado.

It's just wonderful.

I mean, I left there just kind of like just very proud to be able to live here.

Yeah.

But I think it's a low that like the nineties were so long ago that they have to be exhibits about that.

Great.

We're not getting any older.

Okay, Patty, something good.

Okay.

I'm going to go back to the Red Dawn analogy and fighters in the wilderness 10th Mountain Division.

This is the 80th anniversary of the 10th Mountain Division, trained in Colorado, went and fought the Battle of River Bridge in Italy.

There's a big legacy weekend in Vail, but what they did was really incredible.

And you can learn about that at history.

Colorado, too.

Okay.

All right.

Two Republican senators this week decided to vote for bills that their caucus didn't support because they heard from their constituents and they just thought they were good ideas.

And so I just it's always cool to see that at the legislature when people break party ranks for reasons that are altruistic.

So Senator Cleve Simpson, he voted for the study of single payer health care in Colorado because he heard from a constituent, doesn't agree with the idea.

But, you know, his constituents wanted the study to happen and he said, I'm going to vote for it anyways.

And then Senator Lisa Frizzell voted for a bill that would prohibit or limit liquor sales in in grocery stores because she heard from recovery folks in her district that it's really difficult for for alcoholics to walk into a to a supermarket and see all the alcohol around.

Okay.

Thank you.

Well, congratulations to the West Elk Wolverines, the Bantam hockey team.

They won their Presidents Day tournament in Colorado Springs.

It's difficult for mountain teams to compete with the Front Range.

They're going on to the state tournament playoff in a couple of weeks.

And by the way, they're coached by my son, Sean Rourke.

So a proud mama here.

He grew up in that community going through hockey.

Now he's giving back to that community by coaching.

Good for them.

That's great.

And I think for me, you know, this past week I was able to meet with various immigrant rights organizations and it's wonderful to be able to see all the work that they're doing to go ahead and protect the safety of a lot of our immigrants here in Colorado.

Okay.

And my high is that peace 12 turns 45 years old this weekend.

This station was created by a group of friends who were local community leaders and activists who really wanted to present a range of viewpoints on local Denver TV.

They hosted radio shows back in the seventies, but their first TV broadcast was on February the 22nd of 1980, originating out of a Broomfield garage.

Over the years, the station's been called KBD I and c p t 12 Colorado Public TV 12.

But in 2020 our name changed the PBS 12 and we were happily nestled into the five Points neighborhood here on Welton and today, PBS 12 has a very wide reach across Colorado.

And this year, as we're moving into our 45th year to hear some noises, we've got balloons.

Thank you, panel, so much for joining us this week.

There's been a lot to discuss.

Thank you all for being engaged with this.

That was a ballon popping tonight, this week and for the last 45 years.

I am Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS.

12.

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