Hello, Colorado.

All 6 million plus of you who call Colorado home.

The latest census data says that Colorado is seeing the weakest growth spurt when it comes to our population since 1990, but we do have over 6 million residents for the very first time.

And this show and our conversation at the table is meant for all of you.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Then we have Tyron Glover, a criminal defense and civil rights attorney here in the Denver area.

Elena Alvarez, reporter with Axios Denver.

And Adam Berg, senior policy advisor at Foster Graham law firm.

As the nation watches the tensions over federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, Colorado is taking its own steps.

State legislators have introduced a bill addressing immigration enforcement and civil rights, and an initiative related to immigration policy and enforcement policy is headed to our ballots.

This November will be deciding that lawmakers are trying to speak up and reassure residents that they are safe.

But there remains heightened stress in many communities, and we continue to see protests.

Patty, I will start with you.

When we sat here last week, we were talking about how Colorado compares to Minneapolis.

At the time, we had the shooting of Rene Good, a Colorado native.

But of course, Alex Preti had not yet been murdered on the streets of Minneapolis, and his parents live in Arvada.

So the upset is heating up very, very quickly.

The anti-ISIS movement on Thursday, we have eight Republican senators who decided to join with every Democratic senator to vote against increasing the funds for Ice.

And what we're seeing is the Ice people aren't.

The new Ice agents are getting so little training, they're getting almost no training at all.

Or the kind of training they're getting isn't any good when you compare it to what local law enforcement people are getting in this town and are getting in Minneapolis.

So you can see why everyone is very reluctant to give more money to this out-of-control agency, where they are getting bounties to grab anyone off the street they can, as opposed to following the rule, which is people with criminal backgrounds only.

Okay.

All right.

Tyrone.

And really, our legislative approach here or potential legislative approach in Colorado, is on really opposite ends of the spectrum, right?

We have one, you know, initiative 95, which is, you know, potentially going to have our local authorities, you know, coordinate with Ice mandated.

Right.

And that's not even it's not even federally mandated.

We would have it, you know, mandated at the local level.

And I think, you know, there's all sorts of constitutional issues with that as well.

But kind of to Patty's point, you know, these are it's like bounty hunters, right?

And normally when you have, officers going out and executing on warrants, those warrants have been reviewed by a neutral arbiter of the law of the facts.

A judge is signed off on.

You know, there's these charges are, you know, largely unreliable.

They're going out there and they're just pulling folks off of the street.

And there's no sort of neutral person to review this or even look at this.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have, a bill that is potentially I think it's actually been already introduced, but it's going to potentially give us the ability to hold Ice accountable in the court system forever.

It's been really near impossible, with very limited exceptions, to be able to go after, federal law enforcement agencies.

And the case very recently, in 2022 made that even harder.

There's going to be potentially similar to like SB 207, a state action where we can actually try to, at least to the civil system, hold Ice accountable and maybe rein some of this chaos in.

Okay.

Elena.

Yeah, I mean, pretty much everywhere you look, you see Colorado's resistance rising to what Ice is doing.

You see it at the Congressional level this week, we even saw a Republican, Colorado, Representative Jeff Hurd, calling for an independent investigation, which was notable considering, you know, he's a Republican speaking out against actions that the Trump administration is taking.

You see it at the, city level.

We've got, Denver just this week joined an amicus brief, against Ice.

They joined three dozen cities and counties, basically calling out Ice and demanding that they leave Minnesota.

That's on top of city council weighing, you know, a measure to ban ice, face masks.

We've got wiser launching a new platform for Coloradans to report, bad behavior by ice through photos, other documentation.

And so, you see, there's also businesses.

We have businesses, on Friday participating in a nationwide strike.

So they're closing down, there also, we have some that are donating proceeds to, immigrant advocacy groups.

And of course, grassroots, campaigns are happening everywhere.

So it's really interesting to see Advance Colorado, the conservative political nonprofit, put this ballot measure, forward, which, you know, a lot can happen from now until November.

But I think that the messaging is going to be, at least right now is going to be so critical to convince Coloradans.

But they should, get, you know, local law enforcement to further cooperate with Ice So, you know, it'll be interesting to see how the campaign evolves.

But right now, I think the uphill battle is is immense.

Okay.

And Adam.

I think some of this is a result of a systemic failure.

Congress has had a bipartisan immigration reform conversation for years trying to find an agreement to how we can nationally reform immigration policy, create pathways to citizenship, address border issues.

And just in the last few years, they were on the edge of a deal, and it fell through because of politics and political pressure.

And in response, you are seeing communities kind of rising up, whether you know, the outcome and the horrific circumstance that happened in Minnesota over the past week and the result of putting people into uniform who don't have the proper training, you have Denver City Council potentially going to be debating a masking policy around law enforcement coming into Denver.

And so, you know, have local communities trying to step in where they can to address national policy failures and national policy failures in response by sending Ice into these communities totally unprepared and undertrained.

So I think a lot of the responsibility falls on Washington, DC in some ways for putting us where we are now.

And certainly on the white House.

I mean, Kristi Noem going out and calling a VA nurse killed on the streets of Minneapolis, a terrorist.

We know what who who are terrorists.

And that is not one.

Okay.

All right.

The public comment section at the Douglas County Commission meetings is no longer it's been eliminated.

Residents can now only speak on a specific agenda item.

While some see this, as silencing community voices, Colorado's open meetings law does not require general comment sections in public meetings.

So the change is legal, although controversial for some.

where do civil debate and public participation stand at this moment?

And I will ask you, our civil rights expert.

I mean, is it legal, right?

Because at the end of the day, they're not getting rid of all comments.

They're just letting them come in and comment on the specific things that they have put on the agenda.

If you're going to let folks speak, then you cannot discriminate against their viewpoints.

And so, yeah, there's not a right to public comment, you know, so maybe you get rid of all comments.

And it's just the folks on city council talking the whole time.

But you don't necessarily get to dictate what people get to speak about.

All viewpoints need to be, I think ultimately respected, I think with this one will come down to is just like if you look at the timing of when they instituted this rule, it was right, after all sorts of criticism, about this failed campaign, about, some really terrible things that they said about, you know, one of their constituents.

And then now we have these revisions to the open meeting law, and also the open meeting, law lawsuits.

And then suddenly you have all these revisions.

So I think the council constitutional question is still out there.

And I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, in due time, we'll see.

Like what we saw in Aurora where they roll this thing back because I think it just creates more problems than it's worth to just get rid of these general comments.

So is there a legal challenge?

I think that there could potentially be a legal term.

Even though the law says black and white, but you could you just think that there's.

I don't think that is black and white.

I think I don't think that you can say, all right, we're going to allow comment, but only on your very specific topic areas that we've put on the agenda.

Right.

We're going to get rid of public comment.

So stuff that people from the community want to bring forth.

You know, we're going to discriminate against those viewpoints.

And we are now going to sort of drive the bus and say very specifically, these are the only things we get to talk about at the meeting.

So I think that there is a potential for a challenge there.

Okay.

All right.

Elana.

For years now since Covid, since George Floyd's death, city councils across metro Denver and nationwide have been grappling with how to balance free speech with order.

I mean, city business has to get done, right?

But I think to answer your question, Kyle, this issue really reflects where we are as a society.

Tensions are so high.

Global affairs, National affairs, continue to make these public comment periods just hotbeds for debate.

Public officials are increasingly frightened for their own safety amid, you know, just hostility and death threats.

And people feel so distrustful of the people who are representing them, and they also feel unheard.

So all of this is just, you know, a toxic mix.

I saw, an estimation from the National Civic League that found only 25% of Americans feel actually heard by their local officials.

So there's just deep frustration.

I think, you know, it's at the bottom line is it's a really hard time to govern, and it's a really hard time to feel empowered as a civically engaged person and the right way to handle this.

I'm not I'm not sure.

Adam, I've been thinking through some of this that, you know, the Colorado Sunshine law is 50 something years old now, which came down around the state, but also local governments and incorporating how they had to share information and, you know, show sunshine on decision making.

And we've seen even in recent years, the state legislature exempt themselves from parts of the Sunshine Act, around decision making.

And I think it really also gets into a conversation of transparency, which is seeing what the government does, and then participation, which is helping make decisions about what you're how your government responds.

And I just believe the more we limit the ability for the public to participate, the further we get from our elected officials, and the less this democratic republic works as it was intended to.

But I also think, important point was raised by Alena, which is there are safety issues.

We've seen real threats in Minnesota across the country, in Colorado, on people's lives.

And it's just a difficult balancing act it feels right now.

Patty.

There have always been gadfly guys and people who want to hog them, like at public meetings.

You have to figure out a way to deal with them, though, because the constituency feels they are not listened to.

It's a problem.

So at least we have more access than we ever used to.

With meetings live streamed and sometimes you can put comments in and good for Aurora.

And finally reversing their policy.

I think it looks like the town is much more cohesive and settled down since people actually can go speak at their community meetings.

Doug.

Doug Coe's timing is amazing.

If you followed the crazy antics in Parker over the Shrek flag, and I could just imagine what'll happen.

We already have a thousand comments on our side about it.

What would happen if those Doug Coe commissioners who are very sensitive flowers, suddenly have to deal with this Shrek pride flag issue in Parker?

Right?

So the pride flag is in a scene in the Shrek musical at the pace center.

Right wave during the freak flag scene, song and scene.

So it's been a big upheaval in Doug Coe.

Okay.

This week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson rolled out his citywide goals for this year ahead.

And while the plan includes some new specific strategies, many priorities are very familiar from last year and making Denver vibrant, making it safe and affordable for all who live and work here.

Elena, you have really broken down what the plans are and for Axios Denver, so fill us in.

Sure, you said it.

There's nothing really groundbreaking.

It was very much a continuation of its current playbook.

A couple of things did catch my attention, though.

So he promised this year to deliver 2500 affordable housing units.

That's 500 fewer units than he promised last year.

A goal that he only, made 77% of the way toward achieving.

His office has blamed that on funding cuts from at the federal level and the state level.

But sort of an interesting, you know, decrease it and a goal making things a little bit more achievable.

Another thing that was new was he's promised to address every report of homelessness or distress within one business day.

So that will take real manpower.

It's an easy goal to hold him accountable to, and the backdrop behind all of these, promises that he's made is that he's working with a city workforce with roughly 900, jobs reduced between layoffs and, unfilled job eliminations.

He's also working with a budget that has $200 million in cuts, the most conservative in 15 years.

According to him, ongoing battles with, strong willed and distrustful city council that will, you know, push and pull, and complicate his sort of ability to get things done.

And then, of course, hostile federal administration that continues to cut funding and threaten, funding cuts.

So all of that could complicate his agenda.

And the timing is really important because it's his last full year to deliver on his promises before he goes out next year in 2027.

And asks for voters to reelect him.

So, it will be interesting to see, you know, what promises he can actually keep.

Okay, Adam, your thoughts?

To quote Tom Clark, he said governments are about power and the economies are about collaboration.

I look at some of the mayor's goals, and I think given the budget circumstance, given the staffing issues, it's going to require him to work with council and work with other business entities and work with nonprofits, because some of these things that he's listed, whether it's in housing or the revitalization downtown or even public safety, he cannot do it alone.

I think we've seen a trend towards hopefully trying to work with council on some of these larger issues.

And and we've seen council push back on things like the soccer stadium and some others.

But there's no question for me that if the member, if the mayor wants to get his goals complete, or attempt to get them complete, then he sure better start working on some serious relationships across the metro area to get them done.

Okay.

All right.

Patty, interesting that he had it at Alma Park, and I hadn't realized just how bad things have been and the stats they gave on how it was improved, both homelessness and crime there.

Those were impressive.

But when you think about everything the city has on its plate right now, talked about Birnam Yard, of course that will affect La Alma too, because that's right on the edge of where the Bronco Stadium development will be.

National Western, a huge project still going.

It was a very successful show, but there's so much more that has to be built there.

So at the same time, he's looking at building for the future and big projects that need a lot of management.

There's all this micromanaging that has to be done on homelessness and affordable housing and crime to continue to reduce the homicide rate and also reduce traffic deaths and everything else.

So he has a very busy 18 months ahead.

And when it comes to the homelessness, the point in time count was made Monday night of this year.

It started for a few hours after he gave this speech.

Okay.

And we'll find those results out in the summer.

Right.

Right.

It takes several months.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thanks.

Hi.

My pleasure.

Karen.

It makes me a bit, I think, nervous with such an aspirational agenda.

But not a recognition from the mayor of some of.

I think those challenges, the challenges with repairing relationships with, understaffing, with just so much going on in the city that needs to be scaled, because when there's not that recognition, far too often we see it harm the most vulnerable of our populations.

When you go with such an aspirational agenda and a city that is seemingly always in a perpetual, budgeting crisis, and you have to start cutting corners sort of mid-stride, it oftentimes falls on those who are the most vulnerable amongst our communities.

So I think I would have liked to see some more pragmatic talk about how we're going to scale just some of the difficulties, as opposed to just pure aspiration, because I feel like once things get going, it's hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Okay.

All right.

U.S.

consumer confidence had its lowest level in more than 11 years, driven by the rising costs on everything from food to health insurance.

Here in Colorado, enrollment on the state's individual health insurance marketplace has dropped for the first time in five years, now only by just 2%.

But connect for Health Colorado reports an 83% jump in planned cancellations now at the state Capitol.

There's also a bill to work on affordability.

They want to help with price gouging at places like the airports, airport and sporting events where, you know, we're captive consumers.

So there's all this push on, try to figure out a way to make it affordable.

And Adam, it just seems like there's so many different, so much data coming in from so many different areas.

It makes it seem like, how is this going to work?

Yeah.

You know, we are session is up and running.

We are a couple of weeks in now and we've really seen and as outlined before session, each of the leadership teams from both chambers talked about affordability, very different visions for how to address affordability.

I think you have Democrats looking for these bills like price gouging and some of, you know, other circumstantial issues.

You have Republicans looking to rein in state spending.

And potentially program reduction or looking at statute that could be revised.

The big issue here, though, at the end of the day, is the state budget.

They have almost $1 billion shortfall.

That they're going to have to make up this year after having another billion plus last year that they had had to find money for, including through a special session.

There are no easy answers to this budget.

It is a structural deficit, not just one time.

So we could see future shortfalls.

And the the main topic is really Medicaid spending.

It has grown substantially in recent years.

Health care is now the number one bucket of state spending, no longer education, which it's been historically.

And I've been seeing in the JBC the last few days listening to some, some, health care policy and finance supplementals.

And the cuts are real people.

People are getting cut.

Good programs are getting defunded going forward, which means home health care is going to have less money, retirement homes are going to have less money, and EMT medical drivers are going to have less money.

And it's a pretty concerning as a, as a resident that this is where we are.

Okay.

Well let's go to affordable housing which is looking much less affordable for anyone opening their property tax bills which are just starting to come out.

But you talk about official, affordable housing.

Good news about the bath hotel which has gotten a DDA loan and so will be restored as affordable housing for seniors as opposed to becoming.

It would have been a lovely boutique hotel, but this is what Denver needs.

So that's good.

On the bad side, even as we tape this.

Being considered is a new rule that would allow affordable housing projects to not go through the downtown design review project, both for downtown and Cherry Creek.

So with any luck that will have been stamped out.

But you can't cut corners in smart building just because it's going to have poorer people living in it.

Okay, Tara.

I mean, this is a public policy failure.

And it really, I think, starts at the federal level when you have families choosing between rent and health insurance, that's not a market functioning, right.

That's a policy choice.

That's then creating this impossible choice that families and members of our community have to ultimately make.

So I don't have a, you know, there's a lot of folks, I think, saying, you know, a lot of different sort of pitching, a lot of different solutions.

But, you know, really, I think at the end of the day where this crisis kind of starts and ends is really at the the highest reaches of government, you know, allowing, the sort of premium subsidies to, you know, expire.

And really, until you fix it at the top, you know, I think the goodwill is not going to trickle down.

Yeah.

And Helena.

An interesting data point that we saw this week came from the Census Bureau, and it found that the state's growth rate was just 0.4% in 2025, which is the lowest since 1989.

A decline in international immigration is one factor behind that.

But what a lot of folks also, think is that a lack of affordable housing is also suspected to be deterring so many people from moving to Colorado.

So, you know, everything from tax revenue to Colorado's talent pool is impacted by a decline in growth like this.

So, you know, that's why we'll definitely continue to see affordability be a policy priority as it as it should be.

It's a really important issue.

And then you think about businesses looking to move here.

If they're seeing those numbers they might be not bringing know business here.

Yeah.

And we the lawmakers for example, are trying to tackle data centers at the Capitol this year with some new tax incentive.

It's obviously very divisive.

But Colorado is competing with states in the South who will write off your taxes for 50 years to have the data center come to, to their state.

So it's it just makes it a very tough place to, to bring business.

Okay.

All right.

Let's go around the table now and talk about some of the highs and the lows that we saw this week.

And we'll start with Patty on a low note.

Not low but sad I wanted to say so long to two really good civic leaders, Dick young who was so involved in Park Hill projects, and Manny Martinez, who had worked for the city, passed away within the last month.

Okay, all right.

And, you know, as someone who practices in federal court a lot, I think the looming government shutdown is, again, on my radar.

It seems like we just have finally started to dig ourselves out of and recover from the last one and just being sort of front and center to all of the issues that that caused, not looking forward to running, not back.

Okay.

I own something I wrote about this week was that domestic violence reports in Denver have continued to rise since at least 2019.

It's one trend that the city just can't reverse, and a stat that I found pretty stunning was that in 2025, domestic violence reports were up 46% compared to 2019.

So just a huge issue that the city doesn't really have a good roadmap for.

I think we could all just use a social media detox after the past week.

I it times me feels like there are two different Americas, and we're not seeing the same things.

We're not reacting the same way they incidents.

And it just makes us feel so far apart.

As you know, I try and be in the eternal optimist.

So I plan to kind of take a break for a little bit and reset.

Okay.

All right, all right.

Something good, please.

I have a double whammy.

Okay.

I was at the Colorado Symphony on Tuesday night.

You know, the symphony is playing at Carnegie, Carnegie Hall this weekend.

Sold out concerts, which is really exciting.

And a man came up to me and said, we love Colorado inside out.

We watch it all the time.

We live in Estes Park and we came down because you talk about coming downtown.

So they were staying at the Brown Palace.

They went and ate at the pavilions.

They went over and saw the symphony and they said, you're right, downtown's great.

So that's good.

Thank you for the people who watch this show and came down to Denver.

I appreciate it.

That is a great one.

All right, all right.

Time.

Yeah.

A little shout out.

I read an article in CPR about this North Glen sort of high school problem solving.

These students doing this new sort of academic approach where they take on a real problem and they sort of collaboratively try to solve it and they pitch it back to their teachers.

And I think that they were taking on the lack of, I think, representation of teachers of color.

And what is I think, you know, over 70%, Latino, school up there in North Glen and they came up with some really creative solutions.

It's just so nice to see our young people coming together and learning those skills in a time that just feels so deadlocked with so much of our leadership.

Colorado has a new poet laureate, Cristo Apache, who was appointed this week.

He's the first indigenous poet to ever serve in the role.

And I think his voice, you know, coming at a time when civil liberties are at, you know, being revoked, we have people being ripped from their homes.

Which native Americans, you know, know all too well.

His voice is really important right now.

So eager to, to read some of his work.

Thanks for sharing.

Lawmakers are back at the Capitol, which is both good and bad, from my perspective.

But we have just over 100 days left.

It is a mad rush.

As we all know, 500 plus bills in a short period of time.

But this is this is where the rubber meets the road on a lot of important policy issues.

So if you're not paying attention, you should, there's a lot of important issues being discussed this year.

You know, for this show, I look at all the issues.

I'm, like, scouring all your articles.

And so my I just said, I'm keeping it personal.

I'm just going in with what I know.

And that is it's a big week at our house because both of my daughters have birthdays turning 21 and 23, and the fact that my youngest is now 21 completely blows my mind.

It is just such a huge milestone for her and for me and my husband.

We can't imagine a life without our Jose and Eliza and Elena.

I say this since you are just days away from welcoming your son into this world, and I'm just so happy for you and your husband and for the Life-Changing miracle that's about to occur for you guys.

And just I'm wishing you guys all the best.

It's a. Love.

Absolutely.

Take a shot with your daughter for me, okay?

And in 21 years, you can do that with your son.

Exactly.

All right.

Thanks, insider for coming this week.

So appreciate it.

There's a lot to sort through.

Thank you for watching or listening along to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer I will see you here next week on PBS 12.

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