This week, Colorado's governor asked the legislature for $10 million to extend food assistance to the 10% of our state's population who receive nutritional assistance.

With federal funding set to expire next week.

And from ranching communities in Colorado, cattle producers are speaking out about their livelihoods being threatened along with their rural communities.

If the president follows through with his idea of bringing in beef from Argentina.

And there are also topics of financial and safety issues.

Surveillance camera is up for discussion on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

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

Krista Kafer, a columnist with The Denver Post, Tyrone Glover, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and Ian Thomas Tafoya, a community leader and a former candidate for mayor of Denver.

Let's start in the states capital city.

Denver's money issues remain troubling as the city council take steps to finalize a budget.

Now, next week, the City Council will hear public comment.

This week, Mayor Johnson offered to return some service.

The services they originally cut with $4 million in Covid relief money.

But then word got out that Denver is out some $2 million, because of rent.

The Denver Post has not been paying to the city.

The Denver Post rents the building that the city owns.

So there's that.

And Patty, now the city order is saying there are many areas we're going to start auditing.

Well, the city auditor does that every year.

That's the auditor's job.

But he's picked some really good ones for 2026, the 16th Street project.

He's talking about homeless again.

And we're going to be looking at these bonds.

but we also see that Johnson won some points back this week, put it more money into the eviction issue.

You know, people who are going to get evicted said, we're going to come up with a way to have parking magistrates, even though there's no more money for it.

Doty the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure got to come up with a system, and maybe they can get the money from the Denver Post.

My favorite story of this week.

That beautiful building at the side of Civic Center, which was built for the GOP when we had two newspapers named for the post, which was the dominant paper in that GOP deal.

Johnston should just get that ticker tape thing running it.

Get on the side.

It's broken and say, pay your bills.

Which is what he did say in public when it came out you know, global Alden Global, big vulture capitalists have not been paying the city of Denver for the lease for the building that the post bought.

I mean, that the Denver bought.

From the post and the city council didn't even know of this.

Right.

So they found out this week.

Krista, I can't speak to that last issue now, but I will talk about the fact that this give and take is all part of the process when we have an executive and then you have a legislature, in this case, it's the council, the putting forth a budget, making cuts, putting forth a counter proposal, because that back and forth which some things end up getting refunded.

And I think as a taxpayer, that's ultimately a good thing.

Ideas get tested, things get changed.

One of the things that I appreciate is that initially he had said, we're not going to do the online appeal system for parking, and why that was important is that it made it easy when there were mistakes.

The fact is, we know there were mistakes.

A third of all of those appealed cases getting set up, tossing out the ticket and about half there ended up being a reduction in the price for the ticket.

So it does go to show that people, people make mistakes.

People who give the tickets make mistakes and times there's extenuating circumstances.

There needs to be a system where people can easily go for that and put forth an appeal.

They were going to take that off the table and now they're saying, no, what?

We're going to put something different on the table.

And ultimately it's not going to cost the city.

Ultimately, it will come from higher rates and higher ticket, but people will still be able to make these appeals, and it will take it out of the hands of magistrates, out of the court, so that it is done in a way that is faster and doesn't burden the overall system.

My take on many of these cuts is we are asking for too much of our vulnerable populations to really bear the brunt of this financial and fiscal mismanagement.

I mean, since 2020, there's been 851 recommendations from the auditor, and I think 32% remain unimplemented.

So it's one thing to come up with all of these cuts, another thing to actually do them.

But the ones that they are doing are, I think, disproportionately harming our most vulnerable populations.

The cut to the staff mental health program of $1.5 million, when were at the same time, weeks after layoffs, giving the police a 15% raise?

I mean, we're really showing where our priorities are here with these, these cuts when you're cutting mental health responses, giving police raises, you're really criminalizing poverty.

And at the end of the day, I have some real equal protection concerns with that.

All right.

And well, I think that there is, something we have to get out on the table that I think this is quite possibly the worst budget scenario we've seen since the great Recession.

And so there's a lot to deal with.

And at the national level with tariffs, the impacts with federal grants that are not making their way to Colorado.

This all compounds on our issues.

And so I would agree that we are in a situation where there is this give and take.

It seems like, the mayor gave a little on elections, but he also took a couple digs at City council around star saying, well, you guys got a raise.

Maybe you guys can take a piece of that.

At the end of the day, we are in a situation where I find myself talking to people and and my own kitchen table is now the time to build two new stadiums.

Is now the time to pay 50% in bonds over this entire, the doubling of these bonds that we're voting for to Wall Street, when public banking and some of these other solutions offer us.

think at the end of the day, the auditors piece is critically important.

Yeah.

Over the years I've watched many audits, and I think the listening to the people whose job it is every single day to try to make the system work better is, is good.

And we're going to be getting into some of the sales taxes this year as well.

I mean, caring for Denver, being on this list, I have asked the mayor personally for a sales task task force after his housing bond failed or his housing sales tax failed.

Excuse me.

We've reached this kind of capacity, I think, of communities, and we're not spending all of the money, so we need to dial those in the right way.

All right?

We are in the middle of pedestrian safety month and also domestic violence month.

And those are two areas that Colorado needs to work on now.

Krista, it was really upsetting to see a report.

A 24% increase in domestic violence fatalities in our state, 88%, and pedestrian deaths in Colorado went in.

The first one isn't something that a lot of us can do anything about.

These were, in most of these cases, very violent men who killed their partners and killed their own children.

If you know somebody who's in one of those situations, helping them to get out, to get away from those people, maybe to de-escalate those situations.

But where I feel I can make a difference is the second statistic is the 88% increase in pedestrian deaths, is how am I driving and how am I acting as a pedestrian?

and then also being smart as is city planners, you know, getting this road construction finished so that you don't have frustrated drivers, but also that you don't have barriers to pedestrians and bicyclists and everyone is able to use these thoroughfares in the safest way possible.

Yeah.

And the construction is never ending.

It feels like.

Right it well, you have like two seasons really.

It's like construction and winter.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tyrone and I see both of these as systematic failures.

I think that with the domestic violence deaths, you know, domestic violence is it's it's it's complicated in that oftentimes there are issues with victims reporting.

There are issues with victims staying in those situations.

Even after several convictions.

And one of the ways, I think, to sort of support victims and get around this is providing resources to families, resources to victims, And unfortunately, a lot of these programs are the very programs that are being cut and being gutted.

we can even talk about access to weapons and guns like that, I think 100% of the children deaths, were gun related.

And there's also some pieces there.

I think, AG wiser has talked about having a sort of because at the end of the day, once there's a protection or protective order, all the guns are removed from the households.

But there is this sort of gap between the arrest and when that protection order enters, that they may still have access to the weapons.

And so I can think of a number of ways that systematically we can deal with this.

I can also think of a number of ways, systematically, we can deal with the pedestrian deaths.

When you're looking at the the streets, you know, Federal Boulevard, being one of them that account for these deaths.

It's sort of systematic.

I feel like with people getting pushed further away from the the city centers because of, just cost of living.

Right.

And now the people who need to take public transportation, we need to walk to work, are now walking down, streets without sidewalks.

They're trying to bike where there's not bike lanes, where there's construction.

And so I think really bringing our sort of outlying areas up to code, up to snuff, so that those folks who are sort of pushed out, can also be safe as pedestrians is also paramount.

Yeah.

Just last week, three pedestrians were killed last weekend, and.

Well, my heart goes out.

Of course.

Domestic violence.

Awful guy.

I think you were saying about where does the intersection with guns come into this conversation, I think is super important.

And the pedestrian side and the investments around bikes.

I mean, personally, I was hit by a car when I was seven years old.

The only thing that saved my life was a helmet.

And I just want to point out, like I 25 and Broadway, when I was running for mayor, this one came up, that one intersection that it cost, of which we now know is serving this new stadium and we weren't talking about then, is enough to do the entire bicycle network for the entire city and county of Denver.

Right.

Similarly, with these bond packages that are being put forward that are heavy on roads and say they are about pedestrians, it's a much smaller piece of it.

And instead, the pedestrian advocates are going to the ballot and asking people to fund sidewalk fees, for example.

And so those moneys are getting grabbed somewhere.

But these infrastructure bonds and capital improvement programs qualify exactly for these programs.

And so I think that CDot is CDot and Dotty, both are misguided and the pieces of the pie that they're cutting for these, because at the end of the day, people's lives matter a lot.

And, you know, you can't tax somebody who's dead and that's you can't toll road, you can't get them to pay it.

And I think they're making mistakes on where they're investing.

I mean, 270 is being discussed being widened.

They already spent $2 billion on I-70.

You know billions of dollars on these projects.

Who's making the money while all these rates for pedestrians are going up.

Yeah I'm Patti.

I'm going to bring it back to domestic violence.

I think a lot of people don't realize how cutting edge Denver was three decades ago.

And dealing with domestic violence, new policies that if there was a domestic violence call, someone had to go to jail.

Someone had to be taken away to diffuse the situation that was groundbreaking when Denver started doing it, domestic violence courts, people were really paying attention.

The identification of the battered women syndrome and also, in some cases, battered men, where you don't see how you can leave.

It's like the Stockholm syndrome.

You don't see how you can leave and still take care of your children and pay your bills.

And now we've got new pressures with health issues, with food issues that are adding to those tensions.

So we have to remember that we were on the cutting edge of dealing with this issue, and we can get back there again.

And you've got eight dead kids who show just how much we need to pay attention.

And that was the highest number ever, right?

For children falling victim to domestic violence.

Right.

It's awful.

Okay, now let's talk about the push for more cameras around us to assist law enforcement.

Aurora City Council has signed off on the use of facial recognition technology to help solve some cases.

Arvada and Meade are already doing this.

And despite urges before the City Council this week in Denver, Denver is upping up its contract with flock safety.

Tyrone.

Where would you like to start?

I just think that this is a huge mistake.

I mean, we have seen the data and, these facial recognition, the technology is not there yet.

And, the I think bias that are within these machines is very much present.

The statistic from MIT.

Right.

And I think that it has not been disproven is that there is a 34.7% error rate for identification of black women versus a 0.8%, error rate for white men.

I think that this is significant as one of the, folks who actually authored the complaint, for the Gilliam family, which if you remember, back in August of 2020, a group of girls with their aunts and mother going to like, girls getting their nails done, outing all held at gunpoint, face down on the hot pavement because they misidentified them.

And it was actually a license plate for a motorcycle when all of them were in a rather large SUV.

So the technology is is not there.

And to roll out a facial recognition technology that our AG has already found has systematic racial bias in it, our own state AG finds this is just, I think, not the right path.

But interestingly, I think it was ice who searched it 1400 times.

I mean, they are the primary user of this, so I think we'll probably talk about it a little bit later in the program.

But this does seem to be consistent with, a trend of bowing to Ice and the administration as well.

All right.

And so I had a conversation with the mayor about this and other Latino leaders who were very concerned about what kind of protections are going to be available for this data.

And I think we all sit here and say, do we have people on staff are going to be sure and have oversight to make sure that this database never gets cracked or nobody ever gets into it.

I think there's all that concern in the background.

I did talk to, some council members on both sides of the issue, feeling like the fulfilling of this $500,000 grant, no cost extension.

And I think, you know, they're kind of split on whether or not he's using the powers that he has versus coming back with a better contract in the long run.

I will say that hundreds of people packed a room, to have this conversation.

I've been getting text since the 20 since Covid, there was a ballot issue that was circulating around banning facial recognition, and it was only because of Covid and the inability to petition successfully that that one disappeared.

So I feel like this is just the beginning.

And when you think about the the collusion of the surveillance state as a millennial since the Patriot Act, I think there are a lot of people who don't want to see it.

You mentioned the meeting Wednesday night, but even before the City council Monday night, a lot of people were standing up and saying, please do not go forward with clock.

Well, in the meeting had already been set up for Wednesday because it was a neighborhood meeting and it was amazing that all of a sudden the announcement of the extension came right before that meeting, which definitely irritated many of the people who organized it.

The concern on that is, yes, they Johnston says that we will not release this this will the information will not go to Ice.

But I think all of us are feeling not too secure in what we're going to be able to keep from the federal government right now.

I mean, they certainly the federal government is certainly making moves like they will take anything they can get.

The other reminder that we all have is cameras are everywhere.

Even if the government doesn't have access, the media does.

And all you need to do is look at the weather Giants fan who got into an altercation with people leaving the No Kings rally, and it was a mess and it was all over and wound up with one person being arrested for the wrong action.

And that's been changed now.

But cameras are everywhere.

Behave yourselves.

Yeah, I think two things.

If you're going to build something that's controversial, don't name it flock.

Just think that could be problematic.

Secondly, there is an inherent tension between privacy and safety.

And I'm I'm very empathetic to the privacy concerns, especially given the flaws that you pointed out in the technology, the fact that it is still evolving and still needs some improvements.

But there's also the safety side of it, and they have arrested criminals and they have gotten people stolen cars returned to them.

So it is an important part of law enforcement.

We're talking 100 cameras and a pretty good sized city.

So it's not that there's a camera on every street corner.

These are these are placed pretty strategically.

So even though I'm aware that there are some problems, I also think that there are some benefits.

And as somebody who's been a victim of crime, I tend to on the side of giving the police those tools to be able to arrest those criminals and return stolen property.

And I do hope that the governor's or the mayor's word and the systems they're putting forth together in the contract, that they will be able to keep this information in-house and that it doesn't go inappropriately ties.

Okay.

All right.

Speaking of data sharing, Governor Jared Polis appears still willing to comply with a federal immigration, subpoena and turn in the names of around ten color companies that have employees on staff who sponsor unaccompanied migrant children.

They want to give that information.

The Ice wants that information.

Governor Polis looks like he's going to go forward with that, even though a Denver judge keeps reminding him and that that would be against Colorado law.

And this is one that I'm looking forward to and talking about.

We talked about it in the back end.

Not being a lawyer myself.

What I can tell you is I'm seeing this play out in the community I organize with on a regular basis, and it is very disappointing.

I can tell you at the Hispanic Heritage Month event at the Governor's mansion, a letter was hand-delivered to the governor, criticizing him for these choices that he's making to negotiate, information to be exchanged.

The cost of course, the taxpayers at $100,000, violating a law on the same day that he signed it, And I think just generally let's just take a step back here.

These are still mass individuals who are coming in and grabbing people.

And and I understand that there's this tension that is escalating it to a boiling point.

And all I can help but feel like that's part of the plan and the part of the plan is for these people to push, the community to begin to protest in a way that takes it beyond peaceful protest so that more can be clamped down on and I this is what it looks like in my community.

what's happening with these individuals who are showing up and getting grabbed at court is the part that is so devastating because in an effort to get up their numbers, they're restricting people for saying that they're they're illegally here and not following the rules, but they're showing up for court.

So if you're showing up for court, you're doing the right thing.

This comes up in domestic violence cases.

This comes up and everything else.

And so the the solutions here, I think, I can tell you that in my own family, I have my own Trump uncles, I got my own people in my family of all sides.

They are even saying like, this is going too far.

Okay, Patty.

There is one part of this, this order that is tricky just because it does involve children and the question of unaccompanied children.

But the larger picture is so worrisome, and it's not just what's happening happening in Denver.

Obviously, you look at New York where all of a sudden there was that ice raid and vendors.

You could see something like that happening in Denver, too.

And we don't have the National Guard marching around yet.

But you could see something like that happened.

But the fact that people are not secure, just going about their daily live is when they're citizens.

The number of citizens who have been snatched is really frightening and it's only getting worse.

And Crystal, your thoughts on this.

You know I, I'm a little bit sympathetic to Polis our governor in that I think two things.

There's the issue of unaccompanied children and perhaps there needs to be some more scrutiny there.

And that there may be something appropriate about putting forth this information.

I also think he wants to keep the eyes of the administration off of Colorado.

And the minute you run afoul of the administration, you invite some sort of vindictive action, whether it is the withholding of grants or perhaps the sending of troops into our city, under the pretext of safety.

And there was a pretty safe city.

But they're here really just to facilitate ice.

I, I so I can I'm sympathetic to Polis wanting to prevent that from happening.

I also think that the court decision was written in such a way that it provides a little bit of a loophole.

So it said no, the Department of Labor cannot provide this information.

Other departments might be able to or they might not be able to.

So there is a little bit of wiggle room.

Perhaps the judge could have written it in a way that was a bit more black and white.

As long as there's a little bit of wiggle room, that means that the governor has been willing to spend money on on lawyers to be able to exploit that little loophole.

Unfortunately, that money is coming out of public coffers.

$100,000 is a lot of money that could go to other better things.

So I, I but I do think that the governor is stuck between kind of a rock and a hard place and is trying to figure out the right way to go.

And as you mentioned, it involves children and the fear that these children could be trafficked or that's the concern.

And the concern around, you know, child conflict and I think is real.

But it's not a real issue in this case.

The one that I, Judge Jones, has ruled on.

There's no evidence of child trafficking, no verification of a criminal probe, and now no state welfare check.

You know, it was really just, I think, pretext, to try to sort of get the subpoena through which Judge Jones, I think summarily struck down.

Now, under a different factual scenario, what he ruled differently, potentially.

But this is the factual scenario we're stuck with.

This is kind of a states rights issue.

And now we have a Republican administration sort of trying to force a Democratic governor to turn over these these these documents in these in response to these subpoenas.

And really, it is, I think, just a also, a due process violation because these are not real criminal warrants that are part of, criminal investigations or criminal, subpoenas.

Right?

We're not talking about that type of compliance here.

But I think the crystal's point, you know, we are in just really unprecedented times.

And despite what our federal, you know, president says, despite what our laws say, despite what we're supposed to do and what is due process and equal protection, there still are some pain points that I think our leaders and at the state and local level have to be cognizant of.

And what really galls me, honestly, is that for the longest time, Republicans were champions of the 10th amendment of states having prerogatives of states being able to manage most of what goes on within their borders.

And now we have a president, a Republican, at least a name that is saying, oh, you know, I don't think he's actually read the Constitution, but I don't think he's aware also of the 10th Amendment or the fact that states do have prerogatives.

And he wants to, from the white House cause states to do things.

And if they don't do what he wants, does something vindictive to try to force them, that's not a Republican value.

That's not an American value.

Okay.

All right.

Now let's go and talk with everyone about some of the highs and the lows that we found this week.

I will start in the low notes.

We can end on a good note this week.

Patty, let's start with you.

Well, I was watching the east wing of the white House being demolished this morning.

It yesterday morning and I wasn't sure there anything could be lower.

And then all of a sudden the news came of the pride of Park Hill, Chauncey Billups being arrested for allegedly being involved in a high stakes poker scam.

We don't know what's really happening there, but it's really hard on the start of the NBA home game tomorrow to have this hometown hero be brought down.

Yeah, I agree, you know, beer is being held hostage even as we speak.

There is a lot of beer being held behind closed doors that have been locked that cannot be accessed.

And that that's a tragedy.

So the Hispanic Restaurant Association paid a local brewery rises to brew up some beer that they were going to use as a fundraiser.

Well, another brewery, I don't know.

They must add some can go wrong because they, they didn't pay their taxes.

They've now been shut down by the city.

The problem is, is that the restaurant towards beer is still in the brewery, and the city is claiming that they will not allow access to that beer.

Beer does not have a like a forever shelf life.

That stuff's got to get bottled.

If it's left there too long, it's going to go bad.

That's a lot of beer.

It's a lot of money.

It's a tragedy.

It needs to be stopped.

Okay.

They're on.

My low.

As I heard that the, kid watch at the, rec centers, Carla Madison and central Park has is now going away by the end of the year.

I remember when Carla Madison opened up, you know, I was living in Commerce Park parks, kind of right across the street.

I remember taking my kids there.

And the fact that they had, you know, kid watch, which is like a kind of a daycare so the parents can come in and work out and be healthy.

Some oftentimes a benefit that you see it, I guess we'll call them a higher end sort of athletic clubs and things like that.

The fact that, Rec Center was offering that to members of the community.

So, you know, parents and kids from the community could be healthy and engaged in that, in fact, that it's going away.

It's just a real bummer.

It is.

All right.

And I continue to be completely shocked that Arizona congressmember, Adelaida Grijalva still hasn't been sworn in despite winning over a month ago.

And I think this is, another example of this dangerous game that's being played about democracy when a duly elected person can't be sworn in to take their votes.

And I think it's important to note that they're talking about how she will be the last vote around the Jefferson Obscene Files to release them.

All right.

Something good.

Patty, please.

An obscure fun fact.

The first female prime minister of Japan was an intern in Pat Schroeder's office back in 1988.

She saw Pat Trotter talk about why she wasn't running for president.

She wrote.

She called her, contacted her, wanted to support her, and Pat Schroeder offered her an internship.

And now she's in charge of Japan.

And now she's in charge.

That is a pretty cool story.

All right.

I don't think there's any beating that, but I want to get my hats off to the Adelante Fund Foundation.

I got to go to Honduras for a week and meet women who are recipients of microloans that enable them to open small businesses all over the country.

And in particular rural areas.

And I just love these enterprising women.

And I love Adelante for, helping facilitate, entrepreneurism and, community and, and growth and will be good.

I love that you mentioned that her own.

I want to shout out, you know, Colorado's voting system.

We were talking around the table about our different sort of voting propensities, and I was looking at my ballot before even coming in here.

And I just think it's it's so well done.

The, the mail in, being able to drop off your mail and if you kind of missed that cutoff and being able to just show up to the polls even and vote, I just think that it's, you know, regardless of where you come out on the various issues we're all voting on, it's a system that is really.

Solid, big.

Yeah, the accessibility is very good, very accessible.

Right.

And we talked about this one before.

I was lucky enough to be at the Bronco game for the Comeback State all the way to the end.

Awesome Stadium.

Hadn't been there since they put in the new TV.

I think it's a good stadium.

I don't know why we're building another one.

Okay.

All right, am I high?

We'll have a couple first.

Krista, I don't know if you can see these little pumpkins.

I guess they're pumpkins that she brought in from her garden for all of us.

So Ian has his out.

We all have them out now.

Thank you.

Also, my high is also that I'm headed to a family wedding.

Where my niece, who is one of my flower girls, is getting married.

25 years ago, she was my flower girl.

And I'm very grateful to have the great Ultan Dillard sitting in for me next week.

So thank you in advance, Alton.

And thanks to the insiders who were here this week.

For those of you who are watching or listening from home, we appreciate that as well.

I guess I'm Kyle Dyer and I'll see you in two weeks after Election Day.

So go vote.

Tb12 believes in the power of original local programing.

Help us bring more shows like the one you just watched by donating at PBS's World Dawgs Program support today.