How many weeks have I started this show saying it was a big week?

There's lots to discuss and assured you that our panel has some great insight to help sort through what's happening all around us.

We end this week with a lot of emotion and in regards to some of what has transpired, maybe we don't have all the answers, but we all have our beliefs and ideas as to why things happen or how things could be better.

We need to listen to one another and we need to learn from one another why we have these differing ideas, all of which is needed to move us forward together.

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

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me introduce you to this week's insider panel.

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

David Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute.

Laura Aldrete a building consultant and former director of planning for the City and County of Denver.

And Sean Walsh, public affairs consultant with Sean Walsh Consulting.

I walked out of a very positive community event in Denver on Wednesday afternoon to see the news on my phone about the shooting of well-known conservative Charlie Kirk at a very public event at the University of Utah.

Then I got my car turned on the radio and heard about the shooting at Evergreen High School again, a school shooting in Colorado.

And as the day went on, the news just got worse.

Charlie Kirk died.

We learned of the shooter in the evergreen case.

Also did take his life.

And another Colorado community is shaken.

Patty, I will start with you.

This also happens as Thursday is the anniversary of 9/11.

And of course, we were all thinking about that yesterday.

When you're watching the ceremonies about remembering 9/11 and how incredibly shaken we all were.

And now we still think about terrorism.

We think about international terrorism.

But the terrorism at home, the homegrown terrorism is what has become so horrifying, you know, a political assassination of Charlie Kirk.

And whether you agreed with what Charlie Kirk said or not, you had to agree with the fact that he'd like to talk.

He liked to talk, and he liked to listen.

And he was touring campuses.

He was set to be in Colorado next week for his talk back, so he could talk with students about his views and listen to them, argue with them and see if they could come to some kind of consensus.

So that was horrifying.

The school shootings.

You know, this is not the first one in Jefferson County.

We had started with Columbine, and we've seen so many other shootings here in Colorado since then.

And you wonder, just what is it going to take to stop the homegrown terrorism?

Yeah.

And Charlie Kirk, you were mentioning coming to Colorado.

We supposed to be in Woodland Park, like right.

Now for a Bible, a three day Bible, session.

And then CSU next week.

There's CSU next week.

And South Park just pulled its, one of its new season episodes because it's about a Charlie Kirk like character.

Oh, wow.

Okay, It feels like the declining years of the Roman Republic with escalating violations of the norms that hold civil society together and, and assassinations, as Patty said, Charlie Kirk was the model of civil open debate.

And his Turning Point USA organization has hundreds of campus chapters.

Which is why he was hated in part, because there are some on the left who believe they have the monopoly on correct thought.

And having that challenged on campus, was, was very upsetting to them.

like the murder of Charlie Kirk, there is a social contagion that involves, school shootings.

That's what the the Columbine perpetrators intended to create.

And and did.

And you can talk all about the, the root causes and gun control and all these kinds of things.

And some of those things might be good ideas, but the only way to stop these shootings is to protect schools with as much protection as we give to politicians, or jewelry stores.

And I think it's Israel had a problem, school shootings perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists, and they shut it down, when they put started putting armed guards, at every school.

Laura.

Well, you know, it would be a sad day to have armed guards at every school with young children, right?

If that's our reality.

That's a sad statement.

I do think the, the work that the, the Colorado legislature has done since 2023, in terms of passing more, reasonable gun control in the in, in terms of safe storage, red flag law and then, school safety and threat assessment programs really geared towards unfortunately, what happened at evergreen.

And so the question I ask is maybe we shouldn't be.

Maybe we have the all the laws that we need.

Maybe we need to be thinking about education for all Colorado residents, or programs to help, you know, bring gun locks into every home.

Who has a, who has a gun, communicating the challenges of it and the health, as as well as, continuing to push for access to mental health for everyone.

Sean.

Well, whether it's a school shooting or a political assassination, it's it's sad that we follow the kind of the same predictable pattern that, we go through this kind of emotional cocktail of indignation and sadness and, and rage, pundits, once again, are trying to, you know, help explain things for audiences.

Politicians are a little too quick, I think, to go to the keyboard of the microphone to kind of push their policy decisions.

I so appreciate mental health professionals who are out there working so hard to make sure that some mentally sick person doesn't slip through the cracks and commit a heinous act.

Just, you know, two things.

I think if there's, you know, if there's anything we can do, it's not so much a point to blame outward, whether it's, guns or the media or social media or knives or school districts.

I think this is it's certainly an opportunity for us to contribute by kind of in the way Charlie Kirk did.

I mean, it's, you know, disagree with him.

He was very Partizan.

He was very provocative.

But as Patty points out, rightly, he did engage.

In fact, he died doing the very thing that that he loved to do.

So I think the example there is to have the courage to engage and to listen to people and try to understand them.

Okay.

Eerily enough, earlier in the day on Wednesday I noticed on X how Charlie Kirk had commented about this next topic that we had already chosen to discuss on this show, and that being how the Weld County Sheriff issued a warning this week that an inmate was going to be released from the Weld County Jail and, as he rode, is a potential danger to the community.

This is another case that is following a Colorado law that says if someone is not competent to stand trial and the competency cannot be restored, that person is not able to stand trial and could be released back into the public.

You know, David, there was another case, from Arapahoe County, where a man you might recall that video was on a playground running after a boy, the boy got away.

But, that man was not competent.

Stand trial.

He is currently being held under a mental evaluation.

But there is this call.

David, do we need to change this law?

Do we have to have another discussion about this?

Well, the law that that is the cause of this controversy was something that actually was passed by the legislature and in a bipartisan way.

There were the biggest I mean, there were 12 votes against it in the House of Representatives.

It was kind of funny to see Governor Polis come out and say, absolutely unacceptable.

I'm calling on the county attorney and D.A.

to use state law, including Colorado Revised Statutes, Title 25 and 27, to ensure he's not a large.

Well, that's not a cite.

Anything specific.

Title 25 is this huge thing on public health, on the environment.

Title 27 is about behavioral health.

He's he can't even in this tweet point to some tool that could be used.

Except the obvious thing is the tools already there.

We have a we have state mental facilities to take care of people who are criminally insane and can't be restored to competency.

The problem is the capacity for that is gigantically under underfunded.

You know, currently a waiting list of over 300 people for that.

And we could make everybody better off if we would just prioritize funding the things the government should be doing, like like the mental health institutions, which are actually one of the few things, in the Colorado Constitution that the legislature is ordered to do.

Well, it's a terrifying.

Any of these stories are terrifying to read.

Right?

Because you feel like you, you or anyone else could be at risk.

For serious harm.

this is systemic, right?

We have since World War two, there has been deinstitutionalization of mental health systems.

Carter tried, and the Mental Health Act in 1980 was immediately repealed by Reagan.

We continue to not address a significant issue in our country.

And it's at this point, it's part of our history.

And the result of that is the streets are our, our institution.

Right?

That is where the mental, people with mental health issues go because there is no alternative.

And, and there needs to be some accountability for people's actions, competent or incompetent or a place to, to put them if they're incompetent.

But, there are some onus on, on our legislatures to, to, to get it right.

And, and I am very, very hopeful that it gets fixed in this coming, 2026 session.

So, Well, like a lot of legislation, I mean, this was loaded with a lot of good intention, but maybe not a lot of, foresight.

It was based on an abiding faith, it taking somebody incompetent, incompetent to stand trial in the criminal justice system, but then somehow be enrolled in the civil mental health system.

And now, of course, you know, Lakewood was another example.

There was a doctor that was stabbed there that was then is concerned about being stalked because his his attacker is is on the street.

One of the bill sponsors, said, yeah, well, we thought we had the money and then we, we didn't.

So I while I applaud the intent, I just, I want to suggest I think it's time to start looking at some other states like Virginia and Louisiana, who have, a 60 day, General Assembly in even years and a 45 day and odd years.

The Texas legislature meets every other year.

I think instead of passing more laws, we need to focus on those we've already passed and making sure they are enforced and resourced.

The only way to stop these from happening is to limit the span of time that these bills are being passed.

Well, I don't think that's going to happen for a long time.

Governor Dick Lamm had said back to go to Laura's point, had said one of his big regrets was when people were let out on the street and there was no place for them to go.

When the government quit providing places for the people with serious mental health issues sent them to the streets.

And he said that was one of his big regrets, that that was allowed to happen because we didn't come up with a solution.

So you have across the system, you've got prisons that are overcrowded, you've got jails that are overcrowded with people waiting for their competency evaluations.

And then so probably you also have a pressure to let anyone out who might seem like they could maybe make it with the right kind of support, but they're not getting the kind of support they need.

And I know that counties are now working on at least being able to come up with some of those support systems to make sure that people have what they need, but they're going to have to also make sure they get at them.

Okay.

This week, Republican State Senator Barbara Kirk Meyer announced that she is running for governor.

Colorado has not elected a Republican to the governorship since 2002.

Could this be the year?

A magellan poll released earlier this week said 53% of Coloradans think the state is on the wrong track.

47% say that we're headed in the right direction.

I should point out that Magellan is a conservative leaning polling firm here in Colorado.

But even so, Laura, do you think Kirk Meyer will be a formidable opponent to either Michael Bennett or Phil Weiser?

I think it's great for our democracy, our state democracy that, Barbara, that there's an actual worthy candidate on the Republican side.

I mean, we haven't had a worthy Republican candidate for some time.

You know, she has some extreme views.

And so she's going to have to come back from, her claim to want to succeed from the state of Colorado.

She's going to have to thread the needle on her pro-life stance when we have when the people of Colorado have secured, reproductive rights for women in our Constitution, those are going to be hard for her.

I was disappointed that that the Democrats are showing up so lackluster in, in this poll.

Now, maybe the polls tilted a little bit, but I would have hoped that our Democratic senators and representatives are showing strong more strongly than than what the polls are showing.

Well, the odds are certainly stacked against Senator Kirk Meyer.

As you point out, there's only been one Republican governor in the last 50 years.

It's definitely rough sledding there.

And she joins now 16 Republicans who have, thrown their hat in the ring, all of whom, by the way, have about $100,000 cash on hand.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, Michael Bennet has about 1.6.

So wiser is is, raised, 2.4 million.

An amount, by the way, that was raised in Bennet's case, was raised in four months.

Money's not only, you know, her only challenged.

You know, I think her eventual opponent, she should be the nominee when she becomes the nominee, her eventual, opponent.

And the mainstream media are going to hang Donald Trump around her neck like a stone.

And not just on issues that affect the nationally, but here in Colorado.

Moving Space Command to Alabama, which is, you know, it's kind of a done deal calling into question, mail ballots, which we've been doing in Colorado since the 90s.

So these are the issues that are going to be used.

She's going to have to be very nimble in how she talks about of the president in order not to alienate the base, which is what she's going to need to win.

Okay, fine.

She is one of 34 candidates right now, which is crazy.

And six have dropped out.

So but we still have 34 left in.

We haven't had a reasonable Republican candidate for a while.

And it does look like the Republican Party is going to be much more likely to let her win the primary to, rather than putting up the roadblocks they put to more reasonable candidates.

Of course, we've never had a female governor, female mayor of Denver either, and I think she will be getting a lot of attention.

She's a smart woman.

She's a good speaker.

She's got a lot of good thoughts about the legislature.

She is going to have to thread the needle, as Laura said, about the life, the choice issue, the Trump issue.

But it's going to be a really interesting race with her in it, at least, because I think people will take the Republicans a lot more seriously than Heidi Cohen.

All was taken and we will have a lot of discussion.

It's not a big surprise that Barrett and Wise are getting all the money right now, because CalFire just jumped into the ring this week.

Bad timing for her through no fault of her own, that it was right after Broncos right before shootings.

David.

I think she'd be she'll be a very strong candidate.

she's been Weld County commissioner.

She's in the Senate on the joint Budget Committee, which is those the the six of each part of total who are on that committee are absolutely hardworking, very intelligent and highly respected by their their peers.

And she also served in Bill Owens cabinet as the the head of the Department of Local Affairs.

I you know, there's no question that Trump is a gigantic headwind, for Republicans in Colorado.

But you got to think, what's look at what's happened to the state under Polis.

You know, we used to have one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Now we've got one of the worst, the amount of taxation called fees, in imposed without a vote of the people is just enormous.

We're super heavily regulated.

And so I think Colorado has done better typically under mixed government than uni party control.

And she is she's not a hardcore right wing Republican.

She's a moderate conservative.

And this is, may be our last chance to save the state.

Okay.

This weekend the Denver Broncos play in Indianapolis in a stadium that has a retractable roof, which is something that the Broncos owners would love in a new stadium.

And this week, the team said it is, is leaving Mile-high Stadium to build a new stadium at the historic Burnham Yard.

Sean, the team, will not be moving out of Denver, so that is a big plus for Denver.

Indeed.

We don't have to start, practicing saying Lone Tree Broncos or Aurora Broncos.

There's certainly a lot of excitement about the issue.

But if we're being honest, was that was it that much of a surprise?

I mean, the Denver Post did run, front page story back in June about the purchase of several all cash purchases of parcels around Burnham Yard to the tune of about $150 million.

Again, no debt, Underreported, I think, is the fact that unlike in 1998, this will be paid for by the Penner family, by the Denver Broncos, unlike, you know, unlike in 1998, where we, we, the voters came up with 75% of the money and pep only came up with the other 25 on the very same day.

Of note, on the very same day that that announcement was made, Councilwoman Jaime Torres did send an email to her constituents, making sure that they were aware that she would be, very vigilant about, making sure that the community and the stake holders were involved in that process.

The There's going to be a lot of excitement about it.

But there are a lot of neighborhoods, a lot of stakeholders in that they're going to have to do, to earn that, to earn the respect, to not pick any unnecessary fights in the, in the, in the area.

Okay, Patty.

They have a pretty good plan they can follow, which is the ball arena plan and everything they did with the communities there.

I guess we're really lucky we're not calling them the Bentonville Broncos, given the involvement with Walmart and Cronk and the and the Penner family.

What is fascinating and I want to do an incorrect you.

It was business ten that broke the story about all the land purchases little scrappy group of business paper.

But they did a great job on grabbing all that.

And so it wasn't a surprise that they really were.

The Broncos were smart about making the moves, buying the land they need.

They can get the 58 acres easily from the Colorado Department of Transportation, which bought Burnham Yard in 2021, thinking they'd use it for an I-25 interchange and then discovered it wouldn't work.

It's great to have it stay in Denver.

You do wonder what the city will do with the 80 acres they get back in 2030.

When?

When the other stadium is done with.

But it's great news for Denver that this is going to be at the heart of it.

We'll see if the other stadium we're getting for women's soccer shows up too, but it's good to have action downtown.

It is okay.

It's it's just outstanding.

Independence Institute led the fight against the ballot issue to give the Broncos a welfare stadium in 1998, and now they've finally grown up and are, you know, no longer the kids living in the basement of the parents expense.

They're going to buy their own their own own house.

Ad on their own, which is great.

It sounds like an excellent plan.

You know, they'll have more food facilities, more, more variety in the in the seating and they're going to still be the Denver Broncos.

You know, the Dallas Cowboys don't play in Dallas.

The San Francisco Giants don't play in San Francisco.

The Cleveland Browns are leaving Cleveland.

So it's great that the Denver Broncos are still going to be the Denver.

And with a retractable roof, that's going to be excellent, too.

Includes give me the possibility of occasionally hosting big events like a Super Bowl or a college football championship.

Laura.

Well they are they have grown up the, the Broncos owners.

But, but recall that there is a bond initiative that will come before the voters and there's a significant amount of infrastructure that the citizens are being asked to pay for that happen to be really next to an adjacent and part of this redevelopment.

And and I think it's okay.

Right.

We're all in on this.

Right?

We need to be all in on this.

as the, you know, former planning director, I think there's at least three things that are really important.

One is that needs to have, really good multiple modes of, of transportation.

I think it needs the Front Range rail.

Passenger rail needs to have a stop there.

Light rail will continue to serve the community, but it also can serve the stadium.

I think this the community benefits agreement really needs to be meaningful.

And then third is that I hope it's not just a stadium.

It needs to be an addition to being an entertainment district.

And it needs to be usable 24 seven that needs to have activity 24 seven or at least, you know, 18 hours a day.

Right.

To feel, to get all the tax benefit, out of it that, that we can.

So We have so many entertainment areas being discussed.

You know, also along the River mile, they're not going to be enough people who need to be entertained.

That's the biggest concern okay.

Now let's go down the line and have each insider expressed their highs and lows of the week.

And I do think that we have tackled a lot of the low points of the week, but perhaps there are some others to share.

And then we will end with some of the silver linings.

Patty, I'll start with you.

I will just capping off the summer, the all weather airport has seemed to have had more delays, more problems with thunderstorms or whatever all summer long.

I don't know about everyone else, but you always get calls from relatives stuck on the tarmac who might be showing up at your house.

So good.

Let's have a happier fall.

That's right.

Well, when we think about the poisonous political climate that's been created at the top of the list for who's helped create, that is a fraudulent group that calls itself the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And they put out these hate maps of supposedly evil organizations.

They previously inspired assassinations against other organizations.

And, the day before yesterday, they put out their new hate map and called, that included Turning Point USA on it.

And so they, they got their wish again.

Okay.

Laura.

I would assume their wish was not to have him assassinated.

Well they've, they've nobody.

Nobody would want that.

And certainly not a group.

Oh boy I'm sure a lot of you can find a lot of people on the internet are awfully happy about it.

Yeah.

Well not that not the Southern Poverty Institute.

I and going down that line, I think honoring Charlie Kirk with, flags at half staff is inappropriate.

I think he is controversial enough.

I think there is.

This is a week where we are, remembering nine over 11.

That alone should bring the flags to half staff.

In a moment where we are also dealing with shootings, school shootings again.

And, and, Mr. Kirk did disparage a large percentage of the population of the of of Americans.

And I don't think it's worthy.

Okay.

Sean.

The Manitou City, Manitou Springs City Council, last month referred a question to the ballot that will triple the amusement tax.

On the on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway and for other attractions, to make up for a $4.6 million budget hole created by tanking, marijuana sales.

This triple tax, I think, is bad for the local tourism economy.

And I hope Manitou Springs voters turn it down.

Okay.

All right.

Now, something positive heading.

For those who do want entertain and don't want to wait for the Broncos new stadium.

Great festival.

And five points on Saturday and new one, the High Points Festival.

Also mariachis at Levitt Pavilion.

Youth on record is having a youth concert on Sunday.

All great reasons to go out.

All right.

Thank you.

As Charlie Kirk, tweeted on June 17th, when things are moving fast and people are losing their minds, it's important to stay grounded.

Turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember, internet fury is not real life.

Okay, Laura, I.

Just want to compliment the state and the city and the private sector of the partners coming together to get that deal done.

And we there.

I travel and work and other states and cities and that and collaboration is a rare word.

And I just want to compliment our state and our city for continuing to find that space.

It's I think we have a history of it and I hope we keep doing it good.

All right.

With 40 wins, the Colorado Rockies are one win away from tying the record of the work that was set by the Chicago White Sox last year, being the worst ever baseball team.

We know where they're going to be the worst this season, but two wins out of the next 16 will make them not the worst.

So a potential silver lining coming up.

The Broncos can eke out two more victories.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to end with encouragement to recognize the greatness that is out here.

Yes, I have asked all the panelists to come up with at least one positive thing to end this show at the end of this difficult week, and I ask you all to do the same for me.

I am very grateful for two incredible people in my life.

During this significant week, my husband and, my mom, my husband and I had our 25th wedding anniversary Tuesday, and my mom turned 92 on Thursday.

They're my two best friends, and I love them to death.

They mean the world to me.

And, you know, with all this stuff going on right now and even the family's in evergreen, there is so much good you have each other.

We've got to stop with all the noise and all the distractions and just realize who we have around us and what we have around us, and just be grateful.

I know it's hard to say that this week, but the good is out there.

Thank you, panel for joining us this week.

It was a tough week.

Thank you for watching and being engaged, watching or listening to our podcast.

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

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.