I'm back after two weeks out of state and out of the country to find the ABS and the nuggets in the playoffs.

And state lawmakers in the fourth quarter of session.

Now, you would think that legislators would be in the tidying up everything mode, or let's secure the budget mode.

But bills are still being introduced, including one that would allow Coloradans to sue federal, state and local officials if we felt our constitutional rights were wronged by them.

There's a lot to get to this week and the force behind me already.

So let's go with 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 have Patti Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Eric Sanderson, columnist with Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette, Luigi Del Puerto, editor at Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics and Adam Berg, senior policy advisor at Foster Graham Law Firm.

So there are less than 20 days left in this year's legislative session, and the push is on to finalize the budget.

And lawmakers are also still juggling several high profile bills and some later rivals that are now in play, including the so-called two king.

No Kings bill that was introduced on Tuesday, which would grant all of us the right to sue public officials whom we feel have gone against our constitutional rights as we head into these fight, this final stretch.

Patty, what are you watching?

What are you thinking?

I'm watching some of the bills that we knew were going to be hot this year, and we are still waiting on them.

So think about we are on a collision course with the EI bill that was passed two years ago.

There is still a compromise committee working on it.

It was supposed to take effect in February.

It's now supposed to take effect July 1st.

We have a lawsuit coming from Elon Musk about it.

We have a compromise in the works to deal with businesses that want to get into the technology, but also keep a pure thought fair, and we are still in a mess on that.

We also have the data centers.

When you talk about another business issue where you've got the pro data center and the which, should we give them some money to come to Denver?

I mean, Colorado wants business or should we protect the environment and not let them come?

So these are two huge quality of life issues that we are nowhere near settling.

You know, I used to call Denver the Sally Field of cities because we were so excited when people liked us.

Now we're like an aging dowager actress begging for a part.

And these are two bills that could really change this grim.

Interesting perspective.

Patty.

Eric, with all that.

Follow, that, three quick things.

I'm watching.

Number one, I'm watching the overall tone of the, the last few weeks here.

That's been a problem with the tone and recrimination in recent sessions.

This session may have been marginally underscored, marginally better, but now the pressure is on.

Everyone gets to their worst behavior at the end, so I'm watching that piece.

Secondly, Patty already ate it, but particularly the AI bill.

Also the data center bill, but bills that we have no idea if they're happening and if they are happening, what shape they are taking.

And third, it's the whole Tabor issue, which is still the crux of this session.

The Senate bill 135, which then would turn into a preferred ballot measure.

What is going on with that and whether there's going to be any elemental, what I would call truth in advertising as to that bill which they're selling.

As for the kids, for the kids all about public education, which is all wonderful, but that's maybe a 15% or 20% of the bill.

And whether you're pro or con, let's at least be upfront and honest about what the bill entails.

Okay, Eugene?

Upfront and honest.

Very good words there, Eric.

I do want to say, 120 days of legislative session.

It's coming to an end in about three weeks.

So that's a really good thing.

And it's 120 days.

It's set in 120 days.

In other state legislatures, they kind of go on forever.

I'm really watching the budget and what they do with it.

You know, the Senate and the House, they need to reconcile their versions.

The budget is the best expression of the value of the state and what they want to do, it affects so many things, both front facing and, you know, on the back end of things.

I'm watching the revenue side of things.

Eric mentioned Tabor what they're going to do there, there are bills within the legislature I'm hearing are going to get introduced here pretty soon.

But there are also big revenue potential ballot measures that we'll see that will change the way we, you know, whether we're going to have some refunds or not and how much we're going to pay in our taxation moving forward.

Item for me right now.

I think one of the biggest, resolved issues that I'm watching closely is actually in the AI gaming and gambling space.

So there are a couple bills still out there, being debated.

One of them, 117, deals with, permissible methods of selling lottery tickets.

It's actually a reversal of a state rule around the use of, online sales and credit card purchase.

The other big one I want to talk about, though, is Sapo 131, which is a sports betting protections bill.

I think when voters passed proposition D in 2019, looking at legalization and putting money towards, you know, water revenues and the Colorado water plan, they never anticipated how big this industry would get and how quickly we've already had to go.

The voters wants to ask for additional revenue and I think what we're seeing is additional predatory interactions, push notifications, driving people more towards gambling and of course, harmful gambling in younger and younger people who now have access to these platforms when they didn't before.

So it'll be curious to see what lawmakers do.

But it is a big conversation that will probably continue post session.

Okay.

All right.

And the deadline to send out ballots for the June 30th primary is fast approaching.

The clerks must get ballots to military and overseas voters by May the 16th, which is just weeks away, with the rest going out in June.

But now the Colorado GOP is asking a federal judge to block Republican Party ballots from going to unaffiliated voters who make up more than half of the state's electorate.

Eric, this is, time is running short, but the state GOP is fired up about this.

And then there's the broader skepticism on the national level about Mail-In voting.

I just shake my head sometimes at the Colorado Republican Party, if somebody was to produce a movie about the Colorado Republican Party, unfortunately the title's been taken, but they should call it Death wish or death wish, you know, 8 or 9 or wherever we are in the franchise there.

This is a party that keeps searching for a new bottom, and this state needs a viable opposition party.

And we don't have that viable opposition.

51% of the voters in the state these days are registered as unaffiliated.

You're going to I won't do it on camera, but you know, voters in their own head can picture a raised middle finger.

That's what the Colorado Republican Party wants to do to those 51% of unaffiliated voters by basically telling them to get lost.

You have no right to participate in our primary, despite the fact that the initiative to allow unaffiliated to participate in primaries passed with some like 70 plus percent of the vote, the whole thing is nuts.

If the Colorado Republican Party was a private entity, it would have been placed in receivership long ago.

What do you think?

Well, the and the crux of the argument, why the ugly?

You know, back in 2016, both parties opposed, semi-open primary.

But the Democrats, as Eric noted, had accepted, embraced unaffiliated voters into their ranks.

That pie, that share of the pie has really grown as a unit in the last ten years or so.

And I would say that 800,000 people who move to Colorado within that decade, you know, they like to call themselves nonpartisan or unaffiliated, but many of them are really voting Democratic.

And the Republican Party, seeing that and thinking, well, there's swimming in our pool and they've always wanted to, keep the, the primaries just to, Republican Party members.

The crux of the matter is that 75% threshold for the Central Committee to be able to change their rules and say, yep, we're going to we're going to do what we're thinking of doing.

Well, big court fight.

And finally, a federal judge said, yeah, that's 75 threshold that's too high.

And now of course, the Republican Party is asking, I think it's the same federal judge to prohibit the state from sending, Republican ballots, unaffiliated voters.

It's a. Big issue.

I mean, this is the intersection of constitutional law, party governance, election logistics.

I think the timing is a huge problem, with some deadlines coming up to get ballots out and printing requirements.

And I also think, you know, at with this growth of unaffiliated voters and if anything, the state Assembly's taught us this year is that those core parts of the parties are moving further and further to the extremes on both ends, to the degree that now many people are going through, petition process to get on the ballot, the more kind of moderate candidate to get on to the primary ballot.

And I think it removes a huge chunk of Colorado voters who tend to be more pragmatic, more middle ground.

They kind of moderate the party.

And and these are the candidates who most meet Coloradans.

I think, where they are.

But I think it speaks to Eric Point.

It shows a little bit of just being out of touch of of where your average person is in this state.

Okay.

Well for a movie title maybe Dumb and Dumber for the Colorado Republican Party.

You can't believe they're pushing this with another lawsuit filed Monday since it is the same judge.

And the judge really was on that 75%.

I can't imagine the judge will fall for this.

Like, you can't let unaffiliated voters vote in the Republican primary.

They're paying for the primary.

If the Republicans want to keep them out, why don't they pay for their own primary?

Except, oops, they're broke.

So on top of it, you've got Randy corporate who's leading the charge on this because John Eastman, who first brought up the case for Colorado, we all remember him advising Trump on January 6th behavior.

He was just disbarred in California.

So you don't have John Eastman to kick around anymore, at least.

But this bill, I mean, this lawsuit is still going around.

Okay.

Another Colorado lawsuit is headed to the US Supreme Court this October, testing the balance again between religious freedom and state law.

The case centers on whether the state can deny Catholic preschools funding from the universal preschool program because of a school's faith based admissions policy, for example, their policy for admitting LGBTQ plus families.

Luigi Colorado says schools have to follow nondiscrimination laws to receive this public money.

That's right.

And these Catholic schools have said we cannot apply for a apply to participate in the program because the nondiscrimination rules and laws in the state directly contravene our core beliefs, has something to do with our teaching Catholic teaching on marriage, gender identity, and so on and so forth.

And so now they're suing the state.

They're saying, actually two things.

One, it violates our, our, our First Amendment rights.

It, but not only not only that, it's not really neutrally applied because the program has some secular preferences, but no religious ones.

That's what they're saying.

And, you know, if you look at what happened in Colorado the last, what, five years, three years, we've been sort of this, laboratory, if you will, of sort of progressive experimentation, specifically as it relates to LGBTQ issues that implicate, religious rights, you know, First Amendment rights.

And we've lost, I think, three cases now, big ones, Netflix, not big national conversations.

On on precisely these topics.

This is the fourth one.

And let's see what the court does.

Okay.

I think one of the biggest points on this, this case in this filing is actually what they're not going to address.

So there is a 36 year old decision.

It's employment division for Smith in which the Supreme Court held that laws burning the free exercise of religion typically do not violate the First Amendment.

So long as they're neutral and generally applicable.

Some of the conservative justices on the court.

So Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch has suggested they think that the old ruling should be overruled.

But in a briefing, they have said that with the Saint Mary Catholic Parish case, they will not take up the case law on the old court.

So they're not going to address that.

And that's not to say this isn't a big deal, that it's not another yet another case in which we are going in front of the Supreme Court and have not had necessarily a great track record on issues like this, but it does address this kind of longer tension of when public programs expand access and enforce equality.

And then there are institutions who want to be a part of that program, but in turn, they have to act against their beliefs.

That is a deep, complex issue that we have been debating in the U.S.

for a long time.

And when you add in the greater good of the universal preschool, what has gone on in Colorado, being able to get kids into learning, not learning about gender, and maybe not reading about Bible studies, and Mary Magdalene, who you don't need to get into all that, but what it means to be able to get more universal preschool for kids and how it sets them up to succeed later.

It's just a shame that anything could actually block some of that or cut some of the access off.

So I think Adam's maybe right.

That will Colorado will skate by on this one, but it could still be really tricky and throw a shade on a really important program.

Well both Luigi and Adam mentioned our string of cases Colorado has lost all three of those cases I have on all three of them.

Weighed in in Luigi's papers.

And on this show and elsewhere.

In favor of those rulings?

I do think I believe in religious freedom.

I believe in religious liberty.

I also believe in what I call the right to be wrong.

People can disagree in a pluralistic society, and I don't happen to agree.

I agree with the website designer or Jack Phillips, the cake shop owner, or what have you, but that doesn't mean I don't respect their right to hold their opinion.

This one strikes me as somewhat different.

This is the tougher one in my own head because, you know, Lord knows there's no shortage of cake shops out there.

No shortage of bakeries, no shortage of web designers or whatever this is.

And it's somewhat different category reasons.

Patty pointed out.

It is quote unquote universal.

I find this to be a closer and tougher issue.

I'm going to be very curious how the court handles it.

Okay.

We just had 420 day here in Colorado.

People gathered in a part of Civic Center Park that is not fenced off for renovation.

And they got to see Snoop Dog or Red rocks.

But the marijuana industry in Colorado, once a national model, continues in its economic downturn and is now facing tighter oversight.

If voters approve a measure this fall.

And also come fall, federal rules around THC could significantly impact the edible and beverage business.

Now, on the complete flip side, psychedelics are emerging as maybe the new frontier.

Colorado is licensing psychedelic therapy centers and facilitators.

And at the federal level, we're seeing an executive order push to fast track certain therapies.

Adam, what does it say about Colorado's drug policy experiment that is slowing down in one area and then, you know, doing quite well or starting off quite well on the other?

Yeah, I think that in terms of marijuana, starting with marijuana, it is a policy like policy cycle playing out in real time.

Right, And so we are now seeing what was once a should this exist into well, how much should it be regulated and where the parameters.

I think in terms of the psychedelic space they are approaching this more as a smaller, more medical oriented process, kind of leaning into the market and trying to take this out of a gray zone into more of a legal area.

But I think it also shows that these changes or legalization don't exist in one single moment.

They take place over a like's life cycle.

So first is obviously the breakthrough where you have the initial legalization, then you have the normal normalize normalization, where it becomes kind of a common industry.

They start joining the chambers and EDC as members, which is always a key indicator.

And then iteration, they move on to the next thing, which in this case happens to be psychedelics.

Patty.

Well of course 420 is an official holiday at our office and you go, it is amazing really watching what the what it's gone through.

And it's not unlike really craft beer when you think about it.

Everyone jumps in early.

Who is a fan of the product or fan of money and they see what could happen.

Then you have too many people going in now with a lot of the dispensaries.

It's a race to the bottom.

Quality isn't as good because it's not just competition.

In Colorado, you have over 20 states now with retail, you have more than half the states who allow medical marijuana.

And the use of medical marijuana is really one of the fascinating things here, because so many people have found it really helpful, and they're winding up stuck in some of the new regulation that's coming out, too.

So we'll see what's going to happen with the psychedelics.

Love it.

The Joe Rogan is now advising Trump on this issue.

Joe Rogan, who once wanted to be our pot critic, by the way, in one of Westword smallest and weirdest chapters.

But it's going to continue.

It'll write its course, but it's a new industry that has just really hit growing pains.

It is an industry.

It's certainly in an industry in flux.

Adam said it well, in how he, described it, I think one thing that's going on is as more and more states have legalized marijuana in different ways, shapes and forms tourism, marijuana tourism in Colorado has, you know, completely fallen off, because who needs to come to Colorado when you can do it?

Is sitting at home, one of the dangers of relying so heavily as Colorado has come to rely on syntaxes, whether it's marijuana, taxes, tobacco taxes, name it is that in if a behavior that you're not necessarily trying to encourage does recede, then obviously there are fewer tax dollars coming into the till and policymakers have to budget and all the rest have to wrestle with that.

Yes, psychedelics are the the vast new frontier here.

Maybe it's a commentary on the world we're living in that, people need all these escapes and want all these escapes.

And it's so it's a sad commentary.

In the weeds.

Aside from the industry's revenue problems.

And we've seen that kind of go down year after year for the reasons you already articulated.

The industry has a big public health public safety problem.

You know, our reporting over the last couple of months has shown that, you know, some manufacturers are using, CBD from him and, converting it through a process that's banned in the state using chemicals banned in the state, and also not approved by the feds, to create THC, which is the, the, the chemical compound.

It makes you high and putting that in marijuana products.

So you get hemp, you know, dry chemicals, synthesized products that get into, Marion marijuana products, and they're a public health problem.

And, and so talking about regulations, they've got a lot of problems they need to, to wade through.

And, and it creates this, you know, narrative.

If you cannot trust the product, for whatever reason, the regulators are not regulating, there's not enough regulation.

It's going to the kids, whatever it is, it is an issue.

And that's what that potential ballot measure would be, is to track police what is in the product, to.

Try and resolve some of those, problems that, that we had highlighted.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Now let's go around the table and talk about some of the highs and the lows of this week.

We'll start on the low notes.

Have got something good to end on.

And I'll start with Patty.

I have to return to the Colorado Republican Party.

Now I'm from a Republican household.

Some of them are very nice people.

Some of them are good friends of mine.

One is my mother, but their assembly behavior was appalling.

I mean, in Britta Horn, who resigned as of the April 17th, she alludes to injuries.

Someone was injured at the Assembly.

And we also know, adding insult to injury, there were more votes cast, which they were being so careful because, you know, paper ballots, more votes cast of than people have signed in that add extra votes.

Okay.

Speaking of election fraud, no.

I'm going to the state and we've seen this over the last year, this spate of mid-decade redistricting, all over the country.

It is wrong.

It was wrong when Texas started it at the behest of the white House.

It was wrong when California retaliated.

It was wrong with what went down in Virginia this week.

It is wrong in terms of what is being proposed in Colorado.

It is just an excuse for the most blatant kind of gerrymandering and a particularly negative to those.

My social media feed is full of them who are partizans on one side or the other, and find a way to justify one without the other.

Republicans.

Oh, Texas, that was a different situation, but shame on California and Virginia or Democrats.

Right on Virginia.

But oh, I'm appalled by what Texas did.

Shame on all of it.

Okay.

All right.

Rudy, it kind of took me about five years, but now I really love the nuggets and now I hate the Timberwolves.

And and you know, I don't hate is a strong word.

But I do hate Timberwolves now.

But not only that I'm really it's less of like a bad thing.

I'm just worried about Oklahoma.

How do you beat this team.

How do you do it.

It's okay.

You can say that.

I'm good talk bad about one bill.

Simple 172.

It deals with Front Range passenger rail.

As they're gearing up for a November ballot.

This, this bill is to scale back some of the district components.

The thing that's not being broadly talked about is it also includes still the taxation of some jurisdictions, like North Glenn, who will not have a stop, but their closest stop will be in Jefferson County, who would still be taxed to create the Front Range passenger rail.

And I think that is just bad policy and and bad faith.

Okay.

All right.

Something good.

Patty.

I want to say thank you to Alton Dillard, who filled in for you for two weeks to.

Alton.

And who, presented me with an award at the Carter Black Roundtable on Saturday.

John Bailey was there.

He gave me this award.

And what was so great about Colorado Black Roundtable is they get public officials in there all the time.

Mike Johnston was there.

The gubernatorial candidates were there to really talk to the community about what's going on.

And that is key.

Accessibility.

So good for the Colorado Black Roundtable.

Right?

Good.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Good.

I'm going to say something about the executive producer of this program.

I know you will go there at the end of the show, Kyle, but, I'm not going to be left out here.

Rachel Farr has been the executive producer of this program.

I'm not sure.

A few years here.

She's a wonderful human being, for starters.

More than that intake team with you, Kyle.

You and Rachel have made this program a better program.

It was a good program.

A solid program for many, many years.

It is a better program today.

Rachel deserves so much credit.

She is leaving because her private business is full of opportunities, and she's going to attend to those production opportunities.

She will be missed here.

She sure will be all right, Luigi.

It's been really great for soccer the last couple of days, as you know.

Our own, women's team broke the record for most attendance.

Messi was here, last Saturday, and I think there were 75,000 people showed up.

The U.S.

women's team played played against Japan.

And I could just see Denver becoming this really big soccer hub in in ways that I. You know, I've only been here five years in ways that I hadn't seen before.

And it's exciting for somebody who played soccer, you know, since I was very little.

Yeah, it was last weekend was an amazing weekend in Denver.

Okay, Adam.

I got two real quick.

First, Rockies beat the Dodgers in the series.

That's right.

It's all that matters at this point.

Number two is we are just under three weeks from the end of the legislative session.

I'm sure, like many of us around this table, I will be very glad when May 13th comes and we can all take a break for at least a period until election cycle and next session.

All right, all right.

For my high, I just want to recognize two women who, in very different ways, have helped shape how I understand people and how I do my work.

First, I return from a trip to Italy, where I was a three dozen Coloradans who are kind of retracing the steps of Colorado Saint Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, who was born over in Italy.

I captured video stories, of the various people, what they were taking away.

And one pilgrim said that before we went on this trip.

Mother Cabrini, you know, the shrines up on the hill.

She was kind of a woman of mystery.

But because of this trip, she's now a woman of history.

She's very real and a great role model for all of us to bestow empathy to others and really be, someone who is out to help and improve other people's lives.

Okay, then there's the other woman, and that would be Rachel Farha, someone I met here in this studio three years ago.

And we were told, hey, you're going to be taking over the show well-established show and get going.

So I have never worked with someone who has so much insight and is so mindful in how she approaches her work, and I've learned so much from her, both professionally and personally.

Rachel, come on over.

Rachel is now, as Eric mentioned, stepping away from her role here as executive producer with me to focus on her production company, Better Together.

And that name really does say it all.

But because everyone on this show is definitely better together because of you, Rachel.

So thank you so very much.

I brought you from Italy a really big bottle of lemon cello.

Yes.

So drink up to here maybe, and some flowers to match.

But we're really going to miss you.

You've been a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous person to be on the show.

It's been my pleasure.

Susan.

Your shot.

Oh.

All right, big hug because.

Yeah.

Big hug.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our pleasure.

Yes.

We'll see you around.

All right, insiders, thank you.

Thank you all for watching or for listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer and we'll be back without Rachel next week.

See you.

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