We're looking into some unknowns next week here in Colorado.

What will come of Colorado's fifth largest wildfire ever?

Will firefighters still be facing near impossible conditions in their attempts to gain control?

And how effective will the special session be in terms of finding ways to get our state budget under control?

And what will Monday be like for Denver city workers, who will find out if they will keep their jobs or have to leave that day as part of the city's plan to deal with a $250 million shortfall.

We do not have a crystal ball to look into, but we do have some keen insight at the table this week.

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

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, along with David Kopel Research director at the Independence Institute, Jesse Paul, reporter at The Colorado Sun, and Alvina Vasquez, an advocacy leader in Denver and member of the PBS 12 community Advisory Board.

Since we last were here at this table, the fires on Colorado's Western Slope have grown.

New ones have broken out, disaster declarations continue, and Governor Polis left the Capitol to meet with those fighting the Turner Gulch fire and the unique canyon in Mesa County, while fire teams from Colorado and out of state are working around the clock.

Amidst these, the hot weather and the low humidity.

Also, we learned this week that some funding has come in from FEMA to help with the fighting of some of the fires, which is nice.

We can take all the help we can get.

Patty.

Well, we talked about this last week to start out the show, and since then the fires have only grown, they're getting bigger and bigger.

The Lea fire has now become the fifth largest in Colorado history.

As of Thursday was only 4% contained.

It's great that Polis went out to also that there haven't really been complaints about FEMA this round and that the cuts have affected the firefighting that much mean people, their boots on the ground.

Polis has taken every step he needs to in case he needs to call on the National Guard.

He hasn't, but he can.

And you contrast it with all the different disasters around the country.

And remember, 20 years ago was the Katrina.

And that was at the time it was headed.

The relief efforts were headed by Michael Brown of Colorado.

You know, you're doing a heck of a job, brownie.

So right now you don't want to jinx anyone by saying the Colorado firefighters are doing it.

They're doing a great job.

I don't want to jinx them.

Good luck to everybody out there listening to those press conferences they're providing.

They are very strategic and seem they appear to really understand as much as they can the fire activity.

But they say every afternoon, like clockwork, the winds change.

They've learned really, the science of firefighting so well.

But that's still not going to beat Mother Nature.

Yeah.

Well, I guess it's better to have to just beat Mother Nature sometimes than to have to also beat manmade arsonists, because not not these fires.

But we've had a lot of fires in both the United States and Canada, where forest fires were deliberately set up by people in their efforts to.

And there, if you call attention to global warming, these aren't manmade fires, but they are, man.

Aggravated by about a century of mismanagement by the U.S. Forest Service, of not thinning trees, of not doing controlled burns, and of not letting natural fires burn to some extent, because then you get these incredible fuel loads that make the fires hotter and worse and spread further.

And it's a lack of prioritization within the state government where we give so much welfare to big businesses, on the one hand, and to ordinary people who just don't want to work able bodied adults on the other.

And we don't spend the money on tree thinning and, appropriate fire prevention and protection.

All right.

We'll see you.

Jesse.

I think these fires are always a good reminder, you know, as bad as they are, right now in the Western Slope, not to minimize the experience of the people who are dealing with them.

They're always a good reminder of kind of the next big one that we're going to face in Colorado.

Right?

The one that everyone kind of fears is in the evergreen area, the conifer area where there's a lot of homes, there's a lot of population.

So I hope people are just paying attention and kind of realizing the risk that that exists in Colorado.

You know, be careful when you're lighting your, you know, matches and cigarets and, campfires and things like that.

But I also think it's another, interesting reminder to have kind of the insurance situation that we have in the state.

If you're a homeowner, you know that your home insurance rates have increased really high.

This is why because these fires keep on happening.

And I've just been thinking a lot, too, about Colorado's new insurer of last resort for folks who can't get home insurance in the private market that's now up and running and, you know, keep that in mind.

If you live in the high country and you can't find a can't find coverage.

I mean.

Well, I want to talk about the, you know, human impact of our climate and oil and gas industry and the unchecked tax loopholes that they're not paying, they're not cleaning up their sites.

It's a total lack of management from the oil and gas corporations that are continue to put, you know, our state, our country, our planet at risk.

So wildfires are becoming more and more common.

So is the deregulation of what the oil and gas industry is doing to our communities.

And we have to live in this world over balancing who's when you talk about welfare benefits, corporate welfare is as much as a problem.

And I don't think that human welfare is a problem.

I think we can get more money from corporations paying their fair share than we can from human beings who might need help.

So when we talk about the costs of fighting these fires, Jesse, is there any chance next week in the special session comes together, that there might be a discussion about what we can do?

Any resources?

I know we have to cut a lot, but do you think the fires will be brought up?

Probably not.

The governor's office has a pretty good sense of where they want to make those cuts.

And I think Democrats at the Capitol are kind of in agreement gradients.

They have this like $800 million ish that they need to find in the budget.

Probably a third of it's going to be accounted for by cutting some corporation corporate tax loopholes, which you might like.

I mean, I'm about a third of it is going to come out of the reserve, and then a third of it's going to cut from be cut from, existing programs and services.

So it'll be interesting.

I mean, I guess there's a chance that you could see some firefighting, money that was spent pared back.

I don't think they're going to do that.

That's pretty politically.

That would be I would not.

I was a political strategist.

I would recommend not doing that right now.

But, you know, we don't know how many bills are going to come up.

We've got I there's there's a lot of different things.

They've, they've had about a week since they had to file their, their piece of legislation.

I've heard there's several dozen out there.

So this time next week you probably be at the Capitol building into the weekend, you expect.

Probably into the weekend and beyond.

Well, how many days could it be?

How many days does it take to find ways to cut $800 million?

So it's not so much about what this is all pre-planned, right?

I mean, the governor's office has a roadmap for it for this.

I think what's going to be interesting is going to be kind of the ancillary stuff that the talk about.

I have to talk about health insurance, things that maybe people are focusing on for the special session, but they are the ones that are honestly more complicated.

It's easier to kind of just ask things than it is to try and deal with these complex policy problems that are on the legislature's table.

It looks like the immigration, Customs and Enforcement, will be opening a new detention facility in Hudson, Colorado.

And that is what members of Colorado's congressional delegation some of the members learned this week during a visit to the Ice facility in Aurora.

But it sounds like not everyone was given the heads up.

Like leaders in Weld County and in Hudson, maybe even the governor.

But David, that looks like it's in the works.

And, you were following this week the visit, earlier this week of the congressional delegation, the Democrats who went out to Aurora.

Right.

So the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which is how the federal government is getting its money, says that you can't spend any money, to make, quote, any temporary modification at any such facility that in any way alters what is observed by a visiting member of Congress.

And, you know, I wasn't in there, but it appears that they actually did spend some employee time, to spiff things up and make it different than it was than it appears on an ordinary day.

Now, it's another straightforward violation of the law.

It's in the news related to this is Representative Diana DeGette has sponsored what it's called a private bill to legalize, an illegal alien named, Jeanette Vasquez Ramirez.

And a private bill is something that just affects the status of one person in the last ten years, there have been only two private bills, passed by Congress.

Both of them related to somebody who was having immigration trouble.

But the unfairness of this whole thing, you can see from the to get Bill because what it says is, oh, we're going to, you know, give, give this woman permanent legal status in the United States and then reduce by one during the quarter next following fiscal year, the total number of immigrant visas that are made available to natives of her birth, which in this case, I believe would be Mexico.

So if you legalize her, who's been breaking our laws contemptuously for decades, then there's one fewer person who's waiting in line for Mexico doing it the proper way, who's going to get to come in.

Okay.

All right, Jesse.

I'll touch on the private bills for a moment just because they're kind of interesting.

In the past, usually, you know, oftentimes they don't they don't actually pass Congress's David pointed out.

But in previous years, previous administrations, just the introduction of a private bill would typically stop an Ice enforcement action from someone being deported.

So there were frequently members of Congress, Colorado's congressional delegation, filing those, and they would interrupt deportation proceedings.

But that has kind of shifted.

Going back to the idea of Hudson.

My colleague Taylor Donovan called around to some other communities in Colorado that have these private detention centers that may be reopened by Ice for detention purposes, Walsenburg, Burlington.

And it's kind of a pattern, folks are just not hearing from the federal government or Ice or geo or course civic that the folks who operate these organizations, that these prisons, details about plans and reopening and, I don't think that's super unusual.

These are private prisons.

They don't have to communicate with folks or not, you know, public institutions.

But the broader, situation here, one of the interesting things that kind of gets lost is a lot of these communities used to have these prisons.

There's an economic story here.

Burlington, for instance, had a huge portion of its economy go away when that private prison closed.

Walsenburg, same thing this Hudson prison had been operating previously.

So, you know, I'm curious just kind of what it means for these communities if these things do come back and, you think you'd want to maybe tell the local folks just for the perspective of, hey, this might help you out for for folks who are unemployed in that area.

Okay.

I mean.

well, Ice is going to be the most over funded government agency, and yet they're going to be completely inefficient.

They continue to be inefficient.

Our immigration system is completely inefficient to say somebody can come the right way.

It's not even true anymore because people are getting arrested at their court hearings to go through the price list the right way.

So I would say, you know, in the next election cycle, you're going to hear candidates called for the abolishment of Ice, just like we heard Doge wanting to get rid of the Department of Education and other and the CDC and all of these other things, I think abolish Ice is going to be the next rallying cry of Democrats.

Patty, my thoughts.

Fortunately, we have South Park to take care of Ice for a while because their episode last week was excellent.

You know, I have friends who actually visited illegally the Hudson prison after it had been closed.

They snuck in and looked through.

And it's going to be nicer than Alligator Alcatraz.

I'll say the Florida place.

But still, even if you don't technically have to tell the mayor of the town you're coming there, it's polite, it's probably smart, and indeed, it may well be that some people would welcome having that private prison reopened because there would be jobs.

On the other hand, you also have a very large Latino population out there, migrants, people working on those farms.

So you've got to be sure that the community is informed and can deal with it.

Good that the delegation went and saw what's really going on or almost what's really going on, depending.

It got cleaned up a little in Aurora.

We've heard horrible things about that ice for that facility long before Donald Trump came in office again, that there have been problems out there.

So we have to continue keeping an eye on it.

Okay.

Speaking of Diana, the guy which David first brought up, it was back in 1996 when she was first elected to Congressional District one, and she's never had much of a challenge.

And now she's planning to go for her 16th term in office.

And there are some Gen Zers here in Denver who are going to run against her in the primary, saying it is time for some someone new to move in that position.

Jesse, how do you think this will turn out?

Will she be truly challenged this time?

No, I mean, so she is fended off, person after person, primary challenger after primary challenger.

And it's just going to take a lot of money, a lot of name idea, a lot of effort, she's going to be in that seat probably until, you know, she wants to leave.

That being said, I know there is pressure from Denver Democrats for her to maybe move on to let somebody, else, you know, take over that seat.

I don't think it's going to be a first time candidate.

I think, you know, there's a deep bench in Denver.

So I think this is like kind of the interesting perennial, you know, could it happen this cycle type of question?

But I don't think it's it's possible.

And I also think that Milagros or Democratic challenger is an interesting candidate.

Again, never held elected office before, but there are some interesting maybe political liabilities there.

She was fired from her law firm early on in her career for signing on to this, letter writing this, this thing about Palestine and kind of pushing back against her law firm.

So there's there's a little more to that story that's going on that could get kind of politically interesting if the if she stays in the race, if she even makes the primary ballot.

Yeah.

Alina.

Primaries are good because it forces candidates to answer questions.

It gives them opportunities to hear new ideas.

What you don't want is somebody sitting in office and not being challenged, because then they don't get the opportunity to explore new ideas and and new issues.

However, like, just I don't think this is going to go anywhere.

But I do want to mention she is the leading Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee.

So she's a top Democrat there.

When people's health care are at risk right now with our federal administration trying to cut back on health care for folks, that's a huge risk that if she would lose that seat.

So I think it also goes with timing.

And when is the right time that you get a new comer in there?

I don't think right now is the right time.

There's too much to defend.

Okay.

All right.

You have to love that.

Her two Democratic candidates, opponents right now weren't even born when she was first elected to Congress.

I mean, that's pretty astonishing when you think about it.

And of course, she's taking over for someone.

She's already taken over for someone who was also there for a very long time.

Pat Schroeder.

And one of the things you have to remember is it's not just the longer you're there, the more power you may have gained, the more influence.

Assuming, you still have your intelligence with you and you're not hiding out in some Texas infirmary.

But the other thing you get is you get really good home constituent care if they're running their office.

Well, and you have to think about Pat Schroeder's office, which, as far as I know, has never been beaten for how much it was able to help people here in her district.

So that's one of the questions, too, which is it takes a lot of time to come up to speed that way.

So maybe what you need is to just let the newcomers get elected, give them the seniority, give them the good positions, let them take over the old offices and keep the competence when you've got it.

Okay.

All right.

David and I, as viewers of this show, know, I will confess my pro toget bias in my.

Our families have been friends for a long time, so I watched her, Miss Caro's two minute, YouTube ad.

And I would say it's well-produced, And it's also very childish the way it says the Democrats never deliver on change.

if you look at the legislative record for bills where she was the lead sponsor and got something into law, it is a very long record of actually delivering, and just a few would be on on violence against women, particularly, related to, women on native women on reservations, insulin access, Colorado Wilderness protection.

She does it.

This other person talks about doing it in a very grandiose and very shallow way.

I'm going to ask you, since your friends.

Yeah.

Do you ever talk to her about, like, when is the time or is.

No.

And she never calls me for advice about how should I vote on a bill or anything like that.

But if you go to my website, she gave a tremendous, beautiful speech at my mother's funeral.

Oh, really nice.

We have a story this week on the two contenders and Diana to get to, and she does address that question.

So you can find it online or on the street.

Okay.

All right.

It is back to school time.

And earlier we were talking about the fires and thankfully everyone is back to school in and around Garfield County.

That had to wait a couple of days because of all the smoke and lack of internet.

So the kids had to wait before they went back to school.

Let's hope that they're safe and sound going forward.

Now, here in the metro area, a different kind of conversation about what is best for our students has emerged.

The Cherry Creek School District, announced earlier this week that it's doing away with valedictorians at the 2026 graduations.

Although some schools in the district have already stopped doing that.

Also, class rankings are going to go by the wayside.

And the idea is it's too old fashioned.

It's doesn't really relevant anymore to acknowledge, you know, the students that really do excel.

I'm going to ask for Lena's comments to get this conversation going.

What do you think?

Is it time to get rid of all that?

Well, I think there's a couple issues going on right now with high school students.

We know that culture has changed post-Covid.

Kids aren't really attaching their life in the physical space anymore.

That physical space has changed dynamics since post-Covid.

So I, I think school districts are finding ways to build that culture up again.

And maybe by taking away some of those, measurements that, that could be helpful.

I'm also on the board of trustees for Western State, and there's some changing dynamics and students and their path through higher education.

You know, higher education continues to be defunded.

And finding ways to make sure those campuses are delivering a good educational experience is challenging.

And I think students are finding other ways to professionalize their life and their career beyond higher ed.

So I think the bigger question is, do those positions mean anything in a new world where higher ed isn't the only option?

I mean, if you want to become an apprentice plumber, does it matter if you're valedictorian?

it's one of those things that's important to the people that think that it's important.

It's like a work of art.

Some people, it's just not that important to them.

Okay.

All right, Patty.

And if it's not that important to them, they don't need to do it.

I'm so glad I'm not on a college admissions committee right now, because imagine if you get rid of that.

You've lost so many.

The things you used to judge by day, by if you don't go with grades, if you don't go by ranking, it's just harder to start sorting things out.

But indeed, people shouldn't go to college if they have other paths where they can come up with a good career and pursue interest they like.

So going back to school, though not college, the only place higher than some of Colorado's high schools next week is going to be the legislature, where we still have schools that are not air conditioned, not conducive to good learning situations.

We still have issues at East High over the security.

A lot of unknown questions, and we've got a few things.

School board in Denver.

So let's hope they all behave like adults behave older than the kids they're supervising.

David, what do you think?

Well, see, you've got Cherry Creek doing this and also the pewter school district.

Powder's.

Pretext is equity and mental health.

And by equity, what they mean is mediocrity that instead of trying to build help, bring everyone help you get more equity by bringing down the top people, by refusing to recognize excellence and achievement.

And I guess if we follow that policy, we ought to get rid of the Super Bowl in football, because that recognizes one team as the very best.

And how is that fair to all the other mediocre teams and their mental health?

It's a war on excellence.

It's the race to the bottom.

As has been said by many commentators in response to this.

And I think the approach to the solution is we need to give start, start giving out prizes for mediocrity.

So for most mediocre school board, both Cherry Creek and Pewter are certainly finalists for this year.

Okay.

All right.

Yes.

If they had had a class clown award when I was in high school, I think I would want that.

So, I will say I do, teach a few college classes or have taught a few college classes.

And I do think there is a movement away from accountability and feedback and trying to give people, you know, push them in the right direction.

And not not that I'm an all knowing person, but I do think that is a mistake because said, you do get feedback and criticism in the real world, and if you don't face that in your learning process, it will be a rude awakening when once you enter the real world.

All right.

Now let's go down the line and talk about some of the highs and the lows of the week.

We'll start with a low point Patty.

Go ahead.

Well we're turning to Hudson and the surprised mayor.

If you were talking about maybe putting a little nuclear power plant at the airport, you should talk to the city council person who supervises that area.

And Stacy Gilmore rightly complained that she wasn't alerted before Mayor Johnston and Phil Washington were about to announce this nuclear power plan for Dia, and it is a positive that they've stopped the plan.

And now they're going to talk with you.

Talk to the community first.

Yeah.

Big time.

All right.

Well, this is it's something very bad, but we have a happy ending in the the Colorado legislature, which purports to be in favor of a woman's right to choose.

Took that away this year by outlawing use of the, chemical abortion reversal pill.

And the short thing is, if you take the the pill, it's a two step pill.

And if after step one, the woman changes her mind, it can not, certainly, but there are respectable possibilities of it being reversed by heavy doses of progesterone, which can can save the baby's life.

And the federal district court judge, Dan Dominico, ruled that the ban on that is unconstitutional and the state really doesn't have any legitimate interest in preventing women, from exercising their their right to choose, which includes changing their mind about their choice.

Okay, Jesse.

I feel like I've spent all my time lately trying to explain to people why this special legislative session is happening next, happening next week, and there's just so much disinformation and misinformation out there about what happened, what led to this.

And I just, I think that's a shame.

There's going to be a lot of tough decisions that the legislature is going to have to make.

And if we all could maybe just settle on a shared, set of facts about why this is happening, that would maybe make the next stage of doing this, cutting 800 million from the state budget a little easier.

All right.

Alina, You know, turning on the news is really hard.

I'm just seeing the dismantling of our democracy.

And so I, I hear you all talk, before the show, and there's some things that I'm not even privy to because it's it's just it's really hard to watch.

It's hard to watch ice marching through neighborhoods, terrorizing neighbor neighborhoods and school children and families being separated and, yeah, it's really hard.

It's really hard to hit to see your community go through that.

You are not alone.

Putting something good, something bringing community together.

After more than a decade, Denver Public Library is bringing back one book, one Denver.

So not just a book that's literally designed to give every get everyone on the same page, but a lot of good activities around it.

So go to the DPL website and it's called Stay True.

Is the book what is it called?

Stay true, stay true.

It's not a Colorado book.

I do regret that, but I'll live with it.

Okay.

All right.

David.

Well, I've I've shared I've been feeling about how hard it is to watch the news ever since 2016 when we had, Trump versus Clinton election.

And so the nice thing is college football is coming out, which has ever since 2016, been kind of my refuge where you can find something on TV and enjoy it and not get depressed.

Even if your team loses.

It's not the end of the world as opposed to what's going on.

Been going on politically for the past decade.

Okay, football.

All right.

One of the ways I like to have fun is I play in a slow pitch softball league.

And last week we played a team called the.

I think it was the old friends team.

After 55 years, they were stopping playing in our league, but maybe moving on to make a senior league.

But it was very cool to see you know, all those guys who have been playing for 55 years.

I can't imagine that.

I think my wife would kill me if I was still playing softball in five decades.

All right.

Good.

All right.

Arena.

I want to congratulate Warren Village.

They receive the Partners in Philanthropy award.

And they'll be celebrated in a couple weeks.

Warren Village is an amazing organization that's helping young women and families.

With education and resources.

So congratulations to them.

That That is a good one.

All right.

My guys at my 20 year old daughter asked me to go with her to our first Red rocks concert this week.

We had a blast together of seeing Gracie Abrams and endearing and very talented singer songwriter who my daughters just adore.

And it was the last night of her US tour.

And in between songs, she pulled out her journal and read something that she had written during the tour, and it was something to the idea of why or what motivates us to keep showing up for one another night after night, town after town.

And she said it was because of community and how important it is for us to come together to get to know one another.

That feeling of being united is so precious and we have to show up for one another.

And I say the same this week to our Pam.

Thank you for showing up and bringing your best and letting us know what's going on.

Thank you for showing up and either watching or listening to our podcast.

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

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