Colorado.

Saw its first run of deportation rates this week.

And a large protest outside of the state capitol.

Inside the Capitol.

Lawmakers are grappling with how to make up for $1,000,000,000 budget shortfall.

And facing more issues surrounding transparency.

This week, we have journalistic legislative, legal and business insight on Colorado inside out.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Marianne Goodland, chief legislative reporter for Colorado Politics and the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazette.

Tyrone Glover, civil rights and criminal defense attorney here in Denver.

And Kali West, vice president of government affairs at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

This week, Colorado saw its first round of immigration raids.

Agents with ICE, the FBI, DEA, ATF and the Marshals Service all went into apartment complexes throughout the metro area searching for immigrants here illegally, including Venezuelan gang members.

There were protests at some of the apartment complex as well.

And while the raids were taking place and then hours later, a massive crowd gathered outside of the state capital for an already planned protest against policies with the new administration.

Patti, I'll start with you.

Well, we were in the belly of the beast because our office is right at 13th and Lincoln.

So you watched the crowds come even as you're hearing the news pour out about the immigration raids.

And it was hundreds, maybe at noon.

But it did get, I think, up into the thousands before the end of the day.

People very upset.

A lot of Mexican signs.

A lot of signs from other refugee groups, very concerned about the raids that are happening.

We still don't know a whole lot about the raids.

We know it happened because ICE told us it was happening.

The DEA told us it was happening.

Some of it you can see was offshoots of that earlier raid at the party because they were definitely focused on drugs, the DEA, and they were focused on the gang members.

But we also know from reporting that many apartments were stormed, that did not have Venezuelan gang members in them.

Some of them one woman was taken and her two daughters were inside.

We'll find out more with time on exactly who was taken and why.

Let's hope we find out more in time.

But Operation Aurora has definitely begun.

Maria, and you were really in the thick of it at the Capitol.

Our estimates were that there were probably about 3000 at the height of the protests mid-afternoon.

Those protests continued on well into the evening, and that was deliberate.

They wanted to get people who were coming off of work.

I mean, this was the middle of the day in a workweek.

We know that there were a lot of school kids that that missed school And it looked like the vast majority of people as those raids were announced, the vast majority of people who showed up at the Capitol were carrying Mexican flags and carrying signs about about immigration.

But there was certainly a lot of anger at the administration over almost everything, almost any issue you could you could think about the immigration, LGBTQ issues.

Lots of anti Elon Musk signs.

But the vast majority was anger over the immigration issue.

And I don't think this will be the end of it.

And Tyrone, I'm eager to hear your thoughts through your civil rights lens.

There's ways to enforce laws against criminal organizations, against folks who are committing crimes, Right.

Against gangs.

We have these mechanisms What happened earlier this week was not that okay, This was not people showing up.

There were some valid search warrants, arguably to go into certain departments.

But this was an act of terror showing up in these militarized vehicles, knocking on random doors, waving around administrative warrants, which don't allow them to actually go into someone's domicile and just trying to essentially scare folks into giving up information.

And then who knows what happens after that.

So this is just, I think, unfortunate.

It's embarrassing.

I mean, what's next?

Are we going to have, you know, Texas agents rappelling out of Blackhawk helicopters into elementary school courtyards?

I mean, this in combination with the threats of taking people over to Guantanamo, which there's no real argument for that other than, you know, to really sort of put on a big show.

It feels like theater, but it's theater that affects people's lives and I think is just making us kind of an embarrassment all over the world.

Carly So is the Chamber of Commerce.

We're obviously hearing from businesses who have a lot of uncertainty around this.

If I shows up at our business, at our office, what should we do?

What should we not do?

So first want to say there are resources available for businesses who have questions about what to do.

And first and foremost, they should make a plan that they share with their managers and employees.

Things that on the front end include making sure that all of your documentation is in order, making sure I-9 are filled out correctly, things along those lines.

But in the event that there is an ICE raid at your facility, knowing your rights and responsibilities is really important, making sure that you designate someone to be the communicator with them, making sure if you do hand over documents that you make copies of those first, and knowing that you've got the right to not sign any paperwork at that time until you've consulted with an attorney.

So if people have questions, we as the Chamber are a resource to be able to connect you with some of those answers.

But people should know that there are opportunities to find out how to prepare best for the possibility.

Okay.

All right.

And in that same vein, at a lot of these raids.

There are other types of rights groups, legal groups, folks, they are offering information.

You know, they are, I think, backed by legitimate organizations and groups.

And so they are a great resource.

So if so, folks maybe don't necessarily need to be skeptical about that.

They're there to help.

And there are those resources.

But we are hearing some loud chatter saying, well, that's anti-American for you to be telling people what their rights are and what their resources are out there for them.

We've been hearing a lot of that.

Well, it's only American to tell people what their rights are.

And so so I hope these advocates keep going out there.

You've got tenants groups, you've got refugee groups that are out there.

As soon as they hear of anything, they're on the site.

All right.

We're a nation of laws, right?

And, you know, no matter how this goes down, it needs to not violate the Constitution and these not violate people's rights.

And we should mention a little follow up from last week since we last spoke about the topic, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson has agreed to go to Washington to testify about Denver's immigration policy.

That's coming up on March the fifth.

All right.

Before the Wednesday raids, the new administration called for tariffs that captured everybody's attention.

Concerns were also about, you know, how are we going be able to afford groceries and things that are coming in from different countries.

Then at the state capitol, there's also a lot of concern about our state budget, which has a huge shortfall.

There's so many different financial conversations going on as well.

And you're in the thick of it at the state capitol.

I'll start with you, Marianne.

conversations are taking place fast and furious between the Joint Budget Committee, which writes that state budget and the governor's office and how they're going to fill those holes.

And right now, frankly, I'm not seeing a whole lot of answers.

The one one of the answers that the governor is focused on is privatizing Pinnacle Shore assurance, which is our state's largest worker's compensation provider.

It's also the provider of last resort.

And this is a huge issue for businesses like construction, high risk businesses, which even includes home health care.

Are they going to be able to afford those premiums if they get privatized?

The governor has an expectation that the state could get 3 to $500 million.

That could be at least 100 million of that could go into this giant, giant hole in the budget.

The folks I'm talking to are very are skeptical at best.

One of the reasons is that the state would have to get the Pinnacle employees out of the state pension plan that will probably eat up more of that $500 million than I think people anticipate, which means that there's very little left to cover that hole in the budget.

Okay.

All right, Tyrone.

I think there's something intoxicating about, you know, going around and picking fights, riding into battle.

And I think that's what these tariffs kind of feel like, Right.

It feels great to go to war, but once you're actually in that, that's when we're starting to see a lot of this instability.

You're starting to see what I think the real fallout is potentially going to be, not only on markets but prices, you know, inflation, which we were able to sort of stave off for the last year or so potentially coming back.

It's going to be felt.

I mean, this isn't just that moment.

You know, this reminds me sort of the moment after the aircraft carrier mission accomplished at 14, riding down, you know, that felt great.

But then, you know, six months a year later, when we're in the thick of what this really actually means for folks, every is lives.

Yeah.

It's to be continued.

We shall see.

we do know that at the state level, their policies that are contributing to unaffordability and other challenges as well.

This week we saw announcements from legislators about a proposal to save the state money.

It would set provider rates for health care at 165% of Medicare for state employees, as well as the small group market is anticipated to save the state about $40 million.

But the problem is, just because we pay less for something doesn't mean that the cost of that service is any less.

It's like a balloon.

You squeeze it on one side and it's not smaller.

It just pops out somewhere else.

So the concern here is that while we'll see savings for the state that will help solve that deficit in the state budget and see savings for those state employees and a handful of private sector, at the end of the day, what's going to happen is we're going to see the vast majority of employees who get their health care through their employer paying more to make up for that savings.

There's another issue in that, and that is the impact that it could have on on the true safety net, which is our hospitals.

Absolutely.

Our hospitals can't most hospitals, with the exception of maybe the biggest ones, university hospital, those kinds of things are already operating on such thin margins and they're going to be required to cover some of this.

And they're telling us they can't afford it.

They the rural hospitals in particular, this this could be the tipping point for a lot of those very small safety net providers.

And again, with the uncertainty at the federal level, we don't know what that what federal funds are going to be changing that flow to those hospitals.

So there's additional layers of uncertainty there.

Patty, that's.

The certainty we saw this week was run on liquor stores to buy tequila, which can only be made in Mexico.

Get those avocados for Super Bowl.

Those of us in the media, we're looking at increased newsprint costs from Canada, soon to be our 51st state.

Maybe we can have President Trump create a like a Gaza like recreational resort in Aurora while he's there to bring in extra money for us to fill the state budget.

It's the uncertainty is crazy.

Just wondering what is going to happen when you have very real problems at the state house.

Balancing the budget, when you have all these organizations waiting for their grant money, wondering, will it be frozen, will it disappear altogether?

Will they be able to do the projects they want to do?

Will we be able to finish Colfax Avenue?

There's so much uncertainty and it's a really scary time for many, many people.

One of the things that I heard the other day in talking to some of the folks is the the grants that Colorado has been anticipating for a lot of things just aren't going to happen.

And one of the biggest ones is that $60 million grant that Colorado was hoping to get for front range rail.

That project could be on life support, if not worse.

The Colorado Open Records law is once again a topic of conversation at the state capitol, this time in regards to a bill that calls for keeping private the amount of money given to a student athlete who signs a name, image and likeness contract.

We have heard of that, the Nils.

That's for a student who goes to one of our Colorado universities.

Tyrone, I'm going to start with you with your legal slant on this.

Yeah, I think you want to protect the privacy of student athletes at the end of the day.

But there does need to be a level of accountability and transparency.

I think Senator Coleman, in his comments where he says things like the school, the sport position amount, maybe those things should be public so that you do have that level of transparency.

See, I think that that actually does benefit the student athletes whose name and likeness ultimately is used.

I think that that's appropriate.

I don't necessarily see that that is part of the bill as of yet.

But if certain things like that to keep transparency similar to what you would see in a business where we can see salaries kind of across different industries, I think that just sort of helps everybody and it keeps the other universities honest.

And I think it's interesting that we kind of have this at the forefront, not only locally, but even nationally in Colorado was kind of one of the original states that I think spoofed this whole thing back in the day with a pretty funny South Park episode.

So it's nice to see it all come full circle.

But I think, yeah, you have to.

It's a balancing test legally, but again, some level of transparency if it can make its way into the bill, will be very helpful.

It's such a huge business.

Caroline So this bill, the intent of it, is really to help keep our universities competitive.

And there is a big economic impact from that game days in our communities that have our colleges is absolutely huge.

So from my perspective, this is a terrific thing for us to do because it does support that economic vitality.

At the same time, once we get this one across the finish line, I would implore our legislature to also keep thinking about other things that we can do to support our economic vitality.

We are seeing bills this session already proposed that will raise the cost of energy, that it will make it more difficult for a business to recoup the costs incurred of legitimate expenses reflected in their prices.

We're seeing potentially legislation that would make it in several areas easier to sue a business for a variety of reasons.

So there are a number of ways that some of the things we're considering would make us less economically competitive.

So I love this bill, but would also implore us to think more about things that we are doing that take us in the opposite direction competitively and to think hard about those.

Okay, Got it.

I would like the legislature to make us competitive academically and have some focus on that rather than just on sports.

When you think about how many things have been going on under the table with alumni donations and everything for decades at our universities, with sports teams, it's great that we are actually going to put this into legal terms, come up with what is fair for students, what is fair for some kind of record keeping to let people know where the money is going.

I agree that you don't want student athletes to be nickel and dimed literally on what they're getting, but you do need the kind of transparency, as Tyrone suggests overall and maybe how much money is going to see this football team, for example, where it might be going.

But again, I would love to see a little more emphasis on the academics.

And again, you mentioned football.

These are the big, big teams, the football, the basketball, and that's where the.

Big money is.

It's not all students at these universities are getting these contracts.

Yeah.

Boy, this is such a huge issue.

I want to get to the open records aspect of this.

This is a legislature last year, this year that has really become very anti governmental transparency.

We had a bill last year that allows the legislature to do a lot more of its business behind the scenes and of which there's been a lot of criticism.

And then you have this bill, which is being run by a lawmaker whose district includes the University of Colorado.

Surprise, surprise.

This is a huge issue in a lot of different ways.

Number one, if most of the nil money is going to the highest paid sports, which is men's basketball and football, and this is primarily in the Power five conferences which see you as, of course, as a member of one of those conferences.

How do you know that if you're not getting to find out how much these how much of the university's revenue, because that's where a lot of this money is.

It's not just from outside agents and that this is money the universities are paying the students.

Don't we have a right to know how much of university money is going to these students If men's basketball and football programs are the ones where all the money is going, how do we know that women's athletics is being treated equally?

The answer is under this bill, we don't.

And I think that the data that would be enlightening to all of that we could get without having to sacrifice privacy concerns for these student athletes.

So hopefully that makes it end at some point.

Okay.

All right.

I want to pick up where we left off at the end of last week's show when we were discussing the impact of preservationists and developer Dayna Crawford, who passed away after the recording of the show, we learned of the passing of another great civic leader, Daniel Ritchie.

So I'd like to open this conversation about you sharing impact on what he brought to our community, to our state.

And also, I'm just kind of curious, you know, we're losing a generation of great civic leaders, it seems so much lately who our next round of leaders who are going to do some great things.

So I'll start with you, Carly.

Thanks, Kyle.

So certainly huge losses for our state, but also I'd say I'm optimistic for the next round of leaders who are starting to step up.

Just looking at our own chamber board of directors, our incoming chair, Mullah Hyla, he's a first generation American, actually came with his family to the U.S. as refugees when he was a child, started a two person company back in 2007 and grew that to, what, 2020 was one of, I think, the fourth largest minority owned business in the state.

And a handful of years ago, he started the process of turning that into an ESOP.

So creating ownership amongst the employees of the company really focused on building employee wealth and closing the racial wealth gap.

So We see Karl Coble continue his father's legacy in civic leadership and community development.

We also know that Jindal, Allen, Davis, not just president and CEO of Craig Hospital, but she is also the deputy chair of the board of the Federal Reserve.

So I think we've got a lot of strong leaders who are on the rise in our state, who are looking to not just develop as political leaders, but really civic minded community leaders.

Yeah, I heard Richie described as a high profile leader who kept a low profile.

So cutting the the loss of Daniel Richie is amazing when you think what he did with his monies compared to say, what Elon Musk is doing with his money.

But Daniel Richie, he came in, he saved you.

He went to the CPA and helped save the CPA.

He went into other places like History, Colorado, when it really needed to be shaken up.

And he did that.

I mean, he did a lot of things that never really rose to the surface because he wasn't looking for publicity.

But when you think about what Dana Crawford did, could it Dana Crawford do that again today, or would she get stuck when she wanted to put a sign in Larimer Square in permitting for nine months, which we've heard?

So part of it is it is harder to get things done.

Definitely helps if you have a lot of money.

But people with great ideas out there sometimes just run into brick walls.

Okay.

All right.

Your thoughts, Marianne?

I had the opportunity to work at the University of Denver under the energy for six years, both when I was a graduate student and doing work, study work, but also in the media relations office.

So I had some limited interaction with Chancellor Ritchie.

And I just go back to what the University of Denver look like when he became the chancellor, the athletics, the main athletics facility where the hockey team, a nationally ranked championship hockey team.

That facility was a World War Two warehouse, literally.

That was where they played for for 50 years.

And the demolition of that is a story for another day.

It was actually very entertaining.

But he transformed that universi bankruptcy.

And it it came very close to that.

But you look at what do you looks like today, world class academic facilities, world class athletic facilities.

And and it's it's been transformed in a way that you could never have imagined.

And I don't know that there's ever another person that could do something like that.

I think the ethos of giving back to the community in in that magnanimous a way, I'm not sure that that ethos exists anymore.

Maybe the maybe the Bill Gates's of the world but you look at the other the other folks the Elon Musk is a perfect example.

Donald Trump.

These are people who are looking to enrich their own pockets, not working for the community.

Good.

And perhaps that ethos doesn't exist in that particular form anymore.

But I think that there will be a whole generation of leaders emerging that are inspired by the Dan Ridges, by the Dana Crawfords, and are going to come and do it in their own way.

It's going to be derivative of their efforts, inspired by their efforts, but you know, they're not going to be a carbon copy.

And I think it's just sort of like anything as it progresses, they're going to come in, they're going to do it.

It's going to be new, it's going to be fresh, and hopefully it's going to be just as impactful.

So we'll see.

Hopefully.

I should mention the celebration of life for Daniel Richie is set for next Thursday the 13th at Magnus Arena on the University of Denver campus.

All right.

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

We will start on a low note.

So we end on a high note.

And I'll start with you, Patty.

The continuing scandal about the CBI, Missy Woods, all those cases that have been thrown in limbo.

And when the JBC dared to say we don't trust what the CBI is doing to try to make amends on it and make things right, the Dems came and smacked them down.

Okay.

All right, Marianne.

A word to everyone who rides bikes.

Please, please, please stay off the sidewalks.

Especially if you're riding in neighborhoods that have dedicated bike lanes.

The city of Denver and the surrounding community has spent millions of dollars building bike lanes.

Yet e-bikes and bicycles on sidewalks is still a huge problem.

As I experienced for myself this week when I hit an e-bike coming out of a parking lot, the rider admitted that he was wrong.

He wasn't hurt, his bike wasn't hurt.

I felt terrible.

But then I was angry because, like, this is a street that has east and westbound bike lanes that our city has spent millions of dollars to construct.

Please stay off the sidewalks, please.

Yeah.

Turn.

So I think as I've said on this program before me in my offices in Reno, slash five points and on the way here, I saw the 2900 block of Larimer is now no longer that nice little pedestrian friendly area with the shipping containers and the outdoor patios.

So that's sort of my downer of the week.

We're losing these public congregation spaces and I think in an ongoing era of solitude and loneliness, we need more of them, not less.

Probably everyone is getting sick.

I've got a sick kid at home.

We've seen Influenza A knocked down some very young, healthy people.

Just a reminder, it is not too late to get your flu shot and everybody wash your hands.

Yes.

Thanks, Mom.

All right.

Something positive.

One of the reasons we know as much as we do about the raids on Wednesday are good journalists.

And Kevin Beatty from Denver, eight, who got into an apartment early because he found out about it, did a great job.

I gave him a best of Denver last year, and he continues to show what journalism can really do.

Okay.

Mine's a little bittersweet.

Last weekend, last Saturday, the Denver Press Club had the honor of a celebration of life for Cynthia Hassan, The long time groundbreaking journalist who worked for Rocky Mountain PBS, worked for Channel several TV channels, just a just a real, real trailblazer.

She was also the first woman president of the Denver Press Club.

We were honored to celebrate her life.

And thanks to Amanda Mountain and Rocky Mountain, PBS, they are initiating a scholarship in her honor that the Press Club will contribute to and give out beginning next year.

That's wonderful.

That's good.

Thank you.

This Tuesday, we had the RTD free ride to commemorate Rosa Parks.

And, you know, it's just such a, I think, a cool event to have done in February and especially in a year where Black History Month and other sort of affinity months and recognitions like that are under attack and our public transportation systems are also under attack.

To see them come together in such a galvanizing way is still such a great positive thing.

We learned this week that the Legislature is going to revisit a 2019 law around the tipped wage credit that has made it incredibly difficult for Colorado restaurants to stay afloat.

I'm very excited to see a change there.

Unfortunately, it comes too late for the 200 plus restaurants that have closed this year.

But at the same time, it's almost like planting a tree while the right time to have gotten it right would have been back in 2019 when restaurants expressed concerns.

The next best time is today.

All right.

Thank you.

And my guy comes from a big low.

I want to give a shout out to those people who were out at Washington Park last Sunday when a senseless shooting occurred on what was otherwise a beautiful day in Denver.

There was a young man who was shot by a random bullet.

And it is so heartening to know that fellow Parkgoers rushed to his aid and comforted and helped him until the EMTs arrived.

And he is alive and he is recovering.

Now, this is just another reminder of the wonderful people that we don't know that are surrounding us in our communities.

So thank goodness for those angels out there.

There are a lot of them.

So remember that we've got a lot of good people around us, including our insider panel.

Thank you for joining us this week.

We so appreciate it.

Thank you for watching as well or listening to our podcast.

I am Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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