With big decisions being made and actions being taken in Washington and overseas this last week, there are connections and impacts here in Colorado.

Our insiders are gearing up to share their varying thoughts on all of that.

The ruling in a lawsuit facing Governor Polis, the failed push to have greater independence for Douglas County, and the challenges facing the LGBTQ plus community as Denver gets ready for its big pride celebration.

Almost ten years to the day that same sex marriage was legalized in this country.

Lots to discuss on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We have Eric Sonoran, columnist for Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette's Elena Alvarez, reporter with Axios.

Denver Tyrone Glover, criminal defense and civil rights attorney Christy Burton Brown, executive vice president of Advanced Colorado and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Let's start with what dominated news this week, and that is the U.S. bombings in Iran and the work for a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

But let's see where the focus down just a little bit.

And through a Colorado lens, our state is now on high alert since we are home to some very big military installations.

Our state is also home to the satellite company that actually captured the images of the bombed nuclear sites in Iran that everyone has been looking at this week, and also adding to the discussion, one of our elected leaders is questioning the administration on whether it is withholding critical intelligence from Congress.

There is a lot to sort through this week, Eric.

I will start with you.

There is a lot to sort through.

Kyle.

Colorado is always going to be at the epicenter of these kinds of issues.

Whenever there's a national security crisis, whenever there's foreign tension.

We are home to Nora.

We are home to Cheyenne Mountain, deep underground.

Speaking of, one of our missions in, Iran was to get deep underground.

So Colorado is always going to be part of this discussion, and the alert levels are always going to be raised a little bit around here.

I failed to understand at this point in time, we're now, what, 4 or 5 days?

Six days, whatever it is.

After, the American pilots dropped those payload.

I don't understand the Trump and Haig set at all strategy of going all in on the fact that this was obliteration.

This was a complete success.

Time will tell.

Maybe they're proven right.

Maybe they're not proven right.

But history will have a way, and history won't be that long in the writing year but it seems like they can't get past playing to their base.

I mean, these are the people who continue to insist that the 2020 election was stolen and fraudulent.

So once they have a message, they stick with it through thick and thin, no matter what the facts are that will ultimately come out here.

As Eric was mentioned, Elena, the other morning I was walking my dog.

It was so cool and calm.

And then I heard the roar of the jets ahead, because I live not that far from Buckley.

And I was reminded about our, you know, our defense installations here.

And you wrote a fascinating article kind of explaining what the various places do in terms of keeping us all safe.

That's right.

I mean, Eric, hit on it.

You hit on it.

Colorado is home to some of the U.S. military's most critical infrastructure.

We have Space Force bases.

We've got satellite command centers.

We have missile warning systems.

And all of those could be viewed as strategic targets if tensions escalate.

This really helps explain why, you know, shortly after news broke that the US had bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, that we saw Governor Polis issue a statement saying he had directed his public safety teams to start coordinating with local, state, federal partners and to start immediately monitoring any active threats or, you know, unusual activity that would affect Colorado's infrastructure and military assets.

We also saw that he met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday with a few other governors, to really talk about those heightened threats.

Fortunately, you know, there have been no threats identified to date, at least, that we've been privy to.

And with this ceasefire in place, albeit, you know, a bit shaky, a bit fragile, I think the high alert that leaders have been on, initially has eased a bit.

Again, you still have ongoing threats of these sleeper cells that, you know, you keep hearing, talked about in the news, and policies said, you know, the state will remain vigilant.

Okay.

Tara, I think that's really where the anxiety lies.

You know, is this ceasefire fragile as it may be, going to hold?

Is this going to ultimately de-escalate?

I think we'll know once we know whether this operation was successful.

Is our side right, in that it was or are the is Iran right in that it wasn't in we actually really didn't do anything.

And does that mean that we're going to further escalate it?

But what I think is getting lost in some of the reporting, like these aren't just, you know, pieces on a chess piece chessboard getting moved around, right?

There's a real human cost, I think, to the citizens of these nations and around the world as this escalates.

You know, we still have refugees.

We still have just, I think, countries in turmoil now trying to deal with this conflict.

So, you know, while we, I think, try to guess what's going to happen next militarily.

I would just say we should not lose sight of just the effect that this is having on our communities.

And Kristie, I've seen some of your posts on social media this week.

You've been very vocal about what's been going on.

Yes.

Well, and I responded specifically to Congressman Crow, who had suggested that President Trump should have brought this to Congress before making this very specific targeted strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

And my thought is, I think it's very, you know, counter to America's best interests to involve Congress in a big public discussion in a targeted strike.

There's a reason we used stealth bombers.

There's a reason we didn't announce we were doing this to the world before we did it.

So I think I do think Congressman Crow's opinion on that was was shortsighted and kind of Partizan.

And it used to be that when we had these targeted strikes against a country that has a threat to the United States, Americans would gather together and say, as Americans, it is a good idea for the U.S. to show strength to the world.

And I think that shouldn't get lost sight in this debate, is that this was a huge show of strength for the U.S., not only in the Middle East, but also to Russia, to China, to any nuclear powers around the world like the U.S. can carry out targeted precision strikes anytime we want, and other countries should interpret that as a threat if their interests are counter to ours.

Okay.

All right.

This week brought some big legal decisions, one from the US Supreme Court in favor of South Carolina's desire to stop giving Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood.

And then here locally, a Denver district judge blocked Governor Polis from ordering a specific group of state employees to comply with subpoenas for personal information of adults here in Colorado who are sponsors or caring for undocumented children.

Elena, this is also another article that you wrote in depth about in terms of this lawsuit, which was brought up a couple of weeks ago.

That's right, that's right.

So at face value, you know, the ruling does deliver a legal setback to us.

It marks a win for the whistleblower, Scott Moss.

He's a director in the state Department of Labor and Employment.

And he sued Polis to block these kinds of disclosures to block, you know, giving Ice this personal information.

But the ruling itself is a bit wonky.

So it only applies to Scott Moss and the employees he directly oversees within his division.

It does not stop the governor from ordering compliance from other state employees with access to those same personal records.

You know, the ruling says even though complying with this Ice subpoena does violate Colorado law.

Remember, state law limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities in non-criminal matters, which is the case with this subpoena.

So, yes, the ruling says that that, you know, complying with this subpoena would violate state law.

It still doesn't prohibit Polis from responding.

It's wonky.

And, you know, the judge intentionally said he wanted to keep his ruling very narrow to only focus on Moss.

The plaintiff in this case.

And so now the question is whether Polis will compel other state employees to comply with the subpoena.

And if he does, considering all of the flack that he's already faced for this order he initially put through.

Why wasn't the original premise or thought was trying to protect children who could be in child trafficking situations?

Right?

Right.

But crucially, the, you know, box that would, check this as a criminal investigation, which would then make this, not a violation of state law to comply with it.

That box was left unchecked.

And this judge very clearly said this was not a criminal investigation.

Okay.

Attorney there.

Yeah.

And I would say the box was not necessarily left unchecked.

Right.

Like they purposely did not check it because I think that this was just pretext for, you know, in one of these other administrative warrants.

And, you know, judge Jones is a trial court judge.

His ruling can be, I think, informative to other trial court judges, but it's not going to be binding to, it's this isn't a court of appeals.

This isn't a Supreme Court ruling.

Right?

He can rule on the issue in front of him.

But what this does as lawyers, you never want to go first, right?

Someone does.

This opens the door to if judge sorry a governor poll is tries to compel somebody else, they can file a similar motion asking for a similar type injunction.

And now the way that Judge Jones has ruled in Denver District Court will be informative to things going forward.

Okay.

We have two attorneys at the table.

Christie, go.

Yeah.

And so I think this situation actually paints a picture of the problem with Colorado sanctuary state laws.

You have the governor constantly out there saying we're not a sanctuary state in any way, shape or form.

And a judge basically said, yes, you are.

Yeah.

To put it simply, the judge said, the reason you can't force the Department of Labor to reveal this information to Ice is because your own state law says you can't.

If you didn't have that sanctuary state law in place, you could protect these kids.

And so I think what policies intending to do is right.

But he signed the law that prevented him from doing it.

And so that's why the judge is interpreting that way, because it's what the Colorado law says.

So if you want to open it up where Ice can get information and go ahead and conduct investigations, you've got to change state law.

And I'll briefly also comment on the other case.

You brought up the Planned Parenthood versus Medina case that the Supreme Court ruled on.

I filed an amicus brief on behalf of 311 state legislators, including 11 from here in Colorado.

And I just think that decision basically saying, yes, a state can defund Planned Parenthood is good not only for those who support life, but also for those who support basic economic interests.

You know, special groups should be able to come into a state legislature and say, here's how you must craft your budget.

We must be included.

Just doesn't make sense.

Christine, I probably don't differ.

I mean, excuse me, don't concur on some bottom lines, on on on issues of very intense passion for her, including issues of life versus choice.

Nonetheless, I will also endorse the court's decision in that South Carolina case that came down on Thursday.

It strikes me that this is an issue of federalism, that South Carolina can go one direction, Colorado can go a different direction.

And whether you call it federalism, whether you call it states rights.

I think South Carolina was within their rights to go the direction they did.

And the court affirmed that.

Now, within the coming days, and maybe by the time this airs, there going to be some bigger decisions that are going to knock these ones off the front page, particularly related to birthright citizenship and related to whether, an individual federal district judge can grant an injunction that is effective nationwide, or whether, such injunctive relief cannot be granted by a single judge.

There is a lot riding on that decision.

This week, Douglas County voters said no to the idea of becoming the next home rule county in Colorado.

Which would have allowed Douglas Doug Coe to make some decisions independent from what is decided at the state capital, Tyrone.

It was quite a resounding response.

71 almost 72% of voters there said no to this measure, 71%.

And maybe by the time this airs 72, I mean, that's a masterclass.

And the difference between local control and controlled by a few locals, which the voters resoundingly rejected.

Look, folks in Douglas County, I mean, they're smart, they're intelligent.

They saw through this.

This was a rushed behind closed door power grab.

And they hit the brakes and they hit the brakes and probably about as decisive a way as you can in an election.

Okay, Christy, your thoughts?

Sure.

So I live in Douglas County, so I appreciate you saying people in Douglas County are intelligent.

Thank you.

But, but I think the numbers this lost by were a little surprising.

Voters tend to say no in Colorado, for one thing.

And I think a lot of it goes to the fact that a lot of them didn't understand what Home Rule even means.

And you get an odd election, what's called a special election in the middle of summer.

And you're like, what does this even mean on my ballot?

Do I want to create a commission for a home rule?

There's two home rule counties in the entire state of Colorado right now.

You actually have more power as a home rule city or municipality than you do as a home rule county, because counties are typically viewed as arms of the state in Colorado law.

So you do get extra abilities to govern your own public safety in a few additional ways.

That's why the sheriff in Davis supported it.

But I think it was a lack of explanation to the citizens of of Douglas County.

It was it was done really quickly, like I supported it.

I always intend to be more for local control than state control, especially where it involves public safety in a state like Colorado or the second most dangerous state in the nation.

Like what?

The locals take care of it if they can.

But I think the commissioners have some work to do.

They need to go out and talk to the people and show more people why this would be good for them, rather than solely maybe good for the elected people.

And the plan is for them to continue and bring this up in future elections.

Right.

That's a great question.

That's certainly what they've said.

But I honestly haven't asked them, I don't know, with a 7,172% defeat.

I have some things to think about.

Okay, Eric.

Well, this was not only a no.

It was an emphatic no in political textbooks, anything north of 60% is usually described as a landslide.

Once you get to 70%, I don't know what the description is.

Maybe a blowout or, something like this.

This was not a close election.

It was resounding if there was any any people on Tuesday night that had a worse night than Andrew Cuomo, it was probably the Douglas commissioners, particularly George Teal, and Abe Layton, who were the holdover commissioners who had pushed this issue.

My criticism of their campaign is if you're going to ask voters to make that kind of move.

And as Christie pointed out, no's tend to be the deep opposition of voters or in doubt.

You have to lay the predicate.

You have to make a convincing case of why the status quo is broken.

And before you can even sell them on what your solution is, you need to get voters to buy into the fact that what they have now is broken.

I don't think that predicate was ever set.

And, these commissioners are going to have to think long and hard given that margin, before they come back.

It's not that they lost 52 or even at 55%.

They got blown out.

Okay.

And Elena, needless to say, Douglas County commissioners are out of touch with their voters.

They weren't meeting them where they are, as, Tyrone and Christy said, you know, there were big concerns across party lines that this was rushed.

It was secretive.

It lacked public input.

Secondly, Douglas County's leaders may be Republican, but the county is far from the conservative bastion that it once was.

We look at, voter registration data.

So, yes, Republicans lead Democrats by 15%.

But state figures show unaffiliated voters are the plurality at 49.4%.

So the framing of this measure that the Republican, commissioners, you know, used that this was their answer, you know, to push back against the Democratic led state Capitol clearly didn't work.

It didn't resonate with words with voters.

And, as it stands now, you know, we've mentioned there some talk, especially from Commissioner George Teel, that this will come back up again, but he's not done fighting for this home rule.

So it'll be very interesting to see what commissioners do differently this time around.

No doubt they've got to do something different because of how largely this failed.

Okay.

All right.

It was ten years ago yesterday, June the 26th, when the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage in this country.

And the and guaranteeing the same protections and the benefits of heterosexual couples.

And this weekend caps off a month long, month of celebrations across Colorado with Denver Pride happening in downtown Denver.

Now, while we look back at the acceptance of gay rights ten years ago, Denver Pride is reporting a drop in corporate sponsorship.

And this week, concerns were raised about whether A988 crisis line specifically to help LGBTQ plus callers could continue amidst cuts in federal funding.

You know, Christy, I think back to the jubilation of the LGBTQ plus community, you know, ten years ago.

And challenges still remain.

Sure, I think I think two points for me, Kyle.

First, I think the whole transgender effort is damaging the rest of that community.

I think specifically when you look at the push to allow men and women sports and the repudiation of that, both in public polls at the Supreme Court, I think that is really put a damper on things that other people in that community try to do, because that the transgender aspect of it has gotten so much focus right now and remains almost the centerpiece, I think.

But secondly, I would like to draw more attention to the 988 suicide line.

I think it's really important for people to know that that that line is still continuing.

It was actually Senator Cory Gardner from here in Colorado who sponsored that in federal legislation and got federal funding to create the 988 mental health suicide line national line.

That is going to continue.

I think the piece that's getting pulled away is that you can press.

I don't if it's three or some specific number to get help for LGBTQ issues in particular.

But the Trump administration has emphasized the hotline is going to continue.

And just everyone is going to get an equal amount, an equal type of mental health and suicide help.

So I think that's really essential for people to know this hotline is staying.

It's crucial our nation needs it.

And I'm really happy to see that that in and of itself is stay here.

All right.

Eric.

Well, I think Christie's analysis from a political point of view of the impact of the transgender issue is on the markets had a dampening effect.

It's created some degree of backlash.

And those issues really need to be pulled apart.

As the father of a gay son, now a gay adult.

Hooray for that supreme Court decision ten years ago, a momentous decision, in my lifetime.

And there are now some years to that lifetime I've never seen an issue move as quickly as the gay rights gay and lesbian rights issue moved in terms of not just legal from a legal point, but in terms of public opinion and public acceptance.

It really moved at warp speed.

And we could, if we had a longer show, delve into why that is.

I even sometimes question these days, you know, the efficacy of a gay rights parade.

I mean, hooray for that community.

But maybe we should get all the sponsors and all the money and everyone present and have one more parade and call it a victory parade.

Because this country is such a different place than it was ten or 20 or 30 years ago related to those issues.

Elena, I want to really zero in on the, corporate sponsor.

Issue.

So my colleague John Frank recently looked into this.

He wrote a story about, how Denver Pride's sponsors, were changing this year.

He found that donors decreased from 16 to 11.

We saw Nissan, target, Verizon and Walmart.

Their names are no longer appearing on the sponsor website.

Other big names that decreased their level of giving was Starbucks, JPMorgan Chase, and cupcake lines.

Interestingly, on the other side, one top level sponsor that is standing firm is the beverage company Molson Coors, which is, you know, there is a bunch of I think it was in 2023 when other beverage companies were really pulling back.

And even at that time, Coors was holding strong.

You know, big picture is that this is part of a national movement of corporate America, really reining in, their promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion, events.

And it matters because it puts at risk critical services and efforts for LGBTQ individuals that are funded through these sponsorships.

Okay.

And look, there may be a political or a corporate case for, adjusting, but I think at the end of the day, on a human level, Colorado, Denver specifically, we are a magnet for and an innovator when it came to and when it comes to LGBTQ issues and to start to dial things back, to start to peel off from marginalized folks who are part of this community, at a human level is just not the right move.

We need to stand united.

We need to stand in support the political or corporate wins are sort of fleeting and tenuous.

They will change.

But if we stand united and stand together, we'll get through it.

Okay.

All right.

We'll end with that.

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

We will start on the low point so we can end on a good note going into the weekend.

I will start with you, Eric.

It will be no surprise that I will go back to Denver Public Schools.

The gift that keeps on giving a board member within the last few days surfaced a proposal eminently reasonable to require disclosure of all the lawsuits districts and individual schools were facing, as well as the complete legal expense to the district that the district was incurring.

That proposal was attacked by another board member, Sochi Gaitan, because on the grounds that the board member who had made the proposal is Anglo, and that the district's counsel, I guess is African American and another part of the counsel's office is Hispanic.

Somehow I have no idea how Gaitan decided that race and ethnicity was a part of this, or vaguely relevant to the discussion.

Okay.

All right, Elena, we learned this week from CPR is great reporting, that five years since the state started mandating, law enforcement agencies provide detailed data about police violence, most departments haven't provided any information.

They're citing technical problems.

This includes Denver's own, police department, and the state has taken no steps to enforce it.

So how are you going to address problems when you have no data to inform what problems you know exist?

Okay.

All right.

And that's actually also my disappointment.

And the thing that I will add that's even more disappointing is that the folks in law enforcement who complied with this are now, I think, the ones that are, you know, under, you know, the biggest microscopes and the most scrutiny, like they did what, was mandated they did it even though there wasn't necessarily the threat of real enforcement.

They did it because it was right.

And now they're the ones being penalized.

And, Christy, I'll bring up an article that I think was from the Denver Gazette, this week saying that the Colorado Education Association CTA may be considering a progressive tax increase, in the 2026 ballot.

And I think that be very disappointing if that's actually what they're really considering.

A progressive tax increase would, in fact, hurt businesses, take them out of Colorado, hurt a lot of Coloradans who stay here and keep our economy vibrant.

So especially when you hear reports of the state potentially going into a recession or having a rough budget year.

I just think ideas like that aren't politically smart.

Okay.

All right.

Something good.

Sure.

I'm going to go back to where we started.

My good for the week is those pilots and their crews that flew those missions to Iran, for their courage for their precision, for their immense skill.

We can have debates about whether the strategy was right or how effective the strikes were.

Time will tell.

As I indicated on that.

But there is no denying the service delivered by those wonderful Americans here.

Here?

Yes, something that made me smile this week is news that a moose in Rocky Mountain National Park had twins.

These two babies are quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

So if you needed another reason to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, now you have to.

And the pictures are amazing.

With the crazy news in the week when you come across that, makes you smile.

All right.

And this might not be the case by the time this airs, but, I think it's going to get a little bit cooler this weekend than it was.

It has been, you know, not by much, but, gosh, I will take anything that this weather is right on.

Well, for me is someone who works for me.

His wife's actually in the hospital right now having their first baby.

So super high.

They're so excited.

And I'm just so excited for them to be a little family all together.

That's great.

All right.

And my high.

What makes me happy are the kids who made up our studio audience this week.

These are some of the winners of this year's Art Hub Kids Film Festival in Lafayette.

Young filmmakers from kindergarten.

The kindergartners aren't here through 12th grade produce short films about three minutes or less for this festival.

You know, storytelling takes a lot of creativity and focus, especially when you have to be concise and get it down to three minutes.

I would say, here are filmmakers of the future, but you know what?

They are already doing it.

Way to go.

They say they want to make their content, make people feel something so they get it already.

So thank you all, and thank you for spending time here at PBS 12 with us.

And that's a wrap.

First off, thanks to our insiders and to our behind the scenes crew who made this show happen this week.

And thank you for watching or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer and I will see you here next Friday night, the 4th of July here on PBS 12.

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