Friday the 13th is upon us, and so is the halfwa mark of the legislative session.

Is that lucky or unlucky?

Because there's still a lot of work that has to be done to reach a balanced state budget.

And yes, it is March Madness not just in college basketball.

Although a shout out to the a women's college State Rams team for clinching their conference title.

It is maddening when you look at our record warm temperatures or the rising gas prices.

The insider team is ready to go.

It's time to tip off for this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer, and let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Patty Calhoun founder and editor of Westword.

Eric Bonderman, columnist with Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette.

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

And Chris Roark, consultant with Roark Media.

Let's talk about what everyone is talking about right now, the weather and gas prices our environment and our energy.

This has been Colorado's warmest winter on record, and forecasters say that could shrink the spring runoff to just a third of normal.

That kind of strain on an already stressed water supply raises big questions about projects like data centers, something that we've talked about on the show before.

Patty, this week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright came back to Colorado and blast the state's energy policies saying that they're the reason data centers and other businesses might not relocate to Colorado.

So he was at Fort Wayne for rain, and some of us may remember when that was a failed nuclear weapons power.

Sorry, nuclear power plant.

So the irony now of him saying, oh, we should have coal, we should have Europe get uraniu stockpiles up is not lost on me.

You know, we drove here throug yet another high wind warning.

It is the record high.

Another warm, warm day.

The agency that warns u about high winds and hurricanes and other weather anomalies.

Anchor Chri Wright wants to get rid of it.

Two months ago, it was announced that no car should g because it's climate alarmists.

Today is the last day you're supposed to be able to commen on why it shouldn't be sold off to the highest bidder.

So the federal policies are appalling.

So, Chris Wright, our Colorado zone leaves from here after touting blasting policies, touting nuclear power, touting coal and go straight into dealing with the whole war in Iran.

He was on CNN yesterday morning.

He did not apologize for his mistake on the Strait of Hormuz about a tanker that supposedly got through.

It did not.

But this morning yesterday morning, he is saying this whole war is short term pain for a long term problem.

He's not even saying short term long term gain.

He's saying it's pain for a problem that is going to continue.

And he is part of that problem.

The gas prices are just going up.

Eric, we're in for a brutal summer.

Patty mentioned the the snow runoff that's anticipated.

You know, we have, we spend most of our time up in Grand County these days.

Friday a week ago.

Yeah, there was a major snowstorm, and it was very welcome, and I don't I didn't get the official measurement, but at our house, we probably had 17 or 18in, and by Sunday it was gone.

Now the moisture still went into the ground.

And, you know so the moisture still had value.

But it just warmed up right away.

And there's really just no snow cover.

We have a number of friends up there who have, you know, been seriously injured skiing this year because they're trying to get out and the conditions are really dictating.

You shouldn't be out here.

And they're skiing into, you know, twigs sticking u through the snow, breaking legs, and everything else.

It is it is the story.

And, the afte effects are going to be with us, at least throughout the summer, if not beyond.

I think so, yeah.

And the pollens are already up.

It's allergy season and the early March.

Yeah.

Karen.

Yeah, I just think the days of kind of debating these types of topics in the abstract are over and talking about, you know, climate change, reliance on fossil fuels.

Right.

And these sort of one off type climate events.

I mean, this is, you know we're watching our water deplete in real time or watching gas prices, surge in real time.

We've talked about a lot of these thing in a more sort of academic sense about sort of what the future might hold.

You know, sort of what difficulties we're going to be dealing with really sort of at the community level.

Well, it's here and it's now and we're going to really start actin to see this during the summer.

I think there's a sort of sense of dread and we really don't know, you know, ultimately how this is going to affect our communities.

But what I can tell you is that the most vulnerable communities and other places around the world where this has happened has suffered the most.

So we need to, as Coloradans, as good stewards of our communities, make sure that we're lending a helping hand because it doesn't seem like we have a real consensus, our solution, either locally or federally.

No one's going to come and bail us out.

So I think, you know, with that sense of dread, should be hopefully a sense of optimism that we can all come together and deal with whatever challenge are going to come this summer.

Good call.

All right.

Chris.

Well, one of the places where we're seeing gridlock is with the Colorado River basin states.

They have failed to come up with a long term agreement.

Right now, the projections show that the Colorado Rive will probably only deliver 36% of its normal flows to Lake Powell.

That's about 2.3 million acre feet.

Now, to give yo some perspective, Colorado alone uses about 1.9 million acre feet every year.

So what's going to Lake Powell is barely enough to cover on state's demand, let alone seven.

But this agreement is expiring this year.

And so far, the seven states haven't come together for long term operations.

So we've got gridlock there.

States are looking a what they can do individually.

Wyoming, for example, is considering a bill to conserve water for one of the first times.

It's saying it wants to be a good faith player, and then the upper basin may get incentivized to be able to create sort of a conservation pool as, as some short term solutions.

But what a shame it is that it takes critical drought conditions for these seven states to kind of wake up and say, we better figure something out, or somebody else is going to do it for us.

Okay.

All right.

An update.

Now regarding a big conversation from our show last week when Jared Polis hinted that he might commute this sentence.

A former Mesa County clerk, Tina Peters, who is serving a nine year prison term for her crimes related to her claims about 2020 election fraud.

We were all wondering when the decision might come from the governor.

Well, now he's sayin he's going to wait and see what the appeals court has to say in the Peters case.

But, Eric, Democrats in the state legislature are not waiting.

All 66 of them sent a letter to the governor urging him not to commute her sentence.

Yeah, the story continues.

And I know it was a topic on the show a week ago, but it's been a topic around the stat and has been in some respects, the topic around this state for 2 or 3 months now.

Thank God for small favors.

So the decision is at least delayed.

We'll let the appeal.

The Court of Appeals, render that decision before the governor is heard from again.

But affect the political effect of all of this is while we're waiting the opposite.

The issue continues to stir, and the opposition, particularly from all elements of the Democratic Party, continues to build.

Tina Peters is in a unique category.

I know the governor wants to see some remorse from her.

So now you have her attorney saying, well, it's just human nature.

I don't have an exact quote, but it's just human nature.

When you're in these circumstances to think again about your actions, that doesn't strike me as exactly a deep, sincere, passionate statement of reflection and remorse.

This is going to play out over some additional weeks and probably months.

I just don't get the Polis calculation on this whole thing.

And it's all coming in an election year.

Right.

All right.

Your attorney here.

Your thoughts?

Yeah.

As a criminal defense attorney, I just it baffles me that we're even here and having these sorts of conversations about this.

We need to keep politics and political horse trading out of our courts, out of our court system.

This should be handled by the Court of Appeals.

All right.

This was duly charged by a prosecutor.

It went in front of a jury, jury of her peers convicted her.

And a judge who's been duly appointed weighed all of factors and found that that sentence was sufficient but not greater than necessary.

If the Court of Appeal say otherwise, we'll deal with it.

But, you know, our governor potentially sort of bowing to the pressure from the federal government and essentially doing I'm doing them favor by granting this clemency.

Just just does not sound right with me.

You know, they talk about Tina Peters being the hostage.

It feels like Colorado i who's being held hostage here.

Chris.

Well, Tyrone, you know, I don't disagree with you because she had two felony, four convictions, which that alone, there's a dispute over one of the felonies, a third one, but that alone qualifies for 2 to 6 years per count.

So I don't disagree on that point.

However, we also see, you know, people commit much more severe crimes, those that involve violence, that have lesser sentences.

Clearly this is all politicized.

I think that, what's weighing on Governor Polis at this time is a potential ru after he is done being governor.

We'll see how that plays out.

Yes.

The president's leaning on him.

Yes.

66 Democrats are leaning on him as well.

And so he has punted Peters under pressure.

That's my headline.

That said, we do have a solution that has come forwar from Joe Exotic, the Tiger King.

He would like a prisoner trade so that he that Tina Peters can go to his state where he's being held and get clemency and that he can come to Colorado and allow Jared Polis to give him freedom.

So we might see Joe Exotic the Tiger King's plan, play out.

Now, Patti, hasn't the tiger King been a friend of yours?

Oh, very close personal friend.

What?

No.

Joe Exotic.

I was like, I don't know that story.

You know I wish I knew that story myself.

We have to remember that Tina Peters was tried in a county with a Republican prosecutor.

It was a Republican jury.

I'm assuming because that is Republican county of her peers.

She was convicted.

Let' let the courts rule on it now.

But the fact that this is still alive just pushes the whole controversy over elections, which is so critical as we head into November.

We have Trump talking about you know, the safe voting system is the most important bill right now facing the country.

And we have a woman in Castle Rock who can prove that there was election fraud because she was just convicted and sentenced this week for voter fraud, because she voted for her dead husband and her son.

And then she wen and participated on January 6th in D to complain about voter fraud.

So I think we see just where voter fraud does occur.

It's not common.

It is not really a concern, but it happens with the people who would like to deny elections.

And while all this is going on the governor, one thing he is promoting very positivel is the passenger rail service.

Right.

That seems to be one of his favorite topics right now.

And we we can nam we can choose between four names for a not yet built much less operational system.

Colorado Connector I guess is number one.

I would like to call it the Lonely Ranger, because even if it's built, I don't think anyone will take it.

The Lonely Ranger You had a name for two, right?

Well, my father was Fred.

And I know Fred is, one of the ones under consideration.

Range express destination, front range express destination.

What strikes me as a little bit of a tortured acronym.

My idea wa if you could actually get anyone to ride this thing, which I'm dubious about, call it the decongestant.

The decongestant.

Any other ideas?

No.

The names are cocoa, Colorado Connector, Fred, Colorado Ranger, Range Link, and I guess people have till next week to vote and people are voting.

And also the bridge that neve was another Jared Polis favor.

Okay.

As as policies weighing whether Tina Peters was railroaded.

On that we will change subject.

Well done.

All right.

Balancin the budget is the number one job for our lawmakers at the state Capitol.

They're halfway through the session righ now, and already more than 500 plus bills and measures have been introduced.

Many that come with the price tag.

Right.

Take child care.

The Colorado Sun recentl highlighted child care deserts and rural counties, and lawmakers are considering bills to expand access.

But the state is tight on money.

So where's all the funding going to come from?

Ideas being floate include redirecting Tabor refund dollars to public schools, or adding fees to alcohol and marijuana sale to help with mental health care.

You know, we'll see how this happens in the next 60 days.

Tyra, I'm going to start with you.

Yeah.

And again, as a criminal defense lawyer, I think I have my eye on th funding of mental health care.

And I think that is something that can be done.

It can be done.

I think, you know, relatively inexpensively and with a slight increas in tax on alcohol and marijuana.

Unlike some of these other, much more glaring problems we have, like with Medicaid.

But this just feels like Groundhog's Day, like it feels like we get to this point every single year, and there's a near $1 billion deficit that we're dealing with.

But I'm hopeful, you know, despite not much happening so far that we, you know, get some things done later in the session, but I think just, mental health care.

Just to give some statistics.

In seven years, we had a 1600 beds.

Today we have less than 500.

We're using our criminal justice system reall as kind of a way to house folks.

And even when people are being sort of given, and transferred to some of our more mental health treatment, related facilities, they're, they're languishing there.

They're not, being restored to competency.

And so I think this is an area that, you know, is definitely scalable.

And we'll see if our lawmaker can get it together and move on.

Those numbers are alarming beyond alarming as we've grow as a state to get exactly right.

So much.

Okay, Chris.

Well, as we have grown as a state, you know, one thing that's under attack is Tabor once again, which was designed to control government growth.

And, we have SB 26 135 coming forward, which would basically take all the funds that goes towards Tabo refunds, taxpayer bill of rights and put it towards education spending.

It would be 2% over ten years.

It's about $2 billion.

But what it essentially does is undermine Tabor.

And again, what I said is that's designed to control how much government spends and how much it grows.

If lawmakers want more education funding, then they should go to the the voters directly and say, hey, we need more money for education.

And here's how we want you to participate rather than robbing Tabor.

The bill creates permanent spending for temporary surpluses.

There's no guarantee we're going to have a surplus every year.

And that's part of the reaso that the Colorado state budget is in the trouble that it's in.

Because since Covid, we have relied upon what was temporary money to fund permanent needs.

Patty.

Well, I can't believe Tyrone is going after one of my favorite vices beyon fooling around with Tiger King.

The the local distillery and craft beer industries in Colorado are in such trouble.

They pay high taxes and the bill I think Bob Marshall Douglas County is one of the supporters of that proponents of it.

It would really, really harm an industr that is important to Colorado.

Whether or not you drink.

So that's a big issue coming up.

And the other thing that worries me about it is it was a Denver project.

We voted for caring for help.

We pay for caring for health.

And if if you aren't careful, the money goes to just the wrong places.

And caring and caring for health's case, it does.

According to the city audito who just came out with a report, went to a lot of fancy meals and a lot of alcohol bills rather than bills at restaurants.

Not in the legislature that are not helping people.

So we have to be careful when we pass these laws that they do what they're supposed to do beyond just harming two really important industries in Colorado.

We've talked about that before, how laws are passed and there's no enforcement or checks on them.

So yeah we do have to be more careful.

And what I like about 1301 is that there is a clear deliverable here at this mental health facility in Aurora.

So unlike some of this funding that can go into a black hole for a two be determined list of services, there's a concrete deliverable and that facility needs to get built.

And if it doesn't, then they're going to have the taxpayers answer to okay.

Okay, I guess my overall point would be, I think everything going on in the legislature right now, it is very important.

Hopefully it comes to some kind of constructive, solution or conclusion, bu it won't really be a conclusion.

This is all a previe for ballot issue fights to come this fall.

Much of this is going to be litigated not in at a the corner of Colfax and Lincoln and Denver under the Capitol Dome.

It's going to be litigated this fall on our ballot with proposals coming from the left establishment.

All contrary proposals, counte proposals coming from the right establishment, Michael Fields, Advanced Colorado, etc.

tax policy is probably not going to be decided under the Capitol Dome.

It's going to be decided at the ballot box this fall.

There's going to be so much on that ballot.

It's going to b really overwhelming for voters.

It'll be fine.

It'll be fine.

It better be Mail-In, and it'll give us plent to talk about around this table.

Absolutely it will.

All right.

More debate is expecte over the car parks and Wildlife Commission's support of a petitio that would ban most commercial fur sales in Colorado, with some exceptions.

The commission voted against the recommendation of brand new director Laura Cleland.

And ultimately, the commission is the one who has the final say.

This is an issue that brings out a lot of passion.

The meeting where this vote happened was packed, keeping quiet again in the spotlight.

Chris.

Yeah.

And I watched this, vote go down.

And what was sad about it was there was so much confusion on the part of commissioners about what they were actually voting on.

What was very clear, though was how they were going to vote.

And the petition came forward from a woman named Samantha miller, who works for the center for Biological Diversity.

She was caught on a zoom call, a recording saying that the governor didn't want her group to be shown up in Denver, that they should show up in full force.

And, you know, clearly the governor is involved.

But anyway, Miller was a par of the group called Cats Aren't Trophies, which brought forth proposition 127, the mountain lion hunting ban that was soundly defeated.

Another interesting tie to the center for Biological Diversity is one of the commissioners who has taken some flak for not recusing herself.

That's Jessica Beaulieu.

She was really pushing for this petition to move forward.

And she was a fellow at th center for Biological Diversity.

It's not a final decision as was said by Director Cleland.

It simply moves to rulemaking.

But the very agency tha recommended that this be denied now has to come up for rules to implement this, and then it will be debated and voted on in May.

In Grand Junction.

Wow.

Okay.

The real question is why is this agency even involved in making this kind of rule if you're going ahead?

It should be something that goes to the ballot.

If you're going to really come up with something like that.

Why are they deciding on fur sales?

There's so many other things for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to do.

That is not one of them.

You know, the organization does a lot of good, especially when you talk abou climate change and those issues.

But first, sales is not where they belong.

Next thing you know, they're going to push foie gras sales, a ban on foie gras sales, statewide, which of course, Denver will be facing on the ballot in November.

We have other priorities in this state, other desperate needs, and we're spending all of our ink our time on this show.

Governor time.

A lot of this.

Let's put the blame where it really goes.

Or at least the accountability.

The first gentleman of this state, the governor's husband, Marlon Reese, is an animal rights zealot and I use that word advisedly.

And I tend to be suspicious of zealots, whether they're zealots on for any cause.

He has pushed for a lot of these appointments to this commission.

The accountability.

While ultimately Marlon Reese is not elected to office, his husband, Jared Polis, is elected to office.

So the decisions rest with Governor Polis, but they originate with Marlon Reese.

And we ought to talk about that out in the open.

Okay.

It's just there' a real governance concern here.

Frankly, you know, the voters have spoke resoundingly, on these issues.

I think the the they rejected the fur ban by 17 points, and that's in Denver.

And, you know, I'm not a big fur guy, right?

But at the end of the day, like, the voters have spoken.

Even their own appointe scientists have have weighed in, and essentially said that there's no scientific evidence that it's that sales are unsustainable.

So for them to, again we sort of started this program with my comments about how sort of the sort of politics are coming in and undoing, courts in this case, undoing really democracy and the will of the electorate.

It's just inappropriate.

And I agree with Eric.

We shouldn't be spendin a bunch of extra time on this.

Okay.

All right, then let's go around the tabl and talk about some of the highs and the low that we've witnessed this week.

We'll start in the low point.

And with Paddy returning to where we started talking about energ and the environment right now.

High wind warnings again as I drove here on Thursda I got a notice of power outages.

This is from Xcel, which as we know, earned $1 billion last year in profits, less the amount it had to pay for the Marshall Fire, also caused by high winds and partly by Excel.

Well, obviously th overwhelming topic of the moment going larger than Colorado is the war.

In the Middle East.

Patty used the reference early on.

I think the Chris White right quote from when he was here earlier this week of necessary pain, for eventual gain.

That's not a direct quote.

People can't make their own judgments about this war, but the people of this country deserve a better explanation.

And we have received for wh we are there, what we are doing.

What the projected end game is.

For a master marketer like our president and he is a master marketer.

There's been no explanation of what we are up to.

And I think that is the first responsibility, the first obligation of any leader in wartime is to explain to the people of your country what we are doing and why we are doing it, that has been absent.

All right.

So I'm going to take it down to the sort of micro level, something I actually experienced today on right before coming here.

I received a call from a sergeant, from Denver.

The Denver Sheriff's Office saying that I had missed grand jury service.

You know, earlier this month and that, you know, there was a warrant out for my arrest and all of these different things.

And I started explaining to them.

I was like, I don't know how this could have happened.

Like, I'm a lawyer.

I was literally jus trying a case in that building.

And he promptly hung up.

And then when I trie to call back, no one answered, I googled it.

It is a phone scam.

Yeah.

So folks out there, you know, these phones cams are getting really sophisticated.

I think that I'm pretty good about, like, not falling for these things, but I fell for it and I thought that I was going to need to go turn myself in or something.

But that is definitely one that's that's going around.

And if they got to me, they can get to anyone.

I guess somebody out in the lobby wants to talk.

Yeah, I got the DMV one again.

Texted me this week and that it's been a while.

That one that I got that one.

Yeah.

Chris.

Well, don't feel bad.

I feel for the same thing a couple of years ago, and I was literally in panic.

Yeah.

You know, I was but I was about to not come on.

The show was like, I gotta go take care of it.

And I looked it up, and then I figured out it was a scam to buffer.

I'd say about 30 minutes.

I was a little panicked but, Milo, as the time change, Congress has tried several times to standardize daylight Savings time.

There are two states that don't observe, you know, the time change.

I'm getting to the point where at once I didn't care.

But now I'm getting to the point where I'd like a consistent time because it takes me a week to recover.

So the time changes my low of the week.

Okay.

Something good.

Padding a lot of celebration this weeken because of Saint Patrick's Day.

And if you do one thing, stop into the Molly Brown House Museum which has a fascinating exhibit on the Irish and Leadville and what they went through when they were mining there 150 years ago.

That does sound good.

All right.

I'll say some nice about, Patty's newspaper Westword in a particular story they had this week about Racine's, the restaurant that so many of us remember and so many of us loved and and now miss.

And have they donated?

The owners, the proprietor of Racine's from days gone by, have donated a bunch of memorabilia, old menus and whatever to the Denver Public Library collection.

Fabulous.

It's great.

Okay.

Another shout out to Patty's newspaper.

Okay.

So, my parents are big, live music fans, and they always, invite m to, concerts at the Soiled Dove.

You know, over the years, and, you know, we'd be down in the basement and, you know, watching.

They're trying to get me into smooth jazz, which, you know, I'm sor of becoming a reluctant fan of.

But I just read that it's going to be, opening back up, closed down in 2024, going to be opening back up in Cherry Creek, at th chopper's location on Madison.

So looking forward to got, going and seeing some shows with my parents.

Oh, good.

I hadn't read that.

Just weekends.

Okay.

Just on the weekends.

Okay.

Well, mine is personal this week.

Like many students who were in high school during the pandemic, in the shutdowns.

My daughter really didn't know what she wanted to do with schoolin when she graduated high school.

So she spent several years working.

She's decided to go to college.

She's going to attend Wester Colorado University this fall.

So I'm going to have two mountaineers, and I'm very proud of her.

Excellent.

Very good.

Congrats to her.

Mine's kind of personal, too.

My high this week was a super quick cross-country trip to New York City and back within 24 hours, thanks to my husband and all of his points and miles, I should point out, I got to spend time with my youngest daughter before her college track to th Big East Basketball Tournament.

And we fit in.

Before it all got going, a great Italian dinner.

We saw a show starring our favorite Broadway actor, Jonathan Groff.

And as his show Just in Time was coming to a close Tuesday night, he stepped into the audience and paused to recognize the moment that all of us being together in the theater and that really stuck with me.

With all that is going on in our world right now.

It's important for us to just kind of pause and appreciat that the moment that we are in.

And I have appreciated these moments with you.

All right.

It's a very good thing to be reminded of when because things move so fast.

Thank you for joining us as well for these moments by watching or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer, I will see you next week here on PBS 12 and happy Saint Patrick's Day.

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