October is here, and things are about to get real.

Colorado ballots are heading to voters now.

The candidates for governor are about to share the stage.

The U.S.

Supreme Court is taking a boulder's climate case against big oil companies.

And when it comes to drugs, how do we keep up with what is out there?

With Election Day just weeks away now, what could still surprise us?

What could change the conversation?

Let's talk about all of it and get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor emeritus of Westword.

Alton Dillard, consultant with The Diller Group.

And Rockford Gray, political analyst at Denver seven and former election spokesperson for Denver.

And Adam Berg, senior policy advisor at Brownstein.

Karli West, executive director of the Colorado Office of the American Petroleum Institute.

All right, Colorado, it's about to get real.

After all the talk we've been talking, the ballots are heading to the homes of registered voters.

What are each of you watching as now the ballots are really.

They're really coming to us.

Patty, start off first.

I'm sorry to say I'm watching the ridiculous ads that Donald Trump paid $20 million for.

The US government paid for his ads.

Scare tactic tactics.

They're like promos for the worst dystopian sci fi movie, and it is talking about the horrors of what's going to come communism taking over.

Let's calm down.

He's already promised 1.2 trillion and buying votes from people to make sure the Republicans win at the midterms.

So I'm tired of watching that.

I am watching all the ads that are coming up now, and all the different things that are landing in your inbox and in your mailbox for the 14 different initiatives Coloradans have to choose.

A couple of them, may, I think, are gonna go down in flames.

I think one of the ones that's going to be very controversial is cocoa the train.

We are a broke state.

We don't have money to pay for a train that essentially will go nowhere.

So I think cocoa will go down.

Even though everyone loves trains in theory.

But it's expensive.

And that's just one of 14 really tough issues.

And this week all the sports teams came out and said, oh, vote for the cocoa.

Yeah, well, why don't they pay for cocoa?

That's my question.

Pay for their own stadium and pay for cocoa.

Okay, Alton.

And I'm keeping an eye on the, competing tax questions because as Patty just mentioned, you know, the state's in a bit of a fiscal bind.

And so there's a whole bunch of speculation going on about, well, if they both pass, what happens if one passes what doesn't happen?

The other thing monitoring is the sort of a culture war questions.

The Republican Party at the state House is so neutered that pretty much the initiative process, which Patty and I talk about all the time, is like one of their last means of trying to get anything done.

And so I think it's going to be a real litmus test to see if some of these things that are being put forth by Advance Colorado get any traction, or if Colorado is going to continue to lean that bluish purple and then real quick on the whole, Johnson PAC thing when it comes to the upcoming election there, the whole thing with the Johnson thing is we have already had our Supreme Court say you can't do mid census gerrymandering.

So I'm trying to figure out what they're trying to solve with that and keeping mind that again, since we haven't had a Republican governor in 20 some odd years, this is pretty much, you know, a Democratic state Supreme Court.

So even they said that hopping in in the middle like that is a bridge too far.

And that's amendment 86.

That's going to be on the ballot.

And his PAC gave $250,000.

Wow.

Into that.

Okay, Adam, there's actually a couple interesting things happening in Denver specifically.

So we have a 20 year franchise agreement with Xcel Energy that's on the ballot.

It's a large, multimillion dollar, multiyear arrangement largely around fees and power line location and those sorts of things.

Big deal for some surety for Excel.

And also, if it doesn't, pastors questions around what happens after that, and do arrange a short term deal.

The other notable one to me was in the ten person race for the at large seat that Councilwoman Purdy vacated.

The, Democratic Party of Denver actually endorsed Melissa Mahia in that race, which is a nonpartisan race.

And it's one of the first times that the party, if not the first time that the party has actually done this in, such a wide contest.

So how that frames for voters, how educate voters are on that race is going to be interesting to see.

Yeah.

Okay.

And Carly so back to what Patty Knowlton raised.

You know, I'm just thinking a lot about the sheer volume of this ballot.

14 ballot measures, every statewide seat in the House, up about 75% of the legislature are blue because 100 pages this year.

So there is so much for Coloradans to consider.

And on the one hand, I feel for myself and every other voter out there having to wrap our minds around and do a lot of research on all of these different things at the same time.

Like you raised, there's a question of, are everyone's interest being represented at our legislature?

And as we look at potentially coming out of this election with super majorities in both the House and the Senate of Democrats, there are a lot of folks in Colorado who don't feel like they see their views and their position represented in a legislature that doesn't necessarily have to listen to them in making decisions.

So while I wish we didn't have 14 measures, I also see a lot of frustration from Colorado at large.

And that's playing out on the ballot because a lot of folks are moving through the option that they have.

And I'll say a lot of those measures in the past, we've seen things that are pretty, let's say, skewing Republican or more conservative, either passed by narrow margins or fail by narrow margins.

I think it shows us that the state is actually a lot more diverse in perspective than our regulatory bodies necessarily reflect.

Okay.

And it is critical that people educate themselves.

I mean, think about the Wolves, for example, sounded interesting.

They did not think about cause and I think about Tabor.

That's why you don't initiate things into the Constitution, in my humble opinion.

Okay.

This Sunday, the Republican, Democratic and independent candidates running for governor are scheduled to be together for the first time.

The Asian Roundtable of Colorado will focus on issues important to that community and also take on some statewide issues.

And then next Thursday, policy will be at the forefront at a Colorado Chamber of Commerce forum featuring the major party candidates.

Now, this week, we have been hearing some different ideas from the candidates about affordable housing an issue Denver is wrestling with, too.

As Adam mentioned, with the ten people running for that open at large city council seat.

Alton, please start us off.

Well, a couple of things on housing.

One, there's sort of the threshold question should issues like density be dictated from the state level?

So I'm going to drop this down to the micro a little bit in Cherry Hills Village.

They're actually going to be running a ballot issue that discusses Home Rule in the context of, hey, leave these kind of decisions up to the, local government.

So I want to see how that's going to turn out.

And then the other thing is there's been a, you know, big spike in foreclosures.

And under Denver's home rule charter, the clerk and recorder is actually the public trustee of the county, which makes Denver unique to the rest of the of the state.

And so one of the things that you're seeing with that uptick, and I've said this in the sort of mirrors my beliefs when it comes to our road infrastructure.

We continue to be in chase mode and behind the eight ball and playing catch up on a issue that's existed for a while.

And I've said it before that, you know, Colorado, Denver, we're running this risk of becoming a big boutique kind of city and state like, California and San Francisco, where no one's going to be able to afford to live.

The modular thing, you know, looks cool to me.

But then I heard some of those quote unquote, entry price points.

And, you know, three and $400,000 is considered entry home these days.

I don't know about that.

Yeah.

Wiser during his talking on Tuesday night he said 400,000 starting price.

Yeah.

Okay.

Adam, affordable housing is a super interesting election issue.

It's very topical.

It's top of mind of all the candidates across every level.

I think it also is very closely tied to the economy at large.

It's tied to homelessness, perspectives, land use, authority, all these complexities.

And just two statistics I think are good for context.

So these are both from the, Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, their 2025 estimates.

They estimated that 46.8% of renters are currently cost burdened in Colorado, and 21.5% of homeowners are currently cost burden, which means much of their income is going to covering their basic housing costs, leaving a lot less for other expenditures.

So I think that the interesting thing between the candidates running for governor in particular, is they have agreement that this is an issue across the board.

You'd be hard pressed for them to say anything otherwise, but very different approaches, right?

Some are saying we need to build our way out of this, and it's a matter of unit stance of supply and demand issue.

Others are more concerned about permitting processes and reducing the actual construction costs, and others are concerned about keeping people in their homes and preventing any additional loss of home or homelessness across Denver.

And the reality is there's not it's not an issue where there is one solution.

We have to be flexible.

We have to be willing to work across jurisdictions to address the issue.

How we do that.

I think we've been trying to figure that out for years, but I'm optimistic to see that it is such a big topic right now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Carly, you know, there's not an easy solution because there's not one single thing that we did that put us in this position as a state.

It's a series of decisions and economic factors that have all piled up over the years.

We've seen a lot of really well-intentioned regulations be put into place.

All of those come with costs.

We've seen a lot of attention to detail when it comes to permitting.

That has slowed things down, and that's resulted in costs.

All those costs ended up passed along to the cost of the housing that somebody is either purchasing or renting.

So there's not one decision that's going to get us out of this, because it's not one decision that got us into it.

But at the same time, I am a broken record on this, and I apologize for that.

But you can't solve the lack of entry level housing for sale condominiums without solving construction defects.

And our legislature has tried a number of times to address it.

But any solution that does not fundamentally change that balance of you can expect litigation without fail.

If you build condominiums in the state of Colorado, until you solve for that, you don't solve the problem.

Okay, honey, can't wait to see those entry level houses in Cherry Hills for 400,000.

I mean, what will it be?

Maybe a garage or a shoe box?

The affordability.

Affordability issue is so big.

It's such a big buzzword.

It's going to be huge.

I think on state, a state rep races, it's going to be big in Denver.

It is not going to be big in the governor's race because as far as I can tell, we are not hearing anything, for example, from Greg Lopez or Victor Marcus about how really to solve it.

We know wiser has been looking at it and he's got some ideas, but this is a personality race.

I mean, the governor's race, you're going to vote for someone who's been a public servant, service servant like the wiser, who has sued the Trump administration a lot.

That might affect some people, or Greg Lopez, kind of nice guy, independent, interesting that he's running.

And Victor Marques, who is all over National news again this week because of alleged violent issue.

Well, not even alleged.

I mean, there's video of some of it violence, other issues.

No one looks at.

Victor Marks and thinks this is a guy who can fix affordability.

Okay, the drug landscape seems to be getting harder to keep up with here in Colorado, contaminated marijuana vape cartridges were sold at more than 400 stores on college campuses.

Warnings are circulating about a new synthetic opioid, reportedly ten times more potent than fentanyl.

Now, the warning circulated in the past week at CSU, but there's no indication that this drug has reached Colorado yet.

Yeah, I should say.

And then the death of an 18 year old Colorado student at the University of Mississippi has put another substance kratom, in the spotlight.

That herb is legal for those over 21 to buy here in Colorado.

Although the state has recently added some regulations around it.

It is illegal, though, in other states, including Mississippi, where police have made arrests in connection with the case.

And the death of Aidan Hamilton, who is from Englewood, was from Englewood who went to Cherry Creek.

Adam, when you look at all of this, what concerns you the most?

I a how complicated the picture is.

So the CDC has noted that, you know, across the country we've seen national overdose deaths actually go down.

Last year in Colorado we saw a 10% increase in overdose deaths.

We are also seeing a ballot measure coming to voters around fentanyl specific penalties.

But to me it's always access to treatment, right.

For people.

And we're talking about different people.

You have the people who experiment with kratom or drug and they're young and they make a mistake and they can cost them their life.

Or you have people who become addicted.

And I know many people have actually relapsed on them after being sober for years from other substances.

So the question for me is always, how do we address, addiction issues at large?

How do we penalize, at times, the system and not the person?

I think we have a long history of criminal izing the addict, as opposed to addressing a system that has maybe failed that person.

But when we have these introduction of new drugs like kratom, and we have this with salvia 20 years ago and other substances, and they can come to a gas station and kids will go in and buy it.

It's a scary time, for young people.

And so, I don't know what the solution is other than I'm glad we're talking about it.

Yeah, yeah.

You have young people in your house, young kids I do.

Mine are young enough that, honestly, the gas station drugs were not even on my radar.

So, thank you for the terrifying wake up call.

But, on this one, you know, I feel like, frequently I'm talking about too many regulations.

I feel like this is one where I see a real opportunity for the state to step in with more regulations.

It seems wild to me that we're talking about, you know, in the city of Denver, we've prohibited flavored tobacco, which is a legal product.

But the idea that you can walk into that same gas station and not purchase flavored tobacco, but you could purchase one of these other products that are completely unregulated and untested just over the counter.

It seems like there's a mismatch between how we are approaching substances that needs to be right.

It and it needs to be considered because we talk all the time at this table about regulations for so many other things.

Yeah.

Patty.

Well, and in fact, that contaminated marijuana product should have been caught.

There were regulations for it, but they weren't followed.

It's as you said, it's it's split, it's addiction and it's education.

So you think about the college students or high school students or maybe even younger.

How do you educate them?

Just not of the dangerous that are out there because you think about what goes on with kratom.

If you mix things with kratom, it can be fatal.

Or kratom itself, depending on how you consume it.

You look at ketamine that we were talking about Cornell University and what's going on with that.

And I think the fentanyl bill that is out there is not the solution right now.

The measure, because it is to one size, doesn't fit all.

You're talking about people who might be trying something for the first time, who need to be educated, are people who are addicted, who need a different kind of help.

But certainly anyone who is selling illegal drugs should be pursued to the highest extent of the law.

And that bill talks a lot about the punishments, right?

The punishments.

And it's just an effects possession too.

And again, you're having some people who might be kids, who might be experimenting, who might just have been given something, and should that same punish, should they get the same punishment as someone who's selling?

I wonder if that will pass, because people see the word fentanyl and be like, oh, they're they're frightened as they should be because it can be so dangerous for people actually talked about this at the state Capitol multiple times.

And the question is often, what is the amount someone needs to have in possession to be considered the potential for sale?

And it's a it's a complicated issue, right.

And people have varying opinions, but I'm curious to see what voters think.

So we're talking about this in part because Alton earlier this week was like, we need to talk about these gas station drugs, and it's very much on your radar.

So thank you for bringing this to the table.

Sure thing.

And as always, I like to, you know, always disclose my client relationship with one Chance to Grow Up, which formed after marijuana was first legalized here.

And think about, you know, even the nomenclature we're using now, a lot of people want to keep talking about freedom as a leave.

But think in terms of the synthetics, like 708.

We have actually had two people in Yampa County die from just taking 708, which is a synthetic kratom.

And so one of the things that is going on with this, and this is where the term gas street station drugs comes from, these are products that are found outside, to your point, the regulated dispensary model.

And so when they're available in corner stores and vape and smoke shops and stuff, anyone of any age can get their hands on them.

And like I've said from day one, as far as the work, with one chance goes, we are not trying to relitigate any kind of legalization, but the protection of kids has got to start coming to the forefront.

And there also needs to be, you know, just some protection of the rights of the many.

Did you all see that recently?

The Sam Gary Branch of the Denver Public Library had to be shut down because someone had a fentanyl mixed, something that caused a hazmat situation.

We really have got to start getting our hands around this issue.

And I too, like Carly, I was not aware that convenience stores sold all this stuff.

And I was telling you beforehand, I remember getting no dose during finals, you know the convenience store around the corner.

And probably back then that was considered bad right.

Not good for us.

But this, it's scary what's in the stores now.

It's very scary.

So keep an eye out.

There's going to be some things going on both locally and federally when it comes to these issues.

So thank you.

Good conversation.

All right.

On Monday the U.S.

Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that puts Boulder up against major oil companies.

Back in 2018, the City and County of Boulder sued Exxon Mobil and Suncor, alleging the companies knew about the dangers of burning fossil fuels but concealed or misrepresented them.

And Boulder argues the companies should help bear the cost of communities adapting to or recovering from climate related disasters like wildfires or floods.

This week, Justice Samuel Alito did recuse himself from this case.

The court gave no reason, although financial disclosures show investments in other oil companies.

Carley, your organization, the American Petroleum Institute, has urged the justices to side with the energy companies in this case.

I know you can't talk too much because there's litigation involved.

What do we need to know?

Let me start with you.

You know, first and foremost, I'm really glad to see the Supreme Court taking this up, because we've seen a lot of suits filed in a lot of courts across the country.

And this is really an issue, you know, a big picture issue that we need debate in Congress.

We need decisions in Congress, but we can't have this widespread lack of clarity.

And so I'm glad to see that they have taken up the issue.

But beyond that, really what we are focused on right now is the industry is the incredible need for American produced energy.

We've seen our energy needs continue to rise as a country and as a state.

We've seen really high demand and we've seen a lack of product just because of international factors that have limited the supply of oil and natural gas, particularly oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz.

So we've seen a real need for American produced energy, which especially here in Colorado, we've shown that you can have increased production and decreasing emissions at the same time.

We have a great story to tell when it comes to the improvements that we have made in terms of our environmental footprint and the lower emissions that Colorado has made its way towards over the last, however many years.

So right now, what we are really focused on is ensuring that Colorado in particular, and the country at large has the energy that we need because there have been some real challenges to that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, one of the real challenges we're facing is the reality of climate change.

You look at it, this year was the first year Saint Mary's Glacier disappeared.

That is real.

That's a real change in the climate.

The hottest summer on record here.

That's a real change.

So it is great that the Supreme Court has taken this up.

I find it unfortunate that it's this particular Supreme Court.

Many of the people appointed by the man who has made it so hard to get gasoline and oil products imported in this country.

So it's a huge issue.

But we also have to remember that Colorado has been very advanced in Sun Court, for example, keeping an eye on what Suncor does on different contaminant contaminants that have been leaked into the water, into the air.

We've all heard about different things that have gone on at Suncor.

It's ironic because it's not in Boulder.

It's near Boulder.

But Colorado should be able to have its own regulations.

And if the regulations also involve paying for costs for some of the things companies are doing that is affecting the climate.

I think the state should be able to do that.

We will find out if the Supreme Court agrees.

And there are three dozen, more than three dozen similar cases are still not being heard but pending out there.

So what's decided well, should affect all of the states involved.

Yeah.

Well, the inconvenient truth is that al Gore was right.

And so just remember when he started raising the alarm about climate change and everyone was like, oh, no, there's no such thing as climate change and blah, blah, blah is just cyclical and all that.

Now you have Saint Mary's Glacier, like you mentioned, melting.

You have glaciers all over the world melting.

Hottest summer.

This was a miserable summer.

I only got a chance to do any cycling.

And B Denver being the heat island that it is.

Even when you're coming down from I-70 and you hit about Floyd Hill and you have your air conditioning on, you can feel the heat just overtaking.

And then the other thing is, remember, back in the old days when inversions were something that only happened in the winter, but now, because of the fact that we set a record for bad ozone days, and you all know what the ozone tickle feels like, right?

It gets you like right there.

And you're like, that's an odd sensation.

That's ozone.

And so, you know, something needs to be done to continue to try to right the ship there.

But again, I think that's another one where we're going to be playing catch up for years.

I think it's worth noting to what the court is debating is really a jurisdictional issue at this point.

So there's no there's no arguments about the reality of climate change.

It's more of a can they proceed with a state lawsuit over climate, potentially climate related impacts.

So it's not one particular flood or one particular fire.

It's sort of the whole thing.

I think what's notable is all the different laws that oversee climate related aspects across jurisdictions.

And then also the recognition that climate is a global issue as well.

Right.

There is the reality of, there are emissions across the country.

There are emissions across the world that all have an impact on climate.

I think the interesting part about this case is going to be the risk of liability associated if if local governments or communities can sue specific companies over these broad impacts or incidents.

And then determining what that looks like is, environment for those energy companies.

Will be I'll be curious to see what the court ultimately rules.

I tend to agree with Patty that I think they'll probably side with companies, and move this out, but there's no question other cases will continue to rise until eventually some either new regulation or some other potential federal driver probably under a different administration, would be my guess.

Would come in and look at this through more of a regulatory lens.

And again, no decision for a while.

Just the hearing.

Is this coming Monday.

All right.

Let's go around the table now and talk about some of the highs and the lows that we've witnessed this week.

We'll start on a low point so we can end on a happy note to end the show.

Patty, start off.

Many people witnessed the opening of BRT on or at least Colfax is reopened.

A lot of it.

And the very first accident was a bus going through the red light.

Like really RTD?

Let's get a grip on it.

Mine is politicians regardless of party that don't do debates or public forums.

Now I understand we're in a climate and I can understand that no one wants to be, you know, Profanely called out and that kind of thing.

But if you can't get up in front of an audience and say, I'm ten toes in on this issue, and you have the choice to vote for me or not, I think that's a shame.

But just what's happening at Cornell, I think it's a deeply disturbing situation.

I'm glad that the criminal investigation is reopened and we're looking again at what the school or how the school reacted.

It's just horrific to see.

It's something we see a lot in the news.

Sadly, and hoping for some justice of some kind is it's an outcome here.

We saw reporting this week on how difficult the job market has become for a lot of Coloradans, a lot of qualified folks having a hard time finding a job.

I think the business community has been ringing alarm bells for a number of years about where we are headed as an economy.

And I think it's just a reminder that Colorado really can't take a strong economy or a strong business environment for granted.

Yeah.

Okay, now let's talk about something good.

Patty.

Staying on the road theme.

This is the 100th anniversary of Neil Cassidy, the inspiration behind Jack Kerouac's On the Road program at History Colorado.

Excuse me.

History Colorado, Saturday night, tomorrow night about Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy.

And on the road.

Interesting time of history.

Yeah.

And my high is a shout out and a hang in there to all the meteorologists in this market.

I just cannot imagine what it's like trying to forecast in Colorado, because we are all ready to build an ark this week, and we did not get a sprinkle in the metro.

So thanks, meteorologist for what you do.

And just continue to hang in there.

Hockey season is back.

Nate McKinnon is an absolute dog.

If you watch the first game getting into a fight in the first game of the season, Avs won 8 to 4 and I think it sets the tone for hopefully what's to come.

Yeah absolutely.

All right.

In Cali ballots are going out on Monday and it's going to be a lot of communications and a lot of advertisement we're all going to be seeing.

But we are in the homestretch.

Okay.

All right.

Homestretch.

We still have a bit to go.

Every week is going to be homestretch, right?

My high is a big happy birthday wish to my wonderful husband, Chris.

And a happy Cabrini Day to everyone in Colorado, which is this coming Monday.

Steady.

State employees have a long weekend, so enjoy.

Thanks to our insiders for joining us this week very much.

And thank you for watching along or listening along to our podcast.

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

PBS's 12 believes in the power of original local programing.

Help us bring more shows like the one you just watched by donating at PBS's 12 Dawgs program Support today.