After a stunning election, we will hear from Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper in a special interview featured on Politics Is Personal.

Then we meet a local artist using his talent to shine a light on the stories and lives of migrant farm workers.

And with fall in full swing, what should you do with all those leaves piling up in your yard?

Jungle Judy from Denver Urban Gardens says, don't throw them away.

Find out why.

And remember the Colorado student we followed through the regional and state civic speed.

Well, he's taking that journey all the way to Washington, D.C., and he's coming home a national champion.

Ninth grader Peter Daniel joins us to talk about his incredible win and what it was like to compete on the national stage.

That story and more coming up next on Colorado Stories on Studio 12.

From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Good evening, and thank you for joining us.

I'm Ryan Harrer, and welcome to Colorado Stories on Studio 12.

Bazi is out tonight.

Surprising election results in the midterms last week sparked wide ranging conversations about what they mean for our communities and the country.

Bobbie Springer shares with us a special interview with Senator John Hickenlooper.

Originally featured on Politics is Personal Films right here at PBS.

12.

On Wednesday, November 4th, PBS 12 Colorado had the opportunity to collaborate with Leslie Herrod and Cole West on a special episode of their podcast.

Politics Is Personal, recorded right here in the PBS 12 studios, Leslie and Cole conducted an extensive interview with U.S.

Senator John Hickenlooper immediately following his reelection in the midterms.

You can watch or listen to the full podcast by searching.

Politics Is Personal on your favorite streaming platforms right now.

Here are some excerpts of that interview with Senator Hickenlooper on his thoughts and reflections on the midterms and what happens next.

Just kind of level set for us in terms of what are your thoughts after this just crazy election night?

Well, a couple things.

I mean, as you guys know, nothing personal.

Yeah, but you get around the game for too long and you become pretty cynical and you get used to having your, your, your hopes dashed and the promising polls turn out to be, you know, an inch deep.

They're like the powder River, mile wide, but an inch deep.

So, I mean, most of us, you know, I've been there long enough that I keep things muted.

And yes, last night was the night I'll remember.

I mean, my age now, I'll say for the rest of my life.

It doesn't mean as much as you used to.

I will remember for forever.

So, I mean, tell me, though, the difference between waking up this morning and waking up the morning after the primary.

What was the difference in your feelings there?

And what were you looking towards?

You know, I took the primary.

I knew I had worked to do to win back.

And it wasn't.

I lost the affection of of the progressive wing.

But they were eager to have somebody younger.

They were.

They were frustrated and angry at the system that, you know, no matter who's in power, our health care system wasn't what it needed to be.

We weren't building housing.

Kids were running up.

You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of college debt.

I mean, the system, you know, that was out.

Jon Ossoff straight line, was it?

Donald Trump came in and he promised he was going to.

He was he said that the system is rigged.

And I promised I'm going to unring it.

But he didn't unring, as you reread it for himself.

Yeah.

And I think that's what a lot of the young, you know, Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated, that's that frustration, that anger.

So I made it a point that, I mean, I won by five points.

It's not that close election, except, you know, when I ran for reelection as the Denver mayor, I got 87% of the vote.

Yeah, I read that, you know, the fact that I came from outside of politics and that I tried to operate like an entrepreneur rather than a politician, had real resonance.

And that, you know, in this town and every town in politics, it doesn't matter what you did ten years ago or 15 years ago, it matters what you did the last three years, the last five years.

And so that was that was a wake up call when you were so close in that primary.

What got you reconnected and then kind of kept you out of just being the angry anti and really showing how we can move Colorado forward?

Sure.

And part of it is just to recognize how out of touch I am with myself.

You move forward in your life and I'm not someone to go back and I don't like.

I try never to use the word I in press releases or when I speak.

This politics is just got too much about the individual and not enough about the collaboration, right?

That the individual trappers and hunters helped settle the West.

But it was, you know, the barn raisings and the collaborative spirit of the Rocky Mountains is really what defines Colorado, I think.

And you lose track of that.

So that's really what I you know, I was and I always have and continue to go roundtables, a lot of health care roundtables all over the state.

And after the primary, that's one place where we focused on trying to share people in rural and eastern plains, you know, in the southern part of the, you know, southern part of the state.

Make sure that we weren't missing that vibration that's coming from the people.

And I think that's, I think we felt that we in the last two weeks or three weeks, we felt much more comfortable that we did events.

People showed up.

I should have been doing that from the, you know, from back in January.

I should have been doing larger group things and trying to get that energy back.

But again, we were trying to worry about health care, worrying about all the things Trump was doing to fight, fighting.

Nice.

You know, what can you really do to deal with something like ice?

One of the interesting statistics that I saw on election coverage yesterday was that the issue that united voters in this particular election, to the tune of 90%, and that is corruption, the perception by regular folks that the game is rigged, that people at the very top are doing extremely well, and the rest of folks are struggling to make ends meet, to try to pay their bills, to try to pay their groceries.

So as a result of that, folks are angry.

They're they're in the mood to sort of throw out the incumbent, party.

But I guess my question for you, Senator, is, as you know, just as quickly as those angry voters help Democrats last night, they could turn on you guys in two years.

So what's the game plan?

Sure.

Make sure that you sort of keep those voters with you.

I think the first thing is to recognize we didn't get a mandate.

I heard that all day long today, the Democrats got a mandate to Blue wave, go back and look at.

Those are all close elections.

That's not a mandate any more than Trump had a mandate.

Right, right.

There's a lot of people that we've got to do a lot of work for, to convince them that our approach of, you know, again, addressing that cost of living crisis that many people are living with for saying, we've got to cut the and the war.

I think that's a Republican, Democratic thing.

I, I don't see any I don't see any wrap an exit ramp from that war.

It doesn't leave us worse off than we were before the war.

In other words, our best case scenario that I can think of that anyone's told me.

I talked to Dan Rather six months ago or five months ago, you know, four months into the war, and asked him what the off ramp was.

He says his face fell.

He said, I don't see an off ramp, and we're going to end up with the JCPoA that the Obama administration negotiated.

We're going to have international inspectors come in and make sure they don't create nuclear, radioactive, radioactive materials that could be used for nuclear weapons.

And now they know they've got power around the Strait of Hormuz will negotiate that away.

But where are we?

We've spent literally in terms of the increased gasoline, increased diesel costs in all the munitions in the military.

If you add that all up, well over $200 billion is what this country has spent.

And we had to borrow it.

Everything we do when we do something like that.

The whole thing's we're basically borrowing from our grandchildren.

So I think we're going to have to do that negotiation.

We're going to as as the Senate.

And thank goodness we have a good, strong majority.

And I think there's a number of Republicans that will support us on this who are unhappy with this war of choice.

I think we can really push the white House to negotiate in good faith.

We're not going to do anything stupid, but recognize that.

Let's figure out what the outcome, what's going to look like, and let's get there.

What can Coloradans expect when it comes to really taking care of the issues that impact their households, that they've been saying, you know, they I went to Trump because he said he was going to lower the prices.

He didn't.

What can the Democrats do to actually make those changes?

I think we've got to follow through on what we said and your guys, both of you made the point about corruption, right?

And Jon Ossoff, you know, you know, a little bit like fifth grade, you go there, but you said, well, if Kurt Vonnegut, once the greatest thing ever, he said, a truly terrifying moment is when you realize the people you went to high school with are running the country.

Yeah.

And it's true.

But anyway, in fifth grade, you go sit in homeroom.

They send your son to a seat, and that has a lot to do if you who you sit next to has a lot to do with whether you have a really good year.

I got seated between Jon Ossoff and Mike Kelly.

So those are my two, two of my best friends in the Senate.

And Ossoff s ability to recognize corruption as an issue.

And he did that by talking to his constituents.

And he was three years ahead of anybody and doing investigations and videos on it.

I think that's got to be the that in the war are going to be the prongs where we can make real headway in terms of major budgetary changes, funding things for the last 10 or 12 years.

We haven't seen very much bipartisanship.

Yeah, right.

In other words, it's a it's a reconciliation project, which means you can't do a reconciliation when you don't have the presidency.

So we've got we don't have that.

We're going to stumble our way through some of these budget unless we get bipartisanship.

And that's going to be it's going to be a we've lost that muscle.

It's atrophied.

Democrats don't want to work with Republicans.

Republicans don't want to work with Democrats.

But if we want to address, the health care, we're going to have to and we have to listen really hard to what the other side's saying and open our minds to changing things.

Some of the things we're not going to like, but get something that both sides can live with.

So we're not always just trying to tear down what the last guy did.

No one, said as carefully.

No one is perfect.

And certainly I've been deeply disappointed with the lack of of willingness for 95% of Republicans to stand up to the president and those that did.

I mean, I'm a good friend of Bill Cassidy's, and they set him loose that John Cornyn.

You know, he's a friend.

There are a lot of Republicans that I trust and respect who didn't stand up to Trump.

I think now that Trump has been taken down a notch, I think we have a much higher probability.

These Republicans will see most of them believe we've got to fix our health care system.

We need to get more and more coverage and get to universal coverage, and maybe to a single payer at some point.

I think there are a lot of Republicans who see that, you know, cleaner air.

Right.

Right.

A lot of people fight over climate change.

And how much is mankind cost?

And that's what we all need cleaner air.

And we need cheap energy.

Sometimes Democrats are, you know, forget that.

Well, a lot of working people have a hard time commuting all the way to work and back and forth.

And, you know, they don't need another 50 bucks or 100 bucks at the end of the month for them to balance their bills.

I think we've got to recognize things as the same as Republicans have to recognize things like the the opportunity to collaborate is right there.

How can we make our two party system work better for the American people?

Part of it is recognizing, that we share the belief that this is a democracy and the government is us.

Right.

And the we have to take responsibility for a good, functioning government.

When I ran for mayor, that was a big part of what was pushing me.

And I made the pledge that we'd have a smaller government would do more for its citizens.

We use technology at the end of my eight years.

I carry the clipping around I used to carry around anymore.

I carry around for years.

But there are 7% fewer employees.

When I left and when I got there.

And yet we were doing a double preschool program.

We had, Denver Scholarship Foundation.

We had all the independent monitors, civilian oversight.

We had all these things that we were doing better, but we found ways to pay for them, and we didn't expand the size of government.

Nobody likes red tape and bureaucracy.

And yet it's the natural consequence of large enterprises, large, you know, large organizations.

And I think we have got to seize this moment, Republicans and Democrats and say, I, we all want smaller government, but we want it to do more and we want it to work.

So what advice do you have for our new governor?

I think he has the potential to be a truly great governor.

I'm a great believer that a great transitions make great governors, make great mayors.

The key is somehow you want that.

You want to do everything you can to make people proud of you.

And I think that that the governor elect, the governor now, I guess he's like, he's not sworn in, but the governor to be.

Yeah, I think so.

Wiser has that ability to hear and surround himself with people.

The difference between me and wiser is wiser is an order of magnitude smarter than I am.

And I mean not just in the intellectual.

Have a million different facts in your mind, Chip?

Like, you know, sort them all out.

He's one of the smartest people I know.

He he may not have quite the same social instincts that I. That I have, but he's got really good ones.

And what he does, what he has, I mean, I, I make great success out of surrounding myself with people smarter than that I am.

He doesn't know that many people there.

They're not that many people together smarter than he is, but he is so humble and he has a genuine humility.

And I mean, he's asked me several times, here's my cell phone.

If you haven't voice call, leave me a message.

Call me.

I want to talk to you.

I mean, I've had 3 or 4 conversations, and he's curious.

He's inquiring.

He reminds me of what?

A traditional entrepreneur.

That's one of the things that you see in scientists and entrepreneurs is that kind of relentless curiosity.

So I think if the public gives him a chance and supports that transition, I think you can have a great transition and become a really great, a really great governor.

I'm curious about, about the graduated income tax measure.

The business community is really nervous about that passing.

And also just the state of business in Colorado.

What would you say to the business community now as they wake up to these election returns?

And what type of Colorado is it for all of us?

Sure.

Well, I think that's a communal responsibility, right?

When I when I came in as mayor, we were upside down.

When I ran for governor in 2010, we were 40th in job creation, which is a good barometer.

My last three years, we did a bottom up economic development plan and got every county to make a business plan of what they wanted in the next 25 years.

How could the state help them?

You know, cut red tape.

Their access to capital was pretty, pretty run of the mill basic stuff.

But we had all 64 counties on board.

And my last three years, you know, 2016, 17 and 18, we were the number one economy in America three years in a row.

No other states have done that.

It matters.

People have to believe getting everyone unified, that this was important was crucial.

And I've had this discussion with Phil Wiser and he gets it.

And that's why I'm a big part of why I think he came out against the 87.

It's probably not the perfect time to do a tax increase.

Not on the individual so much.

But on the corporations.

There's a whole bunch of hotshot startups.

They're looking to come to Colorado, and if they are going to pay, if the business is going to pay 8% more on the money that they're having to reinvest, and their investors are going to say, well, we can put it in Denver or we'll put it in Austin where we don't pay that 8%.

That's a hard thing for an investor to walk away from.

And we have I could give you eight.

Really.

These are companies.

It could easily become billion dollar a year.

Companies that easily will have $20 million or even $25 million of profits, but they're going to go somewhere else if it passes.

And again, it's not the end of the world will rebuild.

But I believe that we have to have a strong economy.

You know, Roy Romer, that one of the very few political things I ever went to, there was some sort of an event at the wine club.

Gosh, this was like in the early 90s.

And we had just brought back banquet room, so probably about 93 or 94.

And Roy Romer came, and the first thing he said was quality of life starts with a good job.

That's fair and that's nothing.

You can't say it any clearer.

Yeah.

And we have to have a strong economy, especially as we come in to the issues around AI, and the complexities that's going to create.

So we've got to get unified.

And Phil Weiser understands that.

Mike Johnson and City of Denver knows that, I think all the suburban, municipal mayors know that.

Again, the key here is we've got a we've got to get unified and then make sure we have a, a direction that reaching license.

The importance of small businesses, startups.

These are the guys that allow us to get to universal, childcare as just one example of the things that we want to know.

I, you know, I, I pass a lot of increases when I was mayor.

We passed 13 consecutive increases in either sales tax or property tax.

And every one of them was a vote.

And every one I spent at least 18 months or 24 months with 8000 people when we did the Denver preschool program.

Pete, course not one of your more conservative conservatives.

Yes, he was in one of our study groups and he co-chaired the the team to to pass that sales tax because he saw the economic benefit to businesses and all.

But we'd taken the time and we got educated.

You know, I think the state's got to get away from this.

Here's, here's this group and here's that group.

And we're going to go at it with each other.

That's not the that's not the way great states behave.

I appreciate that you, recognize me as an optimistic or someone who seeks optimism and collaboration, and and I, you know, I, I know many of the top medical researchers.

I think I know many of the top economists.

And we've got problems in this country.

I'm not diminishing that any way.

But I have now clear this a number of people that I can freely say to a young person, if you have a child tomorrow in this country, that child will have the highest probability of a happy and healthy life of any child born in the history of mankind, right?

I mean, this is a terrible opportunity to throw away.

Sure, we got to fix things.

That's the whole point of life.

You know, roll up your sleeves.

Let's get to work on this.

again, you can see the full podcast with Senator Hickenlooper by Searching Politics Is Personal on some of your favorite streaming platforms, seen here.

tonight in our heart of the West story.

A local painter is shining a light on the people who help feed our communities.

And whose stories don't always get told.

Christopher Hoppy was recently featured as the painter of the month at the RTL Foundation for his portraits of migrant farm workers, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

He says his goal is to recognize their hard work, honor their stories, and give a voice to a community that deserves to be seen and heard.

You start with drawings first, right?

And then you build it out like I'll do, like a 12 by 12 or like a nine by 12, you know, smaller canvas.

Mainly it was, PBS's Bob Ross.

It just looked like I'm like, I want to do what he did.

And he just did it in 30 minutes.

I want to do that.

And here I am, five years old.

Right?

You know, and my mom was cleaning the house for tending the household.

She was doing housework.

And she left me alone for two hours, and I redecorated the walls, basically with, you know, the stuff that's not washable.

You know, I love landscapes, trees.

And I was always fascinated by the way they just randomly grow.

Now, I like to like showing about the, migrant farm workers because they're less fortunate.

And from what I have observed, and in my own opinion, I feel that there have been marginalized, silenced, and in some ways also picked on.

I just particularly, wanting to make beautiful paintings with bold colors and show, hey, these people are people.

My art is right there.

It's in here.

Migrant farm workers.

They feed us.

In June, RTL Foundation invited me to do, be the featured solo artist for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Foundation is an organization whose the mission is to provide and support educational opportunities in areas of entrepreneurship, history and technology.

Looking to create, connections between multiple communities.

And one of the ways we do that is with art they love, to my interest of doing migrant farm workers.

They feed us Halloween regulations.

I just want them to have a stage, a center stage, a spotlight.

I just want to honor it.

I just wanted to show that that they are represented.

But it could be anybody.

It could be any any relative, any decade.

Because the landscape really never changes.

And the people are always the same particular cultures from Central and South America for generations.

But my favorite one right there is that the first one.

Yeah.

That one I love I adore that piece.

So the educated Chicana, she grew up picking strawberries, but she's as strong as this mountain because she has graduated from college.

And I wanted to capture the education, the strong pillar and feature of a Latina changing her own destiny.

So this last one, yes, we think is slightly out of place, but my interpretation is that a second generation making.

Yes, yes correct is what it.

Oh, you bought it.

I mean, it should have been spotted for our office.

Yeah.

That's spectacular I think a place, but I get it immediately.

Yes, yes, yes, we definitely get it.

And we didn't get it because like any of William.

Thank you.

I am very, honored and humbled.

I'm not a very.

And David, we went to high school together.

Sorry.

So yeah.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to give you the true story and the news of why I created my wife, my partner Olivia.

She has her PhD in political science from UCLA.

She inspired me to do that because she's Mexican-American and she's originally from the border, El Paso, Texas.

Her family worked those orchards.

I am humbled, I am very honored to be even asked to show my work.

And I just want to show power in these pieces and to to represent the folks that are silenced.

Christopher says he hopes his work will encourage others to see migrant farm workers for who they are and the dreams behind every face he paints.

For more information on Christopher, you can go to happy Art.

Com.

The leaves are falling and your yard is turning into a sea of gold.

But before you think about getting rid of them, what if we told you those fallen leaves could be one of the best and completely free resources for your garden?

Erica McLarty headed to Denver Urban Gardens to hang out with Jungle Judy.

She discovers why those leaves are worth keeping, how they can help your garden thrive, and got a reminder about having a little fun in the process?

Let's check it out.

It's fall, y'all.

And we are here at the wonderful Spring garden with Jungle Judy talking about leaves today I usually had my kids rake them all up, hold them in a bag and put them out for the trash.

That is until I met with Jungle Judy, who told me, leave the leaves, am I right?

You are right.

Instead of giving you 20 or 30 reasons why you should leave leaves.

How about they are a free resource.

You need to spend nothing to cover free so they are free.

The gift that keeps on giving.

Number two in your pocket.

Money leaves.

Save you money because they conserve water.

Another thing we're going to do is that leaves produce a healthier soil.

Yes, healthier soil for healthier plants, for healthy people.

How about that?

I love it.

Let's do it.

Let's get for it.

Let's get more.

Let's get back to it.

What we've got here is nature's provision for healthy soil.

We have trees that are going through their natural leaf drop.

And instead of backing them up in plastic and sending them to a landfill, we're going to let them fall down.

Some of them have naturally fallen down on this floor.

We've mixed some straw together.

And this is called mulch.

Mulch.

Got it.

Now what is mulch?

Just leaves and straw or.

What's going on?

Mulch is a blanket for the soil.

Okay.

Like when we go out in the sun.

I would not go out without putting sunscreen on.

Mulch protects the soil like a sunscreen.

In addition to it being a blanket, are there any special things else to consider about mulch?

Oh, yes.

Okay.

And you get so excited that, hey, it's all these microorganisms in the soil provide food for the soil and it provides an environment.

Let's take a look and go underneath here.

Erica, look how soft the soil.

Well, I feel it.

You know me.

Soft soil underneath mulch.

Because it provides air channels where those roots can go down deep.

There's so many rolling pools.

There's so many things that are alive in air.

And they're.

They survived the hot summer.

Okay.

What if, though you don't have a tree and you don't have leaves in your yard or in your garden?

What do you do then?

One of the things that I like to do is become a leaf.

Scrounge leaf on this ground.

I talk to all my neighbors who might not have gardens, and I collect bags of leaves.

I love that.

So I didn't think my neighbors would complain.

You're keeping a total husk.

You're keeping them out of the landfill, and you're using them to create healthier soil.

Let's take a look at some soil that is not mulched.

Feel that soil here and tell me how it feels.

It feels hard.

It feels hard.

Yeah.

Is that like a rock?

Yeah.

It almost feels like a rock to me.

Okay.

Okay.

Now, what that tells me is this soil has been exposed to strong winds.

Probably it has eroded.

It has very little in the way of routine care.

And it's baking and the roots on these plants.

You can see most of the things that are growing weeds.

There are opportunists that have taken over that.

They will grow in any type of soil.

But this type of soil that's been exposed to heat and erosion, where the roots can't go dead because, oh my goodness.

It's like a rock.

I would not want to live here.

And we're going to show you another example of soil.

The real difference between unhealthy soil that's probably never been mulch.

So this was a plot of ground that at one year was gardened by a person who grew peppers.

And the feeling was, well, let's put down some black plastic so weeds won't emerge.

And let's see what happens.

So we just went ahead this morning and pull back the plaster.

Let's come take a look.

Okay.

My goodness, it looks dead.

Eric, look at that.

Not only is it so good that the roots don't penetrate, but there's no air in the soil is dead.

You're not going to find a worm or anything in there.

Two things.

It's unmatched.

It has black plastic, which then, when it decomposes, produces microplastics in the soil, which are not healthy.

So this part over here, we did not have leaves, but we did cover it.

Mulch it with straw and maybe some chopped up crop residue.

And in pulling this back, you can see some healthy little plants already doing them.

They would not have grown without the protective covering of this mulch.

Now what it's going to it's it's hard to say at this stage.

Duty doesn't have an answer.

I don't have an answer because I don't know what was planted here.

Okay, so how do I prepare my soil?

What do I do with the leaves?

So you obviously have seen the leaves on top of the soil, but I think for many of us living in Denver, we have a really heavy clay soil.

It's hard for water to get down, and it's lacking in organic material, leaves or source of organic material.

So what I do is twofold.

I not only put leaves on top of the soil, but I'll take a lawnmower or jump on the leaves for kids to break them up with small pieces, and then take about a two inch layer of those chopped up leaves.

Dig them into the soil.

Okay.

And, then on top of the soil, I put extra leaves.

It's free.

It's easily available.

I paid zero for that soil euro dollars.

So I heard leaves can be used to make compost.

How is this true?

Absolutely.

So, Eric, I'm going to put you to work.

I love getting the door.

Okay, so here we've got a sample of material that I pulled out of our second bin.

So we've got some marigolds.

We've got a corn stock, some old grass.

In order to start preparing this, to mix in with the leaves.

We need to start breaking them down a little bit.

Oh, okay.

Leave it.

Break it down.

Okay.

I'm going to have you use strength.

And I've got this.

I have tap, tap tap tap tap tap tap tap is preparing material for compost.

And get all of your aggression out.

I've been working out so that you can cancel your gym membership.

I was just doing that.

I'm going to be adding the leaves.

Okay.

It's structure.

We're going to make a mini compost pile right here.

Let's get this stem chop.

But not my foot.

Okay.

Okay, I'm moving my foot real quickly.

Eric is at work.

Don't chop your foot.

Gotta chop my foot a little more.

Got one last step here.

What more do?

Okay.

I'm going to have you use our compost.

Okay.

And mix all these materials.

So when you mix them, you can go down and just go like that.

Got it.

Got it.

Okay.

Looks like the leaves.

Oh, look at this.

I'm really getting into it.

I love this, we love the stance on it.

Okay, good.

We're good to go.

And it's magic.

You know, good magic.

This is this.

You believe that?

No.

Let's see.

I think you're full of it.

Leaves garden material.

Dig it into your soil.

Don't throw it away in the landfills.

Kind of.

Over time, it's kind of overturning it.

Making air in the soil.

Air in the midst of it.

Wonderful.

How does your body feel?

I to work it.

I'm ready for more.

You ready for blow?

This is addictive, isn't it?

And then you can take this material.

Put it on top of that.

Okay.

But we're not going to leave it on top.

No, we are not.

We're going to mix it.

Ooh.

What are you going to do with that compost for.

I thought this was the manure for it.

Yeah.

I'm going to a fork or a compost fork.

It's more fun when it's in my heart.

Well, it's used to clean out stables.

That's what it is.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, I have a new composter.

Intern, I will work for you any time.

Look at this.

This is just wonderful.

And we're not done yet, because there's even more ways to use your leaves.

Right.

So what I've done is I dug through the old bags of leaves that I had been guarding so carefully.

They even look old.

They are old.

And look, you can see the decomposition occurring.

Yep.

So when you see decomposition occurring, it's got all kinds of healthy microorganisms that are going to add.

So what I did is I used a bunch of these decomposing leaves okay.

An old black and white newspaper that I had and I tore them up.

Okay.

And I put them in my worm box.

Do you know, I did that when I learned how to make a worm in here?

It dug.

I've done this.

I'm a pro.

I know you are a person.

I just took out a few shovel fulls, and this is two weeks old using these leaves and newspaper.

Okay, we're going to try and find some some worms.

I don't know, I didn't put very well.

They might have escaped while we were talking.

Where are these?

Where are you?

Okay.

Oh.

Got one.

Look at this.

These are red, wiggly worms.

And they are just.

I fed them so much non-meat food scraps.

Here we go.

Look.

They look very happy.

Very.

Oh, look.

Here's another one.

Look at this.

It's a fabulous way of getting kids into the whole cycle of the seasons.

You can you can help you crush up the eggshells, which help the worms look.

It's like getting them a pet.

You just get the pet.

It is a pet.

One another use for leaves that can extend their season and really, really help you with healthy soil.

Is there any smell?

Quite good.

Remember this had lots of milk in it.

Judy.

It's lovely.

Oh, it smells like nutrient rich soil.

That's what it produces.

Nutrient rich soil.

I think that it's time to think about some fun things that maybe a little fun thing I did and you did when you were a kid.

I think I know where we were going with this jump in leaves.

You did?

Yes.

Didn't everybody?

We've got some here.

Ooh, yeah.

I think we can dump it out and do that.

Yes, but I think we're going to need more.

I'm going to go get more and I'll be back, and then we'll jump.

I think that's a good idea.

Oh, no.

This is.

Oh.

Having fun?

Yeah.

And.

I've had so much fun today.

Thank you.

And what is this program you guys have?

So, thanks to our partners at, Department of Transportation and Infrastructure for people who have an overflowing abundance of leaves.

Ooh, lucky.

And do not have a way to use it for Denver residents only.

There is a leaf drop program where they can bring bag, paper bags and your old pumpkin and pumpkins also.

And remember that your leaves are a through line to a healthier garden for next year.

Yes, and a way of keeping and direct connection with your soil.

I love this.

Thank you.

It's just us here hiding in a bush.

I forgot what my question was.

two huge maple leaves in my yard.

I have been at work for a couple of weeks now, and I have more bags than I know what to do with.

Thanks to Jungle Judy.

Now I do.

For more information on Denver Urban Gardens, you can go to dog.org.

Well, Colorado, here we are.

An election that has reshaped the political landscape of our state, brought Democratic supermajorities to the state capital, and shifted the map in Congress.

The insider's look at what happened, what it means, and most importantly, what comes next here on Colorado inside out.

Take a listen.

Colorado's political landscape is changing, and perhaps the most striking results from this election came in the fifth Congressional District.

Democrat Jessica Killen defeated Republican incumbent Jeff Crain, making history as the first Democrat ever selected to represent the Colorado Springs district.

Democrat Mattie Root now defeated Republican incumbent Gabe Evans in the eighth Congressional District on election night.

And in the heavily Republican fourth district, Democrat Eileen Law Backer mounted a serious challenge to incumbent Lauren Boebert.

Boebert campaign says it's investigating what it calls very unusual voting patterns, but hasn't explained what those are, and the campaign expects a recount.

Meanwhile, in the third district, Republican incumbent Jeff Hurd moved ahead of Democrat Dwayne Romero after trailing early in the count in another closely contested race here in Colorado.

So now what are we learning about Colorado voters, especially in the areas of the state that have traditionally leaned Republican?

Patti, I will start with you this week again.

Well, we are first celebrating the 250th anniversary of this country with a big birthday present for the blue voters here.

Victor marks did no one any favors.

You wonder if Barb Kirk Meyer had been the Republican candidate.

I think she would have helped.

She might have helped some people pull it out because Republicans would have had more pride in the top candidates here.

Killing was a surprise because even though that district is not that old, it's still the first Democrat to be elected.

There is incredible.

And Lauren Boebert, what we have to remember is it's not unusual activity.

It's an unusual candidate.

Boebert could lose this all by herself.

People just didn't want her representing that district.

And they're out there with Scott Kessler.

Bless his heart, with former Secretary of State who should be ashamed of himself for doing this.

But they are out looking literally a need for a needle in a haystack.

There are 3000 below as of this morning.

They're desperate to win, but I don't think they're going to pull it out.

Colorado really was just a microcosm of the country on Tuesday night.

There's a saying from years and years ago, former Speaker tip O'Neill made it famous that all politics is local.

I think that's been turned on its head these days.

All politics is national in Colorado.

Yes.

I mean, we can stop talking about different gradations of blue.

I think I've sort of been famous for saying, are we cobalt blue or sapphire blue or periwinkle blue or this or that?

No, we're just solid navy blue.

Whereas blue is any state on either coast is these days.

Well, I think the real story in Colorado Springs, and that's where I grew up a long time ago, is the that is one of the fastest growing, fastest changing in terms of the political complexion of that time, fastest changing locales in the country.

I mean, with now, with a Nigerian immigrant as mayor, with a Democrat, as the US Congress person.

And to Patty's point, no, it's not an ancient district, but that district is now in its sixth decade.

And, Killen will be the first Democrat to hold that office.

It's noteworthy.

Jeff Hurd will probably be the only senior Republican elected official in the state of Colorado when the dust settles.

Amber.

Well, I think first, as Colorado tends to do, demonstrated significant independence, voters have high expectations not only in this state but in the country.

And they are concerned about high costs, the high cost of living, keeping their families safe.

And you can see that on the ballot in lots of different issues, lots of candidates that that won or didn't win.

I think the, the other thing I'll just say is, you know, most of the seats in Colorado are safe in terms of the legislature, like most of the election, is actually in the primary.

So we still need to think about how we make that primary, more accessible to more people.

Because at the end of the day, that's where the election is decided in a lot of these races.

And then the final thing is the county clerk says, always do an extraordinary job with, with, with how they run elections here, the safety and security of our elections, how they communicate.

Whether you look at Carly Copper's and Weld or Molly and Boulder, Tiffany and La Plata, they are all out communicating, inviting people into their offices.

And this happened across the state.

It is unfortunate to see the former secretary of state, former governor candidate Scott Gessler, making those kind of comments when the clerks are performing well, as they always do.

Christy, as the former head of the GOP in Colorado, what do you think Republican leaders need to be learning?

Yeah, I think that's a great question.

And I think, to Eric's point, that all politics has become national.

I also think it's worth it to look at history and see this often happens to many presidents midterm elections.

But in Colorado, I do think you see a path for, sometimes issues that affect kids public safety, government transparency.

Those remain issues even in a major blue tsunami year where you see voters went conservative when they saw ballot measures they thought helped kids.

They voted for them when they saw ballot measures that they thought, put public safety in place.

Again, in a way, the legislature took it away in Colorado.

They voted for it.

So I think those are some lessons Republicans can take away.

Voters are still with us there.

But then you look across the nation and in Colorado, and you see that voters who are swing voters, they want to see Republicans who live up to their values for the family values Party, we should be running family values candidates if we say we live by certain principles.

Are every single one of our candidates should be people of character?

I mean, Jeff Krank absolutely is.

So just because you are, it doesn't mean you're always going to win.

But what I do think this will provide is an opportunity over the next two years for Colorado and the country to see if they actually like a democratic socialism, because a lot of those candidates, the very extreme candidates on the Democrat side, won.

What will people actually think of that?

Yeah.

I'm curious.

A lot of people are asking, why is it taking so long some of these special congressional races, but some of the measures to what is happening when you see 95% is counted for like two days, what is going on behind the scenes?

Yeah, I mean, they're finishing basically the kind of tail of the election I call it.

So if a voter didn't sign their ballot or if their signature didn't match, or if they need to provide extra ID, all those cures happened through next week, and there's a deadline next week for that to happen.

And then the ballot itself was extremely long.

So and then voters drop off really late in Colorado.

We saw a big uptick Monday and Tuesday as usual.

And so there's a lot left to process.

That was just one of the many angles that we discussed, not only about what happened on Election Day, but also what is now ahead of us.

If you started watching Colorado Inside Out this election season to help you make your informed decisions, great, and we hope you'll keep making us a part of your weekly routine right here on PBS, 12 hour YouTube channel, or Apple or Spotify.

The podcast there, a fresh show debuts every Friday with a new round of topics and a new round of Insider's.

So we'll see you next time.

remember the Colorado student we introduced you to earlier this year after he advanced through the regional and state civics competitions?

Well, ninth grader Peter Daniel did not stop there.

He went on to represent Colorado on the national stage in Washington, D.C., and came home a national champion.

Ashley Michaels caught up with him again as Peter came to visit us here at PBS 12 to hear what the experience was like and how it's changed his future plans.

All right, Peter.

It's been quite a summer since we first met you back in April.

How are you?

I've been doing great.

It's truly an amazing experience, and I'm happy to have had it.

Okay, so let's get into it.

We first saw you at the Arvada Civic SSB competition.

Then you made it on this date.

Then you made it onto nationals.

I want to ask you, before we get to the good stuff, what was the preparation like for nationals and how did that compare to the two competitions before it?

Yeah, so nationals was a lot different actually, because at regionals it was about kind of obtaining the knowledge, you know, learning it, looking at it, seeing what it was going to be like and what the whole competition was about.

And once I had that initial experience, I started preparing for state.

And that was more about, finding the nuances, finding the things that I hadn't had time for in my preparations for regionals, because it was over the summer, between regionals and state.

And at that point, I was able to really start to fine tune my studying.

But by the time I finished state and I knew I was going on to nationals, it was all about just picking the little tiny details.

And so it was a lot more nuanced, but it was a lot of fun because then I could speak my mind to my parents, to my friends, about any one topic, and they could select it for me, and I would be able to go on for a significantly long amount of time.

And so that was kind of my studying was kind of secure in the knowledge and keeping it heightened as opposed to gaining more.

So it was just those nuances, a little details that, maybe you overlook at the beginning.

Tell me a little bit about the competition in D.C.

itself.

It's a little bit different than the other two competitions, because not only is it bigger in general, but there's more kids there.

Yeah.

What was that like?

That was a lot of fun.

I think it was definitely it was over multiple days.

So the actual televised portion was only for an hour and a half to two hours ish.

But it was over those many different days.

And so because of that, we really got to know each other.

And that was something I'd never gotten to do with any of the other civics BS.

These people weren't just my competitors, they were my friends.

And I'm very grateful to have been able to receive there advice and their knowledge, just as they were able to receive mine.

It was a lot of fun, and sharing ideas together was just a truly rewarding experience.

Now, spoiler alert if you didn't already know you won the competition, and we'll talk about that in a second.

But I want to hear a little bit more about how the competition itself went, how each portion went, and what was going through your mind.

Were you nervous?

Yeah.

So at the beginning of the competition, it was kind of just a, an onslaught of emotions, you know?

It was that first day when we checked into the hotel, and, I mean, we had a hotel that was super close to the white House, super close to the competition building, and it was truly amazing.

I love Washington, D.C.. I love everything about it.

And so to be able to go to a place that I love and do something that I love, it was truly amazing.

And then we moved on to the televised rounds, and those were also very rewarding.

The multiple choice round was fun and kind of just as we went through that, I just I felt prepared and I felt very, very happy to be in that situation.

What was the most challenging part or challenging question that you weren't prepared for?

I think the most challenging part was definitely round three, the Gantlet and round five, the final round, because they both required endurance and you had to apply your knowledge in a way that you hadn't before.

So for the Gantlet round, we had multiple different questions that we had to remember what had been said.

So there was multiple answers to the same question.

So if somebody says something and you accidentally repeat the answer, then you get a strike.

And the problem with that is it made you have to have a second layer of thinking.

So it was extra challenging, but it was a lot of fun.

The fifth round, the final challenge was also very difficult because you had to, endure a question after question and make sure you were able to switch your mindset, to fit each question instead of building off the same one like in the gantlet round.

So overall, I mean, it was very challenging, but it was, I think I enjoyed all of the parts very much.

Did you know you were going to win?

It was something I knew that was a strong possibility.

I had prepared very, very much, but I knew that it was also, I was going against people who were in the same position as me.

They had done so much, just like I had.

And to be able to compete against them was, again, truly rewarding.

But to kind of go into that answer, I would say once I got to the final five, I was like, really, I can do this.

This is something that I can do.

I had prepared and at that point it wasn't even about trying to win, it was about trying to showcase my knowledge on the national stage as I wanted to do for so long.

So many months that I've been looking up to that.

And so at that point, I knew that winning could be the result, but that wasn't my focus.

Yeah, I want to know, though, what went through your mind when they called your name as first place?

Yeah.

So I mean, when I say winning wasn't my focus, obviously that was the goal.

But when they called it, it really I couldn't feel anything.

There was no one emotion.

They were all positive.

They really were.

Because this is the culmination of a lot of effort.

And to see that perseverance work and come to fruition, it was really, really, just beneficial.

It was just something that I was very ecstatic to see.

But when they called my name, I couldn't believe it.

I knew I'd won and I knew that was something that could have happened.

But at the beginning, I just I couldn't imagine me out of the 52 people, out of the people in Colorado, out of the people in regionals.

And still, even then, all these excellent minds that I'm working alongside, it was truly rewarding.

It was just amazing.

Now you get a pretty special prize as the winner.

What are your plans for that scholarship money?

Yeah, so for the $100,000, I'm planning on utilizing it to go towards, college.

So a collegiate education.

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going yet, but, it's a great education fund as it can be used for tuition as well as textbooks.

And I believe even room and board.

So things that are, all go towards that education.

And I think it's going to be very helpful.

I'm very excited about it.

Do you know what you might want to study?

Yeah.

So I want to study law.

I want to go into a field of law.

Just like the civics be really ignited that passion in me.

And that's something that I'm very grateful for, for this whole program.

Everything that is done for me.

Yeah.

So I want to go into law, and then, I would love to be any kind of attorney and who knows, maybe even a judge or a Supreme Court justice.

Someday.

I want to hear more about your future in a second.

But while we're still on it.

Yeah.

How did you celebrate your big win in DC?

What did you do afterwards?

Yeah, so I had spent most of the time in DC in the room mentally preparing myself.

The hotel was great.

It had all our accommodations.

We, accommodations.

We needed.

But at the end of the day, I was there, competing.

And I really needed to just kind of mentally prepare.

And so a lot of the people were going around looking at all the monuments, but we actually had a day after on the end of the trip, so that no matter what happened, we get to go and look at things.

But the fact that I had one just made it ten times more rewarding.

So the day after I won, we walked around with a media crew and we got to actually go into the Senate building.

And we went into the senator's office, and that was a great, celebration.

He wasn't in he was in Colorado at the time.

But it was just truly it was it was just an amazing experience.

And going around D.C.

and seeing all these things that I knew.

We went to the archives.

That was one thing that I said, if I win, I want to go to the archives.

I want to see the Constitution.

I want to see, what I've been studying, and I want to see it for real.

And it was it was amazing.

Where do you get this passion for civics?

I got it from this program.

That's what I love about this so much is that, it ignited in me.

I did not know that I was so passionate about government.

This is something that I've been wanting to kind of look into for a while, and I was trying to find what I wanted to do.

I always thought I was wanted to go in medicine, actually.

But then the more I like, dealt dived into this program, just kind of understood who I was going to be in this, in this challenge, this great feat that was ahead of me.

I realized I love civics and that's that's why I'm here today.

Aside from picking up that sparkly new scholarship money and aside from a new hobby, what are some of the biggest lessons that you've learned from participating in this whole process?

Yeah, so one of the biggest lessons I've learned is that anybody boy or girl, man, however old you are, any walk of life is able to influence their community.

And I think that's just so awesome.

It just embodies who we are as people and who we're supposed to be under, underneath, United States of America.

And it really this program really reinforced the idea that we're by and for the people.

Our country's, meant to be led under self-government and when we really try to make that a reality, it can.

And that's what I love so much about this, this whole experience.

Now, for people who may not have followed your journey from the beginning, can you remind us a little bit about your topic that you chose that got you from here all the way to there?

So the scouts actually first got me into the civics bee, and through the Scouts I did a lot of volunteering at my local food banks and my food pantries.

And so when I was faced with choosing an essay topic, the most obvious answer to me was food insecurity.

It was something I've been passionate about, and really, I wanted to make sure that I could raise awareness about it, enhance involvement, and kind of just proceed to be a better person in my community by lessening the hunger.

Have you been able to do any work on making your ideas a reality in your community?

Yeah, so I had an amazing opportunity.

I actually, toured the food Bank of the Rockies, which is the local, the Colorado Food Bank here, and it actually has the largest continuous service area in the continental United States.

So it was a really big, industry.

And it's just such a cool thing to see.

And I was able to talk to them about, you know, what can we do, even from a governmental level, how can we influence policy?

There's so many ways that anybody in our community can make change.

And this is the way I wanted to do it.

What else do you want to say?

That I didn't ask you yet if there was one thing that I could say to somebody who was wondering whether or not they were going to participate, I would say that they definitely should participate in this program.

It's life changing.

It truly is.

My life will be forever different because of this, because it not only ignited a passion in me for something that I want to do, but it is really showed me who I am as a person.

And when you can have a program that guides who you are by your own self driven dedication, that's something that's truly an amazing experience that nobody should miss out on.

So obviously your parents have been with you from the beginning.

What is it been like to have their support and how have they helped you get to where you are now?

Yeah, so my parents were instrumental in this whole process.

I love them so much.

There's nothing that I could have done in this process without them.

They just supported me throughout the whole the whole thing.

I they helped me quiz like quiz me when I was down.

They reassured me when I was unsure about myself.

And this is such a nerve racking process.

I mean, from the beginning, it's multi-layered, there's multiple competitions and you have to get through each barrier to move on to the next.

And so to have that support behind me was just something I'll never, never forget.

And it was very, very rewarding making Colorado and your parents proud.

Where did you learn to speak in public like this?

Yeah.

So I actually kind of accumulated this talent.

It was something that I first gained through my student council experience in my school.

I've talked at pep assemblies in front of the student body, and that really allowed me to understand that when you're out there on that stage, that's kind of my happy place.

That's where I understand that I'm not going to be judged for anything that I do wrong, and that helps me to do things right, you know, to really share my experience, to share my feelings.

And when you can convey emotion as a public speaker, then you're able to convey words better.

When people know how you feel, they're going to connect with you more.

And that relation is what's going to allow you to come across as a more confident public speaker.

And so that's something that I've kind of developed through these interviews, through my experience, through the civic spirit.

Because it also helps you develop those life skills.

I mean, it's not I sure I can name a plenty of presidents, plenty of, Supreme Court justices, but at the end of the day, it also helps me be a better person, be a better speaker.

You know, at the beginning of this, I always love public speaking.

Presentations in front of the class were always fun for me, but now I want to do more of them.

Now it's not.

Oh, okay.

That'll be okay.

It's that'll be great.

You know, I want to have those opportunities and that's something I'm very grateful for.

Amazing.

It's such a great life skill.

No matter what you go into.

Perfect.

that's it for this edition of Colorado Stories on Studio 12.

Thank you so much for spending part of your evening with us.

Will be back next week, and we look forward to bringing you more stories and conversations from across Colorado.

Until then, I'm Ryan Hare.

Thanks for joining us.

We'll see you next week.