Did everybody get their light reading delivered in the mail?

The state ballot information booked is lengthy.

We have our homework to do.

Colorado.

And maybe taking a little time to understand what's on the ballot and what's at stake is a great place to start.

We've got some contacts for all that happened this week in Colorado, with a new insider joining the discussion.

So let's 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 at westward.

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

Carlos Martinez, president and CEO, Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

And Priscilla Ron, educator, author, and former vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Colorado's military overseas ballots went out last week, and this time next week, all of our ballots will either be in the mail to us or starting to arrive at our homes.

And there are now both armed and unarmed security guards helping provide security at postal facilities in Colorado.

USPS says this is a part of a multiyear security improvement plan, not in response to any kind of immediate threat.

And there is some last minute action, as one might expect in a highly charged midterm election, a lawsuit is trying to keep the proposed graduated income tax measure off the ballot.

It's something that you can read all about on page 33 of this very long information booklet that we all got in the mail this week.

Patti, where would you like to begin when we're talking about elections?

Well, first.

I'd like to begin with how nice it is that we as journalists were actually able to walk into PBS 12.

Unlike, say, many journalists at the white House.

One of the things that happened this week is you might have noticed the Colorado Supreme Court turned down Tina Peters request that her sentence be vacated.

She's already been committed by Jared Polis, so she got out in two years instead of nine.

You would almost think that Trump hadn't won the 2024 election by how people are still whining about election fraud, election rigging, the USPS, having to go have security guards, has to go to places of voting.

I think it's going to be ugly in November.

Just we will have voter intimidation.

We want people to vote.

We want as many people to vote as possible.

Colorado has no record of any kind of fraud on voting, except maybe by Tina Peters.

So let's remember to vote.

Study your ballot first and ignore all the ugliness that's about to come down, like the kill and crank campaign.

The Boebert threats.

We are getting a lot of stuff that's coming out now.

Read the document and do your own research.

Okay, Tyron.

And make sure you send in those mail in ballots, which I think Colorado just has an excellent system with mail in ballots.

And I'm glad that we were able to prevail in the USPS v California, at least for the time being.

So I want to just address that one.

I mean, Justice Kavanaugh, I think in that said that it's not going to be found to be per se illegal.

But, you know, at least for now, the likelihood of failing on the merits isn't quite there.

But really, at the end of the day, you know, they were looking to try to enforce this in round 11 of a 12 round, round fight.

But the fight is still very much alive.

And we might get through this for these midterms on the mail in ballots, but expect this to be a big issue in 2028, in addition to everything else.

Okay.

Listen, you know, I believe we're the only state that has armed guards right now in our, a mail rooms.

But I think, you know, this contributes to that whole thing about the decline of our democracy.

You know, and earlier this year, a lot of my friends that I was talking to, Democrats, Republicans, independents were like, you know, I'm not sure I'm going to go ahead and vote with everything happening.

They're just really disappointed with politics right now.

But most recently, I would say within the last month, a lot of them are saying, you know what, I'm going to get out and vote.

I'm tired of all this nonsense, this dispute, hatred.

One thing, the other thing around eroding and controlling, kind of like more government control.

Tired of that.

And I'm really hopeful, hopeful that people will come out and vote because a lot is at stake at the elections.

And Priscilla thoughts.

Yes.

I think it's really important for people to vote to pay attention to what's on their ballot.

Take the time.

It has been very controversial in Colorado around trusting and transparency around ballots.

And so I personally think and a lot of people in my circle want to have that assurance that our elections are safe.

And I think as controversial and alarming as it may be to see armed guards at a postal facility being able to say our elections were safe and secure, there was transparency and security in the elections, I think will go a long way with voters.

All right.

Immigration policies are in the spotlight again this week with the shooting of a Venezuelan man by an Ice officer in Texas making national headlines.

Here in Colorado, there is another legal fight over where and how immigration detention expands.

We've talked about the legal fights over transparency and access at the Ice Attention Center in Aurora, and that continues with part of the city recently cordoned off over a possible tuberculosis exposure.

Well, now, two advocacy groups are suing the Department of Homeland Security over the second plane to detention facility for Colorado, alleging that DHS kind of skipped the required environmental reviews before moving ahead with the plans for this big horn center in Hudson, which has more beds, which than compared to the whole town.

So that's going to continue.

And Tyrone, there also was the report that just came out recently about names of people who have been detained disappearing from logs, so family members don't know where their loved ones are.

Right.

The sort of the names and locations of folks who have the final order for their cases.

Right.

So this is when they are entitled to a hearing.

They're entitled to the habeas relief.

So when you disappear a bunch of people's names, their lawyers can't even figure out where they are.

And you're having these clandestine hearings to deport folks.

It's really problematic.

And this is really, I think, been the entire theme with a lot of the news as of late coming out with as related to immigration.

You mentioned the young man who was shot.

We know and don't necessarily know exactly what transpired because the officer didn't have their body worn camera on.

And the last time I was here, we talked about just trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the tuberculosis outbreak in the Ice detention facility.

As predicted.

Judge Domenico did find that the new law had some limitations, but the old law that had been on the books for decades still survives.

We still don't know.

And folks who have been exposed are presumably having been released or transferred.

It's just the lack of transparency is really startling.

Yes.

Carlos.

I really oppose how our country is treating immigrants, especially around the whole thing about deportation, detention and legal representation.

You know, when I see the contract that's being put out for this Hudson Detention Center at over just over a half $1 billion over a five year period for a community of 2000 people, where you're going to have close to 1200 beds, and also seeing where the Geo Group, who is going to be running this is going to have revenues of about $85 million a year.

Okay.

And right now, I'm sure it's the Hudson residents who are paying for the infrastructure of their city, of their town.

What are they going to get in response to all this?

Are we building runways for businesses to come in to Colorado, set up business for five years and then take off again, and then just leave our communities high and dry?

Well, the other side to this story when it comes to due process.

Yes, everybody gets due process.

Even if you're going through the illegal immigration or deportation system, it's different from US citizens.

But they do have due process.

But also in the case in Hudson, you know, we have had an influx of illegal immigrants coming through our nation through the Biden administration, and there's just not enough space right now to to house them.

And so, yes, that facility in Hudson was a correctional facility.

There are some planning and zoning processes that have to be complied with.

We want to make sure that the process is is a is a better process for those people who are going through their due process.

Okay.

Who would think Hudson would become ground zero for a couple of big issues?

You know, last summer, one of their diners closed and it made front page headlines around the state because Hudson's a small town.

So we have a data center moving into Hudson, baby.

So using a lot of resources and then resurrecting this private prison which was housing prisoners from Alaska.

Figure out the economics of that which now, now is the focus of this, over half $1,000,000 billion contract with Geo Group.

If Geo Group had done anything properly earlier, I would feel a little better about it.

But we see how they've run the Aurora facility.

It's the only other facility in the state for immigrants.

And it is.

It's been secretive.

There have been health issues from the word go.

This new tuberculosis containment is another question.

We also have the the guard who had a guard at the Aurora facility who shot a protester in the foot.

That case is just going forward.

You really don't.

Free speech exist.

You do not have to shoot protesters in the foot.

So we have to see a lot more good behavior from Geo before we're going to trust anything they do.

Earlier this week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson was in New York City.

You might have seen the photograph of him riding on the top of a double decker bus with New York Mayor Zoran Monday, and the two talked about making child care, transit and housing more affordable.

Carlos, the last time you were on this show, you said affordable housing would be the big test for Mike Johnson in his second time around running for mayor.

But there are other challenges as well facing Denver, including a very public dispute that came about this week with Denver Health over funding for its long running Denver Care's drug treatment program.

And Carlos, just as all of this is happening, there's a new campaign rolling out for Denver with a very different message being Denver the best return on life.

Well, what a compelling slogan.

Okay.

But what does that actually mean for Denver residents?

I talked about housing being the big issue.

I know that this year he had a goal of having about 2504 housing units.

To date, there's about 90 with a lot still in in the process.

But that's going to be a big piece.

I mean, the housing is going to be a big piece.

I think the other thing that people are also asking to think about is safer neighborhoods and and streets.

But like you said, also, you have the CARES program, which is about substance abuse treatment, and that's not the only program that's being cut.

There's a lot of other programs that are being cut.

So when you're seeing all these cuts and saying, okay, so how are we going to be how are we going to be the best city?

Again, I'm not quite sure.

And so I think, you know, it's going to have to be more than just a really slick narrative campaign.

And that this campaign is to lure workers, you know, future workers from other states to come be here and live with us.

Yes.

Okay.

But what does that say also then to people who live here?

Okay.

Why aren't you investing in us.

Okay.

So you want to lure other people but you're not investing in people here.

Well when we talk about cutting departments, I volunteer on the Denver Police Chiefs Community Advisory Board.

And this is the second year in a row where Mayor Johnston has asked the department not to cut, but to freeze their, their budget.

And so but other departments are being asked to cut.

And when you look at our beautiful city and how downtown, we've lost a lot of businesses, you can't lose sales tax revenue and expect to ask then the voters to pay more taxes.

We've talked about, you know, we've got all these tax increases on the ballot.

And so if we're going to make Denver a great city and make Colorado a great place to attract businesses, then we have to make it business friendly.

And I think that's been the problem.

We've been not very responsible with the money, especially one time Covid money, how we've spent that.

So there's a great opportunity to not go to taxpayers and say, pay us more, but make Colorado and Denver in particular, a friendly place for businesses.

People are concerned about affordable housing, especially if they can't find housing.

But everyone in Denver has their own issues about the city they live in.

So is it the trash pickup?

Is it the sidewalks?

Is it homelessness?

Is it traffic?

The campaign is interesting.

I don't know how yet.

It's like 2.5 million.

A lot of it is coming from private individuals.

I give them credit for stepping up and saying, we've got to stop the bad press, much of it from our own city, and have a campaign.

I'm not sure I go for that slogan either.

And if you go deep down into it, it's like, and is the thing like in Denver, you can you can work and play.

So it's what you're and it's really, I would say an idiotic campaign, but they're going to use it in cities where they hope they can lure not just workers, businesses, because you want to fill those empty businesses offices downtown.

You want to get more sales tax revenue.

And there's no question the city of Denver needs more money.

The city of Denver also needs to kind of pull up its pants, say we're doing okay, but let's do better.

But this week, this comes out when one of our big companies that's on the side of a building in downtown moved to Kansas City.

Well, it already had an office there, so it just moved some of it.

And it's kind of like Palantir, which had how many people really working downtown.

I think maybe it was three when you really looked at it.

So people do move and you can see the reasons.

And I'm not saying the city is doing a great job of luring businesses.

I was just talking to Carlos about a small business.

I know that's being royally screwed by the city.

There are problems, but we've got to fix them and I'm not sure that campaign will do it.

Okay.

Come on.

And if all along Carlos point about taking care of the folks who are here, I think that that's really the heartland of, I think, where we need to be focusing.

And I think what voters are going to be looking to the mayor to really demonstrate.

You know, I have been following the Denver health fight.

I remember in 2024, voters passed the sales tax.

I think that was going to raise about 70 million a year.

And part of that was for drug and alcohol use recovery.

So, you know, he's being called to the mat for I think not funding cares last year and then potentially not funding it again this year.

I mean, this is a detox program.

You can talk all about affordable housing and limiting homelessness.

But folks who are unable to detox, right, or get drug treatment, those are the folks who are going to end up in E.R.

in a jail or on the sidewalk.

So the voters and the folks who are here said that they want that to be prioritized, prioritized in the budget.

And I hope that he makes an effort towards that end.

So the October count is coming up.

That's when schools across Colorado count their students.

And those numbers helped termine how much state funding follows them.

There is a lot of talk about money right now, especially within Denver Public Schools.

Voters are being asked to approve another $44 million in property tax revenue for DPS, while the district is also dealing with questions about leadership and spending, including hiring an outside law firm that could charge up to $8,000 an hour to work on the superintendent's contract.

But through all of this, right, the focus has to stay on the kids who are in those classrooms and learning.

Priscilla, you have just opened a brand new school in Centennial after retiring last May from 25 years in DPS.

Wow.

Congratulations.

Quite the educator you are.

Thank you.

When you see all this going on, what comes to mind?

It's heartbreaking because it seems like every election we're asking voters for for more money for the schools.

And people have to ask, what are we getting for the money that we're giving to the school district?

And I can tell you, as someone who's been in a classroom, it doesn't really trickle down into the classroom where we keep promising voters that it's going where it really counts.

It's it's really unfortunate that we see all of this turmoil in the Denver Public Schools board, one in particular, a former student of mine from George Washington High School who's now under investigation for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments.

And so and then you've got a superintendent who's looking in Chicago, looking in Florida, saying he's committed to to Denver, but he's out looking for jobs and a school board who should not have extended a contract way too soon before really vetting his his progress.

And so we have very little to show for all the money that we're putting into the Denver public school system.

But we fortunately have a governor, Governor Polis, who's very pro education choice and supports early childhood and supports parents in their in their journey towards giving their children a great education.

And so it's one of the reasons why I retired from Denver Public Schools and opened a private classical school.

And, you know, we're losing students from the school system.

And it's really important for us to take a look at these numbers.

Okay.

When we were talking about the October count, you didn't think it would be counting all the money going to outside attorneys.

It's not just the DPS.

You see it in Jeffco where they've had big problems in the Cherry Creek School District, where we continue to find out how much they've spent.

And at the DPS, though I would say maybe a thousand might be a good payment right now.

If they can deal with the contract in advance, have an outside group do it instead of have a conflict within the DPS.

But meanwhile, that board has got to stop acting like kids and start thinking about the kids.

The behavior has been incredible.

If we all if we all acted like this on the table at this table, be better TV, but it would not be very efficient communication.

And this is not your law firm that's getting $1,000 an hour.

Oh.

I didn't get that city in Denver a contract with a contract.

All right.

Your thoughts on all this, I agree, we need to focus on the kids.

And speaking of focusing on the kids, the nine high schools in Aurora where the flock cameras are apparently focusing on the kids and storing a year's worth of their data accessible to national folks and law enforcement who have been running searches.

I think the count was at 1400 plus.

I mean that as someone who sends their kids to school every single day, the idea that there could be these warrantless surveillance of them, and not only that, but to have that data stored for as long as it has is just really, really concerning.

And I think similar to what we're seeing with these under the table, clandestine deals with data centers, with private prisons, with surveillance AI, it just starts to feel like part and parcel of all the same things.

Yeah, that flocks story was interesting.

And apparently there were also some in the Cherry Creek schools that are in Aurora, but they pulled those out.

And a lot of times they don't even know that they're there.

And then when they find out there like, hey, get those those out of here.

Yeah, that's what I mean.

A lot of this stuff seems to be getting done under the radar.

Okay.

Carlos, two years ago, over close to $6 billion was approved in bond measures for schools two years ago.

So as we're looking at now in 2026 and we're looking at increasing DPS, another 44 million, I think one of the things that I'm hearing a lot, folks, is like we're being asked to give more, give more, but what's the results?

As Priscilla was talking about, what's the impact that we're having?

I would love to know, as a Denver resident, a Denver taxpayer, what is this 44 million going to do?

How are you going to go ahead and and show me the impact that this is having?

And I think with a lot of school districts where enrollment is declining, especially here in Denver.

So we have less students and you want more money.

The accounting doesn't seem to go with it.

Because they usually just give us a broad overview, but they don't really tell us we are going to really move the needle on X, Y, and z. Some of that money in this, this measure for Denver voters has to do with increasing teacher pay.

You've been there.

You were there for a long time.

Just how tough is it for teachers to afford to teach and live in Denver?

It's a lot better now than it has ever been.

I think it's manageable now.

And coming from Denver Public Schools, they do a really great job of of compensating us as educators.

But if you look at other school districts, like, for example, Douglas County, where I live, where the pay isn't as high, but the achievement is higher than in a Denver public schools, it doesn't always connect to teachers staying at a school.

It's not enough, because when you have all of these other problems in a school, a high paying salary sometimes is not enough to keep a teacher long term in a in a building.

So you have to really make sure you're making sense.

Fewer top heavy positions, more classroom educators, smaller classes, great updated curriculum and facilities so that that scholars are in a school where they can actually learn, where things aren't broken, where we have air conditioning.

They keep saying we're going to put air conditioning in the schools and they don't.

And you're in this heat.

So there are a lot of things that Denver's going to have to be accountable for.

And then we saw in Boulder this week announcement some force elementary schools are closing after this school year.

It's a tough tough time okay.

All right.

Let's go through some highs and the lows that we've witnessed this week.

Because there is always something to talk about.

Let's talk about the downer so we can get in on a positive note.

Patti you go first.

Tomorrow is National Public Lands Day.

Get out and enjoy the public lands while we still have them.

They are under such a threat from the current administration, from the road less rules, from the drilling, from all the other issues like selling access to Yosemite bears, your national monument in Utah.

What's happening there?

Appreciate what we have and fight for it.

You know, as someone who loves to enjoy the mountains during the winter time and get out there and snowboarder my and snowboard my lo is this decision that came out about the snowboarder who had a lawsuit going.

And then he bought an epic pass that basically went back and waived any of his claims.

And the Colorado Supreme Court said, yeah, you know, you basically even though this wasn't in effect at the time you brought the lawsuit because you've signed this in the future.

The fine print says that now you're essentially waiving all of this.

I think Justice Gabriel's dissent, where he says, this should not be a game of gotcha for an unsuspecting ski pass purchaser, really nails it.

But that was definitely a bummer to see that as a plaintiff's lawyer.

And a lesson to people to read the fine print.

Yes.

Read the fine print.

You would be shocked if you knew what sort of legal rights you were giving up in some of these boilerplate contracts.

Oh, okay.

All right.

I think my low right now is the lack of coordination around traffic in the city right now.

It there.

I wish they could do a better job.

It took me 30 minutes to get down ten city blocks the other day.

Okay.

That's that's uncalled for.

And you really don't see any coordination.

It's just like people are just blocking streets off, and and there's no coordination at all.

You know, the city could do a much better job than that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, the tag on to the last conversation.

Milo is.

School has already started.

Children are in school, and now they're being asked to go move to a different school outside of their neighborhood because of closings.

And that really does disrupt their education, their relationships that they've built, and parents being able to have to start to build trust in a new facility.

Okay.

Something positive, Patti.

Tomorrow and Sunday.

Doors open.

Denver continues.

The focus is on downtown now.

It's called destination downtown.

More than 100 programs, tours, walking tours.

You can visit buildings, go see what downtown is really like.

You don't need to see an ad campaign.

Just go see how clean 16th Street is.

See some of the new businesses come in and get involved.

Okay.

All right.

Sounds good.

Well, I think last time I was here, I. My high was a chuckle about the misspelling of the California.

Signed by the courthouse, which takes me way too long to get down there, by the way.

You know, it takes me half the time just to get the ten blocks.

The courthouse.

It does get all the way there from my office, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Now I'm going to give my Californians a little bit of grief about their Waymo's that can't read the Road Closed signs and the Waymo that was sort of rolling through the farmers market.

I definitely got a kick out of that.

But there's part of me that thinks that it was them trying to get free publicity to make sure that everybody knows Waymo's in town.

Do you think?

And they don't run into people when they're renegade?

I saw one blow through a stop sign going on to six seven the other day.

The farmer's market.

It was like publicity.

Yeah, these.

Yeah, these.

These tech folks.

And, you know, any city is good publicity.

I feel like, you know, it definitely raise awareness that Waymo is here.

Waymo is here.

Yes.

Carlo is something good.

So I think for me tomorrow the Mongolian Community Center, at least people really realize we have a thriving Mongolian community here in Colorado is celebrating their 20th anniversary.

And how wonderful to go ahead and see that.

And also happy Hispanic Heritage Month to everyone.

Excellent.

Well, my celebration is thanks to Governor Polis opting us into the education tax credits.

My school, Excalibur Classical Academy, is the first goal in Colorado, working with a scholarships to accept commitments for folks to commit their federal taxes to a scholarship granting organization.

So we are the first school.

Okay.

Very good.

All right.

My high is that PBS 12 is premiering a special on Mother Cabrini, Colorado.

Saint.

On Tuesday the 29th, I traveled to Italy with about three dozen Coloradans to learn more about her early life over in Italy.

And now we get to share that story with everyone here on PBS, 12 and online.

The special offers inspiration from an incredible woman, but also some insight into why the first Monday in October is Cabrini Day, a paid state holiday in Colorado.

All right.

Thanks to our insiders here this week.

So appreciate it.

Well done, Priscilla, for your first time out.

We appreciate you coming as well.

Thank you for watching along or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

In the meantime, happy first weekend of fall.

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