tonight on studio 12 we're lifting off to New heights as a Colorado balloon takes flight at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Then, with fall in full swing, we're putting those delicious apples to good use and learning how to preserve them into foods that last.

Then we hear from founders at Colorado Startup Week about the real grit and drive needed to be successful in today's business climate.

And the very first mariachi degree program right here in Colorado.

All that and more right now on studio 12.

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

This is studio 12.

Hi, I'm bazi kanani.

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a bucket list event for many a sky filled with color, representing tradition and family legacies that lift off year after year.

And this year, one balloon in particular carried a special piece of Colorado in our viewfinder segment, PBS 12 photojournalist Rico Romero followed a former Denver family whose balloon bears the flag of the Mile High City and whose story goes back generations.

We were at Albuquerque International doing theater.

Rooms yesterday somewhere where they put the balloons up the fly.

Yards get real tired on this part.

Siesta is a time when pilots from around the nation, up and around the United States, all come together in one place.

Albuquerque.

And they fly.

We're basically, triad area around, Raleigh, Durham and North Carolina.

However, this comes together and they fly in the beautiful skies of Albuquerque.

I like it.

And most of the time they.

Blow up the special shape.

You can have shapes, you have ride balloons, you have standard balloons.

You have anywhere from small balloons to super big 16 passenger balloons.

Past has a nine day annual event that happens the first two full weekends in October, and the week in between those.

Is a certain pride to fly, have festivals and be the show for the people that they paid to get into.

The sights, this smells.

I don't know if you know this ballooning has a specific smell to it.

The leather, the propane, everything.

And just to get around the sights, the sounds of the smells.

And I just, got obsessed with it again.

It's been occurring since 1972.

Haven't been to the fiesta in a few years.

But, you know, I love it.

I like to tell people it's like walking among giants, because that's what you feel like when these balloons started flaming and you're also amongst them.

It reminds me.

It makes me think of walking with giants.

It brings together people from all across the globe to see this magical event.

Watching people who have not experienced this before, see that for the first time.

You can't describe it to anybody, to people.

So when you see that on somebody's face, you know, it's just, you know, it never gets old.

All right.

Here, I got the you an one from the cherry on top, guys.

Vader and Frankenstein.

That balloon is what used to be Denver.

Kent's the city and county of Denver's flag.

So 52, 84.

That's a balloon.

I learned how to fly in with Marnie's mom.

Or my mother in law.

My mother and father in law.

They were, Well, they are natives of Colorado.

Natives of Denver.

So when they were able to hand that balloon over to Marty and myself, it's it's just been that balloon that we've always wanted.

A big part of who we are as a family.

John and I learned how to fly on that balloon, and it's still our favorite.

I think it's year 18.

I've been flying here.

Been here.

Been coming here for about 27 years now.

Do you have your blood family?

And then you have your balloon family?

We are a, big community.

You know, I know pilots from all over the country, a few from around the world.

I have a lot of friends.

They're like, oh, like, it's so awesome.

You're a pilot's daughter.

I'm like, I'm not just the pilot's daughter.

Like, I'm crew.

I'm there waking up with them early in the morning doing weather checks.

There are a number of families where it's generational.

There are quite a few generational balloon families probably on this field this week.

I have been coming to siesta my entire life, actually, since In Utero, which is kind of crazy.

The first time I came, I was about nine months old.

My parents had just both got their pilot's license.

My grandma flew, and I've come every year since minus a few here and there because of reasons.

But I've been coming for the past 21 years, and it's awesome.

And I look forward to being a future pilot.

It's great to have our kids here.

Marnie.

She grew up doing this.

So my dad put me in a little carrier and took me up.

I do not know life without learning.

I'll be third generation once I get my pilot's license.

We really didn't push the kids to fly.

You know, we asked him.

Hey, do you guys want to fly?

And it wasn't until recently where they're like, yeah, dad, we want to start learning how to fly.

My grandma was a full time gospel pilot and normal pilot.

On top of being a radiologist and a doctor.

We call her noona, but she's Carol to everybody else.

The story goes that at the time, they had one car.

And so my mom sold the car to buy a share.

And to their very first.

She is someone who's in the Hall of Fame.

You see your picture around, you remember who she is.

Like she has the picture of one fiesta.

It's hard not having her, like, here to, like, see the beauty of it.

But like, I have my mom and I have my dad.

And like, I'm there for the heartbreak and the tears.

Like, I've been here, like, this entire time, and it's like, I don't know.

It's just it's fun to have fun doing something that's hard and missing people.

And it's you just have to make the best out of a hard, situation that has now turned into memories and power and so much more than just ballooning.

It's made it my connection to balloon and grow stronger.

It was, as Margaret mentioned, it was very, very difficult for a couple of years in there.

It's wonderful to talk to people now and understand the impact my mom made on them, and just a moment or a time in their lives.

And, so that's really it's been really rewarding and wonderful and healing for me to hear other people's stories about her.

For me, it's all about carrying on the legacy, and it's what she would want us to do.

My mom and dad fly.

My mom doesn't fly as much because there was not here anymore.

But, because she is the definition of my grandpa.

And my dad carries the legacy, and he carries a pen with just her, like, and just seeing, like, my mom, like, looks just like my grandma.

And just being able to see her and, like, living out her mom's legacy and, like, being an awesome mom and being an awesome wife.

And, like, she work so hard and just seeing her come out here and, like, put a brave face and smile like it's inspiring.

I'm super proud of my family and like, I love my dad and I'm proud of what he does and like.

But it's like my mom's.

It's my mom's thing.

Like my dad's a pilot.

Because of my.

Mom.

It's really hard.

Like missing people who you haven't had the relationship and being able to grow up with, like, so like Carol is the image and the backbone to like what we are as a family and like, yeah, she's not here.

But like, we carry her with us every day.

And my mom is such an awesome person and such a beautiful person, and so is my dad.

And to see my dad fly and my mom being like, okay, like I'm going to get back into it and do this like it's super awesome.

And just being here and like being back in Albuquerque, like embracing her culture and, embracing Balloon Fiesta has been super awesome to see the past couple of years because it was really hard for a long time, and now it's just seeing like the power and the movement, behind what my grandma did.

And now my parents are carrying on and what I hope to carry on after them.

Like I hope to be a great, awesome balloon pilot like my parents are.

But you just never know.

Like you don't ever know.

And incredible story.

So much love and loss intertwined in just that one family's ballooning journey.

You can catch more of Rico Romeros stories celebrating the people and places that lift our communities right here on studio 12.

Next up.

Fall is in the air, and so are the smells of fresh apples.

PBS Twelve's Erica McLarty heads to an interactive workshop with Denver Urban Gardens that teaches people how to turn autumn apple harvest into healthy, homemade food.

Take a look.

Move over pumpkin spice because this season it's all about the apples.

From the sauce to the apple butter to the vinegar.

We're here at the Posner Center with Denver Urban Garden for a workshop on preserving your apples.

So there's a lot of recipes to get to today I can't wait.

Let's get preserving.

Tonight we are hosting a piece of our preservation series.

So Apple Preservation.

We're going to be working with all of our participants to teach them how to preserve the bounty of their fruit trees.

So the very first class that we did was dehydrating.

Leading the class is Chef Paula Thomas, a long time cook who turned her passion for food preservation into a way of life.

I have been cooking professionally for more than 20 years.

I've been cooking my entire life because my mother taught me how to cook since I was a very young girl.

But I started preserving in 2009 when I got my first CSA community share agriculture.

And it was fruit and there was so much fruit and I didn't know what to do with it.

So then it's, you know, grown into something that I'm really passionate about.

I love everything preservation.

Now, my home, we only eat seasonal, which means I have to preserve everything.

So here we're going to make an apple sauce, which you can can if you want to.

Today we are going to pass some of it through a mill because we're going to make up with leather.

So apple leather is the second child of your apple sauce.

Put it in your oven.

I use a sheet pan and I use a seal.

You're like what?

So many things just happen.

We'll come back to this.

I just wanted to tell you all of that because you're going to go out in the wild.

You're going to cut your apples just like I showed you.

Cut it in slices.

Leave the core intact.

It's like a story of, like.

Well, my auntie, we had a garden.

She started me garden.

And it's just been keeping me up from.

Do you want to try again?

Dragging, fighting, arguing.

And it just gave me a place to be in the garden.

And then somebody started teaching me how to garden and preserve and store properly.

I'm very.

I'm excited.

Every time I come here, I turn off my phone.

I end the day right before class.

Nobody after five.

I don't need to deal with traffic.

Nothing is all about the garden and get my train.

And who are you?

I'm here with my hat.

Hello.

Hi.

How are y'all doing today?

I've been doing garden a long time.

All my life.

Basically with my mom.

And when my mom passed away, I started doing gardening on my own.

And then I called my niece and asked her if she wanted to be a part.

And I said, tomato.

Apple butter.

I have not, have not.

I've seen it in the stores and stuff, but I've never made it before.

You know, my mom always has like bags of apples, what she's got and, you know, she's kind of, drilled in me that they're like, the lowest sugar fruit.

And so the, like, all the time.

So, And then I'm going to add, I absolutely love cloves.

I'm not the tiniest bit of cloves.

Not too much because I don't want it to overwhelm.

Well, Paula shares the how to Denver Urban Gardens is focused on the why using food preservation as a tool for sustainability and community.

I mean, food waste is is a huge problem in the US.

We waste over 40% of food that's grown.

So this is an, really great way to learn how to preserve those apples.

It's a core part of our mission.

So to provide people with the skills that they need to be able to grow healthy food for their families, and then what to do with all that healthy produce?

Looking at food sovereignty, looking at ways to encourage healthy eating, and then, of course, using all of that fresh grown produce that we're growing in our gardens.

So apples traditionally applesauce, dehydrating apples is a great way to make a snack, especially for active Coloradans.

Hiking up mountains, going in the ski season.

Apples we typically think of as a as a sweet product.

But we can grow a lot of different tart apples.

They can also be used as a savory recipe.

So we harvested some fresh sage from our herb garden that we're going to be featuring.

So none of it goes to waste.

You can use every piece of the apple, and grow some.

Make some really great food to share with your neighbors.

So the seeds and the bits and pieces, you'll see, we actually use for apple cider vinegar.

So there's a lot of the parts that would normally go into our compost, be put back into the soil, grow healthy soils.

We're going to use those to ferment them and turn them into vinegar.

That's another kind of health tonic that we would use for benefits.

You add your sugar, sugar melts so it becomes liquid.

In baking sugar, it's actually part of the liquids.

I feel like a grandma.

I'm gonna try to pass it through here again.

This is a labor of love with my tiny little scythe.

Yum.

Okay, and one thing we've noticed in the preservation series this season is that we have a lot of repeat folks coming back, and they've really built a little community.

So we have our dog online.

We have a preservation circle that we started where folks can connect beyond just being here in person and share recipes, talk about their successes, ask questions.

Here, data.

And if you come by yourself, I did.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Yeah.

What's it like coming out here?

Well, these.

Ladies have been lovely to chat with.

But, yeah, I just moved back to Denver, and I was just super excited to get involved with dog.

And it's just an event that seems like a really great introduction for them.

Well, we learned a lot today, but my favorite part was not learning alone.

We had so much fun with all these other people.

And you know what?

Apple preserving really isn't just about food.

It's about tradition and connection and just slowing down and enjoying.

The simple stuff.

When you think about startups, you may think about big success stories, venture capital funding and fast growth.

The kinds of things that make headlines.

But at Colorado Startup Week, founders were quick to remind us that real business stories sometimes go down behind the scene where there's a lot of doubt and where grit and drive are what keeps the entrepreneurial dream alive and thriving.

Here's a look at insights and advice straight from the entrepreneurs shaping Colorado's business landscape.

Every entrepreneur has 7 or 10 challenges every every week.

I mean, it's it's hard to identify 1 or 2.

It's just a constant.

Right.

And so you get used to that.

And I think starting out there were some challenges like, you know, how are we going to figure out technologically how to let people take a picture of their receipt and use optical character recognition technology to, you know, pull that data off a receipt?

That was a technical challenge.

More recently, you know, we came up with a product called pay with Ibotta.

That was a total flop.

That was a big challenge.

You know, recovering from that and pivoting our business.

I think just more broadly, when you're in the public market, you know, you got to maintain a focus on the long term when a lot of people are encouraging you to focus on the short term.

And that's a challenge.

So they're all different kinds of challenges, the pandemic.

You know, I gathered the whole company together and said, everybody, please leave your things at the at your desk.

You know, we'll be back in two weeks after we flatten the curve.

Not exactly how it played out.

So we had layoffs, you know, right after the pandemic.

That was very challenging.

So, you know, there are a lot of different moments that that really try your your emotional resiliency as a founder.

And I think that more than your intelligence, more than your work ethic really predicts whether you're successful or not.

Don't underestimate how difficult this can be and like how uncommon those stories are, with how many folks want to be, want to be doing this.

I say that because, if you believe, if you if you come in knowing it's going to be difficult, then you're likely to persevere through the challenges of which there are many.

So saying yes and having an idea is certainly not a loss.

Saying yes and saying I'm willing to work for this idea and work really long hours because I'm passionate about it.

I think it can make a really big difference in the world.

That's the kind of folks we need deciding to be founders.

So, yeah, don't underestimate the desire.

And don't just say yes because it's a fun thing to do and you find other people do it.

You do it because you're passionate, like you wouldn't want to do anything else.

If that's calling to be a founder.

I always say it was a combination of being really confident and assertive about the things that I know it really well, and I'm afraid I've led a barrier in education.

And then being really humble and like seeking out wisdom from others, around the things that I was not expert at.

I'm like technology, like running a business.

And that combination has made this journey a lot smoother.

The biggest mistake that most early stage founders make are trying to grow the business before they have some amount of product market set.

If you don't know whether or not people will actually pay for your product and that you can build a business on it, what are you doing?

100% of effort in the early days should be focused on getting and proving product market fit.

But I see too many founders spending money on other things, way before they have that figured out.

For an early stage founder, 100% of your time product market that.

So in our research, we talk about two types of customers high value and provisional.

And in the startup you need every customer you can get because you're testing actually in a startup.

But once you determine what kind of customer you want, the provisional customer comes in and does this to your business.

They don't trust you at the beginning.

They ask for discounts.

They ask for working for your voice, just your special people.

So what we started doing is measuring the difference in service between a provisional customer and a high value customer, and a provisional customer takes for 100% more time.

So for four more emails versus one of the high value, you have to go through gyrations to get there, all the things that you did to get the revenue at the end of it, their lower margin, they were hard on your people and they never give you a reference.

Yeah.

And yet we're chasing that revenue in businesses that are struggling to grow.

You know, consumers are that fickle group too, of what you have to do to market, to get somebody to take your product, or especially for your use and distribution through certain groups.

So the some that are stuck and kind of figuring out and those that are having chaos.

The common theme between both of those problems is, is in what is in what we call the focus system.

The reason we call it a system of focus is it's goal is to increase the win rate in the market that you want.

I think what I told myself three things.

First of all, it's a lot harder to say no sometimes than to say yes.

But a great entrepreneur needs to learn how to say no.

You can't do everything that in your mind seems exciting.

There are invisible trade offs that will break your organization.

So you have to learn how to remain truly focused on the thing.

That's the most important.

That would have been thing number one.

Thing number two would have been it's a long game.

You know what you think the business is right now.

Maybe something very different in five years or five years after that, and build the foundation of a company that has the capacity to see those opportunities as you go.

They can pursue a good new idea no matter where it comes from, and doesn't matter who gets credit for that idea.

And you'll be able to evolve and stay in business and thrive.

And third, I would just say get a coach, get a therapist, figure out how to support your own mental health because this is incredibly stressful job, and a lot of folks think they can just sort of put on the armor and play the role of I've got it all figured out, but a better form of leadership is often to be much more real, authentic, vulnerable, and draw people in and rally the organization.

So you're converting the highest possible percentage of everybody's good ideas into reality, not just the founder's ideas.

You know, we opened our first location, 2013.

It's 2025.

We now have seven locations.

We have 300 employees.

We're about to open up, you know, five more locations within the next 18 months.

And the biggest lesson for me, being a founder of a of a small business was really making sure that I was building a team around me that I could trust to be able to do the things that I couldn't do because, you know, just because it's my business doesn't necessarily mean that I'm the best manager, right?

Or the best chef or the, you know, the best marketer, you know?

And so when you're scaling a business, you know, you have to remember, like what is your role?

You know?

And for me, I'm the founder.

And I think that I have the vision of where we're going, and I have to be able to make sure that I'm inspiring and motivating everyone around me so that we have the shared vision to be able to go after that goal.

We'll be featuring several more interviews from Colorado Startup Week in our upcoming show, so be sure to look out for those here on studio 12.

If you'd like to catch our full Colorado Startup Week conversations, you can go to our YouTube channel, or you can listen to them in the podcast on Spotify, Apple and Amazon podcasts.

Mariachi isn't just a style of music.

It's a tradition rich in culture.

That's been passed down through generations.

And now it's also the foundation of a groundbreaking new college major right here in Colorado.

MSU Denver has launched the nation's very first Bachelor of Arts degree in mariachi performance and culture.

We take you inside the classroom where we sat down with the professor teaching this unique program to learn more about it and to hear from his students to take a look.

Here we go.

Ready?

This is your note.

Eminem.

I started out with cello, but, there was a need for violins in my school.

I think it was like around eighth grade.

Then just kind of pick a, comfortable.

Mom.

Oh.

Or.

Oh.

So I switched over to violin and I found out that it was the best instrument ever.

I fell in love with.

It when I played classical music.

People love it.

They're involved.

But nobody's like clapping along and singing.

People aren't dancing.

I grew up in Mexico, so growing up over there in a really small town, it was really interesting because there would be mariachi groups playing all the time, and my dad would be playing music at home, mariachi music all the time, and he would be singing it as well.

Sing the top line for me, this is number eight.

Ready?

Ooh, okay.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Oh.

Oh oh.

I didn't even know that.

Like mariachi was.

And he was taught, to be honest.

I thought it was something that you would just wear, like, hey, can I, can I join you guys?

Hi.

My name is Falcon and I am in my second year here at MSU.

So for the long run, it's called, Mariachi Ensemble.

And what I personally really like is that for me, especially living here in the United States, it's been kind of hard to make friends from my own heritage and with common interests.

And I feel like here in mariachi, I feel like we're all in here because we want to be and we're all with shared interests, and it feels like a family, and that's why I really like it.

This is, a class that anybody at Metro can take at Metropolitan State University.

Here we go.

For me, playing the violin is something that I've just been doing throughout school.

Just my whole life.

My head is really busy all the time.

I'm constantly thinking thoughts.

There's something always going on in my head, and it's.

Sometimes it's tiring.

And when I play the violin, it goes quiet, and I can, I, I immerse myself in the music and I feel.

I feel the music.

I feel it in my car.

It's.

It's really nice.

I'm originally from Pueblo and I was in a mariachi program, and, MSU I think it was when, Doctor Fisher first came in.

He did like a, like, a teaching thing for a day.

And that was like my first introduction to the band.

And.

I am the assistant professor of music at Metropolitan State University and director of Mariachi Los Caminos, the MSU Denver.

Very cool.

That's a lot of words.

I think it was about a year ago.

Doctor Fisher told me that, like, some exciting stuff was happening here at MSU.

Let's try the top part first.

I've been teaching here since the fall of 22, and, found that, mariachi was part of it.

One, two, three, four.

And I see you don't have that yet again.

And when there's a lot of students will say, oh, yeah, my, my grandmother, when she was cleaning or my, my uncle was in a mariachi band and on Sundays we just Sunday afternoons it was mariachi in the school had become a lot more and good for my students.

Actually, a lot of them know more than me.

So that can be intimidating.

And, and, so I really need to be on my egg.

How how how do you do that?

Stopping.

My parents always had, like, little, electric keyboards lying around.

They had, like, all of these little instruments around the house because we're kind of a musical family.

All these instruments laying around that I would constantly be picking up and playing and playing until my parents were one day, like, do you want to pick up an instrument?

And I was like, absolutely.

I do.

I come from a decently musical family.

So, it, I had always played the guitar.

But I had never really taken it to serious until I joined that class.

It really started with this idea of, I talked to some mariachi, kind of mentors, and I was like, so, as they were talking about their experience in mariachi, a lot of them had gone to college, but they couldn't study their own instruments, they couldn't study guitar, and they couldn't study viola.

They couldn't study mariachi guitar, they couldn't study mariachi trumpet.

And so I thought, that's an inequity.

I was immediately, like, intrigued.

And then here I am.

So and then I thought, well, so how does this fit into something bigger?

The first step was to reach out to Chicano Studies and say, okay, what classes could we make?

Or what classes could we collaborate on to create this degree?

Yeah, there's some Chicano study courses, some business courses.

I think it's a it's a pretty well rounded, degree.

It gives you a little bit of everything.

And as I looked at some other programs, there are a few other, mariachi major programs.

And I thought to myself, well, it seems like this is a preexisting degree with mariachi built on it.

And I said, it doesn't seem like it feels like we could contextualize a little bit more of what we're doing in terms of my mariachi kind of understanding what they're doing, what they're saying, and how to integrate into the culture, in a kind of a responsive way that ties that those pretzels that I worked with, their program director, Sarah Jackson.

Marty, who walked me through how to do all of this.

So I worked with the, chair of the kind of, studies department, Adriana Nieto, and, the chair of the World Languages department, to get, like, Spanish in there and also some business courses.

And that's what we built the degree around, of course, there music courses.

But due to the requirements of a music degree, preexisting music degree, they would have had to do a lot more courses than I thought were relevant, and not as many courses that I thought would be relevant to mariachi.

And.

That was kind of how I thought about the degree I said private study.

And then I want to have a, I want to have a program that's relevant to the students, because I never want the students to say, why am I even in this class?

What is the point of this?

So yeah, the.

Degree will teach me, like the more technical part of, like, how to handle money and all that stuff.

But the real, like, experience comes from just like if you're at work, just ask it to me, it it, it just really means that I can connect with, like, this part of me that, like, I've always wanted to, but, like, haven't really gotten the chance to, unless, like, I actually go to me.

So, yeah, tomorrow will be my first gig.

It's happening here at the school on the Kalamazoo building.

The Kalamazoo building is, kind of a special place for the for the university.

And while we're not housed there right now, it's it's the the mural that they've made, you know, that they've created for the for the building is a very, very special thing for actually Mexican culture.

Like if you go to Mexico, you see murals all over the place.

That's a very important representation of, of Hispanic culture.

Mariachi for me is, the embodiment of Mexican culture.

Okay.

Whenever I play mariachi music, especially mariachi music, it feels like I can feel it here from my heritage.

I'm honoring my parents in it.

It feels different than playing classical music and music on my own, because this is music that I am honored to play, music that I am representing like a whole country by playing.

It's so much bigger than just Mexico.

But, but it's such a, beautiful, expressive, style that people love, you know, when they go to a mariachi concert, they're happy.

And that's what my actions.

For more information on the mariachi major and the coursework, you can go to MSU denver.edu.

Two weeks from tonight is election night.

How are you doing with filling out your ballot?

There are a lot of local issues to read up on.

More so than a lot of statewide issues.

To highlight some of them.

We turn to Kyle Dyer and the team at Colorado inside Out.

Hi, Fozzie and Ryan.

You two are probably getting lots of fliers in the mail and text messages, you name it, promoting various measures on the November 4th ballot.

Yes, there is lots of talk already about next year's midterm election, but there is a lot of stuff up for consideration that will affect how communities across Colorado operate.

So we brought this up during this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Everyone who is registered to vote in Colorado has received their ballots in the mail by now.

Election day is a little over two weeks away, and there are two statewide measures and a lot of local measures on the ballot.

So let's talk about some of what voters are facing.

Can I mention it first?

Oddly enough, with the timing in Pagosa Springs where the rushing waters took out a tree, which then took out an old pipe, releasing sewage into the water, voters are actually deciding on a 1% sales tax increase to fund the town's sanitation infrastructure.

Patty, the timing of that.

But there's so much that we've got two weeks to learn what we're facing and what we have to decide on.

Well, I'm thinking Pagosa Springs will definitely pass.

Let's first give a moment of thanks that we are still getting mail in ballots.

The Colorado, which has been the gold standard for mail in ballots for accessibility and voting.

Not corruption.

That's accessibility that we get those mail in ballots, which gives us time to really look over the subjects, to sit and fill them out at our kitchen table when it's to take some time.

And it is going to take some time.

If you're in Denver and you're looking at the vibrant bond issue, vibrant Denver bond divided up into five different sections, but within each section are a lot of different projects.

So it's going to take you time to go over that.

There's 310 also on the Denver ballot, which is due.

Are we going to ban flavored tobacco?

The opposition put it on the ballot.

It's an ugly one.

I don't know who else is getting all the emails that I am, but that's going to be hard fought.

And then statewide you've got low and.

School lunches for kids is a sounds very no brainer but people are fighting that too.

But vibrant Denver is where people are spending the money right now.

And then up in the high country and some of the mountain communities, there's, options to raise lodging taxes.

You have written a lot about this for some, in substance, various mountain communities, and talk about some of the reasoning and some of the reaction to this measure.

Yeah, these are interesting measures.

It's the ones I want to emphasize with the Colorado Chamber isn't weighing in on these local issues, but I've been covering them because they clearly affect local economies and local business.

What happened is up until this year, counties could only charge a 2% lodging tax and, say, limits what counties can do and things like that.

This year, a law passed to change it to allow counties to up their lodging tax to 6% in unincorporated areas only.

And whereas before the lodging tax money could go only to tourism marketing, to child care and to affordable housing.

Now it can also go to public safety and public infrastructure.

And the reason why a lot of counties said, look, the tourists that are coming in are weighing on our infrastructure.

We need to have them help pay for the roads that are deteriorating for the sheriff's calls, going to Airbnbs.

I think a lot of the hotel and tourism industry has been saying, look, we understand the need to share the load here, but is this really the right time?

Tourism is slowing down a little bit, and they're worried that the boost in taxes, if these pass would make visitors maybe think twice about coming.

But more so think twice about going out to dinner or out to a show.

It's really a good question, a good debate about what role should tourists pay in paying for the towns or visiting.

Okay.

All right.

Maryann, what are you watching?

I'm watching three AA in Littleton.

But first, I want to thank Jefferson County and and the city of Lakewood for no bond measures, no tax.

And my ballot will take five minutes, tops to fill out.

All I have to do is go look at school board and and city council races.

It's great.

That's the shortest ballot I've seen in ages three a in Littleton is really fascinating in the context of the executive order that, Jared Polis issued in July, that would, put some, some roadblocks, for cities and towns that don't cooperate.

Some of the housing bills that we have seen passed in the legislature in the last couple of years.

This is hundreds of millions of dollars, six communities have filed lawsuits.

Three a would, put a stop to plans by the city of Littleton on dense, denser housing.

And, about half of the housing in Littleton is single family homes.

And people want to the people who are pushing this want to keep the commute, the character of those communities the same.

Littleton didn't join in this lawsuit.

Was not one of the six communities.

However.

One of the candidates for mayor does support, sort of supports that lawsuit.

He doesn't he doesn't want to see this density issue either.

And the city of Littleton, of course, has not has not chosen to participate in this lawsuit.

So that's one of the things that I kind of find, curious about this issue and its ties to what's going on at the state level.

Okay.

All right.

And, Christy.

Also, I'd like to draw attention to school board candidates.

I think as serving on the state Board of Education myself, I'm really interested in who serves on the local school boards because Colorado is a local control state.

That's what our state constitution says.

Most of the decisions around your child's education are made at that local level.

And so I just encourage all voters to actually take the time to look into the candidates running for school board.

And a lot of people get a little confused because there's no Partizan affiliation to like, oh, I want to know, you know, for city council and school board.

If these people are aligned with my values or not, a lot of local parties on both sides will put out that information and identify the candidates that do align more with your values.

So I think voters taking the time to look into that research at these are also local candidates.

A lot of them will answer questions from voters, or you'll get a lot of issue related material, in your mailbox, maybe over text.

I'd say pay attention to that.

Give some thought to who would best represent your interests when they're dealing with your kids, and then all the local issues in your city as well.

Okay.

Can I add something to this?

This.

This is the Jefferson County issue.

I was looking at the school board candidates and the thing that I found really intriguing, is that there are several people running in district five.

The current chair, woman by the name of Mary Parker.

And, and she has been, endorsed, I think, by the Jefferson County or.

I'm sorry, by the, by the Democratic Party.

But if you look at what the Jefferson County Education Association is endorsing, they didn't endorse her, which I thought was really interesting and or somebody else.

And so I'm this this shows a really interesting split in and between the teachers unions and the Democratic Party, which you don't actually see very often in Jefferson County.

That's just one of the topics we talked about on the latest episode of Colorado Inside Out.

For the entire show, go to PBS 12.org, the PBS passport, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

We're currently gearing up for this week's show, so we'll see you here on PBS 12 this Friday at eight.

Have a great week.

Season one of Colorado Sound Stage takes us on a musical journey of live performances at stunning venues all over Colorado.

This PBS 12 original series showcases legendary folk band Elephant Revival, performing live at the Bluegrass Festival in Telluride.

The Rocky Mountains are a majestic backdrop.

They're filled with the smooth melodies of lead singer Bonnie Payne's voice and her band's instrumental charm.

Thanks for watching studio 12.

Don't forget, you can follow us on social media and on YouTube.

And we look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday night at eight.

I'm Bosie Kanani.

Have a great week.

Thanks so much, everybody.

This one's called sea monster.

And I. Never.

I don't like.

Monster.

I've got no allergies.

I'm just here with my other.

We've so buffered.

I'm going on.

Over to see.

I won't give up until there's sleep.

I hear voices and there's some.

Other.

Oh, lay out the difference.

It's sort of strange how unbearable things.

Go in the water.

It goes on.

I'm sorry.

I'm going to.

Oversee.

Here.

And the.

So I've come to see.

What is.

This?

What's inside?

This.

Come on.

The side.

The other one.

Oh!

In a world that might inspire how we grow.

I'm not my heart's desire.

Oh, growing up.

Come over the sea.

All I've heard.

All I have is the.

We are all up under the tree.

We are able.

Oh, we are.

Left to run.

The rise and fall is us.

Stay awake.

So let's.

Make this.

World.

So in 100 years.

When we're all dust.

Yeah.

And somebody picks up their whatever.

People find music over 100 years and they hear an eloquent final song.

What do you hope for the other?

It's a big question.

You're good.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Yeah, I think I would hope it would remind them of this or like, help them have a sense of it, be like a bridge to that or something like a reminder of the tapestry of nature that we're interwoven and that we're, you know, I see this like sub reality layer of technology being woven that's beautiful and full of potential.

And but right now, it doesn't feel like it's weaving in with what feels like what is actually going on sometimes.

And so I worry about that differentiation and getting further and further, and people kind of living in a virtual reality almost, or a two dimensional kind of binary reality that's polarized the way that we talked about, like a binary system kind of is like, either you are you aren't.

So I would hope, you know, if it's needed, that it would bring a reminder of just being.

It's all part of all of this.

We love all of you so much.

Thank you for being here.

See that down at the liquor store?

Got to drink those drop ups and some down at the Ohio River.

Oh.

Oh.

River Donna from Ohio River.

That.

Oh, oh river.

You were daddy's sunshine days.

He that I for God went down to his grave.

Mother Mary full of grace.

Won't you watch these children in my place?

I'm going under the river there.

Oh, river, I'm going under the river.

That oh, oh river.

Think that nothing could be set for some.

There's a fire in the little ones.

Lord, it burns high, Lord, in.

It burn bright.

She be the same thing comes up watching over her.

And sisters to mama and Papa.

God.

Angels have to do for mom.

Lord have mercy.

My dying days.

There's me too much leaving.

There's me to my shame.

That's my baby.

In a cold that my heart aches I'll been groping.

Oh, I feel it rise up to my throat.

Lay these troubles down.

Lift my soul I'm going to pray forgiveness.

Let me go.

Pray my children and children know not to do what I have done.

But let go.

Lay these troubles down.

Lift my soul, lift my soul.

Lift my soul.

Sometimes I feel like I'm motherless child.

Sometimes I feel.

Like I'm the first child of love.

Not so I hope.

Yay!

Yay yay.

Yay yay yay yay yay yay!

Yay yay yay yay yay.

Yay yay yay yay.

Yay.

Yay yay yay yay!

Clap your hands, clap your hands.

Clap your hands.

Half your head.

Clap your hand.

Yay.

Clap your hands, clap your hands.

Clap your head.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Freedom.

Yeah.

Freedom.

Oh.

Lift up and.

Over.

Ever tight.

Over all.

Bravo!

Lift up and over the river.

The whole.

Program.

Ha ha ha!

Thank you so much.

But.

You.