Tonight on StudioTwelve, a woman who turned heartbreak into humor and a mission to empower others.

Then it's off to the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce's Civics Bee, where we meet some of the impressive young minds who stepped up to compete.

A short film with big lessons for Colorado about fire healing and prevention.

Plus, the laws may be passed, but the debates aren't over.

Our Colorado Inside Out panel weighs in on what's next at the State Capitol, and a local band brings down the house with a soulful performance on Sounds on 29th.

It all starts right now on StudioTwelve.

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

This is StudioTwelve.

In this episode of Humanize: Women in the Workforce, we hear from a woman who turned personal pain into purpose.

Debbie Scheer was a nonprofit executive, a new mom, and suddenly a single parent starting over.

What came next was unexpected.

A stage, a mic and a whole new career, from stand up comedy to fundraising auctioneering.

She's now lifting up nonprofits and other women.

One story at a time.

My name is Debbie Scheer and I am the co-founder of Debbie Scheer Speaks.

I am a benefit auctioneer.

I'm a professional MC and a humorist.

Or as many people prefer, the name comedian.

So I was VP of Education and Training.

My now ex wife and I had adopted our first child and the salary of a nonprofit employee versus the cost of daycare was such that we decided I would stay home.

So I left my job and ended up staying home with my son.

And I was home for about, I can't remember 3 or 4 years.

And my then wife, out of the blue one night at dinner, decided to share with me that she wanted a divorce, which really now, looking back, so grateful for that revelation that she had and willingness to share because that started this trajectory.

So I was, as most people are, who get news that seemed shocking.

I was scared, nervous, unsure what was I going to do?

And I thought, I'm very scared.

I'm going to try something that feels scarier to take my mind off the first scary thing.

The scariest thing I could think of was skydiving, but that was not going to happen.

I was I had a young, two young kids, so I decided to try stand up comedy, and I did, and I made it through that first set.

And that just started the snowball to doing more comedy, creating comedy and education shows for areas that I felt there was a need.

Doing a lot of mic work, a lot of speaking, and then eventually going to auctioneering school and and now working full time as an MC and and an auctioneer.

So I partner with nonprofits as a fundraising consultant.

My love is really partnering with nonprofits, helping them create a fundraising event that's financially and emotionally meaningful.

In all seriousness, in the moment it was less expensive than therapy, which I couldn't afford in that moment.

And I love storytelling, and I think comedy is a great avenue to share stories, and I love connecting with audiences, and that's prevalent through all of my career choices.

I think what caused me to make that choice was just what else is there, and what is the worst thing that can happen.

And for a comedian, the worst thing?

Well, I will only speak for myself is nobody laughs, right?

Nobody laughs.

You don't get that reaction.

And I thought, well, if that's the worst thing, I'll probably be able to live through that.

And I will tell you, as a woman in that industry, when I got off the stage and I thought, I'm still here, I didn't pass out, I didn't.

I like all of my biggest fears.

It did open up something that said, I can probably do other things that seem out of reach for women in business.

There are a lot of risks around every corner.

I don't know if I just ignored those risks or pretended they weren't there, or just thought they're not going to be as big as I think they are, and we're just going to go for it now.

There are a lot of women in comedy, but comedy is still, you know, there are a lot of men auctioneering for sure.

There are far fewer females in auctioneering, and I see that all the time from what an older male auctioneer is allowed to look like and what he can get away with versus what females need to look like.

Just the way we conduct ourselves on stage, I feel, is always under a microscope, and I have been to events as a guest where there are white male auctioneers or male auctioneers and I think, wow, imagine if I did that on stage.

Sexist language, inappropriate behavior.

Right?

Using shame to motivate.

There seems to be a bit of a pass that's given and that a lot of that's just cultural right or expectation of what?

How a woman should look or needs to look in order to be successful is very different from our expectation of how a man shows up.

When your passion is something that you can make a living at, and you can also support your family.

That's such a gift.

And so I think that to me, being able to say I'm doing what I truly feel I'm supposed to be doing, that feels like the ultimate win, for lack of a better word.

Being a mom of two teenage males and trying to have a career, it is hard.

And that's the the thread that runs through, right?

Trying to balance all the things and having to say no to things because family first, it can be hard.

You know, sometimes we think moms are so their kids are everything.

They are.

Their kids always come first.

But it is still hard to have to pass up on something that you know is good for your career because you have a crisis at home or something's happening with your kids.

That's still a hard decision, even if it's the right decision.

I think, societally speaking, there's an expectation that moms drop everything.

They are the ones that handle anything that's happening with the family.

I'm not saying that's good, bad, right or wrong.

I just think when that's the expectation, it can be hard to say, you know?

No, let's let's pause and think about this, right?

Like I've got a balanced family career.

I have found myself recently really sitting and thinking, what's next?

What do I want to pull more of in, you know, into my life, my career.

It's been a tough thing to sit with.

It's really, where am I going to be most needed and how can I be in best service?

And I think things will shift for me a little bit, but I'm not exactly sure what that will look like.

But it's more of a something's coming and it's going to be great.

I just can't name it yet.

I'm going to be 57 next week.

And I think about yes, and I think about that a lot, especially when you're on stage and what your audience expects to see on stage.

I know we live in a world that says we need to fight ageism, which, believe me, we do, and we're just looking at content and how you can connect with the audience.

But we have all been so programed to view people in a certain way that it is hard.

I know male auctioneers that are working well into their 70s.

I don't know a lot of women who are doing that.

I definitely wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. and I think, are things really going to be okay?

Let's see what can occupy my brain for two hours.

But I have learned over the course of years, right, going through a scary divorce, not knowing what's going to happen, not knowing what my career would look like, and and at each milestone, I've really tried to sit down and say, let's look at where you were and where you are now and remind yourself everything's going to be okay.

Comparison culture is so incredibly harmful and I don't think anything good comes from it.

I have friends who say no, it makes you more competitive and your drive I disagree.

I think it creates a lot of anxiety and a lot of depression.

Two things that I battle with, and I don't think that's helpful.

Going back to social media, what we see out there is such a a carefully crafted marketing images, right.

What it needs to look like.

Find your tribe.

If we can truly support women in the ways that we need to be supported for each other, which might be you're supporting a competitor and that might not feel great initially, but you're you're really building a community.

We will all be okay.

Debbie story touches on the challenges working moms face, the gender gaps that still exist in business, and the courage it takes to keep going.

To find out more about Debbie, you can visit her website.

DebbieScheerSpeaks.com.

And for more stories that elevate everyday voices across Colorado, you can catch our Humanize: Women in the Workforce series right here on PBS12.

If you've ever wondered what the next generation of leaders in our state could look like, take a peek at the Denver Metro Chambers Civics Bee.

Middle school students from across the region stepped up to the mic to answer tough questions about government, history and civic responsibility, all for the opportunity to win money for their schools and their own educations.

The emcee of the event was our very own Kyle Dyer from Colorado Inside Out.

Take a look and see if you could answer the questions.

We have sixth, seventh, and eighth graders from the metro area here who've been studying for months on all things U.S. history, government, civics, you name it.

These kids have been studying.

Some are pretty nervous.

Some are very confident.

I'm not nervous about my knowledge because I feel that I'm prepared for this.

I'm not nervous about questions because I think I've prepared very well for it.

I'm a little bit nervous about, like, talking in front of a bunch of, like, judges and stuff.

Basically, I'm kind of concerned if I make it to around three, I'm going to have to give a speech.

I'm Sameen and I'm from Texas.

I'm nervous about the test a little bit, and I'm not nervous about.

I don't know.

Avery loves school.

Always has loves learning new things.

She's going to say she doesn't love school, but she she loves to learn new things.

And see what she can remember.

Yeah, I wrote down a lot of the definitions so that I could just glue them into my brain a lot.

And yeah, that really helped.

She can make herself so I don't have to be on top of her to study for anything I. Avery does all by herself, which is great.

Oh.

It's exciting.

This is a great opportunity.

And I'm really.

Proud that she's.

You know, made it.

This far.

So my dad and I are very proud of her.

Hi.

I'm Catherine, and I'm here to talk about a problem in my community that involves the roads being unsafe.

I'm excited about civics because I've always been, like, super interested.

Ever since I was little.

Like, just dealing with how the government works.

And I remember when I first learned about like three branches of government, I was always like, oh, this is so cool.

And so it was just kind of cool to, like, deep in my knowledge with everything and to just in general, like know more and be more understanding of how like our government works.

I like civics because it's really important to learn about the history of our country.

I really like history.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The younger generation mostly, I think, does not really know that much about civics, and I hope they get to learn more.

All right.

Here's the first question.

What does the Supremacy Clause, an article six state?

A the president must approve all laws be Congress has more power than the president.

C states are free to create their own laws without restrictions.

Or D the Constitution is the highest law in the country.

Question eight John Marshall, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, significantly shaped American constitutional law through which landmark case is it?

A Dred Scott versus Sandford, B Marbury versus Madison, C Plessy versus Ferguson, or D Korematsu versus United States.

The answer is B Marbury versus Madison.

We have three way tie.

So do we let all six go?

Let's all six go.

All right, you guys ready?

Okay.

To get here today, the students had to write very complete essays on topics that, suddenly they're concerned about right now.

So wildfire prevention as we're getting ready for the summer season.

Homelessness, affordable housing, ice detention.

One solution to this problem would be to raise awareness, because.

Again, these are six seventh and eighth graders who are tackling some pretty tough topics that we as adults are trying to figure out.

Every finals provide a three sentence summary of the AC topic they wrote, and then followed by three minutes of questions from our judges.

The leading cause of pollution in Denver is air pollution caused by vehicle emissions.

Currently, there are very few incentives to use alternative transportation choices.

Using the civic virtues, moderation, honor and responsibility and the founding principles limited government, free enterprise and individual responsibility.

I propose a rewards based app to encourage eco friendly transportation choices.

Hi everyone!

So Colorado faces a significant challenge with excessive water use for lawn irrigation.

And to address this, I propose the Colorado, Colorado Water Conservation Landscaping Act, which would mandate zero scaping in at least 40% of new, landscaping and limit grass to 25%.

By collaborating collaborating with organizations such as Denver Water, the City Council, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

These this incentive would use founding principles such as natural rights and civic virtue, such as moderation and responsibility to ensure safer water for future generations.

Hi, my name is Emma Hammon, and I will be talking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in schools.

The threat of Ice raids in schools is widening the education gap and threatening family unity.

To address this issue, I propose creating safety networks within schools near me, like Denver Public Schools and Cherry Creek School District.

The schools and I would partner with very various organizations, such as Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition, to offer mandated new rights courses in schools.

Denver Health to offer free mental health support to students.

And Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network to offer free legal help to any families who might be in need.

Additionally, I would reach out to my senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and advocate for a law to be passed that once again restricts Ice from entering safe spaces, such as hospitals, schools, and places of worship.

My solution relies upon the founding principles of equality and inalienable rights, and the civic virtues of justice and responsibility.

My solution ensures all students feel safe and protected while at schools, while being able to keep their dignity.

Now, the winner today will go on to a state competition at the end of May.

The winner from that will go to the national championship in the fall in Washington, D.C.. Today's first place winner and the recipient of a $2,500 cash prize.

Congratulations to Emerson of Kent, Denver.

Congratulations, Emerson.

You all did such an exceptional job, though, everyone.

My name is Emerson Hammond, and I just won the civic ski for Denver.

I was pretty nervous while we were on the iPads and up there.

I try to read the questions as best as I could and and and enter logically.

Yeah, it was a little nerve wracking, but also really cool because I got to meet a lot of new kids who were also interested in civics.

States in May, and I'll keep studying for that.

And then if I win that, I think you go to D.C., which that sounds far away.

I've never been to D.C. and I'd be cool to go there, but just looking forward to the next competition, not thinking too far ahead.

I thought today was a real celebration of freedom, celebration of American form of government, and challenging for all of us, both adults and our young people alike.

Let's see how much how knowledgeable are we on what our Constitution says, what the Declaration of Independence means, and what responsibility we have as citizens in the United States to be engaged in public policy and civic ventures?

So great to see our future leaders show their knowledge and poise.

The statewide civics P is coming up on Friday, May 30th and will be cheering on these students every step of the way.

In tonight's heart of the West segment, we meet a talented local stop motion artist, Charlie Fasano.

Last month, Charlie got the chance to project his hand drawn stop motion film onto the iconic clock tower.

It's all part of a Denver Arts and Venues program, giving local artists a larger than life platform to share their work.

So I'm just going to go ahead and go for it.

My name is Charlie Fasano and I'm an artist from Denver, Colorado.

Visual artist is fairly new in the last like ten years, I think, but I usually, I read a lot of poetry, and I used to roll around Denver and read on stage with a lot of bands.

Like a lot of punk and indie bands.

And I saw, I was online one day and I saw a, replay of the Rubber Ducky with, Ernie and I just, I was like, what better positive thing and funny, goofy thing than a rubber duck?

You know, it changes a lot of people's day.

There's a lot of memories associated.

My name is David Moak, and I am the director of Night Lights Denver.

Night Lights Denver is a permanent projection program happening in downtown Denver.

So this started, about November 2019, after being the works for a few years as a way for us to kind of just do cool stuff downtown with a wonderful partner like the Daniels and Fisher Tower.

People are really interested as they walk down the mall and, because it's so big and there's people from a lot of different places that have been looking at it.

So it's that's that's very exciting.

It is built as part and attached to something else.

So you see like a, Macy's style department store.

There are ten projectors.

Each one is 21,000 lumens, for a total of 210,000 lumens, or 210,000 candles, where the light on the side of the tower.

Who wouldn't want their work on a screen that big?

You know, it's absolutely huge.

Each month there's a new show.

It shows about ten minutes.

Sometimes I curate, sometimes I guest curators.

You know, just kind of emailed them and went through the process.

And it's very, very easy and seamless, actually.

There are currently five artworks playing, I believe, right now, all of which are generally made with some stop motion animation in some way.

So there is kind of a theme to it, but really it's just fun programing for the public.

I was in Chicago.

I didn't have any money.

I lived there for two years and I started getting more interested in just doing, VOC printing because I didn't have any money to go enjoy the great city.

From there, I just kind of started doing a little bit more animation, and I kind of got fell in love with the rustic look of kind of just, stop action animation.

It's like the perfect night out right now.

It's type of thing, too.

So is that element of just like, I don't know, it's just nice.

You got, you know, sun setting.

For this little handout project in the big bath.

I did 500.

I've got about maybe 75 of them left.

And in these little duck drawings I made just to celebrate with my friends from Denver.

Yeah.

Cheers.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Fun for everyone.

But there is something really cool about seeing art you make and your computer blown up 140ft tall and 40ft wide.

Yeah, you see that?

I made that, and then I made these little ducks that are in the movie to hand to people like you know.

If you're just walking down the mall just to walk over here versus, you know, on 14th or something, you.

Know, I did a little film and yeah, it's a program that it's called Night Lights Denver and they, take submissions from artists to small project it up every month.

Yeah.

Let me see.

Thanks, buddy.

I appreciate that.

But if you're already downtown coming out for a theater show or coming to dinner, you can stop by after dark and see, you know, even a portion of our program and get a pretty cool artistic experience.

That's right.

You see that right at the top?

There's lights in that corner.

Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of big.

I'm Charlie from the corner.

Nice to meet you.

You.

Thanks for the interest that people up.

Hey, middle, take a look at this guy.

How are you doing, man?

Good.

How are you?

Let me show you his work.

But there is one that is his work up on that building.

Right, Charlie.

Your name?

Jonas.

Jonas.

Great media man.

Nice talking to you.

It's fun to, like, interact.

Is there, like, how did you do it?

There's a lot of questions.

I think people have lost touch with just interaction and having just a simple little conversation or just a moment or, you know, like the little kids.

That's fun.

The family gets kind of like, oh, cool, you know, and that's, that's, that's I think, post-Covid and from Covid on, I think a lot of people like lost that.

So anyone, whether they're a dancer, a videographer, an animator, you know, an illustrator that's learning animation, or even an artist that's always wanted to dabble into motion based work.

They can go to nightlights, denver.com, reach out to me, social media as well.

And I can send my packet that has information on how to you know, move forward.

Charlie's quirky short film featured rubber ducks, and it made a huge splash in Denver's public art scene.

To learn more about Charlie, you can go to walk off hot.com.

And if you're an artist looking to be part of the citywide canvass, Denver Arts and Venues is currently accepting submissions to be featured on the clock Tower.

are taking you to Southern Oregon now for a powerful short film that shows how fire, when used wisely, can actually heal the land.

Burning to heal tells the story of community members, landowners, and firefighters who are using prescribed burns to recover from devastating wildfires and to protect against the next one.

And while this story takes place in Oregon, this message hits close to home here in Colorado as we head into wildfire season.

This film was one we proudly featured from the Colorado Environmental Film Festival last month.

Here's a look.

It's really important to understand that fire is in our future, how we deal with that reality.

That's an emotional process, but it's also an educational process.

And, you know, with the broadcast burning, we're doing.

It can also be an experience or process.

I think that one of the benefits of doing community led broadcast burns, prescribed burns is the ability to reclaim what fire means for people.

You know, now, with the way that the fire crisis is going, a lot of people are looking for answers and trying to figure out how they can make their communities safer, make the land healthier.

This is about community empowerment.

It's about a community making decisions for itself, for the kind of future that it wants.

Living with fire.

We're in southern Oregon for us here on the road Valley.

When we think of fire.

Often the first thing we think about is how many homes we lost in 2020.

It had been a red flag day all over the state.

There was a lot of loss that day.

There were over 2500 homes burned.

The majority of the affordable housing in our valley were wiped out in a single day.

My family was evacuated.

I was off duty but went down to help, as did virtually everybody in my department.

I ended up working that night on my road.

So the fire line was my road where my house is.

It's challenging even now, you know, to, work through the the social impacts, you know, on the schools, the community.

So it was a huge impact here, and really reshaped and redefined how we dealt with the entire community sense.

I think both personally and professionally, the silver lining with the Almeda fire is that it raised awareness of the risks in our area, in our state.

I think for a lot of people, that was a really traumatizing event, of course.

And it's led to a lot of thinking about what can we do to avoid that.

How can we move forward, and have a different relationship with fire, one that's not based on fear and waiting for the inevitable smoke plumes that are going to come in in July and August and September and waiting for fires to happen.

But instead we can re-envision our relationship with fire so that it looks something more like this.

Yeah, it would be.

Hard to, with a straight face, advocate for certain approaches to wildfire mitigation if we didn't have it, experience it ourselves.

I'm a rural landowner, and I figure I should go through it first so I know what I'm talking about when I recommend this kind of practice to another person myself.

This has been about a 12 year process, asking questions about what the land might want, what the land might benefit from, and then asking with the new lens of okay, how do I, manage it for us?

How do I steward a forest?

And hopefully I'll be able to take that experience, and that education that I've gleaned and, you know, pay it forward to my neighbors.

We've gone through and mechanically thinned, probably at 50 acres at this point.

Bringing Back Fire is sort of one of the the final steps.

And, we're going to be doing a community led broadcast burn.

When I brought the Rogue Valley, prescribed Burn Association, when I brought Aaron up here.

He was like, well, this is ready to go.

And I was just really excited.

So you see, the mechanical fuel reduction didn't remove all the fine fuels that generally carry wildfire.

And so if a wildfire came through here now, it still could rage at a high intensity.

So using controlled burning to come through and consume the fine fuels helped make this stand safer in the future.

For a long time, it's been difficult for people to do prescribed fire on private land.

You know, that's just the way it was.

Was fire belong to professionals only, and you needed to have expert qualifications.

And it made it seem like there was no role for the ordinary landowner community member to access this kind of knowledge, this kind of tool.

And so obviously, a landowner can't just do this by themselves.

It takes a village.

It takes a whole community to make this happen.

So now we're helping to put that back in the hands of people with the right skill, the right equipment, and following all the appropriate permitting processes and so on.

So who is here?

This is your first prescribed burn.

Oh look around nine.

Welcome.

Exciting.

One of the things that's really valuable about the prescribed burn association, and the way that we facilitate prescribed burns with bringing such a wide range of experience, is just actual, genuine skill sharing where it's like, okay, you you live here, you live in this area.

Fire is part of where we live.

You've got to learn how it works.

Who's here to learn?

You?

Who's here to teach?

There's a trick question.

You should raise your hand both times.

All of you.

We all have something to share, and we all have something to learn.

Generally, when we see flames, we're thinking about how best to stop them.

You know, where do we put people, vehicles, water to put them out as quickly as possible?

In this case, it was a shift where I'm helping folks put fire on the ground to create a safer, more resilient, healthier environment.

And so for me, it was it was a shift, for sure.

But once we got underway and, work through the process, it felt comfortable.

You know, prescribed burn is essentially the opposite of a wildfire.

So when a wildfire starts, it's usually pushed by the wind or it's going upslope and it runs really fast.

And so what we're doing with a prescribed fire is we're doing the opposite.

We start it at the top of the hill, and then we're making it come down the slope.

Bit by bit we're taking little chunks here.

One after another, little strips until we get all the way to the bottom.

This was my first day on a prescribed burn, and coming from the suppression world, it was, an interesting shift in my thinking.

People are very cautious because there's a long term vision for this.

It's not worth taking any kind of risks.

There were moments when, you know, this suppression side of me wanted to do something about, you know, the heat of the fire.

And I had to learn techniques on how to use the fire, you know, the drip torches to kind of control the amount of heat and where fire was actually going.

Somebody who it's their first day on a fire line.

Any kind of fire line are encouraged if they want to pick up a drip torch and guided by somebody who knows what they're doing, walk through a seven acre unit and, you know, strategically lay a good fire on the ground.

And that's an very rare opportunity, which is something that's really special and unique about this project.

This isn't the first time I personally have used the torch.

I grew up on a reservation and just using fire in this way, if I call it good fire.

I think a lot of my other Co crew leaves and other members being able to use the torch for the very first time in their whole life.

Just put a smile to my face and they were happy.

And that makes me happy.

When you see fire and you look at the landscape, you see what it is naturally consumed and it translates really well to structure, defense and making your home defensible, because then you're able to see what fire would consume and you're able to cut that yourself.

It kind of demystifies the like, oh, for fire safety, we have to clear cut just straight up outright.

All the trees are the problem when it's like, no, it's because we've delved into such a culture of repression for 100 years or so.

Being able to use all of this knowledge that we only had is knowledge we now have as experience.

This learning experience for them and me is beyond invaluable.

That was probably our biggest takeaway for the day.

Tucker was fortunate enough to get a large grant to get the mechanical fuel reduction done on his property, so he didn't have to pay for all of it.

But moving forward, all of this brush is going to grow back.

But thankfully, because he had the prescribed burn association come out and do this burn, he can now maintain it much more economically than if you were to try and do mechanical fuel reduction again in the future, because it's unlikely that he would get a grant again in the future.

This whole area around us, the West Bear Project, has had millions of dollars of fuel reduction work done just recently, in the past few years.

And so if prescribed burning is not used to maintain that work, the fuels are all going to grow back and all that money is going to have been wasted.

If you're going to hire a contract crew, a mechanical fuel work is something in the 1600 to $2300 an acre range and control burning.

If you're hiring a contractor who would probably be in the $800,000 an acre range.

And the work we did today was in the, buy some soda and sandwiches for everybody who volunteer range and pay for the drip torches.

So it's a much more cost effective way to do this work as well.

This isn't a simple one step process.

People who were here first, the people who came before us, have been using fire to their benefit for really ever for for time immemorial, right?

But I do want to make sure that we acknowledge and respect the fact that we are relearning what those people have been practicing.

We need to reevaluate our relationship to fire and learn how we can actually do good with it.

A lot of people came out here to see fire on the ground.

They wanted to take part.

What I said is, I'm here to see community.

I'm here to see what the future could look like when we work together as communities, as neighbors, agencies, fire departments, everybody working together to make this happen.

This isn't easy.

It took a lot of planning.

It took a lot of people agreeing that the vision of this community is a realistic and responsible one, and I see happy people working together, getting to know each other, feeling a sense of accomplishment that they're going to go home tonight knowing that their community's a little bit safer and the landscape around them is a little bit healthier.

But everybody coming together behind this vision.

So that's the thing that really is inspiring to me.

The collaborative nature of controlled burning with a prescribed burn association is absolutely critical that we have partners that are involved.

Landowners can't do this on their own.

Community members can't do it on their own.

Us providing water to us.

It's no big deal.

But to them it meant a lot.

So that's where coming together, you know, different groups, different agencies, different people, can really have huge benefits.

People should kind of work together to do it themselves and build this community cohesiveness.

That's really the goal of this.

And the prescribed burn association can actually spread to many prescriber associations.

We shouldn't have a Rogue Valley Prescriber Association.

We should have an Anderson Creek prescriber, an association, a Wagner Creek prescriber, an association.

Each neighborhood should work together to protect their own community.

So that's kind of this democratization of prescribed burning so that we don't have to have big groups coming down to donate lots of money to do fuel reduction work for us every 15 years or 20 years, because that's not sustainable.

We need to kind of take responsibility for it and have communities actually work towards this goal of community resilience on their own.

My hope is that in the future, what this landowner has done here and what the prescribed burn association has done, will expand or people will do what we did here today.

Know, I always think you should leave it better than you found it.

It took us years and years and decades and decades to get into where we are now, with the wildfire risk in the Pacific Northwest, and it's going to take us years and years and decades and decades to get out of it.

I think that doing this kind of work is just one step in that really long process.

I'm hoping that when my kid comes of age and he's the steward of this land, that I'll have left in a better place for him.

You know, he can move forward and build off what I built.

If you're actively managing land and you're actively managing a forest, that work never stops.

It's not a one and done thing.

You have to continuously come back and ask and question to make the right choices for the land.

The film Burning to Heal demonstrated how fire, when managed correctly, can be a tool for healing and prevention.

As Colorado braces for what's often the highest risk part of wildfire season, this story offers insight into how communities can reclaim fire for good.

You can watch this documentary again and other films like it on the PBS app.

Passport app.

After four months and more than 500 bills to consider, the Colorado legislative session has officially wrapped up.

But as our Colorado Inside Out panel explains, that doesn't mean the work is done from a possible special session to the impacts of controversial EI regulations as they break down what really matters.

The policy debate may have paused, but the conversation is just getting started.

Here's this week's segment of Colorado inside Out with Kyle Dyer.

Hello and welcome to the set of Colorado Inside Out, which is quiet right now, as is the state Capitol.

After 120 days and the passage of around 500 bills.

The legislative session is over.

Thankfully, our insiders can dissect what we all need to know and a not so policy wonk kind of way.

And that's important because every policy decision made at the Capitol impacts all of us.

Here's a listen.

I think the golden oldie See You in September could have been the theme song as the first regular session of the 75th Colorado General Assembly came to an end this week, because lawmakers are likely to return in four months to deal with a few more issues.

That being said, a lot did happen over the last four months.

More than 500 bills were passed.

Adam will let me know for sure and what transpired affects all of us and Patty.

It was also interesting because this session it seemed as though Democrats in the state Capitol were a little more likely to challenge Governor Polis.

Well, since he isn't running again, they don't necessarily need his support.

They can offend him or at least ignore him for a while, but I think he will get his revenge.

And we're going to see that because he will call a special session.

There's no question there are two really good reasons for right now.

One is the Medicare cuts that are proposed.

They're so huge.

And we thought it was tough balancing the budget this year.

We're going to be looking at another billion at least.

Probably that will have to come out of Colorado's budget.

So come September when we really know what Congress has done, it will be a good time for a special session.

The other issue is fascinating, which is they waited too long to really deal with the changes to Abe I, which were the problems were made last session.

The bill they passed last session really didn't work.

Polis is worried technologies worried that it's going to really dampen economic development for Colorado.

So we think we'll see that come up again.

The only thing that's always true about the legislature is it's not over till it's over, and then it's still not over.

We have all these laws of unintended consequences, and we're seeing that right now with last year's AI bill.

As you were noting, almost nearly 500 bills passed by lawmakers and 120 days, they dealt with a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, which is also no small feat.

And over and over, we heard about, you know, how expensive the states becoming, how expensive medicaid's coming school financing, which voters seem to really want a full financing plan.

And so lawmakers yes, they did some good this year, but they also did some stuff that it's questionable about whether or not it's going to save Coloradans money or lead to better outcomes across the state.

Two notable, I think, losses for the governor this year.

One was Yaqub, which is the yes, in God's backyard movement to allow religious institutions to build housing on their property.

We saw the Senate choose to essentially kill that bill.

And this was another one of sort of the governor backed ideas about pushing housing and housing affordability in the state.

The other was, 1302, which dealt with a, fee on homeowner's insurance policies.

1% that would have gone towards, hail damage and sort of wildfire mitigation.

Again, another conversation of a fee.

And, Laura, I know you're focused on a lot of these housing issues.

Sure.

And that's where I was going to focus on the wins and the losses.

And to Adam's point about, the insurance fee that was defeated.

I agree, it just felt like it missed the mark.

If if the issue is affordability of housing.

Certainly insurance is a component of that, but not really addressing income restricted, folks in the urban communities.

It just seemed like it was not, lined up with where the greatest need is.

One I am hopeful for, for affordability is the construction defect law, which has which was put in place, I believe, in 2008 was try.

They have tried at least once or try twice to fix it keeps falling and stumbling.

We continue to have an enormous gap in, in a product that allows people to purchase condos from rental to move into condos, and perhaps one day they want to be go into single family.

But at least there's another option.

And right now it's not on the table.

We'll see if this construction defect law, actually addresses that.

Okay.

All right.

Carly.

Another, interesting bill that came up was House Bill 1297.

This would have added or actually increased an existing fee on health insurance that you get, primarily folks who are getting it through their employer in the small or medium sized businesses, and it would have increased the amount that that fee is by a few hundred dollars a year for every family who gets it, from their employer.

So it's an affordability fee.

It would have gone to a couple of other programs, but at the end of the day, it would have definitely driven up the cost of health insurance across Colorado.

And it's not the only area where we've seen kind of the focus on affordability go in a direction that we're like, is that affordable?

We also saw a proposal that never got legs.

It never got introduced, but a proposal to bump up Colorado's, 100% clean electricity requirement by a decade.

We're already looking under current law at cost of electricity rates rising at three times the rate of inflation.

So to increase the rate at which we're going to adopt new technology by a decade, there's no way that that wouldn't have driven cost for Coloradans.

Says they pay for energy.

And Patty mentioned the Medicaid situation that we're going to have to go into a special session to discuss, but more about the I, I'm just curious.

I think the average person out there is so confused about what AI is about.

What are we regulating?

Why is it so important that we figure this out?

Because the new the law that was passed last year, it's supposed to take effect early this coming year.

Right.

So what's the story on this?

Why is it so important to figure out in the special session?

Yeah.

So the as you know, that this very sweeping sort of first in the nation law around consumers and AI and transparency about when a company is using AI passed last year for Majority Leader Rodriguez.

So, the governor issued a letter when he signed the bill last year saying, you know, lawmakers need to come back.

And there was a lot of concern.

There's a lot of ambiguity in this bill.

We need more clarity.

So we waited all session for a bill to come.

And, you know, we get the bill in the final couple of weeks.

And then the lawmaker, the same sponsors last year postpones it.

And so that's left us where we are now, which is this February 1st, 2026, 2026 deadline.

The bill is so complicated that it's sort of being prefaced is if you use any kind of software, you know, I is not particularly well defined.

You may fall under the rules that are going to govern this bill.

And so it's left a lot of businesses with a lack of surety around what to do, in the interim.

So what do businesses do in the meantime?

In the meantime?

We're trying to figure it out, but it definitely raises questions because under current law, there's potential liability for a business if you're just using an off the shelf product that you don't necessarily know has AI embedded in that system somewhere.

But if it does, that creates a liability for you in terms of needing to disclose certain things that you're utilizing it for and a host of other things.

And when you look at last year's bill that passed, it's like putting a speed limit on horse and buggy.

When we're all now moving in fast cars, things change so fast.

Just when you were looking at your own email, when all of a sudden on your phone, you're getting you're getting AI, you're getting things translated.

That wasn't happening a year ago.

So we are looking at a very obsolete bill already that will take effect February 1st.

If you want to listen to the rest of our conversation, you can find Colorado Inside Out at PBS 12.org on the PBS passport app or on our YouTube channel.

And you can also listen to our podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

And of course, there's the good old TV.

You can catch Colorado Inside Out every Friday at eight right here on PBS 12.

Tonight on sounds on 29th.

We're featuring the high energy, soul powered sound of the hip snacks.

This six piece, Denver based band performed at the legendary Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom.

We also got to sit down with the band and get to know them a little better.

Thanks for watching studio 12.

Be sure to follow us on social media and on YouTube.

We'll see you next Tuesday at 8 p.m.. Until then, have a great week!

I'm Bazzi Kanani.

You see, you gotta leave again.

On day two, please be the.

Same as before.

My love I'll be.

Here with me tomorrow.

My love endures.

And still not to me.

You knew me for today.

I found to be set.

Up, up, up up, up.

Hey.

So don't you go back to it for me.

Give it a shot.

I think you know.

The things here at home.

In through the big skies.

It won't matter in my.

Love I'll be.

Here with you.

No.

Nothing will be shown to me.

And you will be here.

I'll show up on his head.

Up up up up up.

Tease.

Hey!

So get your head away.

Be.

Me.

Hey!

Half on a piece.

Up unfurled.

High up on a piece.

Hey.

So don't you go to.

Your content.

Up, up, up I got a piece.

Hey.

So don't you go that way.

You go.

Hey, wait.

No delay.

But you all started playing together when.

Well, we got to, We're actually just got married about a month ago, and.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And so we got together about 11 years ago, and.

For a long time.

Yeah.

But so we were together about five years before Carol let out that she could sing really well.

I had heard it once through the shower wall, but I had never, had her in a band with me, and I was touring with other projects and stuff.

Yeah.

And as soon as she wanted to sing.

Yeah, yeah.

So, Carol, you started singing.

You started singing even before that, so.

Right.

Yeah, I've been singing since I was little.

Was in church choirs and school choirs and all that stuff.

So I was used to singing with a bunch of women, and, I was just scared to go off on my own.

Even though we had been seeing live music since I was like 15 years old.

Consistently, I would just see these ladies up on stage and I was like, man, I want to do that so bad.

I was just petrified, to be honest.

And it took five years and I was dating and he was just everyday like, you should do it, you can do it.

And then, one day in 2018, we just I just said, okay, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it.

I finally got there.

And here we are.

So in that time you have now reinterpret yourself as an artist who could, like, front a band.

I'm getting there.

Yeah, I'm still working on that.

But, But, yeah.

No, I'm I'm much more comfortable now, and it really helps to play with guys who are fun and supportive and kind, and it makes everything so much more enjoyable.

Me you don't have to have.

You just lend.

A hand to help.

See right through my back.

As far as I can tell.

And there's not been three times what lies ahead.

And we don't need to read minds.

But it was.

This might be three times what lies ahead.

We don't need to read out anything.

It's hard for me to know it.

But I still.

See the times we used to talk our names.

And it was a place in time.

Tell each other story for two things.

It's hard for me to know that I just hear I'm fine.

These my being three times.

What lies ahead.

We don't need.

To be nice.

But if you.

Owe me in the three times.

If you start to drift.

We don't need to read minds.

They we you and.

You bedside at home and I don't know I when I gonna grow old.

My life is past nine.

Used to talk for hours.

You don't even know I past you on the corner I wish you read my mind.

But now I'm us.

Stuck in.

Love.

Oh, us.

Every time it's free time.

What lies ahead.

When I read my eyes.

Let me see.

Cash flow through the three times.

Who cares?

It's in your head.

We don't need to revise everything I say.

Hey, if you say anything I would say it would say.

It.

And then.

You.

You you you.

You.

You.