Podcast appearances and mentions of John Hickenlooper

9News obtained footage of US marshals boarding a crowded RTD bus on Colfax to capture an escapee from Aurora's ICE detention facility. So on this week's Friday news round-up, our politics and green chile correspondent Justine Sandoval joins us to talk about the latest local developments in the federal immigration crackdown — from the ACLU's legal challenge to deportations to the precarity of transportation funding. Then a listener asks: Do you have to be “quirky” to become governor of Colorado? Plus, Juneteenth's funding cuts, a major abortion clinic closes, and more wins and fails of the week.  Bree mentioned the Westword story “Satan Sheets,” an immersive Titanic exhibit, the Fat & Fresh market happening this weekend, the Throughline episode on the Alien Enemies Act, Dr. Warren Hern's retirement, and the documentary “After Tiller.” Paul referenced this NYT article about John Hickenlooper's 2020 presidential campaign, the Juneteenth Music Festival's funding trouble, and Rep. Emily Sirota's work to pass CO's new “junk fees” law. Justine talked about the National Womens Soccer League stadium's funding getting one step closer to a full City Council vote.  Get more from City Cast Denver when you become a City Cast Denver Neighbor! You'll enjoy perks like ad-free listening, invitations to members only events and more. Join now at membership.citycast.fm  For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Watch the Friday show on YouTube: youtube.com/@citycastdenver Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm/Denver Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: PineMelon - Use code CITYCAST for 75% off! Denver Art Museum Aura Frames - Get $35-off plus free shipping on the Carver Mat frame with Promo Code CITYCAST Babbel - Get up to 60% off at Babbel.com/CITYCAST Cozy Earth - Use code COZYDENVER for 40% off best-selling sheets, towels, pajamas, and more. Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kristi Burton-Brown, Colorado state board of education member for the 4th Congressional District, fills in for Dan and discusses the waffling of several Democrats on the pending continuing resolution before the Senate after passage in the House.Democrats also still can't find their footing in their opposition to Donald Trump, picking losing hills to die on time after time.

Thank you, everybody.  Please have a seat.  You guys can sit down, too.  (Laughter.) Let me begin by saying thank you to a few people -- first of all, your outstanding Governor, Bill Ritter.  Please give Bill a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  Lieutenant Governor Barbara O'Brien.  (Applause.)  Secretary of State Bernie Buescher.  (Applause.)  Your outstanding Mayor, John Hickenlooper.  (Applause.)  Your new Senator, Michael Bennett.  (Applause.)  Your old senator, now my Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar.  (Applause.)  Mark Udall is not here, but give him a round of applause anyway.  (Applause.) One of the outstanding leaders who helped shepherd this process through in record time -- please give Max Baucus of Montana a big round of applause.  Thank you, Max.  (Applause.)  To Secretary Federico Pena, one of my national co-chairs -- I would not be here if it were not for Federico.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  To Representative Diana DeGette, who is a -- we are in her district.  So, thank you so much.  (Applause.)  Representative Betsy Markey.  (Applause.)  Representative Jared Polis.  (Applause.)  Representative Ed Perlmutter.  (Applause.) To all the other elected officials and outstanding leaders who are here.  And to the whole Namaste family and Mr. Jones for outstanding work, congratulations.  Give them a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  And to the best Vice President that we've had in a long time -- Joe Biden.  (Applause.)It is great to be back in Denver.  (Applause.)  I was here last summer -- we had a good time -- (laughter) -- to accept the nomination of my party and to make a promise to people of all parties that I would do all that I could to give every American the chance to make of their lives what they will; to see their children climb higher than they did.  And I'm back today to say that we have begun the difficult work of keeping that promise.  We have begun the essential work of keeping the American Dream alive in our time.  And that's why we're here today.  (Applause.)Now, I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems.  Nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around.  But today does mark the beginning of the end -- the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; the beginning of what we need to do to provide relief for families worried they won't be able to pay next month's bills; the beginning of the first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that I will sign today -- a plan that meets the principles I laid out in January -- is the most sweeping economic recovery package in our history. It's the product of broad consultation and the recipient of broad support -- from business leaders, unions, public interest groups, from the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as the AFL-CIO.  (Applause.)  From Democrats and Republicans, mayors as well as governors.  It's a rare thing in Washington for people with such diverse and different viewpoints to come together and support the same bill.   And on behalf of our nation, I want to thank all of them for it, including your two outstanding Senators, Michael Bennett and Mark Udall, as well as all the members of your congressional delegation.  They did an outstanding job and they deserve a big round of applause.  (Applause.) I also want to thank Joe Biden for working behind the scenes from the very start to make this recovery act possible.  I want to thank Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid for acting so quickly and for proving that Congress could step up to this challenge. I have special thanks to Max Baucus, who's the Chairman of the Finance Committee.  Without Max, none of this would have happened.  He had to work overtime, and push his committee to work overtime.  And I want to thank all the committee chairs and members of Congress for coming up with a plan that is both bold and balanced enough to meet the demands of this moment.  The American people were looking to them for leadership, and that's what they provided.Now, what makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, including 60,000-plus here in Colorado.  It's that we're putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done –- (applause) -- in critical areas that have been neglected for too long; work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.Because we know we can't build our economic future on the transportation and information networks of the past, we are remaking the American landscape with the largest new investment in our nation's infrastructure since Eisenhower built an Interstate Highway System in the 1950s.  (Applause.)  Because of this investment, nearly 400,000 men and women will go to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our faulty dams and levees, bringing critical broadband connections to businesses and homes in nearly every community in America, upgrading mass transit, building high-speed rail lines that will improve travel and commerce throughout our nation.Because we know America can't out-compete the world tomorrow if our children are being out-educated today, we're making the largest investment in education in our nation's history.  (Applause.)  It's an investment that will create jobs building 21st century classrooms and libraries and labs for millions of children across America.  It will provide funds to train a new generation of math and science teachers, while giving aid to states and school districts to stop teachers from being laid off and education programs from being cut. In a place like New York City, 14,000 teachers who were set to be let go may now be able to continue pursuing their critical mission.  It's an investment that will create a new $2,500 annual tax credit to put the dream of a college degree within reach for middle-class families and make college affordable for 7 million students -- (applause) -- helping more of our sons and daughters aim higher, reach further, fulfill their God-given potential.  (Applause.)Because we know that spiraling health care costs are crushing families and businesses alike, we're taking the most meaningful steps in years towards modernizing our health care system.  It's an investment that will take the long overdue step of computerizing America's medical records to reduce the duplication and waste that costs billions of health care dollars, and medical errors that cost thousands of lives each year.Further, thanks to the actions we've taken, 7 million Americans who lost their health care along the way will continue to get the coverage they need, and roughly 20 million more Americans can breathe a little easier knowing that their health care won't be cut due to a state budget shortfall.  And a historic commitment to wellness initiatives will keep millions of Americans from setting foot in the doctor's office in the first place -- because these are preventable diseases and we're going to invest in prevention.  (Applause.)So taken together with the enactment earlier this month of a long-delayed law to extend health care to millions more children of working families -- (applause) -- we have done more in 30 days to advance the cause of health care reform than this country has done in an entire decade.  And that's something we should be proud of.  (Applause.)Because we know we can't power America's future on energy that's controlled by foreign dictators, we are taking big steps down the road to energy independence, laying the groundwork for new green energy economies that can create countless well-paying jobs.  It's an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years.  Think about that -- double the amount of renewable energy in three years.  (Applause.)  Provide tax credits and loan guarantees to companies like Namaste, a company that will be expanding, instead of laying people off, as a result of the plan that I'm about to sign.And in the process, we will transform the way we use energy. Today, the electricity we use is carried along a grid of lines and wires that date back to Thomas Edison -- a grid that can't support the demands of this economy.  This means we're using 19th and 20th century technologies to battle 21st century problems like climate change and energy security.  It also means that places like North Dakota can -- that can produce a lot of wind energy can't deliver it to communities that want it, leading to a gap between how much clean energy we are using and how much we could be using.The investment we're making today will create a newer, smarter electric grid that will allow for broader use of alternative energy.  We will build on the work that's being done in places like Boulder -- a community that's on its -- that's on pace to be the world's first Smart Grid city.  (Applause.)  This investment will place Smart Meters in homes to make our energy bills lower, make outages less likely, and make it easier to use clean energy.  It's an investment that will save taxpayers over $1 billion by slashing energy costs in our federal buildings by 25 percent; save working families hundreds of dollars a year on their energy bills by weatherizing over 1 million homes.  And it's an investment that takes the important first step towards a national transmission superhighway that will connect our cities to the windy plains of the Dakotas and the sunny deserts of the Southwest.Even beyond energy, from the National Institutes of Health to the National Science Foundation, this recovery act represents the biggest increase in basic research funding in the long history of America's noble endeavor to b

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) must be feeling super confident about his re-election prospects in 2026, voting against the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act in the Senate despite it having about 80 percent approval with the American people.George Brauchler, 23rd district attorney brainstorms with Dan on ways criminal charges could still be filed in the wake of the shocking Columbine High School grooming scandal. One idea is for 1st DA Alexis King to enpanel a grand jury to determine whether potential charges may be appropriate for the mandatory reporters involved in fabricating documents claiming the female student was homeless - when she really wasn't.

This week Ryan sits down with Jamie Van Leeuwen, Managing Director at BuildStrong Foundation, to talk about his extensive work in community development from Urban Peak to founding the Global Livingston Institute and serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for John Hickenlooper.  Now focused on affordable housing and workforce development, Jamie shares insights on the challenges in the housing sector, the role of public policy, and the importance of engaging young people in community solutions. He offers a compelling perspective on addressing the housing crisis through innovative, community-driven solutions.   To learn more, check out https://buildstrongacademy.org/ Feast Over Famine does not provide legal, tax, accounting or other professional advice. You should consult professional advisors concerning the legal, tax, or accounting consequences of your activities. Feast Over Famine does not consult, advise, or assist with (i) the offer or sale of securities in any capital-raising transaction, or (ii) the direct or indirect promotion or maintenance of a market for any securities. Feast Over Famine does not engage in any activities for which an investment advisor's registration or license is required under the U.S. Investment Advisors Act of 1940, or under any other applicable federal or state law; or for which a “broker's” or “dealer's” registration or license is required under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or under any other applicable federal or state law.  

United States senators including John Hickenlooper of Colorado are worried that eliminating National Park Service jobs will hit gateway communities like Montrose and Gunnison, which see millions of dollars in economic benefit each year via the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area. Read our full story: https://www.montrosepress.com/news/senators-worry-how-federal-hiring-freeze-will-hit-national-parks-and-gateway-communities-like-montrose/article_0c94aaa0-ed80-11ef-a94a-23121cf264f7.html Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the midst of the Left losing their collective minds and showing their collective backsides, President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And if he brokers an end to the Russia-Ukraine War, he might just win it.Steve Monahan has founded SAFE Colorado with John Fabbricatore, a donor-funded advocacy group designed to help promote cooperation between local and state officials with ICE.Steve joins Dan to discuss this and a bill supported by Colorado Democratic Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper which would prevent ICE from arresting illegal aliens at polling places - even though they are legally prohibited from voting themselves.He also shares his plan to get an initiative on the ballot to remove Colorado's designation as a 'sanctuary state.'

Dan and Ryan laugh down Memory Lane recalling John Hickenlooper incinerating his run for President in 2020 answering CNN's Dana Bash on why he took his mother to see the pornographic film 'Deep Throat.'Brita Horn joins the program to discuss why running to be chair of the Colorado Republican Party is important to her - and a winning choice for Colorado GOP voters.

Despite several pairs of Democratic Senators from swing states voting in favor of the Lake Riley Act, both Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) voted against the measure. Does this make Hick potentially more vulnerable in his 2026 bid for re-election?Deborah Flora joins the program to discuss her participation in a rally to promote school choice in Colorado.

En enero los senadores demócratas Edward J. Markey y Elizabeth Warren, de Massachusetts; Bernard Sanders, de Vermont; Raphael Warnock, de Georgia; John Hickenlooper, de Colorado, y Chris Van Hollen, de Maryland, enviaron una carta al presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, donde acusan a la República Dominicana de servir como puente para traficar armas hacia Haití, un ilícito que agravaría la crisis social que enfrenta ese país. Ante los señalamientos, la embajadora dominicana en Estados Unidos, Sonia Guzmán, respondió a la carta afirmando que República Dominicana protagoniza una lucha contra el tráfico ilegal de armas estableciendo estrictos controles de seguridad para detectar unidades de municiones y armas de fuego. La respuesta oficial del gobierno dominicano indica que para la administración del presidente Abinader es injusto «sindicar al Gobierno dominicano como responsable de tráfico de armas hacia Haití. Por el ejercicio de su compromiso social, económico y de solidaridad humanitaria con el vecino país». La posición oficial fue respaldada a todos los niveles. El  diputado Gustavo Sánchez, del Partido de la Liberación Dominicana, sostuvo que las declaraciones son "irrespetuosas e irresponsables" por considerar que aprovechan su condición de parlamentarios de una potencia para emitir acusaciones "sin ninguna base comprobatoria". La diputada Soraya Suárez, del Partido Revolucionario Moderno, calificó como "lesiva" la acusación de los congresistas de EE. UU., al decir que el señalamiento puede provocar una tipificación delictiva que no existe. En ese sentido, pidió más cuidado al momento de emitir argumentos "sin validez". La senadora del Partido Revolucionario Moderno, Ginette Bournigal, indicó que es a los Estados Unidos a quien le corresponde investigar el supuesto tráfico de armas que se desarrolla desde la República Dominicana hacia Haití de acuerdo a lo que denunciaron senadores de ese país. El senador por la provincia de Montecristi, por el Partido Revolucionario Moderno, Ramón Antonio Pimentel Gómez, calificó este lunes de 'inaceptable'. El diputado representante de la Comunidad dominicana en el exterior, Ramón Ceballo, solicitó al Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos investigar de inmediato las declaraciones de senadores demócratas estadounidenses de que Republica Dominicana sirve como puente en el tráfico de armas ilegales hacia Haití. El vicepresidente de la Fuerza Nacional Progresista, Pelegrín Castillo, sostuvo que la denuncia de senadores estadounidenses de que por República Dominicana ingresan armas a Haití es parte una  maniobra de círculos de poder de EE: UU consiste en escalar el conflicto en Haití a una guerra civil y tratar de trasvasar esa crisis hacia República Dominicana para que se convierta en país de refugio. El presidente de la Unión Demócrata Cristiana, Luis Acosta Moreta, respaldó la respuesta del gobierno dominicano a senadores estadounidenses, quienes acusan a este país de servir de puente para el trasiego de armas a Haití. Dijo que si alguien tiene que dar explicaciones es Washington. Para el Instituto Duartiano el liderazgo político y el Gobierno deben de independientemente de estar en campaña de ser más enérgico en la defensa a la soberanía nacional, al considerar que como país dominicano no puede estar permitir tantos ataques y denuncias infundadas. Wilson Gómez le recordó además a los Estados Unidos que es Haití quien fábrica y trafica armas. El vocero del Partido de la Liberación Dominicana  en el Senado, Yvan Lorenzo, solicitó a través de una resolución, que se investigue la denuncia de los senadores estadounidenses y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas sobre el tráfico de armas de fuego desde la República Dominicana hacia Haití.

* Guest: Nathan Worcester, politics reporter at The Epoch Times - TheEpochTimes.com * Kamala Harris has sat for just one and a half interviews since she was anointed the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, Donald Trump just survived a second assassination attempt. So, it's seemingly easier to threaten the life of the Republican nominee than it is to interview the Democratic one. That really says all you need to know about the state of American politics - DailyCaller.com * In Michigan, Vance Emphasizes Illegal Immigrant Crime! * 55 to 60 Arrested During Violent DNC Protests: Chicago Police - Three journalists were among those taken into custody, according to Superintendent Larry Snelling. * As Trump Readied His Putt, He Heard 'Pop, Pop' of Gunfire! * How did Trump's would-be assassin know about the president's unplanned activities? * Eric Trump: 'My father is running out of lives here,' * Eric Trump told Megyn Kelly people need to "entertain" the idea that the second assassination attempt against Trump could be an "inside job". * Eric Trump urged viewers to "entertain everything" after Kelly pressed him on the possibility that the attack could have been an inside job as Trump wasn't officially scheduled to be at the golf course. * Oregon DMV Admits To Wrongfully Registering Hundreds Of Non-citizens To Vote! In the latest object lesson in why we need voter ID laws and why motor-voter initiatives are a terrible idea, the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles quietly announced late last week that over 300 non-citizens had been accidentally registered to vote. Furthermore, The Oregonian's report on the matter seemed to indicate a number of these 306 people illegally registered to vote were also here illegally, as well. * Three Democratic senators urged the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to aggressively cut its federal funds rate at its September meeting in an effort to jolt the economy as the November presidential election draws near. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse requested the Fed issue a 0.75% cut at the FOMC meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday - three times its usual quarter-point move, according to a letter sent by the senators to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Monday. * Lower interest rates would mean a lower cost of borrowing for businesses and consumers, which could spur economic growth, and, consequently, boost the Democrats chances of keeping the White House come November. "If the Fed is too cautious in cutting rates, it would needlessly risk our economy heading towards a recession," the senators wrote.

Fort Lewis College has partnered with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to establish a new nursing training facility on its campus. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper toured the facility on Aug. 29, highlighting the importance of local educational opportunities in retaining healthcare professionals in rural areas. $1.3 million in federal funding will support the CU Nursing Fort Lewis College Collaborative, which aims to train students in community-based, rural, and Indigenous healthcare perspectives. By keeping nursing education local, the program seeks to address the challenges smaller communities face in recruiting healthcare workers and enhance the quality of care available in southwest Colorado. By Sadie Smith.  Watch this story at www.durangolocal.news/newsstories/senator-hickenlooper-tours-new-nursing-training-facility-at-fort-lewis-college  This story is sponsored by Tafoya Barrett & Associates and M&R Plumbing. Support the show

Rundown -   Intro - 00:34   Doug Friednash in Craig's Lawyers' Lounge - 21:38   Troubadour Dave Gunders - 01:26:14   "Have Mercy" by Dave Gunders - 01:31:49   Outro - 01:37:54   Craig's Lawyers' Lounge welcomes accomplished Colorado attorney Doug Friednash. A native Denverite, Friednash became a Colorado Assistant Attorney General, a State Representative from HD 10, Denver City Attorney, and then Chief of Staff to Mayor Hancock and Governor Hickenlooper. Now he's a managing partner at Brownstein. https://www.bhfs.com/people/attorneys/c-f/douglas-friednash   Doug Friednash is an American hero for his advocacy that Joe Biden had to pass the torch. From his perch as a Denver Post columnist, Friednash demanded that the incumbent give up power before and after the debate. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/07/02/joe-biden-step-aside-second-term-donald-trump-king/   Gordon Friednash, Doug's father, operated the College Inn on 8th Avenue near Colorado Boulevard in East Denver. Learn how deep the Friednash roots run in Colorado, where his North High Dad married an East Side girl named Zelda, Doug's mother. Learn how Friednash began his legal career as a prosecutor.   Find out what Friednash and the Brownstein firm did at the RNC in Milwaukee and then at the DNC in Chicago. Friednash knows and trusts Governor Time Walz. This special name-dropping episode mentions lots of political bigwigs Friednash knows well.   We discuss the role of big law and big money and review the repercussions of Trump v USA. We go back to the early 1990s when Rep. Pat Schroeder finally stepped down and State Rep. Diana DeGette stepped up. Find out some events behind the scenes thirty years ago.   Friednash and his law firm are leaders in world Jewry. Doug Friednash has often stood by the Jewish State in politics and columns. We review the despicable murder of American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and his fellow Hamas-held captives. Doug's son got married on October 7, 2023. https://www.denverpost.com/2023/10/12/hamas-terrorism-israel-friednash-wedding-celebration/   "Have Mercy" is a heartbreaking, thought-provoking song written and performed by our Troubadour, Dave Gunders. We dedicate the music to Hersh. We discuss current events and listen to the eulogies of their son by Jon and Rachel, Hersh's parents. Have Mercy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzb3KHn7CsU

Text Light Pollution News!A lot to discuss this month! Host Bill McGeeney is joined by an expert panel featuring the equitable conservationist, Shelana deSilva, lawyer and satellite researcher, Yana Yakushina, and, consultant, John Barentine. See Full Show Notes, Lighting Tips and more at LightPollutionNews.com. Like this episode, share it with a friend!Bill's Picks:Environmental impact (light pollution and energy wastage) of artificial grow lighting to replenish grass pitches in sports stadiums, World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews.Court Upholds FCC Approval of Starlink's LEO Launch License, Ted Hearn, Broadband Breakfast.Elaborate light show projected from Eiffel Tower, NBC News.Hickenlooper, Crapo Introduce Bill to Preserve Night Sky from Interference, Aid Research, US Senator Hickenlooper for Colorado.Coloring Pages for Summer Travel, Natasha Chortos, Dark Sky International.  Support the Show.Like what we're doing? For the cost of coffee, you can become a Monthly Supporter. Your assistance will help cover server and production costs.

Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper answered questions about protections for the Dolores River corridor and numerous other issues at a town hall in Cortez Tuesday night. And the Montezuma-Cortez District Re-1 school board on Wednesday issued a statement saying it is waiting for the result of legal proceedings against the district superintendent before “making any assumptions.”

Rundown -   Intro - 00:35   Mike Littwin - 07:24   Troubadour Dave Gunders - 01:46:36   "Just Try Me" by Dave Gunders - 02:08:13   Outro - 02:13:51   Following this historic month of political upheaval, the lead columnist for @coloradosun, Mike Littwin, reviews the dramatic developments climaxed by the Chicago DNC. VP Kamala Harris' acceptance speech was the cherry on top.   Littwin recounts his career from growing up in Norfolk to covering the local ABA Virginia Squires – who practiced at the Norfolk JCC. Point guard Larry Brown and forward Doug Moe were friendly to young Littwin, who labored for the local paper.   Two years later, the Squires had a new player, Julius Erving, who stood out. When George Gervin joined the Squires, Littwin witnessed the Iceman and Dr. J. play hellacious one-on-one games after practice. https://images.app.goo.gl/WjANJtiwQUN6Ffoi6   Littwin went on to significant stints at the Baltimore Sun and LA Times before heading to Denver, where, for decades, he was Denver's leading news columnist at the late Rocky Mountain News. Littwin's work still shines twice a week at the Colorado Sun.   Kamala Harris' nomination acceptance speech gets thoroughly reviewed. The Craig Silverman Show salutes Littwin for bravely calling on @potus to step down right after his debate debacle. Littwin kept it up in subsequent columns. https://coloradosun.com/2024/06/30/biden-trump-debate-opinion-littwin/   Social media barbs were thrown at Littwin and others advocating for Biden to pass the torch. The show recognizes the critical roles of Ezra Klein, David Axelrod, Tim Miller, NYT, George Clooney, Joe Walsh, Pod Save America, Joe Salazar, and Rob Reiner for joining the patriotic advocacy.   The antisemitism of Donald Trump gets addressed and undressed. Given Trump's verbal attack on PA Gov. Josh Shapiro and Trump's claims Jews need their heads examined, Littwin lets loose on the GOP presidential nominee. Host and guest talk as two experienced American Jews.   We have never seen a phenomenon like Kamala Harris and her VP selection, Tim Walz. We go over the Walz speech and the sensation caused when Gus Walz cried with pride in his Dad. Warning: get a handkerchief. You may want to cry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBrnKM0jo40   The following bold names are subjects of Littwin stories: Jim Murray, David Simon, Dr. J., Larry Brown, Doug Moe, Bill Owens, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet, Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, Jack Nicklaus, Bob Beauprez, Hank Brown, RFK JR., and Cory Gardner.   We talk about photojournalist for RMN and NYT, Todd Heisler, who took amazing Kamala pic at the DNC. Littwin traveled the world with Heisler when they worked together. Learn the respect Littwin has for Heisler. https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-stunning-iconic-photo-of-kamala-harris-and-great-niece-amara-during-dnc-speech-goes-viral/   Littwin keeps columnizing because he loves his craft and his Colorado Sun audience is enormous. Colorado readers are deprived of most of our old favorites, but not the legendary Littwin, who still enjoys the challenge and profit of churning out world-class columns for us to enjoy.   Littwin's highly accomplished UT Austin law professor daughter, Angie Littwin, and Littwin's grandsons also have him loving life. Few people like politics and history more than Mike Littwin. We like and feel Kamalamomentum. https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/angela-k-littwin/publications/   Troubadour Dave Gunders loved the Chicago DNC and identified his favorite parts. Kamala Harris was the star, and we hope our 47th President. She made her case on Thursday. "Just Try Me" is the perfect Gunders' persuasion song for the American electorate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCfJgGEUYRo&list=OLAK5uy_lwU1xbs2JtDfVhprMsLjmBd45zsa1IfPE&index=2

Dan is back after a day of depositions, and has been pondering what the next move for Governor Jared Polis might be. He finds it interesting, out of nowhere, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) announces that he is definitely running for re-election in 2026. Could this be a pre-emptive strike against a potential challenge from Polis after he leaves office as governor?Also, going back to Tuesday night, did Michelle Obama unintentionally (or intentionally?) insult Vice-President Kamala Harris by taking a jab at Donald Trump over the Presidency possibly being 'one of those black jobs' in a reference to comments he made at the National Association of Black Journalists convention a few weeks ago.

Members of the U.S. Senate speak in support of S.1723, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, on July 24, 2024.

On today's newscast: Colorado's U.S. Senator, John Hickenlooper, was in El Jebel to talk about protections for mobile home parks, affordable housing, and immigration reform, the city of Aspen is offering free irrigation assessments for Aspen Water customers this summer, the inaugural concert of this summer's Aspen Chamber Symphony will be held tonight at the Klein Music Tent, and more.

Summary In this episode, Mike Willis and Debbie Blyth discuss a cyber attack on the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the crisis management response to it. The attack occurred in February 2018 and affected CDOT's systems, including HR, payroll, contractor payment, variable message signs, toll collection, and more. The attack was initiated through a misconfigured virtual server in public cloud infrastructure, which allowed the attackers to gain access to the CDOT domain. The response involved the collaboration between CDOT, the Colorado Office of Emergency Management, and the Colorado National Guard. The National Guard was mobilized through a state emergency declaration by Governor Hickenlooper. The conversation highlights the importance of collaboration and trust in crisis management. The establishment of a unified command and the use of incident management teams were key in coordinating the response. Nutrition and hydration were prioritized to ensure the well-being and performance of the response team. The joint information center played a crucial role in managing public and internal messaging. Emergency purchasing and tracking were supported by the Office of Emergency Management. Lessons from this incident can be applied to the corporate sector, emphasizing the need for cybersecurity and crisis management teams to work together. Takeaways The cyber attack on CDOT was initiated through a misconfigured virtual server in public cloud infrastructure. The attack affected various systems and operations within CDOT, causing significant disruption. The response involved collaboration between CDOT, the Colorado Office of Emergency Management, and the Colorado National Guard. The National Guard was mobilized through a state emergency declaration by Governor Hickenlooper. Collaboration and trust are foundational in crisis management. Establishing a unified command and using incident management teams help coordinate the response. Prioritizing nutrition and hydration improves the performance of the response team. A joint information center is crucial for managing public and internal messaging. Emergency purchasing and tracking are important for cost assessment and accountability. Lessons from this incident can be applied to the corporate sector, emphasizing the need for collaboration between cybersecurity and crisis management teams. Contact Information Debbi Blyth https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-blyth/ Mike Willis https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigadier-general-ret-michael-willis-a8b49a37/

Rundown -    Troubadour Dave Gunders - 09:58   "Playing that Zydeco" by Dave Gunders - 25:45   Eli Stokols - 31:30   Episode 211 begins with a review of the New York v Trump trial. That's followed by a review of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones' epic performance Thursday night at Jazzfest 2024 in New Orleans. Show Troubadour Dave Gunders is on fire as he reviews the experience from the banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans. We then “Play that Zydeco,” an original composition by Gunders, which he performed last summer in Gold Hill, Colorado. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiLexPg0piM   Accomplished journalist Eli Stokols keeps receiving historic White House assignments following his near decade-long successful run in Colorado television and magazines. Stokols moved on to become a DC family guy with a great journalist wife and kids. The LA Times and WSJ are former homes, but Eli Stokols' with Politico again. https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-press/2022/10/18/eli-stokols-joins-politico-as-white-house-reporter-00062346   Eli covered the 2016 election for POLITICO, starting with the Jeb Bush campaign before turning his reporting lens on Donald Trump. He's covered the White House ever since Trump took office in 2017. Along the way, he interacted frequently with Hope Hicks and Michel Cohen. Spoiler alert – Hicks was much more pleasant than Cohen.   This special name-dropping episode features discussions of Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Kyle Clark, OJ Simpson, Elizabeth Orden, Doug Lamborn, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Lauren Boebert, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet, Ken Buck, Jon Hamm, Scarlett Johansen, Colin Jost, Elena Schneider, Tim Walz, Dick Wadhams, Corey Lewandowski, Dudley Brown, Arthur Sulzberger, Peter Baker and Howard Stern. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/16/fashion/weddings/elena-schneider-eli-stokols.html   Stokols wrote the explosive Politico Magazine story titled “The Petty Feud Between the NYT and the White House.” In it, Stokols identified petty disputes between Biden-Harris and the highest echelons of the New York Times and how it led to caricatures of our President as he ran against Trump. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/25/new-york-times-biden-white-house-00154219   Published right before the wacky weekend, which includes the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Eli Stokols even had President Joe Biden responding with jabs about doing interviews with "strong, independent journalists who millions of people actually listen to... like Howard Stern." Eli Stokols helped make that laugh line happen. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/joe-biden-howard-stern-interview-hillary-clinton-1235887751/   Stokols has fond memories of Colorado and political controversies in the Centennial State. Now, Eli Stokol's beat remains the White House, where he co-authors the West Wing Playbook for Politico. Stokols studied history at Cal-Berkeley, where he also was a varsity baseball pitcher. He went to Columbia for graduate school. Protests on those campuses get our attention. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook

Today - We turn our focus to a recent event in Naturita, where U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper held a listening session on the proposed Dolores Canyons National Monument. This proposal, put forth by conservation organizations, aims to protect approximately four-hundred thousand acres near the Dolores River as a national monument, citing the need to safeguard the area from climate change, mining, and development.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brett gives his thoughts on the mountain of taxpayer money being sent overseas and how that affects us, domestically, in terms of rising taxation, inflation, and overall devaluation of the dollar.  We are completely unrepresented by our elected officials across both sides of the aisle and there seems to be no end in sight for this scandalous money laundering operation that is the Ukraine war. Connect with Brett on Facebook, Instagram, & X @BPOP80Watch full length episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@brettpopishBe sure to rate this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on and remember #BeDEFIANT#OwnYourFuture

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast...we have a special interview-only episode with the man who was the first guest on the original show way back in May 2016. You know him as Denver's Mayor, Colorado's Governor, and now a United States Senator: John Hickenlooper is back on the pod! You don't want to miss this interview... 

Rundown -    Shad Murib - 08:19   Troubadour Dave Gunders - 01:36:50   "If God Was Watching" by Dave Gunders - 01:53:53   Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's Speech - 01:57:52   Find out why Colorado Dems elected this dynamic leader. Murib grew up in Littleton, Colorado, the son of Arab Lebanese immigrants. Murib learned valuable life lessons growing up in his south Denver suburb, especially when his sibling announced as a lesbian. Murib is a proud progressive.   As a Democratic stalwart with talent, Shad Murib has worked for and with Senator John Hickenlooper, Colorado AG Phil Weiser and Colorado Governor Jared Polis. He's married to former State Senator Kerry Donovan and they were married by their friend and political colleague, State Senator Dylan Roberts.    We find out about the Copper Bar Ranch that Shad and Kerry own and run high up in Edwards, Colorado. They raise Scottish Highland cattle and wait till you hear the taste described, especially the tenderloin. Stress-free ethical slaughter makes the taste difference. Hear it explained at the end. https://www.thecopperbarranch.com/   This name-dropping episode features further mentions of Colorado's top elected officials with a special shout-out to Rep. Jason Crow and Senator Michael Bennet for their dedication to trying to protect freedom in Ukraine. The host and guest salute the performance of President Biden too, standing up to Putin, Trump and the GOP.   Colorado Republican Chair Dave Williams gets discussed, including his taunts at his party chair counterpart. When MAGA goes low, Shad Murib responds with winning policies, strategies and powerful responses. The process in the Colorado CD4 special election necessitated by Rep. Ken Buck's resignation is thoroughly explained.   Murib intends for Democrats to be competitive in every part of Colorado including CD5. What will the impact be of Trump's endorsements of Boebert (CD4) and Dave “Let's Go Brandon” Williams in CD5? The connections of Putin to Trump to MAGA-GOQP gets reviewed with Murib worried about fascism.   Shad Murib goes on Fox News and will debate any semi-honest broker, but we discuss how far gone Twitter (X) is now with Elon Musk platforming the likes of Alex Jones. Modern media get discussed as do conflicts amongst Dems at the Colorado Capitol.   DA races are partisan in Colorado as are Sheriff races. Dems need to compete smarter and harder especially with disingenuous MAGA law enforcers refusing to enforce gun laws like Red Flag which they do not like. Local races are big, but the huge political issue is Trump v the rest of us. Dems must lead us now. ​​ https://www.coloradodems.org/   Troubadour Dave Gunders provides a lively conversation about the NYC trial delay. He also loved the SOU by POTUS. His song, If G-d was Watching is aimed at MAGA-GOP-type hypocrites who make money off of Big Lies like Big Con Don, the MAGA-GOQP nominee. https://soundcloud.com/dave-gunders/7-if-god-was-watching   The Craig Silverman Show - Every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Colorado time

In Kyle Clark 9 News interview, Cobalt president Karen Middleton tries to assuage concerns that Governor Jared Polis doesn't go far enough to the left on abortion. Dan breaks down where Democrats have lost their way on the issue, and how both John Hickenlooper and Polis have tried to tow the line with voters - despite knowing abortion is wrong and 'a bad thing.' Colorado Dems are trying to add abortion as a Constitutional right in the Centennial State.Also, legendary Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton earns election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, in his sixth year of eligibility on the ballot.

On today's newscast: The effort to recall Tony May from his position on the Garfield Re-2 school board wraps up this week, a local group held another rally in Glenwood Springs demanding U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper support a ceasefire in Gaza, Colorado's congressional delegation is hoping to secure money for communities receiving large numbers of migrants, and more.

As busloads of illegal migrants continue to arrive in Denver, the city's crisis in housing the homeless worsens by the day and leading Democrats in Colorado - like Governor Polis, Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, and Denver mayor Mike Johnston - refuse to call for the federal government to secure the border and prevent more illegals from flooding into our country.

A cidade de Aurora, no Colorado, vivia uma vida normal no ano de 1993, até Nathan Dunlap ser contratado como cozinheiro na rede de fast food chamada "Chuck E Cheese". Ninguém poderia imaginar que Nathan planejaria uma vingança após ser demitido. ➡️ Conhecia esse caso? Quer aparecer em um episódio do Fábrica? É muito simples! Basta mandar uma mensagem de áudio por direct no Instagram ⁠@podcastfabricadecrimes⁠ nós só publicaremos com a autorização. Vamos amar ter você por aqui :) Hosts: ⁠@mari.hos⁠t e ⁠@rob.host⁠ Editor: ⁠@ovitovitovito Fontes: The Denver Post, U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear death-penalty appeal of Aurora Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap, disponível aqui. The Denver Post, Slaughter in Aurora: The victims, disponível aqui. National Gun Violence Memorial, Marge Kohlberg, 50 anos, disponível aqui. Superinteressante, 10 (outras) fobias muito estranhas, disponível em: https://super.abril.com.br/coluna/superlistas/10-outras-fobias-muito-estranhas Psicologia-Online, Pediofobia: significado, sintomas, causas e tratamento, disponível em: https://br.psicologia-online.com/pediofobia-significado-sintomas-causas-e-tratamento-1035.html PsicologiaDiz, PEDIOFOBIA: MEDO DE BONECOS (CAUSAS E SINTOMAS), disponível em: https://psicologiadiz.com/clinica/pediofobia-medo-de-bonecos-causas-e-sintomas/ ABC News, Aurora's Other Massacre Victims' 20-Year Wait for Justice, disponível em: https://abcnews.go.com/US/auroras-massacre-victims-20-year-wait-justice/story?id=16847013 The Colorado Sun, He survived the Aurora Chuck E. Cheese shooting 25 years ago. A possible death penalty repeal is bringing it all back up, disponível em: https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/05/bobby-stephens-nathan-dunlap-death-penalty-colorado/ FindLaw, People vs. Dunlap (1999), disponível em: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/co-supreme-court/1386758.html CNN, Election results favor Colorado death row inmate, disponível em: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/31/us/death-row-stories-dunlap/index.html Murderpedia, Nathan Jared Dunlap, disponível em: https://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/dunlap-nathan.htm 5820 Magazine, The Politics of Killing, disponível em: https://www.5280.com/the-politics-of-killing/ Chuck E. Cheese, International Master & Multi-Unit Franchises Available, disponível em: https://franchise.chuckecheese.com/?_gl=1%2Ac6vhgl%2A_ga%2AMjEwNzY2MzIwNC4xNzAwNzA1NjI1%2A_ga_LE0S0X1MSC%2AMTcwMDcwNTYyNC4xLjEuMTcwMDcwNTczNi4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.225444824.394435282.1700705625-2107663204.1700705625 The Washington Post, Chuck E. Cheese parent company files for bankruptcy, disponível em: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/25/chuck-e-cheese-bankruptcy-coronavirus/ U.S. Census Bureau, Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places:  1990, disponível em: https://www2.census.gov/library/working-papers/1998/demographics/pop-twps0027/tab22.txt The Denver Post, It's death for Dunlap, disponível em: https://www.denverpost.com/2013/02/21/its-death-for-dunlap/ Westword, Nathan Dunlap: Mom of victim Ben Grant latest to call for killer to die, disponível: https://www.westword.com/news/nathan-dunlap-mom-of-victim-ben-grant-latest-to-call-for-killer-to-die-5845709 Drauzio Varella, TOD: ENTENDA O QUE É O TRANSTORNO OPOSITOR DESAFIADOR, disponível em: https://drauziovarella.uol.com.br/pediatria/tod-entenda-o-que-e-o-transtorno-opositor-desafiador/ The Denver Post, Another appeal denied in Chuck E. Cheese killings, disponível em: https://www.denverpost.com/2007/05/14/another-appeal-denied-in-chuck-e-cheese-killings/ The Denver Post, Judge to decide Nathan Dunlap's execution date in May, disponível em: https://www.denverpost.com/2013/04/12/judge-to-decide-nathan-dunlaps-execution-date-in-may/ Westword, John Hickenlooper gives Nathan Dunlap reprieve from death but doesn't grant clemency, disponível em: https://www.westword.com/news/john-hickenlooper-gives-nathan-dunlap-reprieve-from-death-but-doesnt-grant-clemency-5850509 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fabricadecrimes/message

Mark Barabak, the veteran political reporter and columnist for the L.A. Times, has just helmed a six-part series analyzing the political evolutions across the New West - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon.  In this conversation, Mark talks his recent series, touches on the politics in all six of these states, and breaks down what it says about the trajectory of the region and the impact on the national landscape. He also mines his reporter's notebook to talk some of his favorite stories and personalities from 35+ years covering politics.IN THIS EPISODEMark talks how he was drawn to working in political journalism...The one state Mark hasn't covered yet...What led Mark to helm his recent series on the New West...The biggest surprise in the recent political evolution of the West...How much remains of the historical, libertarian political character of the West...How Cindy McCain has recently played an important symbolic role in Arizona politics...Mark on Governor Jared Polis and political trajectory of Colorado...Why emigration from California is not helping Republicans in the rest of the region...Mark talks the importance of Latino voters in the West...Mark's take on what it would take for Republicans to finally break through in Oregon...What Bend, OR reveals about politics in the state...How resilient is Democratic strength in the West if the party moves more to the left...How Bill Clinton muscled California into becoming a safe Democratic state...The anecdote Mark has waited 30 years to use...Mark recalls the importance of the Berman/Waxman So Cal "machine" and Northern CA's Burton "machine"...Mark's memories covering Nancy Pelosi's political career from her very first race in the 80s...Mark weighs in on the '24 California open Senate seat...The most charismatic politicians Mark has seen over the years...AND 801 Chophouse, accelerants, Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Harry Britt, broad libertarian streaks, Pat Brown, Ron Brown, Willie Brown, bundling, Sala Burton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, California tattoos, criminal malpractice, Gray Davis, Michael Dukakis, election deniers, John Emerson, extractive industries, fingertip sensitivity, Diane Feinstein, Greek Lit, Kamala Harris, Peter Hart, John Hickenlooper, the hoi polloi, Mark Kelly, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Kari Lake, Adam Laxalt, Barbara Lee, Mel Levine, Bill Lunch, Maricopa County, Blake Masters, Leo McCarthy, Narragansett, Grover Norquist, Tip O'Neill, Mike Ovitz, Leon Panetta, Pablo Picasso, Katie Porter, RINOs, Ronald Reagan, Dick Riordan, Brian Sanderoff, Adam Schiff, John Seymour, Derek Shearer, Bob Shrum, sourdough bread, unhelpful quotes, Pete Wilson...& more!

Alex talks with Ryan Adam (Sen. Tillis - R-NC) and Naveen Parmar (Sen. Hickenlooper - D-CO) about the PROOF Act. Alex also talks about markets with Beimnet Abebe (Galaxy Trading) about markets. This episode was recorded on Wednesday, November 1, 2023. ++ Follow us on Twitter, @glxyresearch, and read our research at www.galaxy.com/research/ to learn more! This podcast, and the information contained herein, has been provided to you by Galaxy Digital Holdings LP and its affiliates (“Galaxy Digital”) solely for informational purposes. View the full disclaimer at www.galaxy.com/disclaimer-galaxy-brains-podcast/

Matt and Nic return for a big week of news and deals. In this episode:  Has there been a vibe shift?  Sen Tillis and Hickenlooper introduce the PROOF Act Is there a lack of crypto-native auditors?  Liz Warren's plan to interfere with crypto audits  What's going on with the WSJ, Warren's letter, and Hamas' crypto donations?  The WSJ is refusing to update their claims  ETF momentum is picking up  What explains the move in Bitcoin this week?  SBF is going to testify  Content mentioned:  Sen. Tillis' office, The PROOF Act introduced Jeff John Roberts in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal and Liz Warren double down on the Hamas crypto canard Nic's WSJ/Hamas bounty campaign Elliptic, Setting the record straight on crypto crowdfunding by Hamas Elizabeth Warren letter to the White House   Sponsor notes:  Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — Navigating the Liquidity Landscape: Insights into Digital Asset Markets  In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 230, we examine trends in liquidity and volume across centralized and decentralized exchanges

The BIG WIRES Act has been introduced in the House and Senate. Join CCL's Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli for a training that will discuss how this policy could update and streamline the country's patchwork energy transmission system. An updated transmission system will be technology neutral, prioritize regional flexibility and improve electrical grid reliability and reduce energy costs for all Americans.  Skip ahead to the following section(s): (0:00) Intro & Agenda (2:14) Why Transmission is Critical (9:01) CCL's Permitting Reform Goals (16:41) What the BIG WIRES Act Does (24:09) November Lobbying  Helpful resources: Presentation Slides:  https://cclusa.org/big-wires-slides   CCL Blog: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/news/ccl-applauds-bicameral-big-wires-act    Sen. Hickenlooper's Press Release: https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/hickenlooper-peters-introduce-big-wires-act-to-reform-permitting-lower-energy-costs/ 

Today – we're sharing an excerpt of Colorado Sun political reporter Jesse Paul's interview with U.S. Sen. John HIckenlooper last month at SunFest. The Colorado Democrat talked about water policy, Joe Biden and his vision for a better Colorado.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeff Chen is the cofounder and CEO of Radicle Science, an AI-driven healthtech B-Corp providing history's first Proof-as-a-Service solution for non-pharmaceuticals to easily prove true effects. Prior to Radicle, he was the Founder & former Director of UCLA's Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids. Jeff has also advised Senator Feinstein's Office, Governor Hickenlooper's Office, the Mexico Senate, and the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Bhutan. This episode is hosted by Scott Hartley, co-founder and general partner of Everywhere Ventures (previously The Fund). In this interview, Scott and Jeff take an in-depth look at what it means to start a new market category, and what it takes to truly differentiate and lead the field in product offerings. Learn Jeff's contrarian take on effective clinical trials, and hear Scott's quip on an effective marketing strategy. Listen till the end for superpowers and productivity hacks! If you liked this episode, please give us a rating wherever you found us and be sure to subscribe to Venture Everywhere. To learn more about our work, visit Everywhere.vc and ideas.everywhere.vc on Substack. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates and news.

Do you hate hidden hotel, housing, airline, ticketing, banking, and other corporate fees? Do you want Congress to do something about them? In this episode, learn about the wide range of unreasonable fees being reported to Congress during hearings and examine what proposals could have bipartisan support. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes FTC Authority Ronald Mann. Apr 23, 2021. SCOTUSblog. Supreme Court of the United States. April 22, 2021. Junk Fee Overview Ashish A. Pradhan. May 19, 2023. The National Law Review. Will Kenton. January 24, 2023. Investopedia. Brian Deese et al. October 26, 2022. White House Briefing Room Blog. October 20, 2022. Federal Trade Commission. Brian Canfield et al. July 7, 2021. Institute for Policy Integrity, NYU School of Law. Internet *Federal Communications Commission Healthcare August 8, 2022. Federal Trade Commission. Banking/Payments Lindsey D. Johnson. July 26, 2023. Consumer Bankers Association. July 11, 2023. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Newsroom. Offices of Consumer Populations and Markets. May 23, 2023. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. October 26, 2022. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Newsroom. September 28, 2022. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Newsroom. August 16, 2022. Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. August 16, 2022. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Joe Valenti. March 30, 2022. * Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Blog. January 26, 2022. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Newsroom. December 7, 2020. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Newsroom. December 28, 2018. Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Housing July 19, 2023. White House Briefing Room. March 14, 2023. National Consumer Law Center. Jennifer Ludden. January 13, 2023. WBUR. Airlines Reid Bramblett. Frommer's. Suzanne Rowan Kelleher. Mar 7, 2023. Forbes. U.S. Department of Transportation. U.S. Department of Transportation. December 13, 2022. U.S. Department of Transportation. November 2022. Statista. Rosie Spinks. June 1, 2018. Quartz. May 2011. Jones Day. Hotels November 17, 2021. Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Christina Jelski. Mar 12, 2021. Travel Weekly. November 28, 2012. The Federal Trade Commission. Ticketing June 20, 2018. U.S. House of Representatives. Anne Bucher. June 13, 2018. Top Class Actions. “Susan Wang and Rene' Lee v. StubHub, Inc. Case” [No. CGC-18-564120]. The Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco. Cars June 23, 2022. Federal Trade Commission. Laws Bills Audio Sources July 26, 2023 Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection Witnesses: Attorney General, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Director of Housing Advocacy, Atlanta Legal Aid Society Manager Director, Patomak Global Partners Clips Michelle Henry: In the consumer finance space, we recently filed a multi-state lawsuit against Mariner Finance, a Wall Street private equity-owned installment lender. Our lawsuit alleges that Mariner charged consumers junk fees for hidden add-on products that consumers either did not know about or did not agree to buy. These hidden add-on products, such as credit insurance and auto clubs, are typically low- or no-value products. Consumers left Mariner believing that they had entered into an agreement to borrow and repay over time a certain amount of money. In reality, because of these hidden junk fees, Mariner added hundreds to thousands of dollars to the total amount a consumer owed. The cost of the junk fees is staggering. For a random sample of loans originated in Pennsylvania in December of 2020, Mariner charged each consumer an average of $1,085 in junk fees for an average of $3,394 in cash borrowed. Michelle Henry: We also had a significant junk fee settlement in 2018 with Wells Fargo. This settlement stemmed from Wells charging its auto finance customers millions in junk fees. Despite evidence that many customers already had the required car insurance, Wells improperly charged more than 2 million accounts for force-placed insurance. To resolve the multi-state action, Wells agreed to pay states $575 million. Michelle Henry: In 2021, we announced the landmark junk fee settlement with Marriott International. For many years, travelers had been misled by the published rates offered by hotels for a night stay, only later to be hit with the mandatory resort fees when they were checking in. Thanks to our settlement, Marriott now has a policy in place to be upfront and transparent in the disclosure of mandatory fees, including resort fees, as part of the total price of a hotel stay, allowing consumers to compare total costs for hotels and find the one that is the best fit for them. Marriott was the first hotel chain to formally commit to the upfront disclosure of resort fees as part of the initial advertised price. We hope others will follow. Michelle Henry: In the end, what we are fighting here for is basic fairness and transparency. When consumers are shopping online or in person, they deserve to understand what a loan, a house, or a vacation will cost and exactly what key terms they're agreeing to. At the same time, all businesses deserve to compete on an even playing field, where the price is the price with no hidden surprise fees. Lindsey Siegel: My name is Lindsay Siegel and I'm the Director of Housing Advocacy at Atlanta Legal Aid, which provides free civil legal services to families with low incomes in the metro Atlanta area. Today, I will focus on the rental housing market and how predatory and hidden rental fees gouge families living in poverty and make their rent even more unaffordable than it already is. Miss Dixon is a single mother who found an online listing for an apartment in the fall of 2020. The advertisement said it rented for $1,400 per month. It did not list any other monthly fees she would be required to pay. She applied and paid $525 through the landlord's online portal, which covered her $50 application fee, a $175 moving fee, and a $300 screening fee, all of which were non-refundable. She was not able to see the lease or the apartment she'd be renting, but she knew if she did not pay sight unseen she would lose the apartment. And when her application was approved a few weeks later, the landlord charged her another $200 approval fee. She finally received and signed a copy of her lease just two days before she was slated to move in. It was 50 pages long and contained to eight different addenda. She had expected to pay her rent and for water. She didn't expect to be responsible for a package locker fee, a trash removal fee, a separate valet trash fee, a pest control fee, a technology package fee, an insurance fee, and a credit reporting fee. When the fees added up, $83 had been tacked on to her monthly rent. And to make matters worse, Miss Dixon's landlord did not accept the rent by cash, check, or money order. When she paid through the landlord's online portal she was charged another $72-per-payment convenience fee. The low income renters Atlanta Legal Aid represents have an extreme power imbalance with their landlords. The high demand for rental housing, especially at the more affordable end of the market, makes some landlords believe they can easily get away with unfair and deceptive lease terms and rental practices. The bait and switch Miss Dixon experienced where the landlord advertise the rent as one price only to raise it much higher with junk fees after she had spent hundreds of dollars up front is a far too common practice of many investor landlords in the Atlanta area. Low income renters like Miss Dixon become trapped. She couldn't afford to walk away from a predatory lease two days before she was supposed to move in, even if she realized it would be unaffordable. Of particular concern are the use of high application fees. They often far exceed the cost of running a report, and most renters have to pay them several times before finding a home to rent. We've heard reports that some institutional landlords even collect application fees after they've found a renter for an available home. Brian Johnson: The focus of the President's initiative has been on applying political pressure to companies to induce them to change their fee disclosure practices. In the process, the White House and supporting agencies have dismissed broad categories of fees as junk without ever providing any consistent definition of the term, which has created uncertainty as to which fees can be assessed by institutions without undue reputational or regulatory risk. Brian Johnson: The CFPB has been the most enthusiastic among regulators in heeding the President's call, indiscriminately attacking a growing list of common financial service fees, no matter that they are lawful and fully disclosed. Brian Johnson: The agency has publicly hectored companies about deposit account fees and used the implied threat of investigation to induce such companies to abandon these legal fees. Further, in addressing other fees, the CFPB appears appears to have violated its own regulations and laws governing how agencies proffer rules by disguising interpretive rules as policy statements in bulletins and issuing circulars that function as legislative rules. In another instance, under the guise of interpretation, the CFPB read a word into a statute to achieve its desired policy outcome. In still another, the agency treats the rulemaking process as a foregone conclusion, acting as though a still proposed rule has already taken effect, signaling that the agency has no interest in considering public comments, establishing an adequate evidentiary basis to support its conclusions, or considering potential changes to improve the rule. These examples demonstrate an abuse of power and the agency's disregard for process and the limits placed on it. Moreover, the CFPB's behavior subverts the authority of Congress to oversee the agency and legislate the legality of fees in our financial marketplace. Simply put, it's not playing by the rules. Lindsey Siegel: So I think the federal government does have a role to play. The CFPB could create best practices, investigate junk fees further -- especially those being charged for tenant screening reports -- could bring enforcement actions against debt collectors that engage in collection practices that violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in their collection of rental debt especially includes collection of junk fees. And certainly, you know, HUD could further study and address the disproportionate impact of these practices on renters and rental applicants of color. Lindsey Siegel: Tenants living in Atlanta have a very hard time finding a rental, finding a home, that's not owned by a corporate landlord at this point. They have bought up many properties in the Atlanta area and they always seem to be working in lockstep so that once one institutional landlord is charging a certain kind of fee then another one tends to charge it as well. Just one example of this is the proliferation of landlords charging for insurance fees, and often tenants will think that these are renters insurance because they're often called renter's insurance. But it's not like traditional renter's insurance that protects the renter and their property if it's destroyed. What it does is protect the landlord and doesn't really provide a benefit to tenants at all. And we've seen that proliferate with investor landlords in particular. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): I can't imagine any reasonable member of Congress not saying, "I want the person to know what their financial obligation is when they sign an instrument, not after they read page 10 in the fine print." Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): I'm less caught up in whether or not a trash collection fee is appropriate or not, and more caught up in, does that renter know at the point in time they're signing a lease what they're expected to pay every month? Michelle Henry: We often see things bleed over state lines and boundaries, as you are well aware, and so it's important that we work together to enforce these matters. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA): How often do these kinds of cases cross state lines? And would having federal standards against these types of hidden fees make these cases easier to bring? Michelle Henry: Almost always. And I think that's critical. Where we have been most successful is joining with our fellow states, other attorneys general, partnering with them, and including the CFPB. In December of 2020, the CFPB, with all 50 states and the District of Columbia, filed enforcement action against Nationstar mortgage, again for deceptive practices, for not being transparent when they were servicing borrowers mortgages, and as a result of that joint effort we were able to obtain a settlement of $73 million and brought aid to 40,000 borrowers. Michelle Henry: You know, the reality is a lot of times consumers get misled. So they start, they're looking on the internet, they're trying to do due diligence and look for the best price, whether it's for a hotel, a vacation, and they're in there examining it, and they get led to a certain area of a certain website thinking that's the best price. And they go down this rabbit hole where they have no idea at the end of it that the price they thought they were going to pay for a hotel stay with their family is actually far larger because of fees that they weren't prepared, were not properly advised of, and at that point, they're so far in or they never discover it. So no, I don't think they understand exactly what to be aware of. We're trying to do our best to educate but far more work needs to be done, and I applaud this committee for working on it. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA): If more federal agencies had the authority to address these hidden fees, how would that affect your office's capacity? Michelle Henry: It would help tremendously. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA): Thank you so very much. Michelle Henry: If history is any lesson, we know that they can't be trusted to act in the best interest of consumers on their own. Look, they're in the business of making money for their shareholders and we need robust consumer protection rules and enforcement to ensure that. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): So what we're talking about here is not the "what," it's the "how." And I for one do not think that the regulator's who have demonstrated pushing the boundaries of their authority, giving them more authority is a good idea if we're coming up with a real bipartisan sustainable solution. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): The problem we have here too, when we transfer power out of Congress to another branch, yes, that changes every four years or so. So you may be thrilled with a regulatory regimen that comes out from the CFBP today, but because of the way they behaved, it'd be one of the first things I would work to repeal if the administration changed and withdraw it. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): I'd like to submit for the record a letter from the Consumer Bankers Association on the subject. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): Mr. Johnson, can you talk about the effect of the method that the CFPB is using to go after this and the impact that it can have, the negative implications that has? Is the CFPB's tendency to name and shame business institutions to avoid certain practices or adopt new ones effective regulation? They're not really thinking through the full impact and all the potential unintended consequences. Can you think of any example under this current leadership of the CFPB where they have taken that into consideration? Can you speak a little bit about the efforts and the length the CFPB goes in an effort to avoid judicial review and skirt the APA process? June 8, 2023 Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Witnesses: Chief Executive Officer, National Consumers League Bruce Greenwald Professor of Business, Marketing Division, Columbia Business School George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University Clips 21:35 Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO): Simply put, these are fees that are disclosed to a consumer midway through or at the end of a transaction, or they're fees that serve no tangible purpose for a consumer, like a processing fee, and that they are mandatory or unavoidable. 28:00 Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): The way I look at this issue, and the way many Tennesseans look at it, is this is another way for the FTC, the CFPB, DoT, and all these regulators to clamp down on businesses and try to micro manage businesses. 30:42 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: as a strategy where firms decide to divide a product's price into two or more mandatory parts, a base price for the main product and one or more mandatory surcharges, rather than charging a single all-inclusive price. For example, many hotels have a mandatory fee on top of the daily room rate. These are sometimes called resort fees, or facility fees, or destination fees and can range from $20 to over $50 a night. And many rental car agencies assess several mandatory fees on top of the daily rental rate, such as concession recovery fees, customer facility fees, energy recovery fees, and vehicle licensing fees. 31:20 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: In general, what research on partition pricing has shown is that when firms separate out mandatory surcharges consumers tend to underestimate the total price they'll have to pay and they're often more likely to complete the purchase. 31:50 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: With drip pricing, firms advertise only part of our products' price upfront and reveal other charges later, as shoppers go through the buying process. Drip fees can be mandatory or can be for optional items, but for today's testimony I'll focus on the dripping of mandatory surcharges. Drip pricing is commonly used in industries like the cable TV and the ticketing industries. When a consumer shops for a TV-Internet bundle from a cable television provider, they may first see an attractive base price offer for the bundle, but later learn there are also broadcast TV fees, set top box fees, regional sports fees, and TV connection fees that raise the price considerably. And a consumer shopping for a ticket for a live event, like a concert, a play, or a baseball game, typically first sees the price for different seats in the venue. After selecting a seat, as the consumer clicks through more webpages, they may come to learn there's also a mandatory booking fee, ticketing fee, venue fee, and delivery fee, even when the tickets are delivered electronically. Eventually, they see a total price that may be much higher than the first price they saw and they may be under time pressure to complete the purchase, as there might be a countdown clock that indicates they have to complete their purchase in just a few minutes. Or they may be told there's only two seats left at that price. 33:00 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: What research has shown is that when surcharges are dripped, consumers end up being more likely to buy a product that appears cheaper upfront based only on the base price, but that's more expensive and total given the drip fees. Consumers also tend to buy more expensive products than they otherwise would, such as a seat closer to the stage for a live event. 35:00 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: These policies will benefit consumers if they require that upfront stated prices must be all-inclusive. In other words, all mandatory fees must be included in the total price and that the total price should be seen upfront. This is what academic research suggests will be most beneficial to consumers. 39:20 Dr. Todd Zywicki: Everybody knows bags fly free on Southwest, everybody knows bags don't fly free on the legacy airlines, everybody knows there's going to be a fee for for bags on the other airlines and the like. Maybe there's ways you can disclose it, but nobody's fooled at this point. 42:45 Sally Greenberg: If consumers hate junk fees so much, why do companies large and small increasingly impose them? The answer is, unsurprisingly, because they are a substantial profit center. 43:20 Sally Greenberg: Late payment fees charged by banks and credit cards cost American families an estimated $12 billion annually. These fees, which can be as much as $41 for each Late Fee Payment, far exceed the cost to the issuer for processing and do little to deter future delinquent payments. 43:40 Sally Greenberg: Airlines are also poster children for junk fees. Globally, revenue from junk fees, ancillary fees in airline speak, brought in $102.8 billion in 2022. To put this in perspective, junk fees last year made up 15% of global airline revenues, compared to 6% only 10 years ago. 44:00 Sally Greenberg: Anyone who buys tickets to a concert or sporting event is well acquainted with the myriad fees. They're added at the end of the ticket buying process. We have the example that you showed, Senator Hickenlooper. Primary and secondary market ticketing companies charge service fees, order processing fees, delivery fees and other charges that increased ticket prices on average 27% for the primary market and 31% for the secondary market. 45:05 Sally Greenberg: Junk fees themselves are anti-competitive. They make comparing prices more difficult, distorting well functioning marketplaces. Honest entrepreneurs who invest in their businesses, innovate, and strive to create better value for their customers lose business. Action to address the consumer and competitive harm created by junk fees is urgently needed. 45:30 Sally Greenberg: First, we would urge you to support S. 916. It's the Junk Fee Prevention Act, which would require some of the worst abusers of junk fees to display the full price of services upfront, and they would bar excessive fees and ensure transparency. Second, we ask that Congress restore the FTC's ability to obtain strong financial penalties from wrongdoers. The Supreme Court, in 2021, overturned AMG Capital Management v. FTC, wiping out a critical enforcement tool for the commission. S. 4145, which is the Consumer Protection Remedies Act, would restore that ability to impose monetary relief to the commission. And finally, Congress must not allow businesses that trap consumers with unfair and deceptive fees to escape accountability through fine print in their contracts. To that end, we're proud to support S. 1376, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, which would prohibit pre-dispute arbitration agreements from being enforceable if they require arbitration in employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil rights disputes 44:35 Sally Greenberg: Renters, for example, tend to have lower incomes than those who own their homes. These consumers are also some of the most preyed upon by abusive junk fees. A 2022 survey conducted by Consumer and Housing Advocates found that 89% of landlords imposed some rental application fees[[ clare, 8/7/2023 2:09 PM couldn't find this specific survey]], nearly as many renters paid excessive late fees and they also get hit with utility, administrative, convenience, insurance, and notice fees. 51:30 Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): I'm not hearing from Tennesseans about junk fees. They're just not talking about. They are talking about real economic harm. And I think for some it's been kind of perplexing that we would focus on this issue. I even had one Tennessean say, "Well, what exactly is a junk fee? And what are the economic harms that come to people for fees for discretionary services?" 53:20 Dr. Todd Zywicki: I can't see any reason why people who pay their credit cards on time should have to subsidize people who pay their credit cards late. The evidence is clear on this from the that if you reduce late fees, more people pay late. The makes clear that if you reduce late fees, everybody ends up paying higher interest rates and, and lower income and higher risk borrowers get less access to credit. So most of what we see in the market is efficient. It prevents cross consumer subsidies and a lot of these things that are labeled as junk fees are actually just efficient multi-part pricing. 1:00:30 Dr. Vicki Morwitz: When a larger firm, or really any firm, uses hidden fees or surcharges, it doesn't only hurt consumers, but it hurts well intentioned, honest competitors like many of our country's small businesses that you're talking about. So when a larger firm makes salient a lower base price and only puts in small print or only reveals at the end of the shopping process that there are additional mandatory fees, their product offerings may appear, at least at first, to be cheaper than those of say a small business, an honest competitor who uses all inclusive prices, whose prices at least at first then, will appear more expensive, even if they're actually cheaper in total when the hidden fees of the large firm are added in. Now, research shows this is going to lead consumers to be more likely to even first consider the products and services of the larger firm who uses hidden surcharges because their products seem cheaper. In other words, their supposed low prices draw consumers in. But then having first consider their products consumers will also be more likely to stick with that firm and ultimately purchase their products, even when they're more expensive in total with the fees. So these hidden fees, they don't only hurt consumers by leading them to make purchases that are against their own self interest, but it also hurts honest competitors who are using transparent pricing practices. 1:04:10 Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN): One area of this high excessive fees is ticketing. We had the hearing earlier this year with the president of Live Nation/ Ticketmaster, and other witnesses and as you are aware, the facts are quite startling. It's being reviewed by the Justice Department, including 90% monopoly on ticketing for major NFL, NHL events, 80% for major arena events, and 70% monopoly when it comes to all ticketing. In addition to that, Ticketmaster now owns a number of venues and also locks in a number of other venues that they don't own with their services for in excess of seven years, which is a subject of a bill that Senator Blumenthal and I have introduced, because this locking in makes for even less competition. And then finally, Live Nation promotes the act. So it's like a three cornered monopoly. 1:12:30 Sally Greenberg: Yes, you may know that you have a baggage fee, but there are many people who are older, who have disabilities, who may have children with them; they cannot be carrying their bags onto the airplane. So they are forced to eat the cost of a $35 fee, something that used to be free before, and has jammed our airplanes full of luggage up top, creating hazards for flight attendants as well. 1:13:55 Sally Greenberg: We certainly support the Good Jobs for Airports Act. I think many consumers had no idea that a lot of these workers were not making minimum wage[[ clare, 8/7/2023 2:08 PM couldn't find a source for this.]], were relying on tips. And many people who use the wheelchairs and the curbside baggage services did not know that people were living on tip wages and many people don't tip, as some of us who've been tipped workers know. Tipping is very up and down and certainly not a reliable source of income. So yes, we very much appreciate that legislation and it's long overdue. 1:21:20 Dr. Todd Zywicki: Junk fees is a meaningless term, but it's worse than meaningless. It's actually pernicious, which is that by sort of using this blanket conclusory label, it obscures the complexity of this, the difference between trip pricing, risk based pricing, multipart pricing, partition pricing, and that sort of thing, and it kind of sweeps into one bucket things that are legitimate, things that are aren't, things that might be partially legitimate. And now it's even got more confusing because if you look at the FTC rule, for example, on auto dealers, they take things like nitrogen filled tires, they charge more money for a claim that's a junk fee. The problem with that is not that it's a separate price for nitrogen filled tires. The problem, if there's a problem, is that nitrogen filled tires are garbage, right? There's nothing there. It doesn't matter whether it's disclosed separately or bundled in the price if it's a worthless product. And so when we talk about junk fees, we can end up confusing ourselves, lumping in things because we want to just apply this label to it, whereas I think it'd be much better to understand risk based pricing. What are things where they're pricing for something that you get no value from? What are the things where they're pricing things simply to extract wealth from consumers and the like? Executive Producer Recommended Sources Music by Editing Production Assistance

In this episode, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project shares a progressive vision for permitting reform and the factors that could speed up the US clean-energy buildout.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsTo achieve its Paris climate targets, the US is going to have to build out an enormous amount of clean energy and clean-energy infrastructure in coming years. But that buildout is going slowly — painfully, excruciatingly slowly — relative to the pace that is necessary.This has given rise to considerable debate on the left over what, exactly, is slowing things down. Much of that debate has come to focus on permitting, and more specifically, on permitting under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA.A deal that would have put some restrictions on NEPA in exchange for reforms to transmission planning was effectively killed by progressives toward the end of the last congressional session, leading many people inside and outside the climate movement to accuse progressives of being The Problem. They are so attached to slowing down fossil fuel development with NEPA, the accusation goes, that they are willing to live with it slowing clean energy. And that's a bad trade.Progressives, not surprisingly, disagree! Their take on the whole permitting debate is summarized in a new paper from the Roosevelt Institute and the Climate and Community Project: “A Progressive Vision for Permitting Reform.”The title is slightly misleading, since one of the central points of the paper is that permitting under NEPA is only a small piece of the puzzle — there are many other factors that play a role in slowing clean energy, and many other reforms that could do more to speed it up. I called up one of the paper's co-authors, Johanna Bozuwa of the Climate and Community Project, to ask her about those other reforms, the larger political debate, and the progressive community's take on speed. All right, then. With no further ado, Johanna Bozuwa from the Climate and Community Project. Welcome to Volts, and thank you so much for coming.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me, David.David RobertsThis is a hot topic, as you're well aware, permitting and the larger issues around it. And so, before we jump into specifics, I wanted to start with a few sort of broad, call them philosophical, questions.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsAs you know, progressives have been under quite a bit of fire lately, not only from their typical opponents on the right and in the fossil fuel industry, but from a lot of sort of centrists and even a lot of sort of allies in the climate movement. For — I think the general idea is they are too attached to stopping fossil fuels and not yet supportive enough of building out renewable energy. And the mechanisms that they rely on to slow and stop fossil fuels are also slowing and stopping renewable energy. And so I think the general critique is that they ought to swing around and be more pro-building and loosen these requirements, et cetera, et cetera. I'm sure you've heard all this.Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsSo I guess I'd just start with this question. Is, do you think the progressive — and by the way, I meant to say this by way of a caveat, I'm going to be sort of using you as a spokesperson for progressivism, which I think we both realize is ridiculous.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly.David RobertsProgressives are heterogeneous just like anybody else. There's no official progressive position. But as a crude, let's just say as a crude instrument here, we're going to ask you to speak for that perspective as you see it.Johanna BozuwaPerfect.David RobertsSo in your opinion, do you think progressives have taken it into their heart that things are moving too slowly and they desperately need to move faster?Johanna BozuwaMy answer to that question is that I think speed is progressive. You know, David, I don't need to tell this to you or any of the people that listen to this podcast or even progressives. We're dealing with the existential threat of the climate crisis and lives are on the line. And so I think that as progressives, we do need to take the speed question seriously. And I think what I would push back on is the fact that people have this myopic focus on permitting as the thing that's slowing everything down. And especially when I'm talking about permitting, NEPA permitting.David RobertsRight. We're going to definitely get to that.Johanna BozuwaYeah. And I just think that when it comes to this question of "Do progressives believe in speed?" I think that they actually very much do. And one of the things that I get frustrated with sometimes, when I hear these arguments like "Oh, progressives don't want to build anything," I think what progressives are interested in is building the right thing. And if we think about the United States and how our energy system rolls out today, we have a real issue that fossil fuels can expand at the same time as renewable energy is expanding. Like when it comes to fossil fuels, we can actually export that.We are now the biggest net exporter of LNG and crude oil. And I think that progressives are particularly aware that if we do the wrong thing on permitting then we're actually not only expanding renewable energy — and maybe poorly done renewable energy — but also the fossil fuel industry knows how to use these tools so much better than our renewable energy developers. And we are going to see just a massive expansion that we absolutely don't need right now. If we think the climate crisis matters.David RobertsWhat about the argument which goes like this: Fossil fuels are reaching sort of a structural peak and decline. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. It's on the rise. So if you just, all things being equal, make it easier to build everything across the board, renewable energy will win that race and so it's worth doing.Johanna BozuwaI just don't think that argument is true, look at how much power the fossil fuel industry still has in making these decisions. Like if we look at who is behind the recent push for permitting reform: It was largely the oil and gas industry. There's definitely some more nuance that's there, but they have significant power to move things and move them faster than the clean energy world. It's a question of when you're rolling back some of these bedrock environmental laws that the pie — it's not that the part of renewable energy in the pie is getting bigger. It's that even if we are getting more renewable energy, the pie itself has expanded so that we're having fossil fuels and renewables expanding at the same time.And it's not fully pushing out the power of the fossil fuel industry.David RobertsWell, then, how about this? And this is the final philosophical question before we get down to some nuts and bolts. Do you agree that there are going to be trade-offs as we pursue speed? This is, of course, the big discussion right now is that if you really double down on speed, if you really pursue speed with everything you've got, there are inevitably going to be some trade-offs, some other progressive values that have to take a backseat. And that might be other environmental impacts. It might be impacts on communities. It might be, you know, name it. It might be that we have to loosen up a little bit on those other things.Do you think that there are those trade-offs?Johanna BozuwaI think that there are some trade-offs. You, I think, had my colleague, Thea Riofrancos, on the pod some time ago talking about lithium extraction, right? And the fact that if we are going to decarbonize our transportation sector, it is going to take extraction in order to accomplish that. Right. And there are substantial and significant impacts that has in terms of water contamination in some of the most drought-impacted parts of the United States, that is something that we need to be thinking about. And I think what my hesitation is when it comes to so much of this conversation is that we're talking about deregulation as the way to do speed instead of actually talking about planning and coordination.And from my perspective, it's the planning and coordination that allows us to think through the decisions we're making with a far better sense of what's happening instead of a "get government out of the way, we'll figure it out" project that — it didn't really do great things for the planet. Are we going to do that again and trying to fix it? That seems like a silly mistake to make.David RobertsYeah, that's a really important distinction. I'm glad we get that out up front. Because I hate when we go from, "Yes, there are trade-offs" to therefore "Let it rip, let everything go." As Thea said on the podcast, we can acknowledge those trade-offs and thoughtfully try to minimize them through planning.Johanna BozuwaExactly.David RobertsSo let's start with this. As you say, there's this sort of what we're calling the permitting debate, quote unquote. Permitting debate is actually a bunch of debates and they're all kind of getting squished together under this notion of permitting. But in fact, there's a lot of things going on here other than permitting. So maybe talk just a little bit about all the disparate things that are now sort of getting lumped together under that rubric.Johanna BozuwaExactly. So I think just to put a point on it, often when people are talking about permitting, they're talking about this unfocused conversation about cutting red tape. But really what it comes down to is where the fight is right now in particular on the national stage is around NEPA. So the National Environmental Policy Act, but wrapped up into all of their arguments are all these other pieces that actually are maybe more of the problem than particularly NEPA. So, you know, four of them, just to start us off, obviously we do have NEPA. That's part of the permitting process.We have local and state zoning permits, approvals, things like that. You know, going to Georgia County to make sure that you can put something through. Then you have third, these contracts or arrangements that are actually between private organizations. David, I know you had folks talking about internet connection queues — that often is part of the permitting debate, but it's actually about who gets to go onto the transmission that's being built.David RobertsLet me pause there because I want to make a point that I'm not sure everybody understands and I'm not even sure we made it in that pod. But the ISOs, the ...Johanna BozuwaIndependent service operators. I know I always mess it up. RTOs. ISOs.David RobertsYes, I know. ISOs and RTOs. I could never call that to mind. But anyway, the ones who are sort of running the transmission systems and running these queues are not public organizations. Those are not state organizations. They are private consortia of transmission organizations and utilities and things like that. So it's not something that the state can come in and just directly change. I just think that's worth sort of putting on the record.Johanna BozuwaI think that's a really important point and I think we'll probably dig into this further. But the idea that and I think you talked about this on the pod last time, but there are so many different kind of private actors that are operating within the RTOs and ISOs with not actually a huge amount of oversight, as it currently stands.David RobertsYes, or transparency.Johanna BozuwaOr transparency.David RobertsOr accountability, really.Johanna BozuwaYeah, exactly. And it turns out if we're looking at what's really miring the buildout of renewable energy, a solid amount of it is right there. Is in the interconnection queues. I think it was Southwest PowerPool — takes like eight years sometimes to get the developer to get their project through. And those are for projects that already have their offtaker and have all their permitting in place. So it just feels quite misguided for us to spend all of this time talking about permitting when we could be actually diagnosing the problem —David RobertsAnd you said there was a fourth.Johanna Bozuwa— and there's a fourth. The fourth one, I would say, is just operation and construction permits, like some of the pollution discharge stuff that is at some of these more local levels. And those four don't even include some of the other things that stop things, which is like access to capital, utility squabbles, supply chain slowdowns, these whole host of other issues that are just being swept under the rug because it's very alluring to say, guess what? I have the one quick fix to make sure that renewable energy gets built in the United States.David RobertsAnd local NIMBYism. I'd throw that in.Johanna BozuwaYeah, yeah, local NIMBYism, absolutely. Add it to the pile, exactly. So and NEPA's not going to do things about local NIMBYism in the same way that's the local and state zoning stuff.David RobertsYeah, I think people really want, for obvious reasons, they're frustrated by everything going so slowly and everybody wants there to be sort of like something to cut the Gordian knot, sort of one, as you said, one weird trick. And that's, I think, why people are grasping onto NEPA because it seems like that's one big thing we can argue about and change. But as you say, the reasons here are very disparate. But let's just take a second to talk about NEPA. I go back and forth on this, but is it, do you think the progressive position that NEPA is okay "as is" and doesn't need any changes?Like, do you think there are problems with NEPA and how it's administered?Johanna BozuwaOkay. My feeling on this is that the case about NEPA is overstated, especially as we describe so many other things, even outside of the permitting process that matters. But if we're going to talk about NEPA, I think overall the projects are going through pretty quickly. There was a new study, actually, this month by, I think, David Adelman that did a really comprehensive look at wind and solar NEPA reviews over the past ten years, and he found that less than 5% of Wind and solar projects required. The EIS, like the Environmental Impact Statement, which is the one that takes the most time usually, can be two and a half years or whatever, but they're going through with categorical exclusions or some of these faster ways to move wind and solar projects through, or just projects in general.And he found that there was very little litigation involved, which is often like the dog whistle, I feel like, of some of these folks who are calling for permitting.David RobertsYeah, I was surprised when I looked at that study. It's a relatively low percentage of those projects that get litigated after they're done.Johanna BozuwaRight, exactly. And I think if I were to make any improvements to NEPA, the thing I would do is bulk up the administrative state. Jamie Gibbs Pleune wrote a kind of corresponding piece of research to our permitting report where she investigated and talked about NEPA in particular with Roosevelt. But she was looking at another paper and found of 40,000 NEPA decisions that the US Forest Service looked at, the biggest causes of delays were actually from a lack of experienced staff, budget instability, and honestly, delays from the applicants themselves not getting their stuff in on time. So I just feel as if we're going to do anything to make NEPA better, give the BLM, give US Forest Service, give EPA far more funds, training, staff empowerment that's going to actually move these projects even faster through the pipeline when they're actually moving relatively quickly.And these places have experienced chronic understaffing and lack of empowerment. So there is work to be done there. I don't want to understate that, but I think that it's a reasonable thing for us to accomplish without rolling back and applying a very neoliberal frame to how we get this job done.David RobertsYeah, I would say it does seem like NEPA has sprawled a bit since it was passed. Originally, it was supposed to be major projects that came under NEPA review, and the court basically decided that all projects were under NEPA review. And so there's just thousands and thousands now that just have these little sort of not very long delays because they get these categorical exemptions. But there's just a lot of — it's very sprawling, it seems like, and unfocused. This is one of those areas where I feel like there are procedures of the administrative state that could work better and more effectively.But at this point, liberals, they've just been under assault for so long. And liberals just know if you open this can of worms, if you open it up to review, there's just a pool of piranhas that want to go in and strip it bare. And so they just don't open it for review. Like, there's so many things like this. Like, if we could have a good faith process of actually trying to do what NEPA is supposed to do better than NEPA does it, I feel like, yeah, there's stuff we could improve, but Joe Manchin doesn't want to improve it.Johanna BozuwaWe don't want Joe Manchin in charge of what NEPA looks like and what's the more muscular version that takes into consideration the real-life climate impacts. Because I don't know when you're talking there, David, a thing that comes up for me is the reality that we will have more things happening on the ground. Like, let's say you put transmission in, we have a wildfire crisis. Now all of a sudden, the stakes are higher when it comes to these things like environmental review that are very material that I think also aren't talked about as much as they should be. And so, yeah, I can imagine things being shifted and changed within NEPA so that it works better for the current context.But I think that, as you describe it, could be a real political problem for us to do that type of work right now. And we have other mechanisms that can move us much more quickly in the interim. Like, is this really the thing we want to be spending our time on as progressives? The answer is no.David RobertsAnd I also think if you look at the reforms that were sort of ended up getting jammed through, like of all the thoughtful things you could do to NEPA to make it work better, just a sort of — page limit, like a page limit on reviews: Seems like it's such a blunt instrument. It's such a crude way of approaching this.Johanna BozuwaOh, and I think it's going to get them into serious trouble. If you want a thing that is going to increase litigation, try adding an arbitrary deadline and page limit to something with no administrative capacity.David RobertsOkay. We could do a whole pod on NEPA, but I don't want to get too — our whole point is it's not the sole or even main impediment here. So at a slightly more granular level, let's talk about what you think is actually slowing down clean energy infrastructure build out. And there's a few categories your report covers starting with transmission, which is, I think, the big one.Johanna BozuwaYeah, totally. And I would agree with you. I mean, transmission planning is kind of in shambles in this country. It's not up to the job.David RobertsYeah, I don't think literally anybody on any side of anything would disagree with you about that.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I think there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that multistate transmission buildouts are incredibly hard to do in a federalized system. We just have so many different actors that are vying to hold on to their particular part of the market, especially with our vertically integrated utilities that don't have much interest in allowing other utilities into their service territory. And in deregulated states, utilities are kind of out of the picture for deciding where new generation is being built. So there's not a lot of efficiencies that are built into that. So we just get this really haphazard development, if development at all, of our transmission system, which I think is just quite a failure.There are so many clear opportunities to do much more clear planning around this.David RobertsYes. And then what about big large-scale renewable energy projects like big solar, wind, geothermal, what is in practice, slowing down their build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so I think that when it comes to some of these larger scale projects around solar or wind, you're running again into projects that aren't thinking strategically about where they're being placed. So if we're looking at the amount of land that we're going to need with the energy transition right. Wind and solar take more space up than one natural gas plant. And I think that there's just like a clear lack of land use planning when it comes to these larger scale projects when we could be doing it far better. Right. And thinking about what are the areas that make sense and are going to limit the amount of impact on our landscape and on communities and actually deploy it in those areas.And I actually think there are answers to that question.David RobertsWell, we're not to answers yet. We're dwelling on problems.Johanna BozuwaOkay, all right —David RobertsSo how does that slow down? I mean, what does that manifest as? How does that slow down the build out?Johanna BozuwaYeah, well, the way that that manifests is that you're putting big renewable energy projects in tension with things like agriculture. You're putting big renewable projects in tension with our biodiversity goals. And so those are the things that are going to potentially mire the development and deployment of these larger scale projects — in addition to getting them attached to the transmission and making sure that it's colocated with the transmission we need.David RobertsYes, the aforementioned interconnection queue issue, which alone is like, "That's a lot of years," which as you say, that's a lot of years tacked on the end of all the other stuff they have to go through. Like once they have to go through all that other stuff, then they get in the interconnection queue and wait and wither, etc. And then another thing you take on here is a big piece of the clean energy buildout, which I think a lot of people don't really think about as much, maybe don't enjoy thinking about as much, which is the sort of minerals and metals aspect of it. A big part of IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is an attempt to onshore supply chains so that China does not dominate them.But that means onshoring some mines and some minerals processing which are not necessarily environmentally friendly, not necessarily things people like having in their backyard. So what's slowing those things down?Johanna BozuwaI guess I would say there are two pieces that are happening. One is just that this is a pretty new area and there are so many price fluctuations that are happening. There's all of these big mining companies that are shifting ownership, trying to figure out financing. Right? So there's a lot that's happening there. And mining companies are not the best known for having perfect environmental impact statements or anything like that, that's going to get them mired right. And then you add in the fact that as we talked about earlier, a lot of where these lithium reserves are is also in extremely — like the likelihood for drought is a lot higher if you're looking, for instance, at the Salton Sea in California or, you know, over in Nevada, these are places that we actually have to be extremely careful about. And also it just takes a really long time to build a mine like this isn't something that happens the next day. Right. It's like 10 to 15 years in the future type thing. So it is a longer time frame that's going to be even longer if we aren't thinking, again, about who is impacted, how they are going to be impacted by the mining itself. What is that going to do to air quality, water quality, all of these different things?It's a really big part of the permitting discussion, or of the transition discussion in particular that is being discounted in the United States.David RobertsAnd one more bit on problems, before we transition to recommendations. I noticed that one thing you don't get into a lot in the report is the expression of those state and local level permitting issues. And a lot of those I think, are tied to environmental review. And a lot — like, for instance, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is just sort of like legendarily at this point, a tool for local NIMBYs to stop things happening. Like we just read a story that was bouncing around Twitter a few days ago about these wealthy people — I forget what county they were in — but they were suing because someone had moved a playground closer to their house.They didn't like the sound of the kids playing and so they sued. And part of it was that the city had not done a proper environmental review under CEQA of moving the playground. And you hear stories like that all the time. Do you think you said that NEPA is not as big a problem as people say? Do you think state level environmental review is a serious problem, a serious barrier, at least in some places?Johanna BozuwaI think it just really depends on the place. And I think that's part of why as we were writing a national paper, being able to dig into the detail and differentiations between all of these different places seemed like a big haul for a small paper. So yeah, I think that there are these pieces at the local level, the zoning things, right? People are historic preservation boards that are saying like, "No rooftop solar because we don't like the look of it." Yeah, that's some BS in my mind and I think we do need to figure out how to manage that.And I think what this comes into conversation with is a little bit of like, what is the community review process? What does that look like and how do we manage that?David RobertsContemplating the variety and number of those instruments at the state and local level is really overwhelming and really does make the problem feel so intractable because it's just like, as you say in a federalist system, it's like every bit of reform is not just one bit, it's 50 bits. Every bit is 50 fights.Johanna BozuwaTotally agree. And I think that's why we get stuck in these gridlocks sometimes. And also when we get to solutions, I think there are some examples that we can draw on and utilize our little multi tool of ideas of how to move this forward.David RobertsFinal thing before that, because I forgot about this bit, but actually it's worth making a note that it's actually easier for fossil fuel infrastructure to get NEPA permits than it is for clean energy projects. It's something you note in the paper. If anything, NEPA is easier on these pipelines and stuff. Even though Joe Manchin is complaining ceaselessly about it.Johanna BozuwaYes, and I mean, I think that's why in particular, people who have been fighting the fossil fuel industry for so long, look to this group of folks, more center left folks, that are saying "Repeal NEPA, let's do it, we want to build." They're saying, "Oh my gosh. What you're doing by saying that is saying that the West Virginian that I have been fighting alongside is going to be decimated by this pipeline that's being passed now." So there are really high stakes and in a lot of the permitting process that we saw at the federal level, it also implicated the Mountain Valley pipeline.Right. And that type of infrastructure getting a pass when it couldn't even get some of its permits at the state level to just go forth is a really, I think, scary potential because that locks us into decades of extraction.David RobertsYeah, I feel like that was not covered well when this whole thing happened. You know, the Mountain Valley Pipeline: It's not that it was like stuck unfairly in a bureaucratic tangle. It just sort of straightforwardly was polluting and so it couldn't get the permits, the permits were rejected. It wasn't like stuck in some queue or something. It was just straightforwardly a polluting project that could not qualify under US law to go on. And it was just like jammed through. So I feel like the outrage of that didn't really penetrate partially because everybody's on this like "everything needs to go faster tip" and so they just kind of slotted it under there.But we don't want things that straightforwardly fail environmental review going forward do we?Johanna BozuwaExactly, like, I would like, that the Cuyahoga River does not catch on fire again. And that's the reason we have environmental review and NEPA. And also I would like it to be able to stop more fossil fuel infrastructure.David RobertsYeah, I know. And this is the other thing too, as though we're supposed to have some sort of content neutral opinions about permitting as such. I'm just like, "Well, I want more good stuff and less bad stuff. Can I have that opinion?"Johanna BozuwaExactly. That's so crucial too, where there are ways for us to stop permitting new fossil fuel infrastructure and permit the hell out of good renewable energy projects. That's a political possibility that Biden actually had signed up for and now is stepping back on.David RobertsYeah, I mean, it's politically tough, but let's be positive here. You have a lot of recommendations in here, all of which are juicy, all of which could probably have a podcast of their own on them. There's no way we can cover them all. But you sort of have your principles and recommendations grouped under three headings. And the first one, which I think is the one that is most directly germane to the speed question, is enabling more coordination and planning. And I think this is a huge thing. This is one of my soapboxes I get on all the time.I really want the climate movement to take this up is that we've had decades and decades of for lack of a better term, neoliberalism and this sort of instinctive free market stuff. And it's not like any major developed economy actually stops planning. What happens when you claim you're not planning and you claim you're being a free market is you just move planning behind closed doors or bury it in the tax code where no one can see it or understand what's happening. And then that results in whoever has the most power and money winning the planning fights.So I'm done with my soapbox. Let's talk about restoring our ability to do public, transparent, cooperative planning. Let's talk about a few of the items under here. And first is just land use planning. What do you mean by that and what would it look like?Johanna BozuwaSo, land use planning, as we talked about earlier, it turns out that one fossil fuel plant is a lot smaller than the types of assets that we need to build. That's just a reality of what we're working with. And so that necessitates far more land use planning to think about how do we get the most out of the least amount of space that is going to do the best for keeping the lights on. And so there are examples of how we can do this type of land planning. And one example I want to bring up actually is in California.So there was the Desert Renewable Energy Plan that was basically where states and federal agencies came together and they were looking at the Mojave and Colorado desert area. It's like 22 million acres.David RobertsVery sunny.Johanna BozuwaYeah, very sunny, exactly. Very sunny, very good for some solar. And what they did is that they coordinated a plan for this entire region so that it was prescreened for issues. So they said, okay, we're going to look at the biodiversity impacts of things being put here. We're going to look at the cultural or tribal impacts, the environmental potential impacts. And so after they did that kind of, what's called often like a programmatic study, that meant that the developers that came in to build the stuff there don't have to go through some more involved environmental impact assessment or study because it's already done.And so that meant that because they had done all of that work ahead of time, projects are getting approved so much faster. They're getting approved in less than ten months. And have, I think it's been now this zone has been around for about ten years and I don't think there is one litigation case. So that is just such a good example of land use planning where it's like thinking ahead of what we need and how we're going to do it. And that still does allow for private developers to come in, even though I might even argue that we could do even more planning and fill in the gaps with some public transmission or public renewable energy.But we can get into that later.David RobertsAnd we did an example from California, so I think now we're constitutionally obliged to do one from Texas too.Johanna BozuwaAbsolutely. Well, exactly. Thank you for setting me up so neatly, David, for the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones of Texas, which was such a success. So this is a very similar situation where the legislature directed the PUC, the Public Utilities Commission to plan where new generation and transmission was going to be located, routed, all of this. And so by doing so, they allowed for this proliferation of wind in Texas, a place where you might not expect a massive amount of wind to be. And I was reading a study the other day that said that in the past ten years, the CREZ line, so the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, represents 23% of all new high voltage lines in the US.David RobertsGood grief.Johanna BozuwaRight?David RobertsYeah. They're actually building I mean, I don't know if people know this, they're actually building transmission in Texas. I'll just talk about how transmission never gets built. They're building it there because —Johanna BozuwaThey had a plan.David RobertsThey planned in advance. Yes, they had zones where it got approved and so you didn't have to then go there and do the entire like a transmission developer didn't have to go somewhere and then do the entire thing. Right. Do the entire review, do the entire land use review and the environmental review. They didn't have to start over every time that stuff was done in advance.Okay, point made. There more land use coordination and planning. That's the states doing it. But you could imagine the feds getting into that somewhat. You have these jurisdictional issues and federalism issues that are a bit of a tangle, but it does seem like the feds at the very least could do some informational, advisory planning and assessment on a bigger level, don't you think?Johanna BozuwaOh, absolutely. Actually, we do have a lot of private land in this country. Absolutely. But there is a lot of land that is owned by the federal government. So they're actually implicating a lot of this already. And it makes far more sense for an actor that has that kind of meso level understanding of what we need to build to be involved in those processes and be doing kind of a national assessment of where should those zones be. Like CREZ that's going to have all of these benefits and is going to allow for the most kind of efficient way for us to be deploying renewable energy while also taking into consideration these biodiversity, tribal nation relations and all of these things.That's a good role for the federal government to actually play.David RobertsOkay, we're going to pass quickly by two of these since I've done pods on them. But as you say, one is the interconnection process, which is probably the biggest thing right now, slowing down renewable energy getting built. I did a whole pod on that with RMI's Chaz Teplin a few weeks ago.Johanna BozuwaA fantastic one.David RobertsReally encourage everybody to go listen to that. There's a lot of recommendations in there for how to improve the interconnection process, how to improve things in batches. To return to a theme here, a lot of that has to do with just more and better planning on the ISO's parts.Once again, like, think in advance a little bit and you can skip some of this case by case stuff, but I encourage people to go listen to that pod. Another one, which we've touched on slightly, which I also did a pod on, is just and I think this is so important is just the capacity of the agencies that are doing these reviews. These are at the state level and at the federal level. These agencies have been cut to the bone. They're all, all understaffed, desperately behind, and that, of course, makes things go slower. So all these people who are whinging about reviews, if they're not talking about bulking up agency capacity, I just have trouble taking them seriously because that is the lowest hanging fruit you could do.But I did a whole pod on that several weeks ago about government capacity and about some of the provisions in the IRA that are meant to bulk up capacity at these agencies. It's just a matter of money and hiring. So we're going to check that one off the list. Let's talk a little bit about this next recommendation, which is about more publicly owned energy and transmission. What do you mean by that? What would that look like?Johanna BozuwaYeah, so this is kind of trying to answer the question of building where private companies will not, right? Like, we do have this problem of not having the long-range solution in the mind's eye, right? And we have this system in which there isn't a lot of this coordination that's in the mind's eye of a developer, right? Like, they're focused on their development, whereas the state government, federal government, has a little bit more of like, "Okay, what are we trying to accomplish? We are trying to handle the climate crisis. And that means we need to move as quickly as possible to deploy as much renewable energy as possible.And it turns out we actually do have some capacity and to actually build this ourselves." And we've done this in the past, admittedly, in a much less dense energy system. But the New Deal is a really good example of this, where the U.S. either directly financed or built itself a massive amount of transmission and energy infrastructure, like the Rural Electrification Administration that FDR put in place. It electrified 80% of the United States land mass in ten years. And when we're talking about the climate crisis, I would like to go at that clip. So I think if there are ways for us where we have a standstill where things aren't getting built fast enough, where can the federal government, the state government come in with a little political muscle and do that building?And I think that there are additional kind of benefits to doing this too, which include the fact that if you're building public renewables, for instance, you're also probably going to value having higher and better-paid jobs. You are probably going to, in comparison to a private developer, probably thinking a little bit more about some of those community benefits. And I think that there's a real win there that actually kind of creates a baseline for the rest of the private industry in a good way too.David RobertsInstead of just nudging and incentivizing private developers to do these things, we could just do them.Johanna BozuwaWe could just do them and we can also show them the way a little bit too. Right. Like right now, right. We just have the Inflation Reduction Act. Fabulous. We love the climate investments. It's so great. And also it just largely relies on tax incentives, right. And in those it's like you get a little bit more if you use local steel and if you have high wage jobs, all these things. And we could also just do that, build some public renewables and make it happen ourselves. And also when you have, particularly from a job perspective, right, like a public renewables entity that's building these developments with high wage work, that means that the private developers are afraid that they're going to lose all of their workers.So then they have to raise their wages too, which is a good thing.David RobertsRace to the top, I think they call that.Johanna BozuwaI would love a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom in our renewable energy world.David RobertsYes. Okay, we got to keep moving here. There's a long list. The next one is something we covered, I think, on the Thea Riofrancos post, which is just we know we have to build a lot of stuff, but that's not a fixed quantity of stuff we have to build. Right. We can be more efficient with how we use materials. We can try to build in a less material intensive way. So, you know, what Theo was talking about is encourage more walking and biking and multimodal transportation rather than cars, cars, cars. Like that's a choice. And there are other choices we could make to build a clean, but the less material intensive version of clean.There's a lot of different ways we can guide things in that direction.Johanna BozuwaOh yeah, absolutely.David RobertsEveryone should go listen to that podcast, too. This pod is like an advertisement for all my other pods.Johanna BozuwaI love it, I love it. Yeah. And just to kind of emphasize, the more that we can invest in efficiency, the fewer transmission lines we might have to build, right? Like if we have a bunch of houses that aggressively go in on multi units. Like, we're having more people housed in multi units. We're creating urban density. We're making the houses that we already have more efficient. All of those things accumulate and make it so that we actually don't have to do the same level of massive deployment, which is a huge win. So we have to — I think it's like questioning some of the assumptions, too, of how much do we need to build.David RobertsRight. Maybe not all our private vehicles need to be the size of military tanks and weigh three tons. This segues perfectly into the next one, which I feel like is underappreciated, which is supporting distributed energy resources. Talk about why that's part of going faster here. How does that fit into this picture?Johanna BozuwaSo let's say we're able to add rooftop solar to a lot of the rooftops that are around and implement microgrids and put in storage. These are all, again, things that are going to be a lot easier probably to deploy because they're smaller. There's less of this zoning permitting etc. that has to happen when it comes to some of the bigger stuff, where you're going to maybe need environmental review. And so by making those investments in distributed energy resources, you're actually lightening the load again on transmission development.David RobertsRight. It's kind of a piece of the previous one, really.Johanna BozuwaTotally.David RobertsIt's about being less material intensive.Johanna BozuwaExactly. And I also think the added benefit of doing that, of course, is the fact that we live in unreliable times and it adds additional reliability potential by having things like microgrids deployed.David RobertsYes, many future pods on that particular subject are in the works, are cooking in the Volts oven. Let's go to the second big category here, and this is where I have a little bit of skepticism. So this category is "Enhance community participation and consent." So this is what I want to talk about: You say, let's bring communities in more and earlier. And of course, I think most people, at least most people in my world, when they hear "more community involvement," their palms start sweating. They envision these local zoning meetings with old people shouting at city officials.They envision nothing ever getting done, everything getting blocked, NIMBY's everywhere. You have this sentence where it says, "Strengthening community participation early in the process will likely move projects forward faster without as much community opposition." Do we know that to be true? I want that to be true. I like the idea of it. Do we know that?Johanna BozuwaGreat question. It's worth interrogating. I'm going to borrow a little bit from my colleague that we've already referenced today, Thea Riofrancos, that she often says which is "Sometimes going fast isn't actually fast." So, you know, if we streamline, right, or NEPA gets streamlined or many of these other permitting processes, you cut the red tape and therefore you are steamrolling communities affected by the infrastructure. You're potentially hardening them against the project. And when they feel mad or disenfranchised, chances are they're going to throw the book at you. They're going to throw the book to stop the project. We talked about these arbitrary dates set by some of the permitting system.You're actually putting yourself up for far more potential litigation and drawn out legal battles because you actually haven't done the work that's necessary to bring that group on side, nor do you have all of your ducks in a row. So I think that there is a justification for defraying conflict and making our odds better at doing that. I'm not saying that we're not going to run into problems and there isn't going to be this annoying mob of Karens that's going to show up every once in a while. But I do think that our odds do look better when we do involve community.David RobertsThere's a cynical point of view here which says communities are always going to have their Karens. There's always going to be somebody who objects, no matter how early, no matter how much you consult, there's always going to be somebody who doesn't want something near them. The only way in the end to overcome this problem is to take those instruments of delay out of their hands, including the litigation tool, including the environmental review tool, including the community review tool, and just get a little bit more Chinese about the whole thing. Just go do stuff, even if — bulldoze, basically.I know we want to resist that conclusion, but I wish we knew better. I wish we had better models of moving quickly.Johanna BozuwaSo I think actually, since you mentioned the Chinese, I'm going to mention the Danish. And I think that part of this is actually like — we have this problem, right, that we know that deploying renewable energy, deploying clean energy is just incredibly important for the climate crisis. But the benefits are diffuse where the potential negative is pretty concentrated when it comes to these things. And so I think one question we can ask or the permit reviewers or whatever it is, or how we're thinking about developing these projects, is getting in their shoes and asking, what is in it for me?We can pay people to have some of this stuff, right? So the Danish government in the 1990s was building out a bunch of wind. And so one of the ways that they incentivized this wind development was by incentivizing that part of it is owned by the local government to give them a revenue stream. And that actually helped to limit the controversy. And you'll see that in Denmark, people have kind of higher concepts or like the polling is better for wind. And I was talking with this professor, Nick Pevzner from University of Pennsylvania, who was discussing this really interesting particular instance in which in one of these towns where they were going to be around the offshore wind, they actually brought in landscape architects to design the offshore wind. So that it would be aesthetically pleasing.David RobertsThe Danes give a shi-, give a dang, about how things look like. What a thought.Johanna BozuwaHuge difference.David RobertsYes, I know. You look at what's the one waste incineration plant in the middle of the town that's like gorgeous. It's got a laser display, I think it's got a ski hill on it. All these kind of things. It seems like we don't care here in the US. How ugly things are. Witness any sort of midsize town or strip mall or the periphery of any city. Everything's just like plain and ugly. Like what if we made things look nice that might improve community —Johanna BozuwaWe deserve nice things. Communities deserve nice things.David RobertsWe can have nice things. And you talk about we should do what's called a "Cumulative impact analysis."Johanna BozuwaYes.David RobertsAgain, to me on first blush that sounds like oh, bigger and more analysis: Surely that's going to slow things down. So how do you see that working?Johanna BozuwaWell, again, this kind of takes us to our planning. Right. Like cumulative impact analysis which New Jersey and New York have put in place is this way to discern not just the impact of the project but the accumulated impact of that project and what's already come to date. And I think what you would find in cumulative impact in these places, is that actually it's doing some of what we were talking about before, which is trying to fight off the bad and build more of the good. So that's a way to stop new fossil fuel infrastructure but maybe see benefit around solar or something like that.These are actually tools that, yes, as you say, at first glance you might think, "Oh my gosh, more? Really?" But what it's doing is assuring some of that larger meso level discerning and also in a lot of ways these are environmental justice tools too. Right. The reason that they're doing that is because it has so consistently been the same community that has had to shoulder the coal plant, then the gas plant, then the pipeline, then another cement factory. Right. And so they're trying to say, "Okay wait, this is out of control. Let's think about where we're putting this and how that's going to burden people."David RobertsSo the last category here is "Empower a just transition." And I don't think we need to go piece by piece through here since these are very familiar asks from progressive climate people, which is just stop permitting new fossil fuel facilities. Protect the communities that are getting hurt by fossil fuel pollution and set emission reduction targets that will phase out fossil fuels. I think those are all pretty straightforward. I do think the point here, though the larger point you're making with this section is worth underlining because it seems obvious to me, but also frequently left out of this debate, which is if you want to get renewable energy built faster: One way you could do that is through statute and regulation forcing fossil fuel out. Like, nothing's going to speed up renewable energy more than forcing fossil fuels out. Right. It seems so obvious, but it's weirdly left out here.Johanna BozuwaVery weirdly left out. It's a bizarre kind of development that we've seen in the climate realm, right? The IRA, for instance, that is a bill that is great. It creates a lot of carrots, but basically no sticks. And the reality is we need sticks if we're actually going to do this, right, as we were talking about at the kind of outset of the show, we can't let just the entire pie keep on getting bigger and bigger. We actually need to get rid of the fossil fuels. That's the point of what we're doing here. They're the reason that we have the climate crisis.And so, the best way to get rid of them is to just regulate them out of existence, like eliminate them. And I also think there's a certain amount of private industry hates regulation, but they do love certainty. So what is more certain than a decarbonization mandate that says, like, well, you need to be done by this date? And that actually gets us to more of the displacement than when we just say "Build, build, build just hopefully build the right thing for us, please please."David RobertsYes, I think that's true on several micro levels and it's true on a macro level too. One thing that would help us go faster is if we could just clearly articulate our goals. But we're sort of just hampered by having to beg Joe Manchin for his vote. And to get Joe Manchin's vote, you have to pretend that the whole pie is going to get bigger, that everything's going to grow. That's explicitly the grounds upon which he voted yes on Iraq. He sets it outright. He's like, I voted yes because I thought it was going to grow renewable energy and fossil fuels.In some sense, politically, we can't just come out and say the goal is to get rid of fossil fuels. That's where we're headed. It would just help everybody, private developers, state and local governments, if we were just on the same friggin page. Instead of sort of like backing into this, we're just backing into everything we do. Trying to sort of like wink wink at one another. Like we know what we're doing, they don't know what we're doing. It's just a bunch of confusion.Johanna BozuwaRight? And I think that it's also a little bit laughable because they obviously know what we're trying to do, right? Like, we're not really hiding the bag. And I think that this speaks to the need for us to be like, this is a 20-year fight, we're not done with the fight the progressive left needs to keep — we can't just have IRA and think that we're done and can wipe our hands. I mean, even this conversation that has come up on permitting shows that people are hungry and need more. And the question is okay, how do we build the actual political power so that Manchin isn't the one that's in the driver's seat?David RobertsYes.Johanna BozuwaI think one kind of last thing on this kind of community consent piece or community engagement that makes me really nervous to tie us back to the permitting realm, right. Is that the people who are potentially going to be railroaded by infrastructure that they don't want is rural America. And if you are pissing off rural parts of the United States right now, that's a very short-sighted game to be playing, right. Because you are potentially taking these rural folk who have just been beaten back again and again, and you're turning them to the right, to a growing fascist right, and giving away a massive voting bloc that is going to be crucial for us to continue to win and win again and keep winning until we actually solve the climate crisis.So I think when it comes to this kind of larger political project that we're doing on from a progressive perspective, we have to be wary of this idea that this is — not a get it fixed quick scheme.David RobertsYes. We do not want to tick off these particular communities any more than they're ticked off. I think if you talk to Biden administration officials sort of behind the scenes, they will tell you that part of the design of IRA, part of the thinking behind it is we need to flood these areas of the country that were hollowed out by neoliberalism, hollowed out by globalism. We need to flood them with new economic activity and new development or else our democracy is screwed. But it is also the case that you can't just go stomping things down here and there, willy-nilly, without community consent.They need to have a feeling that they're involved in where and how this is done.Johanna BozuwaYeah, we're trying to bring them into the fight for a populist amazing future, and shoving this down their throats I just don't think is the most effective tactic. And if you look back to the New Deal, right, so much of it was workers. It was people that were in more of rural America. There were so many of these folks who were standing up and fighting. And if we're not setting ourselves up for that same kind of sea change, then I'm afraid we're not going to be able to win this thing.David RobertsOkay. We are just about out of time. So just to kind of review, this is just, I think the point of your report, point of all this is to say the question of speed is not the same as the question of permitting. Technically speaking, permitting is a relatively small piece of the puzzle here. There's lots of other things we could be doing to speed things up that have nothing technically to do with NEPA or even technically to do with permitting. And we've reviewed a lot of them here, and I would commend people to your report to get a fuller picture of them and to think about them.But let me finish, I guess with, this is all a vision. I love this vision, but politics are politics and we live in a fallen world, et cetera, et cetera. So toward the end of last session, there was this chance to have a permitting deal, and basically it was these sort of arbitrary caps on NEPA reviews, the length of NEPA reviews and the Mountain Valley pipeline in exchange for some pretty substantial transmission stuff, some pretty substantial stuff on transmission, federal transmission planning. The progressive movement rallied to kill that. They called it Manchin's dirty deal. They rallied, they killed it.And what ended up happening was the NEPA stuff squeezed through somewhere else. The Mountain Valley pipeline squeezed through somewhere else, and the transmission stuff died. Looking back on that, do you think that was the right political move for the progressive movement to fight that bill? And more broadly, do you think the progressive movement is prepared to sort of make the political trade-offs which are going to be necessary since a lot of this stuff that you list in your report is just going to be very difficult with today's current political distribution of power?Johanna BozuwaYeah, great question, and I think my answer is that the progressive movement still did the right thing. We needed to fight — or the progressive movement folks who were in those fights needed to fight off and make very clear the MVP is not something that we can have — this permitting that's going to expand. It was a big toad to swallow. And I think if we look at some of the transmission stuff, like, sure, it was fine. Was it the things that we were fully looking for? I think it was Hickenlooper's bill, big wires that was in some of those kind of final fights, right.With the Fiscal Responsibility Act, his bill included something like a 30% interregional transfer. The DOE says we need a 120% increase in interregional transfer. That's just not even at the scale that we need, and we'd be giving up so much for it. So, yeah, we didn't fully win that fight, but I think that from what I'm hearing, kind of at the congressional level, there is the potential for another bite at the apple on transmission. There is still some, as we said earlier, right, everyone agrees that transmission is a boondoggle right now and a hot mess. So I think that should be one of the things that we're thinking about as the progressive movement.How do we do that? Right? But I don't think I would go back in time and say "Eh, we should just accept Manchin's deal." I think that it was an important political flag to stamp in the ground that, no, we actually don't believe that we should be expanding fossil fuels and renewable energy at the same time because that's not what we need to do. Saying all that, I do think there are things that we can be doing right now to advance transmission. For instance, FERC is looking at some of these interconnection issues right now. Biden should not rest on his laurels until he gets someone approved and appointed to the FERC board.David RobertsHey, there's Joe Manchin again being a jerk.Johanna BozuwaI know, it's so true. But there are things and again, we've already talked on this pod about stuff that can be done at the state level, too. We still have some cards to play in our hand to accelerate and prove our case increasingly and build the case for more federal implementation, too.David RobertsJohanna, thanks so much for coming on. I feel like lately the progressive environmental left has appeared in mainstream media and social media more as a weird caricature viewed from a distance than been able to speak for itself. So I'm glad to be able to have you on so we can talk through a little bit about how progressives see this and the larger issues at play and their specific recommendations, all of which I think are great. So people should check out your report. And thanks for sharing your time with us.Johanna BozuwaThank you so much for having me today, David. It's lovely.David RobertsThank you for listening to the Volts podcast. It is ad-free, powered entirely by listeners like you. If you value conversations like this, please consider becoming a paid Volts subscriber at volts.wtf. Yes, that's volts.wtf so that I can continue doing this work. Thank you so much, and I'll see you next time. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe

Mike Johnston wins Denver mayoral election | All 36 CO DMV offices can now issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants and international students who qualify | Colorado Democrats and Gov Jared Polis pass statewide ban on ghost guns | AZ State Senator says she was not aware of her flag's neo-Nazi ties. She is now though, and she's keeping it | Talented field of Arizona Democrats compete in primary for Rep. Ruben Gallego's seat in Congress Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Looks like we've got a winner! As of recording, it looks like Mike Johnston will be the next Mayor of Denver. After 12 years under the leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock, in which Denver has experienced rapid growth and a booming economy, the growing pains are catching up with us and Denver's new mayor will face crisis-level homelessness, addiction, and gun violence.Mike Johnston is a boyish Ivy League boy who has run for lots of things and served as lots of other, different things. Jokes aside though he seems to have the respect of a lot of people I deeply respect, and I'm excited to see what he can do. COLORADO NEWSLINE:All Colorado DMVs now offer driver's licenses to undocumented residentsBY: SHANNON TYLER - JUNE 6, 2023 3:10 PMEvery driver's license office in Colorado will now offer license and ID card services to undocumented residents and international students, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday.In 2013, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law the Colorado Road and Community Safety Act, which made obtaining a standard driver's license accessible for undocumented immigrants and international students. At the time, only four offices in the state actually provided the service.Now, on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the bill, the DMV announced all 36 of the state's driver's license office locations will offer appointments for immigrants and international students to get a standard license or ID card. Gov Polis said  “Here in Colorado, we know that our immigrants strengthen the fabric of who we are. In the last 10 years over 250,000 Coloradans have been able to get their driver licenses and insurance, making all of us safer on the roads.” The law allows all Coloradans to obtain a standard driver license or ID card regardless of immigration status if the applicant can provide proof of identity and Colorado residency. The DMV works with several volunteer nonprofits around the state as a part of the I Drive Coalition to help provide Road and Community Safety Act services for undocumented immigrants to obtain standard license or identification cards. Organizations help to schedule free appointments for people who come to them. Henry Gomez with Grupo Esperanza de Colorado Springs, one of the organizations that supports and provides resources for immigrants, said the legislation is necessary for immigrants in Colorado to do essential daily tasks like driving to a doctor's appointment or taking their children to school. When the bill first passed, it was difficult for people to actually use the service because they had to travel long distances to the few places that offered it and wait hours to schedule an appointment, Gomez said. 1 of 20 statesColorado is one of 20 states, along with Washington D.C., to offer driver's licenses to undocumented residents. DMV spokesperson Stephany Garza said “Colorado has come a long way since the program launched in originally starting in a handful of locations. We've been able to grow it throughout the state, thanks to strong demand and a dedication to partner with community organizations and leaders.” “The DMV's mission is to provide motor vehicle, driver and identity services that promote public safety, trust and confidence, and having trained and licensed drivers on our roads is critical.” COLORADO NEWSLINE: I ain't ‘fraid of no ghost - guns. Because now they're banned in Colorado. BY: SARA WILSON - JUNE 2, 2023 1:48 PMSenate Bill 23- 279 makes the sale, manufacture and possession of ghost guns a Class 1 misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class 5 felony on subsequent offenses.bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, said “Ghost guns are untraceable, unserialized weapons that anyone can make or assemble in their own home – and they're extremely dangerous. We worked hard this session to make Colorado safer and prevent gun violence, and this new law is a big step towards reaching that goal.”The legislation was also sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, Rep. Andrew Boesenecker of Fort Collins and Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, all Democrats. Every Republican voted no.Law enforcement say ghost guns are being used more often in crimes across the state. The shooters involved with last year's attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs and the March shooting at Denver's East High School both possessed and showed an interest in ghost guns.Ghost gun kits are easily available online for anyone to assemble or 3D-print at home. Because that process bypasses serialization and necessary background checks, the guns can be nearly impossible to trace when used in a crime. Current ghost gun owners have until Jan. 1, 2024 to get the blank firearm, frame or receiver serialized by a licensed dealer. Serialization includes a background check. Going forward, people can still make their own firearms as long as they get them serialized.Eleven states already regulate ghost guns.The Colorado Legislature passed four other bills regulating firearms during this year's legislative session, which wrapped up in early May. That includes a minimum age restriction and three-day waiting period for gun purchases, expansion of the state's extreme risk protection order law to include groups other than law enforcement and a repeal of the state's legal liability protections for the firearm industry.Hats off to Colorado Democrats. They take so much abuse as well as threats from thousands and thousands of extremely aggressive gun rights activists. These gun groups create extremely dishonest and aggressive attack ads, and they do everything they can to show their strength. It takes real guts to pass gun safety laws in the West, and the Colorado Democratic legislators have some serious guts. Congratulations on a great session everyone.  ARIZONA MIRROR:AZ GOP senator proudly flies flag adopted by ‘fringe' far-right extremistsBY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - JUNE 5, 2023 11:20 AMThe desk on the Arizona Senate floor for Republican Sen. Janae Shamp, displays the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which has been adopted by Christian nationalists and other extremists in recent years. Shamp says she displays the flag because of its historical ties to the American Revolution, and says she is unaware of its use by far-right extremist groups. But that, of course, is bullshit. The white flag with a pine tree on it and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” was originally used by George Washington and the Continental Army. It was later adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its naval and maritime flag until 1971, when the copy was dropped, leaving only the image of the pine tree. In recent years, the flag has been adopted by Christian nationalists, who see the flag as a rallying call. Christian nationalists believe that the United States is Christian nation that should base its laws and practices around the teachings of Christianity.The flag has also been embraced by far-right extremist organizations like the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups.Shamp did not respond to questions about whether she embraced the beliefs of Christian nationalism, and said she doesn't know anything about Christian dominionism, a closely related belief system.To investigative journalist, author and researcher David Neiwart, who has written extensively about the far-right, the lines between groups have begun to blur into an entire “universe” of far-right groups from QAnon, militias, white supremacists, and other extremist groups who have gained political influence among conservatives. Most of them share a few things in common, including beliefs in “right-wing authoritarianism” and the alleged supremacy of Christianity.After looking at the various people and causes Shamp has supported over the years, including various extremist and Christian nationalist figures and causes, Neiwart said it's clear to him that Shamp ascribes to those beliefs.  “She is definitely a Christian nationalist, she is definitely QAnon, and a fully enraptured Trumpite,” Neiwert said.  While a surge in Christian nationalism in recent years has garnered media attention — due in part to high-profile conservatives like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who explicitly declared herself a Christian nationalist, and the backing of influential leaders like white nationalist Nick Fuentes — Christian dominionism has similarly been on the rise, though with much less fanfare. One of the more popular Dominionist beliefs is in the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which draws from the biblical book of Revelations and requires Christians to invade the “seven spheres” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. In doing so, American life can be reshaped to hew to conservative Christian values. The idea has been embraced and promoted by people like Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and Paula White, the televangelist who served as a “spiritual advisor” to Donald Trump while he was president. According to David Neiwart, the key difference between Christian dominionism and nationalism is that dominionists want everyone under Christian rule, while nationalists think everyone should convert to Christianity.“Christian nationalists take it a step further than Christian Dominionists,” Neiwart said, adding that a dominionist wouldn't care if a Muslim was present, “they just want them under the thumb of Christian leaders.”One of the biggest promoters of Christian nationalism and dominionism has been disgraced Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, who has claimed that he is waging “spiritual warfare” and building an “army of God.” Flynn is also known to associate with other extremist groups. AZ Sen Shamp is a fervent supporter of Flynn's, and has posted praise of Flynn often on social media. The recent COVID-19 special committee she co-chaired was sponsored in part by an organization that Flynn co-founded. “I get goosebumps every time General Flynn talks about our great Nation!” Shamp said in a December 2021 post accompanied by a video of Flynn. At a Trump rally in Florence in January 2022, Shamp told Business Insider that the “No. 1 person standing up for ‘we, the people' is probably Gen. Michael Flynn.” Shamp, a conservative from Surprise, has also been found to have shared a number of QAnon posts on her Facebook linked to Neo-Nazis and antisemites. The flag, which Shamp displays on her desk and in her Twitter banner image, has also been connected to extremist groups and violent events. During the violent events of Jan. 6, the flag was seen being carried by a number of individuals.  “I would say Christian nationalism as a phenomenon is one of the real undergirding movements involved in the insurrection,” Neiwart said, adding that the militias and other groups such as the OathKeepers all had underlying Christian nationalist roots or beliefs. “All these Christian patriots that formed these militias are Christian nationalists as well.”ARIZONA MIRROR:Meet the Dems vying for Gallego's seat in the U.S. House of RepresentativesBY: GLORIA REBECCA GOMEZ - JUNE 2, 2023 1:33 PMSo far, four candidates have already launched campaigns to represent Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Laveen, Maryvale and part of Glendale. The district is considered a Democratic stronghold, with left-leaning voters outnumbering Republicans three to one. The winner of the Democratic primary is virtually guaranteed to capture the seat in November.First, Laura Pastor.The most recent entrant into the race is the daughter of Rep. Gallego's predecessor, Ed Pastor, who held the seat from 1991 until his retirement in 2015. The younger Pastor has a long career in elected office herself, with three terms on the Phoenix city council representing areas recently drawn into the 3rd District.Prior to her position on the council, she was a classroom teacher who worked with at-risk students. Ms. Pastor also serves on the governing board for Phoenix Union High School. In a launch video on Wednesday, Pastor invoked her family's political legacy and promised to continue it. “For five generations my family has worked for a better Arizona. From my grandfathers - who organized workers in the copper mines - to my mother - who lived with strength and integrity in a time of discrimination - to my dad. My dad taught me that lots of politicians can talk, but what matters is what you deliver.” “I am running to put my experience to work on behalf of Arizonans – to take care of our veterans, to have someone looking out for family budgets, and to protect all of our access to health care, including reproductive care,” Ylenia AguilarIf elected, Aguilar would be Arizona's first formerly undocumented congresswoman. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was just a toddler, and suffered repeated housing and food insecurity. Aguilar attended as many as 20 different schools. The single mother of two credits her early adversity with inspiring a personal imperative to voice the struggles of others. Aguilar spent more than a decade as a translator before becoming the first Latina elected to the Osborn School District Board, where she's still a member. During the Trump presidency, Aguilar helped author a resolution prohibiting ICE agents from entering schools. She also serves on the state's Central Arizona Water Project Board and as the business development manager for SOURCE Global, a Scottsdale-based renewable energy company that helps tribal and rural communities access clean drinking water via hydropanel technology. Water conservation is among her policy priorities, as well as immigration reform, and access to education and reproductive health care. At the top of her list is representing Arizona's diverse communities where past politicians have failed. “My story is your story,” she said, at her campaign kickoff. “I know what you go through. I know how hard you work, how much you love your children, how difficult it can be to get ahead and how often politicians leave our community behind, or worse — how politicians attack our communities trying to take away our rights. In Congress, I will be your voice, because your voice matters.” Yassamin AnsariPhoenix's Vice-Mayor was one of the first to throw her hat in the ring after Congressman Gallego announced his challenge to U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Ansari's election as the city's youngest council member in 2021 followed a career in climate change advocacy that included a stint as a policy advisor for the United Nations. Her work on the Phoenix council includes helping to draft and pass a citywide resolution that deprioritized abortion-related arrests and spearheading efforts to electrify Phoenix's public transportation. Those concerns would follow her to the federal level, with more ambitious climate change legislation a key part of her priorities. The country's as-yet unfulfilled pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is of particular importance to Ansari, who vowed to lead an effort to remedy that. Also high up on her roster is gun violence prevention, housing affordability and a living wage. A daughter of Iranian immigrants, Ansari's election would be a first for the district, whose population is 51% Hispanic and has supported Hispanic candidates since 1991. But Ansari's council district, which spans from southwest to downtown Phoenix and has a similar population makeup as CD3, resoundingly backed her in 2021. She said, “As a daughter of immigrants, I very much understand the challenges that our community faces. My constituents know that I don't just represent one community, I represent all communities. And whether you're Latino, White, Black or any other background, representation is about listening to the community and making sure that you're surrounding yourself with people in the community so that their experiences and challenges are represented in the legislation you support.” She said “It's time to have leadership that is young and hungry and ready to take on some of these bigger crises.”Hector Jaramillo Jaramillo traces his activism back to two pivotal incidents that happened at very different times in his life. When he was 4, his father was deported, which he said “opened (his) eyes to the injustices of our current system.” Then, in his early twenties while protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a gun was pointed at his head. Jaramillo was disappointed to find not much had changed after the nationwide movement against racial injustice, and realized that things would only improve if more people were allowed at the decision-making table. The 26-year-old Phoenix native, who currently serves on the governing board of the Glendale Elementary School District, would be among the youngest in Congress if elected. He noted that what he lacks in experience he makes up for in community engagement and personal, real-life knowledge. He said “Legislative experience is important, but so is lived experience – being somebody who's experienced the injustices of our system.” His goals include improving education funding, affordable health care for all and a complete overhaul of the current immigration system. That includes a pathway to citizenship, opening up government assistance programs for undocumented Americans, and shielding victims of crimes from having their undocumented status used against them. Jaramillo also wants to abolish ICE and Customs and Border Protection. He says their duties can be effectively carried out by their predecessor, the country's Immigration and Naturalization Service, as was the case before post-9/11 policies created the Department of Homeland Security. Jaramillo, who called himself an anti-establishment candidate, is hoping voters who are tired of the status quo will support his bid. He said “If you're happy with the way things are, keep electing the same people. But if you want real, progressive change, try someone new.” Raquel TeránWith a 17-year-long career in Arizona politics, tenures in both the state Senate and House of Representatives and the title of Democratic Party Chair under her belt, Terán is perhaps one of the most experienced candidates in the race to capture Gallego's seat. Born and raised on the Arizona border in Douglas, she attributes her passion for politics to the anti-immigrant rhetoric she grew up around. That motivation resulted in helping to organize a recall campaign against former state Sen. Russell Pierce, who authored Arizona's notorious 2010 ‘show us your papers' law, and working to defeat Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Teran said, “I have been a fighter at the state legislature, and I'm ready to take on the extremists in Congress. We have a lot of work to do and I intend to bring my ‘si se puede' attitude to Washington DC”.Terán's top priorities include immigration reform, affordable housing, reproductive rights, holding corporate polluters accountable, and requiring wealthy corporations to pay their fair share are key goals for her. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly endorsed Raquel Terán in her bid for Congress. He said “Raquel has spent nearly two decades helping bring together a diverse coalition of voters that turned our state blue.”Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.

Mike Johnston wins Denver mayoral election | All 36 CO DMV offices can now issue driver licenses to undocumented immigrants and international students who qualify | Colorado Democrats and Gov Jared Polis pass statewide ban on ghost guns | AZ State Senator says she was not aware of her flag's neo-Nazi ties. She is now though, and she's keeping it | Talented field of Arizona Democrats compete in primary for Rep. Ruben Gallego's seat in Congress Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up. Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels. No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it: Looks like we've got a winner! As of recording, it looks like Mike Johnston will be the next Mayor of Denver. After 12 years under the leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock, in which Denver has experienced rapid growth and a booming economy, the growing pains are catching up with us and Denver's new mayor will face crisis-level homelessness, addiction, and gun violence.Mike Johnston is a boyish Ivy League boy who has run for lots of things and served as lots of other, different things. Jokes aside though he seems to have the respect of a lot of people I deeply respect, and I'm excited to see what he can do. COLORADO NEWSLINE:All Colorado DMVs now offer driver's licenses to undocumented residentsBY: SHANNON TYLER - JUNE 6, 2023 3:10 PMEvery driver's license office in Colorado will now offer license and ID card services to undocumented residents and international students, Gov. Jared Polis announced Friday.In 2013, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law the Colorado Road and Community Safety Act, which made obtaining a standard driver's license accessible for undocumented immigrants and international students. At the time, only four offices in the state actually provided the service.Now, on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the bill, the DMV announced all 36 of the state's driver's license office locations will offer appointments for immigrants and international students to get a standard license or ID card. Gov Polis said  “Here in Colorado, we know that our immigrants strengthen the fabric of who we are. In the last 10 years over 250,000 Coloradans have been able to get their driver licenses and insurance, making all of us safer on the roads.” The law allows all Coloradans to obtain a standard driver license or ID card regardless of immigration status if the applicant can provide proof of identity and Colorado residency. The DMV works with several volunteer nonprofits around the state as a part of the I Drive Coalition to help provide Road and Community Safety Act services for undocumented immigrants to obtain standard license or identification cards. Organizations help to schedule free appointments for people who come to them. Henry Gomez with Grupo Esperanza de Colorado Springs, one of the organizations that supports and provides resources for immigrants, said the legislation is necessary for immigrants in Colorado to do essential daily tasks like driving to a doctor's appointment or taking their children to school. When the bill first passed, it was difficult for people to actually use the service because they had to travel long distances to the few places that offered it and wait hours to schedule an appointment, Gomez said. 1 of 20 statesColorado is one of 20 states, along with Washington D.C., to offer driver's licenses to undocumented residents. DMV spokesperson Stephany Garza said “Colorado has come a long way since the program launched in originally starting in a handful of locations. We've been able to grow it throughout the state, thanks to strong demand and a dedication to partner with community organizations and leaders.” “The DMV's mission is to provide motor vehicle, driver and identity services that promote public safety, trust and confidence, and having trained and licensed drivers on our roads is critical.” COLORADO NEWSLINE: I ain't ‘fraid of no ghost - guns. Because now they're banned in Colorado. BY: SARA WILSON - JUNE 2, 2023 1:48 PMSenate Bill 23- 279 makes the sale, manufacture and possession of ghost guns a Class 1 misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class 5 felony on subsequent offenses.bill sponsor Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, said “Ghost guns are untraceable, unserialized weapons that anyone can make or assemble in their own home – and they're extremely dangerous. We worked hard this session to make Colorado safer and prevent gun violence, and this new law is a big step towards reaching that goal.”The legislation was also sponsored by Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, Rep. Andrew Boesenecker of Fort Collins and Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, all Democrats. Every Republican voted no.Law enforcement say ghost guns are being used more often in crimes across the state. The shooters involved with last year's attack at Club Q in Colorado Springs and the March shooting at Denver's East High School both possessed and showed an interest in ghost guns.Ghost gun kits are easily available online for anyone to assemble or 3D-print at home. Because that process bypasses serialization and necessary background checks, the guns can be nearly impossible to trace when used in a crime. Current ghost gun owners have until Jan. 1, 2024 to get the blank firearm, frame or receiver serialized by a licensed dealer. Serialization includes a background check. Going forward, people can still make their own firearms as long as they get them serialized.Eleven states already regulate ghost guns.The Colorado Legislature passed four other bills regulating firearms during this year's legislative session, which wrapped up in early May. That includes a minimum age restriction and three-day waiting period for gun purchases, expansion of the state's extreme risk protection order law to include groups other than law enforcement and a repeal of the state's legal liability protections for the firearm industry.Hats off to Colorado Democrats. They take so much abuse as well as threats from thousands and thousands of extremely aggressive gun rights activists. These gun groups create extremely dishonest and aggressive attack ads, and they do everything they can to show their strength. It takes real guts to pass gun safety laws in the West, and the Colorado Democratic legislators have some serious guts. Congratulations on a great session everyone.  ARIZONA MIRROR:AZ GOP senator proudly flies flag adopted by ‘fringe' far-right extremistsBY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - JUNE 5, 2023 11:20 AMThe desk on the Arizona Senate floor for Republican Sen. Janae Shamp, displays the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag, which has been adopted by Christian nationalists and other extremists in recent years. Shamp says she displays the flag because of its historical ties to the American Revolution, and says she is unaware of its use by far-right extremist groups. But that, of course, is bullshit. The white flag with a pine tree on it and the phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” was originally used by George Washington and the Continental Army. It was later adopted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as its naval and maritime flag until 1971, when the copy was dropped, leaving only the image of the pine tree. In recent years, the flag has been adopted by Christian nationalists, who see the flag as a rallying call. Christian nationalists believe that the United States is Christian nation that should base its laws and practices around the teachings of Christianity.The flag has also been embraced by far-right extremist organizations like the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups.Shamp did not respond to questions about whether she embraced the beliefs of Christian nationalism, and said she doesn't know anything about Christian dominionism, a closely related belief system.To investigative journalist, author and researcher David Neiwart, who has written extensively about the far-right, the lines between groups have begun to blur into an entire “universe” of far-right groups from QAnon, militias, white supremacists, and other extremist groups who have gained political influence among conservatives. Most of them share a few things in common, including beliefs in “right-wing authoritarianism” and the alleged supremacy of Christianity.After looking at the various people and causes Shamp has supported over the years, including various extremist and Christian nationalist figures and causes, Neiwart said it's clear to him that Shamp ascribes to those beliefs.  “She is definitely a Christian nationalist, she is definitely QAnon, and a fully enraptured Trumpite,” Neiwert said.  While a surge in Christian nationalism in recent years has garnered media attention — due in part to high-profile conservatives like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who explicitly declared herself a Christian nationalist, and the backing of influential leaders like white nationalist Nick Fuentes — Christian dominionism has similarly been on the rise, though with much less fanfare. One of the more popular Dominionist beliefs is in the so-called “Seven Mountain Mandate,” which draws from the biblical book of Revelations and requires Christians to invade the “seven spheres” of society: family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government. In doing so, American life can be reshaped to hew to conservative Christian values. The idea has been embraced and promoted by people like Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk and Paula White, the televangelist who served as a “spiritual advisor” to Donald Trump while he was president. According to David Neiwart, the key difference between Christian dominionism and nationalism is that dominionists want everyone under Christian rule, while nationalists think everyone should convert to Christianity.“Christian nationalists take it a step further than Christian Dominionists,” Neiwart said, adding that a dominionist wouldn't care if a Muslim was present, “they just want them under the thumb of Christian leaders.”One of the biggest promoters of Christian nationalism and dominionism has been disgraced Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, who has claimed that he is waging “spiritual warfare” and building an “army of God.” Flynn is also known to associate with other extremist groups. AZ Sen Shamp is a fervent supporter of Flynn's, and has posted praise of Flynn often on social media. The recent COVID-19 special committee she co-chaired was sponsored in part by an organization that Flynn co-founded. “I get goosebumps every time General Flynn talks about our great Nation!” Shamp said in a December 2021 post accompanied by a video of Flynn. At a Trump rally in Florence in January 2022, Shamp told Business Insider that the “No. 1 person standing up for ‘we, the people' is probably Gen. Michael Flynn.” Shamp, a conservative from Surprise, has also been found to have shared a number of QAnon posts on her Facebook linked to Neo-Nazis and antisemites. The flag, which Shamp displays on her desk and in her Twitter banner image, has also been connected to extremist groups and violent events. During the violent events of Jan. 6, the flag was seen being carried by a number of individuals.  “I would say Christian nationalism as a phenomenon is one of the real undergirding movements involved in the insurrection,” Neiwart said, adding that the militias and other groups such as the OathKeepers all had underlying Christian nationalist roots or beliefs. “All these Christian patriots that formed these militias are Christian nationalists as well.”ARIZONA MIRROR:Meet the Dems vying for Gallego's seat in the U.S. House of RepresentativesBY: GLORIA REBECCA GOMEZ - JUNE 2, 2023 1:33 PMSo far, four candidates have already launched campaigns to represent Arizona's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Laveen, Maryvale and part of Glendale. The district is considered a Democratic stronghold, with left-leaning voters outnumbering Republicans three to one. The winner of the Democratic primary is virtually guaranteed to capture the seat in November.First, Laura Pastor.The most recent entrant into the race is the daughter of Rep. Gallego's predecessor, Ed Pastor, who held the seat from 1991 until his retirement in 2015. The younger Pastor has a long career in elected office herself, with three terms on the Phoenix city council representing areas recently drawn into the 3rd District.Prior to her position on the council, she was a classroom teacher who worked with at-risk students. Ms. Pastor also serves on the governing board for Phoenix Union High School. In a launch video on Wednesday, Pastor invoked her family's political legacy and promised to continue it. “For five generations my family has worked for a better Arizona. From my grandfathers - who organized workers in the copper mines - to my mother - who lived with strength and integrity in a time of discrimination - to my dad. My dad taught me that lots of politicians can talk, but what matters is what you deliver.” “I am running to put my experience to work on behalf of Arizonans – to take care of our veterans, to have someone looking out for family budgets, and to protect all of our access to health care, including reproductive care,” Ylenia AguilarIf elected, Aguilar would be Arizona's first formerly undocumented congresswoman. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was just a toddler, and suffered repeated housing and food insecurity. Aguilar attended as many as 20 different schools. The single mother of two credits her early adversity with inspiring a personal imperative to voice the struggles of others. Aguilar spent more than a decade as a translator before becoming the first Latina elected to the Osborn School District Board, where she's still a member. During the Trump presidency, Aguilar helped author a resolution prohibiting ICE agents from entering schools. She also serves on the state's Central Arizona Water Project Board and as the business development manager for SOURCE Global, a Scottsdale-based renewable energy company that helps tribal and rural communities access clean drinking water via hydropanel technology. Water conservation is among her policy priorities, as well as immigration reform, and access to education and reproductive health care. At the top of her list is representing Arizona's diverse communities where past politicians have failed. “My story is your story,” she said, at her campaign kickoff. “I know what you go through. I know how hard you work, how much you love your children, how difficult it can be to get ahead and how often politicians leave our community behind, or worse — how politicians attack our communities trying to take away our rights. In Congress, I will be your voice, because your voice matters.” Yassamin AnsariPhoenix's Vice-Mayor was one of the first to throw her hat in the ring after Congressman Gallego announced his challenge to U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Ansari's election as the city's youngest council member in 2021 followed a career in climate change advocacy that included a stint as a policy advisor for the United Nations. Her work on the Phoenix council includes helping to draft and pass a citywide resolution that deprioritized abortion-related arrests and spearheading efforts to electrify Phoenix's public transportation. Those concerns would follow her to the federal level, with more ambitious climate change legislation a key part of her priorities. The country's as-yet unfulfilled pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is of particular importance to Ansari, who vowed to lead an effort to remedy that. Also high up on her roster is gun violence prevention, housing affordability and a living wage. A daughter of Iranian immigrants, Ansari's election would be a first for the district, whose population is 51% Hispanic and has supported Hispanic candidates since 1991. But Ansari's council district, which spans from southwest to downtown Phoenix and has a similar population makeup as CD3, resoundingly backed her in 2021. She said, “As a daughter of immigrants, I very much understand the challenges that our community faces. My constituents know that I don't just represent one community, I represent all communities. And whether you're Latino, White, Black or any other background, representation is about listening to the community and making sure that you're surrounding yourself with people in the community so that their experiences and challenges are represented in the legislation you support.” She said “It's time to have leadership that is young and hungry and ready to take on some of these bigger crises.”Hector Jaramillo Jaramillo traces his activism back to two pivotal incidents that happened at very different times in his life. When he was 4, his father was deported, which he said “opened (his) eyes to the injustices of our current system.” Then, in his early twenties while protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a gun was pointed at his head. Jaramillo was disappointed to find not much had changed after the nationwide movement against racial injustice, and realized that things would only improve if more people were allowed at the decision-making table. The 26-year-old Phoenix native, who currently serves on the governing board of the Glendale Elementary School District, would be among the youngest in Congress if elected. He noted that what he lacks in experience he makes up for in community engagement and personal, real-life knowledge. He said “Legislative experience is important, but so is lived experience – being somebody who's experienced the injustices of our system.” His goals include improving education funding, affordable health care for all and a complete overhaul of the current immigration system. That includes a pathway to citizenship, opening up government assistance programs for undocumented Americans, and shielding victims of crimes from having their undocumented status used against them. Jaramillo also wants to abolish ICE and Customs and Border Protection. He says their duties can be effectively carried out by their predecessor, the country's Immigration and Naturalization Service, as was the case before post-9/11 policies created the Department of Homeland Security. Jaramillo, who called himself an anti-establishment candidate, is hoping voters who are tired of the status quo will support his bid. He said “If you're happy with the way things are, keep electing the same people. But if you want real, progressive change, try someone new.” Raquel TeránWith a 17-year-long career in Arizona politics, tenures in both the state Senate and House of Representatives and the title of Democratic Party Chair under her belt, Terán is perhaps one of the most experienced candidates in the race to capture Gallego's seat. Born and raised on the Arizona border in Douglas, she attributes her passion for politics to the anti-immigrant rhetoric she grew up around. That motivation resulted in helping to organize a recall campaign against former state Sen. Russell Pierce, who authored Arizona's notorious 2010 ‘show us your papers' law, and working to defeat Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County. Teran said, “I have been a fighter at the state legislature, and I'm ready to take on the extremists in Congress. We have a lot of work to do and I intend to bring my ‘si se puede' attitude to Washington DC”.Terán's top priorities include immigration reform, affordable housing, reproductive rights, holding corporate polluters accountable, and requiring wealthy corporations to pay their fair share are key goals for her. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly endorsed Raquel Terán in her bid for Congress. He said “Raquel has spent nearly two decades helping bring together a diverse coalition of voters that turned our state blue.”Welp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.

PACs supporting Mike Johnston spend big in final sprint of Denver mayoral election | Susana Cordova will be Colorado's next Education Commissioner | New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is off to a rocky start | Kari Lake is running for Senate in Arizona | Ringo Starr on tour in Western U.S.  Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up.  Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels.  No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it:  COLORADO NEWSLINE: Denver mayoral candidates Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough sprint to the finish lineBY: CHASE WOODRUFF - MAY 30, 2023 4:00 AM       Left: Denver mayor candidate Kelly Brough receives the endorsement of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance at an event on May 12, 2023. Right: Brough's runoff opponent, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, receives the endorsement of progressive former mayoral candidates and Democratic state lawmakers in Civic Center Park on May 10, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)A half-million dollar contribution from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was part of a flood of large donations that has helped former state Sen. Mike Johnston open up a 2-to-1 fundraising lead over opponent Kelly Brough as the Denver mayor's race enters its final week.Advancing Denver, an independent expenditure committee supporting Johnston's run, raised more than $4 million through May 22.  The pro-Johnston super PAC has relied on many of the same out-of-state billionaire donors who boosted Johnston's gubernatorial bid in 2018, including Bloomberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and hedge fund managers Steve Mandel and John Arnold. Kent Thiry, the former CEO of Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita, is the group's largest local donor, while venture capitalist Art Reimers and private equity CEO Eric Resnick have also chipped in with six-figure contributions.About three-quarters of Advancing Denver's haul has been spent on TV advertising in support of Johnston, with the remainder spent on digital ads and mail.Johnston and Brough had raised roughly equal amounts in direct contributions through the end of April, reporting total receipts of $932,060 and $895,612, for their campaign committees, respectively.  A Better Denver, the independent expenditure committee supporting Brough, has struggled to raise large sums since the April 4 first-round election, adding just $211,650 to the $1 million it had previously raised in February and March.To date, the group's top donor during the runoff is Pete Coors, former Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and prolific donor to conservative causes. Coors gave $50,000 to A Better Denver on April 24. Other top donors to the pro-Brough PAC have included real estate interests like the National Association of Realtors, Colorado Construction Industry Coalition and developer Lloyd Fulenwider.The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, a landlord group, has made contributions to both candidates. After giving $25,000 to Brough in February, the group followed up with another $10,000 contribution to Brough in late April, and a $10,000 contribution to Johnston a week later.Ballots for the city's runoff election were mailed earlier this month. Voters can return their ballot to a 24-hour drop box or vote in person until 7 p.m. on June 6.COLORADO SUN:Susana Cordova, former superintendent of Denver schools, will be Colorado's next education commissionerErica Breunlin and Jesse Paul9:13 AM MDT on May 30, 2023Denver Public Schools superintendent Susana Cordova at DPS headquarters on April 3, 2020. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post via The Associated Press)The state's Board of Education on Monday named Susana Cordova as the sole finalist among 23 applicants after a unanimous vote. Her appointment is expected to be formalized when the board next meets.State Board Chairwoman Rebecca McClellan told The Colorado Sun “We really appreciated her sharp focus on results for students and outcomes for students with an eye toward equity,”  “She's not only talked the talk, she's proven that she's capable of achieving gains for students.”Cordova will take over the position from Katy Anthes, who is stepping down from the role in July after serving as commissioner since December 2016.Cordova began her career as a bilingual language arts teacher and has since worked in education for more than 30 years, including as a teacher, principal, district leader and currently as a superintendent in residence for Transcend, a national nonprofit focused on helping schools make classrooms more equitable for all students.Cordova was also previously a deputy superintendent for the Dallas TX Independent School District.Cordova has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver's School of Education and now serves on the university's board of trustees.  Cordova will begin steering the state education department at a particularly consequential time for Colorado schools, as districts continue to help students recover from lost time and learning during the pandemic and as many communities struggle to recruit and retain educators and manage declining student enrollment.Susana Cordova, then superintendent of Denver Public Schools, looks on as students work on laptops in a classroom in Newlon Elementary School early Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. The school was one of 55 Discovery Link sites set up by Denver Public Schools where students could participate in remote learning during the pandemic. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Special to The Colorado Sun)Cordova will begin her tenure just as a state task force is considering changes to how Colorado evaluates its schools, which could potentially affect how much funding schools receive.Gov. Jared Polis celebrated Cordova's selection in a written statement Tuesday, saying   “Her prior work boosting academic progress and improving access to high-quality education for learners of all backgrounds as superintendent of Denver Public Schools is sure to benefit students across the state as she brings this passion and experience to this new role,” said Polis, a Democrat. “I look forward to working with Susana as a member of my cabinet as we continue to carry forward our bold education priorities.”   COLORADO SUN:Colorado GOP paid no staff in April while fundraising lags under new Chairman Dave WilliamsSandra Fish4:20 AM MDT on May 24, 2023Dave Williams speaks during a Republican state central meeting on March 11, 2023, in Loveland where elections for a chairman, vice chairman and secretary of the Colorado GOP were conducted. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)If the Colorado Republican Party had employees in April, they didn't get paid.  It's the first time in at least 20 years the party didn't pay any employees.And the party's bank accounts have less money than the $120,540 a recent filing said the party had on hand, the GOP acknowledged in an addendum filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission.  The Colorado GOP raised only about $58,000 in the first four months of the year, including less than $15,000 in April. The party spent more than $15,000 last month, with $9,100 going to health and dental benefits. It's unclear if anyone is working for the party; no staff is listed on its website.The lack of a payroll for a state party in Colorado is unusual.“There have been other cycles where the party pays only one or two salaries in the off year,” said Kristi Burton Brown, who chaired the party during the last election cycle. “If they want to run it all-volunteer, they certainly can.”The party raised only a little more than $18,000 in the first two months of the year, before Williams was elected chairman.  From January through April, Colorado's GOP spent more than $263,000. That compares with $539,000 spent in the first four months of 2021, another nonelection year when five people were paid for their work in April. Of this year's spending, $73,000 went to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for legal services.  “Anybody who gets elected state chair should probably prioritize raising money,” said Dick Wadhams, who ran the state party from 2007 to 2011 and has been critical of Williams. “You can't run an operation without money.”The state Democratic Party raised nearly $92,000 in April, and spent nearly $211,000, including about $26,000 on payroll for a half-dozen employees. That left the party with nearly $196,000 in cash at the end of April.The Democratic Party raised more than $419,000 in the first four months of the year, while spending about $454,000. The party's state-level account had nearly $32,000 at the end of March.And the Colorado GOP has trailed Democrats in political spending in the state in recent years.Campaign accounts or PACS for several of the state's top elected Democrats have donated to the federal party account this year including U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper; U.S. Reps. Diana Degette, of Denver, Yadira Caraveo, of Thornton, Jason Crow, of Centennial, and Joe Neguse, of Lafayette; Gov. Jared Polis; Treasurer Dave Young; and others. Hickenlooper also sent two emails recently asking people to donate to the state party.The Colorado GOP received $12,500 from the terminated 8th Congressional District campaign of state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, in early March. It's the only money the party has received from Republican officeholders or candidates this year.Tagged:Colorado Democratic Party, Colorado Republican Party, Dave WilliamsABC NEWS:Arizona set for unpredictable Senate raceByTal AxelrodMay 23, 2023, 3:06 AM Democrats and Republicans can at least agree on one thing: They have no idea what's going to happen in next year's Arizona Senate race.The election is shaping up to be an unpredictable three-way contest in one of the nation's premier battlegrounds featuring an incumbent who left her party (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema), a polarizing conservative who remains a rock star with her base (Kari Lake), and a Democratic nominee-in-waiting who would represent a shift to the left for the historically moderate-minded state (Rep. Ruben Gallego).Sen. Sinema first set the stage when she switched from being a Democrat to an independent late last year. While she called that choice a "reflection of who [she's] always been," the switch also prevented a primary fight with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego -- and paved the way for something more unusual.State data shows just under 35% of Arizona voters are registered Republicans and 30% are registered Democrats, while 35% aren't registered with either party.If Sinema retires, the race to succeed her could feature Gallego, a Marine Corps vet and former House colleague of Sinema's who has become vocally critical of her, and Republican Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, election denier and 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate.Both Gallego and Lake are more associated with their parties' ideological flanks than the centrists who have historically won statewide.state GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "It's gonna be like nothing we've ever seen before in Arizona. I think what's going to make it nasty is obviously Ruben and Kyrsten don't get along personally. And depending on who the Republican is, if you get a firebrand like a Kari Lake again, we've seen how she's operated before, that's going to take it to another level."Nineteen operatives from both parties who spoke with ABC News for this story mostly thought that Sinema would run again, pointing to her ongoing fundraising and continued involvement in high-profile legislative pushes like on immigration.Senator Kyrsten Sinema questions witnesses during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in the wake of recent of bank failures, on Capitol Hill, May 18, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersSinema, who previously served in the House for three terms, quickly thrust herself into the heart of several of the chamber's most significant and successful legislative efforts, including on infrastructure, same-sex marriage, guns and more.Her style of legislating has generated mixed reviews, with supporters pointing to her scorecard and liberal detractors saying she has been overly eager to water down Democratic priorities, including raising the minimum wage, supporting prescription drug pricing reform and scrapping the Senate filibuster as a way to codify abortion rights.Cesar Chavez, a former Democratic state lawmaker said "Overall, I think the state of Arizona is content with the work that Sen. Sinema done. The issues that Sen. Sinema has advocated for will definitely result in a positive tick in her numbers."Steve Slugocki, a senior adviser to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a former chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party had the opposite view. He said, "I cannot stress enough how deeply unpopular she is. I traveled the state everywhere last year. The first question was always, 'What are we going to do about Sinema? How can we replace her?'"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema arrives at the Capitol, May 9, 2023. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego speaks at a CHC event. Getty ImagesAll of this will play out in the larger context of the battle for the Senate, with the Democratic caucus holding a slim 51-49 majority, but defending 23 seats in 2024, making operatives eager to avoid a spoiler candidate, but without any agreement on who that would be.A former aide to Sen. Sinema said "She has shown she knows what it takes to win in Arizona. I look at these other candidates, and I do not see proven winners. "So yeah, as a Democrat, I'm nervous because I want to keep Kari Lake out of the Senate.""If she's in the race as an independent, Ruben's already at a disadvantage as a Democrat just because of the lower registration numbers that we have," said one former state lawmaker who is supporting Gallego. "So, it comes down to how many votes is Sen. Sinema going to take? Even if it is a very small percentage, any small percentage at all could tip this."To be sure, Democrats aren't the only ones wringing their hands.Republican strategists told ABC News that a three-way race with a Democrat and an independent with a Democratic background would normally be a boon to the GOP candidate. But failed 2022 candidate Kari Lake is looming in the wings and is coming off a narrow loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, which many observers attributed to her embrace of baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.A source familiar with Lake's thinking told ABC News they're confident she'll run for the Senate, likely launching a campaign in the fall. This person also confirmed that Lake recently met with several senators, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines of Montana, and that with her broad name recognition and support from conservative voters, she would enter the race as the overwhelming primary favorite.GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "[T]he Sinema breakup from the Democratic Party looks good for Republicans on paper, theoretically. But I think that the big heartburn is what's going to happen out of a Republican primary, and are we just going to do the same ridiculous mistakes over and over again, and Democrats are just going to continue to win in the state,"Still, virtually every person who spoke to ABC News added the caveat that their analyses could end up being off given the unpredictable nature of a potential race with the incumbent running as the third-party candidate."We've never seen anything like that in Arizona," one Democratic strategist said. "I just think trying to predict anything right now, you might as well shake a Magic 8 Ball and see what it tells you." CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: Sir Richard Starkey MBE, otherwise known as Ringo Starr!! Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are on a Western U.S. tour with shows this week in San Diego, Eugene and Bend OR, and next week playing Denver's Bellco Theatre and the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs. Tickets and information at ringostarr.comWelp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.  

PACs supporting Mike Johnston spend big in final sprint of Denver mayoral election | Susana Cordova will be Colorado's next Education Commissioner | New Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams is off to a rocky start | Kari Lake is running for Senate in Arizona | Ringo Starr on tour in Western U.S.  Song playsIntro by hostWelcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod's Talking Politics, every Monday.Support this show and all the work in the Heartland POD universe by going to heartlandpod.com and clicking the link for Patreon, or go to Patreon.com/HeartlandPod to sign up.  Membership starts at $1/month, with even more extra shows and special access at the higher levels.  No matter the level you choose, your membership helps us create these independent shows as we work together to change the conversation.Alright! Let's get into it:  COLORADO NEWSLINE: Denver mayoral candidates Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough sprint to the finish lineBY: CHASE WOODRUFF - MAY 30, 2023 4:00 AM       Left: Denver mayor candidate Kelly Brough receives the endorsement of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance at an event on May 12, 2023. Right: Brough's runoff opponent, former state Sen. Mike Johnston, receives the endorsement of progressive former mayoral candidates and Democratic state lawmakers in Civic Center Park on May 10, 2023. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)A half-million dollar contribution from former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was part of a flood of large donations that has helped former state Sen. Mike Johnston open up a 2-to-1 fundraising lead over opponent Kelly Brough as the Denver mayor's race enters its final week.Advancing Denver, an independent expenditure committee supporting Johnston's run, raised more than $4 million through May 22.  The pro-Johnston super PAC has relied on many of the same out-of-state billionaire donors who boosted Johnston's gubernatorial bid in 2018, including Bloomberg, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and hedge fund managers Steve Mandel and John Arnold. Kent Thiry, the former CEO of Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita, is the group's largest local donor, while venture capitalist Art Reimers and private equity CEO Eric Resnick have also chipped in with six-figure contributions.About three-quarters of Advancing Denver's haul has been spent on TV advertising in support of Johnston, with the remainder spent on digital ads and mail.Johnston and Brough had raised roughly equal amounts in direct contributions through the end of April, reporting total receipts of $932,060 and $895,612, for their campaign committees, respectively.  A Better Denver, the independent expenditure committee supporting Brough, has struggled to raise large sums since the April 4 first-round election, adding just $211,650 to the $1 million it had previously raised in February and March.To date, the group's top donor during the runoff is Pete Coors, former Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and prolific donor to conservative causes. Coors gave $50,000 to A Better Denver on April 24. Other top donors to the pro-Brough PAC have included real estate interests like the National Association of Realtors, Colorado Construction Industry Coalition and developer Lloyd Fulenwider.The Apartment Association of Metro Denver, a landlord group, has made contributions to both candidates. After giving $25,000 to Brough in February, the group followed up with another $10,000 contribution to Brough in late April, and a $10,000 contribution to Johnston a week later.Ballots for the city's runoff election were mailed earlier this month. Voters can return their ballot to a 24-hour drop box or vote in person until 7 p.m. on June 6.COLORADO SUN:Susana Cordova, former superintendent of Denver schools, will be Colorado's next education commissionerErica Breunlin and Jesse Paul9:13 AM MDT on May 30, 2023Denver Public Schools superintendent Susana Cordova at DPS headquarters on April 3, 2020. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post via The Associated Press)The state's Board of Education on Monday named Susana Cordova as the sole finalist among 23 applicants after a unanimous vote. Her appointment is expected to be formalized when the board next meets.State Board Chairwoman Rebecca McClellan told The Colorado Sun “We really appreciated her sharp focus on results for students and outcomes for students with an eye toward equity,”  “She's not only talked the talk, she's proven that she's capable of achieving gains for students.”Cordova will take over the position from Katy Anthes, who is stepping down from the role in July after serving as commissioner since December 2016.Cordova began her career as a bilingual language arts teacher and has since worked in education for more than 30 years, including as a teacher, principal, district leader and currently as a superintendent in residence for Transcend, a national nonprofit focused on helping schools make classrooms more equitable for all students.Cordova was also previously a deputy superintendent for the Dallas TX Independent School District.Cordova has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver's School of Education and now serves on the university's board of trustees.  Cordova will begin steering the state education department at a particularly consequential time for Colorado schools, as districts continue to help students recover from lost time and learning during the pandemic and as many communities struggle to recruit and retain educators and manage declining student enrollment.Susana Cordova, then superintendent of Denver Public Schools, looks on as students work on laptops in a classroom in Newlon Elementary School early Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. The school was one of 55 Discovery Link sites set up by Denver Public Schools where students could participate in remote learning during the pandemic. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, Special to The Colorado Sun)Cordova will begin her tenure just as a state task force is considering changes to how Colorado evaluates its schools, which could potentially affect how much funding schools receive.Gov. Jared Polis celebrated Cordova's selection in a written statement Tuesday, saying   “Her prior work boosting academic progress and improving access to high-quality education for learners of all backgrounds as superintendent of Denver Public Schools is sure to benefit students across the state as she brings this passion and experience to this new role,” said Polis, a Democrat. “I look forward to working with Susana as a member of my cabinet as we continue to carry forward our bold education priorities.”   COLORADO SUN:Colorado GOP paid no staff in April while fundraising lags under new Chairman Dave WilliamsSandra Fish4:20 AM MDT on May 24, 2023Dave Williams speaks during a Republican state central meeting on March 11, 2023, in Loveland where elections for a chairman, vice chairman and secretary of the Colorado GOP were conducted. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)If the Colorado Republican Party had employees in April, they didn't get paid.  It's the first time in at least 20 years the party didn't pay any employees.And the party's bank accounts have less money than the $120,540 a recent filing said the party had on hand, the GOP acknowledged in an addendum filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission.  The Colorado GOP raised only about $58,000 in the first four months of the year, including less than $15,000 in April. The party spent more than $15,000 last month, with $9,100 going to health and dental benefits. It's unclear if anyone is working for the party; no staff is listed on its website.The lack of a payroll for a state party in Colorado is unusual.“There have been other cycles where the party pays only one or two salaries in the off year,” said Kristi Burton Brown, who chaired the party during the last election cycle. “If they want to run it all-volunteer, they certainly can.”The party raised only a little more than $18,000 in the first two months of the year, before Williams was elected chairman.  From January through April, Colorado's GOP spent more than $263,000. That compares with $539,000 spent in the first four months of 2021, another nonelection year when five people were paid for their work in April. Of this year's spending, $73,000 went to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck for legal services.  “Anybody who gets elected state chair should probably prioritize raising money,” said Dick Wadhams, who ran the state party from 2007 to 2011 and has been critical of Williams. “You can't run an operation without money.”The state Democratic Party raised nearly $92,000 in April, and spent nearly $211,000, including about $26,000 on payroll for a half-dozen employees. That left the party with nearly $196,000 in cash at the end of April.The Democratic Party raised more than $419,000 in the first four months of the year, while spending about $454,000. The party's state-level account had nearly $32,000 at the end of March.And the Colorado GOP has trailed Democrats in political spending in the state in recent years.Campaign accounts or PACS for several of the state's top elected Democrats have donated to the federal party account this year including U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper; U.S. Reps. Diana Degette, of Denver, Yadira Caraveo, of Thornton, Jason Crow, of Centennial, and Joe Neguse, of Lafayette; Gov. Jared Polis; Treasurer Dave Young; and others. Hickenlooper also sent two emails recently asking people to donate to the state party.The Colorado GOP received $12,500 from the terminated 8th Congressional District campaign of state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, in early March. It's the only money the party has received from Republican officeholders or candidates this year.Tagged:Colorado Democratic Party, Colorado Republican Party, Dave WilliamsABC NEWS:Arizona set for unpredictable Senate raceByTal AxelrodMay 23, 2023, 3:06 AM Democrats and Republicans can at least agree on one thing: They have no idea what's going to happen in next year's Arizona Senate race.The election is shaping up to be an unpredictable three-way contest in one of the nation's premier battlegrounds featuring an incumbent who left her party (Sen. Kyrsten Sinema), a polarizing conservative who remains a rock star with her base (Kari Lake), and a Democratic nominee-in-waiting who would represent a shift to the left for the historically moderate-minded state (Rep. Ruben Gallego).Sen. Sinema first set the stage when she switched from being a Democrat to an independent late last year. While she called that choice a "reflection of who [she's] always been," the switch also prevented a primary fight with Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego -- and paved the way for something more unusual.State data shows just under 35% of Arizona voters are registered Republicans and 30% are registered Democrats, while 35% aren't registered with either party.If Sinema retires, the race to succeed her could feature Gallego, a Marine Corps vet and former House colleague of Sinema's who has become vocally critical of her, and Republican Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, election denier and 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate.Both Gallego and Lake are more associated with their parties' ideological flanks than the centrists who have historically won statewide.state GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "It's gonna be like nothing we've ever seen before in Arizona. I think what's going to make it nasty is obviously Ruben and Kyrsten don't get along personally. And depending on who the Republican is, if you get a firebrand like a Kari Lake again, we've seen how she's operated before, that's going to take it to another level."Nineteen operatives from both parties who spoke with ABC News for this story mostly thought that Sinema would run again, pointing to her ongoing fundraising and continued involvement in high-profile legislative pushes like on immigration.Senator Kyrsten Sinema questions witnesses during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in the wake of recent of bank failures, on Capitol Hill, May 18, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein/ReutersSinema, who previously served in the House for three terms, quickly thrust herself into the heart of several of the chamber's most significant and successful legislative efforts, including on infrastructure, same-sex marriage, guns and more.Her style of legislating has generated mixed reviews, with supporters pointing to her scorecard and liberal detractors saying she has been overly eager to water down Democratic priorities, including raising the minimum wage, supporting prescription drug pricing reform and scrapping the Senate filibuster as a way to codify abortion rights.Cesar Chavez, a former Democratic state lawmaker said "Overall, I think the state of Arizona is content with the work that Sen. Sinema done. The issues that Sen. Sinema has advocated for will definitely result in a positive tick in her numbers."Steve Slugocki, a senior adviser to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a former chair of the Maricopa County Democratic Party had the opposite view. He said, "I cannot stress enough how deeply unpopular she is. I traveled the state everywhere last year. The first question was always, 'What are we going to do about Sinema? How can we replace her?'"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema arrives at the Capitol, May 9, 2023. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego speaks at a CHC event. Getty ImagesAll of this will play out in the larger context of the battle for the Senate, with the Democratic caucus holding a slim 51-49 majority, but defending 23 seats in 2024, making operatives eager to avoid a spoiler candidate, but without any agreement on who that would be.A former aide to Sen. Sinema said "She has shown she knows what it takes to win in Arizona. I look at these other candidates, and I do not see proven winners. "So yeah, as a Democrat, I'm nervous because I want to keep Kari Lake out of the Senate.""If she's in the race as an independent, Ruben's already at a disadvantage as a Democrat just because of the lower registration numbers that we have," said one former state lawmaker who is supporting Gallego. "So, it comes down to how many votes is Sen. Sinema going to take? Even if it is a very small percentage, any small percentage at all could tip this."To be sure, Democrats aren't the only ones wringing their hands.Republican strategists told ABC News that a three-way race with a Democrat and an independent with a Democratic background would normally be a boon to the GOP candidate. But failed 2022 candidate Kari Lake is looming in the wings and is coming off a narrow loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, which many observers attributed to her embrace of baseless claims of 2020 election fraud.A source familiar with Lake's thinking told ABC News they're confident she'll run for the Senate, likely launching a campaign in the fall. This person also confirmed that Lake recently met with several senators, including National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines of Montana, and that with her broad name recognition and support from conservative voters, she would enter the race as the overwhelming primary favorite.GOP strategist Lorna Romero said "[T]he Sinema breakup from the Democratic Party looks good for Republicans on paper, theoretically. But I think that the big heartburn is what's going to happen out of a Republican primary, and are we just going to do the same ridiculous mistakes over and over again, and Democrats are just going to continue to win in the state,"Still, virtually every person who spoke to ABC News added the caveat that their analyses could end up being off given the unpredictable nature of a potential race with the incumbent running as the third-party candidate."We've never seen anything like that in Arizona," one Democratic strategist said. "I just think trying to predict anything right now, you might as well shake a Magic 8 Ball and see what it tells you." CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: Sir Richard Starkey MBE, otherwise known as Ringo Starr!! Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are on a Western U.S. tour with shows this week in San Diego, Eugene and Bend OR, and next week playing Denver's Bellco Theatre and the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs. Tickets and information at ringostarr.comWelp, that's it for me! From Denver I'm Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today's show comes from Colorado Newsline, Colorado Sun, ABC News, Arizona Mirror, and Denver's Westword.Thank you for listening! See you next time.  

This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, Republicans are losing municipal races across the country as Donald Trump continues to destroy the party, and one of those races is in what at least used to be Colorado's conservative stronghold. Friend of the pod, Senator John Hickenlooper, seems to share our ranking for our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado -- and he has a banger OpEd in the Grand Junction Sentinel this week to prove it. Scott “There is No" Bottoms, who is either our 18th or 19th favorite Republican in the Colorado House, gives up the game on GOP obstruction. And someone with a podcast less popular than ours is lying to his audience, himself, or more likely both. But first...perhaps we could call this his exit interview...Alan Salazar, Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the godfather of top Democratic Staff in Colorado comes back on the pod to talk all things local government -- including the final days of the race for Denver Mayor.

What if you aren't supposed to know what you're supposed to do next in your career until your path shows it to you!? I'm Chris Webb, joined by my co-host and the guy who I never know what he'll say next, Dave Tamkin. Today we are joined by the kind, dedicated and driving creative that is Stolie, also known to youngin's as Super Stolie. We discuss everything from how to make useful merch to how to know when to lean into opportunities that arise.Quote:So much of my music career has been influenced by just what life has happened along the way - StolieJust last summer, Governor John Hickenlooper accumulated local musicians, community leaders and financial backers to give life to his music initiative, in the form of Take Note Colorado. The aim of the initiative is to make music education and musical instruments more accessible to K-12 schools in the state. Back in May, the 1st Bank Center hosted Take Note the Concert, a fundraiser for Take Note Colorado. The star-studded evening included performances from an entirely local lineup — Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Isaac Slade of The Fray, Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Bill Nershi of the String Cheese Incident, Tracksuit Wedding and comedian Josh Blue. https://takenotecolorado.orgStolie and alter ego, Super Stolie is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and loop-pedal artist based out of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Working in the music industry for over 25 years now and performing on stages internationally, she's a seasoned pro. A constant road-warrior and absolutely fearless, Stolie immediately turns strangers into friends through her captivating, humorous and versatile live performances. We hope you find as many nuggets about life as a musician in here as we did!Action: Take 5 minutes to ask yourself this question. What has happened recently that is a new opportunity that you feel reluctant or nervous to take? Consider why it makes you feel the way it does and identify if the reason is because you're scared. It might very well be the exact thing you need to say YES to inorder to open that next door.Stolie.com

Kelly Brough served as president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and chief of staff for then-mayor John Hickenlooper, and she wants to be mayor. She sits down with producer Paul Karolyi to talk about fixing Denver's downtown problem, expanding the STAR first responder program, and keeping reckless scooter drivers off the sidewalks. We are inviting all 17 candidates for interviews before Election Day on April 4. So far, we've talked to: Renate Behrens Leslie Herod Lisa Calderón Ean Thomas Tafoya Trinidad Rodriguez Thomas Wolf Chris Hansen Mike Johnston Keep up with Mayoral Madness on our site! And if you've got a question you'd like us to ask the candidates, or one candidate in particular, email it to us at denver@citycast.fm. For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver by texting “Denver” to 66866 Follow us on Twitter: @citycastdenver Or Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: (720) 500-5418‬ Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In cities and on farms, westerners use more Colorado River water than the river can provide. We talk with U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, who's pressing his colleagues downstream to devise a solution, before one's forced onto them. Then, the uncertain future of Denver's oldest commercial block, Larimer Square. Also, questions after the autopsy is released for a man who died in ICE custody in Aurora. Later, a state aroma?

In cities and on farms, westerners use more Colorado River water than the river can provide. We talk with U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, who's pressing his colleagues downstream to devise a solution, before one's forced onto them. Then, the uncertain future of Denver's oldest commercial block, Larimer Square. Also, questions after the autopsy is released for a man who died in ICE custody in Aurora. Later, a state aroma?

It's a race against time in Turkey and in Syria where a massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck on Monday. Rescue teams are working around the clock in freezing conditions, trying to find survivors, with the emotion sometimes too much to bear. With more than 6,300 dead and counting, plus over 26,000 injured, it is a daunting task – but nobody is giving up. The world is coming together to help – even Ukraine is sending emergency personnel, and neighboring Greece is jumping into the fray despite sky high political tensions between Athens and Ankara. Sherine Ibrahim is the country director of CARE in Turkey, and she joins the show from Gaziantep, where people are sleeping in cars for fear of further aftershocks. CNN anchor Becky Anderson also joins the show with more on the rescue efforts on the ground.  Also on today's show: Toluse Olorunnipa, White House Bureau Chief, The Washington Post; John Hickenlooper, US Senate Democrat; Edward Berger, Co-writer and director, “All Quiet on the Western Front” To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Is 2023 like 2011? Big issues of the week. Hickenlooper urges Fed to hold off on rate hikes. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Officials hail Richard Fierro as a hero after he disarmed the alleged gunman in a deadly shooting at Club Q in Colorado. The US army veteran tells CNN “Everybody in that building experienced combat that night”, and that he was “defending his family”. Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper joins to discuss the horrific shooting at club Q, and legislators in State Houses across the country passing 25 anti-LGTBQ bills this session.Presidential Historian Jon Meacham talks about the history of US presidents condemning hate crimes. Plus, Idaho police are still seeking the suspect and murder weapon in the University of Idaho homicides, how Iran's security forces are raping women and men to quell protests, and “She Said”, a movie about the reporters who helped exposed disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, tanks.Hosted by Alisyn Camerota.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy