Hour 2 with Kristi Burton Brown 01-02-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A lot of parents with kids in school worried about
what their kids are getting a hold of, and a
lot of people across the state just know someone who's
been affected by fentanyl or a fentanyl death. And if
you talk to the law enforcement officials, they'll tell you
every single drug in Colorado right now, including marijuana, is
being laced with fentanyl. And so that's why I'm very
happy to have Senator Byron Pelton on the show with

(00:37):
me today. He is sponsoring a very important bill this
next legislative session, which starts on Wednesday already to help
solve the drug crisis in our state. Welcome Senator Pelton
to the Dan Kapla Show.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Christy, thanks for having me. And I have to tell
you that introduction for Dan Caplis. Boy, if I could
walk into the session with that introduction, that would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Right.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
It feels like is a fight every time.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So true, So try to like pump you up for
the fight that's about to come.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Exactly. That's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I think our listeners would love to
hear about your bill, and I know I'll also ask
you about if you have any bipartisan support or how
you're seeing you to pass the potential passage of this bill.
But first, I guess let's talk about what's in it.
What is in your fentanyl bill?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Well, basically, what I'm doing is I am going to
take back We're going to make it to zero grams
possession and distribution of anyanyl drug, any petanyl at all,
which means I'm going after the drug dealers specifically on
this bill. If you sell the if you sell any

(01:45):
drug at all, that or that if you sell a
fetanyl and it kills somebody, it's going to give you
a Class one felony drug felony. And then if you
have any possession and trying to distribute that possession of
that drug, it's going to be a class four felony.
So I'm making it all felony again, and I'm bringing

(02:06):
down the amount that you can actually possess on yourself
as zero grams a sentinel. So that's what I'm trying
to do with this bill.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Okay, that's great, and so what would the bill do
for someone who possesses any amount, let's say a small amount,
but has no intent to distribute. How would they be
affected by the bill?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Well, they would still be affected by the bill because
what they've had it where they're possessing the drug. But
the thing about it is that that they would be
able to if the DA if on the DA's job
to prove that. Yeah, if you can't prove it, then

(02:45):
they then they're still going to be able to, uh,
still end up with the misdemeanor. But for the most part,
I'm trying to go after the drug dealers with still
that's what that's my.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Intent, well, in including the low lever low level drug dealers,
because I think that's an issue I've heard from some
of the sheriffs is a lot of people want to
target the big drug dealers, and of course we need to,
we want to break up these rings, but it's also
the low level dealers who are the ones that a
lot of addicts deal with and get their drugs from,
and those are at least from my understanding, they're often
people who are addicted to the drugs themselves, but sell

(03:19):
it to pay for their habit and so are also
involved in the rings, but often carry maybe a less
amount than the big drug dealers, So sometimes they slip
through the cracks in the laws and you can't really
go after them, right.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
And the thing about it is is that when they
made everything a this demeanor, they really took away the
DA and the law enforcement's power right and negotiate with
these low level drug dealers to get the bigger drugs exactly.
That's the whole point of this bill is to really
focus on getting those low level drug dealers to turn

(03:54):
in their suppliers. But then the DA and the law
enforcement can go after them, and then these guys will
end up with more of a we're going to send
you over to We're going to send you over to
getting treatments or that sort of thing, instead of making
you go to jail. If you've hand over the people

(04:17):
that are selling you.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
This drug, that's key.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
It's really given the tools to the das and to
the DAS into law enforcement to really go after the
drug dealers, the big time drug dealers, right.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Which is so important because some of them take forever
to uncover and if they can have a key piece
of evidence in these low level dealers and give them
so many more options to stop the spread here in Colorado.
And we're talking to Senator Byron Pelton, who's sponsoring a
very important bill on fentanyl and drugs here in Colorado,
increasing the penalty specifically for drug dealers. Senator Pelton, what

(04:50):
does it look like as far as bipartisans support on
this bill? What are you expecting to happen in the
Senate in particular?

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Well, I am looking. I'm looking to see if we
can get somebody on the bill with me that will
be bipartisan. However, right now I don't have anybody. I
have corded a few people across the aisle, none of
them are very interested in bringing the level down to zero.
So apparently the thing that I'm getting is that they

(05:22):
don't want to be caught up and they don't want
people getting caught up in the system, which that is
not what my intent is. My intent is to strictly
go after drug dealers with this bill to stop the
flow of drugs into our communities and the one who's
killing our kids, basically is what I'm trying to do.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Right Well, and do you know so if they're objecting
to your version of the bill, we should obviously make
our communities safer and stop a lot of the drugs.
Do they have a different version they're bringing or are
they ignoring the issue? To your at least to your knowledge,
to my.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Knowledge, what they feel like is the Fitanel bill that
has passed in the past has is doing its job.
And I will I have DA's in my district that disagree.

Speaker 4 (06:06):
Right absolutely.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
I'll give you a great example here in Logan County
in twenty nineteen, when I was a county commissioner, we
had to take all the courts took sixty eight children
from their home due to meth antetamy. Oh my, the
laws aren't the laws aren't working. And even I know
that that bill was passed in twenty one, but it
still wouldn't be working. Still today, we had a huge

(06:32):
issue with drugs in the state of Colorado and we
got to do something to stop it.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Well, right, I totally agree with you, And I mean
I was looking recently at fentanyl overdose deaths in Colorado
and in twenty twenty three, which is the latest year,
I believe, we have numbers for it was still increasing,
and it's been like a four hundred and forty percent
increase in the last five years of fentanyl overdose deaths
nearly two thousand people in twenty three, So no signs
at all that it's being reduced after the bill that

(06:59):
was passed in twenty one. So it's pretty clear to me,
I think in anyone who looks at the numbers that
we have to do more, like your bill would offer.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, that is correct. I mean, we do have to
do more. And right now there are a lot of
families out there that are dealing with deaths of their children,
death of a loved one. Here in Logan County not
too long ago, we actually had a mom and a
dad overdose on overdose and leave three children as wards

(07:31):
of the state. So wow, these are things that communities
have to pay for. It hits our pocketbooks. But the
most the thing that I'm really, really really searching for
is holding somebody accountable for selling those drugs to that
injured that individual or victimize that family. And that is
really what I'm trying to focus on with this bill.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
Yeah, well, I think to your point, Senator Pelton, also
having an effective means to turn the low level drug
dealers on the big drug dealer, and to do that
you often do have to charge them with a heavier penalty.
So they're motivated to cooperate with DA's and law enforcement
and go get the big guys. That it seems like
a very effective thing to do that we're not doing
in Colorado right now.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
So I'm glad to hear your bill would do that.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Yeah, and that's exactly what we're for. That's exactly what
we're trying to do here with this bill. I have
a great sponsor in the House by Representative Armags. Yes,
he's a great sponsor in the House. He's a big
help on the drug issue down there and over there
in his district, and I do appreciate all of his work.
But so far we can't get anybody across the aisle

(08:37):
on the bill with us well, and.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
I think that says a lot about them and where
they are and not being willing to solve the drug crisis.

Speaker 4 (08:44):
You know, if they want to bring their own bills.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I guess we'll see what happens in a couple of
days when the session starts. But what's very clear, I
think is that in Colorado, if the politicians aren't going
to fix it. We can go to the people on
the ballot and get it fixed. So we do have
to take a break. Senator Byron Pelton, I'm so happy
to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us
and running this bill.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
All right, we'll talk to you later. I'm Christy Burton Brown.
You're on the Dan Capla Show.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
News today including Phil Weiser announcing he's running for governor
on the Democrat side in a shock to almost no one,
and most people in Colorado still don't actually even know
who he is. Probably why he's announcing so soon, has
a lot of work to do and name ID to
catch up on. Also been talking about the news from
Jefferson County School District where the chief of schools was

(09:42):
let go from his position about a month ago by
Jefferson County Public Schools not providing a lot of information
to parents, many of whom were questioning exactly what was
going on. And then today Washington County in Maryland reported
that he had committed suicide in Maryland while he was
with family over the holidays, and Jefferson County Sheriffs also

(10:06):
released that he was under investigation for possession of child
sexual assault material also called child pornography, but I think
that term for it is much better that the Jefferson
County sheriffs are using. So what exactly does the chief
of public schools chief of schools do in Jefferson County.
He supervises a lot of the positions a lot of

(10:28):
this staff. They also have some things to do with
the test the kids take and positions like that. But
David Weiss was his name, and he also was a
former elementary school teacher before he came over as chief
of schools in Jefferson County, and very concerning in Jefferson
County when you look at what he was charged with

(10:50):
in many parents asking whether or not their kids were
involved in his crimes and whether or not they were
victims of anything he was participating in. Those answers haven't
been disclosed yet. Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, to my knowledge,
is still investigating exactly what was going on.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
But as we talked about earlier.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
In the show, is the concerning pattern going on in
Jefferson County public schools where para professionals counselors, social workers,
and other people who are working with the children in
the schools are being arrested time and again. This was
the fifth time last year for sexual assault on children
by person in place of trust or possession of child

(11:31):
sexual assault material. So a very concerning pattern in Jefferson
County public schools, and I think one of the ways
that some of the details have been uncovered and released
in Jefferson County public schools is the work of parents'
rights groups in the area. This is why if you're
a parent who sends your kid to a neighborhood public school,
it's very important to be involved, to know what goes on,

(11:54):
to talk to other parents, and to not accept no
for an answer when they say you can't access to
the material that your kids are being shown in the classroom,
or the speakers that are coming to the assembly, or
the books that are in the library. I've had parents
ask me that what do you do when they just
tell you no, and they say they don't have the
book list for you, and they act like it's difficult

(12:14):
for them to provide information to you. And basically my
answer is that you don't take no for an answer.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
You're a parent.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
You have the right to demand access to the information
that your child is being given, and you have the
right to pull your kid out of a class if
you don't like that they're being taught particular material, and
you have the right to object. You have the right
to ask for your child to be assigned a different book.
I think it's very important for parents to know how
exactly they can exercise their rights if you do choose

(12:42):
to send your child to a neighborhood public school. Personally,
if I live in Jefferson County, I would definitely question
whether or not my child should go to the neighborhood
public schools in that county and school district in particular,
when they're having this many issues with children being preyed
upon by adults in positions of trust. That's deeply, deeply concerning,

(13:04):
And if I were a parent in Jefferson County, I
would definitely be looking into charter schools, homeschooling, private schools,
whatever I could do to get my child out of
the neighborhood public schools right now until these situations are resolved.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Thankfully, I don't live in Jefferson County.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
I live in Douglas County, which I think is proof
that some neighborhood public schools can be very well done
and can look out for children. So, you know, I
think it's important as conservative when we're talking about school
choice and education, that we have a balanced approach and
say that, you know, public education is how most children
are going to get educated in our country. We need solid, good,

(13:38):
accountable neighborhood public schools. But when we see issues, and
when we see problems, whether it is with kids reading
scores and math scores, or whether it is with them
literally being preyed upon by adults and positions of trust,
we need to consider taking our kids out of those
school and putting them into better schools that actually take
care of our children, produce better results, and accomplish the

(14:00):
goal that we all should be here for, which is
educating our children and setting them up for success. I
just got elected to the state Board of Education in
Colorado in November and will be sworn in next Wednesday. Actually,
so I'm very interested to see and learn all the
things that we talk about on the state Board of Education,
all the things we hear about from schools across the state.

(14:21):
But I think most people across the state don't even
know there is a state Board of Education. Colorado is
one of a handful of states across the nation that
elect their members on the state board. In many many
states they're appointed by the governor. But here in Colorado
you actually get someone who represents your particular congressional district.
We'll certainly hear some charter school appeals, accountability issues, also

(14:42):
license your issues. When teachers licenses are suspended or pulled.
It is the state Board of Education that actually here's
that situation and approves the license to be poled.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
Or suspended or not.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And from the information I have gathered, you would be
very surprised to know how just how many people working
in schools have their licenses under consideration of suspension or
removal for what they're doing in the classroom or what
they're doing on official school time. A lot of times
it's involved substance abuse, not always as dire of a
situation as Jefferson County is encountering right now. If you

(15:18):
have thoughts or information, I've had someone message me while
I've been on the radio giving me more information about
the Jefferson County situation. If you know more want to
talk about it, you can call eight five five four
zero five eight two five five or text Dan to
five seven seven thirty nine.

Speaker 4 (15:34):
Let's also play this clip.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
I just want to remind you of exactly who Phil
Wiser is if you missed an earlier segment. This is
one of the main reasons I don't think Phil Wiser
a has any chance to be governor in Colorado. But
b why we should absolutely make sure he's not governor
is due to his position on crime. This is a
clip from him back in twenty twenty two talking about
how we should deal with auto theft.

Speaker 6 (15:58):
So after someone commits a third or fourth car theft
in say three months, they should be kept in with
a really high bond, because you got a sense they're
gonna get out, they're gonna commit more crimes.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Okay, So let's Pilwiser, Attorney General at the time running
for reelection, acting like he's been very, very strong and
bold on crime to say, let's keep these guys in
jail after they've stolen three or four cars.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
I mean, they don't deserve bail or bond at all
at that point.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
With in reality, anyone who knows anything about the situation
of auto theft or crime in Colorado understands that people
who steal cars when they're released on pr bonds, the
first time they steal a car, they get back out
and they steal a car again the same exact day.
What law enforcement officials have shared with me in my
position at Advanced Colorado when we talk about future ballot
initiatives to deal with crime here in our state, they

(16:50):
say that, in fact, people who steal cars are some
of the most dangerous criminals to law enforcement officers. They
are willing to run them over with cars, They're willing
to assault them, They're willing to do anything it takes
to get away to get back associated with their car
theft ring and steal more cars.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
So for anyone who wants to dismiss it as.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, auto theft is just a property crime. We've lowered
the rates in Colorado. Well a lot about you, but
I don't think lowering from number one state in auto
theft to number four state in auto theft is a
position we should be proud of at all in Colorado.
But it really goes far beyond property crimes because they
extend it to assaulting the police officers violently who are

(17:30):
trying to detain them, trying to arrest them, and then
what a lot of the judges in Colorado do let
them out on personal recognizance bonds, their word that they'll
show up in court. That's what we're dealing with, still
with auto theft in Colorado, and Phil Weiser has no
concept of how dangerous of a situation. This actually is
what law enforcement are actually saying on the ground. You
should definitely not be governor. I'm Christy Burton Brown. You're

(17:51):
on the Dan Kapla Show. You can call in over
the break eight five five four zero five eight two
five five or text Dan to five seven seven three nine.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
And now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Text your thoughts to Dan at five seven seven three nine.
The Louisiana Attorney General had suggested that the Sugar Bowl
should be postponed until Friday. Was originally scheduled to be
played on Wednesday, between Notre Dame and Georgia. Louisiana did
postpone it until today, but it's actually just about to end.
It looks like the score is Notre Dame twenty three,

(18:42):
Georgia ten. There's a few seconds for remaining in the game.
But the Louisiana Attorney General did clarify and say the
reason she thought it should be postponed until Friday was
because people in New Orleans needed more time to grieve
and deal with the attack that left fifteen people dead
and at least thirty five injured, and she said that
they were still actually, at least at some point today,

(19:04):
still cleaning up bodies off the street. Hours after that,
I think before the Sugar Bowl, Bourbon Street did open
again in New Orleans, and obviously the majority of people
in the state, or those making decisions anyways, decided to
keep the Sugar Bowl and keep it on going. And
I think that's always the American debate when we talk
about terrorist attacks on our nation, is keeping our country

(19:28):
going how we're used to doing things, and not closing
down everything and not letting terrorists think that they can
control what we do and what we celebrate and where
we go and how we live our lives. I think
that commonly becomes the American position is to say, you know,
maybe for twenty four hours, we'll shut something down. We're
definitely going to investigate, we're definitely going to catch you

(19:49):
and take you down, but we're not going to let
you stop our way of life. You know, I think
the attorney Chantal had a perfectly reasonable position to say that,
you know, give give Louise, give the state, give the
people twenty four more hours, and postponed by two days.
But that's not what they ended up doing, and so
the Sugar Bowl is probably ending as we speak right now,
with Notre Dame winning.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
When we talk.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
About sports, everyone who ever listens to me knows that
Dan is far more an expert on sports than I am.
But on New Year's I've actually got to go to
an Avalanche game with my husband. He got some tickets
from someone he works with, which was really really great
because actually the guy who had the tickets has had
thirty year season tickets with four seats down the ice
actually well I mean literally on the ice, but right

(20:34):
behind the goaltender. And my brothers actually grew up playing hockey,
so I grew up watching a ton of hockey games.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Love the Carudal Avalanche.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I mean, if you have listened to me for a while,
you know that my family actually drove into Colorado and
moved here to the state in nineteen ninety six on
the night the Avalanche won the Cup for the very
first time.

Speaker 4 (20:51):
So I am a big Avalanche fan, even though I.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Don't follow all their games, but it's pretty great to
watch them on New Year's Eve.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
They won five to two.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
But what was particularly interesting is they were playing the
Winnipeg Jets, which was the top ranked team in the
NHL at the time in the division. If you follow hockey,
Winnipig Jets were number one in the division and the
Abs were a third, So winning this game was actually
really big deal. What I thought was really strange about
the game is with two minutes left, the Avalanche were
up three to two, but the Jets decided to pull

(21:22):
their goaltender. And again, if you're familiar with hockey, that
usually doesn't happen until maybe the last minute or the
last thirty seconds. If you can try and get one
more goal and tie up the game, you will. You'll
pull your goaltender and bring bring another person on the ice.
But they did it with two minutes left, and so
the Abs actually scored twice on an open net because
even after they scored once, they still pulled out their goalie.

(21:43):
And yeah, the Jets clearly weren't having a great night.
They had two different people on their team break sticks.
One was an accident. This is how the Abs actually.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Scored their third goal.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
One of the Jets players his stick was snapped in
half laying on the ice and so he could only
like skate around but couldn't do too much. And then
the other one who broke his stick actually purposely broke
it at the end of the game and he whacked
it against the goalposts. Because you know, the Apps one
five to two, beating the top ranked team in the NHL.

Speaker 4 (22:11):
So I don't do sports, not much, but when I.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Do, apparently I get to go to really great games.
That was a really fun one to end twenty twenty four.
And then in ball Arena they actually did indoor fireworks,
which I have never seen before, but they did like
a five minute firework show at the end, and it
was really like literally just a bunch of fire coming
up from the ice and then what I would say,
our giants sparklers lighting up, but the music was very,

(22:36):
very loud.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
It was a good five minute show to end the year.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
So hopefully you had a similarly great end to your
twenty twenty four and are all ready for this year.
In every new year, what I've done for the last
couple of years is I have a goal to read
a certain number of books.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
I don't know what kind of goals you guys have.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
But one of the books that I started this year
started listening to you today, as a book by Neil Gorsich.
His new book called Overruled, And as everyone knows, he
is a Supreme Court justice, happens to be my favorite
justice on the US Supreme Court, and also, of course
a justice from here in Colorado used to serve on
the Tenth Circuit.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
But his book Overruled, I think a lot of you
would find.

Speaker 2 (23:12):
Very interesting because it actually talks about all the ways
that laws, too many laws, burden individual people's lives.

Speaker 4 (23:21):
He talks about.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
His theory that law should not only be crafted to
serve the general public, but specifically to defend individual rights.
If you are an individual and the law is trampling
all over your rights in the name of protecting or
I guess, giving something in particular and really protecting them,
but giving something in particular to the general public, we
should really look at a law like that and say,

(23:43):
why is it trampling all over the rights of the individual.
So I appreciate his perspective that he's very centered on
the rights of individual people.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
That's what our nation is founded on.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
So it makes America unique that we don't just look
at everyone as a big monolith, but we look at
individuals and at protecting every person's equal protection under the laws.
He's very big on the equal protection clause, actually written
a whole book on that, which I also recommend. But
one reason that the book overruled is particularly interesting by
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorstich is in light of the

(24:14):
fact that the Chevron doctrine was overturned last year. In
my work at Advanced Colorado, we submitted in a Meekas
brief in that case on the right side, and the
court did overturn the Chevron doctrine. After decades of that
doctrine being used by regulatory agencies executive power, both in
the federal governments and in states.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
It really hasn't been corrected in states yet.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
But to create all these regulations that trample small businesses
and corporations at large, and with every new president, the
regulations change, and so expectations and pressures on businesses become different,
requirements change up. You can't even expect what the law
requires you to do. One of the big problems with
the Chevron doctrine, and there were a lot, but the US
Supreme Court, with Neil Gorstich on it, overturned that doctrine

(24:58):
last year. His book over Rule specifically brings a lot
of stories to light where people were trampled on in
their small individual lives by an overwhelming body of law,
where often government officials weren't even aware of all the
laws they had. So if you're not necessarily looking for
a super scholarly read, which you might think you would

(25:20):
find from a US Supreme Court justice is only like
super in the clouds highly intellectual treatises, And I'm sure
he writes those two, but I think he's really good
in his books about bringing it down to earth and
actually sharing the stories of people fishermen, foster parents, people
like that who were deeply affected by a law. On rogue,

(25:41):
I would say law being misused by regulatory agencies, volumes
of laws being created when a couple of pages are
all that were all that was required. So if you
also like to hear about stories of how law has
taken over people's lives and damaged it but then was corrected,
and what the solutions are are going forward for course

(26:01):
for lawmakers for average citizens to fight against this. I
think the book Overruled by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorstich.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Is a great read.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's how I'm starting off my new year, and hopefully
you have some great goals too. Welcome to share them
with us if you want to text in Dan to
five seven, seven three nine, or you want to call
eight five five four zero five eight two five five.
We're about to take a break on the Dan Kaplis Show,
but I'm actually going to be back tomorrow too.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
After this hour is over.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Tomorrow, I have a lot of guests coming on the show,
so I hope you'll tune in then as well. We're
going to talk to a new state representative who's bringing
I think one of the most critical pieces of criminal
justice legislation this session. I think he already has some
bipartisan support on it. We're going to talk to Barb Kirkmeyer,
who many people think might run for governor on the
Republican side. But don't worry, she's not making an announcement.

(26:51):
She's actually on the JBC Joint Budget Commitee. I'm going
to talk about the big, big problem in the budget
for the state and the legislature to contend with this year.
And then we'll also have on Michael Fields, who's the
president of Advanced Colorado. We are releasing on Monday legislative
policy agenda for twenty twenty five with some critical issues
we think the state should deal with, So he'll be

(27:11):
here tomorrow to talk about that as well. Keep it
right here on the Dan Kapla Show.

Speaker 5 (27:21):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
To accomplish more things, get good things done, and hopefully
learn a lot more. One of the potentially not so
great things about this year is there doesn't seem to
be a change yet in affordability in Colorado. I was
just talking to a friend of mine, oh, and bowling
with our friends on New Year's Day, or really the
kids old and the parents talked. But one of my

(27:45):
friends was sharing that they were evaluating their budget over
the year and comparing kind of year to year estimates
and that groceries had cost them seven hundred dollars more
a month in twenty twenty four. And actually, if you
read some really good reports done by the Common Sense
Institute here in Colorado, it actually matches up. In case

(28:06):
people are like, oh, my goodness, that's an outlier. It's
actually not. The Common Sense Institute showed that in twenty
twenty four, the average Colorado family was paying twelve hundred
dollars more a month in basic expenses, whether you're talking
about groceries, transportation, which of course includes gas, housing or
healthcare was the other one, and so obviously it's going
to look a little different for different families.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Some were going to end up spending more at the
grocery store.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Some in gas, and some certainly in healthcare or housing.
I do think there's some relief, obviously with housing when
it relates to property taxes on the way, due to
the deal that was reached in the special session in
twenty twenty four, which caps property tax increases for people
and prevents the giant spikes that we saw. But those

(28:49):
kind of inflationary prices and increase in costs lack of
affordability in Colorado don't really show that they're going to
be coming down. So that's going to be a hard
thing to confront in twenty twenty five. I'll be very
interested when we talk to Senator Barb Kirkmeyer tomorrow how
she is going to explain how the state is going
to deal with it.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
It has too much debt.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Basically, it can't well, let's see, they can't fund everything
they're supposed.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
To pay for.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
She could explain it a lot better than I can.
She's on the Joint Budget Committee, and we'll talk about
all of that. But the Klora budget is in trouble.
The legislature has to figure out ways to cut basically
because they don't have the money they claim they need
to pay for things. And Colorado actually prevented from going
into debt as a state because we have certain limits,
and so the state's gonna have to cut.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Of course they like to.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Claim they can't, but I think Senator Kirkmeyer will have
some good answers on how the state is going to
have to do what families in Colorado are doing, which
is looking at budgets and cutting non essential things because
you have to pay for food on your tables and
essential things to pay for for your kids. I think
one of the other interesting things coming into this new
year will be to see how much influence someone like

(29:59):
Elon Musk actually has when Trump gets into office. He's
obviously had a fairly outsized influence spending some political money.

Speaker 4 (30:07):
He claims he's going to keep doing that.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Also pretty in with the Make America a Great Again team.
But it'll be interesting to see a difference in Trump
on the campaign trail with Elon Musk. Does it stay
the same in the White House? Does it become different?
Obviously he put him, along with Vek roam Oswami, in
charge of Dodge and so we'll see how many of
those suggestions and recommendations to get the United States in

(30:33):
a good budget actually happens, and how many cuts happen
to bad spending. I hope a lot of them happen,
but we'll see. I think one of the good things
about how vocal Elon Musk has decided to be after
he bought Twitter or x is that he's bringing attention
to a lot of things that governments would rather cover up.
I think we need people with a loud voice and
outsized influence to expose what's going on in government that

(30:56):
people should be aware of. He's actually doing that right now.
In the UK, there were a lot of actually this
is gonna sound horrible because it is, but child rape
gangs led by people from Pakistan who are over in
the UK, and there was.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
A failure of investigation.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
And Elon Musk is talking about this on Twitter, as
are a number of other people right now. But Dude,
in their criminal justice system in Britain, you actually have
a person in a certain position who has to agree
to prosecutions for serious crimes like rape. Well, their current
prime minister used to be in that position. He used
to be the person who had to approve these prosecutions.
He failed to approve these prosecutions for people in these

(31:35):
child rape gangs. And now all this is coming out,
and so the person in that position right now is saying, no,
we're not going to do an audit. We're not going
to do an investigation, which a lot of people are
pushing for in Britain right now, but they don't want
to do it because it would likely implicate their current
prime minister with his failure to investigate. And it goes
even deeper than this, because not only did they fail

(31:55):
to investigate, arrest.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
And charge the people who were involved in these.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Child rape gangs, usually young girls actually who were kidnapped
and taken by these gangs made up mostly or if
not solely, by Pakistanis who were in Britain at the time,
but They also actually arrested parents. When dads would come
to the house where they found that their daughters were
being held, police would show up and arrest the dads

(32:23):
for coming to get their daughters. And if all this
sounds like highly unbelievable when I first heard about it,
I was like, there's no way that can actually be true.

Speaker 4 (32:30):
But it is.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
There's all this documentation. You can find it for yourself
indicating exactly what is happening and did happen in particular
with no consequences compared to what should have happened in
Britain for these child rape gangs, and how parents were
targeted for defending their own children and trying to rescue them,
and the Prime Minister in his former position was involved

(32:51):
in failing to solve this problem and get it under
control and prosecute the people who were committing these absolutely
horrible crimes. I think these were the kind of things
that we need people like Elon Musk on Twitter, on
x bringing to light and talking about the corruption in
so many governments, because I think often when things are
brought to light, then people can do things about them,

(33:12):
bring them to an end, and figure out a way
to prevent them. From happening ever again, I'm gonna go
to the text line. In our last few minutes, I
know a number of people gave some ideas. I talked
about reading Overruled by Neil Gorsich. Another person says, I'm
reading the blueprint looking for ways to undo the Democrat
hold and execute a retaking of Colorado. And they also
think we need John Oway to run for governor. He'd

(33:35):
be a lot better than Phil Wiser. Someone else says
we should search Gorsic PBS firing line interview he did
about three months ago, where he talked about his book
and other things. He was very charismatic and engaging. Seems
like a great guy and a great justice. I'd agree
with that. He's my favorite justice on the US Supreme Court.
I don't agree, of course, with every single opinion he's written,

(33:57):
but he's written some really really great opinions focus on
equal protection and individual rights for the individual, which I
think there's too many jurists who lose that perspective a
little bit and sometimes really do think of the greater good.
And I understand that, but I think sometimes when you
focus on the greater good in the.

Speaker 4 (34:16):
Law, you lose sight of the individual rights. That's very,
very important.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Someone else writing in about the insane cost of eggs
and the store at Walmart. I am feeling that too.
Thanks so much for being on the Dan Capitalists Show today.
I'm Christy Burton Brown. I'll be with you tomorrow. A
lot of great interviews coming up tomorrow, talk about the
legislative session that is already upon us next Wednesday. Enjoy
your new year. I'll be here on the Dan Caplis

(34:41):
Show tomorrow. I hope you will be too.