12-8-25 - *FULL SHOW* Go Broncos; Climate Nonsense; Drug Boat Strikes; Condom Tax

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm ross.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
That's Gina in her awesome jacket, one of the rare
pieces of attire that I am a little bit envious of.
And I don't just mean your attire, but like anybody's,
because that is a badass jacket.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I would be curious to see if it is truly vintage,
because I got it at a vintage store. Yeah, it
seems vintage because it's pretty worn out, but it has
that throwback D logo like they started to do in
the in the.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's a Broncos jacket, by the way, folks, I didn't
say that, but I mean, and it's a little dark
for you to be looking in. Well, actually it's dark outside,
it's kind of light in here, so you could probably
see her even better. And I've got a Broncos polo
shirt and Dragon has Broncos hoodie.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
So here we all are.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
All are after that wind, Dragon, you didn't even have
to remind me to listen, although I I almost didn't
because I thought they didn't.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Need my help.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
But anyway I did because you were gonna be with
the guys that burned on Denver.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I didn't end up going to that doing some
other things and you were there, I know. Was it fun?

Speaker 4 (00:53):
Though?

Speaker 1 (00:53):
It was fun. There was a little food there, good food.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
The place was packed because they were also doing like
a local vendors market, like a little hollow at the
same time. Yeah, so just busy all around. It was
a fun atmosphere and obviously great game for it too.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
It's awesome, worked out awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I would like to let you both know, because Dragon
let me know that this seems to be a much
more important day than I realized until a few minutes ago.
Dragon gives me a list each morning that includes the
best national days for today, Like it's National Brownie Day, right.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
And that's pretty good. That's pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
But that's nothing compared to the fourth item on Dragon's
list today, which I would like to share with you.
By the way, for those relatively new to my show,
I usually like to start pretty light on Monday mornings.
I don't like to just jump immediately into politics and whatever.
But today is National Lard Day. Yes, it is National

(01:49):
lard Day. And according to according to daysofthyear dot com
and Rick Lewis, you are welcome to comment on this,
it's National lard Day and people celebrate lard for its
rich culinary history, and it's comeback as a healthier wait
where did that go? And more flavorful alternative to processed

(02:11):
oils and fats.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
This could be a thing that you talk.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
About during your day job after you leave us and
go do your rock and roll thing.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
Yeah, lard is making a comeback, and it really is.
People also have been putting it on their face. Well,
you know, kind of like a topical face cream. Have
you No, but there's beef tallow.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, my wife's kind of ended up head.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
Actually, yeah, I've got a little thing of beef tallow.
You do that you put on your face, it's pretty amazing.
One more largeting. And then by the way, too, you
can eat the stuff you put on your face.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Now, well that's good because you make a mistake.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
And anyway, lard, especially types like leaf lard, which is
made from the fat around the pig's kidneys, has been
praised for its quality in baking and cooking. All right, Rick,
before we talk about yesterday's game, I just wanted to
tell you because you were you were still in DC
after last week's game where you were traveling home, so.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
We didn't get to have you on the show. So
I just I.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Wanted to thank you for using two particular words during
your broadcast of the Washington game, and I didn't have
a chance to thank you force I'd like to thank
you now.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
One, you were.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Talking about some player, maybe a special teams player, and
you called him a maven, which is an awesome word.
So thank you for using that good Yiddish word. It
basically means expert. Yes, thankay, So that was good.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
And then the other thing, And I bet you don't.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Even know about this unless somebody else said something to you,
but in maybe five minutes into the third quarter, you
called them the Redskins on the air.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Are you sure?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
I'm a hundred I'm positive.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Actually it was Dave. Nope, it was you.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Because David, and I thought to myself, I got to
thank him for that.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
I remember a Dave did it too. I remember Dave said.
I told myself I wouldn't go to do that.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I don't know if Dave did, but you definitely. And
I wanted to thank you for it because I grew
up with the Redskins were for Redskins.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
We all did.

Speaker 5 (04:06):
I almost said the Redskins probably five times during that game,
and I did say that during the broadcast.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
That's when I said Redskins.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
I told because when Dave said it, I said, man,
I said, I almost said it five times.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yeah, pretty easy to do. Yeah, it's pretty easy. Yeah,
I still kind of miss him. Well, thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Yeah, you're also paying attention.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
All right, tell us a little about your broadcast experience yesterday.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
It was an easy game for a change, and it
didn't come down to, you know, a last minute score,
although that Raiders field goal at the end of the game.
A lot of people talking about that, like what's going
on here? You see Dave Portnoy from Barstool Sports had
a total meltdown. He's saying Pete Carroll needs to go
to prison because they kicking that field goal with four

(04:57):
seconds left to go.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
It covered the spread, the spread, yes, and I don't
know if it had any impact on the over under.
I mean, you could pick any over underline these days, but.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
For sure they covered the spread and it was a
total meaningless Look, why wouldn't you go for a touchdown there?
That that was interesting? It was it was good to
get a win where you really weren't, you know, biting
your nails at the end of the game and having
heart palpitations. I thought that was it was a good
way to go yesterday. It was a bad Raiders team.

(05:28):
You had to beat them convincingly and they did.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Was that the most complete game we've seen from the
Broncos yet or is there still somethings that fast?

Speaker 6 (05:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:36):
It was.

Speaker 5 (05:36):
I would say it was a complete game, maybe the most.

Speaker 6 (05:40):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
They did win in all three phases. And the reason
I would say maybe the most complete game is because
of the punt return for the touchdown by Marvin Mims,
first one in his career, which kind of surprised me.
It's the best punt returner in the league. That's his
first touchdown on a punt return. I would have thought
he had one by now, but no, that was Uh.

(06:01):
It was always it's fun to be in Vegas and
it's fun to watch Raiders fans in their own stadium.
They were very quiet in that game, and all the
noise was being made by the Broncos fans. That stadium
was two thirds Broncos fans.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
I also loved when I saw Bonux giving high five.
So everybody at the end, including Raiders fans, they're like,
all right, I'll.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Get a high five.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Why yeah, that was that was just a kind of
a relaxing NFL football game for a change, and the
Broncos won it.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I should have I should have done a more appropriate
introduction of our special guest, Rick Lewis, who is part
of our our amazing Broncos broadcast team here along with
his broadcast partner Dave Logan. And Rick also has a
day job host of does your show?

Speaker 7 (06:48):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Is it the Rick Lewis Show? What's the name of
your heir?

Speaker 4 (06:51):
That's what the that's what they call it?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, okay, on on the Fox KRFX, one of three
five classic Rockets.

Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'm on the radio, I'm on the air right now,
on the air.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Right now? Are we in this?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
That would be good simulcasts and put it out on
the box at the same time.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
We could maybe do that. Actually, I don't know how
we do it. You see, we don't have engineers here.
Have you noticed that.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I've noticed we no longer.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
Have engineers in the building.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
We don't even have chairs with two arms.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Everything's all a part here.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
Our printer at work, it's crazy. Our computer's not working.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Oh. The funniest thing in the women's restroom you know
how they were all under construction. I walked in there
one day. One of like the I don't know, frames
of the mirror was on the ground, like the glue
of it already came off and fell on the ground.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
Oh, I know, Rick, What do you do the night
before a game in Vegas?

Speaker 4 (07:38):
Uh?

Speaker 5 (07:38):
You know what.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
I'm a little embarrassed. I went to bed at ten thirty.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
Like I told you Ryan Edwards yesterday in the pregame
when our segment, I said, Ryan, man, I'd like to
say I stayed up till three am drinking and gambling.

Speaker 4 (07:52):
But I sadly went to bed at ten third.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Did you gamble at all?

Speaker 4 (07:55):
No?

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I did no gamble.

Speaker 7 (07:56):
No.

Speaker 5 (07:56):
I just walked by all the all the tables in
this lot machines.

Speaker 7 (08:01):
No.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
We stayed at the Park Park MGM, and it was
packed because there's a big UFC fight right across the
street Saturday nights, and so no, I just you know,
I want to be ready to call an NFL football game.
I'm a total professional. I'm surprised you would even ask
me that.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Ross. I'm a pro.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
I'm not staying up till three o'clock in the morning
at gambling.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well maybe if you were wrong, if.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
You were real pro, you could stay up till three
in the morning gambling and call.

Speaker 5 (08:29):
A football game. I'm sure some people can do it.
There's not one of those people. But I get up
at like three thirty no matter what.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
We got about one minute left. How about what's his
first name, Adam Prentice?

Speaker 1 (08:41):
What's his first name?

Speaker 4 (08:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (08:42):
The fullbacks you prentss Yeah, get the longest run of
the game. That was a weird game, wasn't they It
was a really weird game. But you know, Bonnicks looked
really good. Bonnicks was sharp the entire Gamelos by winning
that game, are the number one seed in the AFC
because they hold tiebreaker against New England because New England

(09:03):
got beat by that same Raiders team to start the season, right,
and the Broncos beat the Raiders now twice, so Broncos
hold the tiebreaker. If the season and today, Broncos would
have a first round by in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
And tonight's game the Eagles at the Chargers. It's very
hard for me to root for the Eagles as an
old Redskins fan, but I'm going to because they want
to beat the Chargers.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
You just said Redskins purpose. What are you no longer
politically correct? What's going on in this show? You got
dragon Redbeard in here. He's changed this whole show, Anthony. Yeah,
you know, a dragon. These guys go way back. We're
going back to Redskins now.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
I never left them, although I.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Do have to say, of all of the kind of
sports team names that were kind of Native American based,
that one probably is the one that's closest to actually
being offensive.

Speaker 4 (09:59):
But you don't well, we don't have to go into
that whole thing.

Speaker 5 (10:01):
The logo was an actual guy, yeah, and it was
approved by the tribe.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, and it was always very you know, like bravery
and strength and all this. Anyway, I love them. I
love the logo too.

Speaker 5 (10:14):
And that guy's family and the tribe. They're pissed off
that they changed the name.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Rick Lewis, thanks so much for joining us. You can
go back to your day job now. And it's really good, Senia.
Thanks for making time for you. You're very impressive and
you're a reds fan. All right, guys, Oh my gosh,
all right, that's always so great to have Rick in studio. Okay,

(10:41):
lots of stuff going on the news. One of the
things we saw last week is this guy I don't
even like to use his name, but Luigi is his
first name, and and he murdered a CEO and yet
he's got fans. So now what's happening? Gina, Happy Monday,
Good morning. Hope you had a wonderful weekend, as good
as the Broncos weekend, as good as Dave Logan's Cherry

(11:02):
Creek High School weekend.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Really really great weekend. I would actually like.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
To take a moment to follow up on something Gina
just talked about.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
The penny auction.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
So first, this is kind of cool if you ever
get a look, well you may never see one in person,
but just online at a picture of these last pennies
that are being sold in sets of three, as Gina said,
a Denver penny, and a Philly penny and a gold penny.
Each one of them has a little omega, the Greek

(11:32):
letter omega on the coin, just sort of bottom left
under the word liberty, to the left of the lower
part of the bust of Abe Lincoln. Omega being the
last letter in the Greek alphabet and sort of representing
the last pennies and there's two hundred and thirty two sets.
As Gina said, they're being auctioned off by Stas Bowers Galleries.

(11:58):
And the reason that I wanted to mention this and
they're going to start bidding online at their company's website,
the auction houses website, and then they're going to have
a live broadcast as well.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
But the reason I.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Wanted to mention this to you, and why I'm going
to be so interested to see how this goes, is
when this first was announced that they were going to
auction off these pennies, there were people estimating that each
set would bring in maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of
fifty thousand dollars per set of pennies. And now I'm

(12:34):
seeing some other places estimating that each set could bring
in two to five million dollars per set. I have
no idea. I have absolutely no idea what it's going
to be. I mean, two hundred and thirty two sets
of these things actually strikes me as way too many

(12:57):
for them to be worth a seven figure number, right.
I can imagine a fifty thousand dollars number with two
hundred and thirty two of them, but millions of dollars
with that many.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Usually that kind of price is reserved for something, whether
there's only you know, ten of them known, or three
of them known, or one of them known.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
So we'll see.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
But I am I am super interested to see to
see how that how that goes. All right, let me
do a little bit of sort of political newsy kind
of stuff for you. This is this is kind of
an interesting thing that you know, the Trump administration does
a lot of a lot of big things that you
hear about in the news, and they also do a
lot of little things that you might not hear about.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
And some of them are.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Great, and some of them are not so great, and
some of them are just sort.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Of get you scratch your head a little bit.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Here's the story from the UK's guardiantheguardian dot com. The
Trump administration has moved to formalize a crackdown on the
issuance of visus for people who it deems to have
engaged in sense or bring the free speech of US citizens.
The action detailed in a State Department memo sent to
overseas missions this past week, first reported by Reuter's direct

(14:11):
consular officials to deny visas to any applicant quote responsible
for or complicit in censorship or attempted censorship of protected
expression in the US. The order, which State Department officials
have not denied, requires enhanced vetting of applicants quote to

(14:31):
see if they have worked in areas that include activities
such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact checking, compliance, and
online safety, among others. It will initially focus on applicants
for H one B visas, usually given to high skilled
foreign workers in the tech industries among other sectors, but

(14:53):
is applicable to all visa applications.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's kind of interesting, right.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Marco Rubio said foreigners who work to undermine the rights
of Americans should not enjoy the privilege of traveling to
our country, whether in Latin America, Europe, or elsewhere. The
days of passive treatment for those who work to undermine
the rights of Americans are over.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
That's a statement.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
From Marco Rubio from about six months ago when they
started talking about all this.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
So I thought that was kind of an interesting and
interesting thing.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Another story that I'm just going to do a minute
on because it's still very much a developing story and
we'll have to see how this all plays out is
the story of the second strike on this drug boat. Now,
I have plenty to say about the whole drug boat issue,
and I've written a substack about it. If you go
to Rosskominsky dot substack dot com you can read my note,

(15:47):
and I hope you will subscribe. It's free and it's
probably worth more than that Rosskominsky dot substack dot com.
And that note is mostly about whether this stuff is legal.
But in any case, there's still a bunch of Democrats
who have seen the video and they are saying that
when the video is when it's being described as guys

(16:10):
in the water, drug runners in the water trying to
flip over the boat so they could get back on
their run, one Democrat in Congress says they weren't trying
to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated.
A tiny portion of it remained capsized the bow of
the boat. They had no communications device, certainly they were unarmed.

(16:32):
This is from Adam Smith, Washington State Republican.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
He says, any claim that the drugs had.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Somehow survived the attack is hard to square with what
we saw. So in any case, what's going on now
is the President himself and Pete Hegseth are trying to
decide whether to go along with the significant pressure that
exists right now to release the entire video. I have
no idea whether they will or won't, but I wanted

(16:59):
to keep you updated on all that stuff. All Right,
we've got weather and traffic and Gina on the news,
and then in the next segment of the show, one
of the many things I want to talk to you
about is how is RTD gonna get riders back on
the buses and trains while they're dealing with this particular problem.
So I'm two for two so far today and understanding

(17:21):
why producer Dragon picked the music he picked. You're listening
to Ross on the News with Gina. Good morning, Gina,
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
How you doing. Do you have a lovely weekend? In
addition to the Broncos game. I didn't really ask you yet.
We got busy at the start of the show with it.
It was a good weekend. It was fun, kind of
hung out, I don't.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Know, hiking, skiing outdoors, e Gina, stuff stuck around the city.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Actually, we're gonna go skiing next weekend, which I'm glad
we did. Switcher ski weekends because it sounded like getting
to the resorts this weekend while the skiing was probably
awesome because they got dumped on with snow getting there
on I seventy sound like a mess Saturday morning.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
Even though you have a four wheel drive car now, yeah,
wheel drive, No, I'm still hesitant.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Sometimes doesn't mean everyone else is four wheel drive cars
out there sore.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Point yeah, and nor can they drive like they're from
Michigan exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Producer Dragon, did you have an awesome weekend? Action packed?

Speaker 6 (18:12):
We went and saw the granch at the DCPA as
well as Christmas Carol and took the grandkids ornament shopping.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Good time. So you took the grand kids to the
granch or?

Speaker 2 (18:21):
Is it just to the Wow, let's get how culture
you are?

Speaker 1 (18:27):
Yeah? I try to be.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
Wow very good around shorts guy go into plays?

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Did you go in shorts? Of course I did? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (18:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Wait, So this isn't just a work thing, this is everywhere? Yes,
this is it rare?

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Wait, let's just edumacate Gina a little bit here. How
many pairs of long pants do you own? Two?

Speaker 6 (18:48):
One's a suit weddings and funerals and the other I
bought for Egypt because one of the places that we
were going, we could not wear shorts.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Now, when he went on the listener trip with us
to Egypt, yeah, I had to have long pants.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
So that's it. He's committed to the bit. My god,
you got to commit to the bit.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
And he's committed four paints, but you just chose not.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
Wow, all right, okay.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
So when when we were talking with Rick Lewis, I mentioned,
you know, he said, and it came up during the
broadcast yesterday that at the very end when the Raiders
kicked that field goal, it covered the spread because the
Broncos were seven and a half point favorite or eight
point favorite, depending which book you were looking at, and
the and and they were up by ten with four

(19:34):
seconds left, and then the Raiders kicked that meaningless field goal,
and so the Broncos won by seven. So if you
bet on the Broncos and gave the points gave seven
and a half or he gave eight, then you lost
the bet. And I said to Rick again kind of
in passing like that might have impacted the over under
two And I don't remember, because I didn't bet the

(19:54):
over under in that game yesterday, And then a listener
texted and said, actually, the the over under on that
game was forty and a half and by kicking that
field goal, it made the total forty one, so it
took it from under to over. And one article I
saw online just in the last few minutes when I

(20:16):
was when I was looking at this stuff during the
during the break there it they said that more money
had been bet on the under than on the over,
so that kick probably cost probably cost.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Better, is a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
Certainly more people bet on the Broncos than the Raiders,
and apparently more people bet on the under than on
the over, So kicking that meaningless field goal cost people
a bunch of money.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
So which which is fine with me?

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I don't I don't care. I mean, I'm gambling on
this stuff too. That's why they call it gambling, right,
And and.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
If you're the and if you're the Broncos and you
want to cover.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
The spread, then score more, right, I mean, they don't care.
They won the game anyway, So there's there's that. Let
me just share this story with you briefly, and this
is this is sort of a chicken an egg or
cart and horse or whatever other metaphor you want to
use Denver Post story about RTD. This is why Dragon

(21:15):
played the bus music Magic Bus. RTD runs the buses,
you know, metro buses and trains, the public transit.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
And here's the headline in the Denver.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Post, RTD grapples with illicit drugs and the use of
buses and trains as shelters. And the subhead is US
Public Transit Agency officials who met in Denver seek help
to address societal problems spilling into nations buses and trains. Now,
we know this has been going on for quite some time,

(21:47):
and certainly since since COVID, a lot of this has
been going on. We remember all the trouble that was
at Union Station for a couple of years, where normal
people just wouldn't go there because you are certainly going
to see or perhaps be harassed by a homeless person
and or drug addict, and you would see needles on

(22:07):
the ground and maybe you know, human excrement or whatever,
and it was really bad and they pretty much cleaned
it up. Now it seems quite nice now, but on
the buses and on the trains, the problem isn't gone.
And a little more from the Denver Post for potential
This is the key word here. Potential Metro Denver public

(22:28):
transit riders bothered by open illicit drug use and people
who lack housing taking shelter on buses and trains. The
chief of OURTD, her name is Deborah Johnson, suggested collective
action quote there's strength in numbers, And what she said was,
if there are more people on a transit vehicle, the
average human being is less likely to act up. And

(22:50):
then this is not a quote but just reporting from
the newspaper. The critical mass of riders who collectively deter
crime and create a more secure transit experience looms as
the ultimate solution to challenges that the RTD and other
transit agencies face, especially when extreme weather hits. Big cities
like London, Tokyo, and New York have it, but achieving

(23:13):
strength in numbers elsewhere has been difficult, especially in Denver,
where the total annual ridership on RTD buses and trains
has plummeted from around one hundred and six million in
twenty nineteen to around sixty million now, forcing an expensive
and widening crackdown on misbehavior, costing at least fifty million
dollars this year, according to agency data, and they describe

(23:36):
it as a vexing situation, and I'll just say, I
think this is a really I think it's a legit issue,
and I think it's a very very difficult one because
if you're arguing that the thing that's going to get
people who might just you know, be smelly, homeless people,
you know, on a bus or a train, or people
using drugs, if you're saying that the thing that's going

(23:58):
to keep them off the train or keep them from
using drugs while on the train or the bus is
having lots.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
More people around.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
How but you're talking about people who are hesitant to
use those services because of those people being on the
buses and trains.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
How do you break that cycle?

Speaker 2 (24:19):
How do you get people who don't want to be
around all that to say, I'm going to go do
it anyway and I'm going to be leading the change.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Look, I hope it can.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Work out, but it seems to me it's going to
be somewhat easier to try to.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Deal with these issues.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
And getting these folks off of the buses and trains
than it is to be getting potential new customers to
jump onto the buses and trains hoping that their presence
will cause the homeless and the drug addicts to go away.
It is a very very difficult situation. I had some
things planned to talk about here, but I actually would
just like to take a couple of minutes and respond

(24:56):
to a couple of listener text and also, Genef you
don't mind, I'd like to ask you question.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Do you have an opinion on that story that I.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Was just sharing about RTD ridership And do you I mean,
you live in the city, do you ever ride the
buses and the light rail and stuff?

Speaker 3 (25:10):
Yeah, so I was going to chime in for a
second because the only experience that I can really give
is the A line, which is from Union Station to
the airport.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
I take it all the time.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Really, it's so much cheaper than parking at the airport. Yeah,
so much easier than dealing with parking at the airport.
It's ten bucks just to literally take you NonStop Union
Station to the airport.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
In fact, I even.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
Recommend it to people that come to visit, which I
know a lot of people I reroll at You're not
going to take your.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
Guests to the airport. No, honestly, when it's.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
That easy, they're like okay, cool, you can't screw up.
It's literally the last stop is the airport.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
You just get off there. It's ten bucks.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
They cracked out a lot on the A Line, and
I think the reason why is because you have out
of town people using it to get into the city
and out of the city, and your first impression, you
don't want it to be somebody using it as their
homeless shelter or somebody you know, using drugs on the train.
I've never taken any of the RTD buses. I don't
think I can really, you know, vouch for that in

(26:08):
any way. But they now look at tickets all the time.
I've never gone through anymore without a ticket, I'll be honest.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
They used to not look in the past.

Speaker 3 (26:16):
You could just not buy one, jump on the train
and you save ten bucks.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
They do not allow that anymore, and.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
They will actually if people are riding without a ticket,
they will remove them from it. They have stopped any
type of, you know, issues that I've seen, which are
very small in the amount of issues that I've seen.
I can't talk about any of the other routes. Hypothetically,
we got about a minute here.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Hypothetically, if you were thinking about riding a bus. Would
the potential of you know, there being a drug user
or smelling homeless person on the bus impact your decision
at all?

Speaker 1 (26:51):
No?

Speaker 3 (26:52):
No, no, right, I think right now the main reason
I actually don't use them is because they're not convenient,
Like they don't.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Go to where I where you want to go? Right right?

Speaker 3 (27:01):
The convenience of the airport one is the only reason
why I use it for.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Sure, and I should try that.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
I don't know which light rails stop I would use
its closest to I think I know which one is
closest to my house. I'd have to figure out how
to change trains. But you know now that you mentioned it.
Ten bucks? And right where does it let you off
at the airport?

Speaker 3 (27:20):
It is, Well, there's actually like a stop where you
just take the escalator up and then you're at TSA
right there. I don't know what side of the airport, yeah,
is right, but there's an escalator that takes you right
up from the train and you are right there in
the airport.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
You don't have to do anything else from there.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
I got to try that out one just one quick
listener text, God forbid people be forced to witness the
poverty in our society? How can we be more empathetic
to the poverty and addiction stricken. Look, I absolutely get that,
and I don't intend by any of this commentary to
sound heartless. And in fact, my guest in studio tomorrow

(27:57):
on Colorado Gibs Day, and I'm gonna have them twice,
are folks from this new Homeless It's not just a
homeless shelter, but also a place that tries to turn
around their lives and help them get jobs and help
them all that, so they're gonna be my guests in studio.
I do care about this a lot, and I want
folks who are struggling with these issues to get well

(28:19):
and do better in their lives. But that doesn't mean
that I want to be around homeless people or drug
users on a bus or training And it's not about me.
This is business. How is the RTD, which is hemorrhaging
money now because it doesn't have enough riders, going to
fix that situation?

Speaker 1 (28:38):
And you can say we should all.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Be more empathetic, and maybe we should, but just saying
it is not like you can click your heels together
and get everybody to start riding buses.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Joining us on the KOA common Spirit health hotline is
Broncos sideline reporter Susie Warden. Susie, I think before we
talk a little bit about the game, I want to
talk about this Sideline stories report that you did. I
played that around five for nine early this morning because
I learned a lot about some interesting hobbies.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
That our Broncos players have.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
What were some of the ones that you were like,
I'm sorry what, Oh.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, no.

Speaker 7 (29:11):
Well when Mike mcglinchy's like, oh, I'm super boring. I'm
just a dad. I like to play some golf.

Speaker 8 (29:16):
Oh and I like to do karaoke, and I'm thinking,
oh my gosh.

Speaker 7 (29:19):
This massive human being. Can you imagine him getting up
on stage and performing karaoke? I thought that is so funny.
And then Evan Ingram, I mean when he brought out
the fact and he said this that he's the Spider
Man geek and he has everything Spider Man, from rugs
to legos to all the books. He's watched all the
movies and you know, he's getting into the comic books now.

(29:40):
So that was really interesting. I talk you know, we
only get three minutes, and so I talked to a
few other guys. I mean PJ. Locke is doing some investment.

Speaker 8 (29:46):
Stuff, and I mean there's this guys doing.

Speaker 7 (29:48):
All kinds of different things, which I think is fun.
But yeah, those surprised me.

Speaker 8 (29:52):
And then Riley moss I felt back.

Speaker 7 (29:53):
He said he got made fun of when he was
in the band and his football buddies made fun of him,
got out when he was in to get back into it.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
I would love to see McGlinchey singing like hwe Airline
Nelton John, Yeah, Neil Diamond, what's that? What's that Canadian
singer's name, the famous woman singer who.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Was in Vegas.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, I'd love to see I'd love to see him
singing Celine Dion.

Speaker 8 (30:20):
The Titanic songs will go on.

Speaker 7 (30:25):
That would be hilarious. You probably, yeah, So yeah, that
was a that was a fun one. These guys are,
you know, They've got great sides to them, and that's
one of the reasons I always tell people so often,
I'm like, this is amazing. This season is unbelievable, and
they're doing so well. But these guys are, They're fun.
We have really good people that are on this team,
which then makes you want to root for him even

(30:45):
more so. It's been a lot of fun to see
the success. And again, I think a great reason that
they're all really tight, very close guys Bill fine, you know,
showing their personalities and really having fun with each other
and with with their lives and everything like that. So
and I think that helps. That helps the whole team
camaraderie and everything these guys are about. It's a very

(31:07):
fun time to be a part of this team. Right now.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
I just caught a little slash on the TV and
it was so fast that I could absolutely easily be misidentifying.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
But did you almost get run over yesterday? Oh?

Speaker 7 (31:21):
Well, I mean I was.

Speaker 8 (31:23):
I don't know if I almost got run over. There
are a couple of times I.

Speaker 7 (31:25):
Had to run backwards or you know, yeah, because they're
yes close enough. Yeah, but I have not And I'm gonna, man,
I'm knocking on wood right now, because never have I gotten,
you know, super close. I watched the ball religiously. If
I'm in front of the play and that way, I
make sure that I don't. And then if you know,
the security people, they face the stands and so I'm

(31:45):
always worried about them, and so do the cheerleaders. Often
sometimes they're turned around. By other times they're facing stands
as well. So if I have anybody that's around me
that's facing the other way, I make sure that I
help them out too. So I've helped a few security
guards not get nailed because they're watching the stand, which
is what they're supposed to do. I could not do that.
That would be so difficult not to keep an eye
on the game, especially with the balls coming that way.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Security watching stands that were very very orange yesterday, Susie,
you would have thought that was a home game. I
thought it was so funny when I saw that video.
Bonix at the end given high fives to the front
row and it's like orange, orange, orange, And then even
some Raiders fans were like, all right, yeah, I'll get
a high five. Two.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
This is cool. Is that just how it is now?
It is with the Raiders.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
It's just such a transient area that you're like, yeah,
you're going to have us travel or do we have
a lot of Broncos fans in Vegas?

Speaker 8 (32:33):
Well?

Speaker 7 (32:34):
Well, I think I think a combination of both. And
you know, we had a ton of fans that traveled
out to Washington too, which was surprising because that's much
farther away Vegas. You know, it's such a destination for
a lot of fans, and so I don't know what
it's like for other games, but it's so easy for
people to catch a flight from here and go out there,
So I think it's a lot of people that travel

(32:54):
from Denner. If you go out to the airport, you'll
see the planes are full of Broncos fans. And it
was I mean they start chanting, let's go Broncos and
are chanting for defense. You know, there's a lot of
fans there, but just the Orange in general, and especially
in that stadium where everything is very dark, very black,
they stand out, which is awesome. So it's really fun
to see all the Broncos fans there. And it was

(33:15):
when I was getting that video of bo I'm like, wow,
it's like he's at home, and you know, all the
fans are right there in that front row, but they
were all around that whole stadium, not just by where
the guys go into the locker room, which is where
they tend to be when we're an opposing stadiums.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
What was the one of the crowd was the crowd
loud when the Raiders were on offense as if you
were here in Denver not.

Speaker 7 (33:38):
As much, and there were a couple of times where
they were, but I mean, let's.

Speaker 8 (33:42):
Face it, the Raiders were not on offense very much.

Speaker 7 (33:44):
We doubled them up in front much time to get
it loud. That's why I asked Nick Ddida. I'm like,
I feel like you took a vacation here, and I
didn't want him to take that back because there were
a couple of drives at The Broncos defense was not
happy about that first touchdown drive and that last one too,
but I mean, they they barely had to play, so
it was one of those things where the fans didn't
have to get too routy because when the Raiders were

(34:06):
on offense, they were not doing a whole lot and
they just weren't out there very much.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Sous the energy on the sideline. Did it feel a
little bit less gray hair, I don't know, giving of
when it was like, Okay, we're finally up and can
stay up through a game.

Speaker 7 (34:20):
Yeah, this was a nice game to just be like, Okay,
i think we've got this one pretty well in hand.
And you know, the Marvin MEM's punt return for a
touchdown that helped a lot to really create some space
there as far as the scoring went, and just when
you've got your offense out there just grinding. And there
were eleven different players that cop passes yesterday and six

(34:42):
guys that ran the ball. So I loved because I
started counting. I had to count it up twice, and
it was before Sean Payton had his press conference, and
when he was asked about it, he was like eleven,
he goes, I'm trying to think of eleven guys that
we actually have that will catch the ball. It just
the ball was being spread out so much, very balanced,
and they just kept it the whole time. And so
when your offense has the ball that much and can

(35:02):
stay on the field that much, that feels really really
good too. So yes, it was a nice, much calmer
feeling than what we had in Washington. Plus it was inside,
so I wasn't freezing cold and stressed out with you know,
you get all like tents in your shoulders because it's cold,
and then you're going to overtime. So it was nice
to feel very relaxed at this one.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Susie, final question for you, real quick. We heard Rick
was a party pooper. In Vegas. Did you gamble?

Speaker 7 (35:28):
No, you know, I'm not a gambler. You know, my
husband plays cards, and so he's a card player. And
so if we go to Vegas, I tend to go
and I like to run in Vegas. I didn't this
weekend because I did a race on Saturday. But I
like to shop and do the other things that Vegas
has to offer. So yeah, just and we had our opportunity.
We stayed at a hotel that had a casino, but yeah,

(35:50):
did not. I don't think anybody did. I don't think
aj did either or Dave.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I also think you're there.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
You're very much downplaying your husband playing cards.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
If people know.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
Broncos Seiler reporter scy Wargin, Sissy, we appreciate your time
as always.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Thanks you gotta guys, and make sure you're listening.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Coming up next, we're going to be giving away a
pair of course. Coming up next Sunday is that big
Broncos Packers game, and I know so many people want
to go, and we will have a pair of tickets,
in fact, two pairs of tickets coming up in the show.
But make sure you're listening. Coming up next, will have
a pair to give away.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
We are right now going to give away a pair
of tickets to see the Broncos Packers game this coming
Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High. So why don't
we do this at We're gonna do this by text,
and I'm gonna give you a trivia question. You need
to give me the answer to the trivia question. So
why don't we do this at It's seven twenty one

(36:45):
and change right now? Joh Dragon, how about seven twenty
five and nineteen seconds? All right, seven twenty five and
nineteen seconds, Texter number one, Dragon eleven for eleven wins,
Texter number eleven at five, six, six, nine zero. And
what you need to include in the text to win
a pair of Broncos tickets is your name, your email address,

(37:09):
and the answer to this question. During yesterday's Broncos game,
Courtland Sutton passed Steve Watson to become the number six
all time leading receiver in the history of the Denver Broncos.
Sutton is actually less than one hundred and fifty yards
away from passing Ed McCaffrey to move up to number five. Anyway,

(37:31):
he passed Steve Watson, one of the great players in
Broncos' history. What was Steve Watson's number when he played
on the Broncos. I think maybe he had two numbers,
but he had one number for almost all of the time,
So that's the number I'm looking for. What was Steve
Watson's number when he played on the Broncos. I'll give

(37:54):
you a hint for part of the career, part of
the career of probably the best tight end ever to
play for the Denver Broncos. That great tight end used
the same number that Steve Watson had, but only for
part of his career. I don't know if I'm confusing
you more than anything else. So anyway, whatever time I

(38:17):
said Dragon seven, what did I say?

Speaker 4 (38:19):
Seven?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Twenty seven, twenty five and nineteen seconds? Text number eleven
at five six six nine zero with your name, your
email address, and the answer to that trivia question, what
was Steve Watson's number when he played on the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
You will win a pair.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Of tickets to see the Broncos Packers game this Sunday
at em Powerfield at Mile High from the official home
of the Broncos KOA, and we will have another pair
of tickets to give away in about an hour.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
And real quick. Please do not break the Kevin row. Oh, yes,
don't break the Kevin rules. One text per entry.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Yes, if you text in more than once, all of
your texts will be ignored. Kevin broke the rule. No,
Kevin is the guy who broke the rule. Kevin is
the guy who texted in a whole bunch of times
trying to win one of these things, and then in
one and one of them maybe included his name, or
maybe we texted him or dragging texted and said you

(39:19):
can't do that, and he said, I'm sorry, you know,
and then signed it Kevin and then wanted the rule
named after him.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, he said, can you name the rule after him? Yeah,
so we did. We did name the rule after him.
It's the Kevin Rule.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
And so for folks who are maybe new to the show,
don't don't spam us with texts. You can try one
time with one text and if you don't get it,
you'll have another chance another day. Actually, you'll have another
chance today to win Broncos tickets. All right, there's still
just an immense amount of stuff to do on the show.
So we're gonna we're gonna talk about everything from boys

(39:53):
and girls clubs to at what age our bodies start
stop bouncing back?

Speaker 1 (40:00):
And then who said? Who said?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
The Diehard is not a Christmas movie? If you didn't win,
we will give you another opportunity to win a pair
of Broncos Packers tickets less than an hour from now
at around eight twenty here on KOA, the official home
of the Broncos Dragging.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
You got a first name of the winner. Ed is
our winner. Congratulations Ed.

Speaker 6 (40:22):
I do want to say also, great job on paying
attention to the time. Yes that we say on that
because within the first two seconds there were well over
twenty text messages, so you guys are really good at
trying to time those out perfectly for us.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
I love one.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Excellent And part of the reason we do it that
way with the time delay is so that folks who
are listening on the stream have an opportunity to play.
Every once in a while will say, you know, the
next Texter, But usually we don't do that. I mean,
we like people to listen to the live to the
live show, of course, but if you over the air,
I mean, but if you can't and you're listening on

(40:58):
the stream, then that's great too.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
And we want to make sure you have a chance
to win stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
So if you're wondering why we do that time delay,
it's because if you're listening on the stream, there's a delay.
So if we said Texter number one right now, nobody
who's listening on the stream.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
Would be able to win.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
Also, Dragon usually has to remind me of this, but
this time I'm remembering without Dragon reminding me to give
you the answer to the trivia question that was used
in winning the tickets, Right, Dragon, I normally forget this.
That's true, very true. Right, So the trivia question was
so courtly Sutton just passed Steve Watson, the great great
Broncos wide receiver who played from the seventy nine to

(41:37):
eighty seven, passed him to become number six all time
in Broncos receiving yards. And the question is what number
did Steve Watson where? That was number eighty one. Channon
Sharp wore eighty one for a little bit of his
time on the Broncos, but he was mostly eighty two.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
I believe, I think that's right.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
Why so he switched to eighty two at some point
and then yeah, I do vaguely recall in eighty four. Anyway,
I didn't predicate it on Shannon Sharp except to say
he wore eighty one for a little bit of time
in his career.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
But anyway, so that was at Steve Watson.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
War number eighty one. So yeah, what what Dragon?

Speaker 1 (42:22):
What't you got? I'm just good.

Speaker 6 (42:23):
I'm just celebrating back here. Yeah, okay, all right, so
let's see what else. Oh, I want to do a
little business story with you here. Actually, so last week
it was announced.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
That Warner Brothers Discovery agreed to be agreed to be
taken over by Netflix. And I think that that valued
the company. Valued Warner Brothers Discovery at something around maybe
twenty eight dollars a share or something. I didn't pay
very close attention to it. I'm not trading any of

(42:55):
this stuff, but I think it valued it somewhere around
twenty eight dollars a share. Now Paramount Paramount which is
now run by David Ellison, who is the son of
Larry Ellison, who is one of the richest men in
the world.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
He's the founder of Oracle.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Right, these guys are a little upset about that because
they believed that they actually had a stronger bid. Netflix's
bid is cash and stock Paramount was offering all stock.
Warner Brothers decided to accept the Netflix offer, and what
we learned this morning is that Paramount is going ahead

(43:40):
with a thirty dollars per share all cash offer for
Warner Brothers.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
And I want to look this up.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Let's say, Warner brother I don't trade this, so I
don't know the ticker.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Symbol WBD WBD.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
So Warner Brothers is up to twenty eight dollars a
share today, so that means it was twenty six dollars
a share on Friday. I do think the stock is
going to trade just a little bit cheaper than these
deals because of antitrust risk. And I won't get into
all the ins and outs of that stuff right now.
I'll just say that the reason that the reason that

(44:16):
it might trade a fair bit cheaper than the deal price,
there's two reasons.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
One, it could take a long time to close, so.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Now you're not earning interest on that money, so you
discount the price. But the other thing is there's a
chance that the government will blow up the deal. So anyway,
this is really interesting because Warner Brothers and Gina, you
want to hear this because you reported last week that
that Warner Brothers accepted Netflix's offer to buy them, right,

(44:42):
So the story breaking this morning is that Paramount is
not pleased about that, and they're launching a hostile tender offer,
going straight to Warner Brothers shareholders, offering more and trying
to outbid Netflix.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
Do you know, by any chance, sorry if I missed it.
Do you know if I thought it was over eighty
billion when we first talking about the agreement and now
I'm seeing seventy three. I wasn't sure if the number change,
if that happened in any way, because on Friday we
were talking eighty three billion. Now I see like seventy
two ish, but now clearly we're seeing more.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Of Yeah, so I don't know what it was. I
don't Yeah, I don't know the original.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
You know, eighty something number that that seventy two seventy
three area is definitely what they're talking about now. And
with the Netflix deal, since it's partly Netflix stock that
you'd be getting if you owned Warner Brothers stock and
that deal goes ahead, then the value of the whole
deal depends on the value of Netflix stock, right, So

(45:37):
if you know, if you were going to if the
whole thing were a deal for one thousand shares of
Netflix stock, and if and if NETFLI have no idea
how much Netflix stock is here, let me look it
up for you and I can tell you an FLX.
An FLX is the ticker on that ninety seven dollars,
so call it one hundred because it was one hundred
yesterday on Friday. So if you were going to get
a thousand shares of Netflix and it was one hundred,
then you'd say it's one hundred thousand dollars deal. But

(46:00):
over the time that this deal is going on, Netflix
stock drops to ninety five and you're still getting one
thousand shares of Netflix. You're not getting more than It's
only a ninety five thousand dollars deal. So it's possible
that something like that happened, sort of dragging down the
value of the deal. But in any case, I think
what's going to be very interesting to see now, Well,
you have to keep an eye on in this kind
of situation is that Netflix clearly wants to buy Warner Brothers.

(46:24):
They want to own HBO, Max, and Warner Brothers for
some reason prefers to work with Netflix than with Paramount.
I don't know the ins and outs. I don't know
the reasons. So what we need to keep an eye
on now is whether Netflix comes back and raises their
bid and says we're going to give you more cash.

(46:44):
If I were going to bet on it, I would
say that is likely to happen. That's my guess that
it's likely to happen, and that Netflix isn't completely surprised
by all this. David Ellison says there won't be more
competition in Hollywood if his deal doesn't go through. So
he's making the argument that if Netflix is allowed to

(47:07):
buy Warner Brothers Discovery, and Netflix is allowed to own
HBO Max, which is a fairly large platform of that
type right video streaming service, you.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Know, television shows and movies.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
With Netflix already being so huge, David Ellison is arguing
that you're going to be getting so much consolidation in
the industry that there will be less and less competition,
which might mean fewer offerings, higher prices and so on,
which is of course also the kind of thing the
government would be looking at when they are deciding whether
to approve a deal. Ellison is arguing that his deal

(47:40):
will be will be more competitive, will offer more competition,
more players in the market, more options for different TV shows,
maybe lower prices, and all that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
It's also interesting to see that.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Netflix stock is down a little bit on this, which
means the market really liked the deal from the Netflix perspective,
right so, and also Paramount is up a little bit
on this. Normally, when a company makes an offer to spend.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
A whole bunch of cash.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Normally the company making the offer sees its share price
go down, but not in this case. The market must
really think that Warner Brothers Discovery was a little bit
underpriced at the price they agreed to for Netflix, and
maybe fairly priced or maybe even still a little bit

(48:31):
underpriced at Paramount's price. I realize that's a lot of stuff,
a lot of finance gobbly look for you, but I hope,
I hope that made some sense from a business story perspective.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
It's really really interesting.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
Roskominski on the News with Gina Gandak. Tomorrow is Colorado
Gives Day. We had Giving Tuesday last week, the whole
season of giving going on, but this is a great
opportunity to donate to some of your favorite local nonprofits.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
At Coloradogives dot Org.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
One of those organizations asking for your help during the
holiday season is the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denvers.
They're gearing up for their Holiday Huddle and joining us
in studio is Barb Payton. She's the founder of the
Thoughtful Pitch and the wife of Denver Broncos general manager
George Payton, which we're all celebrated.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
We matched today, which I love. I love it, both of.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Our little vintage Broncos gear going on here. And Aaron Portius,
she is the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club
of Metro Denver. Ladies, thank you so much for joining.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Us this morning.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Yes, okay, so let's start with the Holiday Huddle because
we're talking fourth annual this year, which is crazy. But
Barb explain a little bit for those who may not
be aware of what this is all about, what this
event entails.

Speaker 9 (49:37):
Yes, so the Holiday Huddle consists of all the pro
sports teams in Colorado. So all the pro teams and
we have a new one. The Summit is joining us
this year, and so all the gm wise presidents, head coaches,
we are all getting together and we're going to help
out to raise the money for the Boys and Girls
Club of Metro Denver.

Speaker 10 (49:59):
And help them with holiday party.

Speaker 11 (50:01):
They're once a year holiday party, and so we're very
excited to jump on board and help them celebrate and
have a wonderful holiday season.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Aaron, what does this party look like?

Speaker 10 (50:10):
What does this mean for Boys and Girls Club?

Speaker 3 (50:12):
And then what is just like the outpouring of support
and just the look of what it's like, because it
is truly a party for not just our teams, but
for the boys and girls that really count on events
like this.

Speaker 12 (50:23):
Gina, It's an amazing night for kids and the anticipation
is half of the fun as they prepare for this
night where they're going to be able to have dinner,
they'll have snacks, and most important, they're able to bring
home toys for themselves and their loved ones.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Barb.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
What do we see as some of the success stories?
Because the Denver Post had a great article written about
just the Holiday Huddle in general. It really puts in
perspective you hear from some of these You know, it's
it's emotional for everybody in the room when it comes
to this event.

Speaker 10 (50:50):
Yes, you're I mean, absolutely right.

Speaker 11 (50:52):
We just there's so much joy and one of the
things that kind of.

Speaker 1 (50:57):
Just took us aback.

Speaker 10 (50:59):
The first time we did it was these children.

Speaker 9 (51:01):
The children all were shopping with their points for these toys,
and they wanted to give them to somebody else, not
for themselves. And so then the next year we decided
we should wrap the.

Speaker 11 (51:14):
Gifts so that they can give them to somebody, and
that was that.

Speaker 10 (51:17):
It was really fun.

Speaker 11 (51:18):
That's when you see like Chandra McFarland, she's tearing up.

Speaker 10 (51:21):
Because she's trying to wrap these gifts.

Speaker 11 (51:24):
And just the thought of them giving it to somebody
else was just an amazing thing. That and Joe Zakic
did a great job wrapping gifts last year too with
his wife Deb.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
That's a great story.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
One of the things that I've always appreciated about Boys
and Girls clubs just generally, and I'd love to hear
more in Denver, is just how many kids you help
and can you just talk about because this is not
a thing where there's like five kids you're helping. Boys
and Girls clubs are really significant endeavor. I wont if
you could talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 12 (51:52):
Ross Every year, forty thousand kids walking through the Boys
and Girls clubs in Metro Denver, when that school Bell
Greens they're coming in and all summer long and then
needs great so to get a free dinner every night,
be able to participate on sports teams without any cost,
get that homework help and just have fun.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
And be a kid.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
We know is so.

Speaker 12 (52:10):
Paramount, especially for families that are struggling to get by.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
So how can our listeners help you? Well, there's a
couple of ways.

Speaker 12 (52:17):
As Gina mentioned, Tomorrow Colorado gives Day, So visit Boys
and Girls Clubs in Metro Denver. We'd love to have you.
And we've got a Holiday Huddle page.

Speaker 10 (52:24):
So visit us.

Speaker 12 (52:24):
Support this amazing event for kids coming up next week.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
And folks are any of this if you forget any
of it, if you go to my blog at Rosskominski
dot com, it's all linked there, so you can get
right to the Holiday Huddle and the Boys and Girls
Clubs and all of that.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
And arin what give us a breakdown of like, okay,
if people gave fifty bucks and people gave a hundred bucks,
where would this money go?

Speaker 10 (52:44):
Is there a good breakdown of the things that you.

Speaker 3 (52:46):
Could use or things that really the children could benefit
off of with that money.

Speaker 12 (52:50):
Absolutely, once you get on the website, you can see
the different things you can support. At the holiday huddle
that night, Barb's got a huge spreadsheet of all the
things that we're going to be able to do, but
we need the community support to come alongside us make
a really happy holiday for kids.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Or are there any moments that you remember, whether it's
Boys and Girls Club in general or holiday huddles, that
you're like, if I have.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
To encompass what this is all about, I think of
this one.

Speaker 11 (53:13):
Moment I like, I said, just the joy of their
faces when they are choosing a gift a toy is
I mean, it just it warms your heart really obviously.
And then also just for the party, just having all
the teams, the sports teams and all of us women

(53:33):
and their husbands come and join us. It's just a
fun atmosphere and they I can just tell everybody's having
a good time.

Speaker 3 (53:40):
I think sometimes we do have to give you a
pat on the back of just the charity work of
our local sports teams, because it's one thing to be like, wow,
we got some great sports teams here in Denver, but
then it's also all of their partners, all their wives
that also give back to the community.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
It's an awesome and you guys all get along.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
It's like a huge party with you guys too. It's
just an opportunity for all of you to get together
and do the charity work as well. So applause to
that because it's just an awesome And to be sitting
here on.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
A victory Monday for the Broncos.

Speaker 9 (54:05):
That's yes, thank you all the teams, the Nuggets and
they as I mean, the Denver's doing great right now.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
I love it's a founder of the Thoughtful Pinch, wife
of the Denver Broncos General lanser George Peyton. It's Bart
Peyton in studio and Aaron Portius CEO. The Boys and
Girls Club of Metro Denver. Don't forget Tomorrow is Colorado
Gives Day. It's a great opportunity to give to all
of your favorite local nonprofits Colorado gives dot org, but
definitely consider the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denvers.

(54:33):
You guys gear up for your holiday huddle. Appreciate you
guys coming in as always it makes me be like, wow,
we are so close to Christmas. Every time you guys
come in, I was like, where did this year go?
But I appreciate it all the time.

Speaker 10 (54:44):
Thanks guys, thank you, thanks so much.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
Thanks a lot.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Great to meet you both.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
And I'll just just add to what Gina just said
for tomorrow for Colorado Gives Day, you know, for Boys
and Girls Clubs of Denver, or you know, if you
have a nonprofit that you really love more often than not,
and it seems already be going.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
To have some kind of match.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
So if you don'ate a dollar, boys and Girls Clubs
will get more than a dollar. I don't know how
much more than a dollar, but it'll be more than
a dollar. So that's a pretty awesome thing. And if
you want to learn more about this, you can just
go to the Google machine and type Boys and Girls
Clubs Metro Denver Holiday Huddle and you'll find that page
easily and you can read about all that. But again,
if you go through the Colorado Gives Day website, they'll

(55:22):
get even more that way. So thanks so much to
both of you for coming in. Really and it's just
a wonderful thing that Boys and Girls Clubs do.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
We are trying, not.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yet succeeding to line up Dave Logan for the next segment.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
We will see whether or not Dave is here.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
We have a ton of stuff still to talk about
on our last hour together today. Keep it here on
Kaway all of your news, traffic and weather coming up next.
I have a bunch of news stories that I haven't
had a chance to get to yet this morning, and
I want to take a moment to get to some
of those things. And don't forget coming up around fifteen
minutes from now, we're going to be giving away another

(56:00):
of tickets to this coming Sundays.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
That's right, Dragon's second pair of.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Tickets this Sunday's Broncos Packers game. I will be on
the sideline to win the microphones for that one. So
if you see me there, say hi. But that'll be
in about fifteen minutes. All right, a bunch of stories
and I'll just get to as many as I can here. First,
just briefly, the guy who has been arrested, Brian Cole Junior,

(56:23):
been arrested for putting those pipe bombs near the Democratic
National Committee headquarters and the Republican National Committee headquarters on
the evening of January fifth, the day before the January
sixth riots at the Capitols. I mentioned last week that
it appears that He has told the FBI that the
reason he did it is that he believed the election

(56:45):
was stolen. He believed Trump's lies about the stolen election.
And you know, I do think it's a little odd
that someone who believed that would want to attack Republicans
and Democrats, right, that seems a little odd. Now, there
is some reporting where like his neighbors, and this is

(57:05):
just anecdotal. This is not fact. It's not science, it's
not data, it's just anecdotes. But neighbors who were asked
about him said he always seemed a little bit odd,
like quiet and almost to the point of maybe a
little bit autistic or something like that. I don't know
what's true and what's not. I'm just telling you what's
in the news reports. But anyway, this guy, Brian Cole,

(57:25):
said that he thought the twenty twenty election was rigged.
It's also interesting, though, that he apparently was buying bomb
making materials before the election, and maybe even a full year.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Or something before the election.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
So it's unclear what else has been going on in
this guy's head.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Now. The other thing that I want to mention, and
this is a.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Thing that kind of has been frustrating me, for a while,
like since the last election, at least, when you had
so many people people usually people in the Trump orbit,
or people who maybe hoped to get a job in
a next eventual Trump administration if there were to be one,
or just people on their own grift trying to get

(58:12):
followers and listeners to their podcasts and more clicks on.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
YouTube and Twitter and all that.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
They were saying all kinds of silly things, and you know,
Pambondi and Cash Betel, we're making all kinds of noises
about Epstein and how it was obviously a huge cover
up and that everything needed to be released. And then
once they get into a position of authority and they

(58:40):
learn what's really there, or how little is really there
or whatever it is, we don't really know yet, but
they completely change their tune and they say, oh, there's nothing.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
There, and they look like they look like fools.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
And then the other thing, though, to me, the biggest
clown of all is is Dan Bongino.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Right.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Dan Bongino is now Deputy Director of the FBI, and
he used to be a fairly serious person when he
was first on Fox News. He was offering serious commentary
about serious issues. He but eventually he got to be
one of these guys who started chasing the podcast listeners
and the clicks. And let me just also say, I

(59:16):
understand that if you're trying to make a living in
the media, you're trying to make a living on YouTube,
you're trying to make a living on Twitter, you're trying
to make sure that you've got enough followers that Fox
wants to keep having you on television, and all that
you're going to do. You're gonna do everything you possibly
can to get as many people following you. It makes sense.

(59:41):
It's just sometimes these people cross some lines that frustrate
me a bit, right, And I think perhaps I think perhaps.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
The worst is is Tucker Carlson.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Right, so this guy is now kind of platforming Nazis
and Nazi supporters and fake historians who argue that the
real villain in World War Two was Winston Chill and
not Adolf Hitler and all these kinds of people. But anyway,
after these pipe bombs were found, Dan Bongino was out
there all over the place on social media and on

(01:00:13):
his own podcast even this year. Even this year, on
his own podcast, he had an episode of his podcast
called the J six Pipe bomber the biggest scandal in
US history, That's.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
What he said.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
And he said, it's probably the most explosive story folks
you're gonna read this year. I make no effort at
hyperbole at all. He said, I believe it's the biggest
scandal of our time because there's clearly a monster cover
up going on. And he had some guy on named
Darren Beatty, who is some you know, like ultra maga
kind of fake news guy who was actually working in

(01:00:51):
the federal government now, and he made up all this stuff.
And they were talking about how the bombs must be
fake and they must have been fake because otherwise a.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
Bomb dog would have found him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:02):
But the bombs weren't fake, they just didn't go off,
but the FBI said they were viable. And Bongino has
this guy on his podcast and just sort of lets
him go on, doesn't contradict anything, just sort of nods
his head and says, you know, in my experience, in my.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Experience, he says that. He says, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Clear to me that the FBI has to be lying
about the story because and this is what he says, Now,
there's no way there was actually a bomb. There There's
no way a skilled like secret service team that's you know,
guarding Kamala Harris would have missed it. There's no way
a canine, a canine, a bomb detecting canine, would have

(01:01:43):
missed it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
And yet they all did. They all did miss it, right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
And.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
He says so. Then the guy who was on the podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
With him says, the January sixth scandal, the hoax of
January sixth, and the hoax of the pipe bomb seemed
to implicate in some facts Kamala Harris herself. Now, this
is such unbelievable idiocy, designed of course, to attract people
who want to believe these things. This, I think is
the key, and this is what I hope separates my

(01:02:13):
show from people like that, even if he ends up
with more followers than I do. Because my goal is
to tell you the truth right, and I can get
things wrong, and if I get it wrong, I'll come
back and correct it. Dan Bongino is never going to
come back and correct it. In fact, he was on
with Sean Hannity and he said, yeah, I'm pretty sure
we have our guy, And Sean Hannity asked him, well,

(01:02:35):
why did you say all this other stuff in the
past about it being a hoax, about either a fake First,
at some point he said the bombs were fake, and
then at another point he said there weren't even bombs there,
so he can't even keep his story straight. And then
Hannity asked him, you know, why'd you say all that
versus what you're saying now. It seems like a pretty
straightforward thing. A slightly deranged man believes some slightly deranged

(01:02:58):
things and.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
Goes out and does this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Unfortunately nobody got hurt, but you're you know, you're what
was all this conspiracy stuff? And Bongino said, listen, I
was paid in the past, Sean for my opinions, and
he says Bongino says, that's clear, and one day I'll
be back in that space, but that's not what I'm
paid for now. I'm paid to be your deputy director,

(01:03:21):
and we base investigations on facts.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
So what does that mean.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
That means Bongino is saying that back when he was
being paid for his opinions, he was basing his opinions
on something.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
Other than facts.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Now, you could say we didn't have a lot of facts,
but at that point still he is going to the
most literally incredible meaning not believable, stuff like we're supposed
to believe that it's a fake pipe bomb as part
of an FBI cover up done in cahoots with Kamala Harris.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Bongino said again to Hannity.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
I thought to myself, the difference between us and them
is we eve all as information and new input comes out,
we can produce.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Different outputs because that's what we believe in. Like what like, Yes,
that's true. But what were you doing before?

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
I guess with Dan Bongino, it's garbage in, garbage out?

Speaker 1 (01:04:19):
Winner, What we're about to do?

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:04:21):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
I get it?

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
Once you said winner, I get it before we do
what we're about to do? Let me let me just
say we we were trying to get Dave Logan on
the show, but Dave's offer a couple of days. He
I think he didn't even come back to Colorado from Vegas.
So I think he's out there at the high Rollers
table betting ten twenty thousand dollars a hand on back
rat while wearing a tuxedo, because that seems his style,

(01:04:46):
don't you think?

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
And I would?

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Gina and I both I think I'll speak for Gina,
but then Gina can speak for herself. Would like to
offer a big congratulations to Dave Logan and the Cherry
Creek High school football team for another five a high
school football championship. It's the fifteenth title for Cherry Creek.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
I think it's something like seven.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
I think Cherry Creek has been in the game eight
years in a row and I think they won seven
of them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
And for Dave.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Logan, it's his thirteenth state football championship, which is a
state record. Do you want to add anything Gina in
your Broncos jacket.

Speaker 3 (01:05:28):
I think he's probably avoiding us today because he is
very humble when it comes to talking about his high
school coaching career and doesn't really like to talk about
himself or praise any of those, you know, accomplishments that
he that he has. But I think probably one of
the coolest moments.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
If he could say one of the coolest moments.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Was yesterday the fact that in the postgame interview that
he had with Bo Nicks after the game, even Bo
commented on it, but did it in a vague way
of being like, congrats on your accomplishments as well to Dave,
and he almost started.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
For a second.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
I wonder if he was a little taken aback, being like, wow,
even even Bonix.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Is uh is acknowledging what what I do. So I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:06:07):
He's a very humble person when it comes to his
high school, you know, football coaching career.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
So congrats to him.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
And I know that he wouldn't really want us to
be talking about it anyways.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
But that's how Dave Logan is.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
I had it all set up in my mind, Gina, Right,
he was gonna come on, I was gonna say, uh
some you know, I was gonna say, you know, that
was a really dominant performance we saw.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
And then he was gonna.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Start talking about the Broncos dominating the Raiders, and I
would say, no, I was talking about the other game,
right yep.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
And now I don't get to do that, man, all right,
please Vegas? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Yeah, And I would really like to see a picture
of him and in a full sort of James Bond mode.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
All right, So we get to do this again. We
are going to give away right now a pair.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Of tickets to the Broncos Packers game this Sunday at
in Power Field at Mile High because we are at Kaway.
We are your official home of the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
So as I speak to you now, if you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Are listening live on the air or on the stream,
it'll be pretty close.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
It's eight twenty one and change Dragon.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Why don't you pick the time in the text number
and then I will tell listeners what they need to
do after after that.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
Eight twenty five and thirty seven, And we're gonna go
with Texter number eleven again.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Texter number eleven at eight twenty five and thirty seven seconds,
texting in to five, six, six, nine zero. And you
need to include three things in your text in order
to win. Your name, your email address, And what happened
at the end of yesterday's Broncos Raiders game that had

(01:07:47):
a huge impact potent on many many people who bet
on the game. What happened at the end of the
game that changed the outcome for lots and lots of
people who bet on the game. Us the time again, Dragon, eight.

Speaker 6 (01:08:02):
Twenty five and thirty seven seconds.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Eight twenty five and thirty seven seconds. That's based on
our clock, not yours. Okay, got it? Eight twenty five
and thirty seven seconds. Texter number eleven at five six
six nine zero with your name, your email address and
the answer to that question. Doesn't that be a perfect answer.
Just sir Dragon, you know knows that you have the
basic idea. What happened at the end of yesterday's game
Broncos Raiders game that impacted that impacted people who bet

(01:08:29):
on the game quite a bit. And one more time,
please mind the Kevin rule. Yes, mind the Kevin rule.
Only text wants to try to win. If you text
more than once, we will ignore all of them because
we don't like spam anymore than anybody else does. One
quick sports story that I think is slightly important, but
not quite as important as some people hope that it is,

(01:08:51):
And I'll share with you a headline from nine News.
CHASSACHSAA that is the Colorado High School Activities Association. That's
the group that kind of regulates high school sports in Colorado.
They entered into a settlement with some conservative leaning school districts,

(01:09:12):
including District forty nine and District eleven down in Colorado Springs.
But there were others as well about CHASSA policies on
transgender athletes.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
And basically what's happened is.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
The school districts sued CHASA and the state, saying, we
don't want to be in a position where if we
prevent biological boys from playing in girls' sports, that you're
gonna try to sanction our schools, penalize our schools, or
anything like that, and so they're suing about this. CHASA

(01:09:44):
entered into that settlement saying that we will not sanction
a school that does that if another team, or if
your team rather forfeits because the team you would play against,
let's say it's girls volleyball and they have a biological male,
because I bring that up as an example because that
happened recently in college sports, right, And if you say

(01:10:06):
we're not gonna play in that situation, it still will
be a forfeit and it still will count as a loss,
but the team can't be sanctioned in any other way. Now,
CHASSA says, look, we have never sanctioned a team over this.
We have not tried to do any of this stuff,
and you shouldn't even have included us in the lawsuit.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
And in fact, it seems clear enough that it was.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Borderline whether to include Chassa because now the districts have
to pay Chassa sixty thousand dollars to cover Chassa's attorney's
fees and to pay for other Chassa stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
So, on the one hand, for those like me who believe.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
That girls shouldn't be competing against boys, at least boys
who have gone through puberty, because it gives them a
significant physical advantage, this thing with Chassa is a small win,
and it's good. But I just want to make sure
you understand the lawsuit versus the st and versus Phil
Wiser and these kinds of people is still around, and

(01:11:05):
that is the much bigger fight. Second thing in the
segment on the show sheet, assuming that I would talk
about what's on my show sheet, and I might, and
I might, but I'm proud of myself for figuring out
why why you played that?

Speaker 6 (01:11:18):
Do you remember what happens when you don't talk about
what's on your show sheet?

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
No, what happens? Neil Young? Oh, oh my gosh, Hey,
I want to mention this. Gina mentioned it earlier this morning.
I want to mention it now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
You can thank a veteran, active duty member of the
military or a first responder with twenty five hundred dollars
A serious money through February first. What you do is
you submit the name for your nominee and their deserving
reason for twenty five hundred dollars at Koacolorado dot com

(01:11:55):
slash contests Koa Colorado dot com slash contests. This is
a Heroes thank you presented by Common Spirit Health and
Fix It twenty four to seven. We've done this every
year for a while now, and I think it is
just a wonderful thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
So please do this.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Go to koa Colorado dot com slash contests and nominate
a veteran or an active duty member of the military
or first responder.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
And why they deserve this.

Speaker 2 (01:12:20):
At this time, I want to mention this kind of
quickly and hope that you'll just go go read it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
But as part of my role as the Mike A.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Loprino Free Enterprisefellow at the Common Sense Institute, and I
just I'm so honored to be affiliated with Common Sense Institute,
a brilliant non partisan think tank looking for actual answers
and important questions. Anyway, the website the easiest way to
get there is CSI COO dot org. CSI like Common

(01:12:52):
Sense Institute, COO like Colorado csiico dot org and this
is right up there near the top of the page,
so you won't have to go digging around finding looking
for it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
And this is a piece.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
That I'm a co author on with a couple of
great folks over there, Eric and DJ and it's entitled
Denver Metro Household Budget Pressure, Inflation, Taxes and Shifting Spending Patterns.
Now it sounds nerdy, and it is kind of nerdy.
There's a lot of data here, but there are a
couple key points that I just want to mention. And
again you can go read the study, share the study,

(01:13:27):
and learn more, but a couple things.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
That I just want to mention.

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
About what's going on in and around Denver in recent years.
One of the things that has been happening is that
spending has been increasing faster than income, and that's been
a persistent trend for probably seven years. It used to
be pretty close, and normally you would think they would

(01:13:50):
be pretty close. Right, Normally you would think spending an
income would be pretty close because you're going to probably
spend what you're comfortable spending as a share of your income,
and as your income goes up on a percentage basis,
you may spend around the same amount again on a
percentage basis, but if you start increasing that, then suddenly

(01:14:11):
that means either something has to give whatever that is right,
and we'll get to that in a second. The other
possibility is you're feeling rich in the sense of let's
say you've got money in the stock market, or you
own a house and your house has gone up a
quarter million dollars in value, so you feel a little
more wealthy, and you might spend more.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
So there's some combination of all of these things.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
But it's important to note that spending has been going
up more than income pretty significantly in Colorado for quite
some time now. And the big areas where spending has
gone up, housing and insurance have been absolutely huge areas
of spending. A couple other areas have gone down a little,
But the main thing that we see in this report

(01:14:56):
is that the savings rate has gone down right Denver
Rights and people in the Deni metro area used to
save let's say, in the neighborhood of seventeen thousand dollars
a year now half that much. The other thing that's
worth noting, and I'll just say at the beginning of
this keep in mind that in Colorado now, the way
things are structured, that money for college higher education counts

(01:15:19):
as fees. So just keep that in mind as I
read the first part of this, and then I'll elaborate.
But between nineteen ninety four, when Tabor the tax payabill
of Rights was enacted and last year twenty twenty four,
fee revenue to Colorado had increased by almost thirty four
hundred percent thirty four hundred percent to almost twenty six

(01:15:43):
billion dollars, while the state's population growth plus inflation was
just under two hundred percent over that same time period. Now,
a lot of that is because tuition to public universities
now counts as a fee. So if you take that
out and you still look at these these enterprises apart

(01:16:07):
from higher education, the number is still pretty dramatic. And
here's a way to think about it, rather than percentages
and of uh, you know, of growth.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Think about it this way.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
If our fees were counted as taxes, which is probably
how a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Of people really think about them.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
But if our fees were counted as taxes, then and
we got rid of the fees and paid for them
through income tax, our state income tax rate would need
to be six percent instead of the current four and
a quarter percent, So our our fees are kind of
a hidden equivalent of a forty percent increase in the

(01:16:52):
state income tax, which is a really stunning thing. And
Denver in particular has a combined sales to rate state tax,
city tax, county special districts nine point one five percent
nine point one five percent, which is the highest four
a large ish city, a large city or large ish
city in Colorado, right eight point two, when the springs

(01:17:15):
eight percent in Aurora, eight point oh five in Fort Collins.
You do get some high numbers out in mountain towns
and so on, But Denver has such a high sales
tax rate that at some point they're going to start
getting people who live in Denver are just going to
go across the street, across the county into Adams County
Orrapo County into Aurora or whatever to save a little money.
And on the margin, all that stuff adds up. It

(01:17:38):
all adds up anyway. If you'd like to learn more,
go to CSIC dot org. Common Sense Institute of Colorado
will be right back on Kawa and you all probably
know the answer to the trivia question that we asked
with the ticket giveaway, what happened at the end of
the Broncos Raiders game yesterday that interested a lot of
people who bet on the game, And that was that

(01:18:00):
with four seconds left, the Raiders kicked a field goal
that had no outcome, no possible outcome as far as
who would win the game, because there were zero seconds
left on the clock after the field goal. But what
it did was it caused the Raiders to cover the spread.
The Raiders lost by seven instead of ten. The spread

(01:18:22):
was seven and a half or eight depending on the platform,
So it caused the Raiders to cover. So if you
bet on the Broncos and took the points and gave
the points rather, you lost on that field goal. And
also it caused the over under bet to go over
rather than under. It caused a total of forty one
points when the over underline was forty and a half

(01:18:43):
at most places, and I read online that more money
was coming in on the under than on the over.
So so the coach Pete Carroll, the coach of the Raiders,
really messed up a lot of people, including a lot
of Broncos fans who bet on the Broncos and gave.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
The seven and a half or eight points.

Speaker 6 (01:19:03):
So that's what happened yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
A lot of Broncos people are really really mad at
that game, even though we won.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
All Right, a couple of very quick stories I want
to do first.

Speaker 2 (01:19:14):
I'm going to come back to this tomorrow or the
next day, but I just feel like I need to
mention it because Dragon played that awesome Rolling Stones song.
Time is on my side, and we had the Who earlier, right,
so we do have some classic British rock in the
show today. But there was a piece over at the
Atlantic called Accommodation Nation, and actually my friend Leland Viddert

(01:19:36):
covered this as a topic on his.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
Show on News Nation at the end of last week.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
The subhead of the Atlantic article is America's colleges have
an extra time on tests problem. And basically we've all
heard about this, right if you have a kid, or
or if anybody has a kid, and this would apply
in high school and in college, who has some psychological
struggles that cause that kid to need a little extra
time And usually they'll go to a therapist, a psychologist,

(01:20:04):
a psychiatrist. They'll come back with some kind of official
document that says they need an accommodation. They need a
little more time on a test. And there are absolutely
legitimate situations for that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Okay, absolutely legitimate.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
But what's happening now in colleges is that you've got
mostly rich kids whose parents can afford to pay a
therapist or a psychologist or a psychiatrist to give them
a piece of paper seeing my kids, my kid needs
an accommodation. And so what's going on over the past

(01:20:39):
fifteen years or so is that there's been a massive increase,
like a tripling in the number of kids who qualify
for accommodations, usually extra time on tests. At the University
of Chicago, it's tripled over the past eight years. At
cal Berkeley, it's quintupled over the past fifteen years. At

(01:21:00):
Brown and Harvard, more than twenty percent of undergrads are
registered as disabled. At Amherst College, a third of students
are registered as disabled. I guess I talked about this
more than I thought I would.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
Right now, but this is ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:21:17):
And and Leland's show, he had a professor, I think
from maybe University of Chicago who's saying, look, if we
give a third of all these kids a chance to
take twice as long on the test as anybody else
can take.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
What does their grade even mean anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
And how is that fair to all these other kids
who aren't disabled?

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
And you know, and you I'm not making applying any.

Speaker 2 (01:21:39):
Use to that term, right, I'm just this is how
it's being talked about. If these if many of the
kids who are giving these accommodations really don't have problem,
and they're cheating the system, and they should be competing
fairly against other kids who also don't need an accommodation
but aren't cheating. What does that actually do to the
credibility of a grade? All right, that's all I got

(01:22:01):
time for today. I didn't get to the topic of
the new condom tax in China. We will try to
get that one tomorrow. Gina, thank you for another fabulous
few hours of breaking I know, I know That's why
I'm leaving you, leaving you hanging for tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
Dragon.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
Thanks again as well, folks, have a wonderful rest of
your day. Michael Brown up next.