09-06-24 FULL SHOW - A Free for all Friday and Woodland Park schools leap up

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now it's Mandy Connell, Andy Connell on ka.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Ninem God wanna.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Say can the Nicety three by Connell.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Sadday'm welcome, Welcome to a Friday edition all together now woo,
that's right. I'm your host for the next three hours.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Mandy Connell joined today by the glorious Michael Coover. Anthony
Rodriguez is working for the rest of the weekend, so
he is off today and he'll be back on Tuesday,
I think, because I think he's.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I can't remember which he's back Tuesday. He's back Tuesday. Okay.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
A lot of juggling going on behind the old production
board back there for our producers right now. Now, we've
got a lot of stuff on our plate today. I
got a couple of guests, super excited about one of them.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
You've heard here fairly recently.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
But we're gonna we're gonna put a punctuation mark of
sorts in the story about the Venezuelan gang that is
operating in a limited capacity in Aurora.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Right now.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
See how clearly I did that. I included all parts
of the story. But today, if you did not hear
Governor Jared Pullus on Ross Kaminski's show. I'm going to
play for you the part where Ross did a very
good job trying to pin the governor down, or, more likely,
more accurately, tried to give the governor a chance to

(01:29):
apologize for saying that he thought that the Venezuelan gang
situation was all Danielle Drensky's imagination. So we're going to
talk to her, and then we are going to talk.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
To wit Ken.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Wit is the superintendent of schools in Woodland Park. Now,
I know many of you don't really pay attention to
the outlying areas, but Woodland Park has been in the
news quite a bit as of late because a conservative
majority took over their school board and started really stripping
some things back and going back to basics, and it
was wild unpopular and there was a lot of big

(02:01):
old fat kerfuffle down there, and it was just kind
of crazy. But now we have some test results that
may be worth paying attention to as a matter of fact,
considering the malaise that many Colorado school districts are in
when it comes to getting kids back to things where
they at least back to where they were pre COVID forget,

(02:22):
you know, going beyond Woodland Park really knocked the doors off,
and we're going to talk to Ken Went about what
they've been doing in the district. It is a smaller district.
But you know, I'm a big believer in learning from
whomever is doing it right. You know, you go and
you sit down and say, Okay, what did you do here?
And maybe not all of that stuff will work wherever
you are. But always try to learn in any situation

(02:43):
from people who are already successful doing something.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
You know.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Never listen to the haters who are at the same
level or below where you are economically. Never listen to
those people when it comes to talking about your dreams
and stuff. I mean, this pep talk brought to you
by me Andy Connell. Anyway, let me do this. Let
me tell you about the blog. Find it at mandy'sblog
dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the headline
that says nine to six twenty four blog a free

(03:10):
for all Friday and Woodland Park Schools leap up. Click
on that and here are the headlines you will find within.

Speaker 6 (03:17):
I think its in office half of American all with
ships and clipments and say that's ConA press flach.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Today.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
On the blog student achievement isn't bad everywhere. Aurora City
councilor Daniel Drenski today at one point thirty. Yes, the
situation in Aurora is the Democrat's fault. The Auroras lomlords
asked for help.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
The White House doesn't have a clue. Who hamas is this?

Speaker 4 (03:38):
As a new study shows more cops less crime, will
charging parents stop school shootings? Jeffco Schools is being sued
timed to buy a generator.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
The August jobs report sucked. The FED says it's time
you don't hate the Associated press enough. Scrolling scrolling walls
makes a sick burn a self own. I are trans
women so much more likely to commit sex crimes? About
that Hunter Biden plea deal? The sweetest thing happened at
Red Rocks last night. Lots of cool stuff happening here

(04:10):
this weekend. What happened to Colorado, Brazil is a warning
for us all. And now some teddy swims for the weekend.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Those are the headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.
As I mentioned, we've got Ken Witt, We've got Daniel Jorinsky,
but today is also a free for all Friday, and
I have a couple of options here.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
People want to you.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Guys get to set the table here, So I'm just
gonna lay it out for you. So I feel like
it's It's been a lot this week of politics. This
Aurora story has been really really big and sort of overwhelming,
and all of the sort of different aspects of that,
and the news media.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Coverage of it has just been insane.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
So I was thinking to myself as I was getting
ready for the show today, I was like, Okay, self,
what do we want to talk about today? Do we
want to have a light, you know, fun Friday? But
then I thought, but gosh, there's this. There's the other
stories that I kind of I want to talk about
that are not light. But then I thought, maybe the
audience is sick of it, and maybe they have an idea.
So that means it's a free for all Friday, which
means you can't let us know anything you would like

(05:09):
to talk about. You know, the kids today call it
and ask me anything, which is actually a much better name.
But I didn't think about that years ago when I
came up with three for all Friday, trying not to
directly copy Russeling Ball while actually copying the idea that
Rushlan Ball had, which is turning the topics over to
you people. Now, sometimes you guys do a great job

(05:30):
and sometimes I'm not gonna lie you do not take
the assignment seriously. So if you have something that you
would like to talk about, way in. As a matter
of fact, coover, let's open the phone lines.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Let's do it. Sounds like a plan. The phone is
on the desk. I will open up the call. Do
you have the call screener over there?

Speaker 7 (05:48):
You got it?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, I'll open up the call screener. You can call
or you can text.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
But calling is three oh three seven one, three eighty
five eighty five. Texting is five six six nine.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Now's your chance to set the tone in tenor now's
the chance, Mandy Well, I can't read that about the governor. Yeah,
I mean the texter says he's the sleeves ball. But
I'm not going to read that. You guys are still texting.
Oh maybe when I turn it so it can update there.
Sorry about that anyway.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
So I have a couple of videos on the blog.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
If you've never heard of Teddy Swims, I'm now on
the search for new music, especially because last night I
took my daughter and two of her friends to see
the band Wallows at Red Rocks at Couper.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Have you ever ever heard of the band Wallows? You
ever heard of that? I can't say, nor had I,
but I went last.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Night and they were They were really really good. The
opening band Benny b e n Ee.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Really liked her.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
She was kind of like a more poppy Buork, slightly
less weird, but not all that less weird. But the
opening act was what got me last night. And if
you were a pair, you all get ready to have
your heart warmed by this one. Okay, So last night
there was an opening act before the opening act, and
it was a band called Duo and it was the

(07:11):
dad's of two of the members of the band, who
they let play like five or six covers just so
they could say they played Red Rocks. And I could
not get over it. I was so it was just
so it was like the cutest thing I've ever seen
in my life. And I know that's what it was
because the band referenced it. They said, we really wanted
the guys to do who taught us how to play instruments,

(07:33):
to have this opportunity, And I just thought to myself
you know, if you have a kid that does something
like that for you, and it you know or take
note of it, because it's not every kid that does
the grand gesture. So if you have one of those kids,
consider yourself very, very lucky. Hey, Mandy, I've noticed more

(07:54):
and more cars with no license plates on them, but
I haven't seen anything in the news about this. Wondering
what this is all about. Are these stolen cars? I
do not know the answer to that question, but it's
a good one.

Speaker 7 (08:06):
I know.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Obviously some of.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
Them are stolen, but some of them could just be
unregistered vehicles, like their registration is completely out of date,
or maybe their license plate was stolen in I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I don't know the answer to that, but you know what,
We're going to try.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
The new Aurora police chief starts on Monday, and I
figured i'd be generous and give him a week before
I asked him for an interview, and that's one.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Of the questions I will ask him.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
Maybe we'll be able to find out someone in law
enforcement that could text us right now the answer is
it a combination of both, and how many people are
getting pulled over for not having a license plate? I
know here's the problem with those kind of crimes. You guys,
we're understaffed. And as a matter of fact, I have
that's on the blog today about police. There's going to
be an initiative on the ballot in the fall that

(08:53):
would funnel a lot of money into the training and
retention of good police officers and other things to support
law enforcement because most, if not all, I don't know
if this is you know, all of them, but most
of our especially urban police departments, are very understaffed.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
They're not even up to authorized levels.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
And in the case of Denver, the authorized level was
set like one hundred thousand people ago.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
It's insufficient, and so I don't know, we don't maybe.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
We don't have the police officers who have the time,
or you know what I mean. I don't know, if
we're stretched too thin to make that a priority. But
it seems to me that if let's say seventy five
percent of them are just unregistered vehicles that people are
driving and they didn't get their registration, but otherwise they're
law abiding citizens, that's seventy five percent of them. Well

(09:42):
what if twenty five percent of them are stolen cars?
Then you have police pulling over twenty five percent of
those cars. I mean, in theory, you'd be taking a
thief off the streets for at least ten minutes in
our current system.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
So there you go. That was a much longer answer
for me to say. I have no idea.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
Hey, Mandy, before you get to the blog, did you
change how you read it over the years?

Speaker 2 (10:06):
I remember you used to have an old news.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
Guy type voice. At least that was really back in
the day. And I'm gonna be perfectly honest when I
say that, since I had to have vocal cord surgery
and spend a month off the radio, which I never
want to do it again, I am much more particular
about how I use and abuse my voice. So there's

(10:30):
things that I just cannot comfortably do, and the old
news guy voice for a long period of time is
one of them. Yes, out of the next text, did
it start with the throat stuff you went to? Yeah,
that's it, absolutely, Mandy. I will not be able to
listen to Danielle, but she is by far one of
the best city council members I've ever witnessed in any

(10:50):
of the cities that I've ever lived in.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
I will share that with her.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
M Let's see, does that twenty nineteen statute prevent AURORPD
for arresting people for committing crimes like assault, theft, and extortion.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Nope?

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Why does APD need ice to enforce their own laws.
I'm not quite sure what you're Oh, you're talking about. Oh,
you're talking about the sanctuary state statutes. Well, let me
jump into that real quick. The sanctuary state statutes, which
are part of the article that I have on the
blog that Castle Rock is now suing Denver because their

(11:26):
lacks immigration policies and.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Sanctuary state status.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
Have created this entire situation where though there are Venezuelans
here that are hardworking, honest people, there are Venezuelans here
who are part of a really dangerous, awful prison gang.
And that wouldn't necessarily have been true had we not
welcome forty thousand people into Denver while refusing to cooperate
with federal authorities as Denver and the Democratic legislature passed.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
In twenty nineteen.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
So to say that this ultimately lies at the feet
of the policies that the Democrats is accurate. But there's
a lot of questions to be answered, especially after the
release of the Perkins Koy report that said gangs took
over an apartment complex and Aurora in twenty nineteen. That
was then distributed to the mayor, the city manager, and

(12:18):
I think the police chief at the time.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I'd like to know.

Speaker 4 (12:21):
Why the Aurora PD hasn't done more or had not
done more to address the issue. That is a valid
question and one that I mean, I'm assuming the city
Council is going to be asking these questions. So there's
a lot going on there. And it's not a binary
issue in the sense that you know, one side did everything,

(12:43):
but the Democrats did most of it, and we have
to find out what's going on and why Since August's
early August, these people have this report and you know
what has happened. The governor was right when he said,
why haven't you've taken them back? That's a really good question.
Why haven't you reached out for bigger help if you

(13:06):
needed bigger help. Why haven't you asked why have you
allowed this to go on? These are all questions that
need to be answered. Mandy, can you please share current
numbers on the homeless population and budget assigned to address
it if you had a magic wand what are three
things you would do right now to address this huge problem.

(13:27):
Thanks so much for what you do. Okay, here's my
solution for homelessness that will never happen because it's too sensible.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
First thing I.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
Would do is set up a court just for the homeless,
and then I would enforce every single, tiny, itty bitty
quality of life crime that we deal with every day
in Denver. You poop in the streets, you're going to
go before the judge. You get caught using drugs out
in public, you're going to go before the judge. If
you get caught doing anything, selling stolen goods, stealing something,

(13:57):
you're going to go in front of the judge.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
And every time you go in front of the judge to.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
Be sentenced, the judge is going to say, we would
really like to get you help and get you sober
and get you clean and help you live a decent,
wonderful life that you will love, or you can go
to jail for x amount of days and allow that
person to choose. And for some people it may be
a choice they can make on the first time and
they can get the help that they need. And that help,

(14:23):
by the way, would look more like step Denver than
anything else it would be Hi, here's your communal space
in a very clean environment, and the first thing you're
going to do is go out and get a job.
We're going to help you get a job and get
back into the workplace. And you set rules about sobriety,
and you set rules about accountability and responsibility. These are
all things that step Denver has done successfully for decades.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
And some people may have to go to jail.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Ten or twelve times for sixty days at a time,
but there's a zero percent chance you're not going to
be able to rouse them again on some kind of
quality of life crime until they go through the cycle
enough to either leave the area or finally take the
help that we're offering.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
And then we create a program that works like steps.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
You go first, you start the communal housing, then you
eventually moved to the private housing. Then you move to
supportive housing where you were living in a sober living facility,
and then they help you move into your own space
and live your own life. That's my solution to homelessness.
I don't know the numbers right now, don't. I mean,
they're not great. They've spent a tremendous amount of money
and homelessness went up considerably in the last year according

(15:27):
to the Point in Time survey. We are having tremendous
issues at the homeless hotels. The supportive housing for homeless
people can't even guarantee internet access in a world where
everything is done digitally, so what we're doing now is
not working. So we could spend five hundred million dollars

(15:48):
and it still wouldn't be working. We have people in
the system here that have significant mental health and addiction,
if not both needs. People are not living on the
street because they're stable. And until we recognize all of
this and go after it with a holistic approach. And
then the last part of this is that society has

(16:09):
to stop making homelessness quote easier. No more free tense,
no more sleeping bags.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
Now.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
If a church wants to provide a meal, fine, but
no more other free stuff. We have to convince everyone
in this town that that is not compassion. And that's
what I would be preaching everywhere. They would have me,
and I would invite all of those nonprofits to work
with me to develop relationships that don't include free stuff,
to encourage these people to come in and take the

(16:40):
help that we are offering. I mean, it's a very
big government solution, you guys. I get that, But we
have a population in society that just can't do it
for themselves, and we have to either support the charities
that are doing it and doing it all the way through.
And I don't know of a charity that's doing it
in that comprehensi of a manner.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
I just don't.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Maybe there are, so that's what I would do. So
fun way to start the show. Now, if you're texting,
don't text yet because I've got to stop the text
line for just a second because there's so many text
messages coming in and I want to make sure that
I get them all. So coming up next, we're going
to continue this because there's some really good, good questions

(17:23):
right now.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
As a matter of fact, I have to, oh my gosh,
I have to open up a bigger window. Okay, we're
going to do that in just a second. Let me
see if I.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
Can find a short one. If you get caught speeding,
do you go in front of the judge? Well, if
you're homeless and you're speeding in your car, it's a
traffic court violation. If you're otherwise sober, no, wasn't Vanessa
Wilson the APD chief since twenty nineteen.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
We all know how she turned out. Oh, I want
to say this one thing.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
The Aurora City Council hired a chief without any public
input and a lot of your activists, you're Aunte Anderson,
all of those people, they're like, oh, we need community input.
You know what Goddess community in put with Vanessa Wilson.
That's what community input got you. It was a diversity,
equity and inclusion higher. She was an absolute disaster.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
And the last few police chiefs have been through that process.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
And where have we gotten in Aurora? Certainly not better?
So I'm hoping they got it right. This guy's coming in.
He starts Monday. Boy is he walking into a dumpster fire.
I pity him, but boy, he's got to be better than.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
What we've had now. Anyway, we'll be right back, and
when we are back, I've got a lot of these
great questions. We'll be back with those. Ummmm, oh no,
what is my password? Does anybody else?

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Is anybody else hit the feeling that in your life
you don't have any passwords left in you. There's just
not any They've all been tapped. Out all of them.
That's kind of how I feel. Who's on a to there, Kouver.
We'll just do this the old.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Fashioned Fraser way. All right? Hey Mike in Highlands Ranch,
you're on KOA, what's on your mind?

Speaker 6 (19:06):
Good morning, Nandy or actually good afternoon. You helped me
years ago when you used to have the head of
Sea dot.

Speaker 8 (19:12):
Call in once a month.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
And anyways, the.

Speaker 8 (19:15):
Construction at Santa Fe and four seventy is going awesome.
The sidewalks bike paths are all being put in between
Mineral where the RTD light rail stops and Highland's Ranch
didn't have any fight paths or sidewalks.

Speaker 9 (19:31):
I'm calling today to see if you can help with
fixing fixing.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
The toll road on four seventy between I twenty five
and University heading westbound. For some reason, they got two
lanes going west but one lane going east for the
toll and it came to the bottleneck at Quebec and

(19:59):
you every evening during.

Speaker 10 (20:02):
Rush hour traffic, and I was hoping that you could
put in.

Speaker 11 (20:06):
A good word to somebody.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
Yeah, we need to stick to that.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
I'm not sure I would be helpful in this situation.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
I mean, we stopped having the se dot executive director
on the show because it was just terrible. She never
got better at doing it and so it wasn't good radio.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
But maybe someone listening who works for sea dot just
heard you say that. So I'm not sure that sounds
like a major sort of road redo, like a reconfigure
type thing.

Speaker 6 (20:33):
No, it's just changed in the line so that there's
three lanes of non toll going from my.

Speaker 10 (20:39):
Twenty five to University West bround and then and.

Speaker 6 (20:44):
Then allowing the HOV to be open between Yosemite and
in Quebec.

Speaker 10 (20:49):
You can't enter the toll until you get past Quebec.

Speaker 5 (20:53):
Ah.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Oh that good.

Speaker 10 (20:54):
Okay, if they would just fix it, Okay, it would
be wonderful.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Well we'll throw this into the ether and see if
anything happens. Mike.

Speaker 7 (21:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (21:03):
All right, Mike, let's see. We've got Justin in North Glen.
What's on your mind?

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Justin?

Speaker 11 (21:09):
Hey, Mandy, thanks for having me.

Speaker 10 (21:10):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (21:11):
I sure can go right ahead?

Speaker 12 (21:13):
Awesome.

Speaker 11 (21:14):
So I am hosting the fourth annual Day with the
Dogs Rescue event this Sunday in North Cline. Over thirty
dog related vendors and two rescues in attendance. I just
wanted to let your listeners know that we're going to
be having this event and it'd be a great opportunity
to come down and spend a day with the dogs.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
Now, let me ask a question. Can people come down
and adopt the dog the same day?

Speaker 11 (21:40):
I'm sorry? Can they win?

Speaker 4 (21:42):
Can they come down and adopt a dog the same day?
Can they come down on Sunday to North Glenn and
adopt a dog?

Speaker 11 (21:49):
The rescue is there that'll be doing on site adoptions?

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Okay, perfect, Because some rescue organizations don't actually.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Make it easy to rescue a dog.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
They have the most ridiculous, absurd requirements. And I just
wanted to make sure if people came there to adopt
a dog, they could actually do that.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
So I appreciate that.

Speaker 11 (22:08):
Where's it going to be again, It's going to be
at the North Glenn Dog Park, which is the bill Goodspeed,
Happy Tales Dog Park? All right?

Speaker 2 (22:16):
And what time and what time? Okay?

Speaker 11 (22:19):
Eight am to two pm?

Speaker 2 (22:21):
All right, man, great for you. I hope they I
hope all the dogs find new happy families.

Speaker 5 (22:27):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 11 (22:27):
Let's get these dogs some homes.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
All right? Thanks man, Jay, you are on Koa, what's
on your mind?

Speaker 7 (22:34):
Man? I thought i'd call while I'm still a resident
of this state, which is rapidly approaching.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
No longer to be true.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Really, where are you headed Nevada?

Speaker 10 (22:43):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (22:44):
We're in Nevada, an hour outside of Vegas.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
So my brother did you already buy a property there?
Or are you going to buy a property there?

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Already bought yanks?

Speaker 2 (22:55):
See I could have given you. My brother is one
of the biggest real estate brokers in Nevada.

Speaker 7 (22:59):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know, I've heard your podcast.

Speaker 11 (23:02):
Well, you know where I retired.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
From law enforcement, soil. I had to move somewhere, left
tacking the estate and it is amazing the difference.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh that's why I know who this is. I know
who this is. I like, I totally know who this is.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
Now.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
No, when is the final day here? When are you
actually moving?

Speaker 7 (23:18):
Moving in two weeks?

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (23:21):
I have a law enforcement question, even though you're not
in law enforcement anymore.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
So many just text this.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
Are those like smoky translucent gray plastic license plate covers legal?

Speaker 5 (23:33):
No?

Speaker 4 (23:33):
They're not legal? Okay, perfect, That's all I needed to know. Well,
I hope you're going to keep up with us on
the podcast in the.

Speaker 10 (23:38):
Blog, of course, I feel like I'm losing part of me.

Speaker 7 (23:41):
I've been in Colorado since the early eighties.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
So it's a little like a death often, right, what's
that I said? It's a little like a death. It's
just kind of a punctuation.

Speaker 4 (23:53):
It's a punctuation mark on a part of your life, right,
on a portion of your life that is significant, important,
And it's very way and it's challenging. I've moved around
enough as an adult to understand exactly what you're going through.

Speaker 7 (24:07):
It makes me sad, especially, only wants to stay used
to being what it has become, and you don't realize
what it has become until you go somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
It's different exactly.

Speaker 7 (24:16):
Okay, I don't have an answer for your license plates.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Yes you did, Thank you appreciate that. So much of
it some three parts, right, Okay.

Speaker 7 (24:25):
Part of it is stolen cars. The second part is
people are lazy and they haven't gotten caught because Mike,
you said, we're short. Yeah, former police are short and
hard to deal with. And then the third part is
much of it is illegal people who just don't register
it because they don't feel any because of their disposable

(24:45):
cars to them, because if that car.

Speaker 10 (24:47):
Gets taken, it doesn't really matter, right, okay, super disposable.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Oh great, that's yeah. I wish I had that attitude
about cars. Mind gosts at a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
I can't look at them as a disposable item. Well,
I appreciate you, Ca, and don't be a stranger.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
We will keep in touch.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
All right, man, have a good one. Yeah, thank you,
appreciate that. Bye. I.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, if you if you've not moved, this is
an interesting thing. If you've not moved across the country
or moved a good distance, maybe not even across the country,
but at hours away, not minutes away. It is Uh,
it is extremely challenging, and it's hard to make new
friends as an adult.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
You know, it's hard to start over. It just is.

Speaker 4 (25:30):
You have to have a plan on how to build
up your life again, and most of it requires a
lot of effort on your part on the front side.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
So there you go.

Speaker 13 (25:38):
All right.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
We got a lot of questions on the blog, a
lot of you answering the same way he just did.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
That police are not going to be pulling over for
low level traffic offenses that from the Denver Police Department.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
And I get it.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
When you don't have enough people, you don't have enough people.
This person says, oh, dag nab it.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Hang on it just updated. Let me turn that off
for a second. I'm gonna read one more before I
go to a quick break.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
This person says, can we discuss the best food in Colorado?

Speaker 2 (26:10):
I kind of like that coover?

Speaker 4 (26:12):
What's your very favorite food in Colorado? Like if you
when you think to yourself, this is I want to
go and get my favorite food. Do you have a
place or a food that you go to in Colorado?

Speaker 2 (26:25):
I have multiples. That's not probably what this person's looking for.
I mean as far as favorite restaurants, well, I get so.

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (26:34):
We tend to like Los Doughs quite a bit and
La Loma, which are the two Mexican food restaurants out
in Castle Rock. Obviously they're all over, but we go
to the ones in Castle Rock. There's a B and
B Cafe downtown and Castle Rock. It's very nice, but
it's just down home American food there. That chicken, yes,
very nice.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
I'm thinking of the Castle Cafe, which is right at
a corner from the B and B. Yeah, B and
B would go to for breakfast really good. So if
I'm eating Korean food, I used to go to Soul
Korean Barbecue, but now Da G has won me over.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
We went to Dag last week and it was just
oh so good. If I want a good Jewish.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
Deli, I'm going to Bagel Deli right there on Hamden.
That place is amazing. I can't think of any place else.
It's like we love Doug's Diner for breakfast.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Love that place. I'm just trying to think.

Speaker 14 (27:28):
I love the Fort, Yeah, I mean Shanahan's Guy for steak.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, exactly, So it's like you have your If the
Fort was closer, I would definitely eat there more, but
it requires me going, you know, across to Morrison, which
feels like I'm in a covered wagon going over the
actual mountains to get there.

Speaker 4 (27:44):
I wonder where where other people think is the best
food in Colorado. I really think it depends on what
kind of food you're talking about, too, you know what
I mean, Because like Mexican food, there we are a
wealth of options. There's a place in Parker call what's
it called? What's it called?

Speaker 2 (28:03):
It's in a strip mall with like a laundry mat,
a dominoes, a cake store, oh, kind of a hole
in the wall of Mexican food. Yeah. Oh, oh, it's
Lost Volcanoes. That's it.

Speaker 4 (28:15):
Lost Volcanoes, the bomb and it's a little mom and
pop shop and it is really really good.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Might check that out. Yeah, it's really good. You would
like that.

Speaker 4 (28:23):
Oh, let me take a break now, I'm hungry. Dang it,
we'll be right back. We got a couple of phone calls.
We'll get those in just a second.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
But I got a bunch of you on the text
line that I'm trying to reopen here, a lot of you.
Let's just run through a lot of these restaurants.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Ralph says, we love Fleming's Steakhouse in the Tech Center.
I myself, I'm a Del Frisco's girl. I love Del
Friscos here in the Tech Center. It's our favorite steak restaurant.
I think everybody has their own favorite steak restaurant. Young's
Korean Kitchen and Monument the Home Cafe, a new breakfast
lunch place. Mandy the restaurant in Parker by the Way

(29:02):
is Lost Volcanos. I'm pretty sure that's it. It's in
the plaza with like a like a headshop on one side.
It's U shaped and then there's a dominoes.

Speaker 11 (29:16):
On the other.

Speaker 4 (29:16):
You and I don't I don't know what else is
in the plaza, but I think it's the Lost Volcanos.
And they have shrimp and octopus tacos. Oh, they are
so good, Like my mouth's just watered a little bit
right then when I said that.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Dang it anyway, uh, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
After growing up in Pueblo, it to be years to
find what I considered Mexican food. There's definitely a Southern
Colorado New Mexico style Mexican that it can't be beat.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
I agree.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
I think the Mexican food here is better than the
Mexican food I've had anywhere else. And I've had Californian
Mexican food, Texan Mexican food. This I love the Mexican
food here.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Love it.

Speaker 4 (29:55):
Fluck Corn Exchange, Denver, Cavey, Cavala, Cavalos, Cavillos in Alamosa,
I love Hooking Reel two Texter best food in Colorado
hands down, the Brass Kitchen and Steamboat. It's a little
far of a drive for just dinner Rudy's Little Hideaway
and Sabelli's. I've wondered about Rudy's Little Hideaway. I like

(30:17):
anything called a little hideaway. It sounds cozy. Mandy Black
Bear Diner six inch biscuits and gravy whle menu is great.
I prefer the Hungry Bear Diner in Woodland Park. Let's
see Bastions for steak and walk Spicy in England for
Chinese Chinese food. Here not the best I've ever had,

(30:37):
just saying, Mandy. Roman Villa Pizza in Colorado Springs. Paninos
restaurant in Colorado Springs. That is the winter winter chicken dinner.
If you've never been to Paninos, they have multiple locations
in the Springs. They take pizza do and they put
sandwich toppings on it, and they cook it and then
they fold it.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Oh now again, my mouth is now physically watering. It's
literally watering.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Okay, I'm getting off this because it's making me really, really,
really really hungry.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Mandy is ranked choice voting on the ballot. I was
talking about the advertisement.

Speaker 4 (31:11):
I hear to open up the primaries to everyone across
party lines. Yes it is, and I'm going to be
We've reached out to a couple of people. We've already
had them on the show before. I am intrigued based
on the possibilities that the rank choice voting people present.
And here's the thing, like, if this was our system
that we'd always had, we would all be thinking it

(31:32):
was no big deal. But the problem is is that
politicians are going to have to adapt to They're gonna
have to change their style of politiking.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
Which is actually one of the upsides of this. But
in Alaska they have a similar situation, not exactly the same,
and they're trying to repeal it right now. So I
need to do that will be a bigger discussion, And
I'm working on the voter guide and I'm reading as
much as I can. We're going to have those people

(32:01):
on the show. I love the promise of it.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
I just don't know if we have the patients to
get to the promise of what ring choice voting could be,
which would be a far less polarizing system where we
don't have.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
To rush to the right or rush to the left
to win.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Over the very small number of primary voters who participate,
And so we end up with these very you know,
hard left, hard right candidates instead of people who are,
you know, like the people who are in the vast middle.
But there's going to be some bumps in the road,
and I just don't know if we have the patients

(32:38):
to get through that.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
So we shall see, but I'll have more on that.
I totally just waffled, but only because in my own mind,
I'm waffling. So there's a lot going on there.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
Wow, you guys are sending really good I can't read
any more food stuff, y'all.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
I'm getting really hungry, really hungry, and.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
I've been on the Soda plan this past week, my
version of the soda plan to get my RNC and
DNC weight off, and it's working. So the last thing
I need is for you people to make me hungry.
When we get back, I'm gonna do this question because
I think it's a good one. Mandy, have you noticed
the Harris Walls campaign never mentions that Walls is the
current governor of Minnesota. You mean coach Walls. It's a

(33:19):
big deal. He was a coach twenty years ago. Though
the Texter says, you are absolutely right. We're gonna talk
a little bit about that when we get back.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
News Talk and KOA Sports Week days at three. The
Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock Accident
and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Well, no, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy Ton.

Speaker 7 (33:43):
On KOA.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Ninety one.

Speaker 3 (33:46):
Am sad Way you want to say the nicety that's
the three many Donald Keithing sad thing.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Welcome, Welcome, welcomes you.

Speaker 4 (34:00):
At this second hour of the show, I'm your host,
Mandy Connell, joined by Michael Coover, Anthony Rodriguez off.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Today we're having a free for all Friday. And you
guys brought the wood in the first power and I
like it, like it a lot. Alex is going to
continue the tradition. Alex. What's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (34:16):
Okay? Andy?

Speaker 9 (34:17):
We are camping up on Mount Pilland Road this last weekend,
and I saw at least a dozen people who look
like they would otherwise be camping in the.

Speaker 12 (34:26):
Creek beds of Colorado Springs with something like that. And
I got to wonder what the solution is along those lines,
and how much different I was from those folks that
were camping up there that I'm sure we're otherwise homeless.

Speaker 11 (34:39):
You know, here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
There's, first of all, i'd love for them to be
able to get some help, whether that's you know, the
mental health help or otherwise support or addiction help or.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
Somebody said when I gave out my whole plan on
how to handle homelessness, and it was really brilliant, you
should go back and listen to the later to hear it.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
But you know, when you say, we want to make.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Homelessness such an unattractive choice for people, and at some
point it becomes a choice. And I know that sounds
crazy because you're thinking, who in the world would choose homelessness,
But this is well documented that a certain period of time,
it almost becomes more challenging, it feels more difficult to
come back in from the cold, right, And so I

(35:26):
want to make it so that is not an attractive option,
and it's unfortunate. But ultimately, even if you did that,
even that was the policy everywhere, that being homeless was
not okay and it was not okay with us, and
we were not gonna let this happen, there would still
be people who choose to not participate in society, right.
I mean, you always have those people that are loners.
You have people and they're not all like crazy. Ted

(35:47):
Kaczinski types, but there are some people. It's why people
move to Alaska for crime, Andy's sake, you know, whether
there are one hundred miles from their nearest neighbor. So
I'm not sure there's ever going to be a perfect solution,
but it would be nice if, you know, those people
would participate in a program that would help them get
their lives back and get back on their feet. But

(36:08):
there's often a lot of trauma and damage that has
to be addressed as part of that process.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
But there's no perfect solution.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
I you know, I'm just trying to find those I
want to find a solution that works for the most people,
you know what I mean, like the one, the one
that would be the most successful, recognizing that this is
an intractable problem that's existed since the beginning of civilization.

Speaker 9 (36:28):
It's scary.

Speaker 11 (36:29):
Hey, Also, Mandy, thank you.

Speaker 9 (36:31):
You keep my afternoons pretty darn entertaining, and you've added
to my life over the last four years since COVID
hit and I got to listen to you like count
almost constantly, So thank you.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
I really appreciate that, Alex. It makes what I do
a lot more gratifying knowing I'm not just sitting here
talking to myself.

Speaker 9 (36:49):
And the whole weight lot's getting better on your body,
you know, fighting aging. Like you said, I'm on the
journey as well. I talked to au out a couple
of years ago. You know, Generally, when I'm listening to you,
I start my workout, you know, and that's when it starts,
and then I'm hooked, and then listening to you, I'm
doing work. But yeah, yeah, you add to a lot
of people's glads.

Speaker 4 (37:07):
I appreciate that, Alex very much. I appreciate that I
have a good one.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Alex. I appreciate it very much.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
That's always nice to hear because you know, honestly, mostly
people ask me if you've ever seen those memes that
is like, describe what you do badly, or describe badly
what you do, And I always say, I sit in
a room and talk to myself for three hours, Like
that's that.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
I'm not wrong.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
I'm completely alone in the room that I am in
right now, completely Cooper's over there that there's glass in
between us though it's like he's at the zoo watching
me perform. There you go, Okay, I wanna do a
story for the blog because this really I got super
mad this morning. This is actually why I decided to
do a free for all Friday, because I got so
mad after reading the story that I was like, I
can't talk about this, but we have to talk about

(37:51):
this because it's so incredibly important. Asking who's running the
country right now is a valid question.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
President Joe Biden is just checked out.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
He's been on vacation after vacation, but apparently he was
around when the news came in that Hamas murdered six hostages,
including an American, right before the Israeli defense forces could
rescue them.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
And I want to share with you an Axios article.
And when I read the second paragraph of this, I
lost my ever love and mind. Let me just share
the first paragraph.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
One of the main questions raised during a meeting President
Biden and Vice President Harris had with their national security
team on Monday was whether there is a hostage release
and ceasefire in the Gaza deal Hamas would ever agree.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
To top official set And this is the second paragraph
why it matters.

Speaker 4 (38:48):
Biden and his top advisors were shocked after Hamas murdered
six hostages, among them US citizen Hirsch Goldberg, Poland, and
it started to rethink the way forward. In the negotiations
over the deal, the Biden administration and top advisors were
shocked that an organization who went into a kibbutz full

(39:13):
of civilians and videotape themselves violently raping and murdering women
and chopping off the heads of men and live streaming
it on the internet. You're surprised and shocked that they
murdered a hostage right before they were rescued.

Speaker 7 (39:32):
What now?

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Let me just ask real quick, am I listening? Audience?

Speaker 4 (39:36):
Show of hands, Show of hands. If you're driving right now,
this is one of my favorite things to do, roll
down your window. We're gonna have a poll out the
window of the car. Okay, if you are shocked or
surprised that Hamas murdered these people, do not participate. If
you are not shocked or surprised, stick your left.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
Arm out the window of your car right now. I
see you all. No one is surprised except the White House.
But but, and there's good news here.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
If this makes the White House understand that no matter
what they suggest to Hamas, unless it is a complete
capitulation by Israel, they.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Will never agree. Do you know how we know this?

Speaker 4 (40:16):
Because this is the history of Palestinian resistance since the
nineteen seventies. When the Palestinians and the Israelis have been
brought to the table, the Israelis are pretty much like, yeah,
let's get this done, let's make it happen, and the Palestinians,
who usually get everything they're asking for, just walk away
or say no.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
They don't want.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
Peace with the Israelis. They want the Israelis neutered so
they can reload and re arm and start killing Jews again.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
And it seems like maybe, just maybe, our President Joe
Biden may actually understand this now, which would be a
refreshing change because essentially, after Herschgoldberg Poland was murdered by Hamas,
Biden came out to say that Israel wasn't doing enough
to secure a ceasefire in a hostage extage, what.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
What can you imagine? And I am not wishing, willing,
or wanting this to happen, to be clear, but can
you imagine if somehow doctor Jill is being held hostage
in those tunnels, and right before they get to come
and rescue doctor Jill, she is brutally murdered by Hamas.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
What do you think would be the response. Then here's
the thing.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
If I'm president right now and I'm not, this is
probably why I'll never be president. I stand up after
an American is murdered, and I stand up and make
an announcement, Israel, we have your back.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
Do what you gotta do.

Speaker 4 (41:45):
Kill them all, do it, kill every single Hamas member
in the Gaza strip, and we will give you the
weapons to do it. We will send them express mail.
I mean this, and the Biden Harris administration, by the way,
from now on, you'll be noting a change in the

(42:06):
way I refer to Vice President Kamala Harris. I will
always call her vice president, not maybe not Kamala Harris,
but vice President Harris from this point forward, because I
never want people to forget that she is part of
this administration. Now, I have another story on the blog
that I always think of. Now, I shared with you
an email from a guy named Kevin. I thought the

(42:27):
email was perfectly fine. I didn't find it irritating or offensive.
He just wrote to say, Hey, why don't you give
the other side of the story, Why don't you talk
about the Republican stuff? Well, I talk a lot about
the state Republican Party obviously, but I don't feel the
need to trot out every accusatory story about Donald Trump
because I realized some time ago that Donald Trump isn't
just running against Vice President Kamala Harris, He's running against

(42:50):
the entire media. And I said this, and it's you know,
everybody's like, well, maybe whatever, or maybe they don't believe it,
or maybe you know I'm right.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
The AP trots up just to prove my point. So JD.

Speaker 4 (43:03):
Vance was giving a speech and in this speech he
said the following. Hang on one second, he said, in
this speech, I don't like it that this is a
fact of life, but if you are a psycho and
you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools
are soft targets and we have got to bolster security

(43:25):
at our schools.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
That is what Jade Vance said.

Speaker 4 (43:28):
The AP tweeted out the following JD Van says school
shootings are a fact of life, calls for better security. Now,
when you know what he actually said, you immediately know
that you do not hate the Associated Press enough. It
was so bad they got community noted on x so

(43:51):
hard that they actually deleted the tweet and replaced it.
With one that said JD. Vance says he laments that
school shootings are act of life and says the.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
US needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like
the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia.
Much better. But someone put out the first tweet and
thought it was a good idea. So here we are.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
So now we have the White House with Vice President
Kamala Harris as part of the White House, just getting
hipped to the notion that Helmas they maybe they're not nice.
I mean they seem kind of mean, right, Am I wrong?

Speaker 3 (44:34):
No?

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Do you really think they're going to follow through on
their commitments?

Speaker 11 (44:38):
No?

Speaker 4 (44:40):
Come on, Mandy, you get in trouble for genocide? Did
I say kill all of the Palestinian people?

Speaker 2 (44:47):
I did not.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
Can we talk about the notion that Israel is trying
to commit genocide in the Gaza Strip for just a moment.
There are a little over a million people in the
Gaza Strip over a million, and so far, according to Hamas,
forty thousand people have been killed. Now, forty thousand people

(45:09):
is a lot of people. I don't believe Hamas's numbers,
but forty thousand people is a lot of people. And
by the way, those numbers also count hamas fighters. But
let's just say it's forty thousand people out of a million.
If you are committing genocide on a very small territory,
it's very very small, and you can only kill forty

(45:30):
thousand people out of a million, you are the worst
genocidal people in the entire world. Are you don't even
have a concept of how to commit genocide. And I'm
not making light of what's happening there in terms of
the death toll or people dying or the fact there's
a war going on. What I'm making light of is
how stupid that accusation is that Israel is trying to

(45:50):
murder all Palestinians.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Because if that was the goal that would have.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Been done six months ago, that could have been done
probably seven or eight months ago, they certainly would have
let it let it go on this much.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
So whenever I hear the.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
They're committing genicide, well, they're the worst genocidal people in
the entire world.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
The Nazis on X didn't like what.

Speaker 4 (46:14):
The AP said, and you're taking that seriously, Please the
Nazis on X. That's such a stupid flipping comment. I mean,
just such an easy thing to say without much proof.
I've been on Twitter now since two thousand and nine.
I'm now, of course, on x Do you know how
much racism and white supremacy I see on my timeline? None, zero, zilch.

(46:38):
Perhaps it's because of the people I choose to follow.
Perhaps it's because I've curated my timelines. So if you're
seeing a bunch of Nazis, those are your friends, not mine.
Biden is famously naive. That's why Trump could never believe
that he lost to him. That from a Texter, you know,
Joe Biden has always been wrong about foreign policy, always

(46:59):
one hundred percent. And there you go, Mandy. I do
not know why the US and world for that matter,
just does not keep their dang mouth shut. I don't
remember anyone telling the US to stand down after nine
to eleven. You know, there were places very few after
nine eleven. Nine to eleven kind of guarded the world

(47:21):
created weird alliances for a minute.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
But I agree with you.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
I don't think it is the United States of America's
business to tell anyone how to execute a war, how
to run their country, how to.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Do any of that stuff.

Speaker 4 (47:34):
The problem is is that when you give foreign aid
to a nation, they are indebted to you whenever you
get something that you know as enlargest from someone else.
Although let's just be real about what the foreign aid
that we give Israel is. It's actually just circular money
that comes right back into the military industrial complex in

(47:54):
the United States because they use that money to buy
our weapons.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
So it's just a you know, one degree of separation.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
But when you are indebted to someone else, they do
try to exert a measure of control. And because they're
giving four and aid, like we are giving four and aid.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
They try to use that.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
As an excuse. So it's it is kind of an anyway.
I read that this morning and I was like, you
know what, I'm not going to be the only person
knowing that. Somebody else has to know this as well, Mandy.
Israel pulling out of Gaza before Hamas is destroyed is
like US stopping World War two before eliminating Hitler.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Exactly the big issue here, that.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
Is the sticking point, And I genuinely can't even believe
that the United States would even look at this with
anything other than one hundred percent having Israel's back on this.
Hamas wants Israel out of the Philadelphia Corridor, which is
the border of Egypt and Gaza. That is where all

(48:55):
of the tunnels have been built to bring in the
weapons and the rock is it's in all of this
stuff over underneath that border. Israel would be insane.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
If they gave up that.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
Border, absolutely nuts, and there's no we should not be
demanding that. But this is the same administration that told
them not to go into Rafa, where they have killed
a vast majority of the high level Hamas leadership who
were hiding in tunnels that were accessed through little girls' bedrooms.
So this, I mean, we can't even imagine here, We

(49:28):
just can't. I was talking to my nephew the other
day and I said, how is everyone doing? He said,
they're all.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Numb to it.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
They had a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv blew himself up,
hurt some of the other and it was in the
headlines for like five hours, because everybody's just numb to
what's going on, living in a war zone, having rockets
thrown at them every single day, every day, and for
people who live in Tel Aviv, that's a relatively new
experience in the grand scheme of things because for the

(49:57):
most part, Tel Aviv was kind of not off limits,
but wasn't targeted that much. There's a very big population
of Arabs in that area and they were sort of
left alone, but not anymore.

Speaker 13 (50:11):
So.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
It's I don't know, maybe the Biden administration understands now
that they're dealing with absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible people.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Mandy.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
I know you reached some Democrats and independence. There's no
better way to show them. How when bumbling Biden speaks,
he lies. He will absolutely pardon his son who doesn't
pay his taxes, even though he said he won't. Remember
Biden says people should pay their fair share, except for
his son. I guess I've thought about that exact same thing, Texter.
Because Unter Biden is entering a plea deal. He's going

(50:44):
to be sentenced on December sixteenth, so he'll get his
sentence in his dad, whose political career ended in such disgrace,
because I don't care how people try to spin it.

Speaker 2 (50:58):
He was shoved out of office by his own party.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
He didn't even have the dignity or have the opportunity
to have the dignity to lose at the ballot box.
You know, he didn't even have that going for him,
So why wouldn't he pardon his son? Why wouldn't he
nobody's gonna remember that. They're only going to remember that
he got shoved out by his own.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Party, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
If government gives anything to American citizens, they will also
have every right to say yes or no. Example, if
the government funds your insurance, they can tell you you
cannot have that life saving surgery exactly right. You know
when I hear people talk about like wanting the National
health Care System or something like that, the NHS in Britain.

(51:43):
I just heard another fun story about the NHS. One
of my nephew's friends married a British woman. They moved
back to the UK and at a relatively young age
like twenty six, he is diagnosed with testicular cancer and
the National Health Service refuse used to give him the
cutting edge treatment and he died at twenty seven. That's

(52:06):
what national health care gets you. When the government chooses
they can say no. At least with an insurance company,
you have some hope of getting it done. Set the
sentencing date to February twenty fifth, that would be epic.
Although Kama could very well if Kamala pardoned Hunter Biden
at the beginning of her term. If she wins, no

(52:28):
one were to remember, no one at all, Mandy. If
making love is the most intimate form of communication is well.

Speaker 2 (52:39):
I can't read the rest of that.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Now.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
See you know I can't read these before I read
them on the air.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
What what?

Speaker 3 (52:48):
Why?

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Why? Why? Anyway? Let me see if I can get
anything else. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
You can't negotiate with people who think the only way
to get into heaven is to kill yourself while killing
the infidels.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
That is a fair point, a very fair point, Hi, Mandy.
Let me see here, Dana just updated, Hi Mandy.

Speaker 4 (53:19):
The Palestinian people need to remove they're so called leaders
and elect those who will advance them instead of putting
them in harm's way.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
You have to understand, you know how we all.

Speaker 4 (53:28):
Know that people in North Korea are completely brainwashed. People
in Gaza and in the West Bank are utterly and
completely brainwashed.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
They literally believe that Jews eat babies. They are so
deeply entrenched with a level of Jewish hatred and.

Speaker 4 (53:49):
Blind allegiance to they perceived defenders against Judaism.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
That I'm not sure that they would elect now.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Maybe after getting their butts kicked like this and having
their lives destroyed, maybe they would elect someone else. But
who else is there the assumption that someone better would
fill that vacuum.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
It may not necessarily be true. It could be out
of the frying pan and into the fryar, but we
don't know now.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
When we get back, Danielle Terreinski is supposed to join us,
but she just texted me and I think it says she's.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Running a little bit behind.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
So if she can't make it yet, I will bring
you up to speed on the very latest about the
Aurora PD situation. This low lords are at it again
giving us more information. But this information is backed up
by the Aurora Police Department. I'll share that with you next.
Maybe she'll be with us in just a second, but
maybe not. But let me bring you up to speed
on the latest in.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
The Aurora apartment's story that's been going on in Ruining
and as more journalism happens, it's amazing to see what
is going on.

Speaker 4 (54:50):
But just to set the table, if you haven't if
you've been living, if you've been on the space station,
and you haven't heard any of this. So there are
three apartments complexes owned by an out of state landlord
that I will concede seems to be a slum lord.
The slow lord says that one of the reasons they

(55:11):
are slow lords. Now they didn't say they were slow lords,
but do you know what I mean? Is it because
Venezuelan gangs have taken over these apartment complexes and have
made it impossible and even dangerous for the property managers
to handle things at the complex. Now, after being told
that everything was a figment of her imagination, Daniel Jurinskia
were a city councilwoman. Journalists did journalism and started digging

(55:35):
in and found out that a prestigious law firm, a
very democrat connected law firm, perkinskoy Is, did a report.
They did an investigation for the lender to the slow
lords to find out what was going on, because I
guess they stopped making their payments or something. And they
came back and said, yeah, this apartment, at least one

(55:56):
of them was taken over by gangs in November of
twenty twenty three, and at the beginning of August they
sent that report to the mayor the city manager and
the police chief at the time.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
So now in the Denver Gazette, we have a story
that the landlord for.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
These apartment complexes, especially the one that has already been
shuttered on Nome Street, tried to hire off duty police
officers to provide security for the properties, and the Aurora
Police Department confirmed this and said the real story is
the owner of CBZ Management, Schmari Bumgarten, reached out to

(56:41):
the Aurora Police Department on numerous occasions looking to provide
additional security at his properties through the hiring of off
duty officers.

Speaker 2 (56:50):
He was told we didn't have the.

Speaker 4 (56:52):
Staffing to provide adequate security at all his properties. Now
listen to this, and this is interesting, And the Common
Sense Institute has done a study that came out yesterday.
While elevated compared to pre pandemic levels, Aurora is estimated
to have a six percent decrease in violent crime reporting

(57:12):
and to one percent decline in property crime. But two
properties owned by CBZ Management saw nearly double double. And
this is what DJ Summer, CSI's director of Policy and
Research said. These three apartments clearly had something going on

(57:33):
for the last two years. We don't know if it's
from gang activity or landlord neglect. Now maybe this is
like a living, breathing example of the broken windows theory
that you know, when you allow things to become run down,
then a criminal element believes that law and order has
just given up and they'll move in to fill that vacuum.
And perhaps that is what happened. But we do know

(57:56):
that crime has definitely increased. Now the gang that has
been accused of taking over these apartment complexes, it does
have tentacles. Police have admitted they're in the area. They
have been involved of criminal activities that include human trafficking,
particularly of immigrant women and girls, drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion,

(58:21):
and money laundering.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
They seem nice. So again, two things can be true
at the same time.

Speaker 4 (58:29):
They can be slum lords. These can also have been
taken over by games. Just thrown that out, got that
going for us.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
So that is the update.

Speaker 4 (58:37):
We'll have Danielle Dorinsky on because the governor at one
point said that he believed that Danielle Dorinsky that this
was all a figment of her imagination because she was
the one that sounded the alarm about all of this stuff.
So we're gonna have her on and I have those
audio sound bites from the governor and we will play those.

(58:59):
So Ross did a really good job trying to get
him to walk back his incorrect statements, but he did not.
He chose, He chose otherwise on that day. So what
did Danielle say, did you talk to her?

Speaker 14 (59:12):
She did not answer.

Speaker 4 (59:12):
Okay, that's fine. She'll get back to me whenever she's
done doing whatever she's doing. She did have a meeting today,
so she was trying to.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Work us in around that. So we'll get her on
a little bit later.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
I want to connect this all to one more study
that the Common Sense Institute put out. There's a ballot initiative,
Ballot Initiative one fifty one that would appropriate three hundred
and fifty million dollars to fund police recruitment, training and
support for police officers and their families. And in an
effort to support the initiative one fifty seven, Common Sense

(59:48):
Institute analyzed crime rates and law enforcement funding between twenty
eleven and twenty twenty three. Crime rose twenty six percent
in that period. Motor vehicle thefts really drove that they
went up to or excuse me, yeah, two hundred and
twenty five percent, as Colorado's lagging law enforcement cadre of

(01:00:08):
two point two officers per thousand people continues to fall
behind the national average of two point four officers per
thousand people. And the report also says that the number
of sworn police officers in law enforcement agencies in Colorado
shrink from sixty nine percent in twenty thirteen to sixty
five percent in twenty twenty three, and from twenty eleven

(01:00:32):
to twenty twenty four, the number of officers with arrest
powers increased seven point nine percent, which is half the
rate by which the state's population rose. And Denver, the
number of uniform police declined fifteen point one percent and
the crime rate climbed by thirty two percent.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
So you can see this being a theme. It always
cracks me up when people say lawyer police does not
equal left craft, really really, because it seems like maybe
it does not to mention, you know, survey after survey
shows that in African American communities.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
They don't want less police overwhelmingly because guess what they want.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
They want to feel safe in their neighborhoods. They want
to feel safe in their homes.

Speaker 4 (01:01:22):
They don't want to be targeted and victimized Hispanic neighborhoods.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
Same thing, more police, not less. The only people who
want less police are rich liberal people who live in
incredibly safe neighborhoods, and they don't really even think about it,
but they're like, you know what, there's racist cops.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
They don't need to go in those low income neighborhoods.
That's exactly where all that comes from.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
It doesn't come from people who face actual danger in
their neighborhoods. So that report is linked on the blog
today as well. Ah, but all let me see.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
Here just wondering says this Texter Randy Cromwell is ever
going to get back on the air with you.

Speaker 7 (01:02:03):
You never know.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
You never know, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
When someone throws out the Nazi term, I always ask
exactly what is a Nazi?

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
They never come close to the actual definition.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Nazi Germany slang for a member of the National Socialist
German Workers Party.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Correct, Correct, Mandy? What do you think about this?

Speaker 4 (01:02:26):
If Vice President Harris seems to have copied Trump's idea
of not taxing tips, what if Trump were one up
Vice President Harris.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
That's not what they typed.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
But I'm going to say it like that Vice President Harris,
by taxing tips as well as overtime paying bonuses, would
that be enough to move the needle?

Speaker 5 (01:02:45):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Wait?

Speaker 5 (01:02:47):
What?

Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
What's really chapped me about the whole Kamala Harris? Vice
President Harris now wants to give you know, give up
taxing on tips. The Biden administration got a whole bunch
more money for the irs, and then he immediately sent
out a new rule on tipping. After telling people they
were going after the rich and famous. They went after
gig economy workers who use cash app and Venmo and

(01:03:11):
other platforms like that. And then they went after tipped
employees because they figured under reporting was worth a couple billion.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Think about that for a second.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
The same federal government that overspends every year by right
now roughly a trillion dollars, that is our deficit roughly
right now, they're gonna go after tipped employees for a billion.
Child Please, I mean, that's just that's just dumb, Mandy.

(01:03:42):
There's no deal that Hamas will ever agree to or
adhere to, just like there was never an agreement that
the Taliban would live up to.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
There's a connection there that I'll let you figure out. Hmmm.
I'm gonna have to maulve this over. It's pretty complicated.
We'll be right back, so as soon as she gets done,
she's going to give us a.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
Call and hopefully we'll be able to get her on today.
Coming up in the next hour, I'm excited to talk
to Ken Witt, who I met years ago when I
first moved here, when he was on the jeff co
School board that was summarily bounced out for the liberal
nightmares that have been there ever since, focused solely on
making sure that little boys can go into bathrooms little
girls instead of academic achievement. We're going to talk to

(01:04:24):
him about what he's helped with the help of all
the teachers and the staff, what they've accomplished in Woodland
Park over the last year in terms of student achievement,
and it's pretty dang impressive.

Speaker 7 (01:04:35):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
In the meantime, I got a bunch of stuff speaking
of jeff Cooe schools. I want to get this story out.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
So we did this story when it broke the first time,
but now the family of a little girl who went
on and across the country trip only to find out
that she was supposed to be sharing a bed with
a little trans girl who was a boy right, and
the parents are now suing, alleging that the school district

(01:05:01):
violated the constitutional rights of the parents when it arranged
for their eleven year old daughter to share a bed
with a transgender student during a trip out of state.
Since that incident, two other families have come forward with
similar concerns. In December of twenty twenty three, jeff Co's
Schools sent a letter that said Jeffco Public Schools will

(01:05:21):
not knowingly assign students of different birth sexes to share a.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Bed, and it did not do so here.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
At no time prior to June twenty fifth, twenty twenty three,
did either the supervising chaperones or the private tour operator
know that Jane No was transgender. And they are protecting
the child who is transgender. They don't you want this
kid to face any more, you know, issues because of this.

(01:05:49):
But ultimately, I don't know if if this lawsuit is
going to.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
Fly now, would they.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):
Be able to force jeff Co's Schools to clarify exactly
what their policies are. Is it don't ask, don't tell,
you know, at some point you have to ask the
uncomfortable question. So uh yeah, that's gonna be very interesting
to follow. I'm not like, I totally understand how the

(01:06:20):
parents feel. And this what a what a horrible situation
to put children into. Just horrible, not just the their daughter,
but this this other child who obviously has been living
as a girl in such a way that people didn't
know it was actually a boy.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
It's just an awful, awful situation. But we'll be watching that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
Hey, if you have not got a full service generator
for your house, now's the time.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Here's why.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
We just got a big old fat load of federal
tax dollars those that's.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Who your money in mind, ladies and gents, to add
more renewable energy to our grid and shut down the
coal fired power plants that have provided reliable energy for decades.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
Yay.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
And I'm not being unseerious when I say, if you
need constant power, if you have something in your home,
if you have someone in your home that needs electrified
medical equipment twenty four hours a day, you should probably
look into a generator. Because as we rely more and
more on renewable energy, they are unreliable. They are not

(01:07:35):
in a position now where we have battery storage that's
capable of making up those gaps when the wind doesn't
blow and the sun doesn't shine, and so we are
headed for a situation that at peak demand times I'm
talking about the dead of summer, when there's no wind
and solar isn't enough to power all of our air conditions.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
I would fully expect at.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
Some point in the future, just like they're having in California,
we will be facing rolling brown house. So if you
want to keep your power on all the time, now's
the time to buy a generator because you know the
price will will go up supply and demand.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
You know, the markets work.

Speaker 4 (01:08:08):
Markets work everywhere, except in energy, where the government is
trying to force us into systems and programs that are
not going to meet all of our needs. You know,
it's going to be super fun when our incredibly vibrant
tech sector here in the Boulder area, the growing and
burgeoning tech sector, they need energy and they need it
to be reliable. What happens when they have to buy

(01:08:29):
full service chain were we're I think we're required by law.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Whover do you know this?

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
Are radio stations like us. We're a clear channel station,
meaning we are one of the primary stations in the
United States of America. Our signal, our eight fifty Chawa
signal is massive, and I think we're required by the
FCC to have generators to support our ongoing operation in
an emergency.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Do you know I believe that's the case. I think
it is. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
So we have a generator the size of a freaking
like semi truck out side, because I know this because
every so often they have to test it and you
walk up and it's like, is there, what is going?
It's just the generator. So if you need full time power,
start looking into a generator. Now I'm here. I'm just
here trying to help. When we get back, we got

(01:09:16):
the jobs report not good, but that means that interest
rates could come down. And Tim Walls, in an effort
to burn jd vance about donuts.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
You heard me right, donuts. Is that Danielle? That might
be Danielle.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
We'll get Danielle on after this if if that's her, okay,
just tick around. We have no idea what's happening next.
It'll be a surprise.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
No, it's Mandy Connell on Kam got.

Speaker 12 (01:09:58):
The noise through.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Bennyconnell keeping sad bab Welcome, Welcome to the third hour
of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:10:10):
We are making our way through our Friday afternoon edition,
going to take you right up to KOA Sports at
three pm. I'm here Michael Cooper in for a rod
and this hour we've got a lot of stories.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
I want to talk about this real quick.

Speaker 4 (01:10:23):
Because I just saw a blurb on one of the
TV screens about the shooting in school, shooting in Georgia, and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
The father of that young man has now.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Been arrested and charged with a variety of charges, mainly
because this kid was very troubled. There was police contact
in the past, and apparently there were some threats made,
threats of violence, and his father not only admitted to
getting the kid a firearm, he made no effort to

(01:10:59):
prevent the kid from having access unfettered access to a firearm. Now,
I am pro Second Amendment, and I have been shooting
since I was about six years old. My father first
taught us to shoot. I was like six, My sister
was about eight. My brother probably didn't learn to shoot
until after that, So, I mean, but we started shooting
shotguns very very young, and I duck hunted, I bird hunted.

(01:11:22):
I went deer hunting once that didn't go well, and
my dad got really mad at me and said he
was never taking me again because I couldn't shoot a deer.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
They're just too cute.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
I mean, if I was starving, I could shoot a deer,
but I wasn't starving, and it was so pretty anyway,
I digress. But we as children were never allowed to
have unfettered access to firearms, and we as children would
help my dad clean the guns after we went shooting.
I mean, it wasn't like we didn't handle them except
when we were at the range. But we knew first

(01:11:53):
of all that if we touched them, my father would
murder us. So we wouldn't have to like kill ourselves
because my dad would care. But second of all, my
father made some rudimentary effort to lock them up, and
those two things together we I mean, it was it
would have never occurred to me to give or or

(01:12:14):
that I would be given access to a gun, and
I never was. So, you know, even if I support kids,
and you know, young people middle schoolers and teenagers learning
how to shoot and learning how to be responsible gun owners,
I would never give unfettered access to a firearm to
my fifteen year old daughter.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
Never.

Speaker 4 (01:12:35):
Now, I think there's a zero percent chance my daughter
would ever hurt herself or anybody else with a firearm,
And there is still zero percent chance that I would
give my daughter unfettered access to a firearm.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Zero.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
So the fact that this guy allowed a fourteen year
old son to have unfettered a fourteen year old son
with a troubled history to have unfettered access to a
firearm is something that I believe he needs to be
charged for.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
We've already seen the Michigan case.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Where two parents have been charged and convicted of involuntary
manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in prison because they
kept an unsecured going at home and showed indifference to
their son's mental health struggles. So now we have this
man facing charges, and I'm fine with that. I'm perfectly

(01:13:31):
fine with that, because when it comes to school shootings,
I want.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Anything that is legal that can move the needle, that will.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
Give a parent whose child who may be struggling, will
give them pause before not securing firearms in their homes,
or will give them reason to take it seriously. When
you have kids who are troubled in any way, shape
or for him. And I'm not just talking about children
who were looking to do harm to others. I'm talking
about children who may be doing harm to themselves. I

(01:14:05):
can't imagine anything worse as a parent than your child
committing suicide with one of your unsecured firearms. That to
me would be the biggest failure of my entire life.
I don't think I would ever recover from that. I'm
not sure I would ever recover if my child took
the life of other children.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
So what can we do?

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
And charging the parents maybe one of those things. Now,
if parents have done a good and decent job securing firearms,
helping their kids with mental health, doing the things that
they can do, and that kid still does something crazy
while securing firearms somewhere else, then we're talking about a
different story here. But these parents bear some culpability and

(01:14:47):
now they're gonna have to face charges for it. And
I'm wondering if anybody else feels the same way.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
So sounds like the world is making a dad illegal.
Now what is that even mean?

Speaker 7 (01:15:01):
What is that?

Speaker 13 (01:15:02):
So?

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Being a dad is giving your troubled child unsecured access
to a firearm. Surely you don't mean that. Surely you
need to clarify that text. Texter.

Speaker 4 (01:15:12):
That can't be what you mean, because my dad was
a great dad. He was a fantastic dad, and he
never gave me unsecured access.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
To a firearm. That's just stupid.

Speaker 3 (01:15:28):
Eh.

Speaker 4 (01:15:29):
Anyway, I agree with you, Mandy, but I'm seventy five,
and all the kids that I grew up with had
unfettered access to shotguns, twenty twos, pistols, knives from the
time we were able to basically walk around and go hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:15:44):
That's what we did.

Speaker 4 (01:15:47):
He does say, but we were in the country and
having farms and you had to have your gun racks
on your car, so matter of fact about it. That's
the world that I grew up in in a rural area.
But we don't live in a rural area. We live
in an area that where people are on top of
each other. We're a big part of the problem, I think,
and there's no way to solve this in an urban
area with any real efficacy. And that is when I

(01:16:09):
was a kid, everybody knew who my mom and dad were,
and if I got into trouble, they would look at
me and go, are you Frank's daughter?

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
And I knew I was done for. I was dead meat.
As soon as they made the connection. I was like, ah, crap,
I'm in trouble now.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
And it's hard to have compassion for other people, for
other kids when you don't know each other, when you
don't have that familial connection, or you don't go to
the same church, or you know, you don't have those
kind of connections that are really hard to get in
a large urban environment. Mandy the father should do time
right along his troubled son. I believe he probably will.

(01:16:49):
Juris are having no part of this. You know, jury's
are showing they are very willing to hold the parents
responsible to Mandy. I think the teachers in schools to
be sued for failing to seriously address the bullying and
are culpable, just like I don't necessarily agree that is

(01:17:11):
the school's responsibility to counsel children after a tragedy. We
cannot hold the school responsible for every single person that
does something horrible. And you know, we're not sure what
level the bullying actually was. We don't know, so I'm
not willing to jump. I'm not willing to go that

(01:17:33):
right there. I'm not willing to go there.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
So yeah, oh it's clarified, says the Texter from earlier.

Speaker 4 (01:17:42):
It's just what the world is making it sound like.
No black dads to take account for their kids. They
just leave early on to avoid anything like this. This
kid is white, his dad is white. I don't know
why you just brought that in. I'm your age. Grew
up in southern California. Kids had guns in their back
windows at our high school.

Speaker 2 (01:18:04):
You know, we've talked about this.

Speaker 4 (01:18:05):
Before, kind of the overarching issues that exist. At least
I think that that go to the heart of our
cultural rot and the destruction of the family, the nuclear family,
two parents, kids, the lack of attendance at church to
instill a sense and reason for goodness. That's a big
part of it, I think. And then just the general

(01:18:27):
coarsening of our society has been a huge part of it,
and that includes a lot of stuff. I got to
take a quick time. I'll be right back. I did
a little searching about this fourteen year old boy, and
his story is tragic already and we don't even know
the rest of it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:47):
His grandmother, his aunt, has come out and.

Speaker 4 (01:18:49):
Said he has been begging all of the adults around
him for months for some kind of mental health help,
and that everyone let him down, and that he had
been previously in investigated by the FBI, and they met
with him, and this kid was horrified that someone would say.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
That he would shoot up the school.

Speaker 4 (01:19:08):
So it's a bad situation and four people are dead.
The dad's been charged with second degree murder, four counts
of manslaughter, and something else.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
I don't remember what else it was. I just looked
at it. But a lot of people weighing in on
the common spirit health tech line five to sixty six
nine oero. This person said, I agree with you.

Speaker 4 (01:19:29):
Grew up in here in the Denver suburbs, attended a
camp where one of our activities were rifles, but you
learn to respect the guns. I'm a former elementary school
teacher and now raising three teenagers. I don't think it's
fair to make teachers culpable, but I do hope their
funding would allow for schools to have therapists and counselors
that can help do a deeper dive when there are
concerns with mental health and or bullying. My son had

(01:19:52):
a very unusual bullying situation in high school and not
sure the school handled it perfectly, but the fact they
did give him access to a therapist on camp for
the rest of the four years really helped him to
build that confidence and courage and learn how to make
proper friendships. I don't think we can properly put the
blame on teachers when bulaying happens, but I do think
it's important for them to pass it along to administrators

(01:20:15):
and people trained in that arena within the school district.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
I agree well wholeheartedly with all of that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
Simply put, if you're not equipped to secure it, you're
not equipped to own it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
That is absolutely true.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
I walked into someone's house in college, like a college
guy's house, and he had a pistol.

Speaker 2 (01:20:37):
Sitting on the coffee table and I said what is
that and he said it's my pistol. I go, what
are you doing with it?

Speaker 4 (01:20:46):
He's like, oh, I just like to have it out.
I turned around and left. I don't want to be
in that guy's house because either he thinks he needs
to have a pistol out for some reason, or he's
just crazy and thinks he has to have a pistol
out for some reason.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
Now, don't get me wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:21:00):
In my home there are well placed firearms that you
would not see if you walked in, just in case
something happens.

Speaker 2 (01:21:07):
But they're concealed and you don't need to worry. You're
pretty littlehead about that, now, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:21:14):
Growing up, we had a shooting range in the basement
of our house by Lowery Air Force Base. All the
neighbor kids came over and shot twenty two's and more
guns and ammo were always out. My high school had
a skeet range in Inglewood. As teenagers, we had unfettered
access to dynamite.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
Caps and fuse. We blew up a bunch of stuff
with no injuries or damage to property.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
I'm seventy years young now, I want to know how
you blew up a bunch of stuff without damage to
property because my brother made.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
A bomb at a black Cat, firecrackers.

Speaker 4 (01:21:42):
And a mason jar and packed newspaper and blew a
crater in our backyard. So really, come on, the world
is over any day now, says this texter. And these
are all distractions for its school shootings, immigrants in Aurora.
World ends, and there'll be idiots in McDonald's drive through
or producing a radio show pushing buttons when we should

(01:22:05):
all be running, running to where? And I mean that genuinely,
trust me. I've looked at stepping out of the United
States of America myself. I've talked about the fact that
I want my daughter to be confident enough to go
live in another country if there are more opportunities and
better opportunities for her. But reality, right now, where is better?

(01:22:28):
You have in nations around the world free speech not
just being you know, clamped down on a little and.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
These are supposedly free nations.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
I have a video on the blog today about Brazil,
and you probably have not been following along with what's
going on in Brazil, but Brazil is now cracking down
on any kind of political commentary that is unflattering to.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
The ruling regime.

Speaker 4 (01:22:52):
And if you try to use X, which they banned
in Brazil because people on X said mean things about
the current president, it's a ten thousand dollars a day fine.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Like where else are you gonna go? The UK where
they're literally trying to arrest people for saying boys are
boys and girls are girls. I mean, man, you guys,
there's not better places now, There's just not.

Speaker 4 (01:23:20):
If you know of one let me know just you know,
just to check and make sure I'm just having my
ducks in a row when we get back. You know,
we've talked about student achievement not recovering from COVID. The
test scores are not great in the state of Colorado,
but in one school district they have somehow managed to
swing things back in the right direction. Woodland Park Superintendent

(01:23:41):
Ken Wit joins me next. And Ken Witt is the
superintendent of schools in Woodland Park, Colorado, and they were
in the news a couple of years ago when a
more conservative school board took over and essentially had the
nerve to say, hey, we want to focus on student
achievement low and the hold it seems to have taken hold.

(01:24:02):
They just released their results for their schools and the
growth in student achievement has been significant. And I wanted
to let Ken come on and talk about what they're
doing in Woodland Park because so much of Colorado is
not making significant gains that I thought we trying to
land on what seems to be working.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Ken, welcome back to the show. It's been a while,
it has.

Speaker 5 (01:24:24):
Thank you very much for having me on. Mandy, Well,
tell me.

Speaker 2 (01:24:26):
About what changed in Woodland Park.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
What the schools are doing, like, just kind of tell
the story of how you've gotten and we'll give some
of the numbers in just a minute of some of
that achievement.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
It's very impressive.

Speaker 5 (01:24:39):
Absolutely, thank you for recognizing that. It's not just an improvement,
but it's a I call it a significant leap in
academic excellence and academic performance. In Woodland Park. We've seen
an increased to seventy three point eight percent of our
composite score percentage, up from fifty sixth school district in

(01:25:01):
the state last year, which was notable for a small
school district, but now twenty seventh ranked in the state
this year with games of significant gains, double digit gains
and almost every school in terms of School Performance Framework scores.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
So, how many kids do you have in Woodland Park.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
We have about eighteen hundred funded students, about nineteen hundred
students in headcount.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
So tell me what your school district did.

Speaker 4 (01:25:33):
What did the individual schools do to make this kind
make these kind of games?

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
What was the plan?

Speaker 5 (01:25:42):
Well, that's right, there is a plan and there are
a number of pieces to it. It's never just one thing, right,
but number one, we strongly believe in school choice. We
believe that a rising tide lists all boats, so we
encouraged new school ideas and competition in the school place.

(01:26:03):
We installed a charter school that has just performed remarkably well.
But I want to emphasize that it's not about the
charter school. It's about the fact that competition raises everyone's performance.
We introduced a transportation plan that says every student in
Woodland Park can go to whichever school they want to
go to and get transportation to it, which means that

(01:26:24):
kids are in the schools that they and their families
believe are the best fit for them, which again helps
the Institute of the American birth Right standard. And went
over carefully our history curriculum, our social studies curriculum, made
certain that it had better breadth and bread better depth
in understanding our nation and a student's.

Speaker 7 (01:26:44):
Place in it.

Speaker 5 (01:26:46):
We focus broadly consistently in our messaging on refocusing on
academic excellence and paying some attention to the right academic leadership. Yeah, last,
but not least, we strengthen the culture our schools of
striving for excellence, of actually earning your way of investing

(01:27:06):
yourself in bettering your education, and I believe that's paying
significant dividends.

Speaker 4 (01:27:11):
So there was a huge kerfuffle when the school board
went to the right and said, look, we're going to
make these changes.

Speaker 2 (01:27:17):
And that's the last time we spoke. Was a massive
kerfuffle going on.

Speaker 4 (01:27:22):
But does this help settle it down? I haven't heard
much out of it as of late, but do these
results kind of go Wait a minute, we're focused on
the students and maybe we should leave all the adult
stuff to another time.

Speaker 2 (01:27:33):
If you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:27:34):
Here now, I'd like to believe that that will be
the outcome. Of course, this is yesterday's news. It's just
recently released information. But I have to tell you, Mandy,
the city council voted last night to end a sales
tax that's the significant percentage of the revenue for the
school district, after they learned of these huge strides of

(01:27:58):
the school district. So we're disappointed to see that there's
still a lot of resistance to the right direction of
education when we have the proof right here that it's working,
and it's not just working a little, it's working very well.

Speaker 4 (01:28:13):
So the school what so, the city council is essentially
defunding the school district is what explained that to me.

Speaker 5 (01:28:21):
That's right, there's a Woodland Park is one of three
school districts in the state that has a one percent
one point h nine percent sales tax that's allocated to
the school district. The city council voted to send that
back to the voters. Ie rescind it unless the voters
vote again to continue it, which will be a significant
hit to the school district's revenue. If in fact that

(01:28:45):
that issue that bonded that ballot initiative, I'm sorry if
that ballot initiative does not pass and they did that
on the heels of this kind of information, it's extremely disappointing.
But we have a high performing school district. We've seen
significant strides in the last two years with these new
direction and regardless of those who do not choose to

(01:29:09):
invest in the success of the education of Woodland Park,
which they're seeing, we're going to continue pressing forward.

Speaker 4 (01:29:16):
Talk to me about the teachers in your district, because
without the teacher buy in, none of this would have worked.
So talk to me about how the teachers have responded
and reacted and the things they brought to the table.

Speaker 5 (01:29:30):
I say, we have great teachers in Woodland Park. We
have spent significant effort and energy on creating opportunities for
the teachers to rise and to really make a difference
in their schools. We instituted Merit pay this year, so
great teachers are recognized and rewarded for being great teachers.

(01:29:52):
Our teachers have invested themselves in setting measures of student
learning that were ambitious and then really pursuing those We
had a school that increased its score this year, Summit
Elementary that increase its School Performance Ready by twenty two
percent this year. Just outstanding progress. And of course that's
yeah of the credit of those teachers.

Speaker 4 (01:30:11):
I want to share some of these numbers because they
are The growth is really really impressive, and it's not
like you guys started really down in the you know,
in the depths. You were not a poorly performing district,
let me be clear about that. But when you see it, yeah,
when you see an increase Columbine Elementary fourteen point seven percent, increase,

(01:30:32):
Gateway Elementary eleven point seven percent, increase, Merit Academy ten
point four percent increase, Summit Elementary, as you just mentioned,
twenty one point eight percent.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
Woodland Park Middle School six point.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
Two percent, Woodland Park High School thirteen point eight percent.
How in the world did you get high school students
to do anything that impressive?

Speaker 5 (01:30:58):
I have to say it has to do with folking
leadership on the right objectives and making certain that the
right message is going all the way through the leadership
and getting to the teachers. And we've seen a turnaround
and culture in some of these schools that is paying
dividends and we're very grateful for it and we're very
proud of it. I do have to make one correction
because you called the number out. There was a typo

(01:31:19):
in the first release. Merit Academy actually increased thirteen point
six percent. Oh ten percent.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
I got the first though.

Speaker 5 (01:31:25):
I apologize for that typo.

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
Nope, that's okay, that's a good correction to make. Now,
has anybody else reached out to you from another district
to say, hey, Ken, what are you guys doing down there?
What's you know, what's happening? Because we talked about this
earlier on the show. Like my feeling is when somebody
is having great success, you want to replicate that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
You want to find out what's going on.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
What advice would you give to other districts that are
not seeing remotely this growth? Some have barely If if
we'recovered at all from the pre pandemic numbers, what advice
would you give them?

Speaker 5 (01:31:58):
I guess I would give two major pieces of advice.
Number one, stop focusing on recovering from the pandemic. We
weren't very good before the pandemic. Let's focus on doing
great education and raising the bar on education in our schools.
And number two, focus on leadership. It's I know this

(01:32:18):
is not a popular message, but it's not just about
turning people or convincing them that a new system is
a better system. It's about getting the right people in
place to make certain that they're actually rowing together to
make academic success and increases in academic performance the number
one priority.

Speaker 4 (01:32:38):
Now, can these are all the c MASS results, so
the Colorado testing results. When are you guys going to
get results from like the PSAT testing SAT testing when
you can really begin to see how these programs are
really getting kids ready for college or workforce training programs.

Speaker 5 (01:32:58):
PSA test results are all so available. We didn't include
this in the press release, but those that information is
coming now. The PSAT cycle and The bottom line is
Woodland Park had remarkably high SAT scores last year, and
I expect that that will continue this year, but we
don't have the numbers published.

Speaker 2 (01:33:19):
Ship I'm talking to Ken wit.

Speaker 5 (01:33:20):
He's the bottom line is that's actually that was an
area of strength and the ce mass is now beginning
to show just the same level of success.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
Ken Whit is my guest.

Speaker 4 (01:33:29):
He's the superintendent of Woodland Park School District, a smaller
district in a beautiful part of the state. I mean,
who wouldn't want to live in Woodland Park? Can I
hope that you know, if you're going to have to
go to the voters and make the case that you
need to keep that one percent sales tax to keep
funding your schools, you certainly have a really good story
to talk to people in Woodland Park about, right. I mean,

(01:33:52):
you're coming into this from a position of strength. What
are your thoughts on whether or not that's going to pass?
Because so much around Woodland Park schools has been politicized
because of the adults, not what's focused on the kids,
but because of the adults. So do you feel like
you're gonna be able to get that over the finish line?
And get that passed.

Speaker 5 (01:34:11):
I'm absolutely certain that if the voters look at these
results and ask themselves what's best for our students, then
it's going to pack that It's going to pass with
flying colors. My hope is that those who have animosity
over the presence of a charter school or over some
leadership kerfuffle that they didn't like, that, those people will

(01:34:33):
put the priority on students and the performance of education,
not on their personal emotional issues, and will be fine.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
Ken Witt.

Speaker 4 (01:34:40):
I appreciate your time as always, and just a great job.
I love hearing about a district that is helping all
kids and achieving at a high level, and it sounds
like that's what you got going down there.

Speaker 2 (01:34:51):
But I wasn't surprised at all when they gave you
this job. I was like, oh, Ken, can fix it.
It'll be fine, It'll be fine.

Speaker 5 (01:34:58):
Thank you to get Mandy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:59):
I appreciate all right, Ken, have a great day my friend.

Speaker 7 (01:35:04):
Too. All right.

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
That is ken Witt success story. Success story.

Speaker 4 (01:35:08):
By the way, Just to be clear, Woodland Park still
had pretty high test scores back in twenty twenty three.
They were all well above the fifty percent mark. Most
of them in the seventies, and they've gone up to
now they have three schools that are in the eightieth percentile,
one in the seventieth.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
And two in the sixtieth. So their lowest composite score
is sixty four point two percent. I mean, you, guys,
imagine what we could do at all schools if we
could all just take the politics out of the school district,
if we didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
Worry about making sure that kids were getting pronouns called
and all this other stuff, and.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
Just say, we're gonna teach you how to read. We're
gonna teach you how to do math.

Speaker 4 (01:35:48):
We're gonna teach you about the history of this country
in a fair and balanced way, the good, the bad,
and the ugly. And we're gonna help you learn how
to move forward in your life and be a good American. My,
that would be lovely. By the way, I have something.
This is so petty and small, but I think it's hilarious,
So indulge me for a moment. You know, our old

(01:36:10):
friend Tata Anderson, he prefers to go by Aonte. Now
I will call him Tatay forever. I want to just
show you. I'm not going to show you because I'm
on the radio. But you've got to see what he
has on his Instagram page. You know, on Instagram, you
get to put a little description of yourself. He's got

(01:36:32):
himself in a picture. There was a little bow tie
on because you know, all civil rights leaders have to
have a bow tie.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
That's just it's part of the uniform.

Speaker 4 (01:36:39):
But it says the honorable one M Anderson, the honorable Well,
that's a nice honorific he's given himself. He him Just
in case you were wondering, Casey Denver Dad, chief executive
Officer of Advanced Black Education, Vice President emeritus of Denver

(01:37:00):
Public Schools. Now, I don't know everything, but I do
know that the word emeritus is only involved to my knowledge,
and I might have looked this up just to make
sure before I cast these stones. The word emeritus is
typically an honorific given to someone who is retired from
a position, but in order to honor them, they are

(01:37:23):
called president emeritus or you know, ceo emeritus or a
professor emeritus, and it's because they retired out of the
position and it was an honorable thing they give.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
You give, you get the honor.

Speaker 4 (01:37:37):
It's I don't think that the Denver School Board has
given him this honor, and to be clear, he didn't
run for reelection because he knew.

Speaker 2 (01:37:45):
He would lose. That made me laugh out loud.

Speaker 4 (01:37:50):
I mean, this is an example of a not super
well educated person trying to appear smarter and more important
than they are.

Speaker 12 (01:38:01):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:38:01):
I don't think Auntie Anderson is stupid. I think he's
poorly educated, which is ironic because now he holds himself
up as a person who wants to advance black education.
He should advance his own Black education and maybe go
to college, learn something useful, because I don't think he's
well educated. And the emeritus thing, just what honorable title

(01:38:26):
would you give yourself? Coover if you if you were
just gonna bestow an honorable title, what would it be?

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
I would go with duchess. I've always liked the way
duchess sounds.

Speaker 4 (01:38:37):
Duchess, the duchess Mandy coddle, because if you're a magic
a duchess, it's just you know, I'm going with duchess
from now on, address me as duchess.

Speaker 2 (01:38:46):
I'm gonna go with king. Well, of course you're gonna
go with king because you feel you don't get the
power by the way you just get the title. Oh see,
it's not as appealing then King Mike. That's also a
bad like a bad movie from the eighties. Oh, it's
King Ralph that I was thinking of another bad movie

(01:39:07):
from the eighties. Did you ever see the King Ralph
ride up?

Speaker 5 (01:39:10):
I have seen King Ralph?

Speaker 13 (01:39:11):
That okay, that is very nostalgic foot yet not a
very great.

Speaker 2 (01:39:13):
Funny story about King Ralph.

Speaker 4 (01:39:15):
I was a flight attendant for Delta Airlines when King
Ralph came out, and at the time, we had to
sell headsets. Remember those tube headsets there weren't actually headsets,
they were.

Speaker 2 (01:39:24):
Just basically tubes where the sound could travel.

Speaker 7 (01:39:26):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:39:27):
We had to sell headsets for four dollars and I
sold these headsets for King Ralph. And at the end
of the flight, everyone demanded their money back, and I
didn't know what to do. I was like, I am
not sure I can do this, and I gave them
all their money back.

Speaker 5 (01:39:40):
You real?

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
Heck, yeah, I did right. It was a mutiny. It
was like amy passengers yelling at me about what a
horrible movie it was. It it was so funny.

Speaker 13 (01:39:48):
I worked for a movie theater for several years high
school and then even in the college, and that was
one of the things they always tell us, like, whatever
you do, do not give back the money. Give them
cop tickets for the few they're really that unhappy. Try
all sorts of scenarios to keep them happy. But if
in the end, if you can't get them happy, give
them comp tickets.

Speaker 2 (01:40:08):
Yeah. Well, we didn't have that option.

Speaker 4 (01:40:10):
And then I spent the rest of the month selling
headsets like this anybody on a headset for King Ralph.
It's not a very good movie, Like I just treat it,
and I think I sold more headsets because people were
like challenge accepted. But at that point they couldn't complain
because I.

Speaker 2 (01:40:26):
Was honest in my marketing. Not a good movie, you're
not gonna like it.

Speaker 4 (01:40:31):
That was almost as bad as the month that the
movie was Dances with Wolves. But the jet stream was
really strong, so every West to East flight we did
not finish the movie, and people were like furious because
it was the last like.

Speaker 2 (01:40:44):
Five minutes of the movie. You should understand that one, like,
you know how long the movie is. Me Ryan, people
do not understand. They do not, they do not. I'm
just saying you should.

Speaker 13 (01:40:55):
People should show uh, it's a two hour flight in
the movies two and a half hours.

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
Yeah, well they don't know. They we all learned that
that one that was challenging.