12-17-25 FULL SHOW - Weather Wednesday and Gubernatorial Candidate Scott Bottoms

When will it feel like winter, Rep. Scott Bottoms on who he hasn't asked to be Lt. Governor, and get ready for power outages in some parts of the state.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Dona on KOLA ninety more
one FM.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Got way say they it's free.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Andy Connell Keithing a sad bab Welcome.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
Welcome, Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the show. You
know how I know it's Wednesday because there's crazy weather
going on right now on Weather Wednesday, which we do
every Wednesday with our friend Dave Fraser from Box thirty one.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
More on that in a moment.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
It will not be happening for the next two weeks,
so more on that in a moment. But first I'm
here Mandy Connell, your intrepid host, with my friend and
right hand man, Anthony Rodriguez, and together we will make
the next three hours at least mediocre, possibly better. I
like to set the bar lowish and then leap over it.

(01:06):
That's best Superman springy shoes on. So let's do the blog.
We got a lot of stuff on the blog, and
we got a lot of stuff to talk about. We
got a lot of guests. And what do I have
in my pocket that's poking me? Oh, it's my carky
ah mind didn't know what was poking me in my
tiny woman pockets in my jeans.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
This.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Can I just have a moment?

Speaker 6 (01:28):
Can I?

Speaker 4 (01:29):
Could I dust off my feminist soapbox for just a moment?
Here we go. Why can't women have normal pockets? When
we do get pockets, they're about as deep as like
to the to the first knuckle on your finger. You
can't carry things in your pocket. If you do, they
stab you because the pockets are so tiny. It's like

(01:49):
a utilitarian joke.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
What is that?

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Do you think it's a wall? Women carry purses, they
don't need deeper pockets. We can actually carry stuff. Do
stn't carry purses they need deeper pockets?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well?

Speaker 4 (02:00):
What about women who don't want to carry a person
all the time? Okay, that's it. Now let's find the blog.
Go to mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look
for the latest post section and look for the headline
that says twelve seventeen to twenty five blog Weather Wednesday
and gubernatorial candidates Scott Bottoms. Click on that and here

(02:21):
are the headlines you will find within.

Speaker 7 (02:23):
Oh god, I didn't where.

Speaker 8 (02:25):
The office half of American all with ships and clipments
of say, let's going to press plas.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Today on the blog. Dave Frasier joins at twelve thirty
for Weather Wednesday. Representative Scott Bottoms joins today at one
about those education tax credits. Polus just signed up for
get ready for power outages today. Time for Tina to
develop a bad call for something Democrat wants to further
destroy our business environment. Denver Public Schools is shrinking faster

(02:51):
than expected. Denver's homeless are seeking help. Check out how
many beloved restaurants close this year? Can you fight off
these animals? Anti racist proof? She's a horrible person. The
woman at this woman at Bondai Beach says the quiet
part loud on camera. How Australia let the bon Daive
Beach attack brew The FBI was pressured by Biden to

(03:12):
search mar A Lago Venezuela is pretty screwed. Why aren't
people having sex? Muscles? Keep your brain healthy? Speaking of which,
do what this seventy nine year old does daily instant
or dry active yeast? I can't wait for the Winter Olympics,
but can the wildlife read the signs? What Rodgers has died?
A Martha Stewart Cookie review Christmas music's major miners, explained

(03:36):
Temperware's secret job why it will never support a mega
church in one video, I'm skeptical of this pastor why
I hate house rules, the Kpop Demon on her Christmas
house let the Doubters hate, and Santa Babe is coming
to town. Baby, It's cold outside room forever, and y'all
bo V Marino is amazing. Those are the headlines on

(03:57):
the blog Atmanasglove dot com. Tick tech two, Don't rob me,
Don't do it? Nancy. That was hard. Oh, come on,
I just ran out of space because there were so
many headlines. I didn't realize how voluminous today's blog was.

Speaker 9 (04:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
See what happens sometimes when you argue with the judges,
sometimes they see your point rarely, if ever. Sometimes Nancy's reasonable. Anyway,
as you can see, there's a lot of stuff on
the blog today, tons and tons and tons of stuff
on the blog today. But I got three interviews coming
up twelve thirty. We are going to do Weather Wednesday
with Dave Fraser just in time to talk about what

(04:39):
the biggest story of the day has been. I'm have
we heard a rod. Have we heard from traffic about
the first tipped over semi truck? We heard about that yet? Okay,
what we should we should have a little pool going.
What time will we get notified from total traffic that
a semi has blown over a semi, a box truck

(04:59):
or a high profile vehicle. I am going to go
to eleven. We're gonna hear about that. What do you
got a rod? When do you when do you want to?

Speaker 9 (05:09):
What do you none?

Speaker 2 (05:10):
At all?

Speaker 4 (05:11):
For my own sake? True, but I'm talking about on
the planes. I'm just saying, you know what's gonna happen
D zero at all? I put zero. We should let
other people in on this if you want to text
us at five six six nine ohero in our fake
pool that I just created about when we get the
word that the first high profile vehicle has tipped over

(05:33):
in the high winds, We're going to talk Todave Fraser
about that. What's going on a lot of people are
super super super super super super super super mad that
Xcel is cutting off power because of a high winds now.
I have very clear feelings about this. Here are my
clear feelings. Number One, Xcel got blamed for the Marshall

(05:56):
fire and when they get held liable it costs them
a ton of money. So you only have to do
that once right, They only have to write that giant
track one time before they say, Okay, if we're gonna
get blamed for that, if we get blamed when power
lines get blown down and we have to pay all
this money, well then we're just not gonna put power

(06:17):
through those lines when there's high wins. That is a
sound business decision, absolutely perfectly fine. But and you knew
there was going to be a butt. They're basically I
heard the announcement from Excel where the nice lady's voice says,
if you rely on power consuming medical equipment, you should

(06:40):
probably make other arrangements. Now, guys, I understand this because
when my father was bedridden for the last year of
his life, in order to bring him home because of
the complex medical equipment that had come with him, we
got a whole house generator to ensure that their power
never ran out. But some people don't don't have that option,

(07:02):
especially elderly people who are far more likely to need
this kind of life saving equipment. And XL is just like, sorry,
you better make other plans. I mean what is that
even the fact that XL has a monopoly, in my
view as a part of their responsibility for that monopoly
because of all the benefits that it has, and we've

(07:24):
seen exactly how I mean, they're just literally doing whatever
they want and passing the cost on to the consumers.
And as a business, they have the right to do that.
But as a gifted monopoly, which is what they have,
I believe they have a responsibility to begin mitigating these issues,
to begin looking what's happening in other places. There are
places in Florida where there are no power lines above

(07:46):
the ground. There are places in the mountains where there
are no power lines above the ground. Is it feasible?
And I don't mean is it not expensive? Is it feasible?
Because I think as part of their responsibilities, x should
have to be working on that, but I know that
they would just pass the cost of that onto the consumers.
At what point do just doing a better job the

(08:08):
responsibility of doing a better job for the customers who
have no choice but to engage with your services. At
what point should that fall financially on Excel instead of
the rate payers? Because right now we know that the
cost of all of this green energy crap that the
governor is shoving down our throats. All of that's going

(08:29):
to be passed out of the consumer, every single bit
of it. They're going to go back to the PUC
every moment they can and ask for more money. And
because the PUC is inhabited by people straight out of
green energy, and I mean that. You know, people love
to talk about how, you know, oil executives, they go
in and out and everybody knows, well, where do you

(08:50):
think these people came from? They all came not all,
but the leader of the PUC literally came from a
solar company, you know. I mean, it's super frustrating because
they're going to shove all the costs on us. Jared
Polus is rich, so he doesn't care. He'll just say,
expand the Leap program, Expand more more government aid for

(09:11):
the people who can't afford the energy that we've been
lying to them that it's going to be more affordable.
So that's the second part of this, Excel, What are
you doing to prevent this from happening? And this specifically
being you delivering power in an area where high winds
are common, not every day, but not crazy, right, It's

(09:33):
not like they never happen in Colorado. So what are
you doing on your expense for a change to mitigate
that so you can deliver reliable energy? Because if you
can't deliver reliable energy, it stands to reason that you
should not have a monopoly. Now I realize, like I
can only imagine what a mess it would be if

(09:55):
we just decided to deregulate utilities. I'm not stupid. I
realized what a crazy thing that could be. But ultimately,
the scale of competing with the utility as is set
now would be something that only a few could actually do.
I think at some point, what I'm hoping is that

(10:15):
small modular reactors, small nuclear reactors will become the norm,
and instead of us all feeding one giant system that
when it goes out, you know, three hundred thousand people
are affected, we will be in these little kind of
power pods with a small modular reactor providing a certain
amount of power for a certain amount of space. That's

(10:35):
I think would be ideal. And then competition could be
a thing, because then you can have competition on who
could you know, man, I mean, I've been thinking about
this for a long time, but the third thing is
in this big These are my thoughts. If you have
the means recognize that going forward, this is Colorado's new normal,
and by yourself a whole healse generator. They are expensive,

(10:59):
they are an investment, but they ensure that you're never
going to be out of power. Because it is my
understanding and maybe some of you can help clear this up.
It is my understanding from another friend of mine. So
this is the secondhand information that if you are a
customer who has solar, your power is still off. How
is that even possible? I really don't understand, Mandy, solar

(11:24):
won't blow off your roof during a windstorm.

Speaker 10 (11:27):
True, does the solar then again, just trying to figure
this out without any knowledge, does the solar charge up?
Essentially the boxes if you will, that EXCEL powers and
so if the Excel is off, it really doesn't matter
whether you have solar or noyes what I'm thinking you
your solar goes in.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Two directions, right, it goes into your home and then
it also flows back into the grid. Yeah, and so
the grid's down, it's all toast. In theory, you should
be able to power your home. In theory, that makes sense. Wait,
I need clarification. If the solar charges up the Excel
whatever right right? And if you have solar, do you
have a whole house battery system to go with that.

Speaker 10 (12:08):
What I'm saying is the solar probably chargers said battery system,
but that is Excel and if that's down, solar is
basically not charging anything.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Excel. I don't think goes and batteries. You have to
buy batteries. You know, what do you own that you own?
That it simpler.

Speaker 10 (12:21):
I think Excel powers the on off switch of whatever
means you get the power, whether it be solar or
through Excel.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
I think Excel has the master on off switch. So
the solar's not charging anything. But now I'm wondering why,
Like check me little I know, engineering wise, that doesn't
make sense.

Speaker 10 (12:39):
If I had solar right now and I found that
out that was the case, I would be pissed, seriously,
so dumb.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
If you can't have solar, what is the what is
the point? Yeah, other than you know the rest of
the year. But like in instances like this, you would
feel like your investment of those thousands and thousands of
dollars would pay off right now, And it doesn't. What Yeah,
dumb Mandy. If that's the case, how did Longmont opt out?
This is absolute bs. I've lived here for fifty one

(13:05):
years and we stood all kinds of weather and never
dealt with this. Well, I'm telling you, it's all about
the liability. That's what it is. It's all about it.
And that's guys, again, smart business decision by Excel. If
they're going to be held liable for every fire that
results from a downpower line, and you see how fast
those fires moved, how many houses were taken out in

(13:26):
twenty four hours, They're not going to do that again.
It's not a smart business decision. So you know, this
is what I'm saying.

Speaker 10 (13:34):
There just has to be in again for those who
have opted to make a political lol. But there has
to be a better way. Yes, there has to be
a better way. That's rise dand there has to be
a better solution rather than just well we can't figure
it out, so off what this is twenty twenty five?
Figure out a better way. I agree with you, it's

(13:54):
totally smart if there isn't a better way. But there
has to be a better way.

Speaker 4 (13:57):
Okay, here we go. We got a lot of people
to sold our giving us explanations. Now, uh, this is
I have solar, and if the power goes out, the
solar energy goes back to the grid and does not
power my house.

Speaker 10 (14:10):
That's crap, crap everything I've worked on charging up, take
it back.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
There's no transfer switch at the house, says this texter. God,
I have solar and if the power goes out, the
solar energy no goes back into the grid and does
not power your house. I believe you gotta have a
series of battery backups before you could pull off that
and still have power effects all energy goes down. Congressman
Thomas Massey built his own house in Kentucky and he

(14:41):
has a battery room that pulls enough out of his
solar panels that he can charge. He can power his
house for days with those batteries. Now, he's not gonna
be run around with every light on, you know, running
the blender, but it'll run his house. So yeah, I
know the battery packs are there.

Speaker 10 (14:58):
Here's my question, and I'll Devil's advocate myself before I
even say it, because I know exactly why they can
do it. The terms and conditions likely allow for them
to do this if needed. But how does Excel not be.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Liable to uh so I use your refunds for the
days they have it off exactly. But of course I know,
and the answer is to answer my own question.

Speaker 10 (15:17):
In the terms and conditions that you agree to in
the contract, of course it says we can, if by safety,
opt to turn off for a certain amount of time.
So I know that they can get around. It doesn't
mean they shouldn't make it like here's a toy dollar discount.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
He turned it off for two days. Yep, I agree,
But of course they won't do that.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
No, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
About ten years ago they explored the cost of putting
all the power lines underground out by Southland's Mall and
Aurora Excel said they could do it for two million
dollars a month. Again, that was ten years ago. Here's
the thing. Don't they have a responsibility? Isn't it their
job to supply consistent, reliable energy. It should not be
the goal. Isn't that their only job? And we're giving

(15:57):
them gobs and gobs and gods of money to pursue
all of these idiotic green dreams and they can't already
deliver consistently reliable power of.

Speaker 10 (16:07):
A flat out question, if someone dies today because the
power is out at their house, functioning their medical whatever.
Is Excel at all liable? Probably not right because it's
probably and conditions. Hey, we can, for safety purposes turn it.

Speaker 4 (16:23):
Off an the trial. If I'm a trial lawyer, I
try to get that in front of a jury and
let them argue, yeah, you know what I'm saying, because yeah,
my grandmother died because you turned off the power. That's
a pretty emotionally compelling argument, which is what you want
for a jury when the facts aren't quite on your side.

Speaker 10 (16:40):
And they're playing the odds of the chances of a
fire is caused versus the chances of well, aye.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Look at it this way, you burn down eighteen hundred holls.
And I'm not saying Excel burn down these houses. I
am saying that Xcel has been held liable.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
Right.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
This is to be clear, because I really don't think
it's Excel's fault, honest, I really don't. I think it's
an act of God. I think that it's an electrical
line and there's inherent risk with us wanting reliable electricity.
So I don't even think Excel was at fault, to
be clear, But if they have been liable and eighteen
hundred more houses burned down and one person dies. I

(17:19):
hate to say it, but every corporation does that math.
What's gonna cost us more? Yeah, you know, they're just
again in the bottom line. For me, there has to
be a better way. There is a better way bury
the power lines. There's a better way instead of spending
all the money on the nonsense and crap and the
green energy garbage that isn't reliable and won't be consistent,

(17:39):
Let's do something to make sure that our power works
one hundred percent of the time. You know, Florida has
been going to underground power lines years ago because of
hurricanes and building an underground power line in Florida, you
have to deal with water tables that are like six
inches below the surface in some places. Right, So it's
just it's a whole it's a pain wherever it's done.

(18:00):
But this is what our society runs on.

Speaker 10 (18:03):
The issue on the customer side is in many of
these areas, there's no leverage. The customers who need this
can't go to a different company that won't do these things.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Excels the option.

Speaker 10 (18:13):
So Excel knows that any energy company would know that
we can do XYZ when we need to to save
ourselves from liability, and you can't do anything about it
because you have to have us for energies.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
You can't just up to somebody else. That's called a monopoly.
And that's exactly what I'm talking about. When we get back,
speaking of high winds, we're gonna talk to Foss Fox
thirty one's Chief meteorologist, Dave Fraser. Keep it right here
on KOA. Oh, by the way, we know that the
FM is down. Do you know why it's down?

Speaker 8 (18:40):
Why?

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Because it's part of the power outage. I couldn't make
that up if I tried. Dave Fraser, Fox thirty one's
chief that's chief with an F at the end, not
a P. Chief Meteorologist, Dave Fraser joins us. Okay, Dave,
you know it's another Wednesday. It's another wacky weather day.
I love the way we've think this up. It's so beautiful.
But what actually is happening right now?

Speaker 8 (19:02):
Well, I mean last week we had when I was
talking to you, we were dealing with a similar event.

Speaker 7 (19:07):
We had a windy day, we had high wind.

Speaker 8 (19:11):
Warnings in the foothills where they are in place again today.
That wind continued last Thursday. Right now, the wind is
just getting underway in the foothills. You just heard the
reports from your own Jonathan. We've got some forty fives
and sixty mile per hour, guys. They're way up high.
Think a birthed pass and some of the higher terrain.
What will happen is the forecast for the strongest winds

(19:35):
is going to be from about one to five, so
about a half an hour out to get things rolling,
and the wind will literally translate or roll down the foothills,
come out across those western areas where they're proactively shutting
down the roads like you just reported Highway ninety three
for instance, between Boulder and Golden and then the wind
will come out to I twenty five and around.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
Five or six o'clock.

Speaker 8 (20:00):
Expect the wind, the strongest of the wind to then
retree quickly back up the foothills, and then there'll be
a secondary push of wind over the open eastern planes,
but not as strong, So expect the wind to start
to pick up. It'll come out of the west and
speeds will be about thirty to sixty is what we're thinking.

Speaker 7 (20:19):
This has been a very interesting.

Speaker 8 (20:22):
Forty eight hours as it comes to a wind event.
I have never seen such hype on a wind event.
I think Excel with the power outages added to that,
I think the school closes.

Speaker 7 (20:33):
I've never seen anything like that, but it has been
I was saying today, Rug.

Speaker 8 (20:37):
What's been a challenge for I think those of us
in the meteorology field is and especially those of us
you know, with a voice being on television or on
the radio and so forth, is trying to push back
against the wave of social media height that was just
over the top and trying to bring people down off

(20:58):
the ledge and say, listen, this is a wind event.
It gets windy in Colorado. And I understand. I agree
with your I listened to you just a few minutes
ago with your ramp on Excel and what they're doing
and why when they got the billion dollar lawsuit from
the Marshall fire. They're being proactive. I get it. But
the message I'm getting, you know, emails from friends and

(21:18):
stuff like talking about ninety hundred miles per hour winds
that are not even in the high wind warning right,
the message just went rolling about as fast as the
wind's going to go this afternoon.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
So wait a minute, So I have I created my
first ever when will a high profile vehicle get tumped over?
And I got two eleven am I early for that.
Should I back it up a little bit till like
three thirty four, maybe right around five pm?

Speaker 8 (21:44):
I would say, if if there's money involved, I would
hold off till maybe after three o'clock. The problem is
going to be they closed those prone areas.

Speaker 7 (21:52):
There's not going to be any high pro cycles.

Speaker 8 (21:54):
On those areas, right, so they're trying to avoid that.
And I get the proactive thing.

Speaker 11 (21:59):
I get it.

Speaker 8 (22:00):
I understand. But you know, you mentioned one of the
things that we've been talking about in the newsroom is
we were getting ready to you know, cover the event,
is you mentioned that, you know, Excel is the one
that is, you know, doing the power, you know, turning
off the power. But there are a lot of communities
that don't get their power from Excel, and so like
I'm down here in Douglas County and my provider is CORE.

(22:25):
Not much coming out of Core as far as what
they might do or turning off power any concerns. But
then you mentioned Longman.

Speaker 7 (22:31):
Longman was kind of interesting and it could be.

Speaker 8 (22:33):
A case study for what maybe other power grids and
companies need to do. They were proactive. They even went
out early we reported.

Speaker 7 (22:41):
Last night and picked up trash before the.

Speaker 8 (22:44):
Wind was supposed to roll in so that it wasn't
blowing all over the neighborhoods. And whatever they're.

Speaker 7 (22:48):
Doing with their power grid, they were not expected to
have to.

Speaker 8 (22:51):
Turn off power. So it's really interesting to see what's
plating out in the power and that is not anything
that I have any knowledge of beyond you know, like
a Rod was saying, you get it, the whole sour
solar panel thing.

Speaker 7 (23:03):
This is just way outside of our understanding.

Speaker 8 (23:06):
But like I said, this is a typical, in my opinion,
wind event. It's a chinook wind, it's a snow eater.
It's strong, but it doesn't last long. I had to
push back so hard.

Speaker 7 (23:17):
Last night on listen guys, this is not an.

Speaker 8 (23:19):
All day event. I must have said a dozen times.
You're not going to find the wind when you step
out in the morning. It's going to be from about
noon to six, more so one to five. It'll literally
come like a rolling snowball down the foothills out across
High twenty five. The farther east you go, it'll fan
out and kind of slow down a little bit, even
though it will stay breezy on the eastern planes, and

(23:41):
that'll be it, and hopefully we get out of this.
The biggest message I had last night many was standing
on my soapbox saying, please, for the love of God,
come down anything that causes the spark or do anything
with an open flame. And if we can do that
and avoid any source of a fire that could be
fanned by the strong winds, then we escape this without

(24:02):
any problems other than the huge inconvenience of the power
being turned off.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Amen to that. I have another weather question for you
before we get away from this. This is from Cindy
and it's a deep one. You ready put on your
thinking cap here, Dave Mandy, I have a climate question
for Dave. I'm trying to figure out the why behind
different climates, specifically, why rainforests get all the perks while
arid areas like the northwest New Mexico get skipped over

(24:27):
like a bad song on the playlist. What's the main
culprit here? Is it topography, the jet stream or some
ocean drama I don't know about I know whether eventually, wait,
she's not done. I know whether eventually makes climate. So
I'd love to know why northwest New Mexico is so dry.
Is there a scientific reason or is it just because
Mother Nature has a vendetta against me, specifically that from Cindy.

Speaker 8 (24:51):
It's not a vendetta.

Speaker 12 (24:52):
I can tell you that.

Speaker 8 (24:54):
That's a longer question than I can answer. But the
reality is it is ocean driven, it is jet stream driven.
There are certain areas, so West coasts near cold climate
waters Pacific ocean temperature and stuff tend to be drier
than those that have access to a higher humidity like
the rainforests and stuff. You have all sorts of different

(25:16):
climates across the globe based on latitude, longitude, proximity to
water bodies and so forth, and of course that is
all influenced. The definition of weather is.

Speaker 7 (25:26):
Variable, and that's the day to day challenges.

Speaker 8 (25:29):
We as meteorologists struggle to come up with the forecast
of what's going to happen, when, where, what time, how much,
how cold, how strong will the wind be. The climate
is a thirty year average of what you might expect
in those areas, So you coming from Florida, you might
have an understanding of what the weather might be on
a general pattern through the year, and the same would

(25:51):
be true for those of us here in Colorado. We
know our falls, we know our snow seasons and so forth.
So it's a thirty year average. And by the way,
that average is a rolling average, so you drop one
year off, you add another one on, and sometimes those
numbers change a little bit over the course of time.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
All right, then that was pretty good for a short answer.
One texture said this, Dave, And I'm not sure how
accurate it is, Mandy. Long lined lions get power from
the Platte River Authority, and most of the power lines
are buried, so perhaps that is the difference that and.

Speaker 7 (26:22):
You made a really good point.

Speaker 8 (26:25):
And again I don't want to go down the.

Speaker 7 (26:27):
Rabbit hole of politics when it comes.

Speaker 8 (26:29):
To this, because I know nothing about the energy business
when it comes to their responsibilities and the cost of
maintaining lines. But I do think the question becomes, given
the fact that we are a very wind prone area,
why isn't there being more to get those lines down
below ground, especially in those areas where we know that

(26:49):
when we get these wind events, the power lines are susceptible.
Think of col Creek Canyon. It's like a blowtorch when
the wind comes rolling down that canyon, a blast out
by Highway ninety three and seven. So if we can
at least protect the higher, more susceptible areas, maybe not
the entire state of Colorado might be helpful.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
Am under that. That's Steve Fraser.

Speaker 11 (27:09):
Dave.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
We will talk to you next year, buddy, because you're off,
I'm off, so we'll have weather Wednesday, January seventh will
be the next weather Wednesday. Have a wonderful holiday and
enjoy your time off.

Speaker 8 (27:20):
And I and the same to you, and I hope
everybody does, because this will be our last chance to
tell them. And unfortunately, I will tell you that the
forecast for Christmas is dry and warm.

Speaker 7 (27:30):
Right now, forecasting well twenty five.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
So I'll leave you.

Speaker 8 (27:34):
I'll leave you with that greinch of a forecast that
everybody enjoy it, and let's look forward to twenty twenty six.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
All right, Thanks, Dave Frasier, We will be back. So
I just saw this on on the interwebs, and this
is so perfect and exactly how I feel about how Austria,
oh yeah, is handling what just happened there. And it's

(28:06):
from Constantine Kissing if you're not familiar with Constantine Kissen,
he's just a phenomenally interesting guy and he had this
to say. And just listen up because you don't want
to be called an anti greenite. Just listen.

Speaker 6 (28:18):
Have you ever wondered why, in the wake of every
Islamist terrorist attack, our media and politicians bend over backwards
to make the extraordinary claim that Islamism has nothing to
do with Islam. The answer is a mixture of things,
of course, but the central reason is easy to understand
if you think about it.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Logically.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
To avoid offending morons, let's not talk about people and
talk about apples instead. As you know, there are red apples,
green apples, and yellow apples. Let's imagine for a second
that a small percentage of green apples are poisonous and
caninjure and kill people. It's difficult to distinguish the toxic
green apples from the other green apples, which are perfectly peaceful,
law abiding, and so forth. Now imagine that you're the

(28:54):
public health authority whose job it is to protect the public.
If your concerned is solving the problem of the small
minority of toxic green apples, you would immediately do a
number of things. You might devote significant resources to identifying
the toxic green apples and removing them from the supermarket shelves.
You might commission thorough research into how and where the
toxic green apples are grown. You might crack down very,

(29:17):
very hard on anyone who knowingly participates in growing or
distributing such apples. You might even say that, while you're
dealing with the problem of deaths caused by toxic green apples,
bringing more green apples into the country is liable to
worsen the public health crisis until suitable measures are identified
which allow you to separate the bad green apples from
the good ones. This is how you would act if

(29:38):
your primary concern was the safety of the public. But
what if you, as the public health authority, had spent
the preceding decades claiming that all apples are the same.
To suggest that a small minority of green apples are
potentially toxic is fear mongering and greenophobic. What if you'd
been openly encouraging unfiltered importation of green apples and actively
resisted calls to thoroughly check whether such apples are in

(30:01):
fact digestible for your citizens. What if your manager for
the last twenty years has been that anyone who believes
there may be significant variations between the toxicity of different
types of apples is a bigger who must be suppressed
for fear of emboldening the far right. If you were
in fact responsible for the fact that people were now
being killed on the streets of your country by the
small minority of toxic green apples, would you not do

(30:23):
everything in your power to explain that the diversity of
apples is our greatest strength, that the toxicity of green
apples has nothing to do with them being green, that
any doctor who suggests that the government should carefully regulate
the importation of green apples specifically is a racist. The
central premise of our elite consensus is that we must
continue to pretend that all apples are the same, no

(30:44):
matter how many people pay.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
For this lie with their lives. Something to think about.
I'll leave you with that when we get back. Representative
Scott Bottoms is not only running for governor, he's been
pulled into a bit of a fray by part of
the Victor Marks in with Ryan schuling yesterday. If you
did not go listen to it yesterday, you should listen
to it today, and I've got Representative Scott Bottom's coming

(31:07):
up next to respond to some comments that were made
about him. We'll do all that next.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
No, it's Mandy Connell and don Ko ninety one FM.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
Got way.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Can the NYT's through three?

Speaker 4 (31:35):
Andy Connell, Keith sad bab Welcome, Local, Welcome to the
second hour of the show. I'm Mandy Connell. That guy
right there is Anthony Rodriguez, you can call him a
rod And as much as I hate it, the governor's
race has begun. And I'm not mad that there's a
governor's race. I'm just saying it feels like we're always

(31:55):
in political season. But next year we will have the
opportunity to make a change in the governor's office. And
I don't just mean the human being, I mean policy wise.
It could be massive. And joining me now is one
of those candidates. Representative Scott Bottoms has thrown his hat
in the ring. He will be participating in the debate
that Ryan Schuley and I from our assist our brother

(32:16):
station K Howe will be moderating. January tenth and Greeley
if you want to find out more information about that.
And he joins me now to not only talk about
his run for governor, but also a little deverbal kerfuffle
that we're having right now between he and another candidate.
First of all, Representative Bottoms, welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (32:37):
Yeah, thank you for having me.

Speaker 12 (32:38):
Always enjoy it.

Speaker 4 (32:39):
So let's talk about why you decided to put your
face in the wood chipper for this election cycle and
decide to run for governor. What is your motivation?

Speaker 9 (32:50):
Well, I've never heard that description, but it's not a
bad one. This is so I've been a representative now
for two terms, but I've been a pastor all my
life since i was twenty years old. I'm fifty five now,
and that's who I am. That's what I've done. But
a few years back I realized, through a bunch of
different things and really praying about it, that I needed

(33:11):
to be running for representative. And that was a crazy journey.
And now I really felt the same thing we declared
about this time last year. Actually, I've been in the
race for a year. I'm the first person to have declared,
and I just really feel like I have to do this.
This is a spiritual journey for me too. But this

(33:31):
is also very much we have got to reclaim Colorado.
We're losing our state and everybody's just sitting around watching
it happen. And I'm not one of those kind of people.

Speaker 4 (33:41):
So I want to start. I'm glad you brought up
the fact that you're a pastor and that you're a
man of faith, and this is a spiritual journey because
I'm going to be perfectly frank, one of my biggest
concerns about a general election for you is how secular
Colorado is. We have a higher percentage of atheists and agnostics,
we have many, many people. We have a slight majority

(34:02):
that identify as Christian. I looked up all this data today,
but we have a lot of people who are like, yeah,
there's probably a God, but it's not centered in my life.
Do you feel like that is going to be a
drawback and how do you reach out to those people
who may not only be non religious, but maybe a
little hostile towards religion.

Speaker 9 (34:24):
Well, being a pastor for thirty five years, I've experienced
hostile toward Christianity. I've experienced that over and over and
I've had many conversations with so many different atheists, agnostics,
humanist people that just really are you know, they just
don't care different religions. I travel all over the world,

(34:46):
I'm preaching, teaching, and those kind of things.

Speaker 4 (34:48):
So this is not new to me.

Speaker 9 (34:50):
But the interesting thing is about being a pastor, is
I actually understand them better than most people do, because
I've been having the conversations for so many years, and
I know, and here's a big thing, is I respect
people's rights, and I respect people's individual ability for free
speech and free expression and spiritual expression. I do believe

(35:12):
that Jesus is God. I do believe that, and I
do believe that the Bible is the guidebook for all
of humanity. But I can't force that upon anyone. I've
never forced that. If I could do that, my church
would be in Colorado would be five million people. I
can't even do. I can't even get people in my
church for the most part, to do some of the

(35:33):
things that I think the Bible is telling us, which
is called job security as a pastor, but when you're
so broken and society is so sinful, it is job description,
I mean, is job security. But here's The thing with
that is my personality, my lifestyle. Who I am is

(35:54):
truly a Christians. It's not just something I do on
the side, and so I am very much a more
or person. I'm a person. I don't lie, I don't cheat,
I don't steal. I don't even drink. A lot of
pastors drink. I'm not picking on that, but I don't drink.
I don't do anything like that. And so when I
have this conversation with people, I'm like, what in that
area makes me a bad guy? They think I'm going

(36:16):
to somehow force I'm going to somehow force people to
go to church or so. I don't know what people
are thinking that I'm going to accomplish. I do pray
for the state. I pray for the state for years.
That's going to continue. I pray in the capital, that
will continue. I don't force anybody to pray any of
that stuff. So it's kind of a strange question that

(36:36):
I get, but I get it all the time.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
Well, I think part of it is, and this is
just why this is just me spitballing here. I think
part of it is when people do have a bad experience,
maybe they had a church that didn't live up to
the standards that they were putting forward. Maybe they have
a negative view of religion. They're just putting that on you, right,
because then you become the representative of whatever it is
that they don't like. And that's the part that I

(37:00):
that concerns me. Not because I think everything you just
said was really smart from a pastor's point of view,
but I'm concerned that it's going to be more challenging
to say, Look, I am a Christian, I believe in God.
I'm assuming that you pray for guidance, you know, as
most Christians that I know do. But there are people
who are not Christian who say, oh, he wants a theocracy,

(37:21):
which is absurd. But I do think that criticism is going.

Speaker 13 (37:24):
To be there.

Speaker 9 (37:26):
Oh yeah, it's already there, and I don't shy away
from it. I'll answer those questions. It doesn't bother me.
Everybody's got a thing that somebody's going to try to
pick on or do whatever, and this is going to
be the thing they pick on with me. That the
other side of this is people don't realize that I
have years and years and years worth of preaching online.

(37:47):
They can go find what I actually believe most of
the other candidates.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
You're not going to get that.

Speaker 9 (37:52):
You have to take them at their word at a
and I'm not saying just Republican, saying both sides of
the aisle. You have to take them at their word
at a town hall or something like that, that this
is who they are and this is what they believe.
I have three years of a voting record in the House,
I have speeches on the floor. All this is on
my website. I have sermons online that you can go
back and listen to. For years, I'm consistently been out

(38:15):
in the public arena and it doesn't scare me, it
doesn't bother me. I don't have the ability to turn
Colorado into theocracy. It's just not possible. But I will
be a very good, solid, consistently moral looking out for people.
A lot of my job as a pastor is the
widows and the orphans. That's scriptural, taking care of people,

(38:38):
taking care of homeless. I've done that for years and
years and years. I sat on the board of a
group that after the girls were rescued out of human trafficking,
we rehabilitated them for two years. I've been working in
these arenas forever, feeding people, homeless shelters.

Speaker 11 (38:54):
I go all over the.

Speaker 9 (38:55):
World helping people get water and food and buildings and stuff.
If that, if somebody sees that as a negative, there's
nothing I can do about that. But I'm actually a
good guy.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
That's a great response, that's a solid response. Let's talk
about the issues facing Colorado right now. What do you
think is the number one issue facing the state?

Speaker 9 (39:16):
I think the number one issue, and this, by the way,
is backed up by statistics, but it's also my personal
number one issue is mental illness. We have a huge
problem across the state and all kinds of things. And
here's part of the problem is where we're taking money away.
There was just one bill last session this last spring
took one hundred and eighty million away from mental health.

(39:39):
Right I think there's some intentionality there that does seem
a little devious, and I'm not okay with it, But
we don't want to have good studies of mental health.
We don't want to put money in there. I think
there's only one institution in the state of Colorado that
is a penal type of mental health institution, and we're
shutting all those down because why a couple of things.

(40:00):
We don't want to actually deal with mental illness. I've
dealt with that for thirty five years. That's like the
biggest thing that a pastor does is spiritual slash mental illness.
And we're shutting these things down in Colorado. I think
part of the reason is the same thing with the
bill that people have been talking about HB twenty four,

(40:23):
ten thirty four, where we're now letting criminals out much
more consistently because we're saying they're incompetent to serve trial.
I voted against that. I was one of the few
people that voted against that, because that's a mental illness
issue as well as a prosecutorial issue.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
I do think the tide has shifted a little bit
on that conversation because of the horrible, high profile crimes
that have been committed by people who have been let
out after being deemed incompetent. Are you hopeful now? Are
you'll be back in the House this legislative session? Are
you hopeful that meaningful change will happen and that you
may be able to lead the reversal of some of

(41:03):
that funding that has been shortchanged down I mental because
for me, I agree with you. I think it's an
issue that doesn't just affect the people that are suffering
from it. We obviously to see the quality of life
in Denver, in Colorado Springs that has been impacted by
this stuff. Do you have or are you working on
a bill to address some of the stuff.

Speaker 12 (41:26):
Yeah, I tried to do this.

Speaker 9 (41:28):
When it was voted in. We had a lot of
discussions in our caucus about this, and I was telling
the coxs, look, we've got to vote no on this.
When it first came through the House, there was only
two no votes, me and one other representative. It went
to the Senate. Luckily, the Senate amended it, which means
it can come back to the House. If the Senate
we wasn't amended it, it would have passed with two

(41:49):
no votes me and Representative to graph. When it came
back to the House with amendments, then twelve Republicans got
on end, which I was very thankful for. But it
was a to not the bill passes. We've already got
plans to do some things with that. But interestingly, some
Republicans and some Democrats got together. I did a press
conference in front of the Supreme Court a few months

(42:12):
ago about this bill. I've done three press conferences about
it too, them in front of the Supreme Court. And interestingly,
the people that the Democrats and the Republicans that got
together and had a meeting about this did not include
me in the meeting. I didn't even know what was happening.
They kept me out of it, and the first round
I was one of two people that voted No. I knew.
I could see down the road. I know what this

(42:33):
is going to do, and I was telling people this
is going to put people at risk and they're going
to be more criminals attacking people in Colorado because of legislation.

Speaker 12 (42:43):
And they've left me out of the meetings.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
I don't know what to do with that. Oh well,
sounds like they didn't want you there, going Hey, guys,
you should have listened to me the whole time. I
knew what I was talking about. No, I'm just kidding
secondary or not.

Speaker 12 (42:55):
I told you so kind of guy. But I got
to say I told him so.

Speaker 9 (42:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
The second thing I want to talk about with you
specifically is affordability in the state.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
It is.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
You know, we've got Excel shutting down power lines right now,
and in my mind, there are a lot of people
who have tried to politicize that and make it into
some kind of political issue, when in reality it's a
liability issue for Excel. But it does make me ask
questions about when we are one hundred percent renewables, which
is the green dream in Colorado, we are going to

(43:25):
have reliable power, right, I mean, it just stands to
reason that renewables are not reliable, so we're not going
to have reliable energy. If you become governor, what would
your energy policy be and what would that look like
in terms of trying to bring down the cost of
everything in Colorado.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
Right.

Speaker 9 (43:42):
So that's you know, that's a two hour conversation. But
let me throw some quick things out. So first, the
shutdown of the electricity, I don't think that is actually
I don't think that was nefarious. I think there was
some legitimate reasons why they were doing that. But with
that being said, this is something that's important. Two years ago,
we voted in a law that said that there are

(44:05):
going to be entire neighborhoods in the state of Colorado
that will be electric only they will not supply gas
to them. Gas will not be available. Because the leftist
in the House and the Senate hate gas. Okay, the
hate oil, the hate coal, the hate gas, and they
have stood up at the well in the Capitol and said,
we will shut down oil, we will shut down coal. Well,

(44:25):
the problem is is solar and wind will never accomplish
what needs to be accomplished with the grid. And now
you add AI to this, that is going to be
putting the demands. I read an article a few weeks
ago that said for the for our federal government to
accomplish the demands that AI is going to put on
electric grids across the United States, that we're going to

(44:46):
have to spend five hundred billion dollars a year to
be able to accomplish that. Well, in Colorado, we think
we can do this through wind power. Come on, this
is this is craziness. That is it is wind power
and solar are not even making positive one penny positive
net gains yet, and so the government's subsidizing at all.

(45:07):
The answer to that long term is small nuclear reactors.
We need this in Colorado. This is going to be
part of my energy plan. But we also need to
drill for oil again. We also need to open up
some of these coal mines that have been shutting down,
and we've got to go back to coal providing electricity
and also natural gas. I've been talking a lot with
the energy industry and some of the natural gas distributors.

(45:29):
We're getting another line. We have one gas line in
Colorado sports all of Colorado.

Speaker 12 (45:33):
That's not okay.

Speaker 11 (45:35):
We need more.

Speaker 9 (45:36):
And there's another one coming through eastern Colorado that just
got approved by the federal government. So some of this
we're gonna be able to do. But my desire is
long term for Colorado that we need data centers in Colorado.
We need to put them on mountain streams and rivers
so that the natural cold of the mountains and the
water will help cool these things. But we have to

(45:58):
have small nuclear reactors to support them, and I believe
that small nuclear actors need to be voted on at
the local level, not by the federal level. Right now,
Senator to Lee out of Utah, which I like the guy.
I think he's a good guy. But he's trying to
just plant these in the national forest and then just
kind of mandate it. And I think I think local

(46:19):
control is always the thing when it comes to affordability
and housing and things like that. We've got to stop
the taxes, and we've got to stop the regulation. We're
the sixth most regulated state in the United States. We've
lost forty percent of our businesses under the police administration
in the last five years. Okay, these are direct decisions
that Governor Polis is making and that the House and
the Senator making. We've gone after private property ownership with

(46:42):
about twenty bills in the last three years. We're going
we are raising taxes. The big beautiful bill that Trump
came up with, this horrible bad bill actually said that
people that get tips and overtime should not be taxed
for those And we went into special session so that
Governor Pols could could could tell the House to make

(47:03):
sure that we're taxing people with their tips. Why are
we doing this. This is attacking people, This isn't helping people.
And we just got to take the regulations off. We
just now after an eight year hiatus, we just now
last year started building townhomes and condos again. Yeah, because
they had we had regulated so much and put so

(47:23):
much legislation to make it easy to sue all these
people that they just stopped building. We went eight years
without building townhomes and condos and that is a that's
a transitionary housing concept. That's how people actually get affordable housing.
But we just we just took it off the table
and said it's not a there's I mean, I could

(47:44):
go on and on. We are passing too many laws
that are attacking the consumers in Colorado, and I'm going
to change that starting day one.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
All right, so let me finish this interview. We've got
about four minutes left for Representative Scott Bottoms is my guest.
By the way, I put a link to his website
if you want to learn he's actually got policy on
his website, which I'm excited to see. And honestly, you
had me a small modular reactors. I talk about them
a lot, and I think they're the future of energy period.
But let's talk about the gossipy reason why unfortunately you're here.

(48:13):
And that is part of an interview that was between
my colleague Grindshuling from KJOWR, our next door neighbor, and
Victor Marx yesterday and I grabbed this one little snippet.
Can I my audio a rod please?

Speaker 14 (48:27):
Here's why I'm running. No one else can win in
the general but me. If Senator Kurtmeyer could, if she
really could, I wouldn't be running if Scott Bottoms who
I know, and I've called her friend, I text someone
his father passed away. Yeah, I wrote on his Facebook page.

(48:52):
It was his anniversary thirty five years with him and
his bride yesterday. Scott can't win the general. He called
me the night before I announced, and he said, Victor,
don't announce.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
I said why why?

Speaker 14 (49:09):
And I'm talking to him as a friend who I've
spoken at his church, Ryan, and my life's not been
anything but normal.

Speaker 12 (49:20):
So I'm like, what's going on?

Speaker 14 (49:22):
What do I need to know, Scott? And he said,
I've been trying to get a hold of you because
you know I'm running for governor and I want you
to be my lieutenant governor.

Speaker 12 (49:35):
Ask him direct.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
So I'm asking you direct. Did you ask him to
be your lieutenant governor?

Speaker 13 (49:42):
No?

Speaker 9 (49:43):
Ryan asked me direct earlier today too, the same question,
played the same clip. But here's the thing. I never
asked Victor to be my lieutenant governor, and he knows it.
I called him and it wasn't the night before. Is
the day of, about two hours before or three hours
before he declared, and I said, and I was trying
to get a hold of him for a long time
because I needed his help on some human trafficking stuff.

(50:04):
And I think providentially, now that we're seeing all of
the stuff that's coming out about who he really is
as a human trafficking you know, savior guy or whatever,
you know, when the truth is coming out, I think
it's providential that he didn't help me because there's a
lot of bad stuff coming out. So but no, I
told him, I said, Victor, I've been trying to reach you.
I need some help on this human trafficking stuff. And

(50:26):
I said, plus I wanted to talk to you about
my campaign and maybe even possibly being lieutenant governor. I said,
but now you have scuttled that whole thing. You've taken
that off the table. I said, because you don't know
what you're doing. And I said, there are three people
that are using you. They're propping you up and using
you so that they can gain some either notoriety or

(50:48):
money because their nonprofit or their political whatever is broke,
and including our state party. That's one of the people
as our state party chair. And I said, these people
are using you and you don't even know this. And
then he calls me leaves a message a week or
two ago saying that he wanted me to give money

(51:10):
from my governor campaign to the state party because the
state party's broke and they need seventy thousand dollars to
have a state assembly.

Speaker 12 (51:19):
It is by law they have to.

Speaker 9 (51:21):
Have a state Assembly. So I'm actually looking at some stuff,
maybe some legal action or something, because they're not letting
us know anything. But Victor is the one they're sending
out to try to raise money. Well, he's trying to
use my friendship, which I did think we were friends,
but he lied about me and he allied to me,
and I'm not okay with that. And then you use
my church also, and now we're finding out a bunch
of stuff about the human trafficking where it looks like

(51:42):
he's conned my church too, And so when you put
all that stuff together, this has really bothered me. I
called him because we were friends. I called him to
try to help him and to warn him. And I
never I never said, would you please be my lieutenant governor.
What I said was I had consider that a couple
months ago when I reached out to you, But there's

(52:03):
no way that's gonna happen. Now, it can't because you
are jumping into something that is gonna hurt you. It's
gonna hurt the human traffickings, rescuing arena, all this kind
of stuff. And now he did say toward the end
of the conversation, because I told me, Victor, you're never
gonna win, Governor, it's not possible. And he did say, well,
you can't win. But here's the thing, because he said

(52:25):
this on the radio yesterday, right, But here's the thing.
I'm the front runner in every single category, in any
kind of social media, any kind of anything. My team
is constantly doing analytics. I've had Democrats reach out to
me because I am the front runner, and not just
the front runner, but I am so far ahead of
all the Republicans it's not even the same race. I'm
more than twice as far ahead as all of the

(52:45):
rest of the Republicans put together. On the second place
person behind me is Barb Kirkmer, Senator Kirkmer, and she's
the only one in double digits, and it's barely into
double digits. I'm in the seventy five to eighty percent
tile she's in double digits. All the rest of the
Republicans are in single digits, including Victor Marx, and so
when when he comes out and he uses me or

(53:06):
tries to leverage some kind of conversation and twist it
and turn it that that that's first. I don't think
a friend should do that, and so I really question,
I don't I don't I think he was using my friendship.
I don't think we were really ever friends. All of
that has really bothered me, and so that's why I
came out and I'm saying this is this is not okay.

(53:27):
Run your governor campaign, but don't try to don't try
to leverage me by by changing a conversation saying I
say something I didn't say.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Representative Scott Bottoms, I have to cut you off there.
I'm running late. Right now, we'll be talking again. It's
a long race. You said a lot of stuff that
I really like. So thank you for your time today.
And if people want to get more information about Representativecott Botoms,
I put a link to his website Scottbottoms dot org,
correct dot org dot com, Scott Bottoms dot com. Check

(53:55):
him out. Scott, thank you for your time today.

Speaker 9 (53:56):
Yeah, thank you, Mandy.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
All right, we will be back from our friends nine News.
This may be the key to Tina Peters getting out
of prison.

Speaker 13 (54:04):
I'm sure that the state employees and the inmates of
La Vista Correctional Facility are safe.

Speaker 11 (54:08):
Well.

Speaker 15 (54:08):
First of all, I condemn all violence or any threats
of violence that anybody's engaged with in regard to.

Speaker 13 (54:15):
This or Democratic Governor Jared Polis spoke with nine News
for the first time since President Trump signed a pardon
for Tina Peters, a pardon that does not erase the
state charges that keep her serving her nearly nine year
prison sentence. Have you done anything specifically to that prison
hearing threats of force or violence?

Speaker 15 (54:32):
So, our Department of Public Safety monitors online threats. Our
prisons are secure by their very nature. It's not easy
to break in or break out at our prisons.

Speaker 13 (54:40):
Has your administration ever negotiated with the Trump administration to
trade Tina Peters for something you want?

Speaker 12 (54:46):
Well, these are requests that would come from us.

Speaker 15 (54:48):
We do have eleven inmates in federal detention because we've requested.

Speaker 12 (54:53):
It, and usually the reason is they're a danger in
the facility.

Speaker 13 (54:56):
While a legitimate request to transfer an inmate from state
to federal custody would come from the state.

Speaker 4 (55:02):
That was not my question.

Speaker 13 (55:03):
Have you negotiated with the Trump administration for anything regarding
Tina Peters or have you been a no.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
She is never leaving state prison from the start.

Speaker 15 (55:10):
Well, I've seen all the stuff they've they've put out,
of course, but I understand that there's you know, people
that are fans of hers, and.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Still no yes or no.

Speaker 13 (55:18):
Speaking of fans of Peters, we requested emails since a
Polus about Peter's in prison. Out of two hundred and
eighty six pages of emails, a little more than half
call for police to keep Peters in custody, someone her
released and are threatening like the email that alludes to
the FBI taking out Polus. Could be a deer that
runs out in front of your kid while they're driving,

(55:39):
or a blowout.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Either way it will look natural.

Speaker 13 (55:41):
And then there's the one from a prison in Fort Worth,
supposedly from the Tiger King himself swap Tina Peters's freedom
for mine. Joe Exotic Polis did name a scenario where
Peters could get out if she's dying, if she is.

Speaker 15 (55:55):
Very sick, or she has cancer or anything like that.
We would look at him at and letting her out
on mercy, as we would do that for any inmate.
As far as I know, she's perfectly healthy and doing fine.
She did have cancer in the past. There's many other
inmates who have too.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
For next I'm Marshall Zellinger.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
So I mean, you know, and.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't want Tina Peters
to have a recurrence of cancer. WHOA, oh, sorry, that
was nine News. They're very big on the auto start
at the nine News website, one of the few that
still does the auto start. I just want to let
you guys know, it sucks. It always sucks. I find
myself going to websites that have the auto start less

(56:33):
frequently because of the annoying auto start. Now, Governor Jared
Poulis was on Rotten this morning, That's Ross on the
News and with Rosskominski, and this is what he had
to say about the teen of Peter situation.

Speaker 11 (56:46):
Well, I mean, you know, first of all, I don't
think he has a great understanding of the American justice system.
He's not my prisoner or his prisoner. She's in the
custody of the State.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Of Colorado, is it inmate?

Speaker 11 (56:55):
Because he was convicted nanimously by a jury of her peers.
She was of course executed by a Republican DBA in
a very Republican area of the state, and I talked
to Republicans there regularly, and they.

Speaker 8 (57:05):
Feel very wronged by her because frankly.

Speaker 11 (57:08):
She risked throwing out election results that were very favorable
to Republicans.

Speaker 7 (57:13):
So I've tried to explain that to the President as well.

Speaker 11 (57:15):
I don't think he sees it that way. But you know,
the type of identity conspiracy, to commit identity fraud that
she committed. It could have been an insurance agent, a bank,
the county clerk, wherever it is. That's against a long
Colorado and she was prosecuted.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
He is correct, He is correct, You guys what I mean?
I laughed when they read the threat could look like
a gear that runs out in front of you and
it'll look natural. What what are you people even talking about?
Good grief? I mean, just good grief. Anyway, when we

(57:53):
get back, and again, I'm not wishing for Tina Peters
to get sick, but I'd be shocked if her attorney
didn't start immediately making those kind of overtures about her health.
We shall see when we get back Denver public schools
and actually public schools across the region, and I should
reach out to Douglas County and see if they are

(58:13):
facing the same loss of students that Denver and Jeffco
have faced. But if you are a Denver parent whose
kid goes to a neighborhood school, you're really going to
want to pay attention to things that are happening right
now as the district tries to figure out how to
make up the difference, or at least contract even more
to match the student population. We'll do that next. So
I've got a story about how Denver Public schools and

(58:36):
a lot of the schools in our area are having
this problem of dropping enrollment. People in Colorado, we're not
having kids and we are an aging community. This, by
the way, is super bad news. It is so incredibly
bad news. And I know what you're thinking, Well, Mandy,

(58:56):
we can just cut the school budget now, except it
never actually happens that way. Somehow the budget never gets cut. Now,
it'll get cut in individual schools because there are not
students in those desks, and difficult decisions are going to
have to be made about the money that remains right.
And this is why I'm saying, if you're a parent,
if you are in an area you like your neighborhood school,

(59:17):
you're really going to want to pay attention in Jeff
co in Denver Public schools, I'm gonna check into Douglas County.
I don't know about Cherry Creek, but you need to
dial in because there could be a chance they're gonna
be working on boundaries, meaning the boundaries for each school
could change, and that may mean you have to open
enroll it just it could change a lot of things,
So please pay attention to that. You can read about

(59:39):
that on today's blog. But I want to wrap up
the second hour of the show with some important and
devastating news. Buck Rogers has died. Now a rod you're far,
far too young. You weren't even I don't even know
if your parents were married. When Buck Rogers and of
the twenty first wait, Buck Rogers and the twenty first century,
what was it? Oh, Buck Rogers in the twenty fifth century,

(01:00:02):
That is correct, one of the greatest, cheesiest, greatest space
shows of all time. And it starred guild Gerard. Oh
he was so dreamy, so dreamy and now he has
passed away. He had cancer and he has left us.
And then yesterday this is another one for you, gen X.

(01:00:25):
I mean, this is hurting my gen X soul and
kind of made me realize that I'm at that point
in life where I have to really pay attention because
all the people I love are now dying. My mom
used to complain about this, and I'm like, oh great, yeah, okay,
now it's happening to be. But also Tony Geary, half
of the first super couple to ever emerge from a

(01:00:48):
soap opera, Luke and Laura on General Hospital, also died.
He died three days after surgery from complications from that surgery.
But I started thinking about this, and anybody who watched
General Hospital back in the eighties, y'all know what I
am about to say is true. There is a zero
percent chance zero that the storyline of Luke and Laura

(01:01:11):
could ever happen today. Ah, And I actually like him.

Speaker 10 (01:01:15):
He's in He's the weird evil scientist guy in UHF Yes,
weird Gary.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
Yeah, he passed away. But listener to this, Ay, Rod,
do you know? Okay, so do you are you familiar
with the Luke and Laura phenomenon. No, Okay, Luke and
Laura were on General Hospital, a long running soap opera.
We don't have soap operas anymore. I'm kind of sad
for kids. What do you watch when you're home from school?
But so they were on that soap opera off and
on for like forty years, and they were the first

(01:01:40):
super couple when they got married, like forty million people
watched them get married on a soap opera in the
middle of the day. Okay, But and here's why their
story can never be told today. He was introduced on
the show as a bad guy and there is still
to this day. There was a for daytime television, a

(01:02:02):
fairly graphic rape scene on General Hospital where Luke raped Laura,
who at the time was seventeen years old. The actress
was seventeen years old, and Genie Francis, the actress who
played Laura, has come out after that and said, now,
as an adult person, for a seventeen year old actress
to have to play that scene, that was insane. That

(01:02:23):
should have never happened. I can't believe they did that
to me, which is a legit complaint, But she's like
I was seventeen they told me to play rape. I
didn't even know what that was. I did it. I
played it. But then Luke and Laura fall in love,
so you have her falling in love with her rapist,
and then they became a super couple, the greatest soap

(01:02:45):
opera couple ever to come out of soap operas. Amazing,
and I was like, dang, that storyline would never fly ever.
And by the way, after the rape scene, the reason
they had him stick around was he proved to be
wildly popular because I guess, Tony Geary, I can't even

(01:03:07):
make rapes look cool. I mean that sounds hard. I
can't even believe those words just came out of my mouth.
But man, the seventies and eighties were wild even on TV. Mandy,
the birth rate in Colorado is five point two percent?
What does that mean? What is the birth rate on
that Mandy? I skipped school to watch the wedding of

(01:03:29):
Luke and Laura. Uh, yeah, who didn't. I had teachers
that skipped school to go watch the wedding of Luke
and Laura. Now I heard, and I never did find
out if it was true that several teachers asked for
audio visual equipment to be brought to their classroom so
they could watch the wedding of Luke and Laura at school. Mandy,

(01:03:50):
when I stayed in from school, I used to watch
William F. Buckley on Firing Line. Now, I'm not saying
when I back in the eighties when he sick. It
went like this. You watched Prices right with Bob Barker.
Everyone did. Then you watched Young and the Restless. Maybe
you switched over to All in the Face or All

(01:04:10):
My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital, or you
stayed and you watched what was on after As the
World Turns and Guiding Life, I mean, soap Harper's were glorious.
What a great time waster. They were absolutely fantastic, Mandy
buck Rogers was a good way to decide your sexuality
as a kid. Between Aaron Gray and Gil Gerard, you

(01:04:31):
would know I might still dream on Aaron Gray and
that spacesuit outfit exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Well, no, it's Mandy Connell and.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Dona nine Am, Stay, stay and the nice.

Speaker 7 (01:04:57):
Grenald.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
You're sad, babe.

Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the third hour of the show.
I'm Mandy Connell, and that's Anthony Rodriguez. You can call them, yes,
you can call them a rod So I've got this story.
First of all, I got to say, you guys are
cracking me up on the text lines with your memories
of your soap operas, and I'm glad I'm not the

(01:05:23):
only one. And then this text, this young whipper snapper, Mandy.
When I got home from school, I watched TRL early
two thousands. Yeah, well some of us. This texter, I
watch Prices right for the chicks. That's awesome. This textter
said there were some good looking women on those soaps.

(01:05:43):
That's why I knew who Luke and Laura were. You
guys are cracking me up, absolutely cracking me up, Mandy.
Jeannie Francis is not wrong about that scene being jacked up.
I think that era let young actresses be exposed to
sexual violence and exploitation with consideration. Jody Foster, Tatum O'Neal,
and Brookshields having similar type roles all come to mind,

(01:06:06):
do you. It is absolutely amazing that Brook Shields and
Jody Foster turned out as well as they seem to
have turned out. Tatum O'Neill had a much rougher path. Mandy,
I'm giving you wait a rod, can you find very quickly?
I need some wind sound effects or you can just
into the microphone, whichever you want to do. I just

(01:06:27):
need to read one text message, so one moment we're
gonna get some sound effects text or we'll have a
little sip of water. Okay, here we go, Mady. Oh no,
keep it going many. I've given you a wind report
here over by Stanley Lake eightieth and Kipling. I'm barely
able to stand up with these one to two mile

(01:06:50):
an hour gus. Yes, I'm serious. I have a thirty
foot flag part with a nine foot flag on it,
and it is almost laying down. Oh you can turn
it off now, Okay.

Speaker 13 (01:07:00):
Just figured it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
Would sound windier if we added some sound effects. Yeah, yeah, Mandy.
I'm sixty two and will probably never be a grandmother.
Both of my daughters both have health issues and are
not in positions that would be conducive to having kids.
I used to be proud of the fact that I
got two girls through their teens without any teen pregnancies.
So my kids aren't helping with the school population shortage.

(01:07:22):
A lot of younger people have just decided not to
have kids. I was talking to our colleague Chelsea, who
works on the Bowl, and doesn't she work on like
nine stations. Chelsea works everywhere. She just had a baby.
She's got a baby girl now, and she said yesterday
she goes, I just cannot believe how much I love
this baby. So I just didn't know what was possible.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
I didn't know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
I didn't know. And that's the kicker about having kids.
You don't know until you know, and you can't know
unless you know right, you cannot it's beyond your comprehension.
Yesterday we had a fascinating conversation with a guy named
Nathan Barkercy and he had an after death experience, a
near death experience, after near whatever, and he said, I

(01:08:08):
struggled with this because there's not words to explain what
it was. They were like the English language falls short,
and for many I think that with parenting, I just
I feel bad. I have some I have some wonderful,
wonderful younger people in my lives, and now they're you know,
and they're they're turning thirty and they've gotten married, and
they found these wonderful spouses that they're they have these

(01:08:31):
great relationships, and so many of their like, we're not
having kids, and I just you never want to force
kids on people who genuinely don't want to have them,
because boy howdy, they'll wear you out. Children are the
greatest thing and the worst thing, often in the same
five minute span. Right, It's like, but again, you don't
know if you don't know, and I just want to say, guys,

(01:08:53):
I wish you'd just reconsider. But to a point, they're
all saying the same things, like we can't afford to
have a child, and I get it. Nobody's ever really
financially ready to have a child, nobody's ever really emotionally
ready to have a child. It's never the perfect time, right,
and if it does turn into the perfect time, then

(01:09:14):
a lot of people struggle to have babies because they
waited too long.

Speaker 8 (01:09:17):
So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:18):
I'm very pro parent, even though you know, you know
why I'm proparent, mostly which I've discovered, like do you
know what you get most of the time when you're
a parent, Gail, And I'm sorry, this isn't going to
happen for you. You get grandkids, and grandkids are far
superior to actual children, Like actual children can be super cool,
but grandkids best thing ever. So I you know, I

(01:09:43):
hope these young people reconsider before it's too late. Mandy.
I was in the Air Force and on the day
I got to my base, everybody in the door and
was in the rec room watching Luke and Laura get married.
That's hilarious, Mandy. I'm twenty nine and I've never even
s a soap opera. They do still exist. They are
still on television. Three of them are. I think Bold

(01:10:05):
and the Beautiful. Bold and the Beautiful, which came on
right be right after Young and the Restless. I think, yeah,
I was on right after Young and the Restless. That
is a worldwide soap opera, like it is watched all
over the world. Those people on that soap opera are
way more famous in other countries than they are in
the United States. So they do still exist. I just

(01:10:27):
don't have that kind of time to commit, Mandy. I
was obsessed with the Ice Princess story It was so good.
They were so outrageous. When we look back at soap
opera storylines, they're so stupid, Like how many times did
Anthony Geary come back to life. We're pretty sure he's
not going to come back to life this time. But
Luke came back to life multiple times. Erica Kane was

(01:10:50):
married like thirteen times. Come on, it was fantastic. Mandy
Burton Ernie are arguably the power couple of the seventies
and eighties. Give me those confirmed bachelors that you look
at in an entirely different light when you get older.
I'm just saying, Mandy, I was twenty one when I
had my son. I'm twenty nine now we're divorced, and

(01:11:13):
I don't want any more kids. You already have one.
But let me just say this, twenty nine year old,
there may be a person out there, a wonderful, special
person that wins your heart. And then you get married
and they say, no, no, no, I'm okay with you
not wanting to have any more kids. I get it,
that's fine. But then you see them with your actual kid,

(01:11:34):
and you see what a great parent they are, and
all of a sudden you're like, you, what, Yeah, I
could do it again. And before you say it can
ever happen? I can have you called Chuck, because before
Chuck and I got married, he already had the two
boys before we got married, he was very clear, I
am done having children, and I was like, no problem.

(01:11:55):
I didn't really ever think I would have kids. And
it was like a year after we were married that
he looked at me and said, you're so awesome with
my kids. You deserve to have your own. And it
was fantastic and I'm so happy I did the least
surprising story for those of us who believe that the
Biden administration was absolutely corrupt, and it was completely for
all to talk about the different ways that the Trump

(01:12:17):
administration reeks of corruption, no actual corruption that I can
see so far, because the reason that Trump is different
than Biden. And I said this to someone the other day,
everything Trump does is out in the open. It can't
not broadcast it. He can't not even broadcast his worst instincts.
So there's no hiding. Like, whatever you think Trump is doing,

(01:12:40):
just ask him. He will flat out tell you. But
Biden loved to present well, I mean the people running
the country when Biden was president loved to present him.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Is just you know what, that's just Joe.

Speaker 4 (01:12:49):
Is he getting some chocolate chip ice cream? Remember I
always used chapter chip like he was three. Anyway, the
FBI did not believe it had probable cause to raid
President Donald Trump's Mar A Lago home in twenty twenty two,
but they move forward amid pressure from the Biden Justice Department,
with an official saying he didn't give a damn about

(01:13:12):
the optics of the search. This from newly declassified documents
reviewed by Fox News. Fox News Digital revealed reviewed emails
from the FBI Justice Department officials in the months leading
up to the raid at Mar A Lago, and FBI
officials expressed concerns multiple times about a lack of probable cause.

(01:13:34):
They even went so far as to suggest that they
just called Trump's lawyer and say, uh, yeah, I think
you have some documents and we'd like to come in
and check. From one of the emails, an FBI officials
serving as an assistant Special Agent in charge writing to
another FBI official, he said, very little has been developed

(01:13:55):
related to who might be culpable for mishandling the documents
from the interview is WFO. I don't know what WFO
stands for. I think it's The investigation has gathered information
suggesting that there may be additional boxes, presumably as the
same type that were sent back to Narra in January
at mar A Lago. They've been drafting a search warrant
affidavit related to these potential boxes, but have some concerns

(01:14:19):
that the information is single source, has not been corroborated
and maybe dated. DJ opines, however, that the sw's meet
the probable cause standard. So the FBI was like, yeah, guys,
this doesn't really meet the standard for a search warrant,
and and the Biden admit is like, yeah it does.

(01:14:40):
And they're like, no, it doesn't. And they're like, yeah
it does. And every time they said yeah it does,
they stared a little harder, Yeah it does, Yeah it does,
until the FBI finally did it. The FBI actually said,
absent a witness coming forward with recent informa about classified

(01:15:01):
on site, at what point is it fair to table this.
It's time consuming for the team and not productive if
there are no new facts supporting probable cause. Huh so weird.
And then another agent wrote, doj is opined that they
do have probable cause, requesting a wide scope including residents, office,

(01:15:23):
and storage space. The FBI believed the raid would be
counterproductive and suggested alternative, less intrusive and likelier quicker options
for resolution. You remember how they actually called the Biden
administration and every that they called Joe Biden and they
were like, hey, Joe, we understand that there's some records

(01:15:44):
maybe hanging around in your garage with your car in Delaware.
Can we just come in and look? And he was like,
Joe was like, well, Joe didn't answer. Somebody else answered
on his path and he was like, yeah, come on
in and check them out. And they got those boxes.
They could have done that to Trump, but they didn't.
You know, anybody that thinks Joe Biden was a nice guy,

(01:16:05):
anybody that thinks the Biden administration was scandal free, it's
It was scandal free, but largely because the media didn't
show any interest in doing any sort of investigative reporting,
as they pretended to be completely snowed by the crafty
cover up of Joe Biden's decline. I mean, who could

(01:16:29):
have seen it but all the people who were talking
about it for four years, like me and everybody else,
I mean, the Biden the four years of the Biden
administration have got to be the biggest black mark on
the media in the media's history. And that says something
because the media has got a long history of being
awful at its job, not always just when someone they

(01:16:53):
don't like is on the other side of the story, right,
isn't that the case? By the way, another email dated
August fourth, twenty twenty two, said the FBI intends for
the execution of the warrant to be handled in a professional,
low key manner and to be mindful of the optics
of the search. The agent then quotes Deputy Assistant Attorney

(01:17:17):
General George Toscas in a meeting and it says, since
we heard mister Tuskas say yesterday in the call that
he frankly doesn't give a damn about the optics, and
mister Bratt has already built an antagonistic relationship with Trump attorneys,
I think it is more than fair to say that
the DOJ contact with Trump attorney just prior to the
execution of the warrant will not go well. DJ said

(01:17:39):
as much yesterday. I also think it is fair to
say that if FBI calls having in mind officer safety,
to the optics of the search, and the desire to
conduct this search in a professional and low key manner,
there's a far better chance that the execution will go
more smoothly and we may actually gain some measure of
cooperation which could go so way to resolving the mishandling

(01:18:01):
of the classified records investigation that is being conducted. But
that's not what Biden's Department of DJ wanted, was it
not even in the least. Norton Rainey, he's the CEO
of A Scholarships, a nonprofit k through twelve SGO, that's
scholarship granting organization that's been delivering scholarships for twenty five years.
First of all, Norton, welcome the show. First of all,

(01:18:25):
let's talk for a second about how A Scholarships came
to be, because this feels like an expansion that we're
talking about now that they could be really amazing. But
how did A Scholarships get off the ground?

Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
Mandy, thanks so much for having me on the show.
To everyone, it is a honor to really talk about
what we think is one of the most important opportunities
in our country has seen in a long time, This
federal tax credit. Maybe it's your question. ACE was founded
twenty five years ago by some remarkable business leaders who
really wanted a better denver for low income children who
were being left behind twenty five years ago that children

(01:19:01):
are not being educated, and the premise of ACE was
to put them in a private K through twelve school,
and we did this through a partial tuition scholarship. And
twenty five years later, the same thing goes on, and
that is that our kids are not being educated. But
here's what's really exciting. When you put a kid and
you let a parent choose the school that's right for them,
we see extraordinary success evidenced by ninety nine percent of

(01:19:24):
our kids graduating from high school. They go to college,
the trades, the military, They love America, and they're actually
improving their communities in our society. And we're doing this
for far less money than a traditional public school.

Speaker 4 (01:19:37):
You know, That's the thing people don't understand. We all
have this, you know, impression that private schools are always
millions and millions of dollars. I'm being sarcastic, but the
reality is is that most private schools operate on leaner
budgets than we have per pupil for the public school system.
Their teachers don't get the same kind of benefits on
the back end that public school teachers get. But they

(01:19:58):
also tend to have student events that are a little
more motivated across the board than some public school students.
So I want to ask you this, how does this
program that the Trump administration is now promoting that Jared
Police assigned us up for, how does it work? How
does that go with what you guys do?

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
Is it similar?

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
Is it the same?

Speaker 5 (01:20:19):
Well, first of all, there is a tremendous misconception. It's
one of the biggest myths in the school choice movement
that private schools are these elite institutions that are completely
out of reach for families. And if you live in Denver,
you're probably thinking in terms of a couple of elite
schools that yes, r we are expensive, but the majority
of our schools the tuitions right around ten thousand per year,

(01:20:40):
so they're actually very affordable. And that's about six thousand
less per child than you would have in a Denver
public school, where the most is staggering these days. So
this new program that was created by I would say
it was signed into law in the Big Beautiful Bill
by President Donald Trump is historic. It creates a federal
tax credit which in twenty twenty seven enables every American

(01:21:02):
to participate by contributing up to seventeen hundred dollars to
a qualified program like ACE Scholarships or scholarship granting organization,
and they can claim a credit when they file their taxes.
It's really important to understand the distinction between a deduction
at credit. A deduction would be your traditional donation you
make to a charity. A credit is a dollar for

(01:21:23):
a dollar credit that when you file your taxes you
actually get that money back. So I want to say
thank you to leaders in Washington, thank you to our
president who's now making this possible in all fifty states.
But I also would be remiss if I did not
think our Governor Jared Polish Jared Polis, like you mentioned,
he's doing something really cool. He's bucking the trend and

(01:21:44):
he's saying I support school choice. In fact, the governor
has been a long time supporter a school choice in Colorado.
He's actually written checks to ACE over the years. He
started a charter school, so he's always believed in the
power of putting kids in the school that's right for them.
And we really commend him for some or not signing
but saying he intends to opt in as the federal
school choice state.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
Now, let me ask you this, Norton, because it is
my understanding that you can make a donation, and of
course donating the ACE would be amazing. And you guys
are helping kids go to good private schools, but can
this also be used to support a public school student
who may need tutoring or have some additional needs? Is

(01:22:26):
that what I see as well?

Speaker 5 (01:22:29):
Yeah, this program. There is no reason why any governor
in the country should be opting out of this program.
And the reason why is because what you just said,
this program is so robust. It could be a private school,
it could be before natural school programs, tutoring services, anything
that enhances your education, which means there is money available
for our public school system as well. So there's no
excuse not to participate.

Speaker 9 (01:22:51):
And sadly, we are.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
Going to see politicians around the country who will not
participate in this program, usually politicians who are probably being
led by the teachers unions to not support this. They
feel as competition and really what it comes down to,
they recognize their schools are feeling and they've been feeling
this for a long time and this date this states
back for decades in our country where we're spending extraordinary

(01:23:16):
amounts of money and we're just not getting the return
on investment we should. And honestly, it is our most
precious resource, our children, and it all begins with education.
A educated child, an educated workplace means it we're going
to be better as the country economically.

Speaker 4 (01:23:31):
So let me ask this question because you just brought
up the fact that there are politicians who are against this,
and one of them too, I think now both. I
believe Michael Beanntt has come out against it, but Phil Wiser,
one of our candidates for governor on the Democratic primary side,
has said this takes money away from public education, which

(01:23:51):
is patently false. The notion that somehow allowing people to
make a donation to an organization of their choice that
will then grant some kind of scholarship to students, none
of this money would have ever gone to the public
school system. I mean, that's that's the easiest way to
say it.

Speaker 12 (01:24:09):
That's correct.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
So that's an absurd way to demogogue against it.

Speaker 9 (01:24:17):
Now you knowed it.

Speaker 5 (01:24:17):
It absolutely is man that you are correct. Public school
funding will continue to grow. It always grows, even when
school choice programs from the country are implemented, whether it's
a state tax credit program, or it's a education savings account.
The cost educated kid continues to rise in public school
funding and also teacher funding has continued to rise over
the years, so this will only enhance our system. But

(01:24:40):
more importantly, we live in the greatest country in the
world that we allow Americans to choose the home they buy,
the car they purchase, the clothing they buy anything in
this country. We are free in this democratic society. This
is the one area where you're trapped by your zip code.
If you're in a zip code in your child's failing,
our system is saying you have no choice, particularly if

(01:25:01):
you're poor. So this program now is giving people a choice,
and that means we're going to fill the seats in
our private schools. There's going to be more funding for
public schools now as well. So once again, there's absolutely
no reason why any governor should not be opting into
this program.

Speaker 4 (01:25:16):
I agree wholeheartedly. I'm talking to Norton Haney. He's with
ACE Scholarships. They provide scholarships to K through twelve students
who want to opt out of public schools and go
to private schools. You mentioned earlier, you guys do a
fifty percent tuition scholarship. Why only fifty percent when that
probably that last you know, five hundred dollars a month

(01:25:37):
maybe out of reach for some families and poverty.

Speaker 5 (01:25:41):
Yeah, if the average income for a FA family Stier
in Colorado is wrid around sixty thousand per year, and
so these are pretty poor families after taxes. So the
fact they want to put their kid into private school,
it means something is not working out. They want their
child to have a better education and they want them
simply to have a life that's greater for them. So
our commitment is about four four thousand per year. That

(01:26:01):
means it's not covering the full tuition, and that means
the school's going to give them a scholarship. But more importantly,
it means the families have skin in the game. The
average family contributions about two thousand per year. Think about that, man,
how remarkable is that If you only made sixty thousand
per year and who knows what you're making after taxes,
and you're contributing two thousand of your harder money to

(01:26:22):
put your kid in a private school, that means something's
not working out well for you. And honestly, that's why
our program works really well, it's that three way partnership
between the school, the family, and ACE and our money
is making a big difference. But the sad part, we
have thousands of families in the state right now that
are applying every year and they're being left behind. So
we're actually not letting every American and every Colorado and

(01:26:44):
experience the American dream. Thankfully, our donors have been very,
very generous, and we've got about five thousand kids on
scholarship in Colorado. But we can do a lot more
immediately and long term with this federal credit. We plan
on doing so much more, so we can radically change
Colorado and make this one of the greatest states in
the country, not just a state that's attracting talent and

(01:27:05):
an educated workforce, but a state that really is delivering
on its promise to ensure every child is being educated
and they can live in a prosperous society and they
can be independent on their own accord.

Speaker 4 (01:27:15):
When can people get this seventeen hundred dollars tax credit?
Does that start January first or they can they get
it in this year?

Speaker 5 (01:27:22):
Well, it begins in twenty twenty seven, but in twenty
twenty six we'll start collecting pledges. In the meantime, I
would encourage people to go to our website at Acescholarships
dot org and what we want you to do is
sign up an express an interest to be involved, and
that way we can communicate with you and when the
opportunity is there, we can get you plugged in as

(01:27:43):
a donor and then we'll facilitate everything to ensure kids
go to school. We will make sure that you get
your receipts and then best of all, you will get
a refund from the government when you file your taxes.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
Amen to that. Norton Rainey from the A Scholarships Group,
I appreciate your time today and the fact that you've
been working so hard to help kids, no matter what
their financial circumstances, be able to tap into a great education.
I appreciate your time today.

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Hey, I appreciate you.

Speaker 12 (01:28:10):
Thanks.

Speaker 5 (01:28:11):
Maby appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (01:28:12):
Is Norton Haney with A Scholarships joining me. He's an
ace himself. Do we have breaking news? Do we have
breaking news? Sounder Anthony breaking news to do that's a freak,
that's a breaking news. Rick Lewis joins us. I believe
we have an update on the song, the theme song? Now, hey, Rod,
have we gotten any any entries to our theme song contest?

Speaker 10 (01:28:32):
Since they're all coming here, have been many inquiries to
the lyrics many people, Yeah, but nothing from that yet,
nothing yet?

Speaker 4 (01:28:40):
So what are we doing? What are we working on it?

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
Well?

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
Uh, we we open it up to the listeners because
we had already said that. But what's what did the
Rick Lows projects say?

Speaker 12 (01:28:47):
Oh, my guys are in.

Speaker 4 (01:28:49):
Yeah, if you worrow backups, yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:28:51):
If you want to do that, we'll do it in
the studio here.

Speaker 4 (01:28:54):
It would be fantastic.

Speaker 12 (01:28:55):
I think we should do it during your show.

Speaker 8 (01:28:58):
Can we do that?

Speaker 4 (01:28:59):
Can I broadcast studio? See we might be able to
patch in from their I'm sure.

Speaker 16 (01:29:03):
Yeah, I think you care because we've done it before
on my show. Right, Plus musicians, it's tough to get
them up.

Speaker 4 (01:29:08):
At the krack and noon, so you know what I'll
tell Yeah, that's probably true. That is probably true. You
show real quickly before we chitchat with Rick about the
glorious win from last weekend. Glorious weekend. I do want
to say this tomorrow in the two o'clock hour. I
am super excited because we're going to do a Healthcare Roundtable,
where we are going to do a deep dive on

(01:29:28):
an alternative to health insurance, the health insurance market. I'm
getting the most distressing emails from people saying I've just
decided to not get insurance because it is people our
age rick are seeing premiums twenty one a month with
a ten thousand dollars deductible. It's not and you're never
gonna use it. It's it's insane. So tomorrow, in the

(01:29:50):
two o'clock hour, all of your questions answered about direct
primary care med shares, how it all works. It's going
to be really really good. We're bringing in some pros.
It's going to be awesome. So that's in the two o'clock.

Speaker 12 (01:30:00):
You know, if you're a.

Speaker 16 (01:30:01):
Healthy person, health insurance for somebody like me, it's basically
for a catastrophe.

Speaker 4 (01:30:06):
And here's the thing. One of the things that is,
you know, one of the things that they could do
in Congress right now that would be an absolute game
changer for people. You may not know this, but if
you're under thirty, you're allowed in this country to buy
what's called a catastrophic policy kicks in at ten thousand
dollars pays eighty percent. It's for those things you're talking about.
You have a heart attack, you get cancer, if you're

(01:30:27):
over thirty, you can't buy that. And if they just
change that, then you can get direct primary care, you
could get catastrophic insurance and you'd be covered.

Speaker 12 (01:30:36):
Yeah, that would change the game for sure. I'm all
in on that.

Speaker 4 (01:30:39):
Yep, me too. And unfortunately the people in Congress are.

Speaker 2 (01:30:42):
Idiots so well.

Speaker 12 (01:30:43):
We've known that for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:30:44):
I know, but I keep believing. I keep wanting to believe. Rick,
I feel like I just want to believe, and yet no,
can I ask you a question, do you still go
to Hawaii? I know you haven't had a place there
for some time.

Speaker 16 (01:30:56):
We did have a condo on Molokai. Yeah, of all places.
We haven't been there in probably three years. But I'm
ready to go back.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
I just had a friend who went and said, there's
a little bit of like a vibe of hostility in
Hawaii right now for taurists.

Speaker 12 (01:31:11):
What island.

Speaker 4 (01:31:13):
I knew you were gonna ask me that, And I
don't either the Big Island or Maui or Hawaii.

Speaker 12 (01:31:18):
It's been like that for a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:21):
Molokai never felt that way. Molokai, which and I'm like
the biggest honkey ever walking through you know what I mean.
I am a holly Yeah, I definitely notice you yeah
and me.

Speaker 11 (01:31:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (01:31:31):
But Molokai they don't want anybody there. They don't want
any development. They've run out investors that wanted to build
big resorts there.

Speaker 11 (01:31:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:31:39):
Uh so, any more power to them, right.

Speaker 12 (01:31:42):
It's their island. They feel like we kind of ruined it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:44):
Well, I got to tell you, after going to the
French Polynesia. Have you been to French Polynesia? Put it
on your list, dude, it is.

Speaker 12 (01:31:51):
It looks fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:31:52):
If you want to go to a place where there's
literally nothing to do but snorkel every other day and
look at a volcano while you're drinking, get a fruity
beverage by the pool, it's glorious.

Speaker 12 (01:32:02):
That sounds fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:32:04):
So much of the island isn't grinding poverty. So you
have these like resort chains and then you have really
poor people and that feels a little bit like some
of the islands in Hawaii as well.

Speaker 12 (01:32:14):
Yeah, Hawaii is similar to that as well. The natives.

Speaker 16 (01:32:19):
They tolerate tourists because that's how they make their money.
But I'm sure that they probably talk about us behind
our backs and wish we weren't there, and they want
their island back. And in a way I get that,
having spent so much time there, I understand it. Yeah,
but what are they going to do without the tourist
money exactly. They're in big trouble without it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:40):
It's definitely a double edged it's golden handcuffs they have
right now. That's a good way to put you, you
know what I mean, because tourism pays so much, so
much of what gets done. But at the same time,
and I love Hawaii. I don't want anything I just
said to be disparaging. I love the island of Hawaii.
It is a jewel in the fifty States. And I
makes me sad sometimes when you see the strife with

(01:33:02):
the you know, the people who have deeply rooted in
Hawaii for generations, and it's just it's tough, but it
is one of the most beautiful places. Everybody should go.
Just don't be an a.

Speaker 12 (01:33:13):
Hole in your life's amazing place.

Speaker 4 (01:33:17):
Yeah, don't be a jerk. Okay, get off the resort.
That's all. I'm go spend some local money right anyway,
I know it's time. Did they tell you were doing
this today?

Speaker 3 (01:33:26):
Right?

Speaker 8 (01:33:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
I assumed I was. Okay, part of the show. It's
time for the most exciting segment all the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:33:34):
Love.

Speaker 4 (01:33:34):
It's gone the worm very good.

Speaker 12 (01:33:43):
All right?

Speaker 4 (01:33:43):
What is our dad joke of the day? Please?

Speaker 10 (01:33:45):
My car broke down somewhere between the marina and the
Hallmark store. Now I'm stuck between a dock and a
card place.

Speaker 11 (01:33:53):
I love that.

Speaker 12 (01:33:55):
That's that's a good dad joke.

Speaker 4 (01:33:56):
That was a really good way. That's a five.

Speaker 12 (01:33:59):
Yeah, as dad jokes go, I'll give it a fuck.

Speaker 4 (01:34:02):
What is our What is our? You know what I'm
trying to say of the day? Thank you? Sound like
we do this verb verb spouse's spouse. That means you
advocate for something, you talk about it. Rick, Oh, you're right, Yes,
she's right to take up a support as a cause.
There you go. Yeah, easy peasy question. Yeah, here's another

(01:34:25):
easy one. Who directed the nineteen ninety four film Pulp Fiction.
An overrated, not very good.

Speaker 10 (01:34:31):
Director outside of a couple of movies Quent Glorients of course,
Quentin Terrance. Now yeah, quick, yeah, pulp Fiction awful, Hollywood awful.
Upon a time in Hollywood a bunch of random scenes
put together.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
Here's a movie. I liked it, and here's a bunch
of and here's a bunch of feet.

Speaker 12 (01:34:52):
Maybe because I lived in La I just really liked
Once upon a Time.

Speaker 4 (01:34:56):
My favorite Hollywood story is La Story because it is
so Everything about La Story just shows how shallow Hollywood
truly is.

Speaker 3 (01:35:05):
You know what?

Speaker 12 (01:35:06):
In that movie too, Once upon a Time in Hollywood.

Speaker 16 (01:35:08):
They even had a billboard in the movie from a
radio station I worked at when.

Speaker 4 (01:35:12):
I was there, so I really related to it. Okay,
least he had django and and glorious.

Speaker 11 (01:35:16):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:35:17):
Anyway, what's our Jeopardy category? By the way, I did
so well at Jeffrey last night. Chuck at one point
was like, dang girl, it was like every category every day.
But we watched it last I do right now. Okay,
let's see. Category is sports upset?

Speaker 7 (01:35:31):
Oh God?

Speaker 10 (01:35:33):
In a certain Super Bowl eighteen to nothing, excuse me,
the eighteen and O Patriots were upset by this team,
Rick Rick New York Times correct the US hockey teams
upset of the Soviets.

Speaker 4 (01:35:46):
In the what is Miracle on Ice nineteen eighty Olympics
that wasn't a.

Speaker 10 (01:35:51):
Way through and Rick said his name, so technically Rick
has to go now as well with US anymore Russia
also wrong because the rest of the question is the
US hockey's team upset of the Soviet in the Winter
Olympics held in this town?

Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
What is Lake Placid?

Speaker 10 (01:36:08):
Dang it?

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
Sports movie?

Speaker 10 (01:36:11):
Hajim Elijah led this school to the nineteen eighty three
n CUAA title game. Rick Rick University of Houston correct,
undefeated for thirteen years in this wrestling style.

Speaker 4 (01:36:23):
Alexander, is it Correllen? Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:36:25):
Any who?

Speaker 4 (01:36:26):
What is Greco Roman wrestling? Correct? Finally back to zero?

Speaker 12 (01:36:29):
Score good?

Speaker 4 (01:36:30):
It is two to zero. This has gotten Rick's winning
all right?

Speaker 12 (01:36:34):
Rick.

Speaker 10 (01:36:34):
On August thirteenth, nineteen nineteen, a one hundred to one
shot came in as this horse lost his only race
to the fittingly named upset.

Speaker 4 (01:36:45):
Nineteen nineteen. I mean that maybe cetariat wrong?

Speaker 12 (01:36:51):
No, that was that was seventy three.

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
I know I was just KidSing because I got nineteen
the horse named man o' war.

Speaker 12 (01:36:58):
Oh man, I should have known that.

Speaker 9 (01:37:00):
I need God.

Speaker 12 (01:37:02):
I've heard that of millions times, and.

Speaker 4 (01:37:04):
I lived in Louisville. I'm supposed to have absorbed all
of this racecourse, exact history.

Speaker 10 (01:37:08):
I did not.

Speaker 8 (01:37:09):
I didn't.

Speaker 4 (01:37:09):
I absorbed nothing.

Speaker 12 (01:37:10):
Did you pick that category just from the a rotter?

Speaker 4 (01:37:12):
Yes, I'm just saying it might have been a softball.
That's all. Well for me, it was congratulations, big winner.

Speaker 12 (01:37:19):
Well thank you, I finally won won.

Speaker 2 (01:37:22):
Yes, Pegwa.

Speaker 4 (01:37:22):
Do you have any idea what's coming up on today's show?
Are you just showing up to be the arm can
name pretty face?

Speaker 12 (01:37:27):
That's all I ever do. Now we're going to talk
about the game coming up. There's another big game.

Speaker 4 (01:37:32):
You know what, my dad is this weird that my
dad's a huge tags fan and I have some of
my dad's ashes. I'm thinking about putting them on the
end table so we can watch the game together.

Speaker 8 (01:37:41):
You know.

Speaker 12 (01:37:43):
You know what, I don't have a problem with that
at all.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
I thought it would be fun, Like I watched the
game with my dad. I haven't told my husband, who
already think I'm weird.

Speaker 12 (01:37:50):
I tell you what I did in Detroit real quick.
If you have a minute my game.

Speaker 16 (01:37:52):
Like one minute, huge Lions fan, and when we played
the Lions three years ago in Detroit, I put my
dad's picture up on my phone walked into the stadium
with my dad.

Speaker 4 (01:38:04):
Oh see, that's so cool looking at.

Speaker 16 (01:38:06):
Him, looking at his picture walking into the stadium, I'm
sure he was looking down from football habit.

Speaker 4 (01:38:11):
And that's that's why I'm going to watch the game
with my dad on Sunday and I'm gonna run smack
at him the whole time.

Speaker 12 (01:38:15):
I like that idea.

Speaker 4 (01:38:16):
There you go, Koe Sports coming up next, Keep it
right here on Koa