August 16, 2023 - High Country Politics - Government and Elections News from the American West

Colorado teachers’ union sues school district over gag policy | Arizona’s state Democratic Party has raised 7x more money than AZ Republicans this year | Cecelia Espinoza, Rochelle Galindo, and Tim Hernandez seek vacant Colorado House seat representing Denver-based 4th district | Power shutoffs could prove deadly as Nevadans brace for continued extreme heat

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Welcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod’s Talking Politics, every Monday.

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Alright! Let’s get into it: 

COLORADO NEWSLINE:

A Colorado teachers union filed a federal lawsuit against the Woodland Park School District and its board of education over a policy that they say prevents teachers from publicly speaking about school concerns.

The Woodland Park Education Association and its president, Nate Owen, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver this week. The school board and district in Woodland Park, outside Colorado Springs in Teller County, has become increasingly conservative in recent years and the schools have become a frequent flashpoint of controversy over a number of issues including curriculum, personnel, transparency, etc.

The lawsuit alleges that a district policy known as KDDA, is an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech that goes against the First Amendment.

That policy, revised twice this year, states that the superintendent is the official spokesperson for the district and employees cannot talk to the media or even post on social media about district decisions without approval. Violation of the policy is considered insubordination.

The lawsuit says “Prior restraints on speech are the most serious and least tolerable infringement of an individual’s First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has routinely held that prior restraints on protected speech are presumed to be constitutionally invalid,”

There are examples of courts striking down policies that prevent public employees, like teachers, from speaking to the media without prior approval.

 attorney Steve Zansberg, who works on cases pertaining to media and the First Amendment said “It is my understanding that policies like this have previously been challenged in other school districts and have been found by courts to be unconstitutional restrictions on free speech rights of school employees.” 

Because of Owen’s standing as president of the local teachers union, he often makes public comments to the school board about working conditions and matters of public concern, as well as comments to the media. The district’s policy, however, puts his teaching job in jeopardy if he speaks out.

The lawsuit also alleges that the way the policy was revised in February and March violates Colorado’s Open Meetings Law. There are no posted minutes or agendas that show the school board publicly discussing the issue.

Woodland Park School District Superintendent Ken Witt called the lawsuit a “coordinated political attack” by groups seeking to intimidate him, but of course offered no support for that claim. 

ARIZONA MIRROR:

Arizona Republican Party’s fundraising abysmal in run up to pivotal 2024 election

BY: CAITLIN SIEVERS - AUGUST 11, 2023 7:00 AM

The Arizona Republican Party’s fundraising efforts so far this year are embarrassing, with Democrats outpacing them seven to one, leaving political operatives wondering if the party’s new chairman can right the ship in time to mount any sort of meaningful campaign in 2024. 

The party took in only $165,000 in contributions so far in 2023, as compared to the Arizona Democratic Party’s more than $1,150,000. 

And the state Republican Party’s federal account, which is vital to fund operations during a presidential election year, was in a sad state as of the end of June, with less than $24,000 in cash on hand, compared to the state Democratic Party’s nearly $714,000.

Because of campaign finance laws, the parties must operate separate accounts for money spent to help elect federal candidates and funds used to bolster state and local hopefuls. 

Robert Graham, a former Arizona Republican Party chairman from 2013-2017, told the Arizona Mirror, “If this were me, I would be sweating a little bit.” 

He went on to say that the last party chairman Kelli Ward’s extravagant spending and far-right fringe politics have left some big donors hesitant to give.

Ward, who chaired the state GOP for four years beginning in January 2019, was part of the group of fake electors from Arizona that hoped to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in 2020. She bought into election conspiracy theories and spent more than $500,000 on an election night party and statewide bus tour in 2022, angering fellow Republicans who would have rather seen that money used to help GOP candidates who lost extremely tight statewide races.

In that election, Arizona Republicans suffered losses in the race for governor, secretary of state and attorney general and the U.S. Senate.

One former AZ Democratic Party executive director said

“Functionally, they’re running an operation right now that wouldn’t be capable of running one Dairy Queen franchise, much less a state operation to hopefully elect a senator or a president,” 

“I would be shocked, I think, just given where they are right now, if this time next year they’re running any sort of impactful campaign or effort out of the state Republican Party.”

DENVER WESTWORD:

Firebrand Teacher Tim Hernández seeks seat in Colorado House

House District 4 had been represented by Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, who won an at-large seat on Denver City Council.

By Michael Roberts

August 9, 2023

Tim Hernández is a teacher best known for fighting on behalf of diversity, equity and inclusion related to both students and educators. Now he hopes to bring his passion to the Colorado Legislature as a representative for House District 4.

Hernandez has been a controversial figure, making headlines last year when students at North High School protested the decision not to keep him on the staff.

Colorado’s House District 4 stretches roughly from Regis University south to Morrison Road, and from Sheridan Boulevard east to Zuni Street. 

However, the District’s voters as a whole won't be making the selection — at least not yet. On August 26 "appointed leadership of the Democratic Party within the House district, an estimated 69 individuals, will decide who fills out the rest of the term.  

Two other hopefuls with significant Democratic connections are also vying for the spot. Cecelia Espenoza previously worked as a counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice and an appellate immigration judge. She is also a former professor at the University of Denver and St. Mary's University School of Law, and a former chair of the board at the National Hispana Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., as well.

Also in the race is Rochelle Galindo, who in 2015 became the first openly gay person to be elected to the Greeley, Colorado City Council. She followed this win by besting Republican rival Michael Thuener to become the state representative for Weld County's District 50 in 2018. She resigned the next year after being accused of sexual assault and providing alcohol to a minor and was cleared of the charges in 2021. 

Since she left the legislature, Galindo has worked in various roles at advocacy organizations Colorado People's Alliance, Colorado People's Action, and Emerge.

NEVADA CURRENT:

NV households struggle to pay summer power bills, and it’s getting worse

BY: JENIFFER SOLIS - AUGUST 15, 2023 5:34 AM

Record heat in Southern Nevada throughout July drove scores of residents to take refuge in air-conditioned homes, but the cost of fighting off summer temperatures will likely leave an alarming number of Nevadans unable to pay their bills. 

Last month was the hottest July ever recorded in Las Vegas, with a daily average high of 109 degrees. The last two weeks of July were the hottest 14-day stretch on ever record, with an average high of 112 degrees. 

Nevada residents living in a single-family home saw an average 22% increase — from about $337 per month fo $407 per month - in their energy bills.

Electricity rates in July were set to be even higher before NV Energy agreed to temporarily reduce costs for customers.

For many Nevada households, an extra $60 to $70 dollars won’t completely break the bank, but for low-income households or those on a fixed income, higher utility bills mean choosing between keeping the A/C running or addressing other essential needs like food and medication. 

In the worst-case scenario, lack of payment may lead to a power shut-off, leaving families scrambling to find enough money to restore service, often only to face disconnection again.

Further, Nevada does not require utilities to disclose the number of customers they disconnect, leaving little transparency of the magnitude of the problem. NV Energy, a monopoly with more than a million captive customers, has shown little interest in publicly sharing the number of disconnected customers. 

An NV Energy spokesperson said in an email that “NV Energy does not share this type of data publicly, though the company works diligently with customers and makes every effort to avoid disconnecting power.”

Data that is public reveals that more and more households are struggling to pay utility bills in Nevada. 

Applications for state utility assistance over the last three months of available data reveal a sharp 37% increase compared to the same period last year. Public health officials anticipate the high demand will continue as temperatures remain high throughout August. 

The state program, called the Energy Assistance Program, provides a supplement for qualifying low-income Nevadans with the cost of home energy. Eligible households receive an annual, one-time per year benefit paid directly to their energy provider.

But the cost of that assistance ultimately falls on NV Energy customers. Part of the program’s funding is subsidized by ratepayers through NV Energy’s Universal Energy Charge, which adds 46 cents a month to the typical residential power bill.

Unpaid bills that can’t be recovered by NV Energy are eventually paid by customers too. 

Nevada law does protect utility customers from power shut-offs during periods of extreme heat, when a lack of air conditioning can result in waves of hospitalizations or even death. 

According to state statute, a utility company can’t terminate service for a non-paying customer if the National Weather Service has forecast a period of extreme heat within the next 24 hours within the customer’s geographical area. For most residents in Southern Nevada, extreme heat is defined as 105 degrees. So if it won’t be 105 in the course of the next day, service can be terminated. 

NV Energy must also notify elderly customers at least 48 hours before termination of power.

For all other residents in Southern Nevada, a forecast of 105 degrees or higher within a 24 hour period is considered extreme heat. Utilities also can’t terminate service to a customer for nonpayment if the outstanding amount owed is $50 or less. But more than $50, it could be lights out. 

COLORADO SUN:

Colorado’s Copper Mountain resort starts seeding to spark a huge biodiversity effort

Jason Blevins

3:50 AM MDT on Aug 15, 2023

This story first appeared in The Outsider, the premium outdoor newsletter by Jason Blevins.

In it, he covers the industry from the inside out, plus the fun side of being outdoors in our beautiful state.

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Copper Mountain has identified 558 acres on the front side of its ski area where soil work can help restore ecosystems and improve biodiversity to help lessen the impacts of climate change. Last year the resort announced a 10-year carbon sequestration plan to plant carbon-storing plants and grasses on its ski slopes. The resort has tapped researchers at Southwestern University in Texas in the effort, with student scientists staking out test plots on five ski runs where they can monitor vegetation growth using native seeds, compost and biochar.

The ski area hosted several resort leaders at its second-annual conservation summit earlier this month in an effort to share their research, strategies and projects. A large focus was restoring biological vibrancy on ski slopes, which too often are simply treated pretty much like lawns instead of critical components of mountain ecosystems. Last year sustainability workers at Copper Mountain started collecting seeds from 27 native species and replanting them across the resort’s north-facing ski runs.

Jeff Grasser, head of sustainability at Copper Mountain said “We are experimenting. We are trying to figure out how to make all this work at a landscape level,” as he sifted through charred wood chips in a 50-gallon drum that he will carefully spread across plots of ski slopes to see how the porous, lightweight biochar might help native grasses thrive. 

The aptly named Grasser has big plans. What if he could create “tons and tons” of biochar in massive kilns, not just little drums? What if Copper Mountain’s corporate owner deploys its fleet of helicopters for heli-skiing in Utah to spread biochar across all the ski slopes at the company’s 10 mountain resorts?

“We want to do this in ways that can be done on a very large scale and we can’t wait to share these results with you,” Grasser told a group of sustainability leaders at a recent conservation summit.

The program included a presentation from folks from another Colorado ski area, Arapahoe Basin, detailing how crews replaced vegetation by hand and preserved topsoil when installing new chairlift towers. The crew from Eldora Mountain Resort offered details of a project with the Town of Nederland to build a wetland to replace a trailhead parking lot. Sunlight ski area took a page from Copper Mountain’s biodiversity playbook and began collecting native seeds for replanting on ski runs. 

The Copper Mountain project will build a dataset of more than 100 locations across the ski area, with 10 years of science showing how native grasses, compost and biochar can help resort operators regain a more diverse, balanced ecosystem on ski slopes.

“We want to have the data to be able to say,‘Hey this works really well. Don’t just take my word for it. We have scientific evidence that supports these methods. These are the first steps in delivering resilience so bio-diversity can grow.’”

And your unsolicited concert pick of the week, Ha Ha Tonka

Thu., Aug. 24, 9 p.m. at the Skylark Lounge in Denver (Bobcat Club) $12-$15

An indie / southern rock band originally formed in West Plains, MO, Ha Ha Tonka’s "dark view of the realities of socio-economic hardship, backwoods prejudices and drug abuse is leavened by wry humor and a deep appreciation for regional storytelling traditions. New album Blood Red Moon will be released on October 23.

After Denver, Ha Ha Tonka will play a slate of shows throughout California, then Columbia, Missouri on November 2nd, West Plains on November 3rd, and Springfield, Missouri on November 4th. hahatonkamusic.com

Welp, that’s it for me! From Denver I’m Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today’s show comes from Colorado Sun, The Outsider, Colorado Newsline, Arizona Mirror, and Denver’s Westword.

Thank you for listening! See you next time.

Host: Adam Sommer 

Find Adam on tik-tok and bluesky as "midmapdadenergy" - follow The Process on instagram. 

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