02-27-25 FULL SHOW - Mayor Johnston's Dumbest Idea Yet, Plus A 1940s Ball!

person told me about this stuff. I don't remember who were why, I really don't could have been doctor Opperman after my vocal cord surgery.

but two capfules in my little tiny netty pot. And I had to stop when I got done because it made me cry because it burned so bad. But then today I did the right dosage and I'm like, wow, I can breathe both sides of my nose. Look at this a rod both sides going in like that. You, I know, super cool stuff. There's just so many gross upper respiratory things going on right now, and just I'm doing anything I can to stay healthy. This afternoon, I'm going to be making a flu bomb. You ever heard

of this a rod? No, it's a mix. I wrote it down. I don't have it in front of me. It's a mix of garlic, ginger. I'm gonna use tea tree oil. It's got lemon juice, it's got cayenne pepper in it, and you put it in a little bit of water and then you just crank it. And I'm gonna have to say if that works, because you know, I'm all about after the alcohol experience, all naturals working for me. So I just wanted to share that in case you too are dealing with this upper respiratory situation.

Textter just said, Sudafed helped me a ton. One thing I learned through my process of you know, when you have a lot of ear nose and throat issues. One of the things they tell you in Colorado is that sudafed is terrible in Colorado because it dries out your nose even more and it can cause a rebound situation. So use a suit of fed sparingly. Don't not use it because I know sometimes you just got to be able to breathe when you go to work. But don't get hooked on it. Don't use it all the time

because it could be very bad. Okay, there is my medical advice for you that is not from any medical person except someone told me to buy the alcohol. And I'm pretty sure they were wearing a white coat. Anyway, let's go find the blog because it's enormous as usual. Go to find the blog at mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the headline that says two twenty seven to twenty five blog Mayor Johnston's dumbest idea

yet plus a nineteen forties ball. Click on that, and here are the headlines you will find within.

Representative Gabe Evans goes right at sanctuary state laws. More tear andover at the RTD police. No, single payer won't work in Colorado trans troops when we kicked out of the military. Colorado's overdose rates aren't going down. Why is this so hard to understand? They flipped his lid? Trump ribs the press, what great is the Jags? New GMN when Hot Wheels comes to life? Trans woman arrested for vandalism at Tesla Again, we do have yearly measles outbreaks.

Scott Jennings asked for specifics. Some people are ready to ditch the United States, and there's a plane at parade this Friday. Those are the headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com. Oh I love all y'all.

I'm just gonna say this about that. If you are on a well, you should never ever ever use your well water in your nose because it could get bacteria. It puts it straight into your brain and you could die. But like municipal water systems, the water is so highly treated that you can totally use it. But if you have any concern, please use distilled water. I'm just letting you know because I use it. I use it out of my tap and I haven't died yet, have not

die died yet? Yeah, Mandy, how do you spell your respiratory stuff? I oh a l k A l O l ALKA. I put a link on my Facebook page. By the way, if you don't follow me on Facebook or Twitter, those are the two platforms that I'm the most active on. I'm also active on Instagram and about to get a little more active on Instagram. I have a new project coming up that I'm not gonna be talking about on the radio. It's not an iHeart project, so I'm not gonna be talking about it on the radio.

But I'm super excited and I'd love for you guys to go and follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and then you'll be in on the inside scoop. Just look for Mandy Connell at Mandy Connall on Twitter, at the Mandy Connell on Instagram, go in, give me a follow, and you'll know what's going on. Because again, we will not be talking about it here on the show. Let's talk about some of the stuff that's on the blog today because we've got a couple guests coming up. One

of them is Jeff Bush. Have you guys heard about this nineteen forties ball? They do a Christmas ball, Well, they're doing one. They do one in the summer as well. It's coming up in June. I'm super mad that I'm going to be in Japan for it, but they're bringing in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Yeah, yeah, this is gonna be like the coolest thing ever. So we're gonna talk to Jeff about that and how you can get involved. And then Britta Horn is coming on the show at

twelve thirty today. Britta is currently running for the chairmanship of the Colorado Republican Party. And I don't know the full details of the story, but I will let Kyle Clarks share them with you. Oh, hang on, Kyle, I gotta turn your volume up. And by the way, oh, I know what I did. Hang on one second, We do that and that there we go. Kyle will tell you what's going on. This is from last night's Next Emily.

the dumpster fire that is the Colorado GOP. And I don't want to oversell it, but the Colorado Republican Party isn't a fight for its very soul, and I wish I was, but I'm not. And the fact that Dave Williams and now Darcy Shoenig have decided to go full on. We learned it from Joe Biden law Fair. I find that fascinating. They accuse everyone else of not being Republican enough, but then they rip the tactics away from Democrats and

deploy them on Republicans. I don't understand it. Brita is coming on at twelve thirty to talk about it from her perspective. She is running for the Colorado chairmanship. She's put out a plan that is so good, so.

they don't care about anything but their own power. They don't care if Republicans get elected, as evidenced by the lack of help and support in the last election cycle. They don't care if they drive away gay Republicans. They don't care if they drive away any sort of Republicans. They don't care. And that is precisely why Brita needs to be the Republican chairperson. I don't envy her the job, though, because wow, wow, Mandy, I'd rather have a root canal

than listen to Kyle Clark for two minutes. You know, Kyle and I disagree politically. Straight up, He's obviously a Democrat, and if he's not a registered Democrat, he's a Democrat in his heart. It is patently obvious. We all know this. But unlike me, who wear my biases, you know, I wave them like little flags, so everybody knows exactly what to expect. He still wants to be seen as a journalist. But he's really funny sometimes, I mean really funny, regardless

of how you feel about what he's talking about. That bit about giving you the special talk of the day, that was funny, very well done. So yeah, you don't have to listen to Kyle though, you really don't, Mandy. I know a woman is threatening to leave the US because of President Trump. I think she expects me to talk her out of it. Oh well, I wouldn't talk her out of it. I would not talk her out of it at all, not even a little bit. So we'll have to find out what this is, what this

is all all all doing. I'm sorry, I'm trying to fix something on my computer while I'm talking to you at the same time. My apologies. We also have all kinds of interesting things.

and I know Ross talked about this earlier. So Mayor Mike Johnston has obviously never run a business, has obviously never had to deal with profit margins that are very, very low, and I guess I don't know, I don't know find out a Rod google real quick how much the Denver mayor makes because the last few times I have gone out to dinner, and I know Ross talked about this on his show too, the last few times I went out to dinner, it is so gobsmackingly expensive

to go out to a nice restaurant in Denver. And it is as somebody who travels a lot. I'm going to tell you something, and I need you to listen. It's not like this everywhere. You can actually go places and get a really good steak, like a really good steak, for like forty five dollars. Now you can go to places that don't have really good steaks for way less than that. But I want a really good steak, and here in Colorado, that forty five dollars steak will run

you sixty five seventy dollars easily, easily. It's not like that everywhere. Yes, a Rod, what do we find out? Uh?

at home every single night. But when brought when he was on the Denver City Cast podcast, he loft at an idea to quote help out restaurants, and that idea was adding a twenty percent surcharge to your restaurant bill and then taxing it, and then the additional tax money would be split between the city of Denver and the restaurants. That's the idea. Let me just ask you guys this, If your dinners out went up immediately without tip twenty percent, what does that do to your going out to dinner

budget if you still have one. One of the first things people cut when things get tight with their with their own personal economies, they cut things like going out to eat, or they go from nicer restaurants due to mid level restaurants. If they're at mid level restaurants, they maybe go to fast casual restaurants. And by the way, they're nothing wrong with any level of these restaurants. Please don't think I'm a snob because I eat it all of them. I eat it, you know, diners, I eat

at steakhouses, I eat it everything in between. Love I love restaurants. So I just saw this and it was it was literally like the dumbest thing ever. But I don't want to talk about that yet because I've got Britta coming up at twelve thirty. But I do want to talk about this. On the same podcast, the mayor started to give a little bit of a window into his strategy for his testimony in front of Congress, and he told the Citycast Denver podcast, we think the data

is quite clear that our approach works. One of the things we see is the fact that we've engaged people in services, supported them, meaning we feelt trust there, which is why we haven't seen huge spikes in crime. What he's talking about is Denver's invitation two immigrants to come to Denver and and spend their time here. Do you think it works? Listeners? Do you think it works having someone run up to your car at an intersection and square dirty water on it so they can then use

a dirty squeegee to get that off? Is that working for you? Is it working for Aurora who has had to deal with a terrible crime situation created by the NGOs that propped Venezuelan immigrants that Mike Johnston invited here into Aurora without notifying anyone. Is it working? Is it really part of me Admires the mayor, because he's so's the right word that I'm looking for? Delusional that I think he really believes that this stuff does work. I

really think he believes that. I think that he is so invested in what he thinks is the right thing that when you when you point out that it is not necessarily working, I don't think he is capable of understanding that. I really don't. I really think in his world he believes it's working. I really think in his world, the chief of the fire department should be able to take money that he is not entitled to. I really think he believes this. He really believes that the number

of homeless people has gone down. In Denver, even though the recent point in Time survey showed it went up. So I'm truly do you think the Denver's response to the illegal immigrant crisis is working? So I'd like to know, Mandy, don't eat in Denver if there's a twenty percent surcharge on the bill, there's no tip. There are a couple of restaurants that have tried to add a happy people charge or whatever, and hey, you don't have to tip. From what I know, those restaurants are out of business.

And that's what we're doing. We're putting all of our rests staurants out of business. Taco Bell for two with no beverages cost twenty five dollars the other night.

his staff tells him everything's working perfectly. I think you're right about that. That is a great analogy, and thank you for making it. We're gonna take a quick time out. Brit Jarren joins us next to talk about the latest nonsense in the Republican Party. And oh yeah, there is more nonsense. We'll do that right after this. Before we get to Britta Horne, I got to tell you guys about the brand new iHeartRadio app. Maybe you download the app previously, but you don't use it a lot. Maybe

you're like it was too complicated. Well we figured that out for people like me and you. Okay, I'm a notedld ie, I'm a noted techno foe. But the Iart Radio app is even easier than ever. And here's what I've done, just to tell you how I set up my app. I listen to podcasts on the iHeart Radio app almost exclusively. Okay, so they have presets now at the top. So now I have the presets for the shows I love. I mean, maybe my show is number one. I don't know, maybe it is, and then I have

the other presets for the podcast that I have. It makes it so easy for me to go from podcast to podcast, or if you're a music person, you can go from radio stations all over the country. Like if you're moved here from somewhere else and you miss your favorite radio station, you can just make it a preset on the iHeart Radio app. It's so easy, and you

always get crystal clear digital audio. And if you're listening to one of our interviews, like maybe this interview with Britta Horn, you can just go to that app, click that preset for my show or for Kowa, and find it right after the show when it's posted. So just download the new iet Radio app or update the app that you have, get going on your presets. Trust me,

you're gonna love it as I do. Now, I want to bring a woman that I am fingers crossed, am hoping is going to make it through the fray to become the next chairwoman of the Colorado GOP. Britta Horn. Welcome back, to the show.

I don't mean pancakes. Tell me about that.

appealing that, and then in the meantime they're doing this lawsuit. It's, you know, in essence, because of all the money and the ces and the attorneys's at the Republican Party, the current Republican party has occurred occurred. They want us now to all pay for it.

we all definitely have things we agree with. We want less government, you know, the less taxes and more freedom. So let's work with those. So we need to unify the party and we need to strengthen the county parties. Two years ago, there were so many new party chairs. They had no idea what they were doing many and it showed because that's all they did is doing this infighting instead instead of working on you know, electing Republicans that you know locally, get growing the party locally, having

more events than the one week to day dinner. You have to do more than that, and you also have the fundraise and have fun. The newer generation Republicans, they're sick of this. I mean also on Republicans. They're all supporting me because they're like they're the new future and we need to hand this over to them. But they want to have fun too. Why we're doing this and protecting our conservative values and going on. I mean, I mean,

you will have those at the beginning. And I really wanted this one to be the first one, because this is how we get unified, This is how we get integrity, This is how we get character of who we are. We need to audit the books. We need to tell the party what's going on. We need to do a third party audit and know what's going on with the financials of the GOP because not having put that transparency causes all this havoc, and we're seeing it every day. People are angry.

any confidence. Although I'm not a registered Republican right now, I left the party when Dave Williams become a chairman because I knew what he was capable of, and I was right. I'd love to come back, but I want some certainty that if I'm giving money, it's going to be spent wisely.

What issues do you think that the Republican Party should be focused like a laser on for the next few election cycles.

But now even down to education, I think education is super important to all of us. I mean, you see it every day. We all think you're seeing with your daughter in school where you're going to put her and we're going to you know, she's going to get a good education and not worry about the politics of the of the feature. So I think pieces and I would also say the economy. I mean I was still shocked. You know, we talked about all the egg stuff.

We have to plan for all those different shenanigans that can happen, and my voice is going to be we have to figure out how to unite, how to collaborate, and how to focus on winning elections instead of fighting each other. And it's going to have all those different levels. And you're right when you said earlier, and I was listening, listening in you know, this is the soul of the party. We're fighting for the shall of the party. Do we want to still continue to be this ugly, nasty, vindictive?

How many more words would you like to use, you know, attacking other Republicans because we think differently, or we're not drinking the kool aid and we're not taking the purity test, and it's all that's set up anyway, it's when do we stop that? I have never manning. I'm looking at the people who are saying it. Not only do they have an ugly inside there, it's their continents, it's an

ugly on the outside. And like kid, right, you know, who has the right as adults and aged adults to say such ugly things about each other?

within this group of Republicans, and it's unfortunate that they do. Brina, what's next, what's the next step here? When is the State Assembly? When we'll we find out?

you were having that call yesterday? The interview of yesterday, I had over six endorsements popping up my phone why we were doing the interview.

by prescription pills. We don't know. They're obviously going to do an autopsy and find out if any sort of you know, foul play, but it could be something. Maybe she found him dead on the floor and couldn't bear the thought of living without him.

I want to read some of these text messages, Mandy. I would say a winning platform would be to push Trump's agenda. The man who won the popular vote he's obviously well supported. Dave Williams has got to be a Democrat plan. You guys, Trump lost Colorado. He lost the state. So whenever we talk about you know, oh, we just need to push Trump's You guys, Trump lost Colorado. We need someone in the Republican Party, and we need a Republican party here in Colorado that stays on focus, This

stays on task. Imagine if we had candidates that were out there saying, hey, you guys, you want to know why everything is so expensive and why so many restaurants have shut down because the Democrats jacked up minimum wage. That's why. Start pinning some of the things that have made Colorado such an uninhabitable place. I'm joking when I say uninhabitable. Just start talking about the things that government

has done to make everything more expensive. Start talking about the fact that when Republicans put forth a bill in the legislature to make serial retail theft and even greater crime than Democrats kill it. Start talking about why everything is so much more difficult now than it used to be, and hang it all on the Democratic Party. That's all

I want. I just want people to be able to talk to people about what's happening in their lives, which is everything is more expensive than it used to be, and offer them solutions and explain to them why if we adopted these policies, this would all be much better. That's what I want. That's it. That's it. We'll take a quick time out. When we get back. We're going to talk to Jeff Bush of the nineteen forties Ball Foundation.

If you want to go back in time to the era when soldiers were coming home from Wall, this is your chance. We'll do that next. Keep it on KOA.

is a trombone player himself. What is your favorite song to play in a big band?

is super special. But then we'll also get folks who remember who are remembering their parents who grew up in the two era, so it's kind of like a double nostalgia.

in full regalia. They're out in their vintage clothing. Do you see that often at the shows?

I you would have one, Yes, why can't I make it there? So anyway, Bob Hope, Carmen Miranda, Lucile Ball, Rita Haydworth, Betty Grable. I'm guessing these are people doing impressions because all of those people have passed away. And yeah, and you can climb upboard Rocky Mountain Commemorative Air Force TBM Avenger. So if you've ever wanted to have the moment of sweeping off of World War two plane and getting your pictures taken, you can do this at this event. Jeff,

it just looks like so much fun. That's the thing. It just looks like so much fun. And I'm super jealous that I'm gonna miss you. But the next time you come here, I fully expect to be able to come see the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. I really appreciate your time with us today, Jeff.

radio voice? Is that something you can make?

Johnston's idea to help restaurants. And this is why it's so funny to help restaurants. Restaurants are dealing with multiple attack points right now. Number one, our minimum wage is ridiculously high, just ridiculously high. It is jacked up labor costs to a point that restaurants are struggling to just get enough bodies in the door and make sure everything is covered. And a salute disaster. That's thing number one,

a government created problem. And then they're dealing with inflation, where everything they're buying costs more money, especially if they're a breakfast restaurant and they're serving eggs. Also a government created problem. That problem was created by government spending so much money in the Federal Reserve, continuing to print money so the government can continue spending money. That's why we

have inflation. And unfortunately, I don't see anything coming out of this giant budget bill that the Republicans are about to pass is going to do it. Amn thing about that. Talk about a disappointment anyway, I continue. So we have two government created problems, and then you add in homelessness, you add in crime downtown, you add in all of these other issues, all of which have been government created. Now I know what you're thinking. You're like, Mandy, the

government did create the crime problem downtown. Yes it did. The government created that problem by allowing little crimes to become big crimes. We went from a guy hitting someone with PBC pipe on the sixteen Street mall a few years ago to a guy stabbing and murdering two people a few months ago. All of these things are government created problems. So the Denver City Cast podcast, which, by the way, isn't it nice a Rod don't you love that the mayor has time to go on the Denver

City Cast podcast. Aren't you excited about that? No comment, plenty of time to go on the city Cast podcast, But anyway, I digress. He went on the Citycast podcast and suggested this when they brought up the letter written by restauranteurs by Dave Query and a bunch of other restauranteurs that said, you ran your entire campaign platform on

restoring our downtown Denver business districts. It has gotten worse since you took the position a mayor, even though you've received five hundred and fifty million dollars towards stewarting it in a different direction. This is the current vibe and entered you on our downtown streets and our longtime Loto and Laramer guests are now driving to Cherry Creek and Northfield and Golden for dinner and entertainment.

Denver Gazette. Johnston said that a recent restaurant group tour group told him that wage disparities exist across the industry, with tip servers making as much as one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in annual salary because they have both the city's minimum wage plus tips, compared to the back of house staffers such as cooks and dishwashers who make about forty grand. Now the state is trying to figure this out by using a tip offset in places like

Denver that have adopted a ridiculously high minimum wage. But the mayor didn't stop there. Oh no, no no. At the local level, Johnston suggested that collecting a twenty percent service charge would generate revenue that could be spread equally across all employees. And this is a quote. But what's interesting for us as the city is you could pull

those service charges. You could share it with all the staff. Interestingly, for us, if you had a service charge that comes above the line and the bill, which means it's also taxed. If you had a one hundred dollars tab and now you put a twenty dollars service charge, you pay one hundred and twenty dollars, and we tax one hundred and twenty dollars. Johnston said the city could then share revenue from the quote marginal new tax back with the restaurants.

So let's just review. Let's review. We have restaurants that are being absolutely crushed by government decisions, absolutely crushed, and government decides that the answer is that restaurants should raise the cost of everything twenty percent, because that's what a twenty percent surcharge on the final bill is. It's a twenty percent increase on everything you just ordered. And then the city is going to give them part of that money back. Part notice, he says share revenue from the

marginal new tax. Now, the mayor obviously has no understanding, no understanding of what it's like to actually have to pay the bill to go out to dinner. Because earlier when I brought this up earlier in the show, a lot of you hit me with some variation of just ate at Panera four sandwiches, no drinks, seventy six dollars, took four people to Taco Bell it was sixty seven dollars. And if they think that consumers will not react to a twenty percent service charge only in Denver, that's the

best part of this whole thing. In his letter, Dave Query actually said, our longtime customers are now driving. They're driving to Golden they're driving to Northfield, they're driving Cheer to Cherry Creek. They're getting out of downtown Denver because they don't want to come down here because of the crime. And then you add the cost of everything and there you go. So does this just drive business to Lakewood? Does it drive business to Douglas County? Does it drive

business to Broomfield? Where does it drive business to?

they didn't think about that? Mayor What kills me is if he had said, look, we're going to do this twenty percent, and then that's going to bring in more tax dollars in hey, you know what, We're gonna give all those tax dollars back to the restaurants. But no, he continued by saying, this will take some small additional revenue, but we could support the restaurant's institution at the same time you're supporting dollars back to the individuals. Ah yeah, yai aye yea yi. By the way, more than two

hundred restaurants closed across Colorado. Last year, some twenty thousand restaurant workers in Denver lost their jobs. In the previous three years, it has twenty two percent of the city's restaurants had shut down. So that higher minimum wage it's not doing those twenty thousand restaurant workers any good this text. I gotta tell you, Texter, I don't want to agree with you, but I do agree with you when they say it's hard to have sympathy for restaurant owners that

voted for all of this. Now, I don't know if every restaurant owner voted for all of this, but it is certainly a good chunk of them. They sound like screaming left wingers who are now mad that they got what they asked for. But what they asked for isn't what they thought they asked for. So now when it's putting their businesses under, they're so many to get concerned. So, yeah, Texter,

I do think you're right. In some cases, it's really hard to have sympathy for restaurant owners that voted for this and didn't do more to encourage their people to vote for someone so they could keep their restaurant open. Mandy, how is it rediculously high. If the cost of housing and living is ridiculously high, I mean, I don't know what you're saying. Are you asking how is it ridiculously high to go out to eat? When housing? And that doesn't mean? Well, they kind of go hand in hand,

don't they, Mandy. I work downtown and live in Douglas County. I hate it down there. I hardly ever spend a cent as is, hate to walk around Cap Hills, so I eat at my desk. If they go forward with this stupidity, I will never eat downtown again. No dinners just hang down south. And I gotta tell you, down in Douglas County, we're actually getting some really good restaurants. And I've been here for thirteen years, and I did not say that. When I first moved here, it was

basically like a restaurant wasteland. But our restaurant scene from Lone Tree down has improved dramatically, Mandy. Why tax them and take their money to start with? That is a great question, great question. So yeah, twenty three skido to Douglas County restaurants. There you go and uh, Mandy, And then the money goes back to the individual employee, and then that's tax does income that'll work out real well? Yep, okay, Mandy.

That one hundred and twenty thousand a year is only one percent of weight staff at the most elite restaurants, not your average weight staff. I won't drive to Denver to eat, although I used to all the time. Signed ex Republican, now independent. Till Dave is drawn and quartered. Well, I don't want Dave Williams to be drawn and quartered. I just want him to be taken out with the trash. Anyway, I do have a.

And that's one table, right, And there's a lot of restaurants here where going out to dinner will cost you that kind of money. And that's my point. People that live here that don't travel a lot, you think this is normal. You think that all restaurants all over the country cost this much money. I am here to tell you they do not. You can go to some cities and you can have a meal that would cost you five hundred bucks here and it will cost you three

hundred there. Our food inflation is nuts here. We traveled when we went to Switzerland, and when Chuck and I went to Switzerland, we were told by so many people, oh my god, it's so expensive. You're gonna die when you see how expensive it is. We did not have one meal in Switzerland wind and we ate in two really, really really nice restaurants. We didn't have one meal in Switzerland that costs more than any meal I have here

in Denver at a nice restaurant, not even close. So it's like when people don't go anywhere, they think this is normal. I'm here to tell you it's not normal. Now there is a move at the Capitol, and I hope it works that will expand the tip credit, which means that an employer can say the minimum wage. And I'm gonna use round numbers here just to make it easy, although these are not accurate numbers. To be clear, say

the minimum wage is fifteen dollars for tipped employees. It used to be that minimum wage when I started working as a waitress tipped. I mean minimum wage was was it seven dollars? I think it was like seven bucks? Maybe it was five fifty. I don't remember. Five to fifty or seven bucks. That was a minimum wage. But I only made two or one an hour as a waitress. And if for some reason my tips that day did not take me up to be able to make that much money, uh, I got the difference, Text me five six,

six nine. Oh, I'd love to hear your thoughts. We'll be right back. This dexter said, Obviously, Johnson's personal wealth did not come from running his own business. Exactly. Exactly. Funny that you said restaurant workers vote per personal experience, most working via a fake green card. Here you're talking back of house. I'm talking front of house. Front of house is a whole different experience, Mandy. Here in Maryland, we spend seventy to one hundred for a couple with drinks,

very fine dining, one hundred dollars per person. This person said, we ate it. Four Michelin starred restaurants in Bordeaux this fall, and mine were over one seventy five with wine for two. So that's less than one hundred dollars a person with wine at a Michelin starred restaurant in Bordeaux, France. Are we starting to get the picture now? And for those of you, I just want to say this. We got a couple of people who are saying three to four

hundred dollars for a meal. That's insane. Nobody can afford this. I want to be clear. I don't regularly spend three to four hundred dollars on a meal, right, That's like special occasion type situation. And whereas previously we would have a special occasion once every six months or something somewhere in that ballpark, now it's like do we really want to spend that kind of money? And the answer most of the time is no. And I know I'm cheap, I get it. I prefer to think I'm thrifty. But

this textor said minimum wage for three twenty five. When I first started waiting tables in North Carolina, I made a buck fifty plus tips per hour, always cleared way more than three twenty five because I busted my butt. This texter has a theory, Mandy, how about one fine try European style, raise the prices to cover wages and have no tipping. Restaurant service in places without tipping sucks. I mean, you do get the occasional wonderful server when

you're traveling in Europe. And I feel like I can say this with some authority because I've traveled a lot to a lot of different places, but compared to where we are here in terms of service, it's not even remotely the same. I mean, in some German places that I've been in, your dinner is going to take two and a half hours long, not because of any reason other than it's slow as hell. Your server acts like

you're bothering them. It's just not a good experience. They don't have the same level of service that we have here in the United States, and tipping is a big part of that. As a former waitress myself, I can tell you that I worked my butt off because if I was going to be at work, I was going to make money, right, I mean, I was going to make money. So you work harder, and if you have a great group of people around you. Everybody can make

a lot of money. Mandy. Yet again, Johnston following the police's pattern of fee Police's pattern of fees also known as service charges. I will not eat in any restaurant that has a twenty percent service charge above the line. Oh dang it, hang on, it just updated. And if I pay a twenty percent service charge, I'm not paying my waiter or a dime. And the waiter should not have to share tips with everybody else in the restaurant, including the government. This is why I try to tip

in cash. I pay with my card. I tip in cash. That's my little middle finger to the government. I mean, I'm not saying that they shouldn't report it. I'm just saying if they don't, if I give them a gift at the end of the meal, that's my prerogative to share with my friends that just brought me food and drinks. Anyway, Lol, you call yourself cheap spending three hundred dollars for food for special occasions, that's out of control. It depends on

where you are in your financial journey. My friend, years and years ago, that would not have been possible. Now it is not all the time, but it is and let me just say this. The other night, we went to see Mean Girls at the DCP, a fun little show, but we went to I met my friend Michelle, Michelle's elner, you guys know, Michelle's elder. Met her at the Edge restaurant,

which is right down the street from the DCPA. First of all, there was only beautiful people in the Edge, Like I was like, are they gonna let me in? I don't know. It was full of beautiful people, so already I was like, holy crap, I'm outright. But then, you know, appetizers, we split some appetizers. We didn't get like a meal meal. We just got some things to nash on. But each of them was twenty dollars and I was like a little appetizer And that place was packed.

Well that's very nice. Are you the marketing director for Senior Rix, because that was a very nice ad for them. Right now, here's my favorite in Turks and Caicos. Right now, lying in the pool, I don't like you text to no idea. I'm just kidding. I'm just jealous in Turks and Caicos. Right now, laying in the pool, I hear how expensive food is here, but since everything is shipped in ocean or air to the island, I however, don't

feel that things are expensive compared to Colorado. We live in monument really nice Rabbi is sixty bucks, fresh fish thirty five bucks, drinks ten to twenty dollars. Part time resident here, still got my koa fix via the iHeartRadio app. And now you can make my show a preset. I'm just letting you know, just letting you know, Mandy, our idea special occasion dining is different. My wife and I've never spent over about one hundred and sixty at any restaurant.

I just don't get how a five hundred dollars meal can be a better quality. I'm kind of with you, Texter, because I've had meals that were very, very, very expensive that I was like, I just got armed rob in this restaurant. But then I've had meals that were so magically spectacular. Every single thing about the meal was like a revelation and more perfect than the dish before, and the service was perfect and all, and I'm like, you know what, this is what I'm paying for?

trip and I'm super excited about that. But I found out Peru Leama, Peru is home to like three or four top fifty rated restaurants in the world in the world, and I told Check, I said, We're going to one of those restaurants, because first of all, I want an experience of going one of the top restaurants in the world period. I just want to do that. But in Peru, you go to these restaurants and they have like a a fifteen course menu, a prefixed menu, so you sit down.

They just start bringing you little little dishes of food, and it's like two hundred and seventy five bucks a person. That's insane, but you're also paying for the experience, and that same meal in a different city on a mission list would probably cost much more. So, I mean, it's all a matter of perspective, right, but I do want people to understand that in Colorado everything costs so much when it comes to dining out, and the mayor is not helping at all. Now, when we get back, I've

got so much other stuff on the blog. I'm gonna rip through, get a couple of stories because at two thirty we're gonna talk to Alex Stone and find out the latest in the very strange death of Gene Hackman. They're saying, first of all, he was ninety five years old, so this is not like a surprise, but the details around what just happened is well, they're they're kind of weird, very strange. So we'll talk to him at two thirty. We got stuff coming up on the ballot, Wolves and

free Lunch. I'll talk about that after this. Apparently all of the Colorado Del Taco locations just closed today, as in sorry about your luck. If you want a burrito and some French fries, you're screwed. I'm bummed about that. They were my fast food taco joint, and my daughter loves them. I don't know what she's gonna do without the beef and bean burritos. She's practically made out of

beef and bean burritos. Dang dang manday. Sometimes it's a fallacy to believe that just because something is expensive, it should be good. I won't mention the restaurant, but I've paid a lot, sometimes double or triple for the same quality of food. Amen to that. That's why I'm very choosy about where I spend my money. So we got a couple ballot initiatives that have been put to the test.

A proposed ballot initiative to sunset Colorado's wolf free introduction by the end of twenty twenty six has cleared the Colorado Secretary of State's title Board, paving the way for voters to have the opportunity to vote on that nonsense again.

It would simply amend the current Colorado statute formalizing the start date of the reintroduction by tacking on a formal end date, so we'd still have chances to give you to say no more, but it would they'd have another year to bring more wolves in because we haven't had enough little baby cows killed. We'll also maybe have a chance to get to vote on the free breakfast and

lunch program at schools in Colorado. This program just irritates the crap out of me, partly because I'm in an affluent school district and when i see my daughter's high school, all of the parents dropping their kids off from their really nice, expensive vehicles, and I think, to myself, we're soaking the taxpayers buy their kids lunch. That's not cool. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to the free and reduced lunch program. I actually think they are one

of the most abused programs out there. But to do it for everyone is simply stupid. Only forty five percent of Colorado students qualify for free and reduced lunch from the federal government, which means that Colorado taxpayers have to make up the rest of it. So the program was initially funded by lowering a tax credit for taxpayers making more than three hundred thousand dollars a year. And guess what taxing the rich wasn't enough. I know you're shocked.

That's my shocked face. So House Build twelve seventy four, we'll ask voters to tax the rich again. First of all, they want to keep our table refunds. They would be asked to approve letting the state keep the more than twenty six million dollars that the program is collected over what it expected, instead of having to issue money back refunds. Two taxpayers that make over three hundred thousand dollars a year.

So tax the rich, Tax the rich. I'm sure it will pass because jealous and envious voters don't understand that eventually they'll do what California has done and drive the rich people out. The last story that I want to get to in the I don't have time to get into this like I wanted to, So I'll wait on that we have. I'll start it now and then I'll kind of finish it over. Yes to the text, he just went rip Krispy krinkle fries. Yes, you are correct,

You are correct. Del Taco is awesome, says this Texter. You're right, Tacos and fries are a great combination, and they're one of the few restaurants that has mister pib had, Mister pib had had Mandy demolition Man predict the future where every restaurant is Taco Bell twenty thirty two is only seven years away. Be well, yeah, yikes, they used to advertise, Oh never mind, so oh, let me just make sure I got.

building needs to be saved. And when we get back, I'm and explain to you why this, and I'm like, we're gonna put a start point today. Today is the start point of what I'm going to call the Zunie steam Plant Debacle. Now, is it a debacle already? No, it is not, but it is headed in debacle direction, very very very quickly, very quickly, this texter said, Mandy, I work for Denver public schools, and you would not believe how much food waste there is in this district.

Every single day, trash cans full of uneaten food in every school. Unbelievable. You know what Norwegian Cruise Lines has. I just saw a show on this and it was like the coolest thing ever. When they bring their plates back from the dining room on Norwegian Cruise Lines, they are all run past a camera on the way to

get washed. Right on the way to the dishroom, the plates are put down, they run past the camera and Norwegian uses that information to focus in on what people are eating and what they're not eating, and they use it to make sure that their portions are exactly what they need to be. God forbid, schools should care about food waste, because clearly, clearly they do not, Mandy. While cleaning up after lunch is out of school at BFBVSD, I throw away about one hundred pounds of fresh produce

a week. You know why, because kids don't eat their vegetables even when they're at school. I'll be right back.

see on the blog at Mandy's blog dot com. There's a ton of stuff on the blog that you need to know about. I'm just letting you know, like not, I think it's interesting stuff that's gonna be on the ballot, stuff you're gonna vote on. Please go to the blog

at mandy'sblog dot com. But let's talk about what we were just talking about, any Royd, because we were talking about Travis Hunter because the combines are going on this week and Travis Hunter was a both way Star right played both sides of the ball for the CU Buffs, And now what has he told people at the combine?

they were like the little kids on the field. Again, I just think this sounds like a career shortening decision potentially, because we know how much this game beats people up, and you're trying and play both sides of the ball. It just seems unnecessary, and then you've doubled your chances of potentially getting hurt someone. The reason I wanted to talk about this on the air. Someone needs to talk him out of this. Someone needs to say no.

the best player, as a top five pick. What I'm intrigued to see, because the reality of the situation is this, most people believe he's going to be a prominently a cornerback and then get in some packages on offense as wide out, which I really think is the only way to do it. You can't play part time corner, you can play part time wide receiver.

You're going to shorten your career because look at it this way Travis Kelce was talking about and by the way, Travis Kelce coming back to the Chiefs, Travis Kelce spoke about the fact that just playing in the playoffs and going to the Super Bowl three years in a row had beaten him up physically because you've basically added, you know, twelve games to three years, and he talked about how

hard that was physically. So then you have to think about, if you're taking every snap in every game, you are getting beaten up at a level that nobody else is gonna get beaten up. He's going to shorten his career. It's gonna really make him potentially get injured. I just think just from a from a strategic point of view for his career and career longevity, I think it's for his ego that he wants to do both sides. I

think it's a terrible idea. Well, especially if he's a big time draft pick with a big time paycheck, come on.

do it. I just think that from his own personal standpoint, his own viewpoint of how brutal this game is on your body. It's a bad choice. It's an ego driven choice, and it's not a smart one. It just isn't.

do what he needs to do. He's certainly gonna be doing it on a big stage. We're gonna be able to watch it as it happens when we get back. Thank you for the correction. The Zunai steam plant debacle. We'll get to that next. Keep it on KOA now. If you've driven downtown, the Zunai Steamplant is a giant building. It's got a smokestack on it. A lot of its windows are gone, but it is a cool looking building.

It's owned by Xcel Energy, and they wanted to tear it down and build a substation there to better provide power on the grid. Well, neighbors got upset, super upset, and the headline in the Denver Gazette says, for years, community leaders have rallied to preserve the century old power plant. Finding another buyer maybe the last chance to save it.

So XL gave Denver ninety days for the right to refuse or buy the zoo I steam plant because the city of Denver wants to create something for the community. Denver's now officially waived its right to buy the steam plant. And here's the kicker. You know why. As a wait, let me find the statement from Jordan Fuja from Mayor of Johnston's office. Denver supports the community and historic preservation advocates in their goal of finding positive community sort of

supportive uses for the zoom Ie power plant site. Do you know why Denver didn't buy it because the cost of environmental and structural remediation is too high. So here's what's going to happen. And all happily, happily admit that I was wrong if I am wrong, But Excel is going to sell this property to someone who may come in with big ideas, and they're going to present those ideas to the community and if there anything except what the community demands, they will then put up barrier after

barrier to changing anything. The zoo Ni steam plant is considered one of the states most endangered historic sites according to nonprofit Colorado Preservation, Inc. And here's what they want it to do. Let me see if I can find this one part in the la Ama, Lincoln Park and Sun Valley neighborhoods, an area littered with development. Trans gentrification has become a rising concern among city leaders and residents.

For the neighborhood's home to a large blue collar and Latino population and the epicenter of Denvers Chicano movement, neighborhood leaders hope the steam plants can be a reminder of the area's blue collar history. So what does that mean? What does it mean? I don't know what that means. By the way, if the property doesn't sell within thirty days, Excel said it would use the site to build utility

infrastructure to help meet Denver's electric energy goals. That is, and this is where the Zuni steam plant debacle really gets going. Historic Denver shows up to tell them that they can't do that, because we're all gonna die if we don't have access to that big eye sore as we drive downtown. Now, I'm also worth saving historic buildings if it makes sense. I went through this in Louisville when I was on the radio. In Louisville, there's there is a part of Main Street that has these old

buildings that have iron fronts. They have iron work on the front. It's very detailed, it's very ornate. But the rest of the buildings were literally falling apart. So developers bought this whole block of buildings and they were like, Okay, we're gonna tear down these buildings, and all of the preservation has showed up. You can't tear them down. They're beautiful.

They were not beautiful spoiler alert, not beautiful. But they caused such a problem that the developers had to spend gobs and gobs of money to tear down the buildings behind the iron fronts, prop up the iron fronts. During building, they basically built new buildings behind the iron fronts, and it dracked up the cost of all this stuff to a ridiculous level. I'm all for preservation, but if neighbors and different area people have been working for years, why

haven't they been fundraising for years? Why don't all of these people that think this place needs to be saved, Why don't they start a gofund me account. And I'm not even kidding. They love to tell people what you can't do with they they own, but they don't actually do anything to help the property owners. Right, if it's so important, then find some money and pay for it. But if not, I can't wait to see the brand new substation that'll be there in thirty days, well after

no one buys it in thirty days. We shall see what happens after that. When we get back, Alex Stone is going to join us. Actor Gene Hackman has passed away, and there's some really weird details about what is currently a death investigation, but they're saying no foul play. We'll find out the latest from Alex right after this. Keep it on Kawa. One of the finest actors of the

twentieth century has passed away. Gene Hackman at the age of ninety five, joining us now Alex Stone from ABC News to talk about the latest because some of these details kind of weird. Alex, what do you have now?

just dead. And how they died they don't know, and they're not ruling out a crime that until they can figure it out. That there definitely wasn't one. But but the sheriff did give some details a little while ago.

But they hadn't found anything that was leaking gas, so they can't say, well, the gas is gone, but it was this. She was found next to a space heater that had fallen with her. That may have been the culprit. Something else could have been, they don't know. And so she was in a bathroom. There were pills that were around, but we don't know what those pills were. They could have been She could have a headache from carbon monoxide

right gotten to take a pill. He was in a mud room, and investigators say it looked like he fell very suddenly, that his sunglasses were next to him. It looked like when he went down those got got tossed a little ways away from his body, and that it's really going to come down to an autopsy to know why they died, and assuming that they do toxicology, that can take weeks, that can take months running the blood test,

so it could be a while. But they are trying to make sure it wasn't a crime, but that they really don't know.

There were other buildings on the property totally locked up, nose signs a forestand free, nothing was rummaged through. Neighbors say that they hadn't seen them in a very long time, being elderly.

Called a security worker slash caretaker, not for them, but for the the neighborhood community, and then they called nine one one.

don't know the most likely scenario. I mean, my history of covering these things, typically it's it's just the most straightforward answer. You know, we always come up with all these It could have been this, it could have been that. Yeah, and normally it's like, oh, yeah, you know, it's the one that you go, well, that makes the most sense.

But they don't know, and they got to figure out if there was a crime, because what if what if we go, well, it was carbon monoxide or you know, some other non criminal thing, and then they find out somebody did kill them and got in there, so they got to rule that out.

on them. It seems like nobody un tell this exterminator. Yeah, I was able to say, hey, something is well, listen to this. This is the nine on one call.

The Senates Joint Economic Committee estimates how much more each month the average household in each state was paying in December of twenty twenty four to purchase the same combination of food, shelter, transport, energy, and other items they purchased in January twenty twenty one, A Rod, what state do you think is number one for the largest inflation?

same stuff. This is exactly going back to the conversation we had earlier in the show, which if you missed, you can listen to the podcast right after the show. This is why restaurants are going on or this is why it's so hard to have a business, and everything that has happened in Colorado by the Democrats ruling this state has just made everything more expensive and that's just sad, super sad. I'm gonna, like I said, we'll talk about this tomorrow.

house is more than doubled. Now we've done a lot of renovations, but the value of my house is more than doubled, and so that was before twenty twenty one, because real estate prices have been pretty steady since twenty twenty when COVID hit and people stopped buying houses. I mean, no, it's not on the blog yet. I'll have it on the blog tomorrow because I just saw it on X and I will grab it for the blog tomorrow. A

couple stories I want to get to very very quickly. One, there is another effort to bring a single payer system to Colorado. They legislature wants to waste money in a year that they're telling us that they're having a big shortfall, waste a bunch of money doing yet another study about the feasibility of single pair in Colorado. This is the

same year that Medicaid is going to have to be cut. Now, remember when Republicans passed a budget which did not specifically cut Medicaid but asked the Department of Health and Human Services to find a ton of money. And that ton of money has to come from somewhere, and the Department of Health and Human Services only has a few places to get it. And if they're not going to touch Medicare, then they got to touch Medicaid and everybody's been freaking out.

But in Colorado, it's like, oh yeah, Colorado Medicaid, We're gonna cut the benefits for some families for certain early interventions for children. You know why because they expanded the program in twenty twenty three by expanding Medicaid to people that can indeed afford to buy health insurance from the exchange with a subsidy, and now they can't afford to provide the treatment for the children who really really need it. Mandy, what is the name of that powerful nasal mist? I

need it badly. It's not a mist. It is a liquid and it is called Alkoh lol a l ka lol. Go to my Facebook page, go to my Twitter page. I posted it there because it has been a game changer for me. By the way I said it earlier in the show, I got a new project coming up. It doesn't have anything to do with iHeart, So I'm not gonna be talking about it on iHeart, but I will be talking about it on my social media and you should follow me Facebook, Mandy Connell, Twitter, at the

Mandy Connell Instagram, at the Mandy Connell as well. I'm just saying, if you want to know what's going on. You're gonna want to go ahead and do that, Mandy, do you know about the economic blackout tomorrow? E This is another thing that a bunch of people on the left are doing so they can feel like they're doing something to fight back, to resist. I'm not gonna go to Big Donald's tomorrow.

in their house for so long, they got mommified. I mean, come on, people, come on when your parents get older. And here's the thing. I know people have difficult relationships with their parents. I get it, but this is my feeling about this. We have a responsibility to our parents, we really do. We have a responsibility to our parents at the end of their lives. The roles reverse from the beginning of ours to the end of theirs. We

switch places. And even if you have and I mean, there are cases where people are horribly abusive, and I understand severing those relationships completely. I get it. I'm not trying to make you feel bad, But if you have any relationship with your parents, you have a responsibility to just pick up the phone once a week and give them a call. And if no one answers and you don't hear from them, you send somebody over to do a well check. That's our responsibility, that's our payback for

them bringing us into this world. Right, I would be mortified if that happened. I mean, I don't even know what I would do there. We also have a story today that I find really really frustrating, and I don't understand why Democrats continue to make it easy to deal and possess Sentinel Colorado's overdose rates did not match national rates. National rates drop twenty four percent, overdose deaths all right, making progress. Not in Colorado. Ours are flat. I guess

that's something they're not continuing to go up. That's on the blog today, A great, great video. So a guy and anyone do you know anything more about this guy with the two pay Do you know anything about like how how did they decide to look under that guy's to pay? You know what I'm saying. Did you think you went through one of the scanners, the body scanner, and they're like, yeah, there's something under your.

Ooh I like that. Hi, Mandy. I agree. Friends that send me stuff to not spend money tomorrow makes me want to go to those places exactly exactly. So let's bring Ben Albright on everybody. Hello, Benjamin, how's it going now?

of the day. I will accept that, Ben, I will accept that because you're on location and you're not that good at it. Anyway.