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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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analysis:

The great divorce: The people of Colorado v. the State by Phillip Doe

news:

As millions of Americas — including citizens — are ineligible for stimulus funds, local organizations look to fill the gap by Caitlin Rockett

Local homeless services still looking for solutions, volunteers by Angela K. Evans

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Guess what: It’s no longer ‘appropriate or necessary’ to regulate mercury emissions by Matt Cortina

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boulder county events: What to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do by Boulder Weekly Staff

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The Anderson Files: Death cult or survival in a better world Guest Column: This is not a drill Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered... your views News: Mobile home owners face rent increases and lost wages during the pandemic News briefs: Boulder City Council votes against online signature gathering; ICE faces several lawsuits over Aurora detention center News: RTD and Boulder County look for paths forward on future projects and services Lab notes: Comet ATLAS shrugs Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Words: ‘Hope and the Odds Make Poor Bedfellows’ JL by Eric Raanan Fischman Food/Drink: Food news and what to try this week in Boulder County Savage Love: Big moves Cannabis Corner: Celebrating 4/20 in the time of the virus

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor, Matt Cortina Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Special Editions Editor, Michael J. Casey Adventure Editor, Emma Athena Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Paul Danish, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Josh Schlossberg, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Retail Sales Manager, Allen Carmichael Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman Graphic Designer, Daisy Bauer CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

April 23, 2020 Volume XXVII, Number 36 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2020 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@ boulderweekly.com) or the comments section of our website at www.boulderweekly.com. Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.

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Death cult or survival in a better world by Dave Anderson

he president’s statements this morning encourage illegal and dangerous acts. He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19. His unhinged rantings and calls for people to ‘liberate’ states could also lead to violence. We’ve seen it before. “The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies — even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted. — Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, April 17, 2020. The virus is the boss until we have a vaccine. However, we can I

control our behavior. When Trump started talking about big crowds in the churches at Easter, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, we “don’t make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline (to go back to normal).” He and other public health experts have said we need much more testing and even more contact tracing. In response, it seems the Republican Party is turning into a death cult. The Rev. Tony Spell, the pastor of a megachurch outside Baton Rouge, held in-person services on Palm Sunday and Easter in violation of a statewide stay-at-home order by APRIL 23, 2020

Louisiana’s Democratic governor John Bel Edwards. He was arrested and charged with six misdemeanors as a result. Hundreds of people attended the services (which were livestreamed), including many who came in a fleet of 26 buses. Spell was asked if he thought he would have blood on his hands should congregants became infected and die. He responded: “Like any revolutionary, or like any zealot, or like any pure religious person, death looks to them like a welcome friend. True Christians do see THE ANDERSON FILES Page 6

THE ANDERSON FILES from Page 5

not mind dying. They fear living in fear.” Spell claims he can cure COVID-19 but emphasized in his sermon that, “My hope is not in a vaccine for a virus, but all my hope is in Jesus.” U.S. Congressman Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana appeals to our patriotism. He says, “it is always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life, of American lives, we have to always choose the latter.” He says it is the grown-up thing to do: “It is policymakers’ decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say it is the lesser of these two evils.” Right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck told viewers of his BlazeTV show that Americans who are older should just go back to work and be ready for death: “Even if we all get sick, I would rather die than kill the country.” The Trumpist lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, told Tucker Carlson of Fox News that he is willing, as a senior citizen, to take a chance on his “survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren.” Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who led the bureau’s investigation into al-Qaida in the run-up to 9/11, watched a clip of Patrick saying that and tweeted: “I’ve dealt with suicidal cults before. I encountered people who are willing to die for their faith, ideology, race, etc. But, I never encountered anyone who is willing to die for someone else’s 401k. This is a whole new level of craziness.” There have been rallies in many states all over the country (including Colorado) protesting the lockdown orders. They are promoted by Fox News and other right-wing media. There are families with MAGA hats waving big American, Confederate and Trump flags. Guys in camo carrying semi-automatic rifles. Signs evoking the American Revolution taken from the anti-Obama Tea Party demos such as “Don’t Tread on Me.” People are telling reporters that the virus is a hoax or no worse than the flu. There has been little social distancing or masks. Most Americans support the stay-at-home orders. These protest6

ers are a distinct minority. Their frustration and anger is real but this isn’t a spontaneous revolt. It is funded by wealthy Republican donors. In Michigan, they chanted “lock her up” in reference to Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The rally was facilitated by the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group run by Michigan Trump Republicans, and promoted by the Michigan Freedom Fund, a right-wing group with ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a billionaire mover-and-shaker before she joined the Trump administration. Jason Wilson reports in the Guardian that the demos are “also supported by street-fighting rightwing groups like the Proud Boys, conservative armed militia groups, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccination groups and other elements of the radical right.” In Idaho, the protest against Republican governor Brad Little was “heavily promoted” by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which receives “dark money” from the Koch brothers and the Coors family. Labor and civil rights activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. offers this modest proposal to the protesters: “Here is my suggestion regarding these right-wingers who believe that their Constitutional rights are being infringed upon by social distancing: the government should provide affidavits that individuals can fill out that provide that should they voluntarily choose to ignore orders for social distancing and other forms of protection against COVID-19, they give up any right to medical attention. “Further, that they agree that they and any family member who becomes ill will choose to self-medicate as they believe appropriate and will not become a burden on the system nor will they risk the lives of first responders and medical personnel. I believe that these individuals should absolutely have the right to put themselves, their friends and loved ones in danger, if they see fit, as long as they do not put others, including and especially first responders and medical personnel in any sort of danger.” This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly. APRIL 23, 2020

This is not a drill by Gilbert Simon, MD

he coronavirus pandemic didn’t cause the problem but it has opened our eyes to the reality that our health care system is severely lacking and its failings cry out for reform. Die-hard conservatives have dug in their heels to resisting any changes, but how long can they keep saying that our system is the envy of the world? We have about 30 million people without any insurance at all and another 44 million with deductibles and out-of-pocket costs that are so high, they are essentially uninsured. When it comes to life expectancy, we are not number one; we are actually number 36, better than Albania but not as good as Chile. We offer a trifecta; incomplete coverage, poor care and staggering cost. We’re taken for a ride when we pay for a prescription or a hospital bill or get stuck with a bill from somewhere out in left field... a surprise bill. Medical debts and bankruptcies are crippling our families and soaring costs of publicly funded programs like Medicaid are squeezing our states’ budgets. It doesn’t help that a huge share of the expense is going to waste. A sentinel publication in 2012 of the National Academy of Medicine named six categories of waste: needless services, high prices, fraud, administrative complexity, fragmentation and missed prevention opportuI

nities. Together, these account for one-third of the total $3.5 trillion we spend to improve our health. Let me show you how. Offering needless services that add cost with little or no benefit, such as medicines that don’t work, tests that do not yield meaningful results, needless screening, etc. lead the way. Physicians say that 25% of all tests, 20% of all prescriptions and 10% of all procedures are unnecessary. If 20% of the total health expenses go to clinical services and if 20% of those are unnecessary, then 4% of the $3.5 trillion, or $1.4 billion, is unnecessarily spent each year on services that add nothing but cost. Our outdated bureaucracy accounts for more billions wasted each year. Other countries have the same administrative tasks that we do but they do it at a fraction of what our system spends. Private insurance companies spend 12-15% of your premiums on their overhead. Medicare, a single-payer system, spends less than 2% of its revenue on administrative expenses. This next category will surprise no one. We are massively over-charged. An American MRI costs $1,121, but its Spanish counterpart costs only $230. We overpay for our hospital care. Hospitals are free to charge $15 for a Tylenol tablet, $53 for each nonsee GUEST COLUMN Page 7

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

GUEST COLUMN from Page 6

sterile glove used and $10 for each plastic medicine cup. The average hospital stay per day is $5,220 in the United States and $765 in Australia. Bypass surgery in the U.S. costs $78,380; in the U.K. it costs $24,059. We overpay for everything, but the amount we overpay for prescription drugs is the mother of all overpayments. A month of Lipitor costs $124 in America and $6 in New Zealand. Eliminating this price disparity would save hundreds of billions each year. We are victimized by clever fraudsters. The creativity of health-dollar swindlers has not been matched by our regulatory agencies, who have been content to discover fraud when they can and then recover what stolen dollars they can. We lose more to fraud than we spend on medical research. It is so lucrative and so lowrisk that the FBI reports that a number of cocaine dealers in Florida and California have switched from illicit drugs to Medicare fraud. Our dysfunctional, uncoordinated and fragmented care is responsible for additional billions of waste every year. All too often, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing,

and so the left hand pays for services already provided by the right hand. Visits to the primary care doctor are dropping as more people are using emergency rooms and urgent care clinics for conditions that are neither emergent nor urgent. Those visits often run up huge bills for conditions that could have been addressed by the primary care provider at lower costs. Billions could be saved each year — along with human lives — if we improved our efforts in preventing illness, not just treating it. Our immunization rates and cancer screening rates are too low. Much of our health is connected to our behavior and we must make better choices In Ripped Off!, I showed how we could prevent the amount of waste without sacrificing quality. I showed how we spend too much on the wrongs things and not enough on correcting the social inequities that are so instrumental in determining our health. I encouraged everyone to have the courage to question the necessity of their physician’s orders, take more personal responsibility for their health and keep their own health records and their Medicare

numbers under close wraps. And now you might ask what this has to do with our response to the coronavirus crisis. Recall, that the biggest concerns are cost and capacity. The two spring from our health care system, which is driven to make profits for its owners. What is our cost is their revenue. It is only natural that our costs of care (the industry’s revenue) will be as high as possible. A recent Commonwealth Fund poll showed that two-thirds of Americans are so concerned about the costs of care that their decision to get care if they had symptoms of the coronavirus would be impacted even if they had insurance. Loss makes up the other side of the balance sheet. Inventory is a loss so profit-driven corporations make use of just-in-time inventories. Increasing inventory (stockpiling) beyond current needs is anathema since it lowers bottom lines on financial statements. We should expect high costs and low inventories when the bedrock of a system is the profitdriven corporation. Imagine a system with a different bedrock, one that is designed to serve a public good, instead a high return

on investment for a few. Such a system would provide universal coverage leaving no American without care The single payer, the government, would have massive bargaining and regulatory power and would negotiate prices down to the level of our peer nations. Further, a federal system would have the wealth to fund and the incentive to invest in an emergency medical supply reserve. We have such a reserve to protect our economy. The U.S. has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve with a total capacity of 727 million barrels theoretically replacing about 60 days of oil imports. We have about 200,000 soldiers in the U.S. Army Reserve in case of war. We invest in reserves to protect our economy and our borders. We need to do the same for our health. COVID-19 exposed our health care problems for all to see. Now that we see them, we must make major administrative and legislative changes. It’s time to stop kicking the can down the road. Gilbert Simon is a professor at California Northstate Medical School, and the author of Ripped Off! (Paper Raven Books 2020).

Let the Republican Party die

nors, are killing Americans every day. The far right has a twisted idea that their concept of personal freedom and minimal government takes precedence over life itself. These are the same people who would rather have assault rifles in the hands of murderers than a sane law to save our children. These are the same people who hide behind radical Biblical fundamentalism and justify hate, discrimination and murder. These are the same people who, in the face of overwhelming science, deny climate change. These are the same people who have formed a cult of personality around a malignant narcissist who has proven to be the worst president in American history. He is a murderous goon and has surrounded his office with sycophants and kiss-ups. It is baffling to see Trump and his minions perpetuate death and dying on a national scale. They simply do not care that our citizens are

suffering at levels we have not seen in our lifetimes. Every day they sustain this death culture by refusing to lead and to order national testing, medical supplies and equipment. In many cases, the federal government undermines heroic state leadership with conflicting information and petty political messaging as it interdicts the medical supply chain. They provide zero national leadership. Thank goodness for Dr. Fauci of the Centers for Disease Control and thank goodness for Governors Cuomo, Newsome, Whitmer, Polis and others who have stepped up to meet their state challenges. In the face of all this preventable death among our citizenry, there is one thing that does need to die and it will enhance life for the rest of us when it expires. The Republican Party, which is now the cult of an ignorant, selfish, hateful narcissist, should die. It should disappear. It

serves a small number of wealthy power mongers who have crafted their messaging so that millions of middle-class and working-class people have been bamboozled by the nonsense. The con job of convincing a working person that his best interest is served by voting for a party that keeps him down and forever in debt has been successful, and it needs to stop. Spreading the hateful notion that people of color are the enemies of white people needs to stop. Suppressing immigrants and their contributions needs to stop. If you are a fiscal conservative and have traditional conservative values, then you can find a way to express those values with a party that also honors all of our constitutional freedoms. You will not serve anyone if you support Agent Orange and his gang of thieves. Let the Republican Party die and find something better. Craig Stout/Boulder

Here is a tribute to all the courageous health care workers and working people who are keeping our nation afloat in this most challenging time. They go to work on the front lines. It’s as if we are seeing the horrific destruction during World War I shown in the movie 1917, except it’s now and the dying and killing is just as senseless now as it was then. Many of our local and national politicians are putting partisanship aside as they see that citizens’ health, financial and emotional needs are much more important than any party’s needs. I say many, because there are some politicians and so-called leaders who have abdicated their human and moral duty to serve in this time. Decisions that are being made by the current administration, and have filtered down to certain state goverBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

APRIL 23, 2020

JEFFREY BEALL/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The great divorce: The People of Colorado v. the State by Phillip Doe

hen I was a boy, my dad took me and my twin sister and brothers to see the demolition of the Omaha-Grant Smoke Stack in Globeville. At the time it was among the tallest smokestacks in the world. It stood 350 feet high, with brick walls 12 feet thick. It was said to contain enough bricks to build 600 six-room bungalows. Globeville, a working class neighborhood in northeast Denver, sits at or near 8

the zenith of the places industry, developers and the political elite have done their best to destroy. Parts of the area are still a Superfund site because of the lead and arsenic left behind from the smeltering days. It was once home to a largely PolishAmerican population. Latinos are now the majority. When I was in graduate school, Globeville again made the front page, losing a court case in which it had sought relief from the foul odors caused by a rendering plant built in its midst — slaughterhouses had replaced smeltering for gold, silver and copper. The judge told the citizens of Globeville to suck it up, they didn’t have a right to clean air. Nothing has changed over the

APRIL 23, 2020

decades. Just to the east of Globeville is another industrial abomination of long standing, the Suncor refinery. The mother company is the second largest corporation registered in Canada. It’s somewhat of an aside but Canadian ownership of mineral and fossil fuel companies have an ugly history in Colorado. Some people will remember the Summitville Mine disaster. A cyanide gold mine gone haywire, it became a federal Superfund site. It cost the American people $250 million for initial cleanup, with a long-term annual operating cost of $2 million for water treatment. After 27 years of operation by EPA, Colorado will start picking up these annual costs in 2021. The Canadian company that operated the gold mine refuses to pay. The Suncor refinery, the existence of which predates World War II, should be BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

PUBLIC DOMAIN

thought of as Colorado’s own Little Shop of Horrors. Of course, it is surrounded on all sides by working-class neighborhoods, with Latinos now the dominant ethnic group. In addition to Globeville, the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood is directly to the southwest of Suncor. This neighborhood has the added burden of being torn apart by a thoroughly dunderheaded, federally subsidized highway realignment of I-70 at a cost of $2-$3 billion. To many developers, particularly road-building and water project aficionados, federal tax dollars are free money and justify a shopping spree. The project is widely opposed by residents, but loved by the power elite and the developers who may hold lingering dreams of the Winter Olympics being enticed to town. The public was conned out of another billion dollars to renovate the stock show complex, which is also in this neighborhood. The Denver Stock Show runs for a few weeks each January. Adding icing on the cake, the state legislature offered up another $200,000 to build a world-class horse hospital at the site. There is always money for the essentials. The refinery itself is within the southern boundaries of Commerce City, to the east and north of the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods. In the last century, Commerce City proudly advertised itself as the Industrial City, but that was before NAFTA, and before developers started gentrifying the northern parts of the city. Those neighborhoods are now also fighting the invasion of the frackers from the north. But back to our Little Shop of Horrors, in 2019 Suncor got the nod as the biggest stinker in town, by far. This was the result of a study by the University of Colorado published in the International Journal of Environmental and Public Health. Legislators tell me when the winds are right, its stinky reach extends all the way to the Capitol, five miles distance, reminding the elect of what they aren’t missing. But the real question from a public health pro-

refinery could live within it. Hydrogen cyanide gas, in its concentrated form, is lethal, but even at very low concentrations, it causes headaches, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and vertigo, exactly what Suncor neighbors say is happening to them. The real crime is that neither Suncor nor the State informed the residents until months after the releases, once again giving the lie to those who claim the control of government by corporate interests is exaggerated. Neither has the State done a qualitative study to determine the health impacts on residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, even though other studies show that these three neighborhoods have elevated incidents of heart disease, lung disease and cancer. More recently, in December of last year, the refinery released clay-like particulates that so darkened the sky that Suncor’s PR flacks, their minds working at insensate speed, termed the release simply an “opacity incident.” Suncor has added a new term to the American lexicon. So, the next time a hail of soot and ash so darkens the skies that the sun is but a faint outline, dismiss it as just another opacity incident. There was no hiding the threat this time — darkness at noon is not that common, even in Suncorland. Two schools were in lockdown. The refinery said it would pay for all car washes, and simultaneously warned people to wash thoroughly, including their clothing, without delay. The local police chief gave his medical opinion that everything was fine. Colorado’s air quality personnel have only been haltingly heard from. This year Suncor was fined over $9 million for 100 recent air-quality violations, including the two described above. This is its largest fine hereto, but certainly not its first. And keep in mind this is Suncor reporting on itself, so the real number of infractions could be higher. The Suncor refinery’s CEO, in an attempt to

So how do the people of Colorado reclaim their government from the oil industry? Without hard scientific information that can’t be twisted or denied, it will be impossible.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

spective is, what’s in the stench? The short answer is no one knows for sure. Like its relationship with the rest of the oil industry, the state relies on the Suncor polluters to tell it what’s happening. In so doing, it holds fast to the neoliberal playbook of putting corporate interests and profits before people’s health and wellbeing. Nevertheless the refinery’s deplorable safety record is gaining greater attention, though not actual corrective action, as the Front Range’s air quality continues to be among the worst in the nation, and has been for well over a decade. Of course, the biggest polluter is the fracking industry north of the city, extending all the way to the Wyoming border, but Suncor still holds a gilded place of honor in the state’s grand exhibition hall of corporate polluters. For example, in the summer of 2018, the refinery was releasing hydrogen cyanide in vast quantities, well above that which their generous state pollution permit allows. But rather than insisting on better operational practices, the State was considering increasing their pollution allowance so the I

APRIL 23, 2020

see SUNCOR Page 10

SUNCOR from Page 9

RICO MOORE

put the sun-eclipsing episode and the $9 million fine behind the company, publicly apologized, telling all who would listen that Suncor was going to be a better neighbor and citizen. He promised. Only days later, an ugly stream of yellow smoke belched from the plant. Suncor described it as almost identical to the 2019 sun-eclipsing event. The pollution-causing operation was eventually suspended, but only after some Katzenjammer Kids-like scurrying to find somebody in charge to give the order. The foregoing should leave no doubt that the relationship between the State and the refinery is not consistent with the foundational expectation that government shall, first of all, protect the people and their interests. But the federal government in its commitment to the neoliberal imperative of corporate protection, uber alles, carries a big burden of guilt, too. For example, no air pollutants have been added to the six that made up the original ambient air standards under the Clean Air Act list in 1976. That’s right: Over the last 45 years, not one new ambient standard for any air pollutant, not even benzene or hydrogen cyanide, has been added. As far as benzene goes, Suncor was slapped with a $2 million fine a few years back for a series of uncontrolled releases of benzene into Suncorland neighborhoods. Benzene is a known carcinogen. The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no safe limit for humans. Benzene is a common poison in the fracking fields of Colorado. Benzene releases from a well pad near a school, Bella Romero, in Greeley, adds to the evidence of the State’s abdication to corporate rule. This industrial-sized pad for 24 individual wells, that might reasonably rival Suncor emissions during early fracking stages, was originally approved by the State for development near a Greeley school in a middle-class neighborhood with a largely white student body. It was moved because of stiff opposition from parents and neighbors. Bella Romero School became the tar baby. The students at Bella Romero are predominantly the children of working-class and emigrant parents with much less eco10

nomic and political power. Thus, classism and racism are shown to be just as important to our understanding of neoliberalism as is government toadying. In an attempt to silence criticism, the State agreed to monitor the Bella Romero site, but only after numerous anecdotal reports of large-scale pollution at the site became politically impossible to ignore. After monitoring intermittently for several months, the State concluded there was no benzene risk. Only one short-term benzene release exceeding the State’s short-term workplace standard of 9 parts per billion was recorded in 85 days of intermittent monitoring. An activist group, 350Colorado, challenged the State’s assertion. Their analysis of the same data shows that benzene releases were exceeded 114 times in the 85 days the State took measurements. 350Colorado used the lower California short-term workplace standard for benzene of 6 ppb. But remember the WHO says for humans there is no safe benzene limit, not even for emigrant children. Remember, too, that since mid-year 2019, Colorado law requires that all large emitters of oil and gas pollution be continuously monitored. The state’s monitoring equipment at Bella Romero was operational only about half the time it was in the APRIL 23, 2020

field. It is rumored the State intends to buy another of the $400,000 whiz-bang machines to form the twin pillars of its mandated oversight responsibilities of large emitters. There is only one Suncor, but there are a few thousand of the mega well pads like that at Bella in the state. Two is not enough. In October of last year, the State, in its uninterrupted downward drift toward corporate serfdom, issued another finding that was, this time, a complete fabrication. It claimed a new study, using a simulation model with data partially collected by the industry, indicated dangerous levels of benzene might occur up to 2,000 feet from a well site. What the State failed to mention was that the study criteria required modeling only to 2,000 feet, and in fact, the report’s own modeling tables, buried in the bowels of the report, showed dangerous levels of benzene contamination extending well beyond 2,000 feet, perhaps as far as a mile or more. The State has refused to

correct its lie. For most of the past decade, setbacks from homes have been 500 feet or less, schools eventually got 1,000 feet of protection. No setback requirement exists for developers coming in after the wells are producing to build homes or schools, once again exposing the general mindlessness of the State’s regulatory framework. Last year, after passage of SB 181, the State set a new arbitrary setback of 1,500 feet for homes and 2,000 for schools. This setback might have been determined by early information on the simulation study, or might have been just number-pulling that the industry could live with, but it was not based on any serious scientific information. Therefore it did not and does not satisfy the requirements in SB 181 that fossil fuel development can only take place provided public health and the environment are protected. I hope we can all agree that not knowing is not the same as knowing, even in the reigning upside-down world we inhabit. So how do the people of Colorado reclaim their government from the oil industry? Without hard scientific information that can’t be twisted or denied, it will be impossible. It will be exceedingly difficult even with solid BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

information, as the foregoing exposes. The group I belong to, Be the Change Colorado, has asked repeatedly that the State initiate continuous measurements of large emitters as required by SB 181. The State has turned a deaf ear, the legislature has pleaded poverty, suggesting, from a cynical point of view, the legislature passed a law it didn’t want implemented. So let’s see. Atmospheric scientists have said they could devise a continuous monitoring system for Suncorland at an annual cost of about $150,000. The information gathered would be almost instantaneously available to the public and local governments in Globeville, Elyria-Swansea and Commerce City, thus neutralizing the “opacity events” that so characterize the State’s oversight responsibilities. The $9 million fine recently exacted from Suncor would keep the program running for 60 years. Suncor has a state permit to emit 800,000 tons of pollutants a year. That is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions from 174,000 cars on the streets of Denver, or from a statewide perspective, equivalent to CO2 emissions from over 10% of all vehicles registered in the state. But remember it’s not just CO2 that is emitted at Suncorland, but a witch’s brew of poisons such as benzene, hydrogen cyanide and many others, the synergistic effects of which on human health are simply unknown. Real-time continuous monitoring would facilitate reasoned decision-making. The refinery might have to eliminate some of its activities that threaten public health, or, absent the ability to reduce its level of pollution, it might have to close down. It might also elect to move to a new location. The first two are public decisions. The latter is corporate, but even so, it is doubtful Suncor, a Canadian company remember, would be invited to set up camp in metropolitan Ottawa. Continuous monitoring of the large emitters of industrial-sized oil installations in the fracking fields is a more difficult undertaking. There are likely thousands of them. A small group of activists have been in contact with scientists in an attempt to break the logjam. They have a commitment from a local aviation company, the most experienced in the world, to do flyovers to identify the large emitters. The entire northern Front Range formed by the oil-bearing Denver-Julseberg Basin could be monitored at a cost of $6,000 per flight. Analysis of the collected data by scientists would cost another $2,000 per flight. These activists, of whom I am one, have talked to the state budget committee and to legislative leaders themselves about funding this initiative. One senate leader told me there was no money and that I didn’t understand budgets. Perhaps not, but I do understand puffery and pork. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

This year, the State will collect about $230 million from the oil industry in severance taxes. Tax revenues will go down precipitously as the fracking industry continues its collapse, but revenues will still be in the millions for the next few years. Activists have written legislation suggesting that this money should be placed in a trust to prepare for the day when the people will have to close wells left behind by a dying industry. The costs will be in the billions, easily. None of this $230 million will be used to monitor large emitters as the law requires as a condition necessary for the protection of the public and the environment. Instead, roughly half will go to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and half to the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) to fund longstanding programs that have a lot of oink in them. At DNR, the money will be used to fund the COGCC, the division that oversees the oil industry, and other agencies within the department. The governor could allow some of it, perhaps as little as $250,000 for flyovers to start an inventory of major pollution sources in the fracking fields of Colorado. But, using the pandemic as an excuse, Polis has taken the opposite approach and halted all rulemaking associated with the health and safety requirements of SB 181 within this department. In true neoliberal fashion, he has not curtailed new drilling permits, however. Roughly half of the money allocated to the DNR goes to fund water projects. Yes, water projects. For example, one project approved recently is a grant of $250,000 to help fund a sprinkler system on private land that could increase flows on the source stream that runs through the property. Since the water project grant program’s inception in 2006, the State has given away about $91 million to help rural water users, many of them private or quasi-private entities. With the new law providing that sports betting tax revenues be applied to state water projects, any justification for the continued use of severance tax money for water projects is even more indefensible. In a world where neoliberalism isn’t the guiding principle, some of it might even be redirected to do monitoring in the service of protecting public health and the environment. This would require a funding decision from the governor for some of the money allocated to the DNR to be redirected to independent monitoring, or a one-sentence modification to existing law by the legislature to make some share of the severance tax available to public health. The State grant program at DOLA using severance tax revenues rests on even shakier ground. For example, last year a $1 million grant was given to a condominium near Steamboat Springs to upgrade its sewage system. Similar infrastructure grants were given to a horsy-set development west I

APRIL 23, 2020

of Colorado Springs, and another at a housing development in Bennett. About a half-million was given to Keystone Resort for similar water infrastructure improvements. Most of DOLA grants could be characterized as pork for the provinces. The kinds of things local governments wouldn’t fund themselves or seek the public’s approval through bonding for, but the kind of dreamy stuff you’d do if somebody promised you a pot of money with no strings attached. For example, the Leadville Opera House got a $800,000 facelift. Despite the Defense Department’s $750 billion budget, no money was available for the national guard armory in Durango. So it got a million-dollar makeover from the severance tax fund instead. And Wray got a couple of million for Main Street beautification. (Wray is the county seat of the one the counties that threatened to break away from the state if state government didn’t let them do as they wanted with oil and gas regulations.) Hell, even Weld County, the epicenter of the secession movement, is going to enjoy a million-dollar grant for a new public works building, and the region is going to be graced, at another million, with a new police training center, complete with firing range and driving track. Poor old Baca County only got $200,000 for fairgrounds improvements. Would this million, and the hundreds of millions spent over the last decades, have been better saved away for the day when the people of Colorado will be expected to pay for the closing of thousands of wells left behind by a collapsed industry? And might not a little of this money still be used to help establish an independent monitoring system that is openly available to the public? The foregoing narrative leaves no doubt that independent oversight is needed of State regulatory activities. It can be accomplished at a relatively insignificant cost by enlisting independent scientists at state universities and research facilities, many of whom have already volunteered to help as concerned citizens. It’s been said that a society is measured by how it treats its weakest members. The State’s treatment of the working people in the Globeville, ElyriaSwansea and Commerce City neighborhoods surrounding the Suncor refinery is nothing short of criminal neglect. The State’s indifference to the pleas of people in the fracking fields of Colorado is similarly despicable. A great divorce is demanded. Let it begin. Let it be loud and raucous, so that those on high can, for once, hear and believe. Phillip Doe is a former environmental compliance officer and head of the Reclamation Law Administration for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. I

The future of our survival

As millions across America — including citizens — are ineligible for coronavirus stimulus funds, state and local nonprofits join the patchwork of organizations around the nation looking to fill the gap

by Caitlin Rockett

s friends and colleagues watched their bank accounts inflate by $1,200 (or more, depending on the size of their family) in mid-April, my husband and I knew we wouldn’t get to share in the same sense of relief. As a mixed-status family who files taxes jointly — me an American citizen with a Social Security number, my husband an undocumented worker with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) — we’re ineligible for any cash assistance from the nearly $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package known as the CARES Act. We’re far from alone. The Center for American Progress reports that around the country nearly 17 million people live with at least one “unauthorized” family member as of 2017. In Colorado, that translates to 276,589 people, or 5% of the state’s population. Many of the U.S. citizens in mixed-status households are children. The vast majority of these families will receive no federal stimulus money, not even the $500 allocated for each child. “Undeniably, there is no way to separate immigrants out from the U.S.-born population,” Silva Mathema wrote for the Center for American Progress in 2017. “There can be no us versus them.” As always, nonprofit groups have rushed in to protect immigrants and their families from this most recent punitive federal action. Even before the stimulus checks began to hit bank accounts, Google Sheets with state- and city-specific resources began to circulate on social media, where ineligible families could begin to find much needed help: Disaster Relief for Sonoma County, California; COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for Washington, D.C. area families; Ayuda Mutua in Wisconsin; Somos Seattle in Washington state. Across the country, advocates are seeking to find an answer to the injustice. Here in Boulder County, a new collective of 12

immigrant-led nonprofits has formed to fill the gap created by the federal government, pooling resources and creating funds to help families, regardless of status, during a time when many have lost income due to coronavirus-related closures. Voces Unidas combines the on-the-ground advocacy power of El Centro Amistad (Boulder), El Comité de Longmont and ELPASO Movement (Lafayette). Partnering with the nonprofit Philanthropiece Foundation, Voces Unidas is currently accepting donations for the COVID-19 Undocu-Relief Fund to help immigrants in and around Boulder County cover rent, bills and household essentials during the pandemic. Jake Matlak, director of programs at Philanthropiece, says “the huge push” right now is to garner more donations, from larger foundations, banks, businesses and private donors — anyone who can help. As of April 21, Matlak says the relief fund has APRIL 23, 2020

raised about $35,000 since April 8. The three local partnering nonprofits are helping to find families in need and coordinate distribution, but for now the program is entering a “pilot round,” with approximately 70 families receiving $500 each. “That money is going to disappear in a blink,” Matlak says. “There’s a lot more families that definitely would qualify and need the support. The huge push right now is to get more resources into the fund or to at least locate other funds that people can access.” Behind the scenes there’s an even broader network of advocates working to connect families who are ineligible for government assistance (or afraid to access programs for fear of endangering pending immigration cases since Trump implemented the so-called “public charge” rule in August of last year). Guillermo Estrada-Rivera is the program coordinator for Boulder County’s recently created (official since February) Cultural Brokers Resilience Program. As a “cultural broker,” Estrada-Rivera is a bi-cultural mediator, “a resource navigator” as he terms it, helping underserved populations, like undocumented immigrants, find help in a system that often locks them out. For the COVID-19 Undocu-Relief Fund, Estrada-Rivera has worked with all participating organizations to not only find much needed resources, but also to get those resources into the right hands. Estrada-Rivera, Matlak and other community advocates and organizers have put together a Google Sheet with resources that cultural brokers can access to better help overwhelmed and underserved undocumented community members. “We recognize that there’s a huge influx of need, and people are getting stressed,” EstradaRivera says. “People are being faced with the reality that they need to reach out to services that they have never reached out to before in some cases. We’re trying to summarize everything that’s out BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

there, putting it in a meeting place for the actual cultural brokers, resource navigators and even allies to share with the communities they serve. So instead of a community member having to navigate 60 different pages looking for help, they can call a cultural broker that they know, a person that they trust, who can look at this resources list and say, ‘These are your our elected officials realize how much strain these options.’” nonprofits are under. I know a lot of people in But, as the pilot run of the COVID-19 Undocu- these nonprofits right now that are working a lot Relief Fund shows, it’s a work-in-progress. more than they normally would because we have “The resources are still being built,” Estradacommunity members that are calling us at all hours Rivera says. “Like people say, there’s too many of the day, not knowing how they’re going to pay cooks in the kitchen right now. But that’s a good rent, not knowing how to put food on the table. ... thing because it has the potential to [lead to] even I think that we really need our local, state and fedmore resources available for the community. But eral elected officials to step up more.” the conversations are still taking place.” California has become a prime example of state Immigrants looking for assistance can reach out leadership, with a joint public-private $125 million to the Boulder County coronavirus disaster relief Suma Project (info@thefund for undocumented bouldercountysuma.com) is that immigrants living in the — part of Estradastate. The fund provides this virus doesn’t impact people dif- $500 per individual, with Rivera’s cultural broker program — to connect ferently based on a Social Security a $1,000 limit per housewith a cultural broker hold. It’s estimated to number.” who can provide general help some 150,000 immi—Raquel Lane-Arellano, information about how grants. Colorado Immigrant Rights and when services will be “I’m not here to sugCoalition available for access. gest that $125 million is Outside of Boulder enough,” California govCounty, other nonprofits ernor Gavin Newsom are working to the same end. Josh Stallings, the said in a press event announcing the fund. “But I north regional coordinator for the Colorado am here to suggest it’s a good start, and I’m very Immigrant Rights Coalition, has worked with proud it’s starting here in the state of California.” Voces Unidas in Boulder, and also with the interBut there’s little hope for such a move at the faith nonprofit group ISAAC in Fort Collins, as state level in Colorado because of House Bill 1023, well as with the Immigrant and Refugee Center of passed during a special legislative session in 2006, North Colorado in Greeley. Both organizations are which prohibits the state, with some exceptions, providing micro-grants to families in need. from providing federal, state and local public beneStallings is “moved and inspired’’ by what nonfits to immigrants who do not have legal status. profits are providing for immigrant communities Over the course of his eight years in office, during the pandemic, but he says the effort has to Jonathan Singer, a state representative for District expand beyond the nonprofit world. 11, has worked with other legislative members to “One, nonprofits aren’t going to be able to have get HB 1023 “off the books.” When the legislation the same reach, the same quantity of support that was enacted in 2006, it created a “show me your the federal government or local government could papers” law even before Arizona. That component help provide,” he says. “Two, I don’t think a lot of of the legislation has been removed, but the over-

“What we’re seeing

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

APRIL 23, 2020

reaching power of the bill has continued to create obstacles to equality for immigrants in Colorado. “House Bill 1023, sadly, is still on the books,” says Singer, who has been an ally to the local organizations running the COVID Undocu-Relief Fund. “The intent behind House Bill 1023 — which was to mirror what already existed in federal law — was not the same as the actual effect. “It’s a crisis now,” Singer says of the affect of HB 1023. “It affects everyone. It doesn’t just affect immigrants. It literally affects everyone. And so it needs to go.” With that unlikely to happen any time soon, the work of keeping undocumented immigrant families afloat in Colorado will continue to fall to local nonprofit organizations like the ones at the helm of Voces Unidas. Organizers within the collective say there’s a chance that the Undocu-Relief Fund will end up merging with another fund, or funds, in Colorado in order to help more people. “There’s no sense in competing or duplicating,” Matlak, from Philanthropiece, says. “But right now everybody’s just trying to get money into the hands of people who need it.” Raquel Lane-Arellano, political manager for Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, says the coronavirus has “exacerbated the gaps in resources and access that had already existed” for immigrants. “I think the underlying story for me is that undocumented immigrants have to face all these obstacles all the time, like being afraid to go out and economic hardship, and what we’re seeing is that this virus doesn’t impact people differently based on a Social Security [number],” she says. “It clearly shows how our government structures do and always have discriminated against folks based on citizenship status, on race.” Estrada-Rivera says it’s clear we cannot depend on our government in times of crisis. “The future for our community, the future of our survival, is depending on collaboration,” he says. “The federal government has proven it’s more concerned with the narrative than the wellbeing of our people.” I

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APRIL 23, 2020

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

On shaky ground

Mobile home owners face rent increases and lost wages during the pandemic

By Matt Cortina

ost of the mobile home community folks I’ve talked with were able to handle April rent. But they have lost hours, contract work, or entire jobs, and are seriously worried about making May and June rent, if not rent payments later, too,” says Mike Peirce, HOA president of the Sans Souci mobile home park in unincorporated Boulder County, and board member of the National Manufactured Home Owners Association. “I think it is still early for any clear cases of widespread hardship to emerge, but that lots of signs have not been encouraging.” Mobile home owners face several unique challenges. Certainly not all, but many mobile park residents are people who live on lower incomes — seniors, undocumented people, blue-collar workers — and because they don’t own the land on which their homes are placed, they are constantly dealing with issues that imperil their quality of life: land rent increases, lack of access to traditional mortgages and loans, and overly scrupulous management companies, to name a few. Life is getting better — the Mobile Home Park Act was finally passed in Colorado last year after 34 years in limbo, thanks to efforts by Peirce and others, giving mobile home owners a de facto bill of rights, at least one off of which to build. But the coronavirus has put an extra burden on their shoulders, as many in Boulder County’s parks have lost income or seen a reduction in pay. “Our concern is that going forward, people’s resources will be more strapped and there could be more future problems,” says Renee Hummel, a Vista Village resident and steering committee member of the Coalition of Manufactured Home Owners in Boulder, who also worked to pass state legislation. Peirce and Hummel have reached out to their neighbors to ask how they are doing during the pandemic. Generally speaking, folks were able to make payments on time in April, but the future is uncertain. “A number of musicians live in our park and they live on gig work and are not getting gigs. Quite a few people work in the restaurant industry and have had hours cut or they’re on a kind of furBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

lough,” Peirce says. “Quite a few folks have expressed worries about being able to pay rent in May, but nobody has come straight out and said it and said they’re not going to be able to make it.” There are concerns, first, in the mobile home community about paying future rent if income is limited. Boulder County will not hold eviction court cases until June 1, and there has been guidance at the state and local level for tenants and landlords to work out payment plans. However, Peirce says there is no indication mobile park owners will be willing to negotiate “in good faith.” “There’s very little confidence,” he says. “Residents have sent out requests and they’re not being responded to.” Sans Souci is outside City limits, but for those within Boulder, Director of Housing and Human Services Kurt Firnhaber says all mobile park owners have agreed to waive late fees for payment. The City, by the way, is helping mobile home owners by providing Wi-Fi hotspots, working with cultural brokers in mobile home communities to share information, and making $350,000 available for rent assistance through the Emergency Family Assistance Association, as well as providing a rental helpline to residents in need (303-441-1206). Firnhaber added that the City is encouraging people in financial distress to use or save their stimulus check for future rent. Though, that’s a problem for those undocumented and mixed families in mobile home parks who did not receive a stimulus check. I

APRIL 23, 2020

Firnhaber says with the average median income increase only at 1.3%, he thinks “rents won’t be going up much at all,” but for mobile park owners, scheduled rent increases may further impact residents’ ability to pay rent. Hummel says indications are that Vista Village rent increases of $50 per month are already being billed. In the last two years, Peirce says rent has gone up 37% in Sans Souci, due in part to a change in ownership. With rent scheduled to rise 12% beginning May 1, Peirce and concerned residents sent a letter to management asking to defer the increase. “We basically said we would like them to hold off on their scheduled rent increase and then the second part of our request is we do not condone this increase at all because it’s still raising the rent higher than a lot of folks can afford right now,” Peirce says. Lauren Riggin, project manager at the Colorado Coalition of Manufactured Home Owners, says rent increases are likely to go forward at parks across the state. “The concern about any kind of deferred payment is once things start to snowball then you’re really in trouble, then you’re in a place when you’re never able to catch up,” Riggin says. “It may sound nice to defer payment, but the fact is no one who I’ve talked to has indicated there’s been any sort of offer to decrease rent or forgive a month’s payment.” While the storm the coronavirus carried with it seems to be ebbing for many in the Boulder County community, the downpour has not yet reached mobile park owners. They’re preparing to weather it for a while. “Right now I want to say we’re in the beginning of when problems are going to happen,” Peirce says. “So at this point everybody’s just kind of anticipating, and, at least for people in my park, the anxiety levels are through the roof because we haven’t gotten any response. ... But a whole lot of the folks I think are responsible enough financially have been able to make April’s rent, probably a bit will make May’s rent by scraping by, but I think they’re going to be hurting, and June is going to be another question just because the economy is not on track yet.” I

Local homeless services still looking for solutions, volunteers by Angela K. Evans

t’s been a little more than a month since the reality of the coronavirus pandemic really began to sink in, and local and state officials began taking serious action to prevent the spread of COVID-19. When it comes to people experiencing homelessness, the cities of Longmont and Boulder, along with Homeless Solutions Boulder County (HSBC), opened a COVID-19 Recovery Center (CRC) at the East Boulder Rec Center. Area shelters operated by Bridge House and HOPE Longmont expanded day services. All shelters have been screening people daily for symptoms, while also facing the snowiest winter in modern history. But as the weeks have gone by, staff has been stretched thin and HSBC needs more volunteers. “We’re having to staff more and support more sheltering than ever before,” says Heidi Grove, systems manager for HSBC. “We’ve added more services without more people to support those services.” At the same time, homeless advocates around Colorado are challenging state and local agencies to do more to prevent undue suffering and even death within the unhoused population. Through the courts, they’re asking more jurisdictions to use hotel rooms to safely isolate people experiencing homelessness, instead of using shelters which make it difficult to distance people and prevent the spread of the virus. It’s a tactic some cities are already implementing, but one that also brings additional staffing challenges. Denver, which has by far the largest population of unhoused people in the state (best estimate is 4,000), has secured at least 550 hotel and motel rooms across the city for people experiencing homelessness who are either 65 years and older, are considered high-risk but have not yet been exposed to the virus, or for those who have tested positive or have exhibited symptoms. The city has also opened 24-hour shelters at the National Western Complex and the Denver Coliseum, among other locations. At the end of March, Aurora moved to rent out an entire undisclosed hotel with 120 rooms for unhoused individuals and those who may not have a safe place to quarantine after being released from area hospitals. The hotel is staffed 24 hours a day. While other jurisdictions have moved in this 16

direction, Boulder County largely hasn’t. “They’ve chosen to actively not use motels or hotels or any other form of isolation that would keep people from being around one another,” says Darren O’Connor, criminal justice committee chair of the NAACP Boulder County branch and longtime homeless advocate. The shelter system, he says, “is just a recipe for people getting sick and keeping this virus prevalent in our entire community, not just our homeless community.” He points to the fact that universal testing at

the beginning of April at some homeless shelters in Boston showed large portions of the population had COVID-19, including some staff. At one shelter 36% tested positive, at another 43% did, and most of them showed little to no symptoms, according to WBUR. Greg Harms, executive director of Boulder Shelter for the Homeless in North Boulder, says his organization has recently taken it upon itself to move 13 of its most vulnerable residents into area hotel rooms in order to protect their health and in an attempt to decrease the number of people at the shelter each night. There are plans to move a few more people soon, all funded by the Boulder Shelter. Although a few hotels refused to work with the Shelter, most have been accommodating especially considering almost all hotels in the city are empty, Harms says. Shelter staff still provide meals to these individuals and check in with them daily, which is one of the challenges of implementing this on a larger scale, Harms says. APRIL 23, 2020

“The biggest hurdle is staffing all of these scattered sites around a community in a way that everybody is safe, and everybody gets fed, and has access to medical services if they need those,” he says. “Once you distribute the population that becomes a huge challenge.” Still, Harms, along with others, has also asked Gov. Polis for access to more hotel rooms and other resources for this population, and the Boulder Shelter is supporting recent federal legislation proposed by Joe Neguse (D-Boulder) that would provide an additional $11.5 billion earmarked to help people without homes during the pandemic, specifically including the purchasing of hotel and motel rooms. (Congress already approved $4 billion for this effort as part of the CARES Act, $22 million of which came to Colorado.) “At least our local Congressman is looking at these options that the City of Boulder has said no to,” O’Connor says. “Every community isn’t going to have the same solution,” Kurt Firnhaber, the City of Boulder’s housing and human services director, responds. “I think particularly for communities who haven’t been focused on finding solutions before this for the homeless, those kinds of solutions are really the only thing that they have.” Firnhaber says the City supports the North Boulder Shelter’s efforts to house vulnerable folks at hotels, but widespread use of hotel rooms is not something being considered. “Right now we’re just trying to keep up the staff capacity that we have to run the facilities that we have,” Firnhaber says. “I don’t think we have the staff to do more.” In the last month, HOPE for Longmont, which provides sheltering services between two different churches throughout the week, also began offering afternoon shelter earlier in April, providing access to showers, Wi-Fi, restrooms and a place to rest, given that rec centers and libraries remain closed. In Boulder, Bridge House is now providing afternoon services to about 50 people each day, in addition to sheltering services each night at a reduced capacity in order to spread people out see HOMELESS Page 17

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

ICE faces several lawsuits over Aurora detention center

n Tuesday, April 14, immigration lawyers and organizations sued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and GEO Group Inc. officials for the release of 14 medically vulnerable detainees at the detention center in Aurora out of concern for their health and safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By Wednesday, ICE had released eight of them, all transgender women living with HIV. The other six remain in custody. The next day, Thursday, April 16, a federal judge in California allowed a national class-action lawsuit to proceed that accuses ICE of failing to provide standard medical and mental health care for detainees, citing the Aurora facility specifically. Then on Monday, April 20, another federal judge in California ordered ICE to “identify and track” every person within its custody for whom contracting COVID-19 would result in complications, including pregnant women, those over 55 and people with chronic health problems. As of April 21, ICE reports 253 detainees have tested positive for the disease, although they may not all still be in custody. Guatemala has accused the agency of deporting large groups of people with COVID back to Guatemala. “We are thrilled that eight of our clients have been released after the filing of this lawsuit. But it should not have taken emergency litigation to achieve this outcome,” Sirine Shebaya, of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, said in a press release about the trans women in Aurora. “Their quick release shows that ICE is fully capable of releasing people, and is aware of the special vulnerabilities affecting many of those it is currently detaining, but is not taking the actions it should unless compelled to do so.”

t its virtual meeting on Tuesday, April 21, Boulder City Council voted against an emergency order that would have allowed online signature gathering for initiatives hoping to make the November ballot. “The proposed ordinance is far from a perfect solution,” according to a staff memo. “The intent is to balance the community value of direct democracy against the need to protect our community in this emergency.” Mayor Sam Weaver cast the deciding vote against the measure, as the rest of the Council was evenly divided over the issue. In 2018, Boulder residents voted to allow online signature gathering, but the City is still developing a two-step verification system that won’t be ready until the 2021 election. Now that the City is under stay-athome orders and social distancing encouraged, the prospect of gathering signatures in person seems almost impossible before the June 5 deadline. Groups proposing the initiatives took to Twitter to express their dismay at the Council’s decision. “The majority of Boulder City Council made an irresponsible decision tonight by disallowing online petition gathering in a pandemic,” wrote Charlotte Pitts, who supports Bedrooms for All People, an effort to allow more than three unrelated people to live in one house. The No Eviction without Representation campaign also faces an uphill battle to get its initiative on the ballot.

Boulder City Council votes against online petition signature gathering

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more. The North Boulder Shelter has been taking people turned away from Bridge House each night, in addition to its normal services. Plus, the CRC is staffed 24 hours a day. These additional services have proven difficult to provide, as volunteer support has dropped significantly in the last month, Grove says, depleting the support shelters normally rely on. When Gov. Polis enacted a statewide stay-athome order, Grove says, “People really thought that meant that they couldn’t engage in volunteerism ... people didn’t necessarily realize that supporting the most vulnerable in some sort of volunteer capacity is deemed as an essential function.” The County is hoping to get about 50 more volunteers in order to take some of the pressure off of staff, Grove says. “I think after we’ve finished this first month, people are getting tired and so I think we’re looking for a few more volunteers to keep the energy going,” Firnhaber says, “because we don’t know how long this is going to be and we need to keep that capacity.” Although 100 people have volunteered at the CRC over the last month, it could use 15 to 20 more, Firnhaber says. At its peak, the CRC has BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

served about 16 people a night, although right now it’s hovering around 10 or 12. Firnhaber credits the CRC with preventing spread of COVID within HSBC’s shelter system. He says the CRC just started testing people last week, and so far, two have come back positive. Others are still awaiting results. With a staff of about 50, Harms from the Boulder Shelter says five people have resigned over the last month, mostly out of concern for their own health. “For some people the risk is too great, if they have underlying health conditions or they are living with someone who does, people have to make those difficult choices for themselves,” he says. “We respect that, but we also have to keep the shelter open.” Harms says the shelter has significantly decreased its volunteer use in an attempt to minimize the number of people coming in and out of the facility. Still, volunteers are used for symptom screening and to hand out supplies like over the counter medication and toiletries each day. “We try to be completely upfront with people,” Harms says. “They’re going to be exposed to a lot of people when they’re here. We’re trying to I

APRIL 23, 2020

put up the precautions that we can but it’s like going to the grocery store, you’re going to interact with people, but you have to decide if that’s appropriate for you or not.” O’Connor says the call for more volunteers only points out that obvious: that needs have increased, and services are at capacity. “It’s great that there are people wanting to volunteer,” he says, “but we’re basically putting them into the dangerous conditions as people experiencing homelessness and those dangerous conditions are worse than they need to be or should be because we’re failing to use all the tools in the toolbox.” Boulder County service providers are hoping that the strain on the system begins to lift as the weather warms up. The plan is to suspend day sheltering services in Boulder County at the end of April in conjunction with the lifting of the statewide stay-at-home orders. However, it remains unclear when places like libraries and rec centers will reopen, leaving large gaps during the day when people experiencing homelessness will have nowhere to go. “We’re doing the best we can with the tools that we have,” Harms says. “But we know it’s not perfect and there are risks involved.” I

The future of transportation in Boulder County, amended With revenue and ridership down during the pandemic, RTD and Boulder County look for paths forward on future projects and services

By Matt Cortina

arlier this year, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners approved a transportation plan that calls for increased bus and rail service in the County, expanded bikeways between cities, road improvements and a host of other projects that would meet the needs of a growing community. The plan is projected to cost about $2.46 billion. Then the coronavirus came and shut down almost everything, and severely hampered the revenue of Regional Transportation District (RTD), one of the County’s key partners in implementing its improvements. The impacts of the coronavirus are likely to be long-lasting for a variety of industries. And though it’s too soon to say how transportation service and capital projects will change because of the pandemic, RTD and Boulder County are adapting on the fly to a new set of circumstances. “We’re anticipating severe reductions not only in fare revenue, but a lot of our budget [comes from] sales and use tax,” says Marta Sipeki, RTD senior manager of public relations and engagement. “Since people aren’t out and about shopping, we’re going to take a big hit.” In response to a 70% ridership reduction since the start of the pandemic, RTD has shifted almost all buses to limited weekend schedules, and stopped service entirely on other lines. “We have a lot of buses that are only carrying 6-8 people,” Sipeki says. RTD waived fare collection, which equates to a loss of $12 million per month. Loss in revenue from sales and use tax will be disclosed on May 1. The change in schedule is likely to last until September, though there is concern from RTD’s partner organizations that the reduced schedules could stay in effect even longer. Still, Sipeki says RTD can add more buses once people feel comfortable riding public transit again and businesses reopen. “Once the stay-at-home orders are lifted and we get more people riding transit, we’re going to start adding service back, while still being very 18

cognizant that people can keep their distance from other passengers,” Sipeki says. RTD did receive about $232 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, but those funds need to be spent on COVID-19-related expenses (personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and technology, salaries and operating costs) and it must be spent on a reimbursement basis. Whatever RTD loses in revenue from now on will factor into how able it is to partner with local entities like Boulder County for necessary capital improvements. Kathleen Bracke, Boulder County deputy director of transportation planning, says the County can still rely on its approved Transportation Master Plan (TMP) for future projects, even if the funding time line has to be extended to compensate for the losses from its partner agencies. “We have been modifying some of the work we’re doing but continuing to do more work on our projects,” Bracke says. “I think that’s the beauty and importance of having a plan in place. ... [The TMP] does give us a road map to the future and the plan did acknowledge how we’re going to travel in the short term and long term is changing over time. The change happening in front of us — though it is happening at a quicker pace than we might have had in mind.” Sipeki says “it’s hard to say” how funding deficits now might affect the agency’s ability to fund capital projects in the future — the Boulder County TMP has a rough time line of 20 years to implement its projects. “It all depends on how long it’s going to take to recover financially,” Sipeki says. “It all depends on the economy. It all depends on how the sales and APRIL 23, 2020

use tax rebounds.” “We recognize the funding may need to stretch out over a longer period of time,” Bracke adds. “This is a time to emphasize the importance of partnerships. There’s not one agency that can carry these partnerships alone.” Too, the County is having conversations about how social distancing and behavior changes might impact projects. For instance, do trails and connections need to be greater than six-feet-wide now to accommodate safe passing distance? “Obviously the department is going to be looking at projects in the new light of social distancing and the reality of that,” says Richard Hackett, communications specialist for the County Planning and Permitting Department, a new amalgamation of the County’s land use and transportation departments. In fact, Hackett says, the recent merging of those departments was fortuitously timed before the coronavirus, as the County is now “better positioned to respond to the changes needed” to transportation issues. There have been murmurs, from the City of Boulder at least, that bus service would be brought under local control and taken out of RTD’s hands — the City has written that it is concerned about RTD’s ability to serve the Boulder community. RTD’s funding challenges may or may not factor into those decisions, but change was afoot anyway. The Reimagine RTD program launched in September, bringing together stakeholders like riders, municipalities and transit authorities to form a vision of the agency’s services, which could ultimately include big changes — the coronavirus simply adds a new wrinkle to those discussions. Ultimately, the coronavirus may muddy the plans (and funding) local agencies have laid out. But Stacey Proctor with the County Planning and Permitting Department says this is a time to see how society changes, recognize the benefits of reduced stress on the transportation system and come out better for it on the other side. “We’re trying to look and see how can we learn the lesson?” Proctor says. “People are realizing a lot more people can work from home than we thought, can we continue to encourage that, not only for the reasons of reducing the spread of COVID-19, but the other benefits of reducing air pollution and road congestion?” BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Comet ATLAS shrugs by Travis Metcalfe

n late December 2019, a telescope in Hawaii operated by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) discovered a comet on its way to the inner solar system. During the first few months of 2020, the comet grew more than 50,000 times brighter, raising hopes that it might become visible to the unaided eye during its closest approach to the Earth in late May. If it continues to brighten, it will be the first comet to be visible without a telescope in more than 20 years. The ATLAS project was designed to find small asteroids that are on a collision course with our planet. It began operating shortly after a space rock the length of a bowling lane exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, accompanied by a sonic boom that caused more than $30 million in property damage around the city. While other telescopes search for the rare large asteroids that might trigger a global catastrophe, ATLAS serves as an early warning system for the abundant smaller objects that could inflict regional damage. The project can provide a threeweek warning of an asteroid the size of a football field, a one-week warning for a rock as big as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and a few days warning for something like the Chelyabinsk event. Comet ATLAS never posed a threat to the Earth, but it turned up as one of the faint moving objects that the survey was tuned to reveal. At the time of its discovery, the comet was about as bright as a match flame in New York viewed from San Francisco. But as it gradually came closer to the Sun over the past few months, the dirty snowball from the edge of the solar system brightened dramatically while heating up and starting to evaporate. By early April it was visible in binoculars, sporting the nebulous tail that distinguishes comets from other space debris. “Comets are things that have been kept in the deep freeze for a long time. It’s kind of like finding fossils showing what the solar system was like 4.5 BOULDER WEEKLY

billion years ago,” says Joel Parker, director of the Planetary Sciences division of Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) in downtown Boulder. Parker grew up in the Bay Area, and he earned a degree from the University of California Berkeley before coming to the University of Colorado in 1986 for doctoral research. After finishing his Ph.D. in astronomy, he spent several years working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland before returning to Boulder in 1996 to join an upstart planetary sciences group at SWRI. He has worked on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, which landed a probe on a comet in 2014. Historically, comets have been considered messengers of doom. Before television displaced the night sky as a primary source of entertainment, the ancients interpreted the dances of bright planets against the backdrop of fixed stars as the stories of gods. The movements of the planets were periodic and predictable, so anything that violated the established patterns was seen as a bad omen. Edmund Halley identified the only comet that is regularly visible to the unaided eye, and it only returns every 76 years, too long for most sky watchers to see a pattern. The last comet that was easily visible from the northern hemisphere was Hale-Bopp in 1997. Its passage was marked by a bizarre ritual suicide involving 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult in southern California. They believed that there was a UFO traveling behind the comet that would take them to a “Next Level” afterlife, and that they needed to liberate themselves from their bodies for the journey. The group went out for a final meal together before putting on identical black track suits, downing some barbiturates with vodka, and asphyxiating themselves. About a week later, comet Hale-Bopp became a spectacular sight, shining brighter than almost every star in the sky with a dust tail stretching halfway from the horizon to the zenith. APRIL 23, 2020

THE ATLAS comet “Comet ATLAS now grew 50,000 times looks like it is breaking up. brighter during the It has fragmented and it is first few months of 2020. disintegrating,” Parker says. “But it certainly should be visible with binoculars or a small telescope. If people can get somewhere away from their local street lights, even a backyard is fine.” In early April, astronomers from around the world confirmed that comet ATLAS broke up into at least three or four smaller pieces, dashing hopes that it might continue to brighten. It currently appears between the Little Dipper and the constellation Auriga, about the same distance in the sky from the north star as the Big Dipper. Because it is entering the solar system from above, it will continue to be visible in the evening sky through the middle of May. Its closest approach to the Earth will occur on May 23, and it will swing around the Sun about a week later and reappear in the morning sky by early June. “When a comet breaks up, it exposes a lot of material that has not been exposed to the Sun before, so very often there will be a burst in activity,” Parker explains. “It’s possible that it could get brighter.” At this point, most astronomers are not holding out much hope. The latest predictions show comet ATLAS gradually fading to about one-sixth of its peak brightness over the coming month, despite getting closer to the Earth. By the end of May, it is expected to be too faint to see with binoculars, even from a very dark location. On average there is a comet visible to the unaided eye once every 10 years, so we are already overdue. If comet ATLAS doesn’t put on a good show, it’s only a matter of time before another relic of the ancient solar system comes our way. Travis Metcalfe, Ph.D., is a researcher and science communicator based in Boulder. The Lab Notes series is made possible in part by a research grant from the National Science Foundation. I

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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n April 16, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that it was no longer “appropriate and necessary” to regulate coalfired power plants in the U.S. for emitting mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. Mercury, of course, is a carcinogen and nervous system toxin. It’s lethal in relatively low concentrations. And it is a byproduct of coal-fired energy production. So why did the Trump administration say it’s unnecessary and inappropriate for the EPA to regulate mercury emissions from power plants? “The people who really wanted this were the coal industry,” says Ellen Kurlansky, a former EPA air quality specialist who helped write the rules regarding mercury regulation, the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule (MATS), in the late 1990s. “Specifically Bob Murray [of Murray Energy] which sent EPA its wish list.” Murray Energy sent a letter to the EPA in 2019 asking the administration to suspend regulation of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants, “because of the massive, unwarranted compliance costs and other harms imposed by MATS on the American public.” This is despite the fact that most players in the electric power industry didn’t want the EPA to make this ruling, Kurlansky says. But why would most of the power industry want the EPA to keep regulations in place? A quick history: The beginnings of the MATS rule were introduced in the Clinton administration. The EPA did a study and found power plants were the largest emitter of mercury and other pollutants. The rule didn’t get pushed through and the Bush administration tried to implement a cap and trade program instead. They were sued, and lost, and when Obama took office, his EPA pushed MATS through in 2011, giving power plants at least three years to comply by implementing technology to effectively sequester mercury and toxins from its operations. New technology made it cheaper for power plants to comply, and by 2016 almost all oil- and coal-fired plants were in compliance. Mercury emissions dropped by almost 90%, and reductions for other pollutants had similar dramatic decreases. In short, the power industry didn’t want the

industry-wide, Kurlansky says. But Kurlansky adds that the Trump administration used outdated and cherry-picked numbers to justify its cost-benefit analysis, which is used as justification for its ruling. For instance, it only looking at the benefits provided to a small population of people and the costs of using technology from decades ago. It also doesn’t consider the co-benefits of reducing emissiosn of other air toxins. “I think this is part and parcel of a sort of multi-year longterm project to dismiss the benefits of regulating pollution; to present it to the American people as not worth the cost,” Kurlansky says. Joe Goffman, a former EPA administrator, agrees. “The EPA reached the position that it is not ‘appropriate and necessary’ to regulate power plant mercury emissions by cooking up an illegal reading of the Clean Air Act, willfully misreading a Supreme Court case, and deciding that it is suddenly free to dismiss the benefits of the full measure of pollution reduced by regulation in performing cost-benefit analysis,” Goffman said in a statement. “The immediate effect of this action will likely be coal industry litigation aimed at removing existing control requirements for mercury and air toxic emissions.” And, if the ruling is now challenged in court and ultimately overturned, it’s people in at-risk communities and in minority communities, who live near these power plants, that will hurt the most. Mustafa Santiago Ali of the National Wildlife Federation said: “This is just one more example of Trump’s EPA inexplicably weakening a rule that reduces emissions of dangerous and deadly toxins for no other reason than to undo something the Obama administration did to help our most vulnerable, including people of color, pregnant women and children, not to mention putting people in underserved communities even more at risk of dying from viruses like COVID-19.” So, even if MATS is challenged and overturned, is there any concern that coal-fired plants will cut out the costs of their cleaning operations and release mercury and other toxins, unfettered, into our air and water? “I think there certainly is that concern,” Kurlansky says. “I haven’t heard that anybody is, but I think that is a valid concern.”

Guess what: It’s no longer ‘appropriate or necessary’ to regulate mercury emissions from power plants By Matt Cortina

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Trump administration to make this ruling because they had already spent the money to adhere to MATS. “They feel like they’re in compliance. The money’s been spent,” Kurlansky says. “They’re over, done, leave us alone, and they don’t want uncertainty.” There were nine coal-producing plants in Colorado last year, though several have announced they have already or will begin phasing out coal from their operations. What’s baffling about the ruling is that it doesn’t undo MATS. Power plants still have to comply with its regulations or else face a potential lawsuit from community members or organizations. But by deeming compliance with MATS neither “appropriate [or] necessary,” the door is opened to lawsuits from plants that don’t want to comply. “Somebody is going to go to the courts and say, ‘Well, if you say it’s not appropriate or necessary to regulate, you need to undo MATS,” Kurlansky says. “I think that’s a difficult legal argument to make because it was already fought and lost [in the Bush administration]. But the courts are different now because there’s been a lot of recent appointments. It’s not totally a nobrainer that you’re going to get the same result.” Why some plants might want to challenge the rule is because it costs money to comply with MATS, even after the technology has been implemented — a little over a billion dollars a year I

APRIL 23, 2020

Cultivating communities of care

Mutual aid efforts grow in Boulder County and across the country

by Angela K. Evans

this world, there are winners and there are losers. It’s survival of the fittest, and only the strongest survive. By this point in our collective history, we’re all pretty familiar with these concepts of social Darwinism, pitting strong against weak, everyone competing for the same limited resources. But what if there was another way? Just a few years after Charles Darwin passed away, Russian anarchist and naturalist philosopher Peter Kropotkin proposed a counterargument to social Darwinism in a series of late-19th-century essays. He argued that humans and animals alike are naturally collaborative, not cutthroat. Our survival depends on working together, not competing against each other. It’s what Kropotkin called mutual aid, and it’s driven social movements throughout history. It also sees a resurgence in times of collective crisis, like the moment we currently find ourselves in. There has been a proliferation of mutual aid groups across the country as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed life for all of us. These often small, localized networks have organized primarily on social media, offering to meet the needs of people within their community in the most basic and tangible ways. Folks are volunteering to buy and deliver groceries for people, pick up prescriptions, check in on loved ones if people can’t leave their homes. They’re offering free childcare, pet care and elder care. Sometimes, what’s offered is as simple as dropping 22

APRIL 23, 2020

off a book to give people something to do while they’re stuck at home or hopping on a video call so people don’t feel quite as isolated and lonely. It also encompasses calls for rent and eviction strikes, as well as organizing to make demands of existing systems like paid sick leave and safe working conditions. All of it is volunteer-based, all of it comes without eligibility requirements. There are no strings attached. “One of the positive impacts of this time is how mutual aid is being popularized,” says Matthew Duffy, who recently started the Boulder COVID-19 Mutual Aid group on Facebook. “Hopefully it’s not hijacked and co-opted because it’s really important to recognize that mutual aid is solidarity. It’s not charity.” This is a common mantra among mutual aid organizers. They distinguish themselves from other religious and nonprofit charities, as well as social service agencies that often have eligibility requirements people must meet in order to access services. These systems, they argue, are based on a volunteerism model that fails to question why people are poor or marginalized. It doesn’t recognize systemic inequity or the root causes at play. “Mutual aid is a term for when people do work to support each other’s basic survival needs with a shared understanding that the systems in place are not going to meet those needs and often make them worse,” explains Dean Spade, a law professor who has spent the last 20 years in social movements that rely on mutual aid in a variety of ways. He’s also the creator of Big Door Brigade, a mutual aid resources website. It’s a recognition, he says, of the failure of the current system to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable populations among us. “It’s really much more transformative political activity than to just say it’s complementary to the systems we currently live in.” But it would be wrong to pinpoint an exact moment in history or credit one person with developing the concept of mutual aid, Spade says, despite the fact that Kropotkin is largely credited with the term. “The activity of helping others survive is actually just what humans have always done,” he says. “In the U.S. we have this mythology that social change happens because laws change or somebody wins a big case or somebody passes something in I

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Congress or somebody special gets voted in. I would say the center of social movement strategy is the part where we actually help each other get by right now and show each other that we have the power to build our own way.” Mutual benefit societies within free black communities date back to at least the 18th century and through an economic cooperative model, provided essential services like health care, burial benefits and the care of widows and orphans, as well as education and job training. The concept only expanded as slavery ended and black people were largely excluded from the basic support infrastructure of society. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Black Panther Party employed the same concept with its survival programs, especially the group’s free breakfast program. “Every social movement we can look at on Earth, whether it’s the labor movement, whether it’s the movement for black liberation, whether it’s the feminist movement, all of them have always used mutual aid as a core tactic or strategy as part of their work,” Spade says. “The systems in place need us to entirely depend on them for our survival, so when we start to depend on each other for our survival, we actually build a lot of power.” More recent examples are groups like No More Deaths, which provides water and food to migrants in the deserts of Arizona, prison letter-writing campaigns that build relationships and networks for people to feel supported both while incarcerated and once they are released, and Food Not Bombs, a free meal program that is autonomous from any government or social service agency. It’s a tactic endorsed by New York Representative Alexandria OcasioCortez, who hosted an online mutual aid training in mid-March, while the federal government was still undecided about how to respond to the pandemic. “For me, being a black American, I wasn’t necessarily familiar with the term mutual aid, but I know black and brown communities have been doing mutual aid forever because government is just not super reliable for those marginalized communities,” says Karia White, a junior at CU-Boulder and one of the organizers behind the local Mutual Aid Collective. “We’re in a very transformative era right now, because we are seeing a lot of these systems not really uphold what they are supposed to,” White says. “[We’re] seeing the community come together and offer this level of aid that is traditionally thought of as being encompassed by the government.” BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

There are a variety of mutual aid groups around Boulder County and across the state. The Front Range Mutual Aid Network lists mutual aid resources, as well as other volunteer opportunities and organizing strategies for anyone to use. Some, like Boulder Errand Runners and Boulder Coronavirus Community Coping Crew are more recent, seemingly unaware of the long history behind the term. Others, like the Northern Colorado Mutual Aid and Defense (NCMAD) have been around for a while and have more explicit

distributions, and support to the community, has quickly shifted into a way to make sure everyone is accounted for as we collectively respond to COVID-19. “A lot of our problems that we’re facing and why this pandemic was sort of so uniquely able to disrupt our system is that we’re rather impersonal in our day to day. We don’t interact in our communities as much as we probably should,” Michael says. Mainly in charge of delivering goods, Michael says there really isn’t anything that hasn’t been requested through

“EVERY SOCIAL MOVEMENT we can look at on Earth, whether it’s the labor movement, whether it’s the movement for black liberation, whether it’s the feminist movement, all of them have always used mutual aid as a core tactic or strategy as part of their work.” — Dean Spade, creator of resource website Big Door Brigade leftist political leanings. Two representatives from NCMAD — we’ll call them Emma and Michael, as they didn’t provide any identifying information “as a security precaution” — are encouraged by all of the recent enthusiasm behind mutual aid efforts. “It’s wonderful to see no matter how small the group, how new the group or how inexperienced or whatever the factor is, it’s great to see all these groups popping up and taking charge of taking care of their communities,” Emma says. “Whether or not they really understand the whole identity or principle behind mutual aid, the principle is the same.” Emma is an original member of NCMAD, which started in 2018 as a local chapter of the John Brown Gun Club, a far-left, anti-capitalist, anti-fascist movement that first started in opposition to the Tea Party movement in the early years of this century, but has solidified its presence since the 2016 election. The group is staunchly pro-Second Amendment, named after abolitionist John Brown, who thought slavery could only be ended through armed insurrection. The Northern Colorado group quickly became autonomous, however, Emma says, to better serve the needs of their community. But what started as a means of providing free meals, food and supply I

NCMAD’s online form, although most common requests are paper products and disinfectants — items everyone is having a hard time finding at this point. He says many of the folks he interacts with are surprised he even shows up, as most have lost faith in any sort of system to help. “You don’t have to wait for help. Help is great if it comes from the government or if it comes from a state apparatus, that’s fine. But you don’t have to wait if you can get organized with people in your community,” Michael says. “And that’s really the philosophy that drew me.” Emma says NCMAD has responded to about 70 requests in recent weeks through formal channels. Tracking success is difficult within the operational structure of most mutual aid groups. But that’s beside the point. “I know people that have been helped through it [and] if you help one person, then you did good, you did what the group was intended for,” White says. “Really the most important part is relationships, just connecting to human beings,” Duffy adds. “If it’s not really fortifying relationships, then it’s not really a mutual aid.” Community connection is what organizers hope comes out of all this, and APRIL 23, 2020

most say they want to continue these groups long after the pandemic has passed. Especially because the need will still be there. Michael says many people have asked if NCMAD will continue its efforts after the current crisis has abated. “I think it’s something that a bunch of groups are starting to hopefully look into in terms of strengthening our preparation and mitigation long-term so that we don’t have this happen again where all of us are just scrambling at once to really affect our community positively,” Emma says. As organizer with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Cindy Milstein writes, “When we engage in mutual aid, we are gifting each other the beginnings of a new world, premised on reciprocal, voluntaristic and egalitarian social relations. We are collectively self-determining, self-organizing, and starting to self-govern how to supply each other with what we need as well as desire, all the while cultivating beloved communities of care.” She daily updates a directory of national resources, mutual aid groups around the country and other information on the Mutual Aid Disaster Relief website. The group, born in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, is a decentralized grassroots network of semi-autonomous working groups that have responded to a variety of disasters from the earthquakes in Haiti to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and historic flooding in the U.S. “You always see people just helping each other out, figuring out systems for getting people what they need and saving each other’s lives,” Spade says, about moments of crisis. “But mutual aid is not just for those kind of weather disasters or acute disasters. It’s also a strategy people are always using for the ongoing disasters of living in a racist society, living in society where people are very poor, in a society where people don’t have the health care or housing they need.” The current crisis we find ourselves in has only exacerbated these inequities, and the hope is this moment is not lost on those of us who haven’t had to face this reality before. “Boulder is a super privileged place and there’s so much capacity here to take care of every single human being,” Duffy says. “Mutual aid is a recognition that our basic human dignity, what a community should and could be is a way of making sure that no one is left behind and no is forgotten. It’s embodied in recognizing our interdependence, that we have to take care of each other, and we are only as resilient as the most vulnerable in our communities.” I

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APRIL 23, 2020

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What to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do...

VIRTUAL EVENTS BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

If your organization is planning a virtual event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com. n LOUISVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY VIRTUAL COMPOST WORKSHOP. 6 P.M. THURSDAY, APRIL 23.

BACKYARD COMPOSTING IS an effective way to reduce household carbon footprints and provide quality compost for use in gardens. Learn how to start and maintain a highly efficient backyard compost system by learning what to feed your compost pile, appropriate bins and methods for our geographic region, tips and troubleshooting, and much more. This workshop is taught by Melanie Nehls Burow, a master composter in Colorado. For more information and to register for a workshop, visit bouldercounty.org.

n ZOOMING WITH STORIES ON STAGE: ‘REGAINING FLIGHT.’ 7 P.M. THURSDAY, APRIL 23, VIA ZOOM.

GABRIELLA CAVALLERO WILL PERFORM Colorado writer Gary Schanbacher’s romantic tale of two people who must shed the pain of their pasts if they ever hope to share a future together. As a special treat, Schanbacher will join for a chat after the story. This performance is free to the community. To register for the performance, sign up at tinyurl.com/y8pt5ffs.

n DOME TO HOME: EXPLORING THE CLIMATES OF VENUS. 4 P.M. FRIDAY, APRIL 24.

LOOKING TO GET your planetarium fix? Join Fiske’s Dome to Home video series and enjoy free weekly planetarium shows every Friday at 4 p.m. Each week (through May 29) will feature a different topic for 30 minutes. Submit your astronomy questions or ask questions in the chat box during each live stream. Fiske’s presenting team will try to work them into the shows where possible or during the 15 minute Q&A session after the end of each episode. Episodes will be posted to Fiske’s YouTube Dome to Home playlist so you can share it with your friends.

n OUT BOULDER COUNTY VIRTUAL EVENTS, OUTBOULDER.ORG.

OUT BOULDER VIRTUAL YOGA WITH MICHAL (THEY/THEM). 6:30 p.m. Every Wednesday. All levels. $10-$20 donations via Venmo to: MichalJD. If you need another form of payment, please email Michal: mduffy@outboulder.org. Half of the donations go to Out Boulder County. VIRTUAL GENDER SUPPORT: Mondays and Thursdays from 7-9 p.m. To get the Zoom meeting information, please email BCGScoordinator@outboulder.org. VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB: For questions, please email Sami (she/ her): Sami.boulderout@gmail.com. Book Club usually meets every fourth Monday.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

VIRTUAL QUEER CODA: For questions on how to connect, please reach out to queercodaboulder@gmail.com. VIRTUAL QUEER CREATIVE: Queer Creative will continue to meet via Zoom: https://zoom. us/j/120169803. For questions, please reach out to Radi: radi. leonesio@gmail.com. Queer Creative is a young adult (ages 18-25) LGBTQ group that meets every Tuesday, 6-7:30 p.m. VIRTUAL SUPPORTING TRANS FRIENDS AND FAMILY (SOFFA): SOFFA will continue to meet via Zoom. For meeting information, please reach out to Steph (she/ hers): stephboulton5@gmail. com. This group meets on second Tuesdays, 6:30-8 p.m. and is for significant others, friends, families, and allies (SOFFA) of trans folks to share resources and mutual support. VIRTUAL COMMUNITY CAFÉ: Meets every Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and is a casual lunch time meet up, hosted by OBC’s Volunteer Coordinator, Ky (they/them). If you would like to submit a topic to discuss or have questions, please email Ky at kmartens@outboulder. org. Zoom: tinyurl.com/ybs4vcat. VIRTUAL GAY AA. Gay AA will continue to meet via Zoom. Reach out for the link: aagaymeetingboulder@gmail.com. AA meets every Wednesday, 7-8 p.m. VIRTUAL QUEER & NERDY GAMES: Reach out for more information: queerandnerdygames@gmail.com. VIRTUAL LGBT RPG: LGBT Role Playing Games (RPG) will meet via Zoom. For information, email Aria: davisc1014@gmail. com. LGBT RPG meets every second and fourth Friday, 5:308:30 p.m. Allies welcome, ages 16+. see EVENTS Page 26

APRIL 23, 2020

VIRTUAL EVENTS

EVENTS from Page 25

VIRTUAL QUEER & TRANS PARENT SUPPORT GROUP: Email boulderlgbtqiaparents@ gmail.com for the link and password or phone number. Meetings are private with a password, and not recorded. First and Third Saturday of every month, 9:30-11 a.m. Questions: 303498-0787.

n VIRTUAL FAMILY STORYTIME WITH LONGMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY, TINYURL. COM/Y95U7X37

THE LONGMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY may be closed, but the storytime fun continues on the library’s Facebook page or Twitter feed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. MONDAY VIRTUAL BILINGUAL STORYTIME. 11-11:30 a.m. WEDNESDAY VIRTUAL BABY STORYTIME. 11-11:20 a.m. An interactive storytime designed for infants to age 2 and their grownup. FRIDAY VIRTUAL FAMILY STORYTIME. 11 to 11:30 a.m. A 30-minute Friday fun storytime designed for children of all ages and their grown ups. Lots of fun picture books will be shared along with movement.

n LINDSAY ELL — LIVE VIRTUAL CONCERT TO BENEFIT COLORADO’S TENNYSON CENTER FOR CHILDREN DURING COVID-19. 7 P.M. SUNDAY, APRIL 26, BIT.LYQANDBREWTCC Country music fans are encouraged to kick up their heels — from their couch — and join country musician Lindsay Ell for a free, live virtual concert from her home studio. The concert will be broadcast via Facebook Live and benefits the Denver’s Tennyson Center for Children, which has served Colorado’s vulnerable children for more than 116 years. Virtual attendees will be able to bid on special opportunities and items from Ell.

n UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER WEBINAR: JOB SEARCHING DURING COVID-19. 9 P.M. MONDAY, APRIL 27, CALENDAR.COLORADO.EDU/EVENT/ WEBINAR_JOB_SEARCHING_DURING_COVID-19 JOB SEARCHING IS a challenge on its own, let alone during a global pandemic. Join CU alumnus Alan Arney (PolSci’85) for an informative look at insights and lessons from his work with senior executives in job search in Colorado. Register to attend: tinyurl.com/y87aouug

n LAKOTA CULTURE SERIES — FREE, n STUDIO ARTS BOULDER POTTERY CLASS: WEEKLY, ONLINE LAKOTA CULTURAL KITCHEN CLAY WITH KATIE. 6 P.M. MONDAY, APRIL WORKSHOPS PRESENTED BY TIPI RAISERS. 27, STUDIOARTSBOULDER.ORG THIS TWO-WEEK CLASS STARTS with curbside pick-up of materials. After that, Katie will provide a mixture of live and pre-recorded classes to guide you through each creation. You’ll build on the three fundamentals of hand-building — pinch pots, coils and slabs — to make unique and fun kitchen staples from serving platters to mugs to salt and pepper shakers. You’ll end this course with eight of your own hand-built creations to add to your kitchen collection. You’ll be emailed a link to join the online class after you register. Cost is $120.

MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

can be hard to remember what day it is. Boundaries between work, home, family, friends are all a big blur. Some of us have too much time on our hands, others can’t seem to find enough time in each day. Regardless, the days can be full of fear, anxiety and stress. Here are a few of the many resources out there (some local, some national) here to help us all cope, de-stress and ultimately heal. MENTAL HEALTH PARTNERS’ RESOURCE GUIDE: Boulder County’s Mental Health Partners offers a free resource guide for families and individuals about how to maintain mental wellness during COVID-19, including activities, tips and other ideas. MHP also offers crisis services and suicide prevention resources. mhpcolorado.org/covid-19-updates. BOULDER COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH BLOG FOR COPING WITH COVID-19 BY DR. LORI KLEINMAN: Every Sunday, Dr. Lori Kleinman releases tips for handling the stress and anxiety of the pandemic with topics ranging from organizing your time to managing stress, bouncing back from difficult times and the most recent

one on remaining optimistic and hopeful. bouldercounty.org/families/disease/ covid-19/mental-health-blog. THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS (NAMI) COVID-19 RESOURCE AND INFORMATION GUIDE: This guide covers a range of topics from managing stress and anxiety to practical steps about helping those in your life affected by the pandemic. nami.org/covid-19-guide (check out the Boulder County chapter at namibouldercounty.org). WEBINAR: MANAGING STRESS AND ANXIETY DURING UNCERTAIN TIMES. Although created specifically to address questions related to State of Colorado employees, this free webinar from the State of Colorado gathers information from various published and researched sources throughout cumulative years of providing mental health services. colorado.gov/pacific/ c-seap/covid-19-and-your-emotional-wellness CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION DAILY LIFE AND COPING: Check out the CDC website for a variety of advice about how to deal with stress and cope with the present reality. Includes entries for parents, first responders, coming out of quarantine and taking care of your community. cdc.gov/ coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/index.html

APRIL 23, 2020

APRIL 25-MAY 16, THETIPIRAISERS.ORG/LAKOTA-CULTURECLASSES.HTML WORKSHOP 1: Coping with Covid from the Lakota Perspective with Basil Brave Heart, a Lakota spiritual healer, published author and Korean war veteran. 1 a.m. MT Saturday, April 25. WORKSHOP 2: Reflections from a Hoop Dancer with Miya Takes War Bonnett. 11 a.m. MT, Saturday, May 2.. WORKSHOP 3: Broken Treaties with Susan Shockey. 11 a.m. MT, Saturday, May 9. WORKSHOP 4: Decolonization and Historical Trauma with Ramona White Plume. 11 a.m. MT, Saturday, May 16.

A WINDOW BETWEEN WORLDS (AWBW): AWBW is a national healing arts nonprofit releasing new art prompts and free, printable, engaging, therapeutic and accessible activities for people of all ages every Tuesday. Available in English and Spanish. awbw.org/ windowoftime AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDES ASSOCIATION STRESS AND RESILIENCE GUIDE: Brought to you by Laura McGladrey, a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) instructor and nurse practitioner who has studied the effects of trauma on first responders and outdoor leaders for almost a decade, this resource includes a COVID Stress Continuum guide and resources about how to create a resiliency plan. amga. com/stress-resilience-coronavirus WHEN IT’S TOO MUCH TOOLKIT: Developed by mental health professionals after the California wildfires a few years ago, this toolkit helps identify and address stress responses to crisis, particularly for those with past traumatic experiences. Learn how to discharge survival energy and feel your emotions. tinyurl.com/ when-its-too-much-toolkit

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

films

n FLATIRONS FOOD FILM FESTIVAL’S ‘DINNER AND A MOVIE’ ONLINE SERIES.

$6.99 for three days: slaythedragon.vhx.tv/products/slay-the-dragon-fordairy-arts-center

FRIDAYS, FLATIRONSFOODFILMFEST.ORG STARTING FRIDAY, APRIL 24, the Flatirons Food Film Festival will offer a weekly dinner and movie series for folks to enjoy together while physically apart. Each event consists of: • A food film available to stream online • Specific recommended meals viewers can order, pick up or have delivered, and eat while watching the movie • For home cooks: suggested Savory Spice Shop recipes for dishes to be made and paired with the film • Introduction and post-film discussion via Zoom • A $5 viewing fee The first movie is ‘Tazzeka,’ a dramedy about a Moroccan boy who wants to become a French haute cuisine chef. Moroccan-influenced takeout/delivery meals available from Blackbelly Market and Café Aion in Boulder, Eat at Community in Lafayette, and Fruition in Denver. Peggy Markel of Peggy Markel’s Culinary Adventures and Sara Brito of Good Food 100 Restaurants will speak after the film. Registration: eventbrite.com/e/dinner-and-a-movietazzeka-tickets-101432130232

n VIRTUAL CINEMA AT THE BOE. ‘SLAY THE DRAGON’ A secretive, hightech gerrymandering initiative launched 10 years ago threatens to undermine our democracy. ‘Slay the Dragon’ follows everyday people as they fight to make their votes matter. Rent for

books WHO BETTER TO RECOMMEND your next book than a librarian? This week we explore the recommendations from Longmont Public Library.

n ‘CATCH AND KILL: LIES, SPIES, AND A CONSPIRACY TO PROTECT PREDATORS,’ BY RONAN FARROW: Farrow recounts the challenges he faced chasing the stories of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of alleged rape, sexual assault and sexual abuse of women, and the case against him. n ‘UNCANNY VALLEY,’ BY ANNA WIENER: The book focuses on Wiener’s transition from the publishing industry to a series of jobs at technology companies, and her gradual disillusionment with the technology industry. n ‘DANGEROUS MELODIES: CLASSICAL MUSIC IN AMERICA FROM THE GREAT WAR THROUGH THE COLD WAR,’ BY JOHNATHAN ROSENBERG: Rosenberg

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

‘ST. FRANCIS’ Flailing 34-year-old Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan) finally catches a break when she meets a nice guy and lands a muchneeded job nannying 6-year-old Frances. But an unwanted pregnancy introduces unexpected complications. Amidst her tempestuous personal relationships, a reluctant friendship with Frances emerges, and Bridget contends with the inevitable joys and mishaps of becoming a part of someone else’s family. Rent for $10 for three days: saintfrances.vhx.tv/checkout/support-the-dairy-arts-center-rent-saintfrances/purchase ‘BALLOON’ In 1979, the Strelzyk and Wetzel families try to flee East Germany in a self-made hot-air balloon. But after the balloon crash-lands, the Stasi find evidence and immediately launch an investigation. In a race against the clock, the two families attempt to build a new escape balloon. Rent for $10 for three days: distribfilmsusvirtual.vhx.

tv/products/balloon-dairy-art-center ‘THE WHISTLERS’ Not everything is as it seems for Cristi, a Bucharest police inspector playing both sides of the law. Embarking with the beautiful Gilda on a high-stakes heist, both navigate the twists and turns of corruption, treachery and deception. A trip to the Canary Islands to learn a secret whistling language might just be what they need to pull it off. Rent for $12 for three days: magnoliapictures.com/dairyartscenter-thewhistlers ‘ONCE WERE BROTHERS’ A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. Blending archival photography, timeless songs, interviews with Robertson’s friends and collaborators: Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and more. Rent for $12 for three days: magnoliapictures.com/dairyartscenteroncewerebrothers.

exposes the politics behind classical music, showing how German musicians were dismissed or imprisoned during World War I, while numerous German compositions were swept from American auditoriums.

n ‘EXPLORING CALVIN AND HOBBES: AN EXHIBITION CATALOGUE,’ BY BILL WATTERSON: Bill Watterson’s personal exploration of how the wonder of Calvin and Hobbes came to be

n ‘SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS,’ BY DAVID GUTERSON: A novel about the painful legacy of war and a community’s struggle to deal with that pain.

n ‘DAUGHTERS OF THE WINTER QUEEN: FOUR REMARKABLE SISTERS, THE CROWN OF BOHEMIA, AND THE ENDURING LEGACY OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS,’ BY NANCY GOLDSTONE: The thrilling family saga of five unforgettable women who remade Europe.

n ‘THE AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN DO-IT-YOURSELF COOKBOOK: 100+ FOOLPROOF KITCHEN PROJECTS FOR THE ADVENTUROUS HOME COOK,’ BY AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN: Why buy it when you can make it? Let the experts show you how it’s done. n ‘RADIUM GIRLS,’ BY KATE MOORE: The shocking story of how early 20th-century corporate and legal America set about silencing dozens of working-class women who had been systematically poisoned by radiation. n ‘SMALL MOUNTAIN OWLS,’ BY SCOTT RASHID: This guide provides detailed information and over 160 striking photos and drawings of four species of small mountain owls found in America’s Rocky Mountains.

n ‘FREAKONOMICS: A ROGUE ECONOMIST EXPLORES THE HIDDEN SIDE OF EVERYTHING,’ BY STEVEN LEVITT: Economist Steven Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives — how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. n ‘SURELY YOU’RE JOKING, MR. FEYNMAN!: ADVENTURES OF A CURIOUS CHARACTER,’ BY RICHARD FEYNMAN: The Nobelprize-winning physicist recounts his experiences trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets.

APRIL 23, 2020

n ‘THE GHOST MAP: THE STORY OF LONDON’S MOST TERRIFYING EPIDEMIC — AND HOW IT CHANGED SCIENCE, CITIES, AND THE MODERN WORLD,’ BY STEVEN JOHNSON: A medical thriller, detective story and ode to London all wrapped up in one. n ‘DREAD NATION,’ BY JUSTINA IRELAND (YA FICTION): A vision of an America both foreign and familiar — a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity and survival meet. n ‘MY LIFE ON THE ROAD,’ BY GLORIA STEINHEM: Gloria Steinem — writer, activist, organizer and inspiring leader — gives a candid account of her life. n ‘GOOD NIGHT STORIES FOR REBEL GIRLS: 100 TALES OF EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN,’ BY ELENA FAVILLI: A children’s book of “fairy tales” about the life of 100 extraordinary women from the past and the present, illustrated by 60 female artists from all over the world.

see EVENTS Page 28

by Caitlin Rockett

HEAVY ROTATION

EVENTS from Page 27

ne of the most joyful experiences of this pandemic, for me, has been watching the internet celebrate Fiona Apple’s first new album in eight years, ‘Fetch The Bolt Cutters.’ As a 35-year-old woman, Apple’s songs — released ever so slowly as I grew up, as she grew up — have given me peace as I navigated my relationships with men, with other women, with my body and my mind. No, I am not the only person who feels this way. Yes, the world is bullshit. As vulnerable and honest and singular as anything she’s ever created, Apple’s latest masterpiece is a soundtrack to the new world we are attempting to create, one where women are believed, where men are held accountable, where real power comes from a place of love and acceptance. This Heavy Rotation is an ode to Fiona and some of the other unyielding artists who she counts as collaborators and peers.

“I KNOW,” BY ELVIS COSTELLO Apple suggested that Elvis Costello take a crack at this track off her second album, ‘When the Pawn...’ Costello stays faithful to Apple’s arrangement, and despite his limited vocal range, Costello takes this song about knowing a partner’s been unfaithful to the heights it demands. Apple was dating filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson at the time “When the Pawn…” debuted, and their relationship was notoriously tumultuous and steeped in Hollywood. In a recent profile with ‘The New Yorker,’ Apple half-joked: “Every addict should just get locked in a private movie theatre with [Quentin Tarantino] and [Paul Thomas Anderson] on coke, and they’ll never want to do it again.”

“CUT ME,” BY MOSES SUMNEY “Bangin’ my head / Against the desk / If there’s no pain / Is there any progress?” The Asheville, North Carolina-based Sumney takes a page straight from Apple’s lyrical book with this ode to going to the dark side to find inspiration. Built around a clean bass line, bouncing keys and playful horns, “Cut Me” channels Apple’s pension for wrapping dark lyrics in whimsical melodies.

“BLOODLESS,” BY ANDREW BIRD There’s no question why Bird and Apple worked together on Bird’s song “Left Handed Kisses” from his 2016 album ‘Are You Serious.’ Bird and Apple share a passion for genre-bending and -blending and lyrical bloodletting. In this song, Bird questions how power keeps the masses at bay, and encourages: “Don’t you envy those who do wrong / And your innocence will be like the dawn.” Apple explores a similar sentiment in “Relay,” off her new album condemning the way social media has warped our

APRIL 23, 2020

sense of reality: “I resent you for presenting your life like a fucking propaganda brochure … but I know if I hate you for hating me I will have entered the endless race.”

“CAUGHT A LITE SNEEZE,” BY TORI AMOS Amos’ ‘Boys for Pele’ was released the same year as Apple’s ‘Tidal,’ and never before had the world seen two women play piano and dismantle the patriarchy so deftly. At the end of a relationship, the subject of Amos’ song finds she’s given all of herself away. With a cheeky reference to Nine Inch Nails’ first album tucked in the lyrics, rumors have always abounded that the song is about Trent Reznor, with whom Amos had a brief relationship. Amos once said: “Sometimes men like to think they’re the flu, but sometimes they’re just achoo.”

“DO YOU THINK WE’LL LAST FOREVER?” BY CAROLINE ROSE Like Apple (who has recorded everything from country songs to Christmas classics), Caroline Rose has explored whatever sonic territory she finds interesting across three albums, landing squarely on pop-rock for her 2018 album ‘Loner,’ where you’ll find this synthesizer-drenched booty shaker. I think Apple would agree with Rose’s sentiment: “You just made my heart race / You know it’s hard to tell ‘tween love and panic in the first place.”

“UNISON,” BY BJORK On Apple’s fourth studio album, ‘The Idler Wheel...’ she laments, “How can I ask anyone to love me / When all I do is beg to be left alone?” Bjork has, like Apple, asked the public to get the hell out of her business (that photographer from New Zealand remembers). Both are incomparable artists who have expressed a need for space to realize their work fully. On this track off of 2001’s ‘Vespertine,’ Bjork opens herself up to a partnership: “I thrive best, hermit style / With a beard, and a pipe / And a parrot on each side / But now I can’t do this without you.”

“WHERE I OUGHT TO BE,” BYWATKINS FAMILY HOUR Apple has found years’ worth of fruitful collaboration with Los Angeles-based siblings Sean and Sara Watkins in the Watkins Family Hour. Apple’s just

as jaded as ever on this track, lamenting her unwitting role in setting her now ex-lover up with his new flame. Her voice is as complementary to the mournful moan of a pedal steel guitar as it is to the sultry appeal of a grand piano. “I got your wedding invitation / I’m surprised you thought of me,” she sings. “But I don’t believe your wedding / Is just where I ought to be.”

“FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS,” BY FIONA APPLE Apple was just shy of 18 years old when she released her debut album, ‘Tidal,’ in 1996. She told ‘Q’ magazine, about four years later, “When I did ‘Tidal,’ it was more for the sake of proving myself; telling people from my past something. And to also try to get friends for the future.” The title track of her new album seems to address the traumas of being catapulted to fame at a formative age, during a time when “heroin sheek” was something to aim for aesthetically. “While I’d not yet found my bearings,” she sings, “Those it girls hit the ground / Comparing the way I was to the way she was / Sayin’ I’m not stylish enough and I cry too much / And I listened because I hadn’t found my own voice yet / So all I could hear was the noise that / People make when they don’t know shit / But I didn’t know that yet.” But Apple learned.

“SYMBOL,” BY ADRIANNE LENKER Adrienne Lenker sings in a whisper that conveys closeness, both physically and emotionally. Her songwriting is deeply personal, born of her early childhood in a cult (that her parents left when she was young) and from the isolation she felt as she struggled with traditional school work. In “symbol,” Lenker’s free-association lyricism is reminiscent of the conversational and deeply metaphorical style Apple assumes in much of her songwriting.

“HANG ON ME” — PIANO VERSION, BY ST. VINCENT This track was stunning on St. Vincent’s 2017 album ‘Masseduction,’ but it soared to new heights as a stripped down piano ballad. Annie Clark seemingly mourns the loss of a love, calling her former lover late one night, drunk, admitting, “The void is back and I’m blinkin.” When ‘Pitchfork’ asked Clark to break the song down, she admitted that the milestones many seek — marriage, children — weren’t for her. “I just had to eschew one paradigm to be free enough to construct another,” she said. Apple, too, has always forged her own path, personally and professionally, all in the name of her craft.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: In the future, when the coronavirus

crisis has a diminished power to disrupt our lives, I would love for you to have more of the money you need to finance interesting new experiences that help you learn and thrive. Now is a good time to brainstorm about how you might arrange for that to happen. For best results, begin your meditations with vivid fantasies in which you envision yourself doing those interesting new experiences that will help you learn and thrive

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Renowned Taurus composer

Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) completed his first symphony when he was 43 years old — even though he’d started work on it at age 22. Why did it take him so long? One factor was his reverence for Ludwig van Beethoven, the composer who had such a huge impact on the development of classical music. In light of Beethoven’s mastery, Brahms felt unworthy. How could any composer add new musical ideas that Beethoven hadn’t already created? But after more than two decades, Brahms finally managed to overcome his inhibition. He eventually produced four symphonies and scores of other pieces, and left a major mark on musical history. For you, Taurus, I see the coming months as a phase comparable to the time when Brahms finally built the strength necessary to emerge from the shadow that had inhibited him.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: A Gemini friend sent me and three of

her other allies a poignant email. “This note is a tender apology to those of you whom I’ve hurt in the process of hurting myself,” she began. “I want you to know that I have been working hard and with great success to eliminate my unconscious tendency to hurt myself. And I am confident this means I will also treat you very well in the future.” I received her message with joy and appreciation. Her action was brave and wise. I invite you to consider making a comparable adjustment in the weeks ahead.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: The Ojibwe are indigenous people

of North America. Professor of Ojibwe studies Anton Treuer writes that in their traditional culture, there have been men who act and dress like women and women who act and dress like men. The former are called ikwekaazo and the latter ikwekaazowag. Both have been “always honored” and “considered to be strong spiritually.” Many other Native American groups have had similar arrangements. Transcending traditional gender behavior is not unique to modern Western civilization. With that as inspiration, and in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to explore any inclinations you might have to be your own unique gender. The time is ripe for experimenting with and deepening your relationship with the constructs of “masculine” and “feminine.”

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: “The history of my stupidity would

fill many volumes,” wrote Nobel Prize-winning poet Czesław Miłosz. Wow! If a highly respected genius like him has spawned so much nonsense and ignorance, what about the rest of us? Here’s what I have to say about the subject: Each of us should strive to be at peace with the fact that we are a blend of wisdom and folly. We should be tenderly compassionate toward our failures and weaknesses, and not allow them to overshadow our brilliance and beauty. Now would be a good time for you Leos to cultivate this acceptance and perform this blessing for yourself.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Helen Traubel (1899–1972) was bestknown for her opera career, although she also sang in concerts, nightclubs, and musical theater. But in her autobiography, she confessed, “Opera bored me.” She reminds me of Georgia O’Keeffe, famous painter of flowers. “I hate flowers,” O’Keeffe said. “I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

move.” Now of course most of us have to do some things that we don’t enjoy; that seems to be a routine part of being human. And since the coronavirus arrived in our midst, you may have been saddled with even more of this burden. But I’m happy to inform you that the coming weeks will be a favorable time to brainstorm about how you could do more of what you love to do once the crisis has abated.

‘THE CATHEDRALS OF BROADWAY’ BY FLORINE STETTHEIMER, 1929

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: What’s the current state of the relation-

ship between your ego and your soul? Is there an uneasy truce between the ambitious part of you that craves success and recognition and the lyrical part of you that yearns for rich experiences and deep meaning? Or do those two aspects of you get along pretty well — maybe even love and respect each other? Now is a favorable time to honor your ego and soul equally, Libra — to delight in the activities of both, to give them plenty of room to play and improvise, and to encourage them to collaborate in ways that will further your wellrounded happiness and health.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Scorpio author Voltaire (1694–1778)

was a crusader for freedom of thought and civil liberties, as well as a key player in the Enlightenment. He was very prolific. In addition to producing 2,000 books and pamphlets, he carried on such voluminous written correspondences with so many interesting people that his collected letters fill 98 volumes. Would you consider getting inspired by Voltaire’s approach to cross-pollination? According to my calculations, the next phase of the coronavirus crisis will be a favorable time for you to intensify your communication via the written word.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: I like musician David Byrne’s views

on what constitutes meaningful work. It’s not just the tasks you do to earn money. “Sex is a job,” he says. “Growing up is a job. School is a job. Going to parties is a job. Religion is a job. Being creative is a job.” In other words, all the activities he names, to be done well, require a commitment to excellence and an attention to detail. They are worthy of your diligent efforts, strenuous exertion and creative struggle. I encourage you to meditate on these thoughts during the coming weeks. Identify what jobs you want to get better at and are willing to work hard on and would like to enjoy even more than you already do.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: At its best and brightest, Capricornian

love isn’t frivolous or flighty. It’s not shallow or sloppy or slapdash. When Capricornian love is at its highest potency, it’s rigorous, thoughtful and full-bodied. It benefits anyone who’s involved with it. I bring this up because I expect the coming weeks to be a Golden Age of Capricornian Love — a time when you will have the inspiration and intelligence necessary to lift your own experience of love to a higher octave.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: I hope you’re not one of those

Aquarians who regards stability and security as boring. I hope you don’t have an unconscious predilection for keeping yourself in a permanent state of nervous uncertainty. If you do suffer from those bad habits, you’ll be hard-pressed to stick to them in the coming weeks. That’s because the cosmic energies will be working to settle you down into a steady groove. If you cooperate, you will naturally enhance your ability to be well-anchored, calmly steadfast and at home in your life. Please don’t resist this opportunity.

‘Hope and the Odds Make Poor Bedfellows,’ JL by Eric Raanan Fischman The celebration in Wuhan is a galaxy of lights. The temporary hospitals are torn down, the malls are reopened. A man fixes his daughter’s mask by a public fountain. Friends share a post-work beer. Things will get worse, but then, they will get better. The white tents in Central Park will blow away. The USNS Comfort will disembark. At the Javits Center, booths will replace beds. Broadway will burst the night with its shining marquees. First the cities will open up their doors, then the nations. We will see each other again. We will hug and kiss again. We will share a joint before the movie. In this one, the hero walks proudly into danger. The enemy is invisible, ubiquitous, but so is love. I won’t spoil it for you, but meaning returns, and purpose. The hero flies his spaceship to the restaurant to meet us. He shakes our ungloved hand.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: I foresee the likelihood that you’ll

be having brilliant and evocative conversations with yourself in the coming weeks. Your heart and your head may become almost blissful as they discuss how best to create a dynamic new kind of harmony. Your left side and right side will declare a truce, no longer wrestling each other for supremacy, and they may even join forces to conjure up unprecedented collaborations. The little voices in your head that speak for the past will find common ground with the little voices in your head that speak for the future — and as a result you may be inspired to formulate a fresh master plan that appeals both.

Eric Raanan Fischman is an MFA recipient from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and his first book, Mordy Gets Enlightened, was published in 2017 through The Little Door at Lunamopolis.

APRIL 23, 2020

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the sex-phobic bullshit artists out there masquerading as “faith leaders.” You should be angry with yourself too. While I know from personal experiDear Dan: I was raised in a religious ence how a religious upbringing can put home and didn’t lose my virginity until the the zap on a kid’s head, you were a embarrassing age of 26. I was told by the grown-ass man when you met your wife church to save it for marriage and I was a at that party. You couldn’t have slept with virgin until I met the woman who would her that night — you become my wife at a party. ROMAN ROBINSON couldn’t have lost your virI said to hell with it, we had ginity in a one-night stand a one-night stand, and — if you hadn’t already we’ve been together now rejected nearly everything for eight years. I’m tall and you’d been taught about slim and my wife is short sex. If you were capable of and heavy. Like an idiot I having premarital sex, you believed it’s what’s on the were capable of refraining inside that matters. My wife from marrying the first peris the sweetest, most son you slept with. thoughtful person I’ve ever Your wife is gonna want met, I love spending time to know why you’re leaving with her, but I have absoher — of course she is — lutely no sexual attraction but you’re not going to tell to her. As a result, I’ve all but stopped iniher the real reason. You’re going to make tiating sex and on the rare occasion when something up. You want kids and she we do make love I make her come twice doesn’t (or vice-versa), you married too while I’m struggling just to get off. young (which is true), you have unresolved I know it’s shallow and I know beauty childhood issues (and don’t we all). While is only skin deep but what am I supposed you won’t be able to spare your wife the to do when seeing my wife naked sends pain of a breakup, ITS, you can spare her me into an anxiety attack? When I’m helpthe pain of learning the person she’s been ing out with laundry, I get bummed sleeping with for eight years is repulsed by because there’s nothing in her wardrobe I her body. You can’t be a good husband to find attractive on her. Even when I look at her, ITS, but you can be a decent ex-husold pictures of us together I get extremely band. And to do that — to be her decent depressed because I know this is the best and loving and supportive ex — you can’t she’s ever going to look. It doesn’t help set her self-esteem on fire on your way out that she finds me handsome and regularly the door. tells me so. And your wife’s body isn’t repulsive. It’s gotten to the point where I find any She’s not someone you’re attracted to, woman who isn’t my wife desirable. ITS, and you’re not obligated to find short (Including, but not limited to, her family and round women sexually appealing. But and friends.) I should also mention that while “tall and slim” are more closely she has no interest in having an open associated with conventional concepts of relationship or threesome because she attractiveness, ITS, not everyone’s into tall prefers having me “all to herself.” I don’t and slim. There are people who are into want to ask her to change because she’s short and round and people out there who perfectly happy with herself but I’m are attracted to all body types and people becoming increasingly resentful. What do who are are utterly indifferent to bodies. I do? How do I tell her? And is there any Your wife deserves the chance to find way I can come out of this a good hussomeone who’s sincerely attracted to her. band? Even being alone would be better than —In The Shallows spending decades with someone who recoils from her touch. Dear ITS: I was so relieved to get all For the record: What’s on the inside the way to the end of your letter without does count. It matters. If you met a learning you had kids. Because that woman who was more conventionally means I can advise you — with a clear attractive — if you were with someone conscience — to file for divorce and move who was your idea of hot—and over time the fuck out just as soon as it’s possible to she revealed herself to be an asshole (if do so. Not for your own sake, ITS, but for she was rude to waiters, if she was emoyour wife’s sake. She deserves better. tionally abusive, if she was a Trump supYou say you’re growing increasingly porter, etc.), your attraction to her would resentful. I hope your resentment is directwither away. What you want — not what ed at all of the people who victimized you. you’ll get, ITS, but the best you can hope Your wife isn’t one of them. It’s your parfor — is some combo of hot on the outents you should resent, ITS, as well as all side (subjective and personal) and good

BY DAN SAVAGE

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

on the inside. And the longer you’re with someone, ITS, the more important good on the inside becomes. Time is a motherfucking meat grinder and it makes hamburger out of us all. If you prioritize your idea of hot over all other qualities, you run the very real risk of spending decades with a person who has aged out of hot and was never nice. Dear Dan: Long-time reader asking for advice. I’m a med student, I came to the U.S. when I was 18 in order to go to college, and I’m still in the U.S. I’m 25 now and I’ve been dating my boyfriend for about three years now. We’re somewhat monogamous and have been living together for two years. I’m out as a gay man where we live but my parents and family back in Brazil have zero idea. As you may know, Brazil has a weird relationship with sexuality. We’re seen and for the most part are very open but our culture is also very homophobic. My BF has been pressuring me to come out but I’ve been apprehensive considering how important family is to me. —Fears A Massive Implosion Likely, Yet… Dear FAMILY: Gay men don’t come out to our families because they’re unimportant to us. We come out to our families because they are important to us. Family is important to you and you’re worried you might lose yours if you come out to them. But you’re definitely gonna lose them if you don’t. Because to keep your life a secret from them — to hide your boyfriend from them — you’re going to have to cut them out of your life. It’ll be little things at first, FAM, but over time the amount of things you have to keep from them grows. Lies pile up on top of lies and the distance between you and your family grows. Before you know it, they don’t know you at all anymore and you don’t know them. Because you can’t risk letting them know you. So to avoid their possible rejection, you will have rejected them. You will have lost your family. I know, I know: It’s scary. I came out to my very Catholic family when I was a teenager. I was scared to death. But if they couldn’t accept me for who I am — if I couldn’t rely on their love and support — what was the point of having them in my life at all? P.S. No one likes being someone’s dirty little secret. It hurts your boyfriend to see the person who claims to love him prioritize his family’s presumed bigotry (it’s possible they’ll react more positively than you think) over his feelings and dignity. By not coming out, FAM, you will lose the family you were born into and the one you’ve created with your boyfriend too. Send questions to mail@savagelove. net, follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage and visit ITMFA.org. APRIL 23, 2020

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D’Angelo’s in north Boulder is a terrific little

Italian deli. The menu (and names of menu items, and decorations for that matter) are inspired by the owners’ Philly roots and Sicilian heritage. Get meat-packed cheesesteaks, crab fries, parm sandwiches and cold hoagies that would not be out of place back on the East Coast. We opted for one of D’Angelo’s Italian sub variations on a recent visit, the Torresdale. Ham, Genoa salami, capicola and provolone are piled high and topped with fresh lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano. The bread is crusty with a satisfying chew, and the combination of spicy meats and bright vinegar is an irresistible juxtaposition.

1 n Polis aims for May15 reopening of restaurants On April 20, Gov. Jared Polis announced hopes that restaurant dining rooms could reopen as early as May 15, pending the continued reduced spread of COVID-19. Polis said other businesses could begin reopening as soon as next week. Guidelines for social distancing within restaurants are still being determined, but it’s likely restaurants will have to adhere to strict safety protocols and six-foot distancing of tables in order to accommodate best practices. Until then, restaurants and bars can still offer to-go and delivery options (see our list of Boulder County restaurants offering these services at boulderweekly.com/cuisine/restaurant-listings). 32

n Escoffier launches free classes

n Colorado Brewers Guild celebrates with a virtual birthday party

Tens of thousands of restaurant and food industry workers have been laid off, furloughed or had their hours cut as stay-at-home orders have been in effect over the last month. To help those folks come out prepared on the other side of this, the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, which has a campus in Boulder, announced it will offer free access to some of its online courses to hospitality staff. The resources include courses on recipe-building, certain food groups, knife skills and more. “Many culinary workers are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic and we wanted to show them our support by sharing this relevant content,” said Miles Mitchel, Escoffier chief academic officer. “We hope they are back in their restaurant kitchens soon, but in the meantime, they can continue to sharpen their culinary skills and knowledge during this downturn.” APRIL 23, 2020

From 1-6 p.m. on April 25, the Colorado Brewers Guild will host a virtual “beerthday party” to celebrate 25 years of promotion and protecting “The State of Craft Beer.” Since the pandemic forced the CBG to cancel its annual fundraiser events — Collaboration Fest and Colorado Pint Day — participation in the event will support the Guild while celebrating Centennial State brewers. Sign up at coloradobeer.org and use code: HAPPYBEERTHDAYCBG and get into the event for $5. I

BOULDER WEEKLY

Paying it forward

The only grocery store in Lyons is doing well amid the coronavirus, and now it’s giving back

By Matt Cortina KRISTEN BRUCKNER

ain Street in Lyons is empty. Amid stay-athome orders, people aren’t going to the nature park or stopping in for a long brunch. They’re not driving through to Estes Park and grabbing dinner on the way back. In fact, with RTD shutting down bus service temporarily to Lyons, it’s also tough for folks who rely on public transportation to get out of town, either. But because of its relative isolation, the one grocery store in town, The St. Vrain Market, is actually doing well. So well, that with the help of the Lyons Community Foundation (LCF), it’s started a fund to support the other 40 or so small businesses that have struggled to make ends meet in town. St. Vrain Market owners Neil and Connie Sullivan (the latter of whom served two terms as mayor of Lyons) seeded the Lyons Share Fund with $10,000. Boulder County residents and other Lyons appreciators can donate to the fund (at lyonscf.org), and grants of $1,000 will begin being distributed to recipients on May 1. The funds can be used to pay employees, rent or opera-

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

tional costs. As people continue shopping at the St. Vrain Market, the Sullivans are pledging an ongoing portion of the proceeds to help refill the fund. “We don’t have a grocery store besides the Market,” says LCF Communications Specialist Kristen Bruckner. “Their business has done really well because people are really appreciative to have the resource here. You can go in there and find pretty much any produce and meat and basics without having

to go to a big grocery store, which is a little scary.” The Market has indeed been able to secure a regular supply of fresh produce, baked goods, perishables and prepared foods, as well as essential household grocery items. LCF was integral in distributing relief funds after the 2013 floods closed downtown Lyons for two months. Bruckner says it’s hard to say whether the coronavirus will have as devastating a financial impact (structural damage notwithstand-

APRIL 23, 2020

ing) as the flood — “It depends on how long it goes,” she says. “I think that’s a big question mark,” Bruckner says of the longterm impacts of the shutdown. “Especially the festivals — they canceled Telluride. Rockygrass and Folks Fest [which are still scheduled] are huge in the town economically. If those don’t happen it would certainly have a big impact. And right now the town of Estes Park is closed to tourists. You have to go through Lyons to go to Estes; having that shut down affects us. “The other thing is Lyons has become a really big wedding destination,” Bruckner says, adding that her husband owns A Spice of Life catering, which is impacted by wedding and event cancellations. “We have like six venues here. I would say folks through June are trying to reschedule or shifting their events. Nobody knows what will happen to the wedding business if we don’t have larger events like that.” Bruckner cautions that the fund is not meant to replace federal or local assistance, but that the band-aid it provides can serve as a critical lifeline for Lyons restaurants and businesses even as things reopen.

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Microgreens can save the planet. Will people eat them? by Matt Cortina

s savvy diners, you’ve likely come across the term IMAGES OF THE MICROGREENS “microgreens” on restaurant menus from takeout species evaluated in sandwich places to fine dining establishments. But a the CSU study: arunew study from Colorado State’s Department of Food gula (A), broccoli (B), Science and Nutrition found that we are just at the bull’s blood beet (C), red cabbage (D), red beginning stage of understanding the nutrient-packed food garnet amaranth (E), source with a low carbon footprint that could revolutionize the and tendril pea (F). food scene for years to come. First, a definition: microgreens refer to the young, leafy greens that grow atop vegetables, grains, herbs and flowers early in their life spans. They grow quickly and can be harvested quickly, require little moisture (as opposed to that other young superfood, sprouts), and they have higher concentrations of phytochemicals and nutrients like beta-carotene, which can be converted to vitamin A. But these microgreens also carry big flavor that hits all areas of the palate, and so CSU wanted to do a taste test with a range of microgreens to see what consumers gravitated toward, and maybe more importantly, what they didn’t. The results were hopeful. Participants appreciated the bright reddish color of beet, cabbage and amaranth microgreens, and the flavor of broccoli, red cabbage and tendril pea greens. Arugula, somewhat surprisingly, got the lowest marks due to its spicy flavor profile. “But they were all liked well enough that people said they would consume them and purchase them,” says Sarah Ardanuy Johnson, lead researcher and director of CSU’s Functional Foods & Human Health Laboratory. “I feel like they should be used more as a vegetable and not just a garnish. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to do this study.” Johnson hopes exposing more people to microgreens will help create a market for them, and that based on consumer research, people are willing to purchase new types of foods if it benefits their health and the environment. Additional key factors in food purchases, the study underscored, are familiarity with the food, cost, access to it and freshness. The hope is that microgreen farms can sprout up in safe, controlled, environmentally friendly growhouses in both rural and urban areas. My own two cents: If people could quickly develop a taste for kombucha, kale and pea milk, microgreens should be no problem.

APRIL 23, 2020

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APRIL 23, 2020

Celebrating 4/20 in the time of the virus By Paul Danish

ou know that fantasy you always had about being snowed in for a month and having nothing to do but smoke ganja all the time? Well, scratch that one off the old bucket list. And check one of the following: a) Sometimes dreams really do come true. b) Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it — good and hard. c) Both of the above. • • • • But seriously folks. According to Kyle Jaeger at Marijuana Moment (hardest working marijuana journo in this arm of the galaxy), this year a number of police departments are getting in on the 4/20 merriment. Like this tweet from the Fort Collins Police Department: “We’ll be blunt — if you’re ganja partake in 4/20 activities, weed preefer if you consume responsibly. Don’t get your mota running — driving while impaired is illegal. Know your limits & follow the law (helpful chart below). Share this info with your buds. Dank you & be safe!” • • • • Not to be outdone, Bath Township, Michigan, weighed in with a post on Facebook: “Weed not be doing our jobs if we didn’t remind you all that social distancing is still important. It’s a joint effort between all of us, from Herb to Mary Jane. Doobie cautious and avoid social gatherings such as pot lucks. If you’re out blazing some fall

leaves or chatting with neighbors make sure to stay on your side of the grass. “Hash out issues with your family peacefully even if they’re acting like a little roach. Today is 4/20 which means we’re closer to being able to hang out with our buds again which will be pretty dope. So reefer to the guidelines until then and stay safe. And we’re aware of the difficulties faced by everyone as they cannot get together today to celebrate Carmen Electra’s birthday.” • • • • Ben & Jerry’s celebrated 4/20 — what do you expect from the company that gave us Cherry Garcia and Phish Food — by reminding people that there is still a drug war going on out there. “It’s hard for us to get excited about #420 when so many people of color are still being arrested for cannabis,” the company tweeted, “We have to do better.” It also put out a statement saying that it was calling on Congress to pass the MORE Act (Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act) “which would make cannabis legal and (it’s an important “and”!) expunge prior cannabis convictions.” “Want to feel really good this 4/20? Then let’s

make sure that legalization benefits all of us. That’ll turn 4/20 into a day that we all can celebrate,” the statement added. • • • • Lots of other businesses tweeted or posted 4/20themed statements and tie-ins. The list includes, but is not limited to: Del Taco — sold 10 tacos for $4.20. Panda Express — sold four Panda lunch bowls for $20. White Castle — urged people to host virtual watch parties with the 2004 marijuana cult classic Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The company said it would try to virtually participate in as many as possible if sent an invite. (In case you’re wonderin’, the filmmakers got permission from White Castle to use the chain’s name in the film). Denver-based Smashburger — sold all burgers and sandwiches for $4.20 on 4/20. “Tend to your buds this 4/20... taste buds! Get any single burger or sandwich (any protein) for $4.20 this 4/20,” the company tweeted. And it wasn’t just munchie-focused companies. The Canadian branch of Turbo Tax tweeted, “With the cannabis industry in high demand (and since it’s the highest holiday of the year) we’re chatting all things cannabis and taxes, and how medical cannabis is in some cases considered an allowable medical expense.” That’s in Canada, don’t try this when filing Sam’s 1040. • • • • And finally, this insight up at someecards.com from Licensed Florist (@SortaBad): “And on Day 420, God created marijuana. And it was good. “And on Day 421, he created evolution, because he was now too lazy to create more things.”

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