Boulder Weekly 11.12.20

F R E E E v e r y T h u r s d a y F o r 2 6 Ye a r s / w w w. b o u l d e r w e e k l y. c o m / N o v e m b e r 1 2 - 1 8 , 2 0 2 0

news:

A look at some of the ballot measures that passed in Colorado and what that means for the future

by Matt Cortina and Angela K. Evans

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Center for Sustainable Landscapes and Communities encourages local engagement

by Katie Rhodes

Antonio Lopez offers a new soundtrack for a new year

by Caitlin Rockett

Relying on the strength of the homebrew community during COVID-19

by Amy Martin

Seafood may provide a lifeline during the next catastrophe — so we should manage it better

by Matt Cortina

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weed between the lines:

Even under Biden presidency, there may be a long road yet to federal legalization

by Will Brendza

departments 5 7 7 15 22 25 26 27 29 31

‘Unhoused’ podcast: Episode 2 — On the brink Guest Column: Shifting the focus of human rights in Boulder Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views News Briefs: Local schools move to online learning; Environmentalists lament further regulatory rollbacks; and more Events: Second Friday exhibit opening, Fifth Annual Barley Wine and Swine and more to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do...

Words: ‘Anthem’ by Sage Marshall Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Savage Love: Four play Film: Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin on ‘The Climb’ Food/Drink: What to try this week along the Front Range

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL 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, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano 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 BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

November 12, 2020 Volume XXVIII, Number 13 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.

Boulder Weekly 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.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

‘Unhoused’ Episode 2: On the brink

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temming evictions is the first step to preventing homelessness, but in light of the pandemic, will it be enough?

When an eviction moratorium expired in August and the government’s pandemic-aid spigot closed, Colorado nonprofits and public agencies, including those in Boulder County, mounted a coordinated response to address a looming homelessness crisis. A gusher of donations created an eviction legal defense fund, a rental assistance program and other aid to people struggling to pay utility and food bills.

In just three months, 800 households received I

help in forestalling evictions while thousands more received legal and humanitarian services. Despite the community support and a new eviction moratorium set to expire before the new year, housing risks remain without a resumption of emergency government aid.

Join host Emma Athena as she analyzes how COVID-19 has changed the conversation around homelessness solutions in Unhoused, a new podcast from Boulder Weekly and KGNU. Episode 2, “On the brink,” is available Thursday, Nov. 12, at boulderweekly.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Shifting the focus of human rights in Boulder by Kevin Hoffinger

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oulder has long been a leader in the area of human rights and social justice reform.

Our journey began more than 40 years ago with the passing of the City of Boulder Human Rights Ordinance in 1972.

This ordinance guaranteed protections on the basis of ethnicity and sexual orientation to those previously unprotected by state and federal laws.

Two years later in 1974, Penfield Tate II was elected mayor. Tate, Boulder’s first and only black mayor, was instrumental in passing the city’s human rights ordinance while on City Council. He was a firm believer in promoting social equity and worked hard to represent all disadvantaged community members during his tenure as mayor.

In 2007, Boulder built upon his commitment with the Social Sustainability Strategic Plan. This agreement had several objectives, including placing higher value in diversity and creating a shared vision of community sustainability. This equity plan was extensive and utilized many existing city resources and partnerships with the intention of widening public dialogue about the importance of social equity and sustainability.

Today, Boulder has a number of social equity programs supported by myriad community stakeholders and City Council members. Our current Racial Equity Plan goes to great lengths to address inequality at the city level with racial equity trainings and integrating equity into strategic planning to create meaningful change.

For decades we have created programs to address the vast inequality that confronts many of our community members, yet we have been slow to translate those plans into real action. Since the 1970s, our battle for human rights has protected and promoted equal opportunities for disadvantaged groups, yet our efforts must adapt to the changing needs of our time.

The very face of our fight to secure human rights and promote BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

social equity has pivoted. As more overt forms of discrimination, such as workplace hiring practices, have fallen out of focus, our battle for human rights in Boulder takes on a new, more nuanced challenge.

Boulder’s rising cost of living and lack of affordable housing has become the greatest barrier to social equity today. While the cost of living has increased exponentially, minority individuals disproportionately struggle to secure housing within the city’s limits.

To properly address the changing nature of our community’s fight for equality, we must prioritize diverse city leadership who have experienced the struggle facing our community members at a personal level.

This November, Boulder City Council will be selecting one candidate to fill the position of mayor pro tem, or vice mayor. This is an opportunity to appoint someone with a unique background and the lived experience necessary to address the changing nature of Boulder’s fight for social equity. City Council member Junie Joseph, a vehement supporter of human rights, has herself struggled personally with the city’s rising cost of living, commuting into the city for several months before finding living accommodations. With these experiences, she remains a strong proponent of creating a more equitable Boulder through increasing access to affordable housing as a right for all individuals. Junie has supported suspending occupancy limits in Boulder and worked hard with mayor Sam Weaver to ask Boulder’s landlords to assist renters during these difficult financial times.

While Boulder City Council considers several candidates for mayor pro tem, Junie Joseph is the candidate our city deserves to continue Boulder’s commitment to human rights for all.

Kevin Hoffinger is a free speech advocate and a recent University of Colorado Boulder graduate with a B.A. in political science.

This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

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Delusional Donald Congratulations to our Presidentelect Joe Biden and our Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their comfortable, convincing victory over the truly terrible, corrupt racist Republican Trump-Pence ticket.

America is back, and diabolical Donald Trump is done!

Like usual, dishonest Donald Trump and his dishonorable, dimwitted sycophants are lying nonstop to the American public, but fortunately a majority of Americans are nowhere near as delusional as Donald Trump. Biden-Harris won easily, and anyone not suffering from brain damage (or fascist brainwashing) is well aware of the fact that Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won.

But deranged Donald Trump continues to whine, cry, complain and compulsively lie to the point where the vast majority of Americans are just laughing at him. Traitor Trump is a plump chump who can’t stop lying, yet defeated Donald feigns outrage at not being believed.

Donald, you’re a fool!

And more importantly, Donald Trump is now and will forever hereafter be known as America’s biggest loser and laughable liar. Oh yeah, and by the way: Enjoy prison, Trump!

Jake Pickering/via internet NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Big Tech has become Big Brother I still have the 1957 edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica my parents bought for me when I was a young sprout. Information research was slow and tedious as I moved through the education system, libraries included, but one had time to weigh what one found, and term papers required that sources be cited.

Today, information is truly “encyclopedic” from multiple sources at lightning speed in one’s hand. The pluses and minuses of this can be debated, but the side story is that the various search engines also collect the proclivities of one’s interests, in essence compiling an individual’s internet profile. This information then is for sale to all bidders for targeted messaging, including political manipulation. Law enforcement is able to monitor internet sites for child pornography and sex trafficking, as well as terrorist and white supremacist cells, and credit ratings are open to all, but the public has no control of knowing where or how its personal information is being used.

Telecommunication technology, with its shadowed interconnections and our voluntary participation, has become today’s Big Brother without governance. Tell Facebook, Google, et alia you want to know.

Robert Porath/Boulder I

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OF COUNTY 2020 WINNER

OF COUNTY 2020 WRITE-IN

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Election recap

A look at some of the ballot measures that passed in Colorado and what that means for the future

by Matt Cortina and Angela K. Evans

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hile most of the country, and world for that matter, has been singularly focused on the presidential election, plenty happened with ballot measures both in Colorado and Boulder County on Nov. 3 that is worth mentioning. Statewide, we saw the defeat of Proposition 115, which would have banned abortions after 22 weeks, and a majority of voters support the passage of Proposition 118, Paid Family Medical Leave Insurance Program, which will undoubtedly change the lives of Colorado workers, and those that rely on them, for the better.

Coloradans also approved Amendment 76, changing the state constitution to say that “only” citizens can vote, despite widespread opposition from civil and immigrant rights groups. We also saw the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents flip Democrat for the first time in four decades, which could be crucial in the face of mounting challenges posed by the pandemic as they govern the four-campus university system.

Locally, Longmont voters approved Ballot Question 3D, changing the City’s charter to extend cityowned property leases to 30 years, reversing a similar vote in 2019, in which citizens rejected the ballot question. In Boulder, voters overwhelmingly decided to change the mayoral selection process in favor of direct election through ranked choice voting starting in 2023, and also approved No Evictions Without Representation, which will establish a legal relief fund for tenants (see, BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

News, “Taking initiative,” Feb. 27, and “On dangerous ground,” Aug. 6.)

While election results won’t be officially certified by the Secretary of State’s Office until Nov. 30, here’s a deeper look at a few more local and statewide ballot measures that are presumed to have passed, and what it

could mean for the future of Boulder County, the state and the nation.

City of Boulder Ballot Question 2C (Public Service Company Franchise/ Settlement with Xcel) and City of Boulder Ballot Question 2D (Repurpose the Utility Occupation Tax) Boulder voters approved a negotiated franchise agreement with Xcel Energy, the city’s primary energy provider, effectively ending the decadelong quest to develop a municipal electric utility. When all is said and done, the municipalization effort will cost the City approximately $25 million, paid for by the utility occupancy tax, which voters first approved in 2010 and extended again this year, redirecting current and future funds I

from the tax to pursue alternative energy projects in hopes of meeting the City’s 100% renewable energy goal by 2030.

City officials met with Xcel executives on Tuesday, Nov. 10 to formally launch the partnership, although it won’t be finalized until City Council certifies the election results and votes on the franchise agreement at the Dec. 1 meeting. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) also has to approve the agreement, which is expected to happen “pro forma” sometime in January or February, although it will retroactively begin Jan. 1, according to Mayor Pro Tem Bob Yates who, along with Mayor Sam Weaver, negotiated the agreement earlier this year.

“The voters have spoken, and they’ve told the City staff and City Council what they would like to do,” Yates says. “And so we’re getting started right now.”

While the process will play out over several years, the work has already begun. First, municipalization efforts are winding down as the final bills are being processed and paid, and City staff begins archiving the work of the last 10 years: “In case we return to municipalization at some point in time in the future, that work is not wasted,” Yates says.

Although that doesn’t quite exhaust the funds generated by Boulder’s utility occupation tax over the last decade (approximately $29 million, according to Yates,) comNOVEMBER 12, 2020

bined with new revenue from the 2020 voter-approved utility occupation tax (approximately $2 million a year until 2025), these funds will be used to pay off the rest of the muni’s bills, reimburse the City’s general fund $1.4 million, invest in new climate initiatives to help Boulder achieve its renewable energy goals and, lastly, help subsidize energy bills and access to renewables for low income families.

“It’s always our intent to cooperate and work closely with the City as we have in the past,” says Susan Peterson with Empower our Future, a broad coalition of community members and elected officials who opposed the franchise agreement. “In particular, we would like to see more detail and more community involvement in terms of defining exactly what those projects would look like when they would occur, how much they would cost the community of Boulder, et cetera.”

Of particular concern, she says, are details about the community advisory committee that will work with City officials and Xcel executives, especially when it comes to pursuing alternative energy projects in the city. “We want to see what the community engagement looks like,” Peterson says.

“There’s really been no statement about how those community representatives would be selected or what that would look like. And we feel that that’s really important to understand.”

Yates says the exact role of the community advisory committee is yet to be determined but he expects that to be finalized in the coming weeks, with applications open by the end of the year and appointments made by mid- to late-winter.

But at this point, specific climate initiatives that will come out of 2C are yet to be determined, although the City is working with Xcel to develop an R&D renewable energy distribusee RECAP Page 10

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tion project as the Alpine Balsam neighborhood is torn down and rebuilt within the next few years, Yates says. Depending on what ends up being ultimately successful, then “Xcel and other communities can then replicate that and create more resilient and more sustainable systems in their own cities,” he says.

“And I think this is an opportunity for us to use certain projects we’ve already identified, but it’s also a process for the two parties to work together, to identify further projects next year, the year after, five years from now, 10 years from now.”

Yates says City officials are also starting on plans with Xcel to begin $33 million of work in the City to underground power lines vulnerable to inclement and climate-change driven weather, which can tend to leave parts of the city without power.

Additionally, Xcel has agreed to lobby state government in the 2021 legislative session to change state law that disallows rooftop solar from generating more than 120% of the building’s energy needs, Yates says.

“Xcel advocated for the establishment of the 120% cap, so I’m hopeful we can make changes now that they’ve committed to supporting its removal,” says state Senator Steve Fenberg, who was re-elected this year and plans to introduce the legislation. “I believe we should do everything we can to promote the fast adoption of as much renewable energy as possible, and this is one easy step we can take to do that.”

Fenberg, who did not endorse 2C, also plans on introducing a whole host of “legislative changes to accelerate the adoption of renewables in Colorado,” once the next session starts in January.

While the franchise agreement only requires Xcel to reduce carbon emissions by 80% before 2030, in August, the City released indicative pricing bids for wind, solar and storage 100% renewable energy projects 10

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that are 8-15% lower than they were in 2018 as part of the municipalization effort. While these really have no bearing now, considering voters effectively terminated the muni on Nov. 3, they could come into play to help Boulder reach its goal of 100% renew-

able energy by 2030 should state legislature approve community-based energy procurement.

“It’s like having your own municipal utility from the standpoint of being able to control pricing and renewables without the headache of actually having to operate and maintain the poles and wires,” Yates says.

It’s an effort State Rep. Edie Hooten, also just re-elected, has been working on for a few years. Although a bill this year failed to pass due to the coronavirus pandemic, Hooten is proposing legislation in 2021 to study the efficacy of community choice energy. In this model, Xcel would still own and operate its infrastructure from transmission to distribution to billing and customer service. But it would allow jurisdictions to choose where they procure energy from, including renewable projects from other operators.

Hooten’s bill would require the PUC to consider approximately 20 specific questions about community choice energy, involving a “very transparent, robust” stakeholder process and public meeting. If such a bill passes, the PUC would have until the end of 2021 to present its findings to the legislature, so it would be 2022 before any substantial enabling legislation could be introduced, and a few more years before the PUC would finalize any rulemakings.

“We’re probably looking at 2024 NOVEMBER 12, 2020

before communities could actually even take advantage of ” community choice energy, Hooten says. But the process alone would incentivize investor-owned utilities, like Xcel, to transition more quickly to renewables. “It puts pressure on them to meet the local energy goals of communities like Boulder,” she says.

Hooten opposed the franchise agreement for its lack of community control, but says now that voters approved it, “It’s definitely a step in the right direction of more local control and a more open, competitive market for electricity generation.”

This was a referendum vote, brought to the 2020 ballot by citizens who disagreed with Democratic state legislators and Gov. Jared Polis, who entered Colorado into the National Popular Vote (NPV) Interstate Compact in 2019. But Coloradans sided with elected officials on Nov. 3, with 52.16% of the voters approving the measure, according to the latest Secretary of State numbers.

“We kept hearing time and time and time again that most Coloradans were against it,” says state Senator Mike Foote, of Boulder County, who introduced the NPV bill on the first day of the 2019 session. “And as it turns out, of course, most Coloradans are for it because the national popular vote is in fact a popular idea. So, I feel very good that we were able to get that kind of vindication.”

Despite the fact that elected Republican legislators oppose NPV across the board in Colorado, “We could not pass this if it weren’t for some conservative votes,” Foote adds.

“If you look at conservative counties across the state, we did pretty well.”

Although NPV didn’t pass in any of

those counties, it did get 40% of the vote in El Paso County and 35% in Mesa County, which was also the epicenter of the referendum effort.

Colorado’s nine electoral votes for president are now committed to the winner of the national popular vote — regardless of who wins the statewide popular vote — in future elections should the Interstate Compact be ratified. In order to become legally binding, enough states need to sign onto the Compact to account for 270 electoral votes, the majority needed in order to guarantee the presidency. The NPV Compact does not abolish the Electoral College, but rather circumvents it, changing the way the electors are used under the states’ rights section of the Constitution, which guarantees their exclusive authority to allocate the electors in the way they see fit, as recently confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Although the NPV legislation has been introduced in all 50 state legislatures since 2006, it has seen varying degrees of success. Currently, the Compact has 196 electoral votes from Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, California, Illinois, New York and the District of Columbia. It needs an additional 74 electoral votes to go into effect, which could come from a variety of smaller states adopting it or could take just a few larger ones like Texas or Florida coming on board.

The Colorado ballot question was the first time, however, that the NPV idea has been passed by voters, and many of its proponents see the win in Colorado as a blueprint in states where the legislature has been reluctant to sign on.

“One thing about the National Popular Vote organization has been that they’ve just been persistent, and they’ve always looked at it as a longterm project,” Foote says. “It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.”

For all intents and purposes, the Colorado vote approving Proposition 113 doesn’t change much. If and when enough states sign onto the NPV Compact, however, the entire presidential election process will be different.

“America’s legislators should take notice,” Dr. John Koza, chairman of

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Proposition 113 (Adopt Agreement to Elect U.S. President By National Popular Vote)

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National Popular Vote, said in a press release. “The voters want a national popular vote for president. They want to compel the candidates to campaign in all 50 states. They want every voter in every state to be relevant in every presidential election. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact delivers on all these promises and can be in place for the 2024 presidential election.”

Proposition 114 (Reintroduction and Management of Gray Wolves) The planning process to reintroduce gray wolves in the Centennial State has begun. On Nov. 3, Proposition 114 narrowly passed, 50.64% to 49.36%, according to the Secretary of State’s unofficial election results, marking the first time a species will be reintroduced to an ecosystem by voter consent. Soon after, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced its intent to begin the process, the first step of which will be for the CPW Commission to develop a management plan introducing the gray wolf onto designated lands on the Western Slope

by Dec. 31, 2023. Currently, no such plan exists and a schedule of required statewide hearings about scientific, economic and social considerations has yet to be published.

“Our agency consists of some of the BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

best and brightest in the field of wildlife management and conservation,” said CPW Director Dan Prenzlow in a press release. “CPW is committed to developing a comprehensive plan and in order to do that, we will need input from Coloradans across our state. We are evaluating the best path forward to ensure that all statewide interests are well represented.”

Prenzlow sits on the CPW Commission along with other governor-appointed members from ranching, agriculture, outfitting, hunting, fishing and recreation backgrounds, including the director of the Department of Natural Resources.

The narrow passage of Proposition 114 comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s announcement to delist the gray wolf from the federal endangered species list, despite the fact that the wolves have not be restored to 20% of their historic range, a key provision for delisting. As such, a coalition of Western wolf advocates have filed a notice of intent to sue the federal government.

“Given that gray wolves in the lower 48 states occupy a fraction of their historical and currently available habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service determining they are successfully

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recovered does not pass the straightface test,” John Mellgren, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, said in a press release. “While the Trump administration may believe it can disregard science to promote political decisions, the law does not support such a stance.”

Opponents of Proposition 114 have not ruled out a legal challenge of their own, according to Patrick Pratt, deputy campaign manager for Coloradans Protecting Wildlife. “We have not ruled out any available options and will not make a final determination until all votes are counted,” he wrote in an email to Boulder Weekly, maintaining the organization’s stance that the reintroduction measure is “bad policy and should not have been decided by the voters.” (Election results will be finalized by the end of the month.)

Regardless, expect a lively debate around how gray wolves should be reintroduced in Colorado and how best to manage them, as the public process unfolds in the coming months and years.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF KEY STATEWIDE BALLOT MEASURES Gov. Jared Polis released a $35.4 billion state budget proposal this month that includes remedies for some major cuts lawmakers had to make across the board during the pandemic. The plan includes stimulus funds for individuals and businesses, helps get education funding — 47th in the nation, in case you forgot — close to pre-pandemic levels, and stows some money away for the uncertain future.

In settling on this year’s and future budgets, however, lawmakers will have to consider the effects of a handful of ballot initiatives that passed this year, some bringing in revenue for targeted projects, while others further limiting the amount of money coming into state coffers.

MIXED BAG FOR EDUCATION FUNDING Perhaps the largest economic boon is the passage of Proposition EE, which puts a tax on nicotine and vaping products and uses the revenue to fund a variety of programs.

The state legislature passed a bill BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

earlier this year raising taxes on nicotine products — cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, certain liquid nicotine as used for vaping — and because of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, we all had to vote on it. It passed, and now a set amount of taxes will be placed on each of the nicotine products outlined in the law.

It’ll raise up to about $175.6 million in revenue next fiscal year, with an escalating amount of revenue up to $275.9 million by 2027.

Much of this funding (see chart above) will go toward education — which is critical given the cuts schools across the state had to endure during COVID-19, exacerbating the problems caused by the already low levels of funding with which they were operating.

Money will be used to provide at least 10 free hours of preschool to every child before their first year of kindergarten. A separate chunk of money will go toward rural schools, allocated on a per-pupil basis, and even more will go toward general K-12 education.

The funds will also be used, in smaller part, for housing assistance, a tobacco education program and general fund spending.

Passage of Amendment B, which repealed the Gallagher Amendment, will also impact education funding. It locks in property tax assessment rates, instead of basing them on a proportional scale that many said was hampering institutions like schools and fire districts that rely on properI

ty tax revenue.

The Colorado Education Association, the state teachers’ union, hailed the passage of the amendment, pointing out that now, “Nearly a quarter of a billion dollars will remain in Colorado public schools next year; funding desperately needed in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic and more than a decade of K-12 budget deficits.”

It remains to be seen just how the Gallagher Amendment repeal will impact education funding. In its assessment of the amendment, the state Legislative Council noted that the resulting higher property tax revenue will increase local financial support for school districts, while also lowering the state’s funding responsibility.

GOODBYE $203 MILLION; HELLO, 40 BUCKS Voters also approved Proposition 116, which will lower the state income tax rate from 4.63% to 4.55%.

Because all Coloradans are taxed at the same rate, those who make under $100,000 can expect single- or double-digit annual savings on their tax bill; those who make more can expect a proportionately modest amount of savings, though obviously more.

The state’s going to lose out on $203 million in revenue this fiscal year, and $154 million next year, with future loss of revenue depending on the state’s economic performance.

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The state Legislative Council found before the election that passage of Proposition 116 is going to require reductions elsewhere in the state’s general fund to make up the gap. The money coming in from the nicotine tax, remember, is earmarked for certain projects, and the Gallagher Amendment repeal windfall will be realized locally; lawmakers will have to reassess the tax landscape before determining where to cut.

Polis hailed the “tax relief ” and the libertarian Independence Institute, which organized Proposition 116, hailed the measure’s passage, of course, and juxtaposed it to an effort to institute a progressive tax rate in Colorado. That measure’s defeat (before making it to the ballot) and Prop 116’s passage, “has signaled to everyone watching that Coloradans still support our flat tax and [TABOR],” the Institute wrote in a celebratory email announcing the win.

Proposition 117 passed, as well, requiring voter approval on fee-based enterprises making over $100 million in its first five years. Supporters of the bill say it will keep state-based agencies from charging high fees without recourse. In actuality, it may prevent certain enterprises from getting off the ground at all.

HOW DOES IT ALL SQUARE? Ultimately, it’ll be up to lawmakers to make subsequent budgets work under the new laws approved by voters. Time will tell how the Gallagher repeal works in wealthy counties versus poorer counties; how Proposition EE revenue will help fill in gaps; and how less money coming in from income tax — a sizable portion of Colorado’s state revenue — will impact what can get funded and by how much.

And, of course, there’s still a pandemic, meaning businesses from Main Street to the oil patch are going under or filing bankruptcy, leaving many people unemployed and tax revenue uncertain. Polis’ budget aims for a strong economic recovery in the next fiscal year, but by then we’ll likely have some more statewide ballot issues that’ll change the state’s revenue landscape.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

STEVEN CHASE/USFWS

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ssuming all lawsuits are thrown out and Joe Biden takes over the White House Jan. 20, the Trump administration has only a couple months left to further degrade the environment.

In this lame duck period, though, the administration can do some damage, according to the environmental advocacy group Center for Western Priorities (CWP). It’s been tracking the U.S. Department of the Interior’s proposed and approved rule changes since the beginning of the year, which include changes to land use plans allowing increased development in Bears Ears and Grand StaircaseEscalante national monuments, as well as weakening air quality standards for offshore drilling.

“Over the remaining 72 days of the Trump administration, Secretary [David] Bernhardt will no doubt be racing to finalize even more controversial policies that benefit his former and future clients in extractive industries,” Jesse Prentice-Dunn, CWP policy director, said in a recent statement.

Of the 70 or so policy changes the Interior Department may enact before the end of Trump’s term, there are plans to remove protections for plant and animal species, just as the administration did recently in delisting the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act. CWP pinpointed 10 policy changes that it thinks has a realistic shot of being pushed through and

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Environmentalists lament what Trump administration might be able to push through before leaving office

City of Boulder to host neighborhood climate action forum

which would have a sizable negative outcome: 1) Approving seismic testing and auctioning oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 2) Allowing oil and gas companies to inadvertently kill migratory birds, including in oil spills, without penalties under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act 3) Further weakening the Endangered Species Act by limiting which habitat can be protected 4) Amending long-term management plans to expand drilling and mining opportunities on public lands in New Mexico, Califonia, Idaho and Alaska 5) Reopening loopholes to allow oil, gas and coal companies to skirt royalties owed to taxpayers

6) Weakening safety regulations for exploratory offshore drilling in the Alaskan Arctic 7) Reducing environmental and regulatory reviews to speed the process of timber sales on public lands 8) Allowing baiting of brown bears and increased trapping in Alaska’s Kenai National Wildlife Refuge 9) Expanding opportunities to privatize services in national parks 10) Allowing property owners to veto listings on the National Register of Historic Places You can find the full list of policy changes CWP is tracking at medium.com/westwise/the-trumpadministrations-unfinished-business-on-public-lands5a8bda1c044e.

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he City of Boulder is hosting a virtual forum on Nov. 14 that will help neighborhoods in the city begin to formulate an individualized climate action plan.

The forum will kick off a series of workshops designed to individuals in a specific neighborhood engage with their neighbors to create unique, hyperlocal plans to address climate change. It’s part of the broader Accelerate Neighborhood Climate Action (ANCA) Program, which will ultimately select three neighborhoods in Boulder to begin the process of formulating and enacting a climate plan.

Everyone’s invited to attend the virtual event, whether you’re interested in engaging your neighborhood in the program or not. It’s an all-day thing — first session runs 9:30 a.m. to noon and will feature presentations from local climate experts; the afternoon session from 2-4:30 p.m. will provide a chance to network and identify action areas.

All the info you need is at bouldercolorado.gov/climate/anca.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Local schools move to online learning as COVID cases rise

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NOVEMBER 12, 2020

he Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) announced on Nov. 10 that it will move back to fully remote learning starting Monday, Nov. 16.

In a letter to the community, BVSD Superintendent Rob Anderson pointed out the inability to adequately supervise every student given enhanced safety and quarantine measures recently announced by the state.

“While my team and I remain firmly committed to providing in-person learning opportunities whenever it is safe to do so — it has become abundantly clear that we can no longer handle the situation on a school-by-school basis,” Anderson wrote.

“Unfortunately, the contact tracing team has been overrun with cases and with growing quarantines, we simply do not have enough school or district staff to fill all the gaps.”

Anderson suggested Thanksgiving break, based on past holidays and school breaks, would lead to an increased number of cases in the community.

If cases improve in the area, the plan is to bring students back at the beginning of next semester, Jan. 5.

The St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) is similarly expecting challenges with regards to staffing given the stricter quarantining procedures mandated by the state.

Starting Nov. 9, students in SVVSD can opt in to virtual learning until the beginning of winter break.

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Posing new questions

Center for Sustainable Landscapes and Communities encourages local engagement through Ecosystem Trends Report

by Katie Rhodes

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BEN NELSON

ON THE BILL: Webinar 1: Climate & Soil Health, 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14.

Webinar 2: Watershed Health & Air Quality, 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Webinar 3: Biodiversity & Urban Land Cover, 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19.

Free Webinar Event Registration: eventbrite.com/e/ecosystem-summit-threewebinars-tickets-125101779791, visit cslc.colorado.edu for more information.

AT 10,000 ACRES, n a world where climate change the Calwood fire, presents an ever-increasing threat, seen here on Oct. 17, quickly became the it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and largest fire in Boulder helpless as we carry on in our dayCounty history. to-day lives. The stress-induced, existential questions pile up: What can I do? Do these problems affect me in any real way? Am I doing enough?

The CU-Boulder affiliated Center for Sustainable Landscapes and Communities (CSLC) offers a way to narrow that seemingly limitless scope, homing in on environmental issues specifically within Boulder County and fostering interaction and collaboration between CU students and faculty, community members and municipal agencies. The center aims to educate the community and involve people in effecting tangible change within local ecosystems while promoting healthy perspectives on sustainability.

“When we look at data for the place where we live, it’s eye-opening and grounds us to this community in a way I think is important,” Sharon Collinge, cofounder of CSLC, says. “That is why we made this center intentionally and explicitly Boulder-focused. It lets people get involved and create change where they might feel helpless in the face of global climate crises.”

For the first time since its inception in 2018, the CSLC recently released the Boulder Ecosystems Trends Report, spotlighting a few of the pressing environmental concerns in Boulder County and its surrounding public lands. The idea for the Trends Report emerged when CSLC’s Collinge and cofounder Karen Hollweg recognized motivation within the community to understand how local ecosystems are changing

FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART, WE WANT TO THANK OUR COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORTING LOCAL BUSINESSES!

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

WEATHER AND temperature extremes are becoming more common, and a growing city has to prepare for things like water storage, fire, flooding and snow removal.

— Climatologist Matt Kelsch over time. As a result, CSLC has been identifying and collecting environmental data over the last few years, analyzing and collating it to create a report the community can understand and connect to.

This year, the report highlights trends in six environmental categories: climate, soil health, watershed health, air quality, biodiversity and urban tree canopy cover. Each trend category has a subset of three important patterns. Watershed, for example, focuses on local snowpack, benthic macro-invertebrates and human population growth. All categories were chosen with the help of community members who were invited to share environmental trends they found most interesting and important.

“We have an engaged community that’s ready to talk about these issues and ready to take action,” Collinge says. “Our intention is to provide a neutral platform where experts and community members can convene and discuss local environmental issues in an informed and thoughtful way, talking through the potential for sustainability, restoration and action.”

In congruence with this year’s Boulder Ecosystem Trends Report, CSLC is offering a series of three free webinars, giving community members the opportunity to engage in discussions about this year’s report, as well as the

planning and management of public lands in the Boulder region. If the existential stress of global climate change has proven burdensome on the soul, this is a way to get involved on a local level, become educated on environmental trends and establish positive change in the community. Each trend from this year’s report will be presented by an expert in a corresponding field, educating viewers on everything from changing precipitation rates to soil health.

Local climatologist Matt Kelsch is one of CLSC’s partners this year, contributing his 30-year data set on temperature change and precipitation in Boulder. Late winter and early spring, he’s found, have become increasingly wetter, while mid-summer months are steadily drier and hotter. The collaboration of different local researchers and organizations, he says, is vital as we continue to look forward.

“When it comes to climate change or natural variability, a principality like Boulder has to prepare for what’s happening,” Kelsch urges.

“Weather and temperature extremes are becoming more common, and a growing city has to prepare for things like water storage, fire, flooding and snow removal.”

In direct relation to these watershed issues, the trends report on soil health will cover results from tests facilitated by the Citizen Science Soil Health Project, an initiative spearheaded by community member Elizabeth Black.

“Every grower believes they’re improving the health of their soil in an effort to make the land more resilient to flooding and fires,” Black notes. “These tests are a way to determine if they’re right, and if not, to find ways to improve overall soil health.”

There are now more than 40 local participants collecting soil from farms, golf courses, tree farms and more. The project provides the resources to collect soil samples, test and analyze them, and return the results in a userfriendly format. This initiative also identifies ways to improve or implement soil carbon sequestration — the practice of using soil as a storehouse for carbon, helping eliminate it from the atmosphere in an effort to combat global warming.

CSLC’s set of three, 90-minute webinars cover two trends each. The forum will spend a short time with local guest researchers and experts extrapolating and presenting data from the report, with the majority of the time allotted for questions and conversation between researchers, CU affiliates and community members.

“Our hope is to engage different members and agencies within Boulder County to generate ideas, answer questions and even pose new questions,” Hollweg says. “We’re all working together to create a healthy and sustainable life for ourselves, our neighbors and our ecosystems.”

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COURTESY OF PRESSED PR

Roots and wings, shadows and light Antonio Lopez offers a new soundtrack for a new year

by Caitlin Rockett

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n his way back from ON THE BILL: “Going To The City,” the first single his honeymoon on from Antonio Lopez’s Vancouver Island in upcoming album ‘Roots and 2018, Antonio Lopez Wings,’ is out Nov. 12. The full album is out Jan. 1, picked up a copy of 2021. Follow Lopez on the “local alternative rag,” Spotify, Bandcamp, Tidal or The New Agora. Miles above wherever you get your music, the earth, his wife at his side, antoniolopezmusic.com. a new chapter of his life unfolding, Lopez happened upon a quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.”

“It really just hit me in the gut,” Lopez says over Skype from his home in Longmont, acoustic guitars flanking the wall behind him. “That’s where the idea for this album came into play, Roots and Wings, just really wanting to honor my family first and foremost.”

As a Chicano, Lopez’s roots run deep in Colorado, stretching from his family home in Alamosa, in the San Luis Valley, up north to Boulder. His mother was a school teacher, his father, Francisco “Kiko” Martinez, and uncle, Reyes Martinez, both attorneys who actively worked to amplify and protect the voices of Mexican Americans during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and ’70s.

The movement was strong in Colorado. In 1969, students at West High School in Denver walked out in protest of racial discrimination by teachers who shamed students for speaking Spanish and intentionally mispronounced their names.

Denver activist Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales founded the group Crusade for Justice to help fight for Chicano rights. The FBI considered the groups to be radical. In response, the agency formed a secret branch called COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram), aimed at infiltrating and disrupting domestic social movements like the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Weathermen and Crusade for Justice.

Tension built into the ’70s, reaching a fever pitch on May see LOPEZ Page 20

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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COURTESY OF PRESSED PR

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NOVEMBER 12, 2020

LOPEZ from Page 19

27, 1974. At 9:47 p.m., a car parked near Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder exploded, shaking buildings for miles around. The explosion instantly killed the car’s three young occupants, all of them Chicano activists, including Lopez’s uncle, 26-year-old Reyes Martinez. A second bomb went off on 28th Street two days later, killing three more activists and maiming another.

There is much speculation around the FBI’s possible involvement in these bombings — neither case has been solved, now nearly 50 years later. (In 1975, a U.S. Senate Committee — the so-called Church Committee — found that COINTELPRO, along with programs run by the CIA and NSA, were not only outside the bounds of the American legal framework, but also far outside the bounds of human decency.)

But one thing cannot be disputed: The lives of six families, including Antonio Lopez’s, were forever changed.

“When that bombing at Chautauqua Park happened in 1974, my dad was in exile during that time; he was in Mexico,” Lopez says. “[The FBI] had pinned some unfounded charges on my dad (forcing him to give up his law license for several decades). My uncle was just months older than my dad, so my dad just really, really idolized his brother. Even though it happened before I was born, I choose to talk about this history with this album because I feel like the past really informs the present and without unpacking the past, we just carry around a lot of baggage.”

Lopez’s words carry particular weight in this moment in American history as we collectively unpack our history of racism, sexism and classism, all while dealing

with the whims of an incompetent con man who stumbled into the highest office in the country. America paved the way for Trump by refusing to unpack its past.

“I don’t consider myself super political, but I do consider myself politically conscious and conscientious,” Lopez says. “I see my role as a musician as being a bridge builder in a world that’s so divided. I see music as a unifying force that’s able to bridge the gaps between racial, economic and cultural divides — music is that common ground. It’s the meeting point. It’s a place where we’re able to share who we are, but also put aside who we are and just be vulnerable and open. So that’s what I’ve felt a calling for in these last few years in the lead up to this album.”

Roots and Wings, set for release Jan. 1, 2021, is built around the accessible folksy sounds and layered lyrical musings that have made Lopez a fixture in Boulder County’s music scene since he moved here in 2012. The first single, “Going To The City,” captures both his roots and wings — his past and his future — as he recounts his migration from Alamosa to the Front Range while also mourning the urbanization of the planet: Further up north / More scars upon the land / Zeros and ones / Replace the heart and the hand / Is this a plot twist, or is it part of the plan? / To grow further from nature is the nature of the man The song, at first a young man’s idyllic dream of moving from a small town to a big city, eventually gives way to the inner reckoning of a conscientious adult.

Lopez knows he’s both part of the problem and part of the solution. We all are.

“Everywhere has its pros and cons,” Lopez says, “but I feel like it’s natural for

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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humans to gather. Society arises out of humans’ innate need to communicate with each other. And it’s natural for humans to gather, share ideas, work together. And in this lifetime, we’re going to be facing our biggest challenges — climate change, loss of biodiversity, overcoming systemic racism... that list goes on and on. But humans have a lot of ingenuity, so if we’re able to work together and not apart, we can overcome these obstacles, and in the process we can transform society and aid in the flourishing of both humanity and nature.”

While the album touches on the existential dread we can all feel in the face of an uncertain future, Lopez sees Roots and Wings as a message of hope, and its release date plays into that.

“I don’t think everything’s going to magically change on January first, but I do think there’s something about the human spirit, the changing of the seasons, the changing of the calendar year — there are these mental reboots. And I’m hoping that this album could hopefully play a part in making 2021 a better year for people — a soundtrack to start a new year.”

In the collection is a tribute to Lopez’s friend, Tetsuko of Cold Mountain, a former member of the Shambala Buddhist community in Boulder who Lopez met after Tetsuko moved to the San Luis Valley. Though confined to a wheelchair, BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Lopez says Tetsuko’s “optimism and spirit were amazing.”

“Being from a small town, there is a lot of culture that I was just not exposed to, so I had some really interesting conversations with her,” Lopez says. “She told me about this prophecy about a new warrior.”

Tibetan legend says the Kingdom of Shambhala rises when the world is in danger of annihilating itself through greed and corruption. These warriors have no uniform, no insignia, no weapons.

“What I love about it is it’s not this warrior savior who’s going to come save us,” Lopez says. “It’s this warrior quality inside each and every one of us. And we all need to step forward in that spirit. It’s a warrior who uses compassion, who uses insight, understanding, listening.

“I think it really speaks to the times we’re in right now, when there’s a lot of division and a lot of turmoil.”

Lopez sings the chorus of the song: The weapons that we will / Our compassion and insight / It’s not a battle between the good guys and the bad guys / We all contain the shadows and the light.

As we take a deep breath in the wake of the election, 77 million of us relieved, 71 million of us dismayed, Lopez’s words feel like a sacred mantra for the coming days.

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events

events

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com.

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

COURTESY MUSEUM OF BOULDER

BARRETT SINGS SINATRA.

5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway, Boulder.

Feeling nervous about Friday the 13th? More like excited.

Leonard E. Barrett Jr. will serenade you with the sounds of Frank Sinatra under the stars on the rooftop of Museum of Boulder. With snacks and beverages available from T/ACO, you’re set up for an enchanting event. Barrett promises to roll out the “big band tracks” version of Sinatra’s catalog, “respectfully delivered.”

COURTESY FIREHOUSE

‘ESCAPE FROM EXTINCTION’ — A FILM BY MATT BRADY, PRESENTED VIRTUALLY BY BOULDER ENOFF.

Available Nov. 13 through Dec. 3 online. Rental cost is $12, boulderenoff.org.

COURTESY AMERICAN HUMANE American Humane’s inaugural 90-minute documentary throws a vitally important spotlight on critical efforts that may be among the last, best chances to save one million species on the verge of a catastrophic mass extinction. Narrated by Academy-, Tony- and Emmy-award winner Helen Mirren, the film examines the work of the major zoological organizations that are racing against the clock to preserve the million species disappearing in today’s mass extinction. Included with this online film rental is a discussion with Matthew Brady, director/producer, and Dr. Robin Ganzert, CEO of American Humane.

FIFTH ANNUAL BARLEY WINE AND SWINE, BARLEY WINE RELEASE AND DINNER.

WIKIPEDIA

5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, Großen Bart Brewery, 1025 Delaware Ave., Longmont. Price: $35, facebook.com/GrassenBartBrewery.

Join Großen Bart Brewery and West Side Tavern in a festival of barley wine and swine. Appreciate three of Großen Bart’s vintage and a new barley wine to be released on the day of the four-course dinner! The chef from West Side Tavern will talk about each course and why they paired the beer with the food.

SECOND FRIDAY EXHIBIT OPENING.

6:30 p.m. Nov. 13, Firehouse Art Center, 667 Fourth Ave., Longmont, firehouseart.org.

Firehouse Art Center will be unveiling its artist members Inktober works, as well as the works of arts education students via Facebook livestream and in-person for the Second Friday Exhibit opening. Inktober art comes from prompts given to artists throughout the month of October.

Student art comes from Firehouse’s Art Sparks classes (ages 5-7), Advanced Art Experiences (grades 5-8) and dual language Spanish/English immersion art classes (ranging from pre-K to middle school). You’ll also get a chance to meet the NEST Residency artists, University of Colorado Boulder graduate students Jennifer Cole and Amy Hoagland.

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‘SHE KILLS MONSTERS’: VIRTUAL REALMS — A PLAY

BY QUI NGUYEN

Nov. 13-Nov. 20. This is a virtual event.

Tickets are $10, cupresents.org Following the death of her sister Tilly, Agnes Evans discovers Tilly’s Dungeons & Dragons notebook, launching a quest into the imaginary world that was her sister’s refuge.

Laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres and ’90s pop culture references, She Kills Monsters is an action-packed, hilarious homage to the geek and warrior in all our hearts. This iteration of She Kills Monsters was adapted by playwright Qui Nguyen specifically to be performed in the virtual realms of online performance. (Please note: This production contains adult language and explores themes of grief, violence and sexuality.)

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

COURTESY M. PAISNER

THE BEAUTY OF BACH WITH SIMONE DINNERSTEIN

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14. This will be a virtual event. Tickets are $40, facebook.com/boulderphil.

Boulder Philharmonic Artistic Partner and audience favorite Simone Dinnerstein rocketed to international fame following the phenomenal success of her debut recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Written for harpsichord, one imagines Bach would be delighted to hear his works brought to life on a modern piano. Flutist Christina Jennings joins Simone for two of the composer’s best-known works.

HAWAIIAN HULA CLASS FOR BEGINNERS.

‘LA BOHÈME.’

7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 (with additional dates through Nov. 22), Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont. General admission: $30; seniors and students: $25, dickensoperahouse.com.

This is the classic, heart-rending tale of an intimate group of bohemian artists trying to survive in 1830s Paris, updated to COVID-era 2020. The lives of the poet Rodolfo, his painter best friend, Marcello (along with Marcello’s full-time singer/ sometime girlfriend, Musetta), up-for-anything musician, Schaunard, and the stuffybut-loveable philosopher, Colline, change forever when Mimì, a neighboring seamstress, knocks on the door. Through them we encounter loyalty, humor, forgiveness, passion, tragedy and love. This is an abridged version of La Bohème sung in Italian with subtitles featuring Steven Aguiló-Arbues at the piano. Attendance is limited and guests must wear masks unless seated at their table.

5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 (and every Sunday), A Place To Be Studio, 1750 30th St., Boulder. Cost: $58 for 4 weeks.

Call M. Pumehana Paisner: 720-771-9772.

Looking for a taste of Paradise during these unprecedented times?

Miriam Paisner, founder of Hula School of the Western Mountains, is relaunching her weekly Sunday hula class for beginners at A Place To Be Studio. Paisner teaches kahiko (ancient) and ‘auana (modern) hula and oli (chant), and her classes provide a primer for Hawaiian dance, music and culture. Drop-ins are welcome — just bring your mask and keep six feet between you and your new hula pals.

ARISE ONLINE PRESENTS: SPECTACLE — WITH LIVE PAINTER LAURA MCGOWAN.

7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19. Tickets start at $10.

Arise Online invites you to enjoy a high-quality production of electronic music, live painting, interviews, interactive chats and virtual hangouts from the comfort of your own home — or from the comfort of A-Lodge in Boulder. Music comes courtesy of Spectacle, a two-piece COURTESY SPECTACLE outfit hailing from Denver. The duo bring a multi-dimensional sound to their brand of electronica, incorporating jazz, funk, classical, Afro-Cuban beats and live instrumentation. Joining Spectacle is self-taught artist Laura McGowan, who developed her passion for painting after an incident permanently damaged her vision. Arise has teamed up with Boulder’s adventure-centric hotel, A-Lodge, to provide an elevated online streaming experience for a limited number of patrons. Those looking to keep the party at home can grab a $10 ticket and catch the show on NoCapShows.com. (A portion of the proceeds will benefit Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.) Viewers can upgrade their ticket to meet the band after the show with a one-on-one virtual meet and greet on Arcivr.com.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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LIVING ROOM LOCAL WITH ALEXANDRA GRANT.

2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15. Tickets: $20, localtheaterco.org Alexandra Grant is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores ideas of translation, identity and social responsibility through text and language in various media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film and photography. Local Theater Company invites you to virtually step inside Grant’s studio for a conversation on her creative process, her philanthropic project grantLOVE, and her current show, Telepathy is One Step Further Than Empathy, currently on view at the Orange County Museum of Art. Tickets are available through EventBrite. see EVENTS Page 24

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

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EVENTS from Page 23

HOMEVIEWING Melissa Tamminga on ‘Stories We Tell’

by Michael J. Casey

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bout halfway through Sarah Polley’s 2013 documentary Stories We Tell, Michael Polley turns to his daughter and asked, “What is this documentary about?”

Well, it’s about stories and, as Melissa Tamminga adds, “Storytelling.”

In addition to writing film criticism for Seattle Screen Scene, Tamminga teaches English and film studies at Whatcom Community College. And Polley’s doc, Stories We Tell — airing Nov. 17 on TCM — is a favorite of hers to program, and not just because it’s a “personal story about a family that’s deeply engaging.”

“But [Stories We Tell] also comes in a really abstract level about what it means to tell a story in the first place,” Tamminga says. “Who should be telling a story? What are the ethics of documentary filmmaking?”

But first, we better answer Michael Polley’s question: Stories We Tell is a ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS documentary by way of a family secret.

For decades, Sarah Polley’s older siblings teased her that her father wasn’t their father — that she was the product of an affair her mother, Diane, had with another man. And though Diane died in 1990, when Sarah was 11, the teasing did not.

So, Sarah started looking for the truth.

But no matter where she turned, she found hard facts and false bottoms. Both give Stories We Tell its shape and form, but, as Tamminga says, “The way that she interplays those two things,” is what makes it memorable.

It’s what draws Tamminga to appreciate and teach Stories We Tell — the emphasis on editing, the structure and shape of storytelling, and how Polley weaves together reenactments, archival footage and multiple perspectives in the doc.

“The film demonstrates to us that we just accept images that we see on the screen, as kind of what they purport to be without really questioning,” Tamminga adds.

It makes Stories We Tell a powerful work, but a slippery one, too, thanks to multiple on-screen narrations. From “the narrators [family members] that are telling us their version of the events,” to, “the camera itself as a narrator [which is] also telling us a version of the of the story,” Tamminga says.

Stories We Tell came out in 2013, a few years before the terms fake news and deepfakes entered the lexicon. You could apply both to Stories We Tell, and you’d be correct. But it would also be reductive.

“Polly threads the needle in a really interesting way where you do get the sense that there are things we will never be able to know or understand,” Tamminga says. “And, yet, there are ways to represent as much of the multifaceted reality that is still somehow truthful, but with also accepting the idea that it’s not necessarily going to encompass every single aspect of the truth.”

To borrow a line from Hail, Caesar!’s Hobie Doyle: “It’s complicated.”

And it’s spectacular — Stories We Tell airs on TCM at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, as part of their 14-week Women Make Film Series. For more on Melissa Tamminga and to read her writings, follow @OneAprilDay.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Sage Marshall is a writer, poet and journalist from southwest Colorado currently living in Boulder.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 21-APRIL 19: “Love can’t always do work,” wrote

novelist Iris Murdoch. “Sometimes it just has to look into the darkness.” From what I can tell, you’ve been doing that recently: looking into the darkness for love’s sake. That’s a good thing! You have been the beneficiary of the blessings that come through the contemplation of mysteries and enigmas. You’ve been recalibrating your capacity to feel love and tenderness in the midst of uncertainty. I suspect that it will soon be time to shift course, however. You’re almost ready to engage in the intimate work that has been made possible by your time looking into the darkness.

TAURUS

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APRIL 20-MAY 20: Author Barbara Kingsolver says, “Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.” That’s always valuable advice, but it’ll be especially useful to keep in mind during the coming weeks. You’re probably going to feel more pressure than usual to tell others what they wish you would tell them; you may experience some guilt or worry about being different from their expectations of you. Here’s the good news: I’m pretty certain you can be true to yourself without seeming like a jerk to anyone or damaging your long-term interests. So you might as well say and do exactly what’s real and genuine.

GEMINI

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ken the rocks,” wrote playwright Tennessee Williams.

I think that’s a poetic but accurate description of the feat you’ve been working on lately, Gemini. You’re gently smashing through stony obstructions. You’ve been calling on your irrepressible will to enjoy life as you have outsmarted the rugged, jagged difficulties. You’re relying on beauty and love to power your efforts to escape a seemingly no-win situation.

Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: Cancerian rapper Vince Staples

says, “I feel like it’s impossible to be completely yourself.” Why? Because ideally we’re always outgrowing who we have become; we’re moving beyond the successes we have already achieved. There is no final, whole, ideal “self” to inhabit and express — only more and more of our selfness to create. Staples suggests we’d get bored if we reached a mythical point where we had figured out exactly who we are and embodied it with utter purity. We always have a mandate to transform into a new version of our mystery. Sounds like fun! Everything I just said, Cancerian, is an empowering meditation for you right now.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: “I am my own sanctuary and I can be

reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.” Singer-songwriter Lady Gaga said that, and now I offer it to you to use as your motto. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, it’s a fabulous time to be your own sanctuary. I invite you to rebirth yourself at least twice between now and the end of November. What’s the first step you’ll take to get started?

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: The NFL is a giant socialist

enterprise. It earns billions of dollars of revenue, and shares it equally with each of its 32 teams. So the team in Green Bay, Wisconsin, population 105,000, receives the same payout as the team in Chicago, population 2.7 million. I advocate a comparable approach for you in the coming weeks. Just for now, distribute your blessings and attention and favors as evenly as possible, showing no favoritism toward a particular child or friend or pet or loved one or influence. Be an impartial observer, as well. Try to restrain biases and preferential treatment as you act with even-handed fair-mindedness. Don’t worry: You can eventually go back to being a subjective partisan if you want. For the foreseeable future, your wellbeing requires cordial neutrality.

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‘Let it be’ and ‘Force it’?” asks Libran author Katherine Mansfield. I mention this because you’re now hanging out in the limbo zone between “Let it be” and “Force it.” But very soon — I’m sure you’ll have a clear intuition about when — you’ll figure out how to make a decisive move that synthesizes the two. You will find a way to include elements of both “Let it be” and “Force it.”

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: “I hold a beast, an angel and a

madman in me,” wrote Scorpio poet Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) in a letter to a friend. That sounds like a lot of energy to manage! And he didn’t always do a good job at it — although he did at times tap into his primal wellspring to create some interesting poetry.

I’m going to use Thomas’s words in your horoscope, because I think that in the coming weeks you can be a subtle, refined and a mature blend of a beast, angel and madperson. Be your wisest wild self, dear Scorpio!

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Activist and author Rebecca Solnit

writes, “The grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream.” In my astrological estimation, her grounds for hope should also be yours in the coming weeks. The future is more wide-open than you might think. The apparent limitations of the past are at least temporarily suspended and irrelevant. Your fate is purged of some of your old conditioning and the inertia of tradition. I encourage you to make a break for freedom. Head in the direction of the Beautiful Unknown.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa

doesn’t stand straight, but tilts at an angle. Why? The soil it was built on is soft on one side. So the marbleand-limestone structure began to tip even before it was finished. That’s the weird news. The good news is that the tower has remained standing for more than eight centuries — and has stayed intact even though four major earthquakes have rolled through the area. Why? A research team of engineers determined it’s because of the soft foundation soil, which prevents the tower from resonating violently with the temblors. So the very factor that makes it odd is what keeps it strong. Is there a comparable phenomenon in your life? I believe there is. Now is a good time to acknowledge this blessing — and enhance your use of it.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Even if you tend to pay more

attention to what’s going wrong than what’s going right, I ask you to change your attitude for the next three weeks. Even if you believe that cynicism is an intelligent perspective and a positive attitude is a wasteful indulgence, I encourage you to suspend those beliefs. As an experiment — and in accordance with astrological potentials — I invite you to adopt the words of activist Helen Keller as your keynote: “Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the world at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual.

Pessimism kills the instinct that urges people to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.”

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Researchers in the UK found

that 62% of the adult population brags that they’ve read classic books that they have not in fact read.

Why? Mostly to impress others. George Orwell’s 1984 is the top-rated book for fake claims, followed

by Tolstoy’s War and Peace, James Joyce’s Ulysses, and the Bible. I hope you won’t engage in anything like that type of behavior during the weeks ahead.

In my opinion, it’s even more crucial than usual for you to be honest and authentic about who you are and what you do. Lying about it might seem to be to your advantage in the short run, but I guarantee it won’t be.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY DAN SAVAGE

Call 720.253.4710

Dear Dan: Why are threesomes much more accepted in the popular imagination than foursomes? I was just googling “finding foursomes” and the first result is an article about threesomes that takes for granted that people are looking for MFF. That is a form of heteronormativity, right? I am not judging threesomes, of course, but asking why foursomes are perceived as more taboo. Would be interested in knowing more about what you think about this or if you have any resource to recommend as I am approaching this now with my partner for the first time.

—Willing To Foursome PS: Love what you do with your work.

(Full discloser/cumblebrag: I lost my virginity in a MMF threesome.)

Threesomes are heteronormative by design, e.g., they were arranged to fulfill a straight man’s standard-issue MFF fantasy, but judging from my mail just as many MFF threesomes are arranged to fulfill the same-sex desires of often-but-not-always-newly-out bisexual women who already have husbands or boyfriends — less heteronormative and more bisupportive/biexplorative. (My mail isn’t scientific evidence, I realize, but it’s what I’ve got.)

And for the record I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a heteronormative threesome. Straight guys should be allowed to have and be allowed to realize their sexual fantasies without Dear WTF: I don’t think the popular being shamed, just like everyone else, imagination has conspired against fourso long as they’re realizing them with somes or that foursomes ROMAN ROBINSON consenting adult partners. are really that much more And while straight guys taboo than threesomes, have historically done WTF. Rather, I think most of the judging and threesomes are easier to shaming of non-straight/ arrange than foursomes non-guys over the entire and the popular imaginacourse of human history, tion reflects that fact. the corrective isn’t to Think about it: Finding heap shame on straight two people who wanna guys with off-the-rack sexfuck each other is hard. ual fantasies. It’s to Finding three people who demand that no one all wanna fuck each other should be shamed for — Person A wants to fuck their sexual fantasies and Person B and Person C, Person B we demonstrate our commitment to wants to fuck Person A and Person C, that principle by not shaming anyone Person C wants to fuck Person A and — not even straight guys — who seek Person B — is harder still. Adding a to realize their sexual fantasies with Person D to the mix makes the wannaother consenting adults. fuckmath infinitely more complicated.

And finally, WTF, there is one place Which is not to say everybody fucks where foursomes are far less taboo and everybody during a threesome, of could even described as standard: the course, but at the very least everyone organized and mostly straight and often involved has to at least be OK with supremely heteronormative swingers’ fucking in very close proximity to every- scene. If you and your partner are of one else involved. the opposite sex and are interested in And while complicated to arrange or willing to settle for strictly heterosexand often emotionally tricky, WTF, ual sex where men are concerned, you threesomes aren’t really that taboo. might find more luck arranging fourAccording to research into sexual fanta- somes at swingers’ parties — once sies done by Dr. Justin Lehmiller, it’s those parties are possible again — than the single most common sexual fantasy. on dating apps.

More than 90% of men and nearly 90% of women fantasize about having a On the Lovecast, Dan consults a threesome, according to Dr. Lehmiller’s rabbi: savagelovecast.com research; according to other research, Send questions to mail@savagelove. roughly one-in-five people have actually net, follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavparticipated in at least one threesome. age and visit ITMFA.org.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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With friends like these...

Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin on ‘The Climb’

by Michael J. Casey SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

ON THE BILL: ‘The Climb’ opens in select theaters on Nov. 13. You can also stream Covino and Marvin’s 2017 short, ‘The Climb’ on vimeo. com.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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ike and Kyle are best friends. They’ve been best friends and will always be best friends. That might not always be in their best interest, but there it is.

Some people you attach yourself to, some people attach themselves to you. And, sometimes, those people sleep with your fiancée. “[Mike and Kyle have] just one of those relationships that’s so close it’ll never fully be broken,” Michael Angelo Covino says. “And you know that, so [The Climb is] about testing that relationship in various ways over time.”

Written by Covino (who also directs and plays Mike in the film) and Kyle Marvin (who plays Kyle), The Climb is a buddy comedy that doesn’t play the way you expect.

The movie opens with Mike and Kyle on a bike ride in France, on a steep hill climb, with Mike revealing he’s having an affair with Kyle’s fiancée. Even better, the scene unfolds in one unbroken 10-minute shot — an adaptation of Covino and Marvin’s initial short, also entitled The Climb. That Climb went to the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and netted Covino and Marvin plenty of attention: Attention that presented opportunity.

“If this short film actually had legs to stretch it out into a feature, what would that be?” Marvin recounts. “What would this friendship look like if we kept going?”

Using the bike ride as a starting point, Marvin and Covino continued to write more vignettes to follow Mike and Kyle throughout the years. And to maintain the look and feel of the original short, they filmed each vignette in single takes. As Covino explains, “to have an aesthetic that felt cohesive to what we were excited about in the short.”

“The short was just a foundation, but it had this sort of bittersweet comedy to it,” Covino continues. “And the aesthetic was very much like living in the immediacy of this long moment.”

An immediacy Covino and Marvin maintained by writing the script in an “elliptical style” with elaborate camera movements and choreography (shot by Zach Kuperstein, edited together by Sara Shaw.)

“Basically saying: OK, we’re gonna have this scene, and then we’re not going to tell all the information that usually is told between this scene and this scene. And we’ll jump ahead two years and let the audience pick it up over here,” Covino says. “The idea was always to live in those scenes, in real-time, in the moment, so we’re getting this slice of life.”

And that “slice of life” gives The Climb resonance. While the movie was on the festival circuit in 2019, Covino says the common reaction from audiences revolved around Mike and Kyle’s close-knit, albeit poisonous relationship. One person would ask why Kyle didn’t just cut Mike loose. “And then the person they came with is like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Covino recounts with a laugh. “Then they start arguing with each other.”

That’s what The Climb is about.

“That question of when someone is toxic, or when you take more than you give, or when you’re in an unhealthy relationship, what do we put up with?” Covino says.

And while most people’s relationships don’t experience the extremes of Mike and Kyle’s relationship, Marvin adds, “There are echoes of those dynamics that exist in everyone’s relationship.”

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

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IN THE OFF CHANCE you haven’t had the empanadas from Rincon Argentino — maybe you just moved here, maybe you never drive by that corner of Arapahoe and Folsom, maybe you intentionally avoid good things — let this be your catalyst. Rincon serves up hand-crafted empanadas stuffed with a variety of flavor-forward, balanced fillings fit for both the meat-loving and vegetarian crowds. Try the three-mushroom hongos variety, or the carne picante, with spicy steak, onions, peppers and green olives.

Every order of three empanadas comes with your choice of dipping sauce — hard to go wrong with the herbaceous, bright chimichurri — and you’ll love the flaky, lightly charred crust on each empanada.

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1 Drink this: Rice Beer @ Hapa Sushi Did you know Boulder Weekly has an Instagram?

Twitter and Facebook, too. You can find ’em all @BoulderWeekly, and you really should because you’ll find contests there that’ll net you gift cards to Hapa Sushi Grill & Sake Bar, a favorite ’round these parts. And when you go, make sure to order Hapa’s very own Rice Beer, made by Colorado Springs’ Bristol Brewing just for the sushi slingers.

It’s a lager brewed with 75% rice, light and fizzy, with carbonation that offers plenty of relief. That’s crucial for sushi: those salty, spicy, sweet and savory rolls pack quite a bit of flavor. Thankfully, Hapa’s Rice Beer has just enough hops to clean up your palate, just enough grain to cool the wasabi and just enough bitterness to prickle those taste buds back to life. It’s a dynamite food beer, one that’s good enough to drink sans sushi should you be looking to cut calories.

BOULDER WEEKLY

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What you eat matters The Flatirons Food Film Festival has organized an event that’ll set your eating habits right just before the holiday season. “What You Eat Matters: A Virtual Series on Health and Nutrition,” runs Nov. 14 with screenings of two documentaries: Sugar Coated, which investigates how the food industry got us eating so much sugar; and In Defense of Food, the documentary based on Michael Pollan’s seminal healthy-eating book of the same name.

Both programs will include a virtual discussion, and you can order some healthy takeout dinners from local restaurants to maximize your experience.

Each program is $10, or buy both for $16, and you can access the films and discussions until Nov. 22 if you can’t make it on Nov. 14. All the info you need is at flatironsfoodfilmfest.org/what-you-eat-matters.

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

What to drink with what you eat

Brewing together

Relying on the strength of the homebrew community during COVID-19

by Amy Martin What is civilization if it isn’t people talking to each other over a goddamned beer? — James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burning.

the woods with a breathtaking view of a nearby lake. I couldn’t imagine a better place to brew. As we were setting up, we saw a bald eagle gracefully floating in the sky above the lake — a good omen to set the day’s mood. hile I suspect there’s more that goes into civiliThe beer we selected: American IPA. Our malt bill was zation than beer, I think beer is a pretty good a blend of pale base malt, Munich malt and a small portion place to start. And homebrew might even be of caramel malt. We wanted to rely on a substantial malt better. backbone to balance out the heavy hop load — Columbus During what has been a tumultuous eight for bittering at the start of the boil, then Trident and months, one of the significant activities that brought me X09326 Experimental additions at 30, 15 and 0 minutes. solace is engaging in fellowship with (We’ll use Trident and X09326 for dry other beer lovers. As an extrovert, the PHOTOS COURTESY AMY MARTIN hopping once fermentation is comshelter-in-place order had been espeplete). Our club is fortunate to have cially challenging for me, but I was access to reverse osmosis water, grateful for Zoom happy hours, virtual which provided a blank slate for us to homebrew club meetings and build our water profile, so we added Homebrew Con online. There is somevarying amounts of gypsum, calcium thing special about the homebrew chloride, Epsom salt, magnesium chlocommunity that spans long distance, ride and canning salt. For yeast, we virtual communication — it’s a group of used SafAle US-05 because we didn’t accepting, warm people eager to listen want an overpowering yeast flavor. and share their passion with others.

We’re aiming for bold, tropical flavors I’ve never been part of anything like it. with subtle notes of citrus and passion This past Sunday, my local group fruit, and SafAle US-05 is clean, crisp in Michigan, Heartsease Homebrew and allows the malt and hop flavors to Club, gathered for our first socially disshine. tanced brew since pre-COVID times.

During the inevitable brewing Though very different from previous downtime, Daniel lit a campfire, and group brews, the ability to come togethwe cracked open a few beers. As we er as a homebrew community was rewarding and cathartic. spread out around the fire, you could feel the group taking We approached the brew with health and safety as our a collective deep breath and letting it out — the weight of utmost priority: brewing outside, wearing masks, maintaining the past eight months lightened simply by joining together. a distance of six feet or more and sanitizing everything. In Our conversation spanned many topics, some about the weeks leading up to the brew, we were giddy with excite- homebrewing, but most of them about the struggles of ment — it had been so long since we socialized this way. coping during the pandemic, the everyday things we Brew day arrived, and it was 68 degrees and sunny. missed, and our hopes for the future. It was a reminder We were hosted by two of our club members, Daniel and that beer has the power to unite despite differences in Christine Broder, who live on a gorgeous property deep in backgrounds and walks of life.

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s you start to plan your Thanksgiving menu, don’t forget to take beer into consideration. I suggest choosing just one beer for the actual meal and testing out these various pairings with your leftovers — but the power (and beer glass) is in your hands.

Turkey: Turkey usually has a mild flavor, so avoid beers that are brash and overpowering. Märzen’s German hops have a mellow yet present bitterness that’ll cut through the fat, while the malt’s warm, toasty notes and soft sweetness will accentuate the turkey’s natural juices.

Stuffing: Hearty, savory and made with a mélange of spices — I recommend Midwestern-style IPAs. The clean, slightly sweet malt profile won’t overwhelm, but the medium- to high-hop bitterness will stand up to the spices.

Mashed Potatoes: Whether creamy or chunky, buttery, garlicky or doused in gravy, mashed potatoes have a way of weighing down the palate. They call for one of my favorite overall food beers: Belgian tripel. The higher alcohol content and spice will break through the heavy starches while the beer’s refreshing effervescence dances across the palate.

Pumpkin Pie: Pie is my favorite part of the Thanksgiving feast, especially when served with a dollop of whipped cream. As I have many times in the past, I will be pairing my pumpkin pie with a pint of oatmeal stout.

When combined with the velvety pie texture, the stout’s creamy mouthfeel will result in an all-around decadent experience. The darker malt used in the brew evokes dark chocolate and roasted coffee both in aroma and flavor.

And when paired with the pumpkin pie spice and flaky crust, you’ll realize it’s a much better partner than a post-dinner coffee.

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Plenty of fish?

Seafood may provide a lifeline during the next catastrophe — so we should manage it better

by Matt Cortina

F

ile this one under: Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

New research out of the University of Colorado indicates that in the event of nuclear war, the amount of seafood that humans — those who survived the conflict, of course — could pull from the ocean would drop up to 30%; significant considering how depleted land-based agriculture would become.

“I have to admit the project is pretty bleak,” study coauthor Nicole Lovenduski, an associate professor in CU’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, says. “I study things like global warming and acidification of the oceans, which are already hard to study but this takes it to a whole new level.”

Lovenduski and her coauthors recently published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — it’s part of a multiyear research project lead, in part, by CU’s Brian Toon and researchers from institutes around the globe to determine the impacts of various scales of nuclear war across society.

Even a small nuclear conflict — previous research in the project uses India and Pakistan as an example — could not only cause massive loss of life in the region, but affect food systems around the world. Soot would fly into the stratosphere, beyond where airplanes fly, and it could quickly encircle the globe and block sunlight. And it wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while either, Lovenduski says.

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“Once the soot gets up into the stratosphere, it takes a while for it to come back out because there’s no precipitation,” she says. “It’s going to darken things pretty quickly.”

Because sunlight is reduced, the growth of plankton would be stifled. Plankton, from single-celled algae to tiny crustaceans like krill, are a foundational food source in the oceans, and a reduction in population would ripple up the food chain all the way to humans. A full-scale nuclear war — researchers use the U.S. and Russia as an example — would almost halve the amount of plankton in the ocean, which could cause some marine populations to die off entirely — to say nothing of the amount of humans that would perish in such a conflict.

The study didn’t delve into the question of how the increased radioactivity might impact sea life that survives, Lovenduski says, but early research from those studying the fallout from the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, indicates that disaster added only a very small fraction of radiation to what’s already naturally occurring in the oceans.

There are lessons we can pull from the study that’ll help us improve our food systems, whether there’s a nuclear war or not.

“If we do a good job managing our fisheries then we have a sustainable source of food for the foreseeable future, but if we overfish then we do not,” Lovenduski says — about one-third of fish species are over-fished today, for the record. “If we well-manage I

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

these fisheries and there were to be some conflict and our fish stocks were at healthy levels, fisheries could replace 40%” of protein that humans get from landbased food sources, for a few years, at least.

We can also look at the lessons of the study through the lens of climate change, which — depending on whom you ask — is a more pressing threat to humanity than nuclear war. But the idea of better managing natural resources is critical to surviving either existential threat.

“This [study] emphasizes the conservative use of resources in a very meaningful way,” Lovenduski says.

“If we’re not conservative in the way we use resources, we’re never going to make it through climate change or the nuclear war scenario.”

But, as with all complicated, global issues, change is only possible backed by political will. That starts with communities recognizing the need for more sustainable agricultural practices, both in the sea and on land, and asking for action — either because they’re worried about climate change, nuclear war or something else entirely.

Lovenduski says something’s got to give, because if COVID-19 was any indication, we’re not ready for the next big, life-altering disaster.

“When we first started this project three years ago, it was hard for me to imagine the scale of the food shortages that could result from a nuclear war. But when the coronavirus arrived, it opened my eyes — human behavior is interesting. The stores ran out of toilet paper, there were no cans on the shelves, and there was no fresh produce.

“It alarmed me in a way that carried into this project,” Lovenduski says. “I don’t think based on what I saw in March we’re prepared for a catastrophe.”

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Election fallout in the green industry

The fight for legal cannabis is making progress, but even under Biden presidency, there may be a long road yet to federal legalization

by Will Brendza

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f anything was actually clear on election night, it was the American people’s will to legalize cannabis.

New Jersey, Montana, South Dakota and Arizona all legalized recreational marijuana — and both South Dakota and Mississippi legalized medical marijuana. Every one of those measures passed by historic margins, reflecting the recent Gallup poll that showed a record 68% of Americans support legalizing cannabis.

But still, the road to federal legalization remains unclear — even under a Biden presidency. If the Senate remains under Republican control, as is likely, the chances of passing any of the three federal legalization acts currently in Congress remain slim.

No reason to give up hope entirely, though. While cannabis has never been high on Joe Biden’s list of priorities, he has suggested in the past that he’d be open to medical legalization, moderate rescheduling and states setting their own laws.

Biden once even boasted to Breakfast Club host Charlamagne tha God, “I know a lot of weed smokers.”

Which is more than Trump’s ever had to say on the topic.

In September, the Senate announced that it would soon vote on a potential game-changer: the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. This bill would not only remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, but it would also expunge convictions of non-violent cannabis offenses and clear up a major obstacle for cannabis businesses across the U.S.: banking.

That act alone would directly improve the lives of tens of thousands of Americans currently in prison for non-violent cannabis offenses. It would also make life for business owners in the cannabis

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

industry much easier.

Prior to Nov. 4, polls suggested that this bill would have a clear path to law, particularly considering it’s sponsored by then-Senator (now Vice President-elect) Kamala Harris, and cosponsored by seven other prominent senators including Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand.

However, in the likelihood the Senate will remain under Republican control, the MORE Act’s chances of passing have been tossed to the wind. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has proven to have little interest in passing meaningful legalization legislation and tends to block most bills sponsored and cosponsored by so many Democrats, anyway. That casts a dark shadow over the MORE Act’s chances of passing the Senate vote, scheduled for December.

Another cannabis-related act, known as the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act would finally allow banks and financial institutions to accept money from cannabis businesses. Currently that is still technically illegal, as marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. Meaning many — if not most — cannabis businesses are, to this day, still dealing solely in large quantities of cash. The SAFE Banking Act would resolve that issue; cannabis businesses could bank their money just like any other legitimate enterprise.

Ironically, there is still a chance this bill could pass in the lame-duck period before Biden is inaugurated, simply because the SAFE Banking Act language was sewn into the COVID-19 relief package passed in May — which has yet to actually become law due to Senate inaction.

That’s a slim chance, though. When that package passed, McConnell mocked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for affixing the SAFE Banking Act to the relief bill.

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“House Democrats’ huge new bill would cut taxes for blue-state millionaires, send government checks to illegal immigrants and — wait for it — mandate two separate taxpayer-funded studies of diversity in the cannabis industry,” he tweeted. “This is their effort at coronavirus relief?”

Similar to the other measures, the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, which has been the primary push to legalize cannabis for the last few years, is likely to hit a roadblock. This act would recognize states’ ability to legalize cannabis on their own, without federal intervention. It’s sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), and has over 60 cosponsors on both sides of the aisle — meaning it might actually have enough votes to pass in the Senate, which is why this is still considered the most hopeful path to federal legalization.

However, there are doubts about whether the STATES Act could pass through the Democraticcontrolled House. This act has been widely criticized among black and Latino caucuses for not addressing the systemic racial and social inequalities of the cannabis industry. According to Forbes writer Kris Krane, it’s unlikely that Democratic representatives would risk angering such important caucuses by passing this act in its current form.

OK, so what about executive action? Couldn’t Biden simply sign an order when he gets into office, commanding we reschedule cannabis, expunge the masses and smash away the shackles of prohibition?

He could. But it’s unlikely Biden will. Cannabis legalization and reform have never been pillars of his politics. It would surprise most analysts, political experts and cannabis business owners if Biden took swift and decisive action to enforce the legalization of cannabis federally.

Still, there are some, like Wall Street business analyst Vivien Azer, who remain hopeful that progress could happen under a Biden presidency. It’s at least more likely under Biden, than it has been under Trump.

“It’s not in the first hundred days,” Azar, senior research analyst at Cowen and Company told Business Insider. “But we do think [legalization] is on the ‘year one’ agenda.”

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

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