Lew Gaiter, Larimer County Board of Commissioners, 10/17/2017 by The Colorado Independent

In a series of three tweets Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered a ban on transgender military service, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption” as a rationale for his decision. In the aftermath, host Kelsey Ray sat down with Emma Shinn, a defense attorney, retired U.S. Marine Captain and transgender woman. Emma retired from the Marines in 2014 and began her transition last year. Today, she has an appointment for her temporary disability retirement list reevaluation, which she hopes will clear her to return to active duty. In this episode, Emma shares her own story, explains why open trans service is so important and calls the president's bluff when it comes to medical costs for transgender service members.

A major vote on healthcare is expected in the Senate early next week, and Senate Republicans still aren’t sure what they’ll be voting on. The proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is almost certainly short of the votes it needs to pass, and plans to repeal and not replace Obamacare likely won’t fare much better. Republicans still don’t have a clear plan moving forward, confusion is gripping the Senate, and nobody seems to know for sure what’s going on. Luckily for you, we have Mike Littwin, a longtime political columnist and overall good bet for making sense of things in times of chaos. He joins host Kelsey Ray to talk repeal-and-replace, repeal-and-delay and why Sen. Cory Gardner is stuck "between a mountain and a hard place."

Two weeks ago, reporter Corey Hutchins broke the news that President Donald Trump's voter fraud task force had demanded that Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams turn over the personal information of registered voters. Since then, thousands of Coloradans — 3,394, to be exact — have cancelled their voter registration. Hundreds more have chosen to become "confidential" voters, a classification reserved for those who fear for their safety. And the task force has now extended indefinitely its deadline to turn in the information, leaving those who unregistered with the intention to soon get back on the voter rolls in limbo. On this week's episode, host Kelsey Ray catches up with Corey to hear more about the "confusion" and "hysteria" that has followed Trump's task force — and where things could be headed from here.

Longtime disability rights advocate Carrie Ann Lucas is a dedicated activist, but she usually avoids risking arrest — she is, after all, an attorney. That changed last week, when Lucas and nine other ADAPT disability rights protesters found themselves carted off to jail after a multi-day sit-in at Sen. Cory Gardner's office. Protesters had vowed not to leave the office until Gardner pledged to vote against the Republican Senate proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act. They were ultimately charged with trespassing and held for more than 30 hours. Lucas sat down with host Kelsey Ray to talk about Medicaid cuts, tracking down Sen. Gardner and why some fights are worth getting handcuffed over.

On July 9, 2010, 56-year-old Marvin Booker was arrested on an outstanding warrant for drug possession. As he waited in the booking area into the wee hours of the morning, he took his shoes off. When his name was finally called, he walked sock-footed to the booking desk. But when he turned back to pick up his shoes, things went awry. A deputy grabbed him. He swung his arms and resisted. Officers wrestled him to the ground and put him in a sleeper hold. Then, Seargeant Carrie Rodriguez shocked him with a taser. Minutes later, he was dead. This week, editor Susan Greene reported on a shocking accusation from Booker's family: that the Taser used in the killing of Marvin Booker was switched out for a different one — not once, but twice.

Colorado's population is expected to grow from about 5.5 million in 2016 to as many as 10 million people by 2050. Unless we start to act more aggressively on conservation, experts predict that our arid state will run out of water by then. Reporter Marianne Goodland is on the podcast this week talking policy, predictions and why she likes to say Colorado could actually use a big drought.

Tina Griego, our managing editor, recently realized that for all the stories she'd written over the years about affordable housing, gentrification and changing neighborhoods in Denver, she hadn't given a thought to perhaps the most destructive effect of they city's housing crisis: eviction. Rising rents and a booming population have pushed some Denver residents to spend higher and higher portions of their incomes on housing, putting tenants into frighteningly precarious situations. For this episode, Tina explains how we got here, what life is like under the threat of eviction and the steps the city is taking to solve this growing problem.

Veteran political columnist Mike Littwin comes on the Indy Weekly Podcast to talk about the James Comey hearing, the unlikelihood of impeachment and why nothing — not even Watergate — quite compares to this.

During the 2017 legislative session, finding a way to pay down some of Colorado's $9 billion list of fixes to roads and bridges was a top priority for state lawmakers. One bill, which would have asked voters to approve a sales tax to generate about $3.5 billion, died in the Senate. But the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) did get a smaller downpayment — about $1.9 billion — from a bill to save rural hospitals. Reporter Marianne Goodland sat down with CDOT Executive Director Shailen Bhatt to learn what that means for his agency — and why Colorado still needs a far-reaching transportation solution.