After deliberating for about two-and-a-half hours a jury in Colorado Springs municipal court said they had differences that weren’t going to be resolved. City Judge Robert Warren then declared a mistrial. It’s now up to the city whether to re-file charges and bring the case again. Scott Patlin, the lead prosecutor for the city at the trial says he expects the city will re-file. The mistrial came after a day and a half of testimony and arguments in the city’s case against seven people it says intentionally obstructed the St. Patrick’s day parade last March.

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Bill for universal health insurance in Colorado: $26 billion.

Pueblo County Commissioner resigns for job with John Salazar.

Copper wire thieves cost the Colorado Springs Utilities $658,000.

Power consumption in Colorado Springs sets new record, again.

Klansman to be sentenced in case Springs man helped re-open.

Marilyn Musgrave asks feds for more time to comment on a proposed uranium mine in Weld County.

Feds take control of the state’s eighth-largest credit union.

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The City of Colorado Springs called 13 witnesses in municipal court Thursday to try and prove that seven people deliberately obstructed the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the city last March. The defense says that’s simply not true. The City says it was just trying to maintain public safety, the defendants say their first amendment rights were stepped on.

The trial continues Friday, two more witnesses are scheduled to testify before closing arguments. It will then be up to a jury of four women and two men to decide the guilt or innocence of the so-called St. Paddy’s Day 7.

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Once a month we bring listeners an extended interview with Governor Bill Ritter, courtesy of KCFR – Colorado Public Radio in Denver.

This month Gov. Ritter talks about Colorado’s response to the Minnneapolis highway bridge collapse, and winning more time to comment on federal plans for drilling for natural gas on the Roan Plateau in western Colorado.

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Governor Bill Ritter has issued a disaster emergency order letting more trucks haul wheat because there aren’t enough commercial transports to handle this year’s bumper crop. The order, issued today, allows vehicles with farm license plates to enter commercial service hauling wheat to elevators, railroad sidings or markets. Colorado law says farmers can only use vehicles with farm license plates for hauling their own crops, for farming purposes or for personal transportation. Ritter’s order expands that to include commercial hauling for 45 days. Ritter said that without the order, millions of dollars worth of wheat could be damaged or lost while sitting on the ground awaiting transport. State officials said Colorado’s 87-million-bushel wheat harvest is the largest in nearly 10 years, and double last year’s. Good snow cover protected the crop and provided the moisture it needed. But many truck and rail carriers that once hauled wheat have gone out of business because of the drought, low wheat prices and high fuel prices, officials said.

In our news reports of 8.22 and 8.23 we incorrectly identified Tony Abdo as a defendant in the city’s case against the “St. Paddy’s Day 7,” Mr. Abdo marched in the parade but is not a defendant in the case. We regret the error and apologize.

The seven peace activists arrested in Colorado Springs’ St. Patrick’s Day parade last March go on trial Thursday morning.

The seven were arrested after the organizer of the privately-sponsored parade, John O’Donnell, asked police to remove them. He said some of those marching under the permit of The Bookman bookstore were carrying signs that violated a signed agreement between himself and The Bookman that parade entries would not espouse social messages.

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When it comes to offsetting the impacts of energy development in Colorado, places near coal mines are getting shortchanged compared to communities that are home to a lot of oil and gas workers. That’s according to a new state audit of severance tax money earmarked to offset negative energy impacts. Bente Birkeland reports from Denver.

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The number of Court-approved wiretaps are rising dramatically in Colorado, resulting in more drug arrests but raising privacy concerns.

Forest Service contractors have begun thinning stands of ponderosa pine in a 200-acre tract of the Rio Grande National Forest to reduce fire danger and improve big-game habitat.

Tom Tancredo says the parents of the New Jersey schoolyard slaying victims should sue the city for negligence.

No institution of higher learning in Colorado has made the Princeton Review’s annual list of top 10 party schools for 2008, but the U.S. Air Force Academy ranks number 7 on it’s list of schools that are, “stone, cold sober.”
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Andrew Pogany, an investigator with the national non-profit group Veterans For America, has vocally and persistently complained that soldiers with combat-related mental health problems at Ft. Carson have been mistreated and received sub-standard care. Some, he says, have been kicked out of the army on trumped up charges when what they really needed was behavior health treatment.

But he says recent changes at Ft. Carson have good potential to help rectify the situation.

“I think it’s probably one of the best things that has come up out of this entire dilemma and all these problematic issues that have surfaced over the past 4 years,” says Pogany.

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Col. Kelly Wolgast took command of Evans Army Community Hospital at Ft. Carson in June. She takes the reins at a time when Army health care has been taking a beating in the media. Col. Wolgast talks to KRCC about the challenges she faces.

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