Today is April 17, 2023 and here is what you need to know:

Acute staffing shortages at the two state-run mental health hospitals have left nearly half the nursing positions vacant mean more individuals than ever are languishing in jail cells in Colorado while they wait for court-ordered mental health treatment to restore them to competency so they can stand trial.

As of Thursday, 449 individuals incarcerated in jails in the state were in need of restoration treatment. The wait list reached an all-time high last month, despite state officials promising three years ago that nobody should have to wait in jail for more than 28 days for mental health restoration if they’ve been deemed incompetent for trial.

Court records show that at the end of February one individual had been waiting for 434 days for such court-ordered services. Among those with issues so acute that the lack of treatment posed a threat to themselves or others, the average wait for restoration services was 76 days that month. The state pledged three years ago that those with such acute problems deemed incompetent for trial would receive restoration treatment within a week.

The diminished care caused by the state’s inability to promptly treat mentally ill criminal defendants has been linked to suicides and incidents of crime and violence in Colorado jails.

In January 2021, a federal law went into effect that mandated the nation’s hospitals provide clear and easily accessible online pricing information so the public can know in advance how much a treatment costs.

To backers, the idea was to finally penetrate the murkiness of health-care charges to not only help patients make good choices when seeking care but expose overcharging and abuse.

In the more than two years since, though, adherence by many hospitals has been slow – and, in some cases, dismal.

It is especially troubling in Colorado, where not one of 32 of the state’s largest hospitals’ websites analyzed by an advocacy group had fully complied with the federal law, according to the nonprofit PatientsRightsAdvocate.org.

The national patient advocacy report found a range of noncompliance issues, with some hospitals only having one deficiency while others had multiple ones. The issues included failure to provide adequate price of a negotiated rate, to incomplete or overbroad descriptions of services which make price comparison difficult. 

Nationally, only about 1 in 4 hospitals were in full compliance, the organization’s review of 2,000 major hospitals found.

Marc Snyder was mayor of Manitou Springs when the Waldo Canyon fire devastated the city, killing two people, destroying 346 homes and becoming the most destructive wildfire in state history at the time.

Since the 2012 fire, Colorado wildfires have only become more common and more catastrophic. In the last three years, the state has endured the three largest wildfires in state history and its new most destructive wildfire, the Marshall fire, which destroyed over 1,100 homes and businesses in Boulder County in December 2021. 

Snyder, now a state representative, is trying to prevent this destruction with his new bill, House Bill 1273. If passed into law, the bill would create a grant program to incentive homeowners to make their houses more resilient against wildfires. 

“This is not going to, all by itself, solve the wildfire threat that we have here in Colorado,” said Snyder, D-Manitou Springs, “but it’s one of the many tools we have that we can utilize.” 

Under the bill, homeowners could apply for grants to pay for retrofitting or structural improvements to existing houses and other buildings, as well as for new builds and rebuilds. The bill requests $2 million for the grants, though Snyder said the grant program could also utilize federal funds which are expected to be made available in the coming months. 

For decades, a relatively few, huge U.S. satellites have patrolled from orbit to detect threats such as ballistic missiles. While still critical, American defense marked a shift in March when the first 10 of hundreds of planned military satellites launched from California.

As experts from around the world converge on Colorado Springs for the Space Symposium this coming week, managing and protecting tens of thousands of smaller, cheaper satellites, both military and commercial, projected to go into space is set to be major topic. 

In the coming years, the large numbers of new satellites also means Colorado Springs companies will have plenty of work as demand for operators, ground infrastructure and support services grow. 

“Colorado Springs represents an epicenter of satellite operations,” said Frank Backes, a senior vice president for Kratos Space Federal based in town. Kratos provides ground infrastructure, such as antennas, for satellites globally. 

The U.S. is shifting its space strategy to detect ballistic and hypersonic missiles among other threats as China and Russia ramp up their capabilities in space. For example, China launched a missile in 2021 that maneuvered late in flight as a hypersonic guide vehicle, showing an ability to move around radar, said Space Force Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, deputy chief of space operations, for operations, cyber and nuclear. She described the Chinese as launching just as much into orbit as the U.S. and “pushing past us” in some cases in capability, during a recent event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. 

Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead at the Colorado state Capitol.