Author: Kelly Burke

The man who gunned down an abortion doctor in a Kansas church was sentenced today to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years. Judge Warren Wilbert told Roeder said there were no mitigating factors to convince him to give Roeder a lesser sentence.
Roeder was found guilty in January of first degree murder for shooting Dr. George Tiller in the face in the foyer of Tiller’s church. Roeder was also convicted of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening two church ushers while made his escape.
At issue today was whether Roeder would be sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 25 years, or receive the harsher “Hard 50” sentence. Under Kansas law a judge can hand down the Hard 50 (no possibility of parole until after 50 years have been served) if prosecutors provide evidence of an “aggravating circumstance” that make the crime particularly reprehensible. Judge Wilber ruled that several aggravating circumstances existed in Roeder’s crime, chief among them the fact that Roeder chose to commit his murder inside a place of worship and put many other people in danger.
Scott Roeder interrupted Prosecutor Ann Swegle’s cross examination of defense witness psychologist Dr. George Hough. They were discussing the Dr.’s opinion as to whether Roeder acted rationally when he killed Dr. Tiller. “To protect unborn babies. I can’t just sit here anymore,” Roeder shouted. The Judge admonished Roeder and threatened to have him removed from the courtroom if he interrupted proceedings again. Roeder was later allowed to read a long, rambling statement punctuated with Bible quotes he had written. In it he angrily justified his killing of Dr. Tiller as necessary to prevent the “murders” of unborn children because, he said, government had failed to protect them. Roeder’s own attorney, Mark Rudy, appeared uncomfortable as he sat next to his client during the latter’s 40 minute diatribe. Judge Wilbert finally cut Roeder off when the convicted killer began to call for the ouster of Sedgewick County D.A. Nola Foulston. As the day dragged on, Roeder repeatedly resumed his statement, only to be stopped again and again by the Judge.
Members of Tiller’s family shed tears of relief as the sentence was imposed.

In 2008, riding high on the backlash against Republicans, Democrats celebrated Barack Obama’s nomination on a stage in Denver, Colorado. It was the high point of a Democratic surge in West according the Colorado pollster Floyd Ciruli. “It really, just about the mid-last decade, began moving dramatically toward the democratic side. And in the case of Colorado, when in 2008 the President won the state by 9 percentage points, that’s more than he won nationally. Typically it’s hard for a democrat to win the presidency here much less win it by more than his national average.”

A year and a half later polling shows the western Democratic tide may turn. According to the Cook Political Report, four western governor seats currently held by Democratic incumbents (Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Oklahoma) are toss-ups, leaning or likely to become Republican in this year’s elections. Three western U.S. Senate seats held by Dems from Colorado, North Dakota and Nevada are also listed as in jeopardy, as well as Democratically held House seats from Colorado’s 4th District, Idaho’s 1st District, New Mexico’s 2nd and Nevada’s 4th.

Colorado’s Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams says the Democrats’ problems can be traced to the West’s notoriously independent electorate. “Those unaffiliated voters in Colorado and throughout the Rocky Mountain West who swung so heavily to President Obama and Democratic candidates in the last two election cycles, have now rejected the Obama, Democratic agenda. And they’re coming back towards Republicans and that’s our opportunity in 2010.”

Political Analyst and Fox News Contributor Michael Barone believes the Democrats western success in 2008 was largely because they were able to bring sizable numbers of new voters to polls. “They brought young voters, they brought hispanic voters into the electorate that hadn’t been there before. They delivered for Barack Obama in 2008, and now the polling evidence suggests that they’re not so enthusiastic for him any more and are disapproving of the job he’s doing.”

And that dissatisfaction with the policies of the leader of their party, Ciruli says, makes it very hard for Democratic incumbents in an off-year election. “And I think Obama by so committing himself to health care is essentially telling these democrats you’re on your own.”

Pat Waak, who chairs the Colorado Democratic Party, believes when voters fill out their ballots seven months from now, their focus will not be on Washington, D.C. “People tend to look at their candidate, look at their voting record and they’ll make their decisions on that basis and not what’s happening a thousand miles away.” Those Colorado voters, having lead the Democratic advance into the American West, will be closely watched on election day according to Ciruli, “Colorado is really the harbinger of what’s going on in the country politically, particularly throughout all of the West. “

Election day is still a half year away, but if the current trend stays on track the American West may once again take on a reddish tinge in November.

A revolution in electrical power storage may soon make changing batteries a thing of the past.  Most batteries in use today are based on decades old technology which uses chemicals to store electricity for short term use. When batteries run out, most are tossed. Those that are rechargeable have to juiced over and over and over again.

Companies like Infinite Power Solutions in Littleton, Colorado have succeeded in developing what are known as thin film batteries, as small, and as thin, as a postage stamp. Most batteries (the one in your cellphone for instance) leak energy even when not in use. Thin film batteries, based on solid state technology, retain almost 100% of their charge. “Charge it once, it won’t leak, it will be there 20 years from now.” IPS VP Tim Bradow says thin film technology is already advanced enough to power the kind of wireless sensors used in everything from remote controls, smoke detectors, motion detectors, safety sensors on bridges, oil rigs, pipelines and airframes. Bradow says more powerful thin film batteries are just a few years away. “To serve applications like MP3 players and possibly cell phones and maybe within a number of years, maybe even laptops.”

Several companies are researching and developing this new generation of batteries, but IPS has gone even further. They’ve developed technology which can absorb leftover ambient energy emitted by everything from natural and synthetic light, radio waves from things like cellphones, mechanical vibrations from automobiles, even the heat produced by your own body. While this ambient energy comes in extremely small amounts, if continually captured and stored in batteries that do not leak, an essentially untapped energy resource can be harnessed.

Tim Reeser, a researcher at Colorado State University says this new generation of battery technology is absolutely necessary if the U.S. is to move ahead on clean energy development and away from fossil fuels. “Being able to use clean energy like solar panel electricity or wind generated electricity. In order to take advantage of that we need an electric transportation system that will and can dramatically change the world.”

For now, most of us would settle for not having to constantly replace or charge the batteries in our phones, laptops and other portable electronic devices.

Update: 18:00
Pastor Kristin Neitzel of the Reformation Lutheran Church testified that she saw Scott Roeder at an evening service the night before he shot Dr. George Tiller. She says Roeder had been pointed out to her previously by ushers as someone who might cause a disruption. He arrived late at the service she says he attended the evening before the shooting. She testified that she followed him out of the church and watched him get into a car and drive away. Pastor Neitzel also testified Roeder had left a note asking if the church was non-profit.
On the morning of the shooting the senior pastor left when the noise that turned out to be a gunshot was heard coming from the foyer. She took over and continued the service until she was told what had happened and stopped the service.
After a brief cross examination by the defense Pastor Neitzel was excused.
Testimony has ended for the day and will continue Tuesday morning.
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The second day of testimony in the trial of the Scott Roeder got underway Monday morning. Roeder has admitted killing Dr. George Tiller while the abortionist was attending services at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, KS. Fox News Producer Michel Brewer is attending the trial and provided the following information.
This morning church usher Keith Martin took the stand to describe how he heard a gunshot before turning to see Tiller lying on the floor while Roeder ran out of a nearby door. Martin testified that when he chased Roeder outside to where the gunman’s car was parked, Roeder pointed the gun at him and told him to move or he would shoot. When Martin stepped aside Roeder drove away.
Martin also testified that he had seen Roeder at the church months before, and when he noticed him on the day of the shooting he wondered why Roeder was carrying a Bible, which members of the church rarely did since the passages needed for services were always printed in the church bulletin.
In response to questions from the prosecution Martin said the Reformation Lutheran Church has had previous problems with anti-abortion activists disrupting services.
On Friday, the first day of testimony in the trial, prosecutors had objected strenuously any time the defense attempted to elicit comments about abortion or abortion protests from witnesses. Their willingness to ask Martin about the issue directly might be a designed to tackle the issue themselves, on their own terms.
After breaking for lunch, the prosecution has resumed its questioning of Keith Martin.