DENVER – Coloradans who need health-care coverage starting on New Year’s Day now have even more time to sign up.

The CEO of the state’s health-care exchange, Patty Fontneau, announced Tuesday that staffers will help anyone who signs up by Friday to get coverage.

Monday was the original deadline, but Connect For Health Colorado at first extended it to Tuesday after the White House gave people in states without health-care exchanges more time to sign up.

Colorado’s call center was open until 6 p.m. Tuesday, closed today and will be back open on Thursday and Friday. People can continue to sign up online 24 hours a day.

Colo.’s gay-marriage backers watching Utah

DENVER – A campaign to overturn Colorado’s ban on same-sex marriage is on hold as backers wait to see the results of a federal ruling overturning a similar ban in Utah.

Jeremy Mathis of Aurora and Lisa Starcher of Colorado Springs began collecting signatures earlier this year for an initiative that would overturn the 2006 constitutional amendment passed by about 54 percent of voters.

Mathis told the Aurora Sentinel they originally hoped to get the proposal on the 2014 ballot but later delayed that until 2016 since other groups have failed to help them collect the over 86,000 signatures required.

Now, he says they’ve stopped collecting signatures as they watch the unfolding of developments in Utah as well as New Mexico. New Mexico’s highest court legalized gay marriage last week.

Gay-marriage rally draws 1,500 in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – About 1,500 same-sex-marriage supporters rallied in Salt Lake City to hail a judge’s decision paving the way for gay weddings in Utah.

The Deseret News reported the crowd massed at the Salt Lake City-County Building on Monday night. The celebration came days after U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby declared the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

Earlier Monday, he rejected the state’s request to halt the marriages pending its appeal of his Friday ruling. Utah officials then asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to temporarily stop the practice.

Air crew in Moab means faster responses

MOAB, Utah – A medical air-ambulance company says setting up operations in Moab has greatly improved response times in Utah.

Classic Lifeguard opened its Moab base in late July. Since then, officials said crews have responded to an average of 10 calls per month, involving everything from medical transfers to search-and-rescue operations.

Grand County Sheriff Steven White told The Deseret News that having the medical ambulance company nearby makes a difficult job a little bit easier.

He says the county’s search crews are well-equipped and well-trained, but reaching people in trouble has always been one of the biggest challenges they face.

Associated Press