AP

Sen. John Kerry has been on a public relations blitz lately, several weeks after his “botched joke� about uneducated Americans ending up in Iraq got him into hot water.

Appearing on CNN last night, Kerry said “I botched a joke. Bush botched a war. This is getting silly.� He repeated that he was referring to Bush rather than soldiers when he said “you end up getting stuck in Iraq� if you don’t stay in school.

Still, Kerry came in dead last on a recent poll from Quinnipiac University ranking the popularity of national leaders. Some pundits have suggested that Kerry’s recent gaffe was damaging enough to dash his presidential hopes in 2008. >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern – U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo welcomed Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s criticism Wednesday, saying it helps him publicize the immigration issue.

On Wednesday, Bush criticized Tancredo’s statement that Miami resembled “a Third World country.”

“What a nut,” Bush told reporters. “I’m just disappointed … he’s a Republican. He doesn’t represent my views.” >> MORE

By Bruce Finley — A federal judge on Wednesday declared the end of the government’s four-year case against a Denver Pakistani-American family once targeted by the FBI as terrorists.

Family members whose lives were turned upside down simply wept. “We’ve lost everything,” longtime Colorado restaurateur Abdul Qayyum said. >> MORE

An environmental activist holds a sign up outside the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday Getty

By John Aloysius Farrell – A coalition of states, environmental groups and other foes of global warming asked the U.S. Supreme Court today to compel the balking Bush administration to regulate greenhouse gases.

James Milkey, an assistant attorney general for Massachusetts, told the justices that his state and others were already losing coastline to rising seas, and that the problem “is only going to get worse” if the Environmental Protection Agency continues to refuse to act.

The Aspen Skiing Company has filed an amicus brief in the case, saying federal regulation is needed to safeguard Rocky Mountain ski areas from the loss of seasonal snowpack, which is shrinking now as temperatures rise, and could cause long-term damage to the Colorado tourism industry. >> MORE

By Christa Marshall – Denver experienced one of the worst voting fiascos in the country during the recent midterm elections and the reported problems were “the tip of the iceberg,” a Denver election official said in Washington D.C. Wednesday.

Scott Doyle, election clerk for Larimer county, said it was a misconception that the city’s only problem was computer crashes of “electronic poll books” intended to verify voter’s identities via a statewide database.

“If the electronic poll books had worked perfectly, Denver still would have had problems,” said Doyle. ” I don’t think there was enough voting equipment.” >> MORE

By Aldo Svaldi – Continued strength in consumer and business spending is counterbalancing a deepening slump in the housing market, according to several economic reports released Wednesday.

In Colorado and neighboring states, a Federal Reserve survey of regional economic conditions showed moderate economic growth and stronger-than-expected retail sales - but also weakening housing prices. >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern in Washington - U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado has called Miami “a Third World country,” sparking a war of words between the congressman and the president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“You would never know you’re in the United States of America,” Tancredo said of Miami to the website WorldNetDaily.com when asked about the effects of immigration. “You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.” >> MORE

By Kim McGuire — Even though the number of new oil and gas wells drilled on federal land continues to skyrocket, a new government survey shows vast areas of energy-rich public land are off-limits to development.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management inventoried more than 99 million acres of federal land � stretching from Alaska to Florida � that hold 76 percent of the nation’s federal onshore oil and gas resources. >> MORE

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By Andy Vuong – Three Fortune 500 companies - citing civic support and not politics - have pledged at least $11.5 million in cash and in-kind contributions for Denver’s bid to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Qwest and Comcast have pledged $5 million each, and Xcel Energy $1.5 million, said attorney Steve Farber, co-chairman of Denver’s host committee.

The goal is to raise $20 million from the Colorado business community as a part of the $80 million tab for the convention. It would be held at the Pepsi Center in August 2008 and attract an estimated 35,000 attendees to the city. >> MORE

By Bruce Finley — A federal judge has ordered Denver to pay $1.2 million to a veteran firefighter wrongfully dismissed in a case of age discrimination and firehouse malice.

The amount granted by U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ranks among the largest payouts the city has faced.

Yet Denver firefighter Bill Cadorna, 54 - fired after a boss falsely accused him of shoplifting a cookbook and then not rehired - still was devastated Tuesday even as he learned of the award. >> MORE

By Elizabeth Aguilera – Latino voters leaned heavily Democratic in the recent midterm elections, indicating the heated debate over immigration reform may have cost Republicans support in some key races, an analysis released Monday indicates.

A study of exit polls by the Pew Hispanic Center showed 69 percent of Latino voters supported Democrats, up from 58 percent in 2004. That compares with a 6 percentage- point increase in Democratic support among white voters.

“It’s about more than just the immigration issue; it’s about how some Republicans talk about the issue,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “They left the impression that it wasn’t just about immigration but that (the Latino) community was being targeted in the same way the gay community was targeted in 2004.” >> MORE

AP

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill, are the most popular national leaders, according to a new poll released Monday.

The latest “thermometer reading� from Quinnipiac University, which conducts independent polling, ranked the popularity of politicians on a scale of 1-100 by interviewing 1,623 registered voters.

Republican Sen. John McCain, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and former president Bill Clinton rounded out the top five, followed by now-independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. >> MORE

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer Post

By Karen E. Crummy in Helena, Mont. - In a state where voters backed a Republican candidate in nine of the past 10 presidential elections, Democrats suddenly find themselves in control of almost everything.

In the past two years, the party has taken control of the governor’s office, the state Senate, and - depending on a Tuesday recount - has maintained a split in the state House. In the November general election, the party’s U.S. Senate candidate also beat an entrenched Republican incumbent.

That makes Montana a political laboratory for national Democrats trying to determine what elements are needed for retaking the White House in 2008. >> MORE

By Claire Martin and Virginia Culver – Enoch Needham, who died of cancer at age 58 on Friday, served as The Denver Post’s chief telegraph editor, an archaic job title that suited his firm view that newspapers should educate readers about how the world affects their lives.

“He could scan the hundreds of wire stories that come flooding in from around the world every day and zero in on the most compelling, vivid reads - the pieces that best reflect the strangeness and variety of the world,” assistant city editor Mark Harden said. >> MORE

By Christa Marshall — A song lyric from the movie “South Park” proclaims “Canada…they’re not even a real country anyway,” but according to Rep. Tom Tancredo, the concept is not a joke.

The Colorado Republican has been in the news Thanksgiving week, warning that President Bush is a dangerous internationalist set on transforming the North American Continent into a psuedo-European Union with a common currency.

Appearing on Fox News, Tancredo accused Bush of wanting to create a “United States of Mexico and for Canada” via a little-known plan called the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP. >> MORE