A black-footed ferret AP

By Christa Marshall – Offering a dramatic shift in environmental policy, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators proposed legislation Wednesday that would pay landowners for protecting endangered species on their property.

Co-sponsored by Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar, the legislation would provide federal tax credits as high as $300 million to property owners who preserve or restore the habitats of endangered plants and animals.

“The Endangered Species Act has been around for 30 years. In that time, 1,300 species have been listed, but only seven have been recovered. We can do better,” Allard, R-Colo., said Wednesday at a press conference. “We have seen what works and what doesn’t work. We know we get better results if we work with land owners on recovery instead of against them.” >> MORE

Sen. Ted Kennedy AP

By John Aloysius Farrell – Nobody likes to think they’re old, said Ted Kennedy. No matter how many years a person has spent on this earth, “old” is always 15 years away.

Which means that Kennedy - who threw a glittery 75th birthday bash last night at his Washington home - won’t consider himself “old” until he’s 90.

Which is probably bad news for Republicans. >> MORE

By John Aloysius Farrell in Washington - Bill Richardson spent his childhood in Mexico City, the son of a Mexican woman and an American businessman. When his parents sent him to a fancy prep school in Massachusetts, his classmates named him Poncho.

But when he returned, each summer, to play baseball in a Mexican league, the fans called him Gringo, and cheered when he struck out.

Caught between two worlds, “I was conflicted,” the New Mexico governor confessed to a lunchtime audience of some 300 Latino leaders here today.

He spoke English during the day, and dreamed at night in Spanish. >> MORE

It used to be that voters had to wait for sporadic news stories or campaign events in their hometown to find out what a presidential candidate thought on a particular issue.

Now they can just head to a Web site and watch their favorite presidential hopeful speak on just about any topic, over and over.

In the latest example of the influence of cyberspace, Sen. Hillary Clinton has released her second online video, or “HillCast” on her 2008 campaign site. This time the New York senator tackles a subject crucial to the West: How to solve America’s energy crisis.
>> MORE

By Christa Marshall – Coloradan Jon Goldin-Dubois has been tapped to serve as the acting director of Common Cause, a government watchdog group that advocates for open government, clean elections and voting rights.

Goldin-Dubois, a lifelong resident of Denver, moved into the organization’s top position this month after Common Cause President Chellie Pingree decided to run for Congress. Goldin-Dubois had been serving as the organization’s executive vice president at its Washington D.C. headquarters when Pingree stepped down.

“It’s a very exciting time to be here (at Common Cause),” Goldin-Dubois said, adding that Denver will always be his real home. “You can’t always plan for opportunities like this.”

>> MORE

Could Obama’s smoking habit hurt him with voters?

Here’s the morning news wrap up…

A new Washington Post poll reported that gender and race matter less to voters in the 2008 presidential race than whether a candidate is divorced, smokes cigarettes or is a Mormon. Several of the current frontrunners fit the latter criteria: Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been divorced twice; Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a Mormon; and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama smokes cigarettes.

Five western governors announced Monday they were forming a regional initiative to combat global warming by setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For more information, see our exclusive interview with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano below.

A suicide bomber attempted to assassinate Vice President Dick Cheney by attacking the entrance to the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people and wounding a dozen more, the Associated Press reported.

Gov Bill Ritter supped at the White House before joining other governors in a meeting with President Bush, the Post’s Anne C. Mulkern reported.

Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis filed “a statement of candidacy� to run for the Senate seat of Sen. Wayne Allard, who is retiring next year. If he wins the Republican nomination, McInnis is likely to face Rep. Mark Udall in the general election.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano AP

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano was named one of the five best governors in the United States by Time Magazine in 2005. She also is the first female head of the National Governor’s Association. In Washington D.C. Monday, Napolitano announced an initiative with five other western governors to set regional targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. She also met with President Bush, and sat down for a 45-minute interview with MediaNews, which owns the Denver Post.

On conversations at the White House with Gen. Pace about National Guard units in Iraq…

The guarantee that there will be five years in between deployments (of the Guard to Iraq) has not been held to. There are concerns about the amount of equipment used in Iraq, and not replaced. In Colorado, like Arizona and other Western states, you have forest fires, and it’s pretty common that you use the Guard and their equipment to help with that. A lot of that equipment is overseas and has been rendered unusable, and the replacement hasn’t been there. I’m not sure the governors were happy with (Pace’s) response, but it was what is was. It seems like it will be an unduly long time before we see new equipment on the ground. >> MORE

Rev. Al Sharpton AP

Here’s the mid-morning news wrap up:

In a secret Monday visit to Pakistan, Vice President Dick Cheney warned Gen. Pervez Musharraf that his country risked losing American funding unless it aggressively tracks down al-Qaida fighters along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. U.S. intelligence officials have reported the resurgence of al-Qaida camps in the region, including several linked to a disrupted bomb plot last summer to hijack U.S.-bound airplanes.

In London, the United States pressed representatives from the U.N. Security Council to toughen sanctions against Iran for its continuing nuclear program.

Back at home, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of four security guards killed in Iraq by a mob, leaving the case to state courts. The decision comes after an Associated Press report last week that more than 800 civilian contractors, who are not included in official military tallies, have been killed in Iraq.

The Rev. Al Sharpton insisted he wanted a DNA test after Ancestry.com told the New York Daily News that Sharpton’s great-grandfather was a slave owned by relatives of late S.C. Sen. Strom Thurmond.

In Washington D.C., Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter pushed for increased funding for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory before heading to the White House with other governors to meet with President Bush.

And the American Psychological Association reported that many members of the U.S. military are not receiving adequate mental health care because of decentralized services and a shortage of psychologists, according to Reuters.

–Christa Marshall

I knew something good would eventually come from being a registered Republican in Denver.

It happened late last week. The Republican National Committee notified me that I am “among a select group … chosen to take part in the official 2007 Census of the Republican Party.”

I even have a registration number and a voting district code. >> MORE

The White House Reuters

By Christa Marshall - Americans have spoken about the 2008 presidential race, and their main thought appears to be “we’re not paying attention.”

A new poll by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported Friday that only 31 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of Republicans are monitoring the campaign, which is in full swing despite the fact that votes will not be cast for another year.

“Of the announced and highly probable candidates, only a few in each party are widely familiar,” said Andrew Kohut, Director of the Pew Research Center. “The results of in-depth questions suggest that the images of even the well-known candidates are fairly thin.” >> MORE

Former President Jimmy Carter said he hoped former Vice President Al Gore (above) would run for president AP

Here’s the midday news wrap up:

IN THE WEST…

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., has requested that the National Archives permanently loan a portrait of President Bill Clinton to the Colorado State Capitol. The painting is the only presidential portrait hanging in the rotunda that is not owned by the state of Colorado, the Post’s Anne C. Mulkern reported.

A month after raids at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 193 illegal immigrants working as janitors, including about a dozen in Colorado, as part of a crackdown on a Nevada-based cleaning service.

And Colorado Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar met with environmental groups about their objection to oil and gas drilling on the Roan Plateau. The meeting prompting criticism from representatives from the oil and gas industry.

AND THE REST…

In presidential politics, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack dropped out of the 2008 Democratic race, citing fundraising difficulties.

Former President Jimmy Carter called on former Vice President Al Gore to step into the race for the White House, saying Gore was his “favorite Democrat.”

And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would not endorse a candidate until after the 2008 Republican Convention, but added he thought Sen. John McCain or former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani could win the Republican primary in his state.

–Christa Marshall

Sen. Joe Lieberman AP

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman created a stir Thursday by hinting that he would consider joining the Republican Party if Democrats succeed in cutting off funding for the Iraq war.

Currently, Lieberman serves as an independent but caucuses with the Democrats, who hold a 51-49 majority in the upper chamber. If Lieberman were to switch parties, the Republicans would regain control because of Vice President Dick Cheney’s tie-breaking power in the Senate.

In an interview with the Politico, Lieberman said, “I have no desire to change parties. If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don’t feel comfortable with.” >> MORE

As guard-union leaders bristled, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales pronounced Supermax up to par after a two-hour tour Wednesday of the ultra-high security facility, the Denver Post’s Bruce Finley reported today.

The leaders warned that inadequate staffing of federal prison guards nationally has increased the potential for riots and caused penitentiaries to fight for the small number of guards available. >> MORE

By John Aloysius Farrell – It’s not that the front-runner fared badly: Sen. Hillary Clinton was her usual cool and competent self, parrying the critics’ knocks and wisecracks and vowing to use her presidency to bring universal health care coverage to all Americans.

But today’s presidential forum in Carson City must be scored as a triumph for the second tier of Democratic candidates, who have been urging their party’s voters to remain uncommitted, and fortified that argument in Nevada.

Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, Gov. Bill Richardson and the others showed the party rank and file that the Democratic field is deep indeed.
>> MORE

By Christa Marshall These things are starting so early, that we’re going to be debating the 2012 presidential campaign soon at the rate we’re going.

Almost a year before a vote is cast in a presidential primary, 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls engaged in their first campaign forum in a caucus or primary state, which really was a series of one-on-one discussions with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on a stage in front of a cheering crowd.

There seemed to be several not-so-surprising themes spoken by candidates at the Carson City, Nevada, event: President George W. Bush botched the war in Iraq, the United States should have universal health care, and Democrats should not speak ill of each other. >> MORE