Senator Allard’s objections to the proposed Wall Street bailout….Looking into possible voter registration fraud in El Paso County…The latest Colorado poll numbers…and pine beetles.

Talking about Colorado’s homeland security in Denver, and break dancing in the Springs. Plus, Senator John McCain returns to the state, the Colorado Department of Education releases test scores, and Governor Ritter seeks federal assistance.

McCain visits the state and is favored by polled Colorado voters, DNC Chairman Howard Dean visits Mile High, the plague in Pueblo, and kayakers hit the World Cup.

Fireworks laws, a beef recall, firefighting air tankers, and wild horses and burros.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reversed its controversial assessment of the Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse, and now says it deserves protection under the federal endangered species act. That’s bad news for developers, who say federal protection of Prebles habitat along the Front Range is costing them billions of dollars in lost opportunities. Two years ago, Fish and Wildlife said new research proved that the mouse was so genetically similar to other, more common mice, that it could be removed from the endangered species list. That decision brought criticism from some rodent scientists, and now the agency is reversing its decision.

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UPDATE: Feds Say: Protect Preble’s Mouse in Colorado, But Not Wyoming
Read more about the decision HERE

Two Homicides in Pueblo This Week

Gas Leases Suspended for Environmental Concerns

Denver High School Clinics Ponder Offering Contraceptives

Report: Immigration Raids Traumatize Legal Residents

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Photo courtesy of Colorado Environmental Coalition

Industry Says Roan Platau Gas Worth $1 Billion

Ranchers: Army Hardly Uses Pinon Canyon

2nd Bear Attack in Aspen

Teacher at Christian High School Arrested on Sex Charges

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Some 250,000 hunters are expected to head into Colorado’s backcountry this fall, but national trend data says fewer young people are showing an interest. The trend has wildlife managers and hunting-dependent businesses concerned. KUNC’s Brian Larson reports.

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A proposed land swap in southwestern Colorado is generating controversy. Outside Durango, a company wants to expand a golf course and development onto neighboring land now owned by the Forest Service. In exchange, they're offering property that the government says could provide important habitat for rare native trout. Bente Birkeland reports.

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Paccione Drops Out of 4th CD Race

Private Developer to Build Housing on Petersen, Schreiver

Murder-Suicide in Fremont County

Cotopaxi Man Missing

Arapahoe, Douglas Counties Plan $20 Billion for Water by 2020

Boulder to Hire Urban Wildlife Coordinator

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Salazar Amendment Stalling Pinon Canyon Expansion Passes Senate

Feds Close Roads on Roan Plateau

Hunter Busted for Baiting Bear

Mountain Lion Kills Tiny Horse

Kelsey Grammer Fighting Parole for Sister’s Killer

DIA Needs More Snow Stuff

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The Preble’s meadow jumping mouse may get to stay on the federal endangered species list.

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is re-examining decisions made by former official Julie McDonald. McDonald resigned after the inspector general said she broke federal rules and should be punished for bullying federal scientists and improperly leaking information about endangered species to private groups.

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To offer customers the lowest prices, U.S. food retailers need to buy in volume, and that often means turning to producers who are thousands of kilometers from where shoppers fill their grocery carts. But as consumers grow more concerned about fossil fuel consumption and sustainable agriculture, they’re demanding more locally grown food on their store shelves. And some retailers are responding. Reporting on how this trend is taking hold in Colorado, here’s Shelly Schlender.

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Intrepid Noel Black
does the radio dumpster diving,
so you don’t have to.Like a pony head, but spicy…

This week on The BIG Something, Noel interviews Paul Asay, religion writer for the Colorado Springs Gazette. We also hear Episcopalian Bishop John Spong talk about Jesus for the non-Religious. And then there’s the spicy pony head.

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GOOD NEWS FOR COLORADO NATIVE FISH
In 1993 another Colorado native fish was named to the state’s endangered species list: The Rio Grande Sucker. Found nowhere else in the world outside the Rio Grande river drainage in Colorado and New Mexico, these little fish have been the focus of Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists, who’ve been working to preserve and grow the number of remaining suckers. Their efforts got an unexpected boost last fall, when a new population of Rio Grande Suckers was discovered in Crestone Creek, in the San Luis Valley. Shanna Lewis reports.

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