Bennet statement on terror probe reveals staff scramble for updates

An e-mailed statement sent Tuesday evening from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s office about an anti-terrorism investigation with Colorado ties inadvertently included a chain of more than a dozen e-mails from staffers scrambling to update the boss and worrying whether news organizations might conclude the state’s junior senator wasn’t “as much in the loop” as U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.

Post: Buck dropping out of Colorado Senate race as Norton prepares to run

Republican Ken Buck will drop out of the race for the U.S. Senate, The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels reports Friday night. Buck, the Weld County district attorney and veteran GOP campaigner, plans to make an announcement Monday, just days after…

Early Bird Special: Coyote hunt on ice, Littleton family ‘Shanghaied’ in China

Here’s our daily roundup of some of our favorite news from around Colorado.

• There will be no coyote hunting inside the Colorado Springs city limits, The Gazette reports. The city council “put a bullet between the eyes” of a proposal to issue permits to shoot the critters, citing more pressing concerns for the town government. Officials received an unusually high number of calls — most in opposition — about the plan, which would have restricted coyote season to certain times of day and required completion of a hunter safety course.

Sen. Bennet speeches looking good, on paper

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet has staked his claim in the health care debate, stressing “patient-centered care” and making solid arguments based on programs he says are working in Colorado. But it’s already campaign season on the ground in the state and Bennet’s senate floor speeches aren’t likely to ease doubts about his stump skills.

Fix blogger thinks — no, seriously — Beauprez most likely to take on Bennet

The question must be asked: Is Chris Cillizza high? At the very least, the prominent Washington Post political blogger, whose The Fix column is a must-read inside the Beltway, is cruising along at such an altitude as to call into question whether he knows what’s going on down here in fly-over country.

In Cillizza’s Friday Senate Line, he accurately frames next year’s Colorado Senate race, where appointed neophyte Michael Bennet is a virtual unknown who can’t dodge major issues, like the Employee Free Choice Act, forever. But there’s no sign of a credible Republican challenger, able to raise the big bucks and storm a state that’s been trending increasingly Blue. But Cillizza so clumsily blurs the details, we wonder whether whoever has been feeding him his Colorado scoop has been on vacation.

TPM: Colorado Senate appointment only one that wasn’t ‘botched’

After five Democratic governors found themselves in a position to appoint “fully five percent of the Senate” after the 2008 election, only Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter earned high marks, Matt Cooper assesses at Talking Points Memo DC.