Colorado: Nebraska

Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet announced today in a joint press release that they are now officially part of a moderate working group/coalition/thingy called "The Moderate Dems Working Group." According to the announcement:
The Moderate Dems Working Group will meet every other Tuesday before the Democratic Caucus lunch to discuss legislative strategies and ideas. The Moderate Dems held their second meeting Tuesday to focus on the upcoming budget negotiations and the importance of passing a fiscally responsible spending plan in the Senate.

Leading the new group are Democratic Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.

Gov. Bill Ritter today certified the first 18 "shovel-ready" transportation projects that will get about $145 million in federal stimulus funds.

The initial projects, with the amount of federal money they will get, are:

• Widening Colorado 9 in Breckenridge — $12 million

• Resurfacing Interstate 70, Vail Pass to Silverthorne — $8 million

• Resurfacing US 4-0/287 in the Ports to Plains Corridor — $12.5 million

• I-70 mountain corridor truck parking — $1.9 million

• Improvements to Interstate 25 through Trinidad — $7.8 million

• Reconstruction US 287, Campo to Hugo, Ports to Plains Corridor — $16 million

• Reconstruction Colorado 92, Austin to Hotchkiss — $11.9 million

• Reconstruction Colorado 13 at Rio Blanco Hill in Rio Blanco County — $13 million

• Safety improvements I-70/Colorado 82/ US 6 Exit 116 at Glenwood Springs interchange — $2.

February may be the month of love, but for white men, they certainly aren't getting any. At least not from the Obama White House, congressional Democrats, or the economy.

As The New York Times recently reported, women are now on the verge of making up a majority of the American workforce. The reason: women are less likely to work in the fields hardest hit by the recession, including construction and manufacturing. Men have been the recipients of 82 percent of all layoffs since the recession started.

"Given how stark and concentrated the job losses are among men, and that women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of this recession, women are now bearing the burden — or the opportunity, one could say — of being breadwinners," Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, told the Times.