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Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has a tip if you're confronted by a space alien:

"Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance."

As to the issue of life on other planets, Hawking believes we're probably not alone but the chance of intelligent life is rare.

Rep. Douglas Bruce told reporters he would stir debate on a farm-workers bill but only managed to silence himself after calling migrant workers who would be in the country legally under a guest-worker program, "illiterate peasants."

Bruce, a Colorado Springs Republican whose behavior has alienated many members of his own party, was tossed out of the speaker's podium after he said Colorado doesn't need "5,000 more illiterate peasants."

Chris Barge and Alan Gathright report on the reaction:

Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, called Bruce's comments "premeditated bigotry."

Time magazine has recreated an iconic wartime photograph in the service of the environment - and some veterans feel like running it through a wood-chipper.

Stars and Stripes reports:

Time, on its April 21 cover in most parts of the world, takes the famous Iwo Jima photograph of Marines raising the American flag, and replaces the flag with a tree to discuss battling climate change.

Some veteran Marines are up in arms.

Dog bites are down substantially in Denver since a ban on pit bulls was reinstated in 2005, but other metro cities with similar bans are having mixed results.

April Washington reports:

For example, Aurora last year saw a surge in overall dog bites, from 137 in 2006 to 172 in 2007, leading some City Council members to ask if that city's ban against pit bulls and eight other "fighting breeds" is targeting the right dogs.

"From what I'm seeing, we need to focus on dog attacks as a whole," said Councilman Ryan Frazier. "If all of the city's resources are focused on certain breeds, then what about the other dogs behaving badly?"

Sen. Barack Obama apparently has decided not to be "bitter" about the way some of his recent comments about rural America have been perceived.

Instead, he's retreating to "Little Pink Houses" and trying to win fans back.

Tonight, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Philadelphia, celebrating what she hopes will be a big win in the Pennsylvania primary, Obama will be in Evansville, Ind., jammin' with middle American icon John Mellencamp.

You remember Mellencamp, the erstwhile "Cougar" and champion of rural America. On the night before the Iowa caucuses, he braved sub-freezing temperatures to perform an 11th hour concert for former Sen. John Edwards.

After Edwards suspended his campaign earlier this year, some folks thought he would immediately endorse Obama. He most definitely did not.

And in recent weeks, Edwards' backers like rural strategist Dave "Mudcat" Saunders heaped on the criticism of Obama after he was caught on tape (at a San Francisco fundraiser, no less) saying that folks in rural Pennsylvania are "bitter" and cling to their guns, religion and distrust of people who aren't like them because the government hasn't lived up to promises and fixed their economic woes.

"It could mean he's rendered himself unelectable," Saunders told the New York Times. "This is a perfect example of why Democrats lose elections."

And so, what's an alleged "elitist" (and son of a single mother from Kansas) to do?

Obama asks Mellencamp, a beloved figure in small-town America and his home state of Indiana, to help him build a fire wall in the Hoosier State.

Ain't that America...

I'm at the Park Hyatt in Philadelphia, where Hillary Clinton will eventually give her victory speech, assuming that she wins, which is what everyone assumes. Barack Obama is heading to Indiana, where the campaign heads next (along with North Carolina). And he's not here, because, well, you leave the building early when you think you've lost.