In brief: Supreme Court will hear emissions case

Washington – The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether to block key aspects of the Obama administration’s plan aimed at cutting power plant and factory emissions of the gases blamed for global warming.

The justices said they will review a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that upheld the government’s unprecedented regulation of six heat-trapping gases.

The question in the case is whether the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate automobile emissions of greenhouses gases as air pollutants, which stemmed from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, also applies to power plants and factories.

The justices declined to take up even larger questions posed by some of the appeals, including whether the 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA should be overturned.

Colorado group seeks another recall

Denver – When two Colorado lawmakers were recalled last month in a referendum on gun control, opponents of the recall election had this to console them: At least, they said, the twin defeats did not alter the balance of power in Denver, the state capital.

Now gun rights advocates are looking to change that.

Organizers have received official go-ahead to start gathering signatures in a bid to oust state Sen. Evie Hudak, a Democrat from the Denver suburb of Westminster, who was the target of a failed recall petition drive earlier this year. The group, certified by Colorado’s secretary of state, has until Dec. 3 to collect just over 18,900 signatures to force a vote.

The stakes: control of the state Senate, which Democrats hold by a tenuous 18-17 edge.