Presidential Politics; Health Care for Kids

The 2008 presidential election may be 17 months away, but the candidates seem to be everywhere. Print senior Rachel Cook, who's reporting this summer for the Post Register in Idaho Falls, caught up with Republican hopeful Mitt Romney on his second visit to Idaho in recent weeks. She managed to get a couple of minutes with the former Massachusetts governor and his wife. She reported that the crowds were enthusiastic, but some onlookers weren't quite sold.

Meanwhile, print senior Jennifer Donohue is looking at politics from the inside. She's interning on the Democratic press team for the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus of Montana. Jennifer, who interned this winter with Montana's Legislature, says the federal system is a bit more complex. Her days consist of collecting and distributing daily clips, writing press releases, attending hearings and other meetings, researching and gathering information. "Right now most of my releases focus on the renewal of the State Childrens Health Insurance Program bill," she writes. "This is particularly interesting to me, because I believe strongly in the concept and I witnessed the debate over CHIP at the state level during my internship last semester."