We’ve been in Ft. Collins, Colorado, the past week stumping and doing some campaign vehicle work…  While in Wal Mart picking something up, I noticed the woman in line in front of me was buying six boxes of Cracker Jacks, that’s all.  I asked.  She said she had a soft spot for Cracker Jacks — “…because that’s where my first wedding ring came from.”  She continued that her husband was just back from Vietnam, was broke and found an orange plastic ring in a Cracker Jack box that he gave her, as, well, a down payment.  They’ve been married 40 years now and she held up a gold wedding ring with a big diamond in it.  “He’s done pretty well since then,” she smiled…  The other night, our family was invited to an outdoor barbeque at a local architect’s home in Ft. Collins.  He told me his profession has been hit hard by the recent recession, including the bubble bursting around the housing market.  I said with so many foreclosures, and people on the verge of foreclosure, it amazed me that more people haven’t gone to things like house sharing between families, or at least renting out a room to a single person, etc., to stay afloat financially.  I mean, common sense says it’s time to be creative.  On an earlier campaign tour, we learned Winona, Minnesota, actually had an online House Sharing Program that matched people according to housing needs.  Note:  An article in the Denver Post  today reported that the number of deaths among illegal immigrants crossing the Arizona desert from Mexico is soaring because of the increased heat.  Some 40 bodies have already been found and the deaths could top the single-month record of 68 in July 2005.  “Authorities think the deaths (men, women, children…) are likely due to the unrelenting heat in southern Arizona and the tighter border security that pushes immigrants to more remote, rugged and dangerous terrain.”  Several years ago, we did a “Border Tour” that took us into Juarez, Mexico, where we saw extreme abject poverty and thus: the reason some people come here.  On a radio show in Ocala, Florida, I said to turn our back (or build the fence higher) on such tremendous need is absolutely unconscienable.  That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t fight drug cartels, etc.; but it does mean we’d ramp up help to people in genuine need.