AP: Obama aunt from Kenya living in US illegally  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama's aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned.

State employee says she was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber  —  Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine.  A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.

A McCain Campaign Memo  —  The last thing the McCain campaign needs on election day is demoralized Republicans.  Hence this memo, which recapitulates what Davis and co. said on a conference call with reporters this morning.

Ensign: Palin not ready for presidency  —  LAS VEGAS (AP) — Republican Sen. John Ensign says Sarah Palin is not experienced enough to be president and John McCain's presidential campaign “completely mishandled” her early days on the ticket.  —  The Nevada senator made the comments …

Obama Is Up, and Fans Fear That Jinxes It  —  In the den of his home in New Hope, Pa., a liberal Democrat sits tap-tapping at his computer.  —  Jon Downs works the electoral vote maps on Yahoo like a spiritualist shaking his Ouija board.  He calibrates and recalibrates: Give Senator John McCain Ohio, Missouri, even Florida.

A Presidential Vanishing Act, by Design  —  WASHINGTON — It's the week before Election Day.  Do you know where your president is?  —  Probably not, and that is by design.  With Senator John McCain lagging behind in the polls and many other Republicans fighting for their political lives …

True Believers In McCain Flock to Pa.  —  STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — He hated the helplessness of watching John McCain's efforts from afar, so Joe White, 62, loaded up his trailer in South Carolina and drove here last weekend.  He set up camp in a Wal-Mart parking lot, bought a map of State College …

Olbermann crashes SNL set  —  Ben Affleck, who's hosting “Saturday Night Live” this week, was rehearsing a skit this afternoon mocking Keith Olbermann when Olbermann himself got past security to watch, according to a source with knowledge of the incident.  —  A source described the skit as …

NRA hoping ads bag win for McCain  —  Group pays to have message wrapped around newspapers.  —  WASHINGTON |  The National Rifle Association is planning an Election Day ad blitz in Pennsylvania and other battlegrounds, delivering an anti-Barack Obama message to the doorsteps of thousands …

AP poll shows Obama backers gleeful, McCain's glum  —  Featured Topics: - John McCain - Barack Obama  —  WASHINGTON - That smiling guy walking down the street?  Odds are he's a Barack Obama backer.  The grouchy looking one?  Don't ask, and don't necessarily count on him to vote next week, either.

Studs Terkel, Listener to Americans, Dies at 96  —  Studs Terkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped establish oral history as a serious genre, and who for decades was the voluble host of a popular radio show in Chicago, died Friday at his home there.