Two women from the Dominican Republic told The Daily Caller that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year.  —  In interviews, the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000 acre resort in the Dominican Republic.

Oct. 31: Obama's Electoral College ‘Firewall’ Holding in Polls  —  On Oct. 11, this blog posed the question of whether President Obama's “firewall” in battleground states was all that it was cracked up to be.  —  At that point, Mr. Obama still technically held the lead in the FiveThirtyEight forecast …

Exclusive: Classified cable warned consulate couldn't withstand ‘coordinated attack’  —  The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps …

Former Penn State President Charged in Sandusky Case  —  Graham B. Spanier, the former president of Penn State, was charged Thursday with helping to cover up the child abuse allegations involving Jerry Sandusky that have roiled the university and its famed football program over the past year.

Sifting the Numbers for a Winner  —  A crucial element: the mix of Democrats and Republicans who show up this election.  —  It comes down to numbers.  And in the final days of this presidential race, from polling data to early voting, they favor Mitt Romney.  —  He maintains a small but persistent polling edge.

Romney ad pins Obama to Chavez and Castro  —  (CNN) - A television ad from Mitt Romney's campaign airing in Miami pegs President Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, notorious dictators widely reviled among Cuban Americans.  —  The ad spotlights endorsements from Chavez …

NBC/WSJ/Marist polls: Obama leads in Iowa, running neck and neck in N.H, Wis.  —  Less than a week before Election Day, President Barack Obama holds a statistically significant lead over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the battleground of Iowa, while the two candidates are locked in tight races …

D.C. paparazzi fear a Mitt Romney win  —  People may have differing opinions on President Barack Obama's handling of such things as the economy, health care and foreign policy, but on one issue, the consensus is clear: He's ushered in an unparalleled wave of celebrity visits to D.C. …

Andrew Sullivan: 'If You Voted For Obama in 2008 and Don't in 2012, You Never Really Voted For Him'  —  As hard as it might be to believe, the Daily Beast's Andrew Sullivan has become a bigger cheerleader for President Obama than virtually anyone else in the media including the shills on MSNBC.

Civil rights icons pump Obama in Forsyth  —  Lowery: Don't think whites going to heaven  —  UPDATED TO INCLUDE MAYOR'S COMMENTS: 5 p.m.  —  Two icons of the civil rights movement visited Forsyth on Saturday to campaign for the reelection of Barack Obama.

Obama's campaign goes empty and strident  —  “It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know he is not a great man.”  —  Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising …

It's Global Warming, Stupid  —  Yes, yes, it's unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change.  Men and women in white lab coats tell us—and they're right—that many factors contribute to each severe weather episode.  Climate deniers exploit scientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all.

NEWS FLASH  —  BREAKING: THREE BUSH-APPOINTED JUDGES GIVE THUMBS UP TO VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT IN OHIO |  Late last week, a federal district court ordered Ohio to stop disenfranchising voters who are directed to vote at the wrong polling place due to poll worker error.

Status Update on Gallup Election Polling Following Superstorm Sandy  —  Here's an update on Gallup's thinking when we suspended our national daily tracking of the presidential election campaign as of Monday, Oct. 29.  Basically, we reached the conclusion that Superstorm Sandy had compromised …

Show Me Your Model  —  It might be easy to believe we're approaching Peak Trutherism, what with good old-fashioned birthers now being supplemented by BLS truthers and poll truthers.  But just you wait—should Barack Obama win this election, we'll see an explosion of election trutherism that will be truly unprecedented in scope.

International observers say states out of line  —  The group hosting international election observers said Thursday that state officials in Iowa and Texas are needlessly blocking access to the decades-old process the United States already has agreed to, an official said Thursday.

Obama, Romney return to campaign trail with fists up  —  President Obama reemerged on the campaign trail Thursday with a call for unity and bipartisanship in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, saying that Americans “rise and fall as one nation, one people.”  —  Obama's appearance in Green Bay …

A GOP switch on Todd Akin?  —  Rep. Todd Akin and the Missouri Republican Party are launching a nearly $700,000 TV ad blitz in the closing days of his challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, but the source of the funds for the effort is unclear.  —  These are the first ads run …

Is Sandy a ‘Cassandra’?  How Cities Should Prepare for Future Natural Disasters  —  Extreme storms of recent history have made local governments take notice both of their preparedness and the likelihood that climate change is making such disastrous events more and more common.

GOP pollster: Romney up in Ohio, closing the gap in Wisconsin  —  Mitt Romney has the lead in Ohio and trails narrowly in Wisconsin, according to a new poll for the Republican group Citizens United.  —  Romney leads Obama by 49 to 46 percent in Ohio, according to the poll …

What I'm Hearing About The Sex Scandal  —  I've heard the story, but I don't want to say what it is because, well, I have no idea if it's true.  —  But in the interests of sparing you 1 heart attacks and 2 overly optimistic guesses: What it's about, rumors say, is a Senator.

Obama widens lead in Nevada  —  President Barack Obama has expanded his lead over Mitt Romney in Nevada, according to a new poll that shows the incumbent edging his GOP challenger 50 percent to 46 percent and headed toward victory Tuesday unless Romney halts the Democrat's momentum in the state that could settle the White House race.

Should the Northeast Bury its Power Lines to Prevent Outages?  —  Underground power cables are largely protected from storms like Hurricane Sandy.  So why not bury them all and skip the blackouts?  —  After blasting the Northeast with 80-mile-per-hour winds, Hurricane Sandy has left 6 million people without power.