Grimes Sues McConnell Over ‘Despicable’ Voter Mailers  —  The campaign of Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has filed a lawsuit to stop Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign from distributing a mailer that it says amounts to illegal voter intimidation tactics.

Democrats Count on Edge With Women to Limit Election Losses  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats are nervously counting on an enduring edge among female voters in most states to prevent a Republican rout in Tuesday's elections.  Yet so great is the uncertainty that even before the returns are in …

Political Correctness Is Back  —  The kerfuffle over Bill Maher's invitation to speak at UC Berkeley brings me back to my college days.  And not in a good way.  —  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, campus life featured a depressing sequence of actions and reactions by the right and left on the subject of race.

Senate Update: With 4 Days Left, Here's The State Of The Races  —  The GOP's chances of winning the Senate are 68.5 percent, according to the FiveThirtyEight forecast, its highest figure of the year.  —  Among the 20 new polls released Thursday — it looks like there will be no Great Poll Shortage …

Veteran to be released from Mexican jail  —  TIJUANA — A Mexican federal district judge in Tijuana on Friday ordered the immediate release of a U.S. Marine veteran behind bars in Baja California on federal weapons charges.  —  Andrew Tahmooressi was on trial for crossing the border …

The Party of Nonvoters  —  Younger, More Racially Diverse, More Financially Strapped  —  With just four days before the midterm elections, the spotlight understandably is focused on the estimated 40% of voting age adults who are expected to show up at the polls next Tuesday.

Federal civil rights charges unlikely against police officer in Ferguson shooting  —  Justice Department investigators have all but concluded they do not have a strong enough case to bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager …

Iowa Dems may hold thin edge in early voting  —  Democrats may have an advantage over Republicans in an all-out battle to attract party loyalists who didn't cast ballots four years ago, an exclusive Des Moines Register analysis of absentee voter data suggests.

Austin Police Confirm These Are Cops Making Rape Jokes on Video  —  The Austin, Tex. Police Department is investigating two officers for joking about rape in a dashcam video posted to YouTube earlier this week.  After the video made the local news, APD confirmed the recording is authentic …

Attkisson exposes C-SPAN-White House dispute  —  Among the juicier tidbits in the new book “Stonewalled” by former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson relates to a tiff between C-SPAN and the White House.  As Attkisson tells the story, C-SPAN eminence Brian Lamb interviewed President Obama on Aug. 12 …

These scientific studies show that airport Ebola screenings are largely ineffective  —  The debate over whether the Obama administration should ban flights from Ebola-stricken nations has been raging for weeks, fueled by fears of an outbreak in the United States and a lot of election-inspired finger pointing.

Judge in Maine Eases Restrictions on Nurse  —  FORT KENT, Me.  — In a victory for a nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa, a judge in Maine on Friday rejected arguments by the state that her movements should be firmly restricted, praising her “compassion” even as he acknowledged the public's fears about the virus.

Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during Calif. test flight  —  Reuters 1 hr ago By Alex Dobuzinskis  —  This image from video by KABC-TV Los Angeles shows wreckage of SpaceShipTwo in Southern California's Mojave Desert on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014.  A Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket exploded …