The local blood supply is nearly empty, reports the Southeastern Michigan Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross. All eligible donors are urged to act now and give blood. Read more…

Gas prices that have plummeted 80 cents in the past three months are helping the economy, but the cost could shoot right back up when the Saudis lower production after the election, warns Robert Weiner, a former senior public affairs director in the Clinton White House, former spokesman for the U.S. House Government Operations Committee, and now president of a Washington issue strategies group. Read more…

"After the response to our initial announcement, we expected strong turn out, but New Hampshire is so accustomed to national political figures paying us a visit, that you usually end up selling tickets at the door," said Harry Levine, co-founder of Victory NH, "but when America's Mayor comes to town to help protect America's Primary, the people of New Hampshire know this is one event they don't want to miss." Read more…

Truth Wins Out called on Focus on the Family today to sever ties with Joseph Nicolosi, the keynote speaker of this Saturday's Atlanta "ex-gay" Love Won Out conference, after it was discovered that the speaker's group, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), had racist literature on its website that justified slavery. Read more…

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) looming, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) released recommendations for policymakers to consider as they begin to make revisions to the Act. NAESP hopes that the recommendations will encourage Congress to amend ESEA the current version is No Child Left Behind to make it more consistent, flexible and fair for schools to effectively address the academic needs of all students. Read more…

MedActionPlan.com, a healthcare information company based in Peapack, N.J. has just launched My Med Schedule.com(TM). My Med Schedule.com(TM) is a free, secure Web site. It allows consumers to create medication schedules that include images of the pills. Available on the Web, the site lets consumers save schedules for themselves or family members. Registration is free at http://www.MyMedSchedule.com. Read more…

Dr. K. A. Paul, the evangelist who met and prayed with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) last month, will join Martin Luther King III, the son of famous civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Honorable Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former member of the U.S. House, for a series of worldwide events to pray for change in America in advance of next week's midterm elections. Religious leaders across the country and around the world will hold prayer vigils calling for change between Saturday, Nov. 4 and Tuesday, Nov. 7. Read more…

United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan will meet with leaders of the Latin American Jewish Congress on Friday in Montevideo, Uruguay. Read more…

Women in the group of workers with the strongest connection to the work force have a slightly higher level of participation in an employment-based retirement plans than their male counterparts, according to a study released today by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). However, retirement participation levels fell across the board last year. Read more…

> "Can we sustain the All-Volunteer Force in an extended conflict?" Read more…

The Committee for Common Sense Government, No on B,F,C,G kicked off its efforts today to educate Prince George's County voters about ballot questions B, F, C and G. The Committee asserts the questions are Bad for County Government, waste taxpayer dollars, creates a $23 Million slush fund and compromises the safety of Prince George's families. Read more…

Vehicle personalization is big business. Automotive specialty and performance products are a $34 billion industry. The annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas brings together the hottest products, seminars and demonstrations under one roof. This year, trucks are creating a major buzz. Read more…

Representatives of sugar farmers and processors from around the world have joined this week in Washington, D.C. to demand action on misleading advertising of the chlorinated artificial sweetener Splenda. Australian and New Zealand sugar groups joined their American counterparts to call on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to condemn Splenda's advertising slogan "Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar" because it is misleading consumers. Read more…

You're a civic-minded small-business owner. You want your employees to participate in the political process. When they ask for time off work to go to the polls, what do you do? Read more…

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman will travel to Maryland to rally Republican grassroots supporters on Friday, Nov. 3. Read more…

The American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare) today released a detailed economic study concluding that cuts to the Medicare power mobility benefit scheduled to take effect on Nov. 15 will have a devastating impact on both the industry and beneficiaries who need wheelchairs. The study forecasts an exodus of at least 1,500 wheelchair suppliers and a net cost increase to the Medicare system of $2.7 to $5.9 billion over the next eight years. Read more…

> On Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 2:30 p.m. in the National Press Club, AARP will host Moving Forward: Midterm Election Results and the New Congress, a panel discussion with America's leading political experts from both sides of the aisle to address the most vital post-election questions facing the Congress and the country. Read more…

WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 9, at 9 a.m. Read more…

Results from the mock student election sponsored by the California Secretary of State continue to trickle in, with final results not expected until Friday at 5 p.m. but there has been at least one big surprise as the votes are being counted: students have voted yes in large numbers on Proposition 85, the parental notification before abortion measure on the Nov. 7 ballot. Read more…

The following was released today by Agilepeople on the auction on "The Capitalist Manifesto" to support High-Tech-Workers Rights Read more…

Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein has honored Walter B. Hill Jr., a longtime archivist and historian at the National Archives and a leading authority on the documentation of African Americans in Federal records, for his efforts to make such records accessible and to promote their use by historians, journalists, students and others. Read more…

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, issued today the following statement on the collapse of the Somali peace talks in Khartoum Read more…

Focus on the Family founder and Chairman James C. Dobson, Ph.D., issued the following statement today addressing an allegation by a male prostitute in Denver that Ted Haggard was one of his clients Read more…

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is challenging Democrat Darcy Burner, candidate for Washington State's 8th District, to repudiate her endorsement from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, on the grounds that she has claimed to be a pro-gun Democrat. Read more…

A new report provides confirmation of what proponents of consumer-directed health care have long asserted putting patients more in touch with the cost of care is essential to controlling those costs. According to Devon Herrick, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), a review of research by MIT's Jon Gruber found people cut back on their use of health care the more they have to share the costs of that care. Read more…