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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

New York's Mayor Bloomberg has hired a former FEMA official with experience in Hurricane Katrina to direct the city's housing recovery. NPR's Martin Kaste reports it's another sign of the seriousness of the housing shortage caused by the storm.

Superstorm Sandy got officials in New York and New Jersey talking about how to prevent flooding in a time of global warming and sea level rise.

But the place on the East Coast that's most vulnerable to flooding is several hundred miles south, around Norfolk, Va. — and Norfolk has already spent many years studying how to survive the rising waters.

Scientists say what Norfolk has learned is especially important in light of new research showing that the coastline from North Carolina to Boston will experience even more sea level rise than other areas.

Teach for America: Closing the Achievement Gap

Cameron Beech, 2010 Oklahoma Corps Member, 2015 J.D. Candidate
Avery Seretan, TFA Recruitment Manager
Adam Wilson, TFA Recruitment Director
Logan Froerer, TFA Campus Campaign Coordinator
 

Click here for more information about the Hinckley Institute of Politics Forums at the University of Utah.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Now many who will cast presidential ballots in New York have been facing a complicated post-storm challenge - where they should vote. Superstorm Sandy has displaced many residents from their homes and some polling places are out of commission because of storm damage. Late today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order, telling voters they can cast ballots wherever they want.

I asked NPR's Quil Lawrence in New York about just what Governor Cuomo said today.

Everybody tries to predict who will win.

What we wonder, though, is when will we know whether it will be President Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney taking the oath of office next January?

For thousands of voters in Ohio, Election Day is going to be a day of rest — because they worked hard to vote on Sunday.

Thousands stood in long lines at voting sites in northeast Ohio, in southwest Ohio and in central Ohio. But the Franklin County Early Voting Center may have had the most carnival-like atmosphere.

With all the really big numbers flying around this campaign season, here's one more: $165,062,250.

That's how much Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS has spent attacking Democrats and helping Republicans this election. Perhaps this number doesn't seem so special, compared with the $1 billion spent by President Obama's campaign and at least $900 million by Gov. Romney's team.

There is one critical difference, though.

Early voting ended in Florida on Saturday. But on Sunday, some county elections officials opened their offices to allow people to vote using absentee ballots.

In Miami-Dade County, elections officials opened the office for over-the-counter absentee voting, but then inexplicably shut down. A couple of hundred waiting voters began chanting and pounding on the doors. An hour later, the office reopened.

The fighting in Syria was both nasty and widespread on Monday. Here's a summary of some of the worst fighting:

-- Two deadly car bombings took place, one in a residential neighborhood in Damascus that killed 11 people, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency. The other one, near the central city of Hama, generated wildly conflicting claims. An activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the suicide attack killed 50 government soldiers and allied gunmen. But the government put the death toll at two civilians.

If you bought a Hyundai or Kia over the past three years, you could soon be getting some money back from the two automakers.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the South Korean carmakers, owned by the same parent company, overstated the gas mileage on 900,000 vehicles over the past three years. The EPA discovered the bloated figures during an audit of gas mileage tests undertaken by the companies. The agency said last week it was investigating how the carmakers arrived at the numbers.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes as a result of superstorm Sandy. Melissa Block talks with Martin Kaste about the situation and the government's response.

If you've got the sniffles or need a shot, do you go to the doctor or stop in at a clinic in a nearby drugstore?

Lots of people are opting for the clinics, which are springing up inside grocery stores, big-box retailers and chain drugstores across the country. There are already 1,388 clinics like these in the U.S., according to data from Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm.

The Role of Lieutenant Governor as State Election Officer

Greg Bell, Utah Lieutenant Governor
Mark Thomas, Deputy Chief of Staff/Director of Elections

Presented by the Representative Rob Bishop Civic Engagement Fund

Click here for more information about the Hinckley Institute of Politics Forums at the University of Utah.

The cost of the 2012 election will top a record $6 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. If you find it difficult to visualize that figure, here are a few other ways to think about what $6 billion could buy:

Something must have been in the tap water in Gloversville, N.Y., during the 1950s when Richard Russo was growing up there — something, that is, besides the formaldehyde, chlorine, lime, lead, sulfuric acid and other toxic byproducts that the town's tanneries leaked out daily.

But one day, a droplet of mead must have fallen into the local reservoir and Russo gulped it down, because, boy, does he have the poet's gift. In a paragraph or even a phrase, Russo can summon up a whole world, and the world he writes most poignantly about is that of the industrial white working class.

NPR librarians continue to help us keep track of the recovery from Superstorm Sandy and the deadly toll from the storm that blasted New Jersey, New York City and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and New England one week ago.

-- Number of deaths: At least 115 in the U.S., by NPR's count. The Associated Press reports there were at least 106 fatalities. There were 69 Sandy-related deaths in the Caribbean and two in Canada.

This morning a shadowy Arizona group decided to disclose where $11 million in political contributions came from. The money was used to fight for an anti-union ballot measure and against a proposition from Gov. Jerry Brown to raise sales and income taxes.

California's Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) says the $11 million is the largest contribution "ever disclosed as campaign money laundering in California history." FPPC says it may be the largest anonymous donation in state history.

As Eyder said earlier, "it's almost over."

The campaign, that is.

But if you haven't had enough of it all yet, here's are three places to go if you're looking for tips on what to watch for and when to watch for it.

Utah Governor

Republican Gary Herbert secured his second term in office last night, breezing past Democrat Peter Cooke by more than 36,000 votes.

Just before 11 pm, General Peter Cooke arrived unexpectedly at GOP headquarters to congratulate Governor Gary Herbert on his win. Cooke said he tried calling the governor first but he didn’t pick up. Cooke later returned to the Democratic headquarters to concede, saying Utahns need to continue fighting for education.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Over the past few years, the definition of work has changed in parts of the American economy. More and more restaurants and retailers have half as many full-time workers as they used to and twice as many part-time. They save money on pay and benefits, and they use new technology to schedule part-timers based on the season, the time of day or even on the temperature.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

In the run-up to Election Day, newspaper readers usually expect to see endorsements on the editorial page, but that tradition's come into question. Last month, the Los Angeles Times received a flurry of criticism following its endorsement of President Obama, and the editorial board responded with a defense of the practice. On the other hand, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is among the papers that's decided to stop endorsing political candidates altogether. We want to hear from you: Should newspapers make political endorsements?