NPR's Weekend Edition on KUER 1

NPR's Margot Adler has been covering the storms aftermath. On Saturday, she walked into Central Park, opened for the first time since before the storm. She then went to examine the "border areas," those blocks where there was power and normalcy on one side, and on the other, no lights and just the noise of a few generators pumping power.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

In this final weekend before Election Day, President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney are both looking for an edge as they make their final arguments to voters in a handful of battleground states.

For more, Mara Liasson, NPR's national political correspondent joins us. Mara, welcome.

MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Nice to be here.

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Republicans are hoping to gain control of the U.S. Senate. The path toward victory had Indiana solidly on their side. That was, until Indiana's treasurer Richard Mourdock beat longtime Sen. Richard Lugar in the primary.

Then, during a debate on Oct. 23, Mourdock and his Democratic opponent, Congressman Joe Donnelly, were asked about abortion and contraception. Like Donnelly, Mourdock said he was against abortion.

The story of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has captured the imagination of authors and film directors.

Just this year, the mission carried out by Navy SEAL Team Six has already been re-told in three books, including one written by a former Navy SEAL. Acclaimed film director Katherine Bigelow, who directed the film The Hurt Locker, is getting ready to release her treatment of the bin Laden raid in December.

On Sunday night, the National Geographic Channel will air its film about the raid, SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden.

They were there in the 1970s,through the '80s and on into the '90s. Aerosmith has managed to become one of the most enduring bands in American rock history. Now, the group is releasing its first studio album in 11 years. It's called Music from Another Dimension!, and it's out this week.

The album is a labor of love, one that lead singer Steven Tyler says almost didn't happen. Speaking with NPR's Rachel Martin, Tyler points to a particularly rough experience in the time between albums: the day in 2009 when he fell off the stage during a live performance.

From the outside, this white metal container looks like all the other mobile structures at Forward Operating Base Shank, the main NATO base in Afghanistan's Logar province. But rather than housing soldiers, offices or latrines, the building contains a fully functioning — if spartan — radio studio.

Superstorm Sandy capped what's been a pretty impressive couple of years for U.S. natural disasters. There have been wildfires, tornadoes, floods and derechos. And insurance companies are on the hook to pay billions in related claims.

"We're seeing more of everything, and what we're doing is trying to factor that in going forward as we work with others to have a better sense of what the future holds," says State Farm spokesman David Beigie.

On-air challenge: Every answer today consists of the names of two famous people. The last name of the first person is an anagram of the first name of the last person. Given the nonanagram parts of the names, you identify the people.

Example: Madeleine ________ Aaron.

Answer: Madeleine KAHN and HANK Aaron

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The approach of Hurricane Sandy is threatening a number of important events this coming week, including Halloween, but it's also forced the presidential candidates to juggle their schedules as they head into the home stretch. President Obama is flying to Florida a day early to beat the storm. Although yesterday, there were clear skies for the president's campaign rally in New Hampshire. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

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If you've been following campaign news, you've probably heard a lot about the supposed truths of politics. These are the hard and fast rules pundits and politicians have gleaned over the years.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: No one has ever won the presidency without carrying their home state...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: No Democratic presidential candidate has ever won the presidency without carrying some Southern states.

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Republican Mitt Romney got a boost in Iowa yesterday from the Des Moines Register, becoming the first Republican that the paper has endorsed since Richard Nixon. Governor Romney was in Florida trying to drum up the votes on the first day early voting. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

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Time now for sports - but no time for music this week, because today we want to get right to the latest in the World Series. And this morning, the San Francisco Giants and their fans are celebrating a 2-0 win over Detroit and a 3-0 lead in the World Series. NPR's Mike Pesca joins us for the latest. Hey, Mike.

MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hey.

MARTIN: Where does this leave the series?

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The nation is bracing for Hurricane Sandy, from the East Coast all the way into the Ohio Valley. The storm killed almost 60 people in the Caribbean, and U.S. officials are warning the storm could affect as many as 60 million people NPR's Allison Keyes reports.

ALLISON KEYES, BYLINE: All along the coast people like Carl Stevens in Virginia Beach were getting ready to hunker down for a while.

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There are some books that have saturated themselves so deeply into our culture and consciousness we tend to believe we've read them, even when we haven't. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is one of those books.

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COLIN CLIVE: (as Dr. Henry Frankenstein) It's alive. It's alive. It's alive.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

There is a little over a week left until Election Day and with the race in a dead heat, we invited representatives from each campaign on WEEKEND EDITION to make their case. Yesterday, my colleague Scott Simon spoke with Ben Labolt, from President Obama's re-election campaign. Today, we are joined by Barbara Comstock. She's an advisor with Governor Mitt Romney's campaign.

Ms. Comstock, welcome to the program.

BARBARA COMSTOCK: Good morning. Good to be with you.

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Time now for another story in our Working It series. People in Nashville, Tennessee, have been sharing their ups and downs in a difficult job market. Today, we meet James Elliott. He lost his job with a big construction company four years ago. Now, he works as a freelance carpenter and handyman. He's 51 years old, married, with a grown daughter and a 17-year-old son. We followed him through a day's work digging trenches and fixing cars with his friends.

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JON MEACHAM: For Americans who believe that our politics is very divided and partisan now, you should have seen it back then.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

That's author and historian Jon Meacham. And back then would be way back then.

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On-air challenge: Every answer is a three-word phrase, in which each word has four letters. All three words end in the same three letters, and they rhyme. For example, given the clue, "Series of offerings of excellent chardonnays and Rieslings," the answer would be "fine wine line."

Last week's challenge from Pierre Berloquin: What letter comes next in this series: W, L, C, N, I, T?

One of the most bitter congressional races is in the suburbs of Chicago, where controversial freshman Republican Joe Walsh is fighting to keep a seat he was actually drawn out of.

The Tea Party favorite's bombastic rants frequently get him into trouble, even with members of his own party, and Walsh is facing a tough Democratic opponent in Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in combat.

Peter Gabriel has just finished up the 25th-anniversary tour of his blockbuster album So. Manu Katche, the drummer who provided the driving beats for "Sledgehammer" and other songs from that record, was right there with Gabriel, helping him celebrate.

Singer Iris DeMent made her debut in 1992 with an album called Infamous Angel.

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We turn our attention now to the state of Georgia, where a self-described moderate Democrat is trying to win re-election in a district that now favors Republicans. John Barrow is facing a relatively unknown GOP candidate in the 12th Congressional District that's recently been redrawn. National Republicans see Barrow as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House, and they're targeting him with millions of dollars in ads.

NPR's Kathy Lohr has the story.

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Some people travel a long ways to find a job, even professional basketball players. Brooklyn native Everage Richardson is playing hoops in a tiny town in Germany's Harz Mountains. Reporter Connor Donevan has his story.

CONNOR DONEVAN, BYLINE: When Everage Richardson finished his college basketball career, he was looking for somewhere to play. Somewhere turned out to be Elbingerode Germany, for the Bodfeld Baskets, a town and a team he knew next to nothing about.