WASHINGTON - Outspent and under siege in a hostile political climate, Congressional Republicans scrambled this weekend to save embattled incumbents in an effort to hold down expected Democratic gains in the House and Senate on Tuesday.

With the election imminent, Senate Republicans threw their remaining resources into protecting endangered lawmakers in Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Oregon, while House Republicans were forced to put money into what should be secure Republican territory in Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and Wyoming.

Sensing an extraordinary opportunity to expand their numbers in both the House and Senate, Democrats were spending freely on television advertising across the campaign map. Senate Democrats were active in nine states where Republicans are running for re-election; House Democrats, meanwhile, bought advertising in 63 districts, twice the number of districts where Republicans bought advertisements and helped candidates.

\"We are deep in the red areas,\" Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said on Sunday. \"We are competing now in districts George Bush carried by large margins in 2004.\"

What seems especially striking about this year\'s Congressional races is that Democrats appear to have solidified their gains from the 2006 midterm elections and are pushing beyond their traditional urban turf into what once were safe Republican strongholds, creating a struggle for the suburbs.

Trying to capitalize on economic uncertainty, House Democrats are taking aim at vacant seats and incumbents in suburban and even more outlying areas - the traditional foundation of Republican power in the House. With many of the most contested House races occurring in Republican-held districts that extend beyond cities in states like Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio, Democrats said expected victories would give them suburban dominance.

The same is true for Senate Democratic candidates, who are seeking to nail down swing counties outside urban centers and move the party toward a 60-vote majority. That majority could overcome a filibuster, if party leaders could hold the votes together.

Among open House seats Democrats say they have a good chance of capturing include those being vacated by Representatives Ralph Regula and Deborah Pryce in Ohio, Jim Ramstad in Minnesota, Jerry Weller in Illinois and Rick Renzi in Arizona.

On the list of incumbents Democrats believe they can defeat are Representatives John R. Kuhl Jr. in New York, Joe Knollenberg in Michigan, Tom Feeney and Ric Keller in Florida, Don Young in Alaska, Robin Hayes in North Carolina and Bill Sali in Idaho.

Democrats say they have been able to peel away suburbanites by emphasizing Republican culpability for the economic decline, a point they say House Republicans helped make themselves by initially balking at the $700 billion bailout and sending the markets into a tailspin that depleted retirement and college savings accounts.

\"Suburban voters are angry that their quality of life and standard of living is under attack,\" said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and a leading advocate of Democrats trying to broaden their appeal in the suburbs.

The partisan spending gap was stark. As of last week, Senate Democrats had spent more than $67 million against Republican candidates, compared with $33.7 million in advertising by Republicans. In the House, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent $73 million, compared with just over $20 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to campaign finance reports.

Most of the House Republican money was spent on behalf of incumbents or in districts where a Republican is retiring, emphasizing how much the party was playing defense. By contrast, House Democrats spent most of their money in the last month going after Republican seats in Colorado, Nebraska, Washington, West Virginia and elsewhere. On Sunday, Democrats prepared one last radio advertisement to begin running Monday in an effort to claim the seat of Thomas M. Reynolds, a Republican retiring from his upstate New York district near Buffalo.

\"That kind of says it all,\" said Representative Thomas M. Davis III, a retiring Virginia Republican whose own suburban seat is likely to go Democratic on Tuesday. Mr. Davis said Republicans simply faced too many disadvantages heading into Election Day, including a higher number of retirements in the House and Senate, an unpopular president and an economic collapse.

\"You like to see a fair fight,\" said Mr. Davis, a former chairman of the Republican Congressional campaign committee, \"but basically we are playing basketball in our street shoes and long pants, and the Democrats have on their uniforms and Chuck Taylors.\"

Neither of the national Senate campaign arms was advertising in Colorado, New Mexico or Virginia, indicating that Republicans were virtually ceding those states, where members of their party are retiring, to the Democrats. Senate Democrats were also optimistic about the prospects of unseating Senator John E. Sununu in New Hampshire and Senator Ted Stevens in Alaska, where Mr. Stevens campaigned despite being newly convicted on felony ethics charges.

Democrats said they saw themselves with the advantage in Minnesota, North Carolina and Oregon, giving them a reasonable chance at claiming eight seats and enlarging their Senate majority to 59 if they hold their current seats.

If Democrats swept those races, it could leave the potential 60th vote to break filibusters resting on the outcome in Georgia, Mississippi or Kentucky, where Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, is in a competitive race with Bruce Lunsford, a businessman. Polls show Democrats trailing but within striking distance in all three races, with the final results potentially hinging on the presidential race and turnout among Democratically inclined black voters.

In Mississippi, which has not sent a freshman Democrat to the Senate since John C. Stennis was elected in 1947, Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican appointed last year to fill the seat left vacant by Trent Lott\'s resignation, is in a tight race with former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat.

\"We feel we have a lot of momentum,\" said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, \"but we are ever mindful that getting to 60 is an extremely difficult thing to do because we are in so many red states.\"

Republicans privately acknowledged that there was little hope for some of their candidates, including Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. But Republicans have not given up on the idea of unseating Senator Mary L. Landrieu in Louisiana, a state where Senator John McCain was running well against Senator Barack Obama in the presidential race. A victory over Ms. Landrieu by John Kennedy, the state treasurer, would be a significant moral victory for Republicans, and they pointed to internal polls that show a close race.

In Louisiana, North Carolina and Oregon, Republicans were trying to energize voters with the threat of Democratic dominance in Washington, running advertisements that warn voters about \"complete liberal control of government.\"

\"We agree with Chuck Schumer that this is a tectonic election,\" said Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. \"And if Democrats get their way, this country will shift so far left it will take generations to get back on track.\"

Both parties were focusing substantial final energies on the Senate race in Minnesota, where Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican, was in a heated clash with his Democratic challenger, Al Franken, a former comedian and radio talk show host.

The race remained close as Mr. Coleman was named in a last-minute lawsuit in Texas alleging that a businessman had funneled $75,000 to him through his wife\'s business. Mr. Coleman, who has filed an unfair campaign practices complaint accusing Mr. Franken of broadcasting falsehoods in his advertisements, denied any impropriety, but the lawsuit led to a flurry of news accounts only days before the election.

In Kentucky, Mr. McConnell enlisted hundreds of volunteers to knock on doors and to make phone calls in the remaining hours. He was to embark on a fly-around of the state\'s cities Monday in his effort to repel the serious challenge from Mr. Lunsford, who brought in one of Kentucky\'s favorite daughters, the actress Ashley Judd, to campaign on his behalf in the closing days.

Strategists for both parties said it seemed increasingly possible that the full Senate picture might not even be settled Tuesday, given that a third-party candidate could cause both Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, and his Democratic opponent, Jim Martin, to fall short of 50 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff on Dec. 2.

Party operatives also warned that Tuesday was likely to produce some surprises, considering the strong resentment toward Congress that has been reflected in polls for months. They predicted upsets of some House incumbents not thought to be in trouble.

Republicans said they believed some top Democratic targets, like Representative Dave Reichert of Washington and Christopher Shays of Connecticut, would be able to hang on because they, and others, had run strong campaigns built on their individual images and records.

\"Republican candidates who have established their own personal brand, and have framed their respective races around creating a clear choice, will succeed on Election Day despite the turbulent political environment,\" said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

One problem for House Republicans was that freshmen lawmakers who gave Democrats control of the House after the 2006 elections were faring much better than party leaders had expected. Some, like Representative Kirsten Gillibrand, who represents the Hudson Valley in New York, became prime Republican targets virtually from the moment they were elected but are now favored to win second terms after raising formidable sums of money and cultivating moderate voting records that insulated them from attack.

Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the president of the Democrats\' 2006 freshman class, said only two of its members were in serious trouble: Representative Nick Lampson of Texas, who represents a heavily Republican district south of Houston, and Representative Tim Mahoney of Florida, who has been entangled in a scandal over extramarital affairs.

Mr. Yarmuth credited House Democratic leaders with pursuing an agenda that gave the freshmen substantial achievements to promote back home, especially a generous new education benefit for veterans that counterbalanced the Democrats\' opposition to the war in Iraq

\"I think that was a trademark of this last Congress that created a moderate image that we were pro-military, pro-troops,\" Mr. Yarmuth said.

nytimes.com

Every vote for a nonincumbent Presidential candidate is in some sense a risk, given the power and complications of the job. But in both his lack of experience and the contradictions between his rhetoric and his agenda, Barack Obama presents a particular leap of hope. It is a sign of how fed up Americans are with Republicans that millions are ready to take that leap even in dangerous times.

To his supporters, such as Colin Powell, the first-term Senator has the chance to be "transformational," the kind of gauzy concept that testifies to Mr. Obama's unusual appeal. His candidacy is certainly historic, and that isn't simply a reference to his Kenyan father and American mother. One secret to Mr. Obama's success is how little his campaign has been marked by race, at least not by the traditional politics of racial grievance. He has run instead on a rhetorical theme of national unity, a shrewd appeal to voters weary of the polarizing debate over Iraq and the Bush Presidency.

Mr. Obama has also understood the political moment better than his opponents in either party. In the primaries, he used his inexperience to advantage by offering himself as a liberal alternative to what seemed like an inevitable, and dispiriting, Clinton replay. He then turned around in the general election to project sober reassurance amid the financial crisis, which was the moment when his poll numbers began to climb above the margin of error against John McCain. His coolness reflects what seems to be a first-class temperament. And while community organizing may not be much of a credential for the Presidency, Mr. Obama's ability to organize a campaign speaks well of his potential to manage a government.

None of this changes the fact that voters still know remarkably little about a man who is less than four years out of the Illinois state Senate. While he has already written two autobiographies, there are significant gaps in Mr. Obama's political resume. The nature of his relationship with onetime friend and political contributor Tony Rezko, a convicted felon, or with radicals Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, not to mention Acorn, remains ambiguous or contradictory.

They were all early supporters or mentors, yet during this campaign Mr. Obama has eventually disavowed each one. This is perhaps testimony to a ruthless pragmatism, or maybe opportunism, but what do those relationships say about what he really believes? He is fortunate the media have been so incurious about them -- as opposed, say, to Sarah Palin's Wasilla church or Joe Wurzelbacher's plumbing business.

More importantly, it remains unclear how Mr. Obama intends to govern. As a political candidate, he has presented himself as a consensus-oriented bridge-builder. But for all his talk about reaching across the aisle, we can think of no major issue where he has disagreed with his party's dominant interest groups or broken with liberal orthodoxy. Not one. The main example he cites -- "ethics reform" -- is the kind of trivial Beltway compromise that changes nothing about the way Washington works.

Unlike Newark Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, Mr. Obama opposes school vouchers and would water down the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Unlike Bill Clinton, Mr. Obama is ambivalent at best about free trade. His promise to abrogate the North American Free Trade Agreement, if Canada and Mexico refuse to bargain, is a more breathtaking case of U.S. "unilateralism" than anything Mr. Bush has done. Nafta is a 15-year old pact enacted by a Democratic Congress and President. The Kyoto Protocol had never even been submitted to the Senate when Mr. Bush refused to support it.

If he is elected, Mr. Obama would immediately face the same kind of large, liberal Democratic majority on Capitol Hill that did so much to ruin Jimmy Carter and the first two years of the Clinton Presidency. Is there anything its liberal barons want that he'd oppose? He hasn't said so. On the contrary, Mr. Obama's voting record and agenda suggest that the "transformation" he may have in mind is a return to the pre-Reagan era of government expansion and liberal ascendancy.

Amid a recession, with the mortgage market already nationalized and the banking industry partly so, the next President needs to draw some lines against further politicization of our economy. Perhaps Mr. Obama will surprise by appointing Paul Volcker as his Treasury Secretary, or postponing his tax increases with the economy in distress. But those are further leaps of hope with little evidence of pragmatism to back them up.

On national security, Mr. Obama is an even greater man of mystery. Perhaps once in office he will take the course of prudent realism. He can certainly sound hawkish when he wants to, advocating unilateral military strikes inside Pakistan and promising the kind of open-ended commitment to the Afghan conflict that he claims we can't afford or sustain in Iraq. Yet he ran irresponsibly against the surge in Iraq and now has his lucky stars to thank that Mr. McCain prevailed in that debate, so Mr. Obama would inherit a far more stable Middle East. His belief that diplomacy can stop Tehran's nuclear ambitions is also naive, and we suspect would be shown to be so early in his Administration with an Iranian nuclear declaration, if not a test.

As Joe Biden recently said, an Obama Presidency would invite challenges from enemies who would tread more cautiously against a President McCain. Perhaps Mr. Obama will evolve into a Truman, or perhaps he'll prove merely to be another Jimmy Carter. Unlike Mr. McCain, he'll be making it up as he goes.

Perhaps this is the kind of leadership the American people want after the Presidential certitudes of the Bush years. Americans certainly are eager for fresh start, and it is typical of periods of economic panic that they may even be willing to reach for the kind of alluring but untested appeal that so marks Mr. Obama. Sometimes these gambles pay off, and sometimes they don't.

online.wsj.com

The Company suffered significant losses in the third quarter of 2008 from a dramatic spike in its corn costs, reflecting in part costs attributable to its corn procurement and hedging arrangements, and historically unfavorable margins. Beginning in the third quarter, worsening capital market conditions and a tightening of trade credit resulted in severe constraints on the Company's liquidity position.

The main culprit was its badly managed corn hedging followed by the inability to raise capital to bail itself out.

The current financial climate makes one forget how completely different the world was 6 short months ago. Commodity prices were zooming up. Oil was on its way to $150 with most predicting $200 by now. If the predictions of the spring and early summer had been accurate, VeraSun would have been generating huge profits in the 3rd quarter rather than being pushed into bankruptcy. The lesson here is that thin margin businesses are one bad economic turn away from disaster.

Chapter 11 means the company will stay in business and restructure its debt to get back on its feet financially. Common share holders will probably get squat. My site's Opportunities Portfolio started October 2008 with a 2% position in VSE which is now effectively zip.

Longer term this should help VeraSun as a company to structure itself for success in a tight margin environment. I will be watching to see where the company goes from here.

seekingalpha.com

A federal judge has appointed a temporary receiver for a kosher meatpacking company in Iowa after a bank said that the company had defaulted on a $35 million loan and that it had written $1.4 million in bad checks.
The loan foreclosure against the company, Agriprocessors Inc., was the latest in a cascade of troubles that have come after nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers were arrested in a raid in May at its plant in Postville, Iowa. On Thursday, Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive, was arrested in Iowa on federal charges of conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Cedar Rapids, First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis claimed that Agriprocessors had failed to maintain enough cash in designated bank accounts to stay current on the revolving loan it took out in 1999. The lawsuit was first reported Friday on the Web site of The Forward, a Jewish newspaper.

The suit also claims that Agriprocessors violated the loan terms by diverting nearly $1.4 million from First Bank accounts to another bank to issue payroll checks on Oct. 24. First Bank learned that those checks were returned for insufficient funds, the lawsuit says.

The suit says Agriprocessors had begun to fall behind on the revolving loan during the quarter that ended March 31, suggesting that its financial woes predated the raid, which decimated its workforce.

The bank asked the judge to appoint a receiver immediately, saying that a bank representative had been expelled from the Postville plant after a meeting on Thursday. The judge, Linda R. Reade of Federal District Court, appointed the temporary receiver late Friday and set a hearing for next Wednesday.

The bank reported that Agriprocessors owed $188,000 to an electrical company and warned that electricity to the plant could be shut off, causing "millions of dollars of fresh and frozen products" to spoil. The suit says millions of chickens "are in danger of starving to death if not fed."

Aaron Rubashkin, the company's owner and the father of Sholom, put up $2.2 million in collateral, in addition to some of the property at the huge Postville plant, and Sholom Rubashkin put up $1 million, the suit says.

Last week, Iowa authorities levied $10 million in fines against Agriprocessors for wage violations, and Aaron and Sholom Rubashkin are facing criminal charges for child labor violations.

Lawyers for the company could not be reached for comment.

nytimes.com

The mortgage modification movement is poised for a big jump off the starting blocks with the Friday announcement by JP Morgan Chase & Co. of plans to modify terms on $70 billion in home loans for as many as 400,000 borrowers, according to today's Associated Press article in the Los Angeles Times and a longer article in the Wall St. Journal.

Borrowers behind on their payments or about it be -- particularly those with option adjustable interest rate mortgages, a.k.a. options ARMs, that result in negative amortization -- could be moved into loans with lower rates or smaller principal amounts owed.

JP Morgan joins other lenders taking a similar course, including Bank of America and Wachovia.

Reports the Journal:

"The move ... suggests that banks are realizing they can improve the value of their loan portfolios through mass modifications rather than foreclosures, which tend to produce larger losses. Until now, mortgage holders have been reluctant to renegotiate loans or have been doing so one-by-one, a time-consuming process. The bundling of loans into securities that are then sold to investors further complicates matters."

Foreclosures will be put on hold for 90 days while the modification process is put into effect. That's a long road ahead.

latimes.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A loyal Democrat, Kenny Powers never shared Sarah Palin's conservative politics. But the United Way organizer confesses a fondness for the governor who paired a folksy charm with scorn for Alaska's Republican old guard.

"She was such a breath of fresh air," he says.

That was then. Nearing the end of a bruising campaign, the Republican vice presidential candidate has seen her appeal to her party's conservative base feed speculation about a future national campaign at the same time increasing numbers of others recoil from her.

"She changed her personality," Powers, 55, said at a downtown espresso shop, where the front window features a Palin portrait over the boldface word "Hype."

"It makes me wonder whether I knew her."

Palin introduced herself to a nation as a conventional homemaker eager to shatter convention - the hockey mom roughing up the power brokers, a reformer with a bipartisan streak. But that maverick image - along with her poll numbers - has been scuffed, if not reshaped.

The designer eyeglasses are the same, but it's clear many voters outside the Republican base are looking at her through a changed lens. A woman who ascended to power in Alaska by challenging the Republican establishment now represents it on the national ticket. In her coming-out convention speech, Palin said, "I took on the old politics as usual," but in two months on the national political stage she has encountered questions about expenses and trips charged to taxpayers, as well as her account of actions she took as governor.

Duke University political scientist David Rohde says Palin has alienated independents at the very time the Republican ticket needs to attract votes from the political center.

"They first saw her as refreshing," Rohde said, referring to unaffiliated voters, a crucial swing group. Now, "more see her as a typical politician."

Among the revelations, Palin charged the state more than $21,000 for her daughters' commercial flights, including events where they weren't invited, and later ordered their expense forms amended to specify official state business. She billed the state for expenses, usually collected for travel, while she was at home, and her administration used private e-mail accounts to conduct state business.

Her scalding attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama filled a traditional vice presidential nominee's role, but they also eroded her bipartisan credentials. In Alaska, her administration, once known for openness, developed a reputation for insularity. A legislative probe found she abused her power as governor.

She claimed she told Congress to cancel the "bridge to nowhere," but it turned out that she had supported it until it became an embarrassment. Disclosures that the Republican Party spent $150,000 for designer clothes, hairstyling and accessories and $36,000 to have celebrity makeup artist Amy Strozzi travel with her undermined Palin's homespun image and her professed preference for thrift shops.

And questions about her qualifications, ratcheted up by her often cringe-worthy answers during television interviews, haunted her candidacy.

Vice presidential candidates rarely affect the presidential vote, but recent polling suggests Palin could be a drag on John McCain's chances.

She attracts raucous, standing-room only crowds on the stump, but national polls in recent days indicate her popularity is shaky.

AP-Yahoo News polling found Palin's unfavorable rating jumped as voters learned more about her. In a survey conducted soon after McCain picked her, 42 percent of likely voters rated her favorably, 25 percent unfavorably and 33 percent didn't know enough to say. In a survey completed this week, the poll showed 43 percent of likely voters viewed her favorably and an equal 43 percent unfavorably, with 13 percent not knowing enough to say.

Independent likely voters started out a bit more sour and have grown increasingly negative - 35 percent gave her an unfavorable rating in early September, 47 percent in late October.

In a New York Times-CBS News poll completed this week, 59 percent of registered voters said Palin was not prepared to be vice president, up nine percentage points since the beginning of October. Almost a third of those polled said the vice-presidential selection would be a major influence on their vote for president, and those voters broadly favored Obama.

Some unflattering impressions of Palin might be the fault of McCain's own campaign. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, on Thursday criticized the way the governor was introduced to voters. In her first weeks on the national stage, she became viewed as "just an empty suit" because she spent too much time repeating the same speech, Ensign told the Las Vegas television news program NewsONE.

Pollster Ivan Moore, who tracks Alaska politics, said Palin will remain popular among Republicans, but Democrats and independents "don't like the pitbull-with-lipstick persona at all."

In Alaska "she really governed in a fairly populist way, which led to her high approval ratings," Moore said. As a vice-presidential candidate "she completely ruined the kind of bipartisanship she built up."

Her Alaska supporters blame the media for biased coverage or dismiss questions about expenses or trips as distractions.

Sharon Balsky, 70, an Anchorage retiree, has no problems with Palin's maverick credentials. The national media "doesn't go after Obama and (Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe) Biden the way they go after Palin," she said.

Palin appears to be asserting some independence from the McCain campaign. She spoke out against the campaign's decision to abandon Michigan and lamented its use of robocalls; she has defied her handlers in order to engage reporters more frequently. These moves generated reports some McCain operatives believe she is trying to position herself for a future campaign.

"She is a maverick. She took on the establishment up here," said Carol Milkman, 52, a hospital worker from Eagle River who volunteered to help Palin's campaign for governor. "I think she would make a good candidate for president."

AUSTIN - The campaign's big e-word is economy, but John McCain and Barack Obama also have fundamental differences over another - education.

Neither has showcased his proposals in the same manner as George W. Bush when he first ran for president in 2000. But the two rivals have pitched a handful of reforms to parents, teachers and other voters who consider education a priority.

Some of their ideas track efforts under way in Texas, such as Mr. McCain's plan to give bonuses to teachers in hard-to-staff schools. Texas education leaders also have moved to de-emphasize testing, a position Mr. Obama favors.

Both support the overall goals of President Bush's signature education reform act - No Child Left Behind - but they cite major mistakes in the law and want revisions.

"Unfortunately, they left the money behind for No Child Left Behind," Mr. Obama said in the final presidential debate this month. "Local school districts ended up having more of a burden, a bunch of unfunded mandates ... that left [districts] very cash-strapped."

The Democrat said he wants to revise the use of standardized tests so that teachers are not "forced to spend the academic year preparing students" for their state's achievement exam.

And he would change the focus of school accountability standards so that they provide more support - and less punishment - for campuses needing improvement.

Mr. McCain called the federal law a "great first beginning" that has developed flaws.

"We need to fix a lot of the problems," he said.

And increased spending isn't the solution, he said.

"Throwing money at the problem is not the answer. You will find that some of the worst school systems in America get the most money per student," he said.

Neither has elaborated on how he would amend the law, said one national expert, who cited the pitfalls of proposing changes that might alienate some of their constituencies.

"Stick with the crowd-pleasers today and save for tomorrow - some tomorrow after Nov. 4 - any clear plans for what to do when statutory reality can no longer be avoided," said Chester E. Finn, president of the nonprofit Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and an Education Department official in the Reagan administration.

The two also disagree on how to get more qualified teachers in public schools.

Mr. McCain wants to revise federal laws to encourage more alternative certification of teachers and provide federal money for bonuses for teachers who agree to work in low-performing schools - similar to what Texas and other states are doing.

Mr. Obama has proposed national scholarships for college students who become teachers and agree to work at least four years in a high-need field or location.

Both embrace the concept of school choice for students and parents, but Mr. Obama - backed in his campaign by the nation's teacher unions - opposes private school vouchers.

Mr. McCain supports them, saying he initially wants to boost funding for the voucher plan in the Washington, D.C., school system.

Mr. Obama is convinced that vouchers would drain money from public schools, said Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, his chief education adviser.

She said recent studies have found that vouchers "did nothing to add achievement to students" who use them to attend private schools.

Lisa Graham Keegan, former superintendent of public instruction in Arizona and chief McCain education adviser, said surveys of parents in Washington have shown vouchers to be popular.

"There have been achievement gains in the schools and parents are much more highly satisfied with the schools and feel [their children] are safer," she said.

From dallasnews.com

Netflix Inc. continues to expand the reach of its "Watch Instantly" video streaming service, striking a deal to make its movie and TV shows available to about 1 million TiVo owners who have high-speed Internet connections.

The partnership represents a bit of back to the future for Netflix and TiVo Inc. They originally announced a video-on-demand deal in fall 2004. That earlier agreement unraveled because of a combination of technology and rights issues.

Fast-forward to Wednesday's news, in which Netflix said it would provide access to a digital library of about 12,000 movies and television shows on the TV, through the TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL devices.

The two companies begin testing the on-demand service today in several thousand homes and expect to make it broadly available in early December.

The new streaming service comes at no additional charge to Netflix and TiVo subscribers.

The partnership represents an attempt by TiVo to differentiate its service from the generic cable DVR offerings. In addition to recording, TiVo offers subscribers access to Amazon.com Inc.'s video-on-demand service, which allows viewers to buy TV shows and buy or rent movies. It also delivers YouTube videos free of charge. The Netflix agreement brings expanded selection of independent films as well as mainstream movies provided through its own deal with Starz, the premium cable service.

"In addition to TiVo subscribers having the ability to record everything off of their cable and satellite, now they have the ability to download movies on a rental or purchase basis," said Tara Maitra, TiVo's vice president and general manager of content services. "Our whole goal is . . . to be your complete source for all your entertainment content."

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets mostly ended higher Wednesday, with stocks in Tokyo overcoming intraday volatility to soar on hopes the Bank of Japan will cut interest rates in a move that could force a retreat of the yen and help the country's exporters.
Australian, South Korean and Hong Kong stocks also jumped on opening after a massive overnight rally on Wall Street, but surrendered much of the gains as the day progressed. Hong Kong and Sydney ended higher.
Seoul stocks finished sharply lower, amid speculation the country might seek help from the International Monetary Fund, which the government reportedly denied.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average jumped 7.7% to 8,211.90, on top of Tuesday's 6.4% advance, spurred by the yen's decline. The broader Topix index climbed 5.9% to 830.32.
"The unwinding of the carry trades has pushed up the yen too much too fast. It doesn't reflect the economy. Japan is having a tough time, and by [considering] cutting interest rates, they're trying to make the yen slightly less attractive," said Howard Gorges, vice chairman at South China Brokerages in Hong Kong.
Chart of JP:1804610
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index rose 1.3% to 3,845.60 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index gained 2.2% to 2,745.60, amid expectations of a sharp interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve later Wednesday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose as much as 5.6%, but finished 0.8% up at 12,702.07 and even flirting with losses during the session.
"The expectation is that the Fed cut rates by 0.5 to 0.75 points. But in Hong Kong, the rates will at best be cut by a quarter-point, if anything, as our rates are already low," said Steve Cheng, associate director at Shenyin Wanguo.
"But that doesn't help our property companies," he said, referring to the weakening property prices and tightening mortgage loan norms by lenders in Hong Kong.
Seoul, Shanghai decline
South Korea's Kospi jumped nearly 8% during the session, but ended 3% lower at 968.97, amid speculation the country might seek the IMF's help in the wake of the sharp fall in the South Korean won recently amid concerns about the country's financial strength.
However, Choi Jong-ku, director general of the international finance bureau at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, said the country had no intention of taking part in a IMF assisted plan, the Associated Press reported.
China's Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, ended 2.9% lower at 1,719.81 for its lowest finish since September 2006 on persistent worries about the mainland's slowing economy. The index climbed as much as 1,795.09 during the session, but couldn't latch on to the gains.
Media reports that the country's insurance regulator has asked the insurance companies to support an ailing stock market failed to lift sentiment.
By late afternoon, India's Sensitive Index, which climbed 5.9% during a special one-hour trading session Tuesday, added 0.5% to 9,056.69 after a volatile session, while Singapore's Straits Times index rose 0.3% to 1,671.20.
Taiwan's Taiex ended 0.2% up at 4,406.52, while Philippines' PSE Composite jumped 4.5% to 1,780.64.
"I don't think the selling is finished. There are always sellers, but the market is now only a little bit higher than it was last Friday and it looks as though the markets have a bit of steam in them," said South China Brokerages' Gorges.