A changed race  —  Owens is best-equipped to represent NNY  —  Dierdre K. Scozzafava's decision to suspend her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District seat is a shocking development in what had already been an extraordinary race.  —  In her statement Saturday morning …

Jarrett: GOP ‘more and more extreme’  —  White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Sunday on ABC's “This Week” that the rise of a Conservative Party challenger in a closely watched upstate New York House election shows that the Republican Party leadership is “becoming more and more extreme, and more and more marginalized.”

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash  —  WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices …

Obamas give out treats, fruit to White House trick-or-treaters  —  The first lady was dressed as a leopard, with a smear of eyeliner, fuzzy ears and a spotted orange-and-black top.  The president was dressed as a middle-aged dad, with a black cardigan, checkered shirt and sensible brown slacks.

McDonnell extends advantage in Times-Dispatch poll  —  Republican Bob McDonnell appears poised to win the governorship and lead a GOP sweep Tuesday, ending nearly a decade of reverses for his party, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch Poll.  —  McDonnell is favored by 53 percent …

Afghanistan poll in disarray after pull-out  —  President Hamid Karzai's rival in the second round of the Afghan presidential election has announced in Kabul that he is withdrawing from the poll.  —  “I will not participate in the election,” Dr Abdullah told supporters …

Doug Hoffman: The Glenn Beck Candidate  —  What exactly does Doug Hoffman stand for?  And who is he standing with?  Would you believe ... Glenn Beck?  —  At the endorsements page of Doug Hoffman For Congress, we find a link to the “Gold List” at 912candidates.org, consisting of politicians who have …

Alan Grayson, the Liberals' Problem Child  —  WASHINGTON — On paper, Representative Alan Grayson, a freshman Democrat from Florida, seems a bit stiff: degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law; a résumé that includes clerking for the United States Court of Appeals under Judges Antonin Scalia …

White candidate scrambles vote, attitudes in Atlanta race  —  For decades as white residents fled to the suburbs, Atlanta's black political establishment, led by a string of strong mayors, revived the moribund economy and so revamped the city's image that it earned a national reputation as “Hotlanta.”

Italian Police Release Mafia Hit Video: Double Deja Vu?  —  The issue in the United States of how bystanders react — or do not react — to a crime that has unfolded before them has now emerged in Italy, on a somewhat smaller scale in an incident that seems right out of The Godfather, The Sopranos or GoodFellas.