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Republican Gordon Smith, who has represented Oregon in the U.S. Senate for the last 12 years, this morning called Jeff Merkley, his Democratric challenger, to concede their race.

Jon Isaacs, an aide to Merkley, said that Smith called Merkley about 8:40 a.m. to concede the hard-fought race, which came down to a few thousand votes. Isaacs described the conversation between the two men as “very cordial.”

It came as Merkley prepared to give his acceptance speech this morning at Portland State University.

Merkley, a five-term state lawmaker and former Habitat for Humanity director, took advantage of a surge of Democratic support to win the bitterly fought battle with Smith, a Pendleton frozen food magnate who also rose through the Oregon Legislature.

Merkley was ahead through most of the counting Tuesday night, but then Smith overtook him overnight. By the end of counting Wednesday, Merkley had moved ahead with tallies from Democrat-rich Multnomah and Lane counties.

Merkley’s victory capped not only a long, expensive campaign but also an emotional and tense could of days for both candidates, who were forced to wait out an agonizingly slow vote-counting process.

Merkley spent most of Wednesday at his East Portland home, where out-of-town visitors circulated and the phone rang constantly — often with U.S. senators on the other end, wishing him luck and asking for updated vote counts. Merkley spent considerable time in the kitchen, where he keeps his computer.

Smith did not talk to reporters Wednesday. He had spent election night at the Benson Hotel in Portland, packed up his suitcases Wednesday morning and drove his family back to his hometown of Pendleton. Before leaving, he bid emotional farewells to staffers and campaign aides.

Merkley joins Oregon’s senior senator, Ron Wyden, giving Oregon a two-Democrat team for the first time in four decades. Democratic senatorial leaders, who threw millions of dollars into the effort to defeat Smith, are hoping to boost their ranks to 60, which would effectively give them unfettered sway over Congress.

Gen. Toshio Tamogami lost his job as chief of staff for Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, the Ministry of Defense said, after saying in an essay that “it is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation.”

Japanese troops invaded China in 1937 and were widely accused of gross human rights abuses, including raping tens of thousands of girls and women and killing several hundred thousand others in what has come to be called “The Rape of Nanking.” Imperial Japan also invaded several other Asian nations, leading to the death and misery for an untold number.

Two former Japanese prime ministers have apologized for Japanese aggression before and during World War II. Yet China has long accused of elements within Japan of trying to whitewash the Japanese atrocities committed before and during World War II.

“The denial of the aggression history by Toshio Tamogami comes in as an element of disharmony,” the state-run China Daily said a commentary Monday. “Yet, as long as the Japanese government has a right attitude to this question, the smooth development of ties between the two neighbors will not be derailed by such discordant notes.”

Tamogami’s essay, published late last week, also stirred controversy in South Korea.

Japan controlled Korea from 1910 to 1945. Its military is accused of forcing roughly 200,000 women, mainly from Korea and China, to serve as sex slaves — they were known euphemistically as “comfort women” — for soldiers in the Imperial Army.

The South Korean foreign ministry criticized Tamogami’s commentary in a statement published by Yonhap, the South Korean news agency.

“His claim is distorting history,” the statement said. “International friendly relations are based on repentance for past wrongdoings and learning a lesson from history,”

Tamogami’s essay won first prize in a competition called the “True Perspective of Modern and Contemporary History.”

Several Japanese leaders have apologized in recent years for past Japanese aggression.

In 2005, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized for his country’s role in World War II on the 60th anniversary of the war’s end. He vowed Japan would never again take “the path to war.”

Japan agreed to surrender on August 15, 1945, after U.S. planes dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The formal surrender was signed September 2.

In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the war’s end, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama also expressed Tokyo’s deep remorse and heartfelt apology for the damage and suffering it inflicted on its Asian neighbors.

And in 2001, Koizumi apologized for Japanese treatment of Koreans during its occupation of the Korean peninsula during the first half of the 20th century.

In a statement, Koizumi acknowledged the “enormous damage” inflicted by Japan’s military “by colonization and invasion” during the conflict.

“We must take this historical fact of such very sincerely, and I would like to express keen remorse and heartfelt apologies,” Koizumi said. “I would like to also express our deep condolences to the victims inside and outside of Japan during World War II.”

At the height of the conflict, much of southeast Asia, China and the Pacific islands were in Japanese hands.

cnn.com

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lankan fighter planes bombed and destroyed two Tamil Tiger rebel bases in the volatile north on Monday, in the second straight day of government airstrikes against the insurgents’ de facto state, the military said.

In the latest attack, jets hit two bases belonging to the Sea Tigers, the guerrilla naval wing, deep in the rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu, said air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara.

He said the airstrikes wrecked the bases, with one being engulfed in fire.

The strikes came two days after a fierce sea battle killed 17 rebels and destroyed six rebel boats off the northern Jaffna peninsula.

On Sunday, the air force bombed a rebel training camp and supply base, also in Mullaitivu.

Meanwhile, infantry clashes raged through Sunday along the northern front lines, the military said in a statement on Monday.

In one battle, soldiers attacked a gathering of rebels in Palleikulam village in Kilinochchi, it said.

Three more clashes were reported in Kilinochchi, while scattered battles continued in Jaffna and Mullaitivu districts in the north, the military said.

The statement did not provide casualty details in line with a new government policy, but said troops inflicted “severe damage” on the rebels.

In another incident Sunday, Tamil rebels fatally shot four civilians in the eastern Batticaloa district, a separate military statement said.

Rebel spokesmen could not be reached for comment because most communication lines to guerrilla territory have been severed.

It was not possible to get independent accounts of the clashes because most journalists are banned from the war zone.

Government troops have made dramatic progress in recent months, seizing rebel bases and chunks of land, but the rebels have offered stiff resistance as the soldiers close in on their administrative capital, Kilinochchi.

The Tamil Tigers have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalization at the hands of successive governments controlled by ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.

iht.com

Crude’s plunge is crushing sector, but some say hit has been too hard

Oil stocks have been slammed hard of late.

A combination of lower crude prices, the credit crisis and massive liquidations of hedge fund and mutual fund portfolios are behind their downfall.

Meanwhile, OPEC is scrambling to cut its crude oil production to stem what it calls “a dramatic collapse” in prices
For the consumer, prices at the pump may slip further and are unlikely to return to previous highs for a while. For the investor, experts say, there are opportunities to buy oil stocks at prices far lower than the value of their underlying businesses.

Dennis Gartman, editor of the Gartman Letter in Suffolk, Va., doesn’t believe the slide in crude is over yet.

“Oil prices are probably headed lower still, because that commodity’s history is that once it starts to go lower, it continues to go lower,” he said. Many endowment and pension funds had been advised by financial consultants that they should be in the commodity markets, Gartman said. Once those investments began losing money, however, they abruptly headed for the exits.

No one is saying the threat of higher oil prices is over forever, but prices are definitely in a lull.

“I think that oil prices are likely to bounce between $60 and nearly $100 a barrel, but I doubt we’ll face triple digits in the next 12 months,” said Tim Parker, energy analyst with T. Rowe Price in Baltimore.

Sometime in the next three years, oil prices likely will be back at higher levels again, he said, because the United States hasn’t fixed the problem of dependence on foreign oil.

“Gasoline prices at the pump should be headed down to $2.50 a gallon, depending on where you are,” Parker said. “As oil prices head back toward $100 a barrel, pump prices will be between $2.50 and $3, but won’t be $3.50 a gallon until oil prices are at $120 or $150.”

But energy issues aren’t going to go away.

“We’ve lowered our oil forecast for 2008 to $105 a barrel, which means oil would have to average around $80 a barrel in the fourth quarter,” said Philip Weiss, oil analyst with Argus Research in New York. “For 2009, we have an estimate of $90 a barrel on average, with supply and demand the key factors.”

Oil stocks have been hit too hard, Weiss said. Although oil prices aren’t much higher than three years ago, more than half the oil stocks Weiss covers are trading at lower prices now than they were then.

“My tendency has been to upgrade stocks in this environment,” Weiss said. “If you’re a long-term investor looking for undervalued stocks, the oil sector is a good place to go because we’ve had an irrational correction.”

Weiss recommends these stocks:

•Contract drillers Transocean Inc. and Noble Corp., both with extensive deepwater oil and gas drilling activity and a backlog of contracts.

•BP PLC, a solid oil stock with strong dividend yield that is a great place to wait until the oil market turns around.

•Marathon Oil Corp., an inexpensive stock because it has more refining than some competitors, and refining has been hit especially hard. It has an exploration and production business that should be able to grow at a 7 percent to 8 percent clip over the next five years, Weiss said.

“There has been a lot of talk about alternative energy, but it is not that imminent, and developing world economies are going to be using oil, natural gas and coal to grow,” Weiss said. “While oil might not be a good investment 10 or 20 years from now, there are real opportunities now, and none of these companies are going away.”

Among major oil stocks, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Marathon Oil receive the strongest consensus “buy” recommendations from Wall Street analysts, according to Thomson Financial.

BP, Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell also receive “buy” recommendations.

Whether stocks or commodities, in the topsy-turvy investment world it is difficult to make exact predictions. Up or down is about the best any expert can do.

“I’ve been at this for 35 years and have learned that if I tell someone oil prices are going lower, say to $55 a barrel, and it goes to $58, I look like an idiot,” Gartman said. “The only thing that makes you look wise is to say that it looks like the trend is down.”

chicagotribune.com

Google has begun distributing a patch to its Android mobile phone operating system, an early test for how nimbly the company can respond and how well the infrastructure works to distribute and install updates.

For the Android test phone I’m using, a T-Mobile G1, the update was smoother than the process by which the software problem came to light publicly on October 24.

The handset I’m testing gave me a message Saturday afternoon: “A system update is available,” and a choice to update now or later. When I clicked the button to begin the update, it downloaded new software, which took a few minutes, then installed it, then resumed working with no hitches.

The patch fixes the highly publicized security problem with Android’s Web browser and makes a few other minor changes, according to a Google spokesman quoted in IT World on Friday.

The researchers–Charlie Miller, Mark Daniel, and Jake Honoroff of Independent Security Evaluators–called the Android Web browser flaw serious, but Google said its severity was mitigated by Android’s design, which restricts each program to its own area.

Earlier, Google appealed for what it called “responsible disclosure” of security vulnerabilities–in other words, a grace period to fix problems before they’re made public to reduce the likelihood an attacker will get a chance to exploit a vulnerability. There’s an ages-old tension between companies that want to fix their products and security researchers who want to get the word out, in part because attackers also are trying to find the vulnerabilities.

Google didn’t respond to a request for comment Saturday.

news.cnet.com/

Barack Obama says he admired John McCain, the 2000 version. These days? Not so much.

Hours after McCain released an ad citing past praise from Obama, the Democratic nominee said Friday he respected the unsuccessful 2000 primary campaign McCain waged against then-Gov. George W. Bush. Obama noted the Arizona senator’s stand then against negative political attacks.

“I admired him for it,” Obama told a crowd of 25,000 in Des Moines.

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“He said, ‘I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land.’ Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent John McCain,” Obama said.

“But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time he decided to take a different route,” which Obama assailed as “slash-and-burn, say-anything, do-anything politics.”

In the Republican’s ad titled “Obama Praising McCain,” Team McCain highlights Obama’s past praise for the GOP nominee’s stance on global climate change. In another new ad titled “Freedom,” McCain reminds voters about his military service and how it shaped him.

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“I’ve served my country since I was 17 years old and spent five years longing for her shores. I came home dedicated to a cause greater than my own,” he says. “Don’t hope for a stronger America. Vote for one. Join me.”

In an ABC News interview, McCain said he remained confident of his chances, despite polls showing he’s behind in a slew of battleground states.

“I’m confident we’ll win next Tuesday,” he said. “I think we’re going to fool the pundits one more time.”

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On CNN, Obama said stabilizing the economy and steering the nation toward energy independence will be his top priorities if elected.

“We don’t know yet what’s gonna happen in January,” he said, stressing his commitment to the country’s financial health. “That’s priority No. 1 – making sure the plumbing works.”

The campaign trail got more crowded yesterday with high-profile surrogates, including former Vice President Al Gore for Obama and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for McCain. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton will barnstorm for Obama this weekend.

From nydailynews.com

No. 6 Texas Tech doesn’t need its defense to pitch a shutout tonight against No. 1 Texas; the Red Raiders are more than capable of putting a few points on the board themselves. But as entertaining as a high-scoring shootout would be for spectators to watch, it likely would be a death knell to Texas Tech’s chances of winning.

The Longhorns allow opponents to pile up passing yards (they rank 110th in passing defense), but they lock down when backed up against their own end zone (they’re No. 28 in scoring defense). In other words, eventually Texas will make a stop. Whether the Texas Tech defense can pull off the same feat remains to be seen.

Led by junior defensive end Brandon Williams and sophomore linebacker Brian Duncan, the Red Raiders need only to keep the dam from breaking, as quarterback Graham Harrell and the offense have been almost impossible to stop. Harrell leads the nation in passing yards per game. His counterpart tonight, Texas’s Colt McCoy, ranks 12th.

“We can be better,” Texas Tech defensive coordinator Ruffin McNeill told the Dallas Morning News on Oct. 16. “We have to keep striving to play 11-man football, not eight-man football. We’ve been aggressive and we’ll just keep getting better and keep improving.”

Since McNeill’s comments, Texas Tech has won consecutive conference road games and did not allow more than 25 points in either contest. If the Red Raiders can hold Texas to 25 today, they’ll stand a good chance of pulling off the upset.

From washingtonpost.com

The Arizona Republican had once planned to make defense issues the central theme of his presidential bid, but global economic turmoil has become a relentless focus of his campaign in recent weeks. McCain sought to link the two issues yesterday, arguing that, in a “Democratic-dominated Washington,” national security and the economy would both suffer.

“Raising taxes and unilaterally renegotiating trade agreements as they have promised would make a bad economy even worse, and undermine our national security, even as they slash defense spending,” McCain said in a speech in Tampa after meeting with his national security advisers. “At least when European nations chose the path of higher taxes and cutting defense, they knew that their security would still be guaranteed by America. But if America takes the same path, who will guarantee our security?”

The Illinois Democrat has not proposed cuts in defense spending and says he wants to continue President Bush’s plan to expand the military by 92,000 soldiers and Marines. But McCain seized on a recent call for a 25 percent cut in Pentagon spending by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to stoke fears about what would happen if Democrats controlled both Congress and the White House.

“Even with our troops engaged in two wars, and with a force in need of rebuilding, we’re getting a glimpse of what one-party rule would look like under Obama, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid,” McCain said, according to prepared remarks.

The Obama campaign hit back. Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, one of Obama’s military advisers, released a statement accusing McCain of wanting to continue Bush’s foreign policy while distorting Obama’s defense plans.

“John McCain’s desperate and dishonest attack on defense spending only makes the point that Barack Obama has been willing to stand up to some in his own party from the first day of this campaign through his commitment to increase the size of our ground forces and our investments in 21st century capabilities,” Gration said.

Like McCain, Obama in recent weeks has emphasized the connection between national security and the economy, using it to sow doubts about McCain’s judgment on economic issues. “We can’t afford another president who ignores the fundamentals of our economy while running up record deficits to fight a war without end in Iraq,” Obama told reporters last week in Richmond.

Both candidates have also made it clear that economic issues loom large on the international agenda for the next four years. Both pledge to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. And although neither has sketched out a detailed plan for dealing with the international economic crisis, one of the early challenges facing a new administration will be how to restructure international economic institutions.

White House officials confirmed this week that neither McCain nor Obama plans to participate directly in a Nov. 15 global summit focused on the global financial crisis. But press secretary Dana Perino said yesterday that whoever wins will be “providing input” to the negotiations.

“None of this ties the next president’s hand,” Perino said. “But I think that what we are trying to do is do what the president asked us to do, which is do everything we can right now, in this downturn, in this cycle of our economy, to get it back to a period of growth so that the next president has the best possible starting point on January 20th.”

David Rothkopf, a former trade official in the Clinton administration, said yesterday that restoring America’s economic strength is critical to rebuilding U.S. influence in the world. Without such strength, the United States “doesn’t have the ability to exercise soft power by writing checks for development,” he said. “And it does not have the ability to underwrite hard power by funding the kind of military we’re accustomed to.”

Rothkopf said McCain was “disingenuous” in going after Obama for wanting to cut defense spending, saying the current level of growth at the Pentagon is unsustainable. But he also said Obama could run into trouble if he tries to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, as the Democrat has said he would consider, or if he does not cut taxes on business, as McCain has promised. “Its going to be very hard to compete for jobs if we keep high corporate tax rates,” Rothkopf said.

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 30, 2008; Page A02

COLORADO

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Colorado among likely voters, 9 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 50 percent, John McCain 41 percent

OF INTEREST: Eight in 10 say they’re worried about the state’s economic conditions. Of that group, nearly six in 10 back Obama. Two-thirds of those not too concerned about the economy back McCain. Voters are split about evenly over which candidate they trust more on national security, but prefer Obama to handle the economy, the financial crisis and health care. Obama leads among people who say they’ve already voted, 57 percent to 34 percent. Men are evenly split between the two candidates while women prefer Obama by 19 percentage points. Whites lean only slightly toward McCain. Among them, white born-again and evangelical Christians prefer him by 42 percentage points, and whites without college degrees favor him by 14 points. Independents back Obama 49 percent to 37 percent. Slightly more oppose a fixed timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq than favor such a schedule, as Obama does. Democrat Mark Udall is solidly ahead of Republican Bob Schaffer in their race for the state’s open Senate seat.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 626 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

FLORIDA

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Florida among likely voters, 27 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 45 percent, John McCain 43 percent

OF INTEREST: People in the state prefer Obama by only 4 percentage points for handling the financial crisis, but by bigger margins pick him for dealing with the economy, health care and understanding how the financial crisis affects them. McCain is their choice on national security by 7 points. Eight in 10 worry about the state’s economy and seven in 10 are concerned about their personal financial situations — and both groups lean toward Obama by more than 10 percentage points. Fewer than three in 10 think McCain will win the election. Men prefer McCain by 15 points, women back Obama by about the same amount. People under age 35 back Obama by more than two-to-one, while those age 35 and up lean slightly toward McCain. White men prefer McCain by about two-to-one, while white women are split. Asked about characteristics of minorities, 13 percent of white Democrats in the state said blacks are “violent,” making it one of three states in the poll where that answer exceeded 10 percent. Twelve percent of the state’s white Democrats are voting for McCain. Independents back Obama by 10 percentage points. Obama is ahead by 7 points with those who say they’ve already voted.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 600 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

NEVADA

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Nevada among likely voters, 5 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 52 percent, John McCain 40 percent

OF INTEREST: Obama leads by 23 points among people who say they’ve already voted. The state’s whites are divided about evenly between the two candidates, including those who haven’t completed college — a group Obama often struggles with. White men tilt toward McCain, women toward Obama. Voters under age 35 prefer Obama by nearly three to one, while those over age 35 are split. Unmarried people favor Obama by more than a two-to-one edge, married people are split. Obama is ahead by 10 percentage points with independents. Nearly nine in 10 worry about their state’s economy. Of the worriers, about six in 10 support Obama. Obama is widely preferred for dealing with the economy, the financial crisis and health. He also has a slender edge for handling national security, an area where McCain often prevails. Voters are divided over whether they support a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Fifty-one percent say Obama has run a positive campaign, double the number who say so about McCain. Two-thirds think Obama will win the election.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 628 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

NEW HAMPSHIRE

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in New Hampshire among likely voters, 4 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 55 percent, John McCain 37 percent

OF INTEREST: Only 14 percent in the state approve of the job President Bush is doing, just 10 percent give Congress positive marks, and a mere 8 percent say the country is moving in the right direction. Almost nine in 10 worry about economic conditions in the state, and Obama is ahead with this group by almost two-to-one over McCain. Obama has a 20-percentage-point edge for understanding how people are affected by the financial crisis, and similarly strong margins for handling the economy and health care. People are split over which candidate would better guide national security. They are divided over whether Obama’s campaign has been positive, but only 21 percent say McCain’s has. Almost three quarters predict Obama will win on Election Day. Obama leads among both genders, and whites back him by 18 percentage points. Obama leads among independents by 19 points. Republican Sen. John Sununu is trailing Democratic challenger Jeanne Shaheen by 6 percentage points. Democratic Gov. John Lynch is far ahead of his GOP challenger, Joseph Kenney.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 600 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

NORTH CAROLINA

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in North Carolina among likely voters, 15 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 48 percent, John McCain 46 percent

OF INTEREST: Ninety percent say they worry about the state’s economy, and 72 percent are concerned about their family’s finances. Both groups are divided about evenly between Obama and McCain. Obama has an edge of just 6 percentage points on which candidate is most trusted to handle the economy, but a 13-point advantage for better understanding how the financial crisis affects people. McCain is favored slightly to best deal with national security. Two-thirds think Obama will be elected. Whites favor McCain by 24 percentage points. Fourteen percent of white Democrats said blacks are “violent,” one of only three states where that answer exceeded 10 percent. Twenty percent of white Democrats are backing McCain. Whites who’ve not finished college back him by 31 points, and white evangelical or born again Christians support him by 50 points. Men are evenly split while women tilt a bit toward Obama. McCain is ahead by 9 points with independents. Obama leads among people who say they’ve voted already by 26 points. Democrat Kay Hagan is narrowly leading in her attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Democrat Bev Perdue and Republican Pat McCrory are even in their fight to become governor.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 601 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

OHIO

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Ohio among likely voters, 20 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 48 percent, John McCain 41 percent

OF INTEREST: Nine in 10 are worried about the state’s economic conditions, and more than six in 10 fret about their family’s financial situation. Both of those groups tilt decidedly toward Obama. By more than 10 percentage points, more in the state trust Obama than McCain on the financial crisis, the economy and health care. They give McCain a small edge on national security. Women prefer Obama by 12 percentage points, while men are divided. Whites are about evenly split. Whites without college degrees, who usually prefer McCain, favor him by only 8 points. Independents back Obama by 9 points. More oppose than favor a timetable for a troop withdrawal from Iraq by 8 points. People who have already voted prefer Obama over McCain 56 percent to 28 percent.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 607 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

PENNSYLVANIA

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Pennsylvania among likely voters, 21 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 52 percent, John McCain 40 percent

OF INTEREST: Sixteen percent say the country is heading in the right direction. Twenty-one percent approve of the job President Bush is doing, while 15 percent rate Congress’ work favorably. The state’s voters are closely divided on whether a timetable should govern a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Almost nine in 10 worry about the state’s economic conditions and nearly three quarters are concerned about their family’s financial status, and the worriers from both groups lean toward Obama. By 15 percentage points or more, more pick Obama than McCain for dealing with the economy, the financial crisis and health care. People are divided over which nominee would better protect national security. Fifty-six percent say Obama’s campaign has been positive, and 30 percent say so about McCain’s. Men are closely divided over the two candidates, but women prefer Obama nearly two-to-one. Whites were more likely to back Obama by 5 points, while whites who aren’t college graduates — a group that often prefers McCain — split evenly. Fifteen percent of white Democrats said blacks are “violent,” and 8 percent of white Democrats are voting for McCain. Catholics prefer Obama by 10 points while white born-again or evangelical Christians back McCain by about two-to-one. Independents are closely split.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 607 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

VIRGINIA

THE POLL: Associated Press-GfK poll, presidential race in Virginia among likely voters, 13 electoral votes

THE NUMBERS: Barack Obama 49 percent, John McCain 42 percent

OF INTEREST: By 8 percentage points, more in the state oppose than favor a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, which Obama has championed. Even so, one in four timetable opponents back the Democrat. Eighty-two percent worry about the state’s economy and 64 percent are troubled by their family’s finances, and majorities of both groups support Obama. Obama is favored by 13 percentage points over McCain to improve the economy, by 17 points to empathize with people on the impact of the financial crisis, and by 20 points to work on health care. Two-thirds expect Obama to be elected. Obama has modest leads with both men and women. McCain leads 49 percent to 42 percent with whites and has a slightly larger margin with whites who haven’t completed college, a group that generally prefers Republicans. McCain has a three-to-one edge among white born again or evangelical Christians. Independents are divided evenly. Democrat Mark Warner is well ahead of Republican Jim Gilmore in their battle for the state’s open Senate seat.

DETAILS: Conducted Oct. 22-26 by landline telephone, included 601 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

MORE: AP-GfK Poll: http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

Note: Too few said they have already voted in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania or Virginia to provide meaningful figures on their responses. There were not enough blacks or Hispanics in state samples to provide statistically meaningful data on their preferences.

By The Associated Press

The Internet search engine has agreed to pay $125 million to start the Book Rights Registry, resolve legal fees from the 3-year-old lawsuits, provide more access to out-of-print books, compensate authors for unauthorized use of their work and find new ways to sell copyrighted books online.

The Authors Guild filed a lawsuit against Google in September 2005, and five major members of the publishing consortium – the McGraw-Hill Cos., Pearson Education, Penguin Group, John Wiley & Sons and Simon & Schuster – followed suit the following month.

The settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

At the heart of the decision is an agreement to disagree: AAP and the Authors Guild say they still dispute Google’s use of currently copyrighted material. However, the parties came together in the interest of “moving forward,” according to AAP Vice President Allen Adler.

“This is more important than any court victory, which would have been narrowly decided on principles of law,” he said in an interview.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin in a statement described the settlement as a great leap in the Mountain View company’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The 2005 lawsuits were filed in response to Google scanning copyrighted books into Book Search to create a huge online library. Google showed only snippets of the copyrighted books, likening the information to what is found on a card catalog, but publishers and authors decried the copyright infringement.

In response, Google slowed but didn’t stop its work on Book Search. There are more than 7 million books now searchable online. And as of this fall, 30 libraries around the world had opened their collections and signed on as partners.

Adler, of the publishers’ group, compared the new independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry to the music industry’s American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which monitors and compensates musicians for live and recorded performances of their music. “It’s the same concept – a central entity that protects rights holders through third-party licensing,” he said.

In addition to creating the registry, the settlement seeks to expand access to out-of-print, copyrighted books, the vast majority of books in the world. Google will resume adding these books to its search engine, which interested parties can then pay to download or buy offline.

University of California spokeswoman Jennifer Colvin said the UC system is fully behind the deal, which includes provisions for institutional subscriptions that would allow libraries to share collections online and mandates at least one free access terminal in public libraries. “This is really exciting,” she said. “Look at the things you can do with Google Book (Search) – you can do full text searches and find books that until now have simply lived on library shelves. It really broadens horizons.”

Not every observer heralded the settlement. San Francisco Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Corynne McSherry said she is “still digesting” the agreement but had some early thoughts:

“I will tell you, frankly, that I kind of wish this case had gone to litigation. I think Google had a great fair-use defense,” she said. “A ruling from the court would have been good for everyone. It potentially could have fostered other offerings, based on that legal certainty” if Google had won.

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, which is based at the Presido and has partnered with Yahoo, Microsoft and 135 libraries to create the Open Content Alliance, said the agreement moves libraries “toward a monoculture.”

“One company is trying to be the library system,” Kahle said, speaking of Google’s plans to create a subscription service for library collections. “This is not good for a society that is built on free speech. Let’s have the World Wide Web rather than the iTunes of books.”