On Sunday, it was a Category 1 hurricane. A lot of times with these storms, forecasters focus on the center and where and when it might land. With Sandy, one expert said it might not matter where the center is, because the entire thing is so large. And things could get worse. There is cold front coming from the western part of the U.S. If that meets up with Sandy and the two weather systems merge together, it could have a severe impact on the east coast. Sandy is already being blamed for at least 60 deaths form when it moved through the Caribbean. Yesterday it was off the coast of North Carolina and moving north. Predictions estimated that Delaware, Maryland and Virginia could get up to a foot of rain. Governors all over the northeast declared states of emergency to help make resources and money available to prepare for this storm. 

 

Our next headline takes us all the way across North America to Canada’s British Colombia. An earthquake, and a pretty big one, hit there on Saturday. And no major damage was reported, but the quake’s potential impact, where the quake had threatened reached across the Pacific Ocean out to the Hawaiian islands. 

 

The sirens in the Youtube video are letting people know about a tsunami warning. The concern was that the quake in Canada would trigger a large ocean wave that would wash up in Hawaii. Now, that didn’t happen, and the tsunami warning was cancelled after a few hours. 

 

Is this legit? In order to be U.S. president, you have to be at least 45 years old. There is an age requirement, but it’s not 45. Presidents have to be at least 35. 

Well, of course this year’s presidential candidates meet that constitutional requirement. Barack Obama is 51, Mitt Romney is 65. With the election just eight days away, we wanted to share a little more about the men running for the Oval Office. Both of them are family men. Romney and his wife Ann have five sons. Obama and his wife Michelle have two daughters. If you look back at where they went to school, they started at almost opposite sides of the country. Obama went to college at Columbia University, Romney graduated from Brigham Young. One thing they in common, both men have degrees from Harvard Law School. Romney also has a degree from Harvard Business School. 

How about prior work experience? Mitt Romney helped found an investment company called Bain Capital. He also helped organize and run the 2002 Winter Olympics, and he served as governor of Massachusetts. Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago. He served two terms in the Illinois State Senate, and he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. 

This is the second time that both men have run for president. They were candidates in 2008 as well, and they both made some history along the way. In 2008, Barack Obama became the first African-American presidential nominee for a major political party, and this year, Mitt Romney became the first Mormon to be a major political party’s presidential nominee. President Obama and Governor Romney are both aiming for the same number, 270. If you want to win the presidency, that’s at least how many votes you need to get in the electoral college. Jonathan Mann explains how that works and what it could take for the candidates to reach that magic number. 

It’s nice to be popular, but it does not win the White House. The national poll numbers show that more people prefer Mitt Romney lately, but winning the presidency is not a popular contest. You have to win states, not just votes. And for Romney, that’s a problem. Even though the poll numbers are moving his way, the color-coded CNN electoral map has barely budged in months, and it speaks volumes. It still projects that Obama is leading in the electoral vote with the blue states, comfortably in his corner. Romney’s safe states are in red. Each state has a different number of electoral votes, though, based on its population. And the thing is that whoever wins 270 electoral votes will win the election. That’s why the yellow states, the tossup states are crucial. Polls in those states show the race is still too close to call. Romney’s problem is that he needs to win most of them. 

Just this week, North Carolina turned light red, showing that the state is now in the leaning Romney category. Romney has a slight edge in Florida, so we’ll be turning that state red as well. He has high hopes for Virginia and for Colorado. If they turn red too, he is still though, 13 electoral votes short of the 270 he needs to win. He’d have to win two more of the smaller states, or the big prize, Ohio, to win the election. 

Now, resetting the map, there is more wiggle room in Obama’s path to the presidency. His campaign is setting its sights on Iowa, Wisconsin and all-important Ohio. Those three states alone could put him over the top. Any other wins would just be extra insurance. But say Obama wins Ohio and Wisconsin, and loses Iowa. Well, he wins New Hampshire, Romney wins the rest. Each candidate ends up with 269 electoral votes, a tie. That hasn’t happened in more than 200 years, but it could, and if it did, the newly elected House of Representatives would actually be the ones to vote to break the tie.