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This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America.

If you went to a wedding this summer, there is a better-than-even chance that the happy couple was already living together. Today, more than 65 percent of first marriages start out that way. Fifty years ago, it was closer to 10 percent.

Cohabitation before marriage, once frowned upon, is now almost a rite of passage, especially for the millennial generation. Young adults born after 1980 are more likely to cohabit than any previous generation was at the same stage of life, according to the Pew Research Center. With more than 8 million couples currently cohabiting, it is obviously a living arrangement with appeal — but it is also one with unique challenges.

Claire Noble and Charlie Sharbel are among those who have decided to share the keys to an apartment. They are both 27 years old and have been living together in Washington, D.C., since August.

They say the decision made sense to them for emotional reasons. "I get to hug her when she comes home. I get to kiss her goodbye in the morning," Sharbel says.

But it also made sense from a practical perspective: "We both now actually get to save money, because we're not spending half of our paychecks on rent," he says. And before the move-in, they said, Sharbel was already spending most nights at Noble's place.

But their new arrangement has also exposed some points of conflict that they didn't have to deal with when they lived apart. For example, Noble, who describes herself as "not a tech person" would prefer Sharbel spent less time on the computer — he works in software development and plays games online with friends. "I honestly didn't know the extent of it until we moved in," she says.

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That's pretty typical of the kinds of issues Galena Rhoades sees as a researcher studying cohabitation at the University of Denver, and in her work as a clinical psychologist. In her 10 years of practice, she's seen a growing number of people coming to her for help with cohabiting relationships. She says those couples are sandwiched between the pressures of dating and marriage.

"They face all of the same issues that dating couples face: things about friends and how much time to spend together. But then they also find the issues that married couples face: who does what around the house, parenting responsibilities and managing money together," she says.

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Discovering and working through issues was actually something Noble says she was hoping for when Sharbel moved in. She says she would never marry someone she hadn't lived with first. "I think that it's so important to know somebody when you're not in the bubble of ... 'you only see me at my best,' " she says.

Rhoades, who is a senior fellow at the pro-marriage National Marriage Project, says that can be risky, because breaking up is tough when you're living together. She worked with one couple who decided to split up, but they were stuck in a lease together for two months. She spent several sessions helping them divide finances that had been joined, as well as mutual friends that they had.

"That's something that people often don't recognize ... that ending a cohabiting relationship is very much like getting a divorce," Rhoades says.

And since roughly half of people cohabiting for the first time go on to marry, Rhoades is concerned that a dating couple with issues can eventually become a married couple with issues — and potentially a divorced couple.

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The research on whether cohabitation increases the risk of divorce is still being debated, but Rhoades and her colleagues have found that couples who move in together before getting engaged or committed to marry are a little more likely to have lower-quality marriages.

But rather than advise people not to cohabit, she suggests taking the decision seriously and discussing its implications.

"You don't want to wind up in a relationship where you think you live together because it's a step toward marriage, and your partner's just thinking, 'She lives closer to where I work,' " she says.

New Boom

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Before they moved in together, Noble and Sharbel had a big discussion about exactly what living together meant for them. It also included a contingency plan.

"I said to him, 'Look, listen, I want this to work, I want you to move in ... But I want to be the name on the lease,' " says Noble.

And Sharbel went along with that. He's more mobile, since Noble owns most of the furniture. Besides, they say, they couldn't see a scenario where one of them would be kicked out.

But if worst does comes to worst, they know who's getting the U-Haul.

Millennials

Marriage

Pew Research Center

Growth is slowing all over the world right now, and that's especially true in Europe. Much of the continent is on the brink of another recession, and even the German economy is sputtering to a halt.

Some of the weakest countries, such as Spain and Italy, are actually experiencing deflation — a broad drop in incomes and asset values. It's a painful process that can be hard to reverse once it starts.

Europe's long, slow economic downturn has taken its toll on Javier Oroz Rodriguez, who owns a butcher shop in downtown Madrid.

"We've lowered our prices, in various stages, bit by bit," he says. "So now we're charging about 10 percent less than we did a few years ago. It's really difficult because I've got expenses. So it's tough."

Things aren't all bad, however. He says the prices of some of the meats he buys have come down, so his costs are lower too.

"Lamb is more expensive than it was a few years ago," he says. "But beef is a bit cheaper, and so are pork and chicken."

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For business owners like Rodriguez, deflation has increasingly become a fact of life — not just in Spain, but in Portugal, Greece and Italy.

"What we have seen is that the countries that experienced the most distress are also the countries where the deflation threat is the greatest," says Ashoka Mody, a professor of international economic policy at Princeton University.

In many parts of Europe, incomes and prices are actually falling. And even in healthier economies, such as the Netherlands, costs are rising more slowly than they were just a few years ago.

That might not seem so terrible, and economist Michael Bordo of Rutgers University says deflation can sometimes be a good thing — if it's caused by something beneficial like falling energy prices. But in a faltering economy like Europe's, it can be a disaster.

Bordo says if people see that prices are dropping, they put off purchases.

"Then what they're going to do is they're going to figure, well, if I hold back on my expenditures — my decision to buy a car now — because I know that next year they're going to be 2 percent cheaper, well, that means that they're not spending," he says.

And when people in one country put off spending, it hurts the countries they buy from in a way that reinforces itself. It becomes a vicious cycle. And that's exactly what Europe doesn't want to see happening right now.

Princeton's Mody says many of the countries experiencing deflation are among Germany's largest trading partners.

"And we have seen in these last several months that, as a consequence, the German economy has also slowed down considerably," he says.

Deflation can also hurt an economy in another way. When incomes are falling and assets are losing value, it becomes a lot harder for people to pay off debts. If they make good on their debts, they have less money left over to buy things, which only hurts the economy more.

In the end, a lot of people are tempted to walk away from their debts, Bordo of Rutgers says.

"It's more likely that they'll default on their loans, and it's more likely that banks that have made the loans will end up taking losses and may fail," he says.

As more banks fail, he says, the troubles for the global economy intensify. And Mody says that can cause huge ramifications throughout the financial markets.

"And I think that's the risks that should be of great concern to policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic," Mody says.

The European Central Bank has often been behind the curve when it comes to addressing the region's troubles. The specter of deflation in places like Italy and Spain is one factor that's forcing European officials to reassess their strategy and look for new ways to revive the economy.

deflation

Tim Cook is known for revealing new Apple products but the company's CEO made news this week by publicly acknowledging that he's gay. As NPR's Laura Sydell reported, Cook's decision may have a larger impact overseas than in the U.S.

And for other tech news highlights this week:

ICYMI

Cooking With Data: IBM's Watson has crushed Jeopardy! Now, NPR's Laura Sydell reports, chefs are using the supercomputer to come up with new kinds of recipes that work around dietary restrictions and other limitations.

Forget The Password: Apps working with Digits, a new Twitter service, would ask for your phone number instead of a password. In exchange, NPR's Charles Pulliam-Moore says, the company could gather information about you to better target ads. Digits and a new USB security key from Google hint at a post-password world.

Who Are You? Finding your email double or Twitter twin is easier than ever. But as we become reliant on all-digital communication, NPR's Elise Hu says, mix-ups matter more, because our names represent our online reputations.

The Big Conversation

Net Neutrality Shift: The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is looking to expand the agency's power over broadband, The Wall Street Journal reports. But backers of "net neutrality" — equal treatment for all Internet traffic — may not like Chairman Tom Wheeler's reported approach because it would still allow Internet service providers to make deals with content providers for special access, the Journal said.

Samsung's Swoon: Squeezed by Apple's new iPhones and cheaper phones from China, Samsung saw its smallest quarterly profits in more than two years. Samsung's net income dropped 49 percent in the quarter that ended in September. BGR says the company fears a "nightmare scenario" in which it becomes "just another low-margin Android vendor."

Curiosities

Wired: Verizon's 'Perma-Cookie' Is a Privacy-Killing Machine

Verizon Wireless has been inserting a kind of short-term serial number into its wireless traffic. This Unique Identifier Header, as it's known, can identify you to advertisers and be used to profile your Web activity.

NPR: After Mass Protests, Hungary Gives Up On Internet Tax

Days after some 100,000 people took to the streets in protest, Hungary's government gave up on plans to tax Internet usage.

AP: The Newest Employees at Lowe's Hardware Store: Robots

Four robots are being tested in a store owned by Lowe's in California. They're equipped with 3-D cameras used to identify items and they can help customers locate the items in the store.

tech week

If you're reading The Salt, it probably comes as no surprise to you that consumers increasingly want to make food choices based on not just their health, but their ethics. A growing number of groups are coming up with technological solutions to help them.

This week, the Environmental Working Group rolled out a food ratings database and app, which, while focused on nutrition, also rate products on issues like organic certification, animal welfare standards and environmental contaminants. Others in this space include HowGood, an app that rates food products on 60 indicators of sustainability, and Good Guide, a tool that rates food and other products on safety, health and ethics.

These all work a little differently. Some use ratings based on numerical scales; others use labels like "good" versus "great." But they all must sort through reams of data to get to those ratings.

And this is where the biggest challenge lies — not in the technical realm, but in the semantics: How do you define sustainability? Which data do you choose? Sustainability is encompassed by so many data points that it's become a big data project.

"The difficulty is you can never define it," says Chuck Benbrook, leader of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. That's because our understanding changes as we learn more about the issues that affect food production. Sustainability, he says, is "a journey, not a destination."

The Salt

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Under The Label: Sustainable Seafood

Is Sustainable-Labeled Seafood Really Sustainable?

The word "sustainability" also means different things to different companies, depending in part on what customer think is most important. Each of these rating systems includes a mix of natural resource conservation, the health of the farm ecology, labor, public health, nutrition and safety. But not every ratings system includes everything from each of these dimensions.

For example, take HowGood, an app that rates more than 100,000 food products based on what the food is and its brand's sustainability. HowGood grabs information from groups including Fair Trade USA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, monitoring business practices, legal cases and the food system where the products come from. The 60 indicators HowGood looks at include a company's behavior, the origins of ingredients, and the manufacturing process. HowGood's team of data analysts then crunches the data in an algorithm so people can fire up the app to find out if the milk they want to buy is Good, Very Good, or Great.

"We are essentially a big data aggregator," says Alexander Gillett, CEO of HowGood. "What we're doing is we're gathering all the available information that's out there."

Meanwhile, the new Environmental Working Group database rates foods on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best product, based on nutrition, ingredients and how processed a food item is. Good Guide also scores products on a scale of 1 to 10 — but with 10 being the best. Good Guide looks at the product's ingredients, its environmental impact and the company's attention to labor rights and helping its community.

Of course, grocers are getting into the sustainability ratings game, too. Earlier this month, Whole Foods Market began implementing a new sustainability ratings program for its fruits, vegetables and flowers. The program, which affixes "Responsibly Grown" labels to products that pass muster, evaluates factors such as how well the farmers are treated, whether pesticides are used, how land and water are conserved and whether waste is properly disposed of.

The Salt

Buying Sustainable Fish Is Getting Easier, But It's Still Hard

Another potential pitfall: The standards used to assess the sustainability of a big company that produces a given food product, like Coca-Cola or Kraft, can sometimes be too simple, says Molly Anderson, professor of food and sustainable agriculture systems at the College of the Atlantic. Ratings systems may merely look at whether these companies have a vice president of sustainability or a mechanism for laborers to raise a grievance, she says, but those criteria don't say much about how the company actually acts.

Oh, and there's one other major hurdle that sustainability ratings apps face: getting consumers to care. Fair Trade USA says according to a study it conducted in 2013, only 16 percent of U.S. households claimed they purchased fair trade products in the past three months.

"I don't think most of these [sustainability] apps are commercially viable," says Bill Pease, chief scientist at GoodGuide. "We give ours away for free. We do it essentially as a public service."

But the fact that there's so many apps and standards out there, he says, may leave consumers feeling overwhelmed, and more likely to just give up.

There are groups working to make it simpler by creating a universal sustainability standard – one as easy to understand as seeing a USDA-certified organic sticker on an apple.

"One possibility is the government will recognize that [it needs] to be setting those standards," says Anderson. "The other possibility is that the industry will consolidate around standards that they feel work for them and basically impose them on producers."

On that front, there are panels of experts working on creating across-the-board sustainability standards for companies to follow, like Leonardo Academy's National Sustainable Agriculture Standard, published last November. But even if you can get academics and industry to agree on a definition of sustainability, the process is pricey: Anderson guesses it will take a million dollars just to develop and publicize it.

In the meantime, what's a consumer to do? For now, the simplest answer may be the best, says Anderson: You don't need an app or a rating if you buy local. "Know your farmer, know your producer."

Alison Bruzek is an intern for NPR's science desk.

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A compelling Facebook photo shows an old man wearing spectacles and a shawl. He's standing in front of a cracked mud wall. Most of his face is filled by a huge, dusty-looking white beard. He looks tired and sad.

Only the man's family and friends would know that he is not, in fact, a weather-beaten mountain tribesman, but the vice chancellor of one of the most distinguished universities in Pakistan.

This picture of professor Ajmal Khan, posted on the Web by his supporters, was printed by a newspaper when he was freed, after spending four years as a hostage of the Taliban.

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Ajmal Khan, vice chancellor of Islamia College University, talks with journalists after his release from Taliban captivity in August. Arshad Arbab/EPA /Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Arshad Arbab/EPA /Landov

Ajmal Khan, vice chancellor of Islamia College University, talks with journalists after his release from Taliban captivity in August.

Arshad Arbab/EPA /Landov

Now, two months later, the vice chancellor is back at work, running the Islamia College University in the city of Peshawar. His immaculate appearance shows no hint of his ordeal; his beard is now trimmed. As he tells the story of his captivity, he is twinkly-eyed, soft-spoken and engaging.

Hostages who are fortunate enough to be released tend to return home with compelling stories. Many of these describe horrifying degradation and abuse.

Khan suffered fear, uncertainty and the loss of freedom, but he says his captors treated him with respect and did not physically harm him.

The Taliban has a long record of attacking educational establishments. Yet Khan says the militants allowed him to run an impromptu school for a while — though his pupils were almost all boys.

Khan was abducted in September 2010 as he was being driven to work. He had just left his house when a car pulled up in front. A man got out, walked up to Khan's vehicle, tapped on his driver's window and pulled out a pistol.

Very quickly, militants surrounded the car, brandishing pistols. "By then, I knew it was something terrible," he says.

The militants bundled Khan's driver into the backseat next to Khan. They climbed in, pulled burqas over the heads of their new captives, and began driving.

"As they sat with us, they injected something into our shoulders. I just felt the prick," he recalls. Drugged, he and his driver were asleep in less than 10 minutes.

When Khan awoke, he was in the mountains in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, an area that was, for years, a sanctuary for Islamist militants.

'They Knew Almost Everything Regarding Me'

Khan says the Taliban spent more than a month carefully planning his abduction. He thinks they chose him because of his ties with one of their enemies — the political party then running the provincial government in northwest Pakistan. Khan, father of five daughters, says the militants seemed to know all about him.

"They knew almost everything regarding me," he says. "They had a complete history — my family, daughters, the number of children I had."

"It was very difficult at first, very difficult," Khan adds. He spent much time in prayer.

In the years that followed, the vice chancellor was moved from hideout to hideout at least 20 times (His fellow hostage — the driver — was released in 2012). Khan remembers the constant sound of U.S. drones — and the worry, too, that he would be hit by a missile targeting his abductors.

In some places, he was locked in a room in a house. In more remote mountain areas, he was allowed out, under guard. On one occasion, in the hills of Waziristan, he came across two small boys herding sheep and goats.

"I asked them, 'Do you go to school?' " Khan says. "Their reply was, 'Yes, we used to. But now ... schools are there, but there are no teachers because we are in a war!' "

The boys told him they still had their school books at home. Khan invited them to come the following day to the house in which he was imprisoned. He would teach them, he said.

"They were very happy! You could see the light in their eyes," Khan says.

Word of the vice chancellor's tiny school quickly spread around the mountains. More and more boys, sons of local herdsmen, showed up, until he had more than 30 pupils. Khan says one little girl came for a couple of days, asking for religious education, but soon stopped attending.

Lessons Of Math, Science And Captivity

He taught the boys mainstream subjects from the government curriculum: math, science, Urdu, Islamic studies, even English.

Khan says the kids were aware he was a hostage. One boy, about 10, was particularly unhappy about Khan's captivity.

"And he says, 'This is not according to Islam. This is something against Islam, and you are doing something very wrong,' " he says. "A brave little boy."

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Afghan Taliban Release U.S. Soldier Captured In 2009

Khan says he sometimes asks his pupils whether, if he was ever free to go home to Peshawar, they'd like him to enroll them in school there. The kids' replies reveal much about the benighted world into which they were born.

"Some of them would say, 'Yes, we would come,' and others would say, 'Will the government be happy with us?' " Khan says. "They would say, 'I hope they don't put us in jails.' "

The vice chancellor's school finally closed when news began to circulate that the Pakistani military was about to move into the area. The Taliban moved Khan to an even more remote mountain hideout.

Khan says throughout his captivity, his Taliban guards were regularly switched. Yet he was able to observe and question these young, uneducated Pashtun men. He says their motivation is primarily religious. "They thought this is what God asked," he says.

For most of his captivity, Khan was held by Taliban from the Mehsud tribe. He was with them when a feud broke out, and wound up in the custody of a splinter group that decided to let him go. He doesn't think any ransom was paid for his release.

Pakistan's armed forces are now in the fifth month of an offensive focusing on the same areas of the tribal belt in which Khan was held hostage. They claim to have killed more than 1,100 militants, and to have destroyed many hideouts and arms caches. There's a growing consensus in Pakistan that the Taliban is on the run.

Khan cautions against drawing too many conclusions. He doesn't think the militants' war with the state is over, and points out they could easily regroup.

He argues the long-term answer to Islamist militancy is for Pakistan's government to provide a counter-narrative to its ideology. His tiny, temporary school suggests that this is an idea that the children of Pakistan's mountains are happy to embrace.

"The state is not doing its bit," Khan says, "Education is the only solution."

This story is part of the New Boom series on millennials in America.

Millennials are spending — and giving away their cash — a lot differently than previous generations, and that's changing the game for giving, and for the charities that depend on it.

Scott Harrison's group, Charity: Water, is a prime example. Harrison's story starts in New York's hottest nightclubs, promoting the proverbial "models and bottles."

"At 28 years old, I realized my legacy was going to be just that. Here lies a guy who got people wasted," Harrison says.

So he changed his story. Harrison volunteered to spend the next two years in West Africa. What he found when he first got to Liberia was a drinking water crisis. He watched 7-year-olds drink regularly from chocolate-colored swamps — water, he says, that he wouldn't let his dog drink.

Most childhood diseases in the developing countries he visited could be traced to unsafe drinking water, so everything changed for Harrison. He got inspired to start raising money for clean water when he returned to the states, but his friends were wary.

"They all said, 'I don't trust charities. I don't give. I believe these charities are just these black holes. I don't even know how much money would actually go to the people who I'm trying to help,' " Harrison recalls.

So his one cause became two: He started Charity: Water to dig wells to bring clean drinking water to the nearly 800 million people without access to it around the globe. But he also wanted to set an example with the way the organization did its work.

"We're also really trying to reinvent charity, reinvent the way people think about giving, the way that they give," he says.

“ That sense of 'I need to give out of obligation' — I don't know that it's going to be around 20 years from now.

- Amy Webb

Demographic change is a huge reason for rethinking this. With around 80 million millennials coming of age, knowing how they spend their cash on causes is going to be critical for nonprofits. And their spending patterns aren't the same as their parents.

"Our culture is changing pretty dramatically," says Amy Webb, who forecasts digital trends for nonprofit and for-profit companies. "That sense of 'I need to give out of obligation' — I don't know that it's going to be around 20 years from now."

One piece of advice she gives on appealing to younger donors? Don't even ask them to "donate," because younger donors want to feel more invested in a cause. Choose a different word, with a different connotation: investment.

"It may seem something simple. It's just semantics: donation vs. investment. But I think to a millennial, who's grown up in a very different world, one that's more participatory because of the digital tools that we have, to them they want to feel like they're making an investment. Not just that they're investing their capital, but they're investing emotionally," Webb says.

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The Manhattan-based headquarters of Charity: Water. Elise Hu/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Elise Hu/NPR

The Manhattan-based headquarters of Charity: Water.

Elise Hu/NPR

And there's the tech part. She says any philanthropy without a smart digital platform — not just for donations but for empowering a community of givers — will be left behind.

Which brings us back to Charity: Water. Designers spend most their time finding ways to save their donors time, trimming as much lag time or obstacles to giving online as possible.

"There are a lot of people who are more willing to be generous with 20, 30 and 50 dollars, but their time is actually worth something. And the thought of pulling out their credit card and fighting through a two- and three- and four-page form is just too much," Harrison says.

On its site, giving is as simple as a couple of clicks. And Charity: Water's big tactical success, the approach for which it's earned notoriety, is getting young people to call on their own real-life social networks for help. It's the same approach that made this summer's Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS so unavoidable.

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"We're always taking selfies, we're sharing details about our lives. So why not do a little social narcissism for a good cause," Beth Kanter, author of Measuring the Networked Nonprofit, told NPR in August.

Charity: Water stokes that by building campaigns around birthdays.

"One of the big ideas that the millennials embraced," Harrison says, "is this idea that we sorta stumbled into, when we asked people to give up their birthday for clean water. So I went around asking everyone I knew to give $32 for my 32nd birthday."

Soon, tech CEOs were raising tens of thousands of dollars per campaign by giving up their birthdays for water. This spring, NFL safety Kam Chancellor joined in. And the generation that comes after millennials — the children today — are getting into it, too.

"We had 7-year-olds in Austin, Texas, go door to door asking for $7 donations. We had 16-year-olds in Indiana asking for $16 donations," Harrison says.

The group's focus on social networks and simple design means 4 million more people, in 22 countries, now have access to clean drinking water.

But you don't have to take our word for it. Charity: Water's latest tech improvement is putting remote sensors on wells — so donors can see just how much water flows from what they helped build.

"We think this is just going to be game changing," Harrison says.

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Boston's longest-serving mayor, Thomas Michael Menino, who held the job for more than two decades until stepping aside earlier this year, has died. He was 71.

"At just after 9 a.m. this morning the Honorable Thomas M. Menino passed into eternal rest after a courageous battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his devoted wife Angela, loving family and friends," Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said in a statement.

Menino, who was diagnosed with cancer just a month after leaving office, "rode the support of minority communities, labor and others to election in 1993 after serving as acting mayor, ending decades of Irish domination in city politics," according to The Associated Press.

The Boston Globe called him "an old-school politician whose own smarts owed more to the streets than the college classroom."

" 'Visionaries don't get things done,' he once said, crisply separating himself from politicians who gaze at distant horizons and imagine what might be. Leaving to others the lofty rhetoric of Boston as the Athens of America, he took a decidedly ground-level view of the city on a hill, earning himself a nickname for his intense focus on the nuts and bolts of everyday life: the urban mechanic."

Member station WBUR in Boston reports:

"He could be hard-nosed in pushing for what he felt was needed, including times during his last term, when he was determined to wield the power of his office, even if from a wheelchair.

"Nowhere was that more obvious than during one of the darkest weeks in Boston's history.

"On April 15, 2013, twin explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon claimed the lives of three people, crippled and maimed dozens more, sending scores to Boston-area hospitals, including the Brigham and Women's where Menino himself was a patient.

"Days later, after being wheeled to the podium by his son Tommy Jr., Menino valiantly stood up, joining President Obama, Gov. Deval Patrick and 2,000 other mourners at a memorial service at The Cathedral of the Holy Cross."

Boston Globe/YouTube

Boston

Look at your paycheck.

Chances are good you won't see much more there than you did in the summer of 2008 — just before the financial crisis hit. Average private-sector earnings are $24.53 an hour now, unchanged from 2008, after adjusting for inflation.

So most likely, you haven't felt yourself moving up for years.

Now, that may be changing.

On Friday, the Labor Department said that its latest wage-and-salary index reading showed a 2.3 percent rise over the 12 months ended in September. And the Commerce Department's monthly measure of personal income also ticked up slightly.

"Even a minimal increase in wage growth is a sign of welcome improvement in the labor market," Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Sterne Agee, wrote in her analysis.

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Many economists say bigger raises may be coming soon. "We expect this trend of rising wages will continue and provide the fuel for an economic expansion that could last several more years," Bernard Baumohl, chief economist for The Economic Outlooks Group, wrote in his assessment.

But even if a major raise isn't on your horizon, five factors will be helping stretch your current paycheck:

Cheap gasoline. In the summer of 2008, gas was $4 a gallon. On Friday, AAA said the national average, as of Saturday, will be below $3 for the first time in four years. The auto club says that downshift will save consumers $250 million a day, compared with earlier this summer when gas was $3.68.

A strong dollar. The U.S. dollar had more global purchasing power back in the early 2000s. Then its value fell compared with other currencies, reaching a bottom in 2011. Today, the dollar is strong again, allowing U.S. consumers to purchase imported goods and foods at lower prices. That change will help keep inflation low for Americans.

Low interest rates. Millions of homeowners have been able to get extraordinarily cheap mortgages. Just before the financial crisis, 30-year fixed mortgages were being offered at 6.5 percent. Today, rates are below 4 percent, allowing homeowners to lower their monthly payments.

Fierce retail competition. For shoppers, this should be a great holiday season because of cutthroat pricing. Wal-Mart told the Wall Street Journal it is testing a plan to match online prices. Best Buy and Target already are doing that, and Target is even offering free shipping on everything through Dec. 20. Analysts expect brutal price competition all around.

Cheaper food (eventually). Corn harvests were enormous this year, sending prices much lower. In 2008, a bushel cost around $8; now it's about half that. It takes a long while for low commodity prices to work their way through the food chain, but the huge corn harvest should help cut animal feed prices, which eventually could tone down the high beef prices that have hurt shoppers.

Of those five factors, perhaps none lifts consumers' spirits more than those tumbling gas prices.

"Consumers are experiencing 'sticker delight' as gas prices unexpectedly drop below $3 in much of the country," AAA chief executive Bob Darbelnet said. "Lower gas prices are a boon to the economy — just in time for holiday travel and shopping."

Jose Ferreira, a real estate developer filling his tank at a Boston gas station, did indeed express delight with the price decline. "People struggle to survive, you know. If you can save some money, it's great for everybody," he said.

And while cheap gas can brighten your near-term financial situation, the stock market's surge can help with the long term. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at 17,390, up 195, to hit a record high. On the same date six years ago during the financial crisis, it was at 9,325.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

gas prices

consumers

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, just returned from a four-day trip to all three of West Africa's Ebola-stricken countries. Speaking with Melissa Block of All Things Considered, she said she saw promising signs of recovery but had also gained a sense of just how much work must still be done.

In Liberia, Power was struck by the gratitude expressed to the United States for "rescuing these countries in their hour of greatest need."

A Liberian told her: "America is the only country that is treating us like we are Nina Pham [the Dallas nurse recently declared Ebola-free]. America is hugging us like President Obama hugged Nina Pham."

The U.S. has deployed 3,000 ground troops to help construct 17 Ebola treatment units in Liberia, and Power said the effect is already noticeable. She visited a medical laboratory six hours away from the capital, Monrovia, where the assistance of U.S. troops had helped cut the wait time for results of an Ebola test from a week to just a few hours. This means fewer people will become infected by spending days waiting with already diagnosed Ebola patients to find out their diagnosis. And more beds will be available for those who actually have the disease.

"The morale of everyone associated with the anti-Ebola effort is increasing, and the recruitment of local workers was increasing," Power said. "The knowledge that there are more beds has all these knock-on effects." People are more likely to "come forward and be a hygienist or a sanitation worker knowing there will be a place for [them] if protocol is breached" and they fall ill.

She also saw better safety precautions resulting from improved training efforts. And employees and volunteers are sticking with assignments longer.

But Power says these promising signs aren't reflected evenly across the infection zone. Efforts in Monrovia and Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, still need to be replicated outside these central cities, especially in rural areas where the disease continues to spread:

"It does show you what can be scaled, if you have the resources, if you have the international health workers, if you have the helicopters to get to the more distant areas."

Power, who didn't interact with patients or enter an Ebola treatment unit, was screened when she arrived back in the U.S., then allowed to leave the airport. She will be taking her temperature twice a day for 21 days and calling it in to state health workers.

She supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggestions for returning health care workers: They should visit a doctor who can approve them to return to daily life as long as they continue to monitor their temperature. She also warned against measures that would discourage health care workers from working in the Ebola zone.

"The way we will keep the American people safe is we will contribute to ending Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and we will mobilize the world to do the same," she said. "Anything that deters or discourages or stigmatizes workers who are part of that solution ... is something we want to avoid."

And she paid respect to the foreign health care workers who have come to help: "We are going out of the way to remind everybody ... of the heroism being exhibited by doctors and nurses who have traveled to these countries."

Samantha Power

ebola

North Korea has a number of serious public health woes: malnutrition, tuberculosis and cardiovascular disease, just to name a few. Ebola isn't one of them. The disease hasn't hit anywhere in Asia, much less this isolated and rarely visited Northeast Asian nation.

And yet state television has been broadcasting daily segments this month to raise awareness of the disease. A Beijing-based Spanish cameraman was banned from a visit because Spain was considered a risk. An official Japanese delegation visiting Pyongyang earlier this week was greeted by men wearing hazmat suits.

Meanwhile, the government requested help from South Korea's Red Cross in preventing Ebola. It also banned tourism and notified diplomats Thursday that all foreigners will be quarantined and observed for 21 days, the incubation period for Ebola.

Why is North Korea so freaked out by a disease nowhere near its borders?

Related NPR Stories

American Freed By North Korea Arrives Home Oct. 22, 2014

North Korea is infamously isolated and paranoid, so close observers aren't particularly surprised by any of this. And there's a precedent: During the 2003 SARS epidemic, Pyongyang closed the country's borders — though that disease was actually present in Asia, notably in China, North Korea's neighbor, ally and biggest trade partner.

The Two-Way

North Korean Officials Reportedly Executed For Watching Soap Operas

"They act in ways they see as necessary to protect their national security," says Keith Luse, executive director of the Washington-based National Committee on North Korea, who emphasizes that he's expressing his personal views. He notes that the North Korean leadership likely has "viewed with great interest" the U.S. reaction to Ebola. The official announcements of the past couple of weeks "are sending a message to the population that it is taking steps to protect them."

Although there's not exactly brisk traffic between North Korea and Africa — certainly no direct flights — they are not complete strangers, either. Far from it. Pyongyang enjoys official and business ties with many African nations, including decades-long diplomatic relations with all three countries worst affected by Ebola — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. (In fact, Kim Yong Nam, president of North Korea's national assembly, is in the midst of a four-country African tour now.)

It's too soon to tell what the overall economic impact of the Ebola-related tourism ban will be, but the timing is unfortunate. It comes in the midst of efforts to boost tourism and bring in more visitors and hard currency. When Kim Jong Un became leader three years ago, "he launched a number of initiatives to open the country to tourism and make it a more attractive place to visit," says Luse, ski resorts and water parks among them. A few thousand American tourists visited in 2013, Luse says. Tour operators have canceled November trips for now.

At Singapore's Choson Exchange, which trains North Koreans in entrepreneurship, a blog post warned: "We could be seeing potentially tens of thousands of dollars of losses as we delay training programs, and possibly even more as this drags on. For businesspeople, a shutdown will likely hurt their investment plans or transactions."

And when it comes to health priorities, the bottom line is that North Korea has many more pressing concerns than the threat of Ebola. The overall picture is grim. Even after emerging from famine in the 1990s, North Koreans continue to suffer high rates of malnutrition. Tuberculosis occurs at an estimated 344 cases per 100,000 people, "one of the highest incidence rates outside sub-Saharan Africa," according to a study published in the Lancet in April, while rates of stunting and underweight among North Korean children come "close to the worst-performing African countries."

And ironically, North Korea — so worried now about the slim chance of a dread disease entering from the outside world — may be the one posing a serious health threat to its own neighbors. "The spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in North Korea is much more advanced than was previously assumed," the authors of the Lancet paper warned, "which is a threat to North Korea's population and neighboring countries."

ebola

North Korea

Global Health

Look at your paycheck.

Chances are good you won't see much more there than you did in the summer of 2008 — just before the financial crisis hit. Average private-sector earnings are $24.53 an hour now, unchanged from 2008, after adjusting for inflation.

So most likely, you haven't felt yourself moving up for years.

Now, that may be changing.

On Friday, the Labor Department said that its latest wage-and-salary index reading showed a 2.3 percent rise over the 12 months ended in September. And the Commerce Department's monthly measure of personal income also ticked up slightly.

"Even a minimal increase in wage growth is a sign of welcome improvement in the labor market," Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Sterne Agee, wrote in her analysis.

Related NPR Stories

GDP Posts Strong 3.5 Percent Growth Rate In 3rd Quarter

Economy

You're Enjoying Low Gas Prices, But Is It Really A Good Sign?

Federal Reserve Stays The Course, Ends Most Recent Stimulus Program

Many economists say bigger raises may be coming soon. "We expect this trend of rising wages will continue and provide the fuel for an economic expansion that could last several more years," Bernard Baumohl, chief economist for The Economic Outlooks Group, wrote in his assessment.

But even if a major raise isn't on your horizon, five factors will be helping stretch your current paycheck:

Cheap gasoline. In the summer of 2008, gas was $4 a gallon. On Friday, AAA said the national average, as of Saturday, will be below $3 for the first time in four years. The auto club says that downshift will save consumers $250 million a day, compared with earlier this summer when gas was $3.68.

A strong dollar. The U.S. dollar had more global purchasing power back in the early 2000s. Then its value fell compared with other currencies, reaching a bottom in 2011. Today, the dollar is strong again, allowing U.S. consumers to purchase imported goods and foods at lower prices. That change will help keep inflation low for Americans.

Low interest rates. Millions of homeowners have been able to get extraordinarily cheap mortgages. Just before the financial crisis, 30-year fixed mortgages were being offered at 6.5 percent. Today, rates are below 4 percent, allowing homeowners to lower their monthly payments.

Fierce retail competition. For shoppers, this should be a great holiday season because of cutthroat pricing. Wal-Mart told the Wall Street Journal it is testing a plan to match online prices. Best Buy and Target already are doing that, and Target is even offering free shipping on everything through Dec. 20. Analysts expect brutal price competition all around.

Cheaper food (eventually). Corn harvests were enormous this year, sending prices much lower. In 2008, a bushel cost around $8; now it's about half that. It takes a long while for low commodity prices to work their way through the food chain, but the huge corn harvest should help cut animal feed prices, which eventually could tone down the high beef prices that have hurt shoppers.

Of those five factors, perhaps none lifts consumers' spirits more than those tumbling gas prices.

"Consumers are experiencing 'sticker delight' as gas prices unexpectedly drop below $3 in much of the country," AAA chief executive Bob Darbelnet said. "Lower gas prices are a boon to the economy — just in time for holiday travel and shopping."

Jose Ferreira, a real estate developer filling his tank at a Boston gas station, did indeed express delight with the price decline. "People struggle to survive, you know. If you can save some money, it's great for everybody," he said.

And while cheap gas can brighten your near-term financial situation, the stock market's surge can help with the long term. On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at 17,390, up 195, to hit a record high. On the same date six years ago during the financial crisis, it was at 9,325.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

gas prices

consumers

Tim Cook is known for revealing new Apple products but the company's CEO made news this week by publicly acknowledging that he's gay. As NPR's Laura Sydell reported, Cook's decision may have a larger impact overseas than in the U.S.

And for other tech news highlights this week:

ICYMI

Cooking With Data: IBM's Watson has crushed Jeopardy! Now, NPR's Laura Sydell reports, chefs are using the supercomputer to come up with new kinds of recipes that work around dietary restrictions and other limitations.

Forget The Password: Apps working with Digits, a new Twitter service, would ask for your phone number instead of a password. In exchange, NPR's Charles Pulliam-Moore says, the company could gather information about you to better target ads. Digits and a new USB security key from Google hint at a post-password world.

Who Are You? Finding your email double or Twitter twin is easier than ever. But as we become reliant on all-digital communication, NPR's Elise Hu says, mix-ups matter more, because our names represent our online reputations.

The Big Conversation

Net Neutrality Shift: The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is looking to expand the agency's power over broadband, The Wall Street Journal reports. But backers of "net neutrality" — equal treatment for all Internet traffic — may not like Chairman Tom Wheeler's reported approach because it would still allow Internet service providers to make deals with content providers for special access, the Journal said.

Samsung's Swoon: Squeezed by Apple's new iPhones and cheaper phones from China, Samsung saw its smallest quarterly profits in more than two years. Samsung's net income dropped 49 percent in the quarter that ended in September. BGR says the company fears a "nightmare scenario" in which it becomes "just another low-margin Android vendor."

Curiosities

Wired: Verizon's 'Perma-Cookie' Is a Privacy-Killing Machine

Verizon Wireless has been inserting a kind of short-term serial number into its wireless traffic. This Unique Identifier Header, as it's known, can identify you to advertisers and be used to profile your Web activity.

NPR: After Mass Protests, Hungary Gives Up On Internet Tax

Days after some 100,000 people took to the streets in protest, Hungary's government gave up on plans to tax Internet usage.

AP: The Newest Employees at Lowe's Hardware Store: Robots

Four robots are being tested in a store owned by Lowe's in California. They're equipped with 3-D cameras used to identify items and they can help customers locate the items in the store.

tech week

Elections in Ukraine are pointing to a new parliament that will be dominated by pro-Western parties, a result that President Petro Poroshenko is hailing as a "course toward Europe" but one that is likely to further anger Russia.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Kiev that exit polls show the bloc supporting Porsohenko is projected to win about 23 percent of the vote, followed closely by an allied party, the People's Front, with around 21 percent.

"If all the pro-Western parties join a coalition, they would have enough votes to change Ukraine's constitution and bring about reforms," Corey says.

Poroshenko hailed the vote as a mandate to end a rebellion in the country's east and to steer the country further away from Russian influence.

"More than three-quarters of voters who took part in the election powerfully and irreversibly supported Ukraine's course toward Europe," he said in an address.

"The majority of voters were in favor of the political forces that support the president's peace plan and seek a political solution to the situation" in eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko said.

(One region not voting is Crimea, which was annexed by Russia earlier this year. NPR's David Greene has a report that aired on Morning Edition here.)

As Corey explains: "Ukraine's new parliament will have to face nearly insurmountable challenges—a war with Russian-backed separatists, a financial crisis, and a dispute with Russia over natural gas."

Reuters notes: "Russia's President Vladimir Putin can still influence events, not least as the main backer of the rebels in the east and through Moscow's role as natural gas supplier to Ukraine and the EU."

Poroshenko was expected to begin coalition talks on Monday.

Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET. White House Reaction:

In a statement attributed to President Obama, he called on Russia to allow voting in parts of Ukraine's east that are held by Moscow-backed separatists.

"Yesterday's parliamentary vote represents another important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development," he said in the statement. "We look forward to the convening of the new parliament and the quick formation of a strong, inclusive government."

"The United States stands ready to support the choices of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine's new government as it enacts and implements the reforms necessary to promote further democratic development, strengthen the rule of law, and foster economic stability and growth in Ukraine," Obama said.

Petro Poroshenko

Ukraine

Elections

Russia

"Journalism is my calling, the print media is my struggle and independence is my motto," says 42-year-old Solange Lusiku Nsimire, a Congolese editor and mother of six.

And it's hard to imagine a more difficult place to be a journalist than the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At least a dozen journalists have been killed since 1992 and there were 90 attacks on journalists in 2012 alone.

It's also a dangerous place to be a woman: rape, domestic violence and senseless killings are part of the daily norm in many parts of the country. Despite significant mineral resources, the DRC is one of the least developed countries in the world, held back by decades of conflict that have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1988.

Lusiku Nsimire, who last week won a Courage in Journalism award from the International Women's Media Foundation, has defied death threats and attacks on her family to publish articles about government corruption, injustices against women and international aid abuses. Since becoming editor-in-chief of Le Souverain, an independent newspaper based in Bukavu in Eastern Congo, in 2007, Lusiku Nsimire's coverage has sent her in and out of hiding. In 2008, armed men showed up at her house in the middle of the night, tied up her husband and children and stole the family's savings. But nothing has stopped her from what she calls her mission to be "a journalist who is a fighter."

Goats and Soda spoke with Lusiku Nsimire about the IWMF award, her experiences as a journalist and her hopes for the future of her country.

Author Interviews

A Novice Reporter Begins His Journey In The Congo

You've faced threats, armed robbery and near-death experiences. Other journalists in your country have been killed for continuing to publish. With all of these challenges, what makes you continue working as a journalist?

Asking me to stop being a journalist because I received threats would be like asking me to give up being myself. I am moved by this strong desire to inform people and provide information that is true, verified and credible. I am conducting a fight that will be useful for future generations. I am writing, every day, the story of Eastern Congo, the story of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and I am contributing toward building our collective memory. Our challenge is to create a written testimony so that future generations, when they want to figure out what happened in the past, can find this based on true, valid information. They can reconstruct the collective memory that made us.

Why is journalism so dangerous in the DRC?

In my country, democracy is still young and we have just left behind the years of dictatorship. Journalists must be able to express ourselves freely and if we don't do that, then ordinary non-journalists will never do it. However, our leaders are not used to this yet. It's not part of the way they were trained, and this is true of the people in power and the opposition. They are not ready and have not been exposed to [free press] before. So now we as journalists are the true voice of the multitudes, the ones that promote democracy, that educate people on respecting freedoms. This is new and scary to the leaders.

What are the challenges of being a female journalist in the DRC?

When a woman like me starts something that is considered very daring, like being a journalist, that's considered the act of a rebel. People tend to put banana skins in front of you so that you can fall and you can make mistakes. I enter into a man's world and I throw myself into the race. If men run twice as fast, well, I have to run four times as fast. I have to be twice as good as them. When I, as a woman, decide I want to assert my freedom of speech and express myself independently in my editorials, everyone is shocked. In a world like ours in which weapons circulate freely, journalists have been killed before, so everyone is afraid of telling the truth. People like me who refuse any kind of censorship, any kind of self-censorship, create a lot of enemies.

You're married and the mother of six. How do you balance the safety of your family with your work?

My husband respects my choice, or as I call it, my mission, my vocation, because that's what gives me satisfaction in life. The problem is that my work causes danger and poses a threat to my kids and my husband and everyone is traumatized. I took this job because this is what I am meant to do, because I feel that through my job I am building my country. It's one more stone in the building of a free, democratic Congo. But this should not have all these negative implications for the rest of my family. I am trying right now to put my children in a safer situation. I want to find shelter for my children, who are very much at risk. But as long as democracy is not established and human rights are not respected, I feel that I need to continue reporting. I cannot stop.

What made you want to pursue journalism?

The Two-Way

Congolese Doctor Denis Mukwege Receives Sakharov Prize

Ever since I was a little girl, I was disgusted and touched by the injustice around me, particularly where women are concerned. I saw women who were victims of all kinds of injustices and still, in spite of that, were fighters. They were still the true support for their families. That's what gave me the will to be a journalist, and not just any journalist, but a journalist who is a fighter, who expresses herself freely, who keeps her head up high.

You once gave a speech in Belgium where you said that in the DRC, a journalist's "life expectancy is 24 hours, renewable." How do you live with that understanding, and how does it affect the work you do?

The 24-hour life expectancy is not just for journalists of the Congo, it's for any Congolese person, particularly in Eastern Congo. At any time, armed people can come to your house and just kill you. Since most of these murders and killings happen at night, every morning that we wake up, we thank God that we are still alive that day. If in other countries, life expectancy is 90 years, but we have 24 hours, we must work hard so that we can accomplish in those 24 hours what other people have 90 years to accomplish.

Africa

In Eastern Congo, Complex Conflicts And High-Stakes Diplomacy

What's the story of the DRC that the international press is missing?

The sheer number of casualties in my country is revolting, and the role of the international community is truly shocking. [Millions] have died in my country. On top of that, we have 50,000 women that were raped, and that number is only the number that got medical help. Those women have been killed. They've been killed psychologically, they have been killed on the slow burner, as I call it. For just 800,000 in our neighboring country [Rwanda], the entire world was shocked and ran to their help. Why don't those people now come and help us? When our country has been a battlefield, when the body of women has become a battlefield, what did Congo do to the international community to be treated this way? In the Western world, when someone dies, there is a tradition of honoring a minute of silence. If we had to respect a minute of silence for each person that died in the Congo, how many years would that be, if you add all that time up? Just because we are poor in Congo, we still deserve that you stop and think about us, because we are not less human than others. We are fully fleshed and fully respectable human beings with dignity.

Do you think there is a hope for a peaceful future for the DRC?

It's possible if all the Congolese people become aware that they have to play their own roles. If our leaders become aware that they have a responsibility and that they have to stand up to the challenge, and if society as a whole takes responsibility, we will get there. But that also depends on the so-called "big deciders" in the world. When people want to come exploit mineral resources, they can do so by going through the door, and not by trying to sneak in through the window. They can go through the formal way and take advantage of our gold and all the other mineral resources in our country in a way that improves the lives of the population.

What do you hope people will understand about the DRC and the work you do?

Through this award, I want for the entire world to understand that women in Congo are accomplished. Women in Congo are heroines and they are survivors. They have survived rape, insecurity, injustice that the world has brought to them. Women in Congo fight night and day to create a new world, a new order where rights are encouraged for all and there is equality. I want the rest of the world to stop looking at the Congo from the point of view of violence. We no longer want to be victimized, especially as women. We want the world to see us as strong and determined, because we are.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Africa

journalism

Republicans are trying to make inroads with African-Americans in the Deep South, who have voted overwhelmingly Democrat since the civil rights era. In Alabama, the GOP is fielding more black candidates this cycle than ever before. One of them is Darius Foster, who gained national attention with this viral video challenging racial and political expectations:

YouTube

In the video, a diverse group of men and women mouth the candidate's introduction: "Did you know while growing up we went half the winter without heat, or that I think best while listening to Frank Sinatra? The last concert I attended was Lil Wayne. Yes, Lil Wayne." It ends, "Do I really fit in a box? See you on the campaign trail."

Foster says he needs no reminder that he stands out. "With me, unfortunately, everything is black Republican. Not Darius did this, but the black Republican did that. So, you know."

With the bulky frame of a former linebacker and a warm, hearty laugh, Foster fashions himself as a Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

"The fight-for-the-people Republican. That's what they were. I'm not sure where the Democratic Party was able to hijack that narrative from us. But they did. And they have it. I'm trying to bring it back," he says.

Foster is a 33-year-old business consultant. He's been active in the GOP since he founded a lonely chapter of College Republicans at the historically black Miles College in Birmingham. He's been tapped by the Republican National Committee as a future leader.

Foster was raised by his grandmother, who forced him to vote a straight Democratic ticket the first time she took him to the polls. He says he went home and looked up political parties in the family's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"I read through and went through all of them, I got to the Republican Party and I was just reading through the principles. My grandmother hates taxes. She doesn't do gay marriage," he says. "She's always taking about defending yourself and strong defense. And I said, 'Mom — you may be a Republican.' And she looked at me and walked off."

She's still a Democrat but has endorsed her grandson in his race for a state House seat representing part of suburban Birmingham. It includes the predominantly black city of Bessemer, where Foster spends a lot of time going door to door introducing himself.

Democrats have long represented this Alabama House district, which is about two-thirds African-American, giving his opponent, Louise Alexander, the advantage.

Foster knows he's up against some strong notions about the Republican Party. "I think they hear Republican they think of white men. And people who don't care about them and ... who don't understand them," he says.

What he calls "TV Republicans" — conservative pundits — are a thorn in his side, Foster says. And some of his fellow Alabamians haven't helped. Like the Republican state senator who referred to blacks as aborigines, or the congressman who declared that there was a war on whites.

Foster says he doesn't have to defend Republican principles — only Republicans. Especially those who are hostile to President Obama, who got 95 percent of the black vote in Alabama two years ago.

"And it's not saying that I agree with President Obama. I'm just saying that I can show somebody and talk to them about what it means to be a Republican and not mention President Obama's name at all. This is what being a Republican is. This is what being a conservative is," he says.

Over breakfast at their neighborhood IHOP, his wife, 28-year-old Setara Foster, a lawyer, talks about growing up black in Houston where her parents were union members and loyal Democrats.

She now identifies more closely with the GOP. But she says she tends to split her ticket.

"I think that when we as a group identify with one party, for one thing, all the time, that party never has to earn our vote. Ever. And so I think that by having a diversity of political ideology within ethnic, racial, gender, age groups, we force politicians to work," she says.

On the campaign trail, you won't hear Foster talk about Republicans or Democrats. Instead, he talks about how he's invested some of his campaign funds in community initiatives — technology for schools, shoes for a basketball team, hosting a local job fair.

The strategy has won some converts like Juanita Graham. "When this gentleman came along, I was a die-hard Democrat," she says. Graham owns a firm that offers inner-city students enhanced engineering and math courses. She first met Foster while she was working for his Democratic opponent.

"There were some preconceived notions; I will not lie. Because when you say Republican African-American, the first thing pops in most African-American minds is Uncle Tom, butt-kisser. I'm honest. That is the mindset," she says.

But when Foster helped her with startup funds, and talked about tackling Bessemer's low high school graduation rate, he earned her vote.

Graham says she's still a Democrat, though. And that's the real challenge for Foster and Republican leaders who hope to position the party for the future.

Elections in Ukraine are pointing to a new parliament that will be dominated by pro-Western parties, a result that President Petro Poroshenko is hailing as a "course toward Europe" but one that is likely to further anger Russia.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Kiev that exit polls show the bloc supporting Porsohenko is projected to win about 23 percent of the vote, followed closely by an allied party, the People's Front, with around 21 percent.

"If all the pro-Western parties join a coalition, they would have enough votes to change Ukraine's constitution and bring about reforms," Corey says.

Poroshenko hailed the vote as a mandate to end a rebellion in the country's east and to steer the country further away from Russian influence.

"More than three-quarters of voters who took part in the election powerfully and irreversibly supported Ukraine's course toward Europe," he said in an address.

"The majority of voters were in favor of the political forces that support the president's peace plan and seek a political solution to the situation" in eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko said.

(One region not voting is Crimea, which was annexed by Russia earlier this year. NPR's David Greene has a report that aired on Morning Edition here.)

As Corey explains: "Ukraine's new parliament will have to face nearly insurmountable challenges—a war with Russian-backed separatists, a financial crisis, and a dispute with Russia over natural gas."

Reuters notes: "Russia's President Vladimir Putin can still influence events, not least as the main backer of the rebels in the east and through Moscow's role as natural gas supplier to Ukraine and the EU."

Poroshenko was expected to begin coalition talks on Monday.

Updated at 11:30 a.m. ET. White House Reaction:

In a statement attributed to President Obama, he called on Russia to allow voting in parts of Ukraine's east that are held by Moscow-backed separatists.

"Yesterday's parliamentary vote represents another important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development," he said in the statement. "We look forward to the convening of the new parliament and the quick formation of a strong, inclusive government."

"The United States stands ready to support the choices of the Ukrainian people and Ukraine's new government as it enacts and implements the reforms necessary to promote further democratic development, strengthen the rule of law, and foster economic stability and growth in Ukraine," Obama said.

Petro Poroshenko

Ukraine

Elections

Russia

"The way we are going to control this epidemic is with source control and that's going to happen in West Africa, we hope. In order to do that we need people on the ground in West Africa," says Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor-in-chief of the journal.

Speaking to Goats and Soda, he says it doesn't make any sense to "imprison" healthcare workers for three weeks after they've been treating Ebola patients.

The editorial explains his rationale, arguing that healthcare workers who monitor their own temperatures daily would be able to detect the onset of Ebola before they become contagious and thus before they pose any public health threat to their home communities:

"The sensitive blood polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) test for Ebola is often negative on the day when fever or other symptoms begin and only becomes reliably positive 2 to 3 days after symptom onset. This point is supported by the fact that of the nurses caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the man who died from Ebola virus disease in Texas in October, only those who cared for him at the end of his life, when the number of virions he was shedding was likely to be very high, became infected. Notably, Duncan's family members who were living in the same household for days as he was at the start of his illness did not become infected."

Federal guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for healthcare workers to be quarantined only if they have a known direct exposure to the virus as a result of a needle stick or a breach in their protective suits. Several states, however, are going further and imposing quarantines on any healthcare worker who treated Ebola patients in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

The Two-Way

Nurse Criticizes Quarantine After Negative Ebola Test, Hires Lawyer

New Jersey health officials held Kaci Hickox, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, all weekend in an isolation tent adjacent to the Newark University Hospital. She'd just returned from Sierra Leone where she'd been treating people with Ebola.

The Two-Way

N.J. Says Quarantined Nurse Will Be Discharged, Allowed To Leave

Despite testing negative for Ebola and having no known direct exposure (as described by the CDC), she was detained by New Jersey officials. She's now being sent back to her home state of Maine. Officials there say she'll be under a mandatory home quarantine for 21 days after her last possible exposure to the virus. Twenty-one days is the outer limit of the incubation period of Ebola.

Meanwhile, New Jersey governor Chris Christie stands by his state's quarantine policy and the treatment of Hickox.

kaci hickox

quarantine

ebola

Chris Christie

Andrew Cuomo

The anger of Illinois Republican state Rep. Mike Bost is spontaneous and raw.

In 2013, for example, he raged against a floor amendment to a concealed carry gun bill.

"Once again, your side of the aisle is trying to make ploys instead of dealing with the real issue!" a YouTube video shows him bellowing. "Keep playing games," he says. "Keep playing games."

YouTube

Now, Bost is running for a seat in Congress against first-term Rep. Bill Enyart, a retired general and Democrat, and Bost's anger has become a campaign issue.

Voters in the 12th Congressional District in southern Illinois are hearing a lot of another Bost rant, a furious harangue from 2012 about language inserted into a pension reform bill on the final day of the House session.

YouTube

"Enough! I feel like somebody trying to be released from Egypt! Let my people go!" he hollers. "These damn bills that come out of here all the damn time come out here at the last second and I've got to try figure out how to vote for my people!"

The video of those remarks went viral that year. In it, Bost is seen throwing the bill into the air. He whiffs at the pages as they fall, then picks up the papers and throws them again.

YouTube

Enyart is running ads that point to Bost's rant as proof that he doesn't belong in Congress. Using footage of the lawmaker's outbursts, the announcer says, "Mike Bost. Twenty years yelling. Twenty years being the problem."

YouTube

Bost has represented small towns in rural, conservative southern Illinois for nearly two decades. Many voters here see his fury as well-placed.

"I think this was appropriate," says Bost supporter Jill Bunyan of Bost's pension rant. "You can get angry, and that's OK. And I think at that time, for that few moments, that was an appropriate response."

Bunyan lives in the tiny town of Cobden, in southernmost Illinois, population 1,100. People in Bunyan's part of the district, which hugs the Mississippi River, are frustrated with the state's fiscal troubles and weak local economy.

But head north to some of the district's larger cities, like Belleville, population 44,000, and Bost's anger is embraced less and criticized more. Interviewed on Main Street, Richard Rockwell thinks "the rant" is all political theater.

"I'm hoping that's the reason, and not that he's acting the fool in a deliberative chamber," Rockwell says. "That would be rather disconcerting to me."

Bost, in his own ad, refers to a video of the rant and embraces it. He half smiles and explains in folksy fashion that he's angry about the direction his opponents are taking the country.

"What the Chicago politicians and Gov. Quinn have done really made me mad," Bost says. "And what Bill Enyart and President Obama are doing to our country upsets me as well."

YouTube

"If someone you know is sick with sudden fever, diarrhea or vomiting, you should call 117 for advice."

"Healthcare workers who take care of Ebola patients have to wear protective clothes do not be afraid of them."

"People with Ebola who go to the health centre early have a better chance of survival."

In Sierra Leone, cellphone users are as likely to get a text about hand washing as about a social gathering. In an effort to contain Ebola, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has teamed up with local cellphone provider Airtel and the Sierra Leonean government to send health reminders via text message.

Since the Ebola outbreak began last April, the Trilogy Emergency Relief Application (TERA) system has sent out about 2 million text messages a month in Sierra Leone, reminding people to seek treatment early, avoid physical contact with others and not resist the efforts of community health care workers. TERA, a system created by Bolivian software company Salamanca Solutions and set up by the IFRC, can send a text to every phone turned on in a specific region. The texts are delivered free, so there's no financial burden to the recipient.

Texting isn't the only technology being used to combat Ebola. In West Africa, Twitter was abuzz with health tips and reassurance. Social media analytics firm Crimson Hexagon determined that since July, there have been 1.3 million tweets about Ebola coming out of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the majority of them discussing treatment. For comparison, since September, 41 percent of tweets coming from the U.S. about Ebola discussed fear.

In countries where Internet access is not ubiquitous, cellphones play a vital role in communicating messages directly to a mass audience during health and other crises. Sixty-nine percent of Sierra Leoneans have a cellphone connection, but only 9 percent have a 3G or cellular Internet plan.

"Every mobile phone can do text messaging," says Ken Banks, mobile technologist and founder of kiwanja.net, a project that unites cellular technology with social change. "It doesn't matter if it's the cheapest model or the most expensive."

This isn't the first time TERA has tackled an emergency. The system was piloted in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and was first used in Sierra Leone during a 2013 cholera outbreak.

i i

Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Almost 70 percent of Sierra Leoneans have cellphones, where they can receive text messages. This message, used in Haiti, recommends protecting important documents during floods.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The interactivity is appealing. Recipients can text back with basic questions about Ebola and get an automated response with information about treatment options, cleaning tips and medical help. And since the texts are sent to specific areas of the country, the messages, which are drafted by the IFRC and the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health, can be personalized with regional advice.

Even though the country has low literacy rates — 43 percent for adults — text-based services are effective ways to disseminate information. "In villages where there is low literacy, there might only be a few people with cellphones who can read these messages," says Christine Tokar, West Africa programs manager for the British Red Cross. Tokar says those who can read share the information with the town crier, who would distribute it through town meetings.

The texts are intended to reinforce similar messages delivered via posters, radio and television ads. But a text can be preserved on the phone, shown to a friend and referenced later — say, when Ebola comes to a previously unaffected area.

The Red Cross is hoping to have TERA up and running in 40 countries across the globe in the next five years.

"The challenge is getting countries to put the system in place when there isn't an immediate need," says Robin Burton, mobile operator relations officer for the IFRC.

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The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies hide caption

itoggle caption International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The TERA software shows the operator where cellphone towers are, not the individual numbers being messaged.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Using the Ebola outbreak as a catalyst, the Red Cross is hoping to expand the program to seven West African countries in the next few months: Benin, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Burkina Faso. This will require buy-in from the countries as well as from a phone company, which may be hesitant. While these texts are seen as useful during a health crisis, users might grow weary of regular "preparedness" messages.

The system has been built to appeal to both consumers and cell providers. TERA can only send text messages to phones that are turned on, so networks are not clogged with undelivered messages. In Sierra Leone, the text messages are sent at less busy times for the cell network so the company doesn't need to expand its capacity.

For consumers, there is no violation of privacy. No actual phone numbers are seen by TERA operators. And there's an opt-out feature. That's what some Haitians did when they tired of getting messages to wash their hands regularly.

Long after Ebola has subsided in West Africa, the TERA system will remain in place for times of conflict or natural disasters. It's currently being used in Nepal for earthquake preparedness.

"We hope this will empower people to help themselves," says Burton. "They could send a message back to us saying, 'Thanks for the rice, but we have no way to cook it,' or, 'We don't eat pork here.' We call it beneficial communications because it helps everyone do better."

Red Cross

Sierra Leone

ebola

texting

Cell phones

Republicans are trying to make inroads with African-Americans in the Deep South, who have voted overwhelmingly Democrat since the civil rights era. In Alabama, the GOP is fielding more black candidates this cycle than ever before. One of them is Darius Foster, who gained national attention with this viral video challenging racial and political expectations:

YouTube

In the video, a diverse group of men and women mouth the candidate's introduction: "Did you know while growing up we went half the winter without heat, or that I think best while listening to Frank Sinatra? The last concert I attended was Lil Wayne. Yes, Lil Wayne." It ends, "Do I really fit in a box? See you on the campaign trail."

Foster says he needs no reminder that he stands out. "With me, unfortunately, everything is black Republican. Not Darius did this, but the black Republican did that. So, you know."

With the bulky frame of a former linebacker and a warm, hearty laugh, Foster fashions himself as a Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

"The fight-for-the-people Republican. That's what they were. I'm not sure where the Democratic Party was able to hijack that narrative from us. But they did. And they have it. I'm trying to bring it back," he says.

Foster is a 33-year-old business consultant. He's been active in the GOP since he founded a lonely chapter of College Republicans at the historically black Miles College in Birmingham. He's been tapped by the Republican National Committee as a future leader.

Foster was raised by his grandmother, who forced him to vote a straight Democratic ticket the first time she took him to the polls. He says he went home and looked up political parties in the family's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"I read through and went through all of them, I got to the Republican Party and I was just reading through the principles. My grandmother hates taxes. She doesn't do gay marriage," he says. "She's always taking about defending yourself and strong defense. And I said, 'Mom — you may be a Republican.' And she looked at me and walked off."

She's still a Democrat but has endorsed her grandson in his race for a state House seat representing part of suburban Birmingham. It includes the predominantly black city of Bessemer, where Foster spends a lot of time going door to door introducing himself.

Democrats have long represented this Alabama House district, which is about two-thirds African-American, giving his opponent, Louise Alexander, the advantage.

Foster knows he's up against some strong notions about the Republican Party. "I think they hear Republican they think of white men. And people who don't care about them and ... who don't understand them," he says.

What he calls "TV Republicans" — conservative pundits — are a thorn in his side, Foster says. And some of his fellow Alabamians haven't helped. Like the Republican state senator who referred to blacks as aborigines, or the congressman who declared that there was a war on whites.

Foster says he doesn't have to defend Republican principles — only Republicans. Especially those who are hostile to President Obama, who got 95 percent of the black vote in Alabama two years ago.

"And it's not saying that I agree with President Obama. I'm just saying that I can show somebody and talk to them about what it means to be a Republican and not mention President Obama's name at all. This is what being a Republican is. This is what being a conservative is," he says.

Over breakfast at their neighborhood IHOP, his wife, 28-year-old Setara Foster, a lawyer, talks about growing up black in Houston where her parents were union members and loyal Democrats.

She now identifies more closely with the GOP. But she says she tends to split her ticket.

"I think that when we as a group identify with one party, for one thing, all the time, that party never has to earn our vote. Ever. And so I think that by having a diversity of political ideology within ethnic, racial, gender, age groups, we force politicians to work," she says.

On the campaign trail, you won't hear Foster talk about Republicans or Democrats. Instead, he talks about how he's invested some of his campaign funds in community initiatives — technology for schools, shoes for a basketball team, hosting a local job fair.

The strategy has won some converts like Juanita Graham. "When this gentleman came along, I was a die-hard Democrat," she says. Graham owns a firm that offers inner-city students enhanced engineering and math courses. She first met Foster while she was working for his Democratic opponent.

"There were some preconceived notions; I will not lie. Because when you say Republican African-American, the first thing pops in most African-American minds is Uncle Tom, butt-kisser. I'm honest. That is the mindset," she says.

But when Foster helped her with startup funds, and talked about tackling Bessemer's low high school graduation rate, he earned her vote.

Graham says she's still a Democrat, though. And that's the real challenge for Foster and Republican leaders who hope to position the party for the future.

Unofficial results Monday night showed the next mayor of Toronto would be John Tory, who topped fellow Progressive Conservative Doug Ford in a race that was upended earlier this year when Ford's scandal-ridden brother, incumbent mayor Rob Ford, left the race after being diagnosed with cancer.

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Disgust Or Pity For Crack-Smoking Toronto Mayor?

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Doctor Says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Has 'Rare ... Difficult' Cancer

After that announcement, Doug Ford stepped up to run for mayor in his brother's place, while Rob Ford ran for his brother's council seat. He kept that council seat on Monday night, winning 59 percent of the vote for the position his family has held since the ward was created in 2000.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports:

"I am humbled and honoured by the trust that has been put into me," Mr. Tory told supporters after his opponents had conceded.

"As your new mayor, I will move Toronto not right, not left, but forward ... Torontonians want to see an end to the division that has paralyzed city hall the past few years."

Rob Ford's four years as Toronto's mayor were tumultuous, marked by confrontational politics and increasingly erratic public and private behavior that culminated in his admission that he had smoked crack cocaine. After several more embarrassing public moments, the city council voted to strip him of most of his mayoral powers.

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Mayor Rob Ford, left, kisses his wife, Renata, as his children Doug and Stephanie watch the municipal election results Monday in Toronto. Ford dropped his reelection bid after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. He appears to have lost hair since then, but on Monday night won the city council seat that his brother Doug vacated to fill Rob Ford's slot in the mayoral race. Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov hide caption

itoggle caption Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

Mayor Rob Ford, left, kisses his wife, Renata, as his children Doug and Stephanie watch the municipal election results Monday in Toronto. Ford dropped his reelection bid after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. He appears to have lost hair since then, but on Monday night won the city council seat that his brother Doug vacated to fill Rob Ford's slot in the mayoral race.

Mark Blinch/Reuters/Landov

From NPR's Eyder Peralta:

"After a chaotic session that saw Mayor Rob Ford lash out at the public and topple a colleague, the Toronto City Council voted to strip Ford of most of his duties and slashed his budget to 40 percent of what it used to be.

"As the council discussed the legality of the motion on Monday, the body erupted into chaos. At one point, Ford and his brother Doug Ford, a council member, started screaming at the public....

"All of this comes, of course, after Ford admitted to smoking crack and then faced an unrelenting set of allegations, including that he drove drunk, sexually harassed one of his staff members and that he was seen doing lines of cocaine at a bar. As Saturday Night Live made clear in its sketch about the mayor, Ford has not helped his own cause, holding one outrageous news conference after another."

Despite his demotion from mayor to city councilman, Ford suggested his political career would recover, the Globe and Mail reports:

" 'If you know anything about the Ford family, we never, ever, ever give up,' he told his cheering supporters. 'I guarantee, in four more years, you're going to see another example of the Ford family never, ever, ever giving up.'

"Asked after his speech if he planned to run for mayor in 2018, Rob Ford said it was too soon to say."

Toronto mayor

Rob Ford

Toronto

Canada

Prosecutors in South Korea are reportedly demanding the death penalty for the captain of a ferry that capsized and sank in April, killing more than 300 people. Lee Joon-seok is accused of homicide for leaving passengers, including many teenagers on a school outing, to fend for themselves.

Prosecutors say Lee failed to perform his duty as captain of the Sewol, according to Yonhap news agency.

At the time of the disaster off South Korea's southwest coast, Lee was accused of not moving quickly enough to evacuate his vessel's 476 passengers. In a video taken by the coast guard on the day of the sinking, Lee can be seen entering a rescue boat while many others remained on the ship.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye described Lee's actions as "absolutely unacceptable, unforgiveable" and "akin to murder."

USA Today says: "The court said it couldn't immediately confirm the report that lawyers want ferry captain [Lee] to be sentenced to death. Lee has apologized for abandoning passengers, but says he didn't know his action would lead to the mass deaths."

Although South Korea has a moratorium on the death penalty and carried out its last execution in 1997, the courts have continued to hand down death penalties.

ferry disaster

South Korea

Republicans are trying to make inroads with African-Americans in the Deep South, who have voted overwhelmingly Democrat since the civil rights era. In Alabama, the GOP is fielding more black candidates this cycle than ever before. One of them is Darius Foster, who gained national attention with this viral video challenging racial and political expectations:

YouTube

In the video, a diverse group of men and women mouth the candidate's introduction: "Did you know while growing up we went half the winter without heat, or that I think best while listening to Frank Sinatra? The last concert I attended was Lil Wayne. Yes, Lil Wayne." It ends, "Do I really fit in a box? See you on the campaign trail."

Foster says he needs no reminder that he stands out. "With me, unfortunately, everything is black Republican. Not Darius did this, but the black Republican did that. So, you know."

With the bulky frame of a former linebacker and a warm, hearty laugh, Foster fashions himself as a Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt Republican.

"The fight-for-the-people Republican. That's what they were. I'm not sure where the Democratic Party was able to hijack that narrative from us. But they did. And they have it. I'm trying to bring it back," he says.

Foster is a 33-year-old business consultant. He's been active in the GOP since he founded a lonely chapter of College Republicans at the historically black Miles College in Birmingham. He's been tapped by the Republican National Committee as a future leader.

Foster was raised by his grandmother, who forced him to vote a straight Democratic ticket the first time she took him to the polls. He says he went home and looked up political parties in the family's Encyclopaedia Britannica.

"I read through and went through all of them, I got to the Republican Party and I was just reading through the principles. My grandmother hates taxes. She doesn't do gay marriage," he says. "She's always taking about defending yourself and strong defense. And I said, 'Mom — you may be a Republican.' And she looked at me and walked off."

She's still a Democrat but has endorsed her grandson in his race for a state House seat representing part of suburban Birmingham. It includes the predominantly black city of Bessemer, where Foster spends a lot of time going door to door introducing himself.

Democrats have long represented this Alabama House district, which is about two-thirds African-American, giving his opponent, Louise Alexander, the advantage.

Foster knows he's up against some strong notions about the Republican Party. "I think they hear Republican they think of white men. And people who don't care about them and ... who don't understand them," he says.

What he calls "TV Republicans" — conservative pundits — are a thorn in his side, Foster says. And some of his fellow Alabamians haven't helped. Like the Republican state senator who referred to blacks as aborigines, or the congressman who declared that there was a war on whites.

Foster says he doesn't have to defend Republican principles — only Republicans. Especially those who are hostile to President Obama, who got 95 percent of the black vote in Alabama two years ago.

"And it's not saying that I agree with President Obama. I'm just saying that I can show somebody and talk to them about what it means to be a Republican and not mention President Obama's name at all. This is what being a Republican is. This is what being a conservative is," he says.

Over breakfast at their neighborhood IHOP, his wife, 28-year-old Setara Foster, a lawyer, talks about growing up black in Houston where her parents were union members and loyal Democrats.

She now identifies more closely with the GOP. But she says she tends to split her ticket.

"I think that when we as a group identify with one party, for one thing, all the time, that party never has to earn our vote. Ever. And so I think that by having a diversity of political ideology within ethnic, racial, gender, age groups, we force politicians to work," she says.

On the campaign trail, you won't hear Foster talk about Republicans or Democrats. Instead, he talks about how he's invested some of his campaign funds in community initiatives — technology for schools, shoes for a basketball team, hosting a local job fair.

The strategy has won some converts like Juanita Graham. "When this gentleman came along, I was a die-hard Democrat," she says. Graham owns a firm that offers inner-city students enhanced engineering and math courses. She first met Foster while she was working for his Democratic opponent.

"There were some preconceived notions; I will not lie. Because when you say Republican African-American, the first thing pops in most African-American minds is Uncle Tom, butt-kisser. I'm honest. That is the mindset," she says.

But when Foster helped her with startup funds, and talked about tackling Bessemer's low high school graduation rate, he earned her vote.

Graham says she's still a Democrat, though. And that's the real challenge for Foster and Republican leaders who hope to position the party for the future.

At The Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, about 700 congregants jam the pews every Sunday morning at 10:30. The church is near the edge of DeKalb County, and it's helping lead a "Souls to the Polls" drive.

Georgia Democrat Michelle Nunn is running an extremely tight race for Senate against Republican David Perdue, and the difference between victory and defeat could ride on the African-American vote. The push is on to get voters to turn out early — especially at black churches.

This year, for the first time in Georgia's history, some polling places are open on Sundays. Pastor William Flippin Sr. urged his congregation to head straight to the polls right after the service this past Sunday.

"I don't know if you have voted already, but please know that it is your civic responsibility," Flippin said. "People died for us to have the right to vote."

Democrats are trying feverishly to avoid what happened in 2010. That year, there was abysmally low turnout among black voters, which happens often in midterm years. Core supporters for Democrats — like minorities, single women or young people — tend to drop off during the midterms.

In Georgia, more than a million African-Americans voted in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012, but only 700,000 hit the polls in 2010. Democrats aren't taking their chances this year.

The Piney Grove church is in an area that is 55 percent African-American and therefore one part of Georgia that could help Nunn win the Senate seat this November. That's if people turn out to vote.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter joined the congregation yesterday to help rally churchgoers to the polls and work to "help make Martin Luther King's dream become a reality in our state."

"We can do it, if we all work together, if we all go to vote, if we can be sure that all of our friends and relatives and neighbors go to vote, and vote early," Carter said.

Sunday voting caused some controversy in Georgia. Republicans grumbled about it giving Democrats a boost. But Flippin says it's only fair that black voters get a chance on Sundays to mobilize.

"Many of our people still do not have professional jobs that they can take off or go into work late. You know, most corporations — they allow you to come late or come early on Election Day. Well, if you're working in a factory or job like that, they can't take off," says Flippin.

Piney Grove worshippers loaded up on two church buses and, with a caravan of cars following, drove to the voter registration and elections office in Decatur to vote.

On the bus, Evelyn Jackson of nearby Ellenwood said she's voting this midterm because something has to be done about the rampant joblessness. Georgia has the highest unemployment rate in the country, and Jackson says you can't trust a Republican to fix that.

"Republicans ... they care about money, and they care about people in their echelon. And they don't care about people who are lower middle class or poor," said Jackson. "I know people, there's one of the ministers, who's been out of work for, like, three years."

When the buses arrived at the polling place, a stream of other worshippers from other black churches converged with Piney Grove.

Thirty percent of all registered voters in the state are African-American. Allen Davis, a nurse, wishes more black Georgians actually knew that.

"I think if they know how powerful their vote is, they'll come out and vote," Davis said.

One potential stumbling block to getting more African-Americans out to vote is that most Democrats have spent this fall distancing themselves from a president so many black voters admire. But Darryl Yarber says he understands the practicality of that strategy.

"African-Americans are a little bit more savvy than that. They know what's going on. They know the reasons for the distancing. That's a reason we have such a crowd right now," said Yarber. "They understand the game."

And Yarber says electing a Democrat who will barely acknowledge President Obama is still better than letting the other side win.