NPR 2008-11-04

The presidential nominees 1 have been dashing through key battleground states and hammering familiar campaign things on this final day before the election. John McCain had seven states on his itinerary 2. Barack Obama had three. During their all-out push to the finish line came news that Obama's 86-year-old grandmother Madelyn Dunham had died in Honolulu. From Hawaii Public Radio, Kayla Rosenfeld reports.

The Democratic presidential candidate announced the news in a joint 3 statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. They said their grandmother Madelyn Dunham died peacefully after a battle with cancer. They added she was the cornerstone of the family, a woman of extraordinary accomplishment 4, strength and humility 5. Obama and Ng described their grandmother as the person who encouraged and allowed them to take chances. Obama took a break late last month from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with his grandmother. She was suffering from cancer and had just been released from hospital with a broken hip 6. He told CBS it was an easy decision to make. He arrived too late in 1995 when his mother died of ovarian cancer and he didn't want to make the same mistake twice. For NPR News, I'm Kayla Rosenfeld in Honolulu.

Senator McCain and his wife Cindy issued a statement offering condolences to Obama and his family. Meanwhile, at campaign stops throughout the day, McCain appealed to undecided voters to put him over the top. Steve Newborn of member station WUSF caught up with him in Tampa, Florida.

It was a second stop in Tampa in six days, showing the importance that John McCain is placing on a state that usually vote Republican. But polls are showing Barack Obama with a slight lead in Florida, that's forcing McCain to spend more time in a state he has to carry to have a credible 7 chance at winning the election. He spoke 8 to about 1, 000 people outside the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "Thank you all for being here. With this kind of enthusiasm, this kind of intensity 9, we will win Florida and we will win this race tomorrow. " Meanwhile, Senator Obama held a last day rally across the state in Jacksonville. There are many appearances signaled a distinct change from earlier in the campaign, when most candidates boycotted 10 Florida for moving the date of its primary. For NPR News, I'm Steve Newborn in Tampa.

In Iraq today, at least nine people were killed when a series of bombs exploded in and around Baghdad, at least 30 others were wounded. The violence comes as US and Iraqi negotiators try to work out a final agreement that would allow American troops to stay in Iraq through 2011. Iraqi police say they expect more violence once the pact 11 is approved by parliament.

Little movement on Wall Street today. The Dow closed down five points at 9, 319. The NASDAQ gained five points closing at 1, 726. The S&P fell 2 to 966. This is NPR.

Pakistani officials have taken complaints about US missile strikes in the country's tribal 12 region to General David Petraeus who's in Pakistan for the first time as head of US Central Command. They warned Petraeus that the attacks are generating outrage 13 among Pakistanis and could undermine Pakistan as a key US ally in the region.

For the first time, researchers say they've tried to measure what impact having a parent deployed 14 to Iraq or Afghanistan has on the behavior of young children. NPR's Joseph Shapiro reports.

Parents have talked about the stress on their families when the mother or father is sent to war, so it's not a surprise that when the researchers went to study families living on a marine 15 base, they found high rates of acting 16 out in young children. The researchers compared 3-5 year olds with their parent overseas to ones whose parent wasn't deployed. The kids with a missing mother or father were far more likely to act out, to hit, to be aggressive or hyperactive, or to be anxious or sad. The study appears in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. An editorial that also appears in the journal says the researchers were so careful on their methods that they probably underestimated the extent of the problem. Joseph Shapiro, NPR News.

California authorities say genetic 17 tests prove aviator 18 and adventurer Steve Fossett is dead. They say the DNA 19 of two bones found last week close to the wreckage 20 of Fossett's airplane near the California-Nevada border match Fossett's DNA. The 63-year-old millionaire adventurer vanished in September of 2007 after taking off in a single-engine plane.