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Joe Biden on Tuesday launched a closing campaign argument that sought to look in part beyond next week’s election, promising in a speech and two campaign ads to heal the nation and bring it together as he evoked the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt and drew mostly implicit contrasts with President Trump. Trump, in contrast, intensified his focus on his adversaries, challenging any mail-in ballots received after Election Day, suggesting the pandemic has been overstated and taking aim at two powerful Democrats, vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Sullivan, Gearan and Sonmez, 10/27)

Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday harshly criticized President Donald Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic and faulted him for turning the White House into a "hot zone." "More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that," Obama said, speaking from Orlando as he campaigned for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. (Sullivan and Merica, 10/27)

If Joe Biden wins the 2020 US election against Donald Trump next week, the new president-elect will face enormous pressures to implement a laundry list of priorities on a range of issues from foreign policy to the climate crisis, reversing many of the stark changes implemented by his predecessor. But Biden’s first and most pressing task for his first 100 days in the White House would be to roll out a new nationwide plan to fight the coronavirus crisis, which has claimed more than 220,000 lives in the US and infected millions – more than any other country in the world – as well as taking steps to fix the disastrous economic fallout. (Strauss and Borger, 10/28)

With the presidential election less than a week away, scores of Americans divided by their support for President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden also are united. “The commonality between us all is that we’re stressed about the election,’’ William Heckman, executive director of the the American Institute of Stress, told USA TODAY. Stress triggers the release of cortisol, the so-called stress hormone, which Heckman said affects mood, motivation and fear. (Peter, 10/27)

Gary Kauffman says he does not scare easily. So when men waving President Donald Trump flags drive by his house in downtown Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he stands on his front steps and waves a banner for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. “Sometimes I yell at them. They yell back at me,” says Kauffman, 54.Still, Kauffman is keeping a closer eye on who they are and what they’re carrying as Election Day approaches. Tension has been rising in his town, known best as hallowed ground of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. Recently, it’s become a hot spot of angry confrontations between Trump supporters and liberal protesters. Kauffman has seen some of the Trump supporters carrying weapons. (Kellman, 10/28)

Of the estimated 1.4 million adults who identify as transgender in the U.S., nearly a million are eligible to vote. But according to a study published by UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute in February of this year, about 42% of those voters could face barriers to casting a ballot in November, because they lack photo IDs that match their gender or their correct name. (Holder, 10/27)

Absentee ballots can create challenges for some people with disabilities who need assistance to mark their ballots, such as the visually impaired. Most in-person polling places provide assistants to help visually impaired voters to read the ballot and make the appropriate mark. For voters who live alone, finding somebody to help fill out an absentee ballot might be difficult at a time when people are wary of being in one another’s homes. The issue of assistance with voting is particularly acute in assisted living facilities. (Povich, 10/28)

North Carolina, a crucial battleground for the presidential race and control of the United States Senate, has another coveted prize at stake in this election, one that is drawing serious out-of-state money, dominating television ads and driving get-out-the-vote efforts. Democrats believe they have a chance of gaining control of the State Legislature for the first time in a decade, which would make it possible to expand Medicaid to cover half-a-million more low-income adults here after years of Republican resistance. (Goodnough, 10/27)

Voters in Oklahoma and Missouri directly made the call on whether to expand government financed health insurance in their states. But that can't happen in Kansas. Instead, the fate of a long-debated, deadlocked Medicaid expansion proposal can only be made in the traditional manner: on the basis of which legislators are chosen on Nov. 3. (Mathis, 10/27)