By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service

WASHINGTON -- The election of the first post-baby-boomer president raises the question: Who captured the vote of that enormous, often-influential cohort?

The answer: Neither presidential candidate did. In fact, according to exit polls, the boomer vote split almost exactly down the middle.

WASHINGTON -- We've heard from pollsters and pundits with predictions about the outcome of the presidential election. Now, political scientists are having their say.

WASHINGTON -- The financial meltdown may have taken a chunk of change from as many as 100 members of Congress who, in 2007, were invested in some of the biggest of the early casualties of the ongoing collapse.

WASHINGTON -- Dead.

That's the fate of any effort in the foreseeable future or so to privatize Social Security. The financial collapse has driven a stake through the heart of that idea, long the darling of Republicans, who have sold the concept as the only way to keep the retirement system viable -- particularly in the face of the imminent retirement of millions of baby boomers.

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt made headlines -- and got kudos -- for his department's proposal Wednesday to use postal workers to distribute protective antibiotics to individual households in the event of an anthrax attack.

WASHINGTON -- Could there be an October surprise headed our way from the Caribbean? That's what some Cuba watchers are warning.

After being pummeled by four hurricanes, Cuba is a wreck, with 500,000 homes damaged, 200,000 people homeless and 30 percent of all crops ruined. Schools and hospitals are out of commission, the electrical grid is damaged and food is scarce.

WASHINGTON -- After weeks of being pummeled, the Department of Veterans Affairs has backed down from its refusal to let nonpartisan groups hold voter-registration drives in VA facilities, including hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and homeless shelters.

WASHINGTON -- Life is about to get a lot more entertaining for Capitol Hill lawmakers and their staffs. A big upgrade is under way for the cable-TV system to which those who toil in Congress are privy.

WASHINGTON -- Seven years on, the war on terror -- at least at home -- may well have been won.

WASHINGTON -- With barely two months left before the nation votes Nov. 4, election officials are furiously scrambling to find 2 million poll workers to help handle what could be a record turnout.