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The 2010 census brought some bad news for Niagara Falls, New York. Once one of the biggest cities in the Northeast, it has lost more than half its population since the 1950s. As Daniel Robison reports, Niagara Falls is now at risk of losing its city status, as well as million of dollars in federal aid.

DANIEL ROBISON, BYLINE: Niagara Falls residents shuffle into a town hall meeting. It's standing-room only in this small space.

SETH PICCIRILLO: How's everybody doing? Can you hear me in the back?

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Mitt Romney has also been flying all over the country, hitting as many battleground states as he can. But today, the Republican left his plane behind and boarded the big blue Romney bus to focus on just one state, Ohio.

NPR's Ari Shapiro has this story about Romney's tour of one of the most contested states in the campaign.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THING CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

If you enjoy travel, you might consider running for the White House. Just today, President Obama is visiting not one, not two, not three, but four states and then flying home in time for bed. On his schedule, rallies in Florida, Virginia and Ohio and a trip to Chicago to cast his vote for himself, of course. Early voting is one message the president has been pushing on two-day whirlwind trip across the country.

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This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Later in the program comedian DL Hughley stops by and gives us his - how shall we say it - unique take on politics. That's coming up later. But before we get to the laughs we're going to take a serious look at energy prices. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that the average price at the pump for this year will be $3.65.

President Obama has been turning up in a lot of debates lately. Not just in his encounters with Mitt Romney, but as a talking point for Republican Senate candidates.

In an Indiana Senate debate Tuesday — the same one in which he made a controversial comment about pregnancy resulting from rape — Republican Richard Mourdock castigated Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly for supporting Obama even though "60 percent" of Hoosiers oppose the president.

The "mystery monkey" who had been on the loose in the Tampa Bay area for more than three years was captured Wednesday, our friends at WUSF report.

Before Sam, a white-throated capuchin monkey, threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in Frederick, Md., on a midsummer Friday night, and before Sam and other monkeys — dressed as cowboys and riding shaggy dogs — rounded up longhorn sheep on the baseball diamond as part of Cowboy Monkey Rodeo promotion night, angry animal rights protesters gathered outside the front gate.

Freshman California Rep. Jeff Denham, a self-described Valley farmer and Republican businessman, is in a battle against challenger Jose Hernandez, former NASA astronaut and engineer-businessman in a realigned district in the San Joaquin Valley. It's a tight race, with lots of money being poured into both candidates from their respective parties.

Ron Briggs, a member of the Board of Supervisors in El Dorado County, Calif., and his father helped expand the state's death penalty in 1978. Now Briggs wants the death penalty repealed and replaced with life without parole. Renee Montagne speaks with Briggs about his shift from death penalty supporter to death penalty opponent.