National

A new analysis shows that the Obama campaign continues to have superiority over the Romney campaign and its allies when it comes to TV ads. The report also finds that political ads are the most negative since 2000, and that the leading advertiser in congressional races is Karl Rove's tax-exempt group Crossroads GPS.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court reconsiders affirmative action. On Wednesday, it will hear oral arguments in the case of Fisher versus University of Texas. The plaintiff, Abigail Fisher, is a white woman who says she was denied admission because of her race. Her case is the first to reach the high court since 2003, when it re-affirmed that public colleges and universities could consider race as one of many factors in admissions decisions.

After a two-year investigation, a Senate report released Wednesday criticizes the Department of Homeland Security's "fusion centers" as ineffective, expensive, and encroaching on civil liberties. The centers were created after Sept. 11 to improve communication between federal counter-terrorism agents and state and local law enforcement. A department spokesman called the report flawed.

Documents from the FBI file released to author Seth Rosenfeld as part of research for his book, Subversives.

A Pennsylvania judge Tuesday blocked the state from moving forward with changes to its voter ID law until after the presidential election. This news comes just days after some suspicious voter registration activity in states like Florida, North Carolina and Nevada. Host Michel Martin discusses voter issues across the country with two reporters.

If a television or radio station determines that a political ad is false, should it refuse to run the ad?

That's exactly what the nonpartisan group Free Press is calling on stations to do.

"They certainly could reject some of them," said Matt Wood, the group's policy director.

At the very least, they could do more fact checking, he said.

Generation Y is asking why.

Why is it so hard to find a job? Why is health care so expensive? Smart questions from a smart generation. Their inquiries — and the presidential candidate they think can provide the best answers — could be a decisive factor in the 2012 election. If not the Tipping Point, as least a Tilting Point.

For many millennials, economic prospects are murky.