National

Supporters of immigrants’ rights, who showed their strength by the mass marches during the spring, have mobilized to end the Republican right’s stranglehold on Congress and state governments in the elections this week. In this, they have the support of labor and many other sectors.

They came so close, and for most Detroiters that was more than enough — and we did beat the Yankees. The Tigers bounced back from one of the worst slumps in baseball history. The question is, can the city of Detroit also bounce back?

To the credit of the American people — and despite all the Bush administration/Repub-lican efforts at intimidation, threats, lies, spin and mudslinging — polls have shown the Bush Republicans in a free fall. In this highly charged atmosphere, with so many tight races, each vote can make the difference.

Returning this fall to the campus where he became a professor, Walter R. Allen led a mainly student audience at the University of Michigan’s School of Education through the history of the African American struggle against segregation and racism. He said that he hoped this approach would help many of them better understand the historical context in which this November’s ballot drive by the right wing to overturn affirmative action in Michigan is taking place.

The Stem Cell Initiative on the ballot in Missouri would amend the state’s constitution to protect stem cell research and therapies allowed by federal law. Missouri would be the first state to do so. The campaign on the proposed Amendment 2 has generated more money than any campaign in Missouri history for any ballot measure or for any federal or state elective office — probably more than $40 million by Nov. 7

CHICAGO — Two and half months have passed since Elvira Arellano took sanctuary here at a northwest side church, defying U.S. government efforts to deport her to Mexico. Arellano is optimistic about her prospects, and says her struggle to resist deportation to remain with her 7-year-old son Saul, who is a U.S. citizen, is worth the fight.

EL MONTE, Calif. (AP) — Maria Valdez didn’t consider herself an environmentalist when she pressed this city east of Los Angeles to buy land ringed with factories and railroad tracks for a new neighborhood park.

DALLAS — All over Texas, people are incredulous about the Republican election ploy to build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border — from Columbus, N.M., to El Paso, Texas.

A recent court decision has boosted the struggle for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Last week the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to the same state benefits, protections and obligations as different-sex couples. The court split, however, on how to remedy current state law.

Organized labor and its allies launched a massive, nationwide get-out-the-vote drive in the final days of the midterm election as polls showed many tight races certain to be decided by voter turnout