Brian Naylor

Billions in damages and not enough in the bank account — that's where federal officials find themselves in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The White House says it will send an emergency funding request to Capitol Hill this week — expected to be $50 billion to $60 billion. Top administrators told Congress on Wednesday that they want at least some of that money to go toward preventing the kind of devastation caused by Sandy and other recent storms.

Just when you thought you never had to look at another political ad, they're back — this time focused on the big debate in Washington about taxes and spending. Unions, business groups and other special interests have taken their arguments to the nation's living rooms and computer screens.

President Obama travels to New York Thursday to get a first hand look at the continuing recovery efforts and lingering damage from Hurricane Sandy. Damage and lost economic activity from the storm have been estimated as high as $50 billion. State officials and lawmakers from the affected region say they intend to tap the federal government for as much assistance as possible.

Political leaders from the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not been shy about their intent to seek as much federal funding as possible for their storm-struck states. Damages and lost economic activity as a result of Hurricane Sandy have been estimated as high as $50 billion.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., wants $30 billion in federal assistance to help rebuild his state. This request, and others, come at a time when Congress is already consumed with reducing the deficit.

As the election season ends, so does the ad season. With close to a billion dollars spent on presidential TV ads and more than a million spots, do any ads stand out as memorable? Well, they certainly don't do what "Morning in America" did for Ronald Reagan. So while negative ads may be effective — and therefore plentiful — they're unlikely to stick in the mind.

Following Superstorm Sandy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has received good grades from politicians and even some survivors of the storm. In part, that's due to lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina seven years ago.

For Staten Island resident Deb Smith, whose house was flooded by the storm surge from Sandy, FEMA has been a savior.

Women's issues were back front and center in politics on Wednesday after Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said in a debate Tuesday night that when a rape results in pregnancy "it is something that God intended to happen." Democrats pounced and Mitt Romney distanced himself from the remarks. But the Romney campaign did not ask Mourdock to pull down a TV ad Romney taped for him. Mourdock is in a tight race with Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly in an overall fierce contest for control of the U.S. Senate.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

You are listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

This campaign season most of us have been bombarded by political ads on TV. Those ads get the most attention from fact-checkers and opposing campaigns, but the presidential candidates are also running lots of spots on commercial radio stations. It gives them a chance to target particular kinds of people, as NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Yesterday on the program we reported on Paul Ryan's debating style. We're going to do the same now for his opponent, Vice President Biden, who's an experienced debater. Here's NPR's Brian Naylor.