Either of those poles. Ifill plus, private contractors, nasa and the f. A. A. Investigate what caused a space station supply rocket to explode seconds after take off. Woodruff those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And friends of the newshour. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Ifill the ebola death rate in west africa may be slowing. The World Health Organization reported today that total cases now top 13,700, but the death toll remains at just under 5,000. Thats partly due to liberias death count being revised downward. Meanwhile, president obama warned again about quarantine policies that might discourage doctors and nurses from volunteering in west africa. We cant hermetically seal ourselves off. The nature of International Travel and movement, means that the only way to ensure that we are safe, is to make sure that we have dealt with the disease where right now its most acute. Ifill before the president spoke, the pentagon announced that all u. S. Troops who serve in west africa will be placed in 21day quarantine when they leave the region. And, Health Officials in california ordered the same restriction for anyone who has traveled to west africa if they have had contact with ebola patients. Woodruff a legal battle is shaping up between the state of maine and a nurse who treated ebola patients in sierra leone state officials said today they will get a court order to enforce a home quarantine of kaci hickox who has tested negative. She had already spent three days under medical isolation in new jersey. Today, in a skype interview hickox told abc she will challenge maines policy. I remain really concerned by these mandatory quarantine policies for aid workers. I think were only just adding to the stigmatization that again is not based on science or evidence. If these restrictions are not removed for me by the state of maine by tomorrow morning, thursday morning, i will go to court to attain my freedom. Woodruff officials in maine want hickox to remain home for 21 days since her last contact with an ebola patient. Thats the incubation period for the virus. Ifill the Federal Reserve has officially ended its long running economic stimulus effort. Citing an improved economy, policy makers at the central bank announced today theyve completed the phase out their bondbuying program. But, they also said, again, they mean to maintain shortterm rates near zero for a considerable time. Woodruff reinforcements from two sources headed to the syrian town of kobani today, to battle Islamic State forces. Activists said 50 rebels from the Free Syrian Army faction entered kobani from neighboring turkey. Separately, about 150 iraqi peshmerga troops traveled by convoy through turkey. They have the blessing of the turkish government, and turkish residents cheered their passage. Ifill a monsoon mudslide hit sri lanka today. The Disaster Management minister reported more than 100 dead, with upwards of 300 others missing. The mudslide was triggered by heavy rain that inundated the island nations central hills. It hit this morning, and wiped out a number of workers homes at a tea plantation. Woodruff back in this country, white house officials said theyre acting to address a breach of its unclassified Computer Network. The Washington Post reported today that investigators believe hackers working for the russians were behind the attack in recent weeks. At the white house, press secretary josh earnest declined to speculate today. There are a number of nations and organizations around the globe that are engaged in efforts to collect information about u. S. Government activity. And its not a surprise. Were certainly aware of the fact that those individuals or organizations, or even countries, might view the white house Computer Network as a valuable source of information. Woodruff the post report said theres no evidence that any classified networks were hacked. Ifill the u. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether medicare and medicaid employees leaked information to stock traders. Todays wall street journal says three separate inquiries are looking at the centers for medicare and Medicaid Services the agency that oversees the programs. One involves allegations that an outside firm was tipped off in advance about a Prostate Cancer treatment. Woodruff wall street failed to make much headway today. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 31 points to close at 16,974; the nasdaq fell 15 points to close at 4,549; and the s p 500 slipped two, to finish at 1,982. Woodruff still to come on the newshour. With just a week to go until voting, president obama hits the campaign trail. State voters to weigh in on key issues through Ballot Initiatives. How the fed manages its dual mandate to boost job growth and keep inflation low. The risks of teen sexting. The red cross response to Superstorm Sandy, two years ago. The probe into what caused a shuttle supply rocket to explode. And the allman brothers last gig. Ifill as the Midterm Elections head to at least a dozen critical tossups, one prominent democrat has been largely missing from the campaign trail, but president obama is on the road again. In carefully selected friendly territory. You can tell im out of practice, im losing my voice. Ifill only a week before election day, president obama is finally hitting the trail in earnest. Its good to be back in wisconsin ifill last night, he rallied support for wisconsin democrat candidate mary burke, the businesswoman challenging republican Governor Scott walker. You have a chance to choose a governor who doesnt put political ideology first. Whos not thinking partisan first. Shes going to put you first. Ifill until now, the president has more often than not put fundraising first appearing at private events instead of at big public rallies. Many democrats, mindful of his sagging popularity, have largely kept their distance. Their distance, but now the president is pitching in, focusing on states hes won twice maine, connecticut, rhode island, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. Whether for lack of invitation or lack of interest, hes largely avoided states where democrats are locked in Competitive Senate races. Those candidates have opted instead for surrogates like Hillary Clinton and massachusetts senator elizabeth warren. Make sure you get out to vote for the kind of North Carolina and america you want ifill clinton has stumped in North Carolina over the weekend, and heads to iowa, kentucky and louisiana this week while warren has toured new hampshire, iowa, colorado and kentucky. Lame duck Midterm Elections are not typically friendly territory for sitting president s. On average, past president s have lost 26 seats in the house and about seven see the in the senate. Dan balz of the Washington Post and president ial historian Michael Beschloss are here to explain why. So how does the white house make these kind of decisions about what to do with the president in these kinds of complicated times . Well, they make them in concert with the campaigns and particularly at this point, Senate Campaign committee and the others who are directly involved in the races. Hes going place wheres hes welcome. Hes not going place wheres hes not welcome. And i think one of the interesting things, he is campaigning mostly on behalf of gubernatorial candidates. There are a lot of competitive gubernatorial races, as we know, but not nokey Senate Battle grounds. I think the only state hes going into with an even modestly Competitive Senate campaign is in michigan, and that one looks pretty strong for the democrats at this point. Hes avoiding all the real battlegrounds in the senate races. Ifill by design. By design. Ifill how unusual is that, michael . Not very unusual at all. The record usually is even popular president s dont help that much. Ronald reagan in 1986, gallup poll Approval Rating was 86 , won reelection by a landslide and went to around 13 states around this time in october that year and yet the results was the republicans lost control of the senate, lost five seats in the house. If thats sort of the acid test of what a popular president can do, the lespopular president s have a harder time. Ifill lets go back to more recently, george w. Bush. Did the same thing happen thoim . Yes, his gallup poll Approval Rating was about 38 , not very different from president obamas, lost both houses of congress. There was great anger because the war in iraq was going very unwell. There were other reasons for dissatisfaction with george bush, and the voters tended to take it out on his party. Gwen, i went back yesterday and looked through some old clips from 2006, and found a piece di, almost literally this week, eight years ago, about george w. S about spuive not being welcome on the campaign trail and the limited number of places he could go. And that could have been written yesterday about president obama. Ifill everything old is new again. Indeed. Ifill here is where its different to me, maybe where the competitive seats hab took place, louisiana and North Carolina, and georgia and arkansas, southern state, is he also less welcome in Southern States . Well, hes very less welcome in Southern States. Southern states, with the exception of North Carolina, he did not win at all, and high only won North Carolina once. In a number of those states the African American vote is very important and i think they are looking for ways under the radar or without a president ial visit for him to speak directly to African American voters or you can do direct mail. Robocalls. Robocalles, you can do that. Gwen, i think moose more interesting is not that hes not going into arkansas. Thats not terribly surprising. But if you look at other places hes not going in competitive races, colorado, for example. He send the nomination in denver in the summer of 2008. He was very popular there. He is very unpopular there, particularly with undecide voters. Iowa, the state that launched him in the caucuses by beating Hillary Clinton and john edwards, hes not welcome there, and one of the most crucial Battleground Senate races in the country. Ifill where does an incumbent president help . Money, and thats the difference between these times and most of American History because money is now so cardinale important that i think the white house now and in 2006, george w. Bush did argue that perhaps the best thing a president can do to help is not appear at rallies, which they found, at least in 06, helped some, had no effect in some other places, and hurt some, but better for them to the president , then and i think would be said this year for the president to raise a lot of money from the base of his party. Thats what president obama is doing. Ifill i do want to ask you about the base but i also want to ask you about very interesting the thing that is going ojude segoing to kentucky this week to do a piece on the senate race. The democratic nominee there could barely be convinced to say she even voted for the president , which one would be surprised if she hadnt, right . Of course, one would be surprised. And i think everybody in the aftermath thought that was a mistake, and assumed that when she got into a debate with Mitch Mcconnell right after that, that she would kind of clean up that and clarify and say, yes, i did. And instead, she said, you know, we have a secret ballot in this country. Now, she was quite willing to say she had voted for Hillary Clinton against barack obama in the 2008 primaries, but she wouldnt say that she had voteed for the president. It was it was a very odd set of circumstances and surprising. Ifill it was very odd. I am very curious, though, in the end here, which is to what extent does running away from the president for democrats in this case, or even for republicans in other years, to what extent does that hurt in getting turnout, in getting the base out . Oh, sure it does because people feel that this is something that if a president does not come in, there isnt a connection with Burning National issues that oftentimes enjied jooiz campaign. And the other thing is that any lame duck president is trying to make himself relevant for these last two years. This is one reason why there is some pressure on the president to get out there, at least to some except, so that whoever comes into congress this time, he can say, i helped you. I was relevant in this election. You and i still can do things together these last two years. Ifill is there back lash possible among people who would normally show up and vote for a democrat but who now feel a little insulted . I talked to a democrat recently who thinks it has been a big mistake for the president not to go into these competitive states. The argument made to me was the people who are going to vote against the president s party are going to vote against the president s party. They know who is president. They know who is president. And it is difficult for the Democratic Candidates to distance themselves when they have voted with the president most of the time. This argument was we need our base energized, and president obama may be uniquely capable of doing that, at least in part of the communities of his coalition. Ifill when i asked kay haig an about that this weekend, she said shes for North Carolina. Well see how this works. There will be exit pose youll be reading on election night, dan balz, Michael Beschloss,. Cant wait. Thanks, genl. Woodruff most of the election talk this year is centered on the battle to control the u. S. Senate. But some other contests may affect americans lives and issues more directly the scores of ballot measures up for a vote. Newshour Political Editor and reporter Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage with a powerful battle in north dakota which is one of the largest fights this year between environmentalists and energy companies. Reporter in north dakota, the profits of drilling are gushing in, and as a result, so are tax revenues. The industry sends around 2 billion in taxes to the state each year. Conservationists now are trying to ensure that some of that money going gz to preserving land and water. So an alliance of groups placed this amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. Ballot measure number 5 would devote 5 of that energy tax revenue to a clean water, wildlife, and parks fund. Thats likely somewhere around 100 to 150 million a year. The land, our water, theyre our heritage, and our livelihood. We have to protect it. Reporter ads like these featuring north dakota farmsers and hunters are running, thanks in part to millions of dollars from national groups. That includes ducks unlimited, the Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife fund, groups that see ballot measure 5 as a battle line in a national fight. And so do their opponents. North dakotas expenditure files showed that the American Petroleum institute has pumped 1 million into the state in recent weeks, helping launch ads like this, saying more money for conservation would mean lesmoney for other things. It will take money from our schools, Law Enforcement, programs for the elderly, and road. Reporter conservationists call that argument misleading. They say that schools and other needs can still use the vast majority of energy tax funds. The fight took on new life in just the past few months as state polls showed conservationists ahead. Thats when the American Petroleum institute got involved and the most recent polls, they show the energy versus environment measure is too close to call. Woodruff and lisa joins me now, your first onair appearance with the newshour, lisa. Welcome. Reporter its an honor,. Woodruff we talked about the state of north dakota but we know there are some 140 Ballot Initiatives across the country, there are a number of them, including minimum wage. Tell us where it is on the ballot and what its says. Minimum wage is on the ballot in five states. Theres a political context important here. In a way minimum wage has been democrats answers to the health care onslaught. Were democrats, we believe in increasing wages for workers. Its a political aspect but this is something that really affects real peoples lives. There are minimum wage increases in arkansas, alaska, south dakota, nebrask and illinois. We see in ark