Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

Small-town politics:

America's most prolific political spender? It's not any member of the House or Senate. It's current New York City Mayor MIKE BLOOMBERG.

Saturday's New York Times reported that Bloomberg has spent more of his own money in pursuit of public office than any other individual in American history, including $85-million-dollars so far this year in his latest re-election campaign.

The Times noted that Bloomberg was on pace to spend between $110-and-$140 million-dollars before next Tuesday's mayoral election. He will have spent more than $250-million-dollars in his three bids for New York Mayor!

Other big spenders? NJ Gov JON CORZINE spent about $130-million-dollars in two races for governor and one for the U-S Senate. Publisher STEVE FORBES dropped $114-million-dollars into his two barely noticable runs for president. (Pacelli)

What's the Buzz:

We have a winner in the World Monopoly Championships held in Las Vegas. He is Norwegian and he is a teenager.

BJORN HALVARD KNAPPSKOG, who was the last player in the final round to get a monopoly, and he did it with those light blue cheapo properties, Vermont, Oriental, and Connecticut Avenues, then loaded up on hotels.

It was too much for the others left in the game, twenty-somethings from New Zealand and the U-S.

Knappskog was left with $6,888 in (Monopoly) cash and assets, enough to claim the title and the real-money prize, $20,580, which is equal to the amount of money in the bank in a standard Monopoly game.

Knappskog, who's never been to the U-S before, said he's planning to take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas before he heads home. (Maiman)

With climate change activists around the world staging rallies Saturday for the International Day of Climate Action, the results of a new survey: A new Pew poll shows that 57 percent of Americans believe that the world is getting warmer --a 20 percent drop from 2006. Only a third of Americans --36 percent-- think that human activity is directly responsible for climate change.

Scientists attributed the decline to a mix of "poor communication by scientists... people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public."

Scientists attributed the decline to a mix of "poor communication by scientists... people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public."

The poll results skewed along political and geographic lines, with Republicans and Midwesterners less likely to consider global warming a problem and liberals and coastal residents more likely to see it as man-made. At the same time, a majority of Americans support the government taking measures to reduce pollution, although few people know about the government's preferred method for doing this --instating cap-and-trade measures on businesses. Under cap-and-trade, pollution is priced by the ton, and businesses can barter and sell to meet emissions standards.

Sucking the life out of the wire services:

LaTOYA JACKSON can't let go of her brother, MICHAEL. In an interview with the London Mirror tabloid, LaToya claims that Michael has been speaking to her from beyond the grave.

She says, "When I go to his house I say, 'Hello, Michael. How are you? If you're here, please, please let me know'. And the lights start blinking. I can feel him. I can smell his Tom Ford cologne and I've felt him brush past me. It's the most wonderful feeling and the biggest smile comes over my face. I tell him I love him so much and ask him to show me he's here again. The lights blink again. I know he's there, answering me and knowing he's watching me is a huge comfort. I never believed that people could speak, hear and communicate in that sense. But I've witnessed it several times now and I want to investigate it further. I am certainly open-minded to speaking to a medium. No other members of the family have experienced it. Just me."

Stars and their movies:

As if the upcoming flick "New Moon" needs any more hype to make it a success, producers have a big treat in store for "Twilight" fanatics. E! Online reports participating Nordstrom and Hot Topic stores will be giving away VIP tickets to a special tour that will feature cast members from the sequel, question-and-answer sessions and other "surprises" in 15 cities across America including:

• Nov 6: Hollywood & Highland Center (Los Angeles, CA.)
• Nov 8: Park Meadows (Denver, CO.)
• Nov 9: Natick Collection (Boston, MA.)
• Nov 9: Mall Location TBD - (Chicago, IL.)
• Nov 9: Fair Oaks Mall (Washington, DC.)
• Nov 10: Houston Galleria (Houston, TX.)
• Nov 11: Mall of America (Minneapolis, MN.)
• Nov 11: Cherry Hill Mall (Philadelphia, PA.)
• Nov 11: Stonestown Galleria (San Francisco, CA.)
• Nov 12: Mall of Georgia (Atlanta, GA.)
• Nov 12: Westfield Southcenter (Seattle, WA.)
• Nov 13: Dadeland Mall (Miami, FL.)
• Nov 13: Scottsdale Fashion Square (Phoenix, AZ.)
• Nov 14: Fashion Place (Salt Lake City, UT.)
• Nov 19: Times Square (New York, NY.)
• The VIP passes will be given away starting at 8 am next Saturday, Halloween morning. (Lee)