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In the end, the election may not settle anything.

If the polls are correct — and there's been heated debate about that — President Obama will be re-elected Tuesday. Even if he is, he'll have to face a Republican House that appears to be no warmer to his agenda than it's been for the past two gridlocked years.

But the polls are still so close that Republican Mitt Romney might be elected. If that's the case, it appears he'll have to contend with a Senate that remains under Democratic control.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

In the run-up to Election Day, newspaper readers usually expect to see endorsements on the editorial page, but that tradition's come into question. Last month, the Los Angeles Times received a flurry of criticism following its endorsement of President Obama, and the editorial board responded with a defense of the practice. On the other hand, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is among the papers that's decided to stop endorsing political candidates altogether. We want to hear from you: Should newspapers make political endorsements?

A week after Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Northeast, temperatures are dropping and forecasters warn of another storm on the way. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands remain without power, gas shortages continue and tens of thousands still don't know when they'll be able to return to their homes.

Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter drew criticism after she called President Obama "the retard" on Twitter. In an open letter to Coulter on the Special Olympics blog, John Franklin Stephens, a Special Olympian living with Down syndrome, asked her to reconsider using that word.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Over the past few years, the definition of work has changed in parts of the American economy. More and more restaurants and retailers have half as many full-time workers as they used to and twice as many part-time. They save money on pay and benefits, and they use new technology to schedule part-timers based on the season, the time of day or even on the temperature.

If you asked most people whether there's too much government in their lives, they'd probably say yes. But when given the chance to eliminate a layer of government, voters often refuse.

That's why a vote to merge the city of Evansville, Ind., with Vanderburgh County may go down to defeat Tuesday. Many residents are concerned that their access to services would be limited under a unified government, while taxes would increase.

Witnesses describe a horribly heartbreaking scene Sunday at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium after a 2-year-old boy fell into an exhibit housing wild African dogs.

A law degree used to pretty much guarantee a stable job. But journalist Elizabeth Lesly Stevens reports that thousands of law students are going into an industry that no longer has room for them. Stevens discusses her article with host Michel Martin, and they hear from NPR Facebook fans about whether a law degree is still worth it.

Election Day 2000 ended in a stalemate and weeks of finger-pointing and legal battles. Host Michel Martin looks at whether the country has learned the lessons from that crisis in time for Tuesday's vote. She speaks with Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute, and Robert Pastor of the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University.