IN THE HEADLINES

Town hall debate offers McCain one of his last best chances to turn the race around ... McCain link to private group in Iran-Contra case resurfaces ... As deadline nears, Alaska officials keep quiet about Palin ethics investigation

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Second debate is in McCain's favorite style

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Tuesday night's presidential debate is in a town hall format, Republican John McCain's favorite style of campaigning.

McCain asked Democrat Barack Obama to appear with him in a series of town hall debates this past summer, but Obama wouldn't take him up on the challenge.

That leaves Tuesday night's debate four weeks before Election Day as the only joint town hall that the two are scheduled to hold. The event at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., is being moderated by NBC's Tom Brokaw and will include questions raised by the audience and voters participating through the Internet.

But the candidates are likely to go after each other on character issues, which McCain's team has forcefully re-injected into the campaign since the weekend.

GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has raised Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers and to the Democrat's former pastor, the incendiary Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Obama's campaign rolled out a video recounting McCain's involvement in the 1980s Keating Five savings and loan scandal in which the Senate Ethics Committee criticized his "poor judgment."

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McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra case

WASHINGTON (AP) _ GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

McCain's ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

"McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. "I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group."

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Palin ethics probes beset by secrecy and lawsuit

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) _ Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has waived her privacy rights so details about her firing of an Alaska state commissioner can be made public, but she has not called on others in her administration to do the same.

Unless they do, the results of a state personnel board investigation may never be revealed.

The personnel board and the state Legislature are running separate investigations into whether the Alaska governor abused her power by firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, who says he resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with the governor's sister.

Legislative investigators are due to submit a report Friday that could reveal embarrassing details about Palin's leadership and provide campaign fodder in the final weeks before the election.

Palin refuses to cooperate with that inquiry, which she says has become too political. She is only cooperating with the personnel board inquiry, which is much more secretive, is run by people she can fire and could take years to resolve.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama participates in a presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

Joe Biden has no public schedule.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain participates in the presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn.

Sarah Palin campaigns in Florida and North Carolina.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last." _ Barack Obama.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

Republican George Bush won Tennessee in the 2004 presidential election by 347,898 votes; he garnered 1,384,375 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 1,036,477.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner.