. >> warner: and to campaign julie philipp is host of need to know rochester. gene grant is host of a weekly political round table on public television in john kerry, new mexico. kathy lewis is host of hearsay with kathy lewis in hampton road, virginia and john myers is the sacramento bureau chief for kqed public radio. let's start with the economic picture and then bring in the politics. gene grant, how about a snapshot of the economy there? things better than when we last talkd? >> a little bit. the snapshot is a bit of a mixed bag but we're holding steady on the unemployment rate. we're at 8.3% for the last reporting period of august, up just a little bit from 8.2%. not a big deal. we're adding jobs in some sectors. some sectors are starting to get... claiming a little bit. we're hemorrhaging some other jobs still but it's just not as bad. bankruptcies are a little bit up. foreclosures are holding steady. so we're holding tight here. it's actually not so bad as it could have been. >> brown: julie philipp in rochester, what do you see? >> in a word, static, t