The nation’s unemployment rate has risen to 7.9 percent with 171-thousand new jobs added in October.  That’s according to just-released figures from the Labor Department in the last jobs report before Election Day.  Analysts had been expecting to hear that about 114-thousand private sector jobs had been added last month.

Fifty-percent of registered Riverside County voters are expected to vote-by-mail in next week’s presidential election. That’s ten-percent more than four-years ago. A large amount of vote-by-mail ballots means it could take up to four weeks to call a close race.

Forecasters are warning about the potential for a nor’easter to develop next week and slam the already storm-ravaged state of New Jersey. Meteorologists say the storm could bring more wind, rain and even some snow Tuesday night into Wednesday. It’s going to take months for parts of the storm-ravaged East Coast to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

Meantime–69 Southern California Edison vehicles were loaded on to planes at March Air Reserve Base yesterday en route to the East Coast to help with relief efforts.

The man who killed two Victorville men in 1991 will be sentenced next month.  A jury convicted Octavio Romero of two counts of murder yesterday.  Sheriff’s investigators say he used to live with one of the victims, and the second one was seen leaving his home in a vehicle driven by Romero.  It took sheriff’s investigators over two decades before they had enough evidence to make an arrest in the case.

A winning lottery ticket worth 23-million-dollars has been found gathering dust in the glove compartment of a Palmdale woman’s car.  State lottery officials had been searching for the winner since the lucky ticket was drawn last May to no avail, and even released surveillance video of the woman they believed bought the winning ticket at a liquor store in Palmdale.  The ticket was about to expire in less than a month when lottery officials say the woman saw her likeness in a newspaper story about the ticket this week and contacted lottery officials.  The woman, who will be identified at a press conference today, had purchased the ticket for her mother; the mother had left it in her glove compartment.  Lottery officials say the women had no idea they’d hit the jackpot.

Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend. Make sure to turn your clocks back one hour before going to bed Saturday night. Officials say this is alo a good time to change the batteries in your smoke alarms.