OCEAN CITY, N.J. -- Days after Hurricane Sandy rolled ashore a few miles north of this thin barrier island Monday night, residents are just beginning to clean up the mess the storm left behind. Ask around and people here will tell you they are lucky. Hurricane Sandy swept away many of Ocean City's protective beach dunes, but the town's boardwalk is intact. Powerful storm-fueled waves felled most of the already-crumbling 59th Street fishing pier, but the newer 14th Street pier survived without a scratch. It is hard not to feel grateful, residents say, when the Philadelphia TV stations keep showing video of Seaside Heights, N.J., shorn of its boardwalk, or floodwaters still running high on the streets of nearby Atlantic City. But that doesn't mean Sandy didn't pack a wallop in this Cape May County town, which bills itself as "America's Greatest Family Resort." Go to story #1

In the end, President Obama won the coveted endorsement of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But it wasn't Obama's visits or entreaties that sealed it. It was Hurricane Sandy's. Bloomberg endorsed Obama in an op-ed yesterday, arguing that Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events may not be directly caused by climate change, but that the risk that they are requires action by elected officials. Republican nominee Mitt Romney has backed off his previous pledges to act on climate change, Bloomberg said, making Obama the preferred choice. Go to story #2