Bowing to a huge public outcry, communications conglomerate Clear Channel has agreed to take down more than 100 billboards in predominately African American and Latino neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin designed, say voting rights and civil rights groups, to intimidate voters and suppress the vote.   

Also, the company has agreed to post new messages on billboards in those Cleveland, Columbus and Milwaukee neighborhoods encouraging people to exercise their right to vote.

By now you may be ready for this election to be over, but this is the home stretch. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

From the presidential race on down the ticket, race after race is a dead heat.

One thing will make the difference—you.

In the final debate, President Obama detailed a clear vision to invest in America's workers and to stop tax breaks for companies that ship U.S. jobs overseas. Mitt Romney, whose company Bain Capital was a pioneer in investing in companies that offshored American jobs, did not provide a plan to bring jobs back to the United States.

President Obama said:

Well, Gov. Romney's right, you are familiar with jobs being shipped overseas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas....But I've made a different bet on American workers.

Tonight, as President Obama and Mitt Romney prepare for their final debate on foreign policy, many workers will have a chance to listen to the candidates’ visions for the future in a changing world. The candidates will debate six issue areas, ranging from America’s role in the world, to the ongoing wars and the rise of China. They will hear two very distinct visions for America’s role globally. While most working families continue to struggle under the strain of stagnant wages and a domestic and global jobs crisis, they will listen for these key issues.

We expect tonight’s debate will include more fantastical claims from Mitt Romney, and to inoculate you against “Romnesia,” we include some notes on the actual Romney-Ryan record. Despite Romney and Paul Ryan’s history of enthusiasm for outsourcing American jobs to China and elsewhere, they claim they would somehow be “tougher on China” than the Obama administration has been. We want to make sure you know about the real Romney-Ryan record on China before Romney tries to “etch-a-sketch” it away this evening.

AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow Luis Santoyo sends us this report from the battleground state of Virginia. 

Since June, workers with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 8888 have diligently passed out election-related fliers to their co-workers outside the Newport News Shipbuilding shipyard in southeastern Virginia.

True to their commitment to get worker-friendly candidates elected on Nov. 6, Local 8888 members stood outside the shipyard early Saturday ready to greet and encourage their fellow co-workers to vote for former Gov. Tim Kaine and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) who, respectively, are running for the U.S. Senate and Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District. Both candidates joined the shipyard workers early Saturday morning.

The Transport Workers (TWU) union is reminding all working people why they should get out and vote Nov. 6. What are Mitt Romney's plans for collective bargaining, project labor agreements and "right to work" for less laws? Watch TWU's new video,"Mitt's Plan for the American Worker," to find out. 

The latest polls show a close race between President Obama and Mitt Romney. But working family voters—union and nonunion—who have been contacted by the labor movement’s voter outreach program, overwhelmingly believe that President Obama is far more in tune with their needs and is vastly more trusted to handle the economy and social issues, such as Social Security and Medicare, according to a new poll. Said AFL-CIO Political Director Mike Podhorzer:

The simple fact is that they believe President Obama is on their side and Mitt Romney isn’t. They believe President Obama favors a policy that is going to rebuild the middle class and Mitt Romney is favoring the same old policies that got us into the horrible economic calamity.

AFT leaders and teachers are hopping on the bus today for a swing through Ohio and Florida as part of a huge member mobilization and get-out-the-vote effort for President Obama, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) and other pro-worker candidates. "Your Vote-Your Right-Their Futures” starts in Cincinnati on Friday, Oct. 19, and on Saturday, hits Toledo and Cleveland. 

More than 200 union lawyers are prepared to combat any efforts to intimidate voters or suppress the vote and to ensure that everyone’s right to vote is protected between now (early voting is under way in many states) and Election Day.

The members of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee (LCC)—union lawyers in law firms and union legal departments—are “on the front lines to protect the votes of working families,” said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker in a telephone press conference today.