As Allen Torrey, associate editor of The N&O's Editorial pages, heads into retirement today after almost two decades in the post, he leaves with these parting thoughts on the post-election doom and gloomers.

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By Joyce M. Rosenberg — The Associated Press

New York – President Barack Obama's re-election to a second term takes away some of the uncertainty that small business owners have been carrying around. The question now is whether he can satisfy those who say he hasn't done enough to help them expand and create jobs. 

During Obama's first term, the president pointed to steps he took to help small companies, such as proposing the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 that cut taxes for small companies and made it easier for them to obtain federally guaranteed loans. These steps have helped some small businesses start their recovery from the recession. 

It's finally election night, which means wall-to-wall TV coverage of the returns. Sure, there's stuff on cable, but could any Hollywood drama be as suspenseful as finding out who our president will be?

So pop some popcorn and get ready. It could be a long night.

Rule of thumb: The cable news outlets will be in election mode pretty much all day long (and it's all pretty much useless), but official coverage for most networks will start around 7 or 8 p.m.

Here's a quick guide:

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Another round of election letters. You will note that there are few if any pro-Romney letters. That's because the few we got are running in the paper this weekend. And that's the truth.

Readers often ask whether we have all of The N&O's editorial board endorsements in one place. Here are our endorsements this year:

We always receive more letters than we can possibly print. As you can imagine, the number we get during an election increases exponentially. We can't come close to printing them all, so here's a look at 30 you won't see in the paper. More to come.

Enjoy.

Dwane Powell, The N&O’s editorial cartoonist for 35 years until his retirement in 2009, returns to escort us on a Halloween tour through a very spooky place. We wanted to be scared, but we couldn’t stop laughing! Hope you enjoy Dwane’s special brand of black magic. – Steve Ford

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Reader William T. Lynch, Ph.D., of Apex sent this submission on data that show how many voters really have no party that perfectly fits their views. That'd be half of us.

I don't claim to understand the graphic shared here, but I have no trouble believing that a lot of us settle uncomfortably on our election choices.