Hello, everybody. A lot has been going down lately, so on with it as we begin with Wall Street in trouble.

Her hit song may be "Bleeding Love", but with the way things are going as of late, Leona Lewis may have to sing a new version: "Bleeding Cash." Despite the revised bailout bill finally being passed and signed into law last week, the Dow Jones have been going into the hole even further. On Monday, we got quite a scare as it fell below 800 points, but rebounded when it shot up below 300. And on Thursday, the bloodbath continued as the Dow dropped down 679 to close below 9,000 points for the first time in five years at 8,579.19.

In the last few weeks, we've seen generation-lasting financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and AIG being thrown in the towel, while several banks are clinging on to dear life in order to survive. But that's not the case here in Alaska, as our banks like Wells Fargo, First National Bank Alaska, and Denali State Bank (mine) are doing very well.

The Permanent Fund Dividend has also felt the wrath, and that means it would be quite a while till we see another $2,000 payout from them anytime soon. In the next few years, expect the checks to hover around the $1,000-$1,500 mark.

Now, the dying economy has been the minds of Barack Obama and John McCain, as the elections are now a month away. But if you've been watching the debates lately, it seems that Obama has a much better game plan than McCain. And speaking of McCain...watching portions of the second debate when it was in a town hall format, he was wandering around the stage while Obama stood still. But the one person who had a really tough time at the end was moderator Tom Brokaw, who couldn't see the teleprompter as Obama and McCain blocked it. Also...did you notice that McCain bolted out of the building immediately afterwards while Obama continued to hobnob with the debate participants (the undecided voters who submitted questions to the candidates)?

Before that, we had the one and only Vice Presidential showdown between Joe Biden and Sarah Michelle Palin (I'll explain later), in which Biden was the clear winner while Palin once again provided more material for one Tina Fey.

But north of the border, there was a whole lot of channel surfing between that and the Canadian party leaders' debate that also happened last Thursday night between Stephen Harper and four other nobodies as their election is this coming Tuesday. And watching that on C-SPAN here in the States, it was more livelier than Palin-Biden as the five leaders and moderator Steve Paikin of TVO (TVOntario) were seated in a roundtable. I'm sure Bob Schieffer -- who'll moderate the third and final Obama-McCain debate next Wednesday, also roundtable style -- has been taking notes from that.

I was delving into some history on presidential debates like these, and did you know that there weren't any between 1960 (the first televised between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon) and 1976 (Gerald Ford-Jimmy Carter)? I wish they resumed in 1968, when the Vietnam War, just like our troubled economy, was the prime issue among voters in that election. Hubert Humphrey would've smoked Nixon on that one for sure!

However, one thing that is for sure: Within weeks of each other, we could be seeing winds of change with the Canadian elections on Tuesday and of course our big one on November 4. It is definitely North America's choice, so no matter what side of the border you're at, make sure you make the right one.

Right now, Sarah Palin is the most popular Sarah; but a couple weeks ago, one other Sarah was in the news as she may be making a return to TV sometime next year: Michelle Gellar!!!!

Yes, the four-time Sexiest Woman winner recently signed on star in the HBO series "The Wonderful Maladys"; she'll also be one of the executive producers. Now this comes as HBO is going through a rough time as Showtime -- with the help of "Inside The NFL" now on their outlet -- is slowly taking a chunk of their audience.

I have a feeling that Sarah Michelle's new show will get the green light, because she is still the one Sarah we'd still like to see on a weekly basis...not that other Sarah who's been hogging the spotlight during this election, and being in Alaska by the way, I'm getting sick of it!! With that said, so long and stay strong.