Mark Memmott

The news from State Farm Insurance that "for the third consecutive year, the number of deer-vehicle collisions in the U.S. has dropped," is getting noticed in states where Buck vs. Buick encounters are common and usually don't end up well for either party.

But it was this passage in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that really caught our eye:

Self-proclaimed Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones has had a run-in of his own with the law.

The 23-year-old Jones (real name Benjamin John Francis Fodor) was arrested "on suspicion of fourth-degree assault" by Seattle police early Sunday, "after he allegedly doused a group of people with pepper spray," The Seattle Times reports.

Jones posted a $3,800 bail and is due back in court on Thursday.

Even this blogger isn't old enough (just barely, though) to have been around when Elvis Presley went into the Army in March, 1958.

But it's well known that was a huge deal.

Now there's this close comparison from Asia:

South Korean pop star Rain today reported for his mandatory 21-month tour of duty with his nation's army.

The seemingly intractable nature of the problems plaguing Afghanistan are being underscored yet again with two new reports from the United Nations:

-- Torture. Interviews of 273 detainees who were held at Afghan-government facilities in recent years show that at least 125 were tortured by authorities during interrogations, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan says.

Good morning.

The top story of the day so far, as we reported earlier, seems to be that "Obama's Jobs Bill Is Expected To Hit Roadblock Today In Senate."

The NBA will rebound (pardon his pun) from any bad feelings generated among fans by the news that the first two weeks of the professional basketball league's season have been canceled because owners and players can't agree on a new labor deal, our colleague Mike Pesca says.

The political debate over what to do about the nation's stubbornly high unemployment rate and weak employment growth ratchets up again today when the Senate's expected to say no to President Obama's $447 billion jobs bill.

At 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush announced to the nation that "on my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaida terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan."

The annual Values Voter Summit is happening now in Washington, and if you want to hear what most of the Republican presidential contenders are telling the conservative activists, it's all online for the watching.

Organizers are streaming the event here. It's also on C-SPAN.org.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is due to release figures on the September unemployment rate and the number of jobs on payrolls at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists are expecting to hear that the jobless rate stayed around 9.1 percent and that there was net job growth of only about 55,000 positions.

We'll update this post with highlights from the report shortly after its release. So check back or hit your "refresh" button to see our updates.