New York, March 12 : US consumers' confidence about their financial prospects and the course of the economy is at the lowest level in five months, according to a report released Friday.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment for March dipped to 68.2 points from February's 77.5.

March's figure is the lowest since last October and also represents the biggest month-to-month decline since October 2008, at the beginning of the global financial crisis.

Most analysts had expected a much smaller drop, to around 76.3 points, based on recent encouraging data about jobs.

With barely a fortnight to go before the November 4 election, and the Republican John McCain almost having conceded Michigan, Democratic Barack Obama is moving some of his paid Michigan staffers to other battleground states - Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, Indiana and Florida.

The U.S. Drug Czar John Walters has said that he does not support Proposition 1, a controversial proposal which would legalize doctors prescribing medical marijuana to patients.  Walters, a Michigan native who heads the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy opposes this law as he believes that this “makes it easier for addicts to stay addicted,” and would lead to more marijuana abuse by teens. 

Proposition 1 is set to be on the November 4th ballot in Michigan and if passed would legalize the use of marijuana as a prescribed drug.

Quinnipiac University/Wall Street Journal/Washington Post’s latest Obama vs McCain opinion polls show that Barack Obama is presently holding lead over John McCain in the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are swing states, presently favoring Democrats. Here’s what the Quinnipiac University/Wall Street Journal/Washington Post’s latest McCain vs Obama Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin opinion polls show.

Michigan Poll —

Judge Stephen J. Murphy III of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan ruled on Monday that Michigan violated federal law through two methods it uses to purge names from its list of qualified voters.

Murphy ordered Michigan election officials to immediately halt and attempt to rectify one of the two practices - canceling voter registrations for those whose voter identification card is returned as undeliverable. On the other practice of immediately canceling the voter registration of those who apply for a driver’s license in another state, the judge has yet to rule.

The Agriculture Department officials have said that the contaminated iceberg lettuce, which sickened 36 people with E-coli in Michigan, grew in California. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, it is most likely that the industrial size packages of iceberg lettuce sold to restaurants and institutions spread the E coli in Michigan State University and Lenawee County Jail in early September, before spreading to metro Detroit.

Defending their election procedures, election officials denied any wrongdoing with regard to the alleged illegal removal of voters from the rolls in six swing states - Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. This denial comes in response to a newspaper report that said tens of thousands of eligible voters have been removed from the rolls or kept from registering in these states.

Sen. Barack Obama is currently having sizable lead over Sen. John McCain, in the presidential race, in the Wolverine State. Obama’s lead over McCain is noticeable in the recent Obama vs McCain Michigan Polls.

According to the two recent Michigan polls, conducted by Public Policy Polling and Rasmussen Reports, Obama is presently in better state to win Michigan’s seventeen electoral college votes in November.

To spur Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union has launched a $3 million advertising campaign in four battleground states – the key manufacturing states of Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. More than half of the one million active and retired members of the UAW live in one of those four states, all of which are in play in the election.

The State of Michigan has received $57-million from the National Institute of Health for researching how factors, such as, environment impact the health and physical condition of children.

Rock star Bruce Springsteen’s third stop of his ‘Vote for Change 2008’ mini-tour for Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was scheduled at Eastern Michigan University’s Oestrike Stadium. As he took the stage at 4.30 p.m. Monday, the rocker greeted a crowd of nearly 11,000 with: “Hello, Ypsilanti. Glad to be here; don’t know how to spell it, though.”

Springsteen kicked off his set with songs like – ‘The Promised Land’ and ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad.’ He dedicated ‘Devils & Dust’, to the troops deployed overseas; and had the crowd cheering when in the ‘Used Cars’ song he came to the line, “as my pa steers her slow out of the lot for a test drive down Michigan Avenue.”

After the initial announcement by Bruce Springsteen that he and Billy Joel will hold their first joint concert ever, at an October 16 New York benefit for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the rock star has further taken his activism to the next level. He will now play at three rallies, preceding his announced New York performance date with Billy Joel.

“I want to get back to Michigan and I want to try” is what the Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday. In reaction to the decision by John McCain’s campaign to pull its resources out of Michigan, Palin told reporter Carl Cameron that the decision was “not a surprise because ... the polls are showing we are not doing as well there as evidently we would like to.” 

State law enforcement, medical professionals and antidrug coalitions have launched a campaign against the proposal to legalize medicinal use of marijuana. The proposal would legalize use of marijuana for pain relief from chronic illness as approved by a doctor. Users would be permitted to carry state identification regarding their status. This would exempt them from prosecution.

The proposal has received severe criticism from various circles. 

Despite Republican candidate John McCain’s efforts to regain his foothold in the presidential campaign, he has decided to abandon his efforts in battleground Michigan. This major retreat by McCain is the latest indication that the faltering economy has reshaped the presidential race, with McCain losing support in crucial states.