By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent

Three members of the U.S. Supreme Court today expressed concern about the growing use during death penalty trials of elaborate victim impact statements and video presentations.

Just 20 years ago, the Supreme Court set a strict limit in death penalty cases against any evidence that "described the personal characteristics of the victims and the emotional impact of the crimes on the family." The reason the court gave at the time was that because death is an irreversible penalty, a jury's verdict must be based strictly on reason and not emotion.

But just a few years later, bowing to the growing victims' rights movement, the court reversed itself and said testimony from a victim's mother helped inform the jury about the harm caused by the crime.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer

With the election coming to a close, it's clear there won't be any "October Surprise" as many pundits had predicted.

The political term gained currency most recently in 2004, when Osama Bin Laden popped up in a videotape four days before the Bush-Kerry presidential election. "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaida," Bin Laden warned in late October 2004, in his first videotaped address in three years. "Your security is in your own hands." Sen. John Kerry has said that the 11th-hour videotape heightened Americans' fear, and persuaded many undecided voters to stay with President Bush.

Radio Silence
But this election season, there's been almost complete radio silence from al-Qaida and its terror affiliates. There have been no threatening tapes from Bin Laden, and no election-related messages from his verbose deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri, or from Adam Gadahn, the bellicose American-born spokesman for al-Qaida.

(There was a brief reference to the current election buried in a tape last month from Abu Yahya al-Libi, a top Taliban propagandist, asking that God "humiliate Bush and his party." But the videotape was not promoted by al-Qaida, and some intelligence experts question whether "party" meant political party or just Bush's political allies. There also have been dozens of threatening messages posted by individual bloggers active on jihadist websites, as the SITE Intelligence Group recently found, but still no official statements from al-Qaida.)

The terror group's relative silence comes as a surprise to many in the U.S. intelligence community. Just a month ago, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to U.S. law-enforcement officials predicting more messages from al-Qaida in the weeks leading up to the election. "We expect al-Qaida to release additional messages before the election" for U.S. president," said the FBI/DHS notice obtained by NBC News. "They certainly want to be a topic of the election campaign," a senior U.S. intelligence official predicted at the time.

A word from the experts
So today we asked several NBC News terrorism experts why they think al-Qaida shied away from the presidential race, and what it means.

By NBC News

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons announced today that he has been "cleared" by the FBI in a federal corruption investigation.

“About two years ago, false accusations about me surfaced in the midst of some contentious litigation," Gov. Gibbons said. "Now, federal investigators, including the FBI, have confirmed what I have said all along. These accusations are baseless and there is not a shred of evidence showing I did anything improper."

The FBI and Department of Justice began investigating Gibbons after the Wall Street Journal and NBC News reported that Gibbons--while a U.S. Congressman--took a luxury cruise in 2005 that was paid for by a prominent Nevada defense businessman and defense contractor, Warren Trepp.

Trepp's firm, eTreppid Technologies LLC, had received lucrative Pentagon contracts. The FBI began investigating whether Gibbons had improperly helped Trepp's firm land the multi-million-dollar federal deals.

Gibbons' criminal-defense lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that a federal prosecutor in Washington called him Friday to say the case is over.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News

The normally voluble Obama campaign won't answer a simple question: Where did the campaign film the office shots of Sen. Obama that were featured in last night's half-hour infomercial?

Granted, America's national security doesn't hinge on the response.

But it is an interesting parlor game, nonetheless, that has captivated some former White House image makers today.

The Obama office, as seen below in a screen grab from last night's film, is stately and projects a certain casual elegance.

It also happens to give off a distinct White House vibe. It's Oval Officey, as Stephen Colbert might say.

The similarities include the gold-colored drapes, the prominent American flags and vertical, nearly floor-to-ceiling windows.

Then there are the desks.

In the real Oval Office, the Resolute Desk commands center stage. Presented by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford Hayes in 1880, the Resolute Desk is two-toned on top, and ringed with a three-inch border of light-colored wood. The Obama desk is two-toned, too, with a three-inch border of dark wood on top.

A handsome wooden credenza is positioned behind the Obama desk, right under the windows. The Oval Office layout is identical, right down to the tasteful framed family photos on top of the wooden credenza under the windows.

No comment
A spokesman for Obama offered a terse "No comment" in an email to NBC. The film's director, Davis Guggenheim, did not reply to an email.

We showed the Obama office pictures to three experts, all of whom agree that the Obama campaign intentionally used an Oval Office look and feel to make the Democractic contender appear more presidential.

By Lisa Myers & Amna Nawaz, NBC News

The wide-ranging criminal investigation into wrongdoing at Countrywide - once the nation's largest mortgage originator - now includes serious scrutiny of a loan program that provided special mortgage deals to the well-connected and powerful, including two U.S. senators.

NBC News has learned that Robert Feinberg - a former Countrywide loan officer who handled what were known as the "VIP" mortgages - spent six hours last Thursday with a six-person team from the Justice Department. The team included prosecutors from the Public Integrity section, which handles investigations of possible public corruption.

VIDEO: Did Countrywide favor VIPs?

"The Justice Department is making very serious inquiry into any possible wrongdoing that may involve (former Countrywide CEO) Angelo Mozilo, other Countrywide employees, Sen. Chris Dodd, Sen. Kent Conrad, (former Fannie Mae CEO) Franklin Raines or other public officials," said Feinberg's lawyer, Anthony Salerno. "Robert has always cooperated thoroughly with authorities and is strictly a witness in their investigation."

By Pete Williams and Jim Popkin, NBC News

Senior federal officials tell NBC News that the Feds are skeptical about whether there ever was a well-conceived plan to attack Sen. Barack Obama by two alleged neo-Nazi extremists in Tennessee. The officials say that there is no evidence at this early stage of the investigation that the two men, Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman, had ever taken the plan beyond the talking stage.

Federal officials arrested the men Thursday in Tennessee, and unsealed an arrest complaint about them today.

According to the court documents, Cowart, 18, and Schlesselman, 20, are white supremacists who met on the Internet a month ago and began discussing a violent plot to kill African Americans, including Sen. Obama. 

Investigators say the men admitted to discussing "killing 88 people and beheading 14 African Americans." They wanted to generate money for their plot by robbing houses and a local gun dealer, to get weapons for a "killing spree." A law-enforcement official says the two described themselves as Nazis and had swastikas and other Nazi-related symbols painted on their car.

By Aram Roston, NBC News Producer

A prominent fundraiser for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is facing a new legal challenge over a lucrative Pentagon contract that involved shipping oil to military forces in Iraq. A competing firm filed a federal suit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act this week against the fundraiser, Harry Sargeant III, and his company, International Oil Trading Company. The suit accuses them of a "bribery scheme" to pay officials in the Kingdom of Jordan, in an effort to keep competing firms out. Sargeant and his company deny wrongdoing and say no bribes were paid.
 
Sargeant is the Finance Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, a key state in the upcoming presidential election. The federal lawsuit is the latest case to bring attention to him. NBC News first reported last May that Sargeant was awarded the Pentagon contract even though he was not the lowest bidder. NBC reported he was being sued in Florida state court by a former business partner who was the brother-in-law of the King of Jordan.
 
This summer, Sargeant made headlines again. Senator McCain's campaign announced it was returning $50,000 in political donations that had been "bundled" by Sargeant, after the Washington Post brought attention to some of the "unlikely" donors. And just last week, U.S. Rep.  Henry Waxman, D-Ca, called on the Department of Defense to investigate Sargeant, and accused him of "war-profiteering" for excessive profits in four successive contracts. A letter Waxman signed said “Mr. Sargeant’s personal gain from these four contracts may have been $70 million or higher.”
 
The latest suit was filed in federal court in Miami by Supreme Fuels, a contracting firm based in Dubai. The central allegation in the lawsuit is a "conspiracy since 2004 to bribe key Jordanian government officials to ensure that defendants would be the sole recipients of more than one billion dollars worth of U.S. government contracts for the supply of fuels to the U.S. military in Iraq."
 
The suit claims that, without the approval of the government of Jordan, companies were not able to get the contract from the U.S. military.

By Robert Windrem and Jonathan Dienst, NBC News

Federal officials tonight released dozens of video and audio tapes from the terrorism trial of five men accused of planning an attack on the Fort Dix Army training base in New Jersey. Prosecutors said during opening statements that the men were inspired by al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

The tapes show some of the defendants training with automatic weapons at a firing range in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania. Others are downloads and tapes seized from the suspects' homes that show the killing of American troops in Iraq.

The government charges that the men, all foreign-born Muslims in their 20s who lived in suburban New Jersey, conspired to kill U.S. servicemen at Fort Dix. Prosecutors have not said the men were part of any overseas terrorist groups. But they argue that were the defendants not arrested in May 2007, they would have tried to carry out an attack on Fort Dix, where U.S. troops train for deployments to Iraq.

The plot was disrupted when the FBI infiltrated the cell with two paid informants. After prosecutors entered the videotapes into evidence, the Court agreed to post all the tape on a U.S. District Court website.

As the Associated Press is reporting, the government has presented the case as one of the most frightening examples of homegrown terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks. Authorities said that in 2006 and 2007, the men turned paintball games into terrorist training sessions and met to discuss a plot to sneak into Fort Dix. No attack was carried out.

"Their motive was to defend Islam. Their inspiration was al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Their intent was to kill members of the United States armed services," Deputy U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick told the jurors.

The suspects could face life in prison if they're convicted during the trial, which is expected to last into December. They were arrested in May 2007.

Lawyers for the defendants said the government's recordings will show that the defendants were not planning anything.

By Aram Roston, NBC News Producer

Governor Sarah Palin used her state law-enforcement agency's twin-engine plane to travel around Alaska, accounting for about 20 percent of its flying time, according to a document obtained by NBC News. The police plane is a King Air turboprop that is primarily used for police-related missions and search and rescue missions.

The governor's flight usage is laid out in a chart prepared by the Alaska Department of Public Safety and obtained by NBC News under the state's Freedom of Information law. (The governor's flight usage is indicated as "Gov" on the chart, and marked in purple.)

On the campaign trail, Gov. Palin has touted her credentials as a reformer by discussing how she sold off the state's other plane, a jet, and even listed it on eBay. Her predecessor, Gov. Frank Murkowski, had used that plane for travel.

But after Palin's sale of the state jet following her inauguration as governor, the document shows, she did not stop flying on state planes. Gov. Palin used her Public Safety department's prop plane for 110 hours, or 19 percent of its flight time, in 2007 and 2008. The Department of Corrections used it 28 percent of the time, and Alaska Wildlife troopers also used it 28 percent of the time.  A spokesman for the McCain Palin campaign defended the flights, saying the governor needed to use the state Public Safety plane because of the remote geography of Alaska. "For the governor to perform her duty visiting rural communities the use of an aircraft was necessary," a campaign spokesman said.

By Jim Popkin, NBC News

The McCain campaign released Cindy McCain's tax returns late Friday afternoon, and the numbers might make Joe the Plumber blush. The beer-company executive reported income last year of nearly $4.2 million, and more than $6 million in 2006.

The campaign released four pages of returns for 2006 and 2007--and none of the other forms and schedules that generally accompany complex tax returns--after 6pm EST. It's become a tired Washington ritual for politicians to deliver potentially embarassing news just before the weekend, when coverage typically slows. This campaign season, both the Obama and McCain campaigns have dumped documents on news organizations late on Fridays.

The tax returns show Cindy McCain paid taxes of $1.1 million last year and received a refund of $954,112 (for overpaying.) In 2006, the potential first lady paid $1.7 million in taxes and got a refund of nearly $300,000.

In a press release, the McCain campaign said: "Mrs. McCain had received an extension to file her 2007 tax returns because she had not received all information necessary to complete the returns. Senator and Mrs. McCain have filed separate tax returns throughout their marriage, because Mrs. McCain is an owner of a family business. Sen. McCain's tax returns were made public earlier this year."