CNN Radio News Day: October 31, 2012

CNN Radio News Day is an evening news program providing an informative, thoughtful and creative look at the day's events. It's posted Monday through Friday at 4:30 pm ET.

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(CNN) – Welcome to CNN Radio News Day.

Here are some of the stories we cover in today's edition:

• The full-scale destruction of Hurricane Sandy is still unknown at this point, but insurance industry expert say the total damage cost will be in the billions.  New Jersey caught the worst of the storm. More than 75 percent of the Jersey Shore is flooded.  Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers says it's hard not to get emotional:

“We're at ground zero.  It's not gonna ever be the same. It'll never be that old Seaside Heights it's all going to be different...  We lost two piers.  They're in – they're in the ocean." 

• Two Iranian warships docked in Sudanese port late Sunday – five days after a weapons factory outside Khartoum was bombed.  Sudanese officials said it was an attack by Israel. A state-run Iranian news agency says the ships were a "message of peace and friendship.  Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy has a different assessment:

" The Iranians have been trying to get arms from Libya to Gaza.  They're getting arms via Sudan to Gaza."

• If you're handing out candy to trick-or-treaters tonight, you may be asked for more than a bit-sized snickers.  Some clever campaigners are taking the opportunity to make door-to-door pitches to adults.  'Trick or Vote!' organizer Richelle DeVoe says Halloween is tailor-made for a voter drive:

"There's already a holiday based entirely around knocking on your neighbor's door.  And when does Halloween happen to fall?  Right before elections every year."