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It may be called a national election, but a presidential contest is really a set of 50 simultaneous state elections. And the grand prize goes to the candidate who can put together victories in the right combination of states to win the magic 270 electoral votes. In recent years, that has been easy for Republicans, given their virtual lock on the electoral votes of the South and West. But this year Michael Dukakis and George Bush start from a near standoff in the number of electoral votes represented by states solidly for them or leaning their way. So the election seems...

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RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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