WaPo cancels lobbyist event  —  Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive “salon” at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to “those powerful few” …

Things That Make You Go Hmmm  —  John Schwenkler was kind enough to engage Andrew once again over the origins of Trig:  —  [Is] it still possible to think that the Palins might have pulled off the greatest con in American political history by pretending to be the parents of a Downs Syndrome baby …

Sanford's mental state questioned  —  Gov. Mark Sanford is acting like a love-struck teenager.  —  Or, maybe he has a deeper personality disorder, some experts speculate.  —  As the saga of Sanford and his Argentine lover continues, the public, the governor's political rivals and some allies …

Oh Frabjous Day!!  Unemployment Rate Increases by Only 0.1%!!  —  Finally.  Finally the slowing of the unemployment rate increase has arrived.  We've been waiting for months for unemployment to show signs of topping out, and it looks like it may be happening at last.

McKinney held in Israel, to be returned to U.S.  —  JERUSALEM (CNN) — Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney — who was aboard a ship the Israeli navy intercepted this week — is in a detention center and will be returned to the United States, the U.S. Embassy said.

Honduran Democracy Protesters Bash Obama & CNN  —  Thousands of Hondurans protested in support of democracy, the military and the Micheletti government this week in Honduras.  —  The US media has been ignoring these protests.  —  Tens of thousands of Hondurans demonstrated in support …

Time for an Israeli Strike?  —  With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever.  —  Iran's nuclear threat was never …

Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran  —  Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews released yesterday.

New CBO Score for the Affordable Health Choices Act: $611 Billion Over 10 Years  —  HELP Committee Democrats Release New Cost Estimate, Strong Public Option & Provision on Employer Responsibility  —  Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) …

California Starting to Pay With I.O.U.'s  —  LOS ANGELES — Its budget gap growing and its political process for addressing the gap unhinged, California will begin Thursday to pay vendors and taxpayers with i.o.u.'s, only the second time the state has adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression.

Judge tentatively dismisses case in MySpace hoax that led to teenage girl's suicide  —  A federal judge tentatively decided today to dismiss the case against a Missouri woman who had been convicted of computer fraud stemming from an Internet hoax that prompted a teenage girl to commit suicide.

BREAKING: Obama Administration Wants CIA Torture Report Withheld Until August 31  —  Word's coming now that the Obama administration is seeking to withhold the CIA's 2004 inspector-general report on the implementation of its former “enhanced interrogation regime” until August 31.

Obama Administration to Involve NSA in Defending Civilian Agency Networks  —  The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site …