Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform  —  As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree.  Today, I'm going to step over that line.  —  The recent attacks by Republican leaders …

Six people, including P-D reporter, arrested at Carnahan meeting  —  UPDATE: St. Louis County police say six people were arrested.  Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances.  Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started.

Taliban Leader in Pakistan Was Killed, His Aides Say  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Baitullah Mehsud, the main leader of Pakistan's fearsome Taliban militia, was killed Wednesday in a C.I.A. missile strike, two Taliban fighters said Friday, but a spokesman for Pakistan's military, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas …

247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Rate Falls Slightly to 9.4%  —  The American economy lost 247,000 jobs in July, and in a reversal, the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 9.4 percent, the government reported Friday.  —  Although businesses are expected to keep cutting jobs through the rest of the year …

Mel Martinez resigning  —  Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will be resigning from the Senate, according to several senior Republican sources familiar with his thinking.  —  He made the announcement at a morning staff meeting, where he said he will not be returning to the Senate after the August recess.

Gillibrand Rival Reportedly Won't Run in Primary  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is expected to announce today that she has changed her mind and will not enter the primary race against Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York's newly appointed senator.

Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user  —  A Georgian blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and Google's Blogger and YouTube was targeted in a denial-of-service attack that led to the sitewide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on Thursday, according to a Facebook executive.

Axelrod gives Dems their health talking points  —  Senate Democrats are girding themselves for a month of vigorous debate over healthcare reform, armed with a new set of talking points from David Axelrod, the president's chief political strategist.  —  Axelrod and Jim Messina …

Meet the Mob  —  You've heard a lot about this crazy, scary, vicious mob on some shadowy GOP payroll.  By the way the DNC, Rachel Maddow, and President Obama talk, you'd think it was a motley crue of Hell's Angels.  —  Let me introduce you to the mob:  —  I am the mob.  My kids are the mob.

Presenting new rules for radicals  —  If you're a virtuous and patriotic American, you may find this column either offensive or misleading.  If so, please forward it to White House authorities at the Department of Fishy Activity.  (E-mail the good people at flag@whitehouse.gov.)

France Fights Universal Care's High Cost  —  When Laure Cuccarolo went into early labor on a recent Sunday night in a village in southern France, her only choice was to ask the local fire brigade to whisk her to a hospital 30 miles away.  A closer one had been shuttered by cost cuts in France's universal health system.

Health Reform and the Polls  —  For all the back and forth about the “public option,” Congressional Budget Office estimates and proposed tax hikes, the fundamentals are really what make health-care reform a hard sell to American voters.  As members of Congress head home for the August recess …

How Many Parks Do You Need?  —  The District of Columbia has many, many, many fewer schoolchildren than it once did, so there's been a trend toward closing DCPS facilities and trying to reuse the sites for something else.  Office space for city agencies is a popular idea, but sometimes that doesn't work out for various reasons.