Obama Bypassing Congress to Appoint Chief of Medicare and Medicaid  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama will bypass Congress and appoint Dr. Donald M. Berwick, a health policy expert, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the White House said Tuesday.  —  Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director …

Obama Job Approval Rating Down to 38% Among Independents  —  Overall job ratings for the president continue to be below majority level  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Thirty-eight percent of independents approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, the first time independent approval of Obama …

Levi Johnston Apologizes to Palin Family for ‘Youthful Indiscretion’  —  Levi Johnston isn't just getting past his differences with Bristol Palin - he's also hoping to make amends with her famous mom.  —  “Last year, after Bristol and I broke up, I was unhappy and a little angry.

America's most unlikely politician  —  Last month, an unknown, unemployed former soldier astonished America by becoming the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's upcoming senate election.  How on earth did he do it?  —  The journey to the home of one of the most enigmatic figures to emerge …

Rep. Capito wants November special election for Byrd seat  —  Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) weighed in Wednesday on the succession process for the late-Sen. Robert Byrd's seat for the first time.  —  Capito called for a special election this November to fill the seat.

A New Generation, an Elusive American Dream  —  GRAFTON, Mass. — After breakfast, his parents left for their jobs, and Scott Nicholson, alone in the house in this comfortable suburb west of Boston, went to his laptop in the living room.  He had placed it on a small table that his mother …

Mob shoots fireworks at police, firefighters  —  ALTON - First responders from the Alton Fire Department and five officers from the Alton Police Department were attacked by a crowd of several hundred people in the Oakwood Housing Complex who shot large bottle rockets at them.

Darrell Issa Emerges as Obama's Annoyer-in-Chief  —  WASHINGTON — As a sign of the pride Representative Darrell Issa takes in annoying the Obama administration, consider his account of a recent exchange with Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman and now the White House chief of staff.

Democrats digging harder than ever for dirt on Republicans  —  The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up unflattering details about Republican challengers.  In House races from New Jersey to Ohio to California …

There is no ‘free’ lemonade  —  In giving drink away, girls ignore rules of economics — and sum up what's wrong with U.S.  —  This column is a true story — every word of it.  And I think it very appropriate to consider around the Fourth of July, Independence Day spirit.

UAE ambassador to US: ‘Bomb Iran’  —  Yousef al-Otaiba reportedly says “we cannot live with a nuclear Iran.”  —  Talkbacks (7)  —  Make JPOST.COM your Home Page  —  Iranian Threat  —  Jewish World  —  Local Israel  —  Arts & Culture  —  Français  —  Classifieds  —  Israel

AP IMPACT: Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells  —  More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades.  No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

A Case Study in Teacher Bailouts  —  Milwaukee shows that unions will keep resisting concessions if Washington rides to the rescue.  —  Milwaukee  —  The Obama administration is pressuring Congress to spend $23 billion to rehire the more than 100,000 teachers who have been laid off across the country.

Federal Government Helped Pay Home Air-Conditioning Bills for Federal Employees, Prisoners and More Than 11,000 Dead People  —  (CNSNews.com) - According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government helped pay the home air conditioning bills for more than 11,000 dead people …

Tanning salons feel burned by 10 percent ‘tan tax’  —  The sun hasn't exactly set on Solar Planet, but anxiety over the fate of the Arlington tanning salon has been running high ever since a “tan tax” took effect Thursday.  —  One of the less publicized measures in the new health-care law …

Obama Asks Court to Reinstate Ban on Deepwater Drilling  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has asked a federal court in Louisiana to reinstate the ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the moratorium was a rational response to the unprecedented emergency of the BP oil spill.

Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Beg For A Chance To Take Basic Measurements  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the 77-day-old BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended …

Media Filters: For Washington Post, Krugman not a reliable source but Wall Street analyst totally impartial  —  One of the more revealing examples of the mainstream media's laughable claims of “objectivity” came in a Sunday Washington Post story about what lies ahead for the U.S. economy.

Swap Deal Expected in Russia Spy Case  —  By GREGORY L. WHITE in Moscow and EVAN PEREZ in Washington  —  In an apparent throwback to the Cold War, Moscow and Washington are discussing a deal to swap the 10 suspected deep-cover Russian agents arrested last month in the U.S. for prisoners held in Russia …

Cutting Off Unemployment Benefits Could Worsen Deficit  —  Deficit concerns have been the major stumbling block to extending unemployment benefits, but cutting off older workers could make the long-term budget outlook worse.  —  Extending unemployment benefits isn't free, of course …