U.S. SENATE RACE: Reid takes lead on Angle  —  New poll shows Republican losing support among every voter group  —  U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has opened a strong lead over Republican opponent Sharron Angle after pummeling her in a ubiquitous TV and radio ad campaign that portrays the Tea Party favorite as …

Tim Geithner Opposes Nominating Elizabeth Warren To Lead New Consumer Agency  —  What's Your Reaction: … Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed opposition to the possible nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a source with knowledge of Geithner's views.

Attorney who helped terrorist gets 10 years in prison  —  A judge had resentenced a 70-year-old civil rights lawyer to 10 years in prison for letting a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his radical followers.  —  Federal Judge John Koeltl sentenced Lynne Stewart in Manhattan after she pleaded …

Greenspan Says Lawmakers Should Let All Bush's Tax Cuts Lapse  —  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose endorsement of George W. Bush's 2001 tax cuts helped persuade Congress to pass them, said lawmakers should allow the cuts to expire at the end of the year.

News Analysis: Obama Pushes an Agenda, Disregarding Polls That Disapprove  —  WASHINGTON — If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama, it is this: He knows how to push big bills through a balky Congress.

Palin aide swats Romney team  —  In potentially the first inter-staff dust up of the 2012 presidential race, an aide of Sarah Palin is hitting back at Mitt Romney's camp for saying the former Alaska governor is “not a serious human being.”  —  A “Romney intimate” was quoted by Time's Mark Halperin …

Dem Rep Sheila Jackson Lee Tells NAACP: “All Those Who Wore Sheets a Long Time Ago Lifted Them Off to Wear Tea Party Clothing” (Applause!)  —  Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) told the NAACP this week that those who wore sheets lifted them off and are now wearing tea party clothing.

Earthquake in Maryland felt across area  —  A 3.6 magnitude earthquake rattled the Washington area early Friday, with thousands of residents reporting that they felt the ground shake as they slept or were waking.  The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered in Montgomery County and struck at 5:04 a.m.

AFFIDAVITS: Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams' Accusations.  “Sworn affidavits from Hans A. von Spakovsky and Karl Bowers, who worked with J. Christian Adams in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, offer broad confirmation of the whistleblower's accusations of bias in enforcing voting rights.”

NAACP Resolution: [National Association for the Advancement of] Colored People change minds about emancipation  —  Thursday 7/15: Scroll down for update video  —  Astonishing.  —  In every one of the dozens of interviews that I have done regarding the anti-Tea Party resolution passed …

Oil Spill Capped for a Second Day, Offering Some Hope  —  NEW ORLEANS — The hemorrhaging well that has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico remained capped for a second day Friday, providing some hope of a long-term solution to the environmental disaster.

Oil leak stopped for first time since April  —  BP said Thursday that it has stopped oil from leaking out of its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico.  The gusher has been throttled for the first time since the April 20 blowout on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon.

Median Duration of Unemployment  —  Click on graphic to enlarge.  —  This recession looks very different, and much more troubling, than those in the recent past.  I wonder how this dramatic change in the nature of unemployment will alter traditional macroeconomic relationships, such as Okun's Law and the Phillips curve.

A curious unemployment picture gets more curious  —  At first blush, the second quarter statistics from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (commonly referred to as JOLTS and released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) suggest little has changed recently in U.S. labor markets:

On the road to find out  —  The Obama administration doesn't seem to have a clue about how businesses grow.  Its concerns lie elsehwere, with expanding the size and power of the administrative state.  Yesterday's passage of the gargantuan 2,300 page financial services legislation will contribute …

Mysterious ads attacking GOP candidate as ‘liberal’ paid for by ... Democrats?  —  The group responsible for branding Iowa Republican Terry Branstad a “liberal” who favors “government mandates” and hangs out with liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama is none other than ... the Democratic Governors Association?

Scott Brown slams Kathy Griffin for calling daughters ‘prostitutes’  —  Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) lashed out at comedienne Kathy Griffin on Thursday for describing his daughters as “prostitutes.”  —  Brown strongly condemned remarks Griffin made on CNN in which she mocks Brown's daughters, Ayla and Arianna.

Goldman Settles With S.E.C. for $550 Million  —  Updated Updated with confirmation of The New York Times's report about Goldman's $550 million settlement.  —  Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm …

Obama touts stimulus, taking shots at Michigan's Rep. Peter Hoekstra  —  HOLLAND, MICH. — Four months before the midterm elections, President Obama is trying to lock onto an economic message to convince voters that the 2009 government stimulus package was worth it — and is working.

Arizona Halts Photo Enforcement of Speed Laws  —  PHOENIX — At the first tick of the clock Friday, an array of automated cameras on Arizona freeways aimed at catching speeders were to stop clicking.  —  There is no glitch.  The state, the first to adopt such cameras on its highways in October 2008 …