In debt talks, Obama offers Social Security cuts  —  President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

The Only Reform That Will Restrain Spending  —  All 47 Senate Republicans now support changing the Constitution to balance the federal budget.  —  Whatever happens when President Obama meets with congressional leaders of both parties at the White House today, no long-term solution is on the table …

Exclusive: Treasury secretly weighs options to avert default  —  (Reuters) - A small team of Treasury officials is discussing options to stave off default if Congress fails to raise the debt limit by the August 2 deadline, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Phone hacking: families of war dead ‘targeted’ by News of the World  —  The bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan may have had their phones hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World.  —  The bereaved relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan may have had their phones hacked

Ruthless People  —  Libs to Ginsburg: Drop dead.  —  Some legal observers would like to be rid of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Associated Press reported over the weekend.  These aren't conservatives who find her too activist but liberals who find her too old and worry that if she doesn't get out soon …

Father spoke of having Obama adopted  —  US immigration files from '61 reveal Kenyan student's plan  —  President Obama as a young boy, with his father, who left when his son was 2.  (Obama for America via Associated Press)  —  In the spring of 1961, President Obama's father revealed …

Katie Pavlich Scandal Grows: FBI, DEA Involved With Operation Fast and Furious  —  Yesterday, Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson answered questions from Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley surrounding Operation Fast and Furious.  Melson voluntarily participated in the interview …

Michele Bachmann on Iowa TV: ‘Waterloo’  —  Michele Bachmann is going up in Iowa with the first television ad of her presidential campaign, a 30-second spot titled “Waterloo” that Bachmann's team says will start running statewide today.  —  The bio spot, produced by Strategy Group Media …

Casey Anthony Juror: ‘Sick to Our Stomachs’ Over Not Guilty Verdict  —  Casey Anthony juror Jennifer Ford said today that she and the other jurors cried and were “sick to our stomachs” after voting to acquit Casey Anthony of charges that she killed her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

Richard Dawkins Gets into a Comments War with Feminists  —  Players: Famed evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins; Rebecca Watson, female activist.  —  Opening Serve: Richard Dawkins made an unexpected appearance in the comments section of biologist PZ Myers' post at Scienceblogs.com last week.

Timeline: Falk's reaction  —  Reaction: UN's Falk Denies, Then Deletes Anti-Semitic Cartoon  —  After UN Watch today exposed his publication of an anti-Semitic cartoon, the UN Human Rights Council's Richard Falk first denied publishing the cartoon—and then deleted it.  See his blog here.

GOP bill weakens light bulb efficiency law  —  House Republicans plan to bring to the floor next week legislation that would water down a provision in a 2007 energy law that requires light bulbs to be more energy efficient.  —  House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) …

David Cameron is in the sewer because of his News International friends  —  In the careers of all prime ministers there comes a turning point.  He or she makes a fatal mistake from which there is no ultimate recovery.  With Tony Blair it was the Iraq war and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction.

Mark Foley has cancer  —  Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned after sexually explicit messages he sent to underage male pages were made public, said Thursday that he's battling prostate cancer.  —  “Naturally, I have some reservations about the surgery,” Foley told Newsmax …

Hamas arrests male hairdresser for Gaza woman's haircut  —  Hamas argues it is enforcing a law supported by most of the population in Gaza  —  The Hamas government in Gaza has begun enforcing a law introduced last year banning men from cutting women's hair.

Exxon claimed failed pipeline was buried deep below Yellowstone River  —  BILLINGS — Exxon Mobil Co. had reassured federal regulators and officials from a Montana town since December that an oil pipeline beneath the Yellowstone River was safe, buried deep enough to avoid any accidental ruptures.

City Setting Sunday Hours to Grant Gay Unions  —  New York City, whose top elected officials strongly supported the legalization of same-sex marriage, will take the unusual step of opening city offices on a Sunday, July 24, so gay couples can marry on the day the law takes effect.

Calorie counts don't change most people's dining-out habits, experts say  —  Oh, calories.  There are so many of you at the Cheesecake Factory.  —  The Firecracker Salmon appetizer, rolled in spinach, deep-fried in a crisp wrapper, served with sweet hot chili sauce: 660 calories.

Union Workers Replaced With Prison Labor Under Scott Walker's Collective Bargaining Law  —  While Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) law dismantling collective bargaining rights has harmed teachers, nurses, and other civil servants, it's helping a different group in Wisconsinites — inmates.

Interrogation at sea skirts Obama pledge  —  Graham says fear of using Gitmo subverts 'what's best for the country'  —  The Obama administration, which refuses to send terrorism suspects to the detention center at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, on Wednesday defended its decision to interrogate …

Lehman Borrowed $18 Billion From Undisclosed Fed Program During '08 Crisis  —  Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ)'s brokerage borrowed as much as $18 billion in four separate loans from a previously secret program of the U.S. Federal Reserve in June 2008, three months before its parent filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

White House Staffers Got a Raise Last Year, And You Did Not  —  The White House released its annual salary report last week, and as usual, it's nice to work for Barack Obama: Most staffers who were there for more than a year got a salary bump.  A bigger one than you did.