Of Obama's $86 million, 40% from bundlers  —  About 40 percent of President Barack Obama's record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama's campaign web site.

Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton Stepping Down  —  Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton is leaving the company in the wake of the PhoneGate hacking scandal.  Hinton is the second high-ranking News Corp. executive to step down today, and the first major figure from the company's American operations.

Michele Bachmann officially leaves her church  —  Washington (CNN) - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has long been a darling of conservative evangelicals, but shortly before announcing her White House bid, she officially quit a church she'd belonged to for years.

REPORT: How CNN, MSNBC, And Fox Are Covering News Corp. Hacking Scandal  —  News Corp.'s long-simmering phone-hacking scandal has reignited, throwing its global media empire into turmoil.  As allegations of hacking into private citizens' voicemail increase, media and tabloid practices have been called into question.

Obama: Public is ‘sold’ on tax increases in a debt-ceiling deal  —  President Obama on Friday kept up the pressure on Republicans to agree to revenue increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, claiming 80 percent of the public supports Democrats' demand for tax increases.

Blogger Who Posted Marcus Bachmann's ‘Barbarians’ Remark: 'I Didn't Doctor a Damn Thing'  —  It's becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of all of Michele and Marcus Bachmann's anti-gay remarks and beliefs, but unfortunately, today brings with it yet another twist.

McConnell proposal would force major review of entitlements  —  Larry Kudlow, who's plugged in with Congressional Republicans, scoops a key new detail about the emerging Mitch McConnell proposal to transfer control of the debt ceiling to the president:

Jackson Lee: Congress complicating debt ceiling because Obama is black  —  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.  —  “I do not understand …

Obama makes his case to the left  —  President Obama recently took a beating from some on the left for suggesting that immediate deficit reduction is necessary to take the issue off the table and make it possible to spend more on liberal priorities later.  And Obama of course has regularly …

Perry's Briefing  —  Word in Austin is that Rick Perry is doing everything necessary to prepare for a presidential run, including brushing up on foreign policy.  —  We hear that he recently met with top national-security experts Doug Feith and William Luti.

Obama Eliminates Warren as Consumer Head  —  President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter.  —  The president's choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency, the person said today.

Erick Erickson's Bad Advice  —  The RedState editor tweets that this post of his is being passed around the House GOP's caucus meeting.  Hey, lots of things are passed around at meetings.  Let's just hope no one takes this seriously, because it's totally incoherent. … Who actually thinks this?

House turns off light bulb standards by voice vote  —  The House on Friday morning moved to block federal light bulb efficiency standards without even a roll call vote.  —  An amendment from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) defunding the Energy Department's standards for traditional incandescent light bulbs …

For First Time, Majority in U.S. Supports Public Smoking Ban  —  Little support for making smoking illegal, however  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001.

China Plans to Release Some of Its Pork Stockpile to Hold Down Prices  —  BEIJING — Some nations have strategic oil reserves.  Some keep grain reserves.  China has both, and something others have somehow overlooked: a national pork reserve.  —  And with the price of pig meat up 38 percent …

Number of healthcare waivers nears 1,500  —  The Health and Human Services Department granted 39 new waivers last month from part of the healthcare law, bringing the total to just shy of 1,500.  —  In September, HHS will stop the process of granting a new batch of one-year waivers at the end of each month.