TRENDING: ‘Idiot’ jab lobbed at Perry  —  (CNN) - Former Treasury official Bruce Bartlett labeled newly-minted Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry “an idiot” Friday.  —  Bartlett, who served at Treasury under former President George H.W. Bush and as a domestic policy adviser …

Feingold says he won't run in 2012  —  He'll continue teaching law, working on book  —  By Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel  —  Democrat Russ Feingold has decided he will not be a candidate for political office next year, taking himself out of the running in 2012 for either U.S. senator …

Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises  —  Flanked by a cadre of local political leaders, Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose used a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a solar power company last week to talk up the promise of the green economy.  —  Mr. Reed called the opening of the new headquarters …

Parking ‘squat’  —  Eleven years ago, Charles Mysak snagged a primo parking spot on the corner of Columbus Avenue and 68th Street — and he hasn't budged since.  —  The sidewalk bookseller keeps his inventory piled up in the beat up green '94 Civic, held partially together with duct tape …

Burger King freshens fast-food image, kicks King to the curb  —  In the first of many steps to reinvent itself over the next year, the struggling fast-feeder Friday will announce that it's dethroning the creepy King character — and other wacky, teen-targeting stuff — and refocusing on a customer it had all but forgotten: Mom.

Teen girl gang assaults woman in brazen daylight attack outside Philadelphia City Hall  —  An astonishing video has emerged of a vicious gang of teenage girls assaulting a female pedestrian as she walks outside a city hall in broad daylight.  —  The woman, who has not been named …

Michelle's Separate Travel Costs Taxpayers Thousands  —  Michelle Obama and President Obama traveled to Martha's Vineyard just hours apart, costing taxpayers thousands in additional expenses so she could have just a bit of extra vacation time.  —  Mrs. Obama and her daughters arrived …

DeFazio says Obama lacks will to fight, may lose Oregon  —  EUGENE, Ore. - Oregon Congressman Peter Defazio is traveling around his district and leveling verbal body blows at President Obama.  —  In his Eugene office Wednesday, Defazio accused the President of lacking the will to fight for the promises he made to get elected.

Bad luck?  Bad faith?  —  “We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, got the economy moving again. .   . .  But over the last six months, we've had a run of bad luck.”  —  Decorah, Iowa, Aug. 15  —  A troubled nation wonders: How did we get mired in 9.1 percent unemployment …

Deal Frees ‘West Memphis Three’ in Arkansas  —  JONESBORO, Ark. — Three men convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys in a notorious 1993 murder case were freed from jail on Friday, after a complicated legal maneuver that allowed them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict them.

Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary  —  Technical information:  —  Employment: (202) 691-6559 * sminfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/sae  —  Unemployment: (202) 691-6392 * lausinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/lau  —  Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov

Awesome Wrongness  —  I hear that there was some action in the markets yesterday.  But we were too busy sipping champagne at the Nobel Museum to care.  —  OK, seriously: things are looking really terrible, And crucially, they're looking terrible in the wrong way, at least if you wanted …

A prime aim of the growing Surveillance State  —  Several weeks ago, a New York Times article by Noam Cohen examined the case of Aaron Swartz, the 24-year-old copyright reform advocate who was arrested in July, after allegedly downloading academic articles that had been placed behind a paywall …

Woman disables anti-Islam websites  —  DAMMAM: An Alkhobar woman studying in the United States is taking credit for destroying 23 Danish websites that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Thursday.  —  Nouf Rashid told the Arabic newspaper …

Mortgage Rates Hit 50-Year Low  —  Back in June, in a post about adjustable-rate home loans, Bucks mused about how nice it would be to have a mortgage interest rate that began with a “3.”  The way things are going, that time may not be far off for fixed-rates loans, as well.

Watching Armageddon From an Armchair  —  Watching the world slide slowly back into recession without a fight, even though we know perfectly well how to prevent it, is just depressing beyond words.  Our descendents will view the grasping politicians and cowardly bankers responsible …

Gov. Rick Scott's original transition e-mails accidentally deleted, state now says  —  The e-mail accounts of Rick Scott and most of the governor-elect's transition team were deleted soon after he took office, potentially erasing public records that state law requires be kept.

Obama's Approval Has Dropped 36 Points Among Hispanics, Says Gallup  —  (CNSNews.com) - Only 49 percent of Hispanic Americans said last week they approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, according to the Gallup poll.  That is down 36 points from the high of 85 percent …

Bachmann on why she worked for IRS: “First rule of war is ‘know your enemy’”  —  This is fun.  Michele Bachmann, on the campaign trail today, offered what seems to be a new explanation for her previous work as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service, something that has drawn some ire from the right.

The Wrong Idea  —  Stocks on Wall Street dropped sharply on Thursday, with investors spooked, again, about the euro-zone debt crisis and the sputtering United States economy.  —  Yet, even at this hour, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic seem determined to handcuff fiscal policies …