Five NASCAR Drivers Decline President Obama's White House Invitation  —  President Barack Obama will honor NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson and the 11 other Chase drivers from last year in a White House ceremony on Wednesday - but nearly half of the 2010 playoff contenders won't be there.

U.S. Is Set to Sue a Dozen Big Banks Over Mortgages  —  The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold …

U.S. Showed No Job Growth in August; Rate Stays at 9.1%  —  The economy showed no job growth in August, the first time there has been no increase in net jobs in the United States in 11 months.  —  The flat performance in the job market was down sharply from a revised 85,000 gain of jobs in July …

Obama pulls back proposed smog standards, in victory for business  —  President Obama abruptly pulled back proposed new national smog standards Friday morning, overruling the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to compel states and communities nationwide to reduce local air pollution in the coming years or face federal penalties.

Employers add no net jobs in Aug.; rate unchanged  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers stopped adding jobs in August, an alarming setback for an economy that has struggled to grow and might be at risk of another recession.  —  The government also reported that the unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent.

Regulations, taxes aren't killing small business, owners say  —  WASHINGTON — Politicians and business groups often blame excessive regulation and fear of higher taxes for tepid hiring in the economy.  However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation.

Eric and Irene  —  “Have you left no sense of decency?”  That's the question Joseph Welch famously asked Joseph McCarthy, as the red-baiting demagogue tried to ruin yet another innocent citizen.  And these days, it's the question I find myself wanting to ask Eric Cantor, the House majority leader …

Take the chain-emails away from Perry  —  Most folks probably have some conservative friend or relative who sends right-wing chain emails their way.  Hopefully, people know the vast majority of these political myths and urban legends are nonsense.  —  But Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry seems …

The Great Recession and Government Failure  —  When comparing the performance of markets to government, markets look pretty darn good.  —  The origins of the financial crisis and the Great Recession are widely attributed to “market failure.”  This refers primarily to the bad loans …

GOP leaders stop taking credit for job data  —  When the jobs reports were looking quite good in the early spring, Republican leaders were eager to take credit for the positive numbers they had nothing to do with.  After all, as far as GOP officials were concerned, their mere presence …

Dem ‘plans to ask a Republican to sit with him’ at joint session  —  There will likely be at least some bipartisan seating in the House chamber for President Obama's speech next week.  —  Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) does not plan to renew his previous call for lawmakers to sit together in a symbolic gesture of unity.

Undocumented workers got billions from IRS in tax credits, audit finds  —  The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.  —  Although undocumented workers …