Romney's Tax Confusion  —  The candidate's response on the ObamaCare mandate reveals larger campaign problems.  —  If Mitt Romney loses his run for the White House, a turning point will have been his decision Monday to absolve President Obama of raising taxes on the middle class.

Ann Romney: Obama's whole campaign strategy is “let's kill this guy”  —  (CBS News) On a mission to shatter the image of her husband as rigid and unrelatable, Ann Romney told CBS News she worries that President Obama's entire campaign strategy is “kill Romney.”

Fireworks Shot Off Early in Bay  —  Big Bay Boom fireworks display delayed after sudden burst  —  Thousands of people who camped out to watch the Big Bay Boom in San Diego's Glorietta Bay Wednesday night got more of a Big Bay Bust.  —  Port District authorities said a “technical difficulty” …

The Downside of Liberty  —  THIS spring I was on a panel at the Woodstock Writers Festival.  An audience member asked a question: Why had the revolution dreamed up in the late 1960s mostly been won on the social and cultural fronts — women's rights, gay rights, black president, ecology …

Marine Corps band plays Romney song on White House lawn  —  A subset of the Marine Corps band struck up one of Mitt Romney's walkout songs while President Obama was greeting visitors at the White House Independence Day celebration.  —  A White House pool report said the band struck up Rodney Atkins's …

Adults Aged 26 to 64 Lose Employer Healthcare; Young Gain It  —  Government-based insurance up among both age groups  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fewer U.S. adults aged 26 to 64 are getting health insurance from an employer in 2012, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008.

TV pilot an outlet for Rep. McCotter  —  Lowbrow project was a way to deal with his failed presidential bid  —  As U.S. Rep. Thad McCotter's short-lived presidential run fizzled last year, the Livonia Republican turned to another aspiration: writing a TV show.

Why Health-Spending Trend Matters  —  Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared President Barack Obama's health-care initiative constitutional, the next health policy move awaits the outcome of the November elections.  —  But the U.S. health-care system isn't waiting.

Hopeful signs emerge for struggling jobs market  —  (Reuters) - U.S. private employers stepped up hiring in June and the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week fell by the most in two months, hopeful signs for the struggling labor market.

Corzine is having no fun in the shun  —  How the mighty have fallen.  —  It seems like only yesterday that Jon Corzine was the life of the party, holding court on the Hamptons political circuit, raising money for Barack Obama.  —  Now, Corzine — just months removed from a humiliating financial scandal …

“It's a boson:” Higgs quest bears new particle  —  (Reuters) - Scientists at Europe's CERN research center have found a new subatomic particle, a basic building block of the universe, which appears to be the boson imagined and named half a century ago by theoretical physicist Peter Higgs.

America-Hating Patriots and Other Mysteries of the 4th  —  I'm always at a bit of a loss as to what to say on this big patriotic occasion.  I'm as “American” in background, outlook, and life-experiences as anyone you'd meet.  I belong to a distinctly American religious community, born on the Kentucky frontier long after Independence.