Akron restaurant owner dies hours after meeting Obama  —  The owner of an Akron restaurant where President Barack Obama stopped for breakfast this morning died, apparently of a heart attack, shortly after meeting him.  —  Josephine “Ann” Harris, 70, of Copley Township …

June Job Creation at 80,000; Rate Holds Steady at 8.2%  —  The U.S. economy created just 80,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate held steady at 8.2 percent, reflecting continued slow growth in the economy with the presidential election just four months away.

Gov. Chris Christie — Fightin' Words On the Jersey Shore [VIDEO]  —  GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE  —  FIGHTIN' WORDS  —  On the Jersey Shore  —  EXCLUSIVE  —  Things got downright HOSTILE on the Jersey Shore last night — with NJ Governor Chris Christie getting into a heated verbal altercation right …

Turncoat Roberts  —  Chief justice's surprise ruling means limited government is dead  —  Yogi Berra said that when you come to a fork in the road, take it.  When supposed-conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. came to a judicial conservative-liberal fork in the road, he veered left.

Sobbing woman thanks Obama for health care law  —  SANDUSKY, Ohio — An emotional Ohio voter personally thanked President Obama for passing a health care overhaul, relating the story of her late sister's battle with cancer.  —  After Obama's speech in Sandusky, he encountered a sobbing Stephanie Miller …

So.  It Has Come To This.  —  The scene is a security screening station at Los Angeles International Airport, August 2012.  —  Screening Officer Jules: Greetings, prospective passengers!  Looking to travel through the public airways?  Now don't be distressed!  You know who we are?

Broken Record, Broken Promises  —  Today, the Obama Administration told Americans “not to read too much into” monthly jobs reports.  —  As it turns out, they've been encouraging Americans to do that for years.  But after 41 straight months of unemployment over 8%, you don't have to read between the lines to see the truth.

Federal Judge Richard Posner: The GOP Has Made Me Less Conservative  —  Judge Richard Posner, a conservative on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, has long been one of the nation's most respected and admired legal thinkers on the right.  But in an interview with NPR …

Obama hits Romney: ‘Principles matter’  —  President Obama sharply attacked Mitt Romney over the individual mandate on Friday, hitting him for “abandoning a principle” he fought for in the past due to political considerations.  —  “One of the things that you learn as president …

IN OBAMA WE TRUST  —  For the first time in decades, The Advocate has a candidate it can endorse for president.  That candidate is Barack Obama.  —  Never has the substantial progress in equal rights and treatment of LGBT people been more at risk than in this presidential contest.

Jolting the Democratic Party from Its Stupor  —  If the Democrats in Congress were all drinking water from the same faucet, there might be a clue to their chronic fear of the craven and cruel corporatist Republicans who dominate them.  —  But they don't, so we have to ask why their fear …

Crime of the Century  —  Forget Bernie Madoff and Enron's Ken Lay — they were mere amateurs in financial crime.  The current Libor interest rate scandal, involving hundreds of trillions in international derivatives trade, shows how the really big boys play.

The Worst Marriage in Georgetown  —  Dinners were served in the basement.  Ambassadors, generals with many stars, senior White House officials and closely read columnists — all would walk past the yellowing kitchen, which looked as if it hadn't been updated since the Ford administration …

Romney-Rice?  —  Erin McPike's “close examination of the [Romney] campaign's activity” at RealClearPolitics suggests four leading contenders for Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick—former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, Ohio senator Rob Portman, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, and Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.

House panel's draft of farm bill cuts $35B  —  The leaders of the House Agriculture Committee on Thursday released a draft 2012 farm bill that cuts direct spending by $35 billion, about $11 billion more than a Senate-passed bill.  —  The five-year bill would authorize farm subsidies …

Zombie economy threatens Obama  —  Romney, meanwhile, quickly seized on the numbers in an appearance in Wolfeboro, N.H., where he was concluding a family vacation.  —  “American families are struggling, there is a lot of misery in America and these numbers understate what people are feeling …

Duke Energy CEO Bill Johnson resigns after one day, gets $44 million in severance  —  When Duke Energy announced its merger with Progress Energy last year, the two companies agreed that Progress CEO Bill Johnson would assume the same position at the combined company.

A plan that offers Obama a fighting chance  —  At this point in 1980, Jimmy Carter was on the path to oblivion but didn't know it.  Barack Obama may share Carter's fate if he doesn't change course soon.  —  The 1980 presidential race was neck and neck until the end.

Disability Ranks Outpace New Jobs In Obama Recovery  —  More workers joined the federal government's disability program in June than got new jobs, according to two new government reports, a clear indicator of how bleak the nation's jobs picture is after three full years of economic recovery.

Honor Code  —  Henry V is one of Shakespeare's most appealing characters.  He was rambunctious when young and courageous when older.  But suppose Henry went to an American school.  —  By about the third week of nursery school, Henry's teacher would be sending notes home saying that Henry “had another hard day today.”

Texas: Ted Cruz Internal Poll Shows Lead Over David Dewhurst  —  Ted Cruz (above) led Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a recent internal poll.  (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)  —  Ted Cruz led Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by 9 points in a recent internal poll conducted for the former Texas …

96 Year-Old Latino Former Arizona Governor Detained By Border Patrol In 100 Degree Heat  —  This man is Raúl Héctor Castro.  He is 96 years old, a former Arizona governor, and a former United States Ambassador to El Salvador, Bolivia and Argentina.  He was born in Mexico, and is a United States citizen.

‘No Child’ Law Whittled Down by White House  —  In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified.