President Obama, Mitt Romney deadlocked in race, poll finds  —  AP - A pair of tepid jobs reports, landmark Supreme Court decisions on health-care and immigration laws, and an unprecedented barrage of negative ads have shaped the opening months of the fall presidential campaign.

TPMDC  —  One Chart That Shows What The Bush Tax Cut Battle Is All About  —  Considering all the Sturm und Drang over President Obama's plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire on income over $250,000 you'd think that Republicans and Democrats had hugely different ideas about where to set tax policy in 2013.

BRAD PITT'S MOM IN FEAR AFTER SLAMMING OBAMA  —  Quaking after being attacked for opposing same-sex marriage  —  Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is …

Report: 83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare  —  Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama's health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

Scorned Cottage Grove mom sets self ablaze  —  Police say the Cottage Grove woman, described as “vodka mom” on TV, was despondent over the asphyxiation death of her infant son.  —  A 29-year-old Cottage Grove woman set herself afire and died just weeks after being ridiculed as “vodka mom” …

Cracks Appear in Republican Unity on Health Law Repeal  —  WASHINGTON — A House vote to fully repeal President Obama's health care law was supposed to be the coup de grâce for “Obamacare,” a final sweeping away of a law that Republicans thought the Supreme Court would gut and leave for dead.

Mick Jagger's affair with David Bowie revealed in new book: They ‘were really sexually obsessed with each other’  —  Bowie's wife found them in bed, backup singer and Playboy model claimed to share their bed  —  David Bowie's “Ziggy Stardust” era had Jagger wondering if this was the future.

Repealing health law would mean more benefits for members of Congress  —  Repealing President Obama's healthcare law would let members of Congress keep their government-subsidized insurance coverage after they retire — a benefit they lost under the health law.

As homicides spike, Chicago mayor defends tactics  —  CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago's mayor and police superintendent publicly defended their new gang-fighting strategy Monday amid growing criticism that the changes are failing and a big reason why the city's homicide rate has soared this year.

70 Students to Retake Exams After Cheating Case  —  Seventy students were involved in a pattern of smartphone-enabled cheating last month at Stuyvesant High School, New York City officials said Monday, describing an episode that has blemished one of the country's most prestigious public schools.

In Maryland, Higher Taxes Chase Out Rich: Study  —  A new report says wealthy Maryland residents may be moving out due to recent tax hikes - a finding that is sure to escalate the battle over taxing the American rich.  —  The study, by the anti-tax group Change Maryland …

As Mine Protections Fail, Black Lung Cases Surge … Coal miners are tested for black lung at a clinic in West Virginia.  —  Part one of a two-part series.  —  It wasn't supposed to happen to coal miners in Mark McCowan's generation.  It wasn't supposed to strike so early and so hard.

House Ethics Will Probe Shelley Berkley's Role in Saving Transplant Program  —  The House Ethics Committee said today it will investigate whether Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) broke any ethics rules or laws when she intervened to save a kidney transplant program at a hospital where her physician husband had a lucrative contract.

Embattled Dems buck President Obama on taxes  —  President Barack Obama's renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: Democrats running for Congress in 2012.  —  Several Democrats in critical House and Senate races say they prefer raising taxes …