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.

Romney: ‘Nothing hidden’ in withheld tax returns  —  Mitt Romney insisted in an interview airing Tuesday that there was “nothing hidden” in his tax returns, amid new calls from President Obama and other top Democrats for the Republican challenger to release more details about his financial holdings.

Romney Courts Black Vote, an Obama Strength in '08  —  Four years ago, Barack Obama captured 96 percent of the black vote.  But this year, in an election in which every vote may matter, Mitt Romney is not giving up on that front.  —  On Wednesday, Mr. Romney will make a pitch …

Republican Rep: I Don't Think Someone Who Is Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor Should Have Health Care Provided  —  On Monday evening, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) said that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with brain tumors during a House Rules Committee debate …

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.

Dem.  Chair Invested in Swiss Banks, Foreign Drug Companies, and the State Bank of India  —  Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India.

Fed Harms Itself by Missing Goals  —  Ben S. Bernanke has made transparency one of the defining themes of his time at the helm of the Federal Reserve.  The virtue of this transparency is that it's easy to evaluate how well the Fed is conducting monetary policy.

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 …

Mayor Bloomberg launches contest to stir development of tiny 300-square-foot apartments for singles  —  Larger than a jail cell, but smaller than mobile home, ministudios will reflect city's changing demographics.  They'll be big enough for bathroom, kitchen, sleeping and dining areas

Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations  —  Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked.

Brett Kimberlin versus right-wing bloggers  —  Why are right-wing blogs obsessed with a convicted felon famous for once claiming he sold Dan Quayle drugs?  —  So there is this guy named Brett Kimberlin.  He is a true American weirdo from way back, and he's fairly brilliant at self-promotion and is involved in various liberal causes.

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 …

Let's Draft Our Kids  —  IN late June, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former commander of international forces in Afghanistan, called for reinstating the draft.  “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Calls to Destroy Egypt's Great Pyramids Begin  —  According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt's Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt's Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax.

Ex-GOP lawmaker says conservatives must end ‘denial’ on climate  —  Former South Carolina GOP Rep. Bob Inglis, who was vanquished by a Tea Party insurgent in 2010, is urging conservatives to stop denying that humans are contributing to global warming.  —  Inglis, who will lead a new initiative …

James Earl Jones: Tea Party Is ‘Racist’  —  From Sunday's edition of the syndicated Smiley & West show:  —  JAMES EARL JONES: I think I have figured out the Tea Party I think I I do understand racism because I was taught to be one by my grandmother.  My grandmother was part [tribal affiliation] …

Obama's record on outsourcing draws criticism from the left  —  Barack Obama promised voters four years ago that he would work to slow the outflow of American jobs to other countries, proposing to revamp a federal tax code that encourages companies to maintain overseas operations.

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.

Barack Obama's Brother to Make Film Debut in Anti-Obama Documentary (Exclusive Video)  —  An interview with George Obama, who lives in a hut in Kenya “like something out of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’” is featured in the upcoming movie “2016: Obama's America.”  —  Barack Obama's half-brother …