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.

Obama Trails Romney Again in Battle for Campaign Cash  —  In the battle for political cash, President Obama is finding himself in an unaccustomed place during the final months of the 2012 campaign: he is losing.  —  Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee easily outraised …

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 …

On tax cuts, Obama decides to fight  —  The Obama administration has faced a difficult choice: Does it put off the fiscal crisis looming at the end of the year by capitulating to Republican demands to extend all the Bush tax cuts until 2013 — a move that would infuriate the Democratic base and muddle the campaign's message?

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 …

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.

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.

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

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.

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 …

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary  —  Technical information: (202) 691-5870  • www.bls.gov/jlt Media contact: (202) 691-5902  Job Openings and Labor Turnover - May 2012  —  There were 3.6 million job openings on the last business day of May, little changed …

Indiana abortion law ruled illegal  —  (CNN) - A controversial Indiana law that would keep low-income women from using federal Medicaid benefits to receive any kind of reproductive medical care from Planned Parenthood is unacceptable because it denies women the freedom to choose their health care providers …

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.

Kim Jong-un Appears With Disney Characters on North Korean TV  —  TOKYO — After a failed missile launching, aborted diplomacy with Washington, and continuing international pressure over the country's nuclear program, North Korea's untested young leader has tried once again to take a dramatic step …

Ex-GOP lawmaker says conservatives must end climate change ‘denial’  —  Former South Carolina GOP congressman Bob Inglis, who was vanquished by a Tea Party insurgent in 2010, is urging conservatives to stop denying that humans are contributing to global warning.

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.

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.

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” …