Putin will not ‘cave’ to Obama pressure: Snowden's father  —  (Reuters) - The father of Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor, predicted on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will stand up to pressure from Washington as the two nations spar over Moscow's decision to grant his son asylum.

N.S.A. Sifting Broader Set of Data Crossing U.S. Border  —  WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans' e-mail and text communications into and out of the country, hunting for people who mention information about foreigners under surveillance, according to intelligence officials.

Hundreds protest Obama outside Phoenix high school  —  FONT:  —  Hundreds of protesters wielded signs, chanted slogans and argued with each other Tuesday outside Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, while President Barack Obama spoke about housing and the economy inside.

Great Orator Gaffes Again  —  One comment makes him akin to Akin.  —  “The odds of people dying in a terrorist attack obviously are still a lot lower than in a car accident, unfortunately,” President Obama told NBC's Jay Leno last night.  —  Wait, “unfortunately”?

Why Ted Cruz Thinks the Media Gets Conservatism Wrong  —  Texas Senator Ted Cruz talks to TIME about Barack Obama, foreign policy and his spats with fellow Republicans  —  By Alex Altman @aaltman82Aug.  08, 2013  —  U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, right, talks with Republican Party …

Exclusive: IRS manual detailed DEA's use of hidden intel evidence  —  (Reuters) - Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.

The decline of newspapers has been good for everybody else  —  Same building as 13 years ago, but definitely a different place.  (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)  —  I started working at The Washington Post on June 5, 2000.  It was in the same building we work in now, but it was very much a different place.

The Fort Hood attack was terrorism.  The Army should call it that.  —  Shawn Manning is a retired U.S. Army staff sergeant and mental health counselor who lives in Lacey, Wash.  —  In November 2009, my Army Reserve Medical Detachment reported to Fort Hood, Tex., in preparation for deployment to Afghanistan.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin: Southern senator called President Obama ‘exotic’ in closed-door meeting  —  U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin provided some behind-the-scenes insight into the partisan animosity that continues to follow Barack Obama in his second term as president.  —  Harkin, a Democrat …

Greek unemployment hit new record in May of 27.6 percent  —  (Reuters) - Greece's jobless rate hit a new record high of 27.6 percent in May, official national data showed on Thursday as the country staggers under austerity linked to its international bailout.

Republican Ken Buck files paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in 2014, four years after loss  —  Ken Buck, the current Weld County District Attorney, will run for U.S. Senate next year in an effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.  —  Buck, a Tea Party Republican, filed paperwork …

A User's Guide to Obama's Inside-Out Economics  —  The president may be out of ideas, but he is never out of words.  He has been sharing voluminous amounts of them with audiences over the last two weeks on his latest speaking tour, or pivot, on the economy.  —  And for good reason.

Fast-Food Fight  —  The fast-food workers who have been walking off their jobs illustrate a central fact of contemporary work life in America: As lower-wage occupations have proliferated in the past several years, Americans are increasingly unable to make a living at their jobs.

How the White House is weaseling Congress out of ObamaCare.  —  The White House on Wednesday released the legal details behind its ObamaCare bailout for Members of Congress and their staffs, and if anything this rescue is worse than last week's leaks suggested: Illegal dispensations for the ruling class …

Everlasting Realities of the Bohemian Lifestyle  —  As writers in New York lament the “de-classing of intellectuals,” a reminder that creative types have never had it easy.  —  The Chelsea Hotel in 1978 (AP/G. Paul Burnett)  —  NEW YORK — Is it still possible to be a bohemian in today's New York City …

Pete Rouse planning to leave the White House  —  Pete Rouse, a former White House chief of staff and arguably President Barack Obama's most-trusted West Wing adviser, has told friends he will be leaving the administration this fall, people with knowledge of the situation tell POLITICO.

Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill  —  A top Boehner aide reminded Capitol Hill staff in a meeting that they must keep their message tightly focused on economic recovery, despite the spate of TV-friendly investigations.  Senior GOP aides acknowledge they are keeping a close eye on Issa's oversight panel …

Texas Tea Partiers Gunning For Gohmert to Primary Cornyn  —  Louie Gohmert for Senate?  That's what a number of Texas tea-party activists are hoping for.  They're not happy with Senator John Cornyn, and Katrina Pierson, who serves on the Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Board …

Darrell Issa's gavel up for grabs as jockeying begins  —  Call them the Darrell Issa wannabes.  —  About a half-dozen lawmakers are jockeying for the gavel of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, trying to prove to their colleagues that they have the chops to probe …

Man gets 17 years for torching $400 million nuke sub  —  The end of the USS Miami  —  (CNN) — Casey James Fury simply didn't want to be at work, and in the process cost the Navy nearly a half-billion dollars and one attack submarine.  —  Fury admitted to setting fire to the USS Miami …

Lapdogs at AP dutifully bury Obama's geography gaffe  —  Dude.  Dude.  —  As Twitchy reported, President Barack “57 States” Obama showed off his mad geography skillz last night when he informed Jay Leno that Savannah, Charleston, and Jacksonville are, in fact, Gulf Coast ports.

A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years Later  —  Henrietta Lacks was only 31 when she died of cervical cancer in 1951 in a Baltimore hospital.  Not long before her death, doctors removed some of her tumor cells.  They later discovered that the cells could thrive in a lab, a feat no human cells had achieved before.

Test Scores Sink as New York Adopts Tougher Benchmarks  —  The number of New York students passing state reading and math exams dropped drastically this year, education officials reported on Wednesday, unsettling parents, principals and teachers and posing new challenges to a national effort to toughen academic standards.