Cochran presser: Most entertaining conference call ever  —  A conference call set up by the campaign for U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran devolved into a shouting match and then ended, after which time supporters of GOP primary challenger Chris McDaniel chatted for a bit.

Conservatives: Hobby Lobby Shut Down Your ‘Consequence Free Sex’  —  In the wake of the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling, conservatives couldn't resist making a ruling officially about religious liberty into how women will no longer be able to freely have sex on the government's dime.

U.S. Economy Added 288,000 Jobs in June; Unemployment Rate at 6.1%  —  The economy accelerated in June, with employers adding 288,000 jobs, well above the rate of hiring recorded in the first five months of 2014 and another sign that growth is finally rebounding.

Ted Cruz should be ashamed  —  Reasonable people can disagree on whether it would be good to amend the Constitution to overcome the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, but Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) false claims about the proposed amendment have no place in an informed debate.

DEMOCRATS DECRY BEAUPREZ'S “47 PERCENT” COMMENTS RECORDED ON VIDEO  —  On Wednesday, as Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez toured Colorado to “build unity,” a video surfaced that Democrats say shows his divisiveness.  —  The video shows Beauprez in a speech to the Denver Rotary Club …

Obama paying the price for insisting he's right  —  The joke about the obsessively doting mother comes to mind.  —  Watching her son parade with rows of fellow troops, she notices he is on his left foot when they are all on the right.  —  “Why are they out of step?” she asks.  —  So it is with Barack Obama.

A Period Is Questioned in the Declaration of Independence  —  Every Fourth of July, some Americans sit down to read the Declaration of Independence, reacquainting themselves with the nation's founding charter exactly as it was signed by the Second Continental Congress in 1776.  —  Or almost exactly?

How Obama Lost the Middle East  —  In his first term, Barack Obama all but declared victory in America's Middle East struggles.  —  As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment when declaring the country “stable,” …

The Two Events That Turned Putin Against the U.S.  —  Former ambassador Michael McFaul on what really motivated Russia to invade Ukraine  —  ASPEN, Colo.—One major divide in international relations, as well as in other social sciences, is between those who believe in structure and those who believe in agency.

Much Maligned Law School Cuts First-Year Class, Announces Layoffs  —  If you've managed to jump onto the speeding “now is a great time to apply to law school” train, then you might want to fling yourself onto the tracks, because that thing is about to derail.

Obama Admin Debates Whether Assad Really Must Go  —  Now that the U.S. government and the Syrian regime are both fighting ISIS in Iraq, the faltering U.S. drive to topple Assad is in even more peril.  —  There's a battle raging inside the Obama administration about whether the United States ought …

Showdown: California town turns away buses of detained immigrants  —  (CNN) — The national controversy over a surge of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border established a new battleground this week in a Southern California small town where angry crowds thwarted detained migrants from entering their community.

Point-blank shooting of Inkster toddler violated ‘the code of the streets’  —  In the hard-bitten city of Inkster, a little girl's killing appears to have crossed a line.  —  The triple shooting Tuesday night that ended the life of 2-year-old Kamiya French and left two of her relatives wounded violated the …

Facebook Experiments Had Few Limits  —  Data Science Lab Conducted Tests on Users With Little Oversight  —  Thousands of Facebook Inc. users received an unsettling message two years ago: They were being locked out of the social network because Facebook believed they were robots or using fake names.

Why has Google cast me into oblivion?  —  This morning the BBC received the following notification from Google:  —  Notice of removal from Google Search: we regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google:

Jay Carney: ‘A Little Perspective Is Useful’  —  Now that you're leaving your job as White House press secretary, do you know which cable news network you're going to be a pundit for?  I haven't made any decisions about what combination of things I'm going to be doing.

More Americans are stuck in part-time work  —  In the new landscape of the American labor market, jobs are easier to come by but hours remain in short supply.  —  New government data slated for release Thursday is expected to show the economy added more than 200,000 jobs for the fifth straight month …

Barack the Bear  —  The president is growing hostile to being held hostage — both by the very insular nature of the presidency itself, and by the more stultifying intransigence of Congress.  —  During a walk a few weeks ago from the White House to the Interior Department, the president proclaimed, “The bear is loose.”