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?

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.

DNC will visit six cities vying for 2016 national convention  —  The Democratic National Committee announced Thursday that its site selection team will visit six cities that are vying to host the party's 2016 convention.  —  Birmingham, Ala., Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, Brooklyn, N.Y., Philadelphia and Phoenix are in the running.

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.

U.S. Adds 288,000 Jobs; Unemployment Rate at 6.1%  —  Unemployment Falls to 6.1% as Prior Months' Gains Revised Upward  —  WASHINGTON—U.S. employers added jobs at a robust clip in June and the unemployment rate fell, signs of labor-market strength as the economic recovery heads into its sixth year.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Ethics Chair: House Will Reverse Itself on Disclosure of Free Trips  —  The panel's decision to delete a disclosure requirement—as lawmakers' travel climbs—sparked quick criticism.  —  House Ethics Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said Thursday that his panel would undo its controversial decision …

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 …

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.

Pulse of the People: Why Polls Can Sometimes Get Things So Wrong  —  The science of polling is sound, but if you ask the wrong group of people your poll questions, you can get the wrong answers.  Think of it this way: An arrow shot by an expert marksman has some chance of hitting …

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:

D.C. residents urged to boycott Md. shore to protest congressman's marijuana move  —  If you're a District resident planning to vacation in the Maryland havens of Ocean City or St. Michaels this summer, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and some D.C. activists would prefer you choose Rehoboth Beach, Del., or Chincoteague Island, Va., instead.

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 …

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,” …

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 …

Hillary Gaffes in London: Gets UK Political Parties Wrong  —  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken her book tour abroad.  But in an interview with the BBC, when answering a question about how specialness of the special relationship between the U.S. and UK …