Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is a rising Republican power in House, as well as a whip  —  The beginning of the collapse of House Speaker John A. Boehner's border bill came Wednesday evening, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gathered more than a dozen House Republicans at his office in the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill.

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — JULY 2014  —  Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 209,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.  Job gains occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, retail trade, and construction.

IDF soldier feared kidnapped  —  Second Lt. Hadar Goldin named as captured officer; terrorists emerged from a tunnel shaft, and a suicide bomber detonated near soldiers prior to the suspected kidnapping.  —  A Hamas attack on IDF soldiers in southern Gaza, which occurred an hour and a half …

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: July 2014  —  Liz Hamel and Jamie Firth and Mollyann Brodie … Unfavorable Views Of ACA Increase In July  —  After remaining steady for several months, the share of the public expressing an unfavorable view of the health care law rose to 53 percent in July …

Clueless in Gaza  —  alestinian Hamas supporters shout slogans against Israel during a protest to support Hamas and against the Israeli attack to Gaza strip in the west bank city of Nablus, 31 July 2014.  Two weeks after starting its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel has mobilized 16,000 more reserve troops.

Vice President Biden loves to skinny dip, says tell-all book  —  Naked from head to Joe?  In ‘The First Family Detail,’ author Robert Kessler quotes unnamed Secret Service agents dishing about the private lives of Presidents and those they protect.  —  It's the Joe Biden you didn't know — and might not want to see.

Eric Cantor quitting Congress Aug. 18  —  Cantor previously said he would serve his full term.  Getty

The secret George W. Bush book project  —  George W. Bush worked on the book in secret for two years, without a book deal, without dribbling a word out to Bush alums or other Republicans who would have leaked it in a second.  As far as the outside world knew, he was just spending all of that time working on his paintings.

Halbig Shows How Leftist Wonks Just Aren't Very Good At Their Jobs  —  Another day, another liberal wonkblogger contradicting the government's position in the Halbig case.  First we had Jonathan Gruber demonstrating that the plaintiff's case in Halbig was quite plausible.

Don Young sorry for grabbing aide's arm  —  Rep. Don Young has apologized for grabbing the arm of a congressional staffer at the Capitol.  —  His response came after a photo and video surfaced of the Alaska Republican forcefully holding the arm of a congressional aide on Thursday.

The Online Rebuttal Is the New Black  —  Lately I have found myself in a summer blanket on my old red sofa “power watching” Orange Is the New Black.  While no one I know well has ever been to prison, the show's story lines are so riveting and the characters so emotionally nuanced …