Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton Stepping Down  —  Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton is leaving the company in the wake of the PhoneGate hacking scandal.  Hinton is the second high-ranking News Corp. executive to step down today, and the first major figure from the company's American operations.

Of Obama's $86 million, 40% from bundlers  —  About 40 percent of President Barack Obama's record-breaking $86 million second-quarter fundraising haul came from big-money bundlers, according to a POLITICO analysis of donors listed on Obama's campaign web site.

Michele Bachmann leaves church accused of anti-Catholic bias  —  Taking a page from President Obama's political playbook, Michele Bachmann has formally left a church in Minnesota accused of holding anti-Catholic views.  —  According to CNN, the church that Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus …

Obama Eliminates Warren as Consumer Head  —  President Barack Obama has chosen a candidate other than Elizabeth Warren as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a person briefed on the matter.  —  The president's choice is a person who already works at the consumer agency, the person said today.

House Republicans brace for compromise on debt  —  GOP leaders turn to their most trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), to explain to the rank and file what could happen if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.  —  Reporting from Washington— Republican leaders in the House …

Panic at the White House?  Gloomy Goldman Sachs sees high unemployment, possible recession  —  Last night in a new report, Democrat-friendly Goldman Sachs dropped an economic bomb on President Obama's chances for reelection (bold is mine): … Alarms bells must be ringing all over Obamaland today.

Mitt Romney's cash advantage  —  Kasie Hunt does the math: … One of the more than incidental benefits to treading light in Iowa is that Romney will probably be able to keep a relatively low burn rate for much of the summer.  At the end of the quarter, Pawlenty had just $1.4 million …

REPORT: How CNN, MSNBC, And Fox Are Covering News Corp. Hacking Scandal  —  News Corp.'s long-simmering phone-hacking scandal has reignited, throwing its global media empire into turmoil.  As allegations of hacking into private citizens' voicemail increase, media and tabloid practices have been called into question.

Jackson Lee: Congress complicating debt ceiling because Obama is black  —  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on Friday strongly suggested that members of Congress are making it difficult for President Obama to raise the debt ceiling because of his race.  —  “I do not understand …

Perry's Briefing  —  Word in Austin is that Rick Perry is doing everything necessary to prepare for a presidential run, including brushing up on foreign policy.  —  We hear that he recently met with top national-security experts Doug Feith and William Luti.

Dalai Lama to visit W.H. on Saturday  —  Part of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit will include a White House visit.  —  AP Photo  —  The White House announced late Friday that President Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Saturday, finally putting an end …

For First Time, Majority in U.S. Supports Public Smoking Ban  —  Little support for making smoking illegal, however  —  PRINCETON, NJ — A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001.

China Plans to Release Some of Its Pork Stockpile to Hold Down Prices  —  BEIJING — Some nations have strategic oil reserves.  Some keep grain reserves.  China has both, and something others have somehow overlooked: a national pork reserve.  —  And with the price of pig meat up 38 percent …

Obama makes his case to the left  —  President Obama recently took a beating from some on the left for suggesting that immediate deficit reduction is necessary to take the issue off the table and make it possible to spend more on liberal priorities later.  And Obama of course has regularly …