Boehner warns House GOP will be weaker without immigration reform  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urged their House Republican colleagues to pass immigration reform legislation in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, with the Speaker arguing that the party would be …

Americans More Pro-Immigration Than in Past  —  Record-low 35% want flow decreased; support for increasing it now 23%  —  PRINCETON, NJ — As House Republicans and Democrats each met separately this week to consider how to handle immigration reform, Americans remain more accepting of immigration than they were even a few years ago.

Ex-Sanford police chief: Zimmerman probe ‘taken away from us’  —  (CNN) — The George Zimmerman investigation was hijacked “in a number of ways” by outside forces, said the former police chief of Sanford, Florida.  —  Bill Lee, who testified Monday in Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial …

Billionaire Koch Brother Says Eliminating The Minimum Wage Will Help The Poor  —  A conservative mogul worth $43 billion says he knows the secret to helping poor people.  According to Charles Koch, the U.S. needs to get rid of the minimum wage, which he counts as a major obstacle to economic growth.

House blocks enforcement of light bulb standards  —  The House on Wednesday voted to block the enforcement of light bulb standards that many say would effectively force people to buy more expensive compact fluorescent bulbs.  —  Just like last year, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) …

‘Free Jahar’ Chant As Boston Bombing Suspect Heads To Court  —  BOSTON (CBS/AP) - A small group of demonstrators showed up at Moakley Federal Courthouse in South Boston on Wednesday to show support for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  —  Tsarnaev appeared in court for his first public hearing.

Spitzer Leads Stringer in Comptroller Race: Poll  —  Former Governor Who Resigned After Scandal Is Frontrunner  —  Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer leads Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer by nine percentage points in the race for New York City comptroller, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC 4 New York-Marist poll.

Carry Forward  —  Illinois joins the rest of the states in permitting concealed guns.  —  “This is a historic, significant day for law-abiding gun owners,” the Associated Press quotes Rep. Brandon Phelps as saying.  “They finally get to exercise their Second Amendment rights.”

US-Egypt fighter jet deal ‘on track’  —  The US is going ahead with plans to deliver four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt despite the political unrest in the country, senior American officials say.  —  This comes as Washington is continuing to evaluate last week's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the army.

Booker raises $4.6M in 2nd quarter  —  Newark Mayor Cory Booker (D) raised a staggering $4.6 million in the second quarter of the cycle and now has $4.5 million cash on hand for his Senate campaign in New Jersey.  —  The haul may be enough to vault him ahead of his opponents in fundraising.

Egypt's preferable tyranny  —  Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi knows neither Thomas Jefferson's advice that “great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities” nor the description of Martin Van Buren as a politician who “rowed to his object with muffled oars.”

GOP bill would defund schools with rules against playing with imaginary guns  —  Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) introduced legislation this week to block federal funding for schools that enforce rules which punish students for playing with imaginary weapons.  —  The Student Protection Act …

The Decline of Black Power in the South  —  To understand the depth of the damage that the Supreme Court's June 25 decision, Shelby County v. Holder, has inflicted on the voting rights of African-Americans, you have to measure it against the backdrop of the takeover of state legislatures, primarily in the South, by the Republican Party.

Exclusive: Yahoo seeks to reveal its fight against NSA Prism requests  —  SUNNYVALE — In a rare legal move, Yahoo (YHOO) is asking a secretive U.S. surveillance court to let the public see its arguments in a 2008 case that played an important role in persuading tech companies to cooperate …

Time to Throw Out Second Best GOP Senators  —  Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi is a loyal Republican, a decent guy, and generally a good senator.  He also needs to retire from the Senate because he is not good enough, and I don't care if that makes him sad.  —  The New York Times probably thought …