Tom Coburn: Campaign to defund Obamacare ‘dishonest,’ ‘hype’  —  ANALYSIS CONGRESS BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  Tensions inside the Republican Party about a proposal to defund Obamacare reached a new level Friday when Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., a lawmaker with unsurpassed credibility in the field …

Scores of Demonstrators Killed in Egypt  —  CAIRO — The police and armed civilians opened fire Saturday with live ammunition on protesters against Egypt's new military government, witnesses said, killing scores of people as hopes faded that the Egyptian military would reach any political accommodation …

She did the right thing despite her prejudices.  —  Sometimes life imitates the Onion.  Last week the satirical newspaper ran an “op-ed” by “Juror E6,” a fictitious member of the panel that acquitted George Zimmerman.  Here's the nut, and pardon our F—ch: “Now, I realize …

Concord: Half of Affordable Care Act call center jobs will be part-time  —  CONCORD — Earlier this year, Contra Costa County won the right to run a health care call center, where workers will answer questions to help implement the president's Affordable Care Act.

Wall Street wants Yellen, not Summers, as next Fed chief  —  Wall Street overwhelmingly believes President Obama will and should pick Janet Yellen to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, according to a survey.  —  Preliminary results of the CNBC Fed Survey for July show 70 percent …

New $444 million hockey arena is still a go in Detroit  —  Detroit's financial crisis hasn't derailed the city's plans to spend more than $400 million in Michigan taxpayer funds on a new hockey arena for the Red Wings.  —  Advocates of the arena say it's the kind of economic development needed …

Weiner girl confidant: Pol's brother grilled sext partner ‘to see if she was going to be a problem’ 2 days after comeback interview published  —  Anthony Weiner's chef brother turned up the heat on the mayoral wannabe's secret online paramour just weeks before the sexting pol announced his mayoral bid …

Assuming the Distance Learning Can Opener  —  While conceding that Johnathan Rees's argument against MOOC's focuses too much on the self-interest of faculty members and not enough on the massive problems of distance learning, Jon Chait's touting of the promise of MOOCs is suffers from two major flaws.

Slain Youth's Mother Criticizes Defense Law  —  PHILADELPHIA — The mother of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager whose fatal shooting by a neighborhood watch volunteer has provoked a national debate over racial profiling and gun laws, appealed to a crowd of African-American advocates here Friday to …

Paul Ryan lays out immigration proposals in Racine town hall meeting  —  By Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel  —  Racine — Coming face-to-face with activists, immigrants and the children of undocumented immigrants, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan on Friday laid out his proposals to achieve a consensus …

Ex-IMF chief Strauss-Kahn to be tried for pimping  —  (Reuters) - Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn will be tried in France on pimping charges, prosecutors said on Friday, after a long inquiry into sex parties attended by the man whose presidential hopes were dashed by a separate 2011 U.S. sex scandal.

Rand Paul to Chris Christie: You need to talk to more real Americans  —  Paul aide calls Christie ‘esoteric’ and ‘out of touch’ in gov't overreach in drone use  —  Republican rivals Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky are escalating their feud over national security policy and liberty.