HERALD TRIBUNE / NYT: Six months after the outbreak of the revolt against his 42 years in power, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s hold on his Tripoli stronghold shows signs of slipping.

Residents of Tripoli, the capital, who for months had hesitated to talk openly over the phone, said in calls Friday night that they believed Colonel Qaddafi’s flight or ouster could be imminent. Three people said the feeling of fear was ebbing in the streets…

THE TICKET: Rick Perry has many ideas about how to change the American government’s founding document. From ending lifetime tenure for federal judges to completely scrapping two whole amendments, the Constitution would see a major overhaul if the Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate had his druthers.

Perry laid out these proposed innovations to the founding document in his book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington. He has occasionally mentioned them on the campaign trail. Several of his ideas fall within the realm of mainstream conservative thinking today, but, as you will see, there are also a few surprises.

From HEALTHDAY NEWS: Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that between 2007 and 2009, an average of 9 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 were diagnosed with the disorder.

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Unemployment rose in Pennsylvania in July, but still remains below that of the nation. The State Department of Labor and Industry reported Thursday that the state unemployment rate grew to 7.8 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June.

DAILY BEAST: The president’s call for the ouster of Bashar al-Assad and decision to foster regime change with tougher sanctions came slowly—but will push the Syrian people a step closer to freedom, says Martin Indyk.

Obama came to this decision at an agonizingly slow pace for the people of Syria, especially compared with his immediate calls on Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi to leave office when they unleashed violence against peaceful demonstrators in their countries. This seemed particularly strange. Mubarak had been a friend and ally of the United States for three decades; Gaddafi had surrendered his nuclear program, paid generous compensation to the American victims of Pan Am 103, and cooperated in the war on al Qaeda. Egypt was our strategic ally; Libya had almost no strategic weight at all.

HARRISBURG (Aug. 17) – Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, apologized to reporters Wednesday for referring to Pennsylvania females as “womenfolk” in comments to Capitolwire yesterday about the impacts of natural gas drilling.

From USA TODAY: The NFL’s new kickoff rule — the ball is being teed up at the 35 instead of the 30 now — is breeding all sorts of consequences and debates. “As it was explained to me, what the league and the competition committee were trying to do is eliminate the kickoff returns, which I think they’ll do,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Tuesday.

From the ERIE TIMES- NEWS:Warnings about drug use are usually targeted at young people to discourage them from becoming users and abusers. But in the Erie area, young environmentalists and pharmacy students at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine are making sure that legal drugs, such as prescription painkillers, don’t fall into the wrong hands.

From the PITTSBURGH POST –GAZETTE: The head of Pennsylvania’s Department of Community and Economic Development has said the state could receive additional revenues totaling $60 billion in the next 30 years and solve all of its economic problems if it would allow new Marcellus Shale gas well drilling throughout its publicly owned forests.

From SALON:… Highly unequal societies are unhealthy for their members, even members of the highest strata. Not only do these societies score worse on all sorts of indicators of social well-being, but they exert a toll even on the rich.

EDITOR: The following is excerpted from “No Ordinary Time” by Doris Kearns Goodwin and serves to show that, no matter how enlightened and well meaning, elected leaders need pressure through political activism to bring about important reforms: “That June of 1941, a storm was gathering in the black community. Though some progress had been made in opening doors to blacks in the armed forces, discrimination in the mushrooming defense industry continued unabated….

From THE TELEGRAPH: Despite rumours that he is preparing to flee, the opposition fear Col Gaddafi is preparing a desperate last stand in Tripoli and towns still loyal to him in the face of recent rebel advances on two fronts which has cut off his crucial supply routes.

From USA TODAY: …The 39 economists polled Aug. 3-11 put the chance of another downturn at 30% — twice as high as three months ago, according to their median estimates. That means another shock to the fragile economy — such as more stock market declines or a worsening of the European debt crisis — could push the nation over the edge.