From USA TODAY: The roller-coaster debate over raising the nation’s debt limit has forced the White House to explain away, brush aside or even ignore declarations by President Barack Obama and his top aides that no longer served much purpose in the unpredictable negotiations.

From the POST-GAZETTE: Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent in June, up from 7.4 percent in May, the first increase since the jobless rate peaked last year. Even though the production-of-goods sector increased employment, the service-providing sectors lost 5,700 jobs in June, resulting in a net loss of 2,600 jobs for the month.

From POLITICO: Stung by the reaction to his claim that letting the Bush tax cuts expire is not a violation of his no-tax pledge, Grover Norquist took to the New York Times op-ed page on Friday to defend himself and insisted the pledge isn’t an obstacle to a deficit deal.

From USA TODAY: Nearly a quarter of all Americans have participated in binge drinking, and 8.4% have used an illicit drug in the past month, a new report says. Data released Thursday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration suggest that North Dakota has the highest percentage of binge drinking (five or more drinks on one occasion), and 29.8% of those 12 and older reported binge drinking in the past month.

Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, makes the valid point that he is not directly responsible for the specific actions taken by trusted top executives in his vast empire, consisting of over 50,000 employees and scores of newspapers and including Fox News.

From NEWSMAX: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he plans to lift a suspension on implementing the state’s medical-marijuana program. Christie, a first-term Republican and former U.S. prosecutor, told reporters he doesn’t believe federal law- enforcement officials will go after dispensaries of medical marijuana or state workers who help to implement the program.

There was new hope on Capitol Hill that a sweeping deal to increase US borrowing authority and slash the nation’s deficits by $3,700bn over ten years was within reach, after Barack Obama backed an agreement among a group of Democratic and Republican senators…

From the TIMES-TRIBUNE: Back when the Pennsylvania gas boom was just getting established, about three years B.C. (Before Corbett), the industry viewed a severance tax on natural gas as being pretty much inevitable. After all, it paid the tax in every other gas-producing state.

From the PATRIOT-NEWS: By a 4-1 margin, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 13, which represents 45,000 state workers,ratified their four-year agreement reached last month with Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration…

Try to reconcile these three: 1) The oath of office required by the sixth article of the Constitution of the United States, and as provided by section 2 of the act of May 13, 1884 (23 Stat. 22), to be administered to Members, Resident Commissioner, and Delegates of the House of Representatives, the text of which is carried in 5 U.S.C. 3331:

From BLOOMBERG: News Corp. (NWSA)’s Rupert Murdoch is struggling to control the destiny of the company he began building six decades ago after a trusted deputy was arrested and Scotland Yard’s top official quit over ties to a suspect in the phone-hacking probe.

By means of Google.com and from several sources using federal statistics, we put together a comparison of the rate of unemployment compared to the highest marginal rate of income taxes on married filing joint returns, showing every even year from 1948. The figures used are from Federal Bureau of Statistics.

HARRISBURG (July 15) — The governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission voted Friday morning to include the adoption of a local impact fee on drillers in its final recommendations to the Legislature and executive branch set for release next week.