“Associated Press” on The Daily Caller

On Tuesday, the Obama administration finally announced the end of a politically motivated offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling ban, originally scheduled to be lifted in November, has been the subject of a torrent of criticism from Gulf area residents and leadership. (more)

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that President Obama will continue to talk on the campaign trail about the need for outside political groups to disclose who is funding their TV attack ads. (more)

President Obama on Monday dropped any mention of the charge he hurled days earlier at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that the business industry group was using foreign money to finance election year TV ads. (more)

President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to put a positive spin on the monthly job report Friday by arguing that meager growth in private sector jobs is moving the economy in the right direction. (more)

Don’t put away your Nimbus 2000 just yet! Muggles worldwide have a new sense of hope after J.K. Rowling’s “Oprah” interview. According to the Associated Press, on Friday’s show the author told Oprah that Harry and his friends  “could definitely” find themselves in new adventures sometime in the future, however she is not currently working on any Potter books. (more)

Anyone who’s ever filed a Freedom of Information Act request, be he a man or be he a god, knows the headache of asking his government for information that isn’t already publicly available. President Obama was supposed to change all that. In March 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder released a memo to all federal agencies outlining reforms as well as announcing the newly created positions of chief FOIA officer and FOIA public liaison. Shortly after the announcement, Lucy A. Dalglish, director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press hailed the new rules as “a refreshing change from the disastrous standard set by former Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2001.” (more)

Despite holding a generally unfavorable view of Republicans, most independent voters are leaning toward the GOP, a new poll of likely independent voters finds. (more)

NEW YORK — An American woman who was held in Iran for more than 13 months says she and two men detained with her never spied or committed any crime. Sarah Shourd says they believe their arrest was based on “a huge misunderstanding.” (more)

Felipe Calderon whistling in Wonderland (more)

Using the classic Washington fib that “It’s paid for,” Congress is spending an extra $26-billion to bail out state governments (who already got the lions’ share of last year’s failed $787-billion “stimulus” bill). (more)

SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan (AP) — The painting is disturbing: raindrops shaped like bullets and branches intended to look like blood-soaked necks. The artist was a boy recruited by the Taliban to help kill Pakistani soldiers. (more)

Both of the top vote-getting candidates in the Republican primary for Michigan’s 1st Congressional District claimed victory early today, the margin separating them so close (more)

ADEISSEH, Lebanon – Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border Tuesday in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago, killing four people including two Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli army officer. (more)

KADANOK, Russia (AP) — Some of the devastating wildfires sweeping western Russia are out of control, Russia’s emergency chief said Tuesday, as fears grew there were not enough firefighters to battle them. (more)

The White House Correspondents’ Association decided Sunday to give a front row seat in the White House briefing room to Fox News. (more)

“… distractions and mischaracterizations cloak substantive arguments surrounding the issue as the second engine is not “extra;” it’s an alternate, and the enormous difference between the two words means everything.” (more)

BAGHDAD (AP) — A sandstorm downed an Iraqi military helicopter Wednesday, killing its five-man crew, while midmorning Baghdad bombings claimed the lives of six people, officials said. (more)

PARIS (AP) — The Tour de France ended in celebration, with winner Alberto Contador sipping champagne as he rode into the French capital and Mark Cavendish raising his hands in triumph as he once again claimed a stage victory on the Champs-Elysees. (more)

When news first broke that The Daily Caller had obtained documents and other such evidence asserting that a left-wing journalist listserv had plotted to cover up controversial stories revolving around then candidate Barack Obama’s pastor, as well conspire to destroy the lives of anyone who opposes their agenda, most Americans probably shrugged it off realizing this is simply old news. (more)

The appointment of General David Petraeus to lead the American and allied forces in Afghanistan has revived claims that the surge he oversaw in Iraq succeeded.  Even President Barack Obama, who opposed the surge, is reported to have conceded, “it turned out to be a good thing” before announcing his own surge in Afghanistan. (more)