Cheat Sheet

The machines are getting smarter: a Wall Street Journal investigation peels back the curtain on a booming invasive online business in which tracking technology on popular websites access users’ information and compiles profiles—that are then bought and sold in bulk, or individually by data exchange companies. According to the study, the country's top 50 websites installed an average of 64 tracking technologies onto users' computers unknown to those clicking around on Wikipedia or Dictionary.com. New technologies can track people's web activity in real time and even ascertain a user's income level, location and medical conditions. This info has become a cash cow for companies who sell to advertisers who want to target and follow specific users across the Internet, tailoring messages specifically to them. "It is a sea change in the way the industry works," said a CEO of a data exchange company. "Advertisers want to buy access to people, not Web pages."

We're not out of the woods yet: Economists say the latest numbers from the Commerce Department spell bad news for the rest of this year, despite the fact that businesses are posting better profits. Figures released Friday show that the U.S. economic recovery has slowed in the second quarter. The national gross domestic product grew at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, down from an upwardly revised 3.7 percent in the first quarter and 5 percent in the last quarter of 2009. According to other recent reports, consumer spending is still at a low level as people remain skeptical on the economy's growth, and consumers have yet to see their earnings rise.

Over 800 people have died in a week due to floods in Pakistan resulting from record-breaking rainfall—and more are missing, according to Pakistani government officials. The northwest province of the nation bore the brunt of the deluges. On Saturday, the United Nations announced that one million people have been affected by the disaster, but offered no details. The rains destroyed thousands of homes and 45 bridges across the country. Rescuers are scrambling to reach trapped victims in remote areas, and those who have been evacuated have been afflicted with waterborne diseases. "Due to the floodwater, they now have pain in their bodies and they are suffering from fever and cough," said a doctor treating some of the victims.

A second woman has come forward to accuse actor/filmmaker Casey Affleck of sexual harassment. Magdalena Gorka, a cinematographer for Affleck's upcoming Joaquin Phoenix documentary, alleges that Affleck refused to pay her for work after she pushed back against his on-set sexual advances and derisive comments. The lawsuit reads, in part, "During the middle of the night, [Gorka] awoke to find Affleck lying in the bed next to her...Unbeknownst to [Gorka], Affleck had entered the bedroom while she was asleep and crawled into the bed. When she woke up, Affleck was curled up next to her in the bed wearing only his underwear and a T-shirt. He had his arm around her, was caressing her back, his face was within inches of hers and his breath reeked of alcohol." After departing the project, Affleck allegedly refused to pay her for her work and took away her "director of photography" credit.

After two decades on the air, the original show in the Law & Order franchise is officially no more. Creator Dick Wolf had originally hoped to move it to a new network once it was cancelled earlier this year by NBC. But he announced Friday that he had failed to arouse interest from any other network. "I can confirm that it has moved into the history books,” Wolf said. "That's business. That's life. Every show is born under a death sentence, they just don't tell you the date of execution.” The series aired its final episode on NBC in May, marking the end of a slow decline in ratings—its audience had dwindled by 50 percent since 2002. But all is not lost for the franchise, which still has spin-offs like Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit. This fall, it will launch, Law & Order: Los Angeles, starring Alfred Molina.

Stay classy, Jersey Shore: At 3:25 p.m. Friday, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi was arrested in Seaside Heights, where the MTV reality show is filmed, and then released with a summons. Earlier in the day, she’d been seen partying at the beach with a beer bong, which she apparently filled up with Coca-Cola. She was arrested for disorderly conduct, as fellow beach-goers had insisted she was bothering them. The arrest comes a day after the Jersey Shore’s second season premiere.

This October, Tina Fey will hark back to her days on Saturday Night Live: NBC’s hit show 30 Rock will air two live episodes—one for the East Coast, one for the West Coast. Fey and Lorne Michaels, the show’s executive producers, were approached by NBC about a live episode and were up for the challenge, according to the Television Critics Association. Other live episodes of NBC shows have aired before, but this is the first time that the Emmy-winning 30 Rock will make the attempt.

The planned mosque and Islamic community center two blocks from where the World Trace Center attacks took place on September 11, 2001, continues to get flak from protesters—this time, the Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s top Jewish civil rights group. The project, the ADL says, is “counterproductive to the healing process.” The ADL’s main concerns are where the project’s funding is coming from and whether the organization behind the plan, the Cordoba Initiative, is associated with “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.” The plan’s other opponents include Sarah Palin and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. There are also supporters, though, like New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We believe it will be a place where the counter-momentum against extremism will begin,” Daisy Khan, wife of Cordoba’s director, told The New York Times. “We are committed to peace.” A city community board voted largely in favor of the project last spring.

American Apparel, to put it nicely, is screwed. The company has seen falling sales since February 2009, when records were first made available. Even its 2010 first quarter report looked bleak: There was a 10-percent decline in same-store sales and an operations loss of $17.6 million. The company is struggling to manage the pile of debt it took on during its greatest years of expansion, too. And—to top it all off—American Apparel’s auditing firm, Deloitte & Touche, quit on Thursday after it “identified material weaknesses in [American Apparel’s] internal control over financial reporting ... and advised that the Company has not maintained effective internal control over financial reporting.” The reason for all this is, as Jezebel writer Jenna Sauers puts it, is because American Apparel “expanded beyond the point of rationality or even sanity.” To the formerly booming and trendy T-shirt maker, we say good luck.

The Thrilla from Wasilla's appeal just refuses to die. Even though it's been two years since Sarah Palin's fame reached a fever pitch during the 2008 election, fans and devotees still trek up to the city she ran as mayor, hoping to see her in the flesh or visit her home. Tourists pose with cardboard cutouts of Mrs. Palin and try to walk in her shoes for a day. Said Lyn Carden, the head of the Chamber of Commerce in Wasilla: "Of course, every single question is about her and where she is and where she gets her hair done and what she eats and what she's doing."

When it rains, it pours. After suffering the embarrassment of Charlie Rangel this week, the Democratic Party now has another similar affair to look forward to with longtime California representative Maxine Waters. Like Rangel, she has chosen to submit herself to an ethics trial, rather than simply accepting the charges made by a House ethics subcommittee. She stands accused of improperly involving herself with federal regulators to help a bank that her husband had a significant stake in—he once owned about $500,000 worth of stock and served on its board. Along with Rangel, she will also be the second member of the Congressional Black Caucus to undergo the House’s ethics proceedings in the coming months, leading the Caucus to complain that it has been unfairly targeted.