Cheat Sheet

Three American tourists are said to be in Iranian custody after they may have wandered across the Iraq-Iran border, according to Iran state TV. According to reports, all three tourists are in their twenties and one is a woman. The group traveled to Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq with an additional traveler, who fell ill and stayed behind at a hotel. The other three took a taxi to hike in the mountains of Ahmed Awa despite warnings to steer clear of the area because the Iranian territory isn’t marked. They contacted their fourth companion around 1:30 p.m. to say they were “surrounded by Iranian soldiers.” According to Peshrow Ahmed, a spokesman for the security manager in Sulaimaniya, officials are working to devise a plan to get the tourists home safely.

Liberal and conservative Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce panel struck a deal today to cut billions from existing government-funded health-care programs in order to give an estimated $50-65 billion in subsidies to middle-class families, helping them to purchase coverage. (Meanwhile, in the Senate, officials set a September 15 deadline for bipartisan agreement on a healthcare bill.) The Energy and Commerce committee was the last of the three House committees to review the bill, meaning that after the 5-week August recess, party-leaders will debate the bill in Congress in the fall. The bill also includes an amendment reducing premiums on households from 12 percent of total annual income to 11 percent. The agreement between liberals and the conservative Blue Dog Democrats ends the two-week deadlock on health-care that could have prevented Congress from meeting President Obama's deadline. Still, there is a ways to go: "This is one step in a long and complex legislative process," said Ohio Rep. Zack Space, a Blue Dog on the committee.

AP Photo

After being ousted by the Bush administration in 2007, a Nevada U.S. attorney may get his job back. President Obama nominated Daniel G. Bogden—who was forced to resign along with eight other federal prosecutors, sparking investigations into whether the dismissals were politically motivated—to serve as U.S. attorney in Nevada. Justice Department officials testified before Congress that there was nothing wrong with Bogden’s performance as U.S. attorney, and the department’s inspector general said no interviewed senior officials agreed that Bogden should be forced to step down. “I sincerely appreciate the opportunity that this nomination represents for me to return to public service,” said Bogden. Among his supporters are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator John Ensign (R-NV), who commended Obama for the nomination.

With $1 billion down, what's another $2 billion? Just hours after the White House promised to find a way to restart Obama's "Cash for Clunkers" car trade-in program after consumers blew through the designated $1 billion in six days, the House today approved an emergency $2 billion backup midday Friday. By a vote of 316-109, Congress voted to continue to feed the initiative that offers drivers up to $4,500 for their old cars in an effort to promote more fuel-efficient models. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer explained the new funds will come out of the previously approved stimulus package.

The general in charge of turning around the war in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask for more troops when he delivers his report on the region in two weeks. The White House will most likely resist the move, the Associated Press reports, after already agreeing to boost troop levels by 21,000 earlier this year. McChrystal will recommend a "cultural shift" in how U.S. troops operate, urging troops to focus more on protecting the civilian population than going after the Taliban. A new report says 310 civilians have been killed by U.S. and Coalition forces so far this year. McChrystal wants to scale back certain troop customs, such as blocking narrow roads with convoys while Afghans have to take to the ditches, in order to improve relations with the Afghan people. Almost 70,000 U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan by the end of the year.

Corazon Aquino, the former Philippines president who played a key role in restoring the country’s democracy, died Saturday morning of colon cancer at the age of 76. Aquino was the first female president of the Philippines, toppling a dictator in 1986 with her "people power" revolution, and confronted natural disasters, military revolts, and communist rebellion, earning her the nickname “Calamity Cory.” While she did little to amend the country's crushing poverty, Aquino worked to dismantle monopolies and oversaw a number of free elections. She remained politically active after retiring, though she was happy to return to private life. “The best description for me might, after all, be that of my critics who said: 'She is just a plain housewife,'” Aquino told The Washington Post. “Indeed, as a housewife, I stood by my husband and never questioned his decision to stand alone in defense of a dead democracy against an arrogant dictatorship enjoying the support of the United States.”

Wounds from the 2004 campaign still cut deep. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) rebuffed oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens when he tried to introduce himself to Franken at a weekly policy lunch Thursday. Instead of standing to greet Pickens, Franken reportedly launched into a verbal attack, criticizing the business magnate for financing the Swift Boat ad campaign in 2004 that doomed Kerry’s bid for the presidency. “It was a lively conversation,” Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said. And where was Kerry? The senator sent word through his staff that he was all tied up with a lunch with his interns and couldn’t attend.

Just when Christopher Dodd thought his biggest worry was the health-care bill, the Connecticut senator announced Friday that he has been diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer. The Democrat will undergo surgery during the August recess, and still intends to run for re-election in November of 2010. "It's something that's very common among men my age," Dodd—the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee—said. The undaunted Dodd said he was feeling fine, and noted that he would continue to work long and hard hours.

Bad news out of Baghdad: As worshippers left their Friday prayers, multiple bombs exploded near five Shiite mosques, killing at least 29 and wounding dozens more. The Associated Press reports that the deadliest of the explosions struck a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Shaab, killing at least 20 and wounding 17 more, while almost simultaneous explosions killed four and wounded 17 at a Shiite mosque near the Diyala bridge in southern Baghdad. A roadside bomb wounded six worshippers near a third mosque in eastern Baghdad. The bombings ruined a period of relative calm in Baghdad. July has been one of the least deadly months in Iraq for both Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops since the war began in 2003.

Could the recession finally be ending? The Wall Street Journal reports that the economy slumped less than expected in the spring, signaling that the recession may be easing. The GDP dropped at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1 percent during the second quarter of this year, according to the Commerce Department. In contrast, during the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of last year, the GDP fell 6.4 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. The recession isn't likely to end quickly, though. Consumer spending, which drives much of the economy, decelerated in the spring, and according to the Journal, "fear for jobs is keeping wallets tight and seen muting the economy's expected recovery."

Some say it was the grueling concert schedule that killed Michael Jackson; others, the influence of addiction-enabling handlers. Could there be a connection? The New York Times reports that the LAPD is investigating correspondences between Jacko's personal physician, Conrad Murray, and Anschutz Entertainment Group, which was organizing the King of Pop's final concert series in London. The LAPD is one of several agencies participating in the sprawling investigation of Dr. Murray and seven other doctors. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is also participating, and documents filed this week in Nevada included "shipping orders, distribution lists, use records relating to the purchase, transfer, receiving, ordering, delivery and storage of Propofol." Search warrants list 19 aliases that Mr. Jackson allegedly used to acquire illegal prescriptions.

The economy is in a state of collapse, your banking firm is teetering towards bankruptcy, and Congress if rushing to bail out your industry—what do you do? Take home a fat bonus, apparently: a new report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo shows house thousands of traders and bankers raked in huge bonuses in 2008 even at the height of the economic meltdown their companies helped cause. According to the report, nine firms bailed out by the government paid about 5,000 traders and bankers over $1 million each in bonuses for the year. Goldman Sachs alone awarded more than $1 million to 953 workers. The party may come to an end soon as Congress is considering a bill that would empower bank regulators to restrict "inappropriate or imprudently risky" pay packages at banks.

New general, new plan, and maybe a new infusion of troops, but will it be enough to turn things around for Afghanistan? According to the Washington Post, the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is working on a new strategy that could include a request for more troops beyond the additional 21,000 approved in the spring. Such a buildup could prove politically difficult as some Congressional leaders have questioned the usefulness of increasing troop levels. President Obama himself has also asked whether "piling on more and more troops" is a winning plan. In addition to possible changes in troop levels, the new war plan is expected to call on NATO troops to do more to bolster the Afghan government, including rooting out corruption. Similar to counterinsurgency methods used in Iraq, soldiers may also shift priorities from raiding Taliban strongholds in remote areas to protecting civilians in population centers instead.

Pete Souza / The White House

Nothing like a casual brewski between friends—or a highly orchestrated "beer summit" in the White House Rose Garden between the president, a scholar and the cop who arrested him. Yes, the presidential happy hour finally happened. Two weeks after noted black scholar Henry Louis "Skip" Gates accused Cambridge (Mass.) Police Sgt. James Crowley of racial profiling for arresting him at his home near Harvard University, the men clinked mugs of beer Thursday evening with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Obama's beer of choice? Bud Light. Crowley, meanwhile, chose Blue Moon. Sitting at a round table, the men also munched peanuts and pretzels out of silver bowls—as TV cameramen and reporters were kept 50 feet away, after being allowed to view the meeting for less than a minute. The president's aides hoped the "summit" would convey a hopeful message about race relations in this country, and turn down the temperature on an incident that has become "so hyped and so symbolic." At a press conference following the meeting, Sgt. Crowley called it "cordial and productive" and said that he and Gates would meet again.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

As he struggles to push his agenda through a slow-moving Congress at home and seeks to revamp U.S. foreign policy abroad, President Obama will have his half-sister in town for moral support—at least for a few months: Maya Soetoro-Ng and her husband Konrad Ng are temporarily moving to Washington where Mr. Ng is planning on taking a job as scholar-in-residence of the Smithsonian Institution's Asia Pacific American Program from next month until December. According to the New York Times, Ms. Soetoro-Ng has left her high school teaching job and is currently working on a children's book and another book about peace education and conflict resolution in high schools.

It's not over until the biological mom gets her paycheck. Thursday's custody agreement between Debbie Rowe and the Jackson family includes the stipulation that the family will continue to pay Rowe hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in accordance with the informal and verbal "spousal" agreement she had with Michael, the New York Post reports. Under the agreement, Rowe will be allowed supervised visits with Prince, 12, and Paris, 11, while Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother, has custody. The payments to Rowe will continue for a fixed amount of time. An unnamed source said that the family "recognized early in this process" that Rowe "had no interest in playing a real role in their lives" and was only concerned about money. Michael's father Joe Jackson dropped a separate bombshell on NewsOne.com, stating that Omer Bhatti, 25, the Norweigan rapper who sat in the front row with the family at Jackson's funeral, is MJ's son.

A federal judge has ordered that one of the youngest detainees at Guantánamo be released by late next month, "in a case that drew wide attention because of rulings that he had been tortured by Afghan officials and abused in American custody," The New York Times reports. Mohammed Jawad has long faced American charges that, as a 14- or 15-year-old, he threw a hand grenade in Kabul that injured two American servicemen and their Afghan interpreter. But the judge, Ellen Segal Huvelle, declared that the government's case for continuing Jawad's imprisonment was “riddled with holes” and that almost all of the government’s evidence came from confessions made after being threatened with death. “Enough has been imposed on this young man to date,” Huvelle said. Still, Jawad may face civilian criminal charges in the U.S. "We have won the battle,” said his military lawyer, Maj. David J. R. Frakt. “Have we won the war? Perhaps it remains to be seen.”