THE HILL: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday trumpeted congressional efforts to boost the nation’s veterans and pledged ongoing support for American soldiers returning from war. Pelosi delivered a 30-minute speech to the American Legion National Convention in Milwaukee, where she touted the passage of legislation to increase funding for veterans' healthcare and overhaul the GI Bill.

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THE HILL: In an ominous sign for Democrats, a new poll has found that people trust the GOP more on the economy and jobs, the two issues most likely to decide the fall elections. In a USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday, 49 percent of respondents said Republicans would do a better job handling the economy than Democrats; only 38 percent said Democrats would be better.

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THE HILL: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Wednesday the labor federation has put together a "massive mobilization" program to get the vote out for the 2010 midterm elections. The AFL-CIO will be able to reach 17 million working-class voters at home and at work using the union's status as a "trusted messenger," Trumka told reporters.

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THE HILL: New details have emerged about an ethics investigation into links between eight members’ fundraising and their votes on the Wall Street reform bill. The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Monday notified three members, Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.), Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Tom Price (R-Ga.), that it was recommending the ethics committee further review their fundraising activities surrounding the Dec. 11, 2009, vote on the financial services measure. The OCE dismissed the cases against the other five members, according to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation.

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THE HILL: Forbes magazine this week released its first-ever survey of America's most profitable hospitals, revealing that 24 hospitals with more than 200 beds make 25 cents or more for every dollar of patient revenue they take in. The report is being widely disseminated by the health insurance industry, which is pushing back against claims that health insurance profits — rather than rising medical costs — are to blame for rising premiums.

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THE HILL: Republican candidates enter the final two months of the campaign with an unprecedented 10-point lead on the generic congressional ballot and a categorical edge in what gets people to the polls: enthusiasm. The GOP has turned out 3 million more voters than Democrats during the primary season so far — reversing the 3 million vote advantage Democrats enjoyed in 2006, the last midterm year.

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THE HILL: Alan Simpson, the GOP co-chairman of President Obama's fiscal commission, on Tuesday questioned some disability benefits paid to war veterans, saying they are "not helping" the nation's debt crisis. Simpson, an Army veteran and former chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, specifically questioned automatic disability awards to those affected by the defoliant Agent Orange, which the U.S. used during the Vietnam War. Simpson said the payments don't mesh with his panel's goal of reducing the debt.

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POLITICO: In states far from the Mexico border – from liberal Massachusetts to moderate Iowa – Democrats and Republicans in gubernatorial races are running on strict anti-immigrant platforms, pledging to sign an array of tough enforcement measures into law come January. Of the 37 gubernatorial races this year, candidates in more than 20 states have endorsed adopting a strict Arizona-style immigration law, passing legislation that makes it harder for illegal immigrants to live, work and access basic public benefits in their states, according to a POLITICO analysis.

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WASHINGTON POST: The U.S. Postal Service, headed toward a loss of at least $7 billion this fiscal year, opened contract talks with its largest union Wednesday seeking cost cuts that could reshape the nation's mail-delivery system. In addition to concessions on wages, health benefits and working conditions, the Postal Service says it must pare its full-time workforce and expand the use of part-timers to stay afloat. Postal officials said that with declining workloads -- Americans have sent 20 percent fewer letters and packages since 2007 -- they can no longer guarantee eight-hour shifts for clerks, mail handlers, carriers and other workers.

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WASHINGTON POST: About 16.6 million workers are employed by small businesses that are eligible for health insurance tax credits under the new health-care law, according to estimates that were to be released by a nonpartisan research foundation Thursday. However, the report by the Commonwealth Fund estimated that only 3.4 million of those workers are at firms that would take advantage of the tax credit. For the most part, those are firms that already offer their employees health insurance.

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WASHINGTON POST: The slow-moving struggle to unplug TV viewing from its traditional business model just got more interesting -- and messier. Over the past few years, companies big and small -- from name brands Microsoft and Google to newcomers such as Roku and Boxee -- have tried to bridge the gap between the Internet and the TV to let viewers watch the shows and movies of their choice on the biggest screen in the house. At a media event here Wednesday morning, Apple rejoined that effort.

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WASHINGTON POST: On the eve of the first direct Middle East peace negotiations since he took office, President Obama urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday to seize "this moment of opportunity" and to end their decades-long conflict, pledging to throw his administration's "full weight" behind their effort to do so. Speaking in the Rose Garden after a day of preparatory meetings, Obama sternly addressed both parties and the region's Arab leaders, whom he scolded for endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state in principle while often doing little to help bring one about.

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WASHINGTON POST: The news broke around 1 p.m. with a few sketchy details. Gunman. Shots. Hostages. Discovery building. Within minutes, there were photos, including an astonishing one of a man clad in shorts, carrying a rifle and stalking through what looked like an office courtyard.

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WASHINGTON POST: James J. Lee divided the world into good and bad. According to his writings on a Web site he created, people were bad, especially "parasitic" babies. Animals and bugs were good, Lee wrote. But war was bad, along with global warming, pollution and international trade.

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WASHINGTON TIMES: Union leaders will unleash a concerted attack against Republican candidates and their "right-wing agenda" beginning this Labor Day weekend as they rally to stem expected Democratic losses in November's midterm elections. The head of the nation's largest organized labor federation on Wednesday vowed a two-month media and grass-roots campaign to define the election as a fight between Democrats' efforts for the nation's workers versus Republicans' efforts to regain control of Congress for corporate America.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES: At a time when illegal immigration has returned to the political spotlight, figures released Wednesday show a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. border, in what researchers are calling the "first significant reversal" in 20 years. The total number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. dropped to 11.1 million in 2009, down from a peak of 12 million in 2007, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that studies the nation's Latino population. The report echoes the findings of a study released in February by the Department of Homeland Security.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Two Yemenis who flew from Chicago to Amsterdam, where they were arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack, were released Wednesday, Dutch officials said. "They are free men.... This case is closed," said Martijn Boelhouwer, a spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Bill and Beverly Osborn still can't bring themselves to erase the phone message from their son Ben. He had called from Afghanistan in June to assure them that he was safe. Four days later, he was killed in a Taliban ambush. The Osborns long ago accepted the risks faced by their son, an Army specialist. But what they can't accept now are the military rules of engagement, which they contend made it possible for the Taliban to kill him.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Two Yemenis who flew from Chicago to Amsterdam, where they were arrested on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack, were released Wednesday, Dutch officials said. "They are free men.... This case is closed," said Martijn Boelhouwer, a spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam.

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NEW YORK TIMES: In a year when news about Alzheimer’s disease seems to whipsaw between encouraging and disheartening, a new discovery by an 84-year-old scientist has illuminated a new direction.

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NEW YORK TIMES: The Boy Scouts of America have reached a financial settlement with six men who say they were sexually abused when they were members of the same troop in Oregon in the 1980s. The settlement, whose terms were not disclosed, was reached last week and announced Wednesday by the plaintiff’s lawyers. It was confirmed by the national scouting organization, which is based in Irving, Texas.

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NEW YORK TIMES: A clinical trial of Meridia, a controversial diet pill, in nearly 10,000 overweight or obese older patients over many years found that the drug increased the risks of heart attacks and strokes while doing little to slim their waists. The study was paid for by Abbott Laboratories, Meridia’s maker, and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. And the authors of the study, three of whom are Abbott employees, concluded that the trial results did little more than show that patients with heart problems should not be prescribed Meridia — a restriction already included in Meridia’s label.

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NEW YORK TIMES: Flo the chimpanzee bounds about her enclosure, hurls a rubber ball then stares quizzically at the New Mexico green chili pepper that will be her morning snack. It has been a long time since Flo was on exhibit at the Memphis Zoo, even longer since she learned to smoke cigarettes during a stint with the circus. Most recently, she was a research chimpanzee here in New Mexico, part of an expansive biomedical testing program for hepatitis C and H.I.V.

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NEW YORK TIMES: The number of illegal immigrants in the United States, after peaking at 12 million in 2007, fell to about 11.1 million in 2009, the first clear decline in two decades, according to a report published Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The reduction came primarily from decreases among illegal immigrants from Latin American countries other than Mexico, the report found. The number of Mexicans living in the United States without legal immigration status did not change significantly from 2007 to 2009. Some seven million Mexicans make up about 60 percent of all illegal immigrants, still by far the largest national group, the Pew Center said.

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NEW YORK TIMES: He was warned the journey north would be hard, so Gilmar Morales beefed up on eggs and sausage, bought some ham sandwiches from the bodega across the street, told his mother he loved her and set off with two other relatives on a path well-traveled by young people here in one of Latin America’s poorest countries. Then, a few weeks later his mother, watching a television news show, looked hard at a picture of the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants killed last week in northeast Mexico near the Texas border. Was that Gilmar, the one with the familiar yellow-and-white striped T-shirt, his blue pants?

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NEW YORK TIMES: Ismail Haji Noor, a local government official, recently arrived in this notorious pirate den with a simple message: we need your help. With the Shabab militant group sweeping across Somalia and the American-backed central government teetering on life support, Mr. Noor stood on a beach flanked by dozens of pirate gunmen, two hijacked ships over his shoulder, and announced, “From now on we’ll be working together.”

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NEW YORK TIMES: At 18 months, Kyle Warren started taking a daily antipsychotic drug on the orders of a pediatrician trying to quell the boy’s severe temper tantrums. Thus began a troubled toddler’s journey from one doctor to another, from one diagnosis to another, involving even more drugs. Autism, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, insomnia, oppositional defiant disorder. The boy’s daily pill regimen multiplied: the antipsychotic Risperdal, the antidepressant Prozac, two sleeping medicines and one for attention-deficit disorder. All by the time he was 3.

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NEW YORK TIMES: Hurricane Earl edged toward the Atlantic coastline Thursday as tourists and residents fled the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the wake of forecasts that the storm might lash the state by the end of the day. On Masonboro, an undeveloped barrier island near Wilmington reachable only by boat, a small armada bobbed on the protected mainland side Wednesday as a steady parade of short boards and zinc-coated faces streamed over the dunes to the surf. There, the still far-off storm created a bonanza of waves.

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NEW YORK TIMES: The message might have seemed gracious, on its face. “Thank you for your service, Sen. Murkowski,” Sarah Palin wrote on her Twitter account on Tuesday night after Senator Lisa Murkowski conceded to Joe Miller, the political novice Ms. Palin had endorsed in Alaska’s Republican primary. Yet in the same message, Ms. Palin had reveled in Mr. Miller’s stunning upset, writing, “Do you believe in miracles?”

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NEW YORK TIMES: The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were to open direct peace negotiations Thursday after committing to work to end the conflict that has endured for six decades. The talks are to be held at the State Department, where they will take place under the eye of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The negotiations follow a remarkable tableau at the White House Wednesday night, where President Obama, flanked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, vowed to do everything within his power in the next year to achieve the comprehensive agreement that has eluded negotiators since Israel was established.

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