Joseph Capriglione

Texas Governor Rick Perry is preparing to jump into the race for the Republican nomination for president and his state's record on job creation will likely be a central focus of his campaign. A significant number of the jobs created in the U.S. over the past two years were created in Texas. This despite the widespread economic uncertainty and stubbornly high unemployment that's gripped the nation since the official end of the recession. However, in spite of its success at jobs creation, the state's unemployment number has remained stable.

Six seats in the Wisconsin State Senate are up for grabs today. The elections are being viewed as a referendum on the collective bargaining restrictions signed into law this year by Republican Governor Scott Walker and his GOP allies in the state legislature.  After today's recall elections of Republican state senators will be the recall votes on two Democrats next week. Democrats need to win a net of 3 seats to gain a majority in the State Senate.

Record numbers of undocumented immigrants have been deported under the Obama administration, despite the president's acknowledgment that the country's immigration policy separates families and punishes children. What happens to the deported when they return to their native countries after years — sometimes decades — in the U.S.? And what about their children, who are American citizens?

Last weekend's tragedy in Oslo has drawn international attention to Europe's far-right political parties, which had been gaining power in several European nations in recent years. Confessed attacker Anders Breivik stated allegiance to their anti-immigration and anti-Islamic platforms. Where do these parties go from here? Can they tone down their rhetoric and maintain their niche in the political landscape?

Later today, the House of Representatives will vote on the "cut, cap and balance" plan being pushed by House Republicans as a prerequisite for raising the country's debt ceiling. The plan is expected to pass in the House, where Republicans hold a majority, but will likely die in the Democrat-controlled Senate. President Obama has already said he will veto the bill.

All eyes will be on the British Parliament as News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch appears before the Select Committee this morning, at about 9:15 a.m. EST. The media tycoon is at a crossroads, with many of his top deputies implicated in the scandal that has engulfed his media empire and left his company's reputation in tatters. Murdoch has long been a controversial figure, but the questions surrounding his leadership of News Corp. and the corporate culture it has engendered have come under new fire in light of the phone hacking affair.

Charlie Herman, business & economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, and Kai Wright, editorial director for ColorLines, give their analysis on the major stories of the week.

Another week ends with little progress made in the debt ceiling talks in Washington. President Obama will speak at a press conference for Friday morning at 11 a.m. (EST), but all indicators point to little headway being made towards a compromise. 

The federal judge presiding over the Roger Clemens perjury case has declared a mistrial. Judge Reggie Walton made his decision after prosecutors exposed the jurors to evidence he ruled inadmissible. The government lawyers' blunder was a mistake Judge Walton said even "first-year law students" would have known to avoid.

An article published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association says the state should intervene in cases of morbidly obese children. The authors say that parents should lose custody in the most extreme cases of childhood obesity. This opinion has drawn criticism from several lawyers and members of the bioethics community.

Responding to concerns that lawmakers in Washington will fail to reach an agreement on raising the country's debt threshold, credit ratings agency Moody's placed the U.S.'s credit rating under review for the first time since the federal government shutdown in 1995. The U.S. still risks losing the Aaa rating it has had since 1917, even if lawmakers come to a last minute agreement before the August 2 deadline.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is the latest figure to be dragged into the News of the World phone hacking scandal. Cameron was apparently warned several times not to employ former News editor Andy Coulson as his chief spokesman. Now, the media is questioning what this means about Cameron’s judgement and character.

Another shot has been fired in the ongoing negotiations between President Obama and Republican Congressional leaders to raise the nation's debt limit before the August 2 deadline. Obama challenged Republicans in a press conference on Monday, saying that it was time for the GOP to back up rhetoric about tackling the country's long-term debt problems. Republicans leaders have said they will seek a smaller deal with more cuts to social program and no tax increases on the wealthy. Lawmakers will return to the White House for more negotiations this afternoon.

U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford's visit to Syria has drawn the condemnation of the Assad regime. Ford visited the city of Hama, a center of anti-Assad sentiment, where pro-democracy activists greeted him with flowers and olive branches. Meanwhile, in Damascus, pro-Assad demonstrators hurled rocks and eggs at the U.S. Embassy, protesting Ford's visit. 

It was a big weekend for the U.S. Women's Soccer Team, after a dramatic shootout victory against powerhouse Brazil propelled them to the World Cup's semi-final. The victory was yet another triumph for Team U.S.A. in a tournament that the country has traditionally dominated. Ever since the cup’s launch in 1991, the U.S. has either won or finished in the top three of the Women's World Cup.

The latest news out of the ongoing negotiations to raise the country's debt limit is that President Obama is putting entitlement reform on the table. But Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats say they were caught completely off-guard by the president's latest proposal, and said that the Party is opposed to including Social Security cuts in any kind of deal. The president says the two sides remain divided and far from finding reaching an agreement, but House Speaker John Boehner says there's a 50-50 chance that they'll be able to arrive at a decision this week. Will the president's dramatic proposal be the catalyst that moves the debt deal forward?

Yesterday, our partner The New York Times reported that the United States Treasury Department is printing far less cash than it had been in recent years. Production of dollar bills fell to a modern low last year, the number of $5 bills rolling off the presses dropped to its lowest level in 30 years, and the Treasury did not print any $10 bills at all. As the number of places that don't accept cash at all increases — Internet retail sites, in-flight purchases on airlines, and certain New York restaurants fall into that category — it would seem that cash is in decline. With no quantifiable data to support this, however, we can only speculate. Do you find yourself using cash less and less, and opting for credit instead?

Yesterday, President Obama held the first ever White House Twitter Town Hall meeting. The president fielded questions from Twitter users (asked in the site's standard 140 characters or less). But the president's answers were anything but concise. In fact, he responded to participants' questions with the same long-winded, professorial rhetoric he's been criticized for throughout his presidency. Obama's ability to address his base and stimulate audiences was perhaps his greatest strength as a candidate in 2008. This begs the question: Why has President Obama failed to properly get his messages across to the American people since then?

After deliberating for 10 hours yesterday, the jury in the Casey Anthony trial reached a not guilty verdict. The Florida mother was accused of killing her two-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. Ultimately, jurors rejected the prosecution's allegations that Anthony had suffocated her daughter with duct-tape and dumped her body in a wooded area. The case captivated the nation for three years and the methods news outlets used to cover the trial may have permanently changed they way the media will report on high-profile court cases in the future.

The arrest of fugitive mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger leaves yet another spot open on the top 10 Most Wanted list. Another spot disappeared early this year; Osama bin Laden’s death left a spot that hasn’t yet been filled.