Republican and Democratic leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, called for the resignation of Representative Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.), who admitted at a press conference that he had publicly tweeted a photograph of his crotch intended to be sent privately to a 21-year-old woman, and that he had in recent years sent explicit photographs and messages to other women. Before the press conference, publisher Andrew Breitbart, who had disseminated some of these photos, took the podium and demanded an apology from the mainstream media for impugning his coverage of Weiner. “Everything we’ve reported about this story has been true,” he said. “I’m doing this to save his family.” Weiner checked himself into a psychological treatment center and requested a leave of absence from the House.WSJInt’l Business TimesLATNYTSlateNYTNewt Gingrich’s presidential campaign manager and senior advisers resigned en masse, and another Republican candidate, Herman Cain, announced that he would not sign into law any bill longer than three pages.NYTLATThe Alaska governorâ??s office released thousands of emails sent and received by Sarah Palin during her tenure, which revealed that Palin tried to persuade former British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward to invest in a gas pipeline less than a year after a BP pipeline caused Alaskaâ??s largest-ever oil spill.MSNBCTexas governor Rick Perry proclaimed “The Response,” a day of prayer and fasting in Houston this August, in reaction to natural disasters and the national debt crisis. “We must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles,” Perry wrote on the event’s website. “Some problems are beyond our power to solve.”GuardianCNN
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the planner of the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, was killed in a firefight with police in Somalia. VoAMuammar Qaddafi’s daughter filed suit against NATO for the murder of four family members during an air strike in April, and thousands of Syrians fled to Turkey as clashes between President Bashar al-Assadâ??s security forces and civilian demonstrators intensified. GuardianBBCTo protest the construction of a new bridge, members of the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative think tank, posted fake eminent-domain eviction notices on homes throughout Detroit, provoking disorder among residents. NYTDetroit Free PressArt conservators determined that it would take a “miracle” to relocate an Encinitas, California graffito of the Virgin of Guadalupe riding a surfboard, and the City of San Francisco banned a restaurateur from selling grasshopper tacos. WPABCScientists added two new elements to the periodic table, determined that women fake orgasms mainly because of a fear of intimacy, and discovered that indigenous Americans helped Polynesians colonize Easter Island. WSJLiveScienceNew ScientistThe cabin cruiser Titanic II sank during its maiden voyage.TIME
Shrek, a New Zealand sheep who grew a record-breaking sixty pounds of wool during six years he spent hiding in a cave, died, as did Leona Helmsley’s dog, Trouble, who had inherited $2 million upon the New York billionaire’s death in 2007; Trouble’s remaining assets will go to charity. NYDNNYTActing on a tip from a psychic, police officers investigated what was at first reported to be a mass grave at a home in Texas but found only a bloodstain and some rotting meat. “We’ve had the cops at our house, but never for nothing like that,” said the homeowner. “Somebody called the police on my dogs one time.”TIMEA man was charged with assault after breaking into a Washington State home and encountering a resident who questioned why he was holding a dead weasel. “It’s a marten, not a weasel,” the intruder reportedly replied, then punched the victim in the nose.9 News
