STATE VISIT: Matt Perman and James Kinnard.

BIRTHDAYS: Sam Chiron -- faithful Playbooker, staffer in Sam Farr's congressional office, and Fink roommate -- hits the quarter-century mark … Alex Pappas … Matt Bennett’s step-brother-in-law Reid Cherlin is 2-9, and Matt’s actual brother, Steven Bennett (VP and COO of Brookings). Steven and his wife Erin are going to New York for the weekend … David Shuster … AFL-CIO's Will Fischer.

BIRTHWEEK -- Keith Koffler, editor of www.whdossier.com … Jahan Wilcox, 28, who didn’t get a candle in his Wednesday Night Burger because he was celebrating in Reno “on assignment.”

SMART TAKES ON SHIRLEY SHERROD:

--Jim VandeHei on WTOP: “It speaks to a much broader problem in the media-activist industrial complex, if you will, and I think it’s a problem that’s going to get worse: There’s been this proliferation of partisan media -- whether it’s MSNBC and Fox at night, or it’s Breitbart on the right or Huffington Post on the left -- there’s just a huge incentive for people to engage in real tough combat, and to overreact.”

--CNN’s Jessica Yellin, to Wolf, in “The Situation Room”: “We're in a tinderbox media situation regarding race right now … [which creates] a chilling effect -- it's very hard for people in government positions to talk honestly about race.”

--Norah O’Donnell, on “Morning Joe,” said the media “went off half-cocked” because the story appeared to feature an “angry black woman who was mad at an old white farmer -- who didn’t want to help her, because he was acting superior to her. In fact, this story, once it’s illuminated, is a beautiful story -- a story about a woman who helped an old white man save his farm.”

--“W.H. keeps Obama above racial fray,” by Glenn Thrush and Ben Smith: “Obama himself hasn’t spoken publicly or released a personal statement … The incident underscored the paradoxical reality that race, an issue Obama dealt with so deftly during the 2008 campaign, has proven to be an unexpected and persistent stumbling block.” http://bit.ly/adUzf4

BEHIND THE CURTAIN -- “W.H., Dems reach 'détente,” by Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan: “The White House political operation renewed its $9 million campaign cash commitment for House Democrats … House Democrats said they feel reassured that the White House isn’t actively sabotaging their 2010 campaigns and seems to be making peace offerings with campaign dough and friendlier meetings. Some aides on Capitol Hill said they’ve detected a little more sensitivity on the part of the White House since Gibbs sparked Pelosi’s ire by publicly acknowledging what everyone in Washington already knew … A series of meetings over the past week -- among President Barack Obama and House leaders, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and separately between Axelrod and lawmakers and aides -- were designed to help coordinate political and policy messaging heading into a six-week summer break …

--“[W]hat House members really want -- fundraisers for the party committee and individual candidates, campaign stops by Obama and popular surrogates such as Biden, first lady Michelle Obama and Cabinet officials … Van Hollen, discussing his meeting with Emanuel, hinted that the White House is well aware of House members’ wish list. … And even as House leaders ask for help from the White House and its political operation at the Democratic National Committee, they’re warning rank-and-file members not to expect much. ‘We have to rely on ourselves,’ Pelosi told a group of Democratic lawmakers in a recent closed-door session. …

--“While Republicans believe they will pick up the 39 seats they need to win the House on Nov. 2, Pelosi and other top Democrats don’t see that outcome. Internal Democratic reviews project far smaller losses, somewhere in the range of 20 to 30 seats. Such losses would weaken the Democratic hold on the chamber but keep Pelosi in power come the start of the 112th Congress.” http://politi.co/d7AxBd

TOP TALKER -- “THE CASE AGAINST SUMMER VACATION” -- DAVID VON DREHLE writes TIME’s cover story: “We romanticize it. But all that downtime is making our kids fall behind -- especially those who can least afford to.” Social scientists call it “summer learning loss.” Others simply call it “the summer slide.” The argument: The three-month summer vacation is an anachronism that hurts America’s global competitiveness but hurts low-income kids most of all -- kids who don’t have a chance to go to camps or learning centers or take educational vacations with their families. Whereas low-income kids and high-income students start at relatively the same point in first grade, by 9th grade, low-income kids are three grades behind. During the year, they stay close to equal — but each summer the distance between the groups gets wider. Opponents of extending the school year include teacher’s unions and amusement-park industry.

--DVD: “We associate the school year with oppression and the summer months with liberty … But … children around the world … are in many cases spending four weeks longer in school each year … Dull summers take a steep toll, as researchers have been documenting for more than a century. Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. …. In places all over the country -- from inner cities to Appalachia, inside rec centers and church basements, on bumpy ball fields and pocked -playgrounds -- kids are learning this summer … If ever there was a movement suited to local experiments, informal innovations and seat-of-the-pants efforts, surely it’s the campaign to squeeze more from summer.” Cover image http://politi.co/daUX2R

GALLUP.com -- “Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions: “Gallup's 2010 Confidence in Institutions poll finds Congress ranking dead last out of the 16 institutions rated this year. Eleven percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress, down from 17% in 2009 and a percentage point lower than the previous low for Congress, recorded in 2008. … The military continues its long-standing run as the highest-rated U.S. institution. Small business and the police occupy second and third places, respectively. … Confidence in organized religion is similar to where it has been since 2002, but is significantly lower than in prior years.” http://bit.ly/aWmMM9

--“This year's poll … finds a 15-point drop in high confidence in the presidency, to 36% from 51% in June 2009. Over the same period, President Obama's approval rating fell by 11 points, from 58% to 47%. However, confidence in the presidency remains higher than in 2008 -- the last year of George W. Bush's term -- when the figure was 26%.”

--From most confidence to least confidence: Military … Small business … Police ... Church or organized religion … Medical system … Supreme Court … Presidency … Public schools … Criminal justice system … Newspapers … Banks … Television news … Organized labor … Big business … HMOs … Congress.

SPEED READ, by Tim Alberta:

--Reuters/Washington, “Senate asking BP CEO to testify on Lockerbie,” by Susan Cornwell: "The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also is requesting testimony from Mark Allen, who has served as an advisor to BP.” http://yhoo.it/bDKYhr

--AP/Washington, “No Charges Will Be Filed Over Firing of U.S. Attorneys”: “Prosecutors have concluded their two-year investigation into the Bush administration's firing of U.S. attorneys and will file no charges, the Justice Department said Wednesday.” http://bit.ly/d0S0Mb

--NYT A1, “Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern on Safety,” by Ian Urbina: “A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems.” http://nyti.ms/cM9aJv

--WaPo A1, “Most in oil, gas lobbies worked for federal government,” by Dan Eggen and Kimberly Kindy: “Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows.” http://bit.ly/9JVtUU

--NYT A1, “4 Oil Firms Commit $1 Billion for Gulf Rapid-Response Plan,” by Jad Mouawad: “Four of the world’s biggest oil companies said on Wednesday that they were committing $1 billion to create a rapid-response system to deal with deepwater oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, seeking to restore public confidence in the industry after the BP disaster painfully exposed how unprepared the industry was for a major accident.” http://nyti.ms/avm8RR

--WSJ A1, “Petraeus Sharpens Afghan Strategy,” by Julian E. Barnes: “Gen. David Petraeus plans to ramp up the U.S. military's troop-intensive strategy in Afghanistan, according to some senior military officials, who have concluded that setbacks in the war effort this year weren't the result of the strategy, but of flaws in how it has been implemented..” http://bit.ly/9tFNLm

--WSJ A2, “Bush Tax Cuts Roil Democrats,” by Martin Vaughan and John D. McKinnon: “Two more Senate Democrats called for extending tax cuts for all earners—including those with the highest incomes—in what appears to be a breakdown of the party's consensus on the how to handle the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts.” http://bit.ly/9zTy8j

BUSINESS BURST – NYT A1, “G.M., Eclipsed at Home, Soars to Top in China,” by David Barboza and Nick Bunkley: “As G.M. prepares a public stock offering later this year, China is emerging as a crucial piece of its appeal to potential investors — and a surprising down payment of sorts for American taxpayers, who would begin shrinking their 61 percent equity stake in the company. In the first half of this year, G.M.’s China sales rose 48.5 percent over the same period last year, and for the first time ever, the automaker sold more vehicles in China than in the United States. Just 13 years after entering China, G.M. now says the country accounts for a quarter of its global sales — blistering growth that even G.M. did not expect this soon.” http://nyti.ms/9zemei

SPORTS BLINK – Sports Illustrated names the “Fortunate 50” -- “50 highest-earning American athletes”: For the seventh consecutive year, SI.com has compiled a list of the 50 top-earning American athletes by salary, winnings, endorsements and appearance fees. The average earnings of those on the list have reached an all-time high of $26.2 million (up 11 percent from '09).” The top 10: 1. Tiger Woods, $90,508,163 … 2. Phil Mickelson, $61,660,757 … 3. Floyd Mayweather Jr., $60,250,000 … 4. LeBron James, $45,779,912 … 5. Alex Rodriguez, $37,000,000 … 6. Shaquille O’Neal, $37,000,000 … 7. Kobe Bryant, $33,034,375 … 8. Derek Jeter, $31,000,000 … 9. Peyton Manning, $30,800,000 … 10. Dwayne Wade, $27,779,912. Full rankings http://bit.ly/a4Ahol

** A message from Intel: For decades, Intel has been producing the world’s most advanced microprocessors—right here in America.

Approximately three-fourths of Intel microprocessor manufacturing is done here in the U.S., and investments by Intel have made it one of the top employers in both Arizona and New Mexico and Oregon's largest corporate employer. Seven of Intel's ten semiconductor factories are here in the U.S. – factories that are leading production of the next generation of microchips that will advance computing and communications and help enable the technological breakthroughs of tomorrow.

Intel sees ongoing investments in America—including $34 billion in capital expenditures over the past eight years—as critical not only to our company’s success, but to our country’s success: it’s what fuels America’s innovative spirit, and keeps it at the forefront of new technologies, new industries, and new ideas. **