A new loophole is being pried open in the campaign finance rules. It would enable federal candidates to once again solicit corporate money to finance organizations that promise to help them get elected.

The idea comes from a lawyer who has done more than anyone else over the years to upset the status quo in America's political money laws — James Bopp Jr., of Terre Haute, Ind.

Dozens of tour buses have added the tiny town of Elma, N.Y., as a stop this year. On their way to scenic sites like Niagara Falls, these tourists are squeezing in a visit to the Made in America store.

Shop owner Mark Andol climbs aboard a bus and tells the riders that shopping here is a patriotic act.

"When you walk through them doors, I guarantee when you're shopping — the homework's been done — it's 100 percent made-in-America products. Made in this country by American workers, and the money stays in our economy. So, enjoy yourself," he says.

Always, the worst thing you could call an athlete was "goat." He's the chump who cost his team by dropping a fly ball, making a turnover, fumbling.

Bill Gallo, the beloved New York Daily News cartoonist, would draw a portrait of the goat of every World Series game, depicting the poor stiff with horns for ears. In fact, I suspect the designation of the goat as the figure of ridicule derives from the medieval sign of the horn for a cuckolded husband.

The political world learned Tuesday that two more aides, this time top fundraisers, quit Newt Gingrich's campaign.

The official word is that financial director Jody Thomas and consultant Mary Heitman decided to "step away from the campaign." That's the campaign's phrasing.

Their departure comes 12 days after Gingrich's top campaign strategists all quit along with grassroots organizers in Iowa, the first state in the Republican nomination contest, and staff in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Anyone who's ever been to the Montreal International Jazz Festival knows there's nothing else quite like it in North America. Every year for a week and a half, the festival takes over a massive plaza, several adjacent city blocks and everything that can be called a concert venue in the area. There's live music all day and deep into the night, and at the heart of the matter is plenty of exceptional, well-programmed jazz.

Mexico's secretary of the Council on National Security said authorities had captured one of the most wanted men in organized crime. The Mexican daily, El Universal reports that Alejandro Poiré said José de Jesús Méndez Vargas, or "The Monkey Méndez," the alleged leader of La Familia Michoacana cartel had been captured in Aguacalientes without any confrontation.

"With this arrest, we've destroyed what was left of the leadership of the organization," El Universal quotes Poiré as saying.

Unemployment is still dangerously high. But things are looking up for both households and companies.

On today's Planet Money, economist Mark Zandi says households have been steadily reducing their debt over the past few years.

The number of credit cards outstanding, bank cards, retail store cards, peaked at almost 600 million back in August of 2008. As of the end of May, we are down to less than 500 million.

Today, British police said they arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with distributed denial of service attacks on, among other sites, the U.S. Senate and the CIA. Police said Ryan Clearly was linked to the hacker activist group LulzSec.

The Guardian reports:

Investigators believe the arrest is significant and linked to the attacks based mainly at websites belonging to US institutions and organisations.

How much has the nation's political landscape changed after 10 years, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and whatever we define Libya as?

So much so that a Democratic president who ran as an anti-war candidate, at least on Iraq, has come to look like a hawk when compared to Republican presidential candidates.

On the eve of his Wednesday evening speech to the nation in which he will announce how he plans to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan, it's Obama who finds himself fending off calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces there.

From our colleagues at ProPublica:

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $154 million settlement for allegedly misleading investors in mortgage-securities deal involving the hedge fund Magnetar.