Your customized headlines for Sat, Jul 7, 2012

The nation's labor market treaded water in June, adding to the mounting evidence that the economic recovery has stalled just as the presidential campaign heads into its stretch run.

Employers added a paltry 80,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. With voter impressions about the state of the economy hardening four months before Election Day, the slowdown is making it more difficult for President Obama to make the case that his economic policies have been entirely effective.

POLAND, Ohio--Campaigning across Ohio on Thursday, President Obama walked a line between talk of economic optimism and expressions of economic realism. On Friday, reality hit home with a vengeance as the latest jobs report showed the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June and that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent.

At the remote border crossing north of here, two stern U.S. border guards emerged from their spanking new post to check passports. There wasn't another person or car in sight. An uninterrupted sea of prairie stretched in every direction.

My last column, looking at five myths and misconceptions that have emerged since the financial crisis first surfaced five years ago, clearly hit a nerve. It elicited more than 500 online comments, an unusually large response. Most commenters were critical of what I wrote, which is par for the course.

ISTANBUL — During a period when the world's thoroughbred business has suffered, and betting totals in the United States have dropped year by year, there is at least one nation where racing has prospered: Turkey.

The nation's labor market treaded water in June, adding to the mounting evidence that the economic recovery has stalled just as the presidential campaign heads into its stretch run.

Employers added a paltry 80,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. With voter impressions about the state of the economy hardening four months before Election Day, the slowdown is making it more difficult for President Obama to make the case that his economic policies have been entirely effective.

The three summers of President Obama's first term in office have been decidedly unkind to him on the economic front, a trend that puts even more importance on this morning's June jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.