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The Summer Olympics begins Friday, July 27, 2012, and ends Sunday, August 12, 2012.

Map: Where Obamacare would expand Medicaid most.

While the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the core of President Obama's health care law Thursday, the justices came down hard against a provision that would have expanded Medicaid to millions more low-income Americans. As passed by Congress, the legislation expanded Medicaid to nearly everyone making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line, which would have added an estimated 16 million people to state Medicaid rolls over the next seven years. States that refused to comply would run the risk of losing all Medicaid funding.

Seven justices ruled that the move went too far, and that the government can only withhold the funds to expand Medicaid, not existing money that helps states run their pre-expansion programs.

So will more conservative states take advantage of this new leeway and reject the expansion? That's what Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican, suggested Thursday, when he said that he opposed expanding Medicaid in his state. A spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has made a show of rejecting federal funds in the past, wouldn't say whether he would block the expansion. Medicaid is often one of the biggest lines in states' budgets, and that share is growing as health care costs continue to rise.

But some of the early opposition may turn out to be saber rattling. The federal government is funding 100 percent of the state expansion for the first few years before reducing their contribution to a permanent 90 percent. That's a much higher contribution than the government currently makes for Medicaid (at 57 percent), which every state now participates in, even though it is also an optionalprogram. And in addition to the government providing a sweet deal, the states who sued over the expansion account for most of the country's unemployed people, which might make it particularly difficut for their governors to turn down a chance to insure their residents at a tenth of the cost.

In the map above, each state is shaded according to how much its Medicaid program would expand under the new law, according to the higher end of the Kaiser Family Foundation's estimates (pdf, page 45). Each state is also shaded red or green, based on whether it has passed a law or constitutional amendment opposing health care reform. (Alabama and Wyoming have proposed amendments on the 2012 ballot.)

According to the National Journal's Ron Brownstein, the 26 states that sued over the Medicaid expansion contain 55 percent of the nation's uninsured, a total of 27.6 million uninsured people. Texas alone has 6.1 million uninsured people. Expanding Medicaid in Texas would cover 2.0 million people, the Kaiser Family Foundation (pdf).

Congress passes student loan-rate extension.

The House of Representatives on Friday passed a transportation bill that included an extension of the low interest rate on government-subsidized student loans, just days before the rate would have doubled.

The bill, which includes more than $100 billion in funding for highway projects over two years, extends the current 3.4 percent student loan rate for one more year at a cost of an estimated $6 billion.

The measure passed 373 to 52. All of the members who opposed it were Republicans.

The path toward passage was a bumpy one, and it looked as though the parties would not be able to find agreement on the many provisions throughout the bill.

Egypt's New President Vows to Win Release of World Trade Center Plotter.

Egypt's president-elect has vowed to win the release of an Egyptian cleric jailed by the U.S. for planning the first attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Omar Abdel-Rahman, "the blind sheikh," is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for his role in the 1993 bombing that killed six people in lower Manhattan. The attack on the World Trade Center launched by al Qaeda eight years later on Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people.

""I see banners for Omar Abdel Rahman's family, and for prisoners arrested according to martial rulings and detainees from the beginning of the revolution," said Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi to a buoyant crowd of Islamist supporters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday. "It is my duty to make every effort, and I will beginning tomorrow, to secure their release, among them Omar Abdel Rahman."

Rahman, 74, a veteran of Egypt's Islamist movement, was jailed in Egypt for allegedly helping to inspire the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. He entered the U.S. in 1990. One of his followers was convicted of gun possession, though acquitted of murder, after the assassination of Jewish leader Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York in 1990.

Using evidence collected by an Egyptian informant, the U.S. government prosecuted Rahman for conspiracy in connection with the February 1993 World Trade Center attack. After the attack, the government recorded Rahman encouraging further violence against targets in New York and New Jersey. Rahman and nine followers were arrested in June 1993, and he was sentenced to life in prison in 1996. He is presently incarcerated at the Butner federal facility in North Carolina, where Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, also 74, is serving his own effective life sentence.

In 2005, lawyer Lynne Stewart was convicted of serving as a messenger between Rahman and Islamists in Egypt. She was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison, and then resentenced to 10 years in prison in 2010 because of alleged perjury.

Pelosi-Boehner photo: lots of buzz.

The snap of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., seemed to say it all, about the emotions surrounding the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Obama's health care law--even though the photo was taken the day before and had nothing to do with the health care news.

The quirky picture was first surfaced by the Atlantic's Molly Ball, who tweeted it on Thursday afternoon, the day after it was snapped.

The photo quickly caught the attention of the Web. The Washington Post even held a caption contest.

The image, taken on Wednesday by a sharp-eyed Associated Press photographer at an event honoring members of the Montford Point Marines, seemed to express the partisan mood of the country.

Pelosi looks joyful; Boehner looks like a child who has had his toys taken away from him. Or maybe just a man sentenced to eating a lot of broccoli.

Comments like these on the photo were typical. Wrote @comancheblood: "… boehner about to cry." @SovernNation added, "Way more than 1000 words! Sums up #SCOTUS reax perfectly."

Indeed Pelosi was thrilled by the decision, tweeting, "Victory for the American people!" Boehner, for his part, vowed to repeal the law.

Americans evenly divided on court’s Obamacare decision.

Americans are evenly divided, 46 percent to 46 percent, on whether they support the Supreme Court's decision to uphold President Barack Obama's health care reform on Thursday, according to a new Gallup poll. Nearly 80 percent of Democrats agree with the court, compared to 45 percent of independents and only 13 percent of Republicans.

Convicted Arizona Businessman Appears To Commit Suicide In Courtroom.

An Arizona millionaire who died minutes after he was convicted of arson appeared to have put something in his mouth while in the court room, sparking an investigation into whether the convicted arsonist had poisoned himself.

Michael Marin, 53, was convicted on Thursday of purposefully burning down his $2.55 million mansion in the tony Biltmore Estates neighborhood of Phoenix after he was unable to keep up with mortgage payments and a plan to raffle his house through a charity fundraiser failed. He faced up to 16 years in prison.

After the guilty verdict on one count of arson was read, a seemingly distraught Marin buried his face into his hands and appeared to place something in his mouth.

His face began to turn red. Minutes later, he took a sip of a liquid from a plastic sports bottle, turned to get a tissue, experienced convulsions and collapsed.

He was pronounced dead at the hospital, said Jeff Sprong, spokesperson for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the death.

"As you watch the video it does look like he is putting something into his mouth. Unfortunately we didn't find any evidence he left behind," Sprong said. "We are steering toward the fact he did ingest something. However, we're going to have to wait for toxicology results in two to three weeks."

Marin, who amassed his fortune working in finance and as a Yale-educated lawyer, set fire to his 6,600 square foot mansion on July 5, 2009 after he was unable to make a $2.3 million payment on his balloon mortgage the following month.

Clad in scuba gear and breathing with an oxygen tank, Marin climbed down a ladder from the second floor of his mansion to escape the fire. His bizarre and harrowing escape made news and made fire officials suspicious.

Investigators determined he had set the home on fire from four different points using an accelerant. Twenty-eight phone books were also found near packing boxes, which were used as kindling for the fire, according to a report by the Phoenix Fire Department obtained by the New Times.

"The scuba setup was in a ready state when he found it next to his portable ladder stored in his upstairs master bedroom closet," fire Capt. Jeff Peabody wrote in the report.

What wasn't in the Phoenix home also raised suspicions.

The divorced father of four clung to his prized possessions: 18 etchings by Pablo Picasso, which were safe in his Gilbert, Ariz., home at the time of the Phoenix fire.

After the investigation, which also revealed Marin's dwindling assets as a motive for starting the fire, he was arrested and charged with arson of an occupied structure.

"Michael Marin couldn't pay his mortgage, so he burned down his house," Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Chris Rapp said in his opening statements.

The 53-year-old had a taste for living large and was known for his eclectic interests. He was a self-published author. He owned and piloted a Cessna 310, had scaled Mt. Everest, served as a Mormon missionary and later as an executive in Japan, and was a diehard fanatic of the Burning Man festival.

But on Thursday, it became clear Michael Marin's once-robust social life would be replaced with the prospect of spending up to 16 years in prison.

"We the jury, duly impaneled and sworn in the above entitled action upon our oath, do find the defendant Michael James Marin guilty of arson of an occupied structure," said a foreman.

Moments later, Marin discreetly popped something into his mouth and died.

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes split after five years of marriage: 'Tom is deeply saddened,' says actor's rep

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing after five years of marriage. The actress’ attorney, Jonathan Wolfe, says in a statement toPeople: “This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family. Katie's primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter's best interest."

Soon after Holmes' announcement, Cruise released his own statement on the split. "Kate has filed for divorce and Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children," his rep tells People."Please allow them their privacy to work this out."

Holmes filed in New York on Thursday, and according to TMZ, she is seeking sole custody and "primary residency custody" of Suri, 6, as well as a "suitable amount" of child support. The site also reports that the couple has a prenup.Together, they are worth a reported $275 million, with Cruise earning the bulk of that.

The Hollywood couple wed in a lavish ceremony in Italy in November 2006 with their daughter Suri, then just a baby, by their side. It was the first marriage for Holmes and the third for Cruise, who was previously wed to Nicole Kidman and Mimi Rogers.

Cruise, who turns 50 on Monday, and Holmes, 33, have not been seen together in public since April 1 when they stepped out hand-in-hand and seemingly very happy. Still, the actress did not accompany her husband on the red carpet for any of his recent “Rock of Ages” premieres and was noticeably absent when he received the Friars Foundation's Entertainment Icon Award on June 12 – a big dealconsidering he is only one of four people to ever get the honor. Her excuse? Holmes had to appear at an ice skating event in China. Instead, Cruise brought along Suri as his date, as well as his 17-year-old son Connor (whom he adopted with previous wife Nicole Kidman). "[Katie's] in China working," he said during his speech. "The women are all working. So Suri is my date this evening. Suri, thank you. My son Connor is [also] here. You guys really inspire me."

Holmes, who has been in New York City with Suri while Cruise has been filming in Iceland, hasn't exactly been acting like a woman upset over the ending of her marriage. In recent weeks, the former “Dawson’s Creek” star has looked happier than she has in a long time, smiling for the cameras, walking around Manhattan, and hanging out with pals – which ironically is exactly how she was living her life before Cruise mysteriously swept her off her feet in April 2005, just weeks after she split from fiancé Chris Klein.

On May 23 of that year, Cruise made quite a spectacle of his new love when he infamously jumped on the couch on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and pumped his fists for joy, as he gushed to the talk show host. “What has happened to you?” joked Winfrey. “This is how I feel about it,” replied an elated Cruise. “I’m in love!” Less than a month later, he proposed to Holmes, then just 26, atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And if it wasn’t whirlwind enough, in October of that year, the two announced they were expecting their first child together. Daughter Suri was born in May 2006. Although Cruise and Holmes often said they couldn’t wait to have more children, they never did.

Obama: DC 'feels as broken as it did 4 years ago'

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Washington"feels as broken as it did four years ago," when he took office.

He says he's most frustrated by the inability "to change the atmosphere" in the nation's capital "to reflect the decency and common sense of ordinary people" who want their leaders to solve problems.

"There's enough blame to go around for that," he told CBS' "Sunday Morning."

CBS' Charlie Rose interviewed the president and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House on Thursday and has aired parts of the conversation on different network shows since then.

Reflecting on more than 3 ½ years in office, Obama said, "I think there's no doubt that I underestimated the degree to which in this town politics trump problem solving."

On a lighter note, he said the White House will be a quieter place this summer because his daughters, 11-year-old Sasha and 14-year-old Malia, will be in sleep-away camp for a month. The president, meanwhile, will be campaigning for re-election, spending lots of time outside Washington.

"We're going to be experiencing the first stages of-empty nest syndrome," he said. Asked if he's prepared for that, the president said, "Well, I get a little depressed."

The first lady said the Obamas will find a way for "family time, because any time the girls are out of school, that's important time for us to spend as a family. We're still parents where you have to juggle your time around when they're free and summer time is that time."

In a separate interview, taped Friday and released Sunday, the 50-year-old president said the food and unfamiliar mattresses are downsides of the campaign trail.

"When you're on the road, you end up eating a lot of stuff that tastes really good at the time but later on in the day can catch up with you, and I'm now getting to the age where being in my own bed as opposed to some other bed, is not always great for my back," he told WJLA-TV in Washington.

Obama also revealed, when asked what voters don't know about him, that he "can cook a really mean chili," though his wife will claim that "I haven't cooked it for about 10 years, so I really shouldn't get too much credit for it."

And one more: "I'm a surprisingly good pool player, so if you ever see me in a pool hall, don't just think that you can ..."

"Don't walk up and throw down money is what you're saying?" interviewer Scott Thurman asked.

"That's what I'm saying," the president said. "I might end up cleaning your clock. That's a possibility."

The president also described himself as "a pretty good doodler" of faces, people and other things.

"Sometimes when I'm in a big important international meeting and you see me writings stuff down it might be that I'm just drawing some folks," he said.

GOP governor calls on Romney to release more tax returns.

BC News' Michael Falcone and Arlette Saenz report:

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, in an interview with ABC News on Saturday, called on presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney to release his tax returns in order to show voters that he has "nothing to hide."

Bentley said that Romney's refusal to release more returns has created a "distraction" that Democrats were successfully exploiting.

"I just believe in total transparency," Bentley told ABC News at the National Governors Association conference. "In fact, I was asked today that question - do you think that Governor Romney should release his tax returns? And I said I do. I said, I release my tax returns. I may be the only public official in Alabama that does, but I release mine every year and I just believe that people should release their tax returns. And if you get them out and just get past that, it just makes it so much easier."

Bentley, who took office in 2001, warned that failure to do so would continue to open the door for the Obama campaign and their Democratic allies to "cause distractions away from the real issue in this campaign and that's the economy."

Earlier this year, Romney released his 2010 tax documents and his estimated returns for 2011, but so far he has declined to offer disclosures for additional years and has indicated he is unlikely to do so. Democrats have pounced on Romney for what they see as a lack of transparency.

"They're doing everything they can to hurt Governor Romney and tax returns will be one of those things," Bentley said. "So the best thing to do is just get everything out in the open and just say, 'hey I have nothing to hide and I'm going to release my tax returns.'"

The Republican governor, who voted for Rick Santorum over Romney in his state's presidential primary, added: "I think that it's always easier just to say, hey I'm releasing everything, and just get it out there and then get past it."

That strategy, Bentley said, would allow the former Massachusetts governor to " start talking about the issues that I think that the people of America really are concerned about and that's our economy and jobs and 8.4 percent unemployment rate and a $16 trillion debt."

Responding to the Alabama governor's comments, Obama campaign spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith said: "We agree with Governor Bentley - Mitt Romney should exhibit total transparency and release his tax returns."

Smith added, "That's the only way the American people will learn about his motivations on critical policy matters and whether he invested in foreign tax havens and offshore accounts to avoid paying U.S. taxes or hedge against the dollar."

Obama says he won't apologize to Romney.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he will not apologize to likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romneyfor an aide's comment last week that false filings to a government regulator could bring a felony charge.

"No. We will not apologize," Obama said in an interview taped Saturday with WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va., and posted on the station's website Sunday. "Mr. Romney claims he's Mr. Fix-it for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience."

Obama spent two days campaigning in tightly contested Virginia last week, reminding voters of the discrepancies between Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Romney's recollection of his role at Bain Capital. Obama's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, suggested Thursday Romney might be guilty of a felony for misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC.

Both sides lobbed salvoes on the Sunday talk shows, with Obama surrogates insisting that Romney's role at Bain tells voters how he will address the tax code if elected, and Romney's stand-ins saying the attacks were undignified.

"We now know that this president will say or do anything to keep the highest office in the land even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land," Ed Gillespie, Mitt Romney's campaign adviser, said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Cutter, appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," said the former Massachusetts governor should heed the advice he gave his opponents in the GOP primary and "stop whining."

Romney's campaign released a new television ad on Sunday asking why the president had stopped talking about hope and change, his signature message during the 2008 campaign, and criticizing him for a barrage of negative ads against Romney.

The Romney release comes a day after Obama began running an ad mocking Romney singing "America the Beautiful" as image after image ties Romney to Bain and U.S. jobs lost overseas and to personal foreign investments.

The Obama campaign is questioning whether Romney was at the helm of the Boston-based private equity firm when it sent jobs overseas, allegations that "independent fact checkers have said are not true, they're indeed a lie," Ed Gillespie, a campaign adviser to Romney, said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Cutter said Romney can't have it both ways.

"Either you're the CEO, president, chairman of the board of Bain Capital as you attest to the SEC or he's telling the American people he bears no responsibility for that. Both those things can't be true. Either you're in charge or you're not," Cutter said Sunday.

The documents place Romney in charge of Bain from 1999 to 2001, a period in which the company outsourced jobs and ran companies that fell into bankruptcy. Romney has tried to distance himself from this period in Bain's history, saying on financial disclosure forms he had no active role in Bain as of February 1999.

But at least three times since then, Bain listed Romney as the company's "controlling person," as well as its "sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and president." And one of those documents — as late as February 2001 — lists Romney's "principal occupation" as Bain's managing director.

Romney did five interviews with evening cable and network news shows Friday so people would know "he's not a felon," Gillespie quipped Sunday. Romney also demanded an apology during the interviews.

"Instead of whining about what the Obama campaign is saying," Cutter said, "why don't you just put the facts out there and let people decide instead of trying to hide them? If he didn't gain advantages, then show us, show the American people. What is it you're hiding?"

El Salvador's gang truce cuts murder rate.

QUEZALTEPEQUE, El Salvador (Reuters) - Victor Garcia, alias 'The Duck,' at 39 has survived longer than most gang members in El Salvador, and has seen hundreds of his 'homies' killed by rivals over the years.

The relentless tit-for-tat murders between El Salvador's two largeststreet gangs - "Calle 18" and "Mara Salvatrucha" - made the country the most murderous in the world last year after neighboringHonduras, also ravaged by gang violence.

That was until Garcia, from the Calle 18 ("18th Street") gang, along with elders from the Mara Salvatrucha declared an unprecedented truce that authorities say has cut the homicide rate in half in just four months.

"We've been through things that have changed us. It is a waste of life, those who have died in this conflict," said Garcia, a tattoo of a skeleton hand clutching his shaved head.

Formed in the 1980s in the United States by Central American immigrants, many refugees from the region's civil wars, the gangs or "maras" grew into an international franchise when criminals were deported back home.

They have grown dramatically in the last two decades and El Salvador alone has an estimated 64,000 gang members. Branches operate across Central America and in at least 42 states in the United States.

The gangs deal drugs, run prostitution rings and protection rackets and carry out armed robberies. Many gang members cover their faces and bodies with menacing tattoos to prove their lifelong commitment. The turf wars are brutal, with gangs often targeting their rivals' family members.

Tired of the cycle of revenge killings, gang leaders housed side by side with their enemies in a maximum security prison outside the capital of San Salvador decided to broker a deal.

Garcia from the Calle 18 gang and Aristides Umanzor, aka "El Sirra," from the Mara Salvatrucha - each backed up by 15 of their top lieutenants - sought out a Catholic bishop and a former leftist congressman to serve as mediators.

In March, they surprised the country by releasing a joint statement declaring an end to violence and pledging to freeze recruitment of new adolescent members, especially in poor neighborhoods and around schools.

Since then, the change has been dramatic. Murder rates are down to around five a day from more than a dozen before the pact. On April 14, El Salvador recorded its first day in three years without a single murder.

"We aren't demobilizing, we'll always be gangsters," Garcia said from a prison in Quezaltepeque where he is serving out a 28-year sentence. "But we are quitting crime little by little as long as we can find jobs and a chance to re-enter society."

President Mauricio Funes, a leftist, insists his government did not cut any deals with the gangsters. But shortly before the truce was made public, 30 top gang leaders were transferred from maximum-security prisons to others with benefits like family visits.

Garcia was transferred to Quezaltepeque, where prisoners enjoy some modest freedoms, although he still lives with 15 other men in a cell designed for six.

U-TURN

The government has lauded the truce and is trying to help its long-term success by working with business leaders to offer work and rehabilitation programs for gang members.

It is a policy U-turn from the "iron fist" tactics used against the gangs for years in Central America. Under Funes' conservative predecessor, teenagers could be arrested just for sporting gang tattoos without having committed any crime, filling the jails to dangerous levels.

"It was open hunting season on the gangs. We knew that if we didn't do something soon, this was never going to change," said Garcia.

El Faro, an online newspaper in El Salvador, reported the truce was the result of a government deal with gangsters to stop the violence in exchange for better prison conditions and other favors, but the government denies that.

Still, it hopes that, just as the rivalries crossed borders for decades, the message of peace from Garcia and his former enemies can now seep over to neighboring countries.

"We want to share our experiences because we are seeing results," said El Salvador's defense minister, David Munguia, who recently met with his counterparts in Guatemala and Honduras to discuss regional crime-fighting strategies. "We would like it to be replicated elsewhere but always considering the specific circumstances in the different countries."

The head of the Organization of American States, or OAS, went to El Salvador last week to meet with gang members and to glean lessons for the rest of the region.

A former journalist, Funes is the first president from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, which was founded by Marxist guerrillas who fought in a 12-year-long civil war that killed 75,000 people.

Peace accords were signed in 1992 but the political violence was quickly replaced with an explosion of gang warfare and violent crime, and the government says the recent truce is only part of the solution.

"The gangs are still criminal organizations and we are still pursing them. ... We don't expect them to stop being delinquents overnight," Munguia said.

NEIGHBORS ARE SKEPTICAL

Officials and gangs in other countries are skeptical the success in El Salvador can spread.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez, a retired general, took office in January on a campaign promise to clamp down on crime and just this week busted 40 gang members for extorting money from people in a neighborhood in the capital city.

The groups run lucrative extortion schemes, demanding "war taxes" from local shop owners, bus drivers and private homes. They often kill those who don't pay up.

"We are not willing to have a dialogue with 'maras'" Perez said earlier this year. "We are calling on them to stop committing crimes, but if they have already committed crimes, they must face the consequences."

In Honduras, the deadliest country in the world according to the United Nations with an annual rate of 87 murders per 100,000 people, the sentiment is much the same.

"We cannot negotiate with them," said Hector Suazo, director of Honduras' special investigations unit at the security ministry. "They manage large sums of money thanks to the drug trade. The kids are heavily armed and take over entire areas to extort and terrorize the population."

One former member of the Mara Salvatrucha in Guatemala, who belonged to a local clique called "the crazies," is not convinced the calm in El Salvador will last.

"There are a lot of lies on the street," he said, asking not to be named during an interview at the jail where he is locked up for homicide. "The homies say one thing and do another. They don't keep their word."

(Additional reporting by Mike McDonald in Guatemala City and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Kieran Murray; Desking by Todd Eastham)

Unrelenting Obama jabs at Romney's job record.

CLIFTON, Va. (AP) — An unrelenting President Barack Obamajabbed at Mitt Romney's record with a private equity firm in an ad Saturday that aimed to keep his rival on the defensive just as the Republican challenger's campaign hoped to take advantage of poor economic data to gain an edge on the incumbent.

Obama met Romney's plea for an apology for the attacks with a mocking ad that charged that the firm shipped American jobs to China and Mexico, that Romney has personal wealth in investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, and that as Massachusetts governor, he sent state jobs to India.

"Mitt Romney's not the solution. He's the problem," the ads says as Romney is heard singing "America the Beautiful."

Pressure was building on Romney from within his own party to be more forthcoming with his finances, a day after he declared he would not release past income tax returns beyond his 2010 tax records and, before the November election, his 2011 taxes

On the sidelines of the National Governors Association meeting in Williamsburg, Alabama's Republican governor, Robert Bentley, called on Romney to release all the documents requested of him.

"If you have things to hide, then maybe you're doing things wrong," Bentley said. "I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people."

After Democrats seized on his words, Bentley later said he still believes Romney's taxes should be released and he believes in transparency, but he's wasn't implying that Romney has anything to hide.

A soaked Obama, campaigning in a downpour in closely contested Virginia, hewed to his middle class-centered pitch in remarks in Glen Allen, which lies in the district represented by one of his top Republican nemeses, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. He attacked Romney and his Republican allies for pursuing what the president branded as outdated and discredited economic policies.

Obama didn't dwell on Romney's business record, leaving the sharpest attacks to his campaign and the new television commercial. Still he played up the charge that Romney and the private equity firm he founded in 1984, Bain Capital, sent jobs overseas.

"He invested in companies that have been called pioneers of outsourcing," the president said, his shirt drenched and water streaming down his face. "I don't want pioneers in outsourcing, I want some insourcing. I want to bring companies back."

Obama spoke to about 900 people in Glen Allen, arriving in a downpour. He eschewed a rain jacket or umbrella and apologized to the women for their ruined hairdos.

"We're gonna have to treat everybody to a salon visit after this" he quipped.

Later, as the rain continued without letup, he appealed for time to make one more point.

"Everybody's wet anyway" he said. "So it doesn't matter. It's too late. Those hairdos are all gone. "

Later Saturday, in Clifton, Va., Obama again tried to tie Romney to the loss of American jobs, contrasting himself with his rival.

"I want to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas," Obama told the audience of 2,100 at Centreville High School. "Let's give those tax breaks that are investing right here in Virginia, right here in the United States of America, hiring American workers to make American products to sell around the world."

Romney's spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, fired back Saturday, accusing the president of being less than truthful about Romney's record.

"The American people deserve the truth and they certainly deserve better from their president," Saul said, from Boston.

While Obama hammered Romney for a second consecutive day in Virginia, Romney spent time with his family in New Hampshire. The candidate, taking a weekend off from public events, spent the morning at his lake house, working on his iPad on the lawn while his grandchildren played nearby. His last public event was Wednesday and he didn't plan other public campaign appearances until Tuesday.

Romney aides began the week drumming Obama on stubbornly high unemployment but watched their upper hand fade. Romney's advisers said Saturday they would keep their plan and not be distracted by Obama's criticism. Romney aides declined to weigh in on Obama's latest criticism and pointed to Romney's television interviews on Friday.

The intensifying attacks and the calls for greater openness came amid stepped up attention to discrepancies between Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Romney's recollection of his role at Boston-based Bain Capital.

At stake is Romney's chief contention that as a former businessman, he has the experience to create jobs and spur a struggling economy. The Obama campaign has countered that Romney ran a firm that pioneered the practice of sending American jobs out of the country and that his background is one of an investor.

Romney insists that he stepped down from his private equity firm years earlier than federal records indicate

The new Obama ad was set to run in closely fought Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In a round of interviews broadcast Friday evening, the Republican candidate said he wouldn't release more tax returns beyond the 2010 and 2011 returns.

"You can never satisfy the opposition research team of the Obama organization," Romney told CBS on Friday.

And he demanded an apology from Obama for the attacks. "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," Romney told ABC.

Backhanding the request, the Obama campaign responded with a Web video that shows Romney criticizing Obama in speeches and interviews. Romney is seen accusing the president of not understanding freedom and following an appeasement strategy in foreign affairs, and saying he intends to "stuff it down his throat and point out that it is capitalism and freedom that makes this country strong."

On the flight from Washington to Richmond, Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said that Romney "spends a lot of time asking for apologies, but he spends a lot of time attacking."

It wasn't just Obama, though, pressuring Romney.

"There is no whining in politics," chided John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist. "Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns."

Obama said the questions raised in numerous media reports and highlighted by his own campaign aides were a legitimate part of the race for the White House.

"Ultimately, I think, Mr. Romney is going to have to answer those questions because if he aspires to being president, one of the things you learn is you're ultimately responsible for the conduct of your operations," Obama said in an interview with the District of Columbia's WJLA-TV.

Romney called that "Chicago-style politics at its worst" and accused the president, who's from Chicago, and his campaign of trying to shift attention from the economy and unemployment situation.

In trying to put the matter behind him and return the campaign to his economic arguments, Romney declared he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of the company after he left to take over the Salt Lake City Olympic Games in early 1999.

Romney acknowledged that he would have benefited financially from Bain's operations even after he left management of the firm to others. That could open him up to criticism that he gained from investment in companies that sent jobs overseas.

"All of the investors participate in the success or failure of various investments, just like you do as a shareholder of an enterprise," Romney told CBS.

Bain Capital said in a statement that Romney "remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999."

Republican Governors to Romney: Release Tax Returns, Offer More Specifics.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—The nation’s governors have a host of their own problems to worry about—that pesky Medicaid expansion for example—but that doesn’t mean they’re not keeping a close eye on 2012’s biggest ticket: the presidential election.

Asked on the sidelines of the National Governor’s Associationannual meeting about their diagnosis of Mitt Romney’s campaign, the Republican governors had all kinds of advice for the candidate who comes from their ranks, from release-those-tax-returns-already to give-us-more-specifics.  

Despite the Beltway buzz and grumbling from some conservatives that the former Massachusetts governor has not been nimble or aggressive enough in responding to the Obama team’s attacks, many of the Republican governors here said Romney had hit on an economic message that voters in their states wanted to hear, and lauded his progress.

“I believe he’s moving down the right road, going in the right direction. Is he where he needs to be? No. But can he get there? Yes,” said Utah Gov. Gary Richard Herbert, referring to Romney’s numbers in several swing states, where he is trailing President Obama. “He’s come a long way since when he first ran four years ago and right now, in a dead heat with a current incumbent president who has all the powers of incumbency.” 

Herbert added, indignantly, “”I was in Utah when he was running the Olympics! He wasn't running Bain Capital.”

Despite another mediocre jobs report released this month, the political debate of the past week has been consumed with the question of how involved Romney was in the investment firm from 1999 to 2002, when Bain was investing in firms that outsourced jobs. Romney was on at least a partial leave of absence to run the Salt Lake City Olympics during that time. Filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission show that he was still the owner, chairman, CEO and president of Bain, but he says he wasn't managing the firm’s investments.

A series of media reports about Romney’s role and withering, relentless attacks by the Obama campaign prompted Romney to respond more forcefully than he has against past charges. He went on a media blitz Friday, doing a series of interviews on network television and demanding an apology from the Obama campaign for saying he had lied about his Bain involvement. Instead, the Obama campaign upped the ante Saturday with a potentially powerful new ad focused on outsourcing and the offshore tax shelters Romney listed on his 2010 tax return, the only one he has released so far.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley found himself in hot water for perhaps a little too much candor when he said Romney would do well to release more tax returns, as Democrats have demanded  in recent weeks. “I think he ought to release everything. I believe in total transparency,” Bentley told reporters.  “You know if you have things to hide, then you may be doing things wrong.”

Bentley added, however, that the Obama campaign's focus on outsourcing was a diversionary tactic that voters would see through. “I do believe the Obama campaign is trying to cloud the issue by talking about Bain Capital because they don’t want to talk about 8.4 percent unemployment and I wouldn’t either!” Bentley said (slightly inflating the June jobless rate, which was 8.2 percent).  “If I were them, I’d be talking about all the other things too.”

At NGA—no surprise here--there was a blanket condemnation of the Democratic attacks from the Republican governors. “At the end of the day, people are going to reject that kind of nasty, negative campaign coming from the president of the United States,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

The GOP governors said the sniping between the campaigns is irrelevant to people who are hurting for jobs, looking for a speedier recovery, and worried about the nation’s debt. “This fuss we see over this is just not the headline it apparently is inside the Beltway,” said Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead. “If you ask people what they’re concerned about, they’re concerned about the future of our kids and our grandkids, they’re concerned about the national debt.”

Mead added that Romney had been quick to respond to the Bain attacks, a promising development. “Gov. Romney has made clear when he did these things and when he was in charge of Bain Capital and when he was not,” Mead said. “It’s a bit of a red herring in the sense that you’re talking about somebody that was in the private sector creating jobs and if you want to bring up that contrast, I think he compares quite well with President Obama.”

When asked about whether the Bain attacks had the potential to be damaging in his swing state, full of the white, blue-collar voters among whom they might have the most resonance, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett deflected. “I’m not doing surveys of the people of Pennsylvania,” he said. “You’re doing that. I’m much too busy to be doing those surveys.”

Some of the governors did say they would like to see more specificity from the Romney campaign as the election cycle moves toward the conventions. “It is not just enough to say repeal Obamacare, it’s repeal and replace it with what?” Herbert said. “I know governors are talking about that on the Republican side of the aisle, and we’re talking about it in Utah.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who last month survived a recall election provoked by his moves against public employee unions, encouraged Romney to follow in his mold and campaign as a bold, budget-balancing crusader. Voters were just beginning to receive a clearer economic message from him, Walker said. Now, they need more details on the budgetary end. 

“For him to do well, the R next to his name has to stand for more than just for Republican, it has to stand for reformer,” Walker said.  “We got significant swing votes, independents, even some discerning Democrats voting for me because they like someone who’s willing to take on the tough issues facing our state.”