Breaking News } Flash Flood Watch for Johnston county.

Egypt’s best chance lies in staging another fair vote in the second round and allowing the winner to take office – a course the Obama administration should be urging on the ruling military council. T

The 1940 Census ledgers are being made public now because census records must remain confidential for 72 years – a stretch mandated by law at a time when seven decades was assumed to be a normal life span. The release is generating excitement among historians, genealogists and that one person at all family reunions who keeps track of every branch of relatives.

Comment:  Who are the dastardly enemies of free enterprise who decided to make an issue of Mitt Romney’s tenure at the private-equity firm Bain Capital? Er, those would be his fellow Republicans.

Will:  Clumsy attempts to bend Chief Justice John Roberts are apt to reveal his spine of steel.

Point of View:  As we look beyond the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on health care reform to what we’re actually going to do about the problem, what’s clear is that progressives and conservatives both need to move beyond their familiar positions to find a new kind of deal.

Comment:  A big piece of the looming “fiscal cliff” debate involves how to defuse the bomb of spending sequestration that was supposed to force compromise. To consider debt brinkmanship again is sheer lunacy.

We remain vulnerable to financial crisis, natural disaster or war in the Middle East. Barring those events, however, the United States is not headed for some sort of gas-price catastrophe, no matter who wins the election. This is not what the candidates are telling you, but it is the truth.

Krauthammer:  Between now and October, the Nats are my vice.

Former Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten reflects on the 40th anniversary of Watergate.

Marcus:  As commencement speaker advice goes, advocating an Internet-free hour is pretty good. There’s a chance that, unlike most platitudes of the not-an-end-but-a-beginning genre, it will stick. But what struck me about Eric Schmidt’s challenge is both how difficult so many of us would find it to implement – and how pathetically modest the goal of unplugging for a mere hour a day actually is.

The Affordable Care Act will not reward certain kinds of innovation. But by providing incentives for hospitals to reduce infections, errors and readmissions, giving doctors more information on the comparative effectiveness of medical interventions and emphasizing preventive care over expensive services, the act will stimulate a panoply of true medical innovations. These may not be flashy; they might not even be visible to patients. But they will improve health care and lower costs.

Point of View:  According to a 2011 study, nearly one-third of obese patients had never been told by a doctor that they were overweight. Some doctors think it’s a waste of their time. Others complain their efforts won’t pay enough. But these excuses are unacceptable. Just like our obese patients, we have a responsibility never to quit. Talking and persistence are sometimes the most powerful medicines for both doctor and patient.

Point of View:  China was the tie that bound together two encouraging but largely unnoticed events in North Carolina this month.

Who, if anyone, gains politically from the Supreme Court’s ruling on the health care law? Some scenarios...

Comment:  Weird how we pay tribute to heroes who make the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield but absolutely worship those who make fortunes wresting every last penny from other members of their company. As many see it: If you’re rich, you’re automatically a great American. Criticize how someone got rich, and you’re a “socialist.”

Point of View:  Who should make decisions about your dental care: you and your dentist – or a big, out-of-state corporation owned by Wall Street private equity funds? That’s the issue in the fight over Senate Bill 655 in the North Carolina legislature.

Point of View:  State budget writers have advanced a proposal to end state funding for the Consumer Protection Section in the office of the state attorney general. The draft report from the House Justice and Public Safety Subcommittee would eliminate the section’s current annual appropriation of just under $1.8 million. The proposal says that the consumer watchdog attorneys in the section would be funded in the future through something called “receipt support.”

MILBANK:  The trading scandal at JPMorgan highlighted the urgent need for tougher regulation of Wall Street, but Sen. Richard Shelby’s harangue at a hearing this week was part of a larger effort to use the scandal as justification to repeal regulations.

Point of View:  House Bill 952 would undercut the state air toxics program and weaken its protection of the health and well-being of all North Carolinians.