Writer Gore Vidal died yesterday. He was 86.

President Obama Scores in Battleground States. According to a new poll, voters in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania prefer Obama over money-hiding Mitt Romney.

And Whitey Gets It. With just three months to the national elections, an Iowa professor wanted to know what percentage of the vote Obama could lose because he’s black. And that number is 3.3 percent.

Meanwhile in Iraq, this July proved to be the bloodiest month for the war-torn country in the past two years.

And the Olympics are still happening. I know, right? Here are some updates.

In other Olympics news…

Bad Badminton. Earlier today, the Olympics’ badminton events experienced an "evening of shame," as badminton players purposefully threw games in an effort to work the system.

Tweeting Gold. Following NBC's brewhaha about folks tweeting Olympic results before the station broadcast the events hours later, The LA Times has created a list of the best Olympics Twitter feeds.

Meanwhile, Twitter apologizes for suspending journalist Guy Adams' account. The social network suspended the reporter’s account after he tweeted an NBC executive’s email address to protest how the network was covering the games. Now Twitter says it's sorry.

“Obamacare” Starts Today. The first in a series of benefits from the Affordable Care Act get going today. Included are all sorts of goodies for 47 million American women.

In Portland, with designs for the new Sellwood Bridge finalized, Multnomah County continues to work on the city's other aging bridges. Get ready for more construction.

The Willamette River Superfund site clean up isn't going well. Nope.

And, Attack of the Chickens! Following the lefty protests over Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy’s anti-gay stance, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has mounted a counter attack in support of the homophobic chicken peddler. Today is "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day," according to the Huckster.

That reminds me of a really fucked up video. Heads up, it gets a little Pink Flamingos.