President Obama will make a statement on the economy from the White House briefing room at 10:15AM. He is expected to take questions.

Watch live here.

President Obama, earlier:

We have mechanisms in place where if we can root out folks who have leaked they will suffer consequences

President Obama covered a lot of ground in his press conference today, but what’s sure to get the most attention is a claim he made about the health of the private economy. This is regarded as newsworthy because reporters recognize (correctly) that Republicans will use it out of context in attack ads.

Here’s the full quote: “The truth of the matter is that, as i said, we’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government”

And, via Matt Yglesias, the data: Read More

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday voted to look into whether ‘stand your ground’ laws across the country are racially biased.

Obama clarifies remark about the private sector “doing fine”:

Full-size version.

Ever wanted to look 13 billion years into the past?

Commerce Secretary under investigation for felony hit and run.

Investigators have not ruled out drugs or alcohol playing a role in the bizarro series of car crashes Saturday involving Commerce Secretary John Bryson, TPM has learned.

Contrary to earlier reports, authorities have not ruled out alcohol and drugs in Commerce Secretary John Bryson’s hit and run incident yesterday.

One note of caution: Bryson’s conduct in this case appears to have been extremely erratic, which can have many explanations, a number of them scandalous. But it’s worth remembering that sometimes serious medical problems can also be at the root of these cases. We’ll report more as we know it.