In Today's Times:
- Failing to pass emergency agricultural aid, Congress broke for a five-week recess Thursday, leaving farmers and ranchers reeling from a rough year with no safety net as members headed home to their districts to campaign, Jennifer Steinhauer reports.
- Government auditors found that Amtrak lost more than $800 million on its food service in a decade, having never broken even since Congress began requiring it to do so in 1981, Ron Nixon reports. The main causes? Waste, employee theft and lack of oversight, the auditors say.
- President Obama kept up his attacks on Mitt Romney's tax-cut plans in Florida Thursday, dismissing them as “trickle-down tax-cut fairy dust,†Jackie Calmes reports.
Washington Happenings:
- The Labor Department releases employment numbers for July on Friday.
- Mr. Obama will speak in Washington on Friday to urg e Congress to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class.
