10 things to know for Friday

[July 27, 2012]   (AP) -- Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EDT):

1. WHAT EXPERTS FORECAST FOR ECONOMY

At 8:30 a.m., the Commerce Department will issue its first estimate on the growth of the U.S. economy in the second quarter and economists believe the outlook for the rest of 2012 is not all that rosy.

2. OBAMA TO SIGN U.S.-ISRAELI COOPERATION BILL

At 10:15 a.m., the president is reaffirming U.S. ties with Israel, upstaging Romney a day before the Republican challenger visits Jerusalem.

3. ROMNEY'S KEY MEETING AHEAD OF OPENING CEREMONY

The likely GOP nominee for president is scheduled to meet with Irish Prime Minister Edna Kenny at 10:15 a.m. before attending the London Olympics' curtain-raiser at 4 p.m.

4. VICTIM NO. 2 POISED TO SUE PENN STATE

The boy Nittany Lions graduate assistant Mike McQueary saw in the showers with Jerry Sandusky has stepped forward to say it was him and his attorneys promise to file a lawsuit against the heavily sanctioned university.

5. WOMEN DEEMED MAJOR FACTOR IN THIS SWING STATE

Both Obama and Romney see women -- specifically suburbanites from their 30s to their 50s -- as the key to victory in Colorado as well as in other hard-fought places like Virginia and Nevada.

6. WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT IRAQ

In the first tally of its kind, a federal investigative agency calculates that at least 719 people, nearly half of them Americans, were killed working on projects to rebuild Iraq following the U.S. invasion in 2003.

7. WHY THIS TREATY HAS GUN ACTIVISTS UP IN ARMS

An AP Fact Check by Tom Raum explores why Second Amendment backers denounce a pending U.N. crack down on the global, $60 billion business of illicit trading in small arms as an end-run around their constitutional right to bear arms.

8. DELAY IN AMBULANCE RESPONSE CITED

Officers sent out urgent pleas for more ambulances in the aftermath of Colorado theater massacre even as a two-man crew and their rig were idling just a few miles away.

9. THE "CURE" FOR A BURNT OUT LAWN

With two-thirds of the nation covered by a drought, people in normally well-watered areas are catching on to the lawn-painting practice employed for years in the West.

10. WHY IT'S HARD NOT TO OFFEND AT THESE GAMES

The Olympic-sized political gaffes and cultural goofs already registered before the London Games officially open have proven one thing: organizing an offense-free Olympics is nearly impossible.

[Associated Press]

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