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as a choice: give his economic policies more time to flourish or bet on Romney's agenda that the president says would simply benefit the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers likely added jobs last month, though probably not enough to push down the unemployment rate. A tepid report Friday on hiring in August would provide little momentum to President Barack Obama's campaign a day after his speech to the Democratic convention.
• Analysts forecast that the economy generated 135,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained 8.3 percent, according to a survey by FactSet. That's below the 163,000 jobs gained in July, but an improvement from meager hiring in the spring.
• In his speech Thursday night, Obama acknowledged incomplete progress in repairing the still-struggling economy and asked voters to remain patient.
• But economists were encouraged Thursday after several reports suggested hiring could pick up in the coming months.
• Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government said. And companies boosted hiring in August, according to a private survey. A third report showed that service sector companies, such as hotels, retailers, and financial services firms, expanded at a faster rate last month.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration faces a weekend deadline to decide whether the Pakistan-based Haqqani network should be declared a terrorist organization, a complicated political decision as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and pushes for a reconciliation pact to end more than a decade of warfare.
• Enraged by a string of high-profile attacks on U.S. and NATO troops, Congress has ordered Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to give her verdict by Sunday. U.S. officials say there are disagreements within the administration over what to decide.
• The U.S. already has placed sanctions on many Haqqani leaders and is targeting

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