Mark Memmott

Alex Karras, who was a star defensive lineman for the Detroit Lions in the 1960s and went on to gain other fame for his acting in Hollywood's Blazing Saddles and TV's Webster, has died, according to multiple reports.

For telling National Rifle Association members over the weekend that "I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year" if President Obama is re-elected, rocker Ted Nugent has now attracted the attention of the Secret Service.

"We are aware of the incident, and we are conducting appropriate follow-up," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary says.

Tough defense by Louisville led to the defeat Thursday night of Michigan State in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, NPR's Mike Pesca said earlier on Morning Edition.

The Spartans, who lost to Louisville 57-44, are the first of the four No. 1 regional seeds to be sent home.

Syracuse, another No. 1 seed, managed to hang on with a 64-63 win over Wisconsin. In Thursday's other two games, Florida beat Marquette 68-58 and Ohio State thumped Cincinnati, 81-66.

Just to be clear:

Wikipedia's English pages have indeed "gone black" until midnight ET tonight — part of an organized protest by it and many other websites over pending anti-online piracy legislation in Congress.

As the clock ticks down to the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, Moody's Investor Service became the first of the big-three rating agencies to put the United States' Aaa credit rating on review for possible downgrade.

Reuters reports:

In a statement, Moody's said it sees a "rising possibility that the statutory debt limit will not be raised on a timely basis, leading to a default on U.S. Treasury debt obligations."

Trust us on this one, if you have a few minutes you're going to enjoy watching the Clark Retirement Community LipDub video that's been posted online by students at Michigan's Grand Valley State University.

It may be, as the school says, "the nation's first LipDub performed solely by residents of a retirement community." Here's how Grand Valley describes the video:

From The Two-Way:

"Our disagreements are not personal and never have been," House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) just said of the ongoing discussions he's been having with Democratic President Obama about deficit reduction.

LISTEN: NPR coverage of the president's news conference

Update at 11:58 a.m. ET. The president's news conference is over

Update at 11:55 a.m. ET. At The End, More On Jobs:

Continuing to speak about current conditions, the president says that "what we can do is solve this underlying debt and deficit problem" so that then, there can be debates about "strategies that we could pursue to focus on targeted job growth."

Update at 11:51 a.m. ET. On The Economy:

The economic stimulus package passed shortly after he became president, Obama says, prevented a depression — but also "stabilized [the economy] at a level where unemployment is still too high and ... can't make up for al the jobs that were lost before I took office" and in the first months after he took office.

Update at 11:49 a.m. ET. Everybody In The Boat:

Paraphrasing former Sen. Bob Dole (the 1996 GOP presidential nominee), the president says that if Republicans and Democrats both compromise, it's as if "everybody gets in the boat at the same time — it doesn't tip over."

Update at 11:46 a.m. ET. "We Are Going To Get This Done":

Asked if the administration is working on any contingency plans in case a deal on raising the federal debt ceiling is not reached by the Aug. 2 deadline, the president flatly states that "we are going to get this done by Aug. 2."

More details are starting to come in about Wednesday's grizzly bear attack in Yellowstone National Park, in which a 57-year-old man was killed.

It is the park's "first fatal grizzly mauling since 1986, but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year," The Associated Press writes.

While Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou struggled to bring calm to his country today by shuffling his cabinet, The New York Times warns that:

The good news: "At all grades, the average U.S. history scores in 2010 were higher than the scores in 1994, and the score for eighth-graders was also higher than in 2006."

The bad news: "Less than one-quarter of students perform at or above the 'proficient' level in 2010."

That's the word this morning from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, part of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.