Trimming the Times: Debt Deal; Moon, Inc.

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Now that the New York Times pay wall is live, you only get 20 free clicks a month. For those worried about hitting their limit, we're taking a look through the paper each morning to find the stories that can make your clicks count.

In a change of pace for The Times this week, the home page leads not with the News International phone hacking scandal but with a report on a nearly made deal between Barack Obama and John Boehner to get the federal debt ceiling raised. And of course, the oppressive heat gets a prominent mention, with a look at how workers cope when their jobs take them out in the sun. But our top choice for today follows on yesterday's final space shuttle mission with a look at the private firms competing to be the first to the moon.

World: The story examining how seriously to take North Korean war rhetoric makes for some interesting analysis, especially when combined with the news from this morning about nuclear envoys from the two Koreas meeting in Bali. And of course, there's plenty more on the phone hacking case, including a worthwhile report on a former News of the World editor who surfaced in Florida and may have more details on the extent of the hacking.

U.S.: The most enjoyable stories today lean toward the quirky: There's the dispatch from California about the very real problem of farm thieves stealing everything from grapes to bees. And in Phoenix, residents roil at newscasters' characterization of recent dust storms as "haboobs," a term typically used in the Middle East.

Business: The top story here is one of the best reads: a report from Greece, where average citizens (like taxi drivers) are balking at new austerity measures. There's also a report on higher-than-expected GE profits, but that's available pretty much everywhere.

Technology: The report on Microsoft's fiscal year is very interesting, with a 30 percent rise in profits but a drop in sales of Windows. And the Bits blog has a good entry on banker Frank Quattrone (the guy who took Netscape public) and his prediction that we're in the early stages of another tech bubble.

Science: The lead article is quite fascinating, all about the private firms that are competing to win the Google Lunar X prize for non-government travel to the moon.

Sports: Of course, the main story here is also the one to read, on a tentative labor deal from NFL owners that could, if players accept it, bring about the end of the league's lockout.

Opinion: In the lead op-ed, medical writer Judith Warner holds forth on migraines, and why people are so worked up about the fact that Michele Bachmann gets them.

Arts: The feature on a Hamptons show of airplane nose cone art, with accompanying slide show, makes for some fun Friday eye candy.

Travel: "36 Hours" heads to Aspen, which seems like just the kind of place where a smart guide for a short visit would come in handy.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

The Arizona Republican is betting his Senate seat on the political appeal of decency—but can that pay off in Trump’s America?

The constituents filing into the Mesa Convention Center one evening in mid-April for the Republican senator Jeff Flake’s town hall had a decidedly un-Republican look. Tattoos and political T-shirts abounded. Activists stood near the entrance distributing stickers, flyers, and other paraphernalia of the resistance and urging attendees to get loud. While chants of “No stupid wall!” and “Health care for all!” echoed through the auditorium, a young woman in a chicken costume wandered the perimeter, clucking and posing for selfies in an act of protest whose meaning remained mysterious to me even after I asked her about it (“Jeff Flake is George Dubya’s chicken,” she said).

Flake couldn’t see any of this from backstage, but he knew that a hostile crowd likely awaited him. The early months of the Trump presidency had inflamed the grassroots left, and Republican lawmakers across the country had lately found themselves standing awkwardly in rooms like this one while liberal voters berated them. Flake is up for reelection next year, and some of his campaign advisers—wanting to avoid the kind of contentious scene that might end up in an attack ad—had suggested that he skip public forums for a while, as many of his colleagues were doing. But he insisted on going ahead.