• Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Comedian John Fugelsang joins us in studio at 8:10am Pacific to talk about all things politics and pop culture.

• President Obama sat down for a beer at the White House last night with a top African-American professor and the police officer who arrested him earlier this month. After the meeting, Sgt. James Crowley told reporters that the men had a “cordial and productive discussion” in which they agreed to move forward rather than dwell on past events. He said they plan to meet again.

• A key Senate committee won’t vote on its compromise health care overhaul plan before the upcoming month-long August recess, giving GOP-ers and some conservative Dems their desired slowdown in congressional action on President Obama’s top domestic priority.

• According to a new CNN Poll of Polls, 54 percent of Americans approve of how President Obama is handling his duties in the White House. That’s down 7 points from late June. In the same Poll of polls, 48 percent approve of how he’s handling the economy, and 43 percent approve of his handling of health care reform.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Jennifer Palmieri, Senior Vice President for Communications at the Center for American Progress, calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform, the economy, and today’s “Beer Summit” at the White House.

• Two of the three Senate GOPers negotiating a bipartisan deal on health care reform said late yesterday they consider an agreement out of reach before the Senate goes on its August recess. In the House, an agreement between 4 Blue Dog Dems and the House leadership allowed committee debate to resume, but put off a vote by the full House until after the August recess.

• In a new NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll, 42 percent now say the president’s health care plan is a bad idea, a 10 point increase since last month. The poll also finds that Obama’s overall job-approval rating has dropped to 53 percent.

• President Obama will have to set aside health care reform to revisit the racially charged issue that stole the spotlight from his health care push last week – the arrest of his Harvard professor friend. Obama will meet with Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the White House today, each one chugging his favorite beer, in a public attempt to move past the emotional event.

• Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) calls in at 6:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• House Dem leaders conceded yesterday that concerns raised by fiscally Conservative Blue Dog Democrats will prevent the chamber from voting on a health care reform bill before the August recess begins at the end of the week.

• A senior administration official said Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, MA Police Department will be visiting the White House on Thursday. The meeting among the three men will take place at 6pm.

• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced yesterday that he will not vote to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. The committee is expected to vote today on Sotomayor’s confirmation.

• Michael Jackson’s personal doctor administered the powerful anesthetic Propofol to help him sleep, and authorities believe the drug is what killed the pop singer, a law enforcement official told the AP yesterday. On June 25, the day Jackson died, Dr. Conrad Murray gave him the drug sometime after midnight, the official said.