The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday July 23, 2013

The Note's Must-Reads are a round-up of today's political headlines and stories from ABC News and the top U.S. newspapers. Posted Monday through Friday right here at www.abcnews.com

Compiled by ABC News' Carrie Halperin, Jayce Henderson, Will Cantine and J.P. Lawrence

ECONOMY The Wall Street Journal's Conor Dougherty and Dawn Wotapka: " Housing Recovery Increasingly Prices Out First-Time Buyers." First-time home buyers, long a key underpinning of the housing market, are increasingly getting left behind in the real-estate recovery. Such buyers, typically couples in their late 20s or early 30s, have accounted for about 30% of home sales over the past year. They represented 40% of sales, on average, over the past 30 years, and accounted for more than 50% in 2009, when recession-era tax credits fueled the first-time market, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. LINK

IMMIGRATION USA TODAY's Rick Jervis: " More bodies of immigrants being found near Texas border" Each year dozens of illegal immigrants are found dead along the U.S.-Mexican border, usually from sweltering heat or from bullets fired by human smugglers. Deputy Rolando Gutierrez knew he'd be breaking up domestic disputes and handing out speeding tickets as part of his duties when he joined the Brooks County Sheriff's Office two years ago. He didn't expect all the bodies. LINK

PRESIDENT OBAMA ABC News' Devin Dwyer: " Obama's Economic Roadshow: Will More Speeches Matter?" We've seen this movie before. But will the ending be any different this time? With fanfare befitting a summer blockbuster (or a royal birth), the White House is trumpeting a forthcoming series of speeches by President Obama that will "lay out his vision for rebuilding an economy that puts the middle class…front and center." LINK

The Washington Post's Matea Gold: " Obama Rallies Supporters To Kick-Start His Second-Term Agenda" President Obama on Monday urged his most fervent supporters to channel their energies into bolstering a new White House focus on the economy and helping the middle class, describing their work on behalf of his agenda as even more important than his reelection campaign. Addressing an invitation-only crowd of several hundred Organizing for Action volunteers, staff members and donors gathered at a Washington hotel for a day-long strategy session, the president said that the work of the past four and half years had succeeded in clearing "away the rubble" of the economic crisis. LINK

The New York Times' Annie Lowrey: " President Adopts Catchphrase To Describe Proposed Recipe For Economic Revival" President Obama says prosperity does not trickle down, and a rising tide does not necessarily lift all boats. The conservative policies predicated on those ideas, he maintains, amount to a you're-on-your-own economics, when the country really needs a we're-in-this-together approach: in short, prosperity needs to come from the "middle out" rather than the top down. That is the catchphrase that the White House has settled on to signal both a diagnosis of the problems that have ailed the economy since long before the recession hit and the liberal policies that might act as an antidote. LINK

POLITICAL SCANDAL Politico's Hadas Gold: " Eliot Spitzer Advises Geraldo Rivera On 'Selfie'" Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer offered some advice to Geraldo Rivera on Monday, telling him the public will "forgive him" for tweeting a now-deleted half-naked photo of himself over the weekend. "The public will not only forgive you but they will say move on, because, and this is where the reservoir of good will comes from, you have been the journalist who focuses on the tough issues, no one agrees with you all the time but I've said before, when it comes back to the issue of care for those who are disabled, for the weakest and poorest and most vulnerable in our society, you did something that is so overwhelmingly important that that reservoir of goodwill carried through," Spitzer, who is running for New York City comptroller, said on Rivera's radio show. LINK

CONGRESS Bloomberg's Julie Hirschfeld Davis: " McConnell Primary Challenge Curbs Deal-Making Instincts" Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, bracing for a primary challenge backed by anti-tax Tea Party activists, is shrinking from his longtime role as a broker of high-stakes congressional deals to tend to his own political survival. Matt Bevin, an investment adviser and political novice, is set to announce his candidacy tomorrow in the state capital of Frankfort, aide Sarah Durand said in a press advisory yesterday that outlined plans for an eight-stop campaign roll-out across Kentucky this week. LINK

The Washington Times' Ralph Hallow: " Aide's resignation heightens Sen. Rand Paul's war with neocons" Some Republicans are accusing the party's neoconservative hawks of playing dirty pool in an attempt to smear Sen. Rand Paul as a bigot for having an aide who once expressed admiration for Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth. The aide, Jack Hunter, who quit Monday, was eased out by Mr. Paul after a neoconservative publication revealed that, as a radio "shock jock" years ago, Mr. Hunter advocated the Southern secession once again from the Union. LINK

ABC NEWS VIDEO "Flashback: President Reagan, PM Thatcher Celebrate British Heir" LINK

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