Gaza: Israel is pounding Gaza while searching for a missing soldier believed to have been captured by Hamas militants only two hours into a 72-hour ceasefire yesterday. Hamas denies it’s holding the soldier. Another 55 people were killed today, bringing the death toll among Palestinians to about 1,655. The Associated Press reports that an angry Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the US not to try to force another ceasefire on Israel and “not to ever second guess me again.”

Yes, We Did: President Obama admitted yesterday that after the 9/11 attacks the US tortured some people in the quest to break the al Qaeda terror network. “We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks,” the President said. “We did some things that were contrary to our values.”

The Bush administration always denied that the US used torture.

The president was speaking to reporters about a Senate investigation into the interrogation and treatment of prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency. He said, “We crossed the line and that needs to be understood and accepted. And we have to, as a country, take responsibility for that so we don’t do it in the future.”

MH17: About 70 experts from Australia and the Netherlands searched the wreckage of the downed Malaysian Airlines jet for a second day. About 80 bodies have yet to be recovered.

Blurred Lines: A Florida judge ordered the state legislature to re-draw the lines of two congressional districts that he says unconstitutionally break up the power of nonwhite voters and favor Republicans. The 5^th District, for instance, is a serpentine shape that stretches 140 miles from Orlando to Jacksonville, twisting and turning to include minority pockets and remove them from other districts. Judge Terry Lewis gave the legislature two weeks to re-draw the lines, but admitted there may not be enough time to have an election in those districts by November 4^th.

Death of the Salesman: The NY medical examiner has ruled that the death last month of a man selling untaxed cigarettes on the street was a homicide. The death of Eric Garner caused a public uproar when video appeared to show a police officer putting the heavyset Garner in a chokehold. Garner refused to obey police commands and they took him down. The ME’s office said Garner’s death was caused by a chokehold and “the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.” The ruling of homicide does not mean the death was a murder, only that it was caused by the actions of another person. But it doesn’t bode well for the cops involved.

Disaster: Hundreds of people are missing after a landslide in Nepal near the border with China; At least 68 people are dead after an explosion at a car parts factory in China.

Social Notes: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 60, is getting married today to actress Cheryl Hines at the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod. Hines, 47, played Larry David’s wife in the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Virginia is for Lovers: The corruption trial of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen has been quite entertaining so far. The McDonnell’s defense opened with the unique argument that their marriage was so broken they could not have gotten together to agree on anything, including taking $165,000 in cash and gifts from a rich businessman.

The businessman, Jonnie Williams, exchanged 1,200 text messages and phone calls with Maureen McDonnell, including 52 in one day, but he denied that the two were having an affair or that he was really even friends with the governor and his wife. But he took her on a $20,000 shopping spree in Manhattan.

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