The teeth of Arizona's new immigration law were blocked in court this week, but the debate is undoubtedly going to continue. Arizona is already appealing the decision, as other states considering similar laws watch how the case progresses.

The drive for common core education standards is gaining steam, with 26 states and the District of Columbia already signed up. Public Agenda's research has found Americans like the idea of standards – but low standards are not their most pressing concern about schools.

For the first time, the Pew Research Center survey reports reducing the deficit is a higher priority than spending to stimulate the economy – but that may say more about public attitudes toward the stimulus than it does about the deficit.

As recently as February, the Pew survey found the public evenly split on reducing the deficit versus spending more to help the economy (47 percent each). Now the deficit comes out ahead, 51 percent to 40 percent.

The nation's governors vowed this week to tackle America's dismal college completion rate – and Public Agenda's work points to some of the hurdles and possible solutions in getting more students across the finish line.

Facts are stubborn things, John Adams once declared. But so, apparently, are people.

There's been a lot written in the media and the blogosphere about surveys on whether the public is more worried about the economy or the federal deficit – and most of what's written only sees half the story.

Public concern about the deficit is rising, some argue. But jobs are more important, others say. Both are true. The distinction that's often being missed is between the public's short-term and long-term concerns.

This week's triple-digit heat wave has raised both temperatures and hopes among climate activists that this can move public opinion about global warming – just as climate skeptics grasped onto last winter's "snowpocalypse" as a talking point. From our point of view, what policymakers and activists really need is a better reading on the public, not a better reading on the thermometer.

The opinion writers continue to debate whether the country needs more economic stimulus or more budget-cutting – this "opinionator" faceoff in the New York Times is the latest contribution. But the more the commentators talk, the more confusing this may become for the rest of us.

Values and choices.

That's what so many of the problems facing the nation come down to, and on this Fourth of July weekend, it's worth thinking about what that means – and why our public debate so often veers away from that.

If anything comes through loud and clear about Saturday's America Speaks National Town Meeting on the federal budget, it's this: the American people can still grapple with complicated, even daunting, issues, and come to solid conclusions.