GENE HEALY: Has Congress Become Useless? “The Constitution gives Congress vast powers over war and peace, and charges it with making the laws of the land. Yet our feckless legislators prefer to punt the hard decisions to the president and the permanent bureaucracy, even if it leaves the rest of us mired in uncertainty and crushing debt. What do we pay these people for?”

THIS IS SOME KIND OF POLITICAL HOT-BUTTON TRIFECTA: “A 23-year-old illegal immigrant is accused of killing a Virginia nun while driving drunk over the weekend.”

CHANGE: Faltering US recovery trips dollar.

YEAR-LONG REVIEW: The Nissan 370Z Roadster.

BEST summer road trip movies.

NEW FRONTIERS in employment discrimination.

RETHINKING PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENT: My concern with these studies is that I wonder how much I can trust them, and how much they’re driven by cost-control issues.

WHY LIVING OFF THE GRID has never been more comfortable.

HACKING THE SMART GRID: “The hurried deployment of smart-grid technology could leave critical infrastructure and private homes vulnerable to hackers. Security experts at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas last week warned that smart-grid hardware and software lacks the necessary safeguards to protect against meddling.”

ED DRISCOLL: The New York Times issues a correction about the false claims of racial epithets from Tea Partiers. But Retracto is just getting warmed up . . . .

HOW TO give your wok a facial.

STEAMPUNKS: Land Speed Record-Seekers Revive Steam Power.

SMOKE, FOG, and tax increases.

ROBOT OF THE WEEK: New Japanese Telepresence Robot Pushes the Boundaries of Creepy.

TRACING OIL RESERVES to their tiny origins.

REPORT: Audi CEO confirms plans for mass-produced electric city car.

IN THE MAIL: From Dick Stanley, Knoxville 1863.

MORE FEDERAL MONEY to bail out profligate states? “Spend all you want — we’ll print more!”

TRANSPARENCY: Key Senate Democrat: Financial reform bill was wrong to exempt SEC from FOIA requests. Maybe if these guys would, you know, read the bills before they’re passed. . . .

TAX COMPETITION: NY funders wined and dined by Conn. gov: Rell begs fund honchos to abandon NY. “Representatives of 15 city-based financial firms were lured to a private meeting in Darien with Gov. Jodi Rell to hear her pitch to move their businesses to the Nutmeg State — and avoid a tax on their industry that’s being considered in New York. “

SUNSCREEN: Apply with care.

FEAR THE LAME DUCK! Or, better yet, encourage the lame ducks to fear you.

SHOCKING NEWS: Colleges Serve the People Who Work There, Not the Students. It’s like there’s some sort of bursting higher education bubble, or something. . . ..

It’s a review of Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus’ Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It, which comes out today.

HEH: “Don’t get cocky. But do get ready.”

MARK HEMINGWAY: Many of Rangel’s colleagues hanging on to his dirty money.