MY USA TODAY COLUMN: On Photography, Cops Need To Get A Clue.

REASON TV: What are the Chances? (An IRS Love Song).

THIS WEEK in drones.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY YOU KNOW: A Diabetes Test On A Chip.

“TARGETED ATTACK:” Details Begin To Emerge In Murder Of Law Prof Dan Markel.

JOHN VARLEY, CALL YOUR OFFICE! No, really, he should be demanding royalties from this guy: Ukraine rebel leader claims Flight MH17 was filled with already-dead bodies.

TEST DRIVING THE $90K “Budget” Winnebago.

FOR THOSE WHO SAY THE 21ST CENTURY HAS BEEN A DISAPPOINTMENT: Aerosol Cake Batter Is Real Now and Nothing Will Ever Be the Same. “And after spending months perfecting the recipe in his dorm, McCallum is now in the process of patenting what he ultimately dubbed Spray Cake. Meaning that this could actually become a real thing on your grocery store shelf, and that there’s still some hope for the human race yet. McCallum and his business partner/lady friend Brooke Nowakowski assured The Boston Globe that their fully microwavable product has the same mouthfeel as traditional cakes. And since it comes out pre-risen, it cooks in a fraction of the time (about one minute for a full cake).”

Seems like a logical descendant of the Batter Blaster. Nobody tell Nina Planck.

WHY DO THEY HATE POOR ASIANS SO MUCH? Seeking racial balance, liberal advocates want to water down admissions standards at New York’s elite high schools. “It’s not affluent whites, but rather the city’s burgeoning population of Asian-American immigrants—a group that, despite its successes, remains disproportionately poor and working-class—whose children have aced the exam in overwhelming numbers. And, ironically, the more ‘holistic’ and subjective admissions criteria that de Blasio and the NAACP favor would be much more likely to benefit children of the city’s professional elite than African-American and Latino applicants—while penalizing lower-middle-class Asian-American kids like Ting. The result would not be a specialized high school student body that ‘looks like New York,’ but rather one that looks more like Bill de Blasio’s upscale Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn.”

The more they talk about equality, the more they champion special deals for the nomenklatura.

WITH PEOPLE REMEMBERING JAMES GARNER, here’s a post from Randy Barnett.

UPDATE: Link updated.

WISCONSIN DIVERSITY CHIEF: Contrary To Reports, We’re Not Doing Race/Ethnic Grading.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: On Photography, Cops Need To Get A Clue.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 438.

MONEY FOR NOTHING: TSA fee on plane tickets more than doubles.

WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER REFINANCING TO A 15-YEAR MORTGAGE.

Over the life of your loan, you’ll save 65 percent of your total interest costs. On a 30-year loan at current rates, you’ll pay almost $300,000 in interest costs on a $350,000 loan, versus about $100,000 on a 15-year loan. The benefit comes from two things: shortening the payment term, and lowering your interest costs. I don’t know about you, but I could find something to do with an extra $200,000.

Interest rates are going to have to go up sometime soonish. Mortgage rates are not at their all time lows (more’s the pity). But they’re still very low, and by refinancing now, you can lock in 3 percent or so. As inflation rises, this will ultimately mean that your mortgage loan is practically free. But this state of affairs cannot last forever; the Federal Reserve will eventually be pulling back on credit, and you will not be able to get such a good deal. Why not lock it in now?

Enjoy the benefit of forced savings. If you’re like me, and you get excited by the first of the month because it means you can make your extra mortgage payment and watch the loan balance go down, then maybe you don’t need this. But if you’d like to save, but somehow never get around to it, a 15-year mortgage basically pays you to exercise a little more self-discipline.

Stabilize your housing costs. Obviously, this is a long-term goal. But going into your 50s with the house paid off means that no matter what else happens, you can’t lose your house.

Well, they’ll take it if you don’t pay your taxes. So, really, you’re still kind of renting it from the state. . . .

KINDA LIKE AMERICA’S: Britain’s Bursting Green Jobs Bubble. “Promoting green jobs isn’t just an American phenomenon, it’s a global pastime. And no wonder: for a politician, there are few things better than promising clean, renewable domestic energy and job creation to boot. But talk is cheap, and just as this dream hasn’t been realized in the states, it’s also falling short in Britain.”

AT AMAZON, back-to-school shopping made easy.

Plus, soak up summer deals while they last.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: On Photography, Cops Need To Get A Clue.

RADLEY BALKO: And now: The criminalization of parenthood. “The mere fact that state officials were essentially micromanaging these parents’ decisions is creepy enough. That the consequences for the ‘wrong’ decision are criminal is downright scary.”

ROLL CALL: DCCC Adds Congressman to Endangered Incumbent Program. “The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee moved Rep. Rick Nolan of Minnesota to its Frontline program — a reflection of growing concern over his re-election prospects. The Frontline program is for House Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents.”

OOPS: Ben & Jerry’s socialist, anti-GMO cofounder inadvertently makes the case for federalism.

A Ben & Jerry’s statement opposing GMOs includes the qualification “Now, we aren’t scientists, we just make ice cream” — that much is apparent.

The company points out that “there are questions about whether GMO technology is truly living up to its promise of making bigger and better food.” While this is true, it speaks more to public confusion about the issue than about the safety of genetically modified food. This confusion will be deepened if government forces manufacturers to “warn” consumers about GM foods that are not, in fact, unhealthy.

I will resist stating that the science on this matter is settled, but a robust academic consensus has emerged about GMOs since their commercial introduction in 1994. The consensus: GM crops are just as healthy as non-GM crops, and in some cases healthier. . . .

In short, Ben, Jerry and all the other anti-GMO activists are wrong on the science.

However, they may also be right to oppose Rep. Pompeo’s bill, which would limit the constitutionally-enshrined authority of the 50 states to do wrongheaded things.

This comment by DeFazio should hit close to home for defenders of federalism and limited government:

“On any other day my Republican colleagues, Mr. Pompeo among them, would say, ‘We’re for states’ rights and we’re for capitalism.’ OK, well, states’ rights would say you’re not going to preempt Vermont or any other state that wants to require just simple disclosure on the label.”

Indeed.

MALAYSIAN AIR: The Hill: Senators: Response to tragedy ‘too timid.’

ED DRISCOLL INTERVIEWS Ed Klein about his new book, Blood Feud.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Tale of ‘Too Big to Fail’ in Higher Education: City College of San Francisco Survives.

While accreditors can issue a variety of stern warnings — more than half of California’s community colleges have received one since 2003 — the only accrediting punishment of real consequence is the death penalty. That puts accreditors in a very difficult position: allow a low-performing college to continue serving students badly, or face a political firestorm in shuttering a major public institution while throwing tens of thousands of students on to the street with no guarantee of another affordable college in which to enroll.

Accreditors are also financed and managed as membership organizations of colleges. Other colleges contribute volunteers to conduct site visits and evaluations, and college administrators are generally loath to condemn peers at other institutions publicly, particularly since their turn for review will eventually come. As a result, only the absolute worst-case colleges even approach facing meaningful sanctions. Simple mediocrity is ignored. . . .

Politicians generally take a hands-off approach to higher education. While many big-city mayors have staked their careers on turning around troubled K-12 school systems, it is rare to see a major political effort focused on fixing dysfunctional local community college. Slots on public university boards of trustees, which are ostensibly charged with protecting the public interest, are often given as political favors to donors and alumni.

Private nonprofit colleges are subject to little, if any, direct oversight, even though many of them receive a vast majority of their revenue from federal financial aid. For-profit higher education corporations have received greater scrutiny in recent years, including Corinthian Colleges, which is in the process of closing down in the face of declining enrollment and multiple government investigations into its marketing practices and job placement rates. But Corinthian’s shutdown is happening in spite of the accreditation system. All of its campuses remain accredited today. And federal regulators are far less likely to scrutinize a public institution like City College.

It’s Potemkin Villages all the way down.