It is Independence Day again and time to remember our freedoms, consume hot dogs, and enjoy some chemical reactions, preferably at high altitude.

Tropical Storm Arlene visited the Mexican Gulf Coast on June 30.

Politics and economics are once again in the news as the debate over the debt rages against the backdrop of Presidential politics.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be tapped for 30 million barrels of its 726.5 million barrel inventory with delivery starting in August. Offers received by the end of June have been posted on the SPR website with prices from $105-110 per bbl. Valero, Vitol,  ExxonMobile, Shell Trading, Conoco, bp oil supply, and Hess were among the successful bidders. This is the third time the SPR has been tapped. In 1991 at the beginning of Desert Storm (20 million bbls) and in 2005 after Katrina (20.8 million bbls). SPR finds it easy to sell its "sweet" crude and less so its "sour" (>0.5% sulphur) crude. The inventory contains 434 million bbls sour crude. This sale is all sweet crude.

STS-135, the last space shuttle mission launched Friday July 8 with a crew of four. The weather was ominous but just clear enough for the final launch. Michoud continues to retool since external fuel tank production concluded in September 2010.

At least 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta Public Schools cheated to raise student scores on high-stakes standardized tests, according to a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Freaky. Investigative reporters from the Atlanta Constitution Journal spotted the same types of patterns Levitt and Dubner wrote about in their book Freakonomics.

And it's time again for Essence Fest now presented by Coca Cola (KO on the NYSE, closed at $68.09 Friday July 1, up 1.19%. It was a good day.)

Even while the Danziger cops are on trial, new complaints are emerging about the NOPD. Somebody apparently just finished reading that DOJ report that came out in March. Everything from details to profiling seems to be emerging as a problem with this organization. Serpas's honeymoon is over.