One of those days.

You'll want to watch the Tour de France the next 4 days, two mountain top finishes in the Alps (tomorrow on the HC (Beyond Category) Col de Galibier after two HC climbs, Friday on the Alpe d'Huez), and Saturday the likely decisive time trial in Grenoble.

Sunday is the parade down the Champs Elysees (except for the sprinters and their leadouts.)

Open Thread.

New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie today said he will allow the medical marijuana bill passed under his predecessor to be implemented. Doctors will be allowed to prescribe marijuana in New Jersey (but patients can't grow it.)

Only patients in New Jersey suffering from specific ailments such as HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis can be prescribed medical marijuana, and then only after other treatments have failed. The law also is the first in the nation to prohibit patients from growing their own crop at home.

New Jersey is now the 16th state to allow medical marijuana (the District of Columbia does as well.)

It's too hot to blog any more tonight, and our earlier open thread is almost full, so here's another one, all topics welcome.

It's another busy work day for me. For those of you online, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Open Thread.

For those not watching Breaking Bad, there's also a new Big Brother and Food Network Star.

Marcy at Empty Wheel has moved from Firedoglake to her own digs at EmptyWheel.net. FDL has added The Dissenter, covering civil liberties and digital freedom issues.

It's a baby girl for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Law Prof Ellen Podgor at White Collar Crime Blog has some more thoughts on Roger Clemens' mistrial.

Rudy Giuliani says he believes in the presumption of innocence -- for Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Open Thread.

We have sunshine today, so I'm not going to spend the day at the computer.

For those of you following the Rupert Murdoch news empire misadventures, here's the latest on the resignations of Lee Hinton, the publisher of the WSJ and Rebekkah Brooks, who ran the British papers. U.S. connections to the phone-hacking scandal are growing.

Here's a Kaiser report on the fiscal effect of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's still raining. Thunder, lightening, the whole nine yards. 9 days and counting.

Speaking of Who'll Stop the Rain (one of my favorite movies with Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld and Michael Moriarty about Vietnam, heroin, Haight-Ashbury, federal drug agents and Percodan), I watched the Lincoln Lawyer last night. It was good -- not as great as some of the reviews, but worth seeing.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Open Thread.

Tomorrow is Stage 12 of the Tour de France with a mountaintop finish on the HC Luz-Ardiden right after going over the HC Col de Tourmalet (with a little Cat 1 climb just before that.) It has a chance to be epic as the Tour heads to the Pyrenees. See this preview and this one at Podium Cafe.

Got to get up early to watch it. The riders will be hitting the foot of the Col de Tourmalet around 9:30 EST. I'm finishing some work tonight because I'll be watching tomorrow morning.

Oh BTW, for those of you following the Women's World Cup - Abby Wambach? A Gator. Just sayin'

Open thread.

Update: The storm has moved into Denver. The thunder is loud and flash flood warnings now include us. The cable tv just went out. (Added: It's back on now.) Internet probably won't be far behind. I better go find the flashlight in case power is next.

Tonight brings tornado warnings and more flash flood warnings. The Emergency Broadcast Service has been coming on every few minutes. So far, they are in surrounding counties to Denver, so no immediate danger.

A federal judge in Virginia has overturned a death sentence in a drug case saying the defendant was wrongfully convicted due to the lying testimony of accomplice who got a deal for life. The judge blasted the prosecution who claimed not to know the testimony was false: [More...]

Open Thread.