J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Monsanto’s soybean patent is a victory for the protection of intellectual property, writes Paul Campos.

A strange aspect of human psychology, at least in this culture, is that many people who would never dream of shoplifting a CD or stealing a car feel no compunction at all about stealing intellectual property.An example of this moral incongruity is provided by a new Supreme Court decision dealing with patent law. On Monday, the court ruled that a farmer in Indiana was breaking the law by replanting seeds harvested from a crop of genetically modified soybean plants, which were originally the invention of Monsanto.

Paul Sakuma/AP

The electric sports car maker is using a debt offering to repay a $465 million government loan – nine years before it is due.

Tesla Motors, the electric sports car start-up, and its founder, Elon Musk, are on something of a roll.The company just turned its first (small) quarterly profit, and the stock has been soaring. On Wednesday, the company moved to cash in on the momentum – by issuing some $830 million in stock and debt. The company announced it would sell 2.7 million shares of common stock, plus $450 million of debt, in the former of senior notes.There are a few interesting things going on here.

Don Ryan/AP

The technology company is joining other venture capitalists investing in Airware, which makes operating systems for commercial drones.

By Leo Mirani Drones have a terrible reputation, mostly because they have become a byword for death and destruction. But drones can be used for nonlethal means as well, such as this project to protect rhinos from poachers in India.Many expect those nonlethal uses to spread—but Google’s venture-capital arm believes it more than most (even if Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, might disagree). Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture firms, and Google Ventures are investing $10.

NOAA, via AP

The government agency charged with monitoring approaching storms has issued a post-mortem on Sandy. Among the conclusions: the NOAA needs more than one storm-surge modeler and a better social media strategy.

As Sandy approached landfall six months ago, news media struggled to decide what to call the meteorological phenomenon. Hurricane Sandy? Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy? Extratropical Cyclone Sandy? This terminological chaos, which eventually gave rise to terms like “Superstrom” and “Frankenstorm,” was partly the result of debates within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which the agency details in a post-Sandy service assessment released today.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Launched its new service at developers’ conference.

Make room, Pandora. A new music-streaming service is coming to town. At its annual developers conference on Wednesday, Google announced the launch of its new program that will provide unlimited music to users for $9.99 a month. Clearly, the choice to follow in the footsteps of companies like Spotify and Pandora, and the fact they did so before Apple, was viewed as a wise move, as Google saw a 2 percent jump in its shares on the New York Stock Exchange after making the announcement. Pandora’s shares, on the other hand, took a 0.4 percent drop. 

Read it at Reuters

DON EMMERT / AFP

Calls regulations in Bangladesh unnecessary.

The agreement on worker safety and building regulations in Bangladesh intended to prevent disasters like the factory fire in November and the factory collapse earlier this month will be missing one major retailer: Walmart. Even though major names like H&M, Zara, Primark, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and more signed the agreement, Walmart opted out, saying that the deal was “unnecessary to achieve fire and safety goals.” Instead, the retail giant created its own agreement, which it claims goes above and beyond the regulations outlined in the current deal. The difference: Walmart’s manifesto is not legally binding.

Read it at The Guardian

Jacquelyn Martin

A funny thing happened on the way to America’s becoming the next Greece. As D.C. was consumed with scandals, the fiscal 2013 deficit shrank. A lot.

On Tuesday, Washington was consumed with a series of scandals, nonscandals, and tail-eating—Benghazi, the Internal Revenue Service, the AP. So much so that the biggest policy and political story of the day was largely ignored. You could search in vain on Politico’s front page for articles about the Congressional Budget Office’s bombshell report that the fiscal 2013 deficit would come in at $642 billion—$200 billion smaller than its February estimate, and down a stunning $447 billion, or 41 percent, from last year.

I agree with John Boehner: the dairy program in the farm bill is "Soviet-style." Therefore, it's a huge disappointment that a bipartisan effort to streamline the program just failed in the House of Representatives:An amendment to gut the dairy program sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) was defeated on a 20 to 26 vote. ...Goodlatte argued that dairy should have access to margin insurance without a requirement that farmers participate in a program to limit production.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

By Mark Koba Despite arguments to the contrary, giving unemployed Americans extended jobless benefits of up to 99 weeks didn't prevent them from taking jobs, according a new report.Released last month through the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the study says that the extended benefits given from 2009 to 2012 to the unemployed increased the overall employment rate by only 0.04 percentage points, which the report says is small in comparison to the peak recession unemployment rate of 10 percent.

Near Eiffel Tower on Paris on Tuesday. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty)

While Germany slowly picks up steam.

Maybe the French should have stopped protesting gay marriage and instead gone to work or bought some stuff. France slipped back into a recession as the entire euro-zone economy shrank more than expected in the first quarter of 2013, according to European Union data released Wednesday. France’s economy shrunk by 0.2 percent, its first decline in four years, and officials worried that France will continue to fall further behind throughout the year if it can only keep up the current pace. Germany, the largest economy in Europe, posted modest growth after suffering a sharp decline in the last quarter of 2012, with the EU Statistical Office commending Germany for “slowly picking up steam.” But things were especially bleak for Italy, the third-largest economy in Europe: its economy shrunk by 0.5 percent, putting the economy in recession for its seventh straight quarter.

Read it at Reuters