Senior writer for Newsweek, Daniel Stone, on the future of a climate change bill; headlines.

You've got something you want taken offline: a drunken Facebook photo, an ill-advised blog post about your flirtation with Satanism, a frustrated tweet you wish you could take back. As Facebook passes its 500 millionth user, we take a look at new proposals to reduce the threat that we users of the internet pose to ourselves. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) shocked advocates of clean energy and climate reform yesterday when he announced that the Senate would not take up legislation intended to reduce carbon emissions. Reid faulted Senate Republicans for blocking attempts at reform, saying that there is just no way to get the 60 votes necessary to pass the bill through the Senate. Conceding to Right, Democratic lawmakers have, for the time being, put off the legislation indefinitely — effectively shelving one of the president's marquee issues.

Indie darling Todd Solondz's newest film, "Life During Wartime," goes into limited release today. "Ramona and Beezus," featuring Selena Gomez (in her first starring role in a major motion picture) also opens. But the big weekend movie is the Angelina Jolie action-thriller, "Salt."

The Wake County school board in Raleigh, North Carolina, voted in March to end its policy of busing students for socioeconomic diversity: a decision that has led to considerable controversy. Protesters claim that ending busing will lead to more segregation in the schools.

Now, the divided board is seeking to find a middle ground on the issue through an assignment approach called "controlled choice," which would allow parents to choose schools for their children as long as they are within a certain "zone." However, not all citizens are happy with the proposed plan and 19 protesters were arrested at a board meeting just last Tuesday. 

For decades, unpublished papers by the Jewish Czech writer, Franz Kafka, have been hidden away in safety deposit boxes in Zurich, Switzerland and Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel’s supreme court recently ordered that the boxes, which contain thousands of handwritten documents by one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century, be opened. However, there is still an ongoing legal dispute about who owns the collection of private papers. It is not yet known whether the public will ever get to see them.

The New England Journal of Medicine has printed the story of an ethical dilemma that doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital grappled with back in 2008. Is it ethical to keep a brain-dead patient on life support to harvest her eggs, in the hopes of allowing her husband to still father her child? 

Publisher of The Detroit Bureau, Paul Eisenstein describes the upswing he's seeing for the auto industry; headlines.

Things are looking up for U.S. automakers. Sales are up, and some companies like Chrysler are projecting that they will end this quarter in the black. This is big news for an industry which required massive government support to avoid bankruptcy less than two years ago. Paul Eisenstein, publisher of The Detroit Bureau, says that the car companies have been making smart moves. 

This week, Democrats in Congress broke a Republican filibuster and passed legislation to extend unemployment benefits. 2.5 million unemployed people will get payments retroactive to the time they stopped receiving benefits. One of those is Michelle Ives, who got her last check in June, and has resorted to desperate measures while she waited for her check (including taking out a 35 percent loan on her car).

Lt. Dan Choi came out as gay on "The Rachel Maddow Show" over a year ago and has since become the face of the movement against the military's "don't ask, don't tell." policy. Lt. Choi was honorably discharged yesterday for protesting the policy. He had attended West Point and had hoped to have a career in the army.

There have been many game changing revelations in the history of astronomy which have each, in their own way, irrevocably challenged human's place in the world around us. Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world confirmed the spherical nature of the earth, a theory that had existed since at least the Third Century, B.C. The Copernican revolution shattered the geo-centric model of the universe, which said the stars and the sun orbited around the earth.

Something that’s been harder to argue is the astronomical uniqueness of the planet we call home. To this day, the common assumption is that the planet earth fits an exceptional number of random criteria that make it suitable for sustaining life. It’s size, density, makeup and distance from the sun are extremely unique. Harvard University astronomer Dimitar Sasselov is challenging that assumption.

When Fed Chair Ben Bernanke called the economic outlook "unusually uncertain" on Wednesday, markets reacted by taking a dive. When Bernanke returned to the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday, he amended his previous statement and said that the Federal Reserve was open to assisting the economy if necessary. This helped the stock market rally after the previous day's dip.

Legendary indie director Todd Solondz talks with us about pushing the boundaries of storytelling, and the balance between discomfort and honesty in his films, which include "Welcome to the Dollhouse, "Happiness," and "Palindromes." He also shares insights on his new movie, "Life During Wartime." It's a sequel/retelling of "Happiness" that goes into limited release today.

Black farmers were once again passed over by the government. They have been waiting for millions promised to them in a settlement following a discrimination lawsuit. Last night, when Congress passed an emergency funding bill to supplement the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it removed funding allocated to pay the farmers from the bill. Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association says that the lack of action is keeping them in poverty. "We have to get Congress to understand that they are acting very inappropraitely and causing a festering sore in this country not to heal," says Grant.

We're talking about oversimplifying complex issues in what's often called "bumper sticker politics." Listeners texted in some of the bumper stickers they see around them: Now we want you to unpack them a bit. Pick one from the list of listener-submitted slogans below and tell us: What's the more complex idea behind it? How well does the sticker communicate the idea?

As the draw down of American troops continues in Iraq, we're starting a conversation about the progress so far. After seven years, what have we learned from being at war there?

Positive earnings reports from UPS, Caterpillar and other companies helped rally the stock market yesterday. The Dow was up by 201 points, hitting the highest mark in two weeks. Overseas growth looks positive as well and economists are eagerly waiting for the results of the European "stress test," which looks at the financial health of Europe's banks. Economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Kelly Evans, looks at the markets and what this rallying means for consumers.