If your fellow employees were able to reap the benefits of July 4th being on a Tuesday and took July 3rd off -- and even added today for good measure -- chances are your workplace will be a veritable ghost town. So much the better, right? There's World Cup soccer to be watched.

Pharmacies Oppose D.C. Cold Medicine Law: Kids getting high off of Sudafed? Basement drug producers using cold medication to make meth? It's been happening all around the country, and federal law already limits sale of medications containing pseudoephedrine and require pharmacies to log all customers’ purchases of the chemical that's in Sudafed, Contac and Claritin. The D.C. Council is apparently following suit -- a bill being considered would limit the amount of pseudoephedrine that could be sold to a person over a period of time and require a pharmacist or pharmacy technician to supervise distribution, with identification and signature being solicited from the buyer. Pharmacies and drug store associations aren't thrilled with such recommendations, though. Considering the way CVS seems to handle their actual prescriptions, the thought of having to jump through that many more hoops to try and cure a cold could make someone all the more ill.

Federal Judge Gives D.C. Mental Health Agency One Last Chance: The District's Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration has had numerous issues both in the present and past. Being lax with patient needs, issues of abuse, and 14 deaths that the Justice Department deemed "preventable and questionable" since January 2003 are just a handful of the agency's problems. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle has given D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and his administration until July 20 to try and mend the broken agency before the court may officially take it over. Huvelle is tired of the administration dragging it's feet on the issue, and stated in today's Post article that "people's lives are at issue while you're getting up to speed."

MD Citizens Allowed to Return Home After Rains: WTOP relays the information that residents around Lake Needwood in Montgomery County are now able to return home after worries about a dam failure have subsided. On the farming front, it seems like there could be substantial damage to some crops, while others will reap the benefits of the rain. One farmer said that 90 percent of his corn seemed to be in good shape, but that three-fourths of his cucumbers didn't look so hot. As for fruit and berry farmers, they'll benefit from the abundance of water having fallen from the sky.

Briefly Noted: On the National Mall, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival starts today ... Car crashes into church in NW ... Republican delegates present transportation ideas in VA ... No more birds and chickens at the National Zoo.

This Day in DCist: We talked about the Summer Shakespeare Festival, and pondered the elusive film scene here in D.C.

Suz4t brings us today's pretty shot of the National Cathedral.