The U.S government's green car program has been under scrutiny with the recent failure of two of the companies that received the loan, including coverage of a $675 million lawsuit by an inventor claiming he was denied funding for his inflatable electric car company because of politics. What hasn't gotten much scrutiny …

This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?

Tesla is right in the middle of the debate on whether or not car companies should be able to sell directly to the customer. But Tesla, where would we be without the dealers?

Car dealers across the country are feeling threatened by Tesla's model of selling their cars directly rather than through independent franchises. But North Carolina may go further than any other state has gone by making it illegal for Tesla to bypass dealerships.

The good news, both manufactured and unplanned, continues to roll in for Tesla. The company issued its first ever profit. Consumer Reports says the Model S is the best car they've ever tested. Now another bit of good news has dropped: The Model S had a better sales quarter than its gas-powered German counterparts.

We know the Tesla Model S is so fast it can whip a BMW M5 and even a Viper, but can the fattie electric luxobarge drift? Yes it can!

Tesla beat revenue estimates by $70 million, coming in at $562 million for the quarter instead of a projected $492 million. That's a return of $0.12 per share, beating earlier projections and earning $0.03 per share. This is their first profitable quarter.

The Google Self-driving car is one of those technologies that everyone knows will have a major impact on society but no one knows quite the when or how or, importantly, who. According to Elon Musk, he'd like Tesla Motors to be the "who."