• The second day of hearings for Elena Kagan's nomination to the US Supreme Court is "substantive and dignified", according to CBS Radio's Andrew Cohen:
More friendly than nominee Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, more polished than nominee Samuel Alito in 2006, it's no wonder so many legal insiders have suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts may have finally met his match on the court in Kagan. She essentially has to implode in order to ruin her chances of confirmation. And so far she hasn't come close.
• In an unusual move, the New York Civil Liberties Union, a chapter of the ACLU, issues a "travel alert" for holidaymakers visiting Arizona this summer, in the wake of the state's new anti-immigration laws:
In response to civil liberties threats caused by the recent passage of Arizona's racial profiling law, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a travel alert today informing New Yorkers of their rights when stopped by law enforcement when traveling in Arizona.
• Among the many mysteries surrounding the tragic Deepwater Horizon rig explosion is the surprising appearance of not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the well's blowout preventer. The Los Angeles Times reports:
BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.
The extra pipe could be the reason why the blowout preventer's shear rams failed to cut the pipe and shut off the well.
• The healthcare reforms passed earlier this year seem to be getting more popular as time passes. A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 48% now have a favourable view of the reforms, compared with 41% unfavourable, while 10% remain undecided.
Roughly a third (35%) of registered voters say that a candidate who voted for the health reform law will be more likely to get their vote, a third (32%) say such a candidate would be less likely to get their vote, and a third (31%) say the candidate's vote for the law would not matter either way. The results vary greatly by party identification.
• Slightly good news for Democrats in Ohio, where polling for the open Senate seat there shows the two parties remain neck and neck, in what should be an easy win for the Republicans.
• Steve Carrell announces that the next series of The Office will be his last. Newsweek argues that Kelly (Mindy Kaling) best deserves the role. And it has a point:
Wily, duplicitous, competitive, a natural-born schmoozer who's always looking out for number one ... Kelly knows the business inside and out, has dirt on all the other employees, and is manipulative enough to keep everyone guessing about her true intentions.
• Sharon Angle, the Tea Party candidate now the Republican nominee for Harry Reid's Senate seat in Nevada, gives a disappointingly sane interview, the first time she's ventured onto the media.
