Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–BP has placed a new cap on the Deepwater Horizon leak and it appears as if oil has stopped gushing into the Gulf. They’re doing tests now to determine if the worst spill in American history is finally over.
–Financial reform has reached 60 and Harry Reid says he’ll call a vote this week. The only possible hitch is Ben Nelson, who’s now wavering.
–West Virginia G0v. Manchin says he’ll appoint someone to Robert Byrd’s vacant Senate seat by Sunday, making Nelson’s vote moot.
–Hank Paulson likes what he sees.
–What’s next? Obama, Biden and the Senate leadership will meet today to talk about what needs to happen before the August recess.
–A Washington Post/ABC News poll finds lower than ever confidence in Washington’s abilities to make the right decisions. Fifty-eight percent say they have only some or no trust in Obama, 68 percent have some or no trust in congressional Democrats and 72 percent have some or no trust in congressional Republicans. What might be driving that mistrust? The survey finds 90 percent think the economy is in bad shape and 73 percent think it’s either staying the same or getting worse.
–Tim Pawlenty gets some (more) judicial conservative cred. He’s picked four of the seven justices on Minnesota’s Supreme Court and his choices have been quite well regarded.
–Tim Mak points out Michele Bachmann raised way more than Palin.
–There’s a runoff in Alabama today between Republican gubernatorial candidates Robert Bentley and Bradley Byrne.
–Florida funds: Rick Scott’s primary challenge has GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum running low on cash. Marco Rubio is oh so flush.
—Esquire fronts Bill Clinton talking Haiti.
–It looks like he may take on a more official role in midterm campaigning.
–And awesome stuff your tax dollars could be wasted on.
What did I miss?