Rep. Kendrick Meek’s (D-Fla.) campaign was relying on a bump in the polls following his victory over Jeff Greene in Florida’s Senate primary, and a new CNN/Time poll indicates that he may have gotten one. He still trails both former House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Gov. Charlie Crist (I-Fla.) in the Senate race — Rubio has 36 percent and Crist has 34, compared to Meek’s 24 — but it’s a significant boost over the previous numbers that showed his support dipping down into the mid-teens:

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Back in the 1990s, companies like eTrade and the big banks democratized stock investing: Anyone, anywhere could purchase an index fund for a long-term investment or try to make a buck day trading. Stocks became sexy, and young individuals flooded into the market. Now, young people with cash in hand, spooked by the recession, are putting it in savings accounts, Nan Cook reports in Newsweek:

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U.S. and Canadian environmental groups sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) today raising concerns about the greenhouse gas emissions involved in extracting Canadian tar sands. The letter comes as the lawmakers are meeting today with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmac during a G8 meeting in Ottawa.

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As Obama’s approval rating has slipped beneath the 50 percent mark and stubbornly refused to climb back up, many candidates up for reelection in tight races or swing districts have suddenly discovered cute scheduling conflicts when the president has shown up in town to raise money from the party faithful. Not so for Senate hopeful Alexi Giannoulias (D-Ill.), however, who’s releasing an ad tomorrow that is basically one long endorsement from Obama:

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Immigrants are dying in near-record numbers at some border-crossing spots in Arizona, in part because increased enforcement funnels many migrants through harsh terrain and a cruel desert climate. In response, humanitarian groups leave water bottles on popular trails to help prevent deaths among migrants. But as TIME’s Adam Cohen reported today, leaving water for migrants — whether for humanitarian purposes or not — can mean risking going to jail.

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The Obama administration sent BP today the sixth bill for the costs of oil removal from the Gulf oil spill. The sixth bill is for $128.5 million.

So far, BP has paid $389.9 million for cleanup from the spill. The charges came in five separate bills over the last several months. The bills cover oil removal, “including efforts to stop the leak at its source, reduce the spread of oil, protect the shoreline and mitigate damage to the public health or welfare,” according to the government’s oil spill Joint Information Center.

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Tyler Cowen writes:

Many smart people say we should. It seems increasingly clear that we must. For how long can the government prop them up? Are we never to have a private market in mortgages again?

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The Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent agency established in 2008 by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to launch investigations into congressional improprieties and make recommendations to the House Ethics Committee, seems to be performing its duties so well that it might just be out of a job. The Hill reports that Republican lawmakers, the vast majority of whom voted against the creation of the OCE, will likely attempt to disband the office if Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) becomes Speaker next year.

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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that an Interior Department task force has delivered to him a report that includes 59 recommendations for changes to the way the department oversees offshore drilling.

The report, conducted by the Outer Continental Shelf Safety Oversight Board, includes recommendations “to strengthen permitting, inspections, enforcement and environmental stewardship,” according to the Interior Department.

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A glimmer of good news in the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released today: In July, there were more job openings than in June — the first positive month-on-month change since April. The number of advertised gigs rose 6.2 percent, to 3 million. (In Dec. 2007, before the recession started, there were 4.4 million available positions.)

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