Blame It on the Oil Spill?

Spillover

If your preschooler is having problems wetting the bed or your older child is afraid of going to school or your teenager is experimenting with drugs, they may be acting out in response to the Gulf oil spill. That is directly from a Health and Human Services Department guide for parents and teachers on how kids might be affected by the disaster along the coast.

It says children could feel the effects even if they only watched the oil spill on television or overheard it being discussed by adults. The guide suggests adults should, "temporarily reduce your expectations about performance in school or at home, perhaps by substituting less demanding responsibilities."

Blessed Are the Meek?

Florida Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek isn't feeling the love from some former advisers to two presidential hopefuls he heavily supported.

Meek chaired John Kerry's Florida campaign in 2004 and went all over the country stumping for Hillary Clinton in 2008. But that support didn't stop Clinton's top adviser Mark Penn from hosting an almost $5,000 a plate fundraiser for independent candidate Charlie Crist, nor has it stopped  former Kerry media consultant Tad Devine from doing the same job for Meek's Democratic rival Jeff Greene.

Highest Bidder

Wyoming Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal is threatening to sell off a chunk of Grand Teton National Park to private developers unless the White House boosts the state's education budget. The Guardian reports the plots of state school trust land are worth more than $100 million, but the state is only getting $3,000 a year leasing the land to a cattle rancher.

After more than a decade of negotiations, Freudenthal says, "If the federal government won't dance with us, we will go look for another partner. I admit we aren't as bright as those boys on the Potomac, but this ain't our first county fair."