Miranda rights get tricky. Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You’ll have to speak up.

In a narrowly split decision, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority expanded its limits on the famous Miranda rights for criminal suspects on Tuesday – over the dissent of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans’ rights of protection from police abuse “upside down.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, said a suspect who goes ahead and talks to police after being informed he doesn’t have to has waived his right to remain silent. Elena Kagan, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to join the court, sided with the police as U.S. solicitor general when the case came before the court. She would replace Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the dissenters. (Read More).

Former second family splits. I predict a flamboyant Al Gore to emerge. Who can forget the kiss, that deep smooch Al Gore shared with Tipper onstage at the Democratic National Convention after his nomination for the presidency ten years ago?

And now, just weeks after their 40th wedding anniversary, what appeared to outsiders as a solid marriage and genuine partnership is dissolving. They told friends by e-mail on Tuesday: “This is a very mutual and mutually supportive decision that we have made together following a process of long and careful consideration.” The news was first reported by Politico.

A close friend of the couple said neither of them is having an affair. Other sources reported the couple had simply grown apart. The Gores own homes in Nashville and Montecito, Ca, and the Gore family homestead in Carthage, Tenn. The friend, who insisted on anonymity, said it was unclear where Tipper would choose to live; the couple’s grandchildren are all in New York. (Read More).

Oil slick nears Florida coast. A Florida beach might get hit with oil from the Deepwater Horizon accident for the first time Wednesday as sheen likely caused by the accident was reported less than 10 miles off Pensacola Beach.

A charter boat captain reported the oil Tuesday afternoon and state and local environmental officials confirmed that it was about 9.5 miles offshore. Winds are forecast to blow from the south and west, pushing the outer edges of massive slick from the spill closer to western Panhandle beaches.

Emergency crews began Tuesday scouring the beaches for oil and shoring up miles of boom. Escambia County will use it to block oil from reaching inland waterways, but plans to leave beaches unprotected because they are too difficult to protect and easier to clean up. (Read More).