Brendan Benedict, Editor Opinion -

2009 was a red-letter year for bankers in the red. The thought was that some financial institutions were too big to fail, so it became necessary to prop them up. And so the year became one for the powerful, the top dogs, and the front-runners. Goldman Sachs and a handful of other banks towered above the rubble with newfound profits. Continue Reading

By Benjamin Mayer, Editorial Assistant -

Technological resources have enabled a humanitarian response of an unprecedented nature, since a 7.0 earthquake struck Port Au Prince on Jan. 12. Live Internet feeds, satellite uplinks, and even texting are being utilized by news agencies, relief organizations, and family members of those in Haiti, to give aid to Haitians who are still in urgent need. Although the event has demonstrated the incredible utility of technology, this tragedy has also shown the current limit of its abilities. Continue Reading

By Tue Tran, Co-Editor-in-Chief -

The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, blocked the broadcast of the Proposition 8 trial. The court stated that with the ruling, it was not “expressing any view on whether such trials should be broadcast,” but that it was not ready to embrace cameras in federal courts. The majority believed that the broadcast “threatened to harm the fair trial rights of Proposition 8’s defenders,” according to Mercury News.

The third day began with the second part of George Chauncey of Yale University who specializes in the history of discrimination against lesbians and gays. During his testimony, the plaintiffs lawyers played a video of Willam Tam, who had equated legalizing same-sex marriage to legalizing prostitution and underage sex. Tam had also stated during the Proposition 8 campaign that allowing gays to be married would encourage youths to become gay.

The trial will resume tomorrow with Edmund Egan taking the stand, who is San Francisco’s chief economist.

By Blair Thill, Gavel Blogger – (Photo Courtesy of The Brooks Files)

Is there anyone else out there in TV land that would like to quit? Any other shows that NBC would like to cancel? I’m giving you one last chance. Because frankly I’m exhausted. This week has been a hailstorm of behind-the-scenes drama for the television industry. Continue Reading

Before the trial challenging California’s Proposition 8 began, the Supreme Court issued a temporary ban on broadcasting the proceedings on YouTube. According to the Court, the temporary ban would afford them more time to weigh the merits of allowing a full, online display of the trial. We believe that the Court should allow the trial to stream online. Continue Reading

By Tue Tran, Co-Editor-in-Chief -

The trial resumed Tuesday morning with the continuation of the testimony of Nancy Cott of Harvard University, who specializes in American marriage history. When asked by plaintiffs attorney Theodore Boutrous if a focus on procreation is important in defining marriage, Cott noted that George Washington became sterile later in life yet still got married. “Procreative ability has never been a qualification for marriage,” Cott testified, according to Mercury News.

During cross-examination, a defense lawyer, David Thompson, pressed Cott on her views of same-sex marriage and asked whether or not monogamy was a result of the teachings of Jesus. To this, Cott replied, “I know very little about Jesus Christ and his apostles.”

Next to take the stand was George Chauncey from Yale University, who is an expert on the history of discrimination against the gay and lesbian community. Chauncey spoke about the more than 100 years of discrimination against lesbians and gays, and believed that the campaigns to define marriage between a man and a woman have been a part of anti-gay movements.

Both experts expressed that they support same-sex marriage but say that their views have been shaped by their respective disciplines.

Chauncey will continue his testimony on Wednesday, and three other experts for the plaintiffs are lined up as well.

By Andrew Slade, News Editor -

For most voters in Massachusetts, statewide Congressional elections in which a Democrat is running against a Republican are not seen as the most competitive races. The state’s Congressional delegation is comprised entirely of Democrats, and the last Republican elected to the US Senate by Massachusetts voters was Edward Brooke in 1972. Continue Reading

By Tue Tran, Co-Editor-in-Chief – (Photo Courtesy of Robert Galbraith of REUTERS)

The Proposition 8 trial began Monday morning after the US Supreme Court blocked its broadcast, even with the delay, on YouTube until Wednesday while the justices examine the issue. Continue Reading

By Tue Tran, Co-Editor-in-Chief -

On Monday, Proposition 8, which overturned California’s Supreme Court ruling to allow same-sex couples to marry, will be brought to federal court. US District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker will preside over the case Perry vs. Schwarzenegger. Walker was appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1989 and served as chief judge since 2004, according to fjc.gov.

The trial will be broadcast live in federal courthouses in San Francisco, Calif., Pasadena, Calif., Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., and Brooklyn, New York. Footage will also be available on YouTube.

Also known as the California Marriage Protection Act, the ballot initiative passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008.

*Photo: Protest of the passage of Proposition 8 in Washington, D.C. in November 2008. Courtesy of Timothy Vollmer

By Andrew Schofield, Special Projects Editor -

Until Christmas Day, Yemen was a small, poor, and politically fragmented Arab nation in the eyes of most. But an attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit, Michigan, has placed Yemen at the forefront of the global fight against terrorism as considerable evidence points to the fact that Abdulmutallab acted with substantial aid from the Yemeni Al Qaeda cell. The latest attempt of terrorism only demonstrates a long developing problem in the country of Yemen: the increasing power of Al Qaeda throughout the country.

Abdulmutallab’s attempt, however, is not the first act of terrorism that can be traced back to the country’s Al Qaeda cell. In 2000, Al Qaeda orchestrated one of its most significant attacks at the time, the bombing of American destroyer USS Cole, in the port city of Aden, Yemen. In addition, the Yemeni cell has focused on bombing Yemeni government facilities and hotels known for their Western clientele.

But more recently, Al Qaeda has increased its efforts in Yemen in large part due to the influx of terrorists in Yemen. According to Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, nearly 2,000 Yemenis who fought for Al Qaeda in Iraq are returning to Yemen to help the cause there. Many have been released from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba or have escaped from Yemeni prisons. For example, in 2006, four high-profile terrorists escaped from a maximum-security including Nasser al-Wuhayshi and Qassim al-Raimi who would eventually become the leader of the Al Qaeda cell in Yemen and its military commander respectively. Although the core in Yemen remains small, its operations have become more sophisticated with the merging of the branch with the Saudi Al Qaeda branch.

In 2004, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born, English speaking Internet imam of Al Qaeda returned to Yemen after prison time on security charges. Although American intelligence officials do not believe he holds much power, most are convinced that he provides a vital link between prospective recruits like Abdulmutallab and Al Qaeda. There is also increasing evidence of a connection between al-Awlaki and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in November. Furthermore, he provides Al Qaeda with protection by the powerful Yemeni tribe, the Awlakis. In Yemen, most tribal codes compel the tribe to provide assistance to a member and his colleagues, or in this case, al-Awlaki and Al Qaeda.

Yemen’s history of instability and chaos only aids the terrorist operations of Al Qaeda. Up until 1990, the present-day Yemen was divided into North Yemen, or what was part of the old Ottoman Empire, and South Yemen, the former British colony. After the unification, in 1994, civil war broke out as southern secessionists established the Democratic Republic of Yemen. Although the secession was quickly defeated, the chaos in Yemen continues.

Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Yemen comes in a particularly tumultuous time as President Ali Abdullah Saleh has recently increased efforts to combat Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels. Against these rebels to the north, Mr. Saleh has encouraged jihadists and radical Sunni groups to fight the Houthi, which appears to be feeding support for Al Qaeda according to some analysts. In addition, Mr. Saleh’s second priority appears to be quashing a secessionist movement in the south. As Abdullah al-Faqih, a political scientist at Yemen’s Sana University told the New York Times, “President Saleh’s first priority is to stay in power. Two, at this point, is the war in the north. Three is the south. And sometimes Al Qaeda doesn’t even make the list at all — it drops from the agenda.”

Compounded the problem that the Yemeni government appears to be distracted, the terrorist cells appear to be taking refuge in the rugged tribal lands of Yemen – lands that do not have much government supervision much like those of Pakistan. Furthermore, Yemen is the poorest Arabian country with 70 percent of its GDP coming from oil reserves that are expected to be depleted within the next decade.

Despite their focus in Afghanistan, the situation in Yemen has the full attention of the United States government. President Barack Obama has pledged to make the strengthening of his government’s relationship with Yemen and President Saleh a priority. United States Special Forces have been deployed to Yemen to teach and train Yemeni forces on counterterrorism techniques and the United States has begun sharing intelligence with the Yemeni government. Connecticut Senator Joe Liberman has pushed for increased efforts to combat Al Qaeda in Yemen and claimed that a government official in the Yemeni capital told him, “Iraq was yesterday’s war, Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”