Cannot withstand a constitutional challenge

Though Oregon is likely to be the next state to abolish its marriage protection amendment at the ballot box (likely next November), there is also a court case to overturn that amendment. Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon Attorney General, has said she will not defend the amendment in courts. She asked the court (I think it is a federal district court) to go straight to summary judgment (don't bother with a trial) because she says the law "cannot withstand a federal constitutional challenge." Win at the ballot box? Great! Win in the courts? That's fine too!



The organization Reporters Without Borders has created a map showing how various countries deal with freedom of the press. Russia, for example, is a bright red for "Difficult Situation" and China is black for "Very Serious Situation." While Scandinavian countries are white for the top "Good Situation," the United States gets only a yellow "Satisfactory Situation." According to the report it is because of Obama's hostility to whistleblowers, such as Chelsea Manning, who released lots of classified documents to Wikileaks in 2010.



Feel you don't fit within the gender binary? You're not comfortable as male and not quite female either? Facebook now allows you to list your gender as "male" or "female" or "custom." And under custom there are now about 50 options. Some of those are "bigender," "female to male," "genderqueer," "intersex," "neither," "other," and "two-spirit."