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Immigration reform
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) introduced immigration reform last month that would expand citizenship to immigrants who pay a fine, make permanent employment verification systems, strengthen border security and mandate humane treatment of those detained for deportation. The bill is not even expected to be a starting point in the debate. That will come from a more conservative bill in the Senate. But here’s to hoping for better policy this year. 
Televised bowl games
Major media markets including New York, Los Angeles and Miami almost lost all college football games and other programming carried on Fox this weekend because of a raging dispute between the network and Time Warner Cable. Fox was demanding about a dollar per cable subscriber, which broadcast channels don’t usually receive. Time Warner offered about 30 cents. The two sides came to some sort of undisclosed agreement just before all Fox programming went off the air.
Rethinking subpoenas
Though they should not have been given in the first place, the Transportation Security Administration did the right thing late last week when it decided to drop subpoenas against bloggers who reported on leaked documents abut extra security measures after the Christmas Day terror plot.
Linda McMahon
The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment is really shaking up the Connecticut Senate race. Embattled Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut), considered the most vulnerable incumbent in the country this year, and McMahon are making a serious effort to best former Rep. Rob Simmons in a Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. That means the eventual Republican nominee will have come from a bruising primary fight and Dodd might hang on — or we will have a U.S. senator we have seen exchange face slaps with every member of her immediate family on live TV. It’s a win-win. 
No smoking
North Carolina, the nation’s top tobacco-producing state, went smoke-free inside bars and restaurants Jan. 1. If it can happen there, it’s hard to imagine why smoking would be allowed anywhere else. Say, on campus, for instance.  
More suggested videos
YouTube is trying to figure out how to get users to stay on the site longer by expanding the related videos that appear each time a search is made. It’s a tough nut to crack — a bad suggestion might make viewers leave sooner, a good one could result in more procrastinating. But any improvement in this area is welcome. Sometimes you just run out of Susan Boyle videos and don’t know what to watch next.
 
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Unsafe drinking water
Millions of people have been exposed to tap water with unregulated cancer-causing chemicals since 2004, The New York Times reported on Dec. 16. Congress has toughened the Safe Drinking Water Act since the 1980s, despite new evidence that some chemicals can cause cancer in much smaller doses than scientists once believed. 
GOP stonewalls
Vermont’s independent Sen. Bernie Sanders tried to introduce a resolution to the health care reform bill calling for a single payer health care system. Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, expected his amendment would get the support of five or six senators but wanted the debate to happen and a truly universal system to get an up or down vote. Republicans forced the 700-page amendment to be read aloud, which would have taken more than eight hours and stalled the rest of the bill. Sanders withdrew his amendment, and the debate never happened. 
Underwear bombs and those who can’t find them
Airport screenings were a hassle and took long enough before the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day. All of the failures within the U.S. intelligence community and at the airports the would-be bomber passed through have been well-documented. It should be noted longer lines and more fear-mongering are also unwelcome.
No accountability for Blackwater
Last week’s dismissal of charges against the private security contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater was a serious blow to prosecuting misdeeds done of behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq. A judge dismissed the case because the Justice Department relied on testimony obtained by the State Department in briefings the defendants were compelled to make. The State Department told the contractors that if they didn’t speak, they would lose their jobs, and if they spoke, they would not be prosecuted.
Obama’s belated response
When there is evidence a man with ties to al-Qaida could have committed an act of terrorism on Christmas — and when there is an opposition party determined to make him look weak on terrorists — President Obama should have spoken sharply about the incident.
Oppression in Iran
Protesters are still filling the streets in Iran, and now The Los Angeles Times has video contradicting the government’s claim that its security forces did not shoot civilians a week ago when eight people died during a demonstration. Killing does not usually strengthen a government’s legitimacy, but maybe the Iranian regime has given up on that.
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