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This week, our Follow Friday panel includes Jeff Yang, author of the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal and blogger for WNYC's It's a Free Country, and Ron Christie, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist. Ron and Jeff discuss the unemployment numbers for May, Mitt Romney clinching the Republican nomination and where his campaign goes from here, the Circuit Court decision holding the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and President Obama's "Kill List."

Attached please find artists' renderings of our top four attack strategies for your review.

Every Friday, The Takeaway convenes a panel to look back at the week's big stories. This week's panel includes Ron Christie, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist, Jeff Yang, columnist for the Wall Street Journal and blogger for WNYC's It's a Free Country, and Farai Chideya, journalist and fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. They'll cover Facebook’s step into public life, developments in the Senate and House showdown over the Violence Against Women Act, and new developments in the death of Trayvon Martin.

My campaign has determined with a reasonably high degree of significance that accepting your invitation would make me - Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney look “spontaneous” and “fun.”

This week we hear more about the Secret Service’s risqué public scandal in Colombia, the death of radio icon Dick Clark, the so-called war on mothers that swept the mideast, Mitt Romney’s possible veep options, and more. We're joined by Jeff Yang, who writes the Tao Jones column for Wall Street Journal and blogs for WNYC’s It's a Free Country, journalist and blogger Farai Chideya, and Ron Christie, Republican political strategist and political contributor for The Takeaway and It's a Free Country.

It’s clear from both context and content that Obama’s statement about Trayvon Martin's death wasn’t some kind of call to arms on race: It was a heartfelt and impulsive reaction of empathy.

Every Friday, The Takeaway convenes a panel to look back at the week's big stories. This week we hear more anger stemming from the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the significance of Mitt Romney's recent primary wins, and what's left of Yahoo after a mass layoff. This week we're joined by author and blogger Jeff Yang, journalist and blogger Farai Chideya and Republican political strategist Ron Christie.

Time was the GOP primary reminded us of a three-ring circus with a surfeit of clowns. Now, after a spectacular own-goal by senior Romney campaign aide Eric Fehrnstrom, it’s looking more like Toy Story 4.

Every Friday, The Takeaway convenes a panel to look back at the week's big stories. This week Rick Santorum wins Alabama and Mississippi, March Madness sweeps the country, and liquid detergent becomes a black market commodity.

The Jeremy Lin story only gets more amazing this week, as the most unlikely sports hero of the past decade. Also this week, the tragedy of Whitney Houston. Michigan becomes the next battleground in the GOP primary. We look back at this week's stories with our panel. Ron Christie is a Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist. Jeff Yang writes the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal and blogs for our co-producer WNYC's It's a Free Country. Farai Chideya is a journalist and blogger at Farai.com.

Jeff Yang, contributor to It's A Free Country, the WSJ Speakeasy blog, and former "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle, and Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Takeaway sports correspondent, comment on the meteoric rise to fame of Chinese-American Knicks player Jeremy Lin, and what it says about sports, race and culture.

It's Friday, the time we spend time with our most valuable minds here on The Takeaway to look at the week's stories. Is the Conservative Political Action Conference a right-wing Star Trek convention? How will the gay marriage issue play out? And why has contraception become a political issue? Our panel tackles these stories and more.

This week the Susan G. Komen Foundation cut funding for Planned Parenthood, Mitt Romney made headlines when he said he wasn't "concerned about the very poor," and Florida's GOP Primary went to Mitt Romney, with Newt Gingrich clenching a distant second.

Like a mindless herd, we journalists have anointed Iowa the nation’s presidential kingmaker, and established a narrative that assigns the candidate winning the state “momentum” and “electability”…despite the fact that the caucuses aren’t even a binding vote.

Every Friday, The Takeaway convenes a panel to look back at the week's big stories. Among the headlines, after Mitt Romney squeezed out Rick Santorum by just eight votes in the Iowa caucuses, his hometown newspaper, The Boston Globe, endorsed rival Jon Huntsman. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann dropped out of the race after placing last in Tuesday's caucuses. President Obama and Congressional Republicans are doing battle again, this time over his recess appointment of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This week brought the end of the Iraq War and a Russia in turmoil after recent disputed elections. Also, the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucus was last night on Fox News. Joining The Takeaway for a look at this week's big stories are Jeff Yang, writer of the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal and bloger for WNYC's It's a Free Country, and Farai Chideya, journalist and blogger at Farai.com.

On Monday, Forbes columnist Gene Marks strayed from his usual beat — business technology — to write a column, "If I Were a Poor Black Kid,"  This is a response to that column, told from the perspective of one of Marks's "poor black kids." Note: Jeff Yang, the author of this response, is not in fact a poor black kid.

This week, the euro zone nations agreed to a pact to deal with the ongoing debt crisis, but the U.K. will not be taking part. Newt Gingrich's comments about child labor continued to dominate the headlines. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of instigating protests over alleged voter fraud there. And Donald Trump once again became the focus of the Republican primary field as candidates slowly dropped out of a Newmax-sponsored debate he was to moderate.

This week, we've seen Newt Gingrich continue to climb in the Republican polls as Herman Cain has continued to falter. Also out of Washington, Rep. Barney Frank announced his intention to not seek re-election after his fiery 32-year career. And, a new study rejuvenates the perennial debate about legalizing marijuana.

Slammed as the Stupid Party, the GOP turns to Newt Gingrich as its new egghead savior.