Takeaway Correspondent Andrea Bernstein is traveling the country, checking in with voters. Today, she's in Colorado, a key swing state in this mid-term election season. Up for grabs is a governor's race, a Senate race and key Congressional races. There are also two ballot propositions getting a lot of attention: one regarding abortion rights, the other attempting to block enactment of federal health care reform. Key issues for constituents are health care, abortion and immigration.

Bernstein has spoken with voters in Weld County and Jefferson County and found that voters from both parties are still unsure how they will cast their ballots this November.

Newark Public Schools, which have been rated the worst in the country, have been given an infusion of $100 million from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  The gift is a bonanza, but it is also highlights a school system in dire need. 

Many voters, frustrated with their current elected officials, have decided to take action well ahead of election day. In cities and towns across America, constituents are calling for recall elections—efforts to oust their elected officials from office in the middle of their terms.

Louise Patton, the granddaughter of the only surviving officer from the Titanic, has written a book revealing the secret her grandfather took to his grave: The Titanic rammed into that iceberg because of one human error.

The Taliban's growing footprint in Afghanistan's rough terrain has forced the U.S. to be far more reliant on moving troops and supplies by air. Throughout America’s war in Afghanistan, helicopters have been widely used where mountainous areas, poor roads and Taliban booby traps make ground travel treacherous. The 14 Americans who died in Afghanistan on Monday, however, were a reminder that U.S. troops who die in Afghanistan are twice as likely to be killed in helicopter crashes as are their counterparts in Iraq. 

At a CNBC Town Hall Meeting on Monday, President Obama announced some good news coming out of Michigan: the three US automakers are making a profit for the first time in a long time.

It hasn’t been so long since the day when GM was almost synonomous with doom. But it’s been long enough, apparently, for the companies to start turning a profit — and for the Car Czar behind the recovery to write a book about how it all came to pass.

Reverend Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center, a tiny Pentecostal church in Gainesville, has backed down from his plan to burn the Quran. Reverend Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of September 11^th lit an international firestorm. Now Reverend Jones says he will not burn any Qurans – and he doesn’t think anyone else should, either.

President Obama spoke to a crowd at the Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, yesterday. He continued a week of painting the GOP as naysayers and describing his plan to address the ailing economy: tax cuts on those making less than $250,000 a year paid for by closing business tax loopholes, and tax write-offs for businesses' research and development efforts as well as investments in new equipment and jobs.  Obama also described the U.S. as having done better under Clinton-era tax rates than those under President Bush's tax cuts. 

Every year, with NYPD sponsorship, 200 young kids, most of them Muslim, gather in open spaces to yell and throw and hit.  More specifically, they're praising glovesmanship, bowling carrom balls, and knocking Dilscoops: They're playing cricket for the "NYPD United."

Yesterday, The Takeaway asked you to distill your summer into six words. Lizzy Schmidt, called The Takeaway to say, "Peaches. Women's softball won championships! Woohoo!" Her enthusiastic recap of the summer intrigued us and we called her to hear the rest of the story, which involves horses, softball, and broken bones. (And ends with a trophy.)

It's the end of summer, and that means that businesses around the country are being emptied of their interns. Early this summer, they arrived with their youth and their ambition. As the air turns crisp, they go home, leaving behind neatly stacked piles of folders, well organized databases, and, perhaps, a good impression.  

But a small group of those interns left something else behind: a wad of cash. Today, a growing number of young people – or their parents – are paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of working an unpaid internship.

Craigslist.org, the wildly-popular classifieds site, made news this weekend when they blocked a contentious portion of their site: the section pitching "adult" services.

Less than a week after President Obama declared the end of combat operations in Iraq, U.S. forces have exchanged fire with insurgents in Baghdad. American troops helped repel a coordinated attack on an Iraqi base. At least five bombers carrying grenades and wearing suicide jackets attempted to breach checkpoints and killed at least 12 people, wounding at least 20. 

The engagement was the first for U.S. forces since last Tuesday, when President Obama delaclared the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 7 1/2 year war, and the start of Operation New Dawn, in which 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq in a non-combat role to support and train the Iraqi military. 

Operation Iraqi Freedom will draw to a close on September 1st, 2010. As American forces transition from combat operations into the stability operations of Operation New Dawn, we're thinking about the troops who will be coming home.

Just this month, 13,000 troops will return home to the U.S. That's the equivalent of one 747 every day. By the end of next year, all 50,000 remaining troops will come home.

The fight for same-sex marriage in California has been a long one. In 2004, Gavin Newsom surprised the state by opening marriage licenses to all couples, gay or straight. It was quickly shut down, but it opened up a flood of lawsuits. In June 2008, the California Supreme Court overturned the same-sex marriage ban. However, just a few months after, on November 8, a ballot measure called proposition 8 was passed by 52 percent of voters, and it officially defined marriage in California as between a man and a woman. 

This week, we discuss two big stories, each of which considers the original intent of the 14th Amendment. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," as it passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, this clause of the Constitution guarantees U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the United States. It prohibits state governments from depriving anyone of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and mandates "equal protection of the laws" for all citizens.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California ruled Proposition 8, the voter-backed ballot measure to prohibit same-sex marriage, unconstitutional based on "due process" and "equal protection" grounds: both clauses in the 14th Amendment.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, several Republican senators are proposing to repeal or change the Amendment. They say we should no longer automatically give citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants.

A federal judge has overturned Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.  The measure passed with 52 percent of votes in November 2008. Yesterday, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled it unconstitutional on 14th Amendment grounds of due process and equal protection under the law. 

In a decision that ran more than 100 pages, Judge Vaughn Walker stated that "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same-sex couples."

In wartime, there is at least one clear moral imperative: spare civilian life. This is a strategic imperative as well. A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that by sparing civilian lives in Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO forces will suffer fewer revenge attacks by insurgents.

Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April, 205.8 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the latest estimates by federal scientists. (Imagine a cube filled with oil, where each side is as long as an American football field.) In the months since the explosion, BP has made more than a dozen attempts to stop the flow of oil. Last night BP started a "static kill," a procedure that could permanently seal the well. 

What have scientists learned from this spill?  Can we prevent this from happening again? 

At the beginning of his presidency, President Obama pledged to cease combat operations in Iraq by August 31st, 2010. As we near that deadline, Obama seems on track to keep his promise. By the end of this month, combat operations will cease, and only 50,000 support troops will remain in Iraq. By the end of 2011, the president says, they will all come home.