Arwa Gunja

Retail giant Sam's Club will begin offering loans of up to $25,000 to members who are small business owners. The division of Wal-Mart Store Inc. is teaming up with Superior Financial Group, one of 13 federally licensed nonbank lenders for the program. Already, nearly half of Sam's Club members are small-business owners who account for more than half of the store's revenue. The store says that 15 percent of those members say they have been denied loans from other lenders in the past. 

On Tuesday, oil hit the coast of Texas, officially reaching every state along the Gulf of Mexico. About five gallons of oil were found near Galveston, Tex. appearing in the form of small tar balls.  According to state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, tar balls are not uncommon in Texas; they hear about ten reports of them a year. That same office also confirmed that the oil has come from the BP Deepwater Horizon leak, and said it has most likely reached Texas by a boat or vessel rather than ocean currents.

It’s perhaps the most common complaint levied against illegal immigrants – they are stealing American jobs and bringing down the economy. Now, the United Farm Workers of America is teaming up with "The Colbert Report" to offer farm worker jobs to any American who wants to take them. The organization is encouraging any unemployed Americans, Washington pundits and anti-immigrant activists to sign up for the Take Our Jobs campaign. They say that if you’re okay with long days under the hot sun, small paychecks, no overtime or workers compensation, they will happily train and set up Americans with farm jobs.

In her first day of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan got off to a rocky start in a nearly 20-minute back-and-forth debate with ranking Republican Senator Jeff Sessions. In the sparring session, Sen. Sessions maintained that Kagan had circumvented the law and was disrespectful to the military when she limited military recruiters' access to campus as dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan repeatedly said Harvard was always in compliance with the law. 

Over hours of confirmation hearings yesterday, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan faced tough questioning from senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. For nearly twenty minutes, ranking Republican Jeff Sessions asked Kagan about her policies banning military recruiters from campus while she was the dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan repeatedly said recruiters were never banned and that she always complied with the law, as she saw it. In response, Sessions told the nominee her remarks were "unconnected to reality."

Later in the day, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah explained his personal frustrations with criticisms on Citizens United v. FEC, the controversial campaign finance ruling by the Supreme Court. Kagan argued the case on behalf of the federal government as Solicitor General and maintained that as a justice, she would respect "settled law" and Supreme Court "precedent." It was the same answer she used when asked about the Second Amendment and Roe v. Wade.

Yesterday the Supreme Court said the Second Amendment's gaurantee of the right to bear arms applies to state and local gun control laws, effectively overturning Chicago’s ban on handguns in a 5-4 decision. The ruling comes after two deadly weekends in Chicago, where over 80 people have been shot and 13 people killed in the city. For decades, Chicago’s homicide rates have soared above other U.S. cities. And gun control advocates worry that the recent Supreme Court case will escalate crime in the city and make Chicago the national epicenter of gun-related violence.

Senate confirmation hearings for Solicitor General Elena Kagan began yesterday. If confirmed, Kagan would become the fourth woman to sit on the country's highest bench. But before she dons that black robe, Kagan must undergo a week of grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The process of a week-long question-and-answer session for nominees began in 1939. A new study reviewed the hundreds of hours of transcripts from confirmation hearings over the last 70 years and found the process can often produce substantive information indicating the changing of the times. It also shows that women and minority candidates are often questioned more thoroughly and pressed further on their judicial philosophies. 

Colorado is the first state where the medical marijuana business is fully regulated, licensed and taxed. Unlike California where medical marijuana dispensary owners work in nonprofit collectives, Colorado allows cannabis business owners to profit as much as possible from their sales. Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2000, and more than 80,000 people in the state now hold medical marijuana certificates, according to The New York Times. However, tight rules and restrictions have made it hard for these businesses to thrive.

Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin today. But this news was overshadowed by the death this morning of Sen. Robert Byrd. 

Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich looks at the record of Sen. Byrd and previews the Kagan hearings, along with Jamal Greene, associate professor of law at Columbia Law School and former law clerk for Justice Stevens.

The Supreme Court on Thursday narrowed the scope of a law that has put people like former Enron Chief Jeffrey Skilling behind bars. The law, known as the "honest-services law," makes it illegal to "deprive another of the intangible right of honest services."  In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the law’s language was too broad. The decision sends Skilling's case back to the lower courts and calls into question other recent convictions under the same law, including the charges against Conrad M. Black, the newspaper executive convicted of defrauding his media company, Hollinger International, as well as Joseph Bruno, one of the most prominent politicians in New York.

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae announced plans this week to institute a new rule penalizing homeowners who walk away from their mortgages. If homeowners are able to afford home payments, Fannie Mae says they will pursue them in court and restrict their access to future home loans for seven years. The decision will affect many home-owning Americans since the mortgage market is nearly completely controlled by Fannie Mae, and its sister company Freddie Mac, as well as the Federal Housing Administration.

Less than 48 hours after Rolling Stone’s profile of General Stanley McChrystal went viral on the Internet, President Obama relieved the four-star general of his job as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. General David Petraeus will now take over the post, leaving behind an opening at the Central Command in Iraq. Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, was in the Rose Garden yesterday for Obama’s announcement. He explains the political implications of the president's decision and the response it is getting in Washington. Even though the president tried to drive home the point that strategy was not going to change, this personnel upset has reopened the strategy debate in Washington.

UPDATED 6:30 p.m.

Arwa Gunja here on the evening shift.

This week we learned that General Stanley McChrystal is the kind of man who gives his chief-of-staff the middle finger and insults his bosses without hesitation. But how much of the four-star general's behavior is just a part of a military culture and how much crosses the line? Tomorrow, we’re asking this question to two men familiar with combat culture. First Lieutenant Mike Scotti, who documented his time in Iraq in the film, “Severe Clear,” and former Army Capt. Matt Gallagher join the program to give us an insider's take on McChrystal's actions. What do you think? Did Obama do the right thing by accepting his resignation or should McChrystal have kept his job? Send your comments by calling us at 877-8-MYTAKE or leaving us a message here on our website.

With all the news today about the replacement of McChrystal, some developments in the Gulf of Mexico have been overshadowed.  BP suffered another setback today when the company was forced to remove the containment cap due to a discharge of liquid and gases. The cap had been partially successful in containing the flow of oil. Then, in a separate incident, there are reports on the deaths of two cleanup workers. Tomorrow we have on Darryl Willis, vice president of resources for BP, to clarify how BP will go about fixing its negative image.

Americans are not exactly known as the world's biggest soccer fans, but as the rest of the globe is consumed with World Cup mania, we at The Takeaway have been wondering, who are the world's biggest soccer fans? The Afghan people may not come to mind, but Rahmatullah Qureshi, a civil servant in the Ministry of Education in Kabul, just might be Afghanistan's biggest soccer fan.

Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American citizen who attempted to blow up a car in Times Square, pleaded guilty yesterday to ten terror-related charges. “I want to plead guilty 100 times over,” said Shahzad in Manhattan federal court. He went on to describe his training in Pakistan and the events leading up to the attempted bombing.

We talk with WNYC reporter Ailsa Chang, who was in the courtroom.

UPDATED 6:20pm

Arwa Gunja, here on the evening shift.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled on what many legal experts are calling the most significant decision on free speech in terrorism cases. In a 6-3 ruling, the Court said neither domestic organizations nor individuals can provide “material support” to foreign terrorist groups. It is still unclear what “material support” means and how far-reaching the implications of the ruling may be. Tomorrow morning we’ll talk with David Cole, who provided legal counsel for the Humanitarian Law Project, the plaintiff in the case.

In another court case that began today, a Connecticut judge will soon decide whether cheerleading classifies as a sport. In the case, the Quinnipiac University women’s volleyball team has sued the school for cutting its budget to fund the cheerleading squad. The volleyball team says that cheerleading is not a sport under Title IX, the civil rights law that requires schools to equally allocate resources to men’s and women’s sports teams. Linda Carpenter the author of “Title IX,” will explain how the groundbreaking law works, and whether cheerleading qualifies.

Speaking of higher education, tomorrow we’re asking, is graduate school really worth it? More than a quarter of people graduating with a Bachelors Degree this year will go on to pursue graduate degrees. But do graduate degrees increase your chances of finding a job and does the ratio of debt to salary cancel out of the benefits of the degree? Takeaway work contributor Beth Kobliner will weigh in, along with a former graduate student. What do you think? If you went to graduate school, was it worth it? And if you are currently unemployed, are you thinking about going back to school? To share your comments, call us at 877-8-MYTAKE or leave us a message here on our website.

According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 980,000 people in the U.S. are addicted to some type of opiates: a sharp uptick in recent years. The number of emergency room visits linked to non-medical use of prescription pain relievers has more than doubled in recent years. The prescription painkillers being abused include oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone. And in six states—Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont—accidental drug deaths due to use of anxiety medications increased 64 percent between 2004 and 2007.

Since Viagra hit the market in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies have been racing to come up with an equivalent drug for women. And one German pharmaceutical company is hoping to win the race. Boehringer Ingelheim, a large German drug company, will go before the  Food and Drug Administration today in hopes of gaining approval for a new pill they believe can increase the female libido. Citing hypoactive sexual desire, the company says their female version of that magic blue pill, can cure women of that disorder.

An FDA staff report on Wednesday argued against approval of the drug, saying it has not sufficiently proven to be successful. And many doctors say drug companies are creating pills for a disorder that does not exist.

Since winning the EuroCup in 2008, Spain has been nearly undefeated. Their only loss in two years and 48 games has been to the United States. But yesterday that changed when Switzerland defeated Spain 1-0. In a later game, South Africa took a beating on the field, losing to Uruguay 3-0. And the South Africa goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune received a red card for tackling a Uruguayan striker, leaving his team one man short.

At a time when we have a 9 percent unemployment rate, a new study shows we may soon face a shortage of 3 million qualified workers. There are plenty of people to fill those jobs, but there won't be enough educated people trained for the positions, according to the study published by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

The report finds that by 2018, 63 percent of the jobs in the United States will require post-high school education. At the current rates of high school and college graduations, there will not be enough workers with higher education degrees. And colleges aren't doing enough to emphasize the importance of employability.