Elizabeth Ross

Alaska lost its iconic lawmaker, Ted Stevens, in a plane crash on Monday night. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican senator in history and served six terms in the U.S. Senate. The former senator lost his re-election bid in 2008, after he was convicted on corruption charges. The charges against Stevens were later dropped at the request of United States Attorney General Eric Holder, who found prosecutorial misconduct during Stevens’ trial.

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.

Google Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the investment arms of Google and the C.I.A., are both backing a start-up company called Recorded Future that monitors activity and text on the Web in real time and uses the information to spot early trends and events. The company also attempts to take current data and model what's going to happen in the future...

Google is not directly collaborating with the C.I.A., but its actions are likely to cause some unease for those already worried about whether the company can be trusted to protect consumers' privacy.

Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was the primary sponsor of Arizona's immigration law, S.B. 1070. However, since a federal judge handed down a partial injunction yesterday in response to a legal challenge by the Obama administration, parts of that law are now blocked. Pearce tells The Takeaway that he is ready to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. "Arizona's not going to take it," he says, "we're going to do something really novel, which is enforce the law."

There's growing concern about the national debt: currently a gulp-inducing $13 trillion... and counting. President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is tasked with coming up with proposals to begin solving the problem later this year. We speak with Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, and a member of the bipartisan deficit-reduction commission.

For decades, unpublished papers by the Jewish Czech writer, Franz Kafka, have been hidden away in safety deposit boxes in Zurich, Switzerland and Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel’s supreme court recently ordered that the boxes, which contain thousands of handwritten documents by one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century, be opened. However, there is still an ongoing legal dispute about who owns the collection of private papers. It is not yet known whether the public will ever get to see them.

They’re back: Massive homes, heavy on square footage and sometimes light on architectural style, are seeing a resurgence in certain Boston-area communities.

U.S. Senate hopeful Alvin Greene has a new plan to stimulate South Carolina's economy: action figures — of himself! He says that by creating the toys, he'll be helping out the retail industry. Greene is a veteran, who says that it makes sense to create his own action figure. There are still questions around how this unknown man became the Democratic Senate nominee, but he will face Republican Jim Demint in November.

Today our partner WGBH Radio begins an investigative series about the growing national and international criminal enterprise of human and sexual trafficking, and examines how nail salons in Massachusetts and Rhode Island are being used to hide and legitimize illegal activities. Women are being trafficked to work in salons during the day and then pulled into prostitution at night, and because a salon is a cash-based business, it is a perfect place to launder the money brought in through prostitution. 

The commercial fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico has been hit hard by the huge oil spill. Fishing has been closed off in a third of the Gulf and fish production has been reduced significantly, as many in the industry have been diverted from their daily work to assist with the clean-up effort in the region. Now seafood markets across the country are beginning to feel the strain and seafood prices are on the rise.

President Barack Obama will meet with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today. The president opposes Arizona's controversial immigration law, signed by the governor, which is due to take effect next month. 

On the foggy evening of September 16, 1969 the oil barge Florida ran aground off Cape Cod in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. 189,000 gallons of fuel spilled into Buzzards Bay, a major transit route for transporting heating and industrial oil and gasoline. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have studied the oil spill extensively and the institution’s research has influenced national standards for cleaning up oil.

A year ago Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter quit the Republican party to join the Democrats. He won the support of President Obama, organized labor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. But he lacked the support of the voters and lost yesterday's primary to Rep. Joe Sestak. 

A recent report by the College Board found students at for-profit colleges graduated with significantly more debt than their counterparts at public and private non-profit schools. President Obama recently overhauled the federal student loan program, changing the landscape for college lenders. Now Congress is considering ways to increase oversight of these for-profit colleges, which receive significant amounts of federal financial aid.

A six-month investigation into the multi-million dollar business of carbon offsets has uncovered, instead of verdant forests of carbon-sequestering trees, many shady alleys of corrupt...

Hundreds of boys in war-torn Afghanistan are being sexually abused with the return of a centuries-old practice called "bacha bazi," which means "boy play." The illegal practice, banned while the Taliban were in power, trains boys as young as eleven to sing, dance, and dress as women. After seeing the boys perform, former warlords and powerful businessmen buy the boys, and frequently use them as sex slaves.

Many states across the country are struggling with billions of dollars in budget gaps and several of them are considering expanding some form of gambling to generate much needed revenue. Lawmakers in Massachusetts today are expected to begin debating a bill to license two resort-style casinos in the state and to introduce slot machines at the state's racetracks. Proponents of the plan say expanded gambling in Massachusetts could create as many as 15,000 jobs and reduce the state's buget deficit.

States across the country are struggling with billions of dollars in budget gaps. Now many of them are looking at ways to raise revenue by expanding some form of gambling. Massachusetts is considering a bill that would license two resort-style casinos and bring slot machines to four of the state’s racetracks. 

At companies deemed too big to fail, there's a delicate balance to be found between paying enough to retain talented staff and soothing public anger about big taxpayer bailouts. "Pay Czar" Kenneth Feinberg (he dislikes the term, but it's stuck) believes he’s getting the balance right.

• SPORTS TAKEOUT: At 22 years old, Katie Spotz became the youngest American to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone this week. She chronicled her journey on a blog while she made the journey. Now that she's back on dry land, she joins The Takeaway to share her story.
• GOOD WEEK/ BAD WEEK: We team up with The Week Magazine to take a look at who has had a good week and who hasn't. This week has been great for CBS, who gets to broadcast Tiger Woods's return to golf. And it was a a bad week to take a nap in your car. A Florida woman fell asleep in her car and woke up somewhere else.