Jen Poyant

During the unrest sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa, social networking sites have become forums for pro-revolutionary forces to gather information and support for their causes. But while the rebels and their supporters have gained ground, they’ve had to contend with pro-government forces staking their claim in the virtual sphere as well.

Between the news this week that James Cameron is predicting that all movies theatrese will be 3D within five years AND the latest movie craze to hit Hong Kong, like ah, 3D Soft Porn in packed theatres around the country, we want to ask whether anyone is excited about 3D and whether it is really will dominate our movie going experience in the near future.

Following in the legislative footsteps of Nebraska, which has had a law on its books for a year that bans abortion after 20 weeks, at least a dozen states are considering some type of restriction to abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, by the end of March, seven states will have have enacted 15 new laws that restrict abortion. In South Dakota a new law will soon go into effect that will expand the pre-abortion waiting period from 24 to 72 hours and require counseling from a crisis pregnancy center. Are we seeing a state-by-state permanent change to abortion rights? 

More than 1.5 million acres have burned in what officials are calling the worst wildfires that Texas has ever seen. The Texas Fire Service reported yesterday that there had been some progress in fighting The Wildcat Fire, north of San Angelo, The Cooper Mountain Ranch Fire, east of Lubbock and the The Rockhouse fire, south east of El Paso. Some strides were also made at Possum Kingdom Lake, west of Ft. Worth. But two fire fighters have died in the fight to control the blazes, and federal teams have been called into help.

Last week, the Justice Department indicted top executives at online poker companies based abroad for money laundering and wire fraud. It's a major blow that could put the industry in jeopardy. Professional online poker players, some with millions of dollars in accounts associated with these online poker sites, are waiting to see if they’ll be able to gain access to their money.

The fate of the five remaining Chinese Muslims being held in Guantanamo Bay became murkier this week. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on behalf of the Uighurs — who have been cleared of any implications of terrorism. The appeal may have allowed them to stay here in the U.S. after they are released from Cuba. Sabin Willet represents the five remaining detainees. He says that the Uighurs have refused an invitation to resettle in Palau because they see it as an island exile. 

Well before the era of social security, most Americans could only dream of a life where retirement was possible. But by the early 1900s U.S. companies started mandating a retirement age. The practice of imposing a retirement age was outlawed by Congress in 1986. But some are suggesting that maybe it’s time to bring it back — all while many baby boomers are out of work and looking to get back into the labor force. Should we go back to mandatory retirement?

If you love to eat nuts, you may have noticed that the cost of the great American pecan has gone through the roof over the past few years. You can thank the Chinese consumer for that. It turns out the rise in pecans at the grocery store is due to a slow and steady increase in demand from China.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Berlin attending NATO meetings, where members of the alliance are debating whether to step up their attacks on Libyan forces. Meanwhile, Libyan rebels are warning of an immanent blood bath in the city of Misurata if NATO does not intensify their air attacks. Thursday, Col. Moammar Gaddhafi rode around around Tripoli in a convertible, defiantly waving his fists at the allied forces. What is the way forward for NATO and is its latest combat mission a reflection of how little it can do to with such a divided force?

A year after a an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig created a devastating oil spill in the region, how are fishing communities in the Gulf of Mexico dealing with the disaster? The BBC's Robyn Bresnahan visited the area to speak with people whose livelihood has been affected by the spill and the aftermath. She's witnessed everything from dead oysters to a resident so determined to increase awareness she walked to Washington D.C. from New Orleans on foot. Today we hear more from Bresnahan about her experiences in the Gulf. 

During the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, 800 bank officials ended up in jail over misconduct that led to the crisis. So why hasn’t a single bank executive been charged with any crime in the 2008 financial crisis? Louise Story, Wall Street and Finance Reporter for The New York Times lays out the lapses in regulation that led up to the crisis and also may now be responsible for the lack of evidence to try bank executives. Why did the FBI, the Justice Department and the SEC all chose to scale back their investigations into questionable banking practices?

Ben Zimmer, Executive Producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com is putting John and Celeste to the test by asking them to identify the real definition of words with truly American origins. Could you identify absquatulate, callithump and copacetic? If so, you might do well on producer Kristen Meinzer's quiz.

Here are the words with which Ben Zimmer tried to stump the hosts: absquatulate, callithump, copacetic, hornswoggle, lagniappe, rumbustious. Do you know what they mean?

The bodies of ten young women have been found in an investigation into a serial killer operating in Long Island. Four of the victims have been identified as prostitutes. Police have not identified the other victims. For more about the case we have Edward Conlon, detective for the NYPD and author of “Red on Red: A Novel.” 

Many of the big banks received huge bailouts from the government during the great recession. If they faced a crisis again, what would stop them from expecting another bailout the next time around? That question has led one Fed official, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Kansas City Fed, to raise the issue of whether big banks should be reclassified as government sponsored entities, kind of like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The burning of a Quran at a Florida church has set off a wave of violence in Afghanistan. Thousands of protesters mobbed the United Nations building in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday. Seven U.N. workers were murdered, and protests against the United States raged in Kandahar over the weekend, killing dozens. President Obama and General David Petraeus condemned the Florida pastor’s actions. Including the U.N. workers, 24 people have died since protests began last Friday.

Would you let someone you didn't know borrow your car? New car-sharing programs are letting people do just that. Companies like RelayRides.com let people in urban areas like San Francisco, Portland and Cambridge, Mass. rent out their own cars for an hourly fee.

We talk to one reporter who took car-sharing for a test drive: Casey Miner, at KALW 91.7FM in San Francisco and one of our partners in the Transportation Nation project.

Officials from both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly faced with the question of whether coalition forces should intensify the campaign against Colonel Moammar Gadhafi by arming Libyan rebel fighters. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke yesterday at diplomatic meetings being held London to discuss the situation in Libya. She said it’s possible that UN Security Council Resolutions could allow certain countries to supply weapons to Libyan rebels.

Actor Ted Danson is having a phenomenal year on television. He has hit roles in three hot series: HBO's "Bored to Death" which he stars alongside Jason Schwartzman and Zach Galifianakis. He shows up every now and again on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and shares the screen with Glenn Close in "Damages." But our beloved "Cheers" bartender is mostly fired up about his latest off-screen project, ocean conservationist. He has co-authored a book that looks at the state of the oceans and how we can save them. He says he loves the ocean and wants to make it easy for anyone to help.

It’s been two weeks since the earthquake and tsunami hit Northeastern Japan. Ever since that day, Japanese officials have been working tirelessly to avert a nuclear disaster. Friday morning, Japanese nuclear safety officials said that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have breached. That raises the possibility of more severe radioactive contamination to the environment. Henry Fountain, Science Reporter for The New York Times explains the latest.

Republicans in Minnesota are buzzing this week, after speculation that Tea Party star and Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, Michele Bachmann may be planning an exploratory committee for a potential 2012 presidential run. This comes just days after former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced his own committee. Minnesota’s Republican Party chairman Tony Sutton is calling the potential pool of top tier GOP candidates from in his state, “an embarrassment of the riches.” How might the two candidates fare in a national bid?