Noel King

General David Petraeus faces the Senate Armed Services Committee today for confirmation hearings. The General is expected to take command of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan — after his predecessor Gen. Stanley McChrystal lost his post for making disparaging remarks about the Obama administration in Rolling Stone Magazine. How will General Petraeus do in the hearings, and what challenges does he face in his new position? 

Corruption is rampant in Afghanistan. It is one of the biggest problems faced by coalition forces, and citizens there worry about corruption in the government corruption and the bribes they have to pay in their day-to-day lives. Earlier this week counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen spoke to the Takeaway about these challenges. "Most importantly is the issue of corruption and abuse on the part of the Afghan government. If we don't deal with that, no amount of military changing the deck chairs is going to fix this problem," he said.

In April, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, who commands NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, proposed creating an award for "courageous restraint." As avoiding the loss of civilian life is a cornerstone of the coalition's counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, does rewarding restraint makes sense?  Is restraint a courageous act of discipline under fire or does it put our troops in danger? 

On Facebook, Takeaway listener, Rusty Roy wrote:

President Obama on Tuesday relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of his duties in Afghanistan, less than 48 hours after it was revealed that McChrystal and his aides made disparaging remarks about high-ranking members of the Obama administration to a freelance journalist from Rolling Stone. McChrystal will be replaced by Gen. David Petraeus. We want to know what you think. Should Gen. Stanley McChrystal have kept his job?

A federal judge in New Orleans has overturned a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling, instituted by President Obama at the end of May. The judge said the Interior Department's decision to suspend drilling in the Gulf was arbitrary. Obama, on Tuesday, vowed to appeal the decision.

The Senate Armed Services Committee meets today to discuss prevention of suicides within the U.S. armed forces. Suicide is the second-biggest killer of U.S. Marines; this year, 55 Marines have been killed in combat, while 21 have taken their own lives. The U.S. Army faces an equally large problem, with 245 members taking their own lives in 2009. We're looking at efforts to drive those numbers down and the devastation wrought by the suicide of a loved one.

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.

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. David Petraeus on Wednesday defended President Obama's plan to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July of 2011. Gen. Petraeus faced tough questions from lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who worry that Afghanistan will view our drawdown as abandonment. "We are sounding an uncertain trumpet to our friends and to our enemies. They believe we are leaving as of July 2011," McCain said.

Closing arguments are scheduled for today in a federal trial that will address the constitutionality of Proposition 8 - the controversial amendment to California's constitution that reinstated a ban on gay marriage in the state in 2008, after it had been legal for some months.

For 57 days, oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, following an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. That's 57 days of trying to determine what the leak looks like, how big it is, who it's affecting and where the oil has hit land. In other words: 57 days to get pretty creative.

Jeff Warren is a student and fellow at the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. He's working on mapping the Gulf leak using digital cameras tied to balloons and kites. Here are some of the photos Warren and his colleagues have taken, using cheap digital cameras, kites, garbage bags, and tanks of helium.

"You take each image and you stretch it on a map and then every pixel of the location is a place in the real world," says Warren.

Lauren Craig is a master's student at Tulane and a photo volunteer. She's one of the people attaching a camera to a balloon and taking thousands upon thousands of photos.

After the jump, a short video by Jeff Warren in which he describes the project.

In 2009, the Pentagon lifted a ban that forbade members of the news media from covering the dignified transfer of the remains of U.S. servicemen and women at Dover Air Force Base. On April 5th, 2009, around forty reporters and photographers were present for the return of the remains of Air Force Staff Sgt. Phillip Myers of Hopewell, Virginia.

But these days, there's often only one member of the news media present. Steve Ruark is a freelance photographer with the Associated Press. He has been to Dover for dignified transfers more than ninety times.

One year ago, Iran, in turmoil, appeared to be on the brink of a revolution. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was declared the winner of Iran's much-contested presidential election. For days afterwards, protests raged. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians poured into the streets. They marched, despite a savage government crackdown. Dissidents, journalists and ordinary people were swept off the streets and imprisoned, but the protests went on. Cameras filmed the death throes of a young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, shot in the streets of Tehran. She was called a martyr; her death fuelled even more protests. Twitter and Youtube became foreign correspondents, telling stories from the embattled nation after traditional media were shut down or shut out. But the protests petered out.

One year later, where is the revolutionary fervor?

Tension is growing along the American border with Mexico after a U.S. border agent shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican boy on Monday evening. The incident, which took place near the El Paso border crossing, is complicated by the fact that U.S. authorities, Mexican authorities and eyewitnesses all tell different accounts of the incident. The U.S. says the teen was with a group of youths who threw rocks at border agents while they were trying to arrest two illegal migrants. Mexican authorities have condemned the shooting, calling it excessive use of force.

Yesterday was the biggest primary day of the year so far, with closely watched races in California, Arkansas, South Carolina, New Jersey, Iowa, and Maine, among other states. The coast-to-coast campaigns for governors, Senate and House seats showed the strength of the Tea Party as well as the well-known power of money.

We take a closer look at races across the country. In California, Carly Fiorina beat out Congressman Tom Campbell for the Republican nomination and will now face Senator Barbara Boxer in the fall. A GOP victory would mark the first time California has sent a Republican to the Senate since 1988. In that state's governor's race, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman secured the Republican nomination and will go on to challenge Democrat Jerry Brown in the fall.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Obama today. Talks between the two leaders were originally scheduled to come on the heels of a meeting between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu cancelled those talks last week after Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound ship, killing nine activists.

Across the country, a groundswell of public outrage continues to grow against oil giant BP as oil continues to leak into the Gulf of Mexico. That's despite the news that a cap is helping to collect between 10,000 and 20,000 gallons of oil a day. Some Twitter users, irritated at the situation, have vented their outrage to the Twitter user @BP.

Unfortunately, @BP is not that BP. It's the Twitter handle of Bryan Pendleton, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon who says a typical tweet is "'clean it up, followed by an expletive."

Primary races are scheduled in eleven states today. We are looking at two elections with national implications: Arkansas, where the power of organized labor is at play, and Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is hoping a specific GOP pick will enable him to keep his seat. 

In Arkansas, Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln is facing a run-off against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter. Organized labor groups, both local and national, have thrown their weight behind Halter, saying Lincoln betrayed them by not supporting a public option in health care reform and by voting for NAFTA as a U.S. Representative, in 1993. National labor groups have pumped millions of dollars into the race - leading some analysts to suggest that Arkansas' primary contest has been hijacked by national interests.

Israel is under fire from friends and foes alike after a raid on a flotilla of Turkish ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza led to the deaths of nine people -- including a 19-year-old American man. The diplomatic fallout continues this morning as Turkey, which up until this week has been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world, has warned that it may reduce economic and defense ties with Israel as a result of the raid. Meanwhile, the MV Rachel Corrie, another Irish ship full of pro-Palestinian activists, has set sail for Gaza, carrying Nobel Prize laureate Mairead McGuire, among others.

Israel is on the defense, and these developments beg the question, how will Israel respond after near universal criticism from the international community after this week's incident?

An Irish ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, is sailing toward the Gaza Strip this morning, just days after nine people were killed when Israeli commandos raided a flotilla of ships heading for Gaza. The raid drew widespread condemnation from Israel's friends and foes. The MV Rachel Corrie is reportedly carrying aid for Palestinians in the form of school supplies, clothes and medicine – among other things. Israel has said the ship will not be allowed to dock.