The issue of gay marriage is back in the national spotlight after two high-level members of President Obama’s administration — Vice president Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan — voiced their support for the issue this week. Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, considers the week's happenings and President Obama's vague stance on same-sex marriage. 

The American Psychiatric Association, the organization that writes the Diagnostic Statistical Manual and decides what counts as a mental illness, is meeting this week in Philadelphia. The agenda includes several military-related discussions, including whether or not to drop "disorder" from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Some advocate leaving the name as simply PTS — an acronym the military has already started to use — and others suggest a change to PTSI, with the "I" standing for "injury." Still others suggest no change at all.

Yesterday, the White House honored 14 people who’ve served as pioneers in advancing technologies for people with disabilities. Down the road, there may be one more big name to add to those being honored: Nektar Paisios. He just completed his computer science Ph.D. this month at New York University. Originally from Cyprus, and blind from the time he was four, Paisios is working on a number of iPhone apps that could solve some of the blind community's problems.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that the U.S. has been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups. But over the border, in Pakistan, the U.S. stated yesterday that they’ve ruled out negotiating with Al-Qaeda to free an aid worker who was kidnapped last summer.

When Sen. John McCain conceded the presidency to Barack Obama, McCain said: "A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time." Author Deborah Davis chronicles that dinner, its aftermath, and the lives of Roosevelt and Washington in her new book.

It's a fact: Our workforce is shrinking. And as it shrinks, the unemployment rate is also shrinking. Critics of President Obama have been quick to say the president hasn't actually created jobs — the falling unemployment rate just means fewer people are trying to find work. If the job growth is an unreliable figure, and the unemployment rate is an unreliable figure, how do we measure economic change?

"Drone" is becoming an increasingly common word in our 21st-century vocabulary, and to many it strikes a fearful note: It conjures images of stealth Predator drones, or incites concerns about Big Brother–esque surveillance techniques. But are these worries well founded? And how did we get to the point that UAVs are becoming an ever-readier part of quotidian life in the United States?

May is the start of college graduation season, when the nation’s bright and ambitious college seniors step out into the workforce — or hope to. But last week’s job numbers show job growth is still weak, and many soon-to-be college grads may find themselves dealing with bleak prospects for the time being. Aaron Smith, co-founder and executive director of Young Invincibles, is on the last stop of a 21-state bus tour holding roundtable discussions with young people to brainstorm solutions to youth unemployment.

The headlines this morning are all about underwear bombs but the man behind this terrorist device, Ibrahim al Asiri, the bomb maker for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, may be the bigger story. The FBI in Washington is picking apart a bomb it says was central to a foiled al-Qaeda plot to blow up an airliner bound for the United States. The garment bomb triggered by chemicals alone, no metal parts, and was found in Yemen where Ibrahim Al Asiri and al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula are based. Joining us now is Tom Finn, correspondent for Reuters based in Sana, Yemen.

In 2007, during his contentious primary race with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama spent a week campaigning with Newark Mayor Corey Booker and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The media continually highlighted the difference between these three young, African-American politicians and the generation of black leaders that came before them. A new book by Professor Andra Gillespie examines the new generation of black politicians exemplified by President Obama through the lens of Cory Booker's mayoral election and his tenure in Newark.

He made the monsters fun. Maurice Sendak, the child author and illustrator, has died at age 83. His books and style of illustration immediately evoked a whole world of creatures and characters, dark places that were part scary and part cozy. Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning creator of the graphic novel, Maus, comments on the life of Sendak.