For this week's Follow Friday, we look back on this week's news and cultural stories, including the response to the theater shooting in Aurora, Mitt Romney's foreign policy, President Obama in New Orleans and the beginning of the Olympics.

Our Follow Friday team discusses the top stories of the past week, including Romney and Biden's speeches to the NAACP, the Obamacare repeal in the House, and building tensions over the Texas Voting Rights Act.

Every Friday, The Takeaway looks back at the week's big stories with a few people who have been paying very, very close attention. This week, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist Ron Christie and Kai Wright, an editor at COLORLINES magazine, discuss President Obama's support for gay marriage, North Carolina's constitutional amendment defining marriage, Dick Lugar's ouster from the Senate, and allegations that Mitt Romney bullied a gay high school classmate.

This week the Supreme Court’s scrutiny of President Obama’s signature piece of legislation dominated the headlines, but it wasn’t the only story out there. Anger over the perceived lack of justice in the Trayvon Martin shooting case continues to sweep the nation, and the controversial film "Bully" got bullied by the ratings board. These stories and more are covered by our panel of Kai Wright, Editor of Colorlines, Ron Christie, Republican political strategist, and Art Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania.

The NYPD has been monitoring Muslims. Affirmative Action is under attack. A Koran was burned in Afghanistan sparks protests. The GOP primary race roles on, and Rick Santorum believes in Satan. These stories and more will be covered by our panel which includes Kai Wright, editor of Colorlines, Farai Chideya, a journalist and blogger at Farai.com, and Ron Christie, Republican political strategist, CEO of Christie Strategies, and former special assistant to President George W. Bush.

This week, all of the Republican presidential candidates are back on the campaign trail. Former speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and Representative Michele Bachmann will all visit Iowa. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney heads to Florida, and Cain will be in Wisconsin. President Obama travels to Australia, steering clear of the Congressional "super committee" as its deadline to shave $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget grows near. 

The national unemployment level continues to hover around 9 percent. But among African-Americans, that number shoots up to about 16 percent. On Friday’s program The Takeaway spoke with Robert Johnson, founder of BET and CEO or RLJ Companies. Johnson, who was the first African-American to become a billionaire, has a new idea for how to get black Americans out of poverty.

The New York police department arrested over 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters Saturday, for allegedly walking across the Brooklyn Bridge's roadway, instead of using the pedestrian path. Now in its third week, the movement has spread to other cities around the nation. Meanwhile, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to testify before Congress tomorrow on the economic outlook for the country, and unemployment figures are set to be released Friday, as President Obama continues to push his jobs bill. And Nevada has moved its caucus date back, ahead of Florida's, which will likely affect the race for the Republican nomination.

President Obama is departing today for his three-day bus tour through the Midwest, where he will stop in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. With his poll numbers slipping, Obama will be talking with Americans about ways to improve the economy and job growth. While Obama is on the road, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who announced this weekend that he will seek the 2012 Republican nomination, will begin fundraising for his campaign. As the race to for the presidency kicks up a notch, a Congressional twelve-member 'super committee' will begin work on a debt-reduction strategy, aiming to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving of this year.

This week, we've been talking about the impact of the recession on the wealth of minority groups in America. Early in the week a new Pew Research Center report showed that Hispanics were the group hit hardest by the recession, with a 66 percent drop in personal wealth, and African-Americans saw a 53 percent decline since 2005. The public sector is the leading employer for African-American men, and the second-largest employer for African-American women — which means public sector lay-offs have disproportionately affected the black middle class. What is the solution?

This week marks the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Bill into law. A key component of that bill was the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which will open its doors on Thursday. Yesterday, Obama announced Elizabeth Warren — the progressive icon who was charged with setting up the CFPB — will not be heading the new agency. In other news, the first legal same-sex marriages will take place in New York next weekend, and the nation's biggest banks will release their latest quarterly earnings statements.

Forty-five percent of Republicans still believe Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States, even though there's no question to the veracity of his citizenship. Thanks in particular to potential GOP 2012 presidential candidate Donald Trump, the "birther" issue has resurfaced. As the Republican party gears up for the 2012 presidential election — and as a number of states legislatures consider their own "birther" bills — how will this issue play for potential Republican candidates?

The U.S. House and Senate are in recess for the next two weeks, but recess doesn't necessarily mean relaxation. With the budget crisis still looming, the break may give Congressmembers the opportunity to do some politicking as they gear up for a the next round of battles over the deficit. But while Washington is gridlocked over future budget proposals, the rest of America will receive some economic indicators this week — including a report on previously owned homes by the National Association of Realtors. And locally, North Carolina's budget may take its own hit this week after a series of powerful tornadoes swept through Raleigh this weekend.

In other political news, President Obama is back on the campaign trail and he gears up for 2012 elections. This week he'll make stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

We get a preview of the week ahead with Kai Wright, editor of the news blog, Colorlines and Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio.

The 8.9 earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan Friday is certain to have an impact on the world's market. Already Japan's Nikkei average fell over 4 percent in early trading Monday morning. Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC Radio, looks at how the disaster in Japan could affect the U.S.'s economy and stock market.

According to the Pew Research Center, interracial marriage is at an all-time high. The results of the 2010 Census are expected to show a dramatic increase in the number of mixed-race Americans. But as multi-racial Americans become more common, a recent remark from actress Halle Berry certainly raised some eyebrows. Berry recently discussed her daughter’s identity with Ebony magazine. Her daughter’s father is white, but Berry, who is of mixed-race herself, said, "I feel like she’s black. I’m black and I’m her mother and I believe in the one-drop theory."

President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday is the most anticipated event of the week. Kai Wright, editorial director of ColorLines Magazine, says this speech will signal the start of the 2012 presidential campaign. He shares what to expect from the President's speech, and what the aftermath of it will look like. Kai says the match up is no longer Republicans vs. Democrats, as much as it's Republicans vs. Republicans.