Each Sunday, the Patriot will provide a look at some of the news issues that you should know about. We know it is tough for college students to keep up-to-date on current events. The Patriot’s Sunday News Beat is your answer to that. Enjoy!

• Last Friday, the Supreme Court made one of its most controversial rulings with regard to corporations and campaign financing in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The 5-4 ruling overturned much of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and allows both corporations and individuals more freedoms to finance political advertising. The Wall Street Journal provides a good analysis of the decision as a victory for the first ammendment.
• This week, President Obama gave his first state of the union address (transcript here). In an interesting article, Peter Wehner of Politics Daily argues that Obama’s shifting of blame away from his administration should unnerve democrats. Meanwhile, Eleanor Clift of Newsweek claims that his speech should enthuse liberals.
• Even with the State of the Union being given, the fate of the health care legislation is still up in the air. Several sources suggest that Democrats may give up on the legislation and shift their focus to repairing the economy, which was the main focus of Obama’s speech. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama have all signaled that they “will not walk away from health care.” However, many moderate Democrats are shifting away from their support in light of the shifting political tide. John Bresnahan reports on Politico that influential Democratic Senator Evan Bayh wants to move on from the health care bill and focus on creating jobs.
• While news organizations specializing in liberal propaganda ignore the ever-decreasing credibility of climate alarmists, The Orange County Register has a great editorial detailing another incident that discredits their hypothesis. Specifically, the 2007 UN IPCC Climate Change report knowingly included a claim – that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 – that had “no scientific basis.” This follows the scandal in November revolving around several very prominent climate researchers. The issue was also covered in the Wall Street Journal, which shows that the IPCC was warned by glaciologist Georg Kaser that 2035 was “so wrong that it is not even worth discussing.”

This coming week, we will likely see continued attempts by Democrats to accomplish something of note. Some commentators suggest their failures thus far have been due to having Gilligan, of Gilligan’s Island fame, as their highest paid consultant.

Until next Sunday, have a good week!