Following a months long battle in the Senate, and possibly years if you count former president Obama’s attempt to nominate Merrick Garland, Mr. Gorsuch was finally confirmed as the 9th justice on the Supreme Court. The final vote count was 54-45 (Johnny Isakson (R-GA) abstained), making the vote substantially more narrow than previous votes.

The process was perhaps most notable for the so called “nuclear option” – removing the ability to filibuster the cloture vote on a Supreme Court Justice. Cloture is distinct from the actual vote in that it is a vote to stop debate – had the democrats been able to filibuster at that point, debate would never technically end, and it would thus be impossible to fill the seat.

This has huge implications for the Senate, especially concerning future Supreme Court nominations. Unless the Senate is tied 50-50 (it hasn’t been since 2000), no bipartisanship is required to confirm a justice.

The problem here is bipartisanship has historically been a necessary part of operation in the Senate. This has certainly taken a backseat in recent years, due to extremism and partisanship on both sides, but even ObamaCare need some GOP votes, if only to avoid filibuster.

Confirming a justice without the opportunity for the opposition to filibuster sets a bad precedent, one that could have potentially devastating consequences on bipartisanship in the Senate.

If you remember, back before the break, I had published an article trying to give hope during these bleak days. At the time, the news cycle was all about the Trump/Russia investigations. It was pretty boring compared to now.

But then everything changed when the United States attacked.

Or, more precisely, the United States attacked the Syrian Government in response to the chemical attack against the Syrian people. Donald Trump launched 59 Tomahawk missiles at an Airbase in Syria. The airbase was also used by Russia. Perhaps Trump did this to try to convince people that he “totally didn’t work with Russia?” While Russia-United States relations had been warm, Russia then condemned the attack. However, most of the world agreed with Trump, and soon, people panicked.

I remember the day it happened. It was Thursday of spring break. My dad was out playing poker with his friends, and my sister was at an Anime Convention. My brother and I were home alone; I was working on an entry for a contest and my Brother was probably having a rave in his room. It was about 7:30 pm when my mom got home, and she suggested we go out to eat. We decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants.

Right when we walked in, before we were seated, I looked at the TV to see something about Trump. I thought, “What has that idiot done now…” until I looked closer. It showed the missiles flying through the air, one after another, lighting up the dark sky. I must have only looked at it for 6 seconds before we were seated.

While I ate my burgers and fries, I looked at Twitter. People were making jokes about WW3. Someone even said something along the lines of, “While we’re at it, can we wipe out that ****** Kim Jong-Un? Who wants to grab literal and metaphorical shotgun?” #WW3 was the top trending topic.

And now, they might get their wish. In addition to the Syrian situation, the U.S. and North Korea are getting more aggressive towards each other. Mike Pence says that the U.S. will no longer be “strategically patient.” Even China, who Donald Trump hates, is working on trying to contain the North Korean conflict. Japan and South Korea have been discussing evacuation plans. If WW3 does break out, it will probably be NATO, Turkey, China, South Korea, and Japan vs Russia, North Korea, and Syria.

All in all, pretty scary.

Who doesn’t love marsupials? Weird names, fun appearances, and ranks that include nature’s kick boxer, the creature that mastered playing dead, and a deceptively cute psychopathic bear-thing. Recently, there’s one species that’s made a return after its supposed extinction in 1936: the thylacine, or as most people recognize it, the Tasmanian Tiger.

The return was spotted by two people from the Queensland National Parks Service at the Cape York Peninsula. After scientists from James Cook University studied the description given, it was confirmed that it was not mistaken for some other Tasmanian or non-Tasmanian creature (in case it’s not obvious, I enjoy the word Tasmanian), and was 100% percent a thylacine. For those of you wondering, the Tasmanian Tiger doesn’t even look remotely like a tiger (receiving its name from the stripes running down its lower back), resembling a wild dog more than anything else, which is why it’s also referred to as the Tasmanian Wolf. But like both tiger and wolf, the thylacine was top of the food chain.

So, now the aforementioned scientists have packed up the camera equipment and are ready to begin the search. Fitting as there are several unanswered questions like: what has it been living off of thus far? Why was it spotted in Australia and not Tasmania? And the million-dollar question (or you know, probably less), how exactly did it stay hidden all this time? And even if this turns out to be a bust/hoax, there will be a substantial amount of data regarding endangered species within the area. But still, fingers crossed for beating extinction!

The controversial North Carolina bill officially called House Bill 2 and unofficially called the “Bathroom Bill” has been making waves ever since it was passed in March of 2016. Almost exactly a year later, on March 30th, of 2017, the law was repealed. To understand the swift about-face, you need to understand just what the bill meant.

First of all, it was the bill that made North Carolina the first state to openly restrict what public bathrooms, and locker rooms, transgender people were allowed to use, limiting them to the gender they were designated at birth, not the gender they identify as. Backlash against the bigoted bill was almost immediate, and was only worsened by the fact that North Carolina is a swing state; split between very liberal cities and very conservative rural areas.

The bill caused many businesses and celebrities to boycott the entire state in protest: Bruce Springsteen cancelled his stop on the River Tour there, and a PayPal distribution center that was supposed to open there withdrew from the deal, costing the state millions of dollars of potential profit. The NCAA gave the state until Thursday, March 30th (the day the bill was repealed, incidentally), to get rid of the law or lose the rights to host college tournaments in the state for the next six years. Many smaller businesses and performers boycotted the state as well. Eventually, North Carolina surrendered to the growing economic and social strain, and removed the law.

However, it did come with a catch. The conditions for the repeal included a temporary ban (lasting for three years, until 2020) on other anti-discrimination laws and measures; stopping local jurisdictions from creating new protections for LGBT+ people. Many are angry about this new measure, and there’s been debate over whether it’s even any better than House Bill 2. 

Overall, whether this is a step forward, or a step back, for LGBT+ rights has yet to be decided.

Whether you cry a little every time you’re taken to a galaxy far, far away, or you draw a blank when someone cries “Exterminate!” there is no denying science fiction (sci-fi) is a massive part of pop culture. One of the most sci-fi concepts of them all is a city on Mars, which seems to be making a comeback ever since water was discovered on the red planet. Recently, the United Arab Emirates seemed to have become most intent on making a Mars city a reality.

Announced by Sheikh Mohammed on Feb. 14th, the Mars 2117 project aims to not only place a human settlement on Mars, but also to serve to open up the rest of space for humans. A VR experience outlined most of the details so far.

The colony is said to be somewhere around the size of Chicago, with a max population of 600,000 (NBC). The reasons for such a high number, as described by Saeed Al Gergwai, is, “Because it’s going to be like an exotic island, not everyone can go first, then we get advancement of rocket tech, which makes people move there easily, then the advancement oxygen tech to make it more Earth like, which will incentivize people.” (NBC)

Already, this sounds great, but the project is not fully complete. The economic system, for example, is still being discussed. Capitalistic elements are present, but a system needs to be designed with the unique environment of Mars in mind. Then there’s the small matter of the many, many, many environmental issues on Mars – the intense radiation and lack of terrain to grow food comes to mind (techtimes.com).

Finally, there’s the technology involved. Spacesuits are a necessity, but they’re not indestructible and could easily be compromised, and the technology needed to extract water isn’t to the point where we can start decorating it like a flying saucer.

Regardless of all this, the Mars 2117 project looks to be promising. But there’s still one question left: what would we call someone who lives on Mars?

By Henry Kelly and Elliot Wall

There is more trouble for the Trump administration as yet another member of his cabinet, this time his Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is caught up in the controversy that swirls around the new administration. This new controversy comes soon after General Michael Flynn resigned from the cabinet over allegations of contacting Russia, and the accusations currently being thrown at Sessions are arguably worse.

Specifically, the controversy revolves around Sessions’ meeting with with the Russian ambassador, that occurred while he was campaigning for Trump. The controversy arises from the Logan Act, a 18th century law that prevents unauthorized U.S. citizens from contacting foreign governments on their government’s behalf. In addition, some have linked it to claims that Russia tried to influence the U.S. elections, with some going as far to say Sessions had a hand in this alleged rigging.

Sessions’ defense against these claims is that these meetings were simply part of his duties as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader in the House, and former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claims that Session didn’t have a reason to meet with the Russian ambassador, as neither did she when she served on the equivalent committee in the House. Her claims are somewhat deflated by the fact that she did indeed meet with the Russian ambassador during her tenure as Speaker of the House.

The controversy deepened however, after Sessions was accused of lying under oath about his Russian contacts (during his Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General, he had stated that he had never had contact with Russia). Despite contesting that he hadn’t lied, due to the way the question was worded, Sessions eventually recused himself from all investigations regarding the relations between Russia and the Trump administration, agreeing that an unbiased observer was needed.

Combined with Michael Flynn’s resignation, this only furthered the widespread distrust in the Trump administration. While it’s difficult to say how the administration’s popularity was effected, Trump’s favorability rating didn’t drop significantly. Some suggest this is because only extremely dedicated Trump supporters are still supporting him. Others claim that this is because it really didn’t have an effect – it simply didn’t resonate enough. Either way, scandals particularly about Russian contact, will probably plague the Trump administration for the foreseeable future.