So we all know college is super expensive and prices are on the rise, right? But what if there was some way to take high school classes and get college credit for it? There are two obvious answers that come to mind: dual credit and advanced placement (AP) classes. Dual credit can sometimes be problematic; the curriculum is not standardized and many colleges will not accept dual credit readily. But what about AP classes? The curriculum is standardized, and most colleges tend to accept AP credit.

Montana high schoolers love their drugs. In Montana, 31.6% of Montanans aged 12 to 20 consumed alcohol in the past month, and 24% of 12 to 20 year olds participated in binge drinking in the past month. Across the country, 12.5 million underage teens drink each year. In fact in 2005 underage teen drinking consumed 15% of all alcohol sold in the United States, totaling $19.8 billion in sales. Underage drinking costs tax payers $61.9 billion a year in medical costs and lost days of work. The topic of alcohol always seems to incite the fiery question as to whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 or remain at 21.

President Obama’s State of the Union inflamed the passions of manyAmericans when he stated that: “The Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people.” But what exactly did the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC do?

Through the blur of news about Haiti and war in the Middle East, the cyber attacks on Google may have been overlooked by some. But the fact is, these attacks are a huge deal for our country. Google has worked together with the National Security Agency (NSA) to discover where the attacks have been coming from, and they appear to have originated in China.

The second amendment is widely regarded as one of the most controversial amendments in the constitution. The second amendment states that: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. An October 2009 Gallup poll finds a new low of 44% of Americans saying the laws covering firearm sales should be made more strict. That is down 5 points in the last year and 34 points from the high of 78% recorded the first time the question was asked, in 1990.

There is one common bond that connects politicians, actors, and musicians (well, other than music). This single thing has many names: pot, herb, grass, weed, Mary Jane, and reefer, Aunt Mary, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, or ganja. Yes I’m talking about good old fashioned Marijuana

Fifty percent of children born to married parents will experience their parents divorce before they are 18. Children of divorce are more likely to need psychological help and are in general at higher risk of having problems in life. Teens can experience achievement issues, anger, stress, depression, and trouble forming relationships. This can be large, small, or not at all because their reactions to the divorce are incredibly dependent on the situation of divorce.

Anyone who is under the impression that Americans retain their right to privacy is sadly mistaken. The attempted bombing of Flight 253 by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has brought the debate regarding the importance of privacy and security back to the table. There are definitely some questions and debates that need to take place, but, I am not convinced that it has to do entirely with privacy.

There is an insurmountable amount of skepticism surrounding these scanners. But, how do the scanners really work? The scanners take a few seconds to analyze the persons body; any objects on the person ranging from a gun to a few ounces of powder can be easily differentiated from the body. New software can even protect travelers’ privacy by producing a stylized image of the body instead of a more detailed picture.

Everyone has seen some movie or TV show where the hero must torture the “bad” guy in order to attain very important information. Do the ends – being the information- justify the means- physical/psychological torture? Both sides to the torture debate have legitimate arguments, but, the main question seems to be can moral arguments really stand against protecting lives?