Lawmakers around the world "unjustifiably" treat illicit drugs as if they were a greater public health concern than alcohol, according to a report published online Wednesday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Toshiba Corp. has reportedly designed a nuclear reactor and intends to market it to natural resource developers for mining Tar Sands in Canada and other places.

Those with a more conservative political orientation are happier because they have greater access to social capital, according to research published last month in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

A dozen same sex binational couples from New York -- who, because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are not allowed green cards when they marry -- dropped in on Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) Manhattan offices on January 15, 2013 to thank him for his support and ask him to make sure that the rights of LGBT Americans to sponsor their spouses for green cards is included in any immigration reform package.

James Yeager, the CEO of a weapons and tactical training business who published and then removed from YouTube that he would "start killing people" if President Obama continued to push forward on gun control, has released another follow-up video on the incident.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a day-long briefing in Washington, D.C. on Friday that examined the progress the military has made in addressing sexual assault within its ranks. All branches of the military were asked to testify about what they are doing to address the problem, and though the briefing highlighted that the military has made major progress toward addressing issues of sexual assault, it also indicated that it still faces numerous challenges.

Mostly white college graduates did a better job of weathering the recession than their disproportionately minority peers who possessed just a high school diploma or an associate degree, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project.

In this video, a group called "Reformed Whores," made up of actor/musicians Marie Cecile Anderson and Katie Frame, perform the song "Girls Poop Too," which is, to quote Anderson in the lyrics, intended to clear up a "common misconception/around the subject of a lady's rectum," the belief by many men that women do not actually defecate.

Veterans groups claim that delays by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in processing combat-related mental health claims has contributed to the 6,500 veteran suicides each year, and filed a federal court case in July 2007 asking the courts to invervene. Friday -- after five years of legal battle spearheaded by veterans advocates Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) and Veterans United for Truth, Inc (VUFT) -- the U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, let stand a May 2012 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on VA's behalf.

A health advocacy group released its own take on the "Demand A Plan" gun control campaign on Monday, in a video featuring a group of kids and teenagers asking for better access to counseling services instead of increasing the amount of armed personnel on school grounds.

Georgia Republican state legislator Rep. Charles Gregory (R-Kennesaw), has introduced four new bills for the 2012 legislative year, all of which loosen current restrictions on guns. The measures, according to the blog Georgia Progress, which come less than a week after the national tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, would put more guns into circulation and lower barriers currently blocking firearms sales.

A unique spider in the Amazon rainforest was recently spotted using bits of leaves and dead insects to create larger-scale decoy spider shapes in its web, which it uses to ward off predators.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday demanding the state of Michigan grant access to driver's licenses for young undocumented immigrants enrolled in the new federal deferred-deportation program.