Final Answer: In what could result in one of the monumental civil rights decisions in American history, the Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will rule on whether same sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Same-sex marriage is already legal in 36 states, but 14 are holdouts. The cases the court agreed to hear involve 15 people in four states who sued to be able to marry someone of their own sex.

  Only 11 years since the last laws in the US banning homosexual sex have been struck down, the advance of the right to marry someone of the same sex has moved at a stunning pace. Advocates of same-sex marriage are hoping for a ruling that ends the argument … and so are the defenders of what they call “traditional” marriage between a man and a woman.

Still Charlie: The French satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo says it will publish 2 million more copies of its latest edition. They’ve already printed and sold 5 million copies. Their usual press run is 60,000.

One for the Books: The NCAA has agreed to restore 112 victories wiped off Penn State’s football record in the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal, restoring the late coach Joe Paterno as the winningest coach in the history of college football. The NCAA made the agreement with Penn State shortly before the opening of a trial on the legality of a punishing 2012 consent decree exacted from Penn State. University officials had been accused of covering up for former coach Sandusky, who was later found guilty of child sexual abuse and sent to prison.

The Kingdom of Heaven: Saudi Arabia has at least temporarily halted the flogging of a blogger found guilty of blasphemy because the next in a series of punishments might kill him. Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes to be administered at the rate of 50 per week. The first 50 left him on the edge of death. Badawi had founded on online forum to debate religion and politics in Saudi Arabia, which evidently is frowned upon.

Nation: The Pentagon is sending up to 1,000 soldiers and support personnel to train “moderate” Syrian rebels how to fight. Locating and identifying moderates in that part of the word is not an exact science. The training to begin this spring would take place in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar.

What’s the Matter?: Staunch anti-tax Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed new taxes to dig his state out of the deep hole created by cutting taxes. He proposed tripling the state cigarette tax, raising taxes on alcohol, and delaying promised income tax cuts. The Kansas budget went into the tank after Brownback led the charge to cut personal income taxes to spur the economy.

Goodbye Friend:  The NBS network has severed ties with its former star Bill Cosby and says it will never work with the 77-year-old comedian again. Cosby was once NBC’s most bankable star. While answering questions at the Television Critics Association Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said, “Fifteen women came out and accused him of what they accused him of.” Cosby has been accused of drugging and raping women. Greenblatt said, “When that many people come out and have such similar complaints, it became a tainted situation.”

The Swarm: A shakeup is happening in the rarely newsworthy state of Connecticut, which has been hit by a swarm of small earthquakes. The strongest quake has been a magnitude 3.3, not enough to knock soup cans off the shelf or wake up anyone in Los Angeles. But people in eastern Connecticut are in a flutter.

  The affected area is in and around Plainfield, near the Rhode Island border. Residents seem to think “it couldn’t happen here,” but actually they are sitting on top of a giant fault line that formed the Connecticut Valley. The Indians called it “Machimoodus,” which means “place of bad noises.”

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