In another victory for advocates of gay rights, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California upheld a lower court’ s ruling that Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage passed in 2008 by California residents, was unconstitutional.

The case was previously heard by a federal district court judge, who found that California had no “rational basis” to ban gay marriage. In the appeals court’s decision, Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote the following:

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.” Read 

The U.S. press has been reporting that the Obama administration is publicly disagreeing over the timing of a potential attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that according to Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast peace negotiator in the Clinton administration, the U.S. and Israel have a “significant analytic difference” over the estimates of how close Iran is to shielding its nuclear program from an airstrike.

“There’s a growing concern (more than a concern) that the Israelis — in order to protect themselves — might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge,” Miller said. Read 

Dirty Harry star Clint Eastwood recorded a Super Bowl ad for automaker Chrysler, which aired Sunday to many rave reviews. The so-called “halftime in America” ad talks about a down and out Detroit fighting its way back from recession.

Unfortunately, not everyone was thrilled with the gravely voiced Eastwood ad. Karl Rove and some other conservatives are outraged by the political undertones of the ad. After all, the “resurgence” of Detroit came in part to billions in bailouts for General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler at the hand of the Obama administration.

Check out the full spot below, if you didn’t get a chance to see it during the Super Bowl advertising blitz. Read 

Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) might be making yet another media move — and this time, something more than mermaids and mice.

Sources close to negotiations have said Disney is in talks with Spanish-language media company Univision about creating a 24-hour, English-language news channel. The channel would aim to serve the nation’s 50 million Latinos, many of whom primarily speak English.

The sources also said talks have been under way for months, and the channel would be based out of Miami, according to Bloomberg. Read 

Welfare recipients who make it rain on the government’s dime could land in trouble if a House bill is passed. Lawmakers are looking to pass legislation that would bar those enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program from spending benefits at strip clubs, liquor stores, and casinos.

TANF, which was formerly known as welfare, often takes the form of electronic benefit transfer cards that function like debit cards. These cards can be swiped at some ATMs to retrieve money. Media reports indicated that some TANF recipients were using their cards at ATMs in strip clubs, liquor stores, casinos, and even on cruise ships.

While supporters say this bill will eliminate a large amount of fraud and waste in the welfare system, critics state that many states already have similar policies, and that residents of poorer neighborhoods frequently do not have an ATM located closer to them than those in liquor stores or casinos. Read 

It appears that the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair wasn’t the first time a White House intern got involved with a president. A memoir that will be published Wednesday alleges that a White House intern during John F. Kennedy’s presidency had an 18 month affair with the president.

Mimi Alford, then Mimi Beardsley, was a summer intern at the White House when the affair began, and managed to keep it secret until 2003, when details of the affair came out in a biography based on 1964 oral histories about the president.

Among the more fascinating revelations in Alford’s book, Once Upon a Secret,  are the fact she was with JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis, that she consoled him when his child died, and that she last met with him seven days before he was assassinated in Dallas. Read