Jeremy White

The former House Speaker has been on the defensive, rebutting criticisms that he is supporting amnesty for millions of immigrants, or that his policy would erect a magnet for undocumented immigrants, as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has charged. What was Gingrich really proposing? Here's the breakdown:

The Department of Homeland Security announced last week a sweeping review of deportation cases before immigration courts and the establishment of a nationwide retraining program for enforcement agents and prosecuting attorneys. Both are intended to focus deportations on immigrants who have committed serious crimes or who pose a threat to public safety, rather than a broad category of noncriminal immigrants.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the current beneficiary of Republican voters' perpetual search for an alternative to Mitt Romney, and he's enjoying the amplified media attention that accompanies a rise in the polls. If he declines, is Huntsman next? Or is it time to write-off the former Utah governor?

Partisan disagreement over the fate of the Bush-era tax cuts on the nation's top earners helped to undo the Congressional deficit reduction super committee, ensuring that debate about the cuts will figure heavily into the 2012 presidential contest.

Because Occupy Wall Street isn't using donated money and supplies to maintain its occupation of Zuccotti Park in New York anymore, members are uncertain about what will happen to a fund containing a substantial sum of money and a warehouse stocked with food and clothing.

Labor unions and college students joined the Occupy Wall Street protesters for a massive end of the day rally on Thursday, capping a day in which the movement flexed its muscle despite having lost the ability to live in Zuccotti Park.

Occupy Wall Street may have lost Zuccotti Park, but a Thursday morning march on Wall Street proceeded with undiminished enthusiasm. Late Thursday morning about 11 a.m. EST, several hundred protestors returned to the park, took down baricades to chants of Whose park? Our park! as they stormed back in. Police did not immediately react.

On Tuesday night, after a N.Y. State Supreme Court judge ruled that the tents that had sheltered the Occupy Wall Street movement could no longer remain in Zuccotti Park, defiant protesters streamed back into a park - the site of a predawn police raid. By Wednesday morning, the park's occupants had dwindled to a couple dozen people drinking coffee.

Occupy Wall Street protesters sought to regroup Tuesday morning after the police forcefully evicted them from their encampment in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park in the middle of the night.

Members of Congress' super committee responsible for slicing $1.2 trillion from the deficit have faced an intense lobbying push since being appointed to the 12-member panel, but they all have long histories of accepting money from the industries and special interest groups clamoring for a seat at the table.

Pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia could bolster certain sectors of the American economy, particularly manufacturing and agriculture, but a likely influx of foreign products could undercut U.S. businesses.

Public relations executives employed by the energy industry encouraged their colleagues to study counterinsurgency techniques and noted the effectiveness of veterans trained in psychological operations in the push to win public approval for natural gas drilling.

The conflict between California's legalization of marijuana and a federal crackdown intensified this week, as lawyers acting on behalf of dispensaries and medical marijuana patients sought to halt government enforcement they said was unconstitutional.

The roadmap to President Barack Obama's re-election could lie in the response to a question buried in a recent Suffolk University Poll.

Although a strenuous debate led the Obama administration to tighten requirements for striking suspected militants with unmanned drones, the Central Intelligence Agency retains broad authority to carry out such strikes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Detroit Mayor David Bing suggested that the beleaguered city could need a state-appointed emergency manager to address its yawning budget deficit, drawing swift criticism from city officials whose authority would be eclipsed by an emergency manager.

Egypt's military rulers have provoked renewed criticisms that they are trying to perpetuate their power with a proposal that would give them broad powers to shape the country's forthcoming constitution.

Occupy Wall Street began with a simple act of civil disobedience, but Occupy Oakland's success in disrupting commerce on such a large scale represents an escalation of that tactic and offers a glimpse of the movement's capacity for more-confrontational, direct action.

The Syrian army's attempt to suppress a months-old popular uprising have increasingly involved Lebanon, a destination for fleeing dissidents and a country whose politics are deeply intertwined with the Syrian regime.

U.S. Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs exploited a lawless platoon culture when he directed plans to execute innocent Afghanistani civilians and disguise the killings as combat engagements, prosecutors charged at the start of Gibbs' court martial.

Palestine became the 195th full member and will have a vote in the General Conference, which sets policy for UNESCO and elects members of its executive board. But the vote carried greater significance in the context of the Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations, something that the Security Council has yet to vote on.

Occupy Wall Street has survived arrests, a skeptical mayor and potential expulsion from Zuccotti Park, but a weekend forecast of snow offers a reminder that the movement's resilience will soon be tested anew.

Of the different school reform measures advanced by the Obama administration, perhaps the most contentious is the push to develop rigorous methods for evaluating teachers.

While Kenya's sweeping military intervention into Somalia shares the Obama administration's goal of dismantling the Al-Qaeda affiliated militant group al-Shabab, the campaign also carries the risk of exacerbating instability in the notoriously fractured country.

The report, compiled by Human Rights Watch, concluded that the military's violent intervention in the Oct. 8 demonstration compromised its ability to conduct an impartial investigation. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces has ruled Egypt effectively since former president Hosni Mubarak's fall, and whether it allows a separate probe will reflect its willingness to relinquish power.

From the beginning, Occupy Wall Street has been committed to direct democracy. But that model is coming under strain as the still-nascent movement becomes more organized and maps a way forward.

The Turkish army is responding to an attack that left 24 Turkish soldiers dead, one of the deadliest single attacks in the long conflict between government the Kurdish Workers' Party, or the PKK. Meanwhile, the parliament is working on a new constitution that could address the Kurds' grievances.

A provision in the president's jobs bill would provide tax incentives for businesses that hire veterans and would establish a program to train veterans in the skills they need to re-integrate into a civilian workforce.

Ever since Rick Perry's GOP rivals began lambasting him for signing a bill granting undocumented immigrant children in-state tuition at Texas universities, immigration has emerged as a key litmus test for verifying the conservative credentials of the men and women seeking the Republican nomination. It was not always so -- a debate between Bush and Reagan struck a far softer tone.