All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

It was last January, just days before President Obama's Inauguration. On the transition team's website, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded questions from online viewers about what the new administration hoped to accomplish.

Someone asked, "Will the Obama administration get rid of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy?"

Gibbs said, "You don't hear a politician give a one-word answer much - but it's yes."

A clear position, for sure, and one President Obama has reiterated as recently as this weekend. But there has been little more than talk thus far, and for some gay rights activists, patience is wearing thin.

This weekend, thousands of protesters marched in Washington to collect on a campaign promise. From marriage to military service, gays and lesbians have made it known - they want results from this White House.

Gibbs' one word answer has raised a one word question: when?

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

A month ago, four men on motorcycles opened fire on a female council member in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

She was murdered by the Taliban for fighting for women's rights in her country.

More than 80 percent of women in Afghanistan are illiterate, but the Taliban make an education nearly impossible. Last year, a group of girls was doused with acid in front of their school - some were burned severely.

As the Taliban regroups and gains strength, Afghan women risk an erosion of any gains made since the war began in 2001, and lawmakers are doing little to protect them.

A recent law passed by Parliament would allow marital rape. President Hamid Karzai has said it will be amended, but one wonders how it was passed in the first place.

As the United States formulates a new approach during these dark days in Afghanistan, it must not forget to lift a lamp, as Emma Lazarus wrote, to illuminate a path to basic human rights.

That's a page from my notebook.

This week marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt championed the document at the United Nations. The atrocities of the Holocaust gave its words grave meaning.

It reads, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

It's a statement of rights, but also responsibilities.

Violence in Darfur has claimed 300,000 lives and driven millions from their homes. Protesters in Myanmar have been beaten or killed for promoting democracy, and bloggers have been arrested in Iran for criticizing the regime.

Sixty years later, the declaration is as necessary as it was when Mrs. Roosevelt stood before the United Nations. The rights it protects belong to all humans.

The responsibilities it entrusts are yours and mine.

This week marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt championed the document at the United Nations. The atrocities of the Holocaust gave its words grave meaning.

It reads, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

It's a statement of rights, but also responsibilities.

Violence in Darfur has claimed 300,000 lives and driven millions from their homes. Protesters in Myanmar have been beaten or killed for promoting democracy, and bloggers have been arrested in Iran for criticizing the regime.

Sixty years later, the declaration is as necessary as it was when Mrs. Roosevelt stood before the United Nations. The rights it protects belong to all humans.

The responsibilities it entrusts are yours and mine.

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency is a triumph for civil rights in America. Forty years after the race riots that ripped Chicago apart, men and women took to the streets again – this time, to applaud the victory of a black man.

At the same time, election night brought a setback for another minority in America.
Three states – Arizona, Florida and California – passed bans on same-sex marriage, saying legal union is only for heterosexual couples.

There are sincere arguments to be found on each side of the same-sex marriage debate.
Some say it's just the "M"-word that scares people, and that domestic partnership rights are close enough to the real deal.

But the bans are a sign Americans are still deeply divided on gay rights, even in states as blue as California.

In 1969, there was another riot called Stonewall. Thirty years later, gays and lesbians hope for their moment to return to the streets and cheer.

Hari Sreenivasan is a CBS News correspondent based in Dallas.

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When you are walking down the street and an officer approaches you, asks for your identification and purpose for being at that place at that time … how do you respond? Do you automatically comply because you have nothing to hide? Do you feel like your personal freedoms are being infringed upon?

In the small town of Helena-West Helena, Ark., last week the mayor imposed of a curfew on a 10-block area that had been recently filled with gunfire. Apparently fists flew after a fight over $6 from a dice game, and soon fists were replaced by bullets for the next three weeks.

Large plastic barrels with curfew signs adorn all the roadways leading into that section of town. Thanks to unanimous City Council support, the police action in one section is spreading citywide. On random nights now, authorities including criminal investigators, county sheriffs and police work 12- to 16-hour shifts making everyone very aware that there is a curfew and they should not be out without reason.

To be clear, this is not a curfew in which the streets are empty of people and cars. Adults are given far more leeway, and minors must be accompanied by an adult after 9 or 10 p.m. On the night we rode along ...

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The police stormed into their Virginia bedroom one night in 1958, shone flashlights into their eyes, and asked the white man: Who’s this woman you are sleeping with? “I’m his wife,” Mildred Loving replied and the rest, quite literally, became a vital part of American legal history.

The Lovings, Mildred and Richard, were an interracial couple who had married five weeks before the cops came calling that night. At the time, in Virginia and many other places, it was a crime for a white to marry a black or for any other “miscegenation.” Thanks to the Lovings, and a fight that lasted nearly a decade, that all changed in 1967 when the Supreme Court unanimously struck down such laws nationwide.

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Bill Whitaker is a CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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They are there almost every day – people of all ages, genders and colors with big name tags on their shoulders and even bigger smiles on their faces. They are Bob Barker’s people. The line to “The Price Is Right” snakes past the back door of the news bureau here at TV City. When we are running out to cover a story or walking out to lunch, “The Price Is Right” crowd is there. We hear them telling their stories to show producers – Shondra from Shreveport, Mark from Missoula – eager to be contestants, hoping to meet Bob Barker. They are part of the excitement of working at TV City, a slice of America right outside our door.

I knew Bob Barker was popular (after all, he’s had the top-rated daytime game show for years), but nothing prepared me for what has been going on around TV City the last few weeks. As the clock was ticking down toward Bob Barker’s retirement, legions of his fans not only were lining up, but were camping out for the chance to see him one last time – to be part of TV history. The line that usually stretched along the side of the building has been stretching around the block.

People brought lawn chairs and sleeping bags and cards to keep themselves comfortable and entertained while they waited. For days. Nearby stores stayed open around the clock to feed the fans. One person we met had camped out since Saturday for a much coveted seat in the last show, which was taped yesterdya.

So far no one has been named as Bob Barker’s replacement.

Whoever it is will have big shoes -- and long lines -- to fill.

I'm in our nation's capital today, covering the effort to give D.C. residents a vote in Congress. They have taxation, yes, but without a voting member in Congress, there's no representation. Click the monitor for more.

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