Gloria Garza stands where border fence was to run through her backyard in Granjeno, Texas (Photo: Shannon Young)

• Supreme Court Rules on Child Pornography
• Texas Locals Sue Over Border Fence
• Private Practitioners Offer Vets Free, Confidential Care
• Al Nakbah Commemoration in New York
• Tensions Rising Between Venezuela and Colombia

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Supreme Court Rules on Child Pornography

The Supreme Court upheld a law today that some civil libertarians say is a clampdown on free speech. The high court ruled that prosecutors can go after people that posses, promote or pander child pornography. But critics say under certain interpretations of the ruling, viewing films like Titanic or Traffic could be a criminal offense. The court also ruled that two states can move forward with the execution of two men. FSRN correspondent Matt Laslo reports from Washington.

Texas Locals Sue Over Border Fence

Plans to build 700 miles of fencing along the southern border have generated a flood of controversy along the banks of the Rio Grande River. The river serves as the international boundary between a string of bi-national metropolitan areas and smaller sister towns. Unlike other areas in the border region, the majority of land along the Texas/Mexico dividing line is held in private hands – and dozens of regional landowners are now defendants in federal condemnation suits for refusing the government's offer of $100 for unlimited access to their property to construct an 18 foot high barrier. As FSRN reported on Friday, elected officials from the Texas border and regional business leaders have filed their own lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. Shannon Young traveled to the Texas/Mexico border to bring us some of the voices of those involved in a different kind of battle at the border.

Private Practitioners Offer Vets Free, Confidential Care

The lack of mental health care for U.S. service members has created what some call a crisis for active duty members and veterans returning home from the battlefield. Soldiers today endure the longest deployments in history, and they are also being sent back into combat with ever-increasing tours of duty. The Pentagon today announced the deployment of more than 42,000 troops to Iraq this fall to replace those coming home. This weekend in Los Angeles, the first conference of the Soldiers Project brought together mental health practitioners, primarily from the private sector. The Project provides free and confidential services to service members and their families outside of the traditional path. Kelly Barnes reports.

Al Nakbah Commemoration in New York

It's been 60 years since Al Nakbah, or the catastrophe, when more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their hometowns in what is present-day Israel. After the wars of 1948 and 1967, those refugees number 7 million –about 10 percent live in and around New York. Many of them, along with their supporters, made their way the front of the United Nations building Friday evening, to commemorate generations of exile. Yasmin Madadi reports.

Tensions Rising Between Venezuela and Colombia

Tensions between Venezuela and Colombia escalated once again when Caracas said that 60 Colombian troops illegally crossed onto Venezuelan soil Friday. This follows a statement made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that relations between the two neighbors would be profoundly reexamined following Interpol's announcement that the contents in three laptops belonging to a high ranking FARC official were not tampered with by Colombian authorities. According to the Colombian government the contents in the laptop, which were captured in a military raid in a FARC camp last March in Ecuador, indicated that the Marxist rebel group received financial help from Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela, and that the FARC may have contributed cash to the recent election campaign of leftist Ecuadorian president Rafael Correra. Yet despite Interpol's findings, some are questioning whether the documents even implicitly tie Chavez and Correra to the rebel group. Martin Markovits reports from Caracas