It’s a difficult and sometimes dangerous world out there for journalists.

Just this past year we’ve seen Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickramatunga gunned down, U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi detained and tried in Iran, and, more recently, Current TV freelance reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee tried and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

It’s infuriating that the North Korean regime chose to pursue legal action against these Americans on vague grounds, but what’s even more maddening is how little we’ve heard from Current TV or Al Gore, who founded the independent news network.

In order to close the state’s budget shortfall, California’s Governator has proposed steep cuts to many of the state’s programs, including cutting $1.9 billion to the University of California and California State University systems and $5.2 billion to the state’s K-12 schools. This could mean very bad news for the U.C. Hastings School of Law, which would lose $10 million in funding under the governor’s proposal.