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Uprising’s guest expert Arun Gupta, Independent Journalist and regular contributor to the Guardian, In These Times, The Progressive, and Truthout, and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and the Indypendent, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Activist Lawyer Lynne Stewart as been unexpectedly freed on compassionate release as she battled cancer in prison. The celebrated lawyer Lynne Stewart who had been incarcerated under post 9-11 “Special Administrative Measures” for sharing her terrorism suspect client’s views with a reporter, has finally been freed after 4 years. Stewart is suffering from late-stage breast cancer and has been given only 18 months to live. Progressives all over the nation had been organizing for her release for months and on New Year’s Eve were surprised to see their work pay off. Click here for an Al Jazeera article about the story.

New York’s new mayor Bill De Blasio was sworn into office on the first day of the new year, representing for many New Yorkers, a new era of progressivism in the aftermath of conservative Mayor Bloomberg. De Blasio won his seat championing economic equality and an end to the NYPD’s notorious “stop-and-frisk” policies. Not everyone is thrilled with De Blasio however. His ties to Police Chief Bill Bratton – whom Los Angelinos are quite familiar with – does not bode well. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

Uninsured or underinsured Americans who managed to sign up for healthcare coverage through the newly implemented online health insurance exchanges under Obamacare, had their medical coverage start with the new year. Over two million people have signed up either through the federal government’s botched website, or state-run exchanges. Meanwhile, a crucial aspect of Obamacare which requires employers to offer contraceptive coverage through their insurance plans, has been unexpectedly blocked by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The main opposition to contraceptive coverage has come from organizations and institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church. Click here for an Associated Press article about the story.