"Do you Yahoo?" was the web giant's catchphrase, but not enough people are answering in the affirmative these days. Yahoo has announced that it is laying off 2,000 employees in the hopes of turning around the company. It will be the sixth mass layoff in the past four years under three different CEOs. While previous cutbacks boosted earnings, new CEO Scott Thompson says these will help Yahoo build its strengths — and hopefully keep the company from going under. 

Joe Nocera, Op-Ed columnist for our partner The New York Times, says Yahoo should be a cautionary tale for other tech companies like Google and Facebook, who might be next in line.

Twenty years ago today, Serb militants opened fire on thousands of peace demonstrators in Sarajevo, the Muslim-led capitol city of the newly independent state of Bosnia-Hercegovina. The attack set off what would become the longest siege of a capitol city in modern warfare — lasting from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996. Over the course of those years, thousands of civilians in the city died from injuries and starvation, and the world was introduced to the term “ethnic cleansing.”

Nadja Halilbegovich was born and raised in Sarajevo, and still has mortar in her body from the days of the siege. When she was 14, she wrote “My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary.” When she was 16, she escaped and settled in North America, leaving her family behind.

Barbara Demick is the author of "Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood," which hits bookstores this month. She’s also the Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. She joins us from Sarajevo.

A study of schools throughout the city of Chicago has found that detention and suspension rates increase towards the end of each month and sharply decrease at the beginning of the next. The main culprit, they believe, may be the students' diets. The study links the behavior with spending patterns associated to the national food-stamp program, SNAP. People who receive SNAP benefits tend to bulk buy their food in the beginning of the month leaving some households bare by the end. Lisa Gennetian, managing director of the behavioral economics research think tank Ideas42, thinks it's time for a change.

Detroit has had today’s date circled on its calendar for months. Under a state statute, today marks the deadline for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to decide how to appropriately handle Detroit’s $200 million budget deficit. Detroit is mired in $12 billion in long term-liabilities and its been estimated that the city could run out of money as early as next month.

Disagreements over the proper response to the city’s near financial ruin abound. The Governor’s office, Detroit’s Mayor’s office, and the City Council have sparred for months over how to best handle the threat of looming financial insolvency.

Laura Weber, a reporter for WDET, updates us on the latest out of Detroit.

Today’s political candidates are increasingly savvy in their attempts to targeting Spanish-speaking voters. But as attempts to court Latino voters have become increasingly commonplace, so have cultural blunders. A noteworthy example from a past election: When Gerald Ford was running in 1976, he bit into a tamale at a campaign stop without first removing the inedible corn husk. Whoops.

Jude Joffe-Block is senior field correspondent for Fronteras, a multimedia collaboration focusing on the southwestern border between Mexico and the United States, led by KJZZ in Phoenix and KPBS in San Diego. Ruben Navarette is a nationally-syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.

The baseball season began just over a week ago with the Mariners and the Athletics facing off at the Tokyo Dome. But there remains a long way to go before the season ends in October, and anything can happen before then. Offering their analyses and predictions of the season to come are Steven Goldman, editor-in-chief of Baseball Prospectus, and Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Takeaway sports contributor.

Goldman is the editor of the new book "Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus," a follow-up to 2006's "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong." Baseball Prospectus looks at baseball through a statistical method called sabermetric analysis.

The Haggadah, the Jewish religious text read at Passover, is 3,000 years old. It has been translated more than any Jewish book, from ancient times, to 14th-century Sarajevo, to the just-published "New American Haggadah." The new version, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander, began as a personal project for Jonathan. He started to realize how little he truly understood about his own belief system, and that many American Jews feel like immigrants to their own religion. "I went to Hebrew school, I was bar mitzvah'd, I've been to Israel a number of times, but as I started to work on this book, I realized that I really had to confront my ignorance, my lack of Jewish literacy."

Nine years after the project began, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander have constructed a new Haggadah, religious, yet modern, for the American Jews of their generation.

A new poll released by the Pew Survey looks at how Latinos identify themselves. We'll talk about the different identities we adopt with regard to our race with Mark Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, and Ilan Stavans, Amherst College professor of Latino culture.

The U.S. is ready to begin easing sanctions against Myanmar after Sunday's elections in which pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party won 43 of the 45 seats up for grabs in the country. In other headlines: Syrian troops launch assaults in several towns, casting doubt on the country's ceasefire agreement; former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is due in court today; and new Census figures show a distinct shift from outer suburbs to U.S. cities. It's the first time in two decades that the annual growth rate in cities has outpaced those "exurbs."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced that the U.S. is ready to begin easing sanctions against Myanmar. Sunday's elections saw pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party won 43 of the 45 seats up for grabs in the country. Clinton announced an easing of investment restrictions as well as intentions to name an ambassador to Myanmar and the establishment of a U.S. Agency for International Development.

Rachel Harvey is a correspondent for our partner the BBC.

On the fall of 2005, New Orleans was in the grip of one of the worst natural and social disasters in American history: Hurricane Katrina. And six days after Katrina hit, it became clear the disaster went beyond rising water, poorly constructed levees, and questionable relief efforts.

On that day, September 4, 2005, at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans, police officers began shooting at people, wounding four civilians and killing two. All the victims were unarmed. The police fabricated a cover up that involved taking an innocent man into custody.

A year and a half later, the officers were indicted for murder and attempted murder. Last summer, guilty verdicts were handed down. And finally, yesterday, the five guilty officers were sentenced.

Laura Maggi is a reporter for the Times Picayune who’s been following this story closely. She joins us from New Orleans to tell us about the sentencing and aftermath of the Danziger Bridge case.

Despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's acceptance of a U.N. peace plan, activists say government troops launched assaults on several towns today outside Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo where the target is rebel army defectors. In other headlines: the U.S. is ready to ease sanctions against Myanmar; the Pentagon announces the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks will stand trial before a war crimes tribunal; a population shift is underway from the outer suburbs into cities; and the Masters Tournament starts today at the all-male Augusta National Golf Club.

On today's Takeaway: a conversation with author Jonathan Safran Foer, who is releasing a new version of an old Jewish text. We discuss today's deadline for state takeover for the city of Detroit with WDET reporter Laura Weber and Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh. Also on the Takeaway, behavioral economics researcher Lisa Gennetian discusses how end-of-month hunger affects student discipline; Fronteras correspondent Jude Joffe-Block and Washington Post columnist Ruben Navarette talk about how today's political candidates risk cultural blunders courting the Latino vote; and reporter for the Times Picayune Laura Maggi tells us about the sentencing and aftermath of the Danziger Bridge case.

Late yesterday afternoon, tornadoes touched down in Johnson County, Texas then violently tore north to the Dallas-Fort Worth international airport. Along the way, hundreds of homes were destroyed, power lines were ripped down, and hail the size of baseballs descended from the sky.

Lt. Tim Jones from the Sheriff’s Office in Johnson County explains how the residents of his rural region dealt with the severe weather.

And David Magana, Public Affairs officer for the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport talks with us about the damage to equipment, and what happened to passengers stranded in the airport last night.

Popular science is more popular than ever. Its subjects also seem more rarefied than ever: string theory, theoretical physics, theoretical astrophysics. Whatever happened to the more tangible natural sciences? The ones we all think we know — chemistry, for example. We all remember studying the periodic table of the elements in high school, maybe even in college, but do we remember what it all meant? Do we understand what the elements do — and what they can do?

David Pogue, host of NOVA's "Making Stuff" series and a technology correspondent for our partner the New York Times, is premiering his two-hour NOVA special "Hunting the Elements" tonight on PBS. He discusses what we know about nature's building blocks, what we still don't know, and how scientists are using the 118 elements toward purposes we may never have imagined.

The NOVA special "Hunting the Elements" is produced by our partner WGBH.

Among Florida cities, Sanford has a remarkable amount of green space. As WMFE reporter Matthew Peddie noted for WNYC’s Transportation Nation blog, Sanford has spent more than $20 million in the last two decades creating more than 30 parks and green spaces. However, Sanford is also notable for being home to numerous gated communities — like The Retreat at Twin Lakes, the neighborhood where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as he walked back from 7-Eleven.

One of the questions that Trayvon’s death has raised is the issue of who or what makes a community or a neighborhood seem “safe” or “unsafe.”  Elijah Anderson, professor of sociology at Yale and the author of “The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life” writes about the kind of spaces where civil, harmonious interactions between people can emerge. Galina Tachieva, an expert in sustainable planning and community development, is the author of the “Sprawl Repair Manual.”

Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi is one of the most important people in the 20st Century, but most people only know him by his CIA codename: "Curveball." Mr. Janabi was a CIA informant whose information helped lead the nation to invade Iraq and begin one of the costliest wars in US history. Curveball makes his first public appearance in a two-part BBC documentary entitled "Modern Spies." The documentary presents a complicated character aware of the implications of his actions but unwavering in his reasoning. Michael Rudin, who produced the series, explains what it was like to speak to the man who helped bring two nations to war.

In the ongoing reporting of the Syrian uprising, there has been little information about the violence committed against women. Using a creative web based tool, our guest hopes to fix that. Lauren Wolfe is the director of Women Under Siege, a Women's Media Center project that has co-created a site to crowd-source data of violence against women on a live, web-based map that shows where violence is most prevalent. The first of its kind, this map gives the world access to information on the violent uprising that has been, until now, impossible to report due to Syria's strictly monitored borders.

If you need proof that the economy is looking up, you need only look as far as your neighborhood car lot, or maybe even your own driveway. This week it was announced that there was a major bump in March auto sales. How major? Chrysler alone experienced a 34% increase in sales over the course of the month.

Paul Eisenstein is the publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com. He explains what to make of these auto numbers, and whether they’re sustainable.

A lot of good stuff here, including the video of Devo above. There's actually an entire YouTube channel devoted to Devo videos, aptly titled DEVOvision. But I digress, because the geek in me just loves Tom Lehrer singing The Elements, which you may have heard on today's show.

The Philadelphia Experiment – Ain’t it the Truth

Cloud Cult – We Made Up Your Mind For You

SISE – Beyond Outside

Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running

The Donnas – Drive My Car

Moe – Macintyre Range

David Bowie – Bring me the Disco King

Boards of Canada – Kid for Today

Malko Malko – Isopod

Beats Antique – There Ya Go

Crystal Method – London

Devo – Freedom of Choice

Don Cherry – Malkauns

Tom Lehrer – The Elements

A new report by Germany's central bank says women at the top of the banking industry spur their male colleagues to take bigger risks. Based on an analysis of German bank executive teams from 1994 to 2010, the Bundesbank study undermines the widely held view of the "calming influence" female staff have on a male-driven industry. The report – which also says the presence of women in senior roles was a contributing factor to the banking crash – has provoked a furious response.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is the President and CEO of Women's World Banking.

Yesterday President Obama criticized his likely general election opponent Mitt Romney by linking Romney to the latest Republican budget plan. As the likelihood of Romney's GOP nomination increases, the attack lines are beginning to be unveiled.

For a look ahead at what we can expect in the general election, we're joined by Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent.

Residents in North Texas are cleaning up this morning after tornadoes tore through the Dallas metro area. We speak with Lieutenant Tim Jones from the Sheriff's Office in Johnson County about the damage and cleanup. In other headlines, Romney sweeps primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, DC; five former New Orleans police officers will be sentenced today for their roles in the deadly shootings of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina; and a popular spicy tuna roll could be the cause of a massive salmonella outbreak across 19 states.

This month, two prisoners in the U.S. will mark the 40th anniversary of their solitary confinement in the notorious Angola Prison in Louisiana. It's believed to be the longest period of time in such confinement in U.S. penal history. Tim Franks of our partner the BBC reports on their case, and meets another former inmate who'd been kept in solitary confinement for 29 years at Angola.

Mitt Romney has more than half the delegates needed to clinch the GOP presidential nomination after wins in three more presidential primaries Tuesday. In other headlines, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area was struck by as many as a dozen tornadoes yesterday; President Obama will sign the STOCK Act today, which bars members of Congress from profiting from information gained from their jobs; 200 U.S. Marines arrive in Australia for a permanent joint-training mission; and Baylor topped off a perfect 40-0 season with a win against Notre Dame in the Women's NCAA Basketball Championship last night.

Yesterday on the show, ProPublica reporter Kim Barker said that going through Ron Paul's expenses was "like poetry." "I really just saw it like a way to track what it's like to campaign," Barker said. The thousands of lines of expenses in the Federal Election Commission filing from the Ron Paul campaign include everything: iTunes music, FedEx mailings, Salvation Army supplies, travel tolls, party rentals, and meals at places called Smash Burger and Thai Flavors.

Today we're talking about election year poetry: seeing truth and beauty from the tiny details of a campaign's mundane expenses.

Mitt Romney continued on the path to securing the Republican presidential nomination last night, winning all 37 delegates in Maryland, all 16 delegates in the District of Columbia, and at least 30 delegates in Wisconsin. In a speech after the results were tallied, Rick Santorum vowed to keep fighting.

Wisconsin Public Radio's capitol reporter Shawn Johnson and The Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich join us to look at the big picture from last night's results as well as a look at President Obama's own campaigning.

After Mitt Romney won all three of Tuesday's primaries, the former governor seems poised to take the GOP presidential nomination. We talk with The Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich and Wisconsin Public Radio's Shawn Johnson about looking forward after last night's results. Also on The Takeaway: we talk about the bump in auto sales with Paul Eisenstein, crowdsourcing sexual violence data in Syria with Lauren Wolfe, civility and crime in gated communities, and discuss if campaign expenses are "like poetry." We also speak with David Pogue on his book "Hunting the Elements" and Michael Rudin, producer of the BBC documentary "Modern Spies" about the CIA informant whose intelligence led the U.S. to invade Iraq.

Tonight's primary results may ultimately decide the fate of the GOP nomination contest. If Mitt Romney wins Wisconsin, he may effectively seal the deal and his inevitability will likely go unquestioned. But if Rick Santorum can pull out a victory in the Badger State, all eyes will be on the nominating contest in the former Senator's home state of Pennsylvania three weeks later.

We're joined now by Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich and Republican Strategist and Takeaway Contributor Ron Christie.

When she was only 15 years old, a girl in Washington state ran away from home. Within 36 hours, she was lured into the sex trade. And for over 100 days she was trafficked, with sites like backpage.com advertising her as an 18-year-old escort. Two years later, that girl is 17, and back at home. Her mother is working tirelessly, trying to prevent other children from living the same story as her daughter. The mother’s name is Nacole. And with her help, a new law has passed in Washington state, requiring sites like backpage.com to obtain documentation proving that the escorts they advertise are at least 18.

Nacole joins us from Washington state. Andrea Powell is also here. She is the executive director of FAIR Girls, which seeks to prevent the exploitation of girls through empowerment and education. FAIR stands for free, aware, inspired and restored.

Syria says that it will start to implement Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan. But skeptics fear that Syria's government will not fully comply with the plan or with its April 10 deadline. The plan calls for a UN-supervised ceasefire by all parties, withdrawal of soldiers and heavy weapons from cities, and delivery of humanitarian aid.

Barbara Plett, UN correspondent for our partner the BBC, joins us with her exclusive reporting from the region.

Have you ever looked at a stop light, a slice of pizza, or the hot air coming out of your hair dryer, and wondered: What and who went into making this? A new four-part PBS series called “America Revealed” delves into this question; scaling back from small everyday items to give viewers a big picture view of how America functions. Along the way, it doesn’t just unveil the secrets of how stuff is made; it also tells a story of America’s history and people.

The series is hosted by Yul Kwon, an attorney, businessman, and technology expert, who you might also recognize as the 2006 winner of the reality show “Survivor.” Yul joins The Takeaway from the studios of our partner WGBH in Boston.

"America Revealed" premieres on PBS on Wednesday, April 11.

All presidential campaigns have to report expenditures of $200 or more, and they'll all throw in some token small stuff, but no one takes campaign finance disclosures more seriously than the campaign of Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Every bank fee, refueling, and purchase of morning coffee is reported in the Paul campaign's FEC reports. How do the other major candidates compare to the Paul campaign? 

Kim Barker, reporter for ProPublica, explains what a campaign's transparency tells us about the candidate.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that authorities may strip-search people arrested for any offense — no matter how minor — before they are admitted to jail. In Florence v. County of Burlington, Albert Florence argued that he was subjected to humiliating strip searches after he was mistakenly arrested in 2005. However, according to the court's majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the need to protect the safety of prison inmates justifies the use of "thorough searches at intake for disease, gang affiliation, and contraband" by correctional officials. 

Anita Allen, professor of law and philosophy at University of Pennsylvania explains how the court reached its decision.

Instead of just measuring economic health, should we be measuring our levels of happiness? That’s a question the United Nations is taking up this week in a session called "Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm." But how worthwhile is the "pursuit of happiness" in the first place? Wake Forest English professor Eric G. Wilson is the author of "Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy." He argues that Americans' fixation on happiness comes at a cost.

What do you think? Is pursuing happiness always the best policy? Tell us about a time when doing what made you happy actually made things worse.

Sanford, Florida, where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by 27-year-old George Zimmerman over one month ago, is currently host to the worst kind of attention a small town could possibly imagine. After weeks of protests around the country, the question lingers as to whether the small town's image will be eternally marred the way that Selma or Birmingham, Alabama still evoke the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  

What connection does this town have to the long history of the American civil rights movement? For answers, we turn to Isabel Wilkerson. She's a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of "The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America’s Great Migration."

Tortoise – The Equator

Bonobo – Days to Come

Underworld – Twist

Black Uhuru – Happiness

Soul Asylum – Misery

Calexico – El Gatillo

The Samual Jackson 5 – Eye Eat Lotus

Charles Bradley – No Time For Dreaming

Mr. Scruff – Get a Move On

Igor Stravinksy – Rite of Spring

The Ventures – Pipeline

Blind Melon – Three is a Magic Number

Light Asylum – End of Days

Beirut – In the Mausoluem

Liquid Tension Experiment – Osmosis

Andrew Bird – Anonanimal

Minus The Bear – The Game Need Me

Republican primaries take place today in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia. We're checking in with voters today, including Mitt Romney supporter Deborah Edattel in D.C., conservative blogger David Blaska in Wisconsin, Peg Edquist from Wisconsin, and Santorum supporter Julaine Appling from Wisconsin. 

ABC and NBC are staging a rematch this morning of the memorable contest between Katie Couric and Sarah Palin in 2008. Couric's interview with Palin in 2008 stalled the meteoric momentum for the vice presidential candidate and fueled the comedy writers at Saturday Night live for months. Now the two battle for top ratings between the Today Show and Good Morning America.

Which news program did you turn to this morning: the Today Show or Good Morning America?

Bill Carter is a media correspondent for our partner The New York Times and author of "The War for Late Night".

Police in northern California have no motive for a deadly shooting spree Monday on the campus of a small Christian university, where seven people were killed and at least three more wounded. In other headlines, voters in two states and the District of Columbia cast their ballots today for the presidential primary; the United States is offering $10 million for the capture of Pakistani militant leader Hafiz Saeed; more than 3,100 illegal immigrants have been arrested in the country's largest-ever operation to crack down on illegal immigration; and the Kentucky Wildcasts are NCAA Division I champions after a 67-59 win.

Republican voters in Wisconsin, Maryland, and the District of Columbia go to the polls this morning in another round of presidential primaries. Rick Santorum is trying to stop the momentum of Mitt Romney, but is facing an uphill battle after Romney received the endorsement of several of the state's top Republicans. In other headlines: seven were killed in a deadly shooting spree at a Christian university in Oakland, California; the Supreme Court rules officials can strip search after an arrest no matter the crime; and Syrian officials have agreed to comply with a UN brokered peace plan by next Tuesday.

In his newest book, Rebuild the Dream, green economy pioneer Van Jones reflects on his journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider, shares intimate details of his time in government, and provides a blueprint to reinvent the American Dream. Along the way, he contrasts the structure and rhetoric of the 2008 Obama campaign, the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street. Below are his thoughts on cheap patriots versus deep patriots, and the way forward to reclaim, reinvent, and renew the American Dream. You can order the book here.

CHEAP PATRIOTS VERSUS DEEP PATRIOTS

The time has come to turn things right side up again and declare that America’s honest, hard-working middle class is too big to fail. The aspirations of our low-income, struggling, and marginalized communities are too big and important to fail. The hopes of our children are too big to fail. The American Dream itself is too big to fail.

And we are not going to let these things fail.

Of course, it will not be easy to stop the dream killers. Tax policy that burdens working families and gives the biggest breaks to the super-rich has helped to keep more and more of our national wealth locked in the private safes of the top 1 percent. This alarming economic polarization, combined with the constant flow of good-paying jobs overseas, threatens to end our status as a middleclass nation. Too many of our big banks and largest corporations are behaving in a manner that is both irresponsible and unpatriotic. Their conduct makes it that much worse for the many patriotic and responsible businesses—especially small businesses—that follow the rules and provide good jobs to their employees.

Additionally, many well-intentioned people have been recruited into a powerful crusade—the Tea Party movement—that promises the American people economic relief by slashing taxes and taking a wrecking ball to America’s government. The impact of the Tea Party’s reckless policies would be to financially decimate our government, further dismantle America’s middle class, and strengthen the chokehold that the top 1 percent has on the economy. Nonetheless, the Tea Partiers effectively seized the public narrative in 2009 and congressional power in 2010, quelling the wave of hope generated by the 2008 election. They have succeeded at painting their agenda “red, white, and blue.” If we are to have an economy that works for the remaining 99 percent, this kind of “cheap patriotism” must be sidelined in favor of a “deep patriotism”—one that honors the accomplishments of our parents and grandparents. After all, they used the tools of both free enterprise and democratic government to build a society that sets the global standard.

THE BATTLE IS JOINED

Fortunately, a new force has emerged with the long-term potential to both repair America’s democracy and renew the American Dream. A massive protest movement has risen within the United States, eclipsing the Tea Party. It aims to fix our political system, heal our economy, and end Wall Street’s tyranny over our lives. The outcome of the battle remains uncertain, but the highly anticipated “fight back” in America has begun. It’s about time.

Corporate America’s millions of casualties are beginning to find their voices, stand together, and fight back—against joblessness, homelessness, and despair. The destruction of America’s middle class is meeting with angry opposition in the streets. The protest wave began in February 2011. It was powered by public fury over union-busting legislation proposed by Tea Party governors in Wisconsin and Ohio. It grew throughout the spring, as students mobilized to oppose tuition hikes, and foreclosure victims resisted evictions. In the summer of 2011, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in every U.S. congressional district to rally against devastating budget cuts under the slogans “Jobs Not Cuts” and “Save the American Dream.”

Then, on September 17, a few hundred activists calling themselves Occupy Wall Street pitched their tents in Manhattan’s financial district. Their daring tactic captured the imagination of millions in America. The boldness of their action ignited a passion for change in hundreds of other cities in the United States and around the world. The tiny spark that was struck in the Wisconsin winter became a national and even global prairie fire by the end of the year.

Most importantly, in a country that has been divided along so many lines of color and economic condition, the Occupy Wall Street protesters created a new identity that can include and unite the vast majority of Americans. Their simple slogan—“We Are the 99%!”—is now the rallying cry for everyone who is struggling against an economy that enriches the few at the expense of the many. That rallying call is meant to underscore the ways in which the nation’s economy is failing everyone—except the very top 1 percent. It is intended to empower members of America’s supermajority to understand ourselves as having a shared plight, a common cause, and enough power to change things.

There is reason for hope. The United States remains a rich nation—the wealthiest and most inventive in the history of the world. Global competition and technological advances pose challenges for American workers, but we should always remember that the proverbial pie is bigger than ever today—and still growing. As a nation, we are getting richer; our GDP is still greater than it has ever been. The problem is not that the pie is shrinking; it is that working families are taking home smaller slices of it, as wealth and income are concentrated upward. It will take smart policy, better business practices, and community-driven innovation, but we still have the power to reclaim, reinvent, and renew the American Dream.

The growing movement faces three important challenges:

• To transform some of its protest energy into electoral power; 
• To shift from expressing anger to providing answers; and 
• To balance confrontation with aspiration and inspiration. 

At this pivotal moment in history, we can make our economy respect the 99% and work for the 100%. To do so, we must develop and promote serious solutions that fit the scale of the problems that the protests of 2011 highlighted.

This book proposes some.

America is still the best idea in the world. The American middle class is still her greatest invention. This book is dedicated to the proposition that—with the right strategy and a little bit of luck—the movement of the 99% can preserve and strengthen them both.

Excerpted with permission from "Rebuild the Dream", by Van Jones. Available from Nation Books, a member of The Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2012.

On yesterday's show, you told us about what makes you happy and how you're pursuing it. Today, we look at the flip-side, or downside, of happiness. Eric G. Wilson, our guest and author of "Against Happiness: In Defense of Melancholy," presents an argument against happiness. Also on today's show, we compare Sanford, Florida, now the focal point of the Trayvon Martin case, to Birmingham, Alabama, a center in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Later on The Takeaway, Syria's plans to enact Koffi Annan's peace plan, a new Washington law which takes on escort sites, and more.

Today the United Nations will discuss happiness. Does happiness contribute to the well-being of the world? Tom Barefoot, co-coordinator of Gross National Happiness USA, believes that having a sound economy might be less important than having a country filled with happy people. How do we measure — or achieve — something so abstract?

In the summer of 2009, Van Jones, special adviser on the environment and green jobs to President Obama, faced a media firestorm. It was fueled by investigations into his past. Jones, a committed environmental activist and civil rights attorney, resigned the following September. "On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide," he said at the time. Since Jones resigned over two years ago, President Obama has faced mounting criticism from environmental activists, while contenders for the GOP nomination claim that the president is too extreme in his efforts to protect the environment.

Whether or not President Obama has environmental protection at the top of his agenda, Van Jones's activism continues unabated. He describes his efforts in a new book, "Rebuild the Dream" on The Takeaway.

The National Archives published the full records of the 1940 census online today. It's the first United States census to be fully digitalized, and contains details, including names, addresses and income levels, of more than 132 million people. Connie Potter, archivist and senior genealogy specialist at the National Archives, says this trove of information brings out the people behind census statistics.

Tonight, Kansas and Kentucky face off in New Orleans for the NCAA Championship. Over the weekend, Kentucky beat Louisville in an intra-state match while Kansas rallied against Ohio State to win 64-62. Today two super-fans argue their case for each team. Kim Parks roots for Kentucky, and she's ready to defend the Wildcats against Mark Domitrovich, a Kansas Jayhawks fan. Also with us for NCAA analysis and more on the latest in sports news is Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Takeaway sports contributor.

Over the weekend, Friends of Syria, an organization of 60 nations created to support the Syrian opposition, gathered in Istanbul for yet another meeting on the seemingly unending revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. Thirteen months of fighting have left over more than 9,000 dead, and recent mediation efforts led by United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan have failed to stop the violence.

Yet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still had a message of hope for the Syrian people: "The world will not waver," she announced to the Friends of Syria meeting on Sunday. "Assad must go and the Syrian people must be free to choose their own path forward." Indeed, the Istanbul meeting did conclude with real results: Arab nations promised $100 million to pay the Syrian opposition fighters and the United States promised communications equipment and another $12 million in humanitarian aid.  

Is that enough to help the struggling opposition? Amr Al Azm, member of the Syrian opposition and professor of history and anthropology at Shawnee State University, explains.

Carl Hiaasen is a best-selling, award-winning novelist, a columnist for the Miami Herald, and our pre-eminent articulator of all things Florida — that most confounding and fascinating of states, both politically and culturally. His new young adult novel "Chomp" focuses on Wahoo Cray, who lives in a zoo and whose animal wrangler father gets a job on the survivalist reality TV show "Expedition Survival!," hosted by an overzealous and incompetent danger-seeker.

To many Americans, this probably doesn't seem like too far-fetched a depiction of Florida. Politically, it's unique among the country's swing states: it's where chads are lost, where delegates sometimes aren't counted, and where the Whig Party still exists. And in the American imagination, it remains perched somewhere between the place where our nation's elders go to retire and the near-lawless territory of alligators, swampland, and stand-your-ground laws.

While the GOP Presidential contenders prepare for primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C., candidate Mitt Romney garners key endorsements from Senator Rob Johnson and Congressman Paul Ryan. Is the Republican Party finally coalescing around their presumptive nominee? Back in Washington, President Obama is set to sign the STOCK Act and the JOBS Act on Monday, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics prepares to release job numbers for March on Friday. Most economists predict Friday's numbers to show employers created 200,000 jobs last month, but wages remain stagnant and more Americans are now having to pay for health care out-of-pocket. What does this mean for the future of the economy?

Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC and Molly Ball, staff writer covering national politics for The Atlantic, explore the stories for the week ahead.

Over the weekend, pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Myanmar’s parliament in a landmark vote.  It’s a historic moment for the country; after years of house arrest, Suu Kyi appears poised to finally step into a role of real power. While democracy seems to be advancing in clear leaps and bounds in Myanmar — and with relatively little violence. The democratic transitions of North Africa and the Middle East have proved to be much more fraught. What's the best way to build a real democracy? Do events in Myanmar offer a model for democratic transitions elsewhere?

Suzanne DiMaggio is Vice President for global policy programs at the Asia Society. Robert Lieber is professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University. His latest book is “Power and Willpower in The American Future: Why the U.S. is Not Destined to Decline.”

Today's guest host, Anna Sale, picked the last song on this list: Mushrooms and Roses by Janelle Monae. Anna said it's something she’s been listening to lately. What have you been listening to lately? Let us know in the comments and we'll do our best to include it as bumper music!

J Dilla – So Far to Go

Leonard Cohen – Democracy

Soulive – Revolution

Al Green – Happiness

R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People

Rhianna – Happy

Phish – Joy

Gregory Issacs – Happiness

String Tribute to Elliot Smith – Happiness

Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me

Broken Social Scene – Shoreline

Toe – Vanishing Points and Whistle

From Monuments to Masses – Conclusions

Madness – Our House

The Roots – You Got Me

Brothers Past – Bitches and Candy

Bon Iver – Come Talk to Me

Janelle Monae – Mushrooms and Roses

The story of Specialist Dennis Weichel is deeply tragic but shows a side of U.S. troops in Afghanistan that we haven't heard about recently, with the Koran burnings, drone attacks killing civilians, and the case of Sergeant Robert Bales.

Rod Nordland is the foreign correspondent for our partner the New York Times.

After years under house arrest, on Sunday pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to serve in the Myanmar parliament. Rachel Harvey from our partner the BBC reports from Myanmar, where she speaks with those celebrating the election results.

The annual worst movie awards the Razzies gave all 10 prizes to Adam Sandlers "Jack and Jill". It's the first time in the 32-year history of the Razzies that a movie has won every category. Kristen Meizner, Takeaway Culture Producer and co-host of the Movie Date podcast, joins us to talk about the worst movie she's ever seen and what makes a bad movie... good.

After Adam Sandler's big night at the Razzies, we ask viewers: what's the worst movie you've ever seen?

In Myanmar, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi declared victory in a landmark election for Parliament. After spending 15 years under house arrest, her victory will mark the first time in a quarter-century that she will have been allowed to hold public office. In other headlines, GOP candidates stump in the states of Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., where primary elections will be held Tuesday; and new research says that the nation's airlines are doing a better job than in the past.

The British government is moving forward with a proposal to allow its intelligence agency, GCHQ, to monitor calls, emails, texts and online searches of everyone inside the U.K.'s borders.

Robert Schifreen is an IT consultant in England, and argues that the GCHQ has been monitoring citizen's activities for quite some time, but passing a law such as the one proposed will make intercepted information admissible in court.

The U.S., Saudi Arabia and dozens of other countries have pledged new support for Syrian rebels. Kofi Annan, peace envoy to Syria, is scheduled to give the UN Security Council a progress report on his efforts today. In other headlines, opposition leader in Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi claims victory for Parliament, a dozen people survive a plane crash in Siberia, a rally for Trayvon Martin draws several thousand people, and the Kentucky Wildcats face off against the Kansas Jayhawks tonight in the College Men's NCAA Basketball Championship.

Tomorrow's primary in Wisconsin is an important one for Mitt Romney, who is looking for a boost that will secure the GOP presidential nomination. But the presidential primary takes a back seat for Wisconsin citizens, who are more focused on the questions surrounding Republican Governor Scott Walker. Governor Walker made national headlines last year for advocating a steep cut in benefits and collective bargaining rights to state workers, and now is only the third governor in the history of the U.S. to be up for recall.

Shawn Johnson is the capitol reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio. Charles Franklin is the Visiting Professor of Law and Public Policy at Marquette University Law School and Director of Marquette Law School Poll, a state polling service.

What's more important: a country's GDP or its level of happiness? Do they influence one another? Tom Barefoot, who believes that happiness might be more important than GDP, is our guest. Looking internationally, we're covering democratic transition in Myanmar, where pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Myanmar’s parliament in a landmark vote. Is Myanmar becoming an example for how to execute a democratic transition? On a similar note, an international group called "Friends of Syria" is supporting rebels in Syria. We hear more about the conflict from Amr Al Azm, a member of the Syrian opposition. Also on today's Takeaway: March Madness, the first U.S. Census to be digitized and placed online, Van Jones, and more.

After three days of intense oral arguments before the Supreme Court, the fate of the Affordable Care Act remains uncertain. Four of the court's Democratic-appointed judges are expected to support it, while at least three of the court's Republican-appointed judges are expected to reject it. That leaves just two votes in question: Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Anthony Kennedy. In the biggest Supreme Court cases, Justice Anthony Kennedy, more often that not, is the key swing vote. The pointed questions he asked during arguments made him the hardest to read, and suggested that once again, his opinion may be the most crucial in this case, says Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Correspondent for The New York Times.

The infamous Panther Five has pulled an audacious heist: they've stolen the world’s 3rd most expensive jewel. Now they've split up and fled to five different cities across the globe. And there’s a handsome reward if you can find them.

That is the fictional premise of Tag Challenge, a worldwide social media manhunt taking place on March 31. Real people will act as the five thieves, and teams must use social media to track them down using nothing but their mugshots. The winning team will receive $5,000. But there's another twist: it's sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. So is this all for fun, or is more at stake here?

Joshua deLara is the co-founder and project coordinator of the Tag Challenge. Evan Ratliff is founder of The Atavist and was the focus of "Vanish: Finding Evan Ratliff," a similar social media experiment sponsored by Wired in 2009.

New numbers released by Centers for Disease Control reveal that the number of children who have been diagnosed with autism has nearly doubled since 2002. According to the CDC's latest report, one in 88 children in the United States has autism or a related disorder. It is not entirely clear what the large increase in autism diagnoses is due to. Meanwhile, doctors working to update the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are considering changing the definition of "autism." Those changes could greatly reduce the number of children considered autistic.

Susan Hyman, chairperson of the Autism Subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Associate Professor at the University of Rochester; Dr. Perri Klass, pediatrician and professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University; and Benedict Carey, science writer for our partner The New York Times, take a closer look at what's behind the numbers.

This week, Kristen and Rafer watched "Bully," the new documentary from the Weinstein Company that takes on the controversial topic of grade school ridicule. "Bully" was in the news this week for hitting theaters unrated after the MPAA promised an R rating. The hype has certainly drummed up support for the movie, but does "Bully" do its subject justice? Or is "The Hunger Games" actually a better tool for teaching kids about violence?

Want to subscribe to Movie Date? It's easy on the Movie Date iTunes Page.

This week, the big players in American democracy, media players, candidates, politicians, even passionate voters got a lesson in intelligent civic democracy from the quiet intensity of measured debate and smart talk from nine justices and a couple of top notch lawyers.

John Hockenberry reflects on the week of debates in the Supreme Court. It wasn't just about the health care law this week, argues Hockenberry. It was the way the Court handled the issue – regardless of your political persuasion. The court made a real point about the value of a civic space free of noise and full of intelligence.

If you follow the movies at all, you’ve probably heard a lot about child-on-child violence on the big screen over the past week. Last Friday, of course, was the release of the Hollywood blockbuster "The Hunger Games."

"The Hunger Games" tells the story of a post-apocalyptic future, in which children are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the government and the control of the people.

And today, the new documentary called "Bully" hits theatres in very limited release. "Bully" tells the story of five real-life children who’ve been bullied; two of whom kill themselves.

In the cases of both films, there have been struggles over how they should be rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. In the end, "The Hunger Games" received a PG-13 rating, while "Bully" received an R rating. But not everyone thinks these ratings make sense.

David Long and his wife Tina Long appear in the film "Bully," in place of their son Tyler, who couldn't. After years of bullying, Tyler killed himself at the age of 17. Rafer Guzman is a film critic for Newsday and co-host of the Movie Date Podcast.

After a comprehensive inspection by the Fair Labor Association, Chinese factory Foxconn has agreed to cut worker's hours and increase their wages. The factory has been in the news recently after reports out of China detailed gross labor law violations and human rights abuses at the facility. Apple, whose products are manufactured at Foxconn, cheer the promises of reform. If implemented, these changes could prompt an overhaul of Chinese labor laws.

Charles Duhigg is a New York Times business reporter.

In a series of dawn raids, French police this morning arrested 19 suspected Islamist militants. The raids come only a week after 23-year old Mohammed Merah, who admitted to killing seven people in three separate attacks, was killed in a shootout with police.

In other headlines, U.S. Supreme Court justices meet today for the first time since they finished hearing six hours of arguments over the constitutionality of President Obama's health care reform law; the Senate will vote on a short-term extension of the federal highway and transit aid; Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone fired two missiles into a house in an area known for harboring militants; and a disaster preparedness exercise in California had a big glitch when it lost four computer storage devices containing private data for 800,000 people.

This week the Supreme Court’s scrutiny of President Obama’s signature piece of legislation dominated the headlines, but it wasn’t the only story out there. Anger over the perceived lack of justice in the Trayvon Martin shooting case continues to sweep the nation, and the controversial film "Bully" got bullied by the ratings board.

These stories and more are covered by our panel of Kai Wright, Editor of Colorlines, Ron Christie, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist and Art Caplan, Sydney D. Caplan Professor of Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania.

New details have come to light about the nine years Osama bin Laden spent on the run in Pakistan after 9/11. We now know he moved among five safe houses and fathered four children, at least two of whom were born in a government hospital.

The information has come from a police report by the Dawn newspaper. Mubashir Zaidi is the head of Dawn TV, the Islamabad studio of our partner the BBC.

One week ago, Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, was shot dead by French security forces following a dramatic 32-hour police standoff. His death brought a violent end to a series of events that left a country both transfixed and unsettled.   

Merah had claimed responsibly for the brutal killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi, and three paratroopers earlier in the week in the southern French city of Toulouse. The terror campaign was the worst attack France has seen in years. 

Questions remain about the attack itself: Did Merah act alone? And why didn’t French officials catch him before the rampage? He had claimed ties to Al Qaeda, and was well known to the French police and intelligence services following an arrest in Afghanistan some years ago. 

But perhaps the biggest unanswered questions concern France’s social and political reaction to the attacks: for one, the tragedy has completely altered the tone of presidential hopefuls in anticipation of a looming presidential election. How will these attacks end up of affecting election results? And then there is the growing rift between religious communities within France, as a divide between French Muslims and French Jews seems to deepen by the day. What long term repercussions might the French Muslim community face as the result of the attacks?

Takeaway producer Arwa Gunja has been in France this week as a reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists, and spoke with community members about their reaction to both the attacks and the tragedy’s fallout. 

What is the source of our greatest regrets? And how do we move beyond them? Neal Roese, professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, joins the program to continue our conversation on regret. Professor Roese has studied the science behind the emotion and offers up his thoughts and advice. 

The U.S. Supreme Court justices meet today to vote on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, but today's decision won't be announced until June. In other headlines, the House approved a bill to avoid the shutdown of government construction projects; French police arrest suspected Islamists; South Korean officials report that North Korea has test-fired short-range missiles; and a wildfire in Colorado continues to burn.

On today's Takeaway, we discuss the CDC's new statistics about autism, hear a special report from The Takeaway's Arwa Gunja about the aftermath of the Toulouse shooting in France, and learn about a new social media "manhunt" sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Also on the show: our Follow Friday panel, discussion about MPAA ratings regarding violence in films, and more listener responses about regret.

Hugh Sykes reports on the Arab League summit in Baghdad, where only 10 out of 22 leaders of the Arab world have turned up. It's the first time the Arab League summit has been in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's time. As the meeting began, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon called on members to encourage political freedom across the region, and the main subject of today's summit is Iraq's neighbor Syria.

Hugh Sykes is a reporter for our partner the BBC.

Three explosions have been heard in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, where the Arab League summit has just convened. In other headlines, the House considers the $3.5 trillion budget package proposed by Paul Ryan; Spain sees a general strike over labor reform; and Earl Scruggs has died at the age of 88.

Three explosions have been heard in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, where the Arab League summit has just convened. In other headlines, the House considers the $3.5 trillion budget package proposed by Paul Ryan; Spain sees a general strike over labor reform; and Earl Scruggs has died at the age of 88.

Yesterday, the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee held a meeting called "Holiday on ICE." Contrary to how it might sound, it had nothing to do with dancing elves or figure skating. In this case, ICE refers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal law enforcement agency under the department of Homeland Security that enforces immigration laws.

The hearing focused on the new guidelines for immigration detention that were issued last month, and are now beginning to go into effect. These guidelines are designed treat undocumented immigrants more humanely.

Here to tell us about detention, past, present and future, is Doris Meissner. Meissner served as Commissioner of the INS under President Clinton and Acting Commissioner under President Reagan. She is currently director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

This is a formal statement from ICE, regarding yesterday’s hearing:

On the difference between criminal detention and immigration detention, especially as it pertains to Chairman Smith's critique of the new detention standards.

• One of the principal differences between criminal detention and immigration detention is that, unlike the criminal justice system, by law ICE is prohibited from detaining individuals for punitive reasons. ICE is only authorized to detain individuals in order to more efficiently effect their removal from the country. In that vein, detention reform is aimed at placing detainees in appropriate environments, based on their criminal or immigration history.

• It is important to note that one of the main goals of the agency, in addition to prioritizing the health and safety of detainees in our custody and improving conditions of confinement, is to increase fiscal prudence and efficiencies within the system.

• To that end, part of ICE’s detention reform efforts are also aimed at putting detention centers in strategic locations that reduce detainee transfers within the detention system and increase overall operational efficiencies, allowing for a reduction in detainees’ average length of stay in ICE custody (by an average of 14 days) and subsequent cost savings for the federal government.

• Overall, ICE’s detention reform efforts, including the implementation of PBNDS 2011, are designed to improve medical care, custodial conditions, fiscal prudence and oversight of the immigration detention system, and reinforce protections against sexual abuse and assault.

Earl Scruggs, the man who reinvented the banjo as a solo virtuoso instrument, has died at the age of 88. Scruggs invented a style, the three finger picking style of banjo playing distinct from the ancient Clawhammer technique. Scruggs style is precise, rhythmic, dizzyingly fast and took the banjo from the back of the band and brought it down front.

The Takeaway pays tribute to Scruggs, who played his instrument like no one had ever before played it and changed music forever.

Today, members vote on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's plan (R-Wis.) after the GOP-dominated house rejected both President Obama's proposed budget and a bipartisan measure that combined spending cuts with tax hikes. In other headlines, Supreme Court justices begin their private debate over health care reform; an ambush of a NATO supply convoy in Afghanistan killed 19 during a 3-hour fire fight; and the emir of Kuwait is the only Gulf Arab leader to attend the Arab League summit in Baghdad.

This story has all the trappings of a spy novel, or a James Bond film. Espionage. International intrigue. Underground nuclear development. It would make for quite a work of fiction...except that this story is true. In 2010, a little virus called Stuxnet caused severe damage to an Iranian uranium-enrichment facility, effectively delaying Iran’s nuclear capabilities for months or possibly years. It was long thought that Israel took the lead in developing Stuxnet, but our next guest thinks that the Untied States was the culprit. And while we Americans might be skilled in creating cyber-viruses, we might be completely unprepared when it comes to defending ourselves against them.  

Richard Clarke was the White House counter-terrorism czar under three presidents. He is currently a Managing Partner of Good Harbor, a cyber-security consultancy.

During his trip to Cuba, Pope Benedict the 16th led mass and met with Raul and Fidel Castro. He urged the leaders to open up Cuba to change and called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo. What, if anything, will the Papal visit to Cuba mean for the country’s future?

Carlos Eires is the Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University. He is the author of 2003's "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy", which won the National Book Award in Nonfiction in the United States and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Though often overshadowed, the Paralympics encapsulate the true Olympic spirit. This year's Olympic organizers have already sold over one million tickets, and they hope to pay 2012's disabled athletes as much attention as the able-bodied.

During his recent trip to the UK, John Hockenberry spoke with eleven-time gold medalist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson about her involvement with the paralympics. Grey-Thompson has broken over thirty world records.

In California overcrowding and underfunding has made it impossible for many community college students to get into the packed courses they need for job training or transfers to a four-year college. Since 2009, 300,000 fewer students have enrolled in California community colleges, and many cite the difficulty to find positions in these courses as a main problem.

The situation isn’t getting better. In the state’s 2012 budget, community colleges lost $564 million and in the wake of these cuts have reduced course offerings by 20 percent. But one community college has found an innovative way to solve their problems.

This summer, Santa Monica College will implement something of a two-tier system for students to pay for different courses. Students can secure spots in the courses which are most in demand if they pay a higher fee. While this may solve the problem of overcrowded classrooms, not everybody thinks this is a good idea.

In this conversation we listen to Pedro Noguera and Martin Goldstein debate the merits and pitfalls of this innovative approach. Pedro Noguera is sociology professor and head of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University and Martin Goldstein is professor of communications at Santa Monica Community College.

Adrienne Rich, a poet and essayist who profoundly influenced a generation of modern American writers, died yesterday at the age of 82. Rich was known as the poet of the women’s movement. Her most renowned collection, "Diving into the Wreck," was published in the midst of the feminist revolution in 1971. Her poetry touched on a wide variety of social concerns, as she refused to separate her politics from her lyrical work.

With us is Jan Clausen, poet and professor at Goddard College. Professor Clausen says that she was profoundly influenced by Adrienne Rich, as were a generation of American poets. 

With the Supreme Court arguments over President Obama’s health care law behind us, we can now look forward and consider what the political repercussions of these historic hearings will be.

Anna Sale, reporter for our co-producer WNYC’s politics website, It’s a Free Country, joins us to look back: back upon days when the President of the United States found himself up against the Supreme Court in the wake of sweeping social reforms; back upon days when the country's commander-in-chief was locked in a fight with the highest court in the land, during an election year no less, with political challengers waiting to capitalize on presidential defeat.

We look back upon the days of President Franklin Roosevelt and draw parallels between President Obama and President Roosevelt's dealings with the highest court in the land. 

Over the last few days, we've been asking our listeners, "If you could go back and say something to someone in your past — an ex, an old boss, a deceased loved one — what do you wish you could tell them?" We've discovered that it's a question that strikes quite a nerve. 

We spoke to Jackie Hooper, who explained why. Jackie is a life coach and the author of "The Things You Would Have Said." Three years ago, she started asking people what they wish they'd said to the old friends, former teaches, bosses, or beloved relatives they never quite spoke their mind to. Today we're sharing some of the most poignant stories from our listeners.

Last week House GOP leaders unveiled a bold new 2013 budget blueprint, promising to cut government spending and reverse rising federal deficits. The budget proposal – "The Path to Prosperity" – aims to tame the national debt by overhauling Medicare and cutting deeply into a number of politically sensitive federal programs. The proposal also looks to reshuffle the tax code, sharply lowering individual tax rates and brackets.

The budget resolution goes to the House floor today. Joining us to discuss the proposal is Congressman Todd Akin, Republican Representative from Missouri’s 2nd District. Representative Akin is a member of the House Budget Committee and worked on the crafting of this budget resolution. He has served in Congress since 2001 and is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

On today's Takeaway, we talk to Republican Representative Todd Akin on the new Paul Ryan GOP budget and former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner on the new ICE guidelines. Also on the show we remember poet and essayist Adrienne Rich, discuss Stuxnet and cyber-security with Richard Clarke, and examine the case of a California community college charging extra for more popular classes.

All this week, the Supreme Court has heard arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The centerpiece of President Obama's health care reform legislation — and the focus of the debate at the Court — is the individual mandate, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine. The Court won't issue a ruling until June, but if they do declare the mandate unconstitutional, how much of a real difference will it make for you and your health care?

Joining us is Joe Nocera, Op-Ed columnist for our partner The New York Times.

Over a month after the shooting death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, the small town of Sanford, Florida remains on edge.

In this conversation we speak with Mayor Jeff Triplett about how his town of 54,000 has held together through a nationally publicized tragedy. We also turn to Farai Chideya, blogger at Farai.com, to discuss the current state of the media's national coverage of the narrative and characters playing out in this sensitive news story.

This week the Supreme Court has been hearing arguments in a case against the Affordable Care Act. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 16 percent of Americans — around 50 million people — do not have health insurance. If the court upholds the health care law, however, that would change, with nearly all Americans having coverage by 2014. There is one state whose residents already enjoy nearly-universal coverage: Massachusetts. Under legislation signed by then-governor Mitt Romney in 2006, about 98 percent of Massachusetts state residents are insured.

Massachusetts’s health coverage program has been largely seen as a success. Government costs haven't risen dramatically, and a 2011 poll by The Boston Globe showed that 63 percent of residents support the law. Yet despite the successes of Masschusetts’s health care mandate, there are still considerable disparities in coverage among different demographics, according to Renee Landers, professor of law at Suffolk University.  Massachusetts resident Silvia Romero also joins the show to share her story about how the state's health care law came to her aid when she lost health care coverage through her employer.

Today the Supreme Court will hear the final round of arguments on President Obama's Affordable Care Act. While 26 states joined the lawsuit against health care reform, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed the original suit, and Florida is the lead plaintiff in the case. "I can tell you that the Obama administration, they're going to try to focus on health care policy and that's not what it is about," Attorney General Bondi told Fox News last week. "This is about our rights of the United States Constitution." And in the midst of what Attorney General Bondi has called "one of the biggest cases of our lifetime," she is also leading an investigation into the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida. 

Few places have come to symbolize climate change as much as the island nation of the Maldives. The nation's 1,200 small islands in the Indian Ocean sit, on average, about five feet above sea level. When Mohamed Nasheed became the first democratically elected president of the country in 2008, he made climate change his primary policy concern.

Filmmaker Jon Shenk followed the president during his first year in office in his film "The Island President". The film culminates in the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit — but much has happened since then. President Nasheed resigned from office in what he has since called a coup, and the future of the country is again in political and environmental disarray.

If you could go back and say something to someone in your past — an ex, an old boss, a deceased loved one — what do you wish you could tell them? That question is the basis of a new book. It's called "The Things You Would Have Said" and it compiles moving reflections from people of all walks of life on the times when they didn't speak their mind — but wish they had.

Jackie Hooper is a life-coach and author of “The Things You Would Have Said.”

Yesterday was the second of three days of hearings in the Supreme Court's review of Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The session was devoted to one key question: Is Congress overstepping its Constitutional power by requiring nearly all Americans to carry health insurance? 

Jeffrey Rosen is back to break it all down for us, and to give us a preview of what will happen in today’s third and final day of hearings. Rosen is professor of law at George Washington University, and he’s been following the arguments closely. He joins us from Washington, D.C.

After the years of violence and instability in Iraq, Baghdad is hosting this week's Arab League meeting. Reporter for our partner the BBC Rami Ruhayem discusses the welcome leaders should expect from the residents of the Iraq capital.

No one has ever paid the amount for a professional sports team that basketball legend Magic Johnson is proposing to pay for the Los Angeles Dodgers. We speak with a former MLB executive about the $2 billion deal.

Mike Carlson is a former Vice President of MLB International, and now journalist and sports broadcaster.

Eight years ago, Frank McCourt bought the Los Angeles Dodges for $430 million, but a nasty divorce sent him into bankruptcy. Now, a group led by basketball legend Magic Johnson has a deal in place to buy the Dodgers for more than $2 billion, an amount that would be the most ever paid for a professional sports team.

Richard Sandomir is a sports, business and media columnist for our partner The New York Times.

Pakistani military officials will hold their first set of meetings with American commanders since the accidental drone strike killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers last year. In other headlines, the Supreme Court continues to debate President Obama's health care overhaul legislation; more details on the JetBlue flight that was forced to take an emergency landing after its pilot went on a rant; and Newt Gingrich is reshuffling his senior campaign staff.

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the Affordable Care Act Monday through Wednesday this week. But to your average, non-legal-scholar, the arguments can be hard to follow, and the specifics of the Act itself can very confusing.

A lot of Takeaway listeners have been writing in with their questions about the Act. Todd Zwillich, the Takeaway’s Washington correspondent, is here to answer some of them.

There are new allegations against Rupert Murdoch's news organization and new suspicions of shady tactics in a different industry altogether. An Australian newspaper has published a report that News Corp used a special unit to sabotage its competitors in the TV business. The Australian government has called for a criminal investigation into the claims.

Dr. David McKnight is the author of the new book "Murdoch: An Investigation Of Political Power."

Lawyers on both sides of the health care debate have one final day of hearings to argue their case before the Supreme Court today. In other headlines, Newt Gingrich has asked his campaign manager to resign, laid off about a third of his staff, and reshuffled his campaign schedule; a "medical situation" involving the pilot of a cross-continental flight forced a JetBlue emergency landing in Texas; and former Cuban President Fidel Castro meets with Pope Benedict the 16th later today.

The Supreme Court begins the third and final day of hearings to review Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA). Today we review Day 2 with Jeffrey Rosen, answer listener questions with Todd Zwillich, and hear from the original filer of the suit against the ACA, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. We will also speak to Sanford, Florida mayor Jeff Triplett about Trayvon Martin; hear from filmmaker Jon Shenk about his documentary following Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed; and talk to listeners about the things they wish they had said to someone in their past.

All this week, we're talking about Department of Health and Human Services vs. Florida, the health care case at the Supreme Court. Today the Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the provision of the Affordable Care Act that requires Americans to purchase health insurance. Failure to purchase health insurance could result in a fine. We've heard from constitutional scholars and economists for their take on health care reform and the individual mandate, and today we'll hear from doctors who actually provide the care. Once it's fully implemented, how will the Affordable Care Act affect physicians? How do doctors think the individual mandate might change patient care?

We turn to three doctors this morning who have very different perspectives on the individual mandate. Dr. Rachel Nardin is a neurologist at Cambridge Health Alliance and an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kevin Pho is a primary care physician in Nashua, New Hampshire, and a blogger at KevinMD.com. Dr. Hal Scherz is a pediatric urologist and a professor of urology at Emory University School of Medicine. He is also the founder and president of Docs4PatientCare.

The case against the Affordable Care Act currently being heard by the Supreme Court was brought by 26 states. Ohio is one of those states, and in Ohio, disapproval of the health care law runs deep. Last fall, Ohio voters amended the state constitution to say that no federal or state law will require any person, company or health care provider to participate in a health care system. 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine explains why he joined the suit against the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats want to clear the air around ObamaCare. Dubbing the Affordable Care Act "ObamaCare" has helped the GOP to win the perception war around the Obama Administration's signature piece of legislation. To detractors, the term which bears the president's name is shorthand for big government infringing on personal rights. But the Democrats aren't taking it anymore.  

In this conversation with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, we hear how Democrats plan to rehabilitate the word "ObamaCare" through coordinated public relations campaigns online and off.  

Taxes, penalties, and tax penalties. That sums up much of what was discussed at yesterday's Supreme Court hearing on the 2010 health care overhaul bill, also known as the Affordable Care Act. Today's hearing, in which the court will focus on the constitutionality of the health overhaul, promises to be much more exciting.

Jeffrey Rosen is professor of law at George Washington University, and he’s been following the arguments closely. We're also joined by Monica Haymond, a legal assistant originally from California. She’s been sleeping outside the Supreme Court Building since Friday night, hoping to get into today’s hearing.

On June 4, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered his commencement address at Howard University — one of the most famous speeches of his presidency. Given shortly after he sent the Voting Rights Act to Congress, and almost a year after he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it laid out a vision of his administration's civil rights goals. But most people now many remember it for one thing: its emphasis on what then-Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan termed "the breakdown of the Negro family structure."

The speech, drafted by Moynihan, was heavily based on his study "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," better known as the Moynihan Report. It is a source of tremendous controversy to this day, with many arguing that it offers little more than an implicitly racist "blame the victim" critique, and many others arguing that it offers a clear-eyed and prescient account of a pernicious social ill.

James T. Patterson, the Ford Foundation professor of history emeritus at Brown University, has written about the study in his book "Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle Over Black Family Life from LBJ to Obama," which is being released next week.

Yesterday marked the one month anniversary of Trayvon Martin's death. The 17-year-old was shot and killed while visiting his father by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain. Details of the killing have been coming out slowly, but yesterday the case took a number of significant turns — among them, a report that Martin knocked Zimmerman to the ground and beat him before Zimmerman fired. Today, we review the new developments and speak with a reporter on the scene.

Michael Bender is a reporter for Bloomberg News and joins us from Sanford, Florida.

Many date the beginning of the Arab Spring to December 18, 2010, with the self-immolation of Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi. A nationwide protest broke out soon after, and similarly-minded revolts, aimed at overthrowing their autocratic leaders, then spread to Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen, among others. But that's where the similarities end.

The protests have been violent and non-violent; some governments have fallen quickly, like in Tunisia and Egypt, while others have responded with enduring brutality, like in Syria and Bahrain. Some newly installed governments have been relatively stable, as with Tunisia and Egypt, while others have continued to be hugely troubled, like those in Libya and Yemen. And, just last week, a group of Tuareg rebels, armed with weapons they gathered as pro-Qaddafi fighters in Libya, launched a coup against the presidential palace of the democratic Republic of Togo. So, with no narrative of singular-minded revolt anymore, how ought we best consider what has happened over the past sixteen months, and what might happen in the months and years to come?

Marc Lynch, the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University, offers his assessment on The Takeaway, and in his new book: "The Arab Uprising: The Wave of Protest That Toppled the Status Quo and the Struggle for a New Middle East." 

Since Halloween 2011, an estimated $1.6 billion of customer funds have gone missing from failed brokerage firm MF Global. The hunt has taken months with few results.

Tomorrow, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hosts its third hearing on the matter, and there might be a clue on where to look. Takeaway business editor Charlie Herman tells us the big number to watch for: $200 million.

According to a spokesman for UN envoy Kofi Annan, Syria has accepted a United Nations plan to end bloodshed in the country. The plan includes a daily two-hour ceasefire by Syrian security forces to evacuate the injured and provide humanitarian aid. This plan comes as President Bashar al-Assad has traveled to the besieged Baba Amr neighborhood to inspect conditions.

Michael Bristow is a correspondent for our partner the BBC.

According to our partner the BBC, security officials seized 11 suicide bomb jackets and made several arrests inside a security zone around the Ministry of Defense in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul. The arrests were made less than a kilometer away from the presidential palace. The attack was allegedly intended to attack 11 buses transporting government employees.

Bilal Sawary, correspondent for the BBC in Kabul, joins us live.

Syria has accepted a United Nations plan to end violence, including a two-hour ceasefire to provide humanitarian aid. In other headlines, the Supreme Court hears another round of arguments today on President Obama's health care reform law; Obama meeting Pakistan's prime minister in Seoul, South Korea; Cuba welcomes Pope Benedict the 16th; and a wildfire in Colorado causes the evacuation of 900 homes.

World leaders have called for closer cooperation to tackle the threat of nuclear terrorism at a summit on nuclear security in Seoul, South Korea. President Obama is among the world leaders in attendance. At the end of the summit there was a joint call to secure "vulnerable nuclear material".

Lucy Williamson, a correspondent for our partner the BBC, joins us to discuss the Seoul summit and Obama's private meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Justices of the Supreme Court will today hear a second day of hearings regarding President Obama's health care overhaul. In other headlines, President Obama acknowledges a strained relationship with Pakistan from the nuclear security summit in Seoul, South Korea; civil rights leaders continue to call for the arrest of the man who shot and killed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida last month; and a new poll from The New York Times and CBS finds 69 percent of Americans believe the U.S. should not be at war in Afghanistan.

As the Supreme Court begins its second day of hearings about the health care law, we examine the deeper issues. Jeffrey Rosen joins us to explain yesterday's hearings, an Ohio Attorney General explains why he joined a suit against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and doctors debate the individual mandate. Today we will also hear about new facts in the Trayvon Martin case and interview gold medalist Tanni Grey Thompson on the upcoming Paralympic Games.

On March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the CIA. It marked the end of one of the lengthiest terrorist manhunts in history. It also marked the beginning of years of legal wrangling within the U.S., and many debates about the morality of U.S. interrogation methods and military commissions.

Mohammad is now awaiting trial for his role in the 9/11 attacks, along with five other defendants, and he is alleged to have participated in some of the most infamous terrorist attacks in modern history, from the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center to the 2002 bombings in Bali to the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, whom Mohammad, while in detention, claimed to have killed himself.

Josh Meyer, chief terrorism reporter for the Los Angeles Times, co-wrote "The Hunt for KSM: Inside the Pursuit and Takedown of the Real 9/11 Mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad" with Terry McDermott. He discusses the pursuit, detainment, and trial of the man he calls "the ghost of our times."

The auto industry may be on its way back, but Detroit is close to bankruptcy. The city faces a budget deficit of $200 million and today is the deadline for a financial review panel to decide what the city's next steps should be. But as the city's fate hangs in the balance, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is recovering from major surgery, and is out of commission for at least several days.

Joining us for more on Detroit is Craig Fahle, host of The Craig Fahle Show on WDET.

From the first beats, Bruce Springsteen's “Born to Run” is captivating. The lyrics, the imagery, the aspiration.

In the day we sweat it out in the streets
of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory
in suicide machines

Tonight, Springsteen will perform in Boston. In honor of his visit, our production partner, WGBH Boston, is taking a closer look at “Born to Run” — and why it feels as relevant today as it did when it was penned nearly forty years ago.

Philip Martin is senior investigative reporter at WGBH, who’s talked with several Springsteen experts, fans and friends about “Born to Run” over the past weekend. He joins us from Boston.

Senators Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut and Charles Schumer of New York wrote to the Department of Justice and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 25 asking them to investigate whether requesting and using prospective employees' social network passwords violates current federal law.

We're joined by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and find out why he chose to take action on the issue.

The Affordable Care Act is now in the Supreme Court's hands, but it seems that the health care reforms then-Governor Mitt Romney implemented in Massachusetts will continue to haunt the GOP contender for the remainder of the campaign. Rival candidate Rick Santorum constantly compares the Massachusetts law to the Affordable Care Act. On Sunday's "Meet the Press," President Obama's Senior Adviser David Plouffe described Mitt Romney as the "godfather" of national health care reform, and noted that the same advisers helped draft both plans. 

MIT economist Jonathan Gruber is one of those advisers. He joins us to discuss the economics of health care reform, in Massachusetts and on the national level. Professor Gruber also penned a graphic novel on the subject, titled "Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works."

The U.S. military has decided not to charge NATO soldiers involved in airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November. The preliminary investigation into this incident found fault with both Pakistani and American troops. The second investigation, completed over the weekend, found that the Americans fired in self-defense and should therefore not be charged. 

Pakistan was once the U.S.’s principal ally in the Afghanistan war. But tensions between the two countries have grown since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad last May. Pakistan’s Parliament is currently debating the future of its relationship with the United States and President Obama is set to meet with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Seoul tomorrow. How will the U.S. move forward on Pakistan and how will strained relations between the two countries affect our current efforts in Afghanistan? 

Joining us is Christine Fair, professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University.

We're joined by documentary filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, who followed Bill Clinton's campaign staff during his 1992 Presidential campaign. The resulting film "The War Room," was a quick classic, giving viewers a peek behind the curtain of American politics. Last week "The War Room" was released as part of the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray.

D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus co-directed the 1993 documentary "The War Room."

The Supreme Court begins hearings about health care legislation today. Meanwhile, President Obama begins the week with meetings in South Korea. The European Banking Forum convenes in Prague. Back in the U.S., both the Conference Board Confidence Index and the Michigan Consumer Sentiment reports come out this week.

Todd Zwillich, Takeaway Washington correspondent and Charlie Herman, business and economics editor for The Takeaway look at the stories coming up in the week ahead.

At a White House press conference on Friday, President Obama was asked to comment on the Trayvon Martin case. He noted that because of the on-going Justice Department investigation, he had to restrict his comments, and then paused to collect his thoughts. He went on to express his sympathy to the 17-year-old shooting victim's parents. "You know, if I had a son he'd look like Trayvon, and I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves," he said. The unscripted comment has generated a powerful response.

Ron Christie, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist says President Obama overstepped in his remarks. Xilla, an editor at Global Grinder, says the president's remarks were appropriate — and deeply moving.

The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Obama’s healthcare law today, kicking off a three-day proceeding. The Affordable Care Act mandates an expansion of health insurance to 30 million more Americans within a decade, as well as for the ire it has roused in Republican lawmakers and citizens, alike.

At the heart of the Court's hearings will be the argument against the health reform law’s individual mandate – the requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance. Failure to follow the mandate, which goes into effect in 2014, could result in a fine. Also on the Court’s agenda over the coming days are oral arguments over whether a ruling on the law’s insurance requirement is premature, a consideration of what happens if the insurance requirement is ruled unconstitutional, and a discussion over the constitutionality of the law’s expansion of Medicaid.

To look ahead to next three days of health care debate and discussion, Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at George Washington University, joins us.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Cuba today after a three-day visit to Mexico. It’s his first time visiting both countries. During his visit to the island nation, the Pope says he hopes to build on the dialogue and cooperation ushered in by his predecessor, John Paul II — whose visit in 1998 was considered groundbreaking.

How do locals feel about the current Pope’s visit? And what, exactly, is the Pope’s desired outcome of the visit? Sarah Rainsford, Havana correspondent for our partner the BBC, joins us from Cuba.

When reporter Jeff Zeleny asked Rick Santorum about a harsh comment he made about rival Mitt Romney, Santorum lashed out. The exchange was caught on tape by a CBS news camera, and Zeleny joins us with an update on Santorum's words and the political strategy behind them.

Jeff Zeleny is the National Political Correspondent for our partner the New York Times.

Director James Cameron is back on dry land after traveling to the deepest known point on Earth, some seven miles below the surface of the ocean. He's the first person to make the dive alone, and he spent about three hours there collecting research samples and taking pictures. 

Dr. Jon Copley is a marine biologist at Southampton University in the U.K., and talks about the difficulty as well as the extraordinary opportunity of this deep sea dive.

The Supreme Court begins three days of oral arguments today on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care overhaul. People lined up outside the Supreme Court building in Washington beginning on Friday hoping to get the chance to see the proceedings today.

Kathie McClure is a trial lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, and Reverend Rob Schenck is the President of the National Clergy Council, a network of pastors and denominational leaders.

At an international summit in South Korea, President Obama is calling for deeper cuts in nuclear weapons. After a meeting with Russia President Dmitri Mdvedev, Obama said the U.S. and Russia agreed North Korea must not provoke animosity through its nuclear program. In other headlines, the Supreme Court begins three days of oral arguments to decide if the Affordable Care Act legislation violates the Constitution; according to Afghan police, the 17th victim in this month's deadly shooting spree in Afghanistan was an unborn child; two British soldiers were killed this morning when a man wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire inside a NATO base in the southern Afghanistan; and the weekend decided the Final Four teams in the men's NCAA Division I basketball tournament.

The Supreme Court begins oral arguments today on the legality of President Obama's sweeping health care legislation. The arguments today mark the beginning of three days of hearings, although a ruling won't come until later this summer. In other headlines, President Obama meets with China's president today after a two-day nuclear security summit in South Korea; a man wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire this morning on a NATO base in southern Afghanistan, killing two British soldiers; and minor damage is reported in central Chile following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

The Supreme Court hears a challenge to President Obama's landmark health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act. We also discuss other stories involving President Obama on today's show: his comments on Trayvon Martin and his visits to South Korea and Pakistan. Later, we talk about Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Mexico and Cuba, and we look back at Khalid Sheikh Mohammad with author Josh Meyer, the chief terrorism reporter for the L.A. Times.

Every Friday, The Takeaway assembles a panel of cultural and political experts to chew over the past week's stories. This week Illinois held a primary, a Romney aide committed an unforgettable "Etch-A-Sketch" gaffe, March Madness marched along, and throngs of people rallied to call for justice in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. This week's panel includes Latoya Peterson, editor of Racilicious.com, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, Takeaway sports contributor, and Ron Christie, Takeaway contributor and Republican political strategist.

In 1965, a frustrated Bob Dylan was ready to quit the music industry. Abandoning his guitar, he retreated to a cabin in Woodstock, New York. Off the tour bus and away from the city, Dylan finally relaxed. After a few days, despite his best intentions, he started scribbling lyrics — and he couldn’t stop. "Like a Rolling Stone," one of the most innovative and beloved songs in the history of rock and roll, was born. So what prompted Dylan’s moment of insight? Where do most artists and inventors get their creative impulse? 

Author and journalist Jonah Lehrer explores the science behind imagination in his new book "Imagine: How Creativity Works."

The works of Mozart just got a little bigger. This morning saw the premiere of a newly discovered piece by the Austrian composer. The recently unearthed piece was discovered in a late 18th-century music book in Austria by a university lecturer compiling pieces of handwritten music.

We're joined by WQXR host Terrance McKnight.

Mohammed Merah, the gunman responsible for the death of seven people in France over the past week, is dead. The al-Qaeda sympathizer died while police stormed his apartment after a siege that lasted 32 hours. He was shot in the head after jumping out of his window while continuing to shoot at officers. The incident sent shockwaves around the world, and has some observers wondering if we’re seeing the emergence of a new kind of terrorism.

Sajjan Gohel is the Director of International Security at the Asia Pacific Foundation.

A report by the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center says women living on Native American reservations face major obstacles to accessing Plan B emergency contraception. Close to one in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and report authors say unwanted pregnancies could be prevented if Plan B was available over-the-counter. The report also criticizes the Indian Health Service for not implementing standard policies and protocols dealing with sexual assault and rape despite being mandated to do so by the Tribal Law and Order Act.

The co-author of the report, Charon Asetoyer, is executive director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center.  

After months of waiting, fans of The Hunger Games will be descending in droves on theaters this weekend, eager to take in the big screen adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel of the same name.

If you’re one of the uninitiated, the story goes like this: in a dystopian future, North America has been broken up into 12 oppressed districts and one glossy, privileged capitol. Each year, a boy and a girl from each district is selected by lottery. All 24 children are put into an arena the size of a city, where they must fight to the death. The whole thing is broadcast as a month-long reality show in all the districts.

But the movie is about more than science fiction and entertainment. Gender, violence, and, of course, merchandising, are at the forefront of the film adaptation.

Our Movie Date team is here to discuss the Hunger Games. In addition to hosting the Movie Date podcast, Rafer Guzman is film critic for Newsday and Kristen Meinzer is producer for The Takeaway.

The long-awaited 'The Hunger Games' is finally here! If you wanted to like the Twilight movies but thought Bella was kind of a wimp, this movie is for you. Protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) leads a cast of young adults through a fictional reality TV show in which children battle to the death. It's an awesome take on the teen movie genre, but is this sci-fi flick about homicidal adolescents a good date movie?

Listen to this week's podcast to find out what Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday, and Kristen Meinzer, culture producer for the Takeaway, think about this long-awaited and super-hyped blockbuster.

Want to subscribe to Movie Date? It's easy on the Movie Date iTunes Page.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is leading the pack of GOP hopefuls, but that doesn't mean he's escaped criticism for not being able to unify the Republican party: some say he's not conservative enough, or that he's not likable. Of course, the perceived inability to unify the party isn't unique to Romney.

Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich explains that if you look at the lack of action on the transportation bill in Congress, it's a problem for the GOP leadership, as well.

From the aftermath of the attack in Kandahar which resulted in 17 civilian deaths, David Loyn reports that Afghan citizens appear fed up with a decade of war. The worsening ties between U.S. troops and Afghans have been exacerbated in 2012 by the U.S. troops burning of the Koran and the March 11 shooting.

David Loyn is a correspondent for our partner the BBC.

Afghanistan will be paying close attention to the judicial proceedings of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the soldier accused in a deadly shooting rampage who will be formally charged with 17 counts of murder later today. In other headlines, a rally was held in Sanford, Florida, last night where the shooting of teenager Trayvon Marton took place, UN envoy Kofi Annan heads to Russia and China for Syrian peace talks, and Bank of America launches a pilot program to help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgage.

The European Union is expected today to ban European travel for 12 people close to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad, including the travel of Assad's British-born wife, Asma. The European Union's measures are intended to target members of the Syrian government personally. 

Chris Morris is a Europe correspondent for our partner the BBC.

Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will be formally charged today with 17 counts of murder in connection with a nighttime attack earlier this month on Afghan civilians. In other headlines, a Florida special prosecutor is taking over the state's investigation into the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, counter-terrorism officials can now retain information about U.S. residents for up to five years, and autopsy results from Whitney Houston's death reveal the cause of her death to be drowning.