Andrea Swalec

Population growth is highest in areas that have one of two things going for them: sunshine and people with college degrees. That’s according to a study co-authored by Harvard economics professor Edward L. Glaeser. Finance and Wall Street reporter for The New York Times Louise Story has been thinking about how the state of our economy may change American migration patterns. If people can’t move because they can’t sell their houses, and migration creates economic growth, what happens? 

Today marks one year since the Deepwater oil rig exploded, leaking oil into the Gulf. More than half a million people say that BP owes them money, and many of them say the compensation process is unfair and is taking too long. Kenneth Feinberg is in charge of the $20 billion in compensation fund. He responds to Gulf residents who say the process isn't fair. 

In Wisconsin, demonstrators are camped out for a seventh day over a state bill that would cut state workers’ ability to bargain collectively. But Wisconsin isn’t the only state where union battles are blazing. In Ohio, state Republicans are promoting measures to cut collective bargaining as an eventual cost-cutting measure as well. Ohio faces an estimated $8 billion budget deficit. Ohio Public Radio State House Reporter Bill Cohen explains the latest.

Last week, Egypt and President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal held our attention. This week, ongoing upheaval in the Arab World, public sector unions and what Reuters Global Editor-at-Large Chrystia Freeland calls “the Groupon effect” promise to be on our monitors and TV screens.

In November, a cruise ship left Fort Lauderdale, Florida and set sail for the Caribbean. The ship had cocktails, pool parties and cabaret performances. But the 2,000 people aboard weren't ordinary cruise passengers; they were spies, former spies and their admirers. Journalist and author Tom Mangold, was a passenger on the Spy Cruise, and made the BBC radio documentary “Ship of Spies” about the trip and the changing role of the CIA.

China's President Hu Jintao has been in Washington this week, and all week we have been looking at the China-U.S. relationship, the economy, and American misperceptions about China. One of the questions we asked was whether or not we should be wary of China's economy in relation to our own. Listener Charles George, who grew up in Washington state and has lived in China for ten years, wrote to us on our website. He says that fears of economic competition from China are overblown. Charles joins us from Yantai, in eastern China, to talk more about his experience and views living in that country.

The Obama administration is weighing a decision that could fundamentally change the way Americans buy houses. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and other large banks are pressing the Treasury Department to allow private companies to bundle individual mortgages into securities, which the government would guarantee. Should this very public role be given to big banks? Should tax-payers be on the hook for guaranteeing mortgages?

We just collectively cringed at Ricky Gervais on the Golden Globes, and we’ll be watching the Academy Awards before we know it, on February 27th. In the meantime, we’re watching movies that probably won’t bring home any statuettes this time next year; but this weekends films may provide us with a little guilty pleasure.Takeaway Movie Date Podcast co-hosts Rafer Guzman and Kristen Meinzer talk about these new releases.

Next week, President Barack Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address. We can expect to hear him lay out his roadmap for the next two years. Leading up to his address, we’re talking with some key political observers about the direction in which the president should and must move in his remaining time in office.

According to a New York Times article released today, the Obama administration is planning to prosecute Guantanamo detainees in military commission trials. This follows decisions by Congress to prevent these prisoners from being brought to the U.S. and tried in federal courts.

Virginia state lawmakers are debating a bill that would amend state law to prevent undocumented immigrants from enrolling in public state colleges and universities. Passage of the bill would make Virginia the fourth state to prevent, in one way or another, undocumented students from attending state schools. This comes a month after the defeat of the DREAM Act in Congress, which would have allowed some undocumented immigrants to attain legal status by attending college or serving in the military. 

China’s human rights record is on the agenda during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington this week. Meanwhile, political dissident and Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo remains in prison and his wife, Liu Xia, is thought to be under house arrest. Chinese-American human rights activist and former political prisoner Dr. Sasha Gong was a political prisoner in the 1970s. She says she'd like to ask President Hu about human rights.

Coming up, the legacy of Sargent Shriver- the founding director of the Peace Corps, the politician and Vice Presidential candidate, and civil society leader. Shriver died yesterday at...

A newly disclosed Vatican document reveals that officials instructed Ireland’s bishops not to report all suspected child abuse cases to the police. David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, says that the 1997 letter undermines persistent Vatican claims that Rome never instructed bishops to withhold evidence. Joe Rigert is a journalist and author of "An Irish Tragedy: How Sex Abuse by Irish Priests Helped Cripple the Catholic Church," and puts this new development in context.

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, returned to Haiti on Sunday after spending nearly 25 years in exile in France. Duvalier became president of Haiti in 1971 when his father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier died. Baby Doc was known for torturing his opponents, and was accused of massive embezzlement; many considered him more of a dictator than a president. A popular revolt overthrew Baby Doc in 1986, ending nearly three decades of Duvalier rule. What are the implications of Baby Doc's return to the country in unstable times? Does the former leader return to lend aid or grasp political opportunity?

As Washington prepares for a visit from Chinese President Hu Jintao this week, we take a look at what lies ahead in the shifting relationship between superpowers. Should we fear the "waking dragon"? We're joined by Gideon Rachman, chief foreign-affairs commentator for the Financial Times and author of "Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety," and Simon Tay, was an Asia Society 2009 Bernard Schwartz Fellow and is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. He is also the author of "Asia Alone: The Dangerous Post-Crisis Divide from America."

Floods in mountain towns north of Rio de Janeiro have killed at least 600 people, and weather forecasters say more rain is on the way. The death toll has risen steadily as rescuers reach remote areas and unearth corpses from mounds of debris. As Brazilians wait for the water to recede, authorities fear the spread of disease through contaminated water. Brazil’s civil defense agency has distributed vaccines against tetanus and diphtheria, according to its website.

The collaborative online encyclopedia site, Wikipedia, celebrates its 10-year anniversary on Saturday. It’s the largest encyclopedia ever made, with three and a half million articles in English alone and seventeen million articles globally. To create and edit all of that information, the site relies on volunteers. They call themselves  “Wikipedians." Andrea James, a Wikipedian, shares her story and what motivates her to contribute to the site.

Today in Washington, the diplomatic world remembers Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke died on December 13th after suffering a torn aorta. He was 69. Since his death, Arnold Fields, the top auditor of reconstruction funds in Afghanistan, has resigned. Before doing so, he fired two of his top deputies. Are we facing a leadership vacuum in Afghanistan?

The American South caught political fire in 1964. Activism by local African-American organizations and college students from the North led to brutal murders at the hands of white Southerners. But many of the victims of the Civil Rights Movement were not members of political organizations or student committees. Louisiana native, Frank Morris, a Black shoe store owner who was burned alive by two white men in 1964, suffered simply because he was independent and served a racially mixed clientele.