Andrea Swalec

Since a bomb attack in 1995 killed 168 people, Oklahoma City has resisted being a metaphor for the attack itself. Can a city ever shake the legacy of a tragedy? Pastor Mark McAdow, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City discusses the healing process for Oklahoma City. The church is located across the street from the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building; when the federal building was bombed, two thirds of the church was damaged.

Yesterday we marveled at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ survival despite a gunshot wound to the head, and talked about the brain’s remarkable potential for recovery. This tragic news inspired one Takeaway listener to share the story of his son, who recovered from a traumatic brain injury after being hit by a car a year and a half ago, when he was five years old.

As governors across the country have taken office, we've looked at states where new leaders will face major challenges. For the last in our series on new governors we turn to South Carolina, where Governor Nikki Haley takes office today. Gov. Haley is now the youngest governor in the country, at just 38 years old. Her state faces an $829 million budget shortfall. What other challenges does she face and how will she tackle them?

Big banks and over-committed mortgage-holders have been under the foreclosure microscope for a long time. Foreclosure lawyers are next up for scrutiny; according to an article from The New York Times, an increasing number of judges are accusing lawyers of processing inaccurate and even fabricated documents in foreclosure actions when representing banks. Are these accusations accurate, and if so, what is the source of the problem? 

Yesterday a mostly quiet 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner appeared in court and was charged with attempted assassination, murder, attempted murder, and other federal crimes. Meanwhile the community of Tucson, Ariz., continued to grapple with the aftermath in the media limelight. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D—Ariz.) remains in critical condition; her husband released a statement asking for the concerned to consider donating to The Red Cross. What debates and questions are unfolding in the place where the shooting occurred? 

On Wall Street, banks have wagered big bets that the economy will improve. The 18 banks that trade with the Federal Reserve have reported that holdings of U.S. government debt, in treasuries, has fallen at the fastest pace since 2004. Holdings of treasuries fell from $81.3 billion on November 24th to just $2.34 billion on December 29th. This dramatic drop indicates that the economy may be looking up, but it also makes the banks' balance sheet look better since they hold less debt.

The shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Saturday rocked the country this weekend. The Takeaway’s Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich and Callie Crossley, host of The Callie Crossley Show on WGBH in Boston, take a look at how the shooting has changed the national agenda and what else we can expect this week. 

A hospital in Tucson, Ariz. confirmed yesterday that a patient who was refused a liver transplant because of state budget cuts has died. A spokeswoman for the hospital said the death was “most likely” due to the de-funding of the transplant, The Arizona Daily Star reported. The patient was the second transplant-seeking Arizona resident to die since state legislators refused to pay the bill for about a hundred organ seekers in October. The cuts are said to save the financially strapped state about $4.5 million a year. 

Caring for the elderly has long played an important role in Chinese culture. But rapid economic growth has forced adult Chinese children to abandon their hometowns to find jobs in other parts of the country — often leaving their elderly parents on their own. This cultural shift has led Chinese officials to consider a law that would require adult children to care for their parents.

Gone are the days of the "Washington wife." As the 112th Congress opens, most members of Congress have left their spouses and children at home. For an article released this week, Newsweek spoke with 46 of the 107 new members of Congress and only one of them — Republican Senator Mike Lee, of Utah — is moving to Washington with his family. What does this mean for the culture in Washington?

On Wednesday we looked at a new edition of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" that will be released in February without the "n-word." We covered the social, cultural and literary implications of the decision and got many, many responses. What was the racial and linguistic context into which Mark Twain wrote "Huckleberry Finn?" To look at the novel in historical perspective, we speak with Bob Hirst, editor of the Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Don’t call it just a minivan. Rapping parents in a viral ad for the Toyota Sienna call the four-door family-mobile a “swagger wagon." According to a recent story from The New York Times, automakers are re-marketing the minivan as a cool car. Is 2011 the year of the minivan?

Every-woman, comedian, and actor, Roseanne Barr has announced her run for president. On the agenda: pointing out when the emperor is wearing no clothes and putting the “pal” back in Palestinian. Her latest book, “Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm,” details her platform and latest musings. We talk with Barr about her book, her presidential run and the truth in satire.

Yesterday we asked who taught you something in 2010 and what you learned. Takeaway listener Carlos Vargas, an insurance agent from Stoughton, Massachusetts, joined the conversation and told us his younger son taught him one of his biggest lessons of the year: that hard work and perseverance pay off. Vargas’s son worked his way into college and just passed all of his first semester classes at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Pianist and composer Billy Taylor died of heart failure on Tuesday, at the age of 89. The award-winning jazz advocate and scholar is recognized for penning compelling commentary in his jazz compositions during the civil rights era. But he's also known for being a giant in the teaching world of jazz — literally putting some of his peers on a truck and taking them around New York City to perform and teach the world that jazz is America’s classical music.

According to a recent report from the State Department, Pakistani security forces are illegally rounding up political activists and unarmed fighters. In the last decade, thousands of people have been held without charges, tortured and killed, the report says. Many of those detained are members of the Baluchistan separatist group, which has battled the Pakistani government for independence for decades. The State Department report marks a new push by the Obama administration to urge Pakistan to address human rights abuses.