David J Fazekas

A final vote on the New START Agreement is expected this week, after 67 Senators — exactly the two-thirds majority necessary to ratify the treaty — voted yesterday to break a GOP filibuster of the bill. The treaty would significantly decrease the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States and Russia. We're looking at which specific classes of nuclear weapons would be decreased by START, and why we worry about these weapons instead of others.

The Huskies, the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team, tied UCLA's men's basketball record of 88 consecutive wins on Sunday when they defeated Ohio State at Madison Square Garden. Helen Wheelock is a huge Huskies fan; she was at Sunday's game and can't wait for them to go for number 89, and sole possession of the record, tonight against Florida State.

Data from the 2010 census will be released today, and the results could help give Republicans more seats in the House of Representatives.  For each state, the census data will confirm the total and regional populations, and indicate whether the state will gain or lose representation in the House. At this point, the GOP looks poised to pick up seats in several states.

The Senate voted to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," over the weekend. The law, enacted 17 years ago by President Bill Clinton, allowed gays to serve in the military, as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation. Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, looks at what's next for the repeal. Meanwhile, a number of economic indicators come out this week, and Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, looks at the upcoming third quarter GDP numbers due out Wednesday, along with existing home sales numbers, and new home sales numbers on Thursday.

Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is one of several politicians spearheading a proposal for re-balancing state and federal power, through what's being called the "repeal amendment." The amendment to the Constitution would, with a vote of 33 states' legislatures, give states the ability to repeal any federal law passed in Congress. Virginia has a long history of states' rights activism — in response to the federally-mandated desegregation of schools in the 1950s, state leaders responded with "massive resistance," choosing to privatize some school districts to prevent integration. As the South commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Confederacy, is this new emphasis on states' rights a step towards secessionism?

NASA has recently agreed to partner up with the Colorado Association for Manufacturing on an effort they hope will accomplish two goals: speed up the commercial rollout of space technologies, and, more importantly in this down economy, create jobs. The two groups hope to create 10,000 jobs in Colorado over the next five years because of this agreement. As a benefit, the partnership should allow more rapid prototyping, meaning new technology products could hit the market much sooner than before — 18 months, say, instead of five years.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced two votes of confidence today in his country's government. The Italian parliament in Rome conducted a vote of confidence on Berlusconi in the lower house last, and if the votes didn't come down in his favor, he could have been forced to resign as Prime Minister. Berlusconi has escaped such situations before, however, and squeaked this morning by three votes. But what does it mean for his political future? 

On a conference call with members of the Republican National Committee last night, Michael Steele ended several months of speculation and announced he will run again for chair of the RNC. His term as chairman has been marked by personal gaffes, attacks from prominent Republicans calling for his head, but also significant GOP pickups in both houses of Congress.

Many Congressional Democrats are not happy with President Obama's compromise with Republicans on extending tax cuts. House Democrats showed that by voting not to bring up the tax bill last week. Callie Crossley, host of the Callie Crossley Show on WGBH in Boston, and Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, look at how the Senate plans to vote today on the bill.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on President Obama's tax cuts bill today, most people are confident it will pass. The real battle will then come as the bill heads to the House, where many Democrats have staked out a clear position against the deal.  Some House Democrats support the bill, however, including Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents the 28th District of Texas. He shares with us his reasons for supporting the bill, and what he thinks is the likelihood of it passing.

If you haven't seen the video of the Metrodome's roof in Minneapolis collapsing under snow, chances are you will be seeing it on television soon enough. The incident was emblematic of an NFL weekend that saw teams efforts to win — let alone play — foiled this weekend by inclement weather. Wall Street Journal sports writer Nando Di Fino joins us to talk about the weekend's news and what to look forward to in the coming playoffs. 

With the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony set for Friday, China is making clear its disapproval of the Nobel Committee's having given this year's award to political activist Liu Xiaobo. China is not only publicly boycotting the ceremony, but also encouraging other coutnries to follow their lead. 18 countries have followed China's lead in refusing to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony; what are their motivations? And how is all of this going over with the Nobel Prize committee? 

Yesterday, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the Dream Act, which would allow certain illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors a chance to become U.S. citizens, if they enter college or military service. Those eligible are people who were brought into the U.S. before they were 16, have been living here for at least five years, and have earned a high school diploma. In order to gain citizenship, they would have to join the military for two years, or attend a four year college for two years.

The tale of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks that has transpired in recent months, and especially the events of the past couple of weeks, has played out like a dramatic thriller. It now seems somewhat inevitable that someone will eventually portray Assange and WikiLeaks, literally, using political theater. How might a dramatic retelling of these already-dramatic events work out?

With the European Union in the midst of a severe debt crisis, foreign ministers of the eurozone are meeting this week to discuss remedies for their financial troubles. Latin America went through a difficult debt crisis of their own back in the 1980s, which is often referred to as the "Lost Decade." What lessons can Europe learn from Latin America to help prevent their own lost decade?

Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple saw a new competitor enter the e-book market yesterday. Google launched its own e-bookstore, boasting more than three million titles. While paper book purists will very likely continue scoffing at the idea of electronic books, independent bookstores across the country are joining forces with Google on this venture, in hopes that it could bring some benefit to their businesses.

Will we or will we not see an extension to the Bush-era tax cuts? That is what we’re all waiting to see play out this week. Democrats want to return to Clinton-era taxes on the wealthy, and Republicans are holding out for preserving the status quo. But President Obama and Democrats may be backing off on their stance, as a compromise looks like it could be in the works. The Bush-era cuts would be temporarily extended to everyone, rich and poor, for two years...if unemployment benefits are extended as well.

A rocket carrying three satellites destined for Russia’s global positioning system, GLONASS, crashed into the Pacific Ocean yesterday. Russia has spent $2 billion developing its own equivalent to the U.S. GPS system and other countries are following suit, including China's COMPASS and the E.U.'s GALILEO. Why is it so important for countries like Russia to develop their own Global Positioning Systems? Why does Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insist on his country's "satellite navigation sovereignty?"

A review of the Afghanistan strategy is due to be released sometime in early December, one year after President Obama announced a surge of 30,000 troops. The review will give the nation and the White House an assessment of how the war is going, and indicate if we're on pace to start pulling troops out of Afghanistan by July 2011, as the President announced back in December 2009.

Contents of thousands of confidential embassy cables obtained by WikiLeaks have been steadily released by our partner, The New York Times. In the past week, we've heard some unusually candid exchanges between diplomats in Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran. Today, with the help of Andy Lehren from The New York Times, we'll find out what the diplomatic communiques said involving Russia, and its Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. It's not an entirely pretty picture.