Kateri A. Jochum

Libraries around the country are falling victim to the weak economy. Suffering from budget cuts, many are in danger of closing. But in Louisville, Kentucky, the public library system is growing. 

President Obama is touring San Juan, Puerto Rico, today as the first sitting president to make an official state visit to the island commonwealth in 50 years. He is making good on a promise he made while campaigning for the primaries in 2008. But he is also reaching out to constituents — while commonwealth Puerto Ricans can't vote in general elections, the growing population of Puerto Ricans living in Florida could be a deciding factor in swinging the sunshine state in 2012.

The Republican presidential candidates squared off last night in New Hampshire. It wasn’t the first debate – South Carolina beat the state to the punch. But it was the first one with former Massachusetts governor and front-runner Mitt Romney on stage, and a litmus test for Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Jubilant crowds took to the streets in Yemen over the weekend, celebrating the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Following a rocket attack on his compound on Friday, Saleh was flown to the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Saturday to have wood splinters surgically removed from his chest. Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has taken over for the interim, and international leaders are calling on Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. But it's unclear whether the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for 33 years will try to return – and if not, what will happen in the power vacuum.

At least twenty people lay dead at the Israeli border at Golan Heights after Israeli troops opened fire on more than one thousand Syrian protesters who stormed the border. Officially the demonstrations were being held to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Arab defeat in the Mideast war. It was the second outbreak of deadly violence in the border region in the past month. But both Israeli officials and anti-regime activists in Syria are calling the border protests a sham and media stunt, instigated to draw attention away from the hard-handed government shutdown of protests within Syria.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9 percent and only 54,000 jobs were added in May. What do these numbers mean for the economy? The Dow plummeted this week upon news of declining housing prices. Consumer confidence is in the basement. Interest rates are way down. Are we headed for a double-recession? Joining us is Kelly Evans, "Ahead of the Tape" columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

President Obama will be speaking with workers at a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, on Friday. The visit comes on the back of a report released showing the government’s $80 billion auto bailout will only cost taxpayers about $14 billion at the end of the day – far less than originally expected. The report also shows the American car industry has created 115,000 jobs since the government stepped in. The president will be selling this as a big success story – but is it?

Joplin, Missouri is trying to pick up the pieces from last week’s massive tornado. In addition to killing 134 people, more than 8,000 homes and apartments were destroyed or damaged in the 200 mile an hour winds — between 25 and 30 percent of the housing market. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, says more than 7,000 Joplin residents in Jasper and Newton counties have registered for assistance so far, and they are still assessing how to best assist them.

There are more than 200 people still missing in Joplin, Missouri, the town hit by a massive tornado on Sunday. That number is down from the original 1500 persons listed in the wake of the destruction, but the death toll on Thursday was at 126, with more than 900 injured. City officials have been working around the clock to locate people or identify bodies in a temporary morgue. Amidst the rubble, there have been miracles — a grandmother found on her porch. But family members across the U.S. still waiting for a sign from loved ones are starting to worry that time is running out.

On Thursday, Vermont will become the first state to boast a single-payer health care system. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin will sign the bill that would enlist a panel to figure out how to pay for a new system — and reduce rising health care costs. The goal is to offer a health care solution for the state's 65,000 uninsured.

Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. the unabomber, eluded authorities for 20 years from his hermitage in Montana, sending bombs through the mail that killed three people and wounded 20. Then in 1995 there was media flurry, when the New York Times published his manifesto and his brother turned him in. For 15 years he has been doing time alone in a “supermax” prison in Colorado. But this week, the media flurry around Kaczynski has begun again. First on Wednesday, when the government started auctioning his stuff to raise money for his victim's families and then again yesterday, when the F.B.I. has requested a DNA sample from him in the 25 year old “Tylenol case.” Did he do it? 

In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama evoked images of the American Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement and the Fall of the Iron Curtain to parallel American values and the Arab uprisings. The speech comes nearly six months after the uprisings began in Tunis, and the state of democracy in Tunisia and Egypt is precarious at best. But what concrete steps is Obama promising — and can he come through?

If Saturday was the end of the world as we know it, where would you want to be? What would you want to be doing? And who would you want to be doing it with? More than 100 Takeaway listeners responded to our questions. Kevin Earley, auto parts store manager, father of five, and devout Takeaway listener, told us his end of times wish was to host The Takeaway. So we gave him his wish! We hear from him and other Takeaway listeners.

Although the Mississippi flooding is no where near finished, the economic blow to the region is already very high. Besides the loss to personal and commercial properties, over 100,000 acres of farmlands were flooded on the weekend and grain elevators all along the river are knee deep. The trade commerce that uses the river as a main transportation waterway is being slowed and in some places, barges are moored completely. Over 60 percent of the U.S exported grain is transported via the Mississippi - and the already volatile commodity markets are acting accordingly.

There are rumors that Libya's oil minister may have fled to neighboring Tunisia over the weekend, and sources in Libya say rebel fighters - aided by NATO airstrikes, which destroyed eight artillery vehicles - killed more than a dozen of Colonel Gadhafi's forces Wednesday. But it is unclear how and in what form U.S. involvement in the mission will continue. The New York Times' John Burns reports from Tripoli on the latest. In the United States, Friday, it will have been 60 days since President Obama told Congress about the campaign in Libya. According to the War Powers Act, he has until then to secure congressional support for the war.

Federal and state emergency officials in Alabama believe that the deadly tornadoes two weeks ago left as many as 10,000 residents homeless. In Tuscaloosa, the urban area hit hardest, people are scrambling for the few remaining apartments — and for low-income residents, affordable housing is almost impossible to find. Officials are concerned that many of the poor, working class and elderly residents could be homeless for good.

Two men have been caught conspiring to bomb synagogues in Manhattan in an undercover sting. The New York Police Department, who led the operation, say Ahmed Ferhani and Mohamed Mamdouh purchased weapons and an inert hand grenade from undercover officers, after saying that they were planning a terror attack. There is no indication the two are affiliated with a terrorist organization. Joining The Takeaway is Robert Hennelly, senior reporter for our flagship station, WNYC.

The Mississippi flooding heading south into the Delta, the 200 mile stretch of land between Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Along the way, river residents are watching the waters and the levees carefully, scared that they won't hold. In Vicksburg, the flood is supposed to crest just under the historic record high — and the Army Corps of Engineers says it is monitoring the situation. But even further south, in New Orleans, it is not just the vision of the Mississippi — but the memory of Hurricane Katrina that haunts residents.

A United Nations Security Council Resolution sanctioned military intervention in Libya to safeguard civilians from attacks led by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. But now reports of cluster bombs, sea and land mines, and deaths from aerial bombing has the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs concerned that the toll on civilians might be too great. The agency has called for a weapons' pause to allow humanitarian supplies and investigators safely into the country.

Government officials from both countries met this week in Washington for the third U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. China asked the U.S to lead an international economic recovery, but it may have been a hard sell considering that China's trade statistics, also released this week, show the country's exports hitting record levels, but its imports lagging. China's trade surplus from the first quarter of 2011 is at $11.43 billion — fueling concerns by the U.S. and other countries that China is using its weak currency to claim a large share of global job creation. The U.S. pushed China to appreciate its currency, and support the flow of American imports to China.