The tragedy in Newtown has raised questions about the state of mental health treatment in the U.S., especially among children. Nadine Kaslow, psychologist, professor and vice chair at Emory University, and president-elect designate of the American Psychological Association, and Steve Coe, CEO of Community Access, Inc., explain the difficulty in treating mental illness in children, and what changes to policy could make it easier.

After Friday's (extended) deadline, Karen Pollitz, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation, explains health insurance exchanges and which states are setting them up, and which aren't.

Michael Moss, New York Times reporter, talks about the use of firearms in Newtown, Connecticut, and how resistant the area has been to gun control.

Adam Winkler, Constitutional law professor at UCLA and author of:  Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, explains what we know about the weapons allegedly used by the shooter Adam Lanza, what black rifles are and why they are so popular.

Heidi Moore, finance and economics editor at The Guardian, and Rachel Smolkin, Politico White House editor, talk about the latest moves by Republicans and Democrats as they attempt to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Last week, listeners called in to talk about what they buy online. Now, let's hear it for face-to-face holiday shopping.  Tell us why your brick-and-mortar store is the place to shop, and give shoppers advice on how to make the most of the in-store experience.

There are plenty of roundups of the year's best photographs, now the Brian Lehrer Show is compiling the best photographs -- that are sitting on your cell phone. Use the form below to upload your photograph, deadline is noon on Tuesday, December 25th.

We asked for your thoughts about how we should change the way we deal with mental illness in this country. Here's some of the highlights of what you told us.

Brian recently visited China on a trip for journalists sponsored by the Committee Of 100. He and his fellow travelers will be posting reflections on the blog over the next week. Here Mercy Kuo, Managing Director at Managing Director at C-100, responds to Brian's first post.

Mercy Responds 

Brian, this question really gets to the essence of US-China relations – as China’s influence grows, will it be a “rule-maker” or “rule-breaker,” and in either scenario, what are implications for the United States, other regional players, and international relations? As a back-of-the-envelope informal exercise in scenario analysis, I’d offer two rudimentary contrasting sketches depicting how this relationship might evolve over, let’s say, the next decade or two.