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Yesterday, the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee held a meeting called "Holiday on ICE." Contrary to how it might sound, it had nothing to do with dancing elves or figure skating. In this case, ICE refers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal law enforcement agency under the department of Homeland Security that enforces immigration laws. Here to tell us about detention, past, present and future, is Doris Meissner, who served as Commissioner of the INS under President Clinton and Acting Commissioner under President Reagan. She is currently director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

Declan McCullagh, a senior writer and chief political correspondent for CNET, takes a look at some of the concerns surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act. The House is set to take action on the bill today.

Yesterday, The Takeaway spoke with Diana Furchtgott-Roth from the Manhattan Institute and sociologist Pedro Noguera about Newt Gingrich's policy proposal to change the child labor laws to allow 9-year-old kids to go to work. The Takeaway listeners had a lot to say about child labor. Takeaway listeners Bill Arnott, from Columbia, South Carolina, and Carol, from Wellesley, Massachusetts, discuss their experience working as children through the prism of Gingrich's comments. (Carol asked The Takeaway not to use her last name.)

It was only a few years ago the Bush administration labeled Myanmar "an outpost of tyranny." But on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton became the first secretary of state to visit the repressive and isolated nation in 50 years. The Obama administration has been keen on engaging with the military-backed civilian government of Myanmar after the country made some significant democratic reforms. In the past year, elections were held for a nominally civilian government, and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after two decades. Yet even as changes take hold in Rangoon, persecution against the country's ethnic minorities continue.

Robert Cherry, Brooklyn College Broeklundian economics professor and co-author of Moving Working Families Forward: Third Way Policies That Can Work, talks about his new book and how third way policies can combat racial earnings disparities and refocus community college programs.

The world's population is expected to reach seven billion on Monday, October 31, 2011. All this week The Takeaway looks at population growth and what it means for natural resources and the planet. High population growth has long concerned politicians and policymakers. The Earth's population first reached 1 billion in 1805, around the midpoint of the industrial revolution. From 1805 it took 123 years for the world's population to reach 2 billion. By contrast, it is estimated that it will only take 15 years until there are 8 million humans living on Earth.

Founder and director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Ethan Nadelman and César Gaviria,  president of Colombia from 1990 to 1994 and a commissioner on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, discuss the Global Commission on Drug Policy report and why they say the global war on drugs has failed.

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Pakistan arrested a number of the country's CIA operatives, who had helped the U.S. find and kill Osama bin Laden. After bin Laden's death, Pakistan's military has been mired in a crisis of confidence, and has distanced itself from working with U.S. intelligence in order to combat militant groups in Pakistan. The effect that this fallout with Pakistan may have on the drone program has many U.S. officials worried.

Insurance companies have traditionally set up subsidiaries in off-shore tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands in part to get around strict state regulations regarding their investment strategies. But according to a report by our partner, The New York Times, a number of states have begun luring insurance giants back by allowing them to establish "captive" subsidiaries — risk management systems that allow companies to invest and reinsure without as much capital backing. Now some state insurance commissioners are warning that captives could put insurance policy holders at risk in the same way that the housing market was endangered by mortgage-backed securities.

Japan teeters on the brink of a nuclear meltdown following the 8.9 earthquake and the enormous tsunami. Meanwhile, many in the U.S. are pondering the state of our nuclear power plants if they ever faced a similar bout with mother nature. The U.S. is the home of 104 nuclear reactor sites, four of them along the west coast — famed for its fault line and earthquakes — one in Washington, two in California, and three in Arizona. 

Dambisa Moyo, Zambian-born economist and the author of Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly--and the Stark Choices Ahead, says Western government's short-sighted policies threaten their economic supremacy.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continues to hold power in Egypt after his announcement that he would not cede to demonstrators demands that he step down. Instead he decided to hand day-to-day powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman and made vague promises about the Egyptian Constitution.

President Obama watched Mubarak's speech on Air Force One, while returning from a trip to Michigan and seemed to be somewhat caught of guard. What role will the United States take now? A cautious one, says The New York Times, David Sanger.

Fourth-generation farmer Eric Herm discusses commercial agriculture's strain on natural resources, ecosystems, and the farmer. Son of a Farmer, Child of the Earth, a Path to Agriculture’s Higher Consciousness looks at the harsh economic realities and complicated legislation facing farmers, as well as GMO crops and excessive chemicals.

Juan Manuel Benitez, reporter for NY1 Noticias and host of Pura Política, and Edward-Isaac Dovere, editor of City Hall, a website and monthly publication focused on New York politics and policy, discuss the key races in tomorrow's primary.

Mark Alexander, former Obama advisor and Professor of Law at Seton Hall University Law School, on his blog post on WNYC's new politics blog Its A Free Country, about Obama's shift from campaigning to governing. Then Gus Faucher, economist at Moody’s, joins the conversation to discuss Obama's policy proposals this week and the politics behind them.

The Deepwater Horizon oil gusher has demonstrated that severe changes in how the U.S. drills for oil are necessary; could this oil disaster be an opportunity for stronger environmental policy?

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the federal government would green light construction of Cape Wind, the nation’s first off shore wind farm. 

Tuesday, the board of supervisors in Santa Clara County, California, decided to take a step further in the fight against obesity: they banned toy giveaways with kids' meals that don't meet certain nutritional standards. (Overall calorie count and salt content chief among them.)  This is the latest attempt in a series of measures taken by counties, cities and states to combat obesity, and is widely seen as specifically targeting McDonalds' Happy Meals.

President Obama announced in his Saturday address to the American people that his administration will attempt to overhaul the controversial education policy known as No Child Left Behind.

Our Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, joins us to talk about the latest in Washington's steps toward extending domestic unemployment benefits and discussion of potential sanctions on Iran.