Amanda Moore

The statistics are staggering. Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first half of this year and the country is on track to see the repossession of one million homes by the end of 2010. By comparison, in years past, lenders have historically taken over approximately 100,000 homes every year.  

Grosse Pointe, Michigan resident, David Fleig sees signs of the damaged housing market everyday in his neighborhood. Fleig says, "The 'For Sale' signs are like weeds." He and his neighbors joke that all houses are "50 percent off."

Although gravity has remained an accepted theory and (relatively) free from controversy for centuries, one scientist is rocking the boat when it comes to one of our most basic laws of physics.

Comic book writer Harvey Pekar, best known for his series "American Splendor," died yesterday at the age of 70. According to reports, Pekar's wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Pekar's body in their home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Pekar became an unofficial poster boy for the city of Cleveland with his "Everyman" comic tales, mostly consisting of living a mundane, unglamorous life.

A handful of countries are emerging from the recent economic crisis with what looks like the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel" in their sights. Canada, Germany and Australia are three countries that appear to be rebounding quickly from the recession. Why did these three countries recover so rapidly, and is there anything the United States can take away from their strategies to help us recover?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report this week, recommending significant litigation and arbitration reforms to the system for resolving consumer debt collection disputes.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is set to issue new rules, as early as Monday, which should simplify the way veterans receive compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is one of the most common psychological injuries afflicting veterans today and creating new regulations for treatment is an attempt to break some of the barriers to treatment.

Tonight, LeBron James will finally end the speculation about his future and announce which basketball team he will sign with, ending the hopes of many teams hoping to sign the 25-year-old basketball superstar.

If a picture paints a thousand words, what story is told by photographs of dilapidated buildings and abandoned factories? Photos of city ruins have been around for centuries, but they have not always been referred to as "ruin porn."  That's a phrase some criticsuse to describe recent photo journalism in Detroit. But does the term apply to art, as well as journalism?

While lawmakers are adjourned this week for the July 4th recess, many of the country's millions of unemployed workers await their return for an expected vote on an extension of unemployment insurance benefits. 

The fact that comparisons can easily be drawn between our country's sixteenth and forty-fourth president is nothing new. People have been comparing Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama for years. With the country currently divided over our two wars; groups of powerful opponents organizing against the president throughout the country; and tough political issues coming at Obama from all directions, the similarities between the two presidents seem difficult to ignore.

A local Minneapolis magazine is getting backlash from readers for its decision to run a story about an anti-gay pastor who attended a support group for men grappling with same-sex attraction. Lavender Magazine reported that Rev. Tom Brock, of the Hope Lutheran Church, who publicly criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church for liberalizing its gay clergy policies, attended Faith in Action, the Minnesota affiliate of the Catholic Church's Courage program. The program, according to its website, claims people can "move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity" by developing an interior life of chastity.

Each Friday morning this summer, we're asking musicians, artists and music lovers to weigh in on what makes a perfect summer song. Last week we spoke with "Saturday Night Live's" Fred Armisen to get his picks. For him, summer music has to be either really upbeat or slow enough to elicit memories of long hot summers of the past. The Takeaway listeners evidently have strong opinions about the topic, as well. Many have called in or written to us to share their ultimate summer songs.

The FBI announced yesterday the arrests of 11 people associated with an alleged Russian spy ring. The arrests were made on Sunday in Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey and New York. Details coming out of the FBI reports read like a Russian spy novel — if not stranger.  Authorities worked for at least seven years to gather information about the suspects, who were all charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and failing to register as guests of a foreign government. The maximum sentences for these crimes are five to 20 years.

Perhaps the only disaster equal in magnitude to the oil spill in the Gulf is the public relations disaster BP has on its hands for causing the spill. After weeks of embarrassing gaffes from BP executives, namely CEO Tony Hayward, BP is struggling to regain its footing. With the announcement that the maladroit Hayward is stepping away from overseeing daily operations related to the spill, BP is launching a media blitz in an attempt to mend their public image.

The centerpiece of that PR campaign is Darryl Willis. Willis is BP's vice president for resources who is now overseeing BP's claims process in the Gulf coast. He's also the star of a new ad campaign that seeks to portray him and the company as more caring and sincere than the steely Hayward. Part of the selling point of that strategy is the fact that Willis is a Louisiana native. 

Immortality has always been a dream of humanity, though in movies and books, we are often told that our mortality is somehow integral to the human experience. If you could live longer – much, much longer than our expected 79 years — would you want to?  Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner examines the science of longevity in his new book, Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality.

Questions remain as to how the government plans to dole out the $20 billion sitting in an escrow account, set up by BP, to businesses and individuals directly affected by the Gulf oil crisis. Will the response by Kenneth Feinberg and his agency be transparent, comprehensive, and quick enough to handle the number and size of financial claims expected to hit their office in the months and years ahead? Furthermore, how will the government's independent operation set to be under way in the "next couple of weeks," differ from BP's emergency claims system, already in place?

On Friday, thousands of emails written by Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan were released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. Observers of the court from both sides of the aisle spent the weekend scrutinizing the new documents, searching for clues about her legal history. 

On yesterday's show, we discussed a new report which finds that, by 2018, 63 percent of the jobs in the Unites States will require a post-high school education. The problem is, at the current rate of college and high school graduations, there will not be enough workers with higher educations to fill these jobs.  We wanted to know if you think colleges are properly preparing its students to enter today's workforce.

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster hits the two month mark this weekend. Since April 20, oil has been gushing into the Gulf, wreaking havoc on the thousands who make a living from those waters. Natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, leave residents devastated but able to begin repair once the crisis passes. The current nightmare has lasted two months, and the oil already in the Gulf will cause longterm environmental damage even once the well is capped. What kind of toll do these unknowns take on people's mental health?

Four years ago, the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened its doors to Philadelphia high school students with the goal to serve as a model for 21st-century learning communities around the world.  This week, the school graduated its first class with a 100 percent college acceptance rate.  Some believe, however, there is room for improvement at the multi-million dollar partnership between Microsoft and the School District of Philadelphia.