Arwa Gunja

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich may have dodged a bullet yesterday after a Chicago jury found him guilty on only count of lying to federal agents. The jury was hung on the other 23 charges against him. After the verdict was read, Blagojevich told reporters, "this jury just showed you ... that on every count except for one, on every charge except for one, they could not prove that I did anything wrong."

The basketball World Championship is set to begin in Turkey at the end of the month. In an exhibition game this weekend, Team USA handedly defeated France 86-55. The team is playing out without basketball superstars like Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and LeBron James, but there seems to be a new talent on the court: Kevin Durant. We talk with Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin about how the team is shaping up.

China’s economy has been steadily growing over the past three decades, bypassing countries like Great Britian, Germany and France. And last night, the country took a major economic leap: China is now the world’s second largest economy, behind only the United States. The milestone was reached after Japan announced a slightly smaller second quarter value than China.

Last week on the program we discussed the idea of making access to food a basic legal right. This idea comes from India, a country that is home to one of the world's largest impoverished populations, with over 421 million of its citizens going hungry. India is now considering making access to food a right enshrined by the constitution. Takeaway listeners tell us whether they believe access to food should be a human and legal right.

On our Facebook page, Kathleen writes:

"Food is absolutely a human right. The fact that not every country can feed all its people right now is irrelevant to food being a human right. Governments - including ours - should be judged according to how quickly and effectively they are working to feed everyone."

All weekend, we've been asking listeners if they believe that women and men should change their surnames upon marriage. We got dozens of responses from people on both sides of the aisle. We hear some of your takes on this heated subject. Kathryn wrote on The Takeaway website:

"I kept my name.  I was married at age 37 and maybe age had something to do with it. My name was and is part of my identity, so I never considered changing it. I will say that it gets a little confusing when there are children involved, but I am who I am."

According to a new study released on Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, roughly one in twelve babies born in the United States in 2008 had at least one parent who was an illegal immigrant. (That is around 8 percent, or roughly 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the U.S. in 2008.) About 85 percent of those parents are Hispanic. This study comes at a time when several Republican senators are asking for a review of the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.

Jesus Ochoa, 75, was born in El Paso, Texas, where he has lived nearly all his life. As a young boy, he recalls stuffing his pockets with a $5 bill, picking up his friends and heading just a few miles south to Juarez, Mexico. Every Saturday, he visited the neighboring city to get a haircut, get his shoes shined and eat mariscos (seafood). When he graduated from high school, Juarez was where he and his classmates went to celebrate - something he calls a "rite of passage" for kids in his school.

The 9.5 percent unemployment rate does not count a huge number of Americans: People who are out of a job and have given up looking. With millions of people out of work and competing with each other for the small percentage of open jobs, it makes sense that a significant portion will call it quits – at least for the time being – and cease searching for employment all together.

If you're unemployed but not looking for work, tell us: At what point did you stop looking for a job?

The number of people affected by the massive flooding in Pakistan over the past week is larger than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Flash floods have hit neighboring Kashmir, killing at least 85 people, and China where more than 1,300 people are feared missing. In Europe, a heat wave has led to the deaths of 5,000 people, and in Russia drought and wildfires are ravaging the country.

Are all these simultaneous natural disasters this summer just a big coincidence, or is it a harbinger of something more serious for Planet Earth? Environmentalist Bill McKibben connects the dots and finds out how much it has to do with global warming.

On Sept. 15, Ohio death row inmate Kevin Keith is scheduled to be executed, unless his defense team can get clemency granted to their client before then. Keith was convicted of murdering three people in February of 1994. He maintains he is innocent, has alibis who confirm his story, and some question the testimony delivered by the key eyewitness. His execution, plus another scheduled to take place today in Ohio, would put that state on track for having the second most executions this year, after Texas. 

But cases like Keith's have prompted several high-level officials to call for a comprehensive review of Ohio's death row cases.

On Monday, Rwandans head to the polls to vote in presidential elections. Incumbent President Paul Kagame is expected to win by a landslide. Kagame is credited with bringing stability, development and economic prosperity to Rwanda following the 1994 genocide. While few expect violence on election day, Amnesty International says voters are casting their ballots in a climate of fear.

Since General David Petraeus took over command of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more than a month ago, one of his top priorities has been rooting out corruption there. He has intensified efforts to uncover bribery in the Afghan government and watch the workings of U.S. contracting practices. Last week, he was joined in his efforts by Congressman Edolphus Towns, the chair of the House Oversight Committee. The New York Democrat just returned from a trip to Afghanistan where he visited with Petraeus to investigate waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.

It's been 11 years and the nation's black farmers have still not received the nearly $1.25 billion settlement they were promised by the Agriculture Department. The Senate was expected to approve the measure before the start of recess last Thursday, but Republicans put the brakes on the vote after citing concerns that Democrats had not outlined a plan to pay for the settlement.

In the last five months, U.S. military raids in Afghanistan have captured or killed more than 130 insurgents deemed significant in the war. The recent shift in the military's counterterrorism approach now focuses more on targeted killings. According to a senior White House official, the intent of the new strategy is to pressure the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

But some historians say what they are seeing in Afghanistan is reminiscent of the Phoenix Program, a strategy used during the Vietnam War intended to target, capture and kill important people within the Viet Cong. The program led to widespread killings of innocent civilians.

Fourteen people, mostly of Somali descent, have been accused of providing support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab. That’s the group that claimed responsibility for a bombing last month that killed 76 people who were watching a World Cup match in Uganda, including an American aid worker. Al-Shabab have declared war on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations in Somalia. A handful of people have been arrested in recent weeks on charges they were leaving to aid the terrorist group.

This week, we discuss two big stories, each of which considers the original intent of the 14th Amendment. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," as it passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, this clause of the Constitution guarantees U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the United States. It prohibits state governments from depriving anyone of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and mandates "equal protection of the laws" for all citizens.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California ruled Proposition 8, the voter-backed ballot measure to prohibit same-sex marriage, unconstitutional based on "due process" and "equal protection" grounds: both clauses in the 14th Amendment.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, several Republican senators are proposing to repeal or change the Amendment. They say we should no longer automatically give citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants.

The Senate still has a few things to do before it goes on August recess. From the "spill bill" to Elena Kagan, Takeaway Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich has the latest from Capitol Hill.

Owning a gun is a fundamental right protected by the Second Amendment. But the Appleseed Project believes Americans should not just own guns, they need to be trained how to use them. To that end, the North Carolina-based non-profit organization trains Americans to accurately shoot a man-size target up to 500 yards away. According to its founder, Jack Dailey, it is a skill that is fundamental to protect the liberty of all Americans. The Appleseed Project has already trained 25,000 people and expects to have 7,000 more clients by year's end.

We look ahead this week to birthdays, oil in the Gulf and unemployment numbers. On Wednesday, President Barack Obama turns 49; former White House correspondent Helen Thomas turns 90 on the same day. Besides birthdays, there will hopefully be another cause for celebration down on the Gulf coast: BP may have found a way to permanently seal the well that has gushed roughly 184 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

According to a new report released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT, child poverty is on the rise in America. The report, which looked at data from 2008, shows that even before the recession hit, one million more children were living in households below the poverty line than in 2000. 

"That's a real warning sign for us," says Laura Beavers, national KIDS COUNT coordinator for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. "We are fully expecting that when the Census Bureau releases new data on child poverty this year, the child poverty rate is likely to climb above 20 percent."

The report also revealed the states with the highest ranking for overall well-being of children, and the states with the lowest rankings: New Hampshire ranked first, while Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi ranked in the bottom three.