Marine Olivesi

Two years after a contested and hot-spirited primary campaign, Barack Obama's strongest rival has morphed into a great ally as the president and the secretary of state find their footing on the international stage. It took some time for Hillary Clinton to find her voice in the Obama administration, but is now a strong member of the team.

Senate Republicans held their caucus together and blocked debate on a bill to re-regulate the financial industry late Monday afternoon. Only one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined the GOP in a procedural move to prevent the bill from coming to the Senate floor. Other Democrats indicated that they would delay the rest of their agenda in order to keep bringing the bill back, perhaps as soon as Tuesday.

Haiti's higher education system — already highly dysfunctional before the quake — is in shambles. The January 12 earthquake destroyed 90 percent of its school buildings and tore down nine of the state university's thirteen campuses. In a country that needs massive rebuilding and new leadership, who is taking care of educating its next generation of architects, politicians and doctors?

• CONGRESSIONAL TAKEOUT: Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich discusses the new sense of urgency in Washington for immigration reform, and how the Democrats' agenda might get disrupted as a result.
• LISTENERS TAKEOUT:  Friday, we talked to Todd Wilbur, a cookbook author turned master in the art of cloning secret recipes. This morning, we hear your take on what makes you keep or share kitchen secrets.

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on whether to begin work on the finance regulatory overhaul bill, which President Obama promoted in New York last week. If Democrats have their way, the Senate will proceed to a debate on the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd. Otherwise, the bill, S.3217, will stall and require more negotiations.

On April 20th, 1980, Fidel Castro announced the port of Mariel opened to anyone wishing to leave Cuba. A massive exodus ensued in the following six months, with as many as 125,000 Cubans making the journey to Florida.

Thirty years later, we talk to participants about their memories, their first impressions of South Florida and how they changed the culture around Miami.

If you live in Miami, we're asking, How did the Mariel boatlift change your city? You can call us at 877-8-MY TAKE or leave a comment here.

• Travel Takeout: Over sixty thousand flights have been canceled in the past four days, leaving hundreds of thousand people in Europe devising alternative travel plans. Seth Stevenson, author of "Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World" looks at their ground travel options.
• Listener Takeout: By phone, on Twitter, via email and posted on our website, Takeaway Listeners told us about the global reach of the Icelandic volcano's disruptive plumes.

Four hundred tons of flowers sat rotting in the cold room of an airport in Kenya over the weekend, waiting to be shipped to Europe. These flowers are among the first collateral damage of the Icelandic ash cloud which has turned most of Europe's airspace into a no-fly zone and delayed travel for some 6.8 million people.

A massive cloud of ashes has kept thousands of fligfhts on the ground in Northern Europe yesterday after a volcano in Iceland erupted a second time this month, spewing huge amounts of silicate ash into a busy airspace for travellers in the region. Some of Europe's busiest airports have closed down in what appears to be the biggest shutdown of flights since 9/11.

Justice John Paul Stevens announced on Friday that he will retire this June, after spending 35 years on the bench. Democrats say they want to move quickly into the nomination process in order to have the next justice confirmed by the end of the summer.

The first multi-party elections held in Sudan in two decades began Sunday. In a complex three-day balloting process, Sudanese are choosing not only their president, but also their national and state assemblies, their governors and other local officials.

The Catholic Church has been at the center of a sexual abuse scandal for weeks, but now a lawsuit in Oregon is turning the spotlight on Boy Scouts of America.

The youth organization is being sued by a 37-year-old man who says he was molested several times by his scoutmaster back in the 1980s. This is not the first lawsuit against Boy Scouts of America, but this case brings new evidence that the scouting organization knew about hundreds of molesters within its ranks and failed to take action.

The federal government announced its first ever mandatory limits for particular greenhouse gas emissions, as the EPA and the Department of Transportation announced new emissions rules for automobiles and light trucks yesterday.

Bullying has long been a problem for school children and it seems that the level of violence is both increasing and spreading beyond the schoolyard on to the Internet. On Monday, charges for "unrelenting bullying" were filed against nine teenagers in the case of Phoebe Prince. The 15-year-old girl hanged herself in January after being tormented for months by other students at her high school. Two teenage boys were charged with statutory rape and a clique of girls were charged with stalking, criminal harassment and violating Phoebe's civil rights.

At companies deemed too big to fail, there's a delicate balance to be found between paying enough to retain talented staff and soothing public anger about big taxpayer bailouts. "Pay Czar" Kenneth Feinberg (he dislikes the term, but it's stuck) believes he’s getting the balance right.

Volvo is becoming a Chinese car company. Ford announced that it sold the Swedish car brand that it bought 11 years ago. Chinese conglomerate, Zhejiang Geely, is paying a third of what Ford originally paid for Volvo. Keith Bradsher, New York Times Hong Kong bureau chief, explains more about the buyer, the price and the future of Volvo.

UPDATE: On air (although not in the printed article), Bradsher said that Saab assets had been sold to Chinese car manufacturers and the rest of the company was being shut down. In fact, GM originally agreed to sell old Saab tooling to Beijing Automotive, but after starting to shut down Saab's ongoing operations, GM reversed itself and sold the company to Dutch car maker Spyker earlier this year.

UN special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has urged international aid groups to help rebuild Haiti's government yesterday. But as Takeaway producer Anna Sale reports, some Haitians don't think their government should be trusted with the job.

For the past year, conservatives have coalesced around the number one enemy: health care reform. But now that it's over, we explore what’s next for the GOP. The Tea Party Express III kicks off this weekend and some wonder if that's the future of the Republican party. Is it still possible to be a moderate Republican?

• BUSINESS TAKEOUT: A year into the government's loan modification program, the Treasury's internal watchdog says the federal program might fail to prevent foreclosures. Meanwhile, private lender Bank of America announces major changes in how they will treat struggling homeowners. New York Times finance reporter Louise Story discusses whether the public or private sector is in the best position to heal the housing market.

• WASHINGTON TAKEOUT: Sure it's officially law, but that doesn't mean the Senate is going to give health care a rest. Our Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich sat in on last night's 'vote-a-rama' where Republicans offered amendment after amendment in nine hours of non-stop voting designed to derail the final version of health care reform. He brings us the highlights and the final tally of votes.

When Pope Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he did not defrock a priest who allegedly molested as many as 200 deaf boys over the course of decades, according to records obtained by The New York Times.