Mythili Rao

The issue of how to keep big banks in check is the topic of national conversation as the country slowly climbs out of the recession. Questions on how to prevent another economic recession and regulate the financial sector are part of the heated debate. Joe Nocera, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times explains how "complexity risk" — what results when there are too many regulations — could pose a threat to the financial system.

Tensions between ultra-Orthodox Haredim and more secular Israelis have been growing over the past year. With strict codes in regards to clothing, observance of the Sabbath, and male-female interactions, this 1 million-strong segment of the population has become increasingly vocal about its displeasure with what it perceives as an insufficiently observant state. Specifically, the majority of this animosity has been focused on women.

This week Congress returns from recess and Republican presidential hopefuls step up campaigning in South Carolina. Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, along with other major companies, will announce earning reports. Myrtle Beach's visitors bureau welcomes the six GOP candidates for a debate with a 525-ton sand sculpture of their likenesses; meanwhile, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert mulls throwing his hat into the ring.

With neatly combed white hair, conservatively cut suits, and solid military service, Ron Paul may not seen like the fiery political outsider that all the kids are rallying around. But looking ahead to the New Hampshire primaries, pollster John Zogby says "Ron Paul gets 35 percent of Independents and 54 percent of 18 to 29 year olds." Many young voters in this age group are drawn to Paul's hard-line libertarian politics, particularly his anti-war stance.

For his bravery on 9/11, first-responder Mohammad Salman Hamdani was cited in the Patriot Act as an example of Muslim-American valor. After the body of the 23-year-old police cadet was found in the wreckage of the north tower, the New York City Police Department declared him a hero and buried him with full honors. But visitors to the September 11th Memorial in lower Manhattan will not find his name among the list of first-responders. Instead, Hamdani's name appears in a section of the memorial for people who only had a lose connection to the tragic events of that day.

What do Sony Pictures, A&W Restaurants, Saab, American Apparel, Sears, Kellogg's Corn Pops, MySpace, Soap Opera Digest, and Nokia have in common? They’re ten brands that 24/7 Wall St, a Delaware-based financial news group, says won’t survive through 2012. And it looks like some of those predictions might already be coming true — on Tuesday, Sears announced it will close more than 100 stores after lackluster holiday sales.

This week North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died, a Pentagon investigation into airstrikes that killed 26 Pakistani soldiers heightened tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, Countrywide was ordered to pay $355 million for discriminating against black and Latino borrowers, and a terrorism scandal in Iraq's second-highest office broke. 

A day after the announcement of the death of dictator Kim Jong-il, around the world, all eyes are on North Korea. More specifically, the world is closely watching the deceased leader's heir apparent, his youngest son Kim Jong-un. Last year, Kim Jong-un was named a 4-star general and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission. After a period of mourning, he's expected to take full power of North Korea.

New research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that fewer teenage girls are becoming mothers. The birth rate for American teenagers between ages 15 to 19 has fallen 6 percent, according to the most recent data. This is the lowest since record-keeping began.

Some new numbers about the No Child Left Behind Act paint a bleak portrait of the country's education system. According to a report from the Center on Education Policy, 48 percent of the nation’s public schools did not meet No Child Left Behind's requirements for "adequate yearly progress," a percentage-based criteria for improvement set by individual states. However, students's performance on the national standardized test are not considered in AYP.

The Supreme Court has announced that it will rule on Arizona’s tough immigration law. The case is making its way to the highest court after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco blocked parts of the law in April. One of the parts of the law in question is a provision that requires state law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.

Virginia Tech freshman Kelsey Starr, of Avon, Conn., has been live tweeting her experience on campus in the wake of a shooting incident Thursday that left a police officer and one other person dead. Starr, who writes for the university's newspaper, the Collegiate Times, told Takeaway producer Mythili Rao that the campus was under strict lockdown. "They don't know exactly where he is and everyone's on lockdown," she said. "Everyone's scared and I'm actually in one of the academic buildings here. I locked myself in a room with 3 other girls." Listen to the interview: 

Since President Obama introduced the American Jobs Act in September of this year, he has spoken publicly about it more than 50 times. The jobs report for November comes out this morning and the consensus call is that 125,000 new jobs were created this month. Charlie Herman, economics editor for The Takeaway and WNYC, speaks about the latest jobs numbers as well as specific economic and educational reforms that are trying — with mixed success — to remedy the situation.

Herman Cain is the latest in a long line of political figures dogged by allegations of extramarital affairs. Cain is said to be reconsidering his campaign after an Atlanta woman came forward on Monday alleging a 13-year-affair with the one-time Republican front runner. But, should the allegations be true, Cain is hardly alone when it comes to adultery. Fellow GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had two marriages unravel after affairs. Mark Sanford, Eliot Spitzer, Jim McGreevey, and Bill Clinton are just a few names on a long list of American politicians with wandering eyes. But does adultery disqualify a candidate from political office? Does being unfaithful to one's spouse give any indication of what kind of leader he or she might be?

Former journalist and human rights activist Sherry Rehman has been named as Pakistan's new ambassador to the United States. Rehman will replace Husain Haqqani, who resigned amid accusations he was involved in an effort to engage the U.S. to curb the Army's powers in Pakistan. Haqqani allegedly sent an anonymous memo sent to Admiral Mike Mullen after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistani in May. The memo requested Washington’s help in diminishing the power of the Pakistani army. In recent days, a Pakistani-American businessman has said he was instructed to write the memo by Haqqani. 

This year's winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced today. The British prize goes to "the very best book of the year" written in English by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Past winners have been propelled to international celebrity overnight, with the winning books selling hundreds of thousands of copies around the world. But this year's shortlist has generated a new complaint. Critics of the prize say Booker Prize judges have begun valuing "readability" above artistic excellence.

Many of the protesters currently occupying American cities and engaging in actions around the world are angry at what they say are the worst offenders — companies and people taking unfair financial advantage in a capitalist system. Some argue that capitalism is broken, but is that true, or is it just that some are "gaming" the system? Dean of the Rotman School of Management at Toronto University Roger Martin thinks it may be the latter.   

When Bank of America announced that they were introducing a new $5 monthly fee for debit cards many customers were outraged. One of those customers is 22-year-old Molly Katchpole. She started an online petition at Change.org. The petition reads: "The American people bailed out Bank of America during a financial crisis the banks helped create... You paid zero dollars in federal income last year. And now your bank is profiting, raking in $2 billion in profits last quarter alone. How can you justify squeezing another $60 a year from your debit card customers? This is despicable." According to Katchpole, more than 200 thousand people added their signature to her petition — and the bank took notice.

Earlier this week, the City Council of Topeka, Kan. voted to decriminalize domestic violence. That surprising decision came as part of a budget stand-off between the city and the county: After the county cut the District Attorney’s budget, the DA stopped prosecuting misdemeanor domestic violence cases from Topeka. To send a message, the city voted to take the local law against domestic violence off the books — forcing the county to handle all domestic violence cases.

In recent years, cash-strapped governments have started looking to lost cargoes as a way to raise money. They do so because the latest generation of robots, lights, cameras and claws can withstand the deep sea’s crushing pressures and have opened up a new world of shipwreck recovery. The most recent discovery? A shipwreck off Ireland with an $18 million dollar cargo of silver.