Americans are turning back to old-fashioned tinkering and hands-on innovation. We’ll ask what a new burst of grassroots engineering might mean for the U.S. economy.

Horror at Fort Hood. Election signals. And an imminent vote on health care. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Tim Geithner and Barney Frank say they’ll rein in banks that are “Too Big To Fail.” Critics say their plan won’t fix Wall Street. We’ll hear the debate.

The U.S. economy grows. Bombs from Baghdad to Pakistan. And a vaccine shortage all over. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Pay cuts for bailout executives. Afghanistan schedules a runoff vote as Pakistan and the Taliban go at it. And the “public option” is back. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

In today’s first hour, Whole Earth guru Stewart Brand and energy expert Amory Lovins debated whether the U.S. should build more nuclear power plants in the effort to reduce carbon emissions.

Home prices, housing, and the U.S. economy. American homes are still the wild card in recovery.

With American inequality at historic levels, Yale’s Bruce Judson asks if a revolution could happen here. He says yes. We’ll hear his case.

President Obama’s Nobel Prize. War council in Washington. Gold soars, and the dollar slides. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

We’ve got a jobless recovery. For the unemployed, that’s not OK. Robert Reich and Elizabeth Warren talk about how to jumpstart the return of jobs.

Small-town and rural America is changing. It’s hollowing out. We’ll look at our “rural brain drain” and the American heartland.

World leaders on stage in New York and Pittsburgh. Terror arrests in Denver. New hope for an AIDS vaccine. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Is the global economic crisis derailing globalization? Should it? As the G-20 sits down in Pittsburgh, we’ll talk tires, chickens, and trade.

We’ll talk with writer Barbara Ehrenreich about how the working poor are getting by — and not — in these extra-hard times.

Nearly one in ten Americans are out of work. How long can that last? And how can we live with it?

One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we’ll look at whether Wall Street is vulnerable to yet another crisis.

Paying thousands of dollars to land an unpaid internship — and what the trend means for the growing gulf between America’s haves and have-nots.

Ray LaHood, Barack Obama’s Republican Transportation Secretary, weighs in on “Cash for Clunkers,” high-speed rail, texting while driving, and where the stimulus is going.

Cash for clunkers. Hope for the economy. And a dramatic homecoming for two freed American journalists. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Some see encouraging signs for the economy. But with jobs scarce, we’ll ask what kind of a recovery, if any, America has in store.