Yesterday almost 4,000 Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops began a major operation into the Helmand province in Southern Afghanistan, the epicenter of the opium producing that is a major source of funding for the Taliban. Joining The Takeaway to talk about the mission in Helmand is Gretchen Peters, former Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent for ABC and author of Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda. Also joining us after three tours in Afghanistan with British forces is Gordon Mackenzie, a military analyst.

More than a month after Air France Flight 447 crashed, there are more questions than answers. The latest report from the French accident investigation agency, BEA, contends that the plane did not break up in midair, but plummeted vertically into the water. However, some inconsistencies in the report are leaving some analysts skeptical. And, with less than 10 percent of the plane recovered and the black box still missing, the mystery of Air France Flight 447 may never be solved. Joining the Takeaway to discuss the crash investigation is Todd Curtis, Aviation Security Analyst and former air safety engineer for Boeing.

All great champions are resilient, and, this weekend, old sports champions return to the limelight. Slugger Manny Ramirez, who helped bring two World Series rings to Boston, returns to the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight from a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy. Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong returns to France for this year’s Tour de France.

And the champions of the tennis world are shining bright at Wimbledon. Venus and Serena Williams meet in the finals at Wimbledon again. Roger Federer makes his push for the Wimbledon men's final, while American Andy Roddick attempts a comeback. For all of this and more, we are joined by The Takeaway's sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin.

Here is match point between Venus and Serena in the Wimbledon final last year:

When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford gave his emotional confession last week – saying he was in love with a woman in Argentina – his wife, Jenny, was noticeably absent from his side. Yesterday, though, she said that her husband’s actions were “inexcusable,” but that she is willing to forgive him. To discuss whether the Sanfords' relationship can be salvaged, The Takeaway talks to Mira Kirshenbaum, couples' therapist and author of When Good People Have Affairs: Inside the Hearts & Minds of People in Two Relationships, which is coming out this month. She's also the Clinical Director of the Chestnut Hill Institute of Boston.

For movie buffs everywhere, summer means one thing: Blockbusters! New York Times film critic A.O. Scott joins The Takeaway with a quick look at the summer's best bets. Above is the trailer for Scott's number one pic, The Hurt Locker. Below is the trailer for Public Enemies.

This weekend, many of us will be enjoying fireworks as we celebrate the Fourth of July —from the safety of a public park with professionals handling all those explosives. But our guest Bill Gurstelle believes that the best fireworks are the ones you make at home. He's the author of Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously and Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices.

The new fiscal year for 46 states started this week. But eight states had to extend their legislative sessions in order to balance their 2010 budgets. California is even issuing IOUs as a stop gap measure to pay local governments, businesses and taxpayers. With us this morning to assess what is going on with the stalling of state budgets is Michael Bird; he’s the Federal Counsel to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a group that advocates for state government’s interests. We also have Dan Walters, political columnist at the Sacramento Bee , who’s been following the story on California’s budget crisis.

Want to see where your state's budget stands? Check out NCSL's handy chart.

On Tuesday, oil trading volumes rose overnight and prices jumped more than $2 a barrel without apparent market justification. The explanation? A rogue broker had been making unauthorized trades with global implications. For more on the story, The Takeaway is joined by Gordon Heslop, oil analyst with Redmayne Bentley, private stockbrokers and investment analysts.

Stuart Smalley’s famous words of self love: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me" could be hazardous to your mental health. A new study out of the University of Waterloo suggests that people with low-self esteem actually sink into a darker state of mind when they articulate self-affirmations. This is just the latest from a new batch of self-esteem studies. Joining us for a look at how the self-esteem movement has morphed since it burst onto the scene nearly 30 years ago is Takeaway science contributor Jonah Lehrer. Jonah is author of How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist.

The Obama administration seems to be taking a softer approach to illegal immigrants than the Bush White House did. Gone are the days of Federal Agents swarming a warehouse and making mass arrests. Force is being replaced by fees. The White House said yesterday that they would focus on fines and civil sanctions and not criminal charges when business are suspected of employing large numbers of illegal immigrants. Joining us this morning is New York Times national immigration correspondent Julia Preston.

For more, read Julia Preston's article, U.S. Shifts Strategy on Illicit Work by Immigrants, in The New York Times.

This 4th of July weekend, the Statue of Liberty’s crown will re-open; visitors can take the 12-story spiral steps leading up the narrow passage to see what may be the best view in the world. The crown was closed after the 9/11 attacks. Brad Hill and his father James Hill are eagerly awaiting the crown's re-opening. They own the Evelyn Hill concession and souvenir stand at the base of the statue. The store has been in their family for three generations and James was born on the island.

It's the Fourth of July weekend. Since many of us are getting ready to cook-out with friends, we invited chef, author, and eco-activist Bryant Terry to join us. His most recent book, Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine, re-imagines African-American and Southern food at its healthiest, tastiest, and most sustainable.

ROASTED RED POTATO SALAD WITH PARSLEY-PINE NUT PESTO

Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Soundtrack: "Friends" by Ann Peebles and Don Bryant from Fill this World with Love

Pesto

• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 2 cups loosely packed, flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tablespoon mellow white or yellow miso
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Salad

• 2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into 1-inch dice
• Coarse sea salt
• Freshly ground white pepper

For the pesto

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Arrange the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast them for about 8 minutes, stirring after 4 minutes.
3. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine the pine nuts, parsley, garlic, miso, and lemon juice and puree. Slowly add the olive oil and process until smooth. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and set aside.

For the salad

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes and the olive oil. Toss to coat. Transfer the potatoes to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Add the bell peppers to the baking sheet and stir to combine. Roast for stirring every 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the bell peppers well roasted.
3. Transfer the potatoes and bell peppers to a large bowl, add 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons of pesto (or more if you want it creamier), stir well, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.
4. Cover the remaining pesto with a film of olive oil in a tightly sealed jar and refrigerate for up to two weeks (use it for dressing pastas, spreading on toast, or topping fresh tomatoes).

From the book "Vegan Soul Kitchen" by Bryant Terry. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Find out more at www.dacapocookbooks.com

Click through for more recipes

President Obama will head to Russia next week with arms control on the agenda. President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may agree on the outline of a deal to reduce the stocks of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 on each side. For more we turn to Jonathan Marcus, the diplomatic correspondent for the BBC.

Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., was opened to the media yesterday by the owner, a real estate firm called Colony Capital LLC that bought it as a joint venture with Michael Jackson last year as his finances collapsed. Thousands of fans were gathered at the front gate. The New York Times' National Correspondent Randy Archibold was there and he joins us from Los Angeles.

For more, read Randy Archibold's article, Neverland, Old Neighbors and New Visitors, in The New York Times.

For more images from Neverland Ranch, our partners The New York Times have a slideshow of images from the famous enclave.