"Green jobs" were a much-repeated idea on the campaign trail in last year's presidential election; the administration is visiting two plants that aim to produce these jobs. Today the president goes to Arcadia, Fla., to highlight a plan for "Smart Grid" technology, and the vice president announces the reopening of an old GM plant as a factory for electric cars. Beyond the public events, we look at how much progress the White House has made in its plan to create "green jobs" with Bracken Hendricks, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, who also served as an advisor to the Obama presidential campaign. We also speak to Susan Hoffman, editor of The Arcadian, along with Andrew Eder, business reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del..

• Washington Takeout: Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us with last night's startling announcement from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that a version of the "public option," considered nearly dead for several weeks, will wind up in the Senate version of health care reform.
• Listener Takeout: We talk to listener Kelly, from Charlotte, N.C., who called us with her story of going bankrupt from credit card debt.

Contaminated milk, poisonous pet food, toys containing dangerous levels of lead: Some products made in China have been found to be hazardous to your health. The latest is drywall. During the housing boom, construction companies used drywall from wherever they could get it, and now certain types, made in China, have been found to be releasing chemicals and fumes that cause medical problems. Adding insult to injury, many of the people affected are stuck with their infected walls because they can't afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove the drywall.

We talk with the BBC's Shanghai correspondent, Chris Hogg, who has details of an emerging partnership between the U.S. and China to crack down on tainted drywall. We also speak with Luis Gonzalez, a Miami-Dade police officer forced to leave his home, which was built using drywall from China. 

Iraqis are grappling with the aftermath of a pair of devastating suicide bombs that struck the heart of Baghdad on Sunday, killing more than 150 people. Rod Nordland, New York Times correspondent in Baghdad, tells us the latest.

Three agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and seven soldiers were killed when two NATO helicopters collided in the western part of Afghanistan yesterday. One helicopter was returning from a firefight provoked by an anti-narcotics mission. We speak with Gretchen Peters, author of "Seeds of Terror," a book that traces the links between Afghanistan’s drug trade and the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.

Some 5.6 million American manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1999, and many of those jobs don't appear to be coming back anytime soon. At least some of the people who worked in manufacturing are trying to learn new job skills: We look at the successes and failures of retraining programs with Takeaway contributor Beth Kobliner. We're also joined by Hal Higdon, president of Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Mo., who says community colleges are too overburdened to be effective; and Robin Ambrosy, laid off in January of 2006 from her job with Sony and now retraining to become an occupational therapist.

Monday was one of the deadliest for American forces since the war in Afghanistan began. Two separate helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans. One collision killed three U.S. drug enforcement agents in addition to seven troops. The Taliban were quick to say they shot down the U.S. helicopter, but a spokesman for the NATO-led forces denied any insurgent involvement.

We look at how Afghans make sense of these competing versions of events with Saad Mohseni, director of TOLO TV, a popular private TV channel in Afghanistan, and Lt. Col. Shawn Stroud, former director of strategic communication at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.

• Business Takeout: New York Times business correspondent Louise Story tells us about a new investment fund focusing on companies with women on their boards of directors. 
• Sports Takeout: Takeaway sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin recaps Monday Night Football and previews the start of the NBA season. 
• Listener Takeout: We hear your responses on living without credit cards and our reliance on older relatives during economic hard times.

After months of wrangling, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced yesterday that the health care legislation on its way to the Senate floor will include a public option. Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich joins us to discuss the latest legislative moves, along with the option for states to opt-out.

Lawns may be literally green, but the side effects of maintaining grass are frequently bad for the environment. Now scientists may have found a way to make lawns more eco-friendly. Mark Simmons, a scientist at The University of Texas at Austin, has spent the past few years developing grass that doesn’t need pesticides or fertilizers.

New information released Monday said that the distracted pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 188, who overshot their landing strip in Minneapolis by 150 miles before turning around and landing safely, were using their personal laptops with their headphones off. For more, we talk with Patrick Smith, airline expert and author of the "Ask the Pilot" book and online column at Salon.com.

According to a recent study, child abuse cases went up 35 percent nationally between 2001 and 2007. In one hospital in Phoenix, child abuse cases are up 40 precent over last year alone. Can the recession be blamed for these gloomy statistics? Or is there something else causing this trend? We get insights from Amy Terreros, a pediatric nurse practitioner who diagnoses child abuse at Phoenix Children's Hospital, and Jim Hmurovich, president and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America.