Israeli and Palestinian leaders are in Washington preparing for their first peace talks in two years; headlines.

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, American presidents have tried long and hard to encourage peace in the Middle East. After he helped ink the Camp David Accords, former President Jimmy Carter insightfully warned that peace would not come easily. "The questions that have brought warfare and bitterness to the Middle East for the last thirty years will not be settled overnight," he said. Now, six presidencies and thirty years later, lasting peace has yet to be achieved.

John Hockenberry looks back at the long history of trying to broker peace between Israel and Palestine. From Jimmy Carter's role in the Camp David accords to last night's White House dinner with Arab and Israeli leaders, the peace process has had many false starts and violent ends. Speaking to leaders at the White House last night, President Obama took on this longstanding test of U.S. leadership, asking "What kind of world do we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren?"

Yesterday we spoke about the growth in low-wage and low-skilled jobs in the U.S.  Listeners weighed in, sharing their own experiences with taking jobs for which they're either overqualified or underpaid...or both.  

John from New England wrote in to give us this response:

At the present moment I am contemplating a job offer of $37k after negotiating up from $30k. My previous job was $50k. I am grateful for the offer but feel like (at this stage of my career) I should be considering a higher salary rather than a lower one.

Ad Pakistan struggles to cope with a devastating flood, the U.S. has stepped in, delivering aid, boxes of biscuits and sacks of flour, and evacuating people from flooded areas by helicopter.  The U.S. has become the single biggest international donor to Pakistan during these troubles and their presence and aid has shifted Pakistani perceptions of America. However, this may not necessarily mean a consistently positive relationship on a political level.

High food prices have lead to violent riots in Mozambique, where seven people have been killed. Food and water costs have also risen. And food security is a world-wide problem, with wheat and meat prices rising globally. BBC business reporter, Tim Jenkins, says he's noticed this trend for a few years and explains a new U.N. Food and Agriculture survey, which shows that beef prices, poultry prices, and lamb prices have all reached new hights.

Andre Agassi is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, as well as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game. But despite his record wins and huge prize earnings, which total over thirty million dollars, Agassi admits in his autobiography, “Open,” that he actually hates tennis with a passion.

Agassi joins us to discuss where his true passions lie, the role his family played in pressuring him to be a champion, and how he managed to write so honestly in his new book, “Open: An Autobiography.” 

Hurricane warnings and watches have been posted up and down the East Coast from North Carolina to Massachussetts as Hurricane Earl gets closer to land; face-to-face peace talks begin this morning at the State Department; Afghanistan has fired its ambassador to the United States as pictures surfaced last week appearing to show the ambassador partying at the embassy during the holy month of Ramadan. That and more morning headlines.

According to new data released by the Census Bureau, in 2008, single, childless women between the ages of 22 and 30 made more money than their male peers in major U.S. cities. Women's incomes averaged 8 percent higher, due largely to the fact that more women graduated college than men. 

If you're a single young man who makes less than his single young female counterparts, does that make you a "failed male?" Or is this simply a side effect of increasing gender equality?

We asked you, our listeners, to weigh in on a new trend, which shows that young, single women without children are earning more than their male counterparts. 

After a 20-month hiatus, leaders from Israel and Palestine have come together at the White House to engage in a new round of peace talks. President Obama met individually with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. Obama said he is hopeful that a peace agreement can be reached in the next year, but the talks have already hit hurdles that may be difficult to overcome.

Former Lehman Brothers chief executive Richard Fuld testified before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Wednesday. He described his frustration that his firm did not get the help that other firms later got from federal regulators. Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times, explains what we're learning from the FCIC, which is tasked with finding out what caused the financial and economic crisis in 2008.

Day 3 of the U.S. Open saw temperatures reach the mid-90s and a scare on the court as 10th seed Victoria Azarenka collapsed in the midst of her second-round match. Heat wasn't the only culprit, it was later revealed she fell in the gym and bumped her head and arm, before the match.

Tandaleya Wilder, sports commentator and founder of She Got Game Media, has the latest on Azarenka's condition, and how Americans Venus Williams and Andy Roddick did yesterday.

A new book about how to solve the looming issues of climate change will hit shelves here in the U.S. in October. It’s called “Smart Solutions to Climate Change: Comparing Costs and Benefits.” It sounds unsurprising enough, but the author, Bjørn Lomborg, is a controversial figure in the debate on climate change. He’s long been known as a climate change skeptic and has been the subject of vehement criticism for his doubts as to whether global warming is a gravely serious issue.

As the peace talks in Washington get underway, we turn to residents living out the process in Israel and Palestine.

Avishai Vak is an Israeli who lives in the Eli settlement in the West Bank. He's lived htere for twelve years and is pessimistic about the peace process. "We pray three times a day for peace, our dream if peace," he says. However, he is skeptical about the role of Palestine, saying, "they see peace as a strategic move, they do't see it as a goal."

In reasponse, we hear from Dr. Khamis Elessi, who lives in Gaza City. Like Vak, Dr. Elessi has a hard time envisioning peace. "I'm less optimistic now than before, at least before Israel had someting to offer. There is no more land to be given to us. More than 80 percent of the west bank is filled with settlements."

As parents struggle with their children's behavior, more and more doctors are turning to antipsychotic drugs. According to a Columbia University study, the numer of two-five year-olds prescribed antipsychotic drugs doubled between 200 and 2007, with only 40 percent of those children had received a proper mental health assessment. Do our little ones need this much medication?