New reports show that housing prices across the nation may finally be stabilizing. For the first time in three years, the 20 biggest cities, on average, have actually been seeing increased home prices. Donna Kardos Yesalavich from Dow Jones Newswire joins The Takeaway with a look at the numbers.

A makeshift sailboat carrying close to 200 people capsized off the coast of the Turks and Caicos Islands. At least fifteen are dead. The boat was carrying Haitians aiming to make the U.S. coastline in Miami and had been at sea for three day before hitting a reef. Lieutenant Commander Matt Morlag, spokesman for the U.S. Coastguard in Miami, joins us with an update on the continuing search.

Yesterday afternoon President Obama held a town hall meeting with members of the AARP. His mission was to sell seniors on his plan to reform the nation's health care. He answered tough questions on insurance, prescriptions, and Medicare. To examine how health care reform could affect older Americans, The Takeaway talks to Reba Moon, a 61-year old small business owner in Alberton, Georgia; Gene Barratt, a 79-year old retiree in New York, and Dr. Leo Cooney, a Professor of Geriatrics at Yale University School of Medicine.

Health care, health care, health care. President Obama has been pushing his plan, selling it to the nation in a prime time press conference last week and to seniors in a town hall with the AARP yesterday. But is the nation buying it? The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich has been watching; he's not sure everyone in the president's own party are keen on the plan. The Blue Dog Democrats, the fiscally conservative wing of the party, may be starting to work with House Republicans to slow the bill's progress. One of the Blue Dog Democrats, Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper, joins us to explain his position. Rep. Cooper has taught health care policy at Vanderbilt University for 12 years.

Click through for a transcript of our conversation with Rep. Jim Cooper.

Three days of violence across northern Nigeria have left more than 100 people dead. But who exactly is behind the bloodshed? The government is fighting a group of Islamic fighters who some call "The Taliban," who want strict Islamic law put into place. But are they the Taliban? Richard Hamilton, a BBC Africa reporter, joins The Takeaway with more of the story.

Here's Al Jazeera's report on the violence in Nigeria [Warning: some graphic content]:

The swimming world witnessed a very rare occurrence yesterday in Rome, Italy. Not only did Olympic great Michael Phelps lose in a major individual event for the first time in four years, but Paul Biederman of Germany smashed Phelps’ record by almost an entire second. This huge upset brings along with it some controversy. The Takeaway's sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin has all the details as well as other sports news.

For more from Ibrahim, read his blog post, Sports: Michael, Michael, Plax, and Brett.

Here's the video of Michael Phelps' rare loss:

On Monday, federal agents including four SWAT teams converged on a house outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. They arrested Daniel Boyd, his two grown sons and four other young men allegedly being instructed in military techniques. The grand jury indicted Mr. Boyd on charges evolving from an apparent desire to go overseas and kill terrorists. Mr. Boyd, who had traveled to both Pakistan and Afghanistan for military-style training, had fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The federal indictment suggests the motive for the training was religious extremism and that Mr. Boyd was prepared to die as a martyr for his beliefs. For more, The Takeaway talks to Dave Dewitt, the Raleigh bureau chief for North Carolina Public Radio and to Peter Bergen, a fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden.

A dramatic rescue operation is underway in the Caribbean, where more than a hundred Haitian migrants have been rescued after their boat capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands. The U.S. Coast Guard is helping the local authorities with the rescue. To get the very latest, The Takeaway talks to Matt Morlag, of the U.S. Coast Guard in Miami.

President Obama, who has been pushing health care all week, takes his case for health care reform to senior citizens. In a “tele-town hall,” the president will take questions about health care from AARP members via phone, email, and a small live audience. To gather the questions, the group will contact hundreds of thousands of its members with automated "robo-calls" ten minutes before the event. The Takeaway talks to Drew Nannis, spokesman for the AARP, about the town hall.

The Takeaway follows up on a story the show covered in February: the tale of hundreds of children and teenagers sentenced to juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania. Local judges were participating in a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme for sending teens to privately run youth detention centers. One of those children is 17-year-old Hillary Transue. Her mother Laurene Transue joined The Takeaway in February and is on the show again to talk about the latest events in the case.

Viral marketing campaigns have changed the way the entertainment industry lures audiences. For the TV show "True Blood," for instance, the ad campaign that generated buzz was an effort to mobilize support for a (fictitious) Vampire Rights Amendment. The Takeaway is joined by one of the people behind the "True Blood" campaign, Steve Wax, a managing partner at Campfire ad agency, and Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor for Ad Week magazine.

Watch a video featuring the Vampire Rights Amendment viral ad campaign:

In the continuing uproar over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the nation's preeminent African American scholars, Cambridge police released audio of the 911 call reporting a possible break-in that eventually led to his arrest. Was that 911 call sufficient cause to give an officer the right to enter a private residence? Was a basic Constitutional right broken? On The Takeaway to discuss the issue is Darius Charney, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights.

For more on the Henry Louis Gates, Jr., listen to The Takeaway's stories, America, Still Not 'Post-Racial', Call the Police: Racial Profiling and the Law, and read Takeaway Contributor David Wall Rice's essay, Professor Gates Arrested? No Surprise.

The talks between the U.S. and China this week include climate change, clean energy, nuclear nonproliferation, and humanitarian crises. And the overwhelming challenge: economics and trade. Ron Kirk, President Obama's U.S. trade representative, discusses the Beijing-Washington trade talks.

Over the last two weeks, good economic news has been rolling in: there were big quarterly profit reports from banks and Ford and the Dow is trading over 9,000. Is the recession over? Friend of The Takeaway Dan Gross, columnist for Newsweek and Slate.com, joins us with his take on the economy, including the prospect of a jobless recovery.

For more, read Dan Gross' cover story, The Recession is Over, in Newsweek.

Today in The Takeaway's Science segment, we talk about neuroscience. A handful of new studies suggest that in matters of weight loss, will power could lose out to brainpower. The brain, which is an organ designed to seek out calories, could outsmart the tricks we play on it, such as drinking diet soft drinks. Joining The Takeaway to talk about the brains behind our bulk is Jonah Lehrer. He is The Takeaway’s science contributor and author of the books "How We Decide" and "Proust Was a Neuroscientist." Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington Correspondent also joins the conversation to talk about how health policy could be used to encourage better eating habits.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Southern Iraq this morning. He was in Israel and then Jordan yesterday. How much power does he have inside the administration, and how does it compare with previous Pentagon chiefs? Long-time U.S foreign policy analyst Anthony Cordesman talks about the Gates-Obama relationship.

A new study, whose findings will be released later today, says that driving while texting makes you 23 times more likely to get into an accident. This morning we're joined by Dr. Rich Hanowski, Director for the Center of Truck and Bus Safety at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which conducted the study. Also joining the discussion is Adam Bryant, Deputy Business Editor of The New York Times, who's been working on the “Driven to Distraction” series.

President Barack Obama welcomed 150 Chinese officials in Washington, D.C. yesterday. Throughout the week the U.S. and China will discuss the global economy, trade, and the environment. On The Takeaway to tell us more of what’s in store—and what's at stake—is Reuters’ Asia Correspondent Paul Eckert in Washington, D.C.

Watch Obama's address in the video below.

Economists offer an academic view of the economy—they know the numbers, the rates, and the interest. But if you want to know the reality behind those numbers and find out what's happening on the ground, there's only one view: the trucker's view. Cliff Hagedon owns Fort Gratiot Express trucking; he carries freight across the nation. The more people buy, the busier he is. He joins The Takeaway from the road on his way to Texarkana.

Our guest, Niall Ferguson, once coined the term "Chimerica" to describe the American-Chinese relationship. What did he mean, and where does he think this weeks' talks between U.S. and Chinese officials will lead? Niall Ferguson, a Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School, joins us.