At about 40 locations around downtown Denver, you can pick up a bike, ride it somewhere else and drop it off. The "Bcycle" program began yesterday, on Earth Day. Bike sharing is a mode of community transportation that's been tried in several European cities, and will be popping up in U.S. cities this summer; Denver is the first big American trial. Nathan Heffel, producer for jazz89 KUVO, checked in on the first day of Mile-High residents trying it out.

It was to be one of the national Stimulus package's proudest shovel-ready projects; high-speed rail lines brought to Florida and California. But a year after its announcement, both states continue to struggle with local issues of planning and economy. We're joined by Public Radio transportation reporter Collin Campbell, who tells us more about how the projects are running into trouble.

Collin Campbell, out in Denver with John Hockenberry.

In 1985, KUVO started broadcasting here. The station began, and continues today, to be the great beating heart of jazz in Denver. Its studios sit in the Five Points neighborhood, the first predominantly African-American section in Denver, and a place famous for its cultural scene since the 1930s.

In January, KUVO started airing The Takeaway. We began to hear from Denver listeners, and we've kept an eye on the local economy, the city's future and its rising political stars.  This month, we planned a trip out to visit the KUVO community and to connect with the political mood at the 62nd Annual Conference on World Affairs. That's a forum that began as America was recovering from World War II, where they debated things like the Marshall Plan.

Attorneys general from 16 states are challenging the health care legislation that was signed into law by President Obama last month. They're contesting the constitutionality of the law.

Among the projects picked for federal stimulus spending, Florida's Orlando-Tampa high-speed rail route was a curious place to put $1.25 billion.  After all, it's Florida, and the 90-mile route runs through counties President Obama fought over tight margins of victory and defeat.  So are the voters of Polk County, smack in between Orlando and Tampa, swayed by a stop on the federally-funded transit future?  Takeaway transportation reporter Collin Campbell went to find out.

One year ago, the Obama Administration began pushing billions and billions of dollars out the door.  The federal stimulus combines tax cuts, huge chunks of federal spending and the extension of benefits in hopes of stimulating the American economy.  So how are American cities changing, and what will we remember about this massive program decades from now?

In last night's State of the Union address, President Obama proposed the ambitious goal of bringing high speed rail to America. He wants to devote eight billion dollars to be doled out to 31 states to overhaul their mass transit systems.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai will remain in office for another term after his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of a scheduled runoff election. We talk with Tony Karon, senior editor at Time, for a look at what this means for the U.S. relationship with Karzai and the larger strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

The Mexican city of Puebla is trying a bright pink experiment in a culture famous for its machismo and violence. In an effort to prevent violent crimes against women passengers, 35 new taxis are driving the streets. These pink cars are driven by women and will pick up only female passengers. Inside, each pink taxi comes with a beauty kit, a GPS system and an alarm button. We talk to Eduardo Del Castillo, CEO of Pink Taxi, along with Elena Alvarez, a recent passenger.

For a look inside the Pink Taxi, watch the video below:

New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins recently returned from Afghanistan, where he talked with Gen. Stanley McChrystal and traveled with American soldiers in one of the country’s most dangerous regions. From his headquarters in Kabul, McChrystal was preparing an analysis for President Obama on what it would now cost – in time, dollars and lives – for the U.S. to win the war. Filkins joins us to report on what it will take for McChrystal’s much-vaunted counterinsurgency approach to work.

The famed moralist and writer Samuel Johnson was born 300 years old today. Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, gives us his take on what the crusty, eminently quotable moralist might have made of some of our present-day dilemmas.

1784. ÆTAT.- And now I am arrived at the last year of the life of Samuel Johnson, a year in which, although passed in severe indisposition, he nevertheless gave many evidences of the continuance of those wondrous powers of mind, which raised him so high in the intellectual world. His conversation and his letters of this year were in no respect inferiour to those of former years.
--James Boswell, "The Life of Samuel Johnson"

infa'usting. The act of making unlucky. An odd and inelegant word.
--Samuel Johnson, in "Johnson's Dictionary"

The National Association of Realtors will release their numbers on pending home sales later this morning; those numbers are predicted to be up for the sixth consecutive month. Louise Story, The New York Times reporter, explains the report.

On Capitol Hill, Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch is coming under serious scrutiny. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is going before the committee today as lawmakers say the Fed hid some unsavory parts of the deal from other agencies in order to make the merger go through. Bank of America received billions in federal bailout funds as it struggled to absorb Merrill’s financial liabilities. For more of the story, The Takeaway talks to Peter Morici, professor of international business at the University of Maryland.

The Supreme Court confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor may not center on the issue that has dominated the process for the last two decades: abortion. What may take its place is a debate over affirmative action. The Takeaway is joined by Christopher Caldwell, a TIME magazine contributor and Senior Editor of The Weekly Standard. His article, The Limits of Empathy for Sonia Sotomayor, on the Supreme Court fight can be can be found in the current issue of TIME.

A truce was announced this weekend between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan army after a quarter-century of civil war. But fighting continues despite government claims that it has defeated the rebel Tamil Tigers and killed a key leader. It's hard to independently verify what is happening on the ground: journalists and observers have been barred from the war zone. But it appears possible that the civil war may indeed be at an end. To help us understand the future for Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, The Takeaway is joined by Robert Blake, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives.

Here are President Obama's comments on the situation in Sri Lanka:

President Obama consults today with Senate leaders on his pick to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter; he hopes the nominee can be through the confirmation process before Congress breaks in August. Should his nominee be female? Black? Latino? Joining us is Judge Judith Kaye, counsel with Skadden Litigation Group. Judge Kaye was the Chief Judge of New York Court of Appeals for 15 years until her retirement in 2008, and served longer than any judge in New York's history. She joins The Takeaway with her thoughts on what makes a good judge.

In the wake of fears over the spread of so-called "swine influenza," pork prices have plummeted. In Alberta, Canada, pigs have been quarantined after catching the flu from a farm employee. In Egypt, riot police clashed with pig farmers while trying to stop farmers from slaughtering their own animals. In Iraq, three wild boars at the Baghdad zoo were slaughtered. Swine flu means bad news for pigs and pig farmers, despite loud messages from the World Health Organization and CDC that the flu is not spread by eating pork. The Takeaway talks to Mike Faga, a Human Resources Director with Iowa Select Farms, the largest pig producer in Iowa.

In his prime time press conference last week, President Obama credited his Economic Recovery Act with the creation of 150,000 jobs. It's an astonishing number. But is this a case of some slightly fuzzy math? The Takeaway talks to Political Director Andrea Bernstein.

If you missed last week's press conference, you can see President Obama's take on job creation below:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has unveiled his budget plan for the Pentagon. There are a broad range of cuts to weapons spending and big boosts to new technology that are supposed to help battle the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates didn't just spend money, though, he also took a red pen to President Obama's budget line for a new helicopter. Paul Hughes, senior program officer at the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the United States Institute for Peace joins New York Times Reporter Elisabeth Bumiller to break the new budget plan down.

The 2010 Department of Defense Budget Proposal
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announces some major cuts (and a couple of increases) in his 2010 budget. View other highlights from the speech, in pictures, after the jump.


Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Pentagon press briefing, April 6, 2009 (Cherie Cullen/Department of Defense)

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Last week, the U.S. lost a seminal historian of the African-American experience when John Hope Franklin passed away. His books, includingFrom Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin, and Reconstruction after the Civil War (The Chicago History of American Civilization), have sold millions of copies and have been required reading at colleges and universities for decades. The Takeaway talks to contributor and Senior Editor at Essence Magazine, Patrik Henry Bass, about John Hope Franklin's life, work and legacy.

The National Visionary Leadership Project has several interviews with John Hope Franklin available on Youtube. Here he is speaking about the importance of history: