The countdown to December 23 has begun for the Congressional "super committee" that's tasked with reducing the nation’s debt. Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi named the last three members: Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, Rep. Xavier Becerra of California and Rep. Chris Von Hollen of Maryland. Will the committee be able to compromise, particularly as each party begins to prepare for the heavy political sparring yet to come out of the 2012 presidential election?

For the first time ever, a woman is taking command at the nation's premier Marine Corps training base. Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds will be the first female to run South Carolina's Parris Island in the base's 96-year-history. Reynolds is no stranger to setting records. She is also the first female Marine to ever hold a command position in a battle zone, one of many accomplishments in her 25 years as a Marine. She speaks about the challenges that come with her post.

New data that's just been released from NASA's Mercury Messenger spacecraft could reveal how Mercury formed and changed over the 4.5-billion-year history of the Solar System. The planet appears to have shrunk as it has aged. Denton Ebel is the curator of Meteorites at the American Museum of Natural History and is involved in educational outreach programs for the Mercury Messenger mission at the museum. He explains why scientists are finding new reasons to study the planet.

What would you do if a child sincerely asked you for something impossible? That's the situation Santa (and helpers) faces every year, as well as many parents. It's sometimes hard for parents to meet the most extreme requests for gifts... but it's always hard to disappoint one's kids. We get a personal story from Kim Hamilton, Takeaway listener from Lubbock, Texas, and mother of a four-year-old boy with high Christmas gift hopes.

As part of our week-long series, we speak with two immigrant writers whose parents were forced to flee their homelands because of political unrest, and came to rest in America. Both live outside the U.S. now, and both say their notion of "home" has become ... portable.

It’s Thanksgiving week and the start of the holiday season. While the holidays can be a great time for getting together with the family, it can also be a time that’s fraught with tension for those people who no longer fit in at home (if, indeed, they ever did). Are you a "black sheep" ? Or do you have one in your family? 

“Zora and Me” fictionalizes the childhood of the Harlem Renaissance writer, folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. (Hurston was born in 1891, lived through the Jim Crow south, and died in 1960.) The young adult novel is the first in a planned trilogy which imagines Hurston as a girl detective in her all-black hometown of Eatonville, Florida, at the start of the 20^th century.

Recent studies highlight all kinds of benefits from having an affectionate sister. According to researchers, sisters have been found to protect their adolescent siblings from numerous problems, including loneliness and depression. So, what’s so special about sisters? The Takeaway explores some of the latest ideas.

“My Princess Boy – A mom’s story about a young boy who loves to dress up” is a new children’s book which is being used by some schools to prevent bullying and to encourage the acceptance of others who don’t fit into the traditional mainstream.

This week we’ve been talking a lot about the people and groups financially supporting political candidates in the mid-terms. But there is another national election we’re following where American money could have a major influence. Haiti’s presidential election is on November 28th. Candidates in that election have been actively campaigning State-side to raise money.

"American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us" is a exhaustive survey of the role of religion in American public life, and authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell, paint a mostly positive portrait of American religion.

Not many people can understand the ordeal that the 33 men trapped in the San Jose mine in northern Chile have experienced since the collapse of a tunnel on August 5. Eduardo Strauch may be one of the few who has some notion of what they've gone through, and what remains in store for them.

An emerging field of science known as fetal origins claims that conditions in the womb before birth can have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences for the health and well-being of the adults those fetuses become. The latest scientific research suggests that prenatal influences — including a woman’s exposure to environmental toxins during her pregnancy, her stress levels and diet — can affect the health of future generations.

Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has promoted his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, to the rank of general, just one day before a rare meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers Party. The move added to speculation that Kim Jong-un will take over for his ailing father in the future. 

The last convoy of U.S. combat troops left Iraq last night under cover of darkness. 440 troops of the 4/2 Stryker Brigade crossed into Kuwait, leaving behind another 56,000 U.S. service members in support and training roles. 6,000 are scheduled to withdraw by September 1st; another 50,000 will remain behind into 2011. 

Ambassador Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, led a team of UN inspectors into Iraq before the 2003 invasion, searching for weapons of mass destruction. They found none, but the invasion went ahead as planned. 

Read a full transcript.

The marriage of same-sex couples is on hold again in California while the Ninth Circuit Court prepares to hear an appeal by the backers of Prop 8. Those who supported the ballot initiative, which led to the banning of same-sex unions in the state, are challenging a judge's recent decision that found the ban unconstitutional. 

The United States is not the first country to discuss these issues, and other countries have experience we might be able to learn from when considering same-sex unions. Back in 2001, The Netherlands became the first country to legalize gay marriage. We speak with an author who traveled there to document how marriage affected Dutch gay couples and wider Dutch society.

BP has already paid out more than $300 million to businesses and individuals affected by the oil, which started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico on Apirl 20, but the company's claims system has been criticized by business owners who say they have had to deal with multiple adjusters. Attorney Kenneth Feinberg was hired by BP to serve as administrator of its $20 billion compensation fund and he will begin processing claims for victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill later this month.

Alaska lost its iconic lawmaker, Ted Stevens, in a plane crash on Monday night. Stevens was the longest-serving Republican senator in history and served six terms in the U.S. Senate. The former senator lost his re-election bid in 2008, after he was convicted on corruption charges. The charges against Stevens were later dropped at the request of United States Attorney General Eric Holder, who found prosecutorial misconduct during Stevens’ trial.

This week, we discuss two big stories, each of which considers the original intent of the 14th Amendment. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," as it passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, this clause of the Constitution guarantees U.S. citizenship for anyone born in the United States. It prohibits state governments from depriving anyone of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and mandates "equal protection of the laws" for all citizens.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in California ruled Proposition 8, the voter-backed ballot measure to prohibit same-sex marriage, unconstitutional based on "due process" and "equal protection" grounds: both clauses in the 14th Amendment.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, several Republican senators are proposing to repeal or change the Amendment. They say we should no longer automatically give citizenship to American-born children of illegal immigrants.

Google Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the investment arms of Google and the C.I.A., are both backing a start-up company called Recorded Future that monitors activity and text on the Web in real time and uses the information to spot early trends and events. The company also attempts to take current data and model what's going to happen in the future...

Google is not directly collaborating with the C.I.A., but its actions are likely to cause some unease for those already worried about whether the company can be trusted to protect consumers' privacy.