The weekend's news of AT&T's potential purchase of T-Mobile for $39 billion turned many heads, and had many consumers wondering what a merger would mean for prices, service, and coverage. To help us shed some light on this potential merger, we're joined by Carl Howe, director of research at the Yankee Group, an independent technology research and consulting firm.

Yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood criticized a Washington lobbying firm that was drumming up opposition to his distracted driving campaign. The Seward Square Group created the DRIVE coalition to promote driver education as an alternative to LaHood's proposal, which would lead to poor sales for mobile devices (they even went after Oprah).

San Francisco wants to let consumers know about the radiation coming out of their cellphones. On Tuesday, the city's Board of Supervisors passed a measure requiring point-of-sale displays to provide information on the amount of radiation their devices emit.  Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the measure into law. But should consumers actually be worried?

• Washington Takeout: Todd Zwillich "wonks out" as he goes behind the report showing that Americans spent $2.3 trillion on health care in 2008: 17 percent of our economy.
• Mobile Tech Takeout: Will Google's new phone change the way cell phone providers do business?  Wired.com's John Abell tells us why Google's as yet unreleased Nexus One smart phone is already affecting the mobile marketplace.
• Sports Takeout: Ibrahim Abdul-Matin looks back at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl and previews the FedEx Orange Bowl between No. 10 Iowa and No. 9 Georgia Tech.
  

The federal government is on the verge of spending billions of dollars on highways and public transit projects, beginning in 2010.  Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood views this as a historic moment in American history, when federal money will back policy aimed at getting Americans off the highways, out of our cars and into public transit and high-speed rail.  LaHood steps through the many areas of American life in which he's now shaping policy. (click through for the full interview transcript)

We've talked a lot about research on the dangers of texting and even talking on the phone while driving.  But a new report out by our partner The New York Times shows evidence of a cell phone industry that was aware of those risks decades before most people had ever seen seen the devices initially marketed as "car phones."  It's part of the Times' Driven to Distraction series; we're joined by the series' editor, Adam Bryant, deputy business editor for The New York Times.