There is a specific set of cognitive skills that every successful worker in America has, regardless of whether he or she waits tables or performs heart surgery. Dr. Mike Rose has narrowed down those skills in his book, "The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker."

In honor of Martin Luther King we look at a new documentary about songs that helped drive the civil rights movement.

Last night, the TV stars and movie stars mingled and alcohol flowed freely as the Golden Globe Awards were handed out. Our movie contributor Rafer Guzman was watching. What did he think of the big night?

Bootlegging was written into the U.S. constitution 90 years ago today. On January 16, 1920, the prohibitionists finally got what they had been fighting for decades: the federal government had banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol. The prohibition movement had be active since 1810 and its legacy is still visible today.

After one of the worst years for the auto industry, automakers may begin to hiring workers and offering more overtime, a possible sign of economic recovery. 

We touched a nerve yesterday when we looked into the significance of Nevada Senator Harry Reid's comment over President Obama's dialect and level of skin tone.

The fight over gay marriage resumes in California today with Perry v. Schwarzenegger ... and you may be able to watch it on YouTube, tonight.  Two same sex-couples are suing the enforcers of California's Proposition 8 on grounds that the gay marriage ban violates their federal constitutional rights. This might lay the groundwork for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The trial will be the first federal court case in the U.S. to be broadcast on YouTube. Kenji Yoshino, professor of law at New York University, has been following the case.

• Money Takeout: On Friday we looked at how painful job losses have been in the past two years. Today we ask Dan Gross, senior editor and finance expert at Newsweek, to update us on the jobs gained so far in 2010.
• Sports Takeouts: Sports contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin reviews the NFL's weekend wildcard playoff games.
• Listeners' Takeout: Responses to stories on airline security, racial profiling, and discussions inspired by Sen. Harry Reid's 2008 comments.

Main Street may be fed up with Wall Street's apparent gluttony, but banks are once again awarding huge bonuses. The nation's biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, are expected to pay some employees year-end bonuses reaching into eight-digit sums.  These staggering amounts may irritate the American public, which is still feeling the effects of the recession... but does the public's ire matter? We speak with Eric Dash, who reported on this for The New York Times, and Dan Ariely, professor of behavioral economics at Duke University and author of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.”

Under a new program being enforced by ICE, some Mexican immigrants caught in Nogales, Ariz., with relatively small amounts of marijuana will be turned over to the Mexican authorities for prosecution. Previously, these small-time smugglers were deemed too much trouble to prosecute, and were usually set free. We talk with Matt Allen, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Arizona, and Isabel Garcia, a public defender in Pima County, who opposes the policy.

Despite their best attempts, the military services are finding it difficult to enroll and keep experienced officers working the mission in Afghanistan.  New York Times terrorism correspondent Eric Schmitt joins the show with details from his article in today’s paper that explains how a program designed to attract and retain the best of the miltary’s best is falling to meet expectations.  How hard is it to find (and keep!) a few good soldiers, sailors, airmen/airwomen, and Marines?

President Obama said intelligence officials failed to connect the dots to prevent the Christmas Day almost-bomber from boarding a Northwest flight in Amsterdam bound for Detroit. We talk with our Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich about yesterday's meeting between the president and intelligence agencies, and with Michael Hurley, the senior counsel on the 9/11 Commission, about what went wrong and how intelligence officials can better communicate to prevent terrorism plots in the future.

The Obama administration has lifted a ban on travellers with HIV/AIDS who wish to visit the United States. The controversial ban went into effect in 1987, when the US became one of only thirteen nations in the world to restrict HIV positive foreign visitors. Martin Rooney was turned back from the U.S. border in Western Canada in 2007, and yesterday he entered without any trouble at all. Rooney is an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS.

(Read Rooney's account of being denied entrance to the U.S. in 2007 and his happy crossing yesterday.)

Air travelers from any of 14 countries specified by the Obama administration will be subjected to extra security procedures if they wish to fly into the U.S. This measure is a direct response to the alleged Christmas Day almost-bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who failed in his attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The countries on the list: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen. Washington correspondent for The New York Times Eric Lipton has been following these developments and he says that many of the countries are accusing the United States of racial and ethnic profiling and calling it unfair. Nuala McGovern, host of the BBC's "World Have Your Say," posed the question– "Can profiling stop terrorism?" – to people from countries on the list, and the responses she got were overwhelming.

A quadriplegic mother is at risk of losing her five-month-old son in a custody battle with the baby's father, who cites her quadriplegia as a reason to deny her custody. Should the courts be involved in such cases? If so, where does ADA regulation end and family law begin? Lisa Belkin introduces us to various custody cases involving parents with disabilities, and Dr. Corinne Vinopol, president of the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training and a hearing officer in disability disputes, shares her insights about parenting, disabilities, and the law. 

Follow along with New York Times' readers at Lisa Belkin's blog post on this story.

All week long, we've been talking about the importance of the 2010 Census. To wrap up these conversations, we invited Nate Persily, professor of law and politics at Columbia University, and Ken Prewitt, the Director of the 2000 Census, to join the conversation. What's at stake -- and will everyone be counted?

First Lieutenant Russell Galeti is one of 30,000 U.S. troops that will deploy to Afghanistan as part of the troop surge ordered by President Obama. We speak to Russell and his wife, Mary Galeti, about how they are planning for Russell's deployment at the end of the month.

It began with a contested election, ended with a new leader promising change, and in between was defined by the threat of terrorism, distrust of the government and the loss of thousands of lives both abroad and on American soil. MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe talks with us about the high and low points of the past ten years in politics, and shares his predictions for what's ahead.

Have you done any thinking "outside the box" this decade, or encountered any "game changers?" Here to tell us more about the catchphrases that became a part of our lexicon in the 2000s is Ron Rosenbaum, columnist for Slate and author of "The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups." He recently wrote an article about the decade's memorable catchphrases. From the innocuous ("Just sayin"), and the smug ("How's that workin' out for you?") to the spiritual ("It is what it is"), and the stylish ("Stay classy").. there's a catchphrase here for everybody, and a surprisingly apt top pick.

Today is New Year's Eve, and that means citizens of the world will be ringing in 2010 when the clock hits midnight. We're leaping through time zones with reporters from across the globe for a look at how some cities are getting ready to celebrate. Tristana Moore is a BBC Correspondent in Munich; Phil Mercer reports for the BBC from Sydney, and Anna Sale is a producer for The Takeaway in New York.  Sale called in from Times Square, where many hundreds of millions around the world will watch the ball drop at midnight EST.