• CONGRESS TAKEOUT:   Some lawmakers may be facing a conflict of interest as they go toe to toe with Toyota executives.  Communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, Dave Levinthal, says many of these lawmakers are stockholders in Toyota.
• OLYMPICS PREVIEW: Jason Stallman, reporting on the Winter Olympics for The New York Times, has the latest from Vancouver and looks ahead to Lindsey Vonn's upcoming race.
• SUPREME COURT: Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, Adam Liptak, explains the Court's latest decision that police may now ad lib the Miranda Rights.

• FINANCIAL TAKEOUT:   The New York Times Wall Street and finance reporter Louise Story joins us with analysis of some of the important economic indicators that came out yesterday.  
• OLYMPICS TAKEOUT: Jason Stallman, Olympics editor for The New York Times brings us the latest sports drama from Vancouver.
• LISTENER TAKEOUT: Our listeners respond to legislative gridlock, saying that the government is only partially to blame and that the American media is just as guilty.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of one of the biggest upsets in the history of sport. In what came to be known as "The Miracle on Ice," the scrappy and determined amateurs of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team upset the best team in the world — the USSR. We relive the memory with the lead scorer in that game, Mark Johnson, who is currently the coach of Team USA's women's ice hockey team.

Vancouver, British Columbia, host of the 2010 Winter Olympics, pulled out all the stops for this year's games — spending approximately $100 million to construct newer, bigger and faster courses for the world’s finest athletes.  But we're discovering bigger isn’t always better.  

With the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony set for later tonight, it seems that all the world is caught up in Olympic fever.  Everyone that is, except for the people of Vancouver, British Columbia who are actually hosting the event.

Vanessa James and Yannick Bonheur found each other online and are now hoping to win a medal for France as the first Black skating team pair to compete.

As the Winter Olympics kick off in Vancouver, we check in with three bloggers who've been following the lead-up to the games for months.

 

It's long been a popular extreme action sport at the Winter X Games. Now ski cross will be included as a new sport at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The sport involves four to six racers who come out of the starting gate together and make a mad dash down the racecourse. U.S. ski cross coach, Tyler Shepherd, says the sport is dangerous, but fun.

Ski jumping has been in the Winter Olympics since the very beginning. Yet in those 86 years there has never been a women’s ski jumping event. That may be about to change. A group of women ski jumpers from all around the globe have formed a coalition and are suing the Vancouver Organizing Committee to try and get women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver, Canada. Deedee Corradini is the president of Women’s Ski Jumping USA as well as the former mayor of Salt Lake City, UT, and was a pivotal part in the city getting the 2002 winter games. She joins The Takeaway with her thoughts on pushing this great leap forward.

To see the masculine side of ski jumping, watch the video below.