Today, we take a look at House Speaker John Boehner's complex position between President Obama and conservatives. Plus. Actress Ashley Judd is exploring a possible run for the Senate in 2014, one man hopes to transform billboard ads into living ecosystems, Obama meets with tribal leaders and much more.
House Speaker Boehner walks fine line between Obama, conservatives
Last night, President Obama doubled down on his insistence that any proposal must include an agreement to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans. He rejected a proposal put forth by the Republican House Speaker John Boehner, that would have raised $800 billion in revenue by closing tax loopholes and scrapping some deductions.
But while the plan didn't go far enough for President Obama, it did raise the ire of some conservatives who accused Speaker Boehner of selling them out.
For more on this we turn to Billy House, Congressional reporter for National Journal.
Actress Ashley Judd exploring a possible run for Senate in 2014
Would you vote for Senator Ashley Judd? The actress is currently exploring a 2014 run against Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.
The actress has been an outspoken advocate for causes ranging from AIDS education to environmental matters, and in 2010 she completed her master's in public administration from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She also served as a campaign surrogate for President Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Could she be a viable candidate? Ted Johnson, managing editor of Variety, joins the show to clue us in on the likelihood that Judd has a shot at the Senate.
Tribal leaders meet with Obama, express concern over 'fiscal cliff'
Today hundreds of tribal leaders are meeting with President Obama for the fourth annual White House Tribal Summit.
With more is Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press Race and Ethnicity reporter
The Insourcing Boom: More US manufacturers moving operations back home
It's become a given in this country that manufacturing jobs that once powered the middle-class are gone; outsourced offshore to countries with lower wages.
No one in corporate America seemed to question the strategy, design stuff here, send it overseas to be built. But now that's changing, and an increasing number of manufacturers are finding that outsourcing isn't a magic bullet.
Instead, they are finding they can actually make stuff right here in the U.S., and do it cheaper and more efficiently, even with higher labor costs.
Journalist Charles Fishman writes about this 'insourcing boom' in the December issue of The Atlantic magazine.
What is the economic impact of the Los Angeles/Long Beach port strike?
A tentative deal to end the labor dispute that shut down the ports. Clerical workers at the at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will return to work today after a week-long strike.
The tentative agreement was reached last night, amid growing concern about the economic impact of the shut down. The ports handle about 40 percent of all U.S. imports and the strike threatened business interests ranging from retail to industrial.
Jock O'Connell is an international trade economist and advisor to Beacon Economics.
Education experts say children's books need to show more diversity
Every parent knows how important reading is to their child's development, and kids are more likely to read if they're given books they relate to.
But if you're a Latino parent your kids face a challenge. Education experts say there aren't enough non-white kids represented in the books children are assigned to read.
And in a country where nearly a quarter of the public-school population is Latino, this is a problem. We have Motoko Rich, education reporter for the New York Times, here to explain.
One man's mission to preserve endangered avocados
The humble avocado is a staple in Latin America, but it's also become quite popular in Southern California, and is used with amazing versatility in kitchens all over the globe.
You can make avocado smoothies, ice cream, you can smear it on toast or even use it as a beauty aid to condition your hair or skin. And let's not forget about guacamole. While there seems to be enough avocados to go around, some breeds of the fruit are in danger. Luckily there are people working to save this precious, and delicious, resource.
Richard Campbell is one of the Tropical Fruit Curators at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Florida, and he's traveled the world to find and preserve rare avocados.
"The problem is that the avocado really is endangered," said Campbell on Take Two. "Due to disease, habitat loss, and market loss, they really are endangered and their varieties are dropping off the planet at an alarming rate."
Campbell and his team are particularly interested in large, smooth, green or black-skinned varieties of avocados, not the common pebbly-skinned black Hass variety so common in U.S. markets. Campbell travels to places like Indonesia, Africa, Central and South America, and even in parts of the U.S. like Florida and California, where the fruit does considerably well.
"[We search] anywhere where people grow the West Indian-type avocado," said Campbell. "These are lowland fruit from the Caribbean and from the tropics, essentially. Everybody has a backyard tree, we talk to people that sell their fruit in local markets, find the tree and talk to the people about saving them."
But first, he must gain the trust of the avocado sellers. He usually goes through a kind of fixer. Basically, a person who markets the fruit and knows the owners and locations of all the different varieties of avocado trees in the area.
"Otherwise you're shooting in the dark, if you just go into a market it won't work because the people in the markets are always thinking you're there to shut them down or you represent the government," said Campbell. "They always think you're doing something nefarious."
Though it takes some time to earn the trust of the tree owners, Campbell says they usually come around because they have the same interest in mind. The avocado owners want to market and sell their produce and Campbell's team wants to preserve as many breeds as possible in their genetic bank.
Once Campbell has samples of each avocado, including pieces of the tree's branch, he grafts the plant with a seedling tree in South Florida, which is frost-free and is the perfect climate for avocados to thrive. He also has living collections in Central America, typically located at a school or near a local park. That way the local people, especially the children, learn to appreciate the fruit and continue to cultivate it in their village.
"That's part of the big problem, with this material disappearing, they don't really realize the value of this material, and so if we can put it with the schools and work with the schools to teach the kids that this is a good resource for their village," said Campbell. "That way there's a backup in case something happens."
The ultimate cruise for science nerds to contemplate the Mayan Apocalypse
Tick, tick, tick ... that's the sound of the clock counting down to the end of the world.
That is of course if you believe in the apocalyptic Mayan prophecy that says that it's all over on December 21st.
As the last thing you ever do, consider joining astronomer Doug Duncan on his "The Not The End Of The World Cruise" around the Caribbean.
Remembering jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck, the legendary composer and jazz pianist died today, after suffering heart failure on his way to a cardiologist appointment. Tomorrow would have been his 92nd birthday.
His career dates back to the 1950s, his "West Coast cool" sound helped change the face of jazz in America. In 1959 his quartet released the seminal work "Time Out."
We asked our friends on Facebook to tell us their favorite Dave Brubeck songs. Here are some of their choices, and feel free to tell us yours in the comments!
It was the first jazz album to sell a million copies and is considered one the greatest jazz albums of all time.
Tim Jackson, artistic director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, joins the show to talk about Dave Brubeck's music and his career.