The buildings around Venice's most famous public square, Piazza San Marco, are crumbling. Chunks of buildings are falling off. A possible solution has tourists and locals a little nervous. Megan Williams reports.

The size of the stimulus package under the Obama administration still isn't known, and whether it's going to work any better, we don't know yet, either. But commentator Susan Lee thinks there's a way to help Congress be smarter about how the money gets spent.

President-elect Obama has been fairly guarded in his pronouncements as to what ought to be done with the economy before he takes office, even as some in both parties are calling for him to be more involved. Kai Ryssdal gets some perspective from James Thurber of American University.