Madoff Victim

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Ronnie Sue Ambrosino and her husband lost their $1.66 million dollar life savings with Bernard Madoff. She wants the judge hearing Madoff’s case to reject his Madoff’s expected guilty plea until Madoff says where the money is and who helped him steal it from clients. She now runs the Bernard Madoff Victims Support Group.

Public Pension Plans

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Pension funds are woefully underfunded, by some estimate carrying up to $2.9 trillion of liability. We talk to David Evans, senior writer at Bloomberg Markets, about how we got into this situation and whether there’s any way out of it.

Teaching Kids Financial Literacy

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Public school students in Tennessee don’t just learn how to balance a checkbook, but how to plan for retirement and negotiate a car payment, too. Les Greer, who teaches at Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tennessee jois us to review a lesson plan.

Security in Iraq

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Two fatal suicide attacks in the Baghdad area over the last week have some worried about security there, and what this means for President Obama’s order to end American combat operations and have soldiers out by the end of 2011. Bobby Ghosh, senior editor at Time Magazine joins us.

Return of the Troubles?

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Thousands of people are attending vigils today in Northern Ireland following the murders of two British soldiers and a policeman. Dissident elements of the Irish Republican Army, which opposes the peace process in Northern Ireland have claimed responsibility for the killings. We speak to the BBC’s Audrey Carville.

• Read today’s editorial in the Belfast Telegraph.

(Kathy Gunst) Winter salad, roasted brussel sprouts and braised chicken.

Pepping up Winter Cooking

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Here and Now’s resident chef Kathy Gunst has suggestions for ways to pep up late winter cuisine with ingredients like lime, ginger, and coconut milk that she says add a lot of value for not a lot of money.

• See recipes and more photos

Music From the Show

• The Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place”
• The Lickets, “A Crowd of Pimps in the Rain”
• Nathan Milstein, “J.S. Bach, Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin”
• Radiohead, “There, There”
• Massive Attack, “Future Proof”
• Charles Mingus, “Pedal Point Blues”
• Junior Walker and the All-Stars, “Home Cookin’”