On Monday’s NewsHour…

Analysis of President Obama’s proposals to help middle class Americans leads the program tonight, followed by aid to Haiti, how strong is al-Qaida?, Midwestern states fight over invasive fish species, and a song about Vladimir Putin.

MIDDLE CLASS AID PROPOSAL – The Obama administration rolled out new proposals to help middle class Americans, including doubling the child care tax credit, student loan aid, and help with elder care. We get the views of Robert Reich, professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley- he served as Secretary Of Labor under President Clinton, and Martin Feldstein, professor of economics at Harvard University and president emeritus at the National Bureau Of Economic Research- he was President Reagan’s chief economic adviser.

AID TO HAITI – Ray Suarez interviews Paul Farmer, the U.N. Deputy Special Envoy, who is traveling to an international donor conference in Montreal to help coordinate and sustain aid.

HOW STRONG IS AL-QAIDA? – Margaret Warner talks to Luis Rueda, who spent 28 years in the CIA and was deputy director for counter-intelligence at the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center. He retired on Jan. 1, on the heels of the foiled Christmas Day airliner attack — and the successful, and deadly, double-agent attack on a remote CIA outpost in Afghanistan.

GIANT CARP INVASION- NewsHour Correspondent Tom Bearden reports on a very big fish story about the battle among Midwestern states over a growing threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem.

A SONG ABOUT PUTIN – Finally, a story about the coming together of journalism and music from Russia where the most popular political song since the fall of the Soviet Union is called “A Man Like Putin.” The piece is part of new PBS program called Sound Tracks.

WEB-ONLY – Hari Sreenivasan highlights new feature on the site, including: web dispatches from Ray Suarez and extended excerpts from our interview with Paul Farmer;
Haitian-American poet Patrick Sylvain reads “Port of Sorrows” written after the earthquake; an update on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s moves to jumpstart his country’s economy by devaluing the currency from Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue; and an introduction to our experimental state of the union project. On Wednesday night, you’ll be able to read analysis and background during the speech, then submit your own reaction videos to our YouTube channel — and send your comments to our blog.