• Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today expressed happiness and relief at the release of two journalists, on whose behalf her husband, former President Bill Clinton, sought amnesty from North Korea. North Korea pardoned Laura Ling and Euna Lee after the former US president arrived in Pyongyang.

• After a “pep talk” from President Obama, Senate Dems said yesterday they believe Congress will pass a bipartisan health care bill this year. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) now says the Dem senators are ready to “take on the world.”

• Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is expected to ask the Obama administration for additional troops and equipment for conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as more military resources to deal with roadside bombs and explosives.

• Paula Abdul announced yesterday that she will not be returning to American Idol when the show debuts its ninth season early next year.

• GOP Strategist and proprietor of Mullings.com Rich Galen calls in at 7:30am Pacific to give us the GOP view of the President’s overseas trip and Sotomayor’s nomination.

• President Obama promised today to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools, and summer youth programs. Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will effect a continuing rise in the nation’s unemployment.

• North Korea’s top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison today, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the U.S. One of the journalists sentenced is Laura Ling, sister of former “The View” host Lisa Ling.

• With 17 bodies pulled so far from the Atlantic, Brazilian and French military ships have no doubt they’ve located the wreckage of an Air France flight a week after it disappeared en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

• Indiana pension funds and consumer groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to stop the sale of bankrupt automaker Chrysler to a group led by Italian carmaker Fiat while they challenge the deal.