On this day, one year ago, President Obama signed into law a $787 billion bill that was supposed to create jobs and kick the economy into gear. Has the stimulus package, as it's known, lived up to its promise? For a reality check, we turn to Chris Cillizza National Politics reporter for the Washington Post, he also writes the paper's blog "The Fix."

How are mayors dealing with huge cuts in revenue? In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Mayor Lionel Rivera and the city council are cutting services to the bone after residents voted down a property tax hike. Now, Colorado Springs is eliminating night and weekend bus service, turning off some street lights and even asking residents to help mow the lawn at community parks. In Muncie, Indiana, Mayor Sharon McShurley doesn't want to raise taxes, but is enthusiastically looking for ways to streamline government. In Pell City, Alabama, Mayor Bill Hereford and the city council just raised the sales tax from nine to ten percent. We hear from all the mayors on how they are making tough choices during difficult economic times.

The BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports on a new law going into effect in Spain that bans, before ten o'clock at night, the broadcasting of TV ads that promote beauty products and treatments that suggest surgical or chemical ways to achieve a perfect body. The law was prompted by concern that the ads were fueling a rise in eating disorders in young people.

The Chinese government is objecting strongly to President Obama's planned meeting with the Tibetan leader tomorrow. It's the latest in a series of tense exchanges between Washington and Beijing, and analysts are asking if behind the exchanges lies a newly confident China asserting itself as it continues to grow, while the U.S. economy remains weak. We speak with James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic Magazine. Fallows' writings on China have been collected in the book, "Postcards From Tomorrow Square."

Art and culture critic Dave Hickey says beauty is what gives you pleasure, but beauty is dangerous because it grabs you and takes you where it is going, even if that is not where you would like to go. Hickey's manifesto, "The Invisible Dragon: Essays on Beauty," has been revised and re-issued with a new chapter on beauty and American democracy.

• Medeski, Martin and Wood, "Bloody Oil"
• Paul Simon, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"
• Christian McBride, "Brother Mister"
• Peter Dixon, "Nagog Woods"
• Steve Earle, "Transcendental Blues"