Its candidate week.  Today we will be talking to Bruce Slater (PA-16) and Phil Avillo (PA-19) as they run to unseat incumbents Joe Pitts and Todd Platts.  We will also be talking poverty and the middle class squeeze as Alison Frick for the Center for American Progress joins us to talk about gas prices. 

Daniel J. Kane was sworn in as the United Mine Workers of America International Secretary Treasurer on August 20, 2004. Kane had previously served as International Executive Board member, representing UMWA District 2 since 1985. Dane Kane will be talking about the legislation working its way through the Pennsylvania legislature to help keep miners safe. Is this legislation good, bad, or just lip service.

William E. Scheuerman, President

Prior to assuming the presidency of the National Labor College in October 1, 2007, Dr. William E. Scheuerman served since 1993 as president of the United University Professions (UUP), the largest public higher education union in the nation, representing 33,000 academic and professional faculty, and an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In July 2006, Dr. Scheuerman became the first AFT officer from higher education to serve on AFT's Executive Committee. Dr. Scheuerman is the author of numerous scholarly works including two books--The Steel Crisis, in 1986, and Private Interests, Public Spending with Sid Plotkin, in 1994, which examined the political origins of the fiscal crisis and organized labor's response. He serves on the boards of several public interest organization boards and is a member of the editorial boards for AFT's American Academic journal and the journal Working USA. President Scheuerman earned his B.A. in public administration from the City College of New York, an M.A. in political science from Queens College and his Ph.D. in political science from the Graduate School of the City University of New York.

Stephanie Phillips will introduce her new song, "Yes We Can" which can be seen here.

Dan Kane, Internation Secretary-Treasurer for the United Mine 

Workers of America will be on air discussing the latest attacks

 on workers safety and health as the PA legislature move a 

bill through its chambers

Rachele Huennekens, AFL-CIO Media Outreach Coordinator, 

will be quickly describing a new video about what is happening

 to Working Americans, home foreclosures, soaring health care 

costs, jobs sent overseas, you know the rest -- and how we can

 stop this backsliding and point our country back in the right 

direction.   It's called the "Turn Around America" video contest,

 and the public is invited to submit online videos in any creative

 form that will answer the question of how to turn our country 

around, through May 20.  There will be national winners, who

win $2,000, and winners from selected cities/metro areas 

around the country including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, 

who win $1,000.  The winning videos will also e featured on 

national and local TV spots.

Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO Director of Safety and Health will be 

on hand to talk about Workers Memorial Day and the annual 

"Death on the Job" report. 

The conservatives have proven that their ideas on running our government, our military, our schools, our economy and our society are corrupt and dangerous. Their candidate is a carbon copy of the miserable failure who currently inhabits 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue so distract the American people and get the conservative base all tingly in the panties they have rolled out more divisive, hate filled legislation designed to divide us with more gay bashing. This time working people have had enough. Stacey Sobel, executive director of Equality Advocates will be on air talking about what this tactic is not going to work and what her group is doing to make sure conservative fail at using this issue to divide us even further. Failure, the conservative way

Ben Stein of Win Ben Stein's Money fame has attempted to be like Mike, Michael Moore that is. Ben Stein is taking on the science community over Intelligent Design, in fact his calling the science community a bunch of Nazis. Josh Rosenau, Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education will help sift through the Stein propaganda and dispel the myths that Ben's movie Expelled promotes.

Presidential Politics Abound. We are counting the hours until the big showdown as Pennsylvania casts its vote in deciding who will be the Democratic Presidential Nominee.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton will be talking about her historic run for the White House and MA Senator Ted Kennedy will be talking about Barack Obama and why Senator Kennedy supports him.

Ron Buxton, State Representative from the 103rd legislative district.

Camilo Romero will be on to talk about the Colombian Free Trade Agreement's fortunate demise and what soda king Coke is doing to the planet.

Gerald W. McEntee, International President of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), will be talking presidential politics and telling us why his union has supported Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

We’ll also be talking Freedom Planes as William A. Barksdale, Tanker Communications Manager for Boeing gives the inside scoop on how a French company got a defense contract to provide our military with refueling planes and what we can do to turn the plane around.

Tanya Clay House, Director of Public Policy at People For the American Way will be on hand to talk about voter disenfranchisement and what tricks the republicans are planning for November.

Kerri Houston

Senior Analyst
Alliance for American Manufacturing

Often referred to as “a force of nature” by fellow free market activists, Kerri Houston is a public policy consultant and expert in coalition building, messaging, and external relations on public policy issues.

Ms. Houston was most recently vice president of policy for Frontiers of Freedom, advocating free market solutions to a wide range of public policy reforms, as well as political and national defense issues. She continues her affiliation with the public policy community as a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Liberty.

Ms. Houston also works as a public policy and public affairs consultant specializing in coalition and stakeholder management, messaging, and issue advocacy for private clients.

Lori Todaro's

child is suffering from a rare pediatric disease will be talking about her fight to get the help her child needs and how you can help get the Nino Act passed so children in this country can survive and succeed.

Mary Kay Rauenzahn