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"Now we think not only us are going to have to review our sense of comfort. I am not very comfortable." says Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers union. Gerard himself was once a union representative at a facility that mined and refined uranium, and he represents many workers in such dangerous conditions across the country today. The USW has long been part of the Blue-Green Alliance, creating a labor-environmentalist coalition, but stopped short of calling for an end to nuclear power--but will that change after Japan? Leo joins Laura via Skype to discuss the crisis in Japan, the situation of the workers there, and why this crisis is linked to workers' protests around the US. Republicans have NPR and PBS in their sights once again, and once again progressives and media reformers have to fight for every penny that public media gets. Just how many pennies is that, though? Sally Kohn of Movement Vision puts that funding in perspective in this video. "You see this coming together of networks of educated people—I call them the graduates with no future—with the urban poor, with sometimes organized labor. This mixture is there everywhere the protests have been," says Paul Mason, Economics editor of BBC Newsnight and author of Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global. Mason notes that from student protests in London to workers in Wisconsin, revolution in Tunisia to uprising in Libya, many of the same characteristics are visible. Paul joins Laura in studio for a conversation about the global protest movement, the role of social media, what different areas have in common, and much more. You can see Paul and Laura along with Cornel West and Barbara Ehrenreich in New York on Friday night at the opening plenary of the Left Forum--more information here! Finally, the US Government paid $2.3 million to have CIA contractor Raymond Davis freed in Pakistan. But what are other lives worth--or other jobs? Distributed by Tubemogul.

It might be the greatest bait and switch ever pulled on the American voter. For two successive election cycles we've been promised jobs, a recovering economy, attention to the Constitution. After the last one, triumphant Republican after triumphant Republican declared November's to be an election decided on jobs. Well I don't know what jobs you had in mind, but I'll bet most voters weren't thinking axe wielder or culture warrior. But suddenly all we're getting is tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for everyone else, and no jobs, unless you happen to be paid for pursuing abortion doctors. Distributed by Tubemogul.

Sean Bell was shot by New York City police officers four years ago on the night before his wedding day. This summer, the city settled the case against it, agreeing to pay $7 million to Bell's family and friends, including his two children. But settlement dollars aren't enough to fundamentally change police departments around the country, from Oakland to New Orleans to right here in New York. Zaire Baptiste was a friend of Bell's, and is working on a documentary about the life the media likes to ignore, and Sunita Patel is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. They both join us in studio to discuss Bell's death, and what's really needed to change a policing strategy that relies on racial profiling and fundamental disregard for life--for certain lives, anyway. Trinidad, Colorado saw one of the country's bloodiest labor battles in 1913-1914, during the legendary coal miner's strike there. Now a new documentary, Way Down In The Hole, looks at the conflicts that led to the violence, between laborers and bosses, organizers, immigrants, agents for hire, and more.

Violence abounded in the anarchic days right after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and new evidence continues to come out, even five years later, that the New Orleans police department was responsible for much of it. Investigative reporter A.C. Thompson covered "Katrina's Hidden Race War" for The Nation and helped bring attention--and accountability--to the crimes committed by officers in the days after the storm. Thompson continues to cover this beat as a reporter with ProPublica, and he joins us in studio to discuss the ongoing investigations uncovering, little by little, just what happened after the hurricane. Jacques Morial, co-director of the Louisiana Justice Institute, also joins us via phone. Look out for much, much more coverage of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina coming in the next couple of weeks from GRITtv.