The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His new show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET.

Brad is first joined by Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions.  Heidi leads EPI’s policy team, which monitors wage and employment policies coming out of Congress and the administration and advances a worker-first policy agenda. 

Brad and Heidi discuss how nearly one in five workers applied for state unemployment insurance benefits in the last seven weeks, which is nearly five times the worst seven-week stretch of the Great Recession.  They also talk about what type of economic relief package that the government should be working on to help the American people who are financially struggling thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and why the relief should not include any arbitrary end dates.

The website for EPI is epi.org and their Twitter handle is @EconomicPolicy.  Heidi's handle is @hshierholz.

During the second half of the show, Brad is joined by Ed Chung, Vice President for Criminal Justice Reform at the Center for American Progress, where he co-hosts 'The Tent' Podcast.  Before working at CAP, he served as Senior Adviser on criminal justice, policing, and civil rights issues for the Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Chung also held positions in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, including special counsel to the assistant attorney general and federal prosecutor with the Criminal Section, where he received the John Marshall Award for successfully prosecuting the first case under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.
Some of our audience will also recognize Ed's voice, as he has guest hosted Leslie's show a number of times in the past

Brad and Ed discuss two different topics during their interview.  First, they cover the Justice Department’s decision to drop the criminal case against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser.  Experts have noted how there is no obvious precedent to a case being dropped after a suspect has plead guilty to lying to investigators, which Flynn did twice.  Second, Brad and Ed talk about the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery murder.  Arbery, a black man, was chased by two white men and shot dead by one of them.  Arbery was jogging and unarmed when killed.  It took authorities 74 days to arrest the suspects, and only after a video of the killing was leaked to the media.

The website for the Center for American Progress is AmericanProgress.org and their Twitter handle is @amprog. Ed Chung's handle is @EdChungDC.

Brad writes a column every Sunday on the 2020 Presidential race for 'The Hill.'  He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles.
You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His Twitter handle is @BradBannon.

Watch a video broadcast of this episode here: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1jMJgQpkaoyKL