GUESTS FOR MONDAY MAY 20, 2013 ON THE JEFF SANTOS SHOW: Obama's Approval Rating Holds Steady Even With Ongoing Investigations
- Tracy Jan, Globe reporter covering national politics, healthcare and education policy from the Washington, D.C. bureau. (Find her at www.bostonglobe.com). In Tracy's recent article: For freshman in Congress, focus is on raising money, New members get the message quickly or they’re gone. It’s a fact of life in a gridlocked capital, she looked at the fundraising requirements for freshmen members of congress (like New Hampshire's Anne McLane Kuster) and a new PAC - "4MAPAC" - created by Joseph P. Kennedy III as a permanent funding mechanism that will allow "him to raise money to distribute to colleagues and party campaign funds".
- John Businger, Former Massachusetts State Rep and chief advocate for the Boston North-South Station rail link. An AMTRAK collision Friday evening (70 injured, no fatalities) has caused rail travel along the east coast to be seriously interrupted. Bostonians and other train travelers north of New Haven are scrambling to make other arrangements. Bus lines like "Lucky Star" with service between Boston and NYC are overflowing. There are limited trains as far south as New Haven, but service between Boston and NYC and from Norwalk to New Haven has been cancelled until further notice. Sections of the New Haven track were bent or destroyed by the accident -- repair work won't begin until after a full investigation of the accident.
- Brad Bannon, CEO, Bannon Communications Research, a Democratic political consulting and polling firm. You can hear brad often on the radio filling in as guest host on the Leslie Marshall Show. Recent polls show that President Obama's general approval rating is still high while at the same time many Americans seem to approve of the GOP's investigations of the IRS, Benghazi and AP "scandals".
- Brian Rosman, Research Director, Health Care For All (HCFA), www.hcfama.org, an organization - based in Massachusetts - seeking to "create a consumer-centered health care system that provides comprehensive, affordable, accessible, culturally competent, high quality care and consumer education for everyone, especially the most vulnerable." States are gearing up for implementation of health care exchanges in their states. Some will design their own plans and some have opted to join and take advantage of the Federal health exchange system. Many are looking to the Massachusetts plan as a model, but the Federal health exchange plan WILL NOT have some of the consumer protections that are available to Massachusetts residents seeking healthcare.
- Earl Bender, President of Avenel Associates and political strategist at Totten Communications and regular contributor to the Jeff Santos Show

GUESTS FOR THURSDAY MAY 16, 2013 ON THE JEFF SANTOS SHOW: State Visits at the White House but it's all about the "Scandals"
- Jim Warren, Washington Correspondent for the New York Daily News, reporting from his home town of Chicago today. The president is embroiled in "scandal" over the IRS, AP phone record seizures and Benghazi. How should he respond? Read Jim's latest blog post on "The Swamp" here.
- John Businger, Former Massachusetts State Rep, serving the Town of Brookline for almost 30 years & Chief Advocate for the Boston North-South Station Rail Link. The Earth crossed a big climate threshold this week: The ratio of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has surpassed 400 parts per million in an average daily reading, the highest concentration of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas in millions of years. John will talk about the connection between transportation and climate change - we need to think big.
- Joe Sestak, former Navy Vice Admiral and former Congressman from Pennsylvania. The Benghazi investigation and "scandal" - how do we remove the politics to get down to the real facts? Other things are on the back burner because of all of the "scandal" talk this week, but we still have Syria to deal with, and the President has been receiving heads of state as visitors this week.
- Rick Harnish, Executive Director, Midwest High Speed Rail Association, which is holding events this week to celebrate their 20th anniversary as "the nation’s oldest and largest non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to high-speed rail". Some positive Rail News: "Illinois, Indiana and Michigan have agreed to move forward with a comprehensive study that will help determine ways to reduce rail congestion and let trains achieve higher speeds along the Chicago-to-Detroit high-speed rail corridor."

GUESTS FOR TUESDAY MAY 14, 2013 ON THE JEFF SANTOS SHOW:
- John Sapochetti, long time Jeff Santos Show contributor and co-host of the Bawstin Diehards on AM 1510 Boston. NHL Playoff Hockey - Round 1 is done! The Boston Bruins are moving on after a miraculous comeback in game 7 last night, scoring 3 goals in 8 minutes to beat a 4-1 lead by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Patrice Bergeron scored the game-winning goal in OT and the Bruins advance to play the New York Rangers. First game is Thursday May 16 at TD Garden in Boston.
- Jerry Austin, award-winning political consultant who has worked for many candidates over the years, including as Jesse Jackson's 1988 Presidential Campaign Manager discusses the news of the day - Congress, Benghazi, IRS "abuse of power" investigation, Cleveland kidnapping, and more!

GUESTS FOR MONDAY MAY 13, 2013 ON THE JEFF SANTOS SHOW:
- Scott Bates, President of the Center for National Policy (a partner of the Truman National Security Project). Scott is also the Police Commissioner of Stonington, CT and a former Senior Policy Advisor to the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. He will comment on the Benghazi hearing last week and continuing questions directed at the Administration by some members of congress. President Obama at a press conference today said that the idea of a coverup over the Benghazi attack "defies logic".
- John Businger, Former Massachusetts State Rep, serving the Town of Brookline for almost 30 years. In the Markey-Gomez Massachusetts Senate race: Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez is coming under fire for taking a questionable $281K tax deduction on his home - for NOT doing something that he wasn't allowed to do anyway! - altering the facade of his historic Cohasset mansion.
- John Nichols, Washington Correspondent for the Nation Magazine - coming to us from New York City today... he'll talk about the Benghazi "investigation" and the IRS's alleged "abuse of power" -- the President said today that it would be "outrageous" if the IRS has been targeting conservative 501(c)4 organizations, as charged and anyone found to have done so will be held accountable. John's latest article at the Nation Magazine looks at Rep Keith Ellison's proposal for a Constitutional "Right To Vote".
- Earl Bender, President of Avenel Associates and political strategist at Totten Communications. Earl is a regular contributor to the Jeff Santos Show and has been working in politics since his time serving with the Carter Administration.