The news hit hard for the men and women at military installations around the country. The Pentagon submitted its recommendations to the “BRAC,” or Base Realignment and Closure commission late last week.

These changes were months in the making. The Department of Defense says they are critical to making its fighting force leaner and more flexible. But many in the cities and towns where these bases say the closures will kill their economies and hurt their communities. They point to the closures in 1988, 1992 and 1995 which left some communities reeling.

So while the nation’s military tries to downsize and realign itself in the South and the West, where land is cheaper and the neighbors friendlier, many wonder if these new cuts go too far, or not far enough.

Guests:

Captain William D McDonough, former shipyard commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard;Nathan Hill, Military Liaison for the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce

Jeremiah Gertler, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Tim Ford, Executive Director, Association for Defense Communities.

The bomb that killed Lebanon’s former prime minister triggered political changes that are still reverberating from Beirut to Damascus.

Reporter Kate Seelye heard the explosion that killed Rafik Hariri and has been on the story for the past three months, watching and filming the demonstrations that followed. Seelye also tracked the Syrian troops as they left Lebanon. She talked with government leaders and political dissidents.

In a new documentary, she looks at the future of democracy in both those countries — one still bearing the scars of civil war and the other still struggling under authoritarian rule. It’s a story that also raises important new questions about the role of the United States in the region.

Guests:

Ammar Abdulhamid, Syrian novelist and founder of DarEmar, an NGO dedicated to raising civic awareness in the Arab World

Kate Seelye, reporter for Frontline/World, her broadcast from Syria and Lebanon airs on PBS on May 17.

It’s 2005, do you know where your pension is? Since a Chicago court approved United Airlines’ request to terminate its employee pension plans, the once secure road to retirement just took a turn for the worse.

This isn’t the first time pension plans have been in the spotlight –years ago the steel industry cut benefits as a way to avoid bankruptcy, and many believe that the automotive industry is next in line to do the same.

United is the largest pension default in the nation’s history, and some say it spells the end of employer support for retirement. As long as companies are allowed to break faith with their workers and renege on pension promises, more and more Americans are going to have to go it alone when it comes to retirement.

Guests:

Elizabeth Warren, Professor at Harvard Law School and author of “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan”

Jeff Heisey, Flight Attendant for United Airlines, and member of the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)

and TBA.

America sends its sons and daughters off to war with parades, fanfare and the hope, the expectation of the soldiers’ return. Then families and friends watch and wait for words from loved ones fighting in some distant land.

The letters home from soldiers are records of war that rarely make the history books. Raw, personal and unsanitized, these letters show us conflict through human eyes. The anxious note scribbled in a foxhole or the heartfelt missives to the family of a fallen comrade reveal all the emotions of war — the fear, the horror, and the sense of triumph.

They are the written records of the best, and worst of war. They are a window on the humanity of the people who fight and the civilians caught in the middle.

Guests:

Andrew Carroll, author of “Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters and One Man’s Search to Find Them.”

The political fight over John Bolton, Bush’s pick for U.N. Ambassador, is not over yet. Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved his nomination without recommendation — a rare move that reflects how Bolton’s famously blunt and undiplomatic behavior has failed to win the hearts of minds of moderate Republicans.

Now the vote moves onto the Senate floor where many expect a fierce fight and more partisan debate. Despite more stories of his bad behavior and willingness to “interpret” intelligence to fit his political views, the White House is showing no signs of backing down. President Bush is making it clear he will do whatever it takes to win the battle over Bolton.

Guests:

Constanze Stelzenmueller, Germany Marshall Fund

Catherine Bertini, former UN Undersecretary-General for Management and former Executive Director for the United Nation’s World Food Program

Elaine Shannon, Time Magazine Correspondent.

Some scientists have coined a new word to describe the age we are living in. They call it the anthropocene — or age of man — because of the dramatic way that humans are changing the planet.

Look at the evidence for global warming: nearly every major glacier in the world is shrinking, the permafrost is melting, sea levels are rising and the earth’s surface is getting hotter. But what is frightening many scientists is the speed of these changes — and the fear that it will be impossible to reverse them.

The writer Elizabeth Kolbert traveled around the world, talking to the people and places most affected by melting ice, warmer oceans, and raging forest fires. She says that Americans are among the only people in the world not to make the links between their own actions and the changing climate.

Guests:

Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “The Climate of Man”

Tony Weyiouanna, Transportation Manager for the village of Shishmaref, Alaska.

Some in Congress are leaning on China to raise the value of its currency — to stop linking it to the U.S. Dollar. They say this move will help stop U.S. job losses. But are Americans also ready to say goodbye to cheap stuff?

Yesterday a botched English translation of a Chinese news story about the fate of China’s currency made its way into the financial news, and cost some traders a lot of money. The frenzy the false news set off is a sign of how closely Beijing’s bankers are being watched as they consider breaking the link between their currency and the U.S. dollar.

It is not just traders who have an interest in this story. Ordinary people here in this country have a real stake in what China decides to do with its currency. And that is why politicians of all stripes have started a campaign to try and pressure Beijing to raise the value of its currency — hoping that will help stave off job losses here at home. But some warn such a move may hurt the economic future of both countries.

Guests:

Ted Fishman, author of China Inc. and contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine;Peter Morici, Professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland;Mark Headley, president of Matthews International Capital Management.

Say goodbye to the Nepal that once was: the trekker’s paradise, the peaceful Kingdom in the Clouds. The ongoing battle between the country’s king and thousands of Maoist rebels is pushing the country to the brink of all out war.

It is a conflict that has left more than 10,000 dead and many more Nepalese displaced — this for people in a country that is already one of Asia’s poorest. From both sides, the army and the rebels, there are numerous reports of torture, abduction, extortion, and murder, particularly in the villages distant from the capital Katmandu. In fact most of the country is under the control of the Maoists.

While the international community has done little to intervene in this conflict, some say that Nepal — nestled as it is between India and China — has the potential to destabilize all of South Asia.

Guests:

Eliza Griswold, freelance journalist who has covered conflicts in Congo, the Middle East, and Colombia, author of the article “It’s Not Easy Here in Katmandu” in the current issue of Harper’s Magazine

Anup Pahari, teaches Nepali Language and Culture at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington

Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times

News from Iraq this morning is of more bloodshed: 60 dead in five separate bomb attacks. Along the Syrian border, U.S. Marines encountered enemy positions last week and are still fighting the most pitched battle since the fall of Falluja. The U.S. military is rethinking its Iraq strategy. An insurgency once thought to be run by former regime loyalists is now being labeled as “Iraqi jihadists and foreign troops” — young men and old money streaming across the borders. But why? To fight against the infidels and prove the Americans are either unable or unwilling to secure the peace? Or is it something more sinister, Sunni Arabs using the confusion to make specific attacks against Iraqi Shiites? Identifying the opposition, the holy and the unholy alliances of the Iraq insurgency.

Guests:

Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor reporter in Baghdad

Hiwa Osman, Training Director for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Molly Bingham, photographer, World Picture News Agency

Ali Al-Ahmed, political analyst and Director, The Saudi Institute

Salameh Nematt,Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Hayat International Arab Daily

What should be taught in science class? It is a battle that is being fought in school districts nationwide — from Darwin to Intelligent Design — biology teachers, parents, and students are fighting once again over evolution.

The Kansas school board could make a decision as early as next month that will change the state’s science standards. Georgia and Pennsylvania recently voted to change their science curriculums to teach alternative theories on how life began.

While critics say it is an age old battle to get religion into the school system, both sides agree this latest round of debate is reflecting the changing culture in the country. Those determined to defend evolution are facing a new and emboldened group determined to include ideas of religion in biology class. Darwin, and the Design of the American classroom.

Guests:

Harry McDonald, Biology teacher and President of Kansas Citizens for Science

Roger Dehart, biology teacher at Oaks Christian High School in CA

David Klepper, reporter for the Kansas City Star