We can’t have a strong country without strong infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Josh and Vanessa Ellis and their 8-month-old son Hudson were killed after debris from a highway overpass in Bonney Lake, Washington fell onto their pickup truck as they were driving through.

According to authorities, a large piece of concrete barrier fell from the overpass onto the Ellis’ truck. The overpass was undergoing a construction project at the time. The tragic deaths of Josh, Vanessa and Hudson Ellis are yet another reminder that America’s infrastructure is literally crumbling.

Take our nation’s bridges and tunnels for example.

Right now, there are over 600,000 bridges in America that have been labeled as “structurally deficient.” In 2007, a bridge collapse on I-35 in Minneapolis killed 13 people and injured 145 others.

In 2013, a bridge on I-5 in Washington State collapsed, sending 3 people plunging into a river. Luckily, they were all rescued. And, in 2006, a section of concrete ceiling panels in Boston’s Fort Point Channel Tunnel fell on a car, killing a passenger in that car and severely injuring the driver.

But it’s not just our bridges and tunnels that are in disrepair. All across America, roads are buckling, electrical grids are failing, and transport systems are aging.

The richest country in the world is looking more and more like a developing nation each day.

The situation is so bad that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America a D+ overall rating on its 2013 infrastructure report card.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... The Secret Stingray Case You Need To Know About (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Big Picture Politics Panel:
- Scott Greer, The Daily Caller
- Andrea Miller, People Demanding Action (PDA)
- Nathan Leamer, R Street Institute

Best of the Rest: BP Gulf disaster Victims Are Suing the Czar
- Dahr Jamail, Truthout

Screwed: The Secret Stingray Case You Need To Know About
- Shahid Buttar, Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)

Tuesday's Daily Stack

Article: "Corporations now spend more lobbying Congress than taxpayers spend funding Congress" by Ezra Klein.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Article: "The Super Rich Have a New Way to Buy Elections" by Robert Faturechi and Jonathan Stray.

Quote: "Less government in business and more business in government" - Warren Harding.

Quote: "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power" - Franklin D. Roosevelt", April 29, 1938.

Article: "Sherman Antitrust Act", 1890.

Article: "David Koch Signals a Favorite: Scott Walker" by Nicholas Confessore.

Article: "This 32-Year-Old Florida Woman Is Dead Because Her State Refused To Expand Medicaid" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "Loretta Lynch 'led the nation' on human trafficking despite Republican standoff" by Tom McCarthy.

Article: "6 Baltimore police officers suspended in Freddie Gray case" by Jayne Miller.

Article: "Mindfulness as effective as pills for treating recurrent depression - study" by Sarah Boseley.

Article: "Japan's maglev train breaks world speed record with 600km/h test run" by Justin McCurry.

Article: "Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 'seriously wounded in an airstrike' in western Iraq and is no longer in 'day-to-day' control of group" by Heather Saul.

Article: "Guess What Happened When JPMorgan's CEO Visited Elizabeth Warren's Office" by Samantha Lachman.

Case: "Burwell v. Hobby Lobby", 2014.

Article: "A Newcomer to Populism? Hillary Clinton Campaign Begs to Differ" by Amy Chozick.

Hour Two: What have Republicans done for working people lately?
- Neil McCabe, Townhall / The Washington Mercury

Article: "Tea Partier Says He May Vote For Hillary So He Can Keep Obamacare (VIDEO)" by Ahiza Garcia.

Quote: "The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do for themselves, government ought not to interfere." - Abraham Lincoln", July 1, 1854.

Article: "Police Can’t Extend Stop for Dog Sniff, U.S. Supreme Court Says" by Greg Stohr (Rodriguez v. United States).

Article: "Hillary Clinton: Social Security "Not A Luxury," "We Do Not Mess With It"".

Article: "Jeb Bush prepares to give traditional campaign a makeover" by Thomas Beaumont.

Article: "Skip Child Support. Go to Jail. Lose Job. Repeat." by Frances Robles and Shaila Dewan.

Article: "1.5 Million Missing Black Men" by Justin Wolfers, David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy.

The good: "O'Malley: America's Economy Needs 'Sensible Rebalancing,' Not 'Pitchforks'" by NPR.

The bad: David Brat: "GOP Rep: Obamacare Makes America More Like North Korea" by Ahiza Garcia.

The very, very ugly: "If these critics don’t want to be Catholic anymore, they should become Protestant" by Michael Savage (over 100 “prominent Catholics” called on the pope to condemn Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone).

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Article: "Separate grocery stores, photo IDs: Lawmakers want to make food stamps ‘a crutch not a lifestyle’" by Carmine Sabia.

Article: "GOP files bill to privatize air traffic control" by Keith Laing.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Luke Vargas

Article: "US Navy Sends Aircraft Carrier, Warships To Intercept Iranian Weapons Shipments In Yemeni Waters" by Tyler Durden.

Article: "Iran Warned Houthis Against Yemen Takeover" by Ali Watkins, Ryan Grim, Akbar Shahid Ahmed.

Article: "Deaths Of More Than 800 In Migrant Boat Is The Worst Ever In Mediterranean, UN Says" by AP.

Article: "Migrant crisis: EU may double size of Mediterranean operation" by Reuters.

Article: "Carbon Emissions Are Up In The Energy Sector. But There’s A Silver Lining" by Emily Atkin.

Article: "Watch: Cholene’s ThankList" by Ellen Ratner.

Site: Thank List.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 4/21" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 4/20" by Victoria Jones.

Hour Three: 5 years since the BP Gulf disaster...and it's not over yet
- Dahr Jamail, Truthout

Article: "Gulf Victims Suing BP Disaster's Compensation Czar" by Dahr Jamail.

Article: "Gulf Fishermen Still Struggling Five Years After the BP Spill " by Mike Ludwig.

Article: "Let Him Die" by Jacob Weisberg.

Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Article: "Clinton campaign: Hillary's fight against inequality goes way back" by Laura Clawson.

Article: "Definition of Orphan disease".

Site: "Stop Fast Track".

Book: High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society... by Carl Hart.

Article: "Bush Gave Taliban $43 Million Four Months before 9/11" by kpete.

Article: "The Drought Is Behind California's Skyrocketing West Nile Virus Numbers" by Luke Whelan.

Article: "SoCal woman dies after contracting brain-eating amoeba" by Bob Ponting.

Article: "Weather Sets the Stage for the 2015 West Nile, Lyme Seasons" by Annie Hauser.

Article: "Selling Healthy Food to People Like It's Junk Food Is a Very Bad Idea" by Arun Gupta.

Article: "20-Mile Bike Lane Is Also Massive Solar Array" by Lorraine Chow.

Article: "Nestlé Has Been Pumping Water From a National Forest With an Expired Permit For Over 25 Years" by Faith Gardner.

Article: "Thousands March in Canada to Demand Action on Climate Change" by Nadia Prupis.

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

We'll have the latest news and information...everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

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And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Should BP be given the corporate death penalty for the 2010 spill?

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The War On Drugs Is A War On Americans

Are We Nearing A Climactic Tipping Point?

Bigger Picture Panel - The Crisis in Yemen P1

Bigger Picture Panel - The Crisis in Yemen P2

How The Deep Horizon Oil Spill is Still Harming Us

Why Is Obama Pushing The TPP?

Scott Walker's Bizarre Response to Attending A Gay Wedding

Why We Celebrate Pot Today

The Good - The Bad - and the Very Very Tropophilously Ugly

Full Show 4/20/15: BP Oil Spill Still Harming Marine Life Five Years Later

Thom discusses the five year anniversary of the disastrous BP oil spill with attorney and radio host Mike Papantonio, whether Loretta Lynch will ever be confirmed with The Daily Banter’s Tommy Christopher, and the origins of the 4/20 marijuana holiday with pro-pot lobbyist Aaron Houston. In tonight’s Daily Take Thom details how the war on drugs continues to destroy lives.

How FDR Warned us Against Corporate Fascism...

How FDR Warned us Against Corporate Fascism (Part 2)

Thom Hartmann on Science & Green News: April 21, 2015

Caller: White People Think They are Better than Everyone Else...

Caller: The White Middle Class Needs to Wake up!

Billionaires Creating Their own Super PACs...

Keep the Wars Going and Stay Rich...

The Original Sin - Locking up the Food..

Behind the chaos in Yemen...

Caller: Inherent Racism Kept me from Law Enforcement...