MSNBC show to broadcast live from Hoover Dam

By Kyle B. Hansen

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011 | 10:54 a.m.

The Hoover Dam will host a live cable television broadcast this afternoon as part of a tour highlighting job creation projects.

“The Dylan Ratigan Show” on cable news channel MSNBC will be broadcasting live from the dam at 1 p.m.

The broadcast is part of a tour focused on highlighting ways to solve what host Dylan Ratigan sees as the job problem in the country.

“Our overarching goal is to spark a real jobs conversation and a jobs movement in this country,” Ratigan said.

The tour, called “Steel on Wheels,” is making the stop at the Hoover Dam to highlight a successful public works project as an example of things the country could do to employ more people, Ratigan said. The Hoover Dam broadcast will mark the show's ninth stop on the tour.

“The Hoover Dam represents public works in America at its best, where there’s massive national investment that creates a tremendous number of jobs simultaneous to solving problems and ultimately improving the overall quality of life,” he said. “Public works alone obviously is not going to solve the jobs crisis in this country, but public works is a huge component in helping to solve the jobs crisis in this country and I think we need to remind ourselves of the great work that American workers are capable of delivering and I can’t think of a better symbol of that than the Hoover Dam.”

A reporter for the show had already visited the dam and Boulder City to interview residents for the broadcast, and Ratigan said he will be talking with two guests for the program, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a transportation expert, and Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

“Nevada has suffered as bad or worse than any state in America in the housing crisis and there’s so much corruption and fraud in the housing and financing system right now. I believe the Nevada attorney general is in an incredibly powerful position to do something about that,” Ratigan said.

The tour, which is sponsored by Nucor, a steel manufacturer, also has a website, which encourages people to submit problems and solutions in their own communities, Ratigan said.