Grab your coffee before the action begins each morning while getting an freewheeling and hilarious update of the day’s news with Daily Show co-creator and comedian Lizz Winstead, Radio host, journalist Shannyn Moore and Pundit, author and teller of truths, Cliff Shecter.

The Morning News Dump is sorta like “Morning Joe,” minus the guests who have gotten everything wrong for the past 10 years. Each morning these three will also welcome some of your favorite bloggers and politicians as well to give you a download of the days news before you hit the Netroots ground running.

Roll out of bed and join them!

Generously sponsored by The Guardian US.

Led by: Lizz Winstead

Panelists: Shannyn Moore, Cliff Schecter

The 99 percent have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers yet we haven’t seen this outcry reflected in the policies in Washington, where conventional wisdom lands somewhere between the status quo and austerity. The middle class continues to shrink and the poor get poorer, while the wealthiest continue to prosper while skirting the rules.

What does our economic outlook look like—and what should our progressive vision for it be? How do we free ourselves from what Paul Krugman says can only be called a depression? What role can activists, bloggers and labor play in ensuring economic success and equality? These questions and more will be discussed in this keynote session.

Immediately following the keynote, Paul Krugman will hold a book signing at the Exhibit Hall author signing area.

Led by: Heather McGhee

Panelists: Paul Krugman, Erica Payne, Ai-jen Poo, Richard Trumka

Good help can be hard to find, but it doesn’t have to be. There are thousands of talented organizers out there—you’ve just got to find and recruit them to your team. Led by experienced managers with decades of hiring experience, this training will provide you with a new outlook on recruiting and hiring rockstars for your staff. We’ll cover how to write attractive job descriptions, effectively use your networks to identify the right talent and how to manage dozens of applicants through an interview process. We’ll also talk about how to reel someone in when you’re sure you’ve found the right person for the job.

Trainers: Matt Blizek, Amy Pritchard

Online activism can be as meaningless as people clicking on a web page, or powerful enough to change this country—it all depends on your strategy. This training will teach you how the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) plans the kind of high-impact, attention-getting online campaigns that have helped us and others accomplish powerful things like strengthening financial reform and drafting Elizabeth Warren into the Senate race in Massachusetts. Come and learn how keen strategy, theory of change, building momentum, and reporting back combine to create online campaigns with strong effects in the real world.

Trainers: Adam Green, Jason Rosenbaum, Matt Wall

This session is a rapid-fire introduction to several important functions of Microsoft Excel, all of which will help you digest, manipulate and display data quickly and easily. Aimed at an audience between beginner and intermediate, the training will cover if statements, pivot tables and pivot charts, vlookup, conditional formatting, filter and sort and other fun functions and formulas. The session will include a demo of the above topics by using the various functions to turn a raw dataset into useful products. Audience members with laptops can download the dataset and play along, and a read-along handout given to all participants will list, in order, every function being demonstrated.

Trainers: Amelia Showalter

For many low-income areas and communities of color, education is regarded as the key to rebuilding our communities and overcoming injustice. So why has education policy become so divisive? In this session, panelists will draw on their experience and expertise as public school teachers, parents and advocates to guide attendees toward an understanding of the ways in which education reform has been used as a wedge issue to pit members of historically underserved communities against each other, as well as how these communities have been used by outside interests in the pursuit of other ideological goals. This will also be a space to envision how communities can come together to resist these trends and build a vision of public education that uplifts the entire community and serves our collective best interests.

Education as a Right-Wing Wedge Issue—and How to Stop It

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Sat, Jun 09 2012 15:32:04

Panelists: Karran Harper Royal, Martha Infante, Sabrina Stevens, Jose Vilson

Building on investigative reporting in WIRED Magazine and the New York Times, this session will explore why a company so good at design is so lousy at high-tech manufacturing, particularly in the United States. Nearly every blogger uses a piece of hardware made overseas, sometimes in deplorable conditions. Does it matter? Does it have to be this way? Do we have an obligation to help change this? Panelists will explore the obstacles and opportunities for rebuilding a high-tech supply chain in America. The panelists will also explore what public policies are needed to recapture high-tech production jobs: trade, innovation, training and taxes. No issue crystallizes the challenges facing the American economy like Apple: great products for the creative class, but few jobs for American workers.

Your Phone Is Political

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Sat, Jun 09 2012 15:10:32

Led by: Scott Paul

Panelists: Rep. David Cicilline, Dave Johnson, Marcy Wheeler

The future is now. Activists now have access to unlikely tools: satellite technology to deter mass atrocities in South Sudan, civil society leaders in Iran and Southeast Asia distributing encrypted media of demonstrations and geo-targeted apps that aid famine relief in East Africa and combat global human trafficking. Technology has transformed the way governments, corporations and movements around the world are held accountable, and it shapes how the world watches history unfold. With these advancements come increased scrutiny, privacy concerns and a battle for access to the new technology. How we continue to innovate and anticipate challenges will steer the future of human rights. This panel will discuss the power dynamics between movements and governments using technology as an accountability tool in global human rights, cases from the frontlines in humanitarian technology and why we need to create progressive policies that support innovation in human rights.

Led by: Caitlin Howarth

Panelists: Matisse Bustos Hawkes, Sabrina Hersi Issa, Emily Jacobi, Lauren Wolfe

Whether you’re looking to make your on-air debut or just want to hone your message, Punditry 101 will provide the tools you need. Experienced pundits and producers will explain how to get booked, what makes a good talking point and how you can own your airtime no matter what comes your way. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions and relate personal experiences.

Punditry 101: Getting Your Message On Air

Miss this panel? No problem! Here’s what happened.

Storified by Netroots Nation · Sat, Jun 09 2012 14:31:59

Led by: Tory Brown

Panelists: Tara Dowdell, Alexis McGill Johnson, John Neffinger

This session was a big hit at Netroots Nation 2011. Our point of departure is that African-American women make up two-thirds of the black, Democratic voting bloc. Their votes are consistent but their programs are underfunded and voices routinely unheard. How can progressives expect the party to flourish without understanding this key voting block and their major influence in American culture? This session will shed light on African-American progressive women and their views on politics, policy, pop culture and scholarship to address how the Democratic party can mobilize them in 2012.

Led by: Cheryl Contee

Panelists: Kimberly 'Dr. Goddess' Ellis, Zerlina Maxwell, jenifer daniels

Over the past decade, Latino voters have increased their political power and made a decisive impact in races at all levels, including the last presidential election.  This is even more important in 2012. It has been projected that a Republican candidate needs to obtain at 40% of the Latino vote to win the Presidential election in November. President Obama, who secured 67% of the Latino vote in 2008, will again need a huge margin. Candidates from all parties have to take into consideration the issues that are important to the Hispanic population — one of which happens to be immigration.  Hispanic voters could tip the balance in several key battleground states, including Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Florida and even Arizona. With GOP candidates for President increasingly alienating the Hispanic population with anti-immigrant rhetoric, and a current President who has increased enforcement and deported a record number of immigrants has left many people wondering — what will Latino voters do in 2012?  Find out the answer to that question, and learn about the new tool that will help you figure it out.

Latino Vote Matters: Immigration, Power, and an Interactive Look at the Map

Storified by Netroots Nation · Sat, Jun 09 2012 16:04:53

Led by: Adam Luna

Panelists: Justin Gross, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Markos Moulitsas, Gaby Pacheco

Every year on the state and local level, the Netroots works to elect candidates to offices large and small, win victories in legislative fights and hold their elected officials accountable. Increasingly, these efforts are being matched by the building of critical internal infrastructure within legislative bodies themselves: progressive caucuses of lawmakers who are working to advance policy agendas, win messaging wars and influence the debate in their states and cities. This session brings together many involved in these efforts—from advocacy groups, city councils and state legislatures—to address critical questions and share their experiences about how state and local progressive caucuses can best work with allies to define progressive values in red and blue states alike and grow the national progressive movement.

Led by: Suman Raghunathan

Panelists: State Rep. Chris Blazejewski, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Brian Rothenberg