"It's bad enough to be creating more profit incentive for war," I told former head of Blackwater Erik Prince, "but you recycle part of the profits as bribes for more war in the form of so-called campaign contributions. You yourself have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to political parties and candidates. The three of you," I said, referring to Prince, another guest, and the host of a television show that had just finished filming and was taking questions from the audience, "you seem to agree that we need either mercenaries or a draft, ignoring the option of not having these wars, which kill so many people, make us less safe, drain the economy, destroy the natural environment, and erode our civil liberties, with no upside. But this systemic pressure has been created for more war. Will you, Erik Prince, commit to not spending war profits on elections?"

From 350.org:

Leaked text from the deal shows that the TPP, if signed into law, would give foreign fossil fuel corporations the right to sue city, state and national governments if climate action hurts their profits.

It’s an enormous corporate power grab: any time we took action to keep carbon in the ground -- like by banning fracking, or stopping a pipeline, or putting a price on carbon pollution -- the fossil fuel industry could sue for the right to dig it right back out and sell it.

The good news is that this is a plan we can stop. Today, Congress introduced a bill that would allow the TPP to be signed into law. This legislation, called Fast Track, faces a close vote -- if enough Members of Congress come out against this plan in the next few weeks, TPP stops in its tracks.

Today we're calling on all our members of Congress to stand up to the TPP and vote no on Fast Track. Can you send a message to your members of Congress now to stop the TPP?

SMITHVILLE, OHIO—The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Foundation have settled a lawsuit on behalf of teacher Keith Allison against the Board of Education of Green Local School District in Smithville, Ohio.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that upholds the First Amendment rights of public school teachers, such as Keith Allison,” said Joseph Mead, an ACLU cooperating attorney representing Allison. “The settlement vindicates Keith for his Facebook post and affirms the school district’s obligation to permit its employees to freely express their opinions on community concerns outside of work.”

At its Monday meeting, the board of education approved a statement in which it acknowledged its employees’ right to speak out on matters of public concern. Additionally, the board agreed to a financial settlement to compensate the plaintiff for back salary and pension contributions, pay out-of-pocket expenses to the ACLU and the PETA Foundation, and cover attorney fees.

Record Store Day can be viewed many different ways. It can be seen as a method to celebrate and create revenue for places that operate as community hubs. The cynical can mock it as a vehicle for for the music industry to hock limited edition items from a bulk of bands that no one really needs including record stores. Or one could say: every day is record store day.
  Well, since record store day is Saturday(April 18) and this paper is released on Thursday, I went to a few record stores and asked them to show me music from the general vicinity with the intention of reviewing said releases.
  These are not record store day releases.
  The first stop was Magnolia Thunderpussy located at 1155 N. High Street near 5th in the Short North. I ran into Charlotte Kubat whose family owns the store. I used to work at Magnolia so I know Charlotte decently. We made small talk, and then she showed me the “local” section.