This evening's music features rock-blues slide guitarist Sonny Landreth.

I'm updating with the full content since that other place is going dark tonight.

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Hey! Good Evening!

In reality, everybody in Congress is a stand-in for some kind of lobbyist. In many cases it's difficult to tell whether it's the companies that are lobbying the legislators or whether it's the other way around.

-- Matt Taibbi

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News and Opinion

Lobbyists for Spies Appointed To Oversee Spying

Who’s keeping watch of the National Security Agency? In Congress, the answer in more and more cases is that the job is going to former lobbyists for NSA contractors and other intelligence community insiders.

A wave of recent appointments has placed intelligence industry insiders into key Congressional roles overseeing intelligence gathering. The influx of insiders is particularly alarming because lawmakers in Washington are set to take up a series of sensitive surveillance and intelligence issues this year, from reform of the Patriot Act to far-reaching “information sharing” legislation.

After the first revelations of domestic surveillance by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, President Obama defended the spying programs by claiming they were “subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate.” But as Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and other members of Congress have pointed out, there is essentially a “two-tiered” system for oversight, with lawmakers and staff on specialized committees, such as the House and Senate committees on Intelligence and Homeland Security, controlling the flow of information and routinely excluding other Congress members, even those who have asked for specific information relating to pending legislation.

The Intercept reviewed the new gatekeepers in Congress, the leading staffers on the committees overseeing intelligence and surveillance matters, and found a large number of lobbyists and consultants passing through the revolving door between the intelligence community and the watchdogs who purportedly oversee the intelligence community.

[Click story link above for detailed list of revolving door lobbyist creeps. - js]

Progressives Warn Democrats: No War With Iran

Democrats who end up on 'wrong side' of Iran vote 'will have to answer for their decision for the rest of their careers.'

Progressives in Washington, D.C. are pushing centrist Democrats in U.S. Congress to oppose legislation that President Barack Obama has warned could kill a nuclear deal with Iran.

In an open letter to Democrat leaders in Congress published Wednesday by Politico, progressive organizations including Credo, MoveOn, and Daily Kos write, "Senate Democrats are now faced with a choice: Support President Obama’s diplomacy or vote with Republicans to potentially start a war with Iran. There is no third option." ...

If Senate Democrats supply the necessary 13 or more votes to review the framework on the deal or hike up sanctions against Iran, they will face long-term retaliation, progressive groups warned on Wednesday. ...

"Starting a war with Iran is apparently the top legislative priority for the next leader of the Senate Democratic caucus," the petition stated, adding to Schumer that he was "wrong on Iraq, and now you’re wrong on Iran."

Iranian Official Slams Global Powers for Hypocrisy on Nuclear Arsenals

A top Iranian official on Wednesday slammed world powers for failing to meet their own promises to eliminate their nuclear arsenals and contribute to global non-proliferation.

Gholam Hossein Dehghani, Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, made the statements in an address to the UN's Disarmament Commission. ...

Dehgani's statements specifically targeted China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the five nuclear weapons states that have signed the NPT. Israel, India, Pakistan and also known atomic weapons states, and according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, North Korea possesses nuclear weapons as well. ...

"The NPT, which was the foundation of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, had succeeded in constraining the spread of nuclear weapons because non-nuclear-weapon States had kept their end of the bargain," said Dehgani, according to the UN's summary of his statements.

"The prospect for establishing a zone free of those weapons in the Middle East would be enhanced when certain nuclear-weapon States abandoned their unconstructive policy of exempting Israel from the NPT," Dehgani continued.

Desperation for Americans in Yemen as U.S. refuses to mount rescue

A Michigan family with two toddlers and an infant was stranded in Yemen after being forced from its home by rebel gunmen. A California woman tried to flee through an arrangement with the embassy of Djibouti, but failed. A mother of four from New York also tried that route, at the State Department’s suggestion, only to hear the same reply: There would be no help.

These accounts are among dozens presented in a lawsuit filed Thursday by Arab and Muslim civil rights groups seeking to force the Obama administration into taking action to bring home U.S. citizens who are stuck in Yemen’s worsening conflict.

At least eight other countries – including Russia, China and India – have rescued their citizens, but the United States has refused to launch an evacuation effort. U.S. officials claim that Yemen, where a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led air campaign is pummeling targets, is too dangerous for U.S. personnel to risk their lives, though U.S. aircraft have refueled Saudi bombers for the last two days, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said. ...

For the Americans trapped there, the country has become a virtual prison. Its airports and seaports are either closed or subject to attack, its border routes are too dangerous to risk, and major population hubs effectively are shut off from other cities.

The U.S. Embassy is shuttered, with all the diplomats and security guards taken to safety weeks ago. From Washington, the State Department directs remaining citizens to hotlines that don’t work and to foreign embassies that can’t help, leading many stranded Americans to summarize the Obama administration’s response as: Good luck.

Pakistan's parliament votes against entering Yemen conflict

Vote is blow to Saudi-led coalition fighting Shia Houthi rebels in the country, after it called on Pakistan to provide warships, aircraft and ground troops

Pakistan’s parliament has dealt a blow to Saudi hopes of defeating Yemen’s Houthi rebels, with MPs voting overwhelmingly for the country to remain out of the conflict.

Friday’s vote, which came as tensions continued to rise between Riyadh and Tehran over the conflict in Yemen, will make it extremely hard for the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to offer anything more than symbolic help.

Saudi Arabia, a prized ally and generous donor to Pakistan, had called on Islamabad to provide warships, aircraft and even ground troops. Last month Riyadh embarrassed Pakistan’s government by claiming it had already “expressed desire” to participate in the operation.

MPs shot the plan down on Friday, however, passing a resolution saying that “Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict”.

It followed a week of debate in which politicians from across the spectrum called for the country not to become embroiled in what many regard as an overseas civil war.

Kerry Slams Iran for Urging Yemen Ceasefire

Insists Commercial Flights Between Countries Proves 'Support' for Houthis

Secretary of State John Kerry today angrily condemned the Iranian government for pushing for the ceasefire in the Saudi-led war against Yemen, saying the US is determined to stand with its allies in the region, and accused Iran of “destabilizing” the region with its efforts.

Kerry went on to insist that the Iranian government is “obviously” supplying the Houthis in Yemen, citing commercial flights between Iran and Yemen as proof.

Kerry’s claims were made in spite of WikiLeaks documents from the State Department affirming for years that the US is well aware that the Houthi faction in Yemen is a local faction, and has never been shown to have any significant ties to Iran.

Don't these clowns think about what they're saying before it exits their pie holes? "China is ... using its sheer size and muscle to force countries into subordinate positions."

Pot. Kettle. Black.

Obama says China bullying smaller nations in South China Sea row

US president Barack Obama said Washington is concerned China is using its “sheer size and muscle” to push around smaller nations in the South China Sea, just hours after Beijing gave a detailed defence of its creation of artificial islands in the contested waterway.

China’s rapid reclamation around seven reefs in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea has alarmed other claimants, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, and drawn growing criticism from US government officials and the military.

While the new islands will not overturn US military superiority in the region, workers are building ports and fuel storage depots and possibly two airstrips that experts have said would allow Beijing to project power deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.

“Where we get concerned with China is where it is not necessarily abiding by international norms and rules and is using its sheer size and muscle to force countries into subordinate positions,” Obama told a town-hall event in Jamaica on Thursday ahead of a Caribbean summit in Panama.

Obama Faces Latin American Opposition to Venezuela Sanctions as Cuba Joins Summit of the Americas

State Department recommends removing Cuba from terrorism list: Senate source

The U.S. State Department has recommended that President Barack Obama remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee aide said on Thursday.

Obama, speaking while on a short visit to Jamaica, said only that the State Department had completed its review but that he was waiting for a recommendation from his advisers and would not announce a decision on Thursday.

"State has recommended they be removed from the list," said the Senate aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Removing Cuba from the list would clear a major obstacle in the effort to restore diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana, paving the way for the reopening of embassies that have been shut for 54 years, and signal momentum in ending America's isolation from the Communist island nation.

Summit of the Americas: U.S. Agenda is to Push TPP to Split Latin American Integration

Ukraine-born pianist's Toronto concert cancelled over pro-Russia remarks

A pianist has been struck off the concert programme with a Canadian orchestra for expressing her support for pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Valentina Lisitsa, a Ukraine-born pianist, was scheduled to play Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on Friday night, but her performance was scrapped amid “ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language” on Twitter, said the orchestra’s president, Jeff Melanson.

Lisitsa had posted graphic images and angry rhetoric about the conflict in east Ukraine and criticised western journalists for supposed bias in covering the events. Canada has a large Ukrainian diaspora.

“As one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world’s great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive,” Melanson said.

Lisitsa said she never posted any threats or anything else illegal and she had not been planning to make any political statement during the concert. She said her Twitter activity was borne of a feeling that the coverage of events in Ukraine had been skewed in favour of the new government in Kiev.

In Toronto, there was mixed reaction to the move. One columnist in the Toronto Star said the ban created a “dangerous precedent” and “has made a mockery of the arts in this city”.

Preservation or plunder? The battle over the British Museum’s Indigenous Australian show

It’s been less than a century since the world’s leading collectors began acknowledging Indigenous Australian art as more than mere ethnographic artefact. Since then, the most enlightened, from Hong Kong to London, New York to Paris, have understood that when you purchase a piece of Indigenous art you become its custodian – not its owner. ... Such understanding is now implicit in the compact between collectors and creators, as remote Indigenous Australian arts centres match a rapacious international market with the rights of some of the world’s most accomplished, and impoverished, modern artists to support themselves and their families. But for museums, especially those of the great empires, ownership of Indigenous cultural property remains an existential bedrock. Which brings me to the British Museum and its forthcoming exhibition, Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation. To call this exhibition – and a related one, Encounters, planned for Canberra’s National Museum of Australia – controversial dramatically understates the bitter politics, anger and behind-the-scenes enmity provoked by the British Museum’s continued ownership of some 6,000 Indigenous Australian items variously acquired after British contact, invasion and occupation of the continent beginning in 1770.

Some Indigenous Australians want what they rightly regard as their property (some of it stolen in circumstances of extreme violence on the Australian colonial frontier) returned. Others have been more conciliatory, saying that the British Museum (which insists it has been on a long journey of consultation with Indigenous communities ahead of its exhibition) has preserved items that would otherwise have been lost. ...

Says Shane Mortimer, an elder of the Ngambri people on whose land the Australian capital, Canberra, is built: “If the Ngambri people went to England, killed 90% of the population and everything else that is indigenous to England and sent the crown jewels back to Ngambri Country as a prize exhibit … what would the remaining 10% of English people have to say about that? The exhibition should not proceed without the permission of the owners of all of the items.” And that will never be granted.

After the British Museum launched its exhibition in January, veteran Indigenous Australian activist Gary Foley wrote on the museum’s Facebook page: “Bet they won’t be prepared to seriously discuss issues of repatriation of cultural materials obtained through nefarious means ... because of their retention of the so-called ‘Elgin marbles’.” Last month, historian and university lecturer Foley again attacked the museum in a seminar convened by the Greek Orthodox community of Melbourne, which sees parallels between the museum’s stance on the requested return of Indigenous Australian objects and the Parthenon marbles. He said: “The British Museum grew out of the era of colonialism. The rest of the world grew out of those ideas 100 years ago. Their position has no credibility in the modern world. It’s really that simple.”

UK Mass Surveillance Is Facing a Ruling From Europe's Human Rights Court

The European Court of Human Rights will soon decide whether British mass surveillance is lawful, as an alliance of human rights organizations seeks to overrule a judgement by the UK surveillance court.

A joint appeal was filed by groups including Privacy International, Amnesty, and Liberty in response to a ruling in December by the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which found that mass surveillance of internet traffic going in and out of the country, and an intelligence sharing regime between the US and UK, was lawful.

Although the UK has ruled that such mass surveillance is lawful, campaigners believe it may breach Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which enshrine the rights to privacy and freedom of expression respectively. Privacy International and the other groups are seeking a ruling from ECHR that industrial scale mass surveillance violates human rights law.

Secrecy Shrouds Unknown Role Of Top UK Government Official

The British government is refusing to disclose the job title and taxpayer-funded salary of one of the most senior law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom, claiming the details have to be kept a secret for security reasons.

Cressida Dick was formerly one of the highest ranking officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, the largest police force in the U.K., where she headed the Specialist Operations unit and oversaw a controversial criminal investigation into journalists who reported on Edward Snowden’s leaked documents.

In December, Dick announced she was leaving the London police to take up a top job with the government’s Foreign Office. But her new role is being shrouded in intense secrecy.

Government officials handling Freedom of Information Act requests say that members of the public are not entitled to know anything about Dick’s job title, role and responsibilities, or the amount of money she is earning – despite the fact that specific salaries earned by senior Foreign Office officials, as well as their job titles, are usually routinely made available online.

Blueprint for Post-9/11 Surveillance: U.S. Began Bulk Collection of Phone Call Data in 1992

Baltimore Police Used 'Stingray' Spy Device Thousands of Times Since 2007

The Baltimore Police Department used secretive tracking technology known as "Stingray" for surveillance purposes thousands of times since 2007 and is forced through an agreement with the FBI to withhold information about it.

The revelation was made Wednesday in court by a detective with department's Advanced Technical Team, Emmanuel Cabreja. He was testifying regarding a carjacking and robbery case in which the technology had been used.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called Stingray "an unconstitutional, all-you-can-eat data buffet," and describes how the technology works in this way:

The Stingray is a brand name of an IMSI catcher [or International Mobile Subscriber Identity locator] targeted and sold to law enforcement. A Stingray works by masquerading as a cell phone tower—to which your mobile phone sends signals to every 7 to 15 seconds whether you are on a call or not— and tricks your phone into connecting to it. As a result, the government can figure out who, when and to where you are calling, the precise location of every device within the range, and with some devices, even capture the content of your conversations.

The American Civil Liberties Union notes: "When used to track a suspect's cell phone, they also gather information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to be nearby." ...

Also presented in court was a copy of a non-disclosure agreement between the BPD and FBI, posted here by The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, which states that public disclosure of Stingray "could result in the FBI's inability to protect itself from terrorism and other criminal activity." EFF, however, has cautioned: "The government uses 'terrorism' as a catalyst to gain some powerful new surveillance tool or ability, and then turns around and uses it on ordinary citizens, severely infringing on their civil liberties in the process."

Citing Moral and Legal Void, Rights Groups Demand Preemptive Ban on 'Killer Robots'

Fully autonomous weapons, or "killer robots," present a legal and ethical quagmire and must be banned before they can be further developed, a new human rights report published Thursday urges ahead of next week's United Nations meeting on lethal weapons.

The report, titled Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability for Killer Robots, was jointly published by Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic and outlines the "serious moral and legal concerns" presented by the weapons, which would "possess the ability to select and engage their targets without meaningful human control."

Although fully autonomous weapons do not yet exist, their "precursors" are already in use, such as the Iron Dome in Israel and the Phalanx CIWS in the U.S., the report states.

Under current law, the makers and users of killer robots could get away with unlawful deaths and injuries if the weapons are allowed to develop. Allowing weapons that operate without human control to make decisions about the use of lethal force could lead to violations of international law and make it difficult to hold anyone accountable for those crimes. Moreover, civil liability would be "virtually impossible, at least in the United States," the report found.

"No accountability means no deterrence of future crimes, no retribution for victims, no social condemnation of the responsible party," lead author and HRW Arms Division researcher Bonnie Docherty said in a press release on Thursday. "The many obstacles to justice for potential victims show why we urgently need to ban fully autonomous weapons."

When Will the Police Killings of Black Males Stop?

Media Were Already Running With Police Fantasy When Video Exploded It

The New York Times (4/7/15) released a video of a black South Carolina man Walter Scott being shot, casually and without apparent mercy, eight times in the back by white police officer Michael T. Slager. The media’s outrage after the video’s publication was righteous and swift. The state of South Carolina followed suit, filing murder charges against Slager. Indeed, the video offers no ambiguity whatsoever:

Before this shocking video surfaced, however, most of the local press coverage, per usual, followed the police’s official narrative and amplified a storyline that, in retrospect, was entirely made up.

The Scott shooting, as Think Progress’s Judd Legum pointed out, provides unique insight into the way the police use inherent asymmetry of information to assert their narrative:

Between the time when he shot and killed Scott early Saturday morning and when charges were filed, Slager — using the both the police department and his attorney — was able to provide his “version” of the events.

He appeared well on his way to avoiding charges and pinning the blame on Scott.

Then a video, shot by an anonymous bystander, revealed exactly what happened.

In all police killings, one side–the victim–is, by definition, dead. So the “both sides” type of reporting we’re so often used to almost invariably becomes a one-sided airing of accounts, facts and selective details from the police side that the corporate media repeats without question. ...

What makes this case revealing is that, unlike in so many other cases, video evidence exists that can be contrasted with what can be seen to be a police-created alternative fantasy. A fantasy that had been presented as reality by initial police reports, and thus the media’s subsequent reciting of those reports. Without the video, that fantasy would have almost certainly gone unquestioned.

'Hands up, don't shoot' echoes through black history. And our lives

Time and time again we see that minor offenses by a person of color lead to their murder, disguised by a claim that the white man pointing the gun feared for his life. Having a broken tail light, crossing the street just before the light changes, playing your music too loudly or putting up your hood are just some examples of the petty rationale used to harass, arrest, over-incarcerate and even kill our loved ones.

In most cases, this wrongdoing is not even acknowledged and racial bias is completely obscured. Its only because of a citizen journalist that a police officer is facing charges for murdering Walter Scott, an unarmed black man in South Carolina, after a traffic stop. The initial police report had nothing to do with reality. If a recording hadn’t surfaced, there would likely be no documentation of the killing, no charge and no consequences.

If you don’t see what is happening in the world as an unjust systemic pattern, you aren’t paying attention to the communities in your backyard or to the violence perpetuated by unchecked state power abroad. The premature end of every black life won’t be captured by a phone camera, supported by scores of eyewitnesses and verified by the government but we will not go unnoticed.

“Hands up” may not resonate for everyone, but the impunity with which black lives are taken should outrage any conscience. March under any banner you want, but march. Take power back where you feel robbed of it. Everyone with a voice should use it, to express our grief and our solidarity until we are feared only for the unrelenting way in which we hold our institutions to account.

State Attorneys General Call on Feds to Forgive Fraudulent Student Loans

In a letter sent Thursday to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the attorneys general from nine states urged the Obama administration to offer immediate federal loan forgiveness to the many thousands of students who enrolled at various for-profit schools owned by Corinthian Colleges Inc.

Corinthian, based in California, is currently under investigation in numerous states for fraudulent loan practices and has also faced a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which accused the company of illegally targeting potential students with predatory lending schemes that it knew they likely could not afford.

"Our greatest concern comes from certain large, predatory for-­profit schools that are actively undermining our federal loan programs, depriving students of the education they promise and that the students deserve. These institutions seem to exist largely to capture federal loan dollars and aggressively market their programs to veterans and low-­income Americans," the letter (pdf) stated. It was signed by the leading prosecutors from Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington state.

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Reid Surrenders His Sword to Schumer; Caucus Concurs

This is what happens when "party unity" or "caucus unity" trumps policy. We get Chuck "Wall Street" Schumer as the next Minority Leader — because Harry "But I promoted Elizabeth Warren" Reid helped put him there. So did "progressive" Patty Murray. And according to reports, so did nearly every other Democratic senator. (Does this mean Jeff Merkely? Sherrod Brown? Al Franken? Who knows — they haven't raised their heads.)

Washington Post a few days ago

Reid predicted that Schumer, the No. 3 Senate Democrat in leadership and a close friend, would win the Democratic leader post without opposition. He said that the other likely contender, Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), would stand down for Schumer. ...

Seemingly comfortable with his decision to not run for re-election, Reid said the liberal wing of the Democratic Party should have faith in Schumer, whose ties to Wall Street fueled his fundraising prowess and helped Democrats win the majority in 2006 and expand it to a super-majority in 2009. Those ties have some liberals questioning whether Schumer should lead the party, but Reid said that Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would serve as the torch bearers for the populist wing and hold the caucus's feet to the fire.

... This is what we get when we vote for Democrats. Party unity and hyper-"collegiality" way too much of the time. Women and men eager to sell out progressives and play "Follow the Neo-Liberal Party Leader." ... Color me pained to be saying this, but there it is. Insiders helping insiders keep outsiders out — meaning us. It feels like progressives have just lost the Senate, thanks to Harry Reid. Is this "our" party? Doesn't look like it from here.

As Colombian Oil Money Flowed To Clintons, State Department Took No Action To Prevent Labor Violations

For union organizers in Colombia, the dangers of their trade were intensifying. When workers at the country’s largest independent oil company staged a strike in 2011, the Colombian military rounded them up at gunpoint and threatened violence if they failed to disband, according to organizations. Similar intimidation tactics against the workers, say labor leaders, amounted to an everyday feature of life.

For the United States, these were precisely the sorts of discomfiting accounts that were supposed to be prevented in Colombia under a labor agreement that accompanied a recently signed free trade pact liberalizing the exchange of goods between the countries. From Washington to Bogota, leaders had promoted the pact as a win for all -- a deal that would at once boost trade while strengthening the rights of embattled Colombian labor organizers. That formulation had previously drawn skepticism from many prominent Democrats, among them Hillary Clinton.

Yet as union leaders and human rights activists conveyed these harrowing reports of violence to then-Secretary of State Clinton in late 2011, urging her to pressure the Colombian government to protect labor organizers, she responded first with silence, these organizers say. The State Department publicly praised Colombia’s progress on human rights, thereby permitting hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to flow to the same Colombian military that labor activists say helped intimidate workers.

At the same time that Clinton's State Department was lauding Colombia’s human rights record, her family was forging a financial relationship with Pacific Rubiales, the sprawling Canadian petroleum company at the center of Colombia’s labor strife. The Clintons were also developing commercial ties with the oil giant’s founder, Canadian financier Frank Giustra, who now occupies a seat on the board of the Clinton Foundation, the family’s global philanthropic empire.

The details of these financial dealings remain murky, but this much is clear: After millions of dollars were pledged by the oil company to the Clinton Foundation -- supplemented by millions more from Giustra himself -- Secretary Clinton abruptly changed her position on the controversial U.S.-Colombia trade pact. Having opposed the deal as a bad one for labor rights back when she was a presidential candidate in 2008, she now promoted it, calling it “strongly in the interests of both Colombia and the United States.” The change of heart by Clinton and other Democratic leaders enabled congressional passage of a Colombia trade deal that experts say delivered big benefits to foreign investors like Giustra.">

Exclusive: Hillary Clinton to launch 2016 campaign on Sunday en route to Iowa – source

Hillary Clinton is planning to officially launch her US presidential campaign on Sunday while en route to Iowa, a source familiar with the campaign has confirmed to the Guardian.

The former secretary of state is scheduled to declare her second run for president on Twitter at noon eastern time on Sunday, the source told the Guardian, followed by a video and email announcement, then a series of conference calls mapping out a blitzkrieg tour beginning in Iowa and looking ahead to more early primary states.

Clinton’s Sunday schedule is booked beginning with takeoff from New York to Iowa, where speculation has centered for weeks that Clinton was focusing attention for an April campaign launch. Her scheduled calls are with advisers in other key battleground states.

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The Evening Greens

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Maryland Gets Closer to Two-Year Fracking Ban

A Maryland bill calling for a two-year fracking moratorium in the state is expected to land on Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk in the coming days.

The state Senate voted in favor of the bill 45-2 Monday evening. Now the measure—which requires the state to adopt new fracking rules by Oct. 1, 2016, and prohibit fracking permits until October 2017—heads to a vote in the House. The governor's position on the bill is unknown, but the Senate passed the bill with a veto-proof majority and there's a good chance the House will, too.

If Maryland passes this bill, it will become the first state to temporarily ban fracking twice. The move would also underscore the growing pushback against fracking nationwide. ...

In 2011, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley mandated a three-part study evaluating the economic and environmental impacts of fracking, and banned the extraction technique until the investigation was completed.

The final December 2014 report concluded that drilling could create more than 3,000 new jobs and millions in tax revenue. But it also said energy development has the "potential to harm public, health, the environmental and natural resources"—though "best practices" could reduce those risks.

At the end of his term, O'Malley came out in support of fracking and his administration pushed through 23 pages of fracking rules, still pending regulatory approval.

With Sit-Ins Around Country, Students Escalate 'Divestment Spring'

At campuses across U.S., students are posing a crucial question to the public and their institutions' leadership: 'Whose side are you on?'

With campus sit-ins taking place in several states, and more direct actions planned for the days and weeks ahead, a new generation of climate activists is taking the reins in an escalating fight for fossil fuel divestment that's sweeping the nation this spring.

Close to 50 student members of Fossil Free Yale entered the university's Woodbridge Hall on Thursday morning, vowing to stay until the administration publicly commits to reconsidering the case for divestment. Yale, which at $24 billion has the third-largest university endowment in the world, said in August that it wouldn't sell its holdings of oil, gas, and coal stocks.

Fossil Free Yale communications director Chelsea Watson told the Yale Daily News that working through official administrative channels, such as meeting with the university's Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, had been "completely ineffective," making it necessary for the group to confront the administration directly.

A similar occupation has been taking place at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania for three weeks, with 340 Swarthmore alumni pledging on Thursday not to donate to the school until the university's Board of Managers agrees to divest from fossil fuels. Led by Swarthmore Mountain Justice, the student-organized divestment actions have garnered support from environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, of 350.org, as well as United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, herself a Swarthmore alum.

Greenpeace bank accounts frozen by Indian government

The Indian government has frozen bank accounts of Greenpeace after accusing the international environment campaign group of encouraging “anti-development” protests in the emerging economic power.

The Union Home Ministry on Thursday suspended the official registration for foreign funding of Greenpeace India for six months and froze seven bank accounts connected with the organisation, The Hindu, a local newspaper, reported.

Samit Aich, the executive director of Greenpeace, said the move was “an attack on democracy”.

“They don’t like the questions we are raising. We are environmental activists asking questions about the environment. There has been intimidation, illegal attacks for some time now,” he said.

Campaigners believe that authorities have been upset by campaigns to highlight the environmental consequences of India’s increasing use of coal to generate massive amounts of power needed by the growing economy.

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Blog Posts of Interest

Here are diaries and selected blog posts of interest on DailyKos and other blogs.

What's Happenin' Is On Hiatus

Three Fake Myths–and Two Actual Ones–About TPP Trade Pact

With Looming Financial War, Bitcoin Ushers in Peaceful Insurrection

Not Newsworthy

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A Little Night Music

Sonny Landreth, Colin Linden and Steve Dawson - Congo Square

Sonny Landreth with Eric Clapton - Promise Land

Sonny Landreth - South of I-10

Sonny Landreth, Colin Linden and Steve Dawson - Sleepwalk

John Hiatt & Sonny Landreth - Riding With the King

Warren Haynes & Sonny Landreth - Death Letter Blues

Sonny Landreth - Key To The Highway

Sonny Landreth - Jukebox Mama

Sonny Landreth w/t Jools Holland - Back To Bayou Teche

Sonny Landreth & Cindy Cashdollar - It Hurts Me Too

Sonny Landreth - U.S.S. Zydecoldsmobile

Sonny Landreth - Pedal to the Metal

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