This evening's music features blues and jazz guitarist Alonzo "Lonnie" Johnson.

Here are some stories from tonight's post:

The 'Fight for $15' and the Return of the Vanishing Worker

There were times in recent history when observers of our political and economic debates might have been forgiven for thinking that America’s working men and women – the teeming millions who built this country and were the engines of its economy during its most prosperous years – had vanished from the face of the earth.

They were always here, of course, even in the nation’s capital. Their fading footprints could be glimpsed in an occasional statistic or economic report, and they reappeared like clockwork every four years come election time. But even then they were treated like offstage characters in a one-act play, unseen and unheard, there only to be addressed by the principal actors in loud declamatory tones.

The employees in this coalition of “fast food cashiers and cooks, retail employees, child care workers, adjunct professors, home care providers, and airport workers” were still among us, of course – teaching our children, providing us with goods and services, helping us return home after long days of travel. But as far as political insiders were concerned, they had no lines of dialogue in the drama of their own lives. ...

And yet, in a few short months, the Occupy movement began shifting the national dialogue away from the faux centrism of corporate-friendly Washington insiders and back toward the majority. That demonstrated the power which a mass movement can deploy against an insular political system.

Despite this shift – and a resulting change in presidential rhetoric which may have ensured President Obama’s reelection – the centrifugal forces driving democracy away from its majoritarian center are stronger than ever. It takes a mass movement to counter forces that powerful. The Fight for $15, born of a handful of fast-food workers but growing quickly, has the potential to be such a movement. ...

Labor movements are a symbol of our values and an expression of our renewed hope. The Fight for $15 is a fine cause on its own merits. But its greatest importance may lie in the fact that it represents the return of the “vanishing worker” – which in the end means the return of our friends, our families, and our neighbors – to the American political stage.

"The Congress Shall Have Power to Declare War."

War Authorization Dies in House But US Bombs Keep Falling on Iraq and Syria

Analysts say that killing of proposed legislation exposes 'political posturing on all sides'

President Barack Obama's controversial proposal for the authorization for use of military force (AUMF) in the war on ISIS, submitted to Congress in February, is now officially dead in the House.

However, its floundering has no bearing on the war itself, which has now entered its 36th week, with at least 3,249 coalition bombings in Iraq and Syria so far, including 17 reported on April 12th and 13th alone.

This reveals—analysts say—the proposal was nothing more than a political stunt in the first place, aimed at drumming up support for intervention while warding off real limits to the war.

UN Security Council Slammed for 'Endorsing Siege and Mass Starvation' of Yemenis

Resolution passed Tuesday imposes arms embargo on Houthis but not the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition bombing and blockading Yemen

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday passed a resolution, drafted largely by the Gulf countries leading the war on Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on Houthis but not the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition pummeling and blockading the impoverished country.

Analysts warn that the measure amounts to an endorsement of the siege on Yemen, which is cutting off vital supplies of food and medical aid and unleashing a profound humanitarian crisis.

NSA and FBI fight to retain spy powers as surveillance law nears expiration

With about 45 days remaining before a major post-9/11 surveillance authorization expires, representatives of the National Security Agency and the FBI are taking to Capitol Hill to convince legislators to preserve their sweeping spy powers.

That effort effectively re-inaugurates a surveillance debate in Congress that has spent much of 2015 behind closed doors. Within days, congressional sources tell the Guardian, the premiere NSA reform bill of the last Congress, known as the USA Freedom Act, is set for reintroduction – and this time, some former supporters fear the latest version of the bill will squander an opportunity for even broader surveillance reform.

Republican leaders of the House intelligence committee arranged for NSA and FBI representatives to hold secret briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. Staff did not name the officials addressing legislators.

The classified briefings come amid an unsettled surveillance debate in Congress that rushes up against an unforgiving deadline. On 1 June, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which permits US law enforcement and surveillance agencies to collect business records, expires.

Section 215 is the authority claimed by the NSA since 2006 for its ongoing daily bulk collection of US phone records revealed by the Guardian in 2013 thanks to leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden. While the Obama administration and US intelligence agencies last year supported divesting the NSA of its domestic phone metadata collection, a bill to do so failed in November.

But the FBI and its supporters fear that the expiration of Section 215 will cut deeper than the loss of bulk collection. The FBI is warning that it will lose access to investigative leads for domestic terrorism and espionage, such as credit card information, hotel records and more, outside normal warrant or subpoena channels

In Drought-Ridden California, Activists Demand Repercussions for Nestlé

Following a damning investigation by the Desert Sun last month which revealed that Nestlé had been using a long-expired permit to pipe and transport water from a national forest in drought-ridden California, activists are slamming the U.S. Forest Service's promises to make an investigation into the company a priority.

An investigation is an insufficient consequence—and the possibility of permit renewal is downright unacceptable, activists said. ...

"It's pretty amazing that the Forest Service doesn't keep better track of its environmental permits," Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr told Common Dreams, adding that the agency should be seriously considering not renewing Nestlé's permits. "We are in a drought," Orr said. "Why the Forest Service would allow that to continue to happen seems pretty strange."

In its reporting, the Sun found that although Nestlé had long drawn water from wells that tap into springs in California's Strawberry Canyon, the company's permit to transport water across the San Bernardino forest expired in 1988.

Moreover, the Forest Service had not assessed the impacts of the bottled water industry on streams in environmentally fragile areas, nor has it closely tracked the volume of water being extracted, the Sun found.