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“Water is the source of life. Without clean water we can’t survive.”
These are the words of Emergildo Criollo, leader of the Cofan people in Ecuador. Emergildo was just a young boy when Chevron (then Texaco) began drilling for oil in his rainforest homeland using such substandard practices that some 18 billion gallons of toxic waste were dumped in the streams and rivers of the Amazon. Emergildo has been fighting for justice from Chevron ever since.
But after years of pressing a historic lawsuit against the Big Oil behemoth, Emergildo and the communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon still do not have access to clean

Last year, for National Stress Awareness Month, I published a series of articles here about how contagious stress can be. With the support of the HuffPost editors, I asked readers to vow not to pass their stress on to others for one day.
This year, for National Stress Awareness Day (April 16), I want to raise the stakes.
I want you to take that vow formally and publicly. I want you to invite your family and friends and coworkers to take the vow,

The federal government recently announced that it plans to change the way it measures student success. Instead of measuring graduation rates using first-time, full-time students, the new measurements will take into account part-time and transfer students. The Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS) has been outdated for several decades now and fails to take into account the changing landscape of students in the United States. This new change is good news for many of the nation’s colleges and universities.
Although community college leaders are the main force behind this change in measurement, the new strategy will also have a significant impact on the measuring of student success at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as

Quick.
What is America’s “oldest civil rights organization”?
NAACP?
Wrong.
American Civil Liberties Union?
Guess again Bucko.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference?
Nay.
Yes, you sir, with the bulge under your

Moms seem to have product ideas bouncing around in their heads constantly. We’re always thinking about how our lives could be easier with this or that, but most of us stop there. When the idea for a product seems so simple you’re also likely to think that it’s already been done. Amy Creel felt that way but instead of dismissing her idea, she went online to happily discover that her Teething Bling was in fact

April is National Minority Health Month, a time to raise awareness about the well-documented health disparities that continue to affect racial and ethnic minorities, as well as highlight how the Affordable Care Act is reducing those disparities.
Despite the progress that we as a nation have made over the past 50 years, racial and ethnic minorities still lag behind their non-Hispanic white counterparts on many health fronts: Minorities are less likely to get the preventive care they need to stay healthy, more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes, colon cancer, asthma, and heart disease; and they are less likely to have access to affordable, quality health care.
The Affordable Care Act, along with the Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and the National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity that HHS released one year ago are helping fight these disparities.
Lack of insurance is a significant driver of health care disparities. More than 1.2 million Latinos, Blacks, Asian Americans and American Indian/Alaska Natives have gained coverage because the new health care law allows millions of young adults to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.
In 2014, new Affordable Insurance Exchanges will make it possible for families, individuals, and small business owners to shop for private health insurance in a new competitive marketplace in their state. And new data suggest that 5.4 million Latinos and 3.8 million African Americans who would otherwise be uninsured will gain coverage by

The Jordanian government presented the draft elections law to Parliament. It is sure to garner much discussion before it is finally approved and published in the Official Gazette.
For starters, this would be one of the times an election law is actually debated in Parliament and not issued as a temporary law based on a Royal Decree.
The draft elections law comes after the Political Party Law and the law on the independent electoral commission were approved, building more confidence that the upcoming elections will be freer and fairer than previous elections.
Jordanian politicians said that previous elections included irregularities and that security services had a role in deciding who represented Jordanians in Parliament.
Although Jordan’s new elections law includes some improvements over the previous pro-tribal one-man, one-vote system, it falls short of what public protests have been calling for and even the recommendations of the Royal Commission. The National Dialogue Commission recommended that Jordan’s new Elections Law use the proportional system for deciding Parliament members.
Jordan’s Elections Law will introduce the mixed voting system, but the draft law is still biased in favor of local districts. The government-conceived Elections Law allows voters to choose two candidates from their district instead of

What History Should Teach Us About Blockading Iran
Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com
It’s a policy fierce enough to cause great suffering among Iranians — and possibly in the long run among Americans, too. It might, in the end, even deeply harm the global economy and yet, history tells us, it will fail on its own. Economic war led by Washington (and encouraged by Israel) will not take down the Iranian government or bring it to the bargaining table on its knees ready to surrender its nuclear program. It might, however, lead to actual armed conflict with incalculable

Last year in Denver, Colo., there was snow on the ground through the end of April and warm temperatures were not really felt until mid May.
Since the end of February this year, Colorado has only had two days that I can count where there were wintry conditions, and that was with lows of 30 degrees at night. What I can remember though, are March temperatures in the mid ’80s occurring on four to six different dates, mirroring average temperatures for mid June.
Trees have already blossomed, and there are grasshoppers, bees, butterflies and lots of pollen in the air — something we should not see until late May or early June.
The Washington Post has reported that these first three months of 2012 have shattered records, especially in March:
More from the Washington Post:
And the reports of extreme winter warmth has gotten noticed by lots of people.
In Maine:
Ice leaves Beech Hill Pond earliest that 80-year-old can recall
OTIS, Maine — Since 1947, Edwin “Sonny” Colburn has been keeping track of when the water in Hancock County’s Beech Hill Pond goes to ice, and back again.
Never, he says, has he seen a winter like this.
“There were years when we were driving vehicles on the ice on Thanksgiving, and we were ice skating and ice boating the first part of April,” he said Tuesday. “This year, the lake wasn’t frozen over until the morning of January 21st, and the ice went out the 21st of March, the earliest I’ve ever seen it go.”
In Colorado, March is our heaviest snow month.
We have had one day of snow in March, and little rain — which probably exacerbated a forest fire — three months before the beginning of ‘fire’ season.
Another person who noticed the alarming temperature? President Obama at a March fundraiser with Oprah in Chicago:
“We’ve had a good day,” Obama said. “It’s warm every

Forty-four days late, justice finally showed up for Trayvon Martin and his family. Florida Special Prosecutor Angela B. Corey announced yesterday that she will charge George Zimmerman with second-degree murder for the shooting death of the unarmed teenager on February 26 in Sanford, Florida.
Many attributed the belated charges to a national outcry and widespread outrage expressed through protests and prayers as days, and then weeks went by with no arrest or indictment in the shooting. President Obama expressed sympathy for the victim’s family, noting that if he had a son he would have looked like Trayvon

by guest blogger Jean Nick, author and sustainability expert
After a few weeks, the thrill of having chicks in your dining room starts to wear thin, and the little fluffballs are transforming into feathery fliers who seem bent on flying out of any box ever created and then crying piteously to be put back in (after giving you a merry chase). While a wire mesh lid can extend their indoor stay a little, what they really need is a secure outdoor home.
When most people think of backyard chickens, they think of the birds either running around free or in a house with a permanent run. Both management systems have advantages and disadvantages, but there is a better way that optimizes the advantages and minimizes the disadvantages: a small secure but portable shelter with a bottomless run attached.
Why a movable coop?
A movable coop allows you to keep the chickens out of places you don’t want them wandering in (such as your best flower bed, where they can dig; the doorstep, where they can leave squishy presents; your neighbors’ yard, where they can pester your neighbors, hiding their eggs in interesting places–trust me, egg hunts get old fast–or the road, where they can play in traffic). It keeps them safe from predators (both wild and domestic), gives them access to fresh grazing (very important for their health and the nutrition of their eggs), and lets them spread their manure for you (so you don’t have

April is a month filled with historical markers. It begins with April Fool’s Day (which is celebrated here in San Francisco with the annual St. Stupid’s Day Parade). For Americans, April contains the deadline for filing one’s income tax

First there was the Butler Act of 1925, a law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in classrooms in Tennessee. The Scopes “Monkey” Trial, in which the ACLU challenged the bill, put Tennessee educational policy in the national spotlight. But Tennessee legislators refused to bend to pressure, and the law remained on the books until 1967.
We’ve come a long way in the past 100 years, but it seems like Tennessee is up to its old anti-science tricks

They’d call us gypsies, tramps, and thieves;
But every night all the men would come around;
And lay their money down
-Cher
I learned about outsourcing and other business techniques in the 1970′s, during my teenage years.
I worked at a dry cleaning business that had no dry cleaning equipment. It had two clothing racks, a counter, and a cash register; nothing else. There was no drive-thru window and no parking

While much has been written about transitioning military finding jobs, not much attention has been given to the employment struggles military families face. There are two aspects to consider when looking at this problem, the issues faced by active duty military families and the issues faced by families of National Guard and Reserve (NG&R) families.
The military benefit system gives active duty soldiers extra combat pay, provides housing allowances and exempts them from certain taxes, but financial experts say active duty military families are straining under multiple deployments, frequent relocations and the difficulty spouses have in getting — and keeping jobs — in new cities.
Trying to support a family is tough in today’s uncertain economic environment for both civilian and military families. To make ends meet, both adult members of the military family frequently have to work. Active duty military families have a tougher time than their civilian counterparts in finding work, as military families have to move frequently, thus causing the spouse to have to find a new job on a regular

“I shop, therefore I am” is a slogan made ubiquitous by one of my favorite artists, Barbara Kruger, whose pop art often deals with consumerism and feminism. But the text-atop-screen-print, which was originally produced by Kruger in 1987, has never rung more true than for our current generation.
The anthropology behind shopping rituals is exceedingly interesting to me. These days, I buy the majority of my clothing at thrift

Originally posted on Book Riot:
Spring has me in the mood to clean out closets of both the storage and psychic varieties. Here are seven of the dirty little reading secrets I’ve been carrying around for a while. What are yours?
I can’t keep Tom Wolfe and Tom Robbins straight. One of them wore a white suit, but I don’t remember

March (and even April) serve as a transitional period in fashion. Magazines are producing their lengthy and coveted Spring issues, the focus is already shifting ahead to the current season (I can’t even bear to think of fall or winter at this point already) and generally the beautiful weather just brings out the best in everyone. And it seems that the more people find themselves in good spirits, the more willing they are to take more risks with their wardrobe. The only problem is, some don’t know where to begin.
For starters, despite the good weather, most people won’t dare shy away from the Internet, and this proves to be beneficial for digital tastemakers such as the online website

Winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi is as close to a modern version of Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. as you’re likely to find. The fact that she’s still alive – and fighting for democracy in her homeland of Burma – is nothing short of miraculous.
That’s the impression you come away with from Luc Besson’s The Lady, a biopic of the woman known as the Steel Orchid. Thanks to a marvelously full-bodied performance by Michelle Yeoh and a complementary one by David Thewlis, The Lady overcomes its own obstacles – principally ones of pacing – to present a moving portrait of courage, resilience and conviction.
The daughter of a former Burmese leader, Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, Aung San Suu Kyi is first presented as a housewife and scholar in London, the wife of an academic, Michael Aris (Thewlis), whose specialty is Tibetan

Designer Cleto Munari is putting his personal collection of art, furnishings and objects — many created in conjunction with architects like Michael Graves, Richard Meier and Robert Venturi, as well as writers Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Saul Bellow — up for auction.
The auction will take place at Pierre Berg in Brussels on April 24, with work also by Scarpa, Sottsass, Palladino, Mendini, and many others. One item of particular interest is a portrait of Scarpa by Warhol, pictured below.
I recently interviewed Munari by email about the collection, the collaboration and its history:
How many pieces are included in the auction?
251 lots with about 500 individual pieces
Who are some of the best-known artists and writers represented?
Mimmo Paladino, Sandra Chia, Alessandro Mendini, Mario Botta, Marcello Morandini, Richard Meier, Paolo Portoghesi, Arata Isozaki, Ettore Sottsass, and Carol Scarpa.
How did these pieces come to be created? Why?
I felt the necessity of creating a new concept of beauty not founded only on the classic stereotypes of our cultural education. I wanted to ask the most intriguing design minds that existed to create without limitations.
Can you describe your relationship with Carlo Scarpa?
He was a friend, a teacher and a life companion. I learned from him the taste of beauty and the inexhaustible search for the new.
What can you tell us about the spoons you and he collaborated on?
It took four years to have the drawings from Carlo Scarpa, but I enjoy every day of my life to have them on my table for lunch.
And the other architects? Why did you choose them, and what were the most interesting results?
I try to work with architects, not limiting the choice only to my

Who will speak for the rights of the unborn now that Rick Santorum is gone from the race? Let me give it a whirl from the perspective of one whose own unwed mother had several abortions before yours truly was permitted to emerge.
My arrival came during the U.S. economy’s previous great crash, back in 1936. My father, who was already supporting an earlier family with two teenage children, had every intention of providing well for me, but he was laid off that very day and informed my mother of the unhappy fact within moments of setting eyes on me in a Bronx

MAGIC/BIRD * out of ****
LONGACRE THEATRE
Surprisingly, Magic/Bird is the second basketball-themed show to hit Broadway recently. In many ways, it’s even less likely than the high school musical comedy Lysistrata Jones. It’s an odd duck, no doubt about it. But the mild curiosity over exactly what they’re going to put onstage to depict the careers and and friendship of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird soon dissipates when its dull, pseudo-documentary style reveals

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This week there was another big attack on Social Security by another elite. This time the attack comes from an elite columnist, other times it comes from Wall Street types, wealthy CEOs or the kind of politicians that have been in DC way too long. These attacks never come from people who depend on these programs (i.e. almost all of us.) Why do the privileged elites hate Social Security so much?
Robert Samuelson wrote this week in the Washington Post, Would Roosevelt recognize today’s Social Security? Samuelson writes that Social Security, “has become what was then called “the dole” and is now known as “welfare.” ” He discusses a book that, he writes, “shows how today’s “entitlement” psychology dates to Social Security’s muddled beginnings.”
Entitlements
Elites hate “entitlements” — those things we all are entitled to as are citizens in a We-the-People