First Student, the second largest school bus operator in the U.S., is buying out Laidlaw, the biggest school bus operator. This means they'll be transporting 4 million American school children and will control 40% of the school bus market in the U.S.

First Student is an affiliate of First Group, a U.K. based multinational company. First Student has a notorious history of abusive conduct towards workers when they try to form unions.

Last summer, in response to a bunch of stakeholders, from unions to political leaders, the company in the U.K issued a neutrality pledge to correct its anti-union behavior in the U.S., a commitment made by Martin Gilbert. Since then, they have violated that agreement all over the U.S.

So today, we have Sen. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) here in Naperville and they will call on the company to honor their commitment to allow workers to form unions.

Corporate tax reform is stalled on Capitol Hill these days, but in the states, it’s full steam ahead.  In recent weeks, the governors of Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania have all proposed that their state adopt a key reform outlawing a variety of abusive income-tax-avoidance strategies practiced by corporations such as Wal-Mart.  On April 1 New York became the 20th state to adopt this reform, known as “combined reporting.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is no stranger to political posturing, frequently exaggerating -- as most animal rights radicals do -- for maximum effect and maximum fundraising impact. Witness the group's response to Hurricane Katrina: more than $30 million raised with heart-rending tales of displaced pooches, but comparatively little spent reuniting lost bayou pets with their owners. (Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti is investigating.) This week the group's exaggerations are crossing national borders, and our neighbors to the North are fighting back.

HSUS claims over 2,000 U.S. restaurants and seafood distributors are "boycotting" Canadian seafood (especially the trade-critical snow crab), as part of its campaign to pressure Ottawa into canceling an annual seal hunt. HSUS insists the boycott has cost Canada hundreds of millions of dollars in exports. But last year the Center for Consumer Freedom surveyed the supposed U.S. boycotters, finding that 78 percent weren't actually shunning Canadian seafood.

Now Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has released trade figures showing that a two-year slide in snow crab prices started 6 months before HSUS announced its campaign. "[T]he data suggest," DFO writes, "that the HSUS's claims about the success of the boycott are much inflated at best, but more likely they are simply deceptive and misleading."
Read more...

This campaign video shows Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) address how his position on abortion has changed in his "Ask Mitt Anything" session on Wednesday.

"I have always been personally pro-life in my own life," he said, "In my view abortion is wrong except in the case of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is threatened. But for me the question of what should government's role be was uncertain."

Romney goes on to say that his support for abortion rights changed when Massachusetts was debating embryonic stem cell research when he was governor. Now, he prefers leaving abortion up to the states.

Romney said he would prefer that "instead of having a one size fits all pronouncement for the entire nation as we currently have, that each state should be able to make their own choice in this regard."

If anyone still harbored doubts that carbon dioxide was a pollutant that impacts human welfare after the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday, the second IPCC report of the year released today should put any doubt to rest. In their February report, the world's top scientists provided a scientific smoking gun that human activities were unequivocally responsible for global warming. Now they are telling us what happens when the bullet hits. Their latest report chronicles the already mounting evidence of global warming impacts and forecasts dire consequences for an increasingly hotter world. Just a few examples include:

A warmer world will push the global water cycle to extremes - dry areas, like the southwestern United States, will get drier while wet areas will get wetter, increasing their risk for floods and associated impacts. Within 13 years, 75 to 250 million people in Africa are projected to experience an increased risk of water scarcity due to global warming. In Asia where receding Himalayan glaciers are crucial to freshwater supplies, climate change could adversely affect more than a billion people by mid-century.

Food production on land and in the water will also suffer. Even small local temperature increases are predicted to impact the crop productivity of lower latitude countries while higher latitude countries might see some benefits initially but would suffer under increasing temperatures. Fish - which provide more protein worldwide than any other animal - will suffer as water temperatures rise and water quality declines. Read more...

The American Bar Association (ABA) has received credible reports that the Zimbabwe police have violated Zimbabwe law and fundamental human rights law in attacks on citizens gathered to exercise their legitimate democratic rights at a meeting in Highfield outside of Harare. Police used live ammunition and opened fire on protestors at this meeting which resulted in the death of one and injury to others. The ABA is concerned about alleged beatings of these individuals and their detention without cause and without medical treatment. In addition, it is reported that those who have been released were affirmatively denied needed medical care and treatment.

We are deeply concerned that more than 20 staffers at Harvest House were arrested on March 28 and remain in detention in apparent violation of their fundamental rights.

The ABA is extremely concerned about reports that the lawyers of the detainees were prevented from contacting their clients and that police refused to allow access as dictated by a court order. Read more...

It is important for the public to see why the Pentagon’s Inspector General concluded that Secretary Doug Feith’s office "developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship," which included "conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community," and why the Inspector General concluded that these actions were "inappropriate." Until today, those details were classified and outside the public’s view.

The very title of the Feith briefing slides contradicts his claim on February 16 that “we didn’t do intelligence assessments,

The new scientific report on global warming warns that global warming is already affecting the earth and that the effects are likely to be significant and widespread in this century, causing increased drought, drinking water shortages, and widespread extinction of species.  Poor people around the world are especially vulnerable to the hazards of climate change.

Global warming is already underway, but it is not too late to slow it down and reduce its harmful effects.  We must base our actions on the moral imperative and the scientific record, free of political interference in scientists’ assessments of the effects of climate change on society and the environment.

In this Holy Week, we are reminded of these words in the Old Testament:  "To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship.  To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us."  We must move quickly to honor God’s creation by reducing greenhouse gas pollution in the United States and around the world.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) discusses his solution to the situation in Iraq in this campaign video of his remarks at the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) Winter Meeting in February.

"We have a moral responsibility to bring the Sunni and Shia together in a national reconciliation conference," Richardson says. "And we have a strategic interest in organizing a regional conference with all of Iraq's neighbors: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, NATO. But also include Syria and Iran to help stabilize Iraq."