Good morning! (Sorry it’s Monday.) And a happy Passover to those who celebrate it…
Stat of the day: 900 — the number of environmental activists who have been murdered worldwide in the past decade, according to a report by the group Global Witness. Only 10 perpetrators have been convicted.
Ukraine –> Pro-Russian separatists occupied municipal buildings in the Eastern city of Slaviansk on Saturday. Today, Reuters reports that Ukraine’s acting president is threatening a military response.
Saving the earth: Not priceless –> Joe Romm reports for ThinkProgress that “avoiding climate catastrophe is super cheap” — but only if we act now.
Google “corruption” — The search engine giant used to be disdainful of lobbying, but Tom Hamburger and Matea Gold report for WaPo that Google is now a “master of Washington influence.”
Death by ideology? –> At TNR, Brian Beutler on the case of a Florida woman who fell into the Medicaid “coverage gap,” created when the state refused the ACA’s expansion, and died of a treatable heart condition.
Your Comcast overlords –> Al Franken explains why he opposes the Comcast-Time Warner merger at CNN.
Milliseconds –> Paul Krugman on two tunnels — one for commuters that won’t be built and one for high-frequency traders that will — and what they say about the state of our union.
Tyranny? –> A Nevada rancher who doesn’t recognize the federal government and has refused to pay fees to graze his cattle on federal lands for the past 20 years has become an odd cause célèbre for the conservative movement, thanks in part to the backing of the Koch brothers. Oliver Willis has that aspect of the story for Media Matters, and NPR’s Bill Chappell explains how the brouhaha came to an end.
With charts! –> MoJo has one of its excellent “charticles” about the $470 billion in “generous, never-expiring tax breaks” Big Oil has gotten from the federal government in the past century.
Didn’t see that one coming –> The Nevada GOP dropped abortion and opposition to marriage equality from its party platform on Saturday. Laura Myers reports for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
He’ll never work in this town again –> Salon’s Elias Isquith takes Ezra Klein, Nate Silver and Jonathan Chait to task for resurrecting a form of journalism that ostensibly offers a “view from nowhere.”
Your tax dollars at work –> Where do they go? The National Priorities Project’s Robin Claremont explains just in time for tax day.
Really, Mike. Really? –> Mike Huckabee told a group of New Hampshire conservatives that there’s “more freedom in North Korea” than in the US under Obama. David Edwards reports for The Raw Story.
Not funny –> At Politico, Molly Crabapple looks at what George W. Bush’s artwork reveals about the former president.
