President Obama has announced that he will propose a budget plan on April 10 that would cut Social Security benefits and increase Medicare deductibles.

The Associated Press reported yesterday: “At the start of what could be a new era in police surveillance, an Illinois legislator is proposing a limit on how law enforcement agencies can use drones highly sophisticated, unmanned aircraft that authorities are eyeing for aerial surveillance.”

April 9th is ‘Equal Pay Day’ symbolizing how far past the new year women must work in order to simply receive the same salary men earn in only 12 months.

Ten years after U.S. forces cemented their victory over Iraq by toppling the statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square on April 9, 2003, Iraqis continue to flee their country, adding to the estimated 4 million displaced by the war and occupation. The Progressive magazine has a new report on the largest community of Iraqi…

Reuters is reporting: “The United States said on Wednesday it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has called a ‘real and clear danger’ from Pyongyang.”

“Atlanta is the ‘tip of an iceberg’ in a sea of standardized test score manipulation that has swept the U.S. in response to politically mandated misuses of standardized exams.”

A campaign for revoking President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize got underway today with a petition launched by a quarter-million member online group.

The New York Times reports: “New York City is poised to mandate that thousands of companies provide paid time off for sick employees, bolstering a national movement that has been resisted by wary business leaders.

During the past week, more than 30,000 Americans have signed a petition urging a Nobel Peace Prize for U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the whistleblower who was arrested nearly three years ago on charges that he provided an enormous quantity of classified documents to WikiLeaks.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in downtown Chicago on Wednesday to protest the city’s plan to close 54 public schools, primarily in Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods.