Senate Bill Would Rein In Too Big To Fail Banks, Draft Reveals Quartz

Senate staff are reviewing a draft of banking legislation that would raise equity funding requirements for financial institutions, pull the United States out of the Basel III accord, and further restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to bail out the shadow banking sector.

The draft, which you can read below, was prepared by the staff of Democratic senator Sherrod Brown, who is expected to be joined by Republican senator David Vitter in endorsing a final version of the legislation later in April. The two legislators co-sponsored a symbolic amendment calling on the government to end subsidies to the largest banks; it passed the Senate 99-0.

Bernie Sanders Will Do 'Everything In His Power' To Block Obama Budget's Social Security Cuts

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday aggressively pushed back on President Barack Obama's budget proposal, calling it a "bitter disappointment" and promising that the entitlement cuts contained in the plan wouldn't pass under his watch.

“I am terribly disappointed and will do everything in my power to block President Obama’s proposal to cut benefits for Social Security recipients through a chained consumer price index," Sanders said in a statement, blasting the plan to change how cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security payments are calculated.

Why China's Corruption Won't Stop

Failing to tackle corruption “could cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state,” warned Hu Jintao, the outgoing general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, at the Eighteenth Party Congress in November 2012. By January, the newly appointed party chief, Xi Jinping, publicly pledged zero tolerance for corruption, vowing to prosecute both “tigers” and “flies”—i.e., top officials and lowly bureaucrats alike.

Both leaders were trying to temper public anger over the issue of corruption, which had led to massive demonstrations all over the country. Still, one wonders how sincere Xi is about tackling corruption. After all, Bloomberg News reported last June that the wealth of Xi’s extended family amounts to billions in minerals and real estate, including a stake in a rare-earth company that alone is worth $1.73 billion. So would Xi start by putting members of his own family in the dock?

Former Walmart District Manager Accuses Company of Widespread Inventory Manipulation

In 1996, Sylvester Johnson left his post as a commanding officer in the US Army and began a career managing logistics at Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Once there, he received a series of rapid promotions, eventually overseeing the HR management of over 26,000 employees in five states. He became friendly with Walmart executive Mike Duke, who became CEO in 2009. In 2002, Johnson received the Sam M. Walton Hero Award, a prestigious company distinction. In 2003, he moved to North Carolina where he oversaw eleven Walmart Supercenters. The company fired him in 2009 for allegedly giving orders to manipulate inventory counts, a claim Johnson denies.

Global climate efforts threaten oilsands growth, memo told Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver

OTTAWA – The economic benefits to Canada from oilsands industrial expansion may be “considerably less” than what the Canadian government and industry representatives predict, if the planet collectively takes action to slash the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver was told in an internal memo obtained by Postmedia News.

Elder Raymond Robinson is on a second fast to protest Harper's lack of dialogue with First Nations

Elder Raymond Robinson is on a second fast to protest Stephen Harper's lack of dialogue with First Nations communities.

The Manitoba Cree elder is on his third day of his spiritual fast, in which he is not consuming food or water.

 He said he is willing to die for his people in an effort to stop changes to federal funding for First Nations people.

This is the second time that Robinson has fasted for his people. He first fasted for Idle No More in late 2012, joining Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence for forty three days in which he lost a more than forty pounds; both fasts ended on January 24, 2013.

Nishiyuu Walkers: In Restlessness, There Is Power

"What did we say to each other
that now we are as the deer
who walk in single file
with heads high
with ears forward
with eyes watchful
with hooves always placed on firm ground
in whose limbs there is latent flight"

-- N. Scott Momaday: "Smilie"

When the Nishiyuu Walkers arrived in Ottawa on March 25, 2013, 68 days and 1,600 kilometres from the start of their journey, they were fulfilling a time-honoured Cree tradition of walking. It is not a small thing this tradition. For thousands of years, the Cree, and other First Nations, have walked, paddled, or, in the west, rode vast distances. That act of motion was, in its essence, the balance of tradition and necessity combined in a way of existence that was sustainable and life-affirming.

Feds rehire some non-Christian prison chaplains

The federal government is restoring religious counselling services to some non-Christian federal prisoners in British Columbia, but officials deny they are reversing cuts made last year.

Last year, the Correctional Service of Canada terminated 49 part-time contract employees, saying it would save $1.3 million. Eighteen of those contractors provided services to Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and other non-Christian prisoners.

Water Justice for Tunisia: Regime change is not enough!

From March 26-30, an estimated 50,000 people flocked to Tunisia to participate in the first World Social Forum to take place in the Arab world. The theme was dignity -- a term that had become a battle cry during the revolutionary protests that took place throughout the region in 2010 and 2011.

Organizations working on water issues gathered a day earlier to hold discussions on the central role of water in the fight for human dignity. During the December 2010 protests in Tunisia that sparked the wave of revolutions in the Arab World, thousands had marched chanting, "Yes to bread and water! No to Ben Ali!" It was a clear message that the people would no longer tolerate a regime that denied them their basic rights.

Ralph Klein: Prime Minister Stephen Harper, other leaders, pay tribute to 'King Ralph' at his memorial service

CALGARY—Ralph would have wanted it this way.

A public memorial honouring former Alberta premier Ralph Klein began Friday with the skirl of bagpipes, solemn faces and a white hearse, but soon morphed into smiles, laughter and memories about a man who wore his heart — and his province — on his sleeve.“To Albertans he was King Ralph . . . but we said it in a way that we never meant it,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said to laughs from Klein’s friends, colleagues and constituents at the Jack Singer Concert Hall.