Here’s a thought: maybe Madison, Wis., isn’t Cairo after all. Maybe it’s Baghdad -- specifically, Baghdad in 2003, when the Bush administration put Iraq under the rule of officials chosen for loyalty and political reliability rather than experience and competence. What’s happening in Wisconsin is an attempt to destroy the last major counterweight to the political power of corporations and the wealthy -- and the power grab goes beyond union-busting.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is questioning a decision by the Provincial Court to ban the use of Twitter, email and texting from inside courtrooms. The court, which hears most of B.C.’s criminal trials, last week posted a policy on its website that says while cellphones and digital transmitting devices can be brought into the courtroom, the data transmission function must be disabled.

On Feb. 27, 2009, Colorado's oldest newspaper printed its final edition and itself became part of the story of the destruction of the Great Recession and the demise of the newspaper industry. Two years later, I surveyed the 194 full and part-time members of the staff who were there on its last day to learn how their lives had changed. Perhaps the most depressing finding: 98 out of 146 respondents, or 67%, said they were earning less today than they made at the Rocky.