03/06/2013 01:23 PM EST

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, has issued a voluntary recall on specific codes of 5-ounce Chunk White Albacore and Chunk Light Tuna products. The recall has been issued because the products do not meet the companyâ€™s standards for seal tightness.

Kroger Recalls Select Wheat Bread Products in Idaho, Oregon and Washington States

03/05/2013 12:36 PM EST

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Bakery in Clackamas, Oregon is recalling select Wheat Bread products sold at the company’s Fred Meyer Stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington and QFC stores in Oregon and Washington because these products may contain pieces of plastic. Customers should return the product to stores for a full refund or replacement.

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HR933 and FY2013 effect on automatic spending reductions

03/05/2013 Nativegrl77

H.R. 933, the Department of Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013

As introduced on March 4

Information on appropriations for fiscal year 2013 and the effect on those appropriations of the automatic spending reductions

Letter to the Honorable Paul Ryan

The Budget Outlook

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf’s Presentation to the National Association for Business Economics

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Pick Your Poison

03/05/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

Devastating Cuts Take Hold

Devastating, painful, and, above all, avoidable spending cuts went into effect Friday evening after sequestration became official. Instead of agreeing to a balanced replacement that includes targeted spending cuts and new revenues from closing tax loopholes used by the wealthiest Americans and special interests, Republicans are instead forcing these damaging cuts on the country.

Here’s a look at 32 of the dumbest and most devastating cuts.

Health care

$20 million cut from the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Programs
$10 million cut from the World Trade Center Health Program Fund
$168 million cut from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
$75 million cut from the Aging and Disability Services Programs

Housing

$199 million cut from public housing
$96 million cut from Homeless Assistance Grants
$17 million cut from Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS
$19 million cut from Housing for the Elderly
$175 million cut from Low Income Home Energy Assistance

Disaster and Emergency

$928 million cut from FEMA’s disaster relief money
$6 million cut from Emergency Food and Shelter
$70 million cut from the Agricultural Disaster Relief Fund at USDA
$61 million cut from the Hazardous Substance Superfund at EPA
$125 million cut from the Wildland Fire Management
$53 million cut from Salaries and Expenses at the Food Safety and Inspection Service

Obamacare

$13 million cut from the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Program (Co-ops)
$57 million cut from the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control
$51 million cut from the Prevention and Public Health Fund
$27 million cut from the State Grants and Demonstrations
$44 million cut from the Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants program

Education

$633 million cut from the Department of Education’s Special Education programs
$184 million cut from Rehabilitation Services and Disability Research
$71 million cut from administration at the Office of Federal Student Aid
$116 million cut from Higher Education
$86 million cut from Student Financial Assistance

Immigration

$512 million cut from Customs and Border Protection
$17 million cut from Automation Modernization, Customs and Border Protection
$20 million cut from Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology

Security

$79 million cut from Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance
$604 million cut from National Nuclear Security Administration
$232 million cut from the Federal Aviation Administration
$394 million cut from Defense Environmental Cleanup

BOTTOM LINE: The worst impacts of the cuts won’t happen overnight, but they will happen. Rather than compromise, Republicans instead appear ready to stand by and watch as our economy and millions of Americans are hurt by these irresponsible and devastating cuts. Their reckless behavior got us into this mess in 2011 and now it’s time for them to come back to the table and help get us out of it before the worst impacts of these indiscriminate cuts happen.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

The GOP’s top donor admits that his company probably bribed foreign officials.

Jeb Bush flip-flops on a path to earned citizenship.

Theatrical slut shaming: Daily Caller goes after Ashley Judd for nude scenes.

Mitt Romney is not done proving why he’s not president. And Ann Romney isn’t over it yet.

Can a leading climate denier win in a swing state?

GOP congressman opposed Violence Against Women Act because it protected too many people.

The Associated Press laments the plight of the very wealthy.

Business-friendly Swiss vote for major restrictions on executive compensation.

Corporate profits have risen almost twenty times faster than worker wages since 2008.

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BOOM ! New ad hits McConnell: Stephanie Taylor and team

03/05/2013 Nativegrl77

Gary Nutt is a gun owner and veteran.

He’s not happy that his senator, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, is standing in the way of sensible gun laws. Especially after gun interests spent $198,615 to elect McConnell.

So Gary worked with us to make a powerful TV ad calling for strong gun laws. We want to air it this week, as the Senate holds a key hearing on banning assault weapons.

Can you watch the TV ad and donate $3 to help air it in Washington DC and Mitch McConnell’s homestate of Kentucky? Click here.

(Share this TV ad on Facebook!)

Our latest poll shows that Kentucky voters favor an assault weapons ban by 50%-42%. But Senator McConnell is threatening to abuse Senate rules and block gun reform.

Our ad reminds folks back home that McConnell is not on their side. He sides with big gun manufacturers who spent $198,615 to elect him.

Let’s go on offense! Watch the ad — and donate $3 to put it on TV.

Thanks for being a bold progressive.

— Stephanie Taylor, Adam Green, Matt Wall, Karissa Gerhke, Drew McConville, and the PCCC team

~ politics petitions pollution &pop culture

Breaking: Indigenous communities fighting to reclaim stolen lands …

03/05/2013 Nativegrl77

Ask APRIL CEO Sukanto Tanoto to release Indigenous community protestors and return stolen native lands

For generations, the Indigenous Batak communities of Northern Sumatra have harvested and traded the sap from the trees in their sacred benzoin forests. The sap is used for the production of incense and perfumes, and exported to the international market. The villages thrived and forests were healthy.

Today, these communities are fighting for their lands and livelihoods against the controversial paper giant APRIL. Please write to APRIL’s CEO Sukanto Tanoto today and ask APRIL to peacefully resolve this conflict now and return the community lands it has stolen.

Earlier this week, hundreds of villagers risked life and limb by standing between their forest home and the machinery of APRIL’s logging operations. In response, Indonesia’s notoriously abusive security agency, known as Brimob, was called in to forcibly suppress the protest. At least 16 village members have now been arrested in connection to this latest dispute.

This land conflict is just one example of the widespread human rights violations that have plagued APRIL’s operations for many years. This case has been simmering since 2009, when an APRIL affiliate began deforesting the community’s territory and planting eucalyptus plantations on their ancestral land.

Tell APRIL CEO Sukanto Tanoto to release the 16 Indigenous activists who are still being held, to stop expansion on Batak lands, and to return the lands already stolen from them.

Last September, APRIL workers and security forces again began to clear forest on the Batak communities’ land. The community gathered in large numbers to stop the machinery, confiscating weapons and chainsaws from the logging crew. Three days later, eight villagers were summoned to the police station. Instead, nearly 1,000 community members arrived in an inspiring act of solidarity.

We must stand with these communities. This remains a dangerous and unresolved confrontation between a major corporation seeking to maximize profits and an Indigenous people desperately seeking to preserve their identity and ancestral lands.

APRIL’s massive logging operations have run roughshod over the rights of local communities for far too long. Please write to APRIL’s CEO and let him know these practices are unacceptable and must stop now.