There are many sides to whistleblowing. The one that most people don't know about is the very personal cost, prison aside, including the high cost of lawyers and the strain on family relations, that follows the decision to risk it all in an act of conscience. Here's a part of my own story I've not talked about much before.

At age 53, everything changed. Following my whistleblowing first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, I was run out of the good job I had held for more than twenty years with the US Department of State. As one of its threats, State also took aim at the pension and benefits I'd earned, even as it forced me into retirement. Would my family and I lose everything I'd worked for as part of the retaliation campaign State was waging? I was worried. That pension was the thing I'd counted on to provide for us and it remained in jeopardy for many months. I was scared.

My skill set was pretty specific to my old job. The market was tough in the Washington, DC area for someone with a suspended security clearance. Nobody with a salaried job to offer seemed interested in an old guy, and I needed some money. All the signs pointed one way - toward the retail economy and a minimum wage job.

Editor's note: Sunday marked the 100th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre. For more information about this landmark event in US labor history, visit PBS' "American Experience."

On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard and a private militia employed by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I) opened fire on a tent camp of striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colo. At least 19 people died in the camp that day, mostly women and children.

A century later, the bloody incident might seem a relic of the distant past, but the Ludlow Massacre retains a powerful, disturbing and growing relevance to the present. After a century of struggling against powerful interests to make American workplaces safer and corporations responsive to their employees, the US is rapidly returning to the conditions of rampant exploitation that contributed to Ludlow.

That's especially true in mining, where a coordinated union-busting campaign, the corporate capture of federal regulatory agencies, and widespread environmental degradation leave coal miners unsafe and mining communities struggling to deal with the massive environmental impact of modern mining practices.

A century ago, miners led the fight for workers' rights. The Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was a period of great upheaval for the American working class. For decades, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) had worked to organize the nation's coal miners. Its success often hinged on whether the government helped mining companies crush strikes or protected workers. In 1897, deputies in Luzerne County, Pa., killed 19 striking miners in the Lattimer Massacre. But five years later, when Pennsylvania miners struck again, President Theodore Roosevelt intervened on their behalf, providing them with a partial victory. Roosevelt's actions, while hardly indicative a new pro-labor federal government, reflected a growing belief that labor deserved a fair shake.

An ancient American Indian village and burial site in California that was older than King Tut's tomb was discovered and then paved over so that a $55 million housing project could move forward.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the ancient site was found at the location of the Rose Lane development in Larkspur. The site reportedly contained a "treasure trove" of details about Coast Miwok life from as long as 4,500 years ago.

But all of the 600 human burials, the tools, the musical instruments and other items were reburied so that development could continue.

"This was a site of considerable archaeological value," archaeologist Dwight Simons, who helped analyze the site, told the Chronicle. "My estimate of bones and fragments in the entire site was easily over a million, and probably more than that. It was staggering."

After developers discovered the significance of the land in 2010, archaeologists and American Indian monitors were brought in as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. American Indian leaders were the ones who reportedly decided how the artifacts would be handled.

More black men are behind bars or under the watch of the criminal justice system than there were enslaved in 1850, according to the author of a book about racial discrimination and criminal justice.

Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander highlighted the troubling statistic while speaking in front of an audience at the Pasadena Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, Elev8 reports.

Alexander, the author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reportedly claimed there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War.

More than 846,000 black men were incarcerated in 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates reported by NewsOne. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates.

It was none other than Dana Giacchetto who was behind the financing of a video company owned by Marc Collins-Rector, named in the stunning lawsuit filed against "X Men" director Bryan Singer this week.

As soon as I saw the name Marc Collins-Rector, I knew that a big piece of an old jigsaw puzzle had finally been found.

Michael Egan alleges rape and all kinds of sexual horrors by Singer and others at a Hollywood estate in 1999-2000. Collins- Rector owned the estate, formerly owned by rapper and felon Marion "Suge" Knight.

Egan would have been a teen then. His allegations fit in with another story I was reporting at that time, about criminal business manager and Ponzi schemer Dana Giacchetto (Leonardo DiCaprio and Mike Ovitz's former BFF) and a company called DEN - Digital Entertainment Network, which was owned by Collins- Rector.

Are you tired of living under relative tyranny where every email is read, every phone call is listened to and your every movement is tracked and dissident journalists are harassed and even murdered by federal agencies such as the rogue NSA, CIA and IRS?

Are you thinking about escaping our corrupt and criminal government? The level of growing tyranny and brutal martial law enforcement is off the charts. Many are too old to fight and to fat to run. However, if you want you and your family to have chance to grow old in relative peace, my advice to all Americans is simple. If you are not going to fight, then you better get out of the country while you still can.

Record Expatriation of US Citizens

Americans are leaving the country at record speed and the annual rate of expatriation is growing as over 150,000 Americans departed the former land of liberty for greener pastures overseas in the past year. In fact, there are now over five million Americans who are choosing to live outside the United States. Just why are Americans leaving this land of "freedom" and opportunity in record numbers, with no end in sight?

Would you renounce your U.S. citizenship if it meant you'd be sending less of your hard-earned dollars to Uncle Sam? Do you want affordable health care? Do you desire to live a long and healthy life? Do you want your children to have an affordable college education? Do you want to retire in relative comfort? Do you desire to live your life with more freedoms than you presently enjoy and not have to worry about government harassment? On balance, should most Americans stay or go?

* Marco Gusmini was killed when the sculpture fell in Cevo, northern Italy

* The 21-year-old tourist had been visiting the Alpine village on a church trip

* 100ft high wooden cross was built in honour of John Paul II in 1998

* It fell suddenly during a ceremony in lead up to his canonization on Sunday

A 21-year-old tourist has died after being crushed to death by a 100ft crucifix built in honour of John Paul II after it collapsed during a ceremony in the lead up to his canonization.

The 100ft high wooden cross, supporting a 90 stone statue of Jesus, created when John Paul II visited the area in 1998, fell suddenly following a few crunches.

Marco Gusmini, who was on a church trip to the Alpine village, was unable to get out of the way in time and was killed instantly, Italian media reported.

An 18-year-old has been charged with animal cruelty after video of him beating a duck to death with a baseball bat was put online and went viral.

William Luke McDowell of Lexington, N.C., was arrested over the weekend after authorities were made aware of the video. McDowell's 16-year-old friend caught the cruel act on camera, and many people are outraged over the seemingly senseless and random act of violence against the innocent duck.

"It's not dead yet, it's not dead," screams the voice of the friend operating the camera as McDowell brutally beats the duck until it does finally die. "Hard as you can. He's suffering, just whack as hard as you can."

"It's a young man laughing as he approaches a nesting duck who is minding his own business and he beats that duck to death with a bat," said Tiffany Young, founder of the Duck Rescue Network.

Do you love bacon? How much?

The price of bacon has gone up 13% in the last year and a whopping 53% since January 2010, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Prices of fruit, meats - even coffee - have increased dramatically over the last few years. Drought conditions and disease affecting crops and livestock are reducing supply and driving up the prices of many food staples.

While food prices are rising, the Federal Reserve is concerned that inflation is too low. In a speech last week, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said, "With inflation running at around 1%, at this point I think the risk is greater that we should be worried about inflation undershooting our goal and getting inflation back up to 2%."

In the corresponding video, Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Aaron Task spoke with Lauren Lyster about rising food prices at the same time the Fed is concerned about inflation being too low.

Until now, the terrible trail of dead bankers has been only among US and European financial executives. However, as Caixin reports, the increasing pressures on the Chinese banking system appear to have take their first toll. Li Jianhua, director of China's Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), died this morning due to a "sudden heart attack" - he was less than 49 years old.

Li was among the main drafters on new "caveat emptor" market-based rules on China's shadowy banking system and recently said in an interview that "now is not only a time to control risk, but to transform the trust industry.. if it's too loose, it's a big problem." Li was found by his wife.