NASA experts claim California now holds less than 1 year in water reserves, while the drought and water usage have depleted fresh supplies at a drastic rate. This is a direct threat to biggest source agriculture production in the country, with some 80-90% of many key fruit and vegetable crops being raised in California...

If they are right, are you prepared to handle skyrocketing food prices or even shortages of foods you rely upon?

A six-minute video by Stefan Verstappen that answers some of the arguments against the idea that small sustainable communities are impractical.

The majority of Europeans - UK, French, German and Greek residents among them - distrust mainstream media coverage of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, a recent poll targeting over 4,000 people, reveals.

Greeks appear to have showed the least faith in their domestic media, with a total of 76 percent saying they were 'fairly' or 'totally distrustful' of mainstream reports on Ukraine. In Germany, the same opinion was shared by 57 percent of respondents.

Britons, on the other hand, have great trust in the mainstream media's handling of the situation. As many as 55 percent of respondents stated they put a fair amount of trust in the coverage of events in eastern Ukraine by British media. Some 33 percent said it was biased, however.

In France, 47 percent of respondents said they don't trust the Ukraine conflict coverage.

Every week the Truthdig editorial staff selects a Truthdigger of the Week, a group or person worthy of recognition for speaking truth to power, breaking the story or blowing the whistle. It is not a lifetime achievement award. Rather, we're looking for newsmakers whose actions in a given week are worth celebrating.

In the middle of the night on April 2, less than 24 hours after Palestine obtained membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC), dozens of Israeli soldiers burst into the Ramallah home of the prominent Palestinian lawmaker and leftist activist Khalida Jarrar and seized her.

Insofar as we believe the Israeli authorities, Jarrar is the most dangerous woman in the Middle East.

Given her leadership in cementing the Palestinian bid to join the ICC treaty—which covers the most recent Israel-Gaza conflict last summer in which more than 2,100 Palestinian civilians were killed—this may well be the case. Palestinian leaders have described accession to the ICC as a key means to "internationalizing" the conflict with their membership to the Hague-based court paving the way for Israel's prosecution for war crimes.

Whatever it's called - just-in-time scheduling, on-call staffing, on-demand work, independent contracting, or the "share economy" - the result is the same: No predictability, no economic security. (Image: CD)

These days it's not unusual for someone on the way to work to receive a text message from her employer saying she's not needed right then.

Although she's already found someone to pick up her kid from school and arranged for childcare, the work is no longer available and she won't be paid for it.

Just-in-time scheduling like this is the latest new thing, designed to make retail outlets, restaurants, hotels, and other customer-driven businesses more nimble and keep costs to a minimum.

Software can now predict up-to-the-minute staffing needs on the basis of information such as traffic patterns, weather, and sales merely hours or possibly minutes before.

This way, employers don't need to pay anyone to be at work unless they're really needed. Companies can avoid paying wages to workers who'd otherwise just sit around.

I received word yesterday that the New Hampshire House and Senate both approved SB 0101 which makes the Common Core voluntary for schools to use.

"I would like to thank the NH Senate and House for passing an important piece of legislation today that if signed by the Governor, prohibits the state from requiring implementation of Common Core Standards," said Ann Marie Banfield, Cornerstone Action's education liaison.

"Parents, students and teachers across New Hampshire sent letters and testified in support of SB101 based on the problems they are seeing in their local schools with the implementation of Common Core. SB101 clarifies that Common Core is not a mandate on schools and that they are free to use better academic standards in their district," Banfield stated.

Banfield also said parents need to act. "Parents need to now call/send e-mails to Governor Hassan to listen to the people of New Hampshire and sign SB101 into law. It's time to let everyone know she is starting to listen to the many people who expect leadership on this important issue."

Below is the pertinent text of the bill that goes to the Governor's desk.

(a) The school approval standards for the areas identified in paragraph I shall constitute the opportunity for the delivery of an adequate education. The general court shall periodically, but not less frequently than every 10 years, review, revise, and update, as necessary, the standards identified in paragraph I and shall ensure that the high quality of the standards is maintained. Changes made by the board of education to the school approval standards through rulemaking after the effective date of this section shall not be included within the standards that constitute the opportunity for the delivery of an adequate education without prior adoption by the general court. The board of education shall provide written notice to the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, and the chairs of the house and senate education committees of any changes to the school approval standards adopted pursuant to RSA 541-A.

(b) The common core state standards developed jointly by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers shall not be required by the department of education or the state board of education to be implemented in any school or school district in this state.

Could you imagine being a single parent and trying to survive in America today on $10.50 an hour? For a moment, I want you to imagine that you are living in a moldy apartment that is so badly maintained that rain seeps in whenever it rains.

You are employed, but you are completely dependent on government programs such as food stamps and Medicaid in order to make ends meet. Sometimes you would really like to take your small child somewhere fun, like a movie theater, but you can't really afford the gas money.

You are working as hard as you can, but you never seem to get anywhere, and you feel trapped because nobody seems to want to hire you for a better job. What I have just described for you is real life for a 22-year-old single mother from Chicago named Adriana Alvarez, but there are tens of millions of other Americans that have similar stories. If every day seems like it is a soul-crushing struggle for you, I want you to know that you are not alone. The long-term economic collapse that I chronicle on my website is not just about facts and figures. It is about real people that are quietly leading lives of silent desperation, and by now it has becoming exceedingly apparent that our politicians, the mainstream media and the gigantic corporations that dominate our economy do not really care much about the rest of us at all.

Life fundamentally changes once you become a parent. Instead of living just for yourself, all of a sudden you have a precious little child that is completely and totally dependent on you. And it is absolutely heartbreaking for any parent to look into the eyes of a little child and try to explain why there is not enough food or why they can't afford a better place to live.

With that in mind, I want you to read an excerpt from Adriana's recent blog post entitled "What It's Really Like To Support Yourself On McDonald's Pay"...

I'm a single mom with a three-year-old son named Manny. To support him, I work full-time as a cashier at a McDonald's in Chicago.

I've worked at McDonald's for five years, but still make only $10.50 an hour. The only way my son and I can make it is with food stamps, Medicaid, and a child care subsidy. Most of my coworkers are in the same boat, no matter how long they've held their jobs.

With child care, transportation to work, food, rent, and our other basic expenses, there's no money left over for living. Every time I think about taking Manny somewhere fun, like to a movie, I have to think about whether we can really afford the gas.

Nine persons were on Tuesday killed and six others injured when a roadways bus caught fire in Peeparpur area, a senior police officer said on Tuesday.

The incident occurred this morning when the roadways bus going to Sultanpur caught fire due to short circuit in the engine near Ramgaon village, Superintendent of Police Heera Lal said.

He said 42 passengers were on board the bus. Some passengers managed to escape by smashing window panes of the bus.

The SP said that efforts were being made to identify the victims. The injured have been admitted to the hospital in Sultanpur.

More than 800 people have been confirmed missing or dead by the UN refugee agency in the latest Mediterranean Sea disaster involving migrants fleeing Africa through Libya. Critics say European countries must face responsibility for the crisis.

"We can say that 800 are dead," spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy, Carlotta Sami, was quoted by AFP on Tuesday.

The confirmation came after most of the 27 known survivors of the shipwreck were interviewed.

"There were a little over 800 people on board, including children aged between 10 and 12. There were Syrians, about 150 Eritreans, Somalis... They had left Tripoli at about 8am on Saturday," Sami said.

The survivors, who hoped they would be smuggled into Europe from the unsettled region, said there was a stampede at the trawler they were sailing in after a Portuguese merchant ship approached the vessel. The trawler capsized, drowning hundreds of people.

Speaking to RT, Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, decried the conditions the migrants had to endure on "rickety and unstable vessels."

"Many of these people were locked into the vessels and were not allowed to move around and were unable to seek some assistance from larger vessels that flow in the Mediterranean," he said.

The Italian Coastguard has so far confirmed recovering only 24 bodies.

The survivors are said to have been taken to holding centers, while at least two - a Tunisian and a Syrian - were reportedly arrested on suspicion of being members of the smuggling gang responsible for the deadly boat trip. One survivor was taken to a Sicilian hospital.

Neighbors said they seldom noticed the couple in the little house at 225 W. High Ave. Yet the two were desperately reaching out for help.

In a listing on giveforward.com this year, Jodi Speidel wrote that both she and her husband, Randy, had chronic illnesses and had been living without gas heat all winter and without water for a week. With $33 in savings, she said, they were eating one meal a day and didn't have scraps left for their two cats.

"I have turned in every direction possible and don't know what else to do," she wrote. "If you can help, we will be forever grateful and will even pay you back once we get back on our feet."

No one responded on that website or a similar post on gofundme.com.

On Tuesday, the Speidels' landlord found a pink note on the front door of the one-bedroom house warning visitors about carbon monoxide inside.

The couple had taken two charcoal grills into their bedroom; locked the door; and, amid smoldering coals, died of carbon-monoxide poisoning. A suicide note indicates that both had agreed. She was 46 years old and he was 45. The deaths upset neighbors who said they could have offered help had they known.

"It's heartbreaking, like they didn't feel like they had anything," said Danielle Smith, 21, who lives across the street from the house where the Speidels died. "I wish I knew them better because I could have helped them."

One of their daughters, Kira Speidel, 20, in a post last month on gofundme.com, called her parents "the hardest-working people I know, and now that they literally cannot work anymore, they have nowhere to turn to."

People gathered at the W. High Avenue house on Wednesday. A man who said he was Kira Speidel's boyfriend said she was too upset to talk to a reporter.

Several cats prowled the yard; apparently the couple had put them outside before taking their own lives. A police officer confirmed that no animals were found inside.