Brookfield, Ohio — Two Trumbull County residents were arrested Thursday afternoon outside the Ohio Shale Forum, another closed-to-the-public meeting on fracking attended by Ohio Governor Kasich, officials, legislators, and gas drilling representatives in Brookfield, Ohio at the Yankee Lake Ballroom.

John Williams and Jeremy Bingham of McDonald, OH were each charged with criminal trespass. They have been released without bond and are scheduled to appear in Brookfield Township Court next Thursday. Williams, a 55-year-old Coast Guard veteran, was arrested for attempting to gain access to the meeting, citing concerns about the environmental and health impacts of increased drilling in his hometown. Williams commented, “Anytime public officials convene with corporate executives without the public being invited to the table, it is plain wrong. If fracking is so safe, then why are they hiding from us? If our public officials are so intent on being legally right but morally wrong but, then we have no problem being legally wrong but morally right.”

Before his arrest, Williams presented Rep. Tom Letson of Trumbull County with information regarding industry donations to Ohio state legislators and asked to be allowed inside the ballroom. Rep. Letson refused to assist Williams in gaining access to the meeting.

Bingham, 21-years-old, had left the property upon request of the police and returned in order to film Williams’ arrest. He was then arrested without any opportunity to leave the premises. Police also confiscated literature from protesters who were attempting to voice their concerns at the entrance to the ballroom.
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Wake up and smell the frack fluid! But don't ask what's in it, at least not in Ohio, cause it's still not your right to know.

Ohio is in the final stages of making an Exxon trojan horse on hydrofracking into state law, and it appears that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) connected Exxon's lawyers with co-sponsors of Ohio Senate Bill 315: at least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC's "Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act."

...disclosure of fracking fluids? On behalf of ExxonMobil?!

Frack fluids include unknown chemicals that gas drillers mix with sand and large amounts of water. The mixture is pumped underground at high pressure in order to retrieve gas and oil by fracturing shale formations. These are the chemicals that have caused widespread concern among residents near gas fracking operations, concerns echoed by doctors who don't know how to treat patients harmed by exposure to chemicals that oil companies keep secret. Oil companies like XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the first company lined up to drill in Ohio's Utica shale.

Concern over unconventional energy like gas fracking may be the reason why Ohio SB 315 also addresses clean energy standards and drilling regulations. While the new law will allow doctors to obtain disclosure of fracking chemicals, it places a gag order on them ... meaning some chemicals aren't disclosed to the public at all (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Instead, chemicals that subsidiaries of Big Oil use during fracking can remain exempt from public disclosure as "trade secrets," mirroring language of ALEC's model law.
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Update: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act), so the fight is moving to the Senate. Congress is now going to attempt to pass legislation on the Senate side and then conference it with the House bill. We can't let that happen.

Tell Congress not to compromise the civil liberties of Internet users. Call your Senators today.

The Senate is moving quickly on cybersecurity legislation that could undermine our core privacy rights. Please call your Senators and tell them not to sacrifice the civil liberties of Internet users with this dangerously vague legislation.

These “cybersecurity” bills would give companies a free pass to monitor and collect communications, including huge amounts of personal data like your text messages and emails. Tell Congress that they can’t use vaguely defined "cybersecurity threats" as a shortcut to shredding the Constitution.
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(Reuters) - France's new government will flesh out plans to cap the pay of top executives at state-controlled companies by mid-June, laying down a marker in a Europe-wide debate fuelled by waves of austerity and rising unemployment.

Elected this month promising to curb the privileges enjoyed by France's wealthy and powerful, Socialist President Francois Hollande pledged during campaigning to limit senior executives' salaries to a maximum of 20 times that of their lowest-paid employee.

"We are working on plans for pay at public companies to be cut," Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told journalists on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. These would be ready in two weeks, he said.

High executive pay has become a hot topic on both sides of the Atlantic, with U.S. and European companies seeing a rise in AGM votes against remuneration packages...