On July 12 Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday as she delivered a riveting speech before the United Nations. A young Pakistani girl with every reason to anticipate a bright future, Malala spoke with passion and enthralling commitment about the ideals of universal education. Yet that bright future was nearly extinguished in October of last year. On October 9, 2012, the Taliban shot Malala at deadly range for the most atrocious of crimes. Her crime was simple and straightforward. Malala went to school.

The part of the First Amendment that prohibits “abridging the freedom … of the press” is now up against the wall, as the Obama administration continues to assault the kind of journalism that can expose government secrets.

Last Friday the administration got what it wanted -- an ice-cold chilling effect -- from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled on the case of _New York Times_ reporter James Risen. The court “delivered a blow to investigative journalism in America by ruling that reporters have no First Amendment protection that would safeguard the confidentiality of their sources in the event of a criminal trial,” the _Guardian_ reported [1].

The Executive Branch fought for that ruling -- and is now celebrating. “We agree with the decision,” said a Justice Department spokesman. “We are examining the next steps in the prosecution of this case.” The Risen case, and potentially many others, are now under the ominous shadow of the Appeals Court’s pronouncement: “There is no First Amendment testimonial privilege, absolute or qualified, that protects a reporter from being compelled to testify … in criminal proceedings.”

President Barack Obama eloquently described the agony experienced among African-Americans from the slaying of Trayvon Martin. He called for a more thoughtful “conversation” on race, convened not by politicians, but among families, in churches and workplaces. He suggested modest steps to provide greater training on racial profiling with police, greater efforts to figure out how to do a “better job helping young African-American men feel that they’re a full part of this society and that they’ve got pathways and avenues to succeed.”

The president’s courageous comments merit praise and consideration. But we’ve had a long conversation about race in America. No small part of American history has been devoted to that “conversation” and that struggle. And as the president said, great progress has been made.

What we need now is action. The president’s personal narrative must translate into policy. His sentiments must be turned into meaningful solutions.

As the sumer is heating up, so is our movement. In one week we join together to stand up to Big Oil and Gas. Communities across the region will join together in the heart of the region's oil industry to call for a ban on injection wells in Ohio. Nearly sixty percent of the 600,000,000 gallons of waste accepted into Ohio's injection wells in 2012, came from states other than Ohio -- and without a place to dump waste, fracking across the region will become much tougher.

We know that Gov. John Kasich and many in the Ohio Legislature have big plans to drastically increase the number of wells in Ohio. We also know they have been given big money to do so.

Although the fight against big money remains, we also know we have the power of people and will no longer tolerate handouts to the oil and gas industry.

350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, as well as leaders from the grassroots anti-fracking movement will be there -- can you be there too? Everything is happening on July 29th in Courthouse Square, in Warren, Ohio at 1PM. Sign up to RSVP here:

Don't Frack Ohio

Current and former intelligence community leaders made their case for imprisoning journalists to the public through compliant corporate media outlets today while a federal judge gutted a historic court ruling protecting journalists and their sources. The court ruling could lead to the indefinite jailing of Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist James Risen.

General Michael Hayden's comments leave little doubt that some in the Obama administration are strongly considering espionage charges against Glenn Greenwald who has been leading the journalistic investigations of NSA violations of US and international law through its bulk interception of virtually every phone call and email on planet Earth. Taken together with the mysterious death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings, the government's control of the press seems to tighten daily.