Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is going to be charged with vandalism and trespassing after joining hundreds of Native Americans in their protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Stein spray painted words of protest on a bulldozer belonging to the oil company, Energy Transfer Partners, trying to construct the pipeline.

Politico reports:

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said the sheriff’s department is “working up the information through the state’s attorney’s office to pursue charges (against Stein).” It’s unclear if the charges would be felonies or misdemeanors.

On Facebook, Stein boldly publicized her actions, writing, “The state of North Dakota may charge me with vandalism for painting a bulldozer. Will they charge the oil company that bulldozed the sacred burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux?”

The Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is threatened by the pipeline’s construction, have been joined by some 200 other tribes in solidarity, reportedly the largest alliance of Native peoples in 150 years. The Great Sioux Nation, the Seven Fires Council, has reunited. Janaya Khan said, “The Seven Fires Council, who last came together in 1867, is together now. When they last united, they defeated American forces in the Battle of Little Big Horn.”

The pipeline would carry crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, pumping through nearly half a million barrels a day. The oil company’s efforts are being funded by big banks. As Democracy Now! reports, “Bank of America, HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions have, combined, extended a $3.75 billion credit line to Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access.”

The Standing Rock Sioux say the construction destroyed sacred burial sites, and fear the poisoning of local water should a spill ever occur. There is also a general opposition to the use of fossil fuels and the environmental damage it causes.

Hundreds of protesters put their bodies in the path of oil company machines to halt construction. Some have chained themselves to equipment. Private security forces used attack dogs and pepper spray on some protesters to get them to back down, sparking outrage across the country.

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As reported by IFLScience, North Korea accidentally revealed to the world on Monday, September 19, 2016, that it has but 28 websites.

A top-level server in North Korea was (presumably) mistakenly configured to allow outside access to Korea’s intranet (which end in .kp). The opening was detected by American cyber security personnel, but ended up on — where else? — Reddit. There are sites for news, cooking, insurance, water laws, flights and traveling, charity for the elderly, films, and sports. There is also a Facebook-esque site called “Friend.” Check them out on Reddit.

The communist dictatorship strictly controls television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, which in their limited capacities “pump out a steady stream of propaganda” (BBC). They

…serve up a menu of flattering reports about North Korea’s leader. Economic hardship and famines are not reported. North Korea is one of the hardest countries for foreign media to cover. Ordinary North Koreans caught listening to foreign broadcasts risk harsh punishments, such as forced labour. The authorities attempt to jam foreign-based and dissident radio stations.

North Korean media glorify dictator Kim Jong-un and his late father Kim Jong-Il, praise nuclear tests as a means toward “peace” and “sovereignty,” and criticize “US military threat and economic pressure” (IFLScience).

But North Korean citizens likely don’t have full access to these 28 sites. As BBC notes, “Online access within North Korea is exceedingly rare” and “user activity [is] monitored.”

The websites, to quote one astute observer on the internet, have the sophistication of an “elementary school” website, and take a long time to load. As IFLScience put it, North Korea’s internet is “very, very dull.”

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On Monday, September 12, 2016, Stand Up KC joined other social justice groups in 30 state capitals for a “Moral Revival” — that is, to push for public policies that aid ordinary workers, such as living wages and adequate healthcare. Protesters descended on Jefferson City from Kansas City and elsewhere, flooding the halls and chambers of the capitol building.

Stand Up KC is an organization of working families, students, and faith leaders fighting for union rights and a $15 minimum wage for Kansas Citians.

The group vowed to “shut down the capitol” on Facebook, writing:

From across the state, we converge on Jefferson City with a simple demand for lawmakers: Stop undermining Missouri’s state motto and “Let the Welfare of the People Be the Supreme Law!” Stop condemning Kansas City’s working families to poverty by blocking out $13 minimum wage increase, which we passed last year! Halt your anti-democratic and racist efforts to strip us of our voting rights by putting voter ID on the November election! Cease attacks on our unions! And allow Medicaid to expand and give working people and the poor the healthcare each of us deserves!

Declaring that “a moral Missouri puts people before profits and the collective good before the interests of a few,” Stand Up KC used the name Myrna De Los Santos, a Kansas City woman who died suddenly in the first week of September, as a rallying cry in Jefferson City.

“Myrna’s death was heartbreaking,” a fast-food worker named Fran said in a speech today. “And it could have been prevented. She was only 49 years old. She died too soon because McDonald’s didn’t pay her enough to treat her diabetes; because Missouri’s lawmakers denied her the raise and access to health care that could’ve saved her life.”

“Myrna was a fellow McDonalds worker and leader with Stand Up KC who was willing to do whatever it takes to win economic and racial equality for all,” said Terrence Wise, a Stand Up KC leader who was recently invited to the White House to introduce Barack Obama before the president’s speech on worker rights.

The protest is expected to last all day.

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On Thursday, October 6, 2016, Stand Up KC, a social justice group advocating a $15 minimum wage, union rights, and better working conditions for all, marched against sexual harassment in the workplace. The action was sparked when two McDonald’s employees filed sexual harassment complaints with the government, one employee a gay man subjected to verbal assaults and the other a woman who was groped.

A group of dozens of fast food workers and allies gathered at the McDonald’s at 31st and Van Brunt at about noon, marching around the facility while chanting opposition to sexual harassment, before journeying across the street for speeches. Speakers included one fast food worker who spoke of being kissed on the job and another who complained of being told to not “spread your legs so much.” Becca Anderson of the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault and State Representative Judy Morgan also spoke.

The common theme was that not enough is being done to prevent nor punish sexual harassment. According to Anderson, 40% of women in fast food experience it.

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Moon Express, a private commercial space firm in Florida, has just received permission from the United States government to land a robot on the moon in 2017.

According to Quartz, “Never before has any company sought or received approval to do business beyond earth orbit.”

Space notes that the company’s application went to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and then “made its way through the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission,” a process that occurred from early April to late July.

With approval, Moon Express is on track to compete for Google’s Lunar X Prize of $25 million, to be awarded to the first company that lands a probe on the moon than can travel across the surface and transmit data back to Earth. The company’s most serious competitor may be a commercial space company in Israel, which is also plotting a 2017 launch and has a contract with Elon Musk’s Space X, but over a dozen other companies are challengers.

Moon Express showed great interest in harvesting resources from the moon, which is already legal for U.S. firms. “In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals and moon rocks back to Earth,” Chairman Naveen Jain said. He further stated, “To me, the moon is really like international waters, but if you obtain resources, you do get to own the resources.”

According to CNBC,

The moon is a treasure chest that has vast amounts of iron ore, water, rare Earth minerals and precious metals, as well as carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and helium-3, a gas that can be used in future fusion reactors to provide nuclear power without radioactive waste. Experts concur that the value of these resources are in the trillions of dollars.

The moon can also serve as a fuel depot station for interplanetary space exploration. It has massive amounts of ice (H₂O) trapped on the lunar poles that can be used for rocket fuel.

But the venture will also help develop new space technologies and be the first step toward private tourism to the moon. Jain spoke to CNN of when tourism could become a reality: “If I was a betting man, I’d say it’ll be sometime between 10 and 15 years.”

Moon Express’ mission will cost an estimated $25 million. Decades ago, when probes first landed on the moon, it cost $100 billion.

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