Check, Please: Huffington Post Sold to AOL for $315m

The Huffington Post, the ground-breaking online news and opinion site founded by Arianna Huffington on a shoestring budget, is to be bought for $315m by AOL in a move sure to stun new media sceptics and believers alike.

Huffington and Tim Armstrong, the chairman and chief executive of AOL, have dubbed the takeover an equation of “1+1 equals 11”, but others with longer memories of AOL’s previous struggles – including its founder, Steve Case – were less enthusiastic when the news first broke late on Sunday in the US.

With the sale of the website that only began life in 2005 for $300m in cash and $15m in shares, the creation of a new media giant will send shockwaves through established news groups still struggling to understand the uncharted territory of online news.

In a statement released on Sunday night, AOL claimed that the new operation will have a combined base of 117m unique visitors a month in the US and 270m around the world.

http://commondreams.org/news/2011/02/07/check-please-huffington-post-sold-aol-315m

Jackson County, OR GE-Free Zone Successfully Protected From Legal Challenge

Today a Federal Judge in Oregon approved a consent decree, or court-approved settlement, protecting Jackson County Oregon’s “GE-free” zone, created by an Ordinance that prohibits genetically engineered (GE) crop cultivation in the county. Two GE alfalfa farmers, with financial backing from the biotechnology industry, hadchallenged the law late last year, saying it violating existing Oregon State law. In May, Federal Judge Mark D. Clarke resoundingly rejected that challenge and instead ruled in favor of those defending the law, the Our Family Farms Coalition (OFFC), Center for Food Safety (CFS), and the County.

“Today’s settlement protects Jackson County’s ordinance from any appeal, and in so doing is another important victory for farmers and the environment,” said George Kimbrell, CFS Senior Attorney and counsel in the case. “GE-Free Zones like Jackson County are important to the future of our food because they allow farmers to grow traditional and organic crops without risk of transgenic contamination. U.S. farmers and consumers have a right to say no to Monsanto’s damaging and pesticide-driven business model.”

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2015/12/22/jackson-county-or-ge-free-zone-successfully-protected-legal-challenge

Tony Blair Should Be ‘Dragged in Shackles to Court’ Over Iraq War, Says Father of Killed Soldier

The father of a soldier killed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq said Wednesday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried as a war criminal, as military families pledged to take legal action against the UK government if it does not publish a long-delayed investigation into the war.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/13/tony-blair-should-be-dragged-shackles-court-over-iraq-war-says-father-killed-soldier