Japanese responders continue to battle rising heat and pressure and falling water levels in the damaged reactors, Units 1 and 3, at Fukushima I (Daiichi) Nuclear Power Station.

• In Japan, no end in sight.
• 450,000 evacuated and more than 10,000 dead.
• The battle for Libya continues.
• Fired for condemning prisoner abuse.
• Krugman: another inside job.
• Going rogue on Ailes.

The risk of a release of radioactivity in Japan has affects on those of us in the United States.

Lee Roy Parnell and his HotLicks “The Art Of Slide”…

Can this person, Larry Kudlow, keep his pundit employment and program on CNBC after this? After all, he did say the human toll is a tragedy, to amend this, “I mean, the human — the human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that.”

As you know by now, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley was effectively given the Shirley Sherrod pull over to the side of the road and resign order by the Obama White House, and the announcement was made public this morning. As Phoenix Woman noted it was reminiscent of the Saturday Night Massacre.

For me, there’s another reason why I joined – and why I’m asking you to join up tonight if you haven’t already. Firedoglake with Jane at the lead has always seen the very real human beings in the midst of the news. There are many places where you can read foreign policy punditry or analysis or ideology, but oh so few where the human voices caught in the midst of our chaotic and transforming world can speak and have their voices heard. And creating a space where we listen to those voices is one of the things I value most about FDL and the space Jane has offered me – and all of you here. When we report on Iraq, Afghanistan or Gaza, and now Egypt and Libya and Bahrain, we look for the local sources, the local voices and viewpoints and do our best to showcase them.Too frequently our progressive platforms focus inward, to domestic issues and domestic squabbles – too rarely do we look at what America policy and militarism means for the people it’s imposed upon. And too many blogs have been afraid to take on some of these impacts – whether it’s the horror of civilian casualties in Sadr City or the US money and arms behind Operation Cast Lead.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, just two months from the tragic shooting in Tuscon where she suffered a bullet wound to the head, is doing so well in rehabilitation in Houston, Texas, that she may attend the shuttle launch of her husband, Mark Kelly, on April 19.

According to the ever thoughtful Joe Lieberman, the US should “put the brakes” on all the new nuclear power plants we’re not building. That’s what he told CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation.

The collective here at Firedoglake has carved out quite a niche on LGBT issues from the gavel to gavel liveblog coverage of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Brown) Proposition 8 trial in the Northern District of California, to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell DADT) case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans in the Central District of California, to the recent change in policy by the Obama Administration regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to the broad based and excellent issue coverage of LGBT matters generally by Teddy Partridge. But that coverage has been centered on somewhat antiseptic and theoretical policy issues and statutory/Constitutional interpretation. There is another, darker, and more brooding area of LGBT law that is every bit as important, and quite arguably more directly important, to the relevant community.