The Dalai Lama addressed 15,000 children at the Key Arena in Seattle on Monday. We hear from three of them reflecting on the Tibetan spiritual leader's message. [includes rush transcript]

For many, Portland is a haven of green-friendly urban planning. It recently topped Popular Science's list of the Greenest Cities in the United States. A big part of that is bikes. Portland is widely considered the most bicycle-friendly city in North America, so much so that bikes are on display throughout the Portland airport. Worldwide, it's seen as only second to Amsterdam. We speak with two local Portland transportation activists. [includes rush transcript]

As the ACLU calls on Congress to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's approval of torture, we speak with Darius Rejali, a renowned expert on the history and politics of torture. He is professor of political science at Reed College and author of a new book called Torture and Democracy. [includes rush transcript]

On Capitol Hill, several Democratic lawmakers are holding a Tax Day press conference this morning on the cost of the Iraq war. They will present taxpayers with a bill that shows how much each American family owes for the Iraq War. We speak with Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky. [includes rush transcript]

Today is April 15th, Tax Day, a day when tens of millions of Americans scramble to file their income taxes on time. It's also a day when people across the country are planning to protest the use of tax dollars to fund war. A recent study shows that more than 40 percent of every income tax dollar in 2007 went towards military spending. We speak with Pat and John Schwiebert, a Portland couple who have refused to pay their taxes for the past thirty years to protest military spending. [includes rush transcript]

Ban Ki-moon: Global Food Crisis Reaches Emergency Proportions, Food Protests Start in Bangladesh and South Africa, US Food Inflation at Highest Level in 17 Years, US Military to Release AP Photographer After Two Years, Kidnapped CBS Journalist Released in Iraq, Clinton & McCain Accuse Obama of Being "Elitist", GOP Congressman Describes Obama as a "Boy", Delta and Northwest Airlines to Merge, Israel Blocks Jimmy Carter from Entering Gaza, Berlusconi Wins Italian Election, Maoist Rebels Win Majority in Nepalese Assembly, Opposition in Zimbabwe Calls for General Strike, Pope Benedict XVI Begins US Trip, Four US Journalists Arrested in Niger Delta

Forty years ago this month, the Black Panther Party formed one of its first chapters outside of its Oakland headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Aaron Dixon was just nineteen at the time, and he became the captain of the Seattle chapter for its first four years. Today, Dixon is a well-known community and civil rights activist. Dixon joins us as we broadcast from Seattle for a conversation on the struggle for racial equality, then and now. [includes rush transcript]

In Florida, groups organizing for tomato pickers' rights say they might have been spied on and vilified online by the fast-food conglomerate Burger King. The Fort Myers News-Press traced threatening emails directed at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance to Burger King's corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida. We speak with the reporter who broke the story and with the coordinator of the Student/Farmworker Alliance who says he received a call from the owner of a private security company posing as a student. [includes rush transcript]

A private security firm spied on Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and several other environmental organizations from the late 1990s until at least the year 2000, according a new investigation by Mother Jones magazine. The security firm was run by former Secret Service officers who infiltrated environmental groups, collected their phone records and confidential internal documents, and even went through their trash. The information was then passed on to public relations firms and corporations involved in environmental controversies. We speak with the reporter who broke the story, James Ridgeway. [includes rush transcript]

Iraq Fighting Worsens with Killing of Top Sadr Aide, Iraq Dismisses 1,300 Troops Over Basra Desertion, US Suffers Deadliest Week of 2008, Bush Admin: Iran Poses “Primary Threat” to Iraq, Iraq OKs 35 Firms for Oil Bids, Bush Admits Knowledge of White House Meetings on Interrogation Techniques, Group: US Military Prisoners Sent to Unfair Trials in Afghanistan, Venezuelans Mark 6th Anniversary of US-Backed Coup, Venezuela to Send Food Aid to Haiti, Haiti Announces Rice Subsidy as PM Removed, World Bank Launches Emergency Food Plan, Cuba Eases Restrictions on Wages, Home Ownership, 2 Women Journalists Slain in Oaxaca, Dalai Lama: Protest, But Don’t Boycott, Beijing Olympics, 14 Palestinians Killed in Week of Israeli Attacks, Outgoing HUD Secretary Accused of Ignoring Housing Crisis, 2007 Record Year for Lobbying in US, Admin Rejects Congressional Challenge to Satellite Surveillance, Jailed Professor Sami al-Arian Moved to Solitary Confinement Days Before Scheduled Release

Democracy Now! broadcasts from New Orleans, where thousands of women are gathering to celebrate the tenth anniversary of V-Day, the global movement to combat sexual violence against women and children. V-Day began a decade ago when playwright and activist Eve Ensler held the first benefit performance of her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues. This weekend, Ensler is organizing a two-day celebration at the Superdome called "V to the Tenth." Its focus is on helping the women of New Orleans and the Gulf South. We speak with activists from New Orleans, Kenya and Iraq. [includes rush transcript]

Bush Pauses Iraq Troop Withdrawals, 10 Killed in US Attacks on Sadr City, AP Photographer Remains Imprisoned Despite Iraqi Release Order, ACLU Calls for Probe of Admin Torture Talks, World Bank Warns of Food Price Crisis, Israeli Tanks Enter Gaza as Fuel Shipments Halted, Report: Ex-Secret Service Agents' Firm Spied on Environmentalists, CIA Kidnap, Torture Victim Takes Case to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

In the late 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King recognized that the next phase in the quest for civil rights and equality would focus on the economic divide. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies titled “40 Years Later: The Unrealized American Dream” lays out key elements of the inequality that African Americans still experience in the United States around education, employment and wealth accumulation. We speak with the co-author of the report, Dedrick Muhammad. [includes rush transcript]

The Justice Department has put off prosecuting more than fifty companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years. The decline in prosecutions is seen as a deliberate and dramatic shift in policy. While the news reported in a front-page article in the New York Times surprised many, the Justice Department's use of so called "deferred prosecution agreements" is nothing new. Back in 2005, a report released by the Corporate Crime Reporter profiled dozens of these cases and warned against their use. We speak with Russell Mokhiber, editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter. [includes rush transcript]

Thousands of protesters turned out in San Francisco to protest the Olympic torch relay and this year's Beijing Games. Similar protests condemning China's human rights abuses have attempted to disrupt the torch along its earlier stops in Athens, Istanbul, Paris and London. We speak with Human Rights Watch's Minky Worden, who is editor of a new book, China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges. [includes rush transcript]

Babak Pasdar is a computer security expert who was hired in 2003 to help restructure the tech infrastructure at a major wireless telecommunications company. What he found shocked him. The company had set up a system that gave a third party, presumably a governmental entity, access to every communication coming through that company's infrastructure. This means every email, internet use, document transmission, video, text message, as well as the ability to listen to and record any phone call. [includes rush transcript]

Report: Top Admin Officials Approved Assault, Waterboarding of CIA Prisoners, 4 Killed in US Attack on Sadr City, Baghdad Under Curfew on 5th Anniversary of US Seizure, Iraqi Judiciary Calls for Release of Bilal Hussein from US Military Jail, Dems Seek Delay of Colombia Trade Pact, Fighting Renews in Gaza, Jimmy Carter to Meet Exiled Hamas Leader, Haiti Food Protests Enter 2nd Week, IMF: US Mortgage Crisis Worse Shock Since Great Depression, Clinton, Wal-Mart Founder Trade Praise in 1991 Video, Lawmakers Urge Probe of Alleged Cover-Up on Halloween Photos

The top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has recommended a suspension of troop withdrawals from Iraq after July. His recommendation would leave just under 140,000 American troops in Iraq well into the fall, more troops deployed in Iraq than before the so-called "surge." Petraeus testified before two Senate committees on Tuesday alongside Ambassador Ryan Crocker. We play highlights of the hearing and host a debate with Arun Gupta of The Indypendent, Eli Lake of the New York Sun and Gareth Porter of Inter Press Service. [includes rush transcript]

Petraeus Urges Freezes on US Troop Withdrawals from Iraq, Sadr Cancels Million-Man March Against US Occupation, Study: Lawmakers Invest $196M in Pentagon Contractors, Protesters Storm National Palace in Haiti over Food Prices, Thousands Rally for Tibet in San Francisco, Study: American West Warming Outpaces Global Rise, White House Rejects Senate Housing Proposal, Justice Dept. Avoiding Corporate Prosecutions with Questionable, Secretive Deals

Global food prices have risen dramatically, adding a new level of danger to the crisis of world hunger. In Africa, food riots have swept across the continent, with recent protests in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. In most of West Africa, the price of food has risen by 50 percent -- in Sierra Leone, 300 percent. In the United States there has been a 41 percent surge in prices for wheat, corn, rice and other cereals over the past six months. We speak with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. [includes rush transcript]