"People can invest what they want," billionaire industrialist David Koch recently told Politico.

Concerned people from the U.S. and numerous other countries will join in a global campaign event Saturday to call for a ban of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." More than 150 events, on five continents, are planned for this weekend's "Global Frackdown" -- a day of action against fracking -- coupled with the promotion of the expansion of clean, sustainable energy options.

-- by Mary Bottari and Sara Jerving

Well-funded advocates of privatizing the nation's education system are employing a new strategy this fall to enlist support for the cause. The emotionally engaging Hollywood film "Won't Back Down" -- set for release September 28 -- portrays so-called "Parent Trigger" laws as an effective mechanism for transforming underperforming public schools. But the film's distortion of the facts prompts a closer examination of its funders and backers and a closer look at those promoting Parent Trigger as a cure for what ails the American education system.