Financial institutions and wealthy individuals can make lots of money buying options on oil, driving up the price, so that we drive on $4+ gas.  Mark Cooper is  Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America where he has responsibility for analysis and advocacy in the areas of telecommunications, media, digital rights, economic and energy policy.  Here he talks with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick about how the price of gas and many other commodities are increased by speculators.  

 Well-read Red Frann Michel  discusses the case of Tanya McDowell, a homeless, Black single mother, sentenced to 12 years in prison in Connecticut for using her babysitter's address to enroll her son in a Norwalk school.  Frann details the many ways in which governments and private schools are stealing education systematically from the poor and people of color.  

You can read this piece and its several sources here.  

 Move Moles Iven Hale and Joe Clement take up The Lorax, the CGI film based on the Dr. Seuss children's book.  How do the politics of the movie add to or fall short of those of the book?

 Occupy Wall Street is comisng back, but a group of wealthy liberals would like to buy a piece of it.  Clayton Morgareidge discusses the issue drawing on ABC News, Jeff Smith in The Daily Beast, and Nicole Demby in AdBusters.

 Denise Morris hosts this edition of the Mole, featuring a discussion of how oil prices are driven up by speculators, a commentary on the theft of education from the poor, a review of the politics of "The Lorax," and a report on attempts by wealthy liberal donors to buy a piece of Occupy Wall Street.  

To hear the whole show, use the play button below.  To hear individual segments, follow the links below.