Early Spring Fashion, Ohio Eats Babies & Canada Bludgeons Babies

• The hemp-denim tie from The Hill-Side in Indigo is great for spring, and these burgundy organic cotton chinos from Left Field will look great rolled up. The Studio D'Artisan soft gray sweatshirt in organic cotton goes with just about anything like jeans or shorts, and the work-wear inspired organic, Texas-grown cotton shirt from Fullcount is pretty manly in flannel, layered or with a tie.

• Canada's infamous baby-seal hunt starts in just a few days. Even though ice-cover is at a record-low and many mothers are giving birth months too early and babies are dying and drowning, Canada has not called off this largest hunt of marine mammals on the planet. The Humane Society International is taking action to defend the baby seals, and plans to make 2011 the year it finally ends - but with new markets opening up for baby seal fur in China, they can't do it without all of our support.

• On Monday, the Ohio Livestock Standards Board voted to keep calves confined in veal crates - crates so small and cruel that they seemingly could only have been thought-up by villains who want to eat the soft-tender flesh of babies, but it's not a grim fairy tale, it's Ohio. From Farm Sanctuary's President Gene Bauer:

Monday’s vote by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board (OLCSB) to allow veal calves to be confined in crates so tightly that they can’t even turn around for most of their lives violates the widely publicized agreement that was reached last June between agribusiness interests, including the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, and the humane community to avoid a ballot initiative that would ban the inhumane confinement of animals in veal crates, gestation crates and battery cages across the state. By endorsing veal crates, the OLCSB has demonstrated an interest in upholding the status quo at the expense of improving animal welfare. We urge the OLCSB to reverse its vote and to act in accordance with June’s compromise agreement. Otherwise, the humane community will have no option other than to move forward with the initiative.