Battle in Brooklyn: Bernie Sanders brought the heat to Hillary Clinton last night over the minimum wage and the influence of Wall Street on politics. He hammered away at her acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from big financial institutions.

“Do we really feel confident about a candidate who says she will bring change in America when she is so dependent on big money interests?” Sanders asked. “I don’t think so.”

Clinton defended herself, saying she had “called out” Wall Street after the financial collapse, which brought a mocking rejoinder from Sanders. “Secretary Clinton called them out — oh my goodness, they must have been really crushed by this,” Mr. Sanders said. “And was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements?”

Clinton continues to refuse to release transcripts of her Wall Street speeches, allowing Sanders to exploit suspicion about what she said.

While Sanders thundered about breaking up the big banks and establishing a $15 minimum wage, Clinton presents a more politically realistic approach. On the minimum wage she has targeted $12 an hour, not because that’s what she wants, but because it’s what she thinks she can get. Clinton said, “We can never let Wall Street wreck Main Street again.” She went on, “I will move immediately to break up any financial institution.”

In fairness, though, neither candidates could describe how they would do it.

Mailbox Full: Microsoft is suing the federal government, challenging secrecy orders that prevent the giant tech company from telling its customers when the feds are looking at their email. Microsoft says the secrecy orders violate the company’s First Amendment right to speak to its customers, and the customers’ right to know about searches and seizures of their property.

No longer do investigators have to barge into your office to examine your files and Microsoft says the feds have “exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations.”

Oh Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a bill to his parliament that would legalize assisted suicide for Canadians with terminal or intolerable illness. The law would allow people to take a fatal dose of drugs given to them by their doctor, or have the doctor administer the drug. To prevent suicide tourism, only Canadian citizens eligible for national healthcare would qualify.

Reprieve: Florida prosecutors have decided to drop battery charges against Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. He had forcibly grabbed reporter Michelle Fields away from Trump, causing a mild bruise and a week-long cable news gabfest.

It’s Nuts: Shipments of valuable California nuts are increasingly the target of sophisticated hijackings and thefts. There were 31 major cases reported last year.

Thieves bearing fake shipping papers have been able to back right up to the loading dock and drive away with $150,000 worth almonds, walnuts, or pistachios. The nuts could be on their way to another country before anyone knows what happened.

The Obit Page: Antonio Orendain, a co-founder and the original Secretary-Treasurer of the United Farm Workers Union with Cesar Chavez, died this week at age 85 in Texas. Orendain didn’t have the name recognition of Chavez, but he went on the found the Texas Farm Workers Union and spent his life fighting for the rights and dignity of field workers.

Orendain came to the US illegally with a 6^th grade education in 1950, but became well read in history, philosophy, and religion. In 1977 he led a march of 40 farm workers out of Texas that numbered in the hundreds by the time it reached Washington, DC.

Tax Day: Today, April 15th, is the deadline to file your taxes — usually. It has been for 60 years. But the national tax deadline this year conflicts with “Emancipation Day,” a holiday celebrated in Washington, DC to mark the end of slavery and no one will be working at the IRS. Usually Emancipation Day is April 16, but that’s a Saturday and they got today off instead — soooo, tax day is Monday the 18^th.

But not in Massachusetts where Monday is Patriot’s Day. So many “special” days. Tuesday will be Tax Day in Taxachusetts.

-30-