Portside

Hopes were high among environmentalists when a bill designed to protect California’s drinking water was introduced in the state Assembly earlier this year. After all, California has passed some of the most far-reaching environmental laws and regulations in the nation, and the state legislature is dominated by the Democratic Party, whose members are generally inclined to vote for tougher environmental standards. It never had a chance.

As the federal trial begins this week over North Carolina's restrictive voting law, civil right advocates will gather outside the courthouse in Winston-Salem to pray, teach and march for the unabridged right to vote.

A comprehensive new book, primarily aimed at East and South Asian factory workers, shows how to advance workplace health and safety from an organizing perspective.

The Washington football team's name is a dictionary-defined slur—and now the federal Patent and Trademark Office has been ordered to cancel its trademark registration.

The flag may be wiped from state grounds and license plates, but its ideals live on in the GOP agenda

A new BBC documentary tells how a trove of documents lays bare the names of Britain’s 46,000 slave owners, including relatives of Gladstone and Orwell

With a bipartisan consensus in Congress, President Obama seeks an overhaul of the nation’s crowded, costly prison system.

A highly invasive procedure, which involves drilling holes in the skull and inserting electrodes deep inside the brain allowing a pacemaker-style device to deliver pulses of electricity to specific neural regions has failed to show any effectiveness in treating depression despite claims by the media and some prominent scientists.

Who's to blame for thousands of work-related deaths and illnesses each year? Big Business, Congress, the White House and federal agencies. Decades of concerted efforts to weaken the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s authority have jammed the regulatory gears to the point that they hardly turn. Most of the agency’s exposure limits are more than 40 years old, and tens of thousands of chemicals, including many known to be hazardous, have no limits at all.

Mozambique has decriminalized homosexuality, making it one of a few African countries where same-sex relationships are legal. The revised penal code, which went into force July 1st, drops a colonial-era clause outlawing so-called "vices against nature". While there were no prosecutions under that clause, gay rights activists say this change is important, coming at a time when a number of African countries are introducing new draconian laws against homosexuals.