Portside

During Mr. Bloomberg’s last term, use of force by officers on inmates jumped by 90 percent, according to Correction Department data. Inmates’ advocates and public officials charged with overseeing the jails said they pleaded for the administration to address the issue.

Perhaps unwittingly, perhaps deliberately, Wade has blurred "the distinction between storytelling and science," writes Eisen. The blurring of that line is infecting scientific discussions that have great public implications--it's visible, for example, in the political attack on climate science, the promotion of creationism, and the marketing of California's multibillion-dollar stem cell program.

Urban Life 1: Where White People Live; Urban Life 2: Where White People Walk; Writers vs Amazon Fight Heats Up; Nixon's Media Consolidation Legacy; Payday for LinkedIn Workers

Steven Salaita, an Arab-American Professor of American Indian Studies, was just fired from his job for tweeting criticisms of the Israeli massacre in Gaza.

After my breast cancer scare and exemplary care in the UK, I’ve felt a powerful urge to shout at the Brits: Do you know what an extraordinary health system you have?

South Africa witnesses what some have described as the biggest protest march since apartheid.

When women are dissuaded or excluded from even a handful of opportunities, the loss to science is enormous.

A review of two important new books that tell a different story about what teachers do, what parents want and what children need.

The South, where 55 percent of America's black population lives, is increasingly looking like a different country. Fewer children can read; more adults have HIV; its residents suffer from the shortest life expectancies of any in the United States. Six of the eleven states that made up the former Confederacy are at the bottom. That deprivation tends to be concentrated in the parts of these states with disproportionately large African American populations.(long article)

Increasingly Jews in the United States, in Israel and around the world are finding their voice - speaking out and demonstrating against the siege of Gaza. Many Jews are also questioning what hard-line politics and policies have done to Israel - increasing racism, discrimination and inequality. Sally Gottesman wrote the following letter to her family and friends, after living in Israel the past seven months. She has been in Israel more than 50 times.