Portside

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted this week to add further restrictions on reproductive health care at a time when Catholic hospital systems now make up four of the five largest nonprofit health-care networks in the U.S. and account for one in six of all hospital beds in the country. Women's organizations and consumer advocates are worried about the implications of this week's actions for reproductive and maternity care.

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the influence of the former German Democratic Republic is more than the united Germany wants to admit. In social policy areas such as health care, women in the workplace, education, youth football and recycling, the country has looked to the East.

A joint investigation by National Public Radio and Mine Safety and Health News found thousands of mine operators fail to pay safety penalties while they continue to manage dangerous — and sometimes deadly — mining operations. Most unpaid penalties are between two and 10 years overdue; some go back two decades. And federal regulators seem unable or unwilling to make mine owners pay or improve working conditions.

A Republican-controlled computer system allegedly meant to identify fraudulent voters, may have contributed to GOP victories in Senate races in Colorado and North Carolina, and a tight gubernatorial race in Kansas. While Interstate Crosscheck has not discovered a single instance of voter fraud, it was used by Republican elections officials in 27 states to purge thousands of voters, a high percentage of whom were minorities, from the voting rolls.

Twain aims a blast of laughter at a society making itself sick with its consumption of “sweet-smelling, sugar-coated lies,” believing that it is allegiance to the truth and not the flag that rescues the citizens of a democracy from the prisons of their selfishness and greed.

Organizers are expecting to see protests in 1,600 stores.

America is on edge about the Ferguson grand jury decision. But justice is about what comes after that. There will come a day soon when the protests, in whatever shape they take, fall off the front page. No matter what happens, justice will still be possible.

Republicans find Obama's display of leadership "deeply offensive."

Ry Cooder: Feelin' Bad Blues. Citizen Four: Edward Snowden Documentary. The Inspiration Project. John Oliver: The Lottery. 90-Year-Old Arrested for Feeding Homeless.

Reader Comments- Voter Suppression; Election Failure by Democrats; Progressive Victories You Didn't Hear About; Federal Judge Guts Nationwide Ban On Housing Discrimination; America Rigged for Massive Wealth Transfer to the Rich; Global Economic Divide; Cuban Five and Alan Gross; Fracking Banned in Denton, TX; Ferguson; Inner City Schools Function Like Prisons; A Good Movie Tip; Women's Labor Music Announcements- Labor Notes Hiring; Events in Oakland and New York