Skip to main content

Why It’s Nearly Impossible for Prisoners to Sue Prisons

Rachel Poser The New Yorker
There are currently no regulations governing prison grievance processes, and, in the two decades since the law’s passage, many prisons’ procedures have become so onerous and convoluted—“Kafkaesque,” in the words of one federal judge—that inmates whose rights have been violated are watching their cases slip through the cracks.

Machine Bias

Julia Angwin, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu and Lauren Kirchner ProPublica
There’s software used across the country to predict future criminals. And it’s biased against blacks.

New Study Reveals Just How Brutal Meat and Poultry Work Is for Workers

Elizabeth Grossman In These Times
The meat and poultry industry remains exceptionally dangerous, despite a decline in reported injuries and illnesses over the past 10 years, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Further, says the report, the injury and illness rates reflected in Department of Labor numbers are significantly underreported.

Obama’s Hiroshima Visit: No Action to Stem Nuclear Arms Race

Linda Pentz Gunter Ecologist
Predictably, President Barack Obama did not use his historic visit to Hiroshima May 27 to apologize for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths that resulted. But, he still can heed the “cry of the soul" of the remaining Hibakusha (survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and take meaningful steps to eliminate nuclear weapons, including canceling the $1 trillion, 30-year plan to upgrade U.S. nuclear weapons.

Is This the World's Most Radical Mayor?

Dan Hancox The Guardian
When Ada Colau was elected mayor of Barcelona, she became a figurehead of the new leftwing politics sweeping Spain. The question she now faces is a vital one for the left across Europe – can she really put her ideas into practice?

Bring It On

Jonah Walters Jacobin
No Wonder Trump is Afraid -- a Debate with Bernie Sanders Would Show Who's Really on the Side of Working People.

Trump on Immigrants and Health Care Costs: Just Plain Wrong

Leah Zallman, Steffie Woolhandler Common Dreams
While unauthorized immigrants contribute billions in taxes, they use shockingly little health care. Most of the federal health programs they help pay for (like Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA’s plans) exclude them. And those who pay for private coverage use very little care, so their premiums effectively subsidize other enrollees with private insurance.

Extinct Humans' DNA Is Helping Us Today

Emily Singer Quanta Magazine
Neanderthals and Denisovans may have supplied modern humans with genetic variants that let them thrive in new environments.