Portside

Reproductive care has always been a complex topic for people of color in the United States. Since the beginnings of colonization - through the horrors of slavery and the forced sterilization efforts of the last century - our ability to control whether or not we bring life into the world and how we are allowed to interact with our offspring once they are born has been either challenged or completely wrenched from our grasp.

The destruction of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, with 22 dead so far, including doctors, other staff and patients, capped a week that also saw the bombing of​ another hospital in Afghanistan, plus the U.S.-backed Saudi Arabian bombing of a wedding party in Yemen set up in tents far out in the desert, away from anything remotely military. (What IS it about wedding parties that U.S. and allied bombers keep hitting them?).

While English speaking media moved on from the racists anti-immigrant statements of Trump, on Spanish language media the immigration issue remains preeminent. This was illustrated by the confrontation between Trump and journalist Jorge Ramos, a star anchor-journalist in this media, who says,“ When they attack one of us, they are attacking all of us.” “On Election Day, we will remember who was with us and was against us. This is generating intensive voter registration.

Three years after their nine-day strike that humiliated Emanuel and won national headlines for the idea of teachers fighting for students, the new attack on pay and pensions is angering teachers, paraprofessionals, and clinicians.

Hillary Clinton just laid out a hawkish foreign policy vision in a major speech. How do her views stack up against those of Bernie Sanders, her challenger from the left?

Despite decades of attention, the proportion of girls in the juvenile justice system has increased and their challenges have remained remarkably consistent, resulting in deeply rooted systemic gender injustice. The literature is clear that girls in the justice system have experienced abuse, violence, adversity, and deprivation across many of the domains of their lives—family, peers, intimate partners, and community.

By comparing the genomes of different species of molds scientists have reconstructed their history. On Thursday, the scientists reported that cheese makers unwittingly have thrown their molds into evolutionary overdrive.They haven’t simply gained new genetic mutations to help them grow better in cheese. Over the past few centuries, these molds also have picked up large chunks of DNA from other species in order to thrive in their new culinary habitat.

A retrospective, of the life's work of Peggy Lipshutz, an amazing artist, political activist and a truly incredible human being.

Last week, the Florida-based Dream Defenders, founded in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s 2012 murder, announced a six-week “social media sabbatical” from their personal and organizational Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. They promised to digitally resurface in November “with a fresh voice; one that emanates from the grassroots and is a complement to movement work, not just characters.” Two leading Dream Defenders discuss their organization’s decision.

On Wednesday, John Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore quietly announced it had discontinued its program that focuses on Black Lung Disease. The controversial program had been suspended in 2013, two days after a joint investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and ABC News revealed how physicians at the nationally recognized university hospital had routinely helped the coal companies reject the legitimate disability claims of more than 1,000 sick miners.