Portside

To secure a guilty plea and avoid having to go to trial, prosecutors can use the threat of a harsh mandatory minimum sentence by informing the defendant that if the case goes to trial, the judge will have no choice but to impose the lengthy sentence.

Bringing home 6,000 federal prisoners a few months early and delaying disclosure of criminal records for federal job applicants are both better steps to take than no action at all. It no doubt will have a trickle-down effect to state prisons and state laws where the vast majority of people are suffering unjustly. But is a “trickle-down” effect enough?

Take a look at Monday’s headlines. The Mizzou protest was the nation’s top story, but it was closely followed by a series of university-related controversies. It was as if American colleges had become the front line of the culture war: a battleground for civil rights akin to the occupied campuses of the 1960s.

Elizabeth Warren is proposing to fund a one-time Social Security boost for seniors by ending the taxpayer subsidy for CEO bonuses. Otherwise, seniors will get no increase in Social Security this year. So far, Hillary Clinton as has not taken a position on this or several other measures to improve benefits and assure the solvency of the program. Clinton will have another opportunity at Saturday’s Democratic debate to be clear about where she stands.

60 Minutes does its thing; GOP wants free ads; Broadband rip-off; E-vote flipping; 3D printing decision; Atwood on tech

The uprooting and cutting down of over a million olive and fruit trees in occupied Palestine since 1967 is an attack on a symbol of life, and on Palestinian culture and survival, writes Dr. Cesar Chelala. A grave crime under international humanitarian law, the arboricide is also contrary to Jewish religious teachings.

Here is the list of demands drawn up by the Legion of Black Collegians and those in alliance with them. The protest at the University of Missouri which included weeks of demonstrations, the threatened strike by black football players, and a hunger strike by a student on the campus of the University of Missouri led to the resignation of the President, Tim Wolf, and also the Columbia campus chancellor Bowen Loftin.

The Socialist leader, António Costa, 54, is now expected to become prime minister in the coming weeks with a broad, leftwing coalition government, which hopes to ease austerity while still adhering to European Union rules. “The taboo has ended; the wall has been broken,” he said after the vote. “This is a new political framework; the old majority cannot pretend to be what it stopped being.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy-winning musician, AllenToussaint, passed away while on tour in Spain. Toussaint played a pivotal role of formulating a unique style of soul, funk and R&B that became emblematic of New Orleans.

Recounts the short, complicated history of the Black Panther Party. Using remarkable black-and-white archival footage, the current voices of more than twenty former Panthers, a former FBI agent, several retired police officers, a number of Panther lawyers and community activists, and a collection of historians and accompanied by some soul stirring period music, the lessons to those engaged in today’s struggles against racism and for justice are there for all to see.