Portside

Some 30% of NFL players suffer chronic brain injuries. Coaches won't let their kids play. Time to rethink football.

Last year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board concluded, "We can manage our technology, or become victims of it. The choice is ours, and the [Doomsday] Clock is ticking." This year, the board moved the Doomsday Clock to three minutes to midnight and added, "The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon."

The assumption in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's entourage before Sunday's Greek election was that Tsipras, the charismatic leader of the far-left Syriza party, would eke out a narrow victory and shift quickly from confrontation to compromise mode. Instead, after cruising to victory and clinching a fast-track coalition deal with the right-wing Independent Greeks party, he has signalled in his first days in office that he has no intention of backing down.

The European bankers who imposed austerity on Greece chose to believe in the confidence fairy — that is, that the job-destroying effects of spending cuts would be more than made up for by a surge in private-sector optimism. While pretending to be hardheaded and realistic, they were peddling an economic fantasy. And the Greek people have been paying the price for those elite delusions.

Madison’s Capitol Improvement Plan, is called “Co-operative Enterprises for Job Creation & Business Development.” This plan would authorize the city to spend $1 million each of five years starting in 2016 to fund “cooperative/worker-owned business formation for the purposes of job creation and general economic development in the city.”The Madison Common Council approved the initiative on Nov. 11, 2014. This allocation is the largest by a U.S. municipality.

SYRIZA has won the election in Greece, securing 149 seats out of 300. This article was written before the election, but speaks to many of the criticisms aimed at this left anti-austerity party both from the bureaucrats of the European Union as well as from left groups. In addition the article speaks to the difficult choices the party must face in order to find a new path towards recovery for the people of Greece.

Albany is reeling, but fighting the kind of corruption that plagues not only New York State but the whole nation isn’t just about getting cuffs on the right guy. Under current law, campaign contributions are illegal if there is an explicit quid pro quo, and legal if there isn’t. But legal campaign contributions can be as bad as bribes in creating obligations. The corruption that hides in plain sight is the real threat to our democracy.

Year after year, Sterling’s case dragged through appellate courts, tangled up with the honorable refusal of journalist James Risen to in any way identify sources for his 2006 book State of War. While press-freedom groups and some others gradually rallied around Risen’s right to source confidentiality, Sterling remained the Invisible Man.

Spooks snag journo emails; Here comes Cuba; SOTU shout-out; Anchor aweigh; Sticky Wiki; Homemade in Oaxaca

The Greek people must be thanked for putting the need for changing the course of economic policies firmly onto the European agenda. The stakes are high. A failure in Greece will be seen as vindication of austerity as the only option. Those convinced that Europe needs to change cannot sit on the fence, but need to engage in support of the new winds of reform