Portside

Among Grand Juror Doe’s concerns are that Wilson’s case was treated dramatically different than hundreds of other cases he heard during his grand jury service

Several thousand people rallied against austerity policies in front of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) in Kyiv on Dec. 23. Deputies inside were debating a proposed state budget that will radically slash social and economic spending in Ukraine.

How men like Mark Cafua, Gary Joyal, and Dan Fireman are building empires, regular by regular. As New England’s beloved brand aggressively expands and the price of admission for franchising continues to climb, ever-growing franchisee networks are crowding out the moms and pops. More and more, the elevator is traveling only to the penthouse.

Pre-1920 were tumultuous times: World War I, the Bolshevik revolution, Espionage and Sedition Acts; Race Riots in Chicago, returning African American veterans defending their communities against white mobs, mass deportations of foreign born, the Great Influenza Pandemic; UMW Coal Strike and the Great Steel Strike, mass economic inequality. The Palmer raids of 1920 capped an era. The Chicago Police and State's Attorney couldn't wait and began the raids a day early ...

There is a sanitized, "pop" version of history which emphasizes a top-down narrative and isolated events, reinforces the master narrative that civil rights activists describe as “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white folks came south to save the day.” But there is a “people’s history” of Selma that we all can learn from—one that is needed especially now.

The explanations being promoted in some media are more based on ideology than fact.

How is it that the differential in treatment for African Americans and Latinos not only persists, but continues to grow during what some commentators once described as a supposed ‘post-racial’ era? We must not permit the movement to be sidetracked.

This is a looming global crisis, yet one which the world can avert if we take action soon.

The major media, as if reading coal industry press releases, continues to refer to "clean coal" when describing the industry experiments with carbon capture and storage. "Clean coal" is an industry marketing term, but journalists in the major media continue to use it as if it were truthful reporting. Coal is dirty, costly, and deadly. And journalists that continue to use the energy companies PR-speak are enabling a deadly and outlaw industry.

Wage stagnation is putting the squeeze on working families even as corporate profits are at record levels. And 2014 continued the trend of suppressed wages while profits and the compensation of senior corporate managers skyrocket, with many CEOs making 350 times the average worker. The expanding wealth gap in this country is proof of a system that grossly favor the rich over ordinary working families, even when the economy is improving.