Portside

By calling McDonald’s a “joint employer” with its franchisees, the General Counsel—that’s the prosecuting side of the NLRB—sided with workers, who argue the corporation exerts so much control over store operations that it should be held accountable for what happens under its Golden Arches. The General Counsel’s announcement will clear the way for local NLRB offices to hold the corporation, not just franchisees, accountable for the workplace abuses.

Young volunteers spent the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, working to register African-American voters. But leaders of the movement also had a political strategy designed to chip away at the oppressive white power structure in the South, and it was put to the test at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, N.J.

Unless the institutions of international finance are wrested from the control of a few wealthy nations, and unless there are checks on the ability of the U.S. and its allies to devastate a country's economy over a disagreement on foreign policy, those figures bode for some serious trouble ahead.

Understanding the turbulent, complicated beginning of the “Labor Day” holiday can help us to rethink the significance of this holiday today.

The time has come for a balanced and dispassionate discussion that must include difficult questions, such as whether there are experiments that should not be undertaken because of disproportionately high risk.

It's a relatively new invention—is it time to shave another day off?

The Ebola outbreak, which is the largest in history that we know about, is merely a reflection of the public health crisis in Africa, and it’s about the lack of staff, stuff and systems that could protect populations, particularly those living in poverty, from outbreaks like this or other public health threats.

Demonstrators massed in Clayton, Missouri Thursday, August 21st, to demand a Special Prosecutor investigate the police killing of Ferguson teenager Mike Brown. They charged St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch has a long-standing and personal bias in favor of the police and should be removed from the investigation. Also on Thursday, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said, "It is impossible to believe" McCulloch can be "unbiased in this case."

The information given the U.S. public on the exact scope and objective of the increased U.S. military role in Iraq is very "thin." Critics warn the increased air attacks could not only presage a wider war, but contradict other stated U.S. policies in the region and deepen the humanitarian crisis there as well.

On August 21st Bank of America agreed to pay a record $16.65 billion in fines for selling "toxic" mortgage securities. Critics charge the settlement will do little to help struggling homeowners victimized by the banks' illegal practices. And that portion of the settlement designated to go to public agencies and the states may be tax deductible. Bank of America's stock shares "surged" 4% following the announcement of the settlement.