Portside

Are hospitals prepared for dealing with Ebola? The National Nurses Union took a survey of nurses. So far, they say, the data received in the union's survey of more than 1,900 registered nurses at more than 750 hospitals in 46 states and the District of Columbia wasn't encouraging.

According to those intimately involved in the response to the West African Ebola outbreak, NewLink Genetics owns the rights to a piece of the puzzle needed to quickly test and deploy one of two likely Ebola vaccines and they are holding up the entire process because they are not entirely sure they are going to get rich on it. Others suggest it is incompetence. NewLink seems to be claiming it is just a lot of paperwork.

Katrina vanden Heuvel and Stephen F. Cohen of The Nation offer a peek at their recent interview with Edward Snowden. Spencer Ackerman of The Guardian reviews Citizenfour, Laura Poitras' new documentary on Snowden.

Are there (short term) political alternatives to the wealth tax to limit or reverse inequality?

Lorain unionists are searching for the best way to assert the political power they clearly possess, separate from the Democratic Party.

Two years after we last investigated the the foreclosure crisis in most affluent black county in America, things aren't exactly looking up—except, maybe, for the banks.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world and the largest private employer in U.S. announces the elimination of insurance for an estimated 30,000 part-time workers and across-the-board hikes in health insurance premium costs for the remainder of its workforce. Despite soaring profits, Walmart is cutting health insurance for its part-time workers even as it is "systematically eroding full-time jobs."

According to leading Ebola experts, major cuts in funding from the U.S., Britain, and European governments to the World Health Organization (WHO) contributed to critical delays in responding to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, which allowed the epidemic to spin out of control. Citing the international recession, Western governments dramatically reduced their contributions to the WHO, and also failed to implement much-needed structural reforms.

The headlines regarding the "border crisis" caused by the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the U.S. border have faded, but not so the problems that forced them to embark upon their dangerous journeys. U.S. government officials are adopting an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to a problem that has deep roots, including the destabilizing role of successive U.S. administrations in Central America.

According to a report by the Restaurant Opportunity Center United (ROC), workers who like female restaurant workers rely on tips to make a living experience twice as much sexual harassment as those earning minimum wage. The report, "The Glass Floor: Sexual Harassment in the Restaurant Industry," asserts laws that allow employers to pay "tipped" workers below the minimum wage place female restaurant workers in a "uniquely vulnerable position."