Portside

'Then comes the Christopher Columbus Syndrome. You can’t discover this! We been here.'

Beethoven in Hong Kong. Big Chill Caused by Polar Vortex. World Science U — Special Relativity Trailer. Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley.

From Roxbury to Springfield, Worcester to Brockton and beyond

Reader Comments - Ukraine; Venezuela; Chokwe Lumumba; UAW-Volkswagen; North Carolina; State Pensions; Wisconsin; Prisons and Solitary Confinement; Jordan Davis; Announcements - Freedom Rider Diary - Book Signings - Coast-to-Coast - Mar 3 - 10; Celebration of Working Women & International Women's Day! - New York - Mar 7; Cecily McMillan Trail Postponed - Again - Motions to be presented Mar 19; Seventh CCDS/Kendra Alexander Foundation Banquet - Berkeley - Mar 30

Once again, R2P - responsibility to protect - is being used as a pretext for attacking Syria. The propaganda that continues to flourish for war on Syria shows many Americans fail to understand the problems posed by "US Empire-building" believing it to be an altruistic force, toppling other governments and starting wars for the good of all mankind.

Injury rates for sanitation workers outstrip harm done even to cops and firefighters. The Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks refuse and recyclable materials collection as the nation's fourth most dangerous job, exceeded only by commercial fishing, logging and plane piloting. Like Rodney Dangerfield's everyman, they get no respect.

Exposing troubling ties in the U.S. to overt Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine. White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev's occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established "autonomous zones" in and around Kiev.

A Los Angeles City Council committee voted unanimously to authorize a study on nearly doubling the minimum wage for employees of large hotels in the nation's second-largest city. The L.A. proposal is one of several municipal moves toward raising wages well above the 5-year-old federal rate of $7.25; at $15.37, it would set a local hotel industry wage floor far beyond the $10.10 proposed by congressional Democrats.

The Jackson mayor had ambitious plans to bring "people power" and a "solidarity economy" to his city and state.

"This press conference is about waking up America to the fact more tarsands coming into this country, and right away with the Keystone pipeline you have 45 per cent [more oil], is a danger to the health of our people," Boxer warned while sharing stories about residents who suffered ill health after nearby oil spills.