Portside

Over 120 arrested in latest NAACP-led action as earlier arrestees face trial for civil disobedience in North Carolina.

Shocking Collaboration Between Hollywood and Hitler; High-Paying Lure of the Sea; Selling Guns to Fund the Anti-Abortion Fight; Vacation Camp with Israeli Commandos; Power of Political Comics; Kickstarter Kicks Out Abuse Manual

The Insider Threat Program is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range conduct

What about the ratings agencies? Isn't it true that almost none of the fraud that's swallowed Wall Street in the past decade could have taken place without companies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's rubber-stamping it? Aren't they guilty, too? Man, are they ever. And a lot more than even the least generous of us suspected.

Fast food is an unlikely union target, due to high workforce turnover and layered franchise ownership. And the path forward is uncertain, say organizers. The only thing that seems sure is that typical union elections won’t work. Nonetheless, the strikes have caught the imagination of fast food workers around the country, who toil in one of the economy’s few growth sectors.

Where oversight and accountability have failed, Snowden's leaks have opened up a vital public debate on our rights and privacy. The relevant issue should be: what exactly is the US government doing in the people's name to "keep us safe" from terrorists?

While the TPP is in many ways like NAFTA and other existing trade agreements, it appears that the corporations have learned from previous experience. They are carefully crafting the TPP to insure that citizens of the involved countries have no control over food safety, what they will be eating, where it is grown, the conditions under which food is grown and the use of herbicides and pesticides.

Many conservatives still characterize Medicaid as “welfare,” and many think of it as such. Presumably other types of health care coverage have been “earned” (think veterans and the military, highly paid executives, union members and congressional staff). We resent our tax dollars going to “freeloaders.” Until the slicing and dicing is ended, the finger pointing, blame shifting and their attendant political wars will continue.

New documents reveal the FBI has cleared its agents in every single shooting incident dating back two decades. Out of 289 shootings that were found to be deliberate, no agent was disciplined except for letters of censure in five cases. Even in a case where the bureau paid a shooting victim more than a million dollars to settle a lawsuit, the internal review did not find the agent who shot the man culpable.

If most homeowners have not hedged themselves against the possibility that home prices, like bond prices, may fall if interest rates rise, we may be in for another round of very bad news if interest rates ever return to more normal levels. It is remarkable that the latest run-up in house prices has received so little attention from people in policy positions. There may be an enormous price to pay for the continued lack of attention to housing bubbles.