Portside

Recent research at Harvard is just part of an emerging picture of coffee as a potentially powerful elixir against a range of ailments, from cancer to cavities

During a presentation at the Television Critics Assn. press tour, executive producer Michael J. McDonald said he and Ridley wanted to explore tough issues that they did not get to examine last year, such as class and the education system.

The likelihood is that the shortfall in retirement assets is going to become grimmer with time. Yes, more companies are offering 401(k) plans, but in the Uberized "gig economy" fewer workers may even have an employer to offer them.

New York poet Howie Good, winner of the Prize Americana for poetry in 2015, opens a window to a natural world--"Some Sort of Shining"-- that's always there, but seldom seen.

Never before the period 1918-60 had so many young people, from so many sections of society, danced so much. In Britain, as in the United States, dancing morphed from a craze to part of daily life. Before that, dancing as frequent social activity was reserved for the privileged. This changed followed the opening of specially built dance halls after World War I, influenced by US styles and catering to a lower-middle and working-class public with rising wages.

The combination of fed-up workers, motivated organizers, and political opportunity created a perfect storm for New York City's carwasheros and fast-food workers in the fight for $15.

Patricia Highsmith published "The Price of Salt" in 1952 under the name "Claire Morgan," a pseudonym. Since then, the book has become a classic of lesbian literature. Filmmaker Todd Haynes has recently released "Carol," his film adaptation of the novel, to wide acclaim. John Copenhaver reconsiders the original novel, guiding us through this suspenseful tale.

New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign an agreement on Wednesday with DC37, AFSCME to raise the minimum wage to $15. This will cover about 50,000 municipal workers including DC37.

The politics of The Hunger Games series aren’t as revolutionary as they’ve been hyped to be. Far from helping us reveal our most pressing contemporary problems, the liberal ideological message of The Hunger Games is that the major problems facing society today are state domination, dictatorships, and the restriction of individual liberties — in short, everything except for exploitation and capitalism.

Within the labor movement, we never want to share publicly critiques of work to be utilized by our class enemies—in this case, Walmart. I appreciated the energy and excitement among participants in the OUR Walmart campaign and observers who saw it as a potential labor renaissance. I didn't want to be perceived as an old crank pissing on a new parade that didn't fit my measure of what worker organizing should be. But my reticence has now been overridden.