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Town Without Pity: Richard Gere Goes Homeless and Dares You to Watch

Alan Scherstuhl The Village Voice
Centered in the homeless community in New York City, 'Time Out of Mind ' makes no excuses for Hammond's (played by Richard Gere) homelessness, and it avoids the Hollywood trick of pretending he's a man wronged, that in his case there's been a mistake. Instead, it asks us to accept him as a man, period, one of the millions who have found no purchase in the economic systems we're born into.

Seattle Teachers Strike Could be Settled

SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"The Seattle Education Association has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Seattle School Board, but the strike will continue until the SEA board and representative assembly review the agreement later today and decide whether to recommend approval to the SEA membership or continue striking.

The Puppetmasters of Academia (or What the NY Times Left out)

Jonathan Latham, PhD Independent Science News
The Times buried the real story: active collusion between the agribusiness and chemical industries, numerous and often prominent academics, PR companies, and key administrators of land grant universities for the purpose of promoting GMOs and pesticides.

The Fate Of The Union

Christopher Lydon Radio Open Source
Open Source Radio has produced a three-part series about American work: what it is, what it could be, and where we’re all going together. Follow the link to hear the show and to read more about the content. The show features guests Steve Fraser: labor historian and author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power; and Hamilton Nolan: writer, editor, and union organizer at Gawker.

How Can Washington Properly Fund Its Schools? Do What New Jersey Did.

Jen Graves The Stranger
When, in 1976, New Jersey was in a similar situation [to Washington], the Supreme Court shut down the schools for eight days. The fruits of that conflict remain with New Jerseyites to this day, for the need to fund schools more fairly is what led New Jersey in 1976 to adopt a state income tax for the first time.

Look Back

Tanya Hyonhye Ko Cultural Weekly
Tanya (Hyonhye) Ko, a Korean-born Los Angeles poet, reveals the complications of immigration to the US from the point of view of a child, now an adult, who must sort out fiction from fact.