Portside

More than two-thirds of states quickly adopted Common Core in 2010, but four years later, the standards seem to have become, among other things, a proxy for whatever in education people are unhappy with.

According to McClatchy Newspapers, the agency has also been spying on emails from whistle blower officials and Congress, "triggering fears the CIA has been intercepting the communications of officials who handle whistle blower cases."

Although severely concentrated disadvantage remains a predominantly urban phenomenon, suburbs now have nearly as many poor residents in high-poverty neighborhoods as cities. If these communities are ignored, they could become areas of concentrated poverty over time.

American and Russian officials always insist that their smallpox repositories, under WHO oversight, are well guarded. But experience tells us that scientists working in laboratories with the highest biosafety standards are still caught off guard by technical breakdowns, that their staffs make mistakes and break rules, and that a predictable institutional reflex is to cover up blunders.

Telecoms not-so-subtle use of lobbyists and lobby dollars to influence some Civil Rights organizations to oppose net neutrality and the best interest of constituents.

For Palestinians living in Gaza today, spending time in schools, mosques, hospitals or even their own homes has become deadly. The question "when does it become a legitimate military target?" is merely rhetorical. Its real meaning is: "All houses in Gaza are legitimate targets" since all houses are potentially non-homes.

Seven Brides for Seven Corporations -- A Citizens United Romance; Win, Lose or Straw: Paul Ryan on Rhetorical Devices; Does President Obama Need Luther in His Second Term?; What Happens When You Cross a Robotics Expert With a Cartoonist?

A legal scholar lambastes a Truthout article claiming that the Second Amendment was for preserving slave-patrol militias.

If you give a mouse a cookie, will it give you something back? Researchers have long wondered whether animals play fair. A new study in chimps suggests that they do, although some skeptics are not convinced.