Portside

Medicine may be on the brink of an enormous public health achievement: turning the tide against hepatitis C, a silent plague that kills more Americans annually than AIDS and is the leading cause of liver transplants. If the effort succeeds, it will be an unusual conquest of a viral epidemic without using a vaccine. But the new drugs are expected to cost from $60,000 to more than $100,000 for a course of treatment. Access could be a problem, particularly for uninsured.

The crisis in funding for pensions, both private and public, is a manufactured one. It's rooted in the Enron-style accounting and "something-for-nothing" financial engineering that set off the 2008 financial meltdown. Now that state and local governments are swimming in red ink because of tax cuts and the Wall Street meltdown, unions are caught flat-footed. Their erstwhile allies, after testing today's political winds, now line up to ax their pay and pensions.

Through her life, Faith was many things: a mother, a wife, a shipfitter, a Wobbly and a peace striker. She worked in the San Joaquin Valley with with the Farm Security Administration helping migrant workers, marched with the Civil Rights movement in Selma, visited Russia as part of a peace delegation, floated down the Amazon, and solo-backpacked around the Europe. She was godmother to several generations of musicians that passed through the San Francisco Folk Music Club.

New York State's nurses union has historically been a low-key, apolitical group that steered clear of most controversy.

Could a negotiated settlement between the United States and Iran could trigger yet another war in the Middle East? Two views.

Spying on Ban Ki-moon, New York election, seniors, Detroit, and food stamps

Although Twitter’s founders, investors and employees deserve to be rewarded for their ingenuity and hard work, the company’s public offering provides an opportunity to take stock of the growing disparities and misplaced priorities in the home of the nation’s celebrated technology industry.

"...to stand the test of time and to keep enchanting the world."