Portside

For the first time in history, gravitational wave astronomy isn't a pipe dream, nor is it a way of looking for esoteric objects we can't see via any other means.

My mother was devastated that I never became the radical she dreamed I’d be. — Peter Andreas, “My Mom, The Marxist,” New York Times, May 14, 2017

A ProPublica review adds fuel to a longstanding worry about the nation’s highest court: The justices can botch the truth, sometimes in cases of great import.

A new investigation by Esquire magazine reveals how the secretive Sackler family, owners of the company that invented OxyContin, downplayed the risks of addiction and exploited doctors’ confusion over the drug’s strength.

Tuesday, the USDA withdrew an Obama administration rule designed to protect farmers from certain predatory and retaliatory practices. The decision further immiserates family farmers who have no choice but to submit to the machinations of Big Ag processors.

Unions are the best vehicle to halt workplace harassment. But the Weinstein revelations show the Screen Actors Guild has failed its membership.

On Thursday night, the FX show aired a weird, wonderful ode to working motherhood.

The Republican rising star struggled for two days to get clarity with regard to his appearance at a "white pride" - Ku Klux Klan event in 2002. Initially, his office tried to keep things vague, suggesting it was "likely" Scalise attended. He was a veteran state legislator then, elected from the same precincts where David Duke once ran strong. When it became clear he was not just present but a presenter, Scalise started spinning scenarios that might explain it all away.

Kenworthy thinks that capitalism working at its best—an Americanized version of the Nordic model—would be worth fighting for. I agree.

When unions serve the interests of the few, they lose their way and their ability to be forward-looking. But one of the better-kept secrets is that invariably, they also quietly become alienated from their own members. Inevitably, if the leadership of the PBA continues to ignore and fail on this challenge, new leadership will be destined to take it up.